#dany does not want to avenge anyone she wants a home!

[la-pheacienne]

#daenerys targaryen#jaime lannister#asoiaf#mine#she doesnt think about vengeance much anyways like thats obvs not a driving factor for her. but when she does meet jaime?#and it's like OKAY LET'S FUCKING GOOOO KINGSLAYER. and he's not the monster she was expecting

obsessed with the futility of vengeance in dany's story. your family is murdered, you're exiled, your home is taken in every sense of the word, and you have just hatched three dragons so you *should* be more than capable of enacting some righteous vengeance. except your family's killers are all dead before you can ever get near them and the last one left is a one-handed broken thing with graying hair and ptsd. what the fuck are you supposed to do with that? kill him? he'd probably thank you. dany's family is a haunting him more than her. what can she do but tell him to let them go, that rhaegar is gone, his children are gone, let them go. what can she do but let them go herself.

[diamondperfumes]

@saltywinteradult I don't know why you blocked me before screenshotting my post and reposting it to, I suppose, "refute" my post amongst your followers, but I welcome open discussion at any time! I don't like this back and forth of screenshotting. You definitely don't need to censor my username either, as I stand by what I said and don't see any problem with it. If your followers have issues with what I said too, they can easily reply to the post I wrote, or send me an ask (I'm pretty sure my inbox is open; please let me know if not).

That said, I think this post is a good encapsulation of the reasoning fans have for hating Daenerys, but also an encapsulation of why I love her:

Murder is horrific. That applies as much to Dany burning Mirri alive in a magical ritual as it does to Mirri murdering Dany's baby in her womb. And you are absolutely entitled to finding Dany a horrifying character for murdering an enslaved woman. What I love about Dany, though, is that she is not a hypocrite or an aestheticized martyr. She refuses to let bad things happen to her loved ones without reprisal. She will not accept the death of her child blithely. Just as any other parent or family member who seeks vengeance for their loved ones, be it Robb Stark, Lady Stoneheart, the Sand Snakes, Doran Martell, and more, Dany will not forgive the woman who murdered her son. Her son is her bottom line, just as he was when Viserys threatened his life, making Dany finally accept that he was no longer her brother. And I would much rather that Dany do the "horrible thing," an act of vengeance and blood magic, than forgive Mirri. Forgiving Mirri would not have been a realistic or human response. Above all, GRRM writes well fleshed out, human characters. I relate to the Dany who loves her children so much that she'll forgive pain to herself (for example, she bears no ill will toward Mirri for causing her the exruciating physical pain of a miscarriage) but not to her children, people, or loved ones. I relate to the Dany who is angry at those who harm her loved ones, and is ruthless and furious rather than passive and docile in the face of that pain and suffering. I relate to the Dany who, as a teenage bridal slave pit against another slave, made an arguably selfish decision. I want my female characters to make at times selfish, at times horrific choices, in the name of love, family, motherhood. GRRM created a beautifully multidimensional female character in breaking from the "passive recipient of violence" mold for so many fantasy women––violence is done unto Dany, but she will not be the submissive, obedient, demure martyr who dies or suffers to make others comfortable. Her baby had meaning to her. Her baby was her home. And she avenged that loss, as I'd expect any realistic, human mother to.

In a feudalist setting, any character who did what Mirri did would've been executed. Mirri expected to be executed to, and in fact goaded Dany with that intent. I would love if you, or anyone else, would name someone who'd forgive Mirri and let her go in this situation! I genuinely am curious to see if you can come up with anyone. If Mirri was going to be executed anyway, I much prefer Dany's mentality––"She told herself that there were powers stronger than hatred, and spells older and truer than any the maegi had learned in Asshai. The night was black and moonless, but overhead a million stars burned bright. She took that for an omen."––than just pure hatred. Dany creates life out of death. As Mirri teaches her, "if life was meaningless, what was death?" "only death may pay for life." She could have beheaded Mirri in one go, and such violence may have satiated her anger, but what would be left? The cycle of life and death is ever present in Dany's arc, and I find it fascinating. Most of the characters who behead or murder people, even innocents, like Ned Stark with Gared (the starting action of AGOT), have no interest in creating life from death. They emphasize the finality of death; Dany transcends it.

If it was just enough for Dany to burn Mirri, then I myself wouldn't praise the act as much. All the loss Dany experienced, the upheaval and pain and suffering, went into the birth of the dragons. She had to follow the clues left behind in her blood and dreams to understand that the ultimate key to the ritual was her own sacrifice. Dany did not just stand by and watch as Mirri burned. She walked into that funeral pyre herself, with, yes, bravery in her heart (I noticed that some people were mocking that phrase of mine in the tags of my post, but does it not take bravery to walk into fire?). If she didn't sacrifice her own life and self, the dragons would not have hatched. Thus you may argue that Dany is a hypocrite for burning Mirri, but Dany involved her own being in the ritual too. She paid the price for the ritual and suffered its consequences in the loss of Rhaego and the splintering of the Khalasar.

Mirri is not innocent in the act of murdering Rhaego. One of the clever aspects of GRRM's writing is that characters like Mirri and Penny serve to problematize the overall heroism of characters like Dany and Tyrion. Dany and Tyrion are still heroes (though of course, for most of the fandom, they are villains, and I'm sure for you they are both villains as well). Very rarely do authors give characters like Mirri agency. And it's not as if George has given all of those positioned characters that agency. Jeyne Poole, Gilly, Lollys and Falyse Stokeworth, Pia, they don't get these kinds of emotionally charged, high tension moments with their respective POV characters. They get emotional moments, yes, but the space to call out the POV characters? Mirri and Penny get that. Mirri has the textual agency to express her motivations, act on her motivations, and explain them to Dany. She is an intelligent woman. Trying to take away her culpability in Rhaego's murder is not a progressive or feminist reading, in my view; it strips her of her agency and her motivations. Now, if you want to argue that she had every right to murder Rhaego, that is a separate conclusion! But as to whether or not she did murder Rhaego, it's undeniable. And even if you don't believe me, or Dany, both the official ASOIAF app and the ASOIAF appendices list her as the murderer.

I would love if someone sent this to @saltywinteradult! I enjoy healthy debate (I put that post in the ASOIAF tag for a reason). What I don't like is back-and-forth screenshotting. If you don't want to have a conversation with me that's no problem, but I find it odd to screenshot someone you have blocked and discuss her post. Why don't we have a free discussion? That's why I made a tumblr account, to discuss ASOIAF. Please let me know your thoughts!

[mkstrigidae]

Current WIPs and Fic Concepts

I promised I would do this yesterday, and then I forgot!!! (I was very sleep deprived). Anyways, here are a bunch of the WIP premises that I have in my 'unfinished drafts' folder. Most have at least a few pages written for them, but I love them all! ☺️💕

- A Santa Clarita Diet AU (Jonsa) Takes place in sunny southern California, where a shitty dinner at a mediocre restaurant turns into a huge problem for Jon and Sansa when Sansa's heart stops beating. Although she seems fine, Jon is flabbergasted several days later as he watches his wife- who alphabetizes their pantry and refuses to let anyone wear shoes in the house- rip the throat out of one of the sleazy new partners at their law firm, eating half of him before anyone processes what's going on. Hilarity ensues as Sansa's inhibitions and filter disappear, Arya ropes an extremely confused Gendry into helping figure out what the hell is going on just because he moderates the zombie forum on reddit, and Jon tries to deal with the fact that the woman he loves more than anything is now a humanitarian. He really could use a drink. (This one is actually mostly complete, but i need to refine a few things- i really love it. It's as gory and irreverent as the show, so viewer discretion advised, but it's a BLAST to write).

- A Thor/MCU AU (Jonsa, Steve Rogers/Sansa)- Asgardian prince Aegon is banished to Midgard after one too many arrogant decisions, and is promptly hit by a van containing Dr. Sansa Stark, Dr. Barristan Selmy, and Margaery Tyrell- two astrophysicists studying wormholes and Sansa's best friend and pseudo-intern. Marg yells at him, he yells back, Sansa tases him, and Barristan didn't sign up for the kind of heavy lifting that getting a 200+ pound slab of muscle into the back of a van takes. And then Aegon's younger brother, Jon, shows up, in the middle of an identity crisis because, apparently, he's adopted. He wasn't intending to stay, but he's rather drawn to Dr. Stark and her brilliance, and against her better judgement, she starts to trust him, and maybe even like him. This story is in about three parts so far- the first is based on 'Thor' and the second on 'The Avengers' and are fully Jonsa, and the third started as a family bonding story between the Stark kids and Tony (Ned and Tony are second cousins, and Ned was really supportive of Tony in rehab without expecting anything in return), and accidentally turned into a Steve Rogers/Sansa Stark story, which is a pairing i am HERE for. A lot of this one is written, but it needs some fill in before publishing, although it's one of my favorites that i've written to go back and actually read.

- A Star Wars AU (Jonsa) where Sansa and Arya are Alderaanian princesses who are off planet when Alderaan is destroyed- Sansa as a senator and Arya as a pilot, both working for the rebellion, and jon is a smuggler who does not know how all of these people got on his ship and why two princesses are sassing him. His copilot, Tormund (yes he's a wookie), thinks it is hilarious. I started this one just the other day, and it's already thirty pages long, most of them involving Sansa and Arya sassing people. Dany is a leader in the rebellion, Roose Bolton is the emperor, and Barbrey Dustin is a disgruntled former jedi trying to live in peace on a remote planet until another Stark crashes into her life and harangues her into teaching again.

- A witches/magic AU (Jonsa) where the Starks run an apothecary and spellcasting supplies shop. Jon had been completely in the dark about magic before his mother confessed to being born into a family of witches. He finds himself traveling to her hometown, trying to understand her world more clearly, and what it means for him. On the way, he develops something of a crush on the red-headed shop clerk who brews the best headache potions in town. Featuring lots of magical shenanigans, this is one of my favorites in the folder :)

- A 24 hour diner AU (Jonsa) where Jon is a local mob boss, and Sansa works the late shift at Seaworth's diner to buy textbooks for the PhD she's working on in botany. Sansa's running from memories, and Jon has a soft spot for the red-headed waitress who always remembers how he likes his coffee.

- An East of the Sun, West of the Moon AU!!! (Jonsa) This is one of my fav fairy tales, and of course i couldn't resist Jon as a direwolf striking a deal with the starks!

- A Roomates AU (Jonsa)- Arya, Jon, Tormund, and Sam have been renting the same house together off Winterfell's campus for years- but when Sam moves in with his girlfriend, they need one more person on the lease. Sansa, about to relocate to Winterfell for grad school, finds out that her boyfriend has been cheating on her and that her housing plans have fallen through, all on the same day. Needless to say, she's a bit upset when she calls Arya to relay the news. There's a simple solution here, if Arya and Tormund can stop teasing Jon about his crush for five minutes. (any excuse to write tormund and arya roasting jon, tbh).

- A Fae AU (Jonsa)- When Sansa, a baker living in the city, washes her face in an enchanted spring on a camping trip, she gains the sight as a result. Suddenly able to see the fae underworld all around her is disorienting and terrifying. Sansa tries to conceal it- afraid of what might happen if the fae around her know that she can see them- but slips up, and catches the attention of Jon Snow- one of the lords of the unseelie court.

- A nuclear winter wasteland AU (Jonsa)- (?? I don't even know how to describe this premise, haha) where the Starks are living and running the Free Winterfell settlement in Siberia after a worldwide nuclear meltdown. Before the fallout, Sansa was one of the world's preeminent researchers in plant genetics and pathology, and works at the settlement to create newer, disease and radiation resistant crops to distribute for free to other settlements, aiming to break up the monopoly that Lannister Corp has on the market. Jon is a scavenger, searching throughout Siberia for his sister Rhae who disappeared several years previously. When he runs across Arya Starkovna, helping her fight off another band of radiation ravaged scavengers is just instinct- he doesn't think twice about it. In thanks, she brings him to the Winterfell settlement, where her brother Robb offers Jon sanctuary and resources, in exchange for serving as a bodyguard for Sansa when she travels to other settlements. Sansa is not particularly thrilled by this arrangement, but given that multiple parties seem to want her dead, she doesn't have much of a choice but to accept his company.

- A reincarnation AU (Jonsa)- of sorts. Robb is an archaeologist who finds a strange set of runes at a site up north, and immediately calls in Jon Snow- a historian and expert in said ancient language, as well as an old university friend of Robb's. When he arrives though, Robb shows him their most valuable finds- two mysterious ice blocks, with what appear to be perfectly preserved bodies from over a thousand years ago. No one could ever have imagined that either of them were still alive, but when the ice melts, revealing two very alive girls, the entire crew is instantly buried in NDAs, and given an assignment from the Westerosi government to figure out what the hell was going on. Sansa and Arya wake up, extremely confused about the world they live in, trying to adapt and mourning all that they've lost, even as the people around them wear familiar faces.

- Soulmates AU (Jonsa)- (Yes, another one, I love this dumb trope) Trauma surgeon and medical resident Sansa Stark is having a very bad day, and ends up meeting her soulmate during what she thinks is a mugging gone wrong. Fortunately, he’s not the one mugging her, just an intervening bystander, but she ends up slightly shot nonetheless. Sansa’s fretting about bleeding on the upholstery in his car, but Jon is a bit more worried about her injuries than the blood stains. He’s a bit confused when she threatens him if he takes her to a specific hospital, nearly has a nervous breakdown when she insists on doing her own triage, and is very charmed when she insists on ice cream after taking pain meds at the hospital. On Sansa’s part, she’s a little less concerned about being shot, and a bit more concerned about whatever weird first impression she’s making to her soulmate while high as a kite on pain pills. (this one just needs some tweaking to be postable- I'm not sure if it's going to be a oneshot or a series, but i love what I have already)

- A Demon/Archivist AU (Jonsa)- where Sansa works in the university's historical archives in Oldtown, and is learning to restore old texts with her fellow student and friend, Alleras (Trans Sarella is an amazing concept). When Joffrey Baratheon shows up with a pile of old books from his family's library to donate, Sansa is eager to get away from his sleaze, and accidentally takes one of the books home with her in her rush to leave. Unbeknownst to her, it's more than it appears, and when she leaves it open overnight, she accidentally summons forth Jon- an ancient, powerful, and extremely annoyed demon who is under a curse, and now hers to command. As Jon and Sansa try to get used to this new normal, the Lannisters (unaware that Joffrey had donated the tome) try desperately to find the book and it's owner, wanting Jon's power for themselves, and putting Sansa in considerable danger unless she can figure out how to break Jon's curse. Fortunately, she's a pretty good researcher, even if Jon is initially a bit of a grump. (This is based on a total wish-fulfillment mary-sue type premise for something I wrote when I was thirteen, and I revisited it and wanted to see what it would look like if i took it very seriously, and i am really enjoying it so far. It's a love letter to the terrible, heartfelt writing i was doing in middle school that created the foundations for my writing today, and so much fun).

