#last two books and dany will go mad and be put down like a dog

[lagosbratzdoll]

people genuinely believe that grrm wrote f&b, and showed us all the Targ women who suffered because of their gender just to end the main series with another Targaryen woman dead on the blade of yet another Targaryen man.

[raevenlywrites]

Ties That Bind 22 of ???

Of course the first person I encountered upon waking was Adelina.

Rei was long gone from the tent, if the chill of the bedroll was any indication. I’d expected to find him just outside the tent flap. Instead I was met by the long, lean body of Zane’s primary guard.

And lover.

My cheeks immediately flamed in spite of myself, knowing what she must think. My mouth worked uselessly as my mind offered no words to explain. I couldn’t exactly claim it wasn’t what it looked like, though Rei and I certainly hadn’t spent our time together in the way I knew a serpiente would assume.

But surprise followed surprise, as Adelina ushered me back into the tent with a conspiratorial air.

“We don’t have much time,” she whispered, nearly knocking me over in her rush to get us back under cover. “Our men will only keep each other busy for so long.”

“I-- what?”

I couldn’t begin to parse it. Adelina didn’t seem to mind my clueless state. She rushed on, eager to say her piece.

“I need to know how we’re meant to play this. Is Zane to be your lover or not?”

I could only blink.

“I know how the serpiente would read this, but I just want to be sure. You’ve taken his hand before you mother, you danced with him last night before the crowd. But when its just us, you’ve made no overtures. So I just want to know what role I—I mean he—is meant to play before you people. Are you two seriously planning to join our kingdoms?”

I stumbled to a seat, sitting before my wobbling legs made the choice for me. Did they really think--

“Danica, please. We don’t have much time.”

I felt like I was missing something, great swaths of something. I suddenly wished I’d stayed behind to walk and talk with them more as the serpiente had made their way here.

“I… honestly have no idea.”

It was the best I could give her. I felt this woman deserved the truth, but Zane and I hadn’t really discussed it. Mostly because I hadn’t thought either of us had taken the suggestion seriously. But looking back on all our conversations--

“What do you mean you have no idea?” Adelina snapped, but even without a serpent’s ability to read emotions I knew she wasn’t cross with me. The tense, pent up energy that so often drove me to pace was obvious in her posture, her tone, her entire being. I realized suddenly that if the serpiente could sense emotion anyways, there was no reason not to wear their hearts out on their sleeves. Or lack thereof, as was often the case.

I was getting side tracked. My mind was working furiously, but not in any useful direction. Adelina, like a dog among sheep, was not having it.

“Sweet Anhamirak, Danica are you listening to me? How will we be presenting Zane to your people?”

“I had wondered that myself.”

Adelina’s head whipped around as the man himself pulled back the flap of the tent. Rei scowled just over Zane’s shoulder. But amazingly, he didn’t pull the serpiente away from me to make sure I was unharmed. Adelina, at least, it seemed he trusted.

“Shall we have this conversation out in the open?”

The question was ostensibly for me, but his eyes remained locked with Adelina’s.

“You were never going to ask--” she began, tone pleading.

“I was biding my time,” her prince asserted. “Neither I nor Danica appreciate being rushed.”

“We’re at the bleeding gate!” she countered. “If not now, then when?”

“If we could maybe refrain from shouting?” Rei suggested. “And maybe come out of the tent? We’re making a scene.”

Zane nodded and backed up, holding the tent flap with a magnanimous sweep of his arm.

“Ladies.”

The last thing I wanted to do was face a mixed assemblage of curious serpiente and avians, but I didn’t think hiding in the bedroll with a blanket over my head was an option. I let Adelina help me to my feet, drawing the coolness of her hand into my demeanor. I hoped that maybe, some small of my reserve went to her as well. The shaken woman looked like she needed it.

The sun was well and truly risen, slanting sharply through the trees. It was mid, maybe late morning, but any sleepiness I might have felt was burned away by the singing of my nerves. Time to face the day.

Adelina, to my surprise, stayed on my far side, keeping myself between her and Zane. Rei fell into step on Zane’s other side, the four of us making the short walk to the main central fire and the breakfasts cooking there. Food suddenly sounded wonderful, and not just because it would present further delay. That was simply an added bonus.

Zane handed me down onto a log with as much grace and decorum as he would if it were a dining room chair. The absurdity of it made me smile, which I realized was the goal when he rewarded me with one of his own. I was learning to tell the difference between his pleasantly bland, haughtily mocking, and genuinely pleased smiled. I hoped I got to see the latter one more. It looked good on him, turning an inhumanly beautiful sculpture into something warm and soft and touchable.

And just like that I was blushing again, with merely the hint of thoughts of intimacy.

Zane laughed. It wasn’t a nice sound.

“And here I thought I was being on my best behavior. Courtly manners too forward for you, pretty Danica? You didn’t seem to mind my hands on yours last night.”

I scowled at the abrupt shift in his tone, the venomous suggestion I knew was meant to wound. Was he really mad at me for showing genuine emotion? Well, too bad. He was about to get even more.

“That’s petty, Zane. Don’t threaten my reputation just because you’re unhappy with something.”

Zane blinked, and Adelina laughed. She reached down and squeezed my shoulder, startling me, Zane, and Rei all. That only made her laugh harder.

“Well done, Dani. You’ll handle him just fine.”

“That’s Shardae, to you,” Rei bristled.

Zane opened his mouth, and whatever was going to come out of it was not going to be good. I gave a sharp pierce of a whistle, not thinking, just determined to cut this off before it got any worse.

“Alright! That’s enough.”

Adelina removed her hand, which I was surprised to find I missed, but it was time for me to take the reins while I could. I could invite her to be more informal with me later, if there was a later.

“Adelina brought up a valid point with me Zane; we need to sort out what kind of impression we intend to make.”

For a moment, Zane looked pained, almost like he would plead with me. But he straightened, put his feelings aside, and just like that, I was talking with the Arami of the serpiente, the man who would be king. Like Adelina’s hand, I missed seeing the genuine him, but appreciated his cooperation.

One ego down—and another immediately took its place. Rei fidgeted beside me, and without even making a sound, he was throwing just as much a fit as Zane had. I could ignore him—I should ignore him—but I’d had enough.

“Yes, Andreios?”

“Nothing, Shardae.”

“No, no. Speak your piece. You obviously disapprove of something.”

I watched him pull away from me, drawing his emotions deep inside--only to come rushing back in an even larger wave.

“I do. As your alastair, I take offense to serpents barging into your tent, and taking liberties with your person.”

My mouth dropped open, eyes as wide as the moon. I absolutely could not believe my ears. This was not my Rei. It was so utterly unlike him to be speaking of such personal things in front of company. Had one single evening of kissing really changed him so?

I was suddenly more glad than ever that I’d not let my mother bully me into an announcement last night. I had some reevaluating to do.

“The man I name as my alastair will have to be comfortable with the serpiente way of doing things. I don’t need a hoverhawk. I need a partner, who understands me.”

It pained me to have to speak so bluntly with others listening. I’d have much rather had this discussion in private—or better yet, not at all. This was not my Rei. Unfortunately, I did not have time to deal with him now. And if he really intended to be my alastair, he needed to understand that my people and this peace would have to come first.

Rei’s face went stony, then empty. This time, it was no retreating tide. It was a frozen glacier, his hurt feelings behind a wall of ice for good.

“Of course, Shardae. I don’t approve of it as a guard, either. But Adelina is hand picked by the Arami, and its not my place to question her.”

Just as my words were meant to subtly remind him that he was not yet my mate, his were intended to throw Zane and Adelina’s relationship in my face. It steeled me against pity I might have been feeling before. I had neither time nor patience for this.

“Quite right, Captain.”

I turned my back on him, and my own hurt, and gave all my attention to Zane.

“Please pardon our rudeness, Arami. Now, let’s discuss introducing you to my people.”

The Ties That Bind Tag list: @thehellinsideyourhead @therecouldbecolorsandlove @adventuresofacreesty @writing-with-melon @rainydaydarling @faithfire

Raev’s Gen Tag List (should I tag you guys in this? It IS a thing I wrote. I’m gonna say yes unless you guys are like “no of course not we’re sick of hearing about your stupid fic for a twenty year old book XD)

No one has complained yet so yall gonna keep getting tagged :P

List is currently: @lordkingsmith @writinglyra @drbibliophile @mperialscribe @adie-dee @lexiklecksi @theramwrites @writinginslowmotion @raenawrites @apollon-arium @anika-writes @faithfire @thehellinsideyourhead @adventuresofacreesty

[myinconnelly1]

A Life Unlived: The Life I Want Pt 4

Masterlist / Previous

Word Count: 2,975

A/N: Little bit of a canon divergence, just fyi

Warnings: Canon gore, Trigger Warnings: Miscarriage (semi-graphic)

Sam shot awake in a cold sweat, gasping.  He had been having the dreams for almost a week now, and he was having trouble coping with everything involved in them.  He didn’t want to believe they were real, but after Jess and the others, he knew that was foolish.

He shook his head trying to clear it, wondering if he would be able to go back to sleep this time when he noticed that Dean wasn’t in his bed.  He took a look around the dark motel room before turning on the light.  Dean wasn’t in the room.  He looked out the window and saw Dean leaning against Baby’s trunk with a phone to his ear.

It was still dark outside, although dew had started to condensate on the car.  Sam looked over at the clock on the nightstand, which read 4:30 a.m., and wondered who would be calling Dean at that time of night.  Sam picked up his phone and started scrolling through his messages, suddenly aware that he was not getting back to sleep tonight.

~please pick up the phone.  I need to talk to you   It’s important.    I need to know what happened

The messages from Myin were pilling in, but Sam was scared to answer her.  He should, he knew, but what if his visions were true.  What if she told him she was pregnant.  He didn’t know how he would be able to cope with what he saw in his vision.

