#its a clever trap but dany is a trap none the less

[rise-my-angel]

Everytime I watch a video made recently about Game of Thrones and they start talking about how Danys goals were good because they were about freeing slaves and breaking the wheel, I always have to quietly exit the video like "Oh. Oh no, you fell for it, and you still don't even realize that you fell for it."

[westmoor]

the fox

(the hare -»)

(1.4k, shifter jaskier, plotless and geraskier adjacent, no particular warnings except for excessive language)

The world is so much louder when it’s dark.

So it is for everyone, Jaskier tells himself, and curls up tighter in his bed, swaddling in a barrier of softness and warmth to keep it at bay.

But they press ever closer, the sounds. Rustles and mumbles and whispers seeping in between the blankets, crawling along his skin and leaving goosebumps in their wake.

Most nights he ignores them, eyes forced shut and clutching a pillow until he falls asleep, restless and dreaming. 

He doesn’t know why, or how, or when any of it started.

But he knows the scurry of mice from the rustle of wind, can pick a rabbit’s tracks through the bushes, sees the great horned owls where they perch high upon their branches, hooting loud and yearning while their large and luminous eyes sweep this way and that.

And some nights they become too much to ignore. They take hold of his mind and light a fire in his veins, and he wants nothing more than to answer them, to fill his lungs with whiffs of larkspur and thyme and test his speed against the wandering moon, until the stars grow weary and a chorus of songbirds herald the dawn.

On those nights he steals from his bed and his blankets, leaving his cloak and his shoes behind. And he rushes out into the great big nothing, past walls meant to hold him and men meant to guard him, through hedgerows and bramble on quick black paws, nose skimming the grass. 

--

He keeps it quiet, just to himself. If they notice him gone they call it sneaking about, like young boys do, and he does, only not as a boy. 

If he dared, he’d tell his mother. Tell her about the family of mockingbirds nesting in the lilacs, about the gap in the hayloft wall where the stablemaster’s mouser has hidden her kittens, or the fields of berries growing sweet beyond their garden gates. 

He tells no one.

The streets of Oxenfurt are a treasure trove of secrets, all laid out in a perfect cobblestone maze for him to hunt and uncover. 

Along with fellow students he shimmies out of windows and scales ivy-clad trestles, learns of hidden alcoves in libraries and which side streets lead to the dodgiest downtown drinkeries, breaks into the law professor’s office to steal sips of his finest liqueur, filling the bottles with water to cover up the loss. He learns the ways of love through heartbreak and finds his voice through song and verse, grinding his wit against the sharpest minds on the Continent.

But what his peers know is just a painted facade, gaudy and vivid but built for display. The city is a whole new world when seen from below. He skitters past its brocade drapes and  whole-hearted and quick-witted, no quest too daring or escape too narrow. 

Later, when cobbled streets are replaced by dirt roads and trampled paths under his feet, when he is further from home than he has ever been before with nothing to him but a lute and a name, he tucks his legs close to the soft fur of his underbelly and covers his snout with the bush of his tail and sleeps soundly. 

--

He has never met another. He’d like to, he thinks. If only for someone with whom to sit in the audience to a curlews’ ecstatic performance, composing her song to the bullfrogs’ steadfast percussion, joining in concert with moorhens’ trills among lily-pads and reeds. To know the thrill of the hare’s escape or musky divots in tall grass and glens where the mighty elk has dwelled, without false claims of metaphor and allegory.

Donning his fur coat to run the woods four-legged, now quick, now clever, he is no less himself than when he strides down paved roads, lute in hand. This is not a voice made for singing, jaws too narrow and teeth too sharp to make the shapes of words or vowels. Yet when he tilts his head at the sky and fills the night with the call of his kin, it’s completely and utterly his own.

It’s a blessing, he knows. How dreadfully boring it must be to live an entire life on just one page, and never turn it.

But everyone he meets on his path smells distinctly human, or dwarvish, or half-elf, and he starts to believe there are none like him. The truth of his nature stays lodged in his chest, curled tight somewhere under his breath. Whether it’s true fear born from bearing witness to the cruelty of men, or if it’s the fickle instincts of the wild, he doesn’t know. 

Gradually, like the miniature vessels of tree bark and leaves he’d set to sail on the duck pond as a child, he finds himself drifting downstream, unmoored and rudderless.

Until the day he finds a Witcher in Posada.