The one that I am MOST excited about though:

- A Pacific Rim AU!!!! (Ned/Cat, Gendrya, Braime, Sansa/Jon Umber)-Twins Sansa and Robb Stark have always been completely in tune with each other, and when your parents are Jaeger pilots and your mother invented the neural handshake, what option is there but the Jaeger academy? Sansa studies to be an engineer, but ends up copiloting the Jaeger 'Winter Wolf' with her twin brother, after they lose Ned Stark to cancer. When Robb is ripped out of the conn-pod and killed by a kaiju while he's still connected to Sansa, she barely manages to kill the creature before stumbling back to shore, traumatized, grieving, and swearing that she'll never pilot again.

Unfortunately, the Kaiju don't stop just because Sansa does, and when the end of the world is imminent, Marshall Catelyn Stark orders both her daughter and former pilot Jaime Lannister (who lost his twin and copilot, Cersei, several years previously) back to Hong Kong for one final stand. Forced to face both her demons and an irate Arya, furious that Sansa had abandoned the rest of them after Robb's death, Sansa and Arya have to figure out how to pilot Winter Wolf together before the apocalypse comes for them all.

Featuring Marshall Catelyn Stark (commander of the Hong Kong Shatterdome, inventor of the neural handshake, former Jaeger pilot, and BAMF), Sansa x Jon Umber (Yes i know it's a rare pair but i've always kind of loved the idea of them, even though we know so little about him), Kaiju parts dealer and smuggler Petyr Baelish, bickering kaiju biologist Dany and theoretical mathematician Jon Snow, LOCCENT officer Theon, lots of snark, lots of angst and heartfelt conversations, and a weird friendship between snarky-grieving-asshole Jaime Lannister and kind-quiet-grieving Sansa Stark, who are the only two people in the world who know what it's like to lose a copilot and a twin in the drift.

Thanks for reading guys!! There are more, but some of them I just don't know how to explain quite yet, haha. I'd love to hear what you guys think about these!

[jupitersmoon167]

Challenge: List the WIPs you promised you'd update, and why you haven't yet

Curse you @inknopewetrust for making me realize that out of the *checks docs* 50 story ideas I have, I’ve never actually wrote an entire fic off of any of them. At least 20 of them have an actual semblance of a storyline, but I’ll speak of just a few, cause we ain’t got all day. I would like to say off the bat that these are either gonna contain either OC’s or off of characters from other properties. I’ve never appealed to the x Reader base. So basically I create OC’s to each character I have an interest in, to fill the readers place (does that make sense?).

1. Summer Rose: Guardian of Remnant (these titles are based after their Pinterest board names ok, live with it)

So basically, Summer Rose is kidnapped by aliens during her last mission where she supposedly “died” in canon. Over the next few years, she becomes a bounty hunter after failing her attempts of finding a way back to Remnant. She then winds up becoming a Guardian after Ronin’s assault on Xandar. Skip forward to the conclusion of Endgame, and the Guardians and Thor crash land on Remnant (sometime during Salem’s siege on Atlas, so season 8 I guess). The Guardians help defeat Salem, yada yada yada, and Summer Rose returns to her family. 

“I’ve wondered thousands of times what I would say to you if I got to see you again. Now that I’m here, I’m afraid that I’ve completely forgotten every bit of what I’ve planned.” - Summer (to Ruby)

2. Avenger Touya Todoroki

I started watching My Hero Academia during the beginning of quarantine, and this idea planted in my mind where Touya Todoroki winds up in the MCU during his supposed death (sensing a pattern here?), and with the support of Tony (who after hearing about his life back home winds up becoming Touya father figure), and the other Avengers, he becomes a hero. Eventually, Touya and a fraction of the Avengers wind up in the MHA universe, and Touya has to confront his family members after 10 years. 

Aizawa: What the fucking hell is wrong with you idiotic Avengers people?” Touya: “Everything, like, so many things. Are you looking for a particular category? Alphabetical order?”

3. Number Eight

Now this idea I really love. Mostly because it involves one of Pedro Pascal’s signature characters. This story revolves around Dani Hargeeves, an informant for the CIA during Pablo Escobar’s rain over Columbia. She is also one of the eight children adopted at birth by Reginald Hargeeves, and a member of the Umbrella Academy. After the events of Season 2 of UA, Danu decided to help the Commission rebuild, and becomes an agent. She’s assigned to be an informant for the CIA to help guide them thru the timeline correctly. She ends up meeting Javier Pena, and he eventually finds out about her true self and where she actually comes from due too her siblings interference. 

Javier: “Everything about you was a lie! We can’t trust you!” Dani: “You’re going to have to.”

4. Yelena Belova in Star Wars: The Bad Batch

So Black Widow (finally) came out when the Bad Batch was airing. I had already made an OC to go with the Crosshair x Readers I was reading. But upon realization, I came across a goldmine of a ship. Crosshair x Yelena Belova. During the blip, Yelena is turned too dust and winds up in the Clone Wars. After learning about her abilities as an assassin, she’s paired with Clone Force 99. After some time, she and Crosshair hook up and later start a relationship. Right before Order 66, Yelena is snapped back too the MCU, much to the Bad Batch’s horror (because they have no clue where she is, if she’s ok, and if she’s even still alive). Yelena eventually ends up back in the Star Wars universe post Order 66, but details as too how that will happen are still in the works. 

Yelena: “So….what part of ‘make the person I like hate me’ screamed being a good idea to you?”

Crosshair: “Are you ever going to let that go?”

Yelena: “Nooope.”

5. Multi-crossover

The basic premise of this story is that it revolves around a group of deities that house characters from throughout different fandoms that either died (permanently), or just stay at the Between for refuge for a limited time. Storylines include:

- The Goose from Untitled Goose Game creating havoc in the Between and between its residents.

- Helping Dr. Strange with his nightmare of a multiverse problem (albiet reluctantly as it’s gonna cause such a major headache).

- Babysitting Mothra during her larva phase (titans and kaigus are shrunk to avoid cramped spacing).

- Dealing with a Xenomorph infestation

And so much more...

Becca: I’m sorry, I’m just having trouble processing this right now. Jupiter: *Hands her a pamphlet* Becca, reading: “So You’ve Discovered Your A Fictional-” I don’t want your pamphlet!

Honorable Mentions:

- Europa Quill: An MCU and Mandalorian Crossover

- Lara Vulcan: An MCU and We Can Be Heroes Crossover

God this took me two hours to assemble, but I’m done. I’m tagging @goingknowherewastaken ; @shenanigans-and-imagines ; and @greeneyedblondie44

Obviously you guys don’t have too go so in depth like I did, I’m just an over achiever. 

If anyone wants too know more details, let me know and i’ll be happy to relay more information on my ideas!

[ihavejarlsberg]

Warning Labels

A short Brightwell fic by ihavejarlsberg/Suitupbuttercup

Author’s Note:  I just love Brightwell and they give me a lot of feelings, so I mainly wrote this for me, but I hope you all got some warm fuzzies out of it, as well. (Also I’m insane and can’t decide what tense I want this in lololol) Special thanks to my pal @the-ginger-avenger who looked this over for me and assured me it wasn’t total trash. Putting a read more line in so no one gets too mad at me.   ;D   If you like this, reblog and tell me about it! Have a great day, everyone!

Summary: Dani Powell feels like she should have come with a warning label.

(Probably several of them.)

She feels like she's tricked Malcolm, sometimes--that he thought he was getting this strong, independent woman who has her shit together. And she's not that, at all.

(She's so far from that, it's not even funny.)

When Dani has a nightmare in Malcolm's bed, she expects him to be uncomfortable at best, completely freaked out by her at worst. But, as always, Bright is full of surprises.

Find on AO3 here. 

----

Dani Powell feels like she should have come with a warning label.

 Probably several of them. 

 Malcolm Bright certainly came with his own set. (They were more like flashing hazard lights.) Dani had known full well what she was getting herself into with him when they had started seeing each other. Hell, the disclaimers had been self evident when they were only friends. It was obvious to anyone who spent more than ten minutes talking to the guy; he came with baggage heavy enough to crush him.

 At present, these were burdens she desperately wanted to help him with, to share with him. She could never fully take them away, she knew, but she could lessen the load when he let her.

 He was so much easier to love than she had ever anticipated. Even her most half-assed attempts to empathize with him, to be understanding and help him, were met with such reverent wonder and genuine appreciation that her heart nearly burst with affection for him. She found herself in a precarious, uncharted place, emotionally, where she wanted to throat punch anyone who had ever hurt him, anyone who had ever even thought to wrong such a gentle, special soul as Malcolm Bright. 

 And being that vulnerable terrified her. 

 Bright was still annoying. He still had plenty of quirks she would never quite understand. And she knew that one day, he was going to get himself hurt for the most asinine reason, and she would have to pick up the pieces. She knew the day was coming where she would need to sit him down and explain to him in the simplest possible terms that she  needed  him to be safe, that he couldn't pull this shit anymore, and that he had to  stop  and  think  before he ran headlong into danger at the drop of a hat. It was a conversation she felt coming, in the same prophetic way animals could sense hurricanes.

 In spite of all this, she still feels like she's tricked him, sometimes--that he thought he was getting this strong, independent woman who has her shit together. And she's not that, at all. 

 She's so far from that, it's not even funny.

 So when he sees her break down for the first time, she expects him to be shocked. Repulsed, even. She expects him to recoil from her, or think less of her. She expects him to not know what to do with her.

 But he doesn't do any of those things.

 When he finds her, comes to her from the other room after they’ve both fallen asleep in their separate spaces, she's sobbing into his pillow so hard, so violently, she's barely able to make any sound at all. The air she does manage to take in comes in hard, painful gasps and shoots out in breaths that make her entire body tense up. 

 She's spent a lot of time in Bright's bed lately. Very little of that time has been spent actually sleeping, in the months they've been seeing each other. (She's not upset about that.) Usually, she dips out. Usually, she heads home late, sated and happy and buzzing with the high of infatuation. 

 But lately, she hasn't wanted to leave. Lately, she's wanted to fall asleep with her head on his chest, listening to the sound of his heart. As they lie together, he traces his fingertips over her bare back, or plays with her hair, or massages her scalp so gently and so tenderly that it makes her heart swell, and she just  doesn’t want to leave. 

 He doesn’t make her. But, he steadfastly refuses to fall asleep in the same bed. He tells her that if he hurts her in his sleep, he will never, ever forgive himself for the rest of his life. (She believes him.) 

 She thinks he's worth the risk, thinks that the weight of another person next to him in his bed would comfort him tremendously. But she doesn't fight him on it. (Yet.) This is still new, this thing between them, and she doesn't want to barge into his life and make him do things he's afraid of. (Yet.)

 So he doesn't make her go home, and she doesn’t make him sleep next to her. He lets her fall asleep curled in at his side, and when he’s certain she’s in a deep enough sleep, he slips away. Moves over to the couch, where he's installed a second set of restraints for himself, and a spare mouth guard is waiting in its case on the end table closest to the wall. 

 The bed feels lonely and cold without him next to her. And eventually, his absence bleeds into her dreams. 

 Admittedly, the preceding week didn’t help. Work has been difficult for Dani lately, with their current caseload. Malcolm thrives on it, says he needs it. But if Dani is being honest, she could use a break. She's getting burnt out. 

 And then, to top it all off, their newest victim turns out to be a child—a little girl, no older than eight, from the Bronx.

 Malcolm is uncharacteristically quiet as they unpack everything they know about the little girl in the conference room, his focus solely on the whiteboard as he scrawls out his notes and observations. They're all uncharacteristically quiet, truth be told, and incredibly on edge. No one wants to talk about it, but they have to talk about it, and the conversation that follows is stilted and forced. 

 But it hits Dani the hardest. Gil pulls her aside later, asks her if she wants to take a break. And truthfully, she does. She desperately wants to take a break. And she will, once they find the sick bastard that murdered an innocent child in cold blood.

She'll spend an entire day lounging around her apartment, watching stupid baking shows on Netflix, not thinking about dead children. But they have to catch the guy first. 

 In the meantime, she can't stop thinking about it. It keeps her up at night.

 Malcolm sees her unraveling and is desperate to help. But the truth is, he's nearly always in a state of unraveling, himself. And they may be friends—good friends—at their core, but there's so much about her that he doesn't know. So much she hasn't let him see. So she shuts down, shuts him out. It's the wrong move, and it feels wrong in the moment. She knows avoiding his probing questions and those eyes that seem to read her mind is only going to work for so long.

 So, she distracts herself. She distracts herself with his mouth, with his body. He lies with her for a long time after, with his head resting between her breasts and his hand on her hip, caressing her skin with the pad of his thumb. Eventually, his hand slows as he starts to drift off. He lifts his head and glances up at her; she's been still for so long now, it's easy for her to feign sleep. So he eases out from her side, takes her hand in his, and kisses her knuckles once before gently laying her hand back down on his comforter. 

 Eventually, sleep does find her. But it doesn't take her gently. It sinks its talons into her and pulls down hard.

 She dreams of all the children from the Bronx she hasn't been able to save. One after the other, she sees them lined up in the basement morgue of the precinct, lying on cold metal tables, their small bodies half concealed by white sheets. She dreams of finding the person responsible for this, pulling her gun on him, and freezing up. He gets away; he gets to hurt more kids.

 In her dreams, she's screaming. In her dreams, she feels a terrible mixture of rage and fear, and they blend together until they're so strong, she's choking on them both.

She can feel someone grabbing at her, and she fights, kicks, and yells her heart out. A pair of strong arms constrict around her from behind, holding her own thrashing arms in place. Panic seizes her so strongly that it wakes her up; she throws her head back, and whoever is holding her narrowly avoids a broken nose.

 When she finally tears her eyes open, the first thing she sees is the soft light of the street lamps coming in through a familiar set of arched window panes. She's panting, pulling in one ragged breath after another as she looks around, taking in the familiar setting of Malcolm's bedroom. As she stills, the constricting feeling around her chest lessens some, and she looks down to see Malcolm's strong arms holding her.

 Dani knows first hand how physically strong Malcolm Bright is. He isn’t a large man, but he also isn’t one to be underestimated. She learned that first hand after he tackled her to the ground in his sleep and fought her with flailing limbs on the floor of the precinct until he jerked awake, crushing her to him with a grip that only loosened as he regained consciousness and realized what was happening.

 He holds her almost this tightly again, now, pinning her arms to her side from behind, holding her back to his chest, until he hears her breathing change. “Dani,” he says brokenly, and she gets the feeling this isn’t the first time he’s called out her name. “Sweetheart, please.” There’s a note of pleading threading through his voice that just guts her. She reaches up and grips his forearm with her hand, squeezing it tightly, and he almost chokes on his relief. 

 He nuzzles her hair out of the way with his nose and whispers warmly into the shell of her ear: “It’s okay. I’ve got you.” 

 Wordlessly, she turns toward him, pressing her face hard into his chest. Her breathing is gradually evening out, and she’s able to focus on what’s real and what’s in front of her. Mainly Malcolm, and she grips him just as tightly as she remembers him gripping her that day in the precinct. She grounds herself in his solid presence, taking the material of his T shirt in her hand in a tight fist.

