#not read about jaime lannister quite so much NO DEAL FRIEND

[sapphiresandsunlight]

Season 5 of Outlander has started (hooray!) and I apologize in advance to all my fellow Outlander watchers for what I know I will do: mixing up the spelling of the main hottie’s name.

Sorry, almost a year of fic-reading and Tumbling has left me constitutionally incapable of spelling it “Jamie”. Whoops.

[eryiscrye]

12th one for the prompts?

#12-Writer and Editor AU

This AU was both prompted by @abrokencrevice and anon! This idea popped into my head right away. Sorry it took a while to write. Once again... the definition of short has been uh... played with.

Jaime ended the call and immediately threw his phone onto his kitchen island, not caring that it might slide along the marble and topple onto the floor. But luckily it didn’t. Unluckily, it hit a stack of paper and sent sheets flying absolutely everywhere. He would deal with those later. He had T-minus 10 minutes to finish his preparation, T-minus 8 minutes if Brienne was more pissed off with him than her terse tone had implied. 

He pulled on two oven mitts and opened the oven door. Heat billowed out along with the tantalizing smells of spices and garlic and Jaime’s lips curled in delight. He reached into the oven and pulled out the cast iron skillet, filled to the brim and bubbling with chicken, chickpeas, and a harissa sauce made from scratch. Quickly, he slid to his dining room table and set the cast iron skillet onto a marble trivet, which, he had learned several practice sessions ago, were highly necessary when dealing with very hot dishes fresh from the oven. There had been many, many practice sessions. Tyrion and Cersei and Addam and Elia and Catelyn were sick of chicken, chickpeas, and harissa now. But it was all paying off. It had to pay off.

Jaime adjusted the positioning of the large bowl of couscous mixed with lemon, coriander and pomegranate seeds, the bottle of wine, the wine glasses, the cutlery, and the plates then stepped back and nodded. Running back into the kitchen, Jaime shut the oven door, turned it off – a task that he now never forgot after one unfortunate mishap– and grabbed a lighter. 

Running back to the dinning room table, he lit the two candles between the cast iron skillet and the bowl of couscous, relishing in the clean citrus smell they gave off. Brienne loved citrus. She must’ve. She always smelled like citrus. It made his relationship with oranges very complicated.

Lastly, Jaime ran into his office, grabbed a large binder full of paper and a small flash drive shaped like a sword and then ran out again to set the objects precariously on the dining room table where there was still space.

He frowned. The new objects threw the ambiance of the whole set up way off. Jaime picked up the binder and left the flash drive. Now, the damn thing was liable to be knocked onto the ground and lost in his dimly lit dining room, and turning on the lights to go crawling around on the floor looking around for it would definitely throw off the ambiance of the evening. Jaime picked up the flash drive and tucked it back into the binder.

How the hell had he not thought of this? The dumb binder was so fucking integral to his whole plan!

His doorbell began screeching at him.

Jaime looked at his watch and grimaced. She had arrived within 7 minutes. She was definitely pissed off at him. That was also not what he had been going for. He went over to his phone and activated its connection to the building intercom. “Hello,” he said as cheerily as he could while hurriedly trying to gather up all the scattered paper back into a neat pile.

“Let me up Jaime or so help me—“

“Buzzing you in!” he merrily shouted over the rest of her words and heard not only the clack of the building door opening but the stomping of her feet too. Too late Jaime thought that maybe he had gotten the balance of practice sessions and due dates wrong.

It was all by the by now. He was going to make this work.

He had met Brienne over three years ago. She was meant to be the next in a long line of editors whom he would eventually get sick and tired of, the next in a line of editors whom only wanted to ride on the coat tails of a man who had once written award winning best sellers that had meant something, even though he just couldn’t anymore. She was meant to be another editor that would push him to write and publish anything as long as it had his name on it, because as long as it had his name and face on it, it would sell. 

But Brienne had been none of those things. Firstly, she had hated what his novels had become. She had confessed to being an avid fan of the first, and second, and third books as a teen and still as an adult… but then she had become disgusted, as he had, with the rest. She hadn’t even wanted to be in the line of editors vying for him. She had made it clear from the very first day that she was only working with him as a favour to Olenna, and that their relationship was surely set to implode. 

The joke was on both of them though. Through the natural chemistry of their dynamic, Jaime had been angry – no – passionate enough about her and the way that she dismantled him, goaded him, drove him, and inspired him, that he had once again released something that meant something, although the book had taken years before it had won anything and then subsequently become a best seller. But that was it. The moment that spark was back, she was his for forever. Or in truth, he was hers. 

The rest was just inevitable.

The sound of fists on his door echoed into his flat. “Jaime Lannister! You better have that first draft for me or I am going to rip your—“

Jaime threw open the front door and waved the binder and flash drive at Brienne, “Have it right here!” He interrupted snarkily and then his mouth went dry as a wave of citrus hit him. 

“Why in all names do you have a printed version? Are you being all old again? We’ve discussed this!” Brienne raved madly, and then, “Have you decided to adopt the vampire life style? Why are there no lights on in your flat?” Brienne asked with a furrowed brow.

Jaime just simply continued to gape. Was this how she had gotten here in 7 minutes? Because she hadn’t even bothered to put on real clothes? Not real clothes being a complete misnomer. Brienne was fully dressed, just dressed in a way that he had never seen her dressed before. 

As his editor, he had mostly seen her in clean-cut pantsuits, plain blouses, and just typical, absurdly conservative work attire. She was never anything but professional for their conferences, book signings, dull company meetings, and even when she came barreling into his apartment to wrestle the next draft from him about ten minutes before they were meant to be due to her. Which was about two days before they were usually due to the publisher. She really gave him too much slack. But he was charming like that.

However, the Brienne before him now… well. She was wearing a big, baggy, blue sweater that hung off one shoulder – showing him that she was either wearing a strapless bra or not wearing one at all -, soft cotton shorts that barely reached mid-thigh – highlighting the extreme length of her very freckled legs –, her hair was a soft bird’s nest around her head – whereas usually it was in a utilitarian bun-, and the fucking cutest wire frame classes were haphazardly perched on the crook of her nose. He didn’t even know that she wore glasses. 

She looked bloody adorable and Jaime was not ready for the assault on his senses. 

Brienne waved a hand in front of his face, “Jaime? Have you started getting migraines? Is that why your flat is so dark? You could have told me, I would have convinced the publishing company to extend your deadline.”

And she would have. If he told her he was having any real problems, and not well… just being the annoying person he inherently was, she would do everything in her power to help him. It was this kind of strong-willed caring that made him—

“I’m okay,” Jaime managed to rasp out, “Please come in.”

Brienne tipped her head curiously, “I can just take your draft if that’s it,” she pointed at the binder and flash drive in his hands, “You can take the rest of the night to relax and I’ll get out of your hair—“

“No!” Jaime managed to shout out, “I…” Ah… right. Now he remembered what he had forgotten to rehearse. He had spent so much time perfecting the meal he had planned to cook for them that he had never quite gotten to the part about how to actually ask her if she wanted to eat it with him. No wonder every single one of his fucking siblings and friends seemed to be in on the same joke. They all knew this moment had gone right over his head. He was going to kill them all.

At that moment, Brienne’s phone chimed several times and she peeked at it, obviously intending to just take a quick look before giving him back her full attention, but then she did a double take and went through the whole process of unlocking her phone to take in the full contents of whatever was sent to her. 

“Um…” Brienne murmured as her cheeks went splotchy pink. How in all names was she getting cuter? Then, oddly, she held her phone out to him, “Jaime. What is she talking about?”

Jaime’s Friend Elia: He’s trying to invite you in for dinner. Please say yes and end his misery

Jaime’s Friend Elia: End all of our misery. I can’t eat any more couscous

Jaime’s Friend Elia: Sorry that was Addam

Jaime’s Friend Elia: AND ALSO MAKE SURE TO READ CHAPTER 12 WHILE YOUR STILL AT HIS PLACE!!! HE’S BETTER AT WRITING THAN ARTICULATING HIS FEELINGS

Jaime’s Friend Elia: Just read the damn title

Jaime’s Friend Elia: And we don’t mean this for editorial purposes Brienne

Jaime’s friend Elia: Sorry that was Tyrion then Cersei then Catelyn. I’m locking my phone now. Just say yes

Jaime blinked as he read the messages, and then his eye twitched. He threw a scathing glare toward the apartment across the hall – Elia’s apartment – and wondered how many people had their ear pressed to the door on the other side. 

Brienne stood on her tippy toes, which meant that she was now near a head taller than him, to get a better look into his place. “Are those candles? Jaime, why do you have candles lit?”

Jaime swore he heard snickering and couldn’t stand it anymore. He grabbed her forearm and pulled her into his flat, tossing one last glare at Elia’s peephole. He slammed his door shut. 

Brienne, meanwhile, had used the momentum he had given her to progress deeper into his apartment and into his dining room – where the only source of light was flickering – and he found her just standing at the threshold. When he came to her side, she looked over at him. “What is this Jaime?” she asked in what sounded like a desperate whisper.

Jaime sighed and rubbed the back of his head, “I was going to ask you if you wanted to have dinner with me, but I’m just realizing I never even asked if you’ve already had dinner.”

“I haven’t had dinner yet,” Brienne murmured as she looked back at the set up and then back at him. Her eyes scanned his whole body, going from head to toe. He had dressed up for the occasion, in a white, tailored dress shirt – the sleeves still rolled up to his elbows from when he was cooking – and dark gray, wool slacks. His effort looked silly beside her extremely casual attire. “Is this… a writer and editor dinner, Jaime? Like a ‘sorry, I left this draft until the last possible minute’ dinner?”

Jaime shook his head and couldn’t help but grin at her. She was so sweet and oblivious. Apparently everyone else knew. “I think Catelyn told you that it isn’t.”

Her eyes turned back to the table. It was so gentle and affectionate, the small “Oh” that wooshed from her lips. She couldn’t take her eyes off of the awfully romantic looking set up. “What’s the title of your new book? You’ve refused to tell me for months now.”

He opened the binder to the first page. Printed on it were the words: ‘I Dreamed of Blue’. He didn’t know if he was happy with it. But he didn’t think any words would be able to encapsulate the entirety of his heart and soul.

He watched Brienne swallow nervously, but also shift closer to him. His heart bloomed. “What happens in chapter 12?”

Jaime’s fingers tapped nervously as she slowly met his gaze. Gods, the ways her eyes sparkled. He wanted to kiss her. “The main characters finally tell each other how they feel.”

[luthienebonyx]

I haven’t been reading a whole lot lately, so there are bound to be lots of great stories that I haven’t had time to catch up with yet, but here are a few that I’ve enjoyed recently:

From This Day Until the End of My Days by @dreadwulf​  Note: This story is currently being updated on AO3, but the full five chapters can be found on the author’s tumblr here.

Author's summary: Jaime Lannister should have returned to King's Landing weeks and weeks ago. Instead he brought an injured Brienne to the Quiet Isle and somehow ended up married to her. Now he's riding for the Vale with a strange assortment of companions on an impossible search for Sansa Stark, and Brienne won't even look at him anymore, and why does that bother him so much? Why is he even here? He should just go home. He'll do it any day now.

This entire story is fabulous but the stand-out aspect of it for me is the Jaime POV. It's such a perfect book canon Jaime voice, both in the dialogue and internally, that I think I just grinned the whole way through reading every chapter. And, you know, there's the whole accidental marriage trope thing going on, which is executed perfectly. I particularly love the final chapter, where climaxes are reached in more ways than one.

I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside by Roccolinde aka @firesign23​   

Author's summary: Nanny Brienne Tarth joins her employer for a week at the English seaside, complete with minigolf, fish and chips, the ghost of Lady Stoneheart, and one very aggravating Jaime Lannister.

I love the humour of this modern AU, with all the little and not quite so little shout-outs to canon that kept me cackling all the way through, and I love the utter, ridiculous Englishness of its setting. But what makes it all the better is that it also has a more serious edge which comes out in the way in which the emotions and characterisation are written, and that keeps it from crossing the line into silliness. The characterisations are particularly interesting, because they make sense of the characters in this setting: what aspects of their personalities turn out differently when certain important canon events don't happen to them, and when they live in a world that gives them a lot more options in terms of what they do with their lives and how they deal with traumas of various kinds.

I really enjoyed this story a lot. It’s fun but gives me the characterisation hit that I want, too, and that can be a difficult thing to pull off successfully.

Note: This is the first story in a series. Jaime and Brienne are not together at the end of this story, but they will be by the time the series is complete.

Inkstains by Lady_in_Red aka @ladyinredfics​

Author's summary: Three years ago, grad student Brienne walked away from her friend and crush, but she never forgot about him. Jaime never forgot her either.

This is a modern AU where Brienne and Jaime meet up unexpectedly (or maybe not quite that unexpectedly, since Brienne goes to an exhibition knowing that it's exactly the sort of thing likely to appeal to Jaime) and then the backstory weaves around the events of the present, and we find out exactly how they got to where they are now. The inkstains are literal, in that Jaime used to draw on Brienne's skin, and practical, in that they gave him an excuse to touch her, but also symbolic, particularly in terms of what Brienne has done in response.

This is just a short one-shot, but it's a really deftly put together one with lots of tension and atmosphere.

Tell me another beautiful lie. Tell me everything I want to hear by angel_deux aka @angel-deux-writes​

Author's summary: Brienne Tarth has been a spy for too long to fall for the obvious machinations of her hot new neighbor, Jaime. She's not sure who he works for or why they want her watched, but clearly he works for SOMEONE. Why else would he be so relentless in trying to befriend her?

I really love this particular twist on the spy AU, where Brienne is so very self-assured and competent in some ways - just like canon Brienne - while also sure that a man who looks like that could never really be interested in her - also very like canon Brienne - so obviously he must have some other reason for wanting to get to know her.

The author says in the header notes that she was aiming for silly and funny with this story but it wound up long and angsty instead, but I think she's actually achieved all those things. It makes for a really interesting mix of emotions and reactions, for both the characters and the reader.

though our paths diverge (I travel with you) by robotsdance

Author's summary: For a moment it's almost like Jaime is Brienne, out in the wilderness, on her horse with Podrick beside her. It must have been his imagination, he rationalizes as he opens his eyes where he lies soundly in his own bed. He had been thinking of Brienne and had been almost asleep. He must have dozed off and dreamed of her. That’s all. It was nothing. Nothing at all.

Jaime puts it from his mind. But it happens again.

Intermittent Body Swapping/ Freaky Friday AU

I love a good body swap fic, and this is a very good one. At its most basic level, it's about creating intimacy and understanding between two people, a little bit at a time. Most of that intimacy occurs in small - and only occasionally embarrassing - moments, though the story also slowly builds their ability to understand both each other and the way each other's body works in preparation for a very large moment indeed.

I love robotsdance's writing style, the intensity of feeling that is somehow conveyed with such spare and concentrated language. It's the slow building of everything - the intensity of emotion, the knowledge of each other, the understanding of each other, the care for each other - that really makes this love story work so beautifully.

We Make the Rules by Sameboots aka @agirlnamedkeith​

Author's summary: Brienne Tarth is tired of being Brienne the Virgin. Brienne is also awkward, shy, has no time for dating, and doesn't want to figure out how to broach the topic of virginity if she ever does date again. Enter Jaime Lannister: her handsome colleague who is also perpetually single, much to Brienne's confusion. But as tends to happen, the perfectly reasonable solution to a perfectly ridiculous problem gets a little more complicated.

A story with this sort of summary could turn out to be a pretty generic modern AU, but this one is the absolute opposite of generic. Sameboots has a style that's very… not quite concentrated, but sort of magnified, so that all the events of the story seem to occur very up close, and that goes double for the emotions. Although this story starts with the beginning of a sexual relationship, the emotional side of things is much more of a slow burn, and both the sexual relationship and the emotional relationship feel very real. This is my favourite of sameboots' stories, and I think it's her best.

Note: This is the only WIP in this list. The story is almost done, with only an epilogue still to come.

~

Banner by @ao3commentoftheday​

[thegirlwholied]

ten faves

Rules: name ten favorite characters from ten different things (tv, movies, books, etc.). 

Thanks for tagging me @bibliophileiz ; exactly the sort of distraction I both needed (and that my current concentration-level is capable of) at the moment! Hard choices ~ especially as many of my favorites come in pairs! ~ but my top ten today...

...after draft error #97 or so, sorry in advance for the scroll, and for anyone else who winds up responding, do not draft on your phone take my word for it... 

Princess Bride: Inigo Montoya

Which character don't I love in Princess Bride? Even Humperdink is such a pitch-perfect villain. But while I'd choose Westley if I was picking a date... Inigo's the one who captures me, every time. It's not the desire for revenge itself that's compelling; it's the love for his father - the heartbreak, the dedication, even the defeat and the rise again (the "you told me to go back to the beginning scene" comes to mind as one that stays with me and is probably a huge influence on things I think of but haven't really written yet...)

Harry Potter: Sirius Black

Yes, that's a gif of Midnight Mark from Pirate Radio, because I very much mean the book version (sorry, Gary Oldman!). Is anyone following me surprised by this one?

I'm so fascinated by all of the Marauder era characters, both as they are on the page and the hinted-at aspects of them explored in fandom; love Lily/James... but Sirius is the Harry Potter character I think of first (honorable mention to non-HP Edmond Dantès, as I love Count of Monte Cristo and think much of Sirius' plotline owes that a clear debt). Aside from being a tragedy, aside from all his great lines, what a *fascinating* character and twist, in a way, on the fairy godmother plot in his first book 3 appearance (getting Harry the Firebolt, his permission slip, etc). I could say SO much more but will avoid writing an essay.

Smallville/Superman comics/adaptations: Lois Lane

Always a favorite character for me, but Erica Durance in Smallville is my favorite version. I feel like they gave her a bit of Marian Ravenwood (specifically in the outdrinking the frat boys scene) and leaned into the modern comics "army brat" angle so well.

Anne of Green Gables: Anne Shirley.

With honorable mentions to of course Jo March, other fellow aspiring writer Emily of New Moon, and Pippi Longstocking, other fun redhead of my childhood reading... Anne, and all her drama and dreams and mishaps, wins out as most relatable for me. Book heroine of my heart.

Speaking of childhood book heroines...

Star Wars: Jaina Solo.

Look, this is partly to save me between picking a favorite between Leia and Han (a dilemma which has haunted me since childhood, in part because, guiltily, it's Han), and serious honorable mentions to Mara Jade and especially Jyn Erso here... but Jaina was *everything* I wanted in a heroine as a girl. We're talking about the Young Jedi Knights series here... though I actually started with Junior Jedi Knights featuring Anakin Solo (oh Anakin Solo 💙💔)... going into the New Jedi Order, as I stopped following the EU so passionately around there.

