#it started as a Jon thing but i think it fits elias

[some-froggish-lad]

its where i belong down at the green eyeball club immm gonna keep on watchin at the green eyeball club imm gonna keep on watchin down in panopticon imm gonna keep on watchin at the green eyeball club green eyeball club 👁 [cue rosie on the electric guitar]

[branwinged]

jonelias bluebeardposting: lonelyeyes edition

NBC Hannibal S03E12 - "The Number of the Beast is 666" // MAG 159 - "The Last" // MAG 160 - "The Eye Opens"

[ai-manre]

Following the Roses: A Meta

Having remerged into the fandom now after a long break, I was surprised to see all the currently prevailing ideas on a lot of things. It looks like the longer we go without the books, the more cycles and counter-cycles of convictions we have as a fandom, as our echo-chamber gets more intense and the contexts that much matter so much in canon fade. It was interesting to see all the different ideas and head-canons of people regarding R+L now in particular (with many now stalwartly characterizing Rhaegar as a prophecy-obsessed lunatic who impregnated Lyanna, with or without her will, and that Lyanna later grew to hate him). That made me curious into delving back to see what the books tell us and try to see where the narrative is leading us. Or maybe, more specifically, it's the roses I want to follow. The winter roses.

**The Introduction**

GRRM does a beautiful misdirection in the first book. Having Ned associate Lyanna again and again with the winter roses in his thoughts, by the time the origin of the winter roses is shown in Ned's last chapter, we have already associated Lyanna singularly with the roses. Rather than feeling the full impact of them being associated with her. So I'd like to go through the winter roses chronologically instead, according to the timeline.

**What is the narrative telling us?**

>Yet when the jousting began, the day belonged to Rhaegar Targaryen. The crown prince wore the armor he would die in: gleaming black plate with the three-headed dragon of his House wrought in rubies on the breast. A plume of scarlet silk streamed behind him when he rode, and it seemed no lance could touch him. Brandon fell to him, and Bronze Yohn Royce, and even the splendid Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning.

>Robert had been jesting with Jon and old Lord Hunter as the prince circled the field after unhorsing Ser Barristan in the final tilt to claim the champion's crown. Ned remembered the moment when all the smiles died, when*Prince Rhaegar Targaryen urged his horse past his own wife, the Dornish princess Elia Martell, to lay the queen of beauty's laurel in Lyanna's lap. He could see it still: a crown of winter roses, blue as frost*.

>*Ned Stark reached out his hand to grasp the flowery crown, but beneath the pale blue petals the thorns lay hidden. He felt them clawing at his skin, sharp and cruel, saw the slow trickle of blood run down his fingers, and woke, trembling, in the dark.*

>*Promise me, Ned, his sister had whispered from her bed of blood. She had loved the scent of winter roses. "Gods save me," Ned wept. "I am going mad."

This is the origin of the winter roses according to the timeline. We do not get mentions of Lyanna with the winter roses before Rhaegar crowned her with them. When Bran looks back in time and sees Lyanna, she's not seen around those roses. When the Northmen discuss her in her childhood, they don't mention her roses, only her horse-riding skills. In Howland's story of the wolf maid, she is not associated with them. Winter roses start featuring prominently around Lyanna Stark only after Rhaegar crowns her with them. Considering this to be the origin of the roses, I would find it safe to interpret that the roses don't solely symbolize Lyanna, but rather *the bond that grew between Rhaegar and Lyanna*. This way, the roses also work as a great narrative device for Ned to covertly think of R+L without directly giving it away to the readers.

This interpretation fits in very well with the next words, where Ned reaches out to touch the flower crown and feels the thorns underneath that claw at him. The beauty of the petals was hiding the "sharp and cruel" thorns underneath which could draw blood. Just like R+L's love which likely seemed a thing of great beauty to them, but resulted in pain and suffering for both of them and all around them. If, as some other interpretations go, the roses were meant to symbolize only Lyanna as a Stark maiden or represent her connection to Winterfell, it would make no sense for the sharp and cruel thorns to appear underneath.

In the words after, Ned describes her words from bed of blood and again, seemingly out of nowhere mentions how she had loved the scent of winter roses. Why was this sentence put here? In the middle of a seemingly irrelevant of her death? Following the narrative flow of where the roses began a few sentences ago, the meaning is clear. Lyanna had loved the scent of winter roses, loved the beauty of her bond with Rhaegar, maybe ignorant or uncaring of the thorns underneath.

>"And now it begins," said Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning. He unsheathed Dawn and held it with both hands. The blade was pale as milkglass, alive with light. "No," Ned said with sadness in his voice. "Now it ends." As they came together in a rush of steel and shadow, he could hear Lyanna screaming. "Eddard!" she called. *A storm of **rose** petals blew across a blood-streaked sky, as **blue** as the eyes of death.*

This is our next memory of Lyanna after the crowning at Harrenhal. Ned clashes with the Kingsguard trying to get to Lyanna, Ned's subconscious and the narrative associates this clash against a background of *storm of rose petals as blue as the eyes of death*. Again, the rose petals are associated with things like pain and blood and death. The blood-streaked sky is the background of the war, the war sparked by R+L's actions, the beautiful petals are still blowing, though they are "death". Rhaegar who is dead and Lyanna who is dying, their love that has started the fire that killed them both and many more including all the kingsguard and many northmen here here. (Though the situation was far more nuanced than just R+L being responsible for all the bloodshed that happened).

> "I was with her when she died," Ned reminded the king. "She wanted to come home, to rest beside Brandon and Father." He could hear her still at times. *Promise me, she had cried, in a room that smelled of blood and roses.* Promise me, Ned. The fever had taken her strength and her voice had been faint as a whisper, but when he gave her his word, the fear had gone out of his sister's eyes. *Ned remembered the way she had smiled then, how tightly her fingers had clutched his as she gave up her hold on life, the **rose** petals spilling from her palm, dead and black.* After that he remembered nothing. They had found him still holding her body, silent with grief. The little crannogman, Howland Reed, had taken her hand from his. Ned could recall none of it. "I bring her flowers when I can," he said. *"Lyanna was … fond of flowers."*

Now we come to her death. Ned remembers her room which had smelled of blood and roses. More importantly, he recalls the rose petals spilling from her palm as she died, implying that she had been holding on to them until the point of the death. The fact that her room smelled of roses itself implies that she had been making an effort to keep the roses around her, nothing was forcing her to have them around considering Rhaegar had left her months ago and died as well. (Unless anyone thinks evil Rhaegar ordered his Kingsguard to keep bringing roses to her against Lyanna's will? Or that the Kingsguard wanted to force her to continue having the roses around her? Imo that's ridiculous). It seems clear if we follow the narrative that the only roses these can be are the winter roses which connects her with Rhaegar. The fact that she took the effort to keep surrounding herself with roses, that she held onto the roses *until the moment of her death*, seems pretty irrefutable proof that she loved Rhaegar till the very end.

I have seen interpretations before that she was holding onto the roses as they symbolized her connection with Winterfell and her home. Apart from the reasons I had already mentioned above regarding why the roses clearly don't represent Winterfell, there is also the fact that if Lyanna wanted a connection to her home, her brother Ned Stark should be a much clearer option to cling onto rather than the roses connected heavily with Rhaegar (who according to this interpretation, she must have grown to hate). If it was only about her desire for home, we would have only gotten mentions of how hard she clung to Ned, there was no reason to mention the roses. But they were mentioned. And she did. She clung onto the roses as hard as she'd clung on to Ned, until death forced her to let go. This is capital R romanticism, Rhaegar died with Lyanna's name on his lips, Lyanna died with his roses (the last remnant of their love) in her palm. They died thinking of each other. And the roses, the roses are now "dead and black" just as both of them are.

After remembering that moment, Ned tells Robert that he brings her flowers. That Lyanna had loved flowers (note the ellipses). Lyanna had loved the scent of winter roses, even as they'd brought her death. She had loved Rhaegar, even as that brought her so much pain.

> Her eyes burned, green fire in the dusk, like the lioness that was her sigil. "The night of our wedding feast, the first time we shared a bed, he called me by your sister's name. He was on top of me, in me, stinking of wine, and he whispered Lyanna." *Ned Stark thought of pale blue roses, and for a moment he wanted to weep.* "I do not know which of you I pity most."The queen seemed amused by that. "Save your pity for yourself, Lord Stark. I want none of it."

Next, Ned thinks of the roses when he speaks with Cersei. And this, I love this!! Ned having to confront Robert's love for his sister and all that had cost him (not getting into Robert's vices here), knowing that Lyanna had loved Rhaegar. To see his friend cost himself a life and the love of Cersei by not getting over Lyanna, unknowing that Lyanna had never loved him! What Ned doesn't know but the narrative enriches is "I do not know which of you I pity the most" because Cersei had wanted Rhaegar as much as Robert had wanted Lyanna. Both were defeated so thoroughly by R+L's love for eachother.

>He was walking through the crypts beneath Winterfell, as he had walked a thousand times before. The Kings of Winter watched him pass with eyes of ice, and the direwolves at their feet turned their great stone heads and snarled. Last of all, he came to the tomb where his father slept, with Brandon and Lyanna beside him. "Promise me, Ned," Lyanna's statue whispered. *She wore a garland of pale blue roses, and her eyes wept blood.* Eddard Stark jerked upright, his heart racing, the blankets tangled around him. The room was black as pitch, and someone was hammering on the door. "Lord Eddard," a voice called loudly.

Nothing much here, just Lyanna again with her garland of roses (aka R+L) reminding Ned of his promise to protect their only son. This is a covert reference to R+L=J. With this, we end Ned's POV and move on to the next references of winter roses.

>She smiled again, a flash of white teeth. *"And she never sung you the song o' the winter rose?" "I never knew my mother. Or any such song."*

The next time the mentions of winter roses crop up again is in Jon's story, where Ygritte asks him if his mother had never sung the song of winter rose to him. To which he responds that he'd never known his mother or such a song, unknowing that this song was the hint to his mother, that this song represented her life.