 One day, she'll find it funny she's never seen Malcolm in just a simple T-shirt until she started sleeping with him. Her nose is smushed into the organic cotton material, and it's so much harder to breathe with her face pressed into him this way, but she doesn't care. As soon as she turns toward him, his hand is in her hair, cradling the back of her head.

 “I’m so sorry,” he murmurs, “I didn’t hear you at first.” 

 She shakes her head, trying to tell him it isn’t his fault, that he has nothing to be sorry for, but all that makes its way out of her throat is a short sob. He lets out a shaking breath and hugs her tighter. His other hand moves up and down the small of her back soothingly. 

 She’s crying, and her tears are soaking the front of his shirt; but if he minds, he doesn’t say. He just keeps shushing her quietly, whispering to her over and over again that it’s okay, he’s here now, he’s got her and he’s not going to let her go. And slowly, tentatively, she starts to come down, starts to believe him.  

 Eventually and inevitably, fear is replaced by mortification. She starts to pull away from him, ducking her head to avoid meeting his eyes. “Sorry,” she murmurs. “I didn’t mean to wake you.” 

 Immediately, his hand his under her chin, gently nudging her face up to look at him. “Dani,” he says firmly. His eyes are huge, intense, only made more so by how dark it is in the room and the way the moonlight coming in through the windows reflects off them. “Stop.” He leans down and brushes his nose over the tip of hers. “Darling, this isn’t your fault.” He’s never called her “sweetheart” or “darling” before tonight, but she decides then and there that it suits him--them--so well, she doesn’t ever want him to stop. 

 It doesn’t occur to her how fruitless it is to argue with Malcolm Bright, of all people, about nightmares, but she makes a valiant attempt anyway. “It’s been a while,” she starts, “But I’m not usually that loud.” She continues, despite the fact that he’s shaking his head vehemently at her. “At least, I--don’t think I am. I usually wake up. It’s j-just--this case has been--” Whatever she was going to say next is lost in a hiccup, and she can almost see Malcolm’s heart break through the expression on his face. 

 He leans down and kisses her cheek once, then darts over to the other cheek to deliver a second, and then pulls back to press his nose into hers lightly again before he touches his forehead to hers. “I know,” he says, and the weight with which he speaks those two words makes her believe he really does know how she’s feeling. Despite the fact that he’s spent the whole week talking about the type of person who would want to kill children, their background, their wants, motives and desires--as if he understands them. “I know,” he says again. “It’s not okay.  None of this is okay. But we’re going to find him, all right? We’re going to stop him, Dani. You and me--together.” 

 He sounds so sure that she finds herself nodding along with him. 

She decides, in this moment, that she loves him. The thought pops into her head and she latches onto it in eager agreement. She doesn’t voice it aloud (and won’t for several more months), but this is the moment she will look back on and know, as she looks up into his sincere eyes--eyes that shine with tears, eyes that tell her he’d do just about anything to trade places with her and relieve her of the fear that has her in a choke hold--that she’s let herself finally, finally, fall fully and fantastically in love with him. 

 He clearly misreads the stunned look on her face as residual fear, and he moves her hair back to kiss her neck, peppering her skin with kisses he hopes will ground her, until he finally makes his way to her lips and takes them against his own. He can taste her tears, and she can taste his, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is this, now, and how fiercely he’s holding her, and how hard she’s trying not to float away. 

 What matters is that despite her protestations, he stays with her the rest of the night. She needs him, and he knows it, so he stays. He keeps vigil at her side, refusing to let sleep take him, too. And with him next to her, Dani is able to drift off. This time, it’s dreamless. 

 And for the first time since she’s been seeing him romantically, she wakes up in the same bed as Malcolm. He’s the first thing she sees when she opens her eyes. Feeling her stir, he looks at her, and her heart pangs at just how tired he looks, how prominent the dark circles are that cradle his eyes. But then his face splits into a beautiful smile, one she can’t help but return. 

 When they arrive at work that morning, Gil does a double take when he sees Malcolm and asks him if he even  tried to sleep the night before. Malcolm gives him a look, his eyes flashing, and, thankfully, Gil drops the subject without further quarrel. 

 Dani is almost positive she’s never loved Malcolm more than she does in that very moment, and when they sit down next to each other at the conference room table, she takes his hand in hers, squeezing it gently before lacing their fingers together.  His knee is bouncing, a conduit for his jittering energy, but it stills as he looks over at her. And the expression he wears is so tender, so adoring, that she just has to lean over and kiss his cheek. 

 JT chooses that moment to walk in--just in time to see it happen. “Oh, gross,” he mutters. “Seriously? That’s a thing now?” 

 “Shut up, JT,” Dani says quietly, though she’s smiling, as Malcolm leans in to kiss her for real.  ---- Gonna tag a few mates who might care about this. Let me know if you don’t want to be tagged in the future (or if you do want to be tagged and I missed ya!). I won’t be offended!  :D 

@malclombright  @atomrealm  @thatsmytrope  @prodigal-sons  @incorrectprodigalsonquotes  @malcolmwhitly-bright  @badguywindow  @brightcinnamonroll  @brightwell-central  @malcolmshiny  @asmolwhumper  @zoejoy24  @prodigal-hyperfixtation  @malcolmwhumply  @endless-navigator  @prodigalsonheadcanons  @brightandwell  @hollyethecurious   @sherlock-freud  @higherthanakite  @thoughts-ideas-statements  @detpowell  @frankensteinsmomster  @paranoid-peaches  @lavenderspark  @missscorp  

[rainhalydia]

I wasn't in fandom at the time, so I'm curious about how you felt, as a Throbb shipper, about GRRM confirming Robb didn't love Theon as much as he loved Jon? And how did Throbb shippers in general feel about it?

Well, I can’t say how Throbb shippers in general felt. Not that happy, I’d guess? I can tell how I felt and still feel about it, though I didn’t see that interview until long after the fact so I didn’t catch any drama anyway. To sum it up: I don’t care.

A much longer, rambling word-vomit under the cut:

I think I summed up my feelings very exactly, but I kept thinking a lot about this ask and having lots of opinions, so here we go. I’ll preface this long-ass rant by saying I have no professional training in literary analysis. I just read a lot, overthink everything and had two classes in college about literature.

First of all, this tendency to give great weight - i.e., to care at all - about what writers have to say about their own work is completely foreign to me. I mean it literally - the main framework of literary analysis I’ve encountered throughtout my education was basically centered around the text, and I very much adopt it without even giving it conscious thought. I don’t seek out interviews, addendums, essays, anything at all. Sometimes I read it if they fall on my lap. Such was the case with this interview.

It’s not that writers don’t have things to say, or that those things are not interesting or valuable or sometimes shed a new light on their work. It’s that at the end of the day they’re not important! Only canon is canon. I don’t mean to sound snob or pedantic, like the books are law or something. And any canon has a number of valid interpretations (within limits), they’re not absolute, they allow some wiggle room. But any text needs by definition to stand on its own without writers poking their heads inside the room to say how we should interpret it. If we need imput from the writers to do it, then the text is already bad, it failed, sorry. Interpretation is the reader’s job. In fact, it’s the reader’s prerrogative.

Much of this hipe around authors, I believe, has to do with the rise of social media and how close to the public writers suddenly were. And I feel that applies especially for authors like Martin, who are very talented and have created a very rich world that has become really popular. And ASOIAF is still ongoing. It’s natural that everyone wants to pick at his brain and know where the story is going!

And here I make my second very unpopular point: authors are not specialists in their own work.

He knows more than anyone about it, certainly, and currently Martin is probably the only person who knows how things will end (though we have plenty of bare bones the show left), but he is, as he has admited himself, a gardener. The story was bound to get away from him, given his own writting style. The group of people who will be specialists on his work don’t include him, and they don’t even exist yet. They will only emerge when he’s stopped writing (so probably after his death) and his work has ended (if it was finished or not). Then people can read every single thing he has ever written, which is much more than ASOIAF, and analyse it to death, pick it apart from every single angle, the ones Martin intended to be there and the ones he didn’t.

Again, I don’t mean to come across as snobbish and say Martin does not know his own work, characters, creation, etc. He does! But no writer can leave all their biases behind when they start writing, so these books are not neutral to begin with. Add to it the lots and lots of variables readers will bring when they interpret the text, and any book is always going to be more than the author intends by default.

If my argument seems absurd, let me point out that it has already happened to a certain degree: my own interpretation from reading ASOIAF is that it is full of anti-war, anti-violence messages, and yet from it has sprung an adaptation that, in my own interpretation, glorifies war and violence to a ridiculous degree. I’m not alone in these opinions, btw. They’re pretty common in fandom spaces, so I’m sure I didn’t pull them out of thin air. We can argue until we’re blue in the face that the Ds can’t read anything for shit, they certainly don’t do themselves any favors, but you know, they interpreted the books well enough to correctly guess who was Jon’s mother and get permission to adapt it in the first place. I’ve since seen people (I’m not naming names, anyone still reading will just have to take my word for it, but I swear they do exist) defend that the show is a faithful adaptation of the books and that the glorification of war was there too, and others say that the show didn’t actually glorify war, it had an anti-war message! Who is wrong? Well, I don’t know. As I said, the GRRM’s specialists are yet to come, and I’m certainly not one of them. What I believe, however, is that all of us brought our own biases to the same text, interpreted it according to them, and came to different, often conflicting conclusions.

See also what GRRM said about the partnership between Jaehaerys and Alysanne and what most people made of their relationship from Fire and Blood. See the sept sex/rape scene controversy. See the Dany/Drogo controversy.

Do you get why I put little weight in Martin’s interviews to form my opinion? So given that and my own background, I’ll chose my own interpretation of the text rather than Martin’s apocrypha.

What does the book canon, and the book canon alone, say about Robb’s feelings for Theon? Well, unless new material is released, we’ll just never know for sure, because Robb isn’t a pov character. We do have Theon’s side of things - he has a certain affection for Robb, he’s more of a brother than his own brothers, he wishes he had died with him or at least that he had been there at the moment of Robb’s death, depending on how sincere he feels like being. We also know a little bit of what other characters thought of their relationship. Bran says Robb admired Theon and enjoyed his company, and it’s implied that he finds this baffling. He’s also jealous that Robb spends more time with Theon and other adults doing adult things than with his brothers. And though I’ve talked at lenght about interpretation and wiggle room to understand things, it’s also pretty evident that Robb is down to hear Theon talk about his sexual conquests in some detail as long as his brothers aren’t around.

Of course, Bran is a child and much as he loves Robb, their time together is cut short and Robb is not his main concern anyway. We get most material about Robb and Theon’s relationship from Cat’s pov. There’s a lot we can analyse and Damien had already done a great not-meta about it, but sadly he’s since deleted, thank you to the demons who got on his case, but for me the most damning piece of evidence that Robb feels very strongly for Theon is this:

“Robb will avenge his brothers. Ice can kill as dead as fire. Ice was Ned’s greatsword. Valyrian steel, marked with the ripples of a thousand foldings, so sharp I feared to touch it. Robb’s blade is dull as a cudgel compared to Ice. It will not be easy for him to get Theon’s head off, I fear. The Starks do not use headsmen. Ned always said that the man who passes the sentence should swing the blade, though he never took any joy in the duty.”

So to unpack what is going on: nearly drowing in grief, Cat rambles to Brienne about lots of things, including Theon’s impending death sentence. By Northern dumb tradition, Robb must be the one to behead Theon, his former best friend turned enemy, turned betrayer, turned brother-killer. And she says that it won’t be easy for him to do it.

Now, it can be argued that this is partly because of the sword. They’ve lost their sharp valyrian steel and Robb uses an inferior blade, not as sharp. I reject this interpretation as the only explanation (and here comes my own biases) because she mentions the headsman right after. A headsman might be more experienced, but it’s not like he’d have valyrian steel to do it either. Rather, I think she’s talking about how being able to pass Theon off to be killed by a headsman would be easier on Robb psychologically, but it’s not really an option, so Robb will have to suffer.

At this point, to Robb’s knowledge, Theon has: 1) betrayed his trust and used the ruse of negociations with Balon to escape; 2) attacked the northern shore and enslaved his people; 3) attacked and took control of his home; 4) made his brothers hostages; 5) killed his brothers; 6) denied his brothers the right to be buried in a decent way; and finally, 7) burned their bodies and exposed them for all of the North to see.

And after all this, having to be the one to kill Theon will make him suffer.

We know one of the moments Robb gets the angriest in the books is when Bran is threatened by the wildlings. He is the acting Lord and keeping his little brothers safe is his responsability. He nearly bites Theon’s head off when Theon saves Bran in a risky way and we know that was uncharacteristic because Theon is still sulking about that a whole year later. So his siblings are dear to him, but even after Theon does everything from steps 1 to 4, he’s still sure they’re not in danger and that Theon won’t do anything to them. That’s how much he trusts Theon. It takes literal murder to make him change his mind.

But then he does change his mind. He believes Theon did those awful, awful things to his brothers. After that knowledge has had time to settle in, after he believes the worst of Theon, he has this amazing convo with Cat that I’ll quote whole because it’s amazing:

“Enough.” For just an instant Robb sounded more like Brandon than his father. “No man calls my lady of Winterfell a traitor in my hearing, Lord Rickard.” When he turned to Catelyn, his voice softened. “If I could wish the Kingslayer back in chains I would. You freed him without my knowledge or consent … but what you did, I know you did for love. For Arya and Sansa, and out of grief for Bran and Rickon. Love’s not always wise, I’ve learned. It can lead us to great folly, but we follow our hearts … wherever they take us. Don’t we, Mother?”

Is that what I did? “If my heart led me into folly, I would gladly make whatever amends I can to Lord Karstark and yourself.”

Lord Rickard’s face was implacable. “Will your amends warm Torrhen and Eddard in the cold graves where the Kingslayer laid them?” He shouldered between the Greatjon and Maege Mormont and left the hall.

Robb made no move to detain him. “Forgive him, Mother.”

“If you will forgive me.”

“I have. I know what it is to love so greatly you can think of nothing else.”

Catelyn bowed her head. “Thank you.” I have not lost this child, at least.

So we know that what is going on here is that Robb is buttering Cat up before breaking the news of his marriage to Jeyne to her. One of the possible interpretations supported by the text is that Jeyne is in love with Robb and Robb is not in love with her. It’s a common reading that he married her out of honor and to avoid a possible Jon Snow situation. During their marriage, he seems to grow fond of her - Cat notices he likes her company better, and her brother’s, and that he laughs when he is with the Westerlings - but he also keeps some distance. She’s afraid of Grey Wind, which pretty much means being afraid of a part of him. In turn, he’s attentive, courteous, and a bit touched and annoyed at her public displays of affection.