It’s the smell that snares him, but once he pinpoints its source, he can’t look away. Even then it takes a moment to figure it out, too enraptured at first by peeling back the scent of human and road dust and smoke to find the tug underneath. That of animal and hunt and prowl, that of the great grey beasts that sing with their brethren in distant ragged mountains. 

The man has the eyes of a predator, and Jaskier falls to his gaze like a fox to the hounds. 

Geralt is not like him, but he is the least unlike him that Jaskier has ever met, and that alone is enough to start pulling back the tide of silence that has pooled in his lungs. 

Beneath an iron hull of huffs and scowls and grumbles there is a grudging sort of leniency, however, and something else - something that makes Geralt flinch away like pressure to a festering wound. 

In every story Jaskier has heard, the Witcher travels alone. 

But he doesn’t urge his mare to trot too fast to follow. And when the cold draws close in the wake of the setting sun and the hollow ache in his stomach competes with that in his legs, there is warmth to be found by a smoldering fire, bread and roasted meat split between roughened hands.

Jaskier knows he is trailing after him like a puppy, knows he is pushing and pushing and pushing but he must. He needs this. And he has to make time, make sure he gets to stay long enough to find words, good ones, for how it is that he can close his eyes in one head and open them in another. Answers for questions he gave up asking long ago. 

With each burst and proposition that spills from his lips on their way through the valley, all a breath short of keep me, please keep me, confessions boil higher in his chest until they simmer just under his tongue. It takes all of his will to keep them from pouring, filling the silence with shallow chatter, desperate to stay their flow until his respite from loneliness can grant Geralt’s, too.

It doesn’t come to that.

Geralt sees his form as a cage, he learns, and himself as the beast trapped within. Where strangeness has given Jaskier an endless realm to chase and cherish, Geralt has only known suffering.

And if Geralt is monstrous, then what is Jaskier? A coward? A thief? Another fickle creature, neither animal nor man? Would he loathe him like he loathes himself? Or would he pity him, look at his duality and see a sickness?

He is many things, Geralt, beyond both wolf and man and Witcher, but he is not cruel. He would be kind, more likely than not, might even offer a hand in breaking the curse or condition that splits his soul between two bodies.

Jaskier couldn’t bear it.

The burning on his tongue quells with time. Soon, all secrets drain back down his throat unspoken. But alone is not akin to lonely, he decides, and Destiny may yet show her hand. 

Unmoored, but no longer adrift, he lets the dead weight of hope drag him under. 

And when the night grows loud in his mind, calling his name with a faint breeze through the hemlocks - when he slips from their camp and his makeshift bed to run the fields on little blackened feet, he makes it quiet, quick and clever.

--

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[thousandeyesand-one]

The Alliance of Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen

I was re-reading ADWD recently & I came across something that prompted this meta..I don't know if this has been done before it probably has been but since the S07E07 script has been released I really wanted to address the politicality of everything this season. This is gonna be a thread!

S07E01- DRAGONSTONE

There isn't much jonerys build up as such in this episode instead both Jon and daenerys's individual storylines are set up. Jon organizes Northern defence which is literally his entire motive this season to strengthen & weaponise the Northern army against the coming Storm. Daenerys reaches Westeros, dragonstone more accurately. Her storyline is set up as a new force in the game here to retake the iron throne & unite Westeros under her rule.

S07E02-STORMBORN

•This episode is where the collision course of these long lost targ babes was set up & no am not talking about tyrion's or sam's raven. I am talking about Olenna Tyrell. During the council meeting of daenerys & all her allies they discuss their battle plans after which Olenna advices dany. I may be wrong but olenna's advice sounds very similar to quaithe's prophecy/advice. The show didn't really adhere to dany's one too many prophecies in the books. Her stay in Qarth was much more prophetic than the show bothered to show including quaithe. She was in the show but not nearly as highlighted as the books treat her to be. Here are the quotes..

".. peace never lasts my dear. Will you take a bit of advice from an old woman?" *dany nods* "He's a clever man, your hand, I've known a great many clever men I've outlived them all. You know why? I ignored them the Lords of Westeros are sheep, are you a sheep? No. You're a Dragon. Be a Dragon."