>North or south, singers always find a ready welcome, so Bael ate at Lord Stark's own table, and played for the lord in his high seat until half the night was gone. The old songs he played, and new ones he'd made himself, and he played and sang so well that when he was done, the lord offered to let him name his own reward. 'All I ask is a flower,' Bael answered, 'the fairest flower that blooms in the gardens o' Winterfell.'"

>*"Now as it happened the winter roses had only then come into bloom, and no flower is so rare nor precious. So the Stark sent to his glass gardens and commanded that the most beautiful o' the winter roses be plucked for the singer's payment. And so it was done. But when morning come, the singer had vanished . . . and so had Lord Brandon's maiden daughter. Her bed they found empty, but for the pale blue rose that Bael had left on the pillow where her head had lain." Jon had never heard this tale before.*

A singer and a Stark maiden. The Stark girl who loved Bael so much that she'd given him a son (just as Jon himself was born) and who later threw herself off a tower when her son brought her Bael's head. Quite a few narrative resonances here, death of the Stark maid in a tower, a relative who had a hand in the death of her love. "No flower so rare nor precious". Is there anything so rare and precious as true, unconditional love? As Maester Aemon says, "We are only human after all, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory and our great tragedy."

> But there were others with faces he had never known in life, faces he had seen only in stone. *The slim, sad girl who wore a crown of pale blue roses and a white gown spattered with gore could only be Lyanna.* - Theon V, ACOK

The next mention is, oddly enough, in Theon's prophetic dreams. Again, Lyanna is associated with the crown of roses Rhaegar gave her and death. The white gown might represent marriage as it is an interesting detail to have mentioned (instead of just calling it a gown) but I don't have strong opinions on it either way.

The next mention is the most interesting to me, as for the first time, the roses lead to the future rather than the past.

>Then phantoms shivered through the murk, images in indigo. Viserys screamed as the molten gold ran down his cheeks and filled his mouth. A tall lord with copper skin and silver-gold hair stood beneath the banner of a fiery stallion, a burning city behind him. Rubies flew like drops of blood from the chest of a dying prince, and he sank to his knees in the water and with his last breath murmured a woman's name. . . . mother of dragons, daughter of death . . . Glowing like sunset, a red sword was raised in the hand of a blue-eyed king who cast no shadow. A cloth dragon swayed on poles amidst a cheering crowd. From a smoking tower, a great stone beast took wing, breathing shadow fire. . . . mother of dragons, slayer of lies . . . Her silver was trotting through the grass, to a darkling stream beneath a sea of stars. A corpse stood at the prow of a ship, eyes bright in his dead face, grey lips smiling sadly. A blue flower grew from a chink in a wall of ice, and filled the air with sweetness. . . . mother of dragons, bride of fire . . . - Dany IV, ACOK

>"Perhaps," she said reluctantly. "Yet the things I saw . . .""A dead man in the prow of a ship, a blue rose, a banquet of blood . . . what does any of it mean, Khaleesi? A mummer's dragon, you said. What is a mummer's dragon, pray?" - Dany V, ACOK

And what a lovely image it is. Jon, the sole child of Rhaegar and Lyanna, the only remnant of their love, growing at the Wall. For once, the imagery is overwhelmingly positive. The beautiful blue rose, against all odds, flourishes in the harshest of environments and what's more, it "fills the air with sweetness". Rhaegar and Lyanna might have died, but the child that resulted from their bond is making the world better.

The Conclusion

What's more, even in the latest calendar illustration GRRM had [commissioned](https://www.reddit.com/r/ImaginaryWesteros/comments/1093bgk/2024_calendar_cover_art_by_justin_sweet/), we know instinctively that it is Rhaegar and Lyanna thanks to the winter roses. Rhaegar who crowned Lyanna with these roses. Lyanna who died clutching them till the last moment. Their son who fights to protect the realms of men, doing the duty of a King without even knowing that he is one, that he is the King of the narrative. The blue rose who continues to bloom in the harshest of places.

The significance that in the text, it's Jon and only **JON** who is connected with/represented as the blue winter rose is important. Neither of the Stark maidens, Sansa or Arya, are ever connected with the blue rose in the text itself despite both having love for flowers. No other Stark has this motif in their story. The motif belongs solely to Bael and his Lady Stark, to Rhaegar and Lyanna, to Jon himself. It's the motif of love. Prince Rhaegar had loved his Lady Lyanna and thousands died for it. Lady Lyanna had loved her Prince Rhaegar and their child is saving the realms of men.

The roses that bloomed for them and between them. That showed how beautiful their love was and how painful. The world is cruel, the world is beautiful.

[atopvisenyashill]

Hiiiii what are your theories on what post-resurrection Jon with be like?

So I AM curious if he’s gonna be a bit more animalistic. I went back to look at Varamyr and I feel like Varamyr is a weirdo but he doesn’t act like an animal, despite spending a lot of time as an animal. Now you can contrast this to some of the Starklings who will do shit like growl and howl and stuff, and Jojen in fact warns against staying an animal for too long.

“Bran the boy and Summer the wolf. You are two, then?"

"Two," he sighed, "and one." He hated Jojen when he got stupid like this. At Winterfell he wanted me to dream my wolf dreams, and now that I know how he's always calling me back.

"Remember that, Bran. Remember yourself, or the wolf will consume you. When you join, it is not enough to run and hunt and howl in Summer's skin."

But the thing is - it’s Rickon Bran and Arya doing that. Bran & Arya are barely old enough to be self aware and Rickon is a literal toddler (I think all the Starklings refer to him as “the baby” not as in “the youngest” but as in he is TINY still). Jon is sixteen. I do wonder if he adjusts better simply because he’s older. But to flip back again…Varamyr is our only reference and Jojen explicitly warns against it. So will Jon have a temper? Will he growl, go nonverbal when emotional, like Rickon does? Will he howl at the moon like Bran and Arya? Will other people find him unsettling? Not in the “why is this grown man acting like a wolf” way but in that way that actual wolves are unsettling….you know the stories about how you KNOW if you’ve seen a wolf because they’re fuck off huge, they LOOK like predators, and your instincts tell you “this thing can kill me” in a way they don’t when you see a regular dog? What if he’s just unnerving to be around?

I do wonder about his physical look as well. Every person who ~comes back from the dead~ still bares the scars they got while dying. Beric & LSH’s injuries seem to healing human slow - that is to say, if they hadn’t received killing blows, Cat’s vocal chords would be healing at about the rate we see LSH start to regain speech, and Beric’s various cuts are scarring & healing at a normal rate. Bran is paralyzed. Drogo is…all of that. Will he face some issues with his body because the wounds are still healing? Will he have some more stiffness in his limbs, like the way his burnt hand has problems? I don’t really know how he would pick up the red eyes and white hair from ghost - Beric, LSH, Bran, even Drogo, they don’t suddenly change eye or hair color or something, and Brynden was BORN albino it’s not like his magic made him that way later - but I’m ngl I still kind of hope he’ll have the red eyes, I think it’s neat. He doesn’t need white hair tho I think that’s overkill.

When it comes to his priorities, I think we're going to see a huge shift. I know everyone ragged on the show for just having Jon be like "yeah i'm peacing out bye" bc there's going to be more hubbub than that but I do think Jon is going to feel incredibly jaded when it comes to the Night's Watch. I always come back to his confrontation with Maester Aemon and the fact that Aemon is distressed by his choice to not attempt to help Elia and her babies...

Maester Aemon sighed. “Have you heard nothing I’ve told you, Jon? Do you think you are the first?” He shook his ancient head, a gesture weary beyond words. “Three times the gods saw fit to test my vows. Once when I was a boy, once in the fullness of my manhood, and once when I had grown old. By then my strength was fled, my eyes grown dim, yet that last choice was as cruel as the first. My ravens would bring the news from the south, words darker than their wings, the ruin of my House, the death of my kin, disgrace and desolation. What could I have done, old, blind, frail? I was helpless as a suckling babe, yet still it grieved me to sit forgotten as they cut down my brother’s poor grandson, and his son, and even the little children …” Jon was shocked to see the shine of tears in the old man’s eyes. ...“Once. So you see, Jon, I do know … and knowing, I will not tell you stay or go. You must make that choice yourself, and live with it all the rest of your days. As I have.” His voice fell to a whisper. “As I have …”

There’s nothing he could have done and he knows it. AND YET. How do you justify to yourself hiding out at the Wall in safety while children of your house are slaughtered? How do you make your peace with it? You can’t! Love is the death of duty!! Aemon doesn’t ever make peace with it! He spends the last days of his life hating himself for being so old, being unable to help Dany, reaching out for the brother he’s long lost in his dreams. I think being murdered by his men, after months of arguing with them, of trying to get them to put aside their shitty little beef with the wildlings and focus on the real threats to their safety, and the knowledge that “Arya” is ALIVE OUT THERE, it’s all going to massively change his priorities. When you factor in the girl in gray turning out to be Sansa (don’t boo me i’m right!!)…I don’t think he’s going to hem and haw about being a brother of the night’s watch, I think he’s taking his shit, and he’s getting the fuck out of dodge.

But when it comes to his state of mind…again, I’ve come around to the idea that Jon is going to be resurrected 100% due to Northern type magic, and not anything Melisandre is doing. I’m willing to be wrong on this one btw, I do think there’s still a shot some funky magic brings him back but I think with all the build up to Jon actively warging, to accepting his magic, and opening his third eye, is in fact building up not just to Jon spending a long time in Ghost while his body is found and resurrected, but that his body will HEAL while he’s not in it the way Bran’s does, and he comes back to an injured but on the mend body.

If he’s waiting around for his body to heal though, he’s going to be spending a hot minute inside Ghost & greenseeing. Possibly longer than Bran did. I think like Bran, he’ll have his own mini vision quest as he wanders and sleeps in ghost’s body - and I think he’s going to find out Bran is still alive. See, Bran figures out that Robb is dead through a green dream, then buries the memory-

The dream he'd had . . . the dream Summer had had . . . No, I mustn't think about that dream. He had not even told the Reeds, though Meera at least seemed to sense that something was wrong. If he never talked of it maybe he could forget he ever dreamed it, and then it wouldn't have happened and Robb and Grey Wind would still be . . .