Then there is this gem:

“His heir failed him.” Robb ran a hand over the rough weathered stone. “I had hoped to leave Jeyne with child … we tried often enough, but I’m not certain…”

And this is more Damien’s not-meta than my own, but once you see it, you can’t ever unsee it. Compare the bolded parts in that quote in the first Cat-Robb convo to the part bolded in the second one, put them side to side and tell me you can’t see the difference. In the first one, Robb basically spells it out that he’s made a mistake out of love, that love turned him into a fool, but it was stronger than him. At that point of the narrative, Robb’s biggest mistake (and notably it was HIS mistale, it was not a case of the narrative screwing him over) was to free Theon. A mistake that caused him to lose his brothers, castle and a significant chunk of political standing. The consequences of marrying Jeyne, which is pretty much only to lose the Freys, don’t even compare - especially because the Stark faction believes they can win their support back.

And this love that made him act like a fool is further described in the second bolded part of that quote. He loved so greatly that he could think of nothing else. That is some passion there, folks. Even considering that he’s trying to get Cat on his side, it strikes me as so sincere and heartfelt. And again, maybe it’s my own biases showing, but that sounds like an all-consuming love, the kind of love that doesn’t go away easily. I don’t see that same depth of emotion on the second bolded quote… they tried often enough. Does it add up with the first part? I don’t think so.

My conclusion, and forgive me if the shipper gogles come in, is that the love that hurt him, that consumed him, is the love he had for Theon. Not for his wife. But it was in the past, one might say. His marriage was just beginning, he and Jeyne grow closer, etc. I’ll quote two more bits:

“I cannot speak to that. There is much confusion in any war. Many false reports. All I can tell you is that my nephews claim it was this bastard son of Bolton’s who saved the women of Winterfell, and the little ones. They are safe at the Dreadfort now, all those who remain.”

“Theon,” Robb said suddenly. “What happened to Theon Greyjoy? Was he slain?”

Here we are nearing the Red Wedding. Some Freys come to pretend to make peace and pressure for a wedding to Edmure and they bring news of the battle of Winterfell. Professional writers don’t often abuse the “suddenly” like us poor fic writers, so when he says it was sudden, i believe it was sudden. I believe it came out of nowhere, in fact, and that Robb was the only one in that room considering Theon’s fate.

Roose Bolton removed a ragged strip of leather from the pouch at his belt. “My son sent this with his letter.”

Ser Wendel turned his fat face away. Robin Flint and Smalljon Umber exchanged a look, and the Greatjon snorted like a bull. “Is that … skin?” said Robb.

“The skin from the little finger of Theon Greyjoy’s left hand. My son is cruel, I confess it. And yet … what is a little skin, against the lives of two young princes? You were their mother, my lady. May I offer you this … small token of revenge?“ 

Part of Catelyn wanted to clutch the grisly trophy to her heart, but she made herself resist. “Put it away. Please.”

“Flaying Theon will not bring my brothers back,” Robb said. “I want his head, not his skin.”

Aside from Catelyn, who is torn, and maybe the Greatjon (I don’t know what snorting like a bull is supposed to convey), no one in that room approves of torturing Theon, they’re all rightly creeped out. But no one would blink an eye if Robb had ordered Theon flayed alive. Instead, he commands the torture to stop. Of course it’s the only decent thing to do, but let’s all appreciate how the character who is always arguing for peace, end of conflict and letting things go for the sake of the living and what can still be saved instead of more violence, is tempted by it. Robb is the only one who shares the full extent of Cat’s grief here, but he’s also the only one to try and stop the senseless punishment.

I joke all the time about how Throbb is canon, and it’s mostly jokes. They are not canon in the sense that Cat and Ned are canon, and I don’t think we’ll have any more facts added to their story together, there probably won’t be any flashbacks that hint at a romantic relationship between them. But looking at the text alone, what we have of it as of now, it’s possible to support a canonical reading for this ship. This interpretation is there in the text if you want to see it. In fact, some things make more sense if Robb was in love with Theon.

And you know, having a ship be supported by canon is not actually a condition that needs to be met to ship anything. It’s just something I particularly need to get into it. But even if you read Theon and Robb as just friends, it’s a reach to say that Robb didn’t love Theon.

Of course, we have Robb demonstrating affection towards Jon in the books too. He is Robb’s chosen heir, to Cat’s despair. Despite all the negative propaganda bastards get and the fact that the mother he so respected and loved disliked and distrusted Jon, Robb considers him a full brother, to compare to Sansa’s constant “half-brother” from the beginning of her journey. They’re seen having a good time together (they have a horse race in their very first appearance in the books, and Mance recalls them getting into trouble together as children), so they enjoy each other’s company.

Yet there’s also an undercurrent of sibling rivalry between them, seen from Jon’s pov. We have this bit with Benjen:

Benjen gave Jon a careful, measuring look. “You don’t miss much, do you, Jon? We could use a man like you on the Wall.”

Jon swelled with pride. “Robb is a stronger lance than I am, but I’m the better sword, and Hullen says I sit a horse as well as anyone in the castle.”

This is hilarious to me. My uncle paid me a compliment for being perceptive, a skill not at all related to martial skills! Time to compare my martial skills to my brother’s, even though we’re both 14 and there’s lots of more tried warriors in the world and we haven’t even had our last growh spurt! This is sure to impress a seasoned ranger!

Of course we know Jon’s rivalry towards Robb comes from his bastard status, but it’s interesting to me that it’s something that centers around Robb alone; he doesn’t compare himself to Bran or Rickon as far as I remember. That can be explained by their very similar ages and growing up together, I think. Jon has the advantage of being older than his other true born brothers.

Jon also says this:

Bastard children were born from lust and lies, men said; their nature was wanton and treacherous. Once Jon had meant to prove them wrong, to show his lord father that he could be as good and true a son as Robb. I made a botch of that. Robb had become a hero king; if Jon was remembered at all, it would be as a turncloak, an oathbreaker, and a murderer. He was glad that Lord Eddard was not alive to see his shame.

To Jon - and to the other Stark children - Robb is often the model to be emmulated. I won’t dig up all the times they hold him up as the ideal of bravery. Jon’s feelings are not unique in this sense, though they are when it comes to the rivalry. They all admire Robb. From Robb’s side, I don’t remember hints of him admiring Jon or any of his siblings. He certainly loves them, likes them, and enjoys spending time with Jon at the very least.

But Theon is the one Robb admires in text. Bran says it, and Theon too:

“There is nothing small about the letter I bear,” Theon said, “and the offer he makes is one I suggested to him.”

“This wolf king heeds your counsel, does he?” The notion seemed to amuse Lord Balon.

“He heeds me, yes. I’ve hunted with him, trained with him, shared meat and mead with him, warred at his side. I have earned his trust. He looks on me as an older brother, he—”

Readers often dismiss this as Theon’s garden variety empty bragging. To be fair, Theon very much distorts reality in his head to fit his own idea of how things should be, but this is one of the few times when he’s not doing that. He’s genuinely proud that Robb thinks so well of him. And since he’s so sensitive about what people think of him and people not giving him the credit he thinks he deserves, I’m ready to believe his account of facts this one time.

What I get from canon, regarding who Robb loves the most out of Jon and Theon, is that he loves them differently. He might even love Jon more by ASOS; it’s a wonder that we have hints that he still cares about Theon at all by the end, after the murders of who we know are the miller boys, but who Robb thinks are Bran and Rickon.

He had different relationships with them. Even if you reject the reading of Throbb as romantic, friends and siblings are not interchangable, even if you’re out there calling close friends brothers or if your brother is your best friend. It’s different sorts of affection. At the beginning of the series, Robb and Theon seemed closer to me than Robb and Jon - let’s not forget that Jon’s favorite is Arya, and the biggest family drama at that time has to do with Jon and Cat. They grow even closer as they go to war together, and then they’re pushed apart by circumstances and by Theon’s actions.

But okay, this is not long enough yet, so let’s say that this is an invalid framework of analysis and Martin’s word of god has as much weight as canon, and that in fact, we’re 100% certain that Robb loved Jon more than Theon.

Why does it even need to be a competition? No one holds it against Ygritte that Jon loves Arya more. Asha has a steady boyfriend that she’d gladly marry, and still she takes risk after risk for Theon. Ned was probably the greatest love of Cat’s life, but her interactions with her brother and uncle are still emotional and moving in great part because of the depth of her love for them.

Robb loving Jon more doesn’t take anything away from Theon. He doesn’t love Theon less because he loves Jon more, love is not a finite resource. And Robb loved Theon plenty, be it in a familial, friends or romantic way. If it diminished, that was a result of Theon’s choices alone.

[citruspeel]

Does Dany deserve support more than the Starks? Not when it’s all fair game.

Whenever I bring out my pro-Stark stance, this argument always comes back to me. That she deserves the seven kingdoms, because she’s avenging the destruction of her family and is reclaiming what is hers. But does she, really? 

Lots of people whip out the argument that she has gone through hell herself. She was evacuated from Westeros, lived as beggar royalty, was emotionally abused by Viserys, was sold off to Khal Drogo and raped, had to survive fire to get dragons. Guess what - (except for the dragons) she’s not the only one. 

I believe that now, it’s all fair game. 

TRAGIC BACKSTORY? She’s not alone. 

Jon was betrayed by his brothers, died, and was brought back to life. Before that, he had to survive being a secret agent beyond the Wall. Had his first love die in his arms. Lost his brother Rickon before his eyes. Lost his brother Robb in a war. Lost Ned, his father/uncle. Was shrugged off by Catelyn, who hated him when he never really did anything wrong. Never knew his real mom (until now.)

Sansa was practically sold off to Ramsay to fulfill Littlefinger’s quest for the throne. She was also raped and abused by her captor. Before that, she had to maneuver her way to stay alive around Joffrey, who also emotionally abused her. Her stalker Littlefinger was always creeping about, even more so when he had saved her and brought her to the veil. Had the prestige of her name stripped away when she was in King’s Landing. 

We can go on and on about how other characters, too, have backstories equally as tragic as Daenerys’s. That’s why for me, anyone who’s using the ~but she’s gone through xx and xx too~ argument should stop and reconsider. Dany’s story isn’t the only tragic/deserving one out there. 

CLAIM TO THE THRONE? Think again. 

If we’re going to follow the law to the dot here, Cersei really deserves the throne. 

Robert rightfully won the throne by might, properly defeating Rhaegar in battle at the Trident. He ruled, all good. He married Cersei, ‘had’ kids with her (all dead now). So it’s just right that Cersei’s sitting on the throne - what’s not is that she lied her way to keep it. 

I personally think the Baratheons are the proper claimants to the throne by lineage. Gendry has a real chance, if someone legitimizes him, but it doesn’t seem like he wants it anyway. 

At this point, Dany is a usurper. Her father lost his seat because he was a madman and wanted to burn everyone in King’s Landing. Jaime killed her father to protect the realm. Robert earned the right to rule, and had done so peacefully for the past x years. 

I’ve always felt iffy about Dany wanting to claim the throne for herself, because at this point, just because her father was king, does it mean she has done anything to deserve it? She has conquered Essos, yes, and is now in the process of ‘saving’ Westeros (but really for her own purposes). But that’s what she does - she conquers. She doesn’t really manage. She doesn’t rule. 

Jon is a rags-to-riches claimant, and he has earned his claim. He, without the power of dragons, has served the realm. He’s done his time. He’s gone to the Wall, earned a spot as Lord Commander, earned his spot as King in the North, and, well, lost it. But he always keeps the good of the realm as his goal. Even without his Targaryen name and blood, he deserves the throne because he doesn’t seek to fulfil his own ambitions. He doesn’t even want it. But he always works for the good of everyone. 

Take the backstories and claim away. What are you? 

I think that these are the reasons why people root for Team Stark rather than Team Targaryen: 

1. MOTIVE

When it comes to Westeros, Team Stark aims to protect. Team Targaryen aims for revenge. 

These core beliefs immediately color our perception of the two of them. We’ve had it in episode two, where Daenerys admits that she’s there because she loves Jon and is prioritizing appealing to him rather than actually prioritizing the safety of the north. Surely her political team had given the ‘if you want the realm, you have to save it’ angle at some point. But as Jon confessed to her that he’s a Targaryen with a stronger claim, we see her immediately fall back. Gone is her ‘I love your brother’ rationale - she switched to ‘you have a claim to the Iron Throne’ ASAP. 

If the war horns didn’t sound right then, what would she have said?

2. APPROACH

Team Stark goes for loyalty through love, trust, and care. Team Targaryen’s main weapon? Fear and intimidation. 

A lot of posts have already dissected this argument. Daenerys couldn’t have gotten anywhere if she kept to the meek and mild route if she was in Essos, yes. But she’s in Westeros now, and she’s always had a choice. Her choice right now is to revel in terrifying the smallfolk. I understand if she’s concerned about keeping her dragons alive, as a mother and for the fight. I get that she’s all cornered and alone in this frigid North with no one but her own people to support her. But what will set her apart is how she will answer to these pressures piling up on her. Will she face them with grace, or with fury? 

3. POWER

Team Stark doesn’t want it. Team Targaryen craves it. 

Jon has power because he was chosen. He was elected by his people, time and time again. Lord Commander, Lord of Winterfell, King in the North. He never wanted it, but people saw that he could do it, trusted he could. He tries to give back in kind. He always thinks of the good of the people, to the point that serving them becomes his own ambition. 

Sansa has power by earning it. The silent trust, the deference, the respect - Sansa has worked to earn all of it by serving her people. If people didn’t like her rule as a Stark, they could easily rebel, but they didn’t. She made decisions, earned their loyalty, cared for the wellbeing of The North in tangible terms. She doesn’t rule over them, but lives among them. Takes on the responsibility of protecting them. 

Daenerys has power because she claimed it. It’s different in tonality. What did she do, really? She set people on fire and liberated slaves. Set forth romantic ideals to follow. But the nitty gritty of everyday life, how did she take it on? It’s all idealistic. Without the dragons, would people have followed her, at all? Would she have been able to charm her way surviving Essos? Use her wits to convince them to come to her aid? It seems like every problem she had has always been deus-ex-dragoned. We’ve yet to see her real political skills, real people skills. Because at the end of the day, she always seem to be set on fulfilling goals for her own sake. 

And let’s admit it - she wants power. She likes it. Compare and contrast to Jon and Sansa who see it as a burden, as a responsibility.  Daenerys enjoys lording over people (all her thrones are set way higher above her subjects, in contrast to the Great Hall in Winterfell where everyone’s on the same level). Remember that ecstatic face she had when people started calling her Mhysa? She likes being a ‘savior’, being above others, being recognized. There’s no humility, no grace, because right now (believably so), she’s moving fuelled by her insecurities as a beggar princess and her need for revenge. (I’m actually starting to feel bad for Daenerys at this point). 

Take the backstories and the weapons away. 

Because at the end of the day, it all comes down to what kind of characters they are at their core. 

What matters is not what you’ve gone through, but how you move on from it. 

