#jon and sansa in braavos

[maisiestyle]

"Ned Stark's Precious Little Girl"

Arya is a mix of both her parents. But as her story unfolds, with every new chapter and book, Arya has moved beyond her parents and into a far more dynamic character.

Ned was a role model to Arya, she loved him more than almost anyone (she loves Jon most of all). She holds on to Ned's memory now more than any of his children.

Ned is stubborn, quick to anger, loyal to a fault, and deeply devoted to his family to the point where he sacrificed his honor and died for his children.

Both Arya & Ned had a dislike for Southern culture. Which is double odd considering Ned was fostered in the South: That was never truly his place. Whereas Cat and Sansa are very much creatures made for the South.

Treatment of the smallfolk and not judging those lower than their station... That says a lot about their character, something Ned, Lyanna, Arya & Jon have all shown in the books.

Arya & Ned are similar but different as well. Where Ned was lacking, his ability to not see the truth in the lies around him - Arya has developed beyond that point. Ned was too slow and unyielding until it was too late and he died. Cat was to heedless, prideful, and emotional - that cost her life. At the beginning Arya was a mix of both her parents BUT her journey so far has made her grow and develop where her parents had not. By Book 5, Arya is extremely artful and considerate, patient and willing to face the truth in all its ugliness, adaptable and fluid like water - a changeling. That's how she'll survive where her parents did not.

While Sansa is learning how to flirt, organise a glorified party and remain passive and isolated.

Arya lives out in the open, has escaped death and captivity by her own wits, travelled all over Westeros leaving her memory imprinted on the people she met along the way, and her unyielding desire to never be helpless again which brought her to Braavos. The Sealord of Braavos stood up to a King and his dragons and won - all he did was whisper the "faceless men" and King's Landing yielded - that is true power. Arya will return to Westeros having grown in many ways. But like her father and mother, her family will always be her guiding light.

I love how the Northmen constantly connect Arya to Ned and want to fight for them both:

When White Harbour (a place Arya has visited twice with Ned) hears of "Arya Stark" marrying Ramsay.

“Was ever snow so black?” asked Lord Wyman. “Ramsay took Lord Hornwood’s lands by forcibly wedding his widow, then locked her in a tower and forgot her. It is said she ate her own fingers in her extremity…and the Lannister notion of king’s justice is to reward her killer with Ned Stark’s little girl.” - (Davos, A Dance with Dragons)

~*~

As "Arya" suffers in Winterfell, they connect her to Ned:

"The bride weeps," Lady Dustin said, as they made their way down, step by careful step. "Our little Lady Arya." ... What do you think passes through their heads when they hear the new bride weeping? Valiant Ned's precious little girl." ...

"Lady Arya's sobs do us more harm than all of Lord Stannis's swords and spears.

~*~

The northmen want to fight for Arya:

“Even ruined and broken, Winterfell remains Lady Arya’s home. What better place to wed her, bed her, and stake your claim? […] Let Stannis march on us. He is too cautious to come to Barrowton…but he must come to Winterfell. His clansmen will not abandon the daughter of their precious Ned to such as you. - (Reek, A Dance with Dragons)

[…]

Lord Arnolf shoved himself up, a vulture rising from its prey. One spotted hand clutched at his son’s shoulder for support. “We’ll take [Winterfell] for Ned and for his daughter.” - (The Sacrifice, A Dance with Dragons)

~*~

"Winter is almost upon us, boy. And winter is death. I would sooner my men die fighting for the Ned’s little girl than alone and hungry in the snow, weeping tears that freeze upon their cheeks. No one sings songs of men who die like that. As for me, I am old. This will be my last winter. Let me bathe in Bolton blood before I die. I want to feel it spatter across my face when my axe bites deep into a Bolton skull. I want to lick it off my lips and die with the taste of it on my tongue." - (Dance with Dragons)

[bookhousestark]

ARYA STARK APPRECIATION WEEK 2024 ↳ Day 3: Overlooked traits

Natural leader

They rode north, away from the lake, following a rutted farm road across the torn fields and into the woods and streams. Arya took the lead, kicking her stolen horse to a brisk heedless trot until the trees closed in around her. Hot Pie and Gendry followed as best they could. Wolves howled off in the distance, and she could hear Hot Pie's heavy breathing. No one spoke. From time to time Arya glanced over her shoulder, to make sure the two boys had not fallen too far behind, and to see if they were being pursued.

A Storm of Swords, Arya I

Fond of nature

"When we were crossing the Neck, I counted thirty-six flowers I never saw before, and Mycah showed me a lizard-lion."

A Game of Thrones, Sansa I

Merciful

“[…] Do you want the water?" "Aye." The man swallowed. "And the mercy. Please."

When she came back, the archer turned his face up and she poured the water into his mouth. He gulped it down as fast as she could pour, and what he couldn't gulp ran down his cheeks into the brown blood that crusted his whiskers, until pale pink tears dangled from his beard.

A Storm of Swords, Arya XII

Feminist

"The Lannisters are proud," Jon observed. "You'd think the royal sigil would be sufficient, but no. He makes his mother's House equal in honor to the king's." "The woman is important too!" Arya protested.