And we know Summer is aware of his scattered siblings, dwelling on them often. I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that the connection works the other way. We also know Bran is still dwelling on his family, with his weirwood dreams focusing on Ned. Similar to Aemon, similar to Jon’s whole story, Bran struggles in balancing his love for his family with what he feels is his duty. Not only that but imo there’s a lot of connections between Jon and Bran when it comes to magic. Jon is the only character we see saying goodbye to Bran, which has always stuck out to me. Bran also attempts to open Jon’s third eye before Robb (presumably - i think if bran was talking to robb in his dream, he would have brought it up) Sansa, Arya, or Rickon (again, presumably).

It seemed to sprout from solid rock, its pale roots twisting up from a myriad of fissures and hairline cracks. The tree was slender compared to other weirwoods he had seen, no more than a sapling, yet it was growing as he watched, its limbs thickening as they reached for the sky. Wary, he circled the smooth white trunk until he came to the face. Red eyes looked at him. Fierce eyes they were, yet glad to see him. The weirwood had his brother's face. Had his brother always had three eyes?

Not always, came the silent shout. Not before the crow…. Don’t be afraid, I like it in the dark. No one can see you, but you can see them. But first you have to open your eyes. See? Like this. And the tree reached down and touched him.

And Bran has that near miss where he and Jon are in the same places at the same time, with Bran running into Sam & Gilly. Additionally, we get all those scenes with Mormont’s crow doing weird stuff and we have no idea if it’s Bloodraven or Bran - it’s very possible Bran At Some Point In Time has been trying to get Jon’s attention for a long time.

All of that to say I think there’s a build up to Jon and Bran being the first Starklings to reunite, but not in body, just in mind! While trapped in Ghost’s body greendreaming about his thought to be dead brother, Bran will have the opportunity to jumpstart Jon’s magic the way his was, and Jon will realize Bran is still alive - potentially even exchanging important information about the Others, Winterfell, and Jon’s real parents…Both boys return to their bodies, turn to the people they’ve sworn their lifetimes to and go “actually fuck this shit and fuck you too” and try to leave.

Try, being the operative word here, of course.

[tigwrbwetle]

TMA Season 4!

What a CRIMINAL way to end the season, holy SHIT!

Now I understand why I’ve seen so many artists do scar maps of Jon, it really did all come together in the end. And the way Elias, or Jonah, really, orchestrated it all with the cherry on top of giving Jon a false statement that he couldn’t stop himself from reading; truly the master plan. The words for the Watcher’s Crown ritual itself were very cool, just the right amount of nonsensical almost-rhyming to make it flow nicely.

And the fact that three of the most iconic TMA quotes/moments happen so close together near/at the end of season four is WILD; I was not expecting all of that! First we got “Where are his eyes?” “Where they’ve always been, Martin. Watching over my institute.” THEN “Look at me Martin, what do you see?” “I see… I see you, Jon. I see you!” and to wrap it all up “Jon…?” “Look at the sky, Martin! It’s looking back!” *maniacal, distorted laughter.* Absolutely insane place to leave off. (Also the bonus of Jon using his named attack of “I see you!” on Peter Lukas).

I can’t forget Basira and Daisy, either. Their story is so good, I love me some tragic yuri. (Although for their sakes I hope it gets less tragic tbh; I want them to be happy 🥺). But I’m not that hopeful, considering we got ~2 minutes of Jon and Martin being content at the safe house before things really went to shit. At least Melanie got away, she’s been through so much. And I’m happy she got together with Georgie, that’s so sweet 🥹

The Extinction and the fact that new fears can emerge was an interesting plot thread for this season, both for how it fit with larger events and how it gave us a new kind of spook. I liked the hunger-world amusement park one the most, I kept thinking about it when I went to the fair myself the other day. I also noticed there were more episodes where it wasn’t 100% clear which fear entity was behind the statement, or even that there were multiple involved. Like with ‘A Gravedigger’s Envy’, it could be both The Buried and The End. It was fun to see how the fear entities could be mixed and matched, then of course to find out how that aspect, too, fits into the big-picture meta-plot. After having episodes with this type of spook, it makes more sense how no ritual can succeed if it tries to separate one fear entity from the others.

Season four tied up a lot of loose ends and got the official statements of big names that have been lurking around since season one, like Simon Fairchild, Annabelle Cane, Adelard Dekker, Peter Lukas, and of course Jonah Magnus himself. Personally, I’ve been wondering about the statement of Mr. Paul MacKenzie and which fear entity was responsible for his demise since season one, so I’m glad we got the statement of his son so far down the line to say ‘Spiral’ for certain.

I can’t believe I’m already about to start season five, this has gone too quick!!

[esther-dot]

Idk how to explain it in better terms but the fact that Jaime focuses more on wanting to be perceived as good than actually doing good is a huge turn off for me and the reason why I don't believe grrm is writing a redemption arc for him.

So, here's a definition of redemption arc,

What exactly is a Redemption Arc? It's a type of character development in which your protagonist starts bad and becomes good in the end, often culminating in a heroic act that atones for their past

And I agree with you. His story won't fit the above. Jaime is bitter that doing the right thing is viewed the way it is by Westeros, and we can understand why he's angry, but I haven't seen any genuine regret about trying to kill Bran, for example, and kid killing is a big no-no, so imo, the flow of the story hasn't been to move Jaime from morally bad to morally good the way that expression implies.

In fact, in AFFC, he's talking about how he would have killed Arya and threatens to trebuchet a baby. When we have Ned's horror over Elia and her kids' deaths, over how the Hound murdered Mycah, his refusal to participate in the assassination of Dany, and his decision to risk his life/jeopardize his family by committing treason to protect Jon, I think we know Martin hasn't moved Jaime over into his "good" column. Our perception of his infamous act evolves, but that's not the same thing as Jaime changing.

What I think is so often perceived as a redemption arc is merely that Martin engaged our sympathy for Jaime later in the series and fans equate understanding/caring for a character with moving them into the "good" category rather than accepting that Martin routinely does this. The Hound, Tyrion, Theon...he calls them all villains, but at one point or another, we get tragedy and suffering in their lives That leads fans to conclude that the Hound and Tyrion are actually decent people, when by any objective standards, they aren't. The point isn't to move them from villain to hero, it's to offer believable explanations for why they are who they are, do what they do, and make them dynamic characters. Embracing the idea that good and bad impulses can exist in the same person, that the same person can be brave and kind as well as murderous and cruel, that's not too big of an ask. And imo, it's a shame fans want to use one to negate the other.

Even Jaime killing Aerys which kinda seems heroic is shaded by not only his greater loyalty to his family, but his own feelings about Aerys, and part of his memory is how he stood by while Aerys committed other cruel acts. In killing Aerys, he saved countless people, familial loyalty or no, it was the right thing to do, but we have all the rest of the series showing us, doing what is right really isn't of the utmost concern to Jaime. His loyalty is to his family of origin, he has an obsession with Cersei, and doesn't even seem to care much for his own children which again, I think indicates that as layered as he becomes with each new book, it's a misread to settle on the idea of redemption/good guy.

Fans think he's gonna kill Cersei as that final redemptive act, but to me that feels like looking at things from a Cersei hater perspective, not Jaime's. The man has been written as rather, disinterested in acting on a right/wrong spectrum, and is generally more concerned with family, it seems a little unreasonable to think a suitable ending for him is to reject that because how would such a man continue? He needs peace with his decisions, what he does has to flow from the essence of who he is, so it seems more likely to me that his end is dying with Cersei. That isn't redemption in the eyes of the fandom, but I think it could very well be redemption for himself. He has that nightmare about Rhaegar blaming him for Elia and the children's deaths, his own children may all die, there is nothing he can do about that, but going to their mother, the person he was faithful to his entire life, who is essentially his life partner/wife, it allows him to be truly loyal when all others think him faithless, and as annoying as some will find it, I think it gives him his own form of honor.

I wrote once about thinking he would die with Cersei:

I'm ok with Jaime deciding his fate is to be with Cersei, in birth, in life, even in death. As I thought it worked in the show, returning to Cersei in the books will likewise mean he is able to have some self-respect. I don't think you can read his, I mean, I would say Cersei obsession and believe he'd ever have any peace of mind if she died alone while he had to go on living. (link)

In that post I linked to meta about that and a great write-up on Jaime that I think you'll enjoy!

[emhasthoughts]

Gertrude and the cat-avatars, pt 4

Summary: The old-cat-crew has finally made their home at Gertrude. There's some darkness, worms and ants involved

Warning: Some very mild Corruption content (nothing in detail)

A/N: Heyyy it's been awhile, huh? Yeah, so I had trouble actually getting these four written down, which is why there's some bonus content and like.... 10 days of nothing.

Thanks to @dcartcorner for getting me to actually finish this thing

As always, not beta read, just me, the document and 3 hours of break between lessons...

Pt 1, Simon, Peter, Elias and Mike / Pt 2, Michael and Helen Distortion, Agnes / Pt 3, Annabelle, Jude, Oliver / Pt 4, You're here! / Pt 5, Jon, Martin, Sasha, Tim / Pt 6, Melanie, Daisy, Basira, Georgie / Pt 7, Jared, Gerry, Nikola / Bonus, a visit to the vet / Halloween bonus!

Simon really had a bad habit of getting older cats to Gertrude’s doorstep. Was it just because she was old? She had no real idea but there she was. In front of an older cat that Simon was proudly standing right next to. The cat was black, the first time she looked at him it felt like watching the void. The eyes watching her were rather dark too. She had named him Maxwell and moved on. Knowing she would not get rid of him easily if Simon had any say in it and Simon had a lot to say.