(long post but I was so spurred on by that post that kept saying the audience is nuts for siding with the Starks. I went OH NO YOU DIDN’T)

[frostbitepandaaaaa]

I had a really frustrating conversation with someone at work today. a woman no less.

she says that she “is hoping that Dany has learned her lesson and will stop focusing on the throne.”

i asked her what lesson, exactly, was Dany supposed to learn?

she says that Dany is too focused on the throne, that the first thing she thought of when Jon told her about his parents was the throne. that she was mad at Jaime for killing her homicidal father. she says to me “i hope after all she’s lost, she realizes what’s really important.”

i said to her “she lost a dragon beyond the Wall. she abandoned her campaign for the throne for “what really matters” because of it. she’s lost and suffered many times before then. she stayed in Mereen for years, pausing her quest for the throne and suffered many defeats while there trying to ensure that the slaves there saw a better life for themselves. how much torment does Daenerys have to go through before you’re convinced she’s humbled enough? what fucking more does this poor woman have to do?

i told her, hey, Honorable Ned Fucking Stark hated Jaime too, but whatever. Dany hated what the slaying of her father did to her and her family. the fact that he may have deserved it does not change the fact that that one act sealed the deal on the entire destruction of her house and her subsequent life of a begging fugitive under the “protection” of an absuive brother. she deserves some anger.

and if, for your whole, dead ass life, you have fought and suffered and clawed your way into a position of power so that you may one day return home and claim the throne that was stolen from your family (because how the fuck else is the lost heir to an overthrown monarachy going to fucking come home if not with an army at her back? she’d be dead within a month otherwise) and the man you love tells you that he is actually the one who has the better claim than you— would you not be a little pissed about that? would you not feel, even in the smallest way, a bit betrayed?

on top of this, she claimed that Daenerys did next to nothing in the actual battle. did she like... not see that Dany knocked the NK off his dragon? that she saved Jon’s ass not once, but TWICE (and why would she do that if all she cared about was the throne? why not let the only threat to her claim die in battle?) was she distracted when Dany hopped on Drogon to go take the pressure off not only her forces, but the North’s, because she saw that the dead were overwhelming them much too fast? was this girl napping when Dany picked up a fucking sword to help protect herself and her oldest friend from an impossible horde of zombies?

and then she says to me that “they’ve been paralleling her to her father. she wants to burn cities and she has to have people tell her not to.”

i tell her, if she was her fucking father, she either wouldn’t listen to those people, or she wouldn’t have them around her in the first fucking place. and then i go on to say “Cersei Lannister must just be a fucking joke to you, huh? poor Cersei, seeing enemies everywhere she looks, orchestrating situations to ruthlessly rid herself of said enemies and only getting herself caught up in her own web. literally using the wildfire that the Mad King stockpiled to blow up a holy place full of innocent people, inadvertently causing the death of her last living child by suicide. yeah, you’re right. Dany is the one who they are paralleling to the Mad King you absolute baboon. (and let’s just ignore the fact that Dany and Jon are being paralleled you astounding ninny)

i swear. it’s gotten to where I actively avoid talking about my girl to anyone anymore. everyone’s perceptions of her are so fucking ignorant.

Dany is never allowed to

a) show any sign of anger or rage because then sHe’S tUrNiNg InTo HeR fAThEr

b) feel a desire for the throne, because she wants to make the world a better place, because she wants to return home, because she wants to avenge the destruction of her family (i can’t reamember, was there like... a complete group of people from the North who only ever wanted to do the same thing like, the whole show? ah, i must be getting mixed up with Breaking Bad or something) because then she’s Power Hungry

or c) want thanks or recognition for any of the things that she does because then she’s and Entitled Bitch.

and the fact that it came from a woman just makes it all the more painful. and after the episode where my girl just absolutely slayed and I was riding high on some naive, bullshit hope that some of the Dany hate would ebb. and my joy was almost immediately thrashed.

anyway. i’m just about done with this trash. i’m so fucking tired.

[apiratecalledav]

Sandor Clegane: Champion for the Innocent aka Cleganebowl Was More Than Just Revenge

In a series like this, with a culture so very different from our own, we mostly stop judging characters by what they do and instead focus more on why they do them.

Character’s motivations and rationale are a driving force in this series. The ones who are acting out of love or other noble intentions are the ones the audience roots for.

Despite what Sandor tells Arya and Ray about hate, we know that it’s actually his paternal love for Arya that lets him be reborn into a second, (comparatively) happier life: He finds a true home with Ray and his flock and has peace for a time.  When they are taken from him, he is still able to make friends with Beric and reunite with Arya and help save Westeros from the Army of the Dead.

Speaking of the war against the dead, let’s look at who our biggest heroes are and WHY I think they were successful:

Beric and Melisandre. Two people who aren’t particularly close to anyone still alive, so they’re not really fighting for their loved ones’ futures. They also don’t believe there’s any kind of afterlife, so they’re not looking to have their souls redeemed or get rewarded. Their actions are purely for the good of humanity.  

Theon, who didn’t believe he could ever make amends for his mistakes and even told Sansa once that he didn’t want to be forgiven, didn’t come to Winterfell for redemption. He is not motivated by revenge either because the Night King hasn’t done anything to him. He’s there because he loves Sansa and Bran. Even though you can tell that every nerve in his body is screaming for him to bolt when the Walkers arrive and you can practically hear Ramsay whispering “Reeeek!” in his ear, he stands his ground. Because Bran needs him and Theon is going to do anything to protect him.

Edd, who once ran from the Walkers and left Sam behind, saves Sam’s life this time. Now Gilly, who has suffered so much, still has her husband (shut up, they are married) and the father of her children.

Lyanna Mormont, though but a child, is the leader of her people and she felt it was her duty to stand with them.

Jorah literally does not allow himself to fall while Dany is still in danger. He only succumbs to his wounds once he sees that the threat is eliminated.

And of course, Arya. Arya, who didn’t even really like Beric much, fights tooth and nail to save him and when she can’t, tries to ease his passing the best she can. And then when Mel gives her a bit of hope, Arya runs to save her baby brother and the rest of humanity, making sure Beric’s sacrifice won’t be in vain.   

If I were some kind of deity, that kind of selflessness, love, and loyalty would be the reason to decide that the human race is worth saving.

Sandor had a really hard time during the battle and struggled with PTSD and felt worthless. Even though he managed to keep fighting for Arya’s sake and helped save her, I think he was very disappointed that he didn’t do more or have some grand epiphany that explained why he survived for so long.

He looks more broken than relieved when he realizes that it’s over. At the victory party, he’s still clearly depressed. He pushes Gendry and Tormund away. He snaps at the girl trying to proposition him. And he drinks. A lot.

Like Theon, there’s a lot that keeps Sandor up at night. He is haunted by the things he’s done and by the horrible things he has seen and experienced and so has never let himself get really close to anyone. The way he is and the life he’s led are easily the result of growing up around someone like the Mountain. Violence and fear. His innocence shattered as a small child when his own brother shoved him face first into a fireplace and their father did nothing to stop Gregor, before or after.

There’s a lot of self loathing and guilt and regrets:

He’s talking to Beric but there’s definitely some projection up there.

From across the room, Sansa sees that Sandor is suffering and she reaches out to him. As they start catching up, Sandor has a lot of mixed emotions. He’s proud of her and impressed but he’s also devastated for her, too. If anyone understands the loss of innocence through cruelty, it’s him.

In his way, he tells her that he wishes he could have spared her from it and that he really wanted to do so. Even though he often derided and pitied her childish innocence, it was also something that he cherished and envied.  

I know a lot of people criticized Sansa’s line about how she’d have stayed a little bird all of her life without Ramsay and Littlefinger and believe me, I understand and it’s certainly possible that the writers are just insensitive jackasses. But within the context, I think it does make sense. When you don’t have a real concept of mental health, never mind psychology or therapy, I imagine that rationalizing trauma would be a coping method. 

And unfortunately, this is also all Sansa has ever seen: you stay naive and sheltered or you randomly get shoved out of the nest and the only thing you can do is pray that you’ll fly.

However, we shouldn’t forget that Sansa was not once a little bird solely because she was sweet and innocent. She was also very, very much in a cage:

Being able to use the connections she got from Littlefinger and Ramsay (the Vale, being close enough to reach Jon), she got to take back Winterfell and have a real home again. Then she got to make sure that those two got what they deserved.

Sandor spent most of his life building a wall around himself but Sansa found a way to make herself free. She may have a better poker face and she may be more cautious, but she’s still the same kind and caring person she's always been. She saw Sandor was hurting and tried to comfort him and didn’t let him scare her off. She even puts her hand on his and I think that might even be the first time we’ve seen anyone touch him out of affection.

When she leaves, he seems to be doing a lot of thinking and looks a lot less miserable.

The next we see him, he’s on his way to King’s Landing and is joined by Arya. They seem to wordlessly agree that Sandor will hold off the Mountain while Arya kills Cersei. Neither expect to survive but it will end the war and it will save lives so they’re willing to make the trade.

However, before they can reach Cersei and Gregor, it rapidly becomes apparent that it’s too late and that virtually everyone in King’s Landing is doomed.

Sandor points this out to Arya. But her chances of leaving safely probably don’t look all that good to her anyway and she’s so close to the last person alive she hates most. The person who is, in a lot of ways, the catalyst for all of her suffering. It’s natural that she’d want to take Cersei down with her.

It has some interesting parallels to her reunion with Melisandre. Beric, Sandor, and Mel were all once on her list but she forgave them and phased them out. Sandor and Beric ended up saving her life. But I think it’s likely she put Melisandre back on her list when she found out what happened to Gendry. She looked pretty pissed:

Even though it looks like she’s only a few moments from death, I could see her thinking “At least I can avenge Gendry before I die.” But Melisandre tells her she might be able to end this and it’s not even a question. Arya leaves her to focus on saving the people she’s cares about. But it’s different in King’s Landing. She’s not home. None of her family is nearby except for Jon and he’s probably okay. Her friends and family aren’t counting on her, at least not in the same way.

Cersei is going to die, it’s just a question of how. So Arya has to decide what really matters: Revenge or Justice? If Arya has to be the one to kill Cersei, then it’s just about revenge. If it’s just about stopping someone cruel in power, then Arya can go.

Now Sandor’s speech about how he’s only wanted revenge feels a little clunky (I personally believe that bit is pulled from Lady Stoneheart) but I think it’s easy enough to see it as Sandor not knowing how to explain all his feelings of guilt and purposelessness and loneliness that stem from Gregor to Arya, even if he had enough time.

It’s certainly clear from the way he gently cradles Arya’s head like a parent does for a baby, that revenge is not all he cared about. I also think he’s kind of mimicking how Sansa took his hand to comfort him and add sincerity, hoping to do the same for Arya.

Arya decides that revenge isn’t worth dying for and she’d rather have the chance to live. And considering how Cersei faced death with such a raw and pitiable fear and bone deep anguish, I think it’s more than fair to say that killing her wouldn’t have brought Arya any satisfaction anyway. Arya calls to him by name for the first time and she thanks him.

What I liked best about this scene though is how the Hound, on Cersei’s and Joffrey’s orders, brought the first bit of darkness to Arya’s world by killing Mycah. But with this scene, Sandor gives Arya a bit of light that (hopefully) will never go out. Kinda like giving back the last piece of Arya Stark that started splintering once she left Winterfell.

So why does Sandor still go after his brother?

Because he’s had a very difficult and sad life and he’s done a lot of things he wishes he could take back. And then on top of all of that, despite all odds, he manages to be brought back from the brink of death. And it must be for a reason, right? What makes him better than Mycah or Ned or the farmer and his daughter?

Now maybe it was some kind of divine intervention that gave him the idea, but I think it’s more likely Sandor just straight up decides that his purpose was to free the world once and for all from the Mountain. Unlike Cersei, who is a small and fragile mortal, the Mountain definitely is not. How many (more) soldiers would have to die trying to get to him before the dragon could? If it even could. 

I saw a lot of people decrying the eye squish as pure gore or shock value but not at all! It was a call back to the Mountain’s fight with Oberyn. Oberyn, who could have killed the Mountain years ago if he hadn’t wanted revenge more than he wanted to stop the Mountain from brutalizing, torturing, or killing anyone else ever again.

But stopping him is what Sandor wanted most, so much that he could even overcome his worst fears. Sandor had a lifetime of the Mountain maiming and murdering countless people: Ripping dozens of daughters, mothers, fathers, sisters, sons, and brothers from their families; widowing who knows how many husbands and wives; and no one had been able to properly do anything about it for years and years. It’s why he stepped between the Mountain and Loras all those years ago. Only this time, Sandor has the strength and ability to stop him for good.

That’s why he succeeds where Oberyn failed.

Near the beginning, it seemed like the Hound was introduced as a method of instigating Innocence Lost. But throughout the series, we see him become a champion for the innocent, such as Sansa and Arya and even Loras. In the end, Sandor takes out one of the most vicious and murderous characters (which is saying something) who is practically synonymous with the loss of innocence through brutality.

Yeah, he did it for himself but he also did it for his sister and father and their missing servants, for Elia and her babies, the prisoners at Harrenhal, and so many others. He did it for everyone who could have come in contact with Gregor in the future. The knowledge that the Mountain would never harm anyone again is probably what gave Sandor real peace.

He just saw it as a bonus that Gregor got what he deserved and that Sandor--not the Hound-- got to give it to him.

[sheikah]

Will Dany love Jon more than the throne? She loves him and he loves her. Many ants think she will love the throne most. Thats how hey get their evil Dany theories to work. However, most people would be willing to give up on an ambition if the price was grievous harm to a loved one. Everyone hates Stannis for doing the reverse. Which way will Dany go? She wants the throne but she doesn't really 'love' the throne does she?

Dany will absolutely love Jon more than the throne because Dany doesn’t “love” the throne at all. I would argue that Dany is only seeking the throne out of a sense of duty and responsibility both to her birthright/family name and the common people. She has been raised on the belief that what Robert’s Rebellion did to her family is a great injustice, one that she must right in order to redeem her family name. Even once she learns that her father was an evil man and that his death was perhaps justified, she still believes (and I would agree) that the fates of the rest of her family were an injustice/murder. She similarly believes that the common people are suffering and oppressed under the current system (which they are) and seeks to liberate them by “breaking the wheel.” So her quest for the throne has nothing to do with personal desires or gratification and everything to do with what she believes is right. 

We can see this both in her character and choices–both book and show versions–and in the things Dany thinks about in the books. Across the books, the word “throne” is mentioned in her POV chapters a total of 46 times. This includes Viserys’s dialogue about this subject, of course, as well as any time anyone else has mentioned this to her. But “common people,” “my people,” and “your people” (when others talk to her about her people) are mentioned 72 times. Most tellingly, “home” is mentioned 68 times, and “love” a whopping 128 times. Dany is not after the throne out of some misguided plan for power, wealth, or glory. She never thinks about any of these things. She’s more interested in helping others and possessing the power to do that consistently. 