“Oh, hey Sammy.  Didn’t mean to wake you.”  Dean said as he came back into the motel room looking guilty.

“You didn’t.  Who was that?”  Sam asked suspiciously.

“Pretty girl with an emergency in her pants.  Gotta go, Sammy.”  Dean gave him a shit-eating grin before grabbing his bag and leaving the room again.

Sam sighed heavily before tossing his phone back onto the nightstand and getting into the shower.  He went straight to the books ignoring his cellphone as he looked for anything relating to the mafia witches that were chasing Myin.

He was about to give up in favor of lunch when he saw what he was looking for.  It was a magic backtracking spell.  He could use anything affected by a spell to track back on the coven.  It was a coven he realized with dawning concern, there was no other way that they had been able to kill Myin’s whole family without being linked together.  He was just standing up when Dean walked back into the motel room.  He looked worn down, and he had changed shirts from when he left this morning.

“You’re back early.”  Sam quipped, irritable from not having eaten the whole day.

“Well someone is snarky,”  Dean muttered as he put his things down and flopped onto his bed.  “I was taking care of some….”

“Listen, Dean, I don’t wanna hear about your exploits.”  Sam interrupted not wanting to think about sex still after his encounter with Myin.

“Well, maybe you’d learn a thing or two about women if you listened,”  Dean said crossing his arms sternly.

“You talked to her, didn’t you?”  Sam asked.  “Unbelievable.”

“Well she needed help, and you weren’t answering your phone,”  Dean said pointedly, crossing his arms.  Sam’s expression softened to a pout.

“Fine.  Did she say what was wrong?  So I’m prepared.”  Sam asked as he grabbed together his bag.

“Yeah, she had some questions about what happened to you guys the last time she saw you.  Where are you going?”  Dean said terror etched Sam’s face.  His vision was coming true.  God, he wanted to ask Dean so badly if she was okay.  But he still wasn’t comfortable telling Dean about the visions.  Especially this one.  What would he do if it was true?

“Hello, Sammy?  Where are you going?”  Dean asked waving his hands to get Sam’s attention.

“Oh, uh, I think I have a lead on the witches,”  Sam answered as he finished packing his books.

“Listen, Sammy, I know you think you’re helping Myin by fighting the good fight for her, but let me tell you.  She really needs to talk to you.”  Dean argued as Sam was gathering his things to follow his hunch.

“No, you don’t understand,”  Sam turned on his brother, finger outstretched.  “I’m doing this to keep her safe!”  Sam reigned his anger in.  If his plan worked his brother would never find Myin in a puddle of blood, and Sam wouldn’t have to carry the hate for himself around for that.

“You mean protect her?”  Dean asked cocking his head and squinting at his brother as if he could read his mind if he stared hard enough.  Everyone underestimated Dean, but Sam knew better.  His brother was smart and had caught the nuance of the phrasing Sam had said.

“Of course,”  Sam pulled his hand back in and turned back to the door.  “I’m going to go.  Will you go check on Myin for me?”  Sam asked the words quietly.  “I need her to be okay.”

“Sure,”  Dean responded suspiciously, but placing a hand on Sam’s shoulder non-the-less.  Dean grabbed his bag again and headed back out the Impala.  Sam sighed heavily.  If his plan worked, he was going to have to work things out with Myin after this.  She was going to be mad at him for leaving her alone when she needed him.  On top of that, he was going to be a dad.

The realization hit him that he might actually have a baby.  With Myin.  Something he had wanted from the day he realized that he cared for her.  She was the only woman other than Jess that he had truly felt this deeply for.  That he loved.  He closed his eyes and remembered how beautiful Myin had been when she had been pregnant with Dani.  How exhausted and messy-haired she had been when she clasped her hand over her mouth for speaking her insecurities to him.  How little Dani had been when he held her for the first time, and how Myin trusted him completely to hold her daughter.

He wondered if Myin would want another girl after Dani and Penny, or if she’d want to have a boy.  She had always thought Dani was going to be a boy, talked constantly about how she thought the ultrasound tech was wrong.  Sam could care less, as long as they were healthy and he could keep them safe.  He wondered how Myin was going to cope with having a baby with someone other than Jay.  She had been true to him, and he could tell from the way she talked about him that she loved him completely.

He had been an idiot to come down here.  To think that he would be able to save her.  He wasn’t sure Dean was right about being a good thing for her.  Maybe if he hadn’t come for her, she wouldn’t have been in more danger.

He straightened and wiped at his eyes, then headed out the door.  He wasn’t sure how he was going to fix things with Myin, but he was pretty certain that whatever had happened to Ava, was connected to Myin’s mafia witches.  He left the motel in pursuit of that link.

“Dean?”  Myin asked as she opened the door.  “What are you doing here?”

“Uh, it’s kinda ridiculous, but Sam wanted me to come check on you.”  Dean shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck.

“He can’t be bothered to come check on me himself?”  She responded despondently, before letting Dean into the house.

“You know he’s not like that,”  Dean said as he walked into the living room.

“I know.  It just hurts.  I don’t understand why he wouldn’t want to know about this.  I guess that the sex curse was really a sex curse.”  She muttered.  Dean looked around uncomfortably.  “You want something to drink?”  She asked turning to point at the kitchen.

“Sure.”  Dean agreed.  “So how are you doing?”

“I… Ah!  I’ve been better.”  Said stuttered before screaming as a bottle shattered on the floor.

“Myin?!”  Dean dashed around the corner into the kitchen.  She was standing in front of the refrigerator hands open.  The glass had fallen to the ground and shattered.  Her pants were soaking with blood, as she cried.

“Dean,”  She sobbed.  Dean reached out and grabbed her hand tightly avoiding glass to lift her.  “I want Sam.”  She cried.

“I’ve got you.  I’ll call him in the car, come on.”  He carried her out of the house, grabbing a blanket for her on the way out, then let her sit on it in the car and drove her to the hospital as she faded in and out of consciousness.

“Sam, you need to get to the hospital on Hibiscus,”  Dean spoke to the voicemail. Then he threw his phone into the backseat with his stuff.  He pulled into the ER drop off loop and pulled Myin out carrying her inside.

“I didn’t study,”  Myin babbled as the florescent flashed above as Dean rushed in.

“Someone help me.”  He called as he moved up to the suddenly rushing ER staff.

“What happened?”  One of the nurses asked as Dean laid Myin on the gurney.

“She’s pregnant.  She just started bleeding.”  He said, realizing that her blood was all over him.

“Ok, Dad?”  Dean knew if he didn’t say yes, they wouldn’t let him in with her, and he couldn’t leave her alone.  He nodded as he wiped his hands absently on his jeans.  “Follow us, she’s gonna be okay.”  

Dean was thankful that Myin didn’t need surgery.  He wasn’t sure if he would be able to hold out for her, but a doctor was called in to do a quick procedure that Dean held her hand for.  Then she needed a transfusion, Dean didn’t know her blood type, but the nurse found a pair of dog tags in her pocket that listed Dean as a match, so he volunteered.

He called Sam several more times over during the time, but never got an answer or a callback.

“Hey,”  Myin mumbled as she turned her head to see Dean still hooked up giving her blood.  “What are you doing?”  She asked pointing at the needle in his arm.

“Saving your life again, kiddo.”  Dean smiled a little as he brushed her hair out of her face.  “How are you feeling.”

“Tired, what happened?”  Her voice trailed off as she looked away and placing a hand on her belly.  “Where’s Sam?”  her eyes were misty as she spoke but she didn’t cry.

“He’s not answering.  I called Bobby, he’s kinda like an uncle.  He’s gonna help me find him.”  Dean spoke.  

A doctor came in a while later, removing the needle from Dean’s arm, and giving them both some juice.  He told Myin they wanted her to stay for observation, but that there wasn’t much else they could do but wait for nature to run its course.  She nodded numbly, agreeing to things without question, and Dean’s heart hurt for the woman.

“I’ll be back.  Do you need anything?”  Dean asked shrugging his jacket on, out of habit.

“No.”  She whispered.  They hadn’t talked much in the hours since the doctor had come in.  “Find Sam, make sure he’s okay.”  She looked up at him desperately.

“I will, no matter what,”  Dean said.

Dean had made his decision.  He grabbed the small metal box and took Baby to the crossroads.

“I wanna make a deal.”  He said to the dark hair demoness that appeared.  “Sam comes back to life, your freaks and the witches leave Myin and her family alone.  I get ten years and then you get my soul.”

“Now those are some big demands.”  The demoness toyed with him.  “I’ll give them to you, but…”

“But what?”  Dean waited for the hook.

“But you only get one year.  And,”  she held up her hand.  “No getting out of it.  You try and break the rules and Sammy dies.  Myin and her girls become fair game again.”

“Deal.”  Dean didn’t hesitate as he kissed the demoness.

Dean rushed back to the cabin that he had left Sam at.  He was alive and breathing in no time, and Dean sighed in relief.

“Dean?”  Sam asked hugging his brother tightly.  “I figured it out.  I know how the witches knew where Myin was, and why they were after her.”

“I know, you told me before you got hurt.  The witches were in league with Yellow Eyes.”  Dean grabbed his brother’s shoulders making sure he was real.  “Don’t worry we don’t have to worry about those bastards anymore.  You can get the girl now.”  He smiled sadly, then brought Sam by to see Bobby.

“We are hitting the road.  We’re gonna go back and see Myin.”  Dean conspired with Bobby.

“Are you sure that Sam?”  Bobby asked.  And Dean nodded.

“What did you do boy?”  Bobby asked Dean knowingly.

“I made a deal,”  Dean said, not bothering to lie to the old man.  “I promised Myin I’d bring him back.  I promised Dad I’d keep him safe.  This is what I was supposed to do.”  