She got a similar cat two years later. She had been mostly lurking around. Gertrude had first seen her when Maxwell went out on a walk, she had looked outside and seen two nearly identical cats. Though the new one seemed to have a bit more fur on than Maxwell did. Afterwards the cat would spend her time in Gertrude's garden. Causing her to nearly trip over the cat on the darker nights. In the end she let the cat in. Deciding it would be better than harming the cat due to the dark nights approaching. Gertrude had named her Manuela. It fit well enough with Maxwell. 

Despite them both being rather calm Gertrude tried her best to never enter whatever room they were in. Sometimes the room would go completely dark, no matter how many lights she had on. It never lasted for long, but Gertrude really preferred having sight.

The last of the older cats that had been making their home in Gertrude’s home was a rather odd one. Though how someone could be more odd than Simon she did not know. (A thought she would later regret ever thinking.) He was similar to Simon in looks, though he was more brown than grey and also bigger than Simon’s tiny body. There was an ill-fitting collar though it did not indicate a name or previous owner. By the smell of him it seemed like he had been alone for a while. 

His name was John and would be healthy according to the veterinarian. She was given some medicine to give the cat and hopefully with a better bath John would stop smelling like he was dying. 

Gertrude ended up with a similar cat. Which was not really ideal as John would bring with ants for her to kill. Similar to him, the new one would bring in worms. Which was why Gertrude had started to hate when it rained, it just meant that the cat would run outside and bring back as many worms as she possibly could. 

The cat was grey with black spots on her body. Most of the time she would spend time outside, mostly in Gertrude’s garden. Something that was not great as she tried to at least take some care of it. Sometimes the cat would wander inside, putting a worm in a flowerpot or as a horrible present. The cat had gotten the name Jane. Figuring out that she probably was the owner of the cat by now.

She was not sure if bringing worms was better than bringing birds or mice to her home.

[asongofstarkandtargaryen]

JON SNOW DAY 7: FOILS AND ADVERSARIES ⚔️🦹‍♂️ JON SNOW - YOUNG GRIFF

On ADWD, we find out during Tyrion’s pov chapters that the long dead prince Aegon Targaryen (son of Rhaegar) has supposedly survived the sack of Kings Landing - which caused his mother and sister’s lives- and is secretly living in Essos all these years. It could make an interesting Anastasia-vibes story if Aegon was who he says he was, however introduced so late in the story, the boy is probably a fraud - even if he has no clue about it. This meta is treating the theory of Aegon not being the actual child of Rhaegar and Elia as canon and similarly considers Jon being Rhaegar and Lyanna’s actual secret child.

So we have one prince who isn’t who he claims and believes to be and another one who doesn’t even know he’s a Targaryen. It’s quite the symmetry with both boys around the same age ignoring the truth so far.

Let’s start comparing them from their appearance. I find it ironic - and also fitting- that Martin made the “fake” Targaryen having the family’s traditional looks with silver hair and purple eyes. Meanwhile, the boy who is actually a Targaryen is favoring his mother’s Stark look:

"Your father's lands are beautiful," he said. His silvery hair was blowing in the wind, and his eyes were a deep purple, darker than this boy's.  

ADWD - THE GRIFFIN REBORN

The boy absorbed that all in silence. He had the Stark face if not the name: long, solemn, guarded, a face that gave nothing away.  

AGOT, TYRION II

Aegon has lived a sheltered life with the adults surrounding him, pampering him. That has lead him to remain immature as a teenage boy (which isn't a bad thing itself, just doesn't make him the ideal leader)

"There is a gift for the boy in one of the chests. Some candled ginger. He was always fond of it"

ADWD, TYRION III

The lad did not seemed pleased. The perfect prince but still half a boy for all that, with little and less experience of the world and all its woes.

ADWD, TYRION VI

Meanwhile, Jon grew up aware of his bastard status. Compared to his siblings, he was less privileged and less pampered. All the experiences of his life, both as a neglected kid and as a teen black brother  made him observant of others and also mature for his age:

"I will turn fifteen on my next name day, and Maester Luwin says that bastards grow up faster than other children".

AGOT, JON I

They know nothing, Ygritte. And worse, they will not learn.

ADWD, JON XIII

Aegon grew up thinking that he was the rightful heir of the Seven Kingdom. Naturally, this has led him to feel entitled of things he hasn’t earned himself. For example; he believes that his aunt, Daenerys, will be willing to marry him and offer him her large army only because he’s her nephew:

It does make for a splendid story, and the singers will make much of your escape once you take the Iron Throne … assuming that our fair Daenerys takes you for her consort.“

"She will. She must.”

“Must?” Tyrion made a tsking sound. “That is not a word queens like to hear. You are her perfect prince, agreed, bright and bold and comely as any maid could wish. Daenerys Targaryen is no maid, however. She is the widow of a Dothraki khal, a mother of dragons and sacker of cities, Aegon the Conqueror with teats. She may not prove as willing as you wish.”

“She’ll be willing.” Prince Aegon sounded shocked. It was plain that he had never before considered the possibility that his bride-to-be might refuse him. “You don’t know her.”

ADWD, TYRION VI

On the above passage, Aegon was so certain that Daenerys would be willing to become his bride that even the possibility of her refusing him shocked him.

Compare that to Jon, who his whole life was entitled to nothing. He was aware that unlike his siblings he wouldn’t be handled things because of the family name - something he didn’t have- and that instead he would have to work his way to earn his place in the world:

“I want to serve in the Night's Watch, Uncle."

He had thought on it long and hard, lying abed at night while his brothers slept around him. Robb would someday inherit Winterfell, would command great armies as the Warden of the North. Bran and Rickon would be Robb's bannermen and rule holdfasts in his name. His sisters Arya and Sansa would marry the heirs of other great houses and go south as mistress of castles of their own. But what place could a bastard hope to earn?  

AGOT, JON I

When Jon went to the Wall, nothing was handled freely to him. Jeor Mormont only paid attention to him after he became the unofficial swords teacher for his fellow new recruits and after he persuaded Maester Aemon to include Sam among those who would be promoted to Black Brothers. It was his own skills and accomplishments that made him Commander’s steward and it was his brave fight against the wight that earned him Mormont’s sword.

He doesn’t expect people to freely give him things, he understands that every gift comes with a price. Just like when Stannis told him that he would make him Lord of Winterfell, but only if he converted to the Red God.

On ADWD, Varys gives a speech  on why Aegon is the ideal leader:

“No.” The eunuch’s voice seemed deeper. “He is here. Aegon has been shaped for rule since before he could walk. He has been trained in arms, as befits a knight to be, but that was not the end of his education. He reads and writes, he speaks several tongues, he has studied history and law and poetry. A septa has instructed him in the mysteries of the Faith since he was old enough to understand them. He has lived with fisherfolk, worked with his hands, swum in rivers and mended nets and learned to wash his own clothes at need. He can fish and cook and bind up a wound, he knows what it is like to be hungry, to be hunted, to be afraid. Tommen has been taught that kingship is his right. Aegon knows that kingship is his duty, that a king must put his people first, and live and rule for them.”

This impressive list of traits that Aegon has aquired in order to rule one day, is missing the most important one: actual personal experience. Aegon might have been working and interacting with the common folk but he was always sheltered and was surrounded by adults loyal to him and his case. It’s not the same to do some kind of work because you want to learn the experience with doing something for living. He doesn’t really know what is like to be hungry- even if Varys tells us otherwise- because his caretakers would never let him actually be starving. When Aegon was afraid, he was always surrounded by people loyal to him  who could offer  him reassurance or simply their sympathy.  Finally, he doesn’t have any experience in ruling. Many people speculate that Varys and Illyrio are shaping him to become their puppet king but even if that isn’t the case fact remains that Aegon never ruled anywhere.

Unlike him, his supposed half brother had a little guidance when he became Lord Commander.  Maester Aemon, his best advisor, left the Wall not long after Jon was elected as the new Lord Commander. Jon had to navigate ruleship on his own without the help of a wiser adult. Unlike Aegon, Jon had the experience of truly serving before he was in a position of power - as he was a steward and later on he lived among free folk. He was also experienced in being truly afraid and terrified even when people who can comfort you are miles away and you are all alone.

We don’t know whether Aegon will put his people first because he has yet to rule. But we do know that Jon constantly prioritizes humanity’s well being. That’s why he made dealing with the Others his number one priority and that’s also the reason why he let the free folk on the south side of the Wall.

While Aegon is another candidate fighting for the Iron Throne because he feels entitled to it, Jon is fighting against the Others to save humanity.  

Bonus! their views on women.

Aegon’s:

"That's so," the boy said, "and who is there left in Westeros to oppose us? A woman."  

ADWD, THE LOST LORD

Jon’s

The women are the strong ones.

ADWD, JON III

[jayktoralldaylong]

There is surprisingly no ABO discourse in the TMA fandom. I don't know if it's an unspoken rule for there not to be, but I was thinking about it.

What would Jon be?

When you think of Jon suffering wet cat Sims the immediate assumption is that he'd be Omega or something, but thinking of his Season 5 persona I entertained the idea of him being an Alpha. Jon could be an Alpha right? He's not the most dominating person in the room but he can get very protective (and Jon with power is very sexy). Then I thought of the fundamental elements of an Alpha which are protectiveness and high level of possessiveness........which is when it hit me.

Martin Blackwood is totally an Alpha. 💀🤣 (Another win for Martin). I don't think there's anyone more possessive in the show besides Elias and Elias is a whole different brand of crazy. Martin seems like a sweet, harmless guy until you start stepping on his toes and he smacks the living daylights out of the aggressor with pure unrefined loathing - Just not easily noticeable cause he doesn't get violent but he makes sure his enemies get fucked up.

So Martin is definitely an Alpha. He gives the vibes of ensuring his mate will never lack, making sure they feel safe when they're nesting and never letting any harm come near their territory. Which raises the question....is Jon his omega then? I think not. Jon seems more like a Beta to me.

Jon: A Beta? That's the most ordinary creature in the whole verse.