A Game of Thrones, Arya I

Empathetic

She thought of Mycah again and her eyes filled with tears. Her fault, her fault, her fault. If she had never asked him to play at swords with her …

A Game of Thrones, Arya II

Left-handed

Arya took her right hand off the grip and wiped her sweaty palm on her pants. She held the sword in her left hand. He seemed to approve. "The left is good. All is reversed, it will make your enemies more awkward.”

A Game of Thrones, Arya II

Learned

It hurt that the one thing Arya could do better than her sister was ride a horse. Well, that and manage a household.

A Game of Thrones, Arya I

Observant

"Learn three new things before you come back to us," the kindly man had commanded Cat, when he sent her forth into the city. She always did. Sometimes it was no more than three new words of the Braavosi tongue. Sometimes she brought back sailor's tales, of strange and wondrous happenings from the wide wet world beyond the isles of Braavos, wars and rains of toads and dragons hatching. Sometimes she learned three new japes or three new riddles, or tricks of this trade or the other. And every so often, she would learn some secret.

A Feast For Crows, Cat of The Canals

[fromtheseventhhell]

it's wild to see people say stuff like "sansa is a politician, arya is a warrior" while not being able to point out a single political act sansa has achieved, and not being able point out any of arya's "warrior skills" that isn't the handful of fencing lessons with syrio she received for like five months max lol

Politician!Sansa and Warrior!Arya are two fascinating ends of a fanon ouroboros; Neither concept exists outside of the other and neither concepts are based on the books. This fandom is just so attached to the idea of Sansa being this incredible politician, with intelligence above every other character, that her having nothing in her own chapters to support that idea doesn't stop them. That's why Arya's intelligence, skills, and entire character arc get reduced to her being nothing but a walking, talking weapon. Like you said, her "warrior" capabilities are essentially the handful of lessons she had with Syrio where her most important + relevant lesson was how to observe her surroundings. Her only "combat" training with the FM was her defending herself with a staff when she lost her eyesight. There's nothing to suggest that she's going to be a warrior, in fact we get the exact opposite. We get constant reminders of Arya's small stature and lack of strength that prevent her from fighting/defending herself in certain situations. All her kills rely on sneak attacks/stealth and she's never been in an outright swordfight with anyone. George even refrains from calling her a warrior like Robb and Jon. Brienne and Asha are examples of female characters who are actual fighters and if you compare their chapters, you can see the difference.

But then Arya's entire existence is antithetical to fanon!Sansa's. Her Harrenhal arc is what people pretend Sansa was doing in KL, her relevance to the North gets transferred to Sansa, and her intelligence and political activeness are erased so that Sansa can shine. They'll write essays on how Sansa is the most intelligent, politically savvy character and how Dany/Jon/Tyrion's arcs only exist to highlight her own ruling arc but the second someone asks them for evidence from the books, it's crickets. I don't understand why their enjoyment of her character hinges on her being the most important/intelligent one. No Arya stan is under the illusion that she's going to be the political character or outclass Dany, Jon, or Tyrion. It's just part of her story so we acknowledge it. Arya is going to have her political arc in Braavos and Sansa is going to have her political arc in the Vale, they aren't mutually exclusive. The only issue is that some people want Sansa to be the only one with a political arc and that's not the story that George is telling.

[daenystheedreamer]

stark succession crisis is so funny. robb dead. bran and rickon publicly dead. arya married to ramsay but that’s jeyne. sansa the only actual fully alive public facing stark but also she’s disappeared now. jon bastard and married to the wall. 

by laws of succession bran should be heir but only the mountain clansmen know he’s alive. northerners are trying to get rickon on the throne, dont know bran is alive, also trying to save fake arya. LSH, maege and galbart know jon was made robb’s heir. robb didnt know half his siblings were still alive. howland knows jon is a targ. stannis said he’d make jon lord of winterfell. petyr thinks sansa is heir. ramsay married fake arya and now theon is telling fake arya to keep up the pretence or stannis will just kill them both. jon will know fake arya is fake so where is real arya. real arya fucked off to braavos and due to trauma and cults is trying to induce dissociative identity disorder so really is anyone real arya. none of them know whos alive and whos dead. and benjen is also there maybe? 

[amaltheas-garden]

What if Jon's sweetness in the bittersweet ending is his short lived love with Daenerys?

While I do think the show is probably accurate to what we'll get in the books in the broadest of strokes, there are still a lot of other plotlines to get through before Jon and Dany can even meet. For how long his books are, grrm really doesn't cover all that much time, meaning in just two books, Jon has to be resurrected (which I suspect won't happen until around the halfway point in Winds, since there's no point in Jon dying and coming back just a few chapters later), Sansa has to make it to the Wall, Arya has to return from Braavos and confront Lady Stoneheart, Littlefinger has to be taken care of, Jon and Sansa have to retake Winterfell, and the Starks have to reunite all amidst the growing threat of the whitewalkers. On Dany's side, Aegon has to get to King's Landing, Dany has to become leader of the Dothraki, fulfill all the bits of her prophecy (the 'to go West you must go East' one), and rally her armies to cross the narrow sea, and resolve ALL the loose ends in Essos since whence Dany leaves, that will be the last time we see it. And that's not including all the other stories, like the Dorne plot, Cersei/Jaime/Brienne, and Stannis/Davos/Melisandre, or accounting for the characters still very separate from everything (Sam off in Oldtown and Bran doing three eyed raven stuff). And all this is build up for the final cataclysmic conflict, the song of ice and fire. Now, that is a lot of content to get through, and when you start laying out every single thing that needs to be resolved, it becomes rather apparent why WoW is taking so long. The point is, Jon and Dany are not meeting in Winds, and it would be a miracle for them to meet even in the first half of Dream of Spring. That's why I highly doubt the relationship between Jon and Dany will be a genuine romantic one. Grrm is not the type to do a quick, star-crossed lovers plotline that ends tragically all within the span of a few hundred pages. A Jon x Sansa romance makes more sense, seeing as, if we accept Sansa as the girl in grey, she and Jon will spend the majority of two books with each other.

