#forum p

[melrosing]

a while back you mentioned bran being a fisher king type of figure if he becomes king. i am so intrigued by that concept. can you tell us more?

so full disclosure, I don't have a great deal of familiarity with Arthurian legend or British/Welsh mythology, which is what the Fisher King really draws upon, so I don't think I can say anything of real substance on this subject! i keep meaning to just sit down and swot up on this stuff but it's. not really something you can do in one sitting lol

HOWEVER i think even to a wiki peruser it's patently clear that GRRM is drawing on the Fisher King concept with Bran (as in, once you know he's doing that, you realise he isn't even trying to hide it). and I do tend to think that GRRM is more likely to stick with the top line of a myth or historical event he means to parallel rather than get lost in the minutiae - e.g. Matilda v Stephen succession crisis inspiring Rhaenyra v Aegon, the Black Dinner of 1440 inspiring the Red Wedding, this is GRRM taking the substance of an event but not the details of how it came to pass.

I'm going to guess that rather than getting into the finer details of the Fisher King mythos, GRRM is going to utilise it much like he's used Shakespeare's Richard III for Tyrion, which is another inspiration that seems painfully obvious from the moment you spot it, but is hardly lifted beat for beat, and I seriously doubt that Tyrion's story ends up anywhere like the end of RIII. but you can see GRRM taking the bits and pieces of RIII he finds interesting and twisting them for Tyrion in ASOIAF.

so with that in mind, I'm just going to quickly list the key points I can personally gather from the Fisher King myth that seem to gesture to Bran, and why I think these are probs interesting to GRRM as a writer (but as I say there are people who know lots about arthurian legend and british/welsh mythology who would probs have a lot more to say here):

the Fisher King is usually depicted as being wounded in the groin/legs/thigh - this is considered synonymous with his inability to have children and so propagate his line. immediately obvious parallel to Bran, and I think through both ASOIAF and F&B, GRRM is trying to show that ruling through dynasties where everything hinges on how the next guy's son turns out, is not a viable way to run a country. Bran will not be succeeded by children of his own blood, but I think much in the way that he himself has succeeded Bloodraven

the Fisher King is one with his land as such: his welfare is the welfare of the land, and when he takes a wound (and becomes infertile), the land too becomes barren. the Fisher King awaits a hero who will heal and restore him and so the land (but I can only imagine GRRM would subvert this - it's clear through GRRM's writing of disability that he doesn't see value in just 'curing' his characters. he wants to actually write them as disabled people). and I think there's a lot in Bran's story about man learning to respect the land he lives upon - the children and the first men's peace pact was agreed upon the grounds that the first men would essentially preserve Westeros and its weirwoods etc, and so I think it's generally agreed ASOIAF could end with a similar kind of pact to end the Long Night (or after the end of TLN)? so again, think this point is about Bran representing a renewed relationship between the lands of Westeros and its peoples - the welfare of all is tied together through him

the Fisher King is guarding the Holy Grail. im way out of my depth on this point, someone with more knowledge re. the Holy Grail needs to weigh in here lol, but I would guessssss that maybe this has something to do with Bran ending the story on the Isle of Faces, protecting the peace from there or SOMETHING idk

then the most obvious point: the Fisher King as he appears in Arthurian legend is thought to draw on the figure of Brân the Blessed, a character of Welsh mythology - which immediately recalls Bran the Broken (something Bran literally calls himself several times). the name 'Bran' also translates to crow or raven in Welsh, so, duh. and Brân the Blessed's story ends with his requesting that his head be buried on the White Hill of London - and as long as it remained there, Britain would be safe from invasion. more about Bran being tied directly to the welfare of the land and its peoples

(again there's doubtless a lot more that could be added here by someone who understands the Fisher King myth better than I do, but these seemed like the most obvious points that anyone could draw on)

anyway I absolutely take it as a given that Bran will be King at this point, and whilst it's really hard to imagine what that looks like, I do think it resonates. GRRM likes writing about dynasties but I don't think he believes in them. I'm sure he feels much the same way about feudalism, but I doubt that will be gone by the end of ASOIAF, too, so this is how I picture it??