Well, Mr. Sims you ARE basic. 😂 You're just a basic guy with super powers. I can't for the life of me picture Jon nurturing anything. He's not even very good at looking after himself and nearly everything he tries to protect crumbles away. He's a very tragic character, with not a lot of self esteem and he masks this by being sassy and sarcastic cause he doesn't want people to see how fragile he actually is. Jon's Beta to me and it feels fitting for him and Martin. Jon would probably try masking as an Alpha and Martin an Omega but the truth about each other would come out and Martin wouldn't care less. He loves his tiny hopeless Beta.

That being said, most of the others in TMA strike me as Alpha Alpha.

LonelyEyes aka Peter and Elias - Alpha/Alpha with Peter being possessive of his alone time and Elias being possessive over his control of Peter. (It would be funny if Peter was Omega though cause everyone would assume Elias the Omega.).

Daisira aka Daisy and Basira - Alpha/Alpha. Look Daisy's Alpha, there's no two ways about that. Maybe Basira is Beta but she strikes me as Alpha as well and they work well as partners.

Melanie x Georgie (can't remember their ship name) - Alpha/Omega....maybe Georgie is really flowery and soothing so she could easily be an Omega with her nurture of the Admiral. She could also be a very kind Alpha to her violent chaotic Omega Melanie. It could go either way.

TimSasha - Alpha/Alpha and I love them so much. ♥️❤️ Sasha just strikes me as Alpha. She would have been archivist if not for Elias' plans and Tim is either an Alpha or a chaotic Omega in disguise.

GerryMichael aka DoorKeay - I've only recently heard about this ship but it's kind of cute. Omega/Omega....cause I think it'd be funny. Obviously the Distortion isn't an Omega, the Distortion wasn't anything but I imagine after getting redefined as Michael it wakes an Omega and it is not happy about it. Gerry is not an obvious Omega and everyone assumes he's Alpha. Little did they know. I like the awkward story of two fakers (because the Distortion would definitely try to hide it's identity) slowly realising and still loving each other cause why not. They're also likely faking to be Beta cause one thing they wanted most in the world was to be ordinary.

Agnes x Jack - Alpha/Beta and this one doesn't even need an explanation.

Agnes x Gertrude - Alpha/Alpha, would be a fun dynamic watching these two growl at each other from the same side of the spectrum.

LonelyEyeSkies aka PeterxEliasxSimon - Alpha/Alpha/Alpha chaos. Lovers of this ship just enjoy watching things crash to the ground and I can't blame them cause I love it too. (Would still be funny if Peter was an Omega. Though Peter wouldn't find it funny at all).

JonMichael - Beta/Omega, but to no one's surprise, Michael's the one dictating everything about this relationship. Jon is shocked to find himself building a nest cause that's how dominant Michael's gonna be.

JonTim - Beta/Alpha and I'm guessing Tim would be a passive aggressive Alpha. This will either go really well or it will be a toxic dumpster fire.

[go-to-the-mirror]

I know I said I wasn't going to post another TMA fic, but I've been getting into it a bit more, so here goes. It's a vampire AU! It's not complete, but I have been working on it on and off. I never thought i'd actually finish it enough to post, but here's a first bit :3

---

Jon hates job interviews, especially ones he’s not qualified for. But he wasn’t qualified for research, either, with a degree in literature, so it can’t hurt to try. Besides, if he doesn’t get the job, he might get the assistant archivist position, learn a few things. All in all, it’s going to be good for him.

His anxiety is not convinced.

“Mr. Sims?” calls Mr. Bouchard, leaning out of his office. Jon stands up and takes a deep breath. The worst he can do is say no.

Mr. Bouchard ushers Jon into his office, closing the door behind him, and taking a seat in his chair. Jon sits in the other, and tries his best not to look as anxious as he feels.

“So, tell me, why do you think you are the right fit for this job?”

Jon recites his rehearsed speech about how he’s committed to the preservation of documents, deemed both important and not, about the skills he learned in research, his own interest in anthropological research into the supernatural and his disappointment in the state of the archives disorganisation. It’s convincing, he’ll say so himself, and as he talks, he thinks he can see Elias warm up to him.

Hello, Jon. Apologies for the deception, but I wanted to make sure you started reading, so I thought it best not to announce myself. I’m assuming you’re alone; you always did prefer to read your statements in private. I wouldn’t try too hard to stop reading; there’s every likelihood you’ll just hurt yourself. So just listen.

Now, shall we turn the page and try again?

Statement of Jonah Magnus regarding Jonathan Sims, the Archivist.

Statement begins.

I hope you’ll forgive me the self-indulgence, but I have worked so very hard for this moment, a culmination of two centuries of work. It’s rare that you get the chance to monologue through another, and you can’t tell me you’re not curious.

Why does a man seek to destroy the world?

It’s a simple enough answer: for immortality and power. Uninspired, perhaps, but – my god. The discovery, not simply of the dark and horrible reality of the world in which you live, but that you would quite willingly doom that world and confine the billions in it to an eternity of terror and suffering, all to ensure your own happiness, to place yourself beyond pain and death and fear.

It is an awful thing to know about yourself, but the freedom, John, the freedom of it all. I have dedicated my life to handing the world to these Dread Powers all for my own gain, and I feel… nothing but satisfaction in that choice.

I am to be a king of a ruined world, and I shall never die.

I believe there are far more people in this world that would take that bargain than you would ever guess. And I have beaten all of them.

Of course, this desire did not manifest overnight. When Smirke first gathered our little band – Lukas, Scott, and the rest – to discuss and hypothesize on the nature of the things he had learned from Rayner, I felt what I believe we all felt: curiosity, and fear.

But as he compiled his taxonomy and codified his theories on the grand rituals, I began to develop a very specific concern. Smirke was so obsessed with his ideas on balance, even as our fellows began to experiment and fall to the service of our patrons.

I began to worry that if one of them successfully attempted their ritual, then I would be as much a victim as any, trapped in the nightmare landscape of a twisted world.

At first, I attempted prevention, but the cause seemed hopeless. The only way to ensure I did not suffer the tribulations of what I believed to be an inevitable transformation was to bring it about myself. So what began as an experiment soon became a race.

Beyond that, I was getting older, and mortality began to weigh more heavily on my mind. How much in this world is done because we fear death, the last and greatest terror?

I convinced Smirke to work on Millbank, leading him to design it as a temple to all the Fears in equilibrium, such that my own modifications to the design of the Panopticon went… unremarked.

It. Took. Years, for the dread of the prisoners to fully suffuse the place, and I was an old man before I made my first attempt at the Watcher’s Crown, sat in the center of that colossal eye, the great ring of cells encircling me like a coronet.

It was… flawed, of course, as all Smirke’s rituals were, and none of the inmates survived as the power I attempted to harness shook the building almost to pieces, and the murky swamp upon which the prison was built consumed it.

But it left me a gift: For sat in that watchtower, I could see everything I turned my mind to.

It was a dizzying power, and one I discovered I maintained even as I found vessels to extend my life. Of course, I had to make sure the location was kept under my control while I worked on revising my plans, and so I moved the organization I had founded to assist in my research down to London, and the Institute as you know it was born.

I’ll not bore you with details of my bodies and failures through those intervening years. Suffice to say I kept busy, both planning my own next attempt, and doing my best to stymie those others who tried versions of their own.

Surely my interpretation of the Watcher’s Crown had been incomplete; there had been some element of the ritual I had overlooked.

It was not until I met Gertrude Robinson that things began to really come into focus.

You see, the role of Archivist has been part of the Beholding for as far back as my research can go. This isn’t uncommon for the Powers; most of the beliefs around them are guesswork and fallible human interpretation, but there are certain throughlines and consistencies that can be spotted, regardless of the trappings.

But Gertrude was unlike any other Archivist. She simply did not care about compiling experiences or collecting the fears of others. She was driven to stop those who served the Powers.

More than once I thought she must secretly be of the Hunt – but there was never that sick joy in her, that thrill of predator and prey. She had simply decided that this was her position in life, and went about it with a practicality that even I found disconcerting at times.

I once asked her what drove her, what had started her down that path. She told me the Desolation had killed her cat.

I don’t know if she was joking, and, to be honest, I could never bring myself to look into her mind and find out for sure.

In any case, Gertrude’s ruthless efficiency in derailing and collapsing rituals threw into stark relief a question that had been bothering me for almost a hundred and fifty years: In the whole span of humanity, why had nobody ever succeeded?

Perhaps there were a long line of Gertrude Robinsons throughout history, but I found that hard to credit. Could it be, then, that there was something in the very concept of the rituals that meant they couldn’t succeed?

She was clearly having similar thoughts in that last year, all of which culminated with the People’s Church.

When I saw that she was making no preparations whatsoever to stop it, I realized she was putting into practice a theory, and one she couldn’t afford to be wrong. She was going to wait, and see if the unopposed ritual succeeded, or if it collapsed under its own strain as mine had all those years ago.

Knowing Gertrude, I’m sure she had a backup plan if she had miscalculated – but she had not. The ritual failed. And all at once, I realized what had to be done.

You see, the thing about the Fears is that they can never be truly separated from each other. When does the fear of sudden violence transition into the fear of hunted prey? When does the mask of the Stranger become the deception of the Spiral?

Even those that seem to exist in direct opposition rely on each other for their definition as much as up relies on down.

To try and create a world with only the Buried makes as much sense as trying to conceive a world with only down.

Every ritual tied itself so closely to a single power as to render itself impossible. They could bring their patron close, but never sever it from the others, and eventually it would be violently pulled back into the place next to reality where they dwell.

The solution, then, is simple: A new ritual must be devised which will bring through all the Powers at once. All fourteen, as I had hoped I could complete it before any new powers such as Extinction were able to fully emerge. All under the Eye’s auspices, of course. We mustn’t forget our roots.

And there was only one being that could possibly serve as a lynchpin for this new ritual: The Archivist. A position that had so recently become vacant, thanks to Gertrude’s ill-timed retirement plans.

Because the thing about the Archivist is that – well, it’s a bit of a misnomer.