As for the show, there was nothing bittersweet in Jon having to kill his lover after she becomes a tyrant and threatens to murder his sisters, and for him to end the series by leaving his family for a lifetime of solitude. If book!Jon is destined to go beyond the wall after DoS, the 'sweetness' will be in knowing he did everything in his power to protect his family. No short-term love affair with Dany could ever replace the love Jon holds for the Starks.

Book wise, I doubt the Jon x Dany relationship will be one of genuine romantic love on Jon's part (see pol!Jon theory), and while Jon could end his story alone, I don't think a relationship with Dany is enough to fulfill a 'bittersweet' ending. I also recommend this incredible meta on Jon's ending (it does skew heavily Jonsa-centric) FedonCiadale — Sometimes scrolling through the Jonsa tag, I find... (tumblr.com) and they also have some other amazing answers on the bittersweet ending.

[ladystoneboobs]

possibly incomplete list of asoiaf characters described as having red or even "ginger" hair (or red-gold as opposed to red-brown or ghiscari red-black), never auburn:

mycah, the butcher's boy*

beric dondarrion (red-gold hair)*

lharys, member of the three stooges men-at-arms (wild rust-colored hair)**

unnamed and unfortunate mother of robert baratheon's doomed youngest child, barra (light red-haired mother of black-haired baby)*

tomard aka "fat tom", stark guardsman (with his ginger whiskers)*

horas "horror" redwyne (orange hair)*

hobber "slobber" redwyne (orange hair)*

unnamed red-haired whore leaning out a window the day of ned's execution (presumably not the same as above since she was joking about the king's death)*

melisandre of asshai (deep burnished copper. red and terrible and red.)*

a man called jaqen h'ghar (red on one side, white on the other)*

pug-nosed dancy from chataya's brothel (described as red-haired by tyrion in acok but honey-blonde in asos, so presumably hair dye must have been involved between those book mentions.)**

addam marbrand (hair the same copper color as his horse's mane)*

"ginger-headed" maester frenken*

unnamed beardless ginger youth among theon's crew at winterfell*

ygritte, a spearwife "kissed-by-fire" (bright red)*

arryk aka "left" or "right", lady olenna's red-mustached guardsman*

erryk aka "left" or "right", lady olenna's other, identical, red-mustached guardsman*

lord paxter redwyne (tufts of orange hair)**

anguy the archer of the bwb*

a red-bearded karstark rapist dead in a crow cage at stoney sept*

tansy, innkeeper of the peach in stoney sept*

meryn trant (rust-red hair)*

"red" ronnet connington

mero, "the titan's bastard", former commander of the second sons (bushy red-gold beard)

a red-headed soldier who came with stannis to the wall

shadrich "the mad mouse" (bristly orange hair)*

lord rykker's red-mustached maester

marwyn belmore, lysa's former guard captain (ginger-headed)*

lord benedar belmore with a beard that was "a ginger-grey horror"*

lord orton merryweather (reddish-orange hair)

"the red oarsman", one of euron greyoy's followers (fiery red hair)

unnamed red-haired sailor arriving at port in braavos*

lord clement piper

and his son lewys "little lew" piper, who served as squire to jaime lannister in the riverlands

unnamed red-haired youth who first escaped northward with varamyr from the battle at the wall

one of illyrio's washerwomen (dull red hair)**

jon connington (once red hair gone to grey, still red at the roots and eyebrows even when the rest was dyed blue. also had a bright red beard as a younger man.)**

rolly "duck" duckfield (a shock of orange hair)**

a young man among the wildling refugees at mole's town whose red hair reminded jon of ygritte*

the "sunset kingdoms" girl raped by tyrion in the brothel where he was captured by jorah**

hagen's daughter, only other woman among asha greyjoy's crew

roggon rustbeard, one of asha's men

mully of the nw (greasy orange hair)*

bloodbeard, commander of the company of the cat (fiery red whiskers)

"ginger" jack, a toungeless sellsword of the windblown sent to dany, face nearly covered by his bristly, orange beard

gerrick kingsblood*

and his son*

and gerrick's daughter #1*

and gerrick's daughter #2*

and gerrick's daughter #3*

ronald storm, son of ronnet connington

one of the 7 "choicest" enslaved girls from the yunkish ship who were sacrificed by victarion (red-gold hair)

an enslaved redhead boy in line for a well, asking tyrion about dany**

nail, apprentice to hammer, the armorer for the second sons**

maester tybald, redhaired maester from the dreadfort serving arnolf karstark

valena toland, heiress to ghost hill (bright red hair)

teora toland, valena's younger sister with the same hair

uther shett, knight arriving for sweetrobin's tourney (ginger-haired and whiskered)*

*characters whose hair is described in the povs of starks (or jon snow) who only use the terms auburn or red-brown for catelyn, robb, sansa etc. and do not compare said characters to said tully-haired relations