Bobby simply placed his hand on Dean’s cheek.  “How long’d they give you?”

“A year,”  Dean responded.

The brothers got in the Impala and drove to Myin’s home in Florida.

“Hey, man.  I’m gonna go check into the motel.  Call if you need me.”  Dean said as Baby idled.

“No, she doesn’t need me.  Nothing good has happened to her since we got to town.”  Sam said, hesitant to get out of the car now that they were there.

“That’s not true or because of you.”  Dean looked incredulous.  “She wasn’t in such a good place before we got here.  And we managed to make sure that her little girls still have a mother.”

“She lost her baby because of me.”  Sam hung his head.  “I should have been there for her.

“Hey, look at me.  It’s not your fault.  That shit happens.  And you lost that baby too.  You guys are just starting out, but it’s something real.  Now, get over yourself, and go talk to her.  It’s important.”  Dean all but shoved Sam out of the car then drove off.

“Hey,”  Myin said standing inside the door.  Sam could hear Dani playing in her room.  I heard the Impala, so I got the girls taken care of so we can talk.”  She smiled sadly.

“Hey, yourself,”  Sam responded.

“I was beginning to think you didn’t want to see me,”  Myin said as she let him in.

“Of course I wanted to see you.  I just…”  Sam broke off, unable to tell her how sorry he was for what happened.  “I wanted to protect you, keep you safe,”  Sam said as he plopped down onto Myin’s couch.

“Are you alright?”  Myin asked Sam as she sat beside him on the couch.

“Yeah.”  Sam sighed.  Myin let her fingers play with the edge of his hair.  “It’s just been a long couple of days.  How are you feeling?”  He turned to face her letting his hand caress her upper arm.

“It’s been hard if I’m honest, it’s nice having the girls home, though.  And they make me feel better.”  Her eyes were red-rimmed, Sam noticed as she sniffed and held back tears.

Sam pulled her close and rested his head on her chest for a moment, before pulling her down for a kiss.  It was the first kiss they had shared since they’d had sex, and he blushed as he remembered the encounter with her.

Myin smiled warmly against his lips.

“What?”  He asked embarrassed as she smirked at him like he was an idiot.

“Sam you don’t have to be afraid to kiss me.”  Myin chuckled.

“I just, I was worried about how you felt since the whole fuck or die session last month.”  Sam’s head hung slightly as he smiled.

“I’ve loved you for a while now.  And if I’m honest with myself, I wanted to have sex with you.”  Myin continued to hold his shoulders.  “You leave a pretty good impression.”  She grinned, and Sam was taken aback.  She knew but wasn’t mad at him.  “Let me tell you something, Sam.  What you got packing there, it should come with a ‘go slowly’ warning.  And if I remember correctly, according to Dean, you were pretty upset.”  Her expression softened to one of nurturing.

“I want you to stay with us,”  Sam said somberly.

“I can’t do that Sam,”  Myin said, glancing down the hall.  “I can’t drag the girls with me all over the world just to follow you.  That’s not fair to them.  I do love you, Sam.  I want you to be with me.  Maybe when you finished your journey and it’s safe, you can come live with us.”

“What about Dean?”  Sam asked tilting his head as he relished the way she’d said she loved him.

“He did save my life, we literally share the same blood now.”  She counted in her head as if doing math.  “Maybe it would be alright if he lived here too.”

“Family don’t end in blood.”  Sam joked thinking about what Bobby had said. Which brought him to a disturbing thought, something he needed to talk to Dean about desperately.

“Where did you hear that?”  Myin laughed.  The giggle she let out called Dani from her toys.

“Sammy!”  She cried as she came toddling down the hall and throwing herself at the pair of them.  Sam hugged the little girl back and felt his heart hurt for the baby that he wasn’t going to be having with Myin.  He perked up again, thinking of the way the woman he was holding had told him she loved him.  Maybe it was just not yet.

@waywardbaby @destielhoneybee @snffbeebee @deangirl7695 @spnbaby-67 @maddiepants @tabrown2021 @ladywinchester1967 @woodworthti666 @miraclesoflove @tumbler-tidbits @emilyshurley @akshi8278 @mannls @wendibird @bobasheebaby @flamencodiva @theoneandonlymelol @chelsea072498 @donnaintx @justsomedreaming @supernaturalenchanted @kalesrebellion @prettydeaneyes @emoryhemsworth @idreamofplaid​

[hamliet]

I've never seen Game of Thrones but I've heard a lot about it and apparently many people are upset with the ending. Something about Targaryen becoming a villain at the last second for no apparent reason? Idk, could you explain what's going on? I heard it's based off a book series. Does the show stray from the original plot or stay loyal to it?

*starts sobbing* SPARE YOURSELF

Honestly I’d sum it up like how @mercyandmagic summed it up: image Harry Potter wins the Battle of Hogwarts, but in the very moment he wins, he snaps and the Voldemort horcrux inside him suddenly takes over the rest of his soul and he murders almost everyone and Ginny has to put him down at Hermione and Ron’s urging.

That’s what happened. It was a tone-deaf plot twist in this day and age, misogynistic, ableist, and racist in its execution, and it was poorly written as well--like, there was no foreshadowing for this twist of events.

The thing about the books is that they aren’t completed. We are 5/7 books through. The creator told the showrunners the bare bones of the ending (who lives/dies/gets the throne), so I’m hoping this isn’t his endgame exactly. Others speculate it might not be (for example, the main ship--Jon and Dany--might still have one killing the other, but it might be more in a sacrifice than in a “put the mad dog down” scenario like the show gave us. Still hate it, but not “burn it all down”).

We know they cut some characters from the books whom at first I assumed the fact that they were cut meant that they were extra fat, and... well I am now hoping that’s wrong because combining their arcs with the characters we have left would explain a lot about it being shit. 

So, the primary defense I’m seeing of Dany Villain is that she’s a tragic heroine, and her descent just wasn’t written properly. I’d agree that it’s not written well, but I’d also argue that in both the books and in the show, Dany is not presented as a tragic heroine at all, but as a hero on a gritty version of the hero’s journey–just like Jon--but one of the cut characters is indeed a tragic heroine. 

The thing about tragedies is that you have to manage expectations and clearly show that your tragic hero is doomed from the very early on–ie you have to show them making steadily worse and worse decisions (see: Eren Jaeger in SnK), if not directly tell your audience at the very beginning that this is a tragic story (ie see Greek choruses and Shakespeare, the prequels from Star Wars because everyone knows Anakin is Vader–plus I’d argue Anakin’s arc only works because we know he comes back to the light in the end–Kaneki Ken in the first Tokyo Ghoul, etc).

We don’t have that with Dany or with Jon, and we’re 5/7 through the books which is, frankly, too late. If they intended to show Dany as a tragic heroine they needed to start foreshadowing that in, oh, book 3/season 4-5 at the latest, and show divergence from Jon Snow’s arc instead of increasing parallels. But they haven’t, which gives me hope at least that the book’s ending plays out a little bit more like Dany burning a city as the “abyss/underworld” part of her hero’s journey (which she is on, and so is Jon) and then redeeming herself in the end fighting a greater enemy.

A hero’s journey includes a step in which the hero confronts the darkness, the shadow. For Jon, it’s a cold death and the fact that winter is coming. For Dany, it’s her father and her heritage’s legacy of fire and blood. The end of Book 5, the last book published, pretty clearly showed both of them falling to the abyss (well, teetering on the edge, and it’s going to get worse before they’re both reborn). But the important thing is that it’s not the end of their journey.

Audiences don’t like reversing on set up/undoing structure. To make Dany a tragic heroine is to go against the structure of her arc in both show and book. That’s why people don’t like it, even if the books makes it seem more believable.

You know who is set up as a tragic heroine destined to descend and die because of her flaws in the books, whose arc has almost certainly been combined with Dany’s in some sense in the show?

Arianne Martell. (and another character known as f!Aegon)

The show pretty clearly merged Jon’s (main hero’s) arc with f!Aegon’s, even giving him his name (in a nonsensical way. In the books, f!Aegon believes he is Aegon Targaryen, Jon’s brother, though he really isn’t as Aegon is dead; in the show, Jon’s dad apparently named… both his sons Aegon. Mmkay). Characters who are  the mastermindsbehind the Aegon plot, supporting him over f!Aegon, take Jon’s side against Dany in the show. Similarly, the show is merging Dany with Arianne, retconning her as letting her demons overtake her in the end, when that is just not Dany’s arc’s set up at all, in the books or in the show.  

In the books, Arianne is incredibly ambitious, and especially resents her brother and his quest for power. Like Margaery (another tragic character), Arianne seeks power and is intelligent and manipulative in her quest for it. But Margaery’s fatal mistake is that in seeking power and prestige, she’s become more a pawn than anything else for a villain (Cersei). She chose to play with lions, and she’ll be torn apart; that’s not surprising. Arianne, as her chapters hint, is going to almost certainly marry f!Aegon, playing with fire, and die burning for it.  

Arianne’s grasping for her own power is never portrayed as cruel or stupid like the main human villain (Cersei); on the contrary, we empathize with a girl who truly cares about her people, but resents her father’s preferential treatment towards her brother. That’s the difference between Arianne and Cersei: Arianne cares. She is not cruel. But her pride is still going to get her killed.

The books as I recall have always, always portrayed the Others (White Walkers) as the primary threat, not the game of thrones. People who get involved in the game of thrones–it doesn’t end well. The thing about Dany, though, is that she sees herself as a revolutionary. “Break the wheel” isn’t in the books (yet), but it’s a pretty good character moment for her that rings true. But this sets up Dany’s primary conflict: does she want to be like her father or not? Throughout the books, she hasn’t wanted to be. But she can’t have her cake and eat it to. If she goes for the throne–symbolic of her family and her father and those ghosts, as it’s always been portrayed as corrupting–she will indeed probably become more like her father. To be unlike her father, she’d probably have to not play the game of thrones anymore at all, and the Others are like… RIGHT THERE to provide this motivation for her.

