#maybe cap knew and was trying to persuade her that there was no point investing her time and money into such an old thing

[lopsidedtreetrunks]

Had an absolute vision of a dream last night that one of the episodes of series 5 starts with Alison about to drive somewhere, and for whatever reason, the Captain was sitting in the passenger seat. They got outside the gates and the captain didn't disappear. This causes them both to freak out, and the Captain freaks out so hard that his soul or whatever regresses and warps time for a second, and Alison has to slam on the brakes so they don't crash. When she looks over at the Captain to check if he's okay, there's a little girl in the seat.

Turns out the Captain is trans and he could leave the grounds bc for some reason he was connected to a locket in his pocket which was a gift from his mother that had his deadname inscribed on it (I don't remember what it was; maybe Elizabeth?). The picture on the inside was one of those typical victorian family portrait photos from when he was little.

The episode then becomes about Alison finding out more about the Captain's life and them finding members of his family's graves and people who are still alive, like younger siblings or nieces/nephews.

The B plot was all the ghosts freaking out that the Captain had been sucked off bc suddenly he's just not there and they don't know what to do! It was still so recently that Mary left them and now the captain too?! 😭

Anyway I know it makes no sense that he would randomly become attached to a locket that's always been in his pocket when we've seen him be unable to pass through the gate before, but this was a dream so whatever 😖 Trans Captain is now canon in my head and my heart so 💕

[jonryatrash]

Jonrya Reread Week 3 - Jon IV & Arya III

So once again, when I made the schedule for the reread, I wasn’t thinking in terms of chronology. I’ll try to sort that out before we start ACOK. In the meantime, I’m trying to stick with the Jon and Arya chapters as they appear in the books. And this week, I want to treat the chapters separately (for the most part) because I think Jon’s chapter serves a heavy character development function for Jon himself. 

Jon IV

For me, reading Jon IV felt like a love letter to Jon-as-leader or, maybe eventually, Jon-as-king. When we last left bb boy, he was being an ass and getting his ass handed to him by almost everyone. He was a sad, lonely, angsty teenager. But after word arrives of Bran’s awakening, Jon’s narrative takes a turn, and we’re shown just how much Jon has grown in the short period of time (however long it is) between Jon III and Jon IV

Seriously, just look at how genuine Jon is, how he displays leadership qualities, and how his brothers follow him: 

Suddenly Pyp was beside him. “Three to two will make for better sport,” the small boy said cheerfully. He dropped his visor and slid out his sword. Before Jon could even think to protest, Grenn had stepped up to make a third.

Grenn was standing his ground as Jon had taught him, giving Albett more than he cared for, but Pyp was hard-pressed.

“For an instant, I thought I finally had you, Snow.”

“For an instant, you did,” Jon replied

Jon called after him. “You were hurt,” he said. “Tomorrow you’ll do better.”

His brothers are joining him, and they’re taking his lessons--the lessons of a boy that they disliked last chapter because he showed them up--to heart. In return, Jon--who is far more an expert in swordsmanship than any of them--praises them, admits when they almost have him, and encourages them to continue to improve, even someone he’s just met--Sam. 

And we see an even more pivotal moment later in the chapter when he rallies the boys to come to Sam’s defense the following day in the yard: 

“Stop it!” Jon snapped angrily.

The other boys fell silent, taken aback by his sudden fury. “Listen to me,” Jon said into the quiet, and he told them how it was going to be. Pyp backed him, as he’d known he would, but when Halder spoke up, it was a pleasant surprise. Grenn was anxious at first, but Jon knew the words to move him. One by one the rest fell in line. Jon persuaded some, cajoled some, shamed others, made threats where threats were required. At the end they had all agreed…all but Rast.

Jon knows his brothers. He understands what it will take to get them all to agree with his plan. So not only is he good with sword and as a make-shift master-at-arms, but he’s a good tactician and understands how to move people onto their respective places on the board, as it were. I know that it comes to a surprise to many, especially Jon, when Jeor Mormont begins to groom him for the Commandership of the Night’s Watch, but honestly? This chapter is evidence of Jon’s capabilities for the position. 

Arya III

Arya III also seems to serve mostly to move the plot along, though not entirely. We do get the big conversation between Varys and Illyrio that lays everything out that’s to come, though as readers the first time around we don’t know this. And honestly, goddamn Ned for not believing Arya when she tells him that someone is trying to kill him. All this aside, I have a couple observations, which I didn’t get to talk about last week. 

At the end of Arya II when she first begins training with Syrio that: 

Arya tried to strike him. She tried for four hours…

In Arya III, we’re told: 

When she’d run to him with her hands bleeding, he had said, “So slow? Be quicker, girl. Your enemies will give you more than scratches.” He had dabbed her wounds with Myrish fire, which burned so bad she had had to bite her lip to keep from screaming. Then he sent her out after more cats.

BB girl is 9 years old, and she’s a goddamn force to be reckoned with. She could barely lift the sword Syrio gave her, but she fought him for four hours straight. When she gets scratches from the cats she’s meant to capture, Syrio effectively pours fire in her wounds. But she persists. She’s dedicated. It’s hard and brutal training--more brutal than maybe even her brothers experienced--and she is embracing it and owning it. We know Syrio gives his life to give Arya a chance to escape, and I can only imagine in part it’s because he sees how invested Arya is in her dancing. He sees something in her, maybe something special. How could he not when most boys would have probably given up. Also, I can’t help but think this is an indicator of all Arya’s training that’s to come in future books. 