**characters whose hair is described by tyrion lannister, who spent significant time with sansa and exclusively referred to her hair as auburn (without anyone else telling him her hair color as catelyn told brienne)

the only asoiaf characters ever described as having auburn hair:

catelyn tully stark

robb stark (red-brown/auburn tully hair "so like" his mother's, with a beard redder than his hair)

sansa stark (auburn hair lighter than her mother's, most reddish glowing in candlelight)

brandon "bran" stark (hair not bright red enough for him to distinguish himself from young benjen at first glance in a weirwood flashback)

rickon stark

brynden "the blackfish" tully (once auburn hair gone to grey)

edmure tully (auburn hair with a fiery beard, likely brighter than his hair like robb's)

lysa tully arryn baelish

known tully descendants never described as having auburn hair

arya stark (darker brown stark-colored hair)

hoster tully (hair and beard gone from brown to brown streaked with grey to white as snow)

robert "sweetrobin" arryn (fine brown hair, thought by sansa to be his best feature)

fun fact: the only other character that i can find to ever even be descibed as having red-brown hair in the main series is rowan, one of the spearwives who accompanied mance on his mission to winterfell. (described by theon, who had psychological reasons not to think of any hair-resemblance to robb and co.)

tl;dr i suppose my point here is that auburn hair in the real world may be a term thrown around wildly as a fancier way of saying red hair, but grrm and his westerosi creations seem to keep to a much more specific (true) definition. not just specific, almost entirely unique to a certain family, a weird mutation passing down their line somewhat inexplicably, like the magic platinum hair of the targaryens. (ned stark's 4 tully-haired kids being sorta like alicent hightower's 4 targ-haired kids where nobody can really explain why it was so dominant.) except it's actually more unique to the tullys than either black hair to the baratheons or silver hair to the targaryens, with the velaryons also having valyrian hair as well as some people in the essosi free cities too. which i guess makes rowan the wildling the equalivent of an unknown dragonseed or a lysene woman who could pass as a targ, and regular brown-haired hoster and sweetrobin the equivalent of regular blonde-haired alysanne and alyssa targaryen. so the next time someone calls the tullys lame or whatever, just remember that in-universe they're actually more special than the dragonriders, at least hairwise.

[carcrash-white]

Best ASOIAF Arcs:

Victarian Slavers Bay Linsanity Run.

Reek Theon Identity Apotheosis.

Briene "No Chance and No Choice" search for Sansa.

The part were Cersei fucks everything up.

Asha on Stannis' death March.

Jon amongst the Wildlings.

Jamie getting owned so hard in the Riverlands he becomes a good person again.

Ned learning he's "not that guy" as Hand.

Tyrion Essosi "Linsanity Run".

Tyrion learning he is "that guy" as Hand.

Samwell's sad little voyage (until he gets laid).

Barristan forced to be "that guy" as Hand.

Quentyn Martell Anti-Heroes journey.

Arya "slumming it" in Braavos.

Daenerys ACOK Essosi Linsanity Run.

[argelladurrandaun]

'Arya growing up pretty' doesn't mean she is going to drastically change her appearance or face. Because arya is already pretty. She does have some similarly to the ugly duckling turned swan story. But not exactly. Because arya was never ugly. She has always been pretty. She is just not well groomed. Always covered in dirt and messy hair. But arya already looks (and acts) like lyanna. And lyanna was very beautiful. Only her bullies sansa and jeyne say that shes ugly. But they are bullies who are trying to hurt her so their opinion is not true.

Other than them everyone who meets arya - be it the people that love arya or complete strangers they always call arya pretty. We known that ned and jon has always told arya she is pretty.

"Lyanna might have carried a sword, if my lord father had allowed it. You remind me of her sometimes. You even look like her."

x

She had never cared if she was pretty, even when she was stupid Arya Stark. Only her father had ever called her that. Him, and Jon Snow, sometimes. Her mother used to say she could be pretty if she would just wash and brush her hair and take more care with her dress

Other than them, lady ravella Smallwood tells arya she is pretty

"I'm sorry, my lady." Arya suddenly felt bad for her, and ashamed. "I'm sorry I tore the acorn dress too. It was pretty."

"Yes, child. And so are you. Be brave."

and even in braavos the kindly man tells arya she is pretty. And pretty enough to be a 'courtesan' who are the most beautiful women in the continent.

"You believe this is the only place for you." It was as if he'd heard her thoughts. "You are wrong in that. You would find softer service in the household of some merchant. Or would you sooner be a courtesan, and have songs sung of your beauty?

Also, the kindly man remarks (who is an expert on faces) , that aryas face is a pretty one.

He cupped her chin, turned her head this way and that, nodded. "A pretty one this time, I think. As pretty as your own."

Arya also have ton of swan symbolism.

The Lady that Arya would wear dresses for and act like a Lady(because she was kind to arya) ... is Ravella from House Swann. A "Swann" tells Arya she is pretty!

Add the fact that Arya literally sees 3 swans on a lake and wishes to be a swan. George adds beautiful bird imagery to her chapters like in the Mercy chapter where he compares her legs to bird wings. Even her water dancing is inspired by ballet where Arya actually wears pointy shoes and has the duality of Swan Lake interwoven in her story.