Jaina, who is brash and so her father's daughter but has a harder time seeing she's also her mother's, the Rogue Squadron pilot, the wielder of a purple lightsaber, the mechanic... my inner little girl will never quite forgive the sequels for failing to give me a Solo daughter (sorry, Rey; I still think Daisey Ridley was pitch-perfect Jaina Solo casting... and honestly part of me considers the sequels the "weirdest Jacen & Jaina fan fiction ever" 🤷🏻‍♀️)

BtVS (out of the whole Whedonverse really): Buffy

My other favorites in the show are really also doubles/foils for Buffy: Cordelia Chase & Faith. But the first episode of the show I ever saw was "Anne" and so I've always known I would watch an entire show with just Buffy (... I would also watch an entire show of her friends dealing with her absence, but that's more about *plot* than character). I love the concept alone of Buffy's character - overturning the blonde damsel in distress trope by making her what monsters fear - but I mostly just love her; favorite Chosen One ever. “No weapons, no friends, no hope. Take all that away, and what's left?"/"Me."

...and now it gets very hard, where my early choices were more instinctive and now I keep thinking of others and can't decide. Tempted to make a bracket (I feel like Sirius and Inigo have some crossover, but how could I put them against each other)?

But ("if you had to choose, if you had to choose") to get at some of my other favorite character types and embodiments thereof...

2010-me would never believe I'm going to say this, but: Jaime Lannister.

I'm usually not a villain girl... but of course, he isn't a villain, though he starts out cast in that light. Slightly annoyed I’m picking Game of Thrones (yes, even grouping the books in that, as post Storm of Swords, I remember thinking "this could really benefit from the tightening the show will likely give it" ahahahahahahaha whoops). And yet. Where did that "came for the Starks; stayed for the Lannisters" quote come from? I feel very attacked by it.

"The things I do for love". The boy who wanted to be Arthur Dayne and somewhere along the way became the Smiling Knight. The reveal that he's not (or at least so much MORE than) who he seemed : perhaps not the comparison you'd expect but ah yes that Mr. Darcy twist always does it for me. So much character development (let's not speak of how the show ended, but still). 

The motives, in particular:  I love the Spike backstory reveal in Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Fool for Love, and in many ways I think Spike and Jaime hit the same note for me. He’s definitely a character that stays with me. Also, he hits that "golden boy" type I also like but in a *very* interesting way (and oh no now mentioning golden boy is making me think of Aron and Cal in East of Eden, I don't have room to even consider them on this list but know I love them both...)

Speaking of golden boys (also I cannot believe this is the only character from a musical I'm choosing, and Eponine’s a character that haunts me too, but...)

Enjolras.

Michael Maguire is not a golden Enjolras but was my introduction to the character and still a (the?) favorite. Love both book & musical Enjolras in different ways. But inspiring idealists with the light of rebellion abalaze in their eyes...? Facing death & despair still waving the flag? Ah yes. Top ten, 10/10.

Favorite detective out of all mysteries really, but especially from the Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys Super Mysteries: Nancy Drew.

An icon. Why is it so hard to have a good Nancy Drew adaptation? (The new TV series lost me with going with actual ghosts - I love my supernatural shows, but I don't need that with Nancy Drew.) Detective characters tend to be some of my favorites; honorable mention to Shawn Spencer from Psych here, but I was reminded in watching that recently (as Maggie Lawson, Jules on Psych, had once played Nancy Drew in a Disney movie! ... that I need to find and rewatch as I remember almost nothing about it) a) how much I love a good mystery and b) that Nancy is the OG.

Speaking of icons... out of all the folklore & mythology I love, it’s clear what character I love best: Robin Hood.

Oh, I love my Arthurian knights, but I love all Robin Hoods more. Trickster heroes, rob-from-the-rich-and-give-to-the-poor-justice, true love... cheeky 1952-movie Robin Hood is my favorite - both favorite Robin and favorite Marian, and their childhood-friends-to-lovers romance is the epitome of that trope for me! - but I also love the fox version...and am very alarmed at the prospect of a CGI remake of that; I'm sorry but that is not live action... and also Errol Flynn! It has to be Robin. If this was a ranked list (it’s not) he’d probably take #1. 

My ten slots won out to other characters, but also I love every Tamora Pierce character and if I had to pick one, it would be Daine Sarrasri, YA fantasy heroine out of all magical girls (and yes over the lady knights; sorry Alanna and Kel; Daine had wolves for friends). Also shout out that I love a LOT of characters named Marian, aside the already-mentioned Maid Marian -- Marian Ravenwood (& Indy!), Marian ‘the Librarian’ Paroo (& Harold Hill!), X-Men’s Rogue (usually named Anna Marie when a name’s revealed, but a Marian in at least one version, & her own thief Gambit)... to quote Thin Man, “You got types?”

I’ve got types. 

If you’re reading this and have types yourself, please @ me them! But tagging, if you’d like, @conniecorleone​ @aliform​ @aurorawest​ @vivacephoenix @justkeeponthegrass

[oadara]

Hey, now with three episodes left and another war coming their way, when do you think Jon and Dany will get married? Also, a stupid question, but what's with Tyrion betraying Dany? Why? I spent the last year avoiding all spoilers and info about the show and now I keep seeing this. P.S. I love your blog, it's always been a light in times of darkness for Jonerys shippers

Hey friend!

Thank you, I’m really glad you like my blog. I’m just going to use you ask to answer a bunch of other questions sort of related. Please forgive me for hijacking your ask. 

First things first, let’s talk about how the Night King was killed. 

Foreshadowing for the end of the Night King

We are all freaking out because the end of the Night King and his army of the dead was not something most of us expected to happen so soon, nor did we expect it to happen the way it did end up happening. Personally, I feel like there are many loose threads that have yet to be probably taking care of in regards to the magical storyline. Having said all that, there was foreshadowing for how things did end up going down. On my prediction post on April 9, 2019, I wrote the following (you can read the rest of the post HERE)

6. The Valyrian steel dagger that Bran gave to Arya will play an important role, perhaps even be used to finally destroy the Night King.

The dagger was quite prominent throughout season 7 including making an appearance in one of the text Sam was reading in the citadel, perhaps it’s even one of the texts he brought along with him to Winterfell. We are clearly meant to see this as an important object.

Going off this I believe that Arya’s training as a Faceless Men is important to the endgame. I don’t think she went through that training just to get revenge. The Faceless Men worship the gods of death and the Night King has been described as Death incarnate, so there very well could be a connection there. If we take GRRM at his word and we won’t see the typical fantasy trope of the good guys coming together to destroy the evil monster, then the other very typical fantasy trope of the hero battling the monster in a sword fight might not be the route that GRRM goes in. It might very well be that in order to destroy the Night King characters will have to work in unison to do whatever needs to be done to destroy him.

I don’t know how one destroys the Night King but perhaps it has something to do or it’s tied to the shard of dragonglass the Night King has in his heart.

Now, I was wrong about the other stuff and didn’t think things would go down exactly as they did, however, I did recognize the importance of the dagger and that it would play an integral role in destroying the Night King. 

So, now we find ourselves having dealt with the dead is time to deal with the living. Now, we actually had foreshadowing for that as well, and I actually picked up on it right after season 7, however, I completely ignored myself and decided to take my prediction in a different direction. But let’s look back to what I wrote on September 19, 2017, season 7 was very much present on my mind and this was my immediate impression after watching the season (you can read the full post HERE)

Generally speaking, I think we’ve been going about predicting the ending of the series the wrong way. Most of us assumed (not wrongly) that the Wight Walker/Others would be the final enemy, the last battle of the series. But now, I don’t think that will be the case.

While the WW/Others SHOULD have been the ultimate enemy (in-universe) and threat to all of Westeros, they won’t be. Why? Because the nature of man is to pursue and retrain power and even battling a natural disaster (the WW are somewhat symbolic of climate change) won’t dissuade those who want to retain power, to give it up. Think of our current issues with climate change, while it might seem like a no-brainer to combat it many people don’t care or don’t want to fight it because fighting it would diminish their bottom line, i.e. the money.

Having said that I believe that the Wight Walkers will be defeated by the end of episode 4. I think they’ll come pretty far south but I don’t think they’ll get to King’s Landing.  

So having dealt with what should have been the ultimate threat to humanity our heroes, those who survive should be able to go home and have nice quiet lives. But unfortunately, our heroes live in Westeros so the war is still not over for them. There is one more enemy that they must battle but this is not some mythical antagonist, no just a human one: Cersei Lannister assisted by Euron Greyjoy (in the books it’ll be the reverse).

I’m not sure how Cersei’s defeat will go down but if the Red Keep hasn’t gotten kaboom yet, it probably will. I still believe in the Valonqar theory so Jaime will bring an end to his twin sisters reign. I think she’ll be defeated by either the end of episode 5 or the beginning of episode 6.

I’m not quoting myself to brag because I ended up being completely wrong about how things unfold. but at some point, I was right, when I allowed my instincts to guide me. 

Having said all this, what I’m really trying to get at is that there was clear foreshadowing for how things were going to go down this season. We all just chose to ignore it, but the foreshadowing was there. Which means that anything that happens from now on should have already been foreshadowed. 

What we need to do now is to accept what we are being told and not what we would like to see. This is something I say all the time but it’s hard for me to do as well, as the evidence above shows. 

Tyrion’s Betrayal

Before I answer your ask on Jon and Dany, I want to answer your ask about Tyrion’s betrayal. 

I believe it was last fall when Frikidoc told us the Tyrion would be tried in episode 6 for betraying the Starks. 

After season 7 my initial instinct was that there was something off about Tyrion. I couldn’t put my finger on it, however, in that same post from September 19, 2017, I replied to a comment:

I can’t see anyone dying after Cersei, so it’ll have to be before that or during it.

I think Jaime’s death is a good bet. In the past I would never have guessed Tyrion but, I donno, after this season I can see it happening. There was something off about him.

I’ve always thought that there would be a good chance that Jorah would die and I still think that’s the case.

For me to feel that way, they had to be putting something out there for the audience to pick up on. Again, later on, I chose to ignore it, but the feeling had been there. So, the foreshadowing is there if the story goes that route. 

There are other clues in the books that hint at Tyrion’s betrayal and you can read those HERE.

Now, to Jon and Dany. 

This morning has been extremely frustrating for me as it seems the entire fandom has forgotten all the foreshadowing that has been laid out throughout the series not only for the union of Jon and Dany but also for their child. 

 The parallels and connection between Jon and Dany have been laid out on countless metas and post so I will not reiterate them again here. However, I will note, what I would consider, the foreshadowing we’ve been given the last two season. 

Marriage between Jon and Daenerys

First, the theme of “togetherness” that was introduced in season 7. This word is woven throughout almost all the interactions Jon and Dany have with each other. It’s actually the last thing they say to one another when Dany agrees to sail to Winterfell with Jon. 

Additionally, Littlefinger very pointedly tells Sansa, before he dies, that a marriage between Jon and Dany would make the unstoppable. I’m paraphrasing here. Again, touching on the theme of “togetherness” introduce in relation to Jon and Dany. 

This season, we have Davos boldly announcing that what Westeros needs is a just Queen and am honorable King and that Jon and Dany would make an excellent pairing in that regard. This is as bold a statement as it comes and a truthful one. 

Point being, that the themes surrounding these two have always pointed to them coming together to form a complete package, two halves of a whole. I see no reason why they wouldn’t be married. 

By the way, this isn’t even taking into consideration Jon’s Targaryen heritage and how beneficial it would be for the two of them to unite their claims. 

Jon and Dany’s Child

The first hint of this is from season 1, however, it doesn’t get picked up again until season 6 when Dany tells one of the khals who is holding her hostage that she will never give him a son. 

In season 7 we get no less than 5 clues hinting at a child between Jon and Dany.

The first conversation between Tyrion and Dany where he brings up the issue of an heir. (This happens in the Painted Table Room)

The second conversation between Tyrion and Dany where he once again brings up the issue of an heir (I think this one is by the fireplace)

When Jon tries to return Longclaw to Jorah, beyond the Wall, Jorah tells him to keep it so that he can pass it on to his children. 

When they are sailing back to Dragonstone after the Wight Hunt, Dany tells Jon that the dragons are the only children she’ll ever have. 

At the Dragonpit, Dany and Jon once again talk about Dany’s belief that she can’t have children but this time Jon challenges the veracity of what Mirri Maaz Durr said. 

They went out of their way last season to let us know that a child between Jon and Dany was something that could very much happen. You don’t get this amount of foreshadowing for nothing. 

The moral of the story here is, that what happened in episode 3 did have foreshadowing, we might have read the foreshadowing incorrectly or missed it all together but it was there. 

So, in short, I still expect Jon and Dany to marry. 

TTFN

[sapphires-and-gold-fics]

Fictober Day 29: “I’m doing this for you.”

Fandom: Game of Thrones / ASOIAF / Jane Austen

Characters: Too many to name, but Jaime Lannister / Brienne of Tarth

Notes: This is the 5th installment of my Sense & Sensibility adaptation! This is the final installment of it for Fictober/Put Me Back Together, and coincides with the end of Volume 1 of Jane Austen’s novel. The story will be posted independently on AO3 soon, and will continue from there - but please be aware that it’s not my only WIP and it may take some time before we get to the end. I hope y’all continue to enjoy the ride as much as I’m enjoying writing it!

Other notes: This chapter introduces the Lucy Steele problem character. I was really nervous about doing it this was buttttttttt I think it works so I’m running with it. I hope you don’t hate it. 

Missed the earlier chapters? Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Read Part 5 below or on AO3

xxxxxxxxxxx

Not many days after Jaime left, the Tullys arrived on the cottage doorstep with four strangers. Brienne was alone in the house at the time, and it disrupted her solitude but they were not completely unwelcome.

Ser Brynden introduced his daughter Lysa, Lord Edmure’s sister. A pale, stark woman with a severe nose, Lysa was strangely effusive; she is her father’s daughter in looks and, like him, hers bely her personality. She had arrived the evening before at Riverrun Park with her husband Lord John Arryn, passing through on the way home to Aerie Lodge in the Vale. They had, for the last few days, been in King’s Landing - Lord Jon seeing to matters of business, and Lady Lysa seeing to a doctor who would care for her in her confinement come spring.

At the mention of this, Ser Brynden had remarked that Lysa should perhaps have made the doctor come to her and saved herself a tiring journey, but Lysa had no interest in being parted from her husband - where he went, so did she.

Lord Jon, for his part, said little and even less in between, but he shook Brienne’s hand and commented on the attractiveness of the cottage’s front parlor.

The third person with them is introduced as Lord Arryn’s cousin Mrs. Blackwood, a very pretty widow of thirty who lived in the Arryn home following the death of her husband some four or five years before, and with her is her young daughter who is tall for her age, at only seven - half that of Arya.

When Mrs. Stark and her daughters returned to the house, they were welcomed with a parlor full of new friends, and little Dinah took to Arya immediately. Only Catelyn took at all to Lady Lysa, who was ready to pass on her father’s gossip about Ramsay Snow’s attentions to Sansa and congratulations for an engagement that had not materialized. It was not on this that she and Mrs. Stark found common ground, but on Lady Lysa’s upcoming joy. For her part, she was certain it was to be a boy; Catelyn had no experience in raising boys, but her advice was welcomed readily.

Sansa was ill-disposed from the state of her spirits to be pleased with any of these guests, but perhaps especially Eliza Blackwood and her daughter. To the invariable coldness of her behavior, Brienne principally attributed that preference of herself and, for the young girl, Arya, which quickly became evident.

And so it was that as Brienne’s solitude faded, Sansa’s was again elevated and made more prominent by the multitude of invitations to the Park which came to them daily for the next several days, most of which Sansa declined in favor of practicing her instrument alone in the empty cottage. Only on the first day did Sansa join them at the Park and, afterward, Brienne chided her sister for her silence in company, to which Sansa had upbraided her soundly once they were home. “I’m doing this for you,” she had said, “you have been so melancholy since Jaime left, that I thought having family with you would be kinder than leaving you to strangers, but perhaps I was wrong about that.”

Sansa declined to attend dinner with the guests for the remainder of their stay.

***

“You will think my question an odd one, I dare say,” said Eliza on the fourth day of their residence, as they were walking together from the Park to the cottage with the younger girls playing ahead of them. “Do you know much of your mother? I believe Ser Brynden mentioned that she was from Tarth.”

“No,” returned Brienne, curious, “I know very little of her. Only that she was from Tarth, as you say, from a small family. My father told me that I resembled her a great deal, both in person and in temperament.”

“I am sure you think me strange for enquiring about her in such a way,” said Eliza, eyeing Brienne attentively, “but I had wondered if we might be related in some fashion. I hope you will do me the justice of believing that I do not meant to be impertinent or cause you discomfort.”

“Truly, I have no idea of any familial connection with Blackwoods or Arryns. Perhaps you should apply to your cousin - maybe he has histories that would better inform you. I wonder at your not apply to him first, as I am quite without any record from my mother’s life.”

“I think you should wonder… if I dared tell you all, Miss Stark, you would not be so much surprised.”

“What do you mean?” asked Brienne, pausing in the path.

“As we could indeed be family… Miss Stark… Brienne. I wonder… I should wish to share something with you. I would not trouble your sisters or your cousins with this - it is a great secret which I wish kept among those whom I trust the most, and I understand you to be most honorable and trustworthy.”

“I know not by what device you have determined that aspect of my person, but I swear that whatever you wish to tell me - I may be depended upon to keep sacred.”

“Yes, I believe you can.” Eliza continued walking. “Brienne, you may well be surprised, for to be sure you could have no idea of it before… of our acquaintance here, only Lord Arryn and his wife know this, though Lysa does not know all.”

“I begin to think that may be for the best, Mrs. Blackwood,” said Brienne delicately.

Eliza smiled wryly and continued. “Blackwood… was my grandmother’s maiden name. She hailed from the Stormlands, near Tarth, and as such - yes - perhaps I do have distant family relations I know naught of, but you are more likely to be one than is Lord Arryn.”

Brienne frowned. “I do not understand you. Lord Arryn--”

“--is not my cousin, Miss Stark. My late husband, Dinah’s father, was a cruel man, Brienne. What marks I do not bear on my person still scar my mind. After my daughter was born, he turned especially wicked. He had wanted a son, and I had denied him that. For three years then, I lived - we both did - in torment. He was a judge, Miss Stark, and the magistrates were in his pocket - there was almost no one I could turn to. I thought to run away, but if I took his only child with me, no doubt he would find me again and send me to an institution, or worse.”

“Gods… Eliza--”

“--when I was very young, my mother called me Ella. Eliza wasn’t a far jump. Brienne, my real name is Rhaella. Dinah’s given name is actually Daena. Lord Arryn though it best to keep hers similar as she was so young when we left.”

“Are you-- El--I’m sorry, I don’t know--”

“--Eliza, please. For the others--”

“Of course. Eliza,” Brienne said carefully, “are you... in hiding from your husband?”