Even Tyrion knew that Dany cared more about family than power. He said as much to F!Aegon:

“I told you, I know our little queen. Let her hear that her brother Rhaegar’s murdered son is still alive, that this brave boy has raised the dragon standard of her forebears in Westeros once more, that he is fighting a desperate war to avenge his father and reclaim the Iron Throne for House Targaryen, hard-pressed on every side … and she will fly to your side fast as wind and water can carry her. You are the last of her line, and this Mother of Dragons, this breaker of Chains, is above all a rescuer. The girl who drowned the slaver cities in blood rather than leave strangers to their chains can scarcely abandon her own brother’s son in his hour of peril. And when she reaches Westeros and meets you for the first time, you will meet as equals, man and woman, not queen and supplicant. How can she help but love you then, I ask you?” –Tyrion VI ADWD

There’s no F!Aegon in the show, but Jon is actually Rhaegar’s son, a man fighting a desperate war who Dany has met in Westeros, eventually (in my opinion) come to respect as an equal, and loved as a man, just as Tyrion predicted. I don’t think Dany will care more about her claim than about Jon himself.

Even in the show, Dany has twice now (both in the HOTU vision and when she lands at Dragonstone) walked right by the throne instead of touching it, called instead to a higher purpose. I think this literal action is also symbolic of her evolving priorities. 

Further, we can see that she desires a family and love far more than she does a throne. Even Daario, whom she admits to herself doesn’t really love her, but more the idea of her as queen, is enough to make her question her entire journey.

“I would give up my crown if he asked it of me, Dany thought … but he had not asked it, and never would. Daario might whisper words of love when the two of them were as one, but she knew it was the dragon queen he loved.“ –Daenerys VII ADWD 

If she would have given up her throne for Daario, can you imagine how much more willing she would be for Jon?

What she wants more than anything is the safety and freedom of her people, but as far as her presonal goals are concerned? What she wants most is a family and someone who genuinely loves her. Remember, she has literally never had this with anyone. Her mother died birthing her, leaving Viserys as her only family, and we all know the reality of that relationship. Dany has been, for all intents and purpose, alone for her entire life. For Jon to love her, really love her, and want a family and a simple life with her, would be much more important to her than any throne. Her own “dream” is for something like that:

“In her dream they were man and wife, simple folk who lived a simple life in a tall stone house with a red door. In her dream he had been kissing her all over–her mouth, her neck, her breasts.” –Daenerys II ADWD

It’s worth noting that Jon has similar dreams:

“When the dreams took him, he found himself back home once more, splashing in the hot pools beneath a huge white weirdwood that had his father’s face. Ygritte was with him, laughing at him, shedding her skins until she was naked as her name day, trying to kiss him.” –Jon VI ASOS

They both dream of a simple life where they are loved and happy, home at last.

So no. Dany won’t love the throne more than Jon. And if they both live until the end, I really do believe that their happiest endgame wouldn’t be ruling at all. Like I’ve said before, I’m ok with and would be happy with an endgame of Jon and Dany as king and queen of the 7K, but I think it’s equally likely that after saving the world and instituting a new system of government they might flee to find a semblance of the life they’ve always dreamed of, together :)

[fortunatelylori]

Hi! I’m new to your blog so forgive if this had been asked before...but what makes you think Jon is using Dany? I haven’t read the books, so is maybe there an indicator I’m missing?

Hey, nonnie!

No worries … I find it pretty difficult to explain at this point why I think Jon is using D*ny because I’m so used to the political Jon theory and it’s such an amalgamation of points, evidence and sound analysis that I could probably talk about it for 2 days straight without repeating myself. But I’ll give it a shot and try to keep it as brief as I can. :) 

FYI, you don’t have to read the books in order to see the sense of this theory. All you need to do is engage with the show material in a more judicious way and not expect the narrative to spoon feed you plot points, which many people do, particularly when it comes to D*ny’s story line. 

Now, no introductory course into Political Jon is complete without the excellent metas by @thelawyerthatwaspromised so I’m going to include a few links here for your convenience: 

https://thelawyerthatwaspromised.tumblr.com/post/178471892596/tinfoil-jons-two-huge-lies

https://thelawyerthatwaspromised.tumblr.com/post/174814148886/how-jon-completely-took-control-of-dany-in-season

https://thelawyerthatwaspromised.tumblr.com/post/176008185561/gots-pov-trap-the-anatomy-of-betrayal-and-why

@thelawyerthatwaspromised has written extensively about this subject so if you want to delve deeper, I highly recommend a through look on her blog. 

From what I gather from your ask, you don’t see the clues season 7 set up for Jon using D*ny. What I’m going to suggest to you is that the reason why you don’t see them is not because they’re not there but because of the way that D*ny’s narrative has been handled so far. D*ny, up until this point in the story, has paid no price for all that she’s accumulated, she’s faced no consequences for her actions and suffered little to no losses since the end of season 1. This has lulled the audience into thinking that D*ny will always get what she wants, in exactly the manner she wants it and as such they have felt extremely comfortable in suspending their critical thinking when it comes to her actions or how she fits into the larger scope of the Game of Thrones universe. 

In a story where every single character ONLY gains something by losing something important or making huge, personal sacrifices or compromises, D*ny faces only momentarily set-backs that are easily resolved by the plot if not in the same episode where the problem arises then by the end of the season. 

In a realistic show about the ruthlessness of medieval society, where people play the game of thrones or they die, D*ny is stuck in a Dungeons & Dragons role play set on the easiest difficulty. 

Just look at a few of the things D*ny has been allowed to get away with/get out of with little to no consequences: 

- she’s stuck in the desert, she wants access to Qarth, she threatens a bunch of people, gets access to the city

- her Qarth supporter betrays her - she locks him up in his own vault together with her traitorous handmaiden, plunders his home and leaves Qarth unharmed - no one bats an eyelash to the fact that she locked two people in a vault where they would slowly suffocate/starve to death, not in the narrative or outside of it; 

- while in Qarth, she has her dragons stolen by some extremely powerful wizards - has a walk through their temple, burns the wizard alive and the temple in the process, leaves intact and with all 3 of her dragons - no one in Qarth has any issues with the fact that she just burned one of their temples down

- she needs an army - tricks the Unsullied master, steals the Unsullied, orders them to decimate anyone above the age of 12 - triumphant music plays through out; forget the fact that she’s just got the Unsullied she wanted, is planning on using them in the same way their master did or the fact that she begins her anti-slavery campaign essentially because she has no money to pay for an army, everyone and their mother is hailing D*ny as a hybrid Nelson Mandela/Martin Luther King/Lincoln figure. 

- Yunkai hires the Second Sons to defend the city against D*ny - Daario takes one look at her and betrays his associates and hands her Yunkai on a silver platter - he also bends the knee - again, D*ny loses absolutely nothing of any importance in all of this nor does she need to compromise or sacrifice

- Meereen wants hand to hand combat - Daario wins - D*ny takes the city and installs herself as Queen of Meereen within the same episode

- she crucifies 163 people, some innocent, without a trial - the Sons of the Harpy are born - she loses Barristan Selmy (he’ll be shortly replaced by Tyrion so no worries) but aside from that not much else happens

- she kills an exslave without a trial - Mysha is a master appears - where did this plot point go? who cares? D*ny is winning! Get with the program

- the Sons of the Harpy attack the Fighting Pits - Drogon comes to rescue her - she leaves her city and her team in danger and flies off - not one of her advisers are angry, dissapointed or feel betrayed by the fact that she abandons them; in fact Jorah and Daario are off to rescue her while Tyrion holds the city for her; Grey Worm and Missandei are pinning for her as if she’s their freaking mother. 

- D*ny gets captured by the Dothraki - oh, no! looks like she’s in trouble now - no worries! within two measly episodes, she burns the Khals and Vaes Dothrak down, unites all the khalasars, convinces them to go with her to Westeros and has now full control of Drogon - Yay! Are we having fun yet? 

In contrast, let’s look at a few of the journeys of other characters, shall we? 

Cersei: 

- wants to get rid of Maergery and take control of Tommen - she makes a deal with the High Sparrow - gets imprisoned - forced to walk naked through the streets - no one wants to deal with her, her own son outlaws trial by combat essentially condemning her to death - she blows up the Scept of Baelor - Forget the fact that Cersei goes through hell before she ultimately gains her victory. Even that is undercut by her last living child killing himself as a direct consequence of her actions. That’s quite the price to pay.

Jon:  

- Jon manages a huge win when he makes a deal with Tormund and decides to allow the Wildlings past the wall and away from the WW - he gets allies against the army of the dead and does something truly revolutionary without killing anyone or forcing them to do something against their will - they go to Hardhome to save the wildlings - the WW attack, he doesn’t manage to save them all - For all his troubles, Jon gets killed by his own brothers in arms. Jon gets punished by the narrative for being forward thinking and wanting to help people. Cool …

Arya: 

- decides to go to Braavos, trusting in the word of Jaquen and gets tricked into joining a death cult that wants to strip her of her identity and use her as a killing machine - she is blinded and starving on the streets - she escapes only after almost dying 

Sansa: 

- decides to trust the Tyrells and not run off with LF - she is forced to marry Tyrion - finally manages to escape KL - ends up in the Vale with a crazy, murderous aunt - wants to avenge her family - ends up married to Ramsay Bolton, raped and tortured - barely escapes human flesh eating hounds. 

So all the characters in this show pay dearly for each and every win they have, are punished by the narrative for their decisions, except D*ny. She looks downright invincible. Her longest running issue is the Sons of the Harpy and the slavers of Yunkai/Astapor/Volantis plotting against her and let’s look at how that gets resolved: 

She arrives with her Khalasar who decimate the Sons of the Harpy in one fell swoop - she hops on Drogon and burns the slavers fleet and kills 2 of their leaders essentially ending the conflict - ends the episode acquiring 3 Westerosi allies and more ships to take her armies over the Narrow Sea. 

You could argue she needs to give up Daario to go to Westeros but even that is not a true sacrifice because she says she felt nothing in leaving him and was eager to get it over with. 

All of this takes maximum 20 minutes to resolve. 

And it’s in direct contrast with the Battle of the Bastards that occurs in the same episode: 

- Jon and Sansa manage to get back Winterfell and the episode ends with the Direwolf banner flying on top of the castle once again; Sansa kills her abuser, Ramsay - Yay! 

Except … Another Stark is dead: Rickon; Jon abandons his battle plan, almost loses the battle, many good men lose their lives, including Wun Wun, the last of the giants, who sacrifices himself in order for the Starks to get inside the castle. They’re only saved because the Knights of the Vale intervene and in order to get them there, Sansa has to allow LF back into her life - Price paid, sacrifices made, Jon literally almost getting trampled to death. 

On the one side, you have a plot where people struggle and almost die/actually die, on the other side you have a paint by numbers plot where a character just gains and gains without any consequences. 

Doesn’t it seem fishy to you? Doesn’t it feel like the pin must drop for D*ny at some point if her story is to make any semblance of sense? 

What other reason could a show like GOT have to build a character like D*ny to the degree they have if not to tear her down and take everything from her in the end? This is not a show that makes anything easy or nice for its characters and the only reasonable candidate for the taking down of D*ny is Jon, for several narrative reasons: 

“When a Targareyen is born, the Gods flip a coin” - this has been brought up in the show not once but twice, by Cersei and Pycelle. We have two Targs left and they’re being set-up as foils since season 1. If you think this ends with Jon and D*ny happily married, bringing back the Targ dynasty and having sex on Drogon’s back for the rest of time, you haven’t been paying attention. 

Where D*ny bends people to her will, where she threatens and burns her enemies alive, Jon favors collaboration and mercy; where D*ny is hailed as Myhsa and carried on the backs of former slaves, Jon struggles to reach the surface in a crowd that is trampling him to death; where D*ny conquers, Jon convinces people to elect him; where D*ny thinks of herself as the Mother of Dragons, Breaker of chains, Jon Snow feels uncomfortable even talking about the fact that he was brought back from the dead. 

“You have to be smarter than father, you have to be smarter than Robb” - two other Stark men traveled to the South and both got killed because they couldn’t play the Game of Thrones; Jon gets tricked into going to Dragonstone but he somehow survives because he fell in love? Not very likely. Not only that but Jon gives up his crown and his country’s independence and you expect him to pay no price for that? 

Here’s the thing about political Jon. People misinterpret this as an outrageous claim that Jon is acting like Littlefinger and thus against character. But that’s not what pol Jon is. Pol Jon is a huge sacrifice Jon makes where he compromises his integrity and standing in front of his people, endangers the love and support of his family, gives up his crown and resorts to using his own body as leverage in order to save his country and his people from the apocalypse. 

He was already involved in this kind of plot before: Remember the plot where Jon had to infiltrate the Wildling camp as a spy, kill one of his black brothers in order to gain their favor, have sex with Ygritte so she continues to vouch for him and ends up betraying all of them and upholding his NW vows? Because I do. Jon has been a spy before, Jon has used people before. Jon was not blinded by love into giving up his values and everything of importance to him in exchange for cave sex/b0atbang. 

As for a repeat of Jon/Ygritte, I would say not likely. I have already dissected the Jon/D*ny relationship on my blog ( Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4). Part 5 of the series was taken down because Tumblr is more offended by the outline of Jon’s butt than actual Nazis and porn bots but I’ll re upload it, hopefully soon. I’m not in the habit of linking my own stuff but I go into a lot of detail there which I’m not able to provide in this answer. Suffice it to say that the narrative undercuts the Jon/D*ny romance at every turn, we’re cut from Jon’s POV through out his stay on Dragonstone and he’s cold and standoffish with her in a way he never was with Ygritte. 

A 3rd twist in the story is coming - GRRM has said that this story will contain three major twists: one was the burning of Shrieen, the second was the reveal of Hodor’s name (which links back to the abomination of Bran warging a human being). The last one happens at the end of this story, and is, as of yet,unrevealed. Everyone is speculating about what this twist will be and the options are getting more and more fantastical by the day. Most of the people speculating, though, haven’t touched upon the most obvious answer which is: Dark D*ny and a Dance of Dragons 2.0. 

It isn’t that the narrative hasn’t given people enough clues that D*ny is turning dark but because of the way that her plot has been handled, it has lulled the audience into believing that all these clues don’t matter. I would argue that at the end of season 1 people entered a symbolic pact with the devil when they glossed over D*ny executing Mirri Maz Duur and since then D*ny’s level of violence has only exacerbated. A point in the narrative will come when she won’t be able to get away with the “it’s necessary” argument any longer. And when that happens, the only person that can oppose her is Jon. Further supported by the fact that … take it away Bran: 

He was never a bastard. He’s the heir to the Iron Throne. 

So if he’s in love with her and willing to give up everything for her, even after she takes him prisoner, uses the lives of his people as a bargaining chip for him bending the knee, and still vacillates on her commitment to the cause after he’s bent the knee (”I can’t forget what I saw beyond the wall and I can’t pretend that Cersei won’t take back half the country when I’m gone), then how the hell is he going to end up stealing a dragon and fighting against her? 

Those are the main narrative reasons why political Jon is plausible and viable and leads directly into the Dark D*ny endgame. 

Now, because of the way season 7 played out, I sort of understand why people think it’s just business as usual. After all, doesn’t Jon go through the same sort of arc in relation to D*ny that Daario and Tyrion already have?