Also the fact that she is the only dark hair/grey eyes of Ned's children (Swan). Born amoung southern looking Tully siblings (ducks). Arya is figuratively born a Swan. So thats definitely important.

The only person who doesn't think arya is pretty is arya herself. Because of all the mocking and bullying has taken a toll on arya and she has internalized it. They why arya herself doesn't think she is pretty. But onlookers has always seen her beauty and commented on that even though arya doesn't believe it. But that is going to change as arya gets older. Also her next phase of training will likely be with a courtesans so she might regain some of her self confidence.

[allovesthings]

Question✋️

Why are people fixated on the physical aspect of arya?

Like it's just some more ammo in the game to pit the two traumatized minors one against the other or it has some relevance for the plot?

Does Arya's appearance have some relevance to the plot ? Hmm 🤔...I wonder.... let me think...You mean...

Arya who looks and act like Lyanna Stark, the Stark who was a central figure of Robert and Ne's rebellion, whose secret son Jon, look like Arya and therefore like Lyanna ?

Arya who met and his very close with both the bastard of Robert Baratheon and Jon Snow, the son of Rhaegar Targaryen ? Wait that sound familiar ? I wonder why 🤔? Who, Bran thought was Lyanna because of her physical appearance when he first saw Lyanna in the flashbacks ?

Arya, who has insecurities about her physical appearance, including the fact that she was called Arya Horseface and who was so afraid that her mother wouldn't want her due to said insecurities about being an a lady (and that include her appearance). Arya who is told several times that she is beautiful and is about to do an internship with the courtisans of Braavos ?

Arya, who has the northern look and who is being impersonated by Jeyne because they also have similar looks ? Wonder if that's relevant to the story ?

Arya, who is literally changing faces ?

Arya who has ugly duckling and swans motifs all over her story...I wonder if that's going to be relevant to the plot.

I really wonder if Arya's appearance is going to be relevant to the plot....Really difficult to tell...

I'm sorry, I do have several questions for you:

Are you coming to the blogs of people who say Arya is ugly and ask them if they are deciding to pit two teenagers against each other ? If you are. Congrats, you are not hypocritical at least 👍.

Also, explain to me, how saying: "Arya is beautiful too, here is some quotes from the books" is pitting the girls against each other ?

No seriously, explain it to me like I'm three years old.

Also, I specifically didn't tag Sansa and tagged anti Sansa Stark even though I wasn't saying anything bad about her. I haven't posted about Arya in a while,now,why are you coming into my blog ?

[greenbloods]

If the world was just we would get theatrical productions that focus specifically on. like. spin-offs of the main story. three act self-contained gothic morality play about petyr and sansa in the eyrie. picaresque buddy-cop dramedy of brienne and podrick in the riverlands battling monsters and befriending outlaws. absurdist rosencrantz-and-guildenstern-are-dead-esque story about what grenn and pyp were doing while jon was lord commander. a five act breakdown of whatever melisandre and selyse and stannis and davos have going on between them pre-ACOCK. winterfell snowed-in murder mystery!!!

musical burlesque comedy of arya in braavos (the urchin of venice) as she befriends thieves and dockside courtesans and swordfighting bravos. faceless man comedic subplot as they hatch their latest plan to assassinate the sealord's useless failson because someone paid the faceless men their entire bloodline as coin for the bargain but everytime they try to kill the failson they slips up and he keeps getting away somehow. and there's a play-within-a-play as a scene takes place in phario forel's theater.

of course we'll always have ao3 but i want it to exist in the real physical world

[jozor-johai]

So do you think Dany and Jon are just two Heads of the Dragon? and if so, who do you think is the third? my money's on Bran as like, the Ice Representative to balance out Dany's fire and Jon's Ice/Fire dealies.

Thank you for this ask, sorry it took ages to respond.

Say that we know (or we think we know) that two "heads" of "the dragon" are Jon and Dany—insofar as we even think we understand what that phrase is supposed to mean (an assumption that I think is worth questioning as well, but that's not a task for now).

Here's what I love about this question—the issue of "who/what is the 'third head'" comes up as a literal question in a religious sense when Arya is talking to the Sailor's Wife in Braavos. There's a statue to the god Trios, and the Sailor's Wife can't tell us the purpose of one of the heads:

Three-headed Trios has that tower with three turrets. The first head devours the dying, and the reborn emerge from the third. I don't know what the middle head's supposed to do.

GRRM is definitely referencing the concept of the "three headed (dragon)" when he invented Trios; the imagery is too central and too specific for that not to be the case. What's fun, of course, is that we're all asking ourselves the same thing—what (or who) is that middle head?

I like your suggestion about Bran. It's a pretty unorthodox idea, because most people assume/expect that the three heads of the "dragon" must be Targaryen or at least Valyrian... but I don't think one needs Valyrian blood to ride a dragon, so as far as I'm concerned Bran is an option. He's a cool idea, too, because of his attachment to the North, the far North, and maybe even the "Ice" concept, like you say. Bran's also a powerful skinchanger—or, in training to be one—and there's not a doubt in my mind we're going to see some dragons get skinchanged. GRRM has been asked about that idea before and he's gleefully dodged answering it.