“Not him. He no longer lives. We sought shelter from his family. The Targaryens are powerful, and I’m afraid not an empathetic people.”

“Targaryen… My father received a letter some three or four years ago from his barrister, advising him that a judge they knew had been killed in a duel - was that…?”

Eliza walked a few steps before answering, looking ahead at the girls playing. “Officially? Yes. Society respects that kind of death. It’s acceptable, even.”

“And… unofficially?”

“A friend stepped in. Someone who was astounded by the conditions we were living in and alarmed by the injury that my husband had caused. It had been his idea to run away, but I had told him no because I feared Aerys’ wrath. But then my husband started hurting Daena, and our friend could not bear it. It was he who challenged my husband. That was his mistake. In being the one challenged, Aerys was given the choosing of the weapon. Aerys always chose pistols.” Eliza’s voice faded as she collected herself. Brienne patiently walked beside her, moving a little closer to give the other woman some comfort. “He liked the way they sparked when they were fired. But his challenger - our friend - he’s better with a sword. I knew that Aerys might kill him, and then he’d likely hurt us again. Brienne… if I dare tell…”

Brienne stopped and took Eliza’s hands in hers. “Please do not fear. Your secrets you wish to tell, they are safe with me, Eliza.”

She was given a small smile in return. “They are not only mine to tell, Miss Stark. But I think he would - I know that he would take comfort in your confidence, that he does already.”

Brienne wracked her mind to imagine whom Eliza could be speaking of. “Who is he, Eliza - your friend - do you mean that I am acquainted with him?”

“Brienne, have you never observed the scarring on Mr. Lannister’s right hand?”

Lannister? Jaime Lannister was not so impulsive or actionable. Could she mean Lord Tywin? She knew that he had very specific ways, and it would not be absurd to think that he might have involved himself in this, but to have thought of Eliza’s well-being seemed strange - he did not seem the type of man to care about anyone outside of his family. Brienne’s eyebrows knit together. “I’m afraid I’m not acquainted with Lord Lannister. We have never met.”

“Oh, Lord Lannister got away from the incident unharmed. But I am speaking of our friend , Brienne. I speak of Mr. Jaime Lannister.”

What felt Brienne at that moment? Astonishment, that would have been as painful as it was strong, had not an immediate disbelief of the assertion attended it. She turned toward Eliza in amazement, unable to divine the reasoning of such a declaration, and though her complexion began to warm, she stood firm in incredulity and felt no danger an hysterical fit. “We cannot mean the same Jaime Lannister.”

“We can mean no other, Miss Stark. Mr. Jaime Lannister, the second son of Lord Tywin Lannister in Rains Court, and brother to Mrs. Robert Baratheon, is the person I mean; you must allow that I am not likely to be deceived as to the name of a man on whom our happiness has depended.”

Brienne felt her steps speeding, as if her legs meant to carry her away from knowledge of Jaime’s past, or perhaps present. “How… how came you to be acquainted with Mr. Lannister?” She slowed herself as best she could to allow Eliza to keep up with her.

“Lord Tywin Lannister was a barrister at one time - that is how he made his fortune - and he was an old acquaintance of my husband’s. The families were somewhat close once, but had grown apart prior to my marriage. The relationship between Aerys and Lord Tywin improved again after we’d been married about a year. Jaime and I were often at the same dinners and parties. He is godfather to my daughter.”

“It is strange,” replied Brienne in a most painful perplexity, “that I should never have heard him speak of you.” Something akin to jealousy seemed to be brewing in Brienne’s chest.

“Not so, considering our situation, and our continued need for concealment.”

“You said scars on his hand? I had not observed--”

“When next you see him, Miss Stark, find occasion to regard the center of his left hand. It is well healed, but the inconsistencies are obvious under examination. I owe much to Jaime Lannister, and he’s very fortunate that those scars are the only physical injury he sustained due to my foolishness.”

“But it is not foolish to be a victim of cruelty, Eliza.”

“I speak of my foolish actions. If anyone knew the truth--”

“Pray, Eliza, what do you mean I have heard so many truths just now.”

The other woman paused, as if estimating Brienne’s ability to endure what came next. “I do not think Mr. Lannister can be displeased when he knows I have trusted you, because I know he has the highest opinion in the world of you, Brienne, and he looks on the Miss Starks as superior sisters to his own. He trusts you above all others.”

Brienne swallowed hard. “I cannot vouch for his certainties - I am not personally acquainted with them.”

“Aren’t you?”

Brienne didn’t know what to make of that look in her companion’s eyes.

“The morning of the challenge, I was there before the men arrived. Aerys chose pistols as I knew he would, and I knew that Jaime would not succeed against him. I hid myself behind a tree, near where Aerys would be. He and Mr. Lannister met, and then counted out their paces, and then Aerys - he cheated, Brienne. He turned before the count was up.”

Brienne froze. “And Jai--”

“--Brienne, I jumped then from behind the tree with Aerys’ own sword in my hand and I drove it as hard as I could through his back.”

“But you said--”

“--a gun went off - I didn’t know whose until Jaime came racing across the field and moved me away from the body - Aerys had gotten off a shot as he faltered, and it had gone clean through Jaime’s hand.”

Eliza was not only a someone whose history inspired empathy, but she was a savior of sorts as well - even if it had come at the cost of murdering a man who would have easily murdered others. How was one to compete with so many pitiable circumstances? “If what you say is true, then what of the others?” Brienne whispered. “There were witnesses?”

Eliza nodded, “Lord Arryn was there as Jaime’s second. And Lord Tywin was there as my husband’s.”

Brienne felt herself go cold, and gasped. “Lord Tywin would have stood against his own son?”

“If you knew Lord Tywin you might understand. He said he would have only stood if Lord Arryn had taken Jaime’s place, but...”

“Gods be good.” Brienne had known that Lord Lannister was a demanding sort of man, but this was beyond imagination.

“It was Jaime’s idea to take the credit for my husband’s death. Lord Arryn agreed to take Dae-- Dinah and I away, and Lord Tywin - he did what he could, using his influence to keep details out of the newspapers.”

“Is that why we’d never heard anything of it?”

Eliza nodded. “Lord Lannister managed to keep the more widely circulated papers from carrying it. But in King’s Landing it is well-known and still spoken of that Jaime Lannister killed Aerys Targaryen.”

Brienne felt her stomach turn, then looked to Eliza whose face was pale. “Mrs. Blackwood, I can’t imagine how hard it must be having done what you did - what you had to for your daughter.” And if she hadn’t, Brienne thought, she might never have met Jaime.

“I have made my peace with it, Miss Stark. I know what lives were saved by it. But Mr. Lannister... he’s had to live with having to take the credit for it for the last four years. It takes a toll. He was so miserable when he left the Aerie last month, to go to you, that I thought you might think him ill.

“He was in particularly low spirit, we thought, when he first arrived.” So perhaps it was not only the company that had caused his malaise.

“And he is still now - he wrote me from Winterfell - his letters are always somewhat poor, but this one was low as well. I think his sister and father continue to try and push him to embrace the lie, but he hates that part of his life. He hates noteriety.” Eliza held it out for Brienne to see, and she could tell that it was indeed Jaime’s hesitating scratchy penmanship. And she certainly concurred on her last point - Jaime had said as much himself.

But to what lengths might he go to ensure his privacy now that Eliza might tell him that the history of his secrets had been extended to her? Would he stay away? Would he wish to see the Starks again at all? It was too much to comprehend.

And then there was the matter of his correspondence with Mrs. Blackwood, of which Brienne had certain proof in front of her. It pointed to more familiarity between Jaime and the widow than Brienne had been willing to welcome knowledge of. Her heart sank within her, and she felt she could hardly stand; but exertion was indispensably necessary, and she struggled so resolutely against the oppression of her feelings, that her success was speedy and the for the time, complete.

“Writing to each other,” said Eliza, unaware of Brienne’s turmoil, “is the only comfort we both have in our shared secrecy - that, and my daughter. But Jaime doesn’t get to see his godchild often now. I, at least, have that . I gave him a lock of her hair set in a ring when he was at the Aerie last in order to remind him of the blessings that his actions have wrought, and he said that it gave him more comfort than anything in the world - perhaps you saw it when he came here?”

“I did,” said Brienne, with composure of voice under which she concealed an emotion and distress beyond anything she had felt before - distress for Jaime’s privacy, for Rhaella and Daena’s enforced secrecy, and for herself - mortified and shocked at her foolishness.

Fortunately for her, they had now reached the cottage and caught up to Arya and the younger girl with the pale yellow hair - far paler than Cersei's, as Sansa had correctly observed to Jaime. Eliza went to attend to her daughter, and Brienne was then at liberty to think and be wretched.

[whitecrossgirl]

Why Don’t You Do Right?

AN: So here is the Who Framed Roger Rabbit AU that no one asked for but I wrote it anyway, mainly because of the mental image of Gwendoline Christie as Jessica Rabbit. I messaged @sassbewitchedmyass about this idea and with her kickass encouragement, I decided to write it. I hope you enjoy it.

Tyrion had been surprised when Daenerys Targaryen had contacted him. He had made it clear that despite the lull in people hiring a private detective, he would not work for anyone in show business. Not after Bronn was murdered by someone in the business, someone who had taken every step to hide their tracks and it seemed all of showbiz had helped them to do so. Bronn had been more than a best friend, he had been like a brother to him and things just hadn’t been the same. He barely focused on his work, numbing his pain with wine and scotch, just punching time until the inevitable. Then Daenerys Targaryen, CEO and owner of Three Dragons Studios had contacted him, requesting his services to confirm whether the spouse of one of her best actors was having an affair. Initially he had dismissed her; he was a private detective, not a gossip magazine. Actors having extra-marital affairs was of no concern to him.

“Why would I do that?” Tyrion had asked and Daenerys raised an eyebrow.

“Maybe because the employee in question is your brother Jaime?” Daenerys challenged, causing Tyrion to almost choke on his drink.

He had not seen or heard from Jaime for years. Tyrion had walked out on his family at the age of eighteen; fed up with the toxic environment, the taunts, insults and belittlement. He had refused to keep in contact with any member of his family; didn’t bother to look up any further developments in their lives. Indeed, the only reason he knew Jaime was in the same city was because of Jaime’s fame. Like Tyrion, Jaime had turned his back on the family, however it seemed that had been the best thing for him. Jaime was a talented actor and with his talent, good looks and charm, he had quickly become the most sought after actor in the business. Surprisingly, it was actually his voice acting which had made him an icon. He voiced the character Roger Rabbit; a carefree cartoon rabbit who constantly got into foolish shenanigans. Jaime had turned the character into one of the most beloved in recent years and definitely the most popular thing to come out of the Three Dragons Studio. Yet that was all he knew about Jaime’s life. He didn’t read any of the interviews Jaime gave or watched any of the movies or TV shows he starred in. He didn’t even know Jaime was married.

“I didn’t know Jaime was married.” Tyrion said and Daenerys gave a wry smile.

“He’s devoted to her and she’s playing him like a fool. Rumour has it, she’s got this thing with Tormund Giantsbane, one of the main players at Jon Snow’s White Wall studios. If that’s true, it explains the mole in our business, feeding Jon Snow all our ideas and secrets.” Daenerys explained. She and Jon Snow were in charge of two of the biggest studios in the business and spies were everywhere between the two companies. It made sense to her that they would get someone both connected to the studios but not employed to source their information.

“So what do you want me to do?” Tyrion asked. “I don’t work showbiz. It’s a nest of vipers.”

“I want you to get proof of this affair. Get that proof, Jaime knows the truth and we can all get back to business.” Daenerys explained. She wasn’t that overly concerned about Jaime’s marriage but he was the most valued actor in her company. If anything happened to him; if he quit or his wife made him leave for White Wall; it would ruin Three Dragons. It would be better for him if he knew the truth of his wife.

“I don’t know who this woman is, how am I meant to find her and prove that she’s having an affair?” Tyrion challenged. “Also, how much are you offering?”

“Thousand, you get five hundred upfront. The rest when the photos are delivered.” Daenerys offered.

“Deal,” Tyrion nodded as Daenerys handed him the money in a bundle of notes. Tyrion took a moment to double check before pocketing the money. “So where do I find her.”

“She sings at Riverrun Club on Sparrow Street. Performs under the name Sapphire Starr. From what I know, she’s performing there tonight. Giantsbane never misses a single performance.” Daenerys explained. “I want the photos as soon as you have them.”

“Deal,” Tyrion repeated as Daenerys left his office. For a moment, he considered the implications of his actions. He hadn’t seen or spoken to his brother in years. Now he was expected to break his brother’s heart by finding evidence of his wife’s infidelity. It was a dirty job but someone had to do it. Besides, it was probably better in the long run for Jaime.

And a thousand dragons was a thousand dragons.

Later that evening, Tyrion found himself inside the tastefully decorated Riverrun club. It was owned by the Tully family and their colours of red and blue were tastefully scattered around. With the name Riverrun, there was a decorative theme to give the illusion of being underwater. However Tyrion doubted it was the décor that attracted so many customers tonight. The majority of the customers were men but there were more than a few women in the club as well; all of them drinking, laughing and enjoying the current performance of a pianist. Tyrion managed to find a table close to where Giantsbane was sat. Tyrion knew him by sight and it wasn’t hard to miss the large red headed man in a vivid blue suit. Tyrion took his seat and within seconds a waitress appeared by his side.

“Tyrion? Is that you?”

Tyrion looked up to see Sansa Stark beside him, an empty tray balanced in her hand. He had helped the Stark family find evidence that the Lannister’s, his own father had been plotting with the Frey’s to destroy the Stark’s family business. He had taken great pleasure in foiling his father’s schemes but he hadn’t seen any of the Starks in a few years.

“Sansa, I didn’t know you worked here.” Tyrion said as Sansa gave a small smile.

“Uncle Edmure gave me a job, it helps fund living expenses for university. Are you here to see Brienne?” Sansa asked and Tyrion shook his head.

“Who’s Brienne?” Tyrion asked and a flicker of awkwardness crossed Sansa’s face before she smiled. “I’ve heard of Sapphire Starr, I came to see her perform.”

“Oh that is her name, Sapphire Starr is her stage name, Brienne is her real name. We always have the busiest and best nights when she performs. She’ll be on in a minute.” Sansa said, looking to the stage. Tyrion followed her gaze as the pianist finished and the curtains began to draw. She seemed to be correct; as the curtains drew, more of the patrons moved towards the stage, grabbing tables, chairs or even standing; just so they were close enough to the walkway of the stage that seemed to reach all the way to Giantsbane’s table. Whoever this Sapphire was, clearly she was popular and able to lure a crowd. However, Tyrion’s thoughts returned to the job at hand as slow, jazzy music began to play and a sultry voice began to sing.

“You had plenty money, 1922,” As she sang, a long, pale leg emerged from the curtains before they drew back to cheers and a piercingly loud wolf whistle from Giantsbane. Despite the loudness of the cheers, Tyrion could hear her singing. She was like a siren, her voice and looks luring the men towards her; hypnotising them with her voice and appearance.

“You let other women make a fool of you Why don’t you do right? Like some other man do?”

As she sang, Tyrion was transfixed by her appearance. He could see why so many men and women flocked to the bar and to the stage. She was the tallest woman he had ever seen and the heels she wore maximised her height and made her endless legs seem longer. Her risqué dress was strapless, baring her pale shoulders but held up by her bust; on one side the skirt was cut daringly high, ending just at the top of her thigh, meaning each step she took as she strutted down the stage, showed off more and more of her legs, enticing and alluding to any temptation beyond that point. The dress was a deep shade of dark blue but had enough sequins that glinted off of the stage lights to give the illusion of stars. Tyrion could understand now why she chose the stage name Sapphire Starr; more precious than any jewel, more enchanting than any star.

Her blonde hair was short and carefully styled and curled so that it fell carefully around her face. Her face was also carefully made up; scarlet lipstick and eyes that gave the impression of heavily lidded bedroom eyes. Although her face wasn’t the most beautiful; it was her confidence, her height and her sensuality, her sexual confidence in herself that seemed to impress the crowd. She had learnt how to accept, embrace and use her sexuality and sex appeal along with her singing talent and it had worked perfectly for her. He had never seen a woman like her. She was like a being from a legend; a warrior goddess or a siren, luring men to their death.

“She’s married to Jaime?” Tyrion whispered to Sansa who watched as Sapphire/Brienne sang towards a young man, who seemed utterly transfixed by her and astounded he had won her attentions for a moment. Even as she pushed him away, the young man stared after her, his hand ghosting over where she had touched him; as though blessed by the Seven themselves.

“Yeah, she’s a lucky woman,” Sansa said wistfully. She dreamed of finding true love like Brienne and Jaime did; of having a man who adored her and was as devoted to her as Jaime was to Brienne. Maybe someday, Sansa thought as she went to collect more drinks orders, leaving Tyrion to watch the show.

Tyrion turned his attention back to Brienne who was now stepping off the stage and onto Giantsbane’s table. He reached out his hand and Brienne took it, stepping off of the table and slipping an arm around his neck, aiming the next words at him seductively as she playfully stroked his beard.

“Get out of here, make me some money too,”

Before Tyrion could get his camera, Brienne had moved away from Giantsbane and seemed to put her focus onto him, singing the next words almost too him as she sat on the far end of the table and leaned across it. She was close enough that if he chose to, he could have looked down her dress, however he was fixated on her eyes. They were sapphire blue too. Brienne took him by the tie and pulled him towards her until they were almost face to face.

“Why don’t; you do right? Like some other man…”

Tyrion wondered if she had guessed who he was. As if teasing him with that answer, Brienne actually leaned in and teasingly pretended to kiss the edge of his nose before finishing her song.

“Do?”

With that, she let go of his tie, leaving him half standing in a daze as she walked back to the stage and behind the curtain to thunderous applause and cheers from the other patrons in the club. Tyrion felt almost dumbstruck by what he had seen and heard. How could that beautiful, enchanting, bewitching woman be married to his brother? Tyrion shook his head, like a dog trying to shake off water as he noticed Giantsbane getting up from his seat and heading backstage. Tyrion felt for the camera in his pocket before following him.

Jaime. He was doing this for Jamie.

[summerseachild]

Summersea’s GoT Season 4 Rewatch 2019

Otherwise known as: “The Long Slow Slide to D and D Running Out of Material from the Books”

4x01: 

1. The visuals of Ice getting melted down are SO PRETTY (while RoC plays on the background 😎 living my best Lannister Life over here.)

2. Jaime getting the sword and trying NOT to be Lord of Casterly Rock and HOLY SHIT TELLING TYWIN NO and getting away with it.

3. Tyrion is trying so hard to greet the Dornish politely... poor guy.

4. It’s pride month so I’m just pointing out that Oberyn is soooo biiiii and This Bi Girl loves him. And him playing with the flame and Ellaria trying to stop him from killing the Lannister who insulted him... I just love their dynamic.