                                                         -Olenna Tyrell S07E02

"Hear me, Daenerys Targaryen. The glass candles are burning. Soon comes the pale mare, and after her the others. Kraken and dark flame, lion and Griffin, the sun's son and the mummer's dragon. Trust none of them. Remember the Undying. Beware the perfumed seneschal." "Daenerys. Remember the Undying. Remember who you are." "The blood of the dragon"

                                                                  -Quaithe (ADWD)

•So like many other character amalgamations or character moments amalgamations that the show has done over 6 seasons before, Olenna served quaithe's purpose in S07. Because her words set daenerys's behavior & mindset for the entire length of the season. Olenna's/Quaithe's words are completely in contrast to what Mel said earlier in that episode.. " D: .. and you believe this prophecy refers to me?M: Prophecies are dangerous things I believe you have a role to play as does another.. the King in the North Jon Snow." "Summon Jon Snow let him stand before you & tell you the things that have happened to him.. the things that he has seen with his own eyes" Mel unlike Olenna or quaithe asked daenerys to stand equal to someone. To consider this Jon Snow guy & his story as both of them have a role to play in the Long Night. Daenerys soon turns this mel's prophetic orchestrated alliance into political one by commanding to send a raven to ask Jon Snow to Bend the Knee.

When they are discussing about making this invitation a political one this ☝️is how Mel reacts she doesn't approve of this but she doesn't say anything coz she learned from her mistakes. "My time whispering in the ear's of Kings has come to an end.. " She let this alliance that she set up take a shape of its own without interfering as to how or what! 

•Jon on the other hand ever since he saw the Night King at Hardhome his mind has been hell bent on the Great War. He was barely ever interested in the politics of the Seven kingdoms so now is no different time that he is using his position as King in the North to ultimately fulfill his main motive of securing the North against the AotD. Although Tyrion's raven arrived at Winterfell it spoke nothing of Mel but it was a very political invite. It's hard to say whether mention of Mel's recommendation would've made Jon & Ser Davos trust this message right away or negate it, but tyrion doesn't speak of it. Like a true shadowbinder Mel worked from the shadows & did what she wanted to do bringing Ice & Fire together! Jon knew this was political but he didn't approach this in a political way, sansa did, not Jon. Sansa talks about this being a potential trap about how North is one of the Seven kingdoms that daenerys wants to claim but Jon wants fire & dragonglass over anything else, both of which is exclusively available only with Daenerys. "We need this Dragonglass my Lord's we know dragonglass can destroy both white walkers & it's army, we need to mine it & turn it into weapons. But more importantly we need allies.. Night king's army grows by the day. We can't defeat them on our own we don't have the numbers. Daenerys has her own army & she has Dragon fire I need to try & persuade her to fight with us." This was never political for Jon he always ever had one goal which was to overcome the AotD either by hook or by crook. He never meant to be King in the North, even though North is truly been his home, he fought for Winterfell because he had to unite North against the dead. He is using his position as King in the North to see this mission through. Little finger tried to get all schemy & game of thronesy with Jon Snow in the crypts & Jon choked the political Mary out of his windpipe. He left the politics & the Kingdom to sansa & went to dragonstone to attain dragonglass & possible military help against the AotD.

S07E03- THE QUEEN'S JUSTICE

•Before the monumental meeting of Jon & Daenerys we are given a brief personal moment between Jon & Tyrion weight of which comes from their time together travelling to the wall before there was any conflict between the Starks & Lannisters. Indirectly daenerys's command by missandei brings the political in that moment by asking jon & ser davos to give up their weapons. On their way to the castle on the bridge/walkway the conversation Jon & Tyrion have.. "J: My bannermen think am a Fool for coming here.. T: of'course they do, if I was your hand I would've       advised against it ... General rule of thumb Stark men   don't fare well when they travel South. J: True. But am not a Stark." He knows he is not a stark by right just like he knows he isn't KitN by right but by public proclamation. He isn't here to fight for that but for what he has always fought for. The Great War. Then after entering the throne room the conversation between daenerys & Jon also had some picks I wanted to get to.. ▪Video Daenerys is applying Olenna/quaithe's words to use & remembering who she is & that the westerosi lords are sheep & to be a Dragon against the sheep. Similarly Jon isn't going to give up North that easily sure he isn't here to defend his title but the Kingdom trusted him to lead them he can't that easily surrender to a Targaryen that clearly all the Northern Lords hate.    ▪Video Jon tried getting political with daenerys by bringing up the mad king & all but daenerys instead reminded him of himself & shut him up. He dropped the political past vs past act & stuck to the present & did what he came here for to get her help. But daenerys is trying so hard to sticking up to being a Dragon remembering who she is that she forgot Mel's advice to take Jon Snow's help but rather remembering olenna/quaithe's words. Jon makes it very clear that he is not her enemy but daenerys is just not convinced & is still sticking to her Dragon-ness, not giving up on what she wants. "The army of the dead is real. The Night King is real I've seen them"