KL: destroyed. red keep: fucked. some level of politics may continue here post-series, but I think it will no longer be the heart of westeros. the fact that it is in AGOT is I think GRRM trying to show the corruption at the heart of this country - KL is constantly described as a cesspit where the rich play their games and live and eat luxuriously directly atop the shoulders of the poor and downtrodden, divorced from what's happening in the rest of the 7K.

the new heart of Westeros will be the Isle of Faces. this is where I think Bran will end up. we don't know much about it, bc noone is able to sail there, but this was where the pact between the COF and the First Men was created, and it's one of the last places in the south where weirwoods still grow (here, in abundance). and apparently there was once a Green King of the Gods Eye?? if the Green King, of the Rivermen, is in any way the role Bran will soon be occupying, maybe this is where his Tully heritage is somehow relevant. and also like 'god's eye', Bran's whole thing is about learning to see all, so. likely place for him to be. ultimately, I don't think Bran will remain in Winterfell; the story is supposed to be about unity I think, and not northern exceptionalism, so a remaining Stark sibling will take up that seat and as I said before, I tend to think that will be Sansa.

and I guess the most I can imagine beyond this point is Bran living alongside the COF (perhaps in the company of Meera idk?), functioning less as a political entity and more as a figurehead, perhaps an oracle, who lives for the welfare of his people. there will still be politicians to run the country, but they will be guided by Bran in some way, and like Bloodraven, Bran will choose his own successor. what the intricacies of any of this look like i have no idea, but this really does sound to me like the start of GRRM's answer to all his concerns re. dynasties and corruption etc etc

sorry this was all garbled as hell but this is basically what the Fisher King endgame means to me for now. in short, not a whole lot that I can make sense of but I like the feel of it, I think it's consistent with the themes of the text and suggests the start of real change at the end of the story, rather than the start of yet another dynasty.

[royalteachitchat]

They have us distracted for a reason!

PAY ATTENTION!

[chronalshifts]

why reply when you can literally just make your own post. it’s free guys.

[lconoclasts]

apoligies for the weird scaling that tumblr does :-P but heres another gif! if you have any requests i am all ears!

[waywardsalt]

god im so glad i got smt iv and decided to go in blind

[dadsinsuits]

Ronald P. O'Hanley

[13eyond13]

HAHAHA omg someone submitted this to r/copypasta a year ago

[risingsunresistance]

haha yeah i, risingsunresistance, NEVER spend time at the colosseum. had no idea ty for pointing it out. could probably make a lore post out of that haha

[mothkingsley]

Astromorph [Among Us x Chonny Jash]

Soooo this fic has done numbers on the Chonny Jash Fanserver, so I thought it'd be worth it to start being on tumblr more often and posting it here! Be warned, there be emotional damage ahead! (and also polycule shenanigans)

Special thanks to @chemical-bunz for cowriting chapter 2 with me, and also helping me port it from google docs to ao3.

Deep in space, there is a crew on the ship Tycho with one united goal: curing the Astromorph virus, a parasitic infection that causes its victims to turn into monsters.

Seven dead bodies later, only four members of the crew remain; Atlas Terraquis, Apollo Kingsman, Doctor Artemis Juno, and Harmonia Goodei; and they’re no closer to their goal of curing the infection.

Now, one more is gone, and their fragile peace is corroding all at once.

[ruiyuki]

"C'mon Lacey, just one dance; like when we were kids."

"Oh all right... Don't you step on my toes though."

"Haha, you know who my Gramps is, right? He'd feed me to Druddigon if I did that."

Or alternately:

Lacey rejected every student that asked her to prom, saying the BB E4 would be going "as a group"... only for a 1st year to catch her dancing with Drayton in front of the school's entrance away from the party.

[artrugula]

LIL HORSIEEEEEE !!! (OC belongs to dandelion on Toyhouse!)

[clubpenguinkiller]

monster hunter demo seriously runs so bad lmao look at the literal pixels for the dust particle effect

[beetnelson]

Wait, you guys... I think I did too much digging into his personal life...

[sylphwing]

let my laptop update for once and now my connection is rlly slow.. the internet in my house works fine on everyone elses devices and i did a speed test that said that it was fast so y won't anything load🧍

[alithographica]

personally really enjoying the resurgence of :3 as an emoticon

It has been an endangered species for many years now, thriving mostly in small cat-adjacent niches of the internet, and I think it’s time we all get a bit sillier :3

[msclaritea]

So, was the company 23andMe involved in creating a bioweapon that would specifically target Edomites, Africans and other enemies, for power and resource consolidation?