5. Drogon is just a big happy dragon-Cat and in Dany’s first appearance of this season. He PURRS.

6. I love Jaime and Cersei’s scene with Jaime’s new hand. They snipe at each other, but it is SO how they interact.

7. Jon and Sansa reacting to Robb’s death :(

8. GUESS WHO DID NOT MISS JANOS SLYNT OR ALLISER THORNE AT ALL THATS RIGHT MEEEE. Also Alliser is Peter Knox in a Discovery of Witches so I just HATE HIS FACE.

9. TREAT THAT BOOK MORE CAREFULLY JOFFREY YOU LITTLE SHIT and treat your uncle more nicely too. Jaime looks a little taken aback at what a little turd his oldest has become, but handles it well I think.

10. Jaime and Brienne trying to sort out how to keep his vow to Catelyn 🤣

11. YES ARYA GET NEEDLE BACK. Also Sandor being like NO CHILD COME BACK HERE DO NOT RUSH INTO DANGER WITHOUT ME is precious.

12. Sandor Clegane saying FUCK THE KING gives me such satisfaction

13. I should not be so happy about Arya re-enacting the time when Polliver

14. But I am happy that Sandor got his chickens

4x02

1. So I had forgotten that the girls who were in the scene where Theon gets cut are Myranda and the girl Ramsay is hunting later. I remembered how much I hate the Myranda thing real quick, though.

2. I love Tyrion being understanding of Jaime’s disability because HE WOULD BE. Also Tyrion pouring wine on the table to be like “look spilling is no big deal” is PRECIOUS.

3. Bronn knocking Jaime around while sparring is a great source of joy to me.

4. Theon finds out that Robb is dead when he’s got a RAZOR TO RAMSAY’S THROAT I can’t with Alfie’s face.

5. Every time I see Joffrey chop that book in half I want the purple wedding to be right now.

6. Tyrion trying to make Shae leave :...(

7. KEEP AWAY FROM SHIREEN, RED WOMAN, said Davos probably a lot

8. Question: why don’t the direwolves being food BACK to the hungry humans? Especially when Bran can warg into them?

9. So I want to go through every frame of that vision Bran has with the weirwood because the one we haven’t seen before is a Dragons over King’s Landing. Those ARE THE ROOFS YOU SEE IN THE NEXT SHOT FOR THE WEDDING.

10. Haha oh right this IS the purple wedding ep ooops I’d almost forgot. Not sorry for wishing death on Joffrey but sorry for Cersei’s sake and everyone else it fucks over.

11. Loras having eye sex with Oberyn cracks me up I mean they both have eyes and good gaydar... (bi-dar? queer-dar?)

12. Is Margaery... flirting with Brienne? Or is that just Margaery’s personality?

13. JAIME’S FACE when he sees Brienne and Cersei talking is SO FUNNY he’s like shit shit shit DANGER

14. What did Qyburn DO for Cersei that she is recommending to other women? She told him symptoms were gone in a previous ep in a weird mysterious way... did he help her end a pregnancy?? How long has it BEEN since Blackwater? This never comes back again but I’m super curious. 

15. Oberyn has zero chill around Tywin and I love it.

16. Margaery looking like she is is going to murder someone during the war of the five Kings show is A Mood. (I mean... there IS about to be a murder.)

17. I don’t think the Tyrells planned it but Joffrey being a shit and making Tyrion touch his wine goblet and SANSA TOUCHING IT TOO played right into their hands.

4x03: oh brother here comes altar sex

1. I want very much for Hector Barbossa to be waiting at the top of that ladder for Sansa after approaching the ship and the creepy fog. But no it’s Petyr Baelish. Ew.

2. Hello new Tommen! Good to see you again after Karstark killed your identical cousin! Also Tywin being like GOOD KINGS ARE SMART AND LISTEN TO THEIR SMART ADVISORS. (That moment when a sitting US president needs to listen to Tywin. Scary?)

3. Altar sex has not aged well for me. I’m not a J/C shipper who thinks they’ve got a healthy relationship that’s all sunshine and kitties. I know the two of them have a messed up dynamic, but this scene misses the mark in so many ways and I hate it. I wish they would have left it out rather than done it wrong. (Also I think it was a tryout for me for “can you get a valonqar scene right?” And the answer was a resounding NO.)

4. Speaking of healthy relationships though Sam and Gilly are cute and sweet and awkward and everything that is good and pure in this world.

5. And so is Davos telling Shireen about his smuggling adventures.

6. Oberyn sat his beautiful self right in the middle of the Kinsey scale and said THE VIEW IS GREAT HERE. What an icon. Also offering Tywin fricking Lannister a seat on the bed where you were just having sex with like FOUR DIFFERENT PEOPLE was A Move.

7. Tywin TELLS OBERYN ABOUT DANY and Oberyn looks like this is the first he’s heard of it.

8. Tyrion saying goodbye to Pod gave me a decent sized lump in my throat.

9. Daario taking down the Champion Of Meereen with one thrown dagger and one slash of a sword is sexy as fuck and I don’t care who knows I think so.

4x04

1. Missandei teaching Grey Worm and just hanging out with him is so important to me this time around.

2. Jaime and Bronn are weird friends and I kind of love it.

3. The Kingslayer Brothers: coming soon to a stage near you. I’d buy that band’s shirt.

4. Olenna Tyrell is a STONE COLD LADY and I love that about her. She protected her granddaughter and I respect that.

5. That is A LOT OF WINE IN THAT GLASS Cersei my love. Also Jaime TRYING to convince her Tyrion didn’t do it hurts me. He loves them both so much, but they all hurt each other.

6. Ser Pounce is a big fluff like my Freya!

7. OATHKEEPER AND THE WHITE BOOK AND THE ARMOR. Brienne’s face is so pure when he gives it to her.

8. I had near forgotten all of this stuff at the wall with Olly and Jon and the cannibals and the mutineers at Craster’s and waiting for Mance’s army. (We know where my heart is though, don’t we...)

9. SIT DOWN LOCKE. I forgot that human shitstain showed up at the wall looking for Bran.

10. We didn’t need the mutineer plot. What did it add? What did we learn about the world or its people? Nothing we didn’t already know. What. Was. The. Point. We’d already seen the walkers and knew about the babies, we knew the world was violent and classist. WE KNEW.

11. I love when Summer is like HELLO BROTHER GHOST OH NO A TRAP

12. The white walker riding across the frozen lake... what a gorgeous image, and the ice henge...

13. WHAT DO THE BLUE EYED ICE BABIES GROW UP TO BEEEEE DO WE EVEN KNOW

4x05

1. I’d say long live King Tommen, but I’d cry.

2. Cersei is beauty she is grace she wants to punch Margaery in the face. (But actually is acting like she might need Margaery to help Tommen? That scene was hard to read.)

3. Meereen has a lot of cool geometrical carvings.

4. Dany thinking about what kind of ruler she wants to be and what responsibilities she has to the people she freed? THAT IS WHO SHE IS, D AND D YOU DICKS.

5. Sansa’s like “greeeeeaaaaat another creepy little kid” when she meets Robin.

6. And Lysa lets it ALL OUT about what Petyr has had her do... wow.

7. Cersei is going along with the Tyrell marriages way too easily what is her game.

8. Tywin is... almost treating his daughter like someone he can trust and have a conversation with? What is this?

9. And then there’s the stupidity about the mines running out. Wtf.

10. Arya is a little drama queen with saying the Hound’s name last while HE WAS LISTENING.

11. Lysa is SO DAMAGED. Poor Sansa.

12. Aw Brienne you don’t know what a loyal kid you’ve got in Podrick give him a chance.

13. Arya practicing water dancing is so cool.

14. Cersei and Oberyn talking is actually really interesting. And they talk about Myrcella :....( and Oberyn is TELLING THE TRUTH about her being happy.

15. Cersei got her A BOAT for her birthday because she LIKES THE OPEN WATER I had forgotten that and I am freaking out for fic reasons because of fics I haven’t written yet that involve Myrcella being good at boats.

16. Geez Pod I don’t know how to skin a rabbit but I know you need to before you cook it. And... does Brienne actually need help with that armor, or does she realize Pod needs to feel useful? I’m going with the second.

17. I had forgotten how creepy Jojen’s visions were.

18. Bran warging into Hodor and killing Locke is... problematic, but Bran had every reason to think Locke was going to kill him. Good fucking riddance.

19. Jon being happy to see Ghost XD

20. So... there’s just a troop of Crasters daughters out there still? Idek.

4x06 the laws of gods and men (and by men we mean Tywin)

1. Braavos is so pretty! I love her. I love her canals, I love the Titan, I love the domes, I just love her.

2. I remember when people lost their shit over Mark Gattis being in this episode. He is quite good here, and Davos is quite clever.

3. Salador’s joke about the red shirt is FUNNY and I’m not afraid to say so.

4. No one wants to see Ramsay having sex.

5. EVERYONE wants to see Yara giving a great speech.

6. She... ran from some dogs when she was burying her axe in dudes’ GUTS five seconds earlier? LAAAAAAME. Yes yes she also saw how fucked up in the head Theon was (more awards Alfie deserved and didn’t get), and she did want to lose any more people when he wasn’t willing to come but the way this was cut it reads like she was all OH NO DOGS which is the stupidest thing ever. 

7. NOOOO POOR GOATS. I get that dragons have to eat though...

8. I cannot believe Dany didn’t take the time to FIND OUT WHICH MEEREENESE WERE LESS TERRIBLE. They would have been fucking allies. BUT NO LET’S JUST CRUCIFY PEOPLE WITH NO IDEA OF THE NUANCES OF THE LOCAL SITUATION. What stupidity.

9. At least she’s trying to learn??? She’s so small on that throne in a huge room. What a great shot.

10. Oberyn is a bisexual who CANNOT SIT IN A CHAIR NORMALLY. I am not complaining.

11. I cannot see the scene of Jaime and Tyrion walking down into the courtroom for the trial without giggling at the memory of the outtake where they dance like dorks into the room and down the aisle.

12. Jaime looking at Tyrion like YOU ARE NOT HELPING YOURSELF is a mood.

13. How did they get the poison necklace? Didn’t Littlefinger throw it in the Blackwater FAR off shore? A bit AFTER he killed Dontos? How does Pycelle have it here? Maybe they washed up together? Maybe D and D forgot Petyr tossed it in the bay? WHO KNOWS???

14. Jaime trying to convince Tywin one last time and offering to leave the kingsguard in exchange for Tyrion HOLY SHIT I FORGOT HE DID THAT. Cersei never would have spoken to him again if he’d left her and married and gone back to the Rock and given Tywin what he wanted. Jaime KNEW he was screwing over a relationship that means SO MUCH TO HIM but it’s TYRION’S LIFE we’re talking about here. That’s how much he loves his little brother. 

15. Tywin is like DONE so fast Jaime barely gets the offer out lol

16. And it all would have worked if Shae hadn’t walked through those doors.

17. Do we know WHY Shae agreed to testify to this? What did Tywin offer her or threaten her with?

18. WHAT ARE YOU DOING LITTLE BRO WHY ARE YOU SAYING THIS?! is Jaime’s face all the time this scene.

19. Tyrion’s “confession”is such a piece of acting wow Peter enjoy your Emmys.

4x07

1. Jeez Tyrion didn’t know Jaime COULDN’T save him. He had no idea that losing his hand had affected his abilities that badly. That... hurts.

2. Arya, Sandor, and the dying farmer is such a great scene... And Arya only killing that asshole only after Sandor learns his name for her so she knows the name of the man she’s killing.... A++ would watch again.

3. Everyone LISTEN TO JON he has seen things none of you have.

4. Tyrion finding out Bronn has been bought is so very upsetting but I love this scene.

5. But really though once Tywin named The Mountain champion, anyone who Tyrion asks to be his champion at this point he’s basically asking to die.

6. Dany’s like “well I guess fucking Daario isn’t going to cause a political disaster at least.”

7. I had forgotten how fascinating Selyse and Melisandre’s interactions are.

8. IS THAT SETTING UP BURNING SHIREEN FUCK THAT.

9. Dany is capable of nuanced thought when it comes to innocence and guilt of whole groups of people and WE JUST SAW IT with how Jorah changes her mind and I’m JUST SO ANGRY.

10. That is the only time we get the story of Sandor and the fire from his own mouth and I did not mean to be this moved.

11. Hot Pie talking about food (oh yeah and Arya) is so precious. And now I want steak and kidney pie. With gravy.

12. “Using honest feelings to do dishonest work is one of her greatest talents.” The truest thing Tyrion has ever said about Cersei.

13. What a great snow castle. Too bad Joffrey part 2 knocked it down.

14. Ew ew ew Petyr kissing Sansa is so skeevy and gross.

15. “A great deal might change between now and never” is a great line though.

16. I hate Petyr but it’s good he pushed Lysa out the Moon Door before she killed Sansa.

4x08

1. Jon and Co all reminding Sam that Gilly is a survivor is so great. Brotherhood at its best.

2. Missandei and Grey Worm are young people with old souls and their relationship is precious to me.

3. Alfie is SO GOOD at showing how deeply Ramsay has him under his control even when he’s alone with the Ironborn.

4. Petyr is part Braavosi? Fascinating.

5. Sansa TOLD the Lords of Vale who she was??? Her testimony is such a good bit of acting on Sansa’s part. It’s a lie hidden in a lot of truth, and she was QUICK to think it through and come up with it.

6. Jorah telling Dany about the pardon is a scene that breaks my heart. 💔 She is HARSH here but I love the full blown Targaryen on display.

7. Roose being like TELL ME WHAT YOU SEE like the Lion King cracks me up so hard.

8. I will never give Ramsay the Bolton name in anything I write as long as I am a fan of this show out of pure hatred. He is Ramsay Snow forever and always.

9. I remember I was so worried that they were going to have Petyr try to sexually assault Sansa. OH I WAS A SWEET SUMMER CHILD.

10. Arya laughing at the news of Lady Arryn’s Death is an immensely human reaction and I love that she just CANNOT STOP.

11. I know people hated that scene with Jaime and Tyrion talking about beetles but I have two takeaways: first, a septon tried to touch Jaime once???? Headcanon: Little Jaime looked that septon dead in the eye and said “my father wouldn’t like that” and it never happened again. The septon was summarily replaced. Second: Jaime has never thought about ANYTHING in his whole life as deeply as baby Tyrion thought about beetles.

12. Oberyn is so fun to watch fight and Jaime agrees with me.

13. You don’t need him to confess Oberyn really you don’t you GOT HIM my beautiful prince.

14. How did the Gods make their will known if BOTH champions killed each other dead, huh Tywin? (The Mountain is... less Dead?)

4x09

1. Sam mulling over the legalistic interpretation of their vows and Jon trying to explain what sex and love are like are both SO CUTE.

2. I love that everyone around that fire has heard the “Tormund fucked a bear” story and I’m kind of sorry Ygritte didn’t let him finish.

3. Maester Aemon revealing his Targaryen identity was lovely. Also Sam Cussing to get Gilly in the gate= AMAZING

4. Alliser Thorne ADMITTING HE WAS WRONG? I am dead of shock.

5. Sam and Pyp talking about fear and bravery is... so darling.

6. They have A GIANT RIDING A MAMMOTH and I will forgive a small amount of nonsense for giving me that image.

7. See Alliser looking at the horn blower like REALLY? IN THE FUCKING MIDDLE OF MY SPEECH? Before they realize it’s the horn at Castle Black is PRICELESS.

8. Speaking of which I may not like Alliser but he gives a good “let’s not die” speech.

9. Bless Grenn for getting Janos Slynt off the wall.

10. Pyp dying in Sam’s arms was not something I was ready for.

11. You’ve heard of horsepower... now get ready for MAMMOTH POWER (wildling used mammoth salesmen probably)

12. Sam remembering that being NICE to Olly when asking to go up the wall rather than just screaming at him is... telling.

13. Grenn is THE BEST KID AND I LOVE HIM

14. Ghost is going to EAT SOME WILDLINGS

15. Ygritte :...(

16. How is Tormund even ALIVE??? He’s like a frickin PIN CUSHION.

17. “They held the gate” is a line that will make me cry now. Grenn and co. Didn’t let that giant through :...(

3x10: back when D and D remembered the Children existed that one time

Also back when Jaime had a plan that didn’t end with ANY OF HIS FAMILY KILLING EACH OTHER BUT TYWIN ENDS UP DEAD ANYWAY WHY ARE WE LIKE THIS.

1. Jon deciding single-handedly that he’s going to KILL Mance Rayder. Boss move.

2. Oh FFS. Pull the stick out of your ass Stannis and let Mance be.

3. Qyburn is like “out of my way bitch I’m doing necromancy”

4. Cersei telling Tywin the truth to get out of Marrying Loras is... still... making my jaw drop and I KNEW SHE WAS GOING TO DO IT. And there’s ACTUAL EMOTION on Tywin’s face and EVERYTHING SHE SAYS ABOUT PAYING SOME REAL FUCKING ATTENTION TO HIS FAMILY IS TRUE

5. Ah yes “Jaime writes his family’s dialogue” part one. I CHOOSE YOU OMG AND SEX IN THE LORD COMMANDER’S OFFICE I CANNOT BELIEVE WE GOT THAT. Even if I’m still on the fence about whether Jaime would be ok with doing it THERE I’m mostly on board because she JUST TOLD DAD THE TRUTH AND TOLD HIM HE WAS THE ONE SHE WANTED AND I DON’T KNOW WHO LET THE SHIPPERS WRITE THIS SCENE BUT YAY.

6. Dany is still learning all kinds of nuance... I feel like the year contract thing was an attempt to balance her need to be a liberator and the reality on the ground?

7. You are telling me that the Dany who was that upset at Drogon eating ONE child let him burn a WHOLE CITY? I call bullshit.

8. Also this is a CLASSIC example of “one sibling does something wrong and the other two get punished for it” poor Viserion and Rhaegal.

9. Maester Aemon knows how to give a mass eulogy.

10. MEANWHILE NORTH OF THE NORTH HI BRAN meet the hugest weirwood in Westeros AND SOME ICE ZOMBIES

11. POOR MEERA I FORGOT SHE HAD TO HELP JOJEN DIE

12. If the children can do that WHERE ARE THEY LATER

13. holy shit bloodraven is creepy

14. Arya and Brienne meeting :) so cute

15. And Sandor being like YOU ARE TOO NAIVE TO PROTECT HER is cute in its own way.

16. Wow Brienne and Sandor really knock the shit out of each other how are they still alive.

17. Sandor saying awful things to Arya to make it easier for her to kill him was tragic and you can see the desperation in his eyes even as he says the worst of it.

18. JAIME LANNISTER MAKES DECISIONS HE WILL REGRET LATER LIKE NOT GOING ALL OF THE WAY TO THE BOAT WITH TYRION

19. I Had forgotten how rough that last conversation between Tywin and Tyrion was and how devastating those performances are.