Daenerys is reminded here☝️ of what Mel says to let Jon Snow tell her what he has seen. She still continues to live by Olenna's/quaithe's words to not trust anyone & treat the Lords of Westeros as sheeps & to be a Dragon so daenerys ends up giving that big ass speech of how she was born to rule the 7K & Jon still doesn't care about either his rule or her conquest sticking up for the only thing that is of utmost importance to him.. ▪Video     Then finally Ser Davos gave the Jon Snow speech because c'mon like Jonny boi just can't with words. Specially coz he tried getting close to daenerys & was stopped by the dothraki instead Daenerys walked closer to him to show her strength which along with her speech definitely intimidated Jon. No matter how much people don't like to face it Jon was attracted to daenerys in the very first meet & Daenerys well she was being cocky at first but At the end she did realized that she found Jon Snow interesting. At this point Jon tried telling dany what he's seen, just as Mel asked, which nobody believed. Ser Davos was about to say what happened to him, his rebirth, just as Mel was hoping, which jon stopped him from divulging because if they didn't believe in the AotD then there is no way they'll believe in something that plays with the absolute concept of Life & Death. He didn't want to come across as a northern nutcase. Upon being forced by tyrion to kneel he at last unleashes his true political stance on daenerys. ▪Video 

The first Jon & Daenerys meet was less Jon vs daenerys & more Melisandre vs Olenna/Quaithe advice. Dany is just as confused between those advices as Jon is eternally confused with every situation that's why he asks "am I your Prisoner?" You guys this he doesn't get diplomacy this dude has no political bone in his structure!

•Next it's the Tyrion-Jon conversation on the cliff where tyrion confirms to Jon he isn't a prisoner & that he should try & make this work because there is still a chance. Jon respects tyrion, tyrion is the person who started Jon Snow the boy on the journey to become Jon Snow the man that he has become. Jon tells him what everyone told him to expect of the mad King's Daughter but tyrion instead tells him to form his own opinion about her & gives his own learned opinion to him, Jon values it just as he valued tyrion's opinion at castle black.  Same way tyrion persuades daenerys to make this work & that there still a chance to forge an Alliance. Daenerys trusts tyrion that is why she chose him to be her hand his opinion matters to her as of now..      Daenerys sticks with remembering who she is but also can't seem to forget Mel's advice about listening to Jon Snow.

•Then next is the first meeting of Jon & Daenerys that really introduced Jon to daenerys & Daenerys to Jon previously the Queen met the King & King vice versa. Daenerys is reminded of Mel's advice again about listening to Jon Snow, she heard Jon Snow but didn't really believe him. That's why she turns back to look at him deliberating him on a whole. Battling Olenna/quaithe's advice vs Mel's. She finds jon genuine more genuine than anyone she's ever met but that she has this inner battle in her head regarding trust.

S07E04- THE SPOILS OF WAR

•In this episode there was the beloved Cave of sexual tension scene. Where Jon gives more proof to daenerys that the army of the dead is real. Daenerys completely heeds Mel's advice of listening to Jon like REALLY LISTENING to Jon instead of like prior she just heard him. All the carvings proved he knows what he is talking about & it's the truth. Not to mention they also realize they are attracted to each other.  Just as they leave the cave Daenerys learns all her allies have been decimated & the unsullied have been lead astray into a possible trap. Now she realizes that she has been wrong, neither was olenna's/quaithe's advice wrong nor was Mel's advice wrong. Both advices were correct she placed them on the wrong people she should've ignored tyrion not Jon. Finally just to check whether this time round she is right or not she immediately puts jon on the spot to advice her neglecting tyrion.

"I never thought dragons would exist again. No one did. The people who follow you know that you made something impossible happen maybe that helps them believe you can make other impossible things happen. Build a World different from the shit one they've always known. But if you use them to melt castles & burn cities, your no different, you're just more of the same." 

Jon's honest advice makes it clear to her that he is trustworthy as in he is not a clever Lord or anything like tyrion. Just an honest dude who knows what he's doing & stays true to it. Properly placing quaithe's words "Hear me, Daenerys Targaryen. The glass candles are burning. Soon comes the pale mare, and after her the others. Kraken and dark flame, lion and Griffin, the sun's son and the mummer's dragon. Trust none of them. Remember the Undying. Beware the perfumed seneschal."   "Daenerys. Remember the Undying. Remember who you are."    "The blood of the dragon"         This advice this prophecy doesn't speak or relate to Jon in anyways. Because dany can trust Jon. Finally figuring every thing out for good & truly remembering who she is & ignoring any of tyrion's advices she mounts her dragon & goes to war. And you know when you wake the dragon .....