That would also be interesting because it's worth remembering that Jon is technically not canonically a Targaryen (yet), or even a contender to be a "head of the dragon" (yet). We think we've figured it out (and we probably have) but it's still technically a mystery. In that sense, then, if I was going to lean on the comparison with Trios, I would say: perhaps by now we should have met the first "head" —the "death" head—and we should have met the last head— "rebirth" head—so we should be missing this middle head whose purpose we don't know. However, we think we've figured out that Jon is the marriage of Ice and Fire, so maybe he's the "unknown" middle head—and then Dany is, on one side, the "rebirth" head (of fire?), and we should have met the "death" head (of ice?) already, but we don't know who it might be. Perhaps it's Bran!

If I'm being honest, I personally haven't thought too much about solving the third head of the dragon issue. It's clear to me that some key piece of the puzzle is being intentionally obscured from our view, so it feels like a fool's errand to be confident in solving it at this point. I realize that's a lame answer, but it's the truth—I try to approach these things beginning with how they work in the story and how they work with the symbolism at play, so without being sure how the "three heads" are even supposed to work I haven't tried to solve this mystery.

If there are truly three people who are going to be the "three heads of the dragon," I think the rules of good storytelling limit our options to characters that were introduced in AGOT. If we limit that to POVs—which is not necessarily a valid assumption, but I think is likely—then that's only Tyrion, Bran, Arya, or Sansa. I'm torn on the common "Tyrion Targaryen" theory... I don't really like it, but it would explain why he's included as a POV in AGOT and why he makes the shortlist for possibilities here (among other things). Bran would be a much more interesting option, though.

The thing is, I'm ultimately not convinced the "three heads" are going to work like we expect. Yes, it's said that Aegon, Rhaenys, and Visenya were the "three heads," but who knows if the common understanding of that is true? Plus, the person who presents the idea to Dany of the need for "three heads" to ride the three dragons is Jorah... who I don't think knows shit about dragons. So my mind is wide open when it comes to possible interpretations of the "three heads of the dragon."

[esther-dot]

Braavos is For Lovers 3k

Tired of fighting, Jon and Sansa run away to Braavos to get warm. They take new names, find work as common folk, and struggle with a forbidden attraction to each other.

Jeyne and Bael 7k by @wendynerdwrites

Jon and Sansa escape to Essos after Jon finds her again in the Vale. They adopt to their fake married aliases so well, they forget they are not actually married.

Bittersweet Symphony 1k by @captainbee89

For the prompt I got: Could you write a Jonsa fic in which Jon and Sansa lose the war and they'll change their names and live somewhere (let's say at the seaside) in bittersweet happiness

Alive 2k

“Where will we go?” “Somewhere warm. Far from here.”

We Should Run Away 2k

“We were children,” he tells her when she asks for his forgiveness, a long since given thing. But they are not children any longer and he does not know what to do with this sister in a woman’s body. or Jon and Sansa run away to Lys, and they don't look back.

Setting Sail ficlet by @azulaahai

At twilight, on the brink of night, a ship sets sail from White Harbor. Based on a prompt by @thimbleful: "After the resurrection, they decide to be selfish and go somewhere warm after all."

Tomorrows ficlet by @misshoneywheeler

It’s raining today, a softer rain than the sort that fell in Winterfell or the Vale or even King’s Landing. Most things in Essos seem softer so far: the winds, the ground, the people. And Jon.

Voyage to a New Life ficlet by @alczysz17

The shift between them was gradual. It was so easy to forget who they truly were here. Easy to forget their old lives and even their past relation to each other. Easy for the lines to blur when playing husband and wife.

take me apart and I'll flow like water 2k

“We can leave here and not look back,” he says, as he steps nearer to her, unsure of how close to get to this sister of his, this sister who had only ever offered him cold, blue Tully eyes and a frost-lined frown that had mirrored her lady mother’s. “We can start over,” he adds softly, and he knows he has her then, can tell by the broken, tear-laced sigh she delivers, her breath visible even in the warmth of Jon’s solar. OR the one where Jon and Sansa escape to Braavos before the BotB.

PRE CANON - WESTERN - FAIRYTALE - REGENCY - LITTLE WOMEN - HOLIDAY - SEASON 6 - ANNE OF GREEN GABLES - THE GIRL IN GREY - FAIRYTALE PART II - POLITICAL MARRIAGE - SALTY TEENS - POST CANON

[kellyvela]

If Grrm didn't scrap the 5 yrs age gap, then Sansa would be 18-19 and Jon would be 21-22 during reclaiming WF. Somewhat similar in age of Ned Cat when they enter WF after marriage.

Right, but, that "gap" wasn't really a "big" thing. George only thought about it after finishing ASOS and tried to do it while he started writing AFFC, but soon after he realized that it wouldn't work.