20. Varys being like oh fuck those bells I’m going too... prescient.

21. Love the music with Arya on the ship to Braavos!

[douxreviews]

Game of Thrones - ‘The Last of the Starks’ Review

"We may have defeated them, but there's still us to contend with."

Previously, I'd written reviews for a couple of different episodes centered around epic battles. In this case, I felt fortunate to be reviewing an episode that's all about the aftermath of an epic battle, as well as a prelude for the next one.

Because I really couldn't decide how I felt about the sudden end to the White Walkers, the Long Night and the Great War until I saw how they planned to go forward. I'm still not sure how I feel about it, but I do know that -- as rushed as The Last of the Starks was -- there is a lot here that I quite enjoyed. At the very least, taking the zombies and ice demons out at the midway point leaves plenty of room to further explore the joys and pains of these awesome characters as they face an uncertain future.

Celebration of Life

The episode's opening is very bittersweet. We start with the somber mass funeral of those who died defending Winterfell from the Army of the Dead, and neatly segue into a joyous victory feast in the castle's great hall. These people just overcame death incarnate, and quickly realize there is much to celebrate. This leads to some beautiful moments.

Dany surprises everyone by singling out Gendry, son of her lifelong nemesis, and legitimizing him as a full-fledged Baratheon. I especially loved that Davos began the cheers for him, it's a nice vindication of his undying loyalty to the family.

Tormund once again attempts to woo Brienne of Tarth, but this time gets soundly cock-blocked by Jaime Lannister. Watching Tormund tearfully relate this tragedy to the uncaring Hound before shacking up with some horny northern girl was hilarious. Which gives us the scene between Sansa and Sandor Clegane, a reunion I had been waiting for.

Although not quite as intimate as it is in the books, theirs is still a significant connection; he helped inspire her strength, and she helped inspire his chivalry. It was nice to see Sansa gain the Hound's respect, and it's always nice to see this hard man's softer, more vulnerable side.

And we finally see Jaime and Brienne become a thing. That love scene was so cleverly adorable in its execution, these two misfits struggling to approach the act of consummating their feelings toward each other. Brienne's awkward stiffness as she finds herself in a mutually romantic situation for the first time in her life, and Jaime's even more awkward attempt at flirting after a lifetime of ignoring all other women in favor of his twin sister. Very well handled.

Of course, there are still a couple of episodes left and they can't be full of nothing but our favorite characters happily prospering. As Littlefinger previously addressed, and as Tyrion reaffirms here, defeating the mythical White Walkers and saving the world means everyone must now deal with that world and each other.

Moments of Truth

Daenerys is quick to recognize this as well. The celebration only reminds her that she is still a stranger in her own homeland, that Jon Snow is the heroic leader people revere, and that his claim to the throne is stronger than hers regardless of whatever her destiny truly is. Emilia Clarke's performance shines here in a way I haven't seen for a couple of seasons now. This is because for the most part we only see her wearing Dany's queenly mask of superiority, mostly cool but occasionally smoldering. Whereas now we are seeing Dany in a state of palpable desperation.

The scene between her and Jon really brings their circumstances down to earth quite dramatically. They are in love and want to be together, but the truth of Jon's origin threatens to tear them apart and the realm along with them. Dany begs Jon not to reveal his secret identity to anyone else, but he feels compelled to tell Sansa and Arya because they are his family.

I'm disappointed that we don't see Sansa and Arya's immediate reactions to the truth, but their choices later on are just as telling.

Sansa chooses to betray Jon's trust by spilling the beans to Tyrion, hoping to erode Dany's power in favor of Jon. This would almost certainly guarantee an Iron Throne controlled by the Starks.

Arya chooses to join the Hound on a suicide mission to King's Landing, which is a bit more ambiguous. Is she questioning her own existence after learning Jon's secret and refusing Gendry's proposal, finally accepting that she wasn't born to be a subservient sister or wife but an instrument of death? Or is she risking her life in order to protect Jon, who she will always love as her brother, no matter where he came from?

Either way, it seems like a lot of carnage could have been avoided if Arya had just offered to go south and single-handedly assassinate Cersei for Jon and Dany.

The R+L=J revelation also leads to a few great scenes between Tyrion and Varys. Tyrion is clearly distressed, but Varys (rather hypocritically) begins suggesting that they should kick Dany to the curb and put Jon on the Iron Throne. It's been so long since we've seen the serious side to this duo. Now it seems Varys is poised to betray the queen he marked as a savior, in the name of the people. Meaning he's probably got dragonfire in his future. Or maybe not. The way their last conversation ends, you get the feeling that Tyrion's plea for Varys not to threaten Dany is more of a warning. Tyrion did start off his relationship with Varys by threatening to kill him for potentially endangering a woman he cared about.

For once, Tyrion is the character who's really hard to read. He seems to know Jon is a more ideal choice, but he can't bring himself to consider betraying Dany. He fears Dany's potential for madness and destruction, but he also genuinely believes in her potential for greatness.

I still think Tyrion's loyalty to Dany goes beyond just finding a ruler worth sticking with. Part of me thinks he's got some repressed romantic feelings toward her, and another part of me thinks he views her as the sister Cersei never was. Which likely makes the fact that they are at war with Cersei all the more complicated, since Tyrion just can't bring himself to give up on her.

Despite the whacky Stark kids, the legendary warriors and the various schemers and pretenders to the throne, the story really does seem to center around our three main outsiders, Jon, Daenerys and Tyrion. And I think Tyrion is drinking so much because he understands that he is caught in the middle and has the burden of deciding all of their fates and doesn't know the right choice. He is finally beginning to see the long shadow he is casting.

And despite Jon's stubborn optimism that everyone can get along, even he seems indecisive and adrift. He claims to not want the throne or the crown or even his "true" identity, but his departure from Winterfell shows us that he's still leaving behind everything that's been a core part of who he is: the North, the Free Folk, his friends and family, he even asks Tormund to bring his direwolf Ghost beyond the Wall. Whether he knows it or not, he is being drawn toward the Iron Throne, his supposed destiny. But his scenes in this episode drive the point home that he will always be Jon Snow at heart, not Aegon Targaryen VI. His connection to the Starks, the North, the First Men (hell, maybe even the Old Gods) is clearly much stronger than the blood of the dragon running through his veins.

Death of Dragons

And to drive this point home, immediately after Jon leaves Ghost behind, his dragon Rhaegal winds up dead.

Yes, "The Last War" quickly goes wrong for Dany as Euron Greyjoy lays an ambush at Dragonstone, destroying the rest of the Targaryen fleet and capturing Missandei in addition to killing one of her dragons with new souped up scorpions.

It's both frustrating and amazing that Cersei has been allowed to turn the tables like this, though forgivable in that it's largely a result of other people. Euron's unpredictable nature and talent for raising hell is key to her strength, Jaime's theft of the Tyrell wealth is the only reason she could afford the Golden Company, and she likely wouldn't have gotten this far if a crazy resourceful bastard like Qyburn hadn't been backing her up. Gold, cruelty and fool's luck have subsequently left her in a position where she is more dominant than a woman who had previously dominated almost half a continent.

Dealing with an enemy as maddeningly chaotic and power hungry as Cersei is doing the opposite of what Tyrion wants by provoking Dany to be just as bad or worse in her quest for victory. That Tyrion continues to delude himself into thinking Cersei is "not a monster" because she "loved her children" still annoys me. You could argue that he's trying to reason with her simply to avoid any more bloodshed, but Tyrion should be smart enough to know by now that appealing to Cersei's humanity and rationality is hopeless. Which Cersei proves by having the Mountain decapitate Missandei, spitting on Dany's last bit of mercy. Our dragon queen has never been closer to giving the order to "burn them all" than she is now.

Missandei's resolute final words -- "Dracarys", which calls back to the moment she went from enslaved translator to royal herald when Dany began her revolution in Slaver's Bay -- might give us some hope for sweet revenge and catharsis, but I imagine the end result will be more difficult to reconcile. King's Landing is a powderkeg just waiting to go off. I mean, we've got the combined Stark and Targaryen forces about to do battle with the combined Lannisters, Ironborn and Golden Company sellswords, Dany unleashing her wrath on dragonback while Cersei uses the populace of King's Landing as a shield, the Hound facing off against the Mountain, Arya coming to kill Cersei and Jaime possibly on his way to do the same (more on that below), there's a good chance Cersei will use wildfire again to give her more of an edge, all on top of Tyrion and Varys butting heads as they toy with Jon and Dany's lives in the game of thrones.

If The Long Night was any indication, we'll likely see most of this resolved in the next episode after much senseless violence. However, unless everyone ends up killing each other, that still leaves a bunch of other unanswered questions. Will our heroes Jon and Dany come to terms with who they are? How does Tyrion go on after the downfall of his dysfunctional family? Can the Stark children ever come back from the tragedies and horrors that have defined their lives? Is what's left of Westeros going to survive the long winter? How long will this winter be? Why are the seasons so long anyway? If the realm does survive, will it and its people learn from this devastation and evolve, or forget and doom themselves to repeat history over and over? What exactly is the Prince That Was Promised, or the Lord of Light? Where does any of this magic come from? Does Bronn get his fancy castle? Was the Three-Eyed Bran the bad guy all along? Will the gallant cat Ser Pounce ever return?

I guess I'll find out, one way or another. Hard to believe this show's almost over.

Schemes & Plots:

* The funeral scene got to me. Guess I just wasn't ready to see characters like Jorah, Theon or Dolorous Edd get laid to rest.

* I love how Podrick casually sets up a threesome in the background as Sansa talks to Sandor.

* Bronn gets a scene with Jaime and Tyrion that, while fun, is basically a retread of most other scenes between these characters. Which pretty much boils down to this: "You fuckers owe me a castle!" I know it's a cute way of illustrating that Bronn would rather not kill the Lannister bros, but realistically he should have cut his losses a long time ago.

* Varys mentions that the "new Prince of Dorne" has declared for Daenerys. Whoever this is, I doubt we'll ever see him. Guess the show chose to forget that Oberyn Martell had eight daughters, which would leave five still alive after the demise of the loathsome Sand Snakes.

* Gilly is pregnant with Sam's baby. Big surprise, they're gonna name it Jon if it's a boy.

* Not long after the Jaime/Brienne ship sets sail, it capsizes when Jaime learns that Cersei is gaining the advantage over Dany. He then apparently abandons his chance at honor, love and peace to go back to Cersei, breaking Brienne's heart. Or so it would seem. I think Jaime is really going back to put an end to Cersei himself, and simply played the villain to keep Brienne from following him to almost certain death. Jaime states the unforgivable things he's done for Cersei as if to affirm that he is just like her, but I think this is him owning up to the fact that loving Cersei made him into a monster, something he doesn't want to be. In this light, Jaime killing Cersei would be as poetic as Tyrion killing Tywin; their struggle to please these hateful tyrants enslaved them both, forcing them to compromise their principles and accept lives of humiliation and scorn. A missing sword hand isn't Jaime's greatest handicap no more than dwarfism was Tyrion's. It's Cersei. She's a chain he needs to break free from.

* Watching Jaime struggle to unbutton his tunic or ready his horse makes me think of all the other one-handed difficulties he must have dealt with during his solo journey north.

* I still really hate that there's no snow in King's Landing. After all the talk about how "Winter is Coming", winter has had far less representation than I imagined.

* Tyrion's parlay with Qyburn reminded me of the deleted scene from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King where the heroes meet the Mouth of Sauron.

* We see the way this world's history repeats itself through Gendry. House Baratheon was originally founded by a man said to have been Aegon the Conqueror's bastard brother, and they are once again made rulers of the Stormlands by another Targaryen conqueror. It's taken even further when an overjoyed Gendry asks Arya to be his wife and gets rejected, just like his father Robert was rejected by Lyanna Stark. The Baratheons are typically very gifted individuals, but they are woefully unlucky when it comes to love and family.

* Speaking of history repeating, it turns out Cersei really is manipulating Euron the same way she manipulated King Robert, tricking him into believing that her Lannister incest baby is his Greyjoy heir to the throne.

* Rhaegal died at Dragonstone after being unceremoniously impaled by three javelins and sinking into the waters. This was similar to his namesake, Rhaegar Targaryen, the Prince of Dragonstone who was unceremoniously defeated and died in the waters of the Trident.

* Still not enough Ghost.

Quotes:

Sandor Clegane: Used to be you couldn't look at me. Sansa Stark: That was a long time ago. I've seen much worse than you since then. Sandor: Yes, I've heard. Heard you were broken in. Heard you were broken in rough. Sansa: And he got what he deserved. I gave it to him. Sandor: How? Sansa: Hounds. Sandor: (chuckles) ... You've changed, little bird.

Jaime Lannister: You know the first thing I learned about the North? I hate the fucking North. Brienne of Tarth: It grows on you. Jaime: I don't want things growing on me.

Daenerys Targaryen: (to Jon) I saw the way they looked at you. I know that look. So many people have looked at me that way, but never here. Never on this side of the sea.

Jon Snow: If you only trust the people you grow up with, you won't make many allies. Arya Stark: That's alright. I don't need many allies.

Tormund Giantsbane: (to Jon) You've got the north in you. The real north.

Sandor Clegane: (to Arya) Must've felt good, sticking your knife in that horned fucker.

Varys: How many others know? Tyrion: Including us? Eight. Varys: Then it's not a secret anymore. It's information.

Varys: You know our queen better than I do. Do you think she wants to share the throne? She doesn't like to have her authority questioned-- Tyrion: Something she has in common with every monarch who ever lived. Varys: I worry about her state of mind. Tyrion: We're advisors to the queen. Worrying about her state of mind is our job... We still have to take King's Landing. Maybe Cersei will win and kill us all. That would solve all our problems.

Euron Greyjoy: She's coming for you. Cersei Lannister: Of course, she is. Keep the gates open. If she wants to take the castle she'll have to murder thousands of innocent people first. So much for the Breaker of Chains.

Daenerys: They should know who to blame when the sky falls down upon them. Damn.

Varys: I have served tyrants most of my life. They all talk about destiny. Tyrion: She's a girl who walked into a fire with three stones and walked out with three dragons. How could she not believe in destiny?

Though I'm not crazy about the direction these last few seasons have gone in, it was an absolute pleasure to be able to write reviews for this show. Game of Thrones is truly phenomenal. It'll be a shame not to have it to look forward to anymore. Three and a half out of five Starbucks coffee cups.

Logan Cox

[samstiels-deactivated20201212]

This is a really good article. Idk how much people know about Cogman, but he wrote the episode where Sansa was raped, and was immediately chased off all social media by angry fans. There is an incredible paragraph explaining his reasonings for the scene, and Sophie Turner’s as well. Cogman also wrote most of Jaime x Brienne scenes, and was the driving force behind most of the actual plot that makes sense, including Brienne being knighted.   

Vanity Fair gives 3 free articles per month, then requires a subscription, so you’ll find the whole article under the cut. 

Before the cast and crew of Game of Thrones threw themselves into their final season of grueling night shoots, dragon rides, and death scenes, they gathered in Belfast for one last table read. It was the largest group ever assembled for such an occasion, all crammed in around a massive conference table made from the soaring gates of the show's lavish Season Two city of Qarth. HBO executives and trusted friends of the show lined the edges of the room as, over two days, everyone finally learned how the saga of Westeros would end.

Kit Harington had tears streaming down his face; Liam Cunningham, who played the salty Ser Davos, was cursing a blue streak. Halfway through the read, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau reached out to squeeze the shoulder of co-executive producer Bryan Cogman, who had started trembling as the body count on the page started to rise. In the end it was Cogman—who had read out every stage direction at every table read since the first in 2009—who had the final word that day: “End of Game of Thrones.” More than a year later, Sophie Turner still isn't over it. “That motherfucker,” she says with a laugh.

“It was a lovefest,” Cogman says of that table read, when the often brutal conditions of shooting seemed a world away. “And then we went and made the show and wanted to kill each other 11 months later.”

Turner, who began playing Sansa Stark when she was 13, says Cogman is the backbone of Game of Thrones. Coster-Waldau, who played Jaime Lannister, refers to him as the “walking encyclopedia.” But George R. R. Martin, who wrote the books that show-runners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss adapted into what may be the last universally agreed-upon hit TV show, leans on his own Westerosi mythology to pay the highest compliment: “Dave and Dan—even though there were two of them, there really needed to be three. Bryan was the third head of the dragon.”

Hired as Weiss and Benioff's assistant when Game of Thrones first began production, Cogman wrote 11 episodes of the series—second only to the show-runners and more than Martin himself—and as a producer has three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Drama Series displayed in his living room. Martin personally asked Cogman to pitch a Thrones prequel series to HBO; when the network passed, he moved on to a deal at Amazon Studios, where, to borrow another phrase from Martin's books, he can cast a very large shadow of his own on this post-Thrones universe.

“You're only number two on the biggest show of all time once,” Cogman says, aware that Thrones-sized success may be a thing of the past for television as a whole. “So what do you want to do with that opportunity when the show ends? You try to see if you can tell your own stories.”

More than 10 years ago, Weiss and Benioff had finally convinced both HBO and Martin that they were the right pick to turn Game of Thrones into what they called “The Sopranos meets Middle-earth.” But they had a problem: neither of them knew the first thing about TV. Luckily, Benioff knew someone who did—his nanny's husband.

Once just another Juilliard-trained actor struggling to make it in Hollywood, Cogman first caught Benioff's eye with a script about, well, struggling actors trying to make it in Hollywood. Fed up with jobs that include a telemarketing gig in the Valley selling toner cartridges—a job that theater nerd Cogman describes as “like Glengarry Glen Ross, but worse”—and with watching former classmates like Lee Pace and Anthony Mackie smile down at him from 14-foot billboards, the then 28-year-old Cogman was attempting to re-write his way out of a familiar story of Hollywood despair.

Benioff, best known at the time for well-received novels such as the one he adapted into the 2002 Spike Lee movie 25th Hour, liked what he saw but didn't have a job for Cogman yet. So he called in a favor to his childhood friend NBC Entertainment co-chairman Ben Silverman and landed Cogman a job as the executive's assistant (there were two others) and driver. Cogman nearly wrecked Silverman's car on his second night behind the wheel.

“You're a terrible driver,” Cogman recalls Silverman saying, “but I like hanging out with you.” Perhaps in an attempt to protect the paint on his other cars, Silverman eventually got his driver a writers'-assistant job, fetching coffee and the like, on an NBC show: My Own Worst Enemy, which ended after just two months, in December 2008.

However short-lived, the show was an education for Cogman in the basics of breaking a story for television. When Weiss and Benioff snapped up Cogman as their own assistant, they set up shop in a dingy suite of now demolished offices on the former Pickford-Fairbanks Studios lot and asked the guy who thought he was just there to fetch lunches where they should start.