But the show said “fuck it she’s her dad let me show you a snap two episodes after she saved the world from the Others who after being the primary threat for 7.5 seasons are now an afterthought and defeated after a single day because we gotta go with Bitches Be CrayCray as a plotline”

Man, I remember being disappointed the show cut Arianne and f!Aegon, but honestly it wasn’t until this season that I’ve been realizing how wrong my thinking that “they must have just been fat that could be cut” might have been. I shouldn’t have trusted D&D, that they knew what they were doing. They did not.

Or this might all be wrong and Jon and Dany are just doomed to be victims of bad writing in any case. *shrugs* Who knows if we’ll ever get those last two books (there’s been an 8+ year gap from the last one) so. Yeah.

That is probably way too long and complicated. I am sorry. I needed to vent lol. Also, the Dany and Arianne and f!Aegon theory is not mine--other meta writers for the books have written about it, but I find it convincing and honestly it gives me hope; see here.

[ashleyfanfic]

Redemption arcs and Jonerys

So, I’ve had a few comments on my recent Tormund story that got me to thinking and I wanted to share this with you guys. I’ve had a few people ask me “how can you possibly put Jon and Dany together after he tries to kill her?” And I guess my answer for this comes from my shipping past.

Some of you may know by now that I was/am a Dramione shipper (Draco Malfoy/Hermione Granger - Harry Potter) from starting in like 2002/2003 and I wrote the most recent fic for them in 2017. I don’t actively write for that ship anymore but I do still read stuff from my favorite authors. But I’ve digressed.

So, all those years spent in the Dramione fandom I had to find ways to work around the fact that Draco Malfoy is essentially a bad guy and Hermione Granger is the golden girl. So, let’s look at their pasts. Draco was raised in a wealthy Pureblood family who believe that only Purebloods should be allowed to do magic. He’s a bigot. He’s a bully. He’s basically a shitty human being. Then you have Hermione who champions House Elf rights, helps Hagrid with his case for Buckbeak, is the smartest witch in an age and is the exact thing Draco grew up hating: a Muggleborn. But I shipped them because I saw little sparks of there being something more to Draco than meets the eye. We know Draco became a Death Eater, those who sought out Muggleborns and killed them, but there were so many interactions with Hermione that left you going ‘huh, maybe there’s something there’. 

To be a Draco/Hermione fan, I had to find LEGITIMATE ways to work with the source material, which I usually did. I was one of those people who thumped my dog earred, comments in the margins books screaming that it was canon and the movies were someone’s interpretation. It was always about a redemption arc for Draco. Hermione would never be with him how he was, so there were things in the stories where he had to grow. That was always the fun part, exploring the growth. 

All that being said, I think it’s why I can find a way for Jon and Dany to still be together. A this point, I’m going to put up the hide content thing cause I’m going to get into the spoilers for the last episode. 

So, according to the spoilers, Dany is killed by Jon. She just committed mass genocide, and Jon kills her. While I think what Dany did was reprehensible, having Jon kill Dany is an enormous hurdle to climb in terms of suspension of disbelief. Could she ever forgive him for that? Could he ever get over what she did? 

I’m approaching it thinking that there is a redemption arc on both sides. When Dany and co attack King’s Landing, she’s had a rough fucking time lately. The man she loves tells her that not only does he have a better claim to the things she’s worked and suffered for her entire life, but he’s pulling away from her because of the relationship (which makes no sense in a feudal system as aunts and nephews being icky is very much a Western thing). She’s losing her lifeline that she developed to cope with the new world she was living in. She lost a dragon to save his life, she opened herself up to him, fell in love with him, and he pushed her away. She might have been able to tolerate all the other heartbreak if she felt like she truly have one person on her side who still loved and believed in her. The man she wanted to cling to when it seemed like the world was crumbling down upon her. She lost her oldest friend in Jorah, who died in her arms after giving his life to protect her, she lost the intimacy she had with Jon, she lost another dragon (her child) and was helpless to stop it, and she lost her closest friend in the world, Missandei. All of those deaths were traumatic for her to witness. She’s seen trauma, but she had never experienced it to such a degree as she had these last few episodes. She lost her husband and child but walked out of the fire with three dragons. I’m not saying they are a substitute for a live, flesh and blood child, but they did bring her comfort and a purpose, as did the people that stuck with her. 

I’ll also say that when she had it confirmed that Sansa told Tyrion about Jon, it confirmed that Jon had done the one thing she had begged him not to do. BEGGED. We’ve seen Dany pretty low in this series. She didn’t beg Khal Drogo not to rape her. She didn’t beg Viserys not to sell her. She didn’t beg in the House of the Undying or to the Dothraki. She was not a person who begged anyone for anything. But she begged the man she loved not to tell this secret that would not only ruin her claim but put her life in danger. He told someone she already recognized as her enemy, that he was naive enough to trust. Sansa didn’t tell Tyrion because she thought Daenerys was unjust. She told Tyrion for the very reasons that Daenerys said, she knew he would spread it without her having to tell anyone else. She knows Varys is plotting against her. She knows Tyrion has at least thought about it. The only other person she has to lean on is Grey Worm and he’s seething in rage and hurt just as she is. So, when Dany starts burning innocent people, it’s not Dany anymore. It’s a shell of Dany. The real Dany made points along the way about preserving the innocent and especially children. It’s easy to say, “Oh she snapped” but maybe she really did snap.

Then we have Jon. She still loves him. Know that he sold her out to Sansa, she still loved him and wanted to be with him. He was still her lifeline. So, now, that the rumor is that Jon kills her, is seized by Grey Worm and forced to take the Black, you also set up a redemption arc for Jon. Because while Daenerys did do something horrible, her death didn’t prevent her from doing it. It’s not like Jaime killing the mad king. This is if Jaime had killed him after the fact. We have Jon betraying Daenerys and killing her. Jon not only becomes a Queenslayer/Kinslayer, but he also becomes an Oathbreaker. That’s the biggest disservice done to Jon Snow besides making him virtually ineffective throughout this season. Jon Snow has proven to be an honorable man. He values that more than just about anything and to have him kill a woman he loves, his family, too, just feels like it goes beyond whatever feels right.

I think that’s the part people are taking issue with. How could Dany ever forgive him for trying to kill her? The truth is she probably shouldn’t. How could she trust that he would never do it again? The truth is she probably shouldn’t. But I think if these two found one another in a different time, in different circumstances, where they had both made mistakes, done things they regretted and hated, then it would change things drastically. 

But I got back to a redemption arc. So, let’s assume Dany doesn’t die but lives through it, which if we believe what happens, Drogon takes her body and leaves. She could still be alive. She wouldn’t embrace him with open arms. That’s illogical. And no matter how she might have felt about him, there’s no erasing what he did for the “greater good”. And as for Jon, she’s not the woman he fell in love with. It would take them being isolated again. Jon and Dany always connected better diplomatically and otherwise when they were alone, without the counsel of others. I think that’s where you start. You have to make it realistic. You have to acknowledge what they’ve both done to bring them to that point. 

Glossing over Dany's madness doesn't make what she did less terrible or make it not happen. Glossing over Jon killing Daenerys doesn’t make it less terrible or make it not happen. The point, for me at least and how I’m coping with this is how do they get beyond that? Can they? Is there a middle ground to be found? Is there a catalyst that brings them together? Is there something more than what meets the eye? It doesn’t have to end just because D&D lost their fucking minds and forgot who these characters are and their journeys. Instead, embrace what happened and write something compelling. Hell, they might not end up together, but there could be something more. Explore it. Roll around in it. Invest in it. 

Now, I realize I’ve rambled but my ultimate point is I am a firm believer in redemption arcs. It’s why I grew to love Theon and Jaime(less Jaime now). People are capable of growing and learning from their mistakes, but these are more than just mistakes for Jon and Dany. They are huge milestones in their lives. Conscious choices each of them made that they will have to live with for the rest of their lives. And personally, I’m exploring that in my Tormund fic from his POV. 

Anyway, that’s just my two cents. 

[ai-adler-blog]

Game of Thrones’ problem with female characters and why Daenerys’ twist failed

This is something that has been bothering me for a while, but it became too evident to ignore in the last couple of seasons.

The show tends to suggest (since season 6 or so) that the only way a woman can be "strong" is through embracing violence, or showing how much better they are at things than the male characters. Think about it: Sansa was portrayed as a victim and almost unable to make her own strong decisions until she escaped Ramsay after enduring his torture and later killed him. Then she started to be portrayed as an amazingly intelligent and capable character able to put everyone in their place. Daenerys began embracing violence and using her dragons with the dothraki (although, to be fair, that has always been a part of her plotline and the issues with her "madness" are not strictly related to that). Cersei as well, but this has always fit with her character. Lyanna Mormont was great but she was never allowed a moment of insecurity or a second to remind the audience that, despite her "badass" estatus and how much she was liked, she is still a child. Arya... Arya deserves her own paragraph entirely.