It might, perhaps, be better named: The Archive.

Because you do not administer and preserve the records of fear, John. You are a record of fear, both in mind as you walk the shuddering record of each statement, and in body as the Powers each leave their mark upon you.

You are a living chronicle of terror.

Perhaps, then, if I could find an Archivist and have each Power mark them, have them confront each one and each in turn instill in them a powerful and acute fear for their life, they could be turned into a conduit for the coming of this – nightmare kingdom.

Do you see where I’m going, John?

It does tickle me, that in this world of would-be occult dynasties and ageless monsters, the Chosen One is simply that – someone I chose. It’s not in your blood, or your soul, or your destiny. It’s just in your own, rotten luck.

I’ll admit, my options were somewhat limited, but My God, when you came to me already marked by the Web, I knew it had to be you. I even held out some small hope you had been sent by the Spider as some sort of implicit blessing on the whole project, and, do you know what, I think it was.

Of course, I had to bide my time, get a measure of you before I began to push, learn how you worked – So I decided I would wait until something came for you, and see how you reacted. Attacks upon the Archives were not uncommon during Gertrude’s tenure, and, while she was always prepared, I made sure you would not be.

I reasoned if you couldn’t survive a single encounter, you were unlikely to make it through all fourteen. So, when Jane Prentiss attacked, I watched eagerly, one hand on the gas release from the start.

You acquitted yourself well enough, so I decided to see how far you would get, though I waited until the worms were in you before I pulled the lever. I needed to make sure you felt that fear all the way to your bones.

The discovery that one of the Stranger’s minions had infiltrated the Institute in the aftermath was certainly a pleasant bonus. Even if that sliver of paranoia, that vague wrongness you couldn’t quite place wouldn’t count as a mark, it was only a matter of time before it confronted you in a far more direct and affecting matter.

Admittedly, given the advent of the Unknowing, I needn’t have bothered. But what’s the old saying about hindsight?

More important to me was Sasha’s encounter with the Distortion. If it had taken an interest, then I very much wanted it to cross your path.

So I found one of its current victims and convinced her to make a statement.

Poor Helen. I actually had to put her in a taxi myself, she was getting so lost in those narrow London side streets.

It worked, though.

Between the stabbing and at least two desperate flights into its doors – you’re marked very deeply by the Spiral.

Jurgen Leitner was a surprise, of course, and I was forced to improvise. I had no idea how much Gertrude would have told him, and he could very easily have derailed everything if you learned too much too fast.

I… justified it to myself saying I was going to have to send you out into the world anyway, if you were to encounter more of the Powers, but I can’t honestly pretend it wasn’t a… rather rash move.

Still. I’d requested Detective Tonner be assigned to the case when they found Gertrude’s body in the hope that having a Hunter in the mix would eventually lead to a confrontation, and setting you up as a killer certainly hastened that.

Then it was just a matter of feeding you statements to lead you to a few Avatars I thought were likely to harm you – but probably would stop short of actually killing you.

Jude served her purpose exactly as I had hoped, as did our dearly departed Mr. Crew, marking you for the Desolation and the Vast.

Honestly, I had – nothing to do with Melanie and her Slaughter adventure, but when I saw the situation, I made sure to trap her here, so when her rage bubbled over you would be right there, a ready target.

I didn’t foresee the mark coming from surgery gone wrong, but it was a very pleasant surprise.

The Unknowing was a distraction, but not an unwelcome one. For this to work, you needed more than just the marks; you needed power. And that was something the Unknowing served to test, though it posed no actual danger in the grand scheme of things.

And it did serve another purpose, of course. It inadvertently pushed you to confront death, a mark I had been very worried about trying to orchestrate. If I tried too early, you’d just die. Too late, and you might be powerful enough to see the attempt coming, and maybe even understand why.

As it was, it was just right, and once again, you came through with flying colours.

By this point, your abilities were coming along in leaps and bounds, and I was concerned that meeting face-to-face might end up with you Knowing something you shouldn't.

I had initially planned to go into hiding, but when your colleagues surprised me with the police, well. It was simple enough to cut a deal.

All that remained, then, were the Dark, the Flesh, the Buried, and the Lonely.

I was a little put out when that idiot Jared Hopworth misinterpreted my letters and attacked the Institute too soon, before you were even out of the hospital, but then – Ho, you should have see my face when you voluntarily went to him.

I couldn’t see what happened in there, of course, but given how you came out, I’m very sure it counts as a mark.

I suspected the coffin might turn up again, and once it did, it was simply a matter of getting any, uh… restraining factors you might have had flying off on a wild goose chase, and waiting.

Honestly, Detective Tonner has been proving invaluable through this process. I’d been racking my brains for months about what I could use to lure you in.

And, of course, I knew the Dark Sun was just sitting there waiting. So when it came time, I just whipped up another apocalypse and sent you on your merry way.

Then all that remained was the Lonely.

Poor Peter. He really should have left well enough alone. Or just done what I’d asked in the first place.

Ah well. He knew what I was attempting, and was very unwilling to cooperate until I made him a little wager about Martin.

Of course, he had no way of knowing that, in addition to setting you up for the final mark, he was giving you all the tools you needed to escape from it.

How is Martin, by the way? He looks well. You will keep an eye on him when all this is over, won’t you? He’s earned that.

And there, I think, we are brought just about up to date. I have enjoyed our little trip down memory lane, but past here lies only impatience.

You are prepared. You are ready. You are marked. The power of the Ceaseless Watcher flows through you, and the time of our victory is here.

Don’t worry, John. You’ll get used to it here, in the world that we have made.

Now, repeat after me.

You who watch and know and understand none. You who listen and hear and will not comprehend. You who wait and wait and drink in all that is not yours by right.

Come to us in your wholeness.

Come to us in your perfection.

Bring all that is fear and all that is terror and all that is the awful dread that crawls and chokes and blinds and falls and twists and leaves and hides and weaves and burns and hunts and rips and bleeds and dies!

Come to us.

I – OPEN – THE DOOR!

[malaloba]

turning over a Protocol characters work in the TMA Magnus Institute AU in my mind

The main TMA cast is still there in their roles

Colin still works IT. The non-digitizing statements are the bane of his existence and the tape records are clearly here just to spite him personally

Alice is Elias's assistant. This is something of a sore point with Gwen who hates that Alice was promoted over her

(Gwen is actually more qualified but Alice thinks she's just mad that nepotism didn't work)

Gwen can't get promoted because she might figure out that her uncle Elias didn't just get a job and miraculously become someone she gets along with better

Alice does a lot of "I do not see it" about her boss's odd behavior. Sometimes Elias does things like leave the tip of a blood covered pipe just visible to watch her squirm

She jokingly calls him "grandpa" behind his back (he knows). She did it once as a bit and Gwen hated it so now she does it more. (this is solely bc the "grandpa Augustus" line makes me laugh)

Not sure where Lena fits into this yet but she's definitely some level of in the know

Sam has started his new job in the archives. He spends a lot of time researching statements his new boss, Jon, has declared a dead end much to Jon's annoyance

He's having a great time until he's not!

[rookfeatherrambles]

Things come in threes I guess. JonElias Week drabble 3

This one comes with a TW. Basically Jon tries to commit die

The prompt was 'Self Destruction"

So I think this fits

I'll put it under a read more

Also s4 spoilers kinda I guess???

SELF DESTRUCTION

"Let me die," Jon begs. "Let this end!"

His voice is ragged, dry and cracking with disuse and Elias is so furious that he might strike him. "No," is all he says, and then clenches his jaw because if he keeps his mouth open any longer he's at risk of vomiting words he knows he cannot take back, and that he's not ready to admit.

"For gods sake, Jon, stay awake," he commands, heaving the weak, starving the Eye informs him, near death man into his arms and leaving Jon's flat, the door wide open, everything fair game for anyone else to take or spoil. Elias doesn't care. In his head he's already decided that Jon will live with him from now on. Where he can keep his real eyes on him. Jon's still protesting, but Elias doesn't care. He's breathing, he's alive, that's all that matters.

Actually, you care very much. So much that you abandoned the plan you've worked two hundred years to achieve.

Elias snarls. "He is the lynchpin to my plan!" Before realizing he's talking to himself. Jon has passed out. Swearing, Elias bundles him into the car after checking that he's still breathing.

It had been a month before that Jon had entered his flat with the intent never to leave.

Elias had been putting the finishing touches on the grand reveal he'd been planning, the culmination of the bet he'd made with Peter Lukas; and then he'd felt it. His Archivist, the one he'd carefully maneuvered into every mark he needed, was dying.

It was so important that he left the confrontation with Peter and that gormless Martin Blackwood, sprinted, even, to get to his car.

And now, he casts glances at Jon's doll-like body slumped in the passenger seat of his sedan, his shallow breath lightly fogging the window his head rests against.

He looks so sick.

How long had he remained in that flat? How long had he starved himself?

The whole month, the Eye supplies. Four weeks, twelve hours, ten minutes, fifty nine seconds. He thought it would only take two. He did not consume any water.

"God, Jon!"

Elias's hands, they shake. He finds this more disturbing then finding his almost complete Archive knocking on death's door. He's just a tool. He can be replaced. It will set me back decades, but I am patient. I have time. There is always enough time.

Jon groans incoherently and Elias nearly rear ends the car in front of him. They're almost there.

"Hold on, Jon," he says, trying to control his breathing. "Hold on."

As soon as the car is parked in his driveway, Elias wrenches the door open and gathers Jon up none too gently, to take him inside.

There may be an eternity awaiting Jonah Magnus, but Jon is out of time.

Elias lets out a loud curse and lays the small, bird boned man onto his couch, before tearing across the hall with absolutely zero decorum to find what he's looking for.

Statements. He needs statements.

Not the kind that haphazardly populate the Archives, no, these are special. The paper is old, brittle, the ink flaked away where rough handling has aged them.

He races back to Jon's side, and carefully props him up with a cushion.

"Jon? Jon, can you hear me?"

Elias takes Jon's hand, squeezes it.