Thoughts of One Another

Even though their chapters this time around largely serve a plot development purpose, we still do get Jon and Arya thinking of or mentioning one another. For Jon, it’s in passing as he talks about his dream (more on that in a second):

Most nights it’s my father, but sometimes it’s Robb instead, or my little sister Arya, or my uncle.” 

For Arya, it’s more extensive: 

“Do you know my brothers?” she asked excitedly. “Robb and Bran are at Winterfell, and Jon’s on the Wall. Jon Snow, he’s in the Night’s Watch too, you must know him, he has a direwolf, a white one with red eyes. Is Jon a ranger yet? I’m Arya Stark.” The old man in his smelly black clothes was looking at her oddly, but Arya could not seem to stop talking. “When you ride back to the Wall, would you bring Jon a letter if I wrote one?” She wished Jon were here right now. He’d believe her about the dungeons and the fat man with the forked beard and the wizard in the steel cap.

And then: 

Arya stood rooted to the spot. “Nothing bad’s happened to Jon, has it?” she asked Yoren. “Or Uncle Benjen?”

Arya full-on fangirls over her big brother Jon here. In fact, once she mentions Jon, it’s all down hill from there. It’s all Jon, all the time, to the point where she even forgets to tell Yoren who she is. It also kills me that she wants to write a letter to Jon. We know it never happens, but I’d love to know what she would write. I can also appreciate her faith in Jon, that he would of course become a ranger. There isn’t a doubt in her mind. I’m not sure if this is because Jon’s told her he wants to be one, or if it’s because Benjen is also a ranger. Either way, it’s adorable. 

Dreams

In both chapters, Jon and Arya have dreams of being lost in places. 

For Jon: 

“Sometimes I dream about it,” he said “I’m walking down this long empty hall. My voice echoes all around, but no one answers, so I walk around faster, opening doors, shouting names. I don’t even know who I’m looking for. Most nights it’s my father, but sometimes it’s Robb instead, or my little sister Arya, or my uncle.”

“…Somehow I know I have to go down there, but I don’t want to. I’m afraid of what might be waiting for me. The old Kings of Winter are down there, sitting on their thrones with stone wolves at their feet and iron swords across their laps, but it’s not them I’m afraid of. I scream that I’m not a Stark, that this isn’t my place, but it’s no good, I have to go anyway, so I start down…”

For Arya: 

When they had first come to King’s Landing, she used to have bad dreams about getting lost in the castle. Father said the Red Keep was smaller than Winterfell, but in her dreams it had been immense, an endless stone maze with walls that seemed to shift and change behind her. She would find herself wandering down gloomy halls past faded tapestries, descending endless circular stairs, darting through courtyards or over bridges, her shouts echoing unanswered. In some of the rooms the red stone walls would seem to drip blood, and nowhere could she find a window. Sometimes she would hear her father’s voice, but always from a long way off, and no matter how hard she ran after it, it would grow fainter and fainter, until it faded to nothing and Arya was alone in the dark.

Both are lost in these dreams, searching for people who aren’t there, but specifically Ned. I can’t emphasize enough how important Ned is to both Jon and Arya; most of the time, he’s the only other person besides each other that treats them properly. I also wonder here if Ned’s absence doesn’t foreshadow something. And on that note: 

Foreshadowing

One of the hardest things about rereading is knowing what was meant to be GRRM sowing seeds and foreshadowing and what’s just writing. Because of this, I always hesitate to talk about foreshadowing in the reread reviews, but I think--especially because there’s not a lot of extra stuff to talk about this time around--it might be nice this time to look at a few lines. 

I’m particularly interested in Jon’s dream because we know that Targaryen blood carries a certain element of prophetic vision. Again, Jon dreams that: 

“…Somehow I know I have to go down there, but I don’t want to. I’m afraid of what might be waiting for me. The old Kings of Winter are down there, sitting on their thrones with stone wolves at their feet and iron swords across their laps, but it’s not them I’m afraid of. I scream that I’m not a Stark, that this isn’t my place, but it’s no good, I have to go anyway, so I start down…” 

Jon is a Stark and I will personally fight anyone who disagrees with me on this. YET, I wonder if this isn’t one of the first seeds to the R+L=J theory. This is especially interesting to me because Lyanna is down in those crypts, and Jon feels compelled to go down, thinking all the while that he’s no Stark. 

For Arya, one little bit could be more immediate foreshadowing than the other. The first is: 

“Well, as to that,” Desmond replied, drawing his longsword, “wizards die the same as other men, once you cut their heads off.”

Arya’s exchange with Desmond here is all about Ned’s safety, which is telling enough, but this is how it ends.

Earlier, but perhaps foreshadowing for much later, Arya is lost in the Red Keep. We find out: 

She was blind. A water dancer sees with all her senses, she reminded herself.

Side by side, we have the Braavosi water dancing and Arya’s blindness. We won’t see her actually blind until ADWD, but perhaps this is a seed too. 

As I mentioned previously, I have no real investment in figuring out which little bits were meant as foreshadowing. Some, certainly, are more obvious and others may be reaching. I do think it’s fun to think about what plots might have existed clear back in AGOT.