I think one of the main problems with Arya is that, as they merged her plotline with Lady Stoneheart's, they ended up having a character with two opposite roles in the story. Arya's storyline has always been about the pain the smallfolk have to deal with in war and loss of identity as she abandons who she was, finding herself and her home again and how revenge can only lead her to more suffering. Arya is a character that needs to see that embracing that dark side will only make her lose herself even more, and coming back to Winterfell should have proven that she is willing to try to heal even if all wounds will never heal completely and find herself again as Arya Stark of Winterfell. She said so herself when she left the House of Black and White in the show; however, the person that came back didn't change from who she became in Braavos, and kept on embracing violence. They should have had her be conflicted over all she had to endure and all she did now that she is finally home and in touch with the little girl she used to be. By adding Lady Stoneheart (the literal embodiement of inhumanity)'s plotline to her own, her character was not allowed to feel any sort of remorse or insecurity over her own actions, because that is not part of Lady Stoneheart's direction nor character. Merging a character whose story is about regaining identity and finding herself and her home to the embodiement of violence and inhumanity creates a character whose personality by the start of the series doesn't fit with the one she has by the end of it, because Arya by the end has taken on a personality that was never her own. There have been plenty of moments when they could have humanized her and shown that she still has some flaws or insecurities, or that she is willing to open up to someone without keeping the "badass" facade: when she flirts and sleeps with Gendry (something that ended up serving no other purpose to the story or her character development than fanservice), when she is with Sansa, when she meets again with Jon...

The other main problem that not only affects Arya but that becomes incredibly evident with her is that, if the character is a hero, they are not allowed to be wrong or make mistakes. They are always right and they know it and everything they do, they do perfectly well. Compare this to Jon who was completely shat on this past season, to Jaime who got his character development thrown out the window as foreshadowed by the first episode, and to Tyrion who has literally not made a single good decision since season 5. Arya suddenly becomes this incredible assassin despite not really doing all that much assassin training in Braavos, defeating even Brienne who has way more training than her and would be on a completely different level just based on size and strength alone, somehow being able to run on snow without being heard, surviving the destruction of King's Landing. She is always portrayed as a badass and edgy in the way she talks and carries herself even though it's not even human-like. Sansa kills Ramsay and suddenly becomes the smartest person in Winterfell just by making basic logical statements with a serious face, and talking down to Tyrion. Daenerys, at least in seasons 6-7, was almost always portrayed as being right and ready and her mistakes during those seasons were because of someone else (Euron's fleet, the Night King killing Viserion because she was saving the Fellowship of the Wight). Even Cersei has somehow been right in every decision she's made. They are hardly ever allowed a moment when they are not expressionless and show hints of humanity, like affection, insecurities, flaws or just putting down their walls. Hell, one of the most intimate moments of season 8, Brienne sleeping with Jaime, was done solely for the same reasons Arya and Gendry hooked up: for fanservice, and to indicate that a woman is somehow not "complete" if she hasn't slept with anyone. At least, that's what I thought it meant, given Arya's reasoning of wanting to do it in case they didn't survive and Tyrion shaming Brienne for being a virgin despite the fact that she is a highborn lady and it's probably not that easy to find birth control while on the road. It didn't serve to advance any plotline of character. Jaime even regressed as a character entirely.

And speaking of Cersei, her character is another one that got a personality change for no particular reason except to indicate that her caring about her children shows that she is actually a good person and misanderstood and loving all along. She doesn't kill Tyrion when she has the chance in season 7 or 8 for no reason, and her baby didn't serve any purpose to the story except to remind the audience that being a mother means that you are capable of love and loving those who you seemingly don't... and Catelyn Stark and Selyse Florent should have been an indicator that this was going to happen.

Catelyn got that scene back in season 2 or 3 talking about how Jon got the pox and she prayed for him not to die, but was unable to love him. Despite the fact that that scene proves that, when faced with death, she did care about Jon as she did for her other children. Maybe not as much, but she still cared for someone she was supposed to hate, because somehow motherhood solves all flaws related to love. Selyse, who was a complete fanatic of the Lord of Light and took pleasure in watching people burn alive, and didn't care at all about her daughter, somehow became caring after watching her be executed and killed herself, showing that her love was above her fanatism. So what do they do to Cersei to have her be in a scene with Tyrion and not kill him right away? Remind the audience that she, as a mother, cared about her children, and Tyrion saying she is not a monster. That obviously must mean that she is capable of love and therefore even loves Tyrion deep down. This is such a disservice to who Cersei used to be. And it angers me even more because Cersei being a mother and caring about her children doesn't make her less of a monster and an unredeemable person. But suddenly, now that she is pregnant and "able to love again" she gets humanized and gets to have a tragic ending à la Romeo and Juliet with Jaime.

Which leads to what, in my opinion, is the biggest problem with Dany's sudden descent into madness. If all female characters are "strong" and "empowered" by the use of violence, and a character like Cersei can be redeemed, why is Daenerys own use of violence prior to episode 5 so unnaceptable? The show started going for the "good guys" vs "bad guys" route and making everything much more black and white with the characters, especially the Starks vs Cersei. So whenever Arya or Sansa used extremely violent methods, like feeding Ramsay to his dogs or the genocide of House Frey (which is a plot point that will probably be a part of Lady Stoneheart's plot in the next books, not Arya's) which would probably have made things even worse for the Riverlands, it is because we had the clear "good guys" vs "bad guys". And the audience cheered because we all wanted those who made the heroes suffer to suffer as well. I mean, I smiled when Joffrey died, although it's quite fucked up because he is, at the end of the day, a child dying in the arms of his mother. Cersei blowing up the Sept and killing the Tyrells solidified her as a villain even more. But then suddenly everyone was concerned about Daenerys' own use of violence. It is understandable, because the dragons are massive weapons of destruction, but as far as everyone could tell Daenerys kept them under control. The only moment that hinted at her "madness" this past season was when she burned the Tarlys, which only served to create more conflict between Jon and her. And then comes episode 5. Daenerys has lost a lot of people she cares about and learns Varys and Tyrion are plotting against her for no reason. And suddenly she hears the bells and goes crazy. And d&d go "oh, she was always mad, she burned people and didn't react when Viserys died". But Sansa smiled when Ramsay died and Viserys was also incredibly abusive towards Dany, and Arya killed and cooked people into pies and slaughtered an entire house with no consequences. Her violent actions which made her "strong" in the first few seasons are supposedly an indicator that she will go mad when they are in par with other violent actions by characters the season wants to portray as heroes. And then Cersei, whose actions have portrayed her as a villain, gets a sudden change of personality and is humanized when she did probably the worst, most violent act among all female characters (blowing up the Sept of Baelor), and Daenerys gets dehumanized despite most of her violence being used for what she believed was doing the right thing. When the heroes commit the same atrocities as the surprise villain and only her gets punished for it, and the main villain of the story commits horrible acts of violence as well but is humanized because she is now a mother and to make the surprise villain look even worse, the twist is not going to work because the reasoning behind it isn't particularly noteworthy.

I'm sorry for the rant, I just had so much to say and didn't word it very well (English is not my first language), but I'll try to edit a bit tomorrow.

EDIT: I forgot to mention one of my early "wtf" moments related to the treatment of women in the show. After Jaime loses his hand and Brienne scolds him for whining because she thinks this is the first time he's suffered, she says "you sound like a bloody woman". It feels a bit insulting considering that Brienne herself is a woman and that this, coming from another character, in this world, could make sense, but given the respect both Brienne and Jaime have for women, it feels out of character. In the books, iirc, she says something like "are you so vain?". In this show this line feels like it was added just for the sake of being edgy.

tl;dr: the show tries to imply that a woman is complete when she is no longer a virgin, that she only becomes a strong character when she embraces violence and has no flaws, and that being a mother can redeem any bad actions and make you a good person despite everything else proving otherwise. The reason why Daenerys's madness does not work is because her use of violence is condemned when characters who are labeled as heroes have done the same or worse without punishment, and the villain is humanized despite her own terrible violent crimes to make Dany "the surprise villain" look even worse.

[wxldchxld]

let’s talk about characters that have meant a lot to me and been totally shit on. like everyone else on tumblr rn. (warning this gets kind of personal)

So anyone that has known me for a long time has known that Daenerys was the reason I got into Game of Thrones (the show). I have a very long history of loving dragons that started out with books like The Enchanted Forest Chronicles and Heartsblood (which is not a book i hold in high regard as an adult, but meant a lot to me as a kid). Anyway, I didn’t really actually start watching the whole show until season 6. Before that, I skipped between scenes that featured Dany and her dragons and didn’t really invest in any of the other characters.

I’m not someone who is super easily emotionally shaken by media. I might cry at a book, I might yell at a show, but very few things have been able to make me have some sort of lasting emotion that affects my mood beyond the credits. That being said the destruction of Daenerys Targaryen has been kind of devastating for me. This character who I’ve been invested in for years has been slowly dismantled and now thrown into the fire to burn.

What bothers me most is that I’ve always felt connected to what I thought was one of the morals of Dany’s story. As someone with a hereditary mental disability who grew up in a household with a father suffering that same problem, who did not get treatment and was violent toward us because of it, I am deeply hurt by the “mad queen” plot they’re determined to reinforce. To me, a big part of who Dany always was revolved around knowing what her brother and her father were like (if not directly, then by hearing stories and such). She has always struggled with the impulses to be like them, and she has always done her best to be better than that. She demanded Khal Drogo stop his men from raping and murdering the women they’d taken hostage, she freed the unsullied when that could have cost her literally everything if they’d have decided not to fight for her as free men. In conquering cities and achieving her goals she has fallen and she has committed acts of horrible violence as an act of revenge rather than justice, but we got to see her war with that. When she is presented with the burned bones of a child, she doesn’t just say well dragons will be dragons, she locks her own children beneath the great pyramid and it breaks her heart. 

Dany’s story has always been about things like liberation, survival, and the desire to do better. To see her character be reduced to something like this---I don’t care HOW they would have done it or with what kind of set up---is really upsetting for me. 

I’ve said this to a few people and I’ll say it again: the stories we tell about mentally ill people matter. The show has made a point to demonstrate that Dany’s family is “mad.” But you don’t just get to say someone is crazy and that they’re like the bad crazy and there’s no more explanation than that, and pretend like you can avoid people making real world connections to it because you didn’t put a medical name to it. I’m not going to try and diagnose Dany or her family, but I am a person that struggles daily with a mental illness, and a person who suffered as a child because of a patriarchal figure in my life being mentally ill and refusing to admit that. So when I see them basically saying that after all she’s done, after how far that she’s come, in spite of all of her dreams and desires and ideals for a better world, that Dany can not avoid going “mad” and committing the same sins as her father it’s a big fuck you to people like me.  