•Jon on the other hand didn't have a prophecy or anything to understand daenerys but he had missandei who he talked to about daenerys. Prior to which Ser Davos told him that almost everyone can tell Jon is attracted to Daenerys. He knows that. It  might even have intensified as he saw his younger, naive self in daenerys. His self who said the same words to Mance that daenerys says to him. Jon doesn't deny his feelings just addresses it.. Jon then realizes daenerys is trustworthy & also realizes her conquest isn't just a power hungry quest for dominance she truly wants to do good in this shit world.

S07E05- EASTWATCH

•Episode begins with Daenerys talking to the leftover Lannister soldiers & trying to change their allegiance. Of'course the infamous Tarly's burning scene which in actuality was daenerys ignoring tyrion's advice & being the blood of dragon, remembering it & reminding everyone at the same time. She wasn't being or becoming mad she was staying true to being a Targaryen. Not Mad. Just being a true Targaryen Queen in Westeros with the blood of dragon & not the Queen that tyrion wanted her to be. And the Tarly's had a long time Karma coming for them. Instead of blaming it on karma most people blame it on daenerys. IGNORANCE 

•Then Jon Snow is waiting for daenerys targaryen on the cliff & we get a Jon-Drogon moment. Which by every standard more than confirms to us the audience that Jon is a Targaryen. But unlike us daenerys doesn't know about S06E10 ToJ revelation  so what's in this for her? Except for who would ever dare to love a Dragon there's actually a bit of quaithe's advice.   "Remember who you are Daenerys. The Dragons know. Do you?"

"It makes the moment entirely between Jon & the Dragon" -Dan Weiss, Game Revealed Ep 5: Fire and Bloodlines.

So in this moment the dragons knew. Book dany will probably smell something rightaway but show dany doesn't yet know about Jon's bloodline or she doesnt have this ☝️ part of quaithe's advice/prophecy. When the jon-drogon moment ends another moment between Jon & daenerys begins.

After understanding how olenna's/quaithe's advice fits & where it fits exactly daenerys starts looking into Mel's advice to look into Jon Snow. She is already attracted to him & finds him interesting that for the first time she brings up the mystic side of things that she was ignoring talking about something she found worth pondering. Same with Jon once he found what daenerys actually is he started taking interest in her conquest for the first time initiating a political discussion. On top of which their attraction to each other is also increasing by the minute as they learn more about each other. Also arrival of Jorah & Daenerys's unusual connection with him gave Jon the heebie jeebies.

•Then there is the council meeting with Jon & Daenerys as unofficial allies discussing their next move in an understanding. Tyrion proposes the plan to capture a wight.       •Considering that the running theme this season has been trust for both Jon & Daenerys. This scene is the starting of their romance in a much more deeper way. Daenerys has struggled with trusting people specially this season & it was evident to Jon when he first met her she obviously didn't trust him. When he saw her lash out on tyrion he knew she doesn't trust him anymore than she trusts Jon but when she met jorah it was clear to him looking at her vulnerable side come out with jorah that she trusts him. But at that point jon is deeply attracted to dany & he is aware that he doesn't have the connection with daenerys that jorah does due to a lot of shared history. So this scene was basically Jon asking daenerys to start that connection with him, compared to jorah he is a stranger for daenerys, he asks her to trust him because it's their best chance at a relationship. Jon taught daenerys the very concept of achieving that together he was talking about in the caves, which daenerys was confused about. And then beyond considering any prophecies or advices for the first time she trusts Jon. Because he first put his trust in her.

•Then the glorious see off scene between jon & daenerys before jorah silently slips away from daenerys upon seeing Jon walk upto her. Upon seeing dany embracing jorah & he yet again asks daenerys whether there is trust between them or not. Bringing up her conquest he asks her about his position in her life & she answers him not quite giving him what he wants to hear. She doesn't declare her trust for him but actually is playful about it. Unsure whether either of them have that right on each other to make either of them divulge any more info in uncertainty they depart from each other. The reason why Jon doesn't turn around, because as of now he isn't in Love with daenerys but rather he is in the process of getting there, anyone who has fallen in Love atleast once in their life knows there is a time after attraction & before love where ego's & uncertainty's has to be crushed. Jon doesn't wanna look like a pussy. Jorah on the other hand has been in love with dany for a long time he doesn't care about looking like a pussy he knows dany knows he is a p.. So he turns around.

CONTINUED..