Q: I'm obsessed with the five-year gap you originally planned in the middle of the series. How would that have happened? GRRM: Originally, there was not supposed to be any gap. There was just supposed to be a passage of time, as the book went forward. My original concept back in 1991 was, I would start with these characters as children, and they would get older. If you pick up Arya at eight, the second chapter would be a couple months later, and she would be eight and a half and [then] she'd be nine. [This would happen] all within the space of a book. But when I actually got into writing them, the events have a certain momentum. So you write a chapter and then in your next chapter, it can't be six months later, because something's going to happen the next day. So you have to write what happens the next day, and then you have to write what happens the week after that. And the news gets to some other place. And pretty soon, you've written hundreds of pages and a week has passed, instead of the six months, or the year, that you wanted to pass. So you end a book, and you've had a tremendous amount of events — but they've taken place over a short time frame and the eight-year-old kid is still eight years old. So that really took hold of me for the first three books. When it became apparent that that had taken hold of me, I came up with the idea of the five-year gap. "Time is not passing here as I want it to pass, so I will jump forward five years in time." And I will come back to these characters when they're a little more grown up. And that is what I tried to do when I started writing Feast for Crows. So [the gap] would have come after A Storm of Swords and before Feast for Crows. But what I soon discovered — and I struggled with this for a year — [the gap] worked well with some characters like Arya — who at end the of Storm of Swords has taken off for Braavos. You can come back five years later, and she has had five years of training and all that. Or Bran, who was taken in by the Children of the Forest and the green ceremony, [so you could] come back to him five years later. That’s good. Works for him. Other characters, it didn’t work at all. I'm writing the Cersei chapters in King's Landing, and saying, "Well yeah, in five years, six different guys have served as Hand and there was this conspiracy four years ago, and this thing happened three years ago." And I'm presenting all of this in flashbacks, and that wasn't working. The other alternative was [that] nothing happened in those five years, which seemed anticlimactic. The Jon Snow stuff was even worse, because at the end of Storm he gets elected Lord Commander. I'm picking up there, and writing "Well five years ago, I was elected Lord Commander. Nothing much has happened since then, but now things are starting to happen again." I finally, after a year, said "I can't make this work." [Source]

[reginarubie]

hi I don’t know if you still do request tumblr prompts, but if you’ve lurked in the jonsa tag there was this post shared about a person asking if an adopted son can marry the daughter of the family that adopted him and I was wondering if, inspired and have time. Could you share a dabble or even dialogues with that in mind?. I don’t know, maybe literal conte yes or Jon posting this and people find out it’s him, anything really haha

Oh nonny, why not?

Aragorn married Arwen, though.

The first one to approach him, if one would believe it, is Rickon.

Jon was there when Rickon was born, small, shrieking and red haired. He had been there keeping hold on Arya to avoid she jumped on all the furniture of the hospital room in her excitement.

His little brother leans closer to him a couple of days after as he swings his backpack on his shoulder and as he munches on a protein bar, “Yes” he whispers, his breath smells of nuts, without offering further explanation. Then he smirks like Theon does when he’s about to whore his way out of some mess, and leaves.

Jon remains awestruck, and uncertain, on his feet at the isle of the Stark’s kitchen. He isn’t usually home this hour of the day, not since he’s moved out, but Ned needed helped with the tree-house and Jon needed a day off to get his hands dirty anyway.

Ned keeps looking at him strange all day, and Catelyn studies him with a knowing grin from the kitchen window, and when she brings out some apple pie for them during mid-morning, she takes great care to state that Sansa made it, with much love.

Jon chokes on empty air.

Ned is helpful enough, despite the way he has looked him all morning, to pat him on the back and tell him something that should sound wise and resigned but make Jon only feel uncomfortable.

He’s never been uncomfortable since the Stark officially adopted him when he was fifteen; and after helping set the table he skips — two steps at time — upstairs to find refuge in his old room.

Bran is there. Bran’s mischievous grin, as if he has Jon precisely where he wants him, makes him almost bolt for the door. But Bran is smart, and that wheeled chair is more flexible than he thought because he manages to reach him and knock him on the bed by grabbing him by the hem of his shirt.

“So,” Bran says “you want to marry Sansa, and have her babies. Or would she have yours?” he questions.

And that’s how he learns that all the Starks (barred Arya who is in Braavos for a fencing competition and Sansa who’s in the Vale busy with fashion school) have read his post.

Fuck.

“Would it make you want to hit me less if it was Arya?” he tries to smooth the tension that Bran has unnecessarily created.

Bran’ eyes narrow, “You want to marry my sister, have her babies or she yours; and you want to cheat on her with my other sister?” he demands and Bran can be pretty scary when he wants to, okay? He takes it after Catelyn.

“No…” Jon practically squeaks, and when Bran cocks his head on the side he hastens to add “no one is having anyone babies!”

“Yet!” Catelyn shouts from downstairs, “and until that is true, come down, lunch is ready!”

Bran snickers as Jon helps him down, “And I would not cheat on her,” Jon tells him, offended.

Bran doesn’t stop snickering and Ned is making a very peculiar expression where he’s sat at the head of the table.

“Don’t worry dear,” Catelyn tells him as she pats him on the head as she did when he was a child, “Sansa doesn’t know, yet”

Jon looks helplessly at Ned, his bastion. His father.

Ned just takes a deep breath, and stands up abruptly “We need something stronger than water for this” he states, moving toward his liquor cabinet.

“Eddard Stark stop there!” Catelyn shouts, “Doctor Luwin said…”

“I don’t care what Doctor Luwin said, woman” Ned replies “our son needs it, and to be frank, so do I”

What follows is perhaps the most uncomfortable lunch since that time that aunt Lysa’ new partner Petyr Baelish came visiting after uncle Jon’s death.

In the end though Catelyn sends him off with enough food to last him a week and promises him everything will be fine, “We knew,” she tells him and at Jon’ doubtful look she smiles, “I knew,” she amends, “and perhaps Bran, that kid knows far more than he tells. And Rickon is more perceptive that you’d think… perhaps, only Robb and Ned were not in the known”

Jon wants the earth to swallow him up, “And Sansa, but Sansa is always wilfully blind when it comes to you, so”

“Can we… pretend this never happened?” he pleads. Catelyn never looked more motherly.