What’s going to be even more frustrating is how they’re going to deal with this. There has not been any sympathy for Dany in the last two seasons. Dany has become more and more isolated as people trust her less and less and treat her like a child who needs to be handled rather than a human being. This is one of the major reasons (beyond them being literally related) that I never could get behind Jonerys or whatever it’s called. I felt like Dany threw herself into that relationship way too hard and way too fast all because she didn’t have anyone else that she could look to as an equal and lean on emotionally. 

This season has been even worse. Dany has been consistently defied, disrespected, and treated like a mad woman. And now they’re going to paint her as crazy and Tyrion, Varys, Arya, and Sansa are going to be like I KNEW IT WAS COMING TO THIS. And there isn’t going to be any part of the story where they reflect on what they could have done differently.

Is Dany to blame for her own actions? I don’t think so. Honestly. If Dany is suffering from some sort of metal break down she is NOT responsible, nor is she a bad person. She is a victim of an illness that was triggered by several stressers, including things like rejection, isolation, and the loss of two of her children as well as her oldest and dearest friends. But she’s not going to be treated with sympathy from a narrative stand point. She’s going to be treated like a rabid dog that needs to be put down and everyone is going to go “oh what a shame she could have been so great” and no one else is going to take responsibility for the part they played in pushing this mentally ill woman to the edge and demanding that she not fall off it.

I personally don’t like the entire plotline, so I’m not going to argue the last point that I just made about other people sharing the responsibility. I think even going down this road at all was wrong. It was insensitive to people struggling with mental health disorders and survivors of abuse, it was racist in the way it portrayed the Unsullied and the Dothraki as mindless savages, and from a narrative stand point it was just poor writing. They took six years of character development and they jumped on it like some asshole kid kicking over a sandcastle at a beach just to see people be shocked and emotional. And they’re going to look at this, ignore all the criticisms, and say “that was good tv because it inspired emotion.”

But stories carry weight. We invest our time, our money, and our emotions in them. They have meaning, they have symbolism, they have parallels to the real world. Being emotional or entertained enough to sit through an hour and thirty minutes without changing the channel isn’t what people want. It’s not a satisfying return on all we’ve invested.

[sleepwalker-in-me]

Playing the part of Queen and Prince

Dany and Bran book parallels - part 14

1) Letting go off the life of play

Keep walking. If I look back I am lost.Memories walked with her. Clouds seen from above. Horses small as ants thundering through the grass. A silver moon, almost close enough to touch. Rivers running bright and blue below, glimmering in the sun. Will I ever see such sights again? On Drogon's back she felt whole. Up in the sky the woes of this world could not touch her. How could she abandon that? It was time, though. A girl might spend her life at play, but she was a woman grown, a queen, a wife, a mother to thousands. Her children had need of her. Drogon had bent before the whip, and so must she. She had to don her crown again and return to her ebon bench and the arms of her noble husband.(A Dance with Dragons - Daenerys X)

With him had come a long tail of retainers: knights, squires, lesser lords and ladies, heralds, musicians, even a juggler, all aglitter with banners and surcoats in what seemed half a hundred colors. Bran had welcomed them to Winterfell from his father's high stone seat with the direwolves carved into the arms, and afterward Ser Rodrik had said he'd done well. If that had been the end of it, he would not have minded. But it was only the beginning. "The feast makes a pleasant pretext," Ser Rodrik explained, "but a man does not cross a hundred leagues for a sliver of duck and a sip of wine. Only those who have matters of import to set before us are like to make the journey." Bran gazed up at the rough stone ceiling above his head. Robb would tell him not to play the boy, he knew. He could almost hear him, and their lord father as well. Winter is coming, and you are almost a man grown, Bran. You have a duty.(A Clash of Kings - Bran II)

2) Play the Prince and Play at being Queen

There were guests in Winterfell, visitors come for the harvest feast. This morning they would be tilting at quintains in the yard. Once that prospect would have filled him with excitement, but that was before. Not now. The Walders would break lances with the squires of Lord Manderly's escort, but Bran would have no part of it. He must play the prince in his father's solar. "Listen, and it may be that you will learn something of what lordship is all about," Maester Luwin had said.Bran had never asked to be a prince. It was knighthood he had always dreamed of; bright armor and streaming banners, lance and sword, a warhorse between his legs. Why must he waste his days listening to old men speak of things he only half understood? Because you're broken, a voice inside reminded him. A lord on his cushioned chair might be crippled—the Walders said their grandfather was so feeble he had to be carried everywhere in a litter—but not a knight on his destrier. Besides, it was his duty. "You are your brother's heir and the Stark in Winterfell," Ser Rodrik said, reminding him of how Robb used to sit with their lord father when his bannermen came to see him.(A Clash of Kings - Bran II)

Dany pictured Jorah moving amongst old gnarled oaks and tall pines, past flowering thornbushes, grey stones bearded with moss, and little creeks running icy down steep hillsides. She saw him entering a hall built of huge logs, where dogs slept by the hearth and the smell of meat and mead hung thick in the smoky air. "We are done for now," she told her captains.It was all she could do not to run back up the wide marble stairs. Irri helped her slip from her court clothes and into more comfortable garb; baggy woolen breeches, a loose felted tunic, a painted Dothraki vest. "You are trembling, Khaleesi," the girl said as she knelt to lace up Dany's sandals."I'm cold," Dany lied. "Bring me the book I was reading last night." She wanted to lose herself in the words, in other times and other places. The fat leather-bound volume was full of songs and stories from the Seven Kingdoms. Children's stories, if truth be told; too simple and fanciful to be true history. All the heroes were tall and handsome, and you could tell the traitors by their shifty eyes. Yet she loved them all the same. Last night she had been reading of the three princesses in the red tower, locked away by the king for the crime of being beautiful. When her handmaid brought the book, Dany had no trouble finding the page where she had left off, but it was no good. She found herself reading the same passage half a dozen times. Ser Jorah gave me this book as a bride's gift, the day I wed Khal Drogo. But Daario is right, I shouldn't have banished him. I should have kept him, or I should have killed him. She played at being a queen, yet sometimes she still felt like a scared little girl. Viserys always said what a dolt I was. Was he truly mad? (A Storm of Swords - Daenerys VI)

3) They are hiding their tears at the thought of being left alone with the burden of magic and responsibility of ruling. Bran wants Jojen and Meera to be greenseers too, just like Dany wants two men to be dragonriders with her. But they will soon come to realize that the dragons and greensight are their own hardship that nobody is going to share with them. They have to gain mastery over their own magic.

Earth and water, soil and stone, oaks and elms and willows, they were here before us all and will still remain when we are gone." "So will you," said Meera. That made Bran sad. What if I don't want to remain when you are gone? he almost asked, but he swallowed the words unspoken. He was almost a man grown, and he did not want Meera to think he was some weepy babe. "  Maybe you could be greenseers too," he said instead."No, Bran." Now Meera sounded sad. (A Dance with Dragons - Bran III)

She dreaded what must come next, yet she knew she had put it off too long already. Yunkai and Astapor, threats of war, marriage proposals, the march west looming over all . . . I need my knights. I need their swords, and I need their counsel. Yet the thought of seeing Jorah Mormont again made her feel as if she'd swallowed a spoonful of flies; angry, agitated, sick. She could almost feel them buzzing round her belly. I am the blood of the dragon. I must be strong. I must have fire in my eyes when I face them, not tears. " (A Storm of Swords - Daenerys VI)

[6angel6babie6]

stealing this

i am stealing this from 

daddy

my best friend

tumblr user @bugmouths

1: 6 of the songs you listen to most?

Gemini Feed by Banks

Just the Same by Empress Of 

What Are We Gonna Do Now by Indigo de Sousa 

The Sun is Bad by Indigo De Sousa 

700 Club by Nicole Dollanganger 

A Sunday Kind of Love by Etta JAmes 

2: If you could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be?

Harry Styles :/

3: Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 23, give me line 17.

“You’re entrusted with equipment that costs a fortune” - Dear John

4: What do you think about most?

My friends and my sister 

5: What does your latest text message from someone else say?

Its two pictures of a writer that @bugmouths sent me 

6: Do you sleep with or without clothes on?

Absolutely not 

7: What’s your strangest talent?

Imitating voices 

8: Girls… (finish the sentence); Boys… (finish the sentence)

Girls go to Jupiter to get more stupider boys go to college to get more knowledge 

9: Ever had a poem or song written about you?

No :( 

10: When is the last time you played the air guitar?

I don’t even know 

11: Do you have any strange phobias?

SPIDERS 

12: Ever stuck a foreign object up your nose?

Yeah a ds stylus, q-tips, coke

13: What’s your religion?

I don’t rlly know… catholic alligned?? 

14: If you are outside, what are you most likely doing?

Smoking 

15: Do you prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it?

behind

16: Simple but extremely complex. Favorite band?

La Dispute 

17: What was the last lie you told?

I told my friends that i had plans with that i couldn’t hang out lol n

18: Do you believe in karma?

Yes 

19: What does your URL mean?

That i used to be a popular slut who felt evil but now its not rlly true. 

20: What is your greatest weakness; your greatest strength?

Weakness: my mental health and clinginess. Strengths: I’m caring 

21: Who is your celebrity crush?

I have no many 

22: Have you ever gone skinny dipping?

absolutely not

23: How do you vent your anger?

I cry and isolate myself and drink 

24: Do you have a collection of anything?

I have really cool old envelopes 

25: Do you prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online?