“I got my marker and David sat in his chair and Dan sat in his,” Cogman remembers. Without any other staff hired, the three of them went to work figuring out how to introduce TV audiences to the scheming Lannisters, the honorable Starks, the looming Wall, Daenerys Targaryen and her three baby dragons. “None of us knew really what we were doing. No one was really bothering us or telling us we were doing it wrong. We cooked up Season One, the three of us in that room in the winter and early spring of 2009.”

Cogman still likes to joke that the only reason he got the job is because Benioff—who was about to set off to Europe with his wife, actor Amanda Peet—wanted to hold on to the excellent child care provided by Cogman's wife, actor Mandy Olsen. “That backfired! As soon as I became a TV writer, she quit,” Cogman says, laughing. “Joke's on you, Benioff!”

Tipped off by his wife to Benioff's early interest in the books, Cogman had read the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series in the hope of a small role in the show—“Maybe I'll get to play a guy with a spear!” By the time he was in the room with Weiss and Benioff, Cogman had started re-reading—he estimates he's read the first book, A Game of Thrones, at least 20 times now—and boiling down the dense and complicated world of Westeros into digestible outlines, family trees, and quick little summaries. “We thought we knew the books pretty well, but Bryan was just on a different level,” Weiss and Benioff wrote in a joint e-mail. That work landed Cogman a seat in every meeting and was a godsend to every confused HBO executive, director, production designer, and actor.

The show-runners quickly deviated from the Hollywood norm of treating their assistant like a glorified errand boy; while working on Season One, they surprised Cogman with an offer to write his own episode, “Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things.” As Weiss and Benioff recalled, “We'd never written a season of television before, and we'd underestimated how long it would take. Then we looked across the room and there was Bryan. Smart, tireless, passionate Bryan. Sure, he wasn't experienced, but hell, neither were we.”

Martin's review of Cogman's work was straightforward: “An excellent episode! Straight from my books!”

Weiss and Benioff dubbed Cogman “lore master”; Gwendoline Christie, who played Brienne of Tarth, jokes, “I have never once seen Bryan with George R. R. Martin, and the rumor is that they could be the same person.” Martin, for his part, likens Cogman to the helpful and well-read character Samwell Tarly, a comparison the author usually reserves for himself. As the series grew bigger and Martin repeatedly delayed the release of his final books in the series, the author grew noticeably distant from the show, with no writing credits after Season Four and no recent appearances at the splashy premiere events until the final one, in April. Responding on his LiveJournal to a controversial Season Five scene that differed dramatically from the books, Martin described the show and his work as “two roads diverging in the dark of the woods, I suppose … but all of us are still intending that at the end we will arrive at the same place.”

Martin hasn't commented much on his relationship with HBO and the series, but he is unreserved in his praise for Cogman: “I feel simpatico with Bryan,” Martin says. “He's helped keep the show true to my books, and the characters true to the characters I created, which may not be important to everybody in the world, but is certainly important to me.”

In the beginning Cogman clung doggedly to some less essential parts of the books. (He's now mortified to recount a fight he picked over cutting a minor Season One character named Marillion. “Nearly in tears! Over Marillion! And I was the fucking assistant.”) But he also used his book knowledge to suggest killing off Ned Stark in the ninth episode of the first season, rather than saving it for the finale, a shock that went on to define the high stakes of the series. Cogman, a lifelong student of drama, knows how differently stories can play when acted out. So while others may compare Cogman to Samwell Tarly, he favors another character: Varys, the slick spymaster who uses political maneuvers and access to the most powerful players to keep himself in the game. Or, at least, he says, “I'm the good parts of Varys.”

From the very start Cogman homed in on the basic character details that made Thrones a success beyond its spectacle. “It's about one buddy going back to his old buddy's house for dinner,” he says, describing the simple power of the pilot. “If you don't have that, then you have a lot of other imitators that have come along since and haven't been as good.”

Production on Game of Thrones was massive from the start, and Weiss and Benioff quickly put Cogman in charge of some pivotal scenes at the end of Season One, featuring Peter Dinklage's Tyrion Lannister and his scathing father, Tywin Lannister, played by Charles Dance. Cogman, who claims he didn't know any better, wielded so much authority that director Alan Taylor just assumed he was a producer. “Why the hell have I been taking orders from you the past few months?” Cogman recalls Taylor joking when he discovered the truth.

The show sprawled after Season One, with at least two units—named the Dragon and the Wolf—shooting simultaneously. Weiss and Benioff leveraged their titles to take charge of the sets in exotic and temperate Spain, Croatia, and Morocco, leaving Cogman as their man on the ground in Belfast, where the show filmed the bulk of its interior scenes.

In Belfast, Cogman worked on behalf of Weiss and Benioff as fastidious keeper of the script, earning the nickname “Shakespeare” from Dance when he insisted that a line be read word for word. As a former actor, Cogman developed a reputation as an actor's writer. “He gets the life of an actor,” Coster-Waldau explains. “He's extremely respectful when it comes to not getting in your way.” Adds Turner, “Bryan's lines are always the ones that affect me the most.”

When it came time to divvy up who would actually write each episode, Weiss and Benioff preferred season premieres, finales, and the big, splashy set pieces in between.

Cogman, on the other hand, preferred the performance episodes, full of scenes, he says, of “people talking in rooms.” He wrote the two key moments of the Jaime and Brienne love story, from the Season Three bathtub scene in “Kissed by Fire” to the emotional Season Eight climax “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” which sees the former Lannister antihero knighting the unlikely lady warrior. These quiet, shared moments stood out among all the dragon fire, shocking deaths, and big-budget battle spectacle.

“He has been a champion of my character Brienne and actually of me as an actor,” Christie says. “He had a real understanding of the trials the character had to overcome in order to achieve a sense of self-worth and how far we sometimes have to travel to move the narrative society has prescribed to us.”

“I can't imagine what it would have been like without Bryan,” Coster-Waldau says. “Thank God I don't have to.”

In Season Five Cogman volunteered to write what would become one of the show's most controversial episodes, in which the sadistic Ramsay Bolton rapes Sansa Stark, with Theon Greyjoy looking on in horror. Cogman, a father of three, had always taken a particular interest in protecting the show's younger performers on set. Turner compares him to a father figure, and Cogman felt he owed it to her to write the episode himself. “Why the hell did I choose ‘Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken’?” Cogman asks years later, then responding, “Good question.”

The scene was lifted from another character's story in the books and incorporated into a larger gothic nightmare plot of Sansa's being held prisoner in her childhood home at Winterfell—a practical, and carefully considered, way to give Sansa, who isn't in the fifth book at all, a bigger role in the story. Weiss and Benioff suggested closing the bedroom door on Sansa, Ramsay, and Theon rather than showing the act itself. “I am the one, God help me,” Cogman says, “who said, ‘If we do this are we being dismissive of what that real horror would be behind that door? Are we being disrespectful of the severity of that situation?’ But we, of course, never wanted to make Sophie go through a graphic scene.”

The result was still graphic enough to spark immediate online backlash and heated think pieces; then senator Claire McCaskill publicly declared she would no longer watch the show. HBO issued no official response to the controversy, and Weiss and Benioff have never commented publicly, even deleting a question about it in e-mailed responses for a recent Rolling Stone story.

Cogman stands by the scene, though he acknowledges it served as a pivotal point in a larger cultural discussion about sexual assault on-screen, which had also been used as a plot device on Mad Men and Breaking Bad, among others. “I will never presume to tell someone how they should feel about the scene itself. And believe me, I really tried to listen to all the criticism surrounding it and will continue to listen,” Cogman says. “I do take issue with the presumption of bad faith on our part—the idea that we treated Sophie or the character or the subject matter callously. I think if you watch the scene and see how it fits into the character's larger narrative arc over the subsequent seasons, you'll see that's not the case. At least I hope so.”

“It was a very difficult scene to write,” Cogman says. “It was a very difficult scene to shoot.”

“You see Bryan standing there, crying and wanting to hug you, he did that often,” Turner says. “He was the one that held me afterwards and we both cried together. He's apologizing because he wrote the scene. It was kind of beautiful. It felt like I was safe and not exploited in any way because I was with him. He's always been something of a protector, so it's really special to have him there.”

The controversies around Season Five, which saw many beloved characters used, abused, or shipped off to Dorne, did not dampen the show's popularity. That September Cogman and his fellow producers picked up the first of three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Drama Series, among a pile of others the show won.

As Game of Thrones headed toward its conclusion, it also moved away from the intimate, theater-like moments Cogman excelled at—partly a function of the large-scale conflict built into Martin's story, but also the TV landscape that Thrones transformed, bringing C.G.I.-heavy blockbuster spectacle to the small screen and daring other networks to keep up. HBO underwent a transformation as well. Once best-known as a boutique home for prestige TV, the premium cable channel was acquired last summer by AT&T, and an executive revealed plans to increase HBO's output of original content by 50 percent in 2019.

For a while, Cogman thought one of those new shows would be his to run. He had no ambition to do any kind of Thrones sequel until Martin asked him personally at a dinner with Weiss and Benioff in May 2017. There was a particular story he felt only Cogman could tell. (Many fans have guessed that it's the Targaryen-centric Dance of the Dragons tale, but for now Martin and Cogman are keeping it to themselves.) “The logical heir was Bryan,” Martin says. “He had been there since the very beginning.”

Despite himself, Cogman yielded to the excitement of the project. But the timing couldn't have been worse. Cogman had to pitch HBO his prequel idea while the final season of Game of Thrones was in production, and he was in a bake-off with four other writers, some of whom had also worked with Martin. Weiss and Benioff gave Cogman their blessing but were busy wrapping up their own time in Westeros, which meant any advice they gave was incidental: “Every now and then we'd discuss something or other while we were shivering in the writer's tent in Northern Ireland,” they wrote.

Collaborating with Martin on the prequel pitch, Cogman felt both a pressure and an arrogance that came from being the only contender in the race who had both worked on the original series and was handpicked by Martin. He spent the bulk of the final season's shoot under the impression that this wasn't truly his final season. “I wasn't really doing the kind of emotional, cathartic work one needs to do to say goodbye to everything,” he says.

Cogman found out he didn't get the job in spring 2018, and that Jane Goldman would, instead, be helming a series centered on the earliest days of Westeros. At the same time, his wife—who had put her own acting career on hold for most of a decade to support Cogman's work—was suffering from a herniated disk. Disappointed and suddenly having to move his family out of their home in Belfast, Cogman has no memory of his last day on the set of Game of Thrones: “I was exhausted and Mandy was hurting. We were packing up our lives of 10 years.”

“It hit me hard, not because I thought there was any great injustice. I'm sure Jane's show is going to be great,” Cogman says. “But all the insecurities come up: What, I can't even write Game of Thrones now?”

The story Martin so favored may live on at HBO, but Cogman is ready to try new things. Last September, Amazon Studios snapped him up and put him to work—the day after he picked up his third Emmy for Thrones—consulting on a hotly anticipated project he can't yet disclose. But, most exciting for Cogman, he will be developing a whole raft of shows that may have nothing whatsoever to do with dragons.

Martin still texts regularly with Cogman, and has offered occasional friendly input as Cogman searches for new books that Amazon might adapt. “I hope to work with him again someday if the various corporate entities that we work for allow it,” Cogman jokes. But Martin himself is locked into an overall deal with HBO, and Cogman, finally, is ready to move on. He attended the splashy Game of Thrones Season Eight premiere at Radio City Music Hall in April, but the following Monday he was back to work at Amazon, with a large-scale poster of a trio of his favorites—Arya, Sansa, and Brienne—watching over him.

“I was number two to the captain, and now I've gotta see if I can sit in that captain's chair,” Cogman says. “I'm looking forward to finding my people the way Dan and David found theirs.”

[wackygoofball]

Moodboard: Jaime x Brienne - Post-War Amateur Boxing AU

Jaime Lannister joined the Army in the wake of the War of the Five Kings well aware that this would mean he would have no home and family to return to after the war is ended, since his father was more than clear that if he dared to go into the war zone after he made some stupid deals to keep him out of service “like a bloody fool,” he might just as well do that and get himself killed. Tywin disowned him and told him to never come back.

And frankly, Jaime has no intention to return either, even though it pains him to think that he will never see his little brother again, because that was the other part of the argument with his father that led to the fallout, because Jaime dared to speak up and no longer stay silent over the man’s maltreatment of his youngest son.

Now a Commander, Jaime has seen the horrors of war, he has seen his men go into the battlefield and not return, and more than anything he wants this madness to finally come to an end.

Jaime charges into field with his troop to keep the rivaling forces from breaking through the lines, but when a bomb explodes right in front of him, he barely makes it out alive, his hand having taken a lot of damage as a result.

At this point, he is sure that his last moment has come and that the old man will seemingly remain right about how he will die a fool on a battlefield, but as the other men break through the line, ready to take him out, gunshots ring out and when Jaime opens his eyes, he sees the men just about to kill him drop to the ground, taken out by what seems to be an expert sniper, though Jaime can’t spot the fellow soldier as he loses consciousness soon thereafter.

Jaime reawakens in the sickbay, his hand wrapped in heavy bandages, and it is only then that the full gravitas of the situation dawns on him. This injury is permanent, which means that he won’t stay an active soldier. He will be sent home, even though he has no home anymore. He can’t work a job like that. He is done for, easy as that.

For a moment, Jaime feels tempted to grab one of the rifles set up in the tent to end his misery and save the medical treatment for the not-so-lost cases the likes of him, but he is interrupted when a tall-standing, mannish nurse blocks his way, telling him to lie still.

As it turns out, Nurse Brienne is intent on becoming his watchdog, Jaime comes to realize, as she keeps bossing him around, tells him to eat when he doesn’t want to, and won’t stop giving him speech after speech about how he should be grateful to still be alive, when all he wants is to curse at her that he rather would have died than go on like this.

I was that hand. I was that hand. I was that hand.

However, Jaime finds his spirits increasingly shifted as he spends more and more time in the sickbay, confronted with the other side of the battlefield, as the nurses and doctors doing the necessary yet horrific work of taking care of the soldier brought into the tents, bleeding, dying, some done for, some barely drawing a living breath, and sometimes moving on, well aware that they won’t make it through. And as Jaime keeps getting his strengths back, he also starts to see that Nurse Brienne is not just the mulishly stubborn woman bossing him around, but simply a solider working on this side of the fence, doing her best and feeling like failing, as they all do.

Brienne, for her part, also has to come to realize that Commander Jaime Lannister is not at all what he seemed to be, being one of the first upper-ranks to even pay respect to her and her part in the war. After all, she gets told often enough that she is no more than an ugly woman standing by while the men fight the war for the likes of her.

Little do they know…

As time progresses, the two grow closer and closer, Brienne finding herself sitting by Jaime’s bedside whenever there is a quiet evening, playing cards, exchanging stories, sometimes even laughing in the wake of the horrors just outside the tent and right within.

Brienne realizes that she truly has found a friend in Jaime when she receives the most devastating news via a telegram informing her that Tarth has been bombed, an attack in which her home was destroyed and her father lost his life. At first she feels like running away, simply outside the tent to not let anyone see her tears, but it is Jaime who makes her stay and holds her close as her entire world keeps collapsing around her while bombs and guns ricochet outside.

Not only is she heartbroken about her father’s demise, but she also feels massive guilt for not having been there with him. While she does not regret having registered to help the troops, her father tried anything within her powers to keep her away from the war zone, and she didn’t listen, and went without properly saying goodbye.

Her father had made a deal with her before the war, when she was focused on nothing more but becoming the first female soldier to serve in the Army, that if she pursued her medical degree, he would make arrangements to have her trained in combat. Brienne readily agreed to that, but things took a drastic change when the war broke out and Brienne used her medical training to somehow get into the Army, even if that meant stopping her medical degree and greatly disappointing her father.

However, as things stand now, that doesn’t just mean that her father is gone, that her home is destroyed, but also that there is no money left to continue her degree once she returns from the war, she has no home anymore, no father, nothing, simply nothing.

War draws to a close almost unexpectedly soon thereafter, which is more of a blur for Jaime and Brienne as they grow increasingly aware of the desolation that awaits them once they are no longer more or less respected members of the Army, but an disabled man and a mannish woman who didn’t finish her degree when she still could.

As the two head to the train station to start “a new life, wherever it may be,” with the little money from their pensions in their pockets, ready to say goodbye, Jaime makes the sudden proposal that they might just as well stick together to rent an apartment together and split the costs. While Jaime is surprising himself with that, he is ever the more shocked when Brienne readily agrees.

And so, they enter the same train, towards the capitol.

While they can rent a small apartment down Flea Bottom, getting a reliable source of income proves to be difficult in the post-war times as soldiers flood the bigger cities in search for a job and the whole country still recovers from the horrid aftermath of the war.

Brienne gets hired at a small, local hospital to work as a nurse, whereas Jaime, still recovering from his hand injury, can’t convince anyone to give him a job, even more so because Jaime has trouble reading, which is why he thinks he can only apply for the “less brainy” jobs, the ones that require physical strength, his former forte, but things look grim when there are ten men without a hand injury applying for the same job. And while Brienne’s job helps put food on the table, Jaime doesn’t want her to have to work double-shift after double-shift to provide for him.

That was not the idea he had back by the train station. He wanted to help her, too, and not be a liability, no matter what Brienne says to reassure him, Jaime knows he has to pay his debt, no matter what it takes.

When Jaime’s damaged self-consciousness drives him to the point that he considers moving out to no longer be a liability to Brienne, the nurse almost loses it, furious that he would even consider such a thing.

“How many times do I have to tell you that you could have died during that explosion?! How many times do I have to tell you that it’s a fortune that you are still alive?! Those five men would have shot you in the head without regrets, so don’t you dare throw away the life that was granted to you, Jaime, don’t you dare.”

And it is only then that something dawns on Jaime that he almost forgot about in all this mess. “How do you know it was five? I never mentioned that.”

Brienne, at a loss, admits that it was her who took down the men who were about to take him out.

“You are the secret sniper?”

There was a rumor going around that there was a secret sniper who’d come to the aid of many of their troops, but no matter where they looked, they couldn’t find the man.

And evidently, they couldn’t, because they have been looking on the wrong side of the fence line – because they didn’t ask the nurses.

“They didn’t want me as a soldier, alright, but they didn’t prevent me from bringing my father’s sniper rifle,” she answers. “I was done just watching our men getting killed when I knew I could prevent that from happening. And so I used my breaks to help, to do what I am good at as well. And that is why I want you to stop crying about how you don’t deserve this or how you don’t want to burden me. I decide on that because I saved your life. If not for me, you wouldn’t be here anymore, and damn well do you not get to run away now that it’s getting tough, Commander.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Don’t you dare laugh.”

“I am not laughing. I am… grateful. I owe you a debt, even more so now.”

Likely much to Brienne’s dismay, Jaime finds a new source of income soon after that admission while working by the docks. A man suggests to him that they are hosting boxing matches in some of the pubs down Pisswater Bend.