Daario first encounters D*ny, takes a fancy to her, betrays his Second Sons partners and fully commits to her within the same episode.

Tyrion travels across Essos expressing doubts that the Mother of Dragons, Breaker of Chains is all that she’s cracked out to be, has one conversation with D*ny and suddenly all those questions fly out the window and he now “believes”in her and is fully on board with her invasion of Westeros. 

By that logic, of course, Jon comes to Dragonstone, expresses doubts about D*ny, refuses to bend the knee but then over the course of the story, he changes his mind, bends the knee and is now fully committed to D*ny’s cause. Except that Jon is neither a blood thirsty mercenary like Daario nor is he in love with staying relevant within the Game of Thrones, like Tyrion. Jon has always put the North, his values and his Stark family above all his personal ambitions. Why would D*ny succeed in changing Jon, when Ygritte couldn’t?

The narrative has already switched the tables on D*ny by handing her more defeats in season 7 than she’s experienced in 5 seasons but people assume that this too is just a minor set back. But it isn’t. 

At the end of this story line, Jon Snow, the secret Targareyen, the heir to the Iron Throne, the bastard Stark and the shield that guards the realms of men is waiting for her. And that Jon Snow can’t be a cinnamon roll, he can’t be a Northern fool in love with a pretty lady with dragons. He needs to be political Jon because: 

In the Game of Thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground. 

Thanks for the ask!

[ebdaydreamer]

Escape

I know this has probably been done already but Dany deserves to react to her son being turned into an ice monster goddamnit! This is un-beta'd and written very quickly. I haven't read the books so this is the TV show only with a few minor book details I've gathered from other fics.

Fandom: Game of Thrones (TV)

Pairing: Jonerys

Summary: Daenerys wished she and Jon could have stayed there forever, in each other's arms, uninterrupted for a thousand years.

[AO3]

She wished more than anything that they could stay there for a thousand years, just the two of them, uninterrupted by duty. Despite, well, everything, Daenerys had never been so happy as she was in Jon’s arms. After he’d successfully… warmed her up, he held her for only the Gods knew how long - just the two of them laid together at what may as well have been the edge of the world. For so long, Dany’s life had revolved around helping those who could not help themselves and taking back her family’s throne from the corruption of the Lannisters. She believed if she accomplished that, she’d finally feel that sense of home she hadn’t felt since she was a girl.

But she’d found it already: with Jon.

And that almost made her want to throw it all away.

“Where are you?”

She turned to face him. “I’m right here, actually.”

He titled his head, a soft smile gracing his lips, encouraging her to elaborate.

“Just thinking about staying here forever, just the two of us.” She bit her lip and repositioned herself so her head rested on his chest, her fingers coming up to trace the scars she knew so intimately now. “Leaving it all behind.”

“Aye,” he sighed, “but as lovely as that sounds, neither of us could do that.”

No, they were too loyal to their people. “I know, but it’s nice to think about.”

Not that she often did, she couldn’t afford that luxury - that distraction. Although when she thought about it, the image was her, her children and that house with the red door and the lemon tree; never before had the picture involved someone else, someone to love, someone to grow old with. Never, until Jon.

They didn’t speak again until they were clothed, waiting for the dragons to return from the hunt she’d sent them on.

“Do you think they’ll find much in this weather?”

Jon shrugged. “Hopefully. Even in the shittiest weather conditions, we always managed to find something.”

“You used to hunt here?” she inquired.

“Not often,” he said, wrapping his arms around her waist, “we usually preferred the forests, but I always had a soft spot for this place.”

She tilted her head to see his face. “Were you trying to impress me with a waterfall, Jon Snow?”

“Maybe,” his cheeks reddened slightly, not enough for him to be too embarrassed, but enough for some light teasing. Unfortunately, he beat her to it: “It worked, didn’t it?”

“Maybe,” she responded, matching his tone.

She was tempted to pull him into another kiss, to undo the last few minutes to feel his skin against hers when she heard the cries of her children approach. Time to leave.

Dany pulled out of his embraced, linking their hands and guiding him towards the dragons. “Excited for your second ride?”

He huffed, and this time she didn’t resist the urge to giggle. “It may be thrilling, but it’s bloody terrifying.”

“It goes away, eventually,” she assured him.

He snorted. “Easy for you to say: you’re their mother, they’d never let you come to any harm.”

“They would never let you!”

Jon hummed, eyeing the dragons sceptically. “Rhaegal, perhaps, but I don’t think Drogon likes me.”

“Yet,” she promised. “It’s a wonder Rhaegal took to you so quickly, actually. I wonder if he was so eager for a rider.”

The corners of his lips quirked upwards. “Does the Mother of Dragons play favourites?”

Her draw dropped and she tried to scold her expression into one of offence, but she knew her eyes gave her away. “No! Drogon just happened to be the one I rode first. I got used to him.”

He gave her a fake judgemental look.

“He saved me!” Her smile dropped when she realised: “He saved me whilst Viserion and Drogon were chained up- Oh Gods! I’ve been playing favourites!”

Jon laughed as she snatched her hand back to cover her face in mortification. “I’m a horrible mother,” she groaned.

“No,” Jon said, and she felt him tug her hands away from her face. “Come on, I was teasing. You’re a fantastic mother. Anyone could see how much they love you.” He brought her gloved hands to his lips in a delicate kiss.

He released her hands and she brought them together around his neck. “You’re too kind. If you’re not careful I may just have to be warmed up again.”

“Oh no,” he said dryly.

She giggled - because she did that now, apparently, because of him. “We could get on their backs right now, fly to the edge of the world, never look back.”

“As thrilling as this all sounds, it also sounds very much like a distraction.”

She sighed. Casting her gaze to the snow, she brought her hands down from his neck to rest on his chest, keeping herself upright. He’d figured it out, because of course he had. He could do that now: figure her out.

He hooked his fingers under her chin and brought her gaze back to him. “Dany, I know you’re not alright. How could you be?”

She let out a shaky breath. “Viserion would have loved you the most. He was the only one not wary of strangers that didn’t directly pose a threat.” She gripped his cloak tightly. “He was like an overexcited puppy: so impatient, yet so sweet. He couldn’t hunt for the life of him.” She gave a watery laugh. “Stealth wasn’t his strength. Rhaegal would usually take pity on him and share.”

She tugged on Jon’s cloak, her lower lip wobbling. She could feel the intensity of his gaze, but she couldn’t meet it, couldn’t handle that right now. “And to think my sweet boy… being used like that…” She forced air into her lungs. “He didn’t die for nothing: he died for so much worse. He died to add to that… monster’s forces.”

Jon’s arms tightened around her,  bringing her head to rest against his shoulder, burying her face in his neck. One hand left her waist to cup her head, his fingers gently stroking the loose strands, whilst his thumbs caressed her temple. She let it go.

“Shh,” he comforted her as her body began to shake violently with sobs. “I’m so sorry, Dany. It’s all my fault-”

“No,” she snapped, lifting her head enough to meet his eyes. “No. I chose to go after you that day, Jon. When we left without you… it didn’t matter if we had the wight, because Viserion truly would have died for nothing. I didn’t go to try and negotiate a peace with Cersei - I went to save you.”

There was too much emotion coming from both of them: Dany felt like she should break under it. She’d never loved someone so much before, never felt so loved in return. Love was dangerous, yes, especially during war, but Dany couldn’t bring herself to care in the slightest.

“And I meant what I said: I’m glad I saw it. I was beginning to believe you anyway, but you truly do need to see for your mind to comprehend it properly.”

She straightened so she could look him in the eyes properly. “I’m going to avenge my son.” She glanced over her shoulder at the dragons waiting for them. “Even if I have to make brother fight brother.”

Her attention shifted back to Jon as he lovingly wiped away her tears and cupped her face with his hands. “Together,” he promised, “we’ll avenge him together. And when all this is over, if somehow we’re both still alive after all this shit, I’ll take you up on your offer. You, me, dragons and the edge of the world.”

She smiled and let herself be pulled closer to him, closing her eyes as their lips met in a tender kiss.

[soundofvesper]

Capsized

GOT EP4: my two cents

To begin with, Braime Stans, can you all. Just. Calm. The f*ck down?!

Your talk is so whiny I can’t even.

Yes the writers messed up big time with everyone on that episode, and I do mean everyone, except perhaps Bran and Sandor Clegane, for obvious reasons.

Seven seasons worth of character arc and redemption development and — what?? You actually believe he abandons the purest love he never thought he’d find for the ex “love of his life” now that she’s winning?

Please use your common sense. Valonqar or not, well-meaning!Kingslayer Jaime has never been one to act rashly, especially when it comes to his own family or heart.

The Mother of Dragons literally has nothing to face Cersei with, how is she going to win up against Euron Greyjoy’s fleet and the army she’s bought herself??

Unless. He slinks back into King’s Landing, disguised as the besotted twin brother which he knows to do so well (give the man an Oscar! An Emmy! Something!), SO THAT HE CAN GET CLOSE TO CERSEI AND JUST END IT.

I’ve been reading *essays* about each tiny scrutinised glance between Jaime and Brienne for years, now you’re all abandoning ship and spewing hate? You have to be better than this!

Fight me on this, I’m ready, he didn’t leave Brienne to run back to Cersei’s unwelcoming!open legs (pardon the crudeness), he’s trying to keep the person he loves most safe. And that’s the tea, drink it or choke on it, as you will.

***

Jon

Can we all just take a moment and appreciate his character arc before we start criticising?? From unwanted bastard who doesn’t fit in and wants desperately to do so, to young man off on an adventure away from the only family he’s ever known just so he could be away from all the things he knew he’d never have. Gave his life to the cause. Was brought back regardless of whether he meant to live again and never once complained, just got on with the job of trying to save everyone’s asses. Won everyone’s respect, and I DO MEAN EVERYONE. Even Cersei B*tch Queen of the Iron Throne Lannister knew he’s as solid and honourable as they come. His side, thanks to his efforts, dragons and dagger aside, EFFECTIVELY WON THE WINTER WAR. All the people who swore they’d never be in the same room without killing each other? They were all there supporting HIM. Do you have any idea HOW POWERFUL that is? Has anyone ever seen Jon wield power because he wants it? No. Can we all agree he does it beautifully regardless? No really, say “no” go on, make my day. Does he deserve to be on the Iron Throne? From a simplistic point of view, yeah, him being THE ACTUAL HEIR and all; but does anyone truly believe he’d be suited to that life, when really all he’s ever known is fighting? And I don’t just mean fighting for the Night’s Watch and for Winterfell. And still, people just naturally flock to him, because they know a good man when they see one. And despite all this, he truly believes (albeit naively) that everyone can carry on as they were, knowing the truth, and he can still have that peaceful existence with the love of his life by his side. Everybody is hating on him because he, what? Didn’t pet Ghost after making the best decision for him??? Are you all seriously that childish?? I’d die before I let anything happen to my dog, and Jon has gotten really good at saying goodbye to the things he loves most (see above). Take my advice and move past that moment. Not patting Ghost on the head doesn’t mean he discarded him without a second thought, or that he doesn’t love him. Will he be given a dark ending? That remains to be seen. I believe in him, in plain Jon Snow and in Aegon Targaryen. I hope they give him the life he’s always wanted, and not the heaviest burden of all; wearing the crown of the Protector of the Realm.

***

Dany

A LOT of people have been fighting over her increasingly, and it just makes me shake my head, because yes she’s being portrayed all wrong. But can we just take a moment and analyse the following:

Yes she was a good little girl who only felt it was her burden to liberate all people and take her throne back because she’s always wanted to go home, home to a place she’s never known and has only ever heard stories and songs about. After seven seasons of betrayals, attempts on her life, of being sold into marriage!slavery and losing it all only to get back up and tell the world “no, THIS is who I am”, do you honestly believe she knows how to be anything else? When have we ever seen her be merciful without annihilation first? Does she ever, ever, talk about defending the North in terms other than “Jon’s War”? And this is a woman who feels entitled to become the one true ruler of the Seven Kingdoms, the North included. All xenophobia aside (and this is the writers’ work, not necessarily the original story — haven’t read the books, correct me if I’m wrong), she’s done nothing but storm in waving her dragons around - pardon, her “CHILDREN” - and demanded that everyone automatically fall over themselves to accept her. The minute she sees how effortlessly people flock to RealKing!/LoveOfHerLife!Jon, she gets ugly. Were you watching her face when Tormund was talking our ears off about his little crow, and how proud he was, dropping the k- word and all? Her face was the UGLIEST thing I’ve ever seen on her in all the seasons. Like, really, is that all she is? Just an empowered woman who’s become a tyrant and needs the love of her life to stay under her boot heel to remain empowered? Apparently, that’s what the writers are going for. Daughter of a mad king? Yeah, she is. Should she go ahead and incinerate half the kingdom in order to sit on smouldering ashes? If that’s what her character development has reduced her to, then I say let her have it. I’m still hoping she’ll realise before it’s too late, and actually take the chance to be happy (though doubtful at this stage.) I believed in her, right up until the moment she set foot on Westeros and started proving us all wrong, and he really isn’t different from the others “she’s just more of the same.” She’s made it clear that love is only second best for her, whereas for Jon it’s everything without abandoning honour, so it’s going to get REAL INTERESTING REAL QUICK, the power play for the future of the Kingdom.

***

Arya

Just this: I can’t believe y’all would actually take her out of character and have her accept Gendry’s proposal for a life she’s NEVER wanted, even before her father died. Have we been watching two different shows or something? She still needs to kill Cersei, and has hinted that life for her will not be at Winterfell, because after all, what is there for her there? A brother she doesn’t truly recognise and still nearly gladly died defending, a sister she’s learned to respect but who doesn’t need assassins roaming around to protect her, a title she’s never wanted, and the beloved one who actually turns out to be her cousin and real heir to the throne. Can we see how this life is not hers? Regardless of whether Gendry can make her happy, she stayed true and that’s beautiful, ok?

THE ENDING: I just hope they do all characters right at this stage (Avengers, anyone?) regardless of who gets to sit on that bloody chair, and everyone gets what they DESERVE even if it’s not what they (or we) want.

[versuswhitescar]

Malam Manor

We all grow up with that once upon a time, crap. When you're little, you believe it. Who believes it as an adult? I mean, really? We have smartphones, rumbas, and clap on lights. No one meets a 17-year-old vampire who supposed to be 52. But I have, and I found his tapes by accident. Now I'm living a filliping ounce upon a time that Anne Rice would drool over. If I don't find the f-ing cave his sister is trapped in, I'm going to be enjoying a lot less sunlight for damn sure.

I know if I could figure out the details, I'll find the cave. And the murderer and maybe be spared, or I fail, and I'm the next Elena Gilbert. I sure hope not.

I'm just a damn tutor who needs money for her master's degree. Why did I even think that posting a flyer online was a good idea? Hell, my only tinder date turned out to be a 300 lb guy catfishing for a date to his sister's wedding. I stupidly, no innocently thought I'd get some pimply high school sophomore struggling through R and J and Shakespeare word salad.