Please, Jon.

"Jon, squeeze my hand if you can hear me."

He all but lets out a sob of relief as he feels the slightest contraction of Jon's fingers in his own.

Elias shudders a breath, full of unwanted emotion.

He parts his lips.

"Statement of Jonah Magnus."

When he's finished, when the Watcher pulls away from the feast, Jon is watching him.

His dark brown eyes are still dull, and his cheeks hollow, and his skin dry, and his lips cracked, but he is alive. Sated enough to keep his heart beating.

Elias smiles so wide his cheeks hurt. The rush of relief is almost euphoric. "Jon..."

Jon's gaze is empty. Elias realizes with a start that he's been marked by the Lonely, though it's not visible. The Eye tells him without inquiry that Jon called out, cried out to anyone who would listen, strained at the cuff that bound him to the sink in his bathroom, begged and pleaded, cursed and cried for anyone to save him.

And when nobody so much as knocked on his door, not even Martin, the one he yearned for— he knew he was going to die alone.

Elias hisses in a sharp breath. That knowledge hurt.

"J-Jon, I—"

"You should have let me die."

The words felt like a knife in his chest. So flat, so.... Final.

Jon's eyes are so dead already that Elias looks away with a shudder. He can see an echo of the End in him.

His apology was spoken to Jon's skeletally thin hands, still clasped within his own. Like a wretched confession.

"I know."

[yourbodymyarchive]

Jon Sims Spotify Playlist Explained

I was gonna make this post regardless of whether anyone even remotely interacted with prev. post but two (count 'em, 2) people said I should, so I am.

I'm explaining some (not all, there's too many songs for that) of my song choices for my Jon Sims music playlist that is focused on his narrative. This is gonna be long.

Let's start with the first song on the playlist, marking the beginning of Season 1 (I sectioned it into seasons, by the way.)

Season 1:

Swan Lake, Op. 20 Act 1: Introduction - No.1, Scene.Allegro giusto (A.K.A The Swan Lake introduction song).

I think that Jon's narrative and the Black Swan narrative are extremely similar. For those who haven't seen the movie Black Swan, the story is about a young woman, Nina, who becomes obsessed with perfecting the duality of portraying the White Swan and the Black Swan. She essentially destroys herself in pursuit of her darker side, a side that was brought out by her dance director. I think if you put Jon Sims in this situation, he would act the same as her. Both individuals are desperate to be seen as competent and perfect and there is something to be said about transformation and the pain of transforming yourself into a being that can no longer revert back to purity. There is only black, but there is also perfection.

Spellbound - Siouxsie and the Banshees

The lyrics, the goddamn lyrics. Just the entirety of the archives, they are all caught in the spell, the web of games, and the dance. They have to dance along or else they'll get hurt. I also think Siouxsie songs have a very TMA-esque sound to them in general, in that these songs could fit in my film adaptation of TMA (the one I'm making in my mind constantly).

Season 2:

Let It Happen - Tame Impala

Like I said, my mind has been conjuring up a TMA film adaptation since I first started listening and this song would definitely play in a scene with all the avatars speaking "let it happen" to Jon. I also love how the song talks about something trying to get out of the narrator's body, something that they can't fight against much longer, because it's closer and closer and it will get out. Jon Sims, as the closest thing to an important person, could be said to be the capsule for the Eye. And all of the other avatars know this, because they're the same, but Jon refuses to let it happen. He can't give up. He doesn't want to give in. Eventually, he does, but his struggle to maintain humanity causes him pain and suffering and a coma. Should've just let it happen, bud.

Boys Don't Cry - The Cure

Literally the most S2 Jon song. The narrator says he's gone too far, he's laughing at the hysterics, he's at a cliff's edge of emotions, and he wants other's forgiveness but it's far too late and he knows it's all gone to shit. Jon, at the height of his paranoia, knew it was wrong to stalk and interrogate and suspect nearly every single one of his friends, but forgiveness was never in the cards anyway, he knew that. He just needed to know he wasn't gonna fucking die. His friends and their emotions came second, and that's what tore them apart.

Season 3:

Your Body, My Temple - Will Wood (For Camp Here & There)

Not really a Jon song, so much as it is about Jon from Elias's POV. The song features a narrator who is viewing the object of their affection with religious fervor. They speak about how they'd die at the object's hands if only to have their name on their final breath. The main line as well, "your body, my temple," highlights how the narrator views the object as a holy spectacle, assigning divinity to them, even when it is not wanted. Elias certainly assigned godhood to Jon and his expression of love and admiration bordered on worship, or, arguably, was worship. After all, Jon was the harbinger of the new world. The man who brought in fear in all its glory and gave Elias his throne. Worthy of worship? I think so.

Cat People (Putting Out Fire) - David Bowie

S3 Jon was a man putting out fire with gasoline, no question about it. He went forward and met various dangerous avatars just for the chance at learning more and more about the new world he was wrapped up in. Some of these lyrics also scream Jon Sims. For example, "See these eyes so green / I can stare for a thousand years / Just be still with me / You wouldn't believe what I've been through." The narrator, additionally, sees himself as a monster of sorts, the kind that people look away from. There is a passion so fiery in his eyes that it makes them look red, and then people close the blinds on him. S3 was the season where Jon was just beginning to understand his abilities, and the people surrounding him hated them. It made him other. It made him something to be feared.

Season 4:

Chin Music For The Unsuspecting Hero - Foster The People

The opening lyrics to this are literally the most S4 Jon Sims lyrics I've ever heard in my entire miserable life. "Today I walked through the door and fell down on my floor / Got all of my papers out and read them." Which is then followed by the chorus, with another round of Jon lyrics: "Where are my friends now? / They're not around when I need them / I cannot pretend / Yeah, I find myself against all the odds again." The narrator follows up the first chorus with lyrics talking about how they have to wake up and go to work, get screamed at, go home to sleep, and scream at their god that they're doing what they can. This is just so S4 Jon moving through the motions like a ghost, wondering where his friends have gone, the people he could trust. They are all gone. He'll never see them again. He's all alone. Basira sees him as a weapon, Melanie is far too angry to be polite to anyone anymore, Daisy is a shell of herself, Tim is dead, Sasha is dead, and Martin might as well be dead. Tragic!

All I Think About Now - Pixies

Like the one above, but a bit less sad. Not really. This song is all about staying stuck in the past and wondering if going back to the beginning would allow the narrator to find another way. Reminiscing on the happier times, lamenting on how happiness is nonexistent now. Trying to thank the people from the past. Once again: tragic!

Season 5:

I start off S5 with a different season break song. The playlist is sectioned off with a different Swan Lake song. S5 starts with:

Starman - David Bowie

I've always imagined this as the outro song for 160. There is a starman (Eye) waiting in the sky and he would really love to meet Jon. This world is theirs now. They don't want it to end, not really. It's too beautiful.

Komm, Susser Tod - Arianne (For Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion)

Now. This is one of the most Jon Sims songs ever. The narrator is crushed to see that their actions have let so many people down, but they know that by killing themselves, or leaving forever, their world might turn out better. Of course, this isn't true. The world is ending either way. Regardless, they wish to go back in time and fix things, trust again, love again. Very MAG200. The world is tumbling down, returning to nothing, and the narrator believes it's all their fault. Their love is worth nothing. They have nothing in the world. Except, maybe, Jon had his own love that mattered most. It helped. A bit.

Gilded Lily - Cults

This is one of the last few songs and it hit me so hard the first time I heard it, honestly. The narrator knows it was, in some way, their fault for not seeing things as clearly as they should've. The chorus repeating "Haven't I given enough?" remains as one of my top Jon lyrics. He gave so much to stop these powers from spreading, from infecting other worlds with their fear and destruction. No one person should have to do that. He was young, really, in the grand scheme of things. There was no instruction manual.

There's also a line here that is very JonMartin: "Always the fool with the slowest heart / But I know you'll take me with you / We'll live in spaces between walls." I really do truly hope the narrative was kind to them and they're living somewhere else, living in spaces between walls.

Well. That's the end of that. I included the ending of Swan Lake as the final song to the playlist, because I am crazy about the parallels. Playlist attached now. Thank you if you've read this far. I ramble. I hope you liked the ramble.

[jackoshadows]

Don’t know if someone already asked that question so here it goes: what’s your opinion on Ned Stark? I think the fandom is too harsh on him

He's fine. I like him as the character who starts off and sets up the story for our actual protagonists. I like that he's flawed and has his own kind of morality and ideas of right and wrong, as fitting the fictional fantasy world he lives in.

I do think the fandom is too harsh in the sense of how he's reduced to this honorable fool. This interpretation of him (wrong, IMO) is so popular in fandom that it made it's way to the garbage show through D&D/Bryan Cogman adapting popular tumblr metas rather than actually reading the books and translating that to the screen. They wrote actual dialogue for Sansa 'Smart' where she warns Jon to not be stupid like Ned and Robb!!

This is one of the many reasons for why the show and the books are so canonically different. Benioff and Weiss think the likes of Littlefinger should rule the world and hence why they wrote dialogue for Littlefinger 2.0 aka Sansa stark where she disparages Ned Stark as stupid. In the books on the other hand, Ned inspires loyalty and brotherhood, with his bannerman rising up for Arya and Rickon Stark, while all the Lannisters can inspire is fear and hatred.

As GRRM himself explains:

It’s not enough to be a good man to be an effective ruler. It’s complicated and it’s hard and I wanted to show that with repeated examples in my books with my kings and hand of the kings - the prime minister if you would - trying to rule. And whether it be Ned Stark or Tyrion Lannister or Tywin Lannister or Daenerys Targaryen or Cersei Lannister trying to deal with the real challenges that affect anyone trying to rule the 7K or even a city like Meereen and it’s hard. You know, we can all read the books or read history and say oh, so and so was stupid and made a lot of mistakes and look at all these stupid mistakes they make. But these kind of mistakes are always much more apparent in hind sight than when you are actually faced with the decision about, oh my God, what would I do in this situation. How do I resolve this thing? Do I do the moral thing? But what about  the political consequences of the moral thing? Do I do the pragmatic, cynical thing and kind of screw the people who are screwed by it? I mean, it is HARD. And I want to get to all of that - GRRM

Ned had very few allies and people he could trust in KL. It was a viper's nest and as I mentioned in one of my earlier posts Jon Arryn leaves behind an absolute mess with the likes of the Lannisters, Littlefinger and Slynt holding too much power. There was not much maneuvering that Ned could do in the situation he found himself.