Jaime used to box during his youth and even had some friendly fights during his service with fellow soldiers, and while his hand is still recovering, he can see that most of the men who are up for a fight are no match to him, even with the hand injury. And so, Jaime puts his dusty boxing gloves back on and starts to take part in the fights to earn some extra money.

Naturally, it doesn't take Brienne long to realize what Jaime is up to, and she tells him that he has to quit that at once. Jaime insists that this is the best he can do, that this is the only thing he can do.

“I am not smart like you, I have been a man of action, have been for all my life. They won’t hire me for the jobs I can do, but this? This I can do, Brienne. And so I will.”

“You will lose your hand to it if you continue at this rate,” she warns him.

“Then so I will,” he argues with determination.

“I will not support you jeopardizing your health out of false pride. That is not why I helped you out on the battlefield. While I will patch you up and do what is necessary to keep you healthy, let me tell you that one thing: Don't expect me to come to one of those pubs to watch you destroy your hand and throw away your future. Because I won’t give myself that after all that you and I have gone through. I don’t care.”

However, no matter he insistence to the contrary, Brienne does care, and can’t leave Jaime to his own foolery, no matter how much she wants to curse him for it, which is why she winds up in the pub to be there for when he fights, shocked to see just how good he actually is, against the odds of his bad hand.

When Jaime takes home another victory, Brienne warns him that he shouldn’t get used to it and that she will only stick around “until you stop being an idiot.” When one of the boxers feels cheated after having lost to Jaime and wants to take a swing at the worn-out former soldier, the audience falls completely silent when Brienne, still in her nurse uniform, knocks the man into the dust.

“Maybe you should start as well, wench,” Jaime laughs.

“We need at least one person to keep her wits together, so I don’t think so,” she retorts, pulling Jaime out of the pub, back home.

Ever the more determined to minimize damage to Jaime’s hand, Brienne starts to work out routines and works on better casts and splints for him to wear, finding the spirit revived that she thought had long since died, the one that made her enthusiastic in her medical degree back when her father first set her on the task.

It is during that time that she feels ever the more tempted to pick up her doctor’s degree again, to become better at treating people, to research, but considering their current situation, that is not happening any time soon.

I will seemingly stay a nurse till the end of my days, applying band-aids and bandages instead of finding a cure to prevent the skin from breaking.

Brienne’s revived enthusiasm for medicine doesn’t go unnoticed by Jaime, just like her evident talent and will to learn are obvious to anyone taking a close look at the woman with brilliant blue eyes. That makes him ever the more determined to earn enough money to offer her a future again, after the war destroyed it for her.

After all, he has a debt to pay.

While Jaime makes a first tentative step towards the one family member he dares will take his call, his little brother Tyrion, in the hope to open some doors for Brienne to get what she deserves, Brienne is desperate to find alternatives for Jaime, because against the odds of the man seemingly having given up on his own future, she believes in it, and will fight for it the same way he fights for hers with his boxing gloves on.

Things are not necessarily becoming any easier as the two grow increasingly aware of their feelings for one another, which Jaime and Brienne understated with their initial claim of simply being friends sticking together in the face of crisis. And as they have only each other in this post-war world, they find themselves holding on to each other soon enough, wanting the other to get a better life, to finally have a shot of a future again, but trouble is not far away as their livelihood continues to be threatened in the wake of riots sparking up in the capitol against a failing government, and a place seemingly hostile to any kind of future…

Additional Image Sources: Cinderella Man (2005), Pin 1, Pin 2, (x), (x), (x), (x), Photograph by Elinor Carucci for The New Yorker (x), (x).

[peaceofpuregold-blog]

Does Petyr Baelish Have PTSD?

@liitlefinger got me thinking with this:

Hmm I was thinking abt this last night and obviously Petyr has so much trauma from what happened to him as a kid but does he have like? A PTSD?

I have a tiny (really just a smidgen) amount of education and training on PTSD and other conditions listed in the DSM-V. Enough to have a .pdf of the thing I nearly forgot was on my computer. Thank goodness, because my copy of the text is nearly 1,000 pages long-ish.

With his consent, I’ve offered to go through the criteria in what I think will be my very first ASOIAF Meta©™®.

Caveat: I am not the type of professional who is legally able to make a proper diagnosis of any kind.

Background: to put it vaguely as possible (as I still prize my anonymity) my day job is working with a very vulnerable population, those with a variety of disabilities although I specialize in particular those with Intellectual Disability and/or Pervasive Developmental Disorder. I have helped those with other conditions, or those that have other conditions in addition to the ones I specialize in. I started out with children, but have moved on to adults, specifically those of 21 year of age and older. We are trained how to spot potential additional conditions and direct them to the specialists who can diagnose them and then we coordinate together to figure out how to help them receive the prescribed treatment post-diagnosis.

Now! On with the criteria! I’ve simplified it a bit, but I’m going to go through each one with what quotes from ASOIAF I can find and with the tiniest bit of generalizing, please feel free to take the latter with a boulder of salt. DSM bits will be italicized.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Note: The following criteria apply to adults, adolescents, and children older than 6 years. For children 6 years and younger, see corresponding criteria below.

Sweet! I found the right page. For reference:

He had a little pointed chin beard now, and threads of silver in his dark hair, though he was still shy of thirty.

-GOT Catelyn IV

A. Exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence in one (or more) of the following ways:

1. Directly experiencing the traumatic event(s).

Yup. Multiple events at that.

Brandon was a man grown, and he drove Littlefinger all the way across the bailey and down the water stair, raining steel on him with every step, until the boy was staggering and bleeding from a dozen wounds. “Yield!” he called, more than once, but Petyr would only shake his head and fight on, grimly. When the river was lapping at their ankles, Brandon finally ended it, with a brutal backhand cut that bit through Petyr’s rings and leather into the soft flesh below the ribs, so deep that Catelyn was certain that the wound was mortal. He looked at her as he fell and murmured “Cat” as the bright blood came flowing out between his mailed fingers. She thought she had forgotten that.

-GOT Catelyn VII

“That was the night I stole up to his bed to give him comfort. I bled, but it was the sweetest hurt. He told me he loved me then, but he called me Cat, just before he fell back to sleep. Even so, I stayed with him until the sky began to lighten.”

-ASOS Sansa VII, Lysa

A fortnight passed before Littlefinger was strong enough to leave Riverrun, but her lord father forbade her to visit him in the tower where he lay abed. Lysa helped their maester nurse him; she had been softer and shyer in those days… As soon as he was strong enough to be moved, Lord Hoster Tully sent Petyr Baelish away in a closed litter, to finish his healing on the Fingers, upon the windswept jut of rock where he’d been born.

-GOT Catelyn VII

NB: In my non-professional opinion, I do not consider the actual betrothal to Brandon Stark to be a traumatic event. Please feel free to correct me, but I couldn’t find anything in the text to support this, but of course I may have missed something. I see obviously some grief, disappointment, and sadness. Considering the situation and his prior feelings toward Cat, I did not find any of these emotions expressed to be of a disturbed amount or manner. Please take this opinion with a hefty grain of salt and do not hesitate to correct me if I’m wrong.

2. Witnessing, in person, the event(s) as it occurred to others.

Nope.

3. Learning that the traumatic event(s) occurred to a close family member or close friend. In cases of actual or threatened death of a family member or friend, the event(s) must have been violent or accidental.

Nuh-uh.

4. Experiencing repeated or extreme exposure to aversive details of the traumatic event(s).

It is known that he has several brothels, where Littlefinger may serve folks of unusual tastes (at least per the show, as of writing this I couldn’t find evidence of it in A Search of Ice and Fire and a brief perusal of the text) which includes those that by simply the nature of their age cannot consent, let alone his own prostitutes where we may deal with anything from enthusiastic consent (I’m not going to knock the legitimate sex workers out there that take good care of themselves and only go through with consenting transactions. They happen, but I get the feeling and have read evidence of it rarely. Still, I’m one of the weird ones who have talked to a few of the healthy ones on my own time with no sign of psychological stress as I saw it or signs of attempting to lie… and a number of not healthy ones due to where I’m employed.), to dubious, to outright not consenting.

Nevertheless this criteria has been met!

B. Presence of one (or more) of the following intrusion symptoms associated with the traumatic event(s), beginning after the traumatic event(s) occurred:

1. Recurrent, involuntary, and intrusive distressing memories of the traumatic event(s).

2. Recurrent distressing dreams in which the content and/or affect of the dream are related to the traumatic event(s). Note: In children, there may be frightening dreams without recognizable content.

3. Dissociative reactions  in which the individual feels or acts as if the traumatic event(s) were recurring.

4. Intense or prolonged psychological distress at exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event(s).

5. Marked physiological reactions to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event(s).

Unfortunately, all the above requires us to have an interview or be treating the individual we may be making this diagnosis for, or requires insight into the individual’s thoughts.

Say… like… maaayyybbbeee… in a POV chapter in this case.

Eh? Eh? GRRM? … Please?

Or he could somehow express these feelings to Sansa. I can’t think of anyone else he’d say them to. Then again, this could just be wishful thinking.

“Littlefinger is the second most devious man in the Seven Kingdoms.”

-GOT Eddard XV, Varys

Either way, unable to determine if criteria had been met at this time.

C. Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the traumatic event(s), beginning after the traumatic event(s) occurred, as evidenced by one or both of the following:

1. Avoidance of or efforts to avoid distressing memories, thoughts, or feelings about or closely associated with the traumatic event(s).

2. Avoidance of or efforts to avoid external reminders (people, places, conversations, activities, objects, situations) that arouse distressing memories, thoughts, or feelings about or closely associated with the traumatic event(s).

See the above. Unable to determine if if the criteria has been met. But I think we can rule out C2.

“My lords, with your leave, I propose to travel to the Vale and there woo and win Lady Lysa Arryn. Once I am her consort, I shall deliver you the Vale of Arryn without a drop of blood being spilled.”

-ASOS Tyrion III, Petyr Baelish

D. Negative alterations in cognitions and mood associated with the traumatic event(s), beginning or worsening after the traumatic event(s) occurred, as evidenced by two (or more) of the following:

1. Inability to remember an important aspect of the traumatic event(s) (typically due to dissociative amnesia and not to other factors such as head injury, alcohol, or drugs).

The text implies Petyr was indeed drunk when raped by Lysa, therefore does not qualify as he believes he had Cat in his bed that night.

“He looked so wounded I thought my heart would burst, and afterward he drank until he passed out at the table. Uncle Brynden carried him up to bed before my father could find him like that.”

-ASOS Sansa VII, Lysa

If they had any sex thereafter post his fight with Brandon, but before being forced back to The Fingers, I believe would be defined as dubious consent (I don’t know if she became pregnant after that single session). He probably had quite a lot of pain medication to deal with his wounds.

Once more, does not strictly qualify. The bragging he does many years later in King’s Landing about taking the maidenhead of both sisters confirms that he was so impaired on at least that first occasion that he does indeed believe he had sex with Catelyn. There are several examples, but I quite like this one from a narrative stand point,

“Littlefinger had you first, didn’t he?”

-ACOK Catelyn VII, Jaime Lannister

Could just be an excellent example of toxic masculinity. As for his cognitions in regards to his fight with Brandon Stark… More insight is needed.

2. Persistent and exaggerated negative beliefs or expectations about oneself, others, or the world.

3. Persistent, distorted cognitions about the cause or consequences of the traumatic event(s) that lead the individual to blame himself/herself or others.

4. Persistent negative emotional state.

5. Markedly diminished interest or participation in significant activities.

6. Feelings of detachment or estrangement from others.

7. Persistent inability to experience positive emotions.

I’m sure Petyr felt like shit when he was hauled away to his father’s land before he donned the mask of Littlefinger, but we need a POV or declaration to another character to be sure.

D2-D7 Unable to be determined at this time.

E. Marked alterations in arousal and reactivity associated with the traumatic event(s), beginning or worsening after the traumatic event(s) occurred, as evidenced by two (or more) of the following:

1. Irritable behavior and angry outbursts typically expressed as verbal or physical aggression toward people or objects.

Umm… Lysa would agree.

Lysa Arryn smiled tremulously. “Only one? Oh, Petyr, do you swear it? Only one?”

“Only Cat.” He gave her a short, sharp shove.

Lysa stumbled backward, her feet slipping on the wet marble. And then she was gone. She never screamed. For the longest time there was no sound but the wind.

-ASOS Sansa VII, Lysa and Petyr Baelish

I mean, she was trying to hurt Sansa, but I theorize that this cool and controlled as a cucumber colored cat dude did this much sooner than he had planned to.

Anything else needs more insight.

2. Reckless or self-destructive behavior.

Chaos is a ladder, anyone?

Wait… What? Is that just a show only thing?! Aww… man.

3. Hypervigilance.

Well, to not be while constructing and carrying out his plans would be expected. To a detrimental level we don’t have enough evidence for yet. Need to be in his head for that or see some symptoms from Sansa. I haven’t found any yet.

4. Exaggerated startle response.

I don’t see anything in the text to support this. Littlefinger has the affect, as I’ve mentioned before, of a cool cat. Cucumber cat.

5. Problems with concentration.

If Lord Baelish knew how to juggle he could do it blindfolded with a great number and variety of things of all shapes and sizes; some on fire, some sharp and pointy in a number of ways, while standing on a ball, doing the hula-hoop, and playing the 1812 Overture in its entirety on a kazoo.

Currently not supported by the text.

Except for the juggling bit.

A master juggler was Petyr Baelish.

-ACOK Tyrion IV

6. Sleep disturbance.

Need a POV or a sneaky Sansa.

Technically since for this section only two were needed to pass here. He is short of making it by one. He might satisfy more with further evidence, but at the moment we’re again at the not supported by the currently released text impasse.

F. Duration of the disturbance (Criteria B, C, D, and E) s more than 1 month.

Need more data, see above criteria noted.

G. The disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational,or other important areas of functioning.

Honestly, considering how well the man functions in his society to the point of being promoted up the ladder to the Small Council, despite his low-birth and the other obstacles he had to overcome, I’m inclined to say does not at the present time meet this criteria. His mask is tight, but everything we have evidence for thus far does not state what he’s like beyond Sansa’s brief musings on the difference between the attitude he presents to her when she believes she can ascertain the difference between the mask and the man. What she perceives as Petyr could just be another mask, even if it is a smaller one.

Note that we also do not know precisely how long ago he started his climb. I could definitely see that he might have had to take some time to put his foot on the first rung. So he could have possibly met this criteria in the past. Unfortunately, as I’ve said many times before, need more data.

H. The disturbance is not attributable to the physiological effects of a substance or another medical condition.

Specify whether:

With dissociative symptoms: The individual’s symptoms meet the criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder, and in addition, in response to the stressor, the individual experiences persistent or recurrent symptoms of either of the following:

1. Depersonalization: Persistent or recurrent experiences of feeling detached from, and as if one were an outside observer of, one’s mental processes or body.

2. Dereailzation: Persistent or recurrent experiences of unreality of surroundings.

Considering that Sansa admits:

And sometimes it seemed to her that the Lord Protector was two people as well. He was Petyr, her protector, warm and funny and gentle … but he was also Littlefinger, the lord she’d known at King’s Landing, smiling slyly and stroking his beard as he whispered in Queen Cersei’s ear… Littlefinger was only a mask he had to wear. Only sometimes Sansa found it hard to tell where the man ended and the mask began. Littlefinger and Lord Petyr looked so very much alike.

-AFFC Sansa I

And how it appears to her he seems to be able to take the mask on and off at his own behest so that it’s hard to tell them apart, this really doesn’t meet the criteria for disassociation; but I could do a short meta about how he doesn’t meet this definition or the dissociative disorders currently in the DSM-V. The Depersonalization  and Derealization symptoms will again have to wait for possible reveals in the future.

Note: To use this subtype, the dissociative symptoms must not be attributable to the physiological effects of a substance or another medical condition (e.g., complex partial seizures).

Oh! That’s me! But the terminology is out of date as of this year.

Specify if:

With delayed expression: If the full diagnostic criteria are not met until at least 6 months after the event (although the onset and expression of some symptoms may be immediate).

Say it again with me.

NEED. MORE. DATA.

So, to summarize: Currently only one criteria has been met for a potential diagnosis of PTSD. The rest we require more data to determine whether or not he does as we need more insight via a POV chapter or what he may reveal to Sansa. If this is done verbally to her instead of with body language or clearly noted with certain nonverbal cues which may conflict with what he may be saying it will be difficult to determine if he meets the criteria or not.

Honestly, I’ll admit that what I could give references for during my first run through of this Meta©™® with the books I had and what I could find in ASOIAF this was a fun and insightful exercise.

For reasons I will not disclose here I have been diagnosed with PTSD for unfortunately meeting A1 on several occasions. It has been interesting to compare what criteria I most definitely met, but with treatment I have been able to manage or outright worked out of different subsets. I still meet them all enough to have the diagnosis, but have made significant progress, but it made me a bit proud.

[summerb4jc]

Game of Thrones Rankings

So, I'm watching GOT, and I just started season 3. Here's a list about my feelings for the characters SO FAR. AS OF YET. AS OF S3 E2

(I know like, all of them are going to die or whatever. Pity me if you'd like, I've spoiled most of the series for myself by reading buzzfeed articles back when I thought I'd never watch it.)

This strike through means they are DEAD.

Characters I love:

Daenerys of the House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, The Unburnt, Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Queen of Meereen, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Protector of the Realm, Lady Regnant of the Seven Kingdoms, Breaker of Chains and Mother of Dragons: The reason I decided to watch GOT (I've watched her freeing the unsullied on YouTube SO MANY TIMES)

Tyrion "If-You-Cut-Me-In-Half,-Then-I'd-Be-The-Quarterman,-And-That's-Not-Quite-As-Catchy" Lannister: I'm here for him, and I'm here for his sass. The best Lannister. The only good Lannister so far.

Ned Stark: Best man I ever knew. Gone to soon. I knew it was coming and it still hurt.

My girl Arya Stark: Kicking butt and taking names (or no names? I've heard that a girl has no name?)

My girl Sansa Stark: smol, pure, needs a hug, needs to stop trusting people at court, reeeeeaallllly shoulda left with the Hound tbh

Jon Snow: 👍👍👍👍👌👌👌👌⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️👌👌👌👌👍👍👍👍

ALL THE STARKS: Imma just leave them in a big groups because either a.) they are still babies like Bran and I just know that House Stark is the best of us, and if there was any justice, one of them would rule the Iron throne and the Seven Kingdoms with honor. Or B.) I KNOW THE RED WEDDING IS COMING AND I DON'T KNOW WHO ALL IM GOING TO LOSE.

Robb Stark: So much like his father, so absent from recent promotional material.

Catelyn Stark: Mama Bear™ I know it's coming and I am still not prepared. I'M NOT READY.

Bran Stark: It's the future he can see. And the past. And the present.