Facetiming 

26: Are you happy with the person you’ve become?

no

27: What’s a sound you hate; sound you love?

Hate: chewing specifically sticky things. Love: trains

28: What’s your biggest “what if”?

What if i had an childhood 

29: Do you believe in ghosts? How about aliens?

Absolutely to both 

30: Stick your right arm out; what do you touch first? Do the same with your left arm.

Right: a pillow Left: my wall 

31: Smell the air. What do you smell?

It smells fresh cause my window is open 

32: What’s the worst place you have ever been to?

Arizona i fucking loathe it there 

33: Choose: East Coast or West Coast?

I’ve never seen east, so west.

34: Most attractive singer of your opposite gender?

Harry styles 

35: To you, what is the meaning of life?

No idea 

36: Define Art.

idk

37: Do you believe in luck?

yes

38: What’s the weather like right now?

Cold and windy

39: What time is it?

8:59

40: Do you drive? If so, have you ever crashed?

Yes, and no i haven’t 

41: What was the last book you read?

I don’t remember honestly�� 

42: Do you like the smell of gasoline?

yes

43: Do you have any nicknames?

Dani is my nickname hehe 

44: What was the last film you saw?

It was…. Hm. I dont know. The Nun? 

45: What’s the worst injury you’ve ever had?

I broke my leg :( 

46: Have you ever caught a butterfly?

No 

47: Do you have any obsessions right now?

Probably a lot 

48: What’s your sexual orientation?

p….an?

49: Ever had a rumour spread about you?

Absolutely 

50: Do you believe in magic?

yes

51: Do you tend to hold grudges against people who have done you wrong?

Not frequently 

52: What is your astrological sign?

Scorpio :) 

53: Do you save money or spend it?

SPEND 

54: What’s the last thing you purchased?

Mac n cheese and pizza rolls 

55: Love or lust?

Um both. But lust cause its easier. 

56: In a relationship?

no

57: How many relationships have you had?

Like 4 real ones 

58: Can you touch your nose with your tongue?

Yes 

59: Where were you yesterday?

At my grandmas 

60: Is there anything pink within 10 feet of you?

My vibrator 

61: Are you wearing socks right now?

no

62: What’s your favourite animal?

snakes!!!!

63: What is your secret weapon to get someone to like you?

“Baby and angel energy” im also funny 

64: Where is your best friend?

On ft with me at their house 

65: Give me your top 5 favourite blogs on Tumblr.

@bugmouths muah

66: What is your heritage?

Half mexican half irish 

67: What were you doing last night at 12AM?

I was texting maria and dozing off, watching youtube 

68: What do you think is Satan’s last name?

Starts with a V 

69: Be honest. Ever gotten yourself off?

Literally too often 

70: Are you the kind of friend you would want to have as a friend?

I think so

71: You are walking down the street on your way to work. There is a dog drowning in the canal on the side of the street. Your boss has told you if you are late one more time you get fired. What do you do?

Save the dog probably 

72: You are at the doctor’s office and she has just informed you that you have approximately one month to live. a) Do you tell anyone/everyone you are going to die? b) What do you do with your remaining days? c) Would you be afraid?

a) I would tell my sister and my friends b) tell everyone how i feel ab them lol c) no

73: You can only have one of these things; trust or love.

trust

74: What’s a song that always makes you happy when you hear it?

Sleeping lessons by the shins 

75: What are the last four digits in your cell phone number?

lol

76: In your opinion, what makes a great relationship?

Idk i’m really bad at relationships

77: How can I win your heart?

Literally give me attention 

78: Can insanity bring on more creativity?

sometimes

79: What is the single best decision you have made in your life so far?

Um idk. 

80: What size shoes do you wear?

Big ones for tall ppl 

81: What would you want to be written on your tombstone?

My name? idk

82: What is your favourite word?

I really dont know

83: Give me the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word; heart.

Too big 

84: What is a saying you say a lot?

I love you 

85: What’s the last song you listened to?

Whatever is playing on the other end of this ft 

86: Basic question; what’s your favourite colour/colours?

Mmm lately like white and yellow and pink

87: What is your current desktop picture?

It’s the factory nature pics, i haven’t changed it 

88: If you could press a button and make anyone in the world instantaneously explode, who would it be?

Me lol

89: What would be a question you’d be afraid to tell the truth on?

I’m not even putting the question down bc i get nervous thinking abt it 

90: One night you wake up because you heard a noise. You turn on the light to find that you are surrounded by MUMMIES. The mummies aren’t really doing anything, they’re just standing around your bed. What do you do?

cry

91: You accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow you with the super-power of your choice! What is that power?

teleportation

92: You can re-live any point of time in your life. The time-span can only be a half-hour, though. What half-hour of your past would you like to experience again?

… picking out baby names on my old best friends bed with her and my ex… 

93: You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be?

Um my trauma lol. 

94: You have the opportunity to sleep with the music-celebrity of your choice. Who would it be?

I want namjoon to give me the most gentle dick down imaginable 

95: You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where are you gonna go?

God im annoying. Minnesota 

96: Do you have any relatives in jail?

Yes i hope he rots 

97: Have you ever thrown up in the car?

nope

98: Ever been on a plane?

yes

99: If the whole world were listening to you right now, what would you say?

Are you mad at me 

[hoopslab]

Game of Thrones S7 Ep2 Stormborn : Where is Ghost?

SPOILERS FOR GAME OF THRONES ON HBO, UP THROUGH EPISODE 2 OF SEASON 7

On Sunday nights, two of my favorite TV shows come on that both prominently feature a character named Ghost. Ghost is the name of the alter ego of the main character on Power (which you should absolutely watch, if you’ve never seen it before). But on Game of Thrones, Ghost is the name of Jon Snow’s direwolf. Who hasn’t been seen on screen in quite awhile, now.

On Sunday’s Episode 2, we got to see Arya Stark finally reunited with her direwolf, Nymeria. Who was HUGE! Nymeria was the size of a horse, at least, and looked like she could swallow Arya whole. She looked way bigger, to my eyes, than Summer...Bran’s direwolf that met its end last season against the White Walkers. All of the other Stark direwolves are dead...Sansa’s Lady in season 1, Robb’s Grey Wind at the Red Wedding, and Rickon’s Shaggy Dog last season. But Jon’s Ghost is still around...only we haven’t seen him, despite Jon getting lots of airplay.

I found a reference that in real life, the producers of GoT didn’t include Ghost in last season’s Battle of the Bastards for cost considerations. But with WunWun the Giant gone and Jon heading into the Den of Dragons, I’m hoping that we get to see Ghost back on screen and intimidating like Nymeria before long.

Arya decides to go home and meets old friend

As mentioned above, Arya briefly reunited with her direwolf Nymeria this episode. But before that, she made a decision that made me breathe (at least a short-term) sigh of relief...she chose family over revenge. As I mentioned last week, Arya’s eradication of the Freys was a guilty pleasure to watch. But I worried that her on-going mission to take down Cersei, and thus continue through her famous death list from seasons ago, could signal that she was succumbing to the Dark side. 

Thus, when Hot Pie told her that Jon Snow was alive, and that he was the King of the North from Winterfell, I found it to be a moment of truth. The departure scene was well played, and I almost cheered out loud when she turned North to go home.

Of course, along the way, she meets back up with Nymeria...her direwolf, that she had sent away in Season 1 so that Cersei wouldn’t kill her for attacking Joffrey. Arya has dreamed of Nymeria since, so we had seen that Nymeria was leader of her own pack, but this was their first meeting in the flesh. It was bittersweet to see Arya ask Nymeria to come back, which would have fit with the homecoming theme, but Nymeria has a family of her own now (and may just remember Arya throwing rocks at her to get her to leave), so she didn’t follow. It does seem, to me, that Nymeria will end up coming back around at some point, though. As the only live Stark direwolf outside of Ghost, she seems like she’s got a part to play.

Why doesn’t anyone know Bran is alive yet?

As I mentioned last week, when I first started reading A Game of Thrones 20 years ago Bran was my favorite character. The kid that gets thrown out of the window early on, and is a cripple, but that was using his mind to expand his boundaries and had unlimited upside in the story was electric in 1997. Unfortunately, he’s probably the character that (to date) has lost the most luster in going from print to the screen, because so much of what makes him cool goes on in his mind and it doesn’t always translate to the screen.

But, be that as it may, he’s clearly a powerful wildcard in the story. In addition to his unknown magical pedigree and role as the new Three Eyed Raven, he is also the oldest living son of Eddard Stark (and thus the rightful heir to Winterfell). I’m not expecting him to come down and displace his siblings, but...everyone thinks that he’s dead. And we saw, last episode, that he made it into Castle Black...so...why haven’t they sent Jon Snow a message telling him that his little brother is alive? Jon received messages from Sam Tarly and Tyrion Lannister, both much farther away than Castle Black. So...why no word of Bran? I’m curious if there’s a bigger reason for this secrecy, and if so I want to see how it plays out.

Grey Worm’s weakness

When the episode was coming on, HBO gave the warning that it contained nudity and strong sexual content. When I saw that, I actively speculated who in Westeros was in the position/mindset to be thinking about sex. Outside of a random tossaway scene at a brothel, which GoT has done in the past, the only characters I could think of were either Yara and Sandsnake Mama (more on them later), or Grey Worm and Missandei. 

I’m glad it was the latter. We all know that Grey Worm gave up...a lot...to become Unsullied, and that therefore the union couldn’t be as fully satisfying to all involved as it could have been. But the two of them have had mad chemistry for years now, so it was good to see their emotions play out like that. And if Grey Worm was going to develop a weakness, Missandei seems like a great weakness to have.

Is Jon reliving old Stark mistakes, Sansa & Littlefinger

Ned Stark’s father and older brother Brandon underestimated Littlefinger. Brandon was to marry Catelyn, and he beat up Littlefinger for having a crush on her. Brandon and his father were very honorable. Both went south to meet the Mad King, and both were killed.