Man, was I wrong? Mr. Cain Haywater answered my ad. Normal name for an average guy, right? Well, who the hell names their kid after the first murder in the Bible, but I'm getting off track. My ancient 98 jeep with more rust than metal is not going up the hill to the "Malam Manor." Later I Google it and turns out the word is Latin for bad. I should have asked Siri sooner. Too late, Cain Haywater a ward of the state. Because he's 17 and wicked rich is paying me 50 bucks an hour to help write his family's history.

This house is unusual in ways I can't even begin to describe. Its windows seem to follow you like eyes while I rev up the circle drive. The brick looks like it's from out of the Hogwarts rejection pile. The height makes it at least three floors, and there's a damn covered entry that carriages pulled under in the 19th century. Besides the semi-creepy outsides, even though it looks well maintained, I'm coming here close to 9 pm. Ounce, the sun is down on the hottest July night in history. I should have done a business major instead of English lit. Follow your bliss, my mom said. What does she know she's a nail tech for the last 12 years. She probably has brain damage from the polish fumes.

I can't imagine anyone hears my lame knock at the gigantic door. But I swear to God it seems like a cat or something opened the door. I thought maybe the heat melted my brain, but it looked like a fuzzy ken doll. It darted behind a curtain. Before I could investigate Cain, hold my breath beautiful, Haywater stands ten feet in front of me in his large foyer in black jeans, skin-tight grey shirt with a badass blue tattoo that seems to have a deep center that radiates over his forearm. I'm shook in so many ways I can barely speak "Nyx, Nyx Jackson?" My name never sounded so smooth coming out of any humans mouth ever. That was when my brain should have clicked over to reality that he wasn't human. He hadn't been human since 1989.

Sadly only 2 hours into my best tutoring gig ever, I discovered Cain Haywater was indeed a real vampire. And his beloved twin sister Danielle, Dani, as he referred to her, was just as dead only traped in a watery caved transformed into a rusalka for the last 34 years. I was Cains's last chance at finding her cave and the wort boyfriend a girl could ask for. Jefferson Granton. A 200-year-old vampire that he needed to kill. My life wasn't fair and only made worse by the fact that I'm sure I'm going to fail, and my last meal was crappy ramen.

It was my stomach and too much curiosity that made me start playing with the vintage tape recorder Cain had on the black walnut desk. He heard my growling belly and while he searched for food. I pressed play. Big mistake, I'm not sure where he went to kill the food, but I listened to almost one side of a cassette tape. The quick spark notes, once he came back with cheese, apples, and fancy crackers to catch me, went fast.  

Back in May of 1986, he and his twin sister were graduating from Xaiver highschool. Somehow she latched on to an older college guy that wandered into town on a semester off to find himself. Jefferson Granton was mesmerizing, according to Cain, tall blond lovely to look at and even more interesting to listen to. He swept naive Danni off her feet on a cross country trip. He had a long term plan. One he had been cooking up for at least 100 years when Cain's family made a fortune in lumber and now stocks.

Jeffy boy started life as Jacarde Gulomar in the Brittany region of France. He accepted the gift of eternal life from a Norse vampire who wanted a mate. Jeff never entirely made his fortune and became a bad luck symbol for the covens all over Europe. Eyes on the new country to the west, he hopped a ship and arrived to wonder the grandness of the US just after the civil war. Comming upon early decedents of the Haywater clan. William Percy Haywater knew the deal equipped each member of the family with a hawthorn stake, holy water, and a warning against a freshly minted newly named Jefferson Granton.

No one fell for him until Danni, with all her beauty and openness, fell in love, and became a target for her trust fund. By the time the twins were 17, their parents were dead at the fate of a drunk driver, and a deaf Aunt looks after them. Danni fell under Jefferson's spell forgetting all caution to follow to the whispering cave. Now oddly in the middle of the mind-melting story, a flash caught my eye, and I met the grandfather like ken doll Cain shared his mansion with.

Pere was a domavoy who kept Cain and Malan safe as much as he could. Cain respects and adored him, so I was polite. Over the next three weeks, I moved in search their land every day when Cain joins me and feasts on Pere's cooking skills. His little face sparkled at each new dish he made for me after decades of blood bags. On steamy Saturday, July 31st, I finally found, or more fell into the mouth of the cave. Much of Cain's memory was erased on the night he watched Jefferson murder Danni while he hogtied in the corner of the damp cave. Only to meet a fate worse than Danni by forcefully being turned and compelled to kill and drain his Aunt of all her blood. Jefferson helps smooth it all over with some compulsion and tricks, but Cain secured his wealth in the next few days only to vanish. He picked a small fishing village in Maine, where he met Gabriel 100-year-old vampire who taught him to live and gave him advice on how to avenge Danni. Gabriel's plan centered on Cain coming home as his namesake's son Cain Haywater II. The mansion and his tie to Danni or Cain's greatest strength. It was clear why Jefferson failed to control them.

The night I stumbled into the cave, I wore my Danni look-alike costume Pere helped me pull together. I looked like a backup dancer on a Wham video. It was. It was to trick Jefferson, but oddly I caught the attention of another creepy creature a leshii in the woods. I thought it was Cain because the voice fit, and I felt drawn to the being. Only when it had led me halfway across the land did I catch a glimpse of its eyes. Pure white scalaris was not a hint of iris or pupil. Taking off back towards the cave, I felt two forces moving me one I can now sense with Cain, and the other I was damn sure was Jefferson. He'd been down a rough road probably because, in life, he was a bit of a narcissist. Only to have that enhanced by his Vampire Life, he thought I was Danni, and he'd Follow Me to Hell to get that money. Once we made it to the rippling silver pond within the cave, I laid eyes on Daniella. My wham costume was a joke compared to her beauty.

She swept as close to us as possible, shouting silently in my brain to turn now. Cain stands between me and Jefferson stake in hand slowly I fell to the wash of a cool breeze flowing over us which I knew mixed with my warm body temp to engulf Cain it was in that moment I saw the vague outline of a man just like he left a speakeasy in 1926. He became more gas-like to almost solid, yet I could still see right through him. He is handsome except for that visible gunshot wound to his right Temple. Why was I surprised that we now have a ghost to add to the mix. Pere spoke of the cave as whispered he claimed someone took their life after the 1920 stock crash here he was with eyes for Danni.

The extraordinary power Cain had wasn't just his home or his connection to his twin. It was that he could feel loved. He survived and lived by keeping his Humanity. I saw beautiful sparkling Jefferson with his flowing blonde hair realize it too. Cains power made the cave hum Jefferson was cocky, and that was very clear. He charged expecting to deflect the steak easily, but with Danni's strength and God help me my feelings for Cain. He drove the stake straight and true into Jefferson's lean chest.

Before I can blink Cain without a blade from his boot and with incredible strength severed the head like clockwork Cain without a new Zippo lighter and flicked it on to Jeffy. Making a roaring vampire candle. Can quickly turn to glance behind making a connection with Danni. "find your bliss" I heard in my head, and I knew Cain heard it too. The 1920s gentleman back into Danni as they drifted further back into the cave. We're only water held the floor we stood still.   "Nyx?" his velvet voice floated over me. I can only gape open mouth, watery eyes, and some snot beginning to flow. At that moment, my stomach rumbled loudly. He smiled a genuinely genuine smile with all the years that he waited. I knew without any doubt Cain Haywater would be in my future Tech probably my whole life, and I smiled too.

Let me know what you think and If you want more 

[dylanobrienisbatman]

Top 5 Sansa Stark Moments?

Ohhh thanks !!! 

1. I think my favourite Sansa Stark moment is probably her interaction with Dany in 8x02 after Jaime shows up. It’s such a strong moment for her, because it puts her up against arguably the biggest player in the show and she not only holds her ground, she comes out on top. She understands exactly what she needs to say to get Dany right where she wants her, and then knows exactly when to bring up her real concerns. She is able to lull Dany into a false sense of complacency because Dany doesn’t suspect her. She becomes Dany’s biggest threat through the entire season, and its really incredible. 

2. the scene where she is walking through Winterfell discussing grain storage and armour making and things like that. It is sort of a transition scene, taking her from one place to another to get her into her next main scene, but its such a good scene on its own, because it shows just how capable she is. She understands how to run a country, and she does it well. She knows who to ask for advice, and how to get her decisions into the right hands to get what she needs done, done. That scene was such a great scene because it was the first glimpse we got into how good of a ruler Sansa was going to be not just in the general sense, but in the day to day, nitty gritty type of way that is actually really really important. 

3. Her bringing the Knights of the Vale in to win the Battle of the Bastards. The narrative gives Jon all the credit for winning the battle, but Sansa is the one who truly won it, and she knows it, which I loved. Her sitting on the horse, smirking as she sees the forces she brought reigning hellfire down on the Bolton army is my life blood tbh. I also think its really important because it is one of the first instances where the narrative reinforces that Sansa understands much more than anyone gives her credit for, and when she is ignored, the consequences of ignoring her advice can be grave. SHe told Jon that he didn’t have enough forces and wasn’t going to be able to win, and he didn’t listen, and the only reason he lived in the end is because she took matters into her own hands. 

4. The scene where she tells Jon that if he wont fight to get Winterfell back she will do it herself. Its so early on in s6, pretty soon after they’ve been reunited, and she’s just escape from Ramsey and the horrible trauma he inflicted on her, and she’s brave enough to stand there in front of Jon and tell him that she, a traumatised teenage girl with maybe two allies that she knows of in the whole world, will figure out how to take back their home if Jon wont help her, because it’s theirs and they have to. It showed her dedication to her family, and to the North, and it’s one of the first scenes were we see Sansa begin to fight for the North, which is one of my favourite things they did with her character. 

5. The scene where she demands northern independence and gets it. Following her over the course of three full seasons in her journey to protect the north and free her people, seeing her face when Bran says yes was the most satisfying, fulfilling moment. In that moment, you can see her realise that she did what Robb had tried to do, she did what Jon had failed to do. She did what her people had been asking her family to do for years. She heard her people’s plea for independence and she gave it to them. Sansa Stark is forever the Queen who freed the North, and the moment where she actually achieves it, in that counsel meeting, is amazing. 

Honourable Mention:  The scene where she kills littlefinger. I loved that scene SO much, and part of it is because watching Sansa kill her abusers is my favourite past time, but also because she doesn’t do it just for herself. The crimes she accuses him of show that she is killing him not just for herself, but for her father, for her mother, for Bran, for Robb, for her aunt, for everyone. Littlefinger spent his entire life plotting and scheming and trying to get ahead, and Sansa and Arya outwitted him, and then held him accountable for everything he did to their family. She avenged her father, as Arya avenged Robb and Catelyn when she killed the Frey’s, and the poetry, of these two girls avenging their family after no one was every there to rescue them, becoming their own heroes because they realised if they didn’t save themselves, no one would, is awesome. 

[fedonciadale]

1/1 I kind of like how D&D treated the "treason for love" thing and such a turn could only come from GRRM. Once Grayarea argued that with Daenerys it's never a one-sided treason, it's a treason she does to sb, and a treason sb does against her. And I think this is the case here; the people of Westeros betrayed her by not loving her (or so she thought) even though she had fought for them, and she betrayed them by attacking them. It's not just abt Jon, it's much more, but arguably Jon is the last

Possilbe Spoilers

2/2 straw for her. Potentially there’s sth to be still said btw them that would make sense in-universe, and mostly for the viewers sake, so that things fall into place for us all. Considering how this is shown, I wouldn’t put it past D&D to have Tyrion killing Dany rather than Jon. Otherwise Bran’s line to Jamie “you wouldn’t be able to help us in this war” remains unaccounted for and in this season every line counts. This, however, would contradict Tyrion’s position in his trial (spoilers)      

3/3 where he defends his position and Daenerys’ attack. But as the story is, it makes sense for T to kill her, because both Jamie and Cersei are now dead while he tried to save them. I don’t want Jon to kill her and be broken for a justified kill, but admittedly him killing her would be Martin at his best (gray heroes and all). What is the “broken man speach”, F?      

Dear nonny,

the broken man speach is a speach that happens in AFFC when the septon who travels with Brienne tells her how he became a ‘broken man’ once when he went to war. It was adapted into the show after a fashion. It was the septon who took in the Hound and was killed by some brigands.

I do think that Jon in KL had a moment where he was close to breaking:

"And the man breaks.         

"He turns and runs, or crawls off afterward over the corpses of the slain, or steals away in the black of night, and he finds someplace to hide. All thought of home is gone by then, and kings and lords and gods mean less to him than a haunch of spoiled meat that will let him live another day, or a skin of bad wine that might drown his fear for a few hours. The broken man lives from day to day, from meal to meal, more beast than man. Lady Brienne is not wrong. In times like these, the traveler must beware of broken men, and fear them . . . but he should pity them as well."               

  When Meribald was finished a profound silence fell upon their little band. Brienne could hear the wind rustling through a clump of pussywillows, and farther off the faint cry of a loon. She could hear Dog panting softly as he loped along beside the septon and his donkey, tongue lolling from his mouth. The quiet stretched and stretched, until finally she said, "How old were you when they marched you off to war?" (AFFC, Brienne V)

 If anyone wants to tell you GRRM glorifies battle alert them of this chapter. I just gave you an excerpt...

I agree that Daenerys treasons are two-fold, and she is a traitor as well. I think @thelawyerthatwaspromised   made a post about how Dany punished the people of KL for not loving her - because they had become her enemies. And she betrays Jon as well: by usurping the claim that is his, by seperating him from the family he grew up with.

So, yet, Dany is a traitor as well. I do think that after episode 5 about anyone trying to kill her would make sense. From the book foreshadowing I would say it should be Arya, and I can hardly see how D&D would change something huge as that. There is no NK in the books, so argueing that Arya already had her kill does not really count. I think Tyrion already betrayed Dany for his family.

In a way, Jon killing her would also make sense. It would sort of mirror Jaime, his foil, who became a kingslayer, saving a million of innocents, and Jon would become a queenslayer, avenging millions.

I must admit that I find it difficult to predict what will happen apart from the fact that Dany will die. The main reason is, that we get foreshadowing from the books, but we don’t really know what “main characters’ ending is the same as in the books” means. I think it would mean that Dany would have to die by the same hands as in the books, but D&SD might just take it, that she has to end up dead.

I do think that Jaime/Cersei probably will die together in the books as well, althought how this might play out might be very different. It does not fit to what I read in Jaime’s arc, but I could picture him going back to Cersei to kill her and being unable to do that, when he is confronted with her again.

It would mean that the Valonqar and the YMBQ prophecy were red herrings in a way, but it could also mean, that Jaime was always Cersei’s death, not because he kills her, but because their toxic relationship leads them to their grave.

So, I do think that Dany will be killed by  one of the Starks, and that killing Tyrion might be her last action as queen.

I think the line of Bran to Jaime was one of the things that was not tied up properly. Sure Jaime helped in the fight, but he was not substantial, unlike the Hound who saved Arya. So I definitely think that some lines are just there for the funzies.

Thanks for the ask!