I like that he is flawed with his blindspots for Robert Baratheon that clashes with his morality. I like that children are his weakness - that he was ready to resign when Robert wanted to send assassins to murder Dany, that he tried to save Jaime's children while Jaime tried to kill his.

All in all, I think it's harder to be a 'good' man in Westeros than it is to be a bad one. I have read opinions on how the likes of Ned and Jon are boring because they are 'good' while everyone loves the hot bad boys like Jaime Lannister because he's just so 'complex'. I couldn't disagree more. Jaime attempts to murder the likes of Bran and Arya for Cersei and it's a simple enough decision for the likes of him in a Westeros that lets him get away doing this with no consequences. Ned Stark warns Cersei because he does not want to see her children suffer the same fate as Elia's children - and dooms his family and house.

When Westeros exemplifies the idea of 'No good deed goes unpunished', it's harder to do the morally right thing and I am doubly appreciative of characters who still do it. Daenerys trying to help the oppressed of Meereen simply because it's the right thing to do, Arya helping the prisoners in the cage or Weasel or sticking up for Mycah, Jon fighting against the centuries of hatred and xenophobia at the wall in his reform of the Wall.

So yeah, I like Ned Stark. He's an interesting, complex character and I can't wait to know more about him with Howland Reed's revelations of Robert's Rebellion and the Tower of Joy and what actually happened and how Jon Snow deals with the truth and reexamines his relationship with his 'father' and Arya holding on so strongly to her father's ideals, leadership and this image she has of him and how she is going to use his words, adapt and change that to lead the North.

[therealandian]

things i thought about when working on stts but didn't actually wind up in the story:

jon and jonny getting stranded on a planet together and having to scrap together their own ship. i was even going to have it tie back into a bit in redeath where martin mentions abandoning jonny on a watery planet in retaliation for more or less selling him to hereward. originally they were supposed to not get along very well, but the moment i added jonny into the story i realized i could have a lot more fun with him taking jon under his wing. i was still thinking i'd strand them somewhere, including elias once i thought to add him in as well, but the closest i really got was the planet where jon got addicted to drugs lol. the water world bit got recycled and became por'zykev

jon actually learning to play an instrument. i just didn't have the time/a good opportunity to write this in. rest assured that he learned something, though

one version of the end involved jon and elias kidnapping little jon (who is midway through s3), jon replacing him at the institute, and then elias taking him away to some other planet. then martin was supposed to find him and kidnap little jon back before returning to earth while elias desperately chased after him

another version of the end that i did write some of involved elias adopting little jon instead of martin. but since i felt like it would add too much extra with how i'd written it, i decided against it. i may be persuaded to release some of that because there were still some great moments lol

there was a long period where i planned to have jon part from elias because he wanted time to accept that he would never see martin again. meanwhile elias would fuck off to earth. this ties into the 'elias adopting little jon' version, but isn't necessarily the only ending i thought of with this particular piece

the talyn were originally going to be warlords conquering the galaxy, but it was honestly way more interesting to have them just sorta be there as an overarching government that was relatively chill with letting people do what they'd already been doing. after all, a hivemind race would be all about cooperation

there was a whole conversation planned about the pros and cons of being a god with donovan's kids. this didn't wind up making the cut, but that scene did end with elias crying into mashed potatoes, and i think that's hilarious still

this isn't necessarily something that didn't make it into the fic since it's referenced a couple times, but it's important that everyone knows that elias adopted Every Child He Met who didn't have decent parents. there were many.

the bit where jon got dissected was originally 1) on a spaceship, 2) both jon and elias nearly getting blown to pieces by the talyn, and 3) way more graphic. jon actually demanded elias leave him behind and pick him up later, because in that version they already had the dread-not. this was the part where they realized they were friends and had a panic about it. i might be persuaded to post that bit too, actually. i was pretty proud of it at the time i first thought it up lol

there's a scene in my head that i started writing out that wouldn't have fit anywhere in the overall narrative (and i'd already finished stts by then). in that scene, elias has a sudden realization that he's attracted to jon and they have to have a Talk. jon naturally doesn't feel the same, and elias is fine with that so long as jon is happy. it would've probably been pretty cute, but it didn't really fit the pacing, and frankly i wanted to leave their relationship relatively ambiguous. they definitely love each other, but the form of that love is up to each individual reader

jon and elias have fucked at least once out of boredom. whether or not it ever happened again is anybody's guess.

there are definitely other things that i've since forgotten, but i thought it'd be fun to run back through and see what random stuff i'd planned to do throughout everything. it's pretty funny, because while redeath stuck pretty damn close to the original timeline, stts gave me the freedom to fuck around and find out, and i'm deeply proud of the result. sure, there are plenty of other things i probably could've done, adding or subtracting or reconfiguring different scenes and situations, but i feel like accepting that not everything is going to make it into the story with the way the pacing worked out is important. take the sheer amount of endings i plotted out in my head, for example. literally dozens XD

[esther-dot]

We should talk more about the fandom's love of violence as a response to the injustice.

Bcs i think they're (english isn't mother lenguaje 😅) being played by Grrm? He knows we like to escape to fantasy worlds and seeing the evil be defeated, but also he knows of our taste for blood, vengeance and retaliation.

I know what he said about he not being a strict pacifist believer. But is still contradicts his beliefs to burn alive someone for example, crucify a bunch of people, torture of innocent girls, or torture, simple torture.

One of the mayor problems of Grrm is the ethics and morals of his readers(and his).

Oh, I certainly agree that our acceptance of casual violence as a culture (I say this as an American, perhaps it is different elsewhere), has made a lot of fans miss how critical he is of violence in all forms. There’s a disconnect between what we believe the solution is (killing) and how he shows that to be ineffective. As in, Aerys starts killing people in an unjustified way which leads to a justified rebellion, but in that rebellion, innocents die (Elia, her children) and characters like Ned and Robert, who are victors, have their relationships changed, change as people, never recover what they lost--themselves or their loved ones. It's not a happy ending, not merely because both of those men die by the end of the first book, but because we also know that Aerys’ daughter is coming for revenge and will unleash devastation on Westeros in her effort to reclaim it.

Or we can look at Joffrey killing Ned (unjust), the North going to war (totally understandable), but we’re shown how the smallfolk suffer, that it doesn’t save the Starks from further suffering, and Robb and Cat die. Even when wars seem justified or necessary, Martin refuses to glamorize them the way the fandom wants and might expect. I’ve said before, depicting something isn’t condoning it, and we all land in very different places on certain subjects, “is this for a purpose or is this revealing a disturbing thing about the author”? But justice, mercy, war, peace…that all seems to have been of great interest to him from the get go which means we as readers should try to listen very carefully for that authorial guidance when determining what he is saying about it. Ned chose to save Jon (commit treason), he was ready to defy Robert over Dany, he warned Cersei in an attempt to save her children, and I think fro all his mistakes elsewhere, in these moments, we were meant to see that his was the moral choice:

What strange fit of madness led you to tell the queen that you had learned the truth of Joffrey's birth?" "The madness of mercy," Ned admitted. (AGOT, Eddard XV)

I understand how we get swept up in that feeling of power when a hero can easily kill the bad guy and guarantee a happy ending, but that isn't Martin's world, and in fact, he used Ned to show us how much he valued mercy instead. I recently watched The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die and Uhtred told someone that if you kill a man it only means three sons will rise up to kill you. It made me think of Ned's death, his children who want to kill Lannisters, of the North's loyalty to him, the reality of Dany returning, there is a cost to violence in Martin's story. Obviously, the good guys kill, you're right, he doesn't create a way to be a complete pacifist, and yet, I do think there may be a misalignment between his generation of hippies and our own which is also anti war but otherwise...shall I say, a little more open to violent means.

If we look at Ned's answer to a potential problem (whether that was Jon being a Targ who might grow to hate "the usurpers" for what they took from him a la Dany, or Jon being a bastard who might resent his trueborn "siblings"), he thought love would save them. That Jon growing up loving and being loved by his children would be the solution to a potential future problem. I've said before, I believe Jon will help in retaking Winterfell, will protect Ned's children when he failed to, because Ned, even if he is naive and people suffered for it, had the right ideals.

I believe this is why Sansa is so important because she has that ability to care and show mercy for enemies of her house and people who wrong her specifically, so it seems to me, that she would be someone who might strike compromises for peace rather than resort to further violence. War, death, that doesn’t seem to be Martin's preferred solution, and certainly, cruel deaths, torture, slavery, none of that is acceptable to him which feels like a silly thing to point out, but it is of course, an unpopular stance in the fandom, nonetheless true, and one we should keep discussing! I quite frequently see people act like those of us who write “anti Daenerys” (a tag we use out of consideration for her fans, a consideration that anti Sansa people have never given us) content are engaging in a ship war, but if one wants to understand what the author is saying, I don’t think you can avoid it? Is it really more reasonable to conclude Martin wants us to be fine with burning a slave alive than that we’re meant to be horrified? Tbh, if he didn’t want us to condemn it, doesn’t that demand we condemn his moral framework? It’s a different kind of fandom engagement, perhaps, but trying to understand what the author is saying is the basic form of engagement with a novel, shouldn’t be as offensive as people pretend.

I say this a lot but I always want to reiterate, I love that people who speak English as a second language still engage with the fandom. I know that English speakers are spoiled with content and ease of engagement, and that it can be intimidating to reach out for anyone, more so if there's anxiety about the language barrier, but I'm very happy you did it anyway, and hope you know how much I admire you for it!