Ned Stark underestimated Littlefinger. He was married to Cat, went south to become Hand for King Robert. Ned was very honorable. Ned is dead.

Rob Stark didn’t deal much with Littlefinger. But, he went South, and while there went to see Cat’s brother get married...at a little venue called the Red Wedding. Yeah, he’s dead.

Now, Jon rules the North. He’s very honorable. He keeps butting heads with his sister, who is much better at politics (though they could really use some help in having their disagreements NOT before the rest of the nobles). He keeps making political mistakes that can (and actually did) get him killed. And, this episode, he dared lay hands on Petyr Baelish before agreeing to go south to meet a Targeryen monarch.

It seems unlikely at this point that Jon is just going to go and get killed while talking to Dany. But...he certainly seems to be caught in the same traps that have taken out the last several generations of Stark men. At the very least, it’s a disturbing trend.

Why was Yara caught so off-guard by Euron’s attack?

Yara and Ellaria were well on their way to giving the episode a second nudity/SSC scene when her fleet was attacked by her uncle Euron. This led to the big fight sequence in the episode, showed off Euron’s pirating chops, saw the death of two Sand Snakes, and gave us the poignant scene of “Yara’s protector” Theon showing that he is still both cowardly (always was) and broken (has been since his time as Reek).  

But, before all of that...how on earth did Euron catch Yara’s fleet so off-guard? Yara knows that Euron is a pirate, that he claimed the GreyJoy crown, and that he was homicidally crazy. Plus, Yara is an accomplished captain in her own right, and her fleet should have been a crack crew. So, how did Euron ambush them with NO idea that he was coming? I know it was dark, and the weather wasn’t great, but...seems to me that there should have been a bit more warning than that, if Yara’s crew was worth anything at all. 

As it happened, it looks like Euron may actually have deserved the Iron crown for proficiency, even if he sucks as a human being. Moving forward, it looks like he has the “gift” that he promised Cersei, in Ellaria and Yara. May he find all of the happiness that he deserves in the loving embrace of his new mistress, Cersei.

Cersei’s dragon killer & Jamie’s recruitment of Sam’s dad

Speaking of the Lannister Queen, Cersei spend episode two trying to bring new allies aboard for her war. She used half-truths to try to sway several of the secondary nobles in the land, led by Randyll Tarly. Jamie continued to try to recruit Tarly after Cersei’s scene, trying to approach him in a “man to man” kind of way that Sam’s dad initially rebuffed but seemed to be considering at scene end.

But potentially the biggest outcome of Cersei’s scenes was her time with the mad scientist, who has apparently developed a dragon-killing super crossbow. This is huge, because the dragons have always been Dany’s ace in the hole. The Targeryens originally conquered the Seven Kingdoms with three dragons, that no one else could find a way to counter. Dany returned with a fleet, the Unsullied and the Dothraki...but her biggest trump card were her dragons. Giving Cersei’s crew a realistic way to possibly counteract that threat gives the first sense that Cersei actually has a shot here. At the end of last season, it looked like Dany could come in and walk over the Lion Queen. Now, it’s more interesting.

Can we get a facemask for Sam?

So, yeah. There’s no other way to put it...Sam’s surgery scene with Jorah Mormont was just gross. I’m a doctor scientist that has participated in my fair share of nastiness, but that scene (and morphing it right into the guy eating a gross-looking soup/stew) was ick-worthy. 

That said, I was watching the scene as a scientist, and I don’t see any way that Sam could avoid getting stone man disease. It’s highly contagious, and it’s transferred by contact, right? Sam had on the gown and gloves, but his face was wide open and right in front of the yuck-skin that he was peeling off with juices oozing. Some of that stuff had to splash in his face (speaking from experience, here...unfortunately). Which means that, while Sir Friend Zone now has a realistic path at living in the short term, it seems to me that Sam may need his own flaying in the near future to remove his own stone disease.

The Prince/Princess Who was Promised vs Azor Ahai

Of course, the biggest scenes in Episode 2 revolved around Jon Snow and Dany, as they are on a collision course to finally meet. Jon and Dany have been, without a doubt, the two biggest potential protagonists and most talked about characters over the course of the books and the show. They have always been the leaders in the clubhouse for the title “most likely to be the hero”, and even in the story there are prophecies that can fit either/both of them as the ultimate messiah for the Seven Kingdoms.

Melisandre, the priestess for the Lord of Light, brought one of those prophecies up again in Ep 2. She had originally thought that Stannis Baratheon was Azor Ahai, the prophesied leader that would be reborn in fire to wake dragons from stone. However, even when Stannis was alive, we the readers/watchers knew that there was another character in Dany that sounded like she fulfilled the prophecy to a much better degree.

However, there’s another prophecy that has floated through the books and show, about a Prince that was Promised (PtwP) to be born and lead the world in their time of need. This is the prophecy that Melisandre brings up in Episode 2, while talking to Dany and trying to get her to invite Jon Snow to Dragonstone. Missendei corrects the translation to mean that it could be “Prince or Princess” that was Promised, so Dany could fit that one as well. Melisandre is non-commital, though, and she was previously convinced that Jon Snow is actually the fulfillment of that prophecy.

All told, there’s a lot we don’t know. The PtwP and Azor Ahai could refer to the same person, or different. Dany certainly fits the “born in salt and smoke” and “waking dragons out of stone” parts of the Azor Ahai prophecy, while Jon Snow fits some some of the PtwP descriptors. Maybe it’s the two of them, together, that are prophecied. Or, maybe we’re in for one more GoT curveball and one or both will be killed off before the end. It’s still up in the air, even 5 books and now 7 seasons in, which is part of what makes this show (and the books) so epic.

Other articles of interest

Game of Thrones S7 Ep1: Winter has been a long time coming

[hamliet]

I take immense solace in the fact that everyone across the board, save the "Dany is Hilter" assholes, think that Daenerys's Heal Face Turn from light gray anti-heroin into psycho murder bitch was entirely entirely unconvincing. The people have spoken and They. Did. Not. Buy. It. They see it as an insult to a great character and, perhaps more importantly, the audience. I say that because it will effect how this show and Daenerys lives in the popular consciousness moving forward. (1/2)

(2/2) I think that people will still say Dany is still a great character who was ruined by two hacks and everyone is waiting day by day for GRRM to give us all the “real story” and people will see the last two seasons as badly written fanfic.

Right? Lol at least we’re in solidarity!

Yeah, it’s currently sitting at 49% on Rotten Tomatoes. No GOT episode has ever fallen so far; precious few fall below 90. It deserves to be lower, imo, because even though it was well-directed, that was a lot of gratuitous horror, some sexual assault for no point other than to just to go out the same way GoT came in, and some honestly poor CGI when the Dragon flew over the Iron Fleet. But Sapochnik did what he could with it, I guess, though I do not give him a pass for his role in it. 

So yeah. I, too, have a sense of schadenfreude when I see it falling so low. It’s what it deserves. I agree with you that Dany is a great character who deserves better, and my motto is “do it for her” right now. I don’t have a lot of hope for their prequels and won’t be watching unless people I trust convince me they’re excellent. 

It was just so bad. So bad. I can’t buy it–the show seems like it gaslighted Dany into insanity. There was nothing in the actual show to suggest Dany was going insane. The Viserys thing–well, Arya, Sansa, Jon, Ned, etc. were similarly cold when executing terrified people. Why were we to see Dany as different from those heroes? 

You can’t encourage your audience to see a character as a hero for ten years and then be like SURPRISE VILLAIN. It doesn’t work that way, especially when there is no logic to it, and when they so cruelly totted out the pregnancy red herrings.

I want to talk about this, because of how painful this is for me in particular. Red herrings only work in fiction when you have something more satisfying to offer your audience. To directly allude to a Jonerys pregnancy at least four times last season and to have the directors even laugh and comment “we’ll see about that!” when Dany says she can’t have kids in a commentary… they knew what they were doing. Why tease hope when you would have known by that point? 

Look, infertility is awful. I have not actively tried to have kids, but I most likely have endometriosis (you can’t confirm it except with surgery) which might make it hard to get pregnant, and I want to be a mom more than anything. Women without kids are often portrayed as crazy and evil in media, and this compounded that, and to tease us with a miracle, with the Breaker of Chains breaking the curse a witch set on her, teasing us so deliberately to the point where it wasn’t subtle at all that she would conceive a baby with Jon… and then to be like LOL NAH she’s insane. That hurts. That is cruel. 

I really hope this isn’t GRRM’s ending. I hope he’s an elaborate clown who will be like I LIED TO THEM BECAUSE I SAW THEM FOR CLOWNS HERE’S THE REAL ENDING because I will gobble it up if so. 

But I’m afraid this madness schtick might be GRRM’s last twist too. Could they really get away with changing that much? If they did, then justice for GRRM. But I’m not so sure. I do think that if Dany goes mad in his books, it’d be well written character wise since he is good with characters, but I am fairly critical of ASOIAF and always have been, and knowing this is a fave of mine’s fate would probably keep me from reading. Unless I hear it’s different from the fandom! There’s a ton of fat especially in books 4 and 5, a lot of sexual violence that isn’t necessary (Lollys Stokeworth I’m so sorry sweetie), and there is a bumbling structure that meanders too much. If Dany goes insane at the end of it, there… is absolutely no structure at all no matter how well he pulls it off, and I’m just. I’m tired. I don’t want another book about the infertile abused woman going insane just like her daddy and being put down like a mad dog by her lover. 

GRRM’s MO with ASIOAF has been subverting expectations. If this is his ending, he did not subvert them. He just imposed a fairly common ending on his beloved characters, so it’s mediocre and average at best. Othello this is not.