“Of course dear, whatever you need”

But since Jon is an unlucky bastard, of course they can’t.

Arya just sends him a text, “My sister? You can do better” and then adds “actually, so can she” but then sends him a married cat couple sticker and they don’t speak of it further.

So perhaps they can really pretend it never happened.

Only, they can’t.

Robb ambushes him outside of his work, when Jon really thought that perhaps he had not given the matter any thought.

“We need to talk” straightforward as always.

“I’ve had a horrendous day, Robb. Can we save this for another time?”

“It’s about Sansa,”

Jon’ patience has grown thin since Rickon has kept pestering him asking to be flower boy.

As if he isn’t taller than him, to Jon’ vast dismay, and looks like he’s twenty-four and not sixteen.

And Bran keeps questioning his intentions.

And Arya hasn’t stopped sending him nauseated gifs all day long.

Even bloody Theon knows. And he and Catelyn keep trying to reign in the others by teaming up in their effort to tease the hell out of him.

He’d like to smash Theon’ face in, since his foster brother had once the very same problem when it came to Sansa. He’s been restless. Always making importune questions at the most importune times.

“Yes I’m in love with her, no she doesn’t know. No, no one is having anyone’s babies and no I would never cheat on her,” he lashes out, walking around Robb and completely missing his brother’ grin and the glint in his blue eyes.

“Wait a moment, Sans, I’m going to put you on speaker,”

And if Jon believed he has ever been embarrassed. Well… he was wrong. He now is properly embarrassed.

“That’s very comforting to hear Jon,” Sansa tells him from the speaker “it means Robb and I’s ten year plan to get you to fall in love with me has finally born some fruit,”

There’s blinding light and then Jon is beaming, grabbing the phone from Robb’ hand as his brother grins like a Cheshire Cat.

That very same night there’s Sansa comment under his question, pinned above all other comments (all kind of comments and Jon is quite offended by some of them).

There’s a particularly nasty one that almost knocks the breath out of him and Jon is on the point to delete the whole thing altogether despite being too giddy to do anything now that he knows Sansa actually returned his feelings.

Aragorn married Arwen, though💅—SStark🍋

Because there isn’t much more to say to that, is there? Gods. Jon loves this woman.

Sooo nonny! Hope you enjoyed!

Sending all my love ~ G.

[maculategiraffe]

okay so bran, jon, and arya are all wargs, and bran and arya have both warged themselves into other beings in addition to their designated direwolves-- bran into hodor (abomination!!!) and arya into at least one stray cat in braavos. which leads me to wonder whether sansa also has the stark warg gene, and whether it might still come into play despite lady being dead (😭😭😭). the most poetic thing would be if she got into one of ramsay's dogs and ate his face off to avenge winterfell (and jeyne, and rickon if ramsay kills him in the books), which maybe would explain why the show had it be her ramsay married instead of jeyne, to explain why she gets to be the one to kill him? and since the show basically ignores the direwolves completely it would make sense that it would also ignore the warg aspect of ramsay's death if any? idk I just really want sansa to get to bite somebody's face off. I feel like she deserves it

[laurellerual]

Just wanna say, i love ur art and the style is so unique. Plus I really appreciate the motif of the weirwood leaves in your depictions of arya!! It feels so true to her character.

Thank you very much! Bonus sketches of an older Arya wearing leaves clothes.

I love using leaves, not just weirwood ones, as a decorative motif in Arya Stark's clothes because they are an interesting recurring image in her story. And it's a little less obvious than wolves. Here some exemples:

First the fact that both Arya and Nymeria are essentially lost in the forest for a lot of time.

Then this scene where Arya and the others traveling with Yoren dig the grave for the first man to die on the journey north.

A boy called Tarber tossed a handful of acorns on top of Praed's body, so an oak might grow to mark his place

The fantastic scene in Harrenhal's Godswood.

"But there is no pack," she whispered to the weirwood. Bran and Rickon were dead, the Lannisters had Sansa, Jon had gone to the Wall. "I'm not even me now, I'm Nan." "You are Arya of Winterfell, daughter of the north. You told me you could be strong. You have the wolf blood in you."

And this mysterious woman that the bwb is looking for.

"What did the master mean, about asking the Lady of the Leaves?" Arya asked Anguy as they rode. The archer smiled. "Wait and see."

Of course the acorn dress of Lady Smallwood and the maiden of the tree song.

"I look like an oak tree, with all these stupid acorns." [...] “I'll wear a gown of golden leaves”

There's also the scene where Arya is taken to High Heart, and counts stumps, and this quote:

This place belongs to the old gods still… they linger here as I do, shrunken and feeble but not yet dead. Nor do they love the flames. For the oak recalls the acorn, the acorn dreams the oak, the stump lives in them both. And they remember when the First Men came with fire in their fists."

There’s the way Bran describes Leaf.

It was a girl, but smaller than Arya, her skin di lei dappled like a doe's beneath a cloak of leaves. Her eyes were queer—large and liquid, gold and green, slitted like a cat's eyes.

And in the end there's the fact that Braavos is a city without trees, and here Arya tries to let go of her identity.

They have no trees, she realized. Braavos is all stone, a gray city in a green sea.

I'm sure that you can find others too.