Hodor, Osha, Baby Boy Stark, Maester Luwin, The Direwolves: I love them but I cannot write a reason for everyone right now.

BRIENNE OF TARTH: YOU GO GLEN COCO

The Hound: I am unsure, but he rescued Sansa that one time and offered to take her home to winterfell so RIGHT NOW I like him.

Varys the Spider: SASS AND SECRETS.

Jaqen H'ghar: He's not really dead but I'll miss that face.

Shay

Jorah Mormont

THE DRAGONS

Arya's Boys (I can't remember her two friends' names)

The Guy Who Was Going to be Stannis Baratheon's Hand and then Yelled at The Red Lady: He seems pretty chill

Characters I Love but Feel Bad About It

Cersei Lannister: Idk, man she makes a great villain and there is something about a great villain that like, you love, even if you don't love them or their actions, you know?

Tywin Lannister: I actually really dislike this character, because he's a bad guy, obvs. But I loved his interactions with Arya, and in some small way he'll always be Cherick! The Charles Dance Version of the Phantom of the Opera. It is an old love, but true, and persists despite time and change.

Characters I'm like, on the fence about but could be ok

Margaery Tyrell: On the one hand, I don't know if I can trust her, on the other hand, she was nice to some orphans one time. Who can say?

Margaery Tyrell's Grandma: Nice. I like her. But I just don't know yet.

Characters I generally dislike, but like, I don't want to get real into it

Jaime Lannister

The Mountain

Khal Drogo: Unpopular, I know, and like, I liked how he loved Dany, and how she loved him, but like, idk, their wedding night and the subsequent nights just left a really bad taste in my mouth. Like, I LIKE THAT HE LOVED HER, but just, his whole deal otherwise wasn't my flavor fave.

Any of the Lords the Starks had to deal with when trying to reach King's Landing

That dude who sacrificed his sons to white walkers and married his daughters: GROSS.

Theon's Dad: Lame

Characters Who are THE WORST UGH

JOFFREY:THE WORST

THEON GREYJOY: THE WORSTER. WE EXPECTED THIS FROM JOFFREY BUT NOT FROM YOU, YOU ENTIRE TOOL BELT.

LORD PETYR "LITTLEFINGER" BAELISH: MORE LIKE LORD PETYR "I'M-IN-LOVE-WITH-YOUR-MOM-SANSA-AND-I-SEE-SO-MUCH-OF-HER-IN-YOU" BAELISH AM I RIGHT?

ROBERT BARATHEON: YOU CALL YOURSELF A KING, MAN? ALL YOU DID WAS HUNT AND GET NED STARK KILLED YOU MILDEWED RAG.

Viserys Targaryen: UGH. WAS IT WORTH IT? WAS YOUR CROWN OF GOLD WORTH IT?

THE RED LADY: I DONT LIKE YOU, YOUR MEDDLING, OR YOUR SCARY DEMON MAN-BABIES, MMMKAY?

STANNIS BARATHEON: I HAVENT SEEN IT YET BUT I KNOW WHAT YOU DO. I KNOW WHAT YOU DO.

And like, that's all I have in me right now to give. I'll update it as I go along.

[rhegar]

Dearly Beloved, Chapter 4

Fic Summary: Elia Martell passes away after giving birth to Aegon from complications. Rhaegar Targaryen, now widowed, realizes how fatal his mistakes were to his family.

Chapter Summary: Rhaegar and Doran work to find a way to rescue Rhaella and remove Aerys from power safely.

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: TW for rape

This is Chapter four. Chapter 1 2 3 or Read on Ao3 here

In the bathtub, Rhaegar lay in the hot water with only his face above it, and thought of the day's events, and those of them yet to come.

After reading his father's letter, everything around him had seemed a little muffled. He was a prisoner in his head, fighting a war, rescuing his mother, knocking his father down with all his evils. In his head, Rhaenys and Aegon were safe. Viserys and Mother were safe. Rhaegar had built them all a small water garden in the Red Keep, fashioned after the one he was staying in right now, and all the children played in them, while he, his mother, Arthur and the Kingsguard looked on them, smiling, and kept them safe. In his head, he was a fair and wise king, not because he wanted to be a king, but because he had to be. He was preparing for the long, long winter to come; his children and Viserys training to beat the darkness, but having lived a long childhood first.

The notion of joining the Night's Watch did strange things to him when he first heard of it, though. Was it really that bad? After all, what better place to protect the realm from the darkness than the Wall; the very place where the darkness was kept at bay. And he would be near his beloved uncle Aemon, and years later, Aegon would join him. But then he thought… how do I know that my father would leave Aegon alone until he joins me? How can I protect Rhaenys? How can I make him stop hurting Mother? And Arthur…

After leaving the princes of Dorne's company, he and Arthur had had a small chat that had turned into a small argument because of their dark moods. It ended with Arthur swearing that he will never leave Rhaegar's side, even if he joined the Night's Watch. But the truth is, even if he were willing to swear himself to guard a wall of ice for the rest of his life, he didn't want that for Arthur.

He finally got out of the tub after the hot water had turned barely lukewarm, and put on fresh clothes to meet with the prince of Dorne. It was certainly past midnight, but that was the time the prince had picked.

Outside his door, Arthur was waiting to accompany him. When their eyes first met, neither of them moved. The palace was lit with candles on the walls, and Arthur's eyes glowed in their light like fire. Rhaegar sighed, and looked at the floor. Arthur reached down and took his hand and nodded in reassurance. Rhaegar was surprised by the move, but he finally felt his mind get swarmed with feelings different from dread. He gave Arthur a sad smile, and then walked, his devoted companion a step behind him.

Prince Doran's quarters were even more airy than normal. In the night, the winds of the sea and the desert sent a chill through Rhaegar's bones. But inside, he could glimpse the warm light of a fire; a fireplace was set close to the table at which Doran was seated, and the red and orange flames cracked and filled the air around them with light and warmth.

Rhaegar nodded at the prince of Dorne and saluted him. Doran only nodded in silence with a smile, then his smile disappeared. He raised his finger to his lips in a silent gesture, then ushered towards the two seats in front of him.

When Rhaegar sat, he spotted parchments, two quills and two cups of ink, one set of each was set in front of him, and one in front of Doran. At the beginning, Rhaegar's eyes widened, demanding an explanation. Then, Prince Doran took up quill and parchment and began to write. Slowly, Rhaegar was beginning to understand. After the prince was finished writing, he passed the parchment to the crown prince who began to read it.

"Prince Rhaegar. Glad you joined me. I hope you're comfortable with this method of communication. Our previous agreements have reached your father by way of songs from the beaks of Varys' little birds. However, not even the Crone herself will be able to squeak the contents of this conversation to a soul. After reading this, please throw it in the fire and write your response to me."

Rhaegar smiled and nodded. He held up the letter for a bit longer knowing that Arthur, like most people, tended to read slower than him. When it appeared that Arthur was done, Rhaegar threw the letter into the fire and watched the parchment blacken and turn to ashes. The crown prince then took up his quill, dipped it in the ink and began to write.

"Thank you, Prince Doran. I am more comfortable commuting with you this way and knowing that what we say is safe between you, me and Ser Arthur whom I trust with everything.

So, pray, Prince Doran, what shall I do? My father expects me to sail within the week and if I don't, he'll know, in the same way that he knew that we were planning a deposition, and he will murder my dear mother."

He passed the parchment to Doran, who appeared to be a quick reader as well. He took up his quill and a new parchment and started writing.

"As your sire demands, your grace, I advise that you sail within the week."

Rhaegar frowned. He didn't write anything, but looked at Doran asking for an explanation. Doran took up another parchment.

"Why, if you don't sail, your grace, Queen Rhaella will be murdered, and she is very important to me as she was important to my mother, let alone how important she must be to you. And so you shall sail, your grace. To Dragonstone."

On the next parchment, Rhaegar wrote only two words. "Why Dragonstone?"

"Prince Oberyn has departed tonight to speak to some of our friends and ensure that a special gift from us arrives at Dragonstone just in time for your arrival. In return for Elia's bones. It will help you a great deal. When you have received our gift, you shall then be able to sail to King's Landing and deal with your father."

Rhaegar had thought up a plan to deal with his father. But it won't be safe until some important people's loyalty to him is ensured. Most of those at court who were on his father's side were petty lords and bootlickers. Ser Arthur, Prince Lewyn and Ser Oswell were loyal to Rhaegar, and Jaime Lannister was likely to follow whoever his father was loyal to, and Rhaegar knew that that will be him. Come the time, he did not wish for Ser Barristan, Ser Gerold and Ser Jonothor to turn against their brothers, but the remaining knights of the Kingsguard he could deal with. The more important people were the lords paramount of Westeros, and they were waiting for an ally. Rhaegar had promised them in his letters to be that ally, but he had yet to hear their responses, and he was getting anxious. He took up a parchment and let Doran know as much. After Doran read his response, he heard the fire eat the letter.

"The lords of the realm are fickle, your grace, and you have promised everything in your power to appease them. Lord Tyrell has responded positively and that is a good sign. The promise to foster his heir in court and, in time, make him your squire and then knight him must have done him a great honor. I suspect the promise of Princess Rhaenys' hand to Lord Edmure Tully is quite the lucrative match, and likely to make his father join your cause. It is also likely that Lord Tully will sway Lord Stark, since you made Lord Tully the promise that the first daughter to result from the union of Brandon and Catelyn or Lyanna and Robert will be Aegon's Queen Consort, as long as such a daughter comes within the next five years. The apologies and confession you have pledged to Lord Baratheon must have had their effects as well, and you have swayed him by way of the blood you share. I hear that he, himself is a drunken oaf, but his maester who advises him isn't. And as for Lord Tywin, the gods know he dislikes that poor dwarf son of his, and wants nothing in the world more than his son Jaime back as his heir. Your promise to absolve him of his Kingsguard oaths is granted to make Lord Tywin listen, and your promise to end the tradition of marriage between brothers and sisters in favor of allying the Targaryens with the great houses of the realm by marriage is all the more lucrative for all of them; now they can all hope for royal matches for their grandchildren too.

Your father has not only burned his lords and knights, I'm afraid, but quite the few bridges as well. There is a reason why those lords were planning to undermine his dynasty, your grace. Your father has proven a volatile and dangerous ruler, but so long as they find in you a friend and a wise and stable man, they will have no reason to undermine you."

Rhaegar took a deep breath trying to make the anxiety go away. He sighed and nodded, and threw the parchment into the fire.

"And what of Lord Varys? How do we know that my movements will not be reported by him? And when I sail, what comes of Rhaenys and Aegon?"

Prince Doran read, threw the letter in the fire and quickly took up a parchment to respond. "Worry not about Lord Varys. He shall not trouble you if you know your plan and execute it silently. He only knows as much as you say out loud. And as for your children, worry not about them either, your grace. They will be safe within our walls. If your father even bred a dragon, it will not be able to come and pluck them from my hands. The first Rhaenys Targaryen learned the hard way that only a dragon who makes peace with Dorne survives it. This Rhaenys Targaryen and her brother are not only at peace with me, but they are my blood. And like House Martell, they will be unbowed, unbent, unbroken."

Rhaegar read the final words and smiled. He then picked up this final parchment and stood up, throwing it into the fire and standing there, watching it blacken and disappear into ash. Not even the Crone herself will be able to squeak the contents of this conversation to a soul. He stood there, in the warmth of the fire, ensuring that every single one of the parchments had turned into ash, and thinking that Princess Arianne was a fine little princess and that she would be a fine match for his brother Viserys. Only a dragon who makes peace with Dorne survives it.  

[theconservativebrief]

The next two weeks are some of the busiest on the TV calendar, with nearly two dozen new series debuting across broadcast, cable, and streaming networks.

Some of these releases are among the most high-profile shows their networks have on offer, including NBC’s big bet at finding the next ER. And some of them are quirky little half-hour dramas imported from Australia. But we’ve watched all of them — and everything else that’s around — and we’re highlighting the ones we think are the most interesting.

Few of these shows are great, and we often have limited information on whether they’ll get better. (It’s rare-to-impossible for broadcast networks, especially, to send out many episodes to critics beyond the first couple.) But there’s something inside all of these shows worth checking out, especially if you’re a particular fan of their genres.

Read on for thoughts on CBS’s FBI, NBC’s New Amsterdam, FX’s Mr. Inbetween, and ABC’s A Million Little Things. We’ll be back later in the week with thoughts on shows debuting between Thursday and Sunday.

(A note: We’ve only given ratings to shows where we feel we’ve seen enough episodes to judge how successful they will be long-term, which for right now is just Mr. Inbetween.)

[embedded content]

TV super-producer Dick Wolf has launched two franchises that completely took over NBC. The first was Law & Order, which launched five spinoffs (as well as a recently announced sixth, Law & Order: Hate Crimes). One spinoff, Law & Order: SVU, has now run almost as long as the original — 434 episodes to the original’s 456 (it should catch up in May of 2019).

And then there’s the Chicago franchise, spun off of Chicago Fire; it now encompasses four shows, three of which are still running.

The point is: Dick Wolf knows how to make an iron-clad procedural, even if his premise is as vague as, “Here are some FBI agents.” And now that Wolf has joined forces with CBS — a network that never met a crime-solving drama it couldn’t turn into a big hit — to make a show about those very FBI agents, it’s not hard to imagine the two could make beautiful, bloody corpses together. (This is the first series Wolf has produced for a network other than NBC since a 2003 reboot of Dragnet for ABC.)

Whether you enjoy FBI will depend heavily on how happy you are to consume stories as un-skeptical of law enforcement as this one, or on how much seeing Wolf’s signature font in the closing credits will fill you with happy memories of long, wintry Saturdays watching episode after episode of vintage Law & Order.

But as always, the show is brilliantly cast (putting Missy Peregrym at the FBI’s center suggests Wolf has found his new Mariska Hargitay), perfectly paced, and solidly constructed. Is it great TV? Nah. But it’s highly competent TV, and that counts for something in this day and age. —Todd VanDerWerff

FBI debuts Tuesday, September 25, at 9 pm Eastern on CBS.

[embedded content]

I kept watching New Amsterdam, NBC’s new medical drama set in a public hospital that doesn’t turn away patients, thinking I had seen much of it before. On the one hand, I had — it’s hard to break new ground in the medical drama genre in the post-The Good Doctor, post-Grey’s Anatomy, post-ER, post-St. Elsewhere, post-Marcus Welby, M.D. universe. But even more specifically, the series feels like it’s riffing on Fox’s medical drama The Resident, now in its second season, which is too minor of a show to rip off.

But where The Resident and its doctors who care so much that they won’t stop trying to save lives!! are aggro in an irritating way, New Amsterdam takes some of that show’s ideas and pulls back on them just enough to become a fitting series to air right after NBC’s mega-hit This Is Us.

New Amsterdam, like This Is Us, is more interested in making you cry than anything else, and both series are busy, bustling shows with lots of characters who are wildly varied in terms of how compelling they are. Nobody is trying to reinvent the wheel, but maybe the wheel doesn’t need to be reinvented.

If there’s going to be something different about New Amsterdam, it will be thanks to the show’s central two characters, Dr. Max Goodwin (Ryan Eggold) and Dr. Hana Sharpe (Freema Agyeman). Goodwin is a no-nonsense reformer who takes over New Amsterdam Hospital and immediately starts ruffling feathers and making big changes — but he’s also got a big secret, one he’s only comfortable really sharing with Sharpe.

Again, nothing new here, and Eggold isn’t close to the level of Agyeman’s performance. But the details ring true, and the second episode improves on the first, which is always a good sign. —TV

New Amsterdam debuts Tuesday, September 25, at 10 pm Eastern on NBC. It’s weird that this show exists when there was a Fox drama about an immortal police officer of exactly the same name just 10 years ago, but you probably forgot that one existed, huh? It starred Jaime Lannister!

[embedded content]

As strange as it might sound, the market for hitman TV shows in 2018 is a crowded one. The latest on the scene is FX’s Mr. Inbetween, created by, written by, and starring Scott Ryan. It draws on a lot of what we’ve seen already this year in Barry, as Ray Shoesmith (Ryan) tries to balance the ins and outs of his job with his domestic life, though Mr. Inbetween is tonally a little closer to Killing Eve on its default level of darkness.

That’s not to say that Mr. Inbetween is lacking for laughs — if anything, the deadpan humor on which Ray operates is the main reason to tune in. Ryan’s performance is transfixing, as he’s hilarious and horrifying by turns. Bald, slightly gaunt, and sporting a grin that wouldn’t look amiss on the Joker, Ryan infuses Ray with a volatility that vaults him up to one of the more impressive turns of the year. He’s opaque in a way that his TV contemporaries aren’t, which makes it all the more frightening when he finally lashes out.

The story that’s built around him, however, isn’t quite as solid. The brevity of the season — it’s just six episodes long (all of which were sent out for review), with each episode clocking in at around 25 minutes — means that it moves at a neat clip.

This is to the show’s advantage as far as recommendations are concerned, but it also doesn’t leave a lot of time to accomplish all that much. Ryan is great, but Mr. Inbetween never manages to land on one side of the fence or the other as far as whether Ray is actually the force of justice that he seems to think himself to be.

The show also never reckons with the fact that there needs to be a little more meat on the bones of a story about a white man getting away with everything for it to really stick in a contemporary cultural landscape. But given how trim it is, Mr. Inbetween is charming enough, and Ryan’s performance shouldn’t be missed. —Karen Han

Mr. Inbetween debuts with two back-to-back episodes Tuesday, September 25, at 11:30 pm Eastern on FX, in between airings of Mayans M.C.

[embedded content]

A Million Little Things, ABC’s new drama about a group of friends dealing with a tragedy, is one of the first big network dramas to really feel like an attempt to copy what made This Is Us such a big hit.

And in brief, fitful moments throughout the first three episodes, it really does get at some interesting things about adult friendships, male bonding rituals, and the burden of mental illness. But it’s also a cautionary tale about what happens when network notes won’t just let a premise be.

In the opening moments of the show’s pilot, Jon (Ron Livingston) kills himself, interrupting the lives of his three best friends and their assorted loved ones and other compatriots. (Livingston will continue to appear throughout at least season one, in flashbacks and the like.)

The death affects each character differently, and the show’s most successful moments deal with how depression can affect a life, especially when Jon’s friend Rome (Romany Malco) sees in his friend’s suicide a reflection of his own suicidal ideation and finally decides to pursue therapy. It’s the sort of subject matter broadcast network dramas don’t always tackle, and rarely with the sort of emotional depth Things displays from time to time.

Unfortunately, the rest of the time, A Million Little Things is burdening itself with an over-busy mystery story about why Jon might have killed himself and the plan he set in motion to help take care of his friends after his death, which sometimes makes him feel like an all-seeing god and at other times makes him feel like a mildly cheeky ghost.

A Million Little Things shows that it understands how depression can hurt even people who seem to have it all together. So why does it need to have a big mystery about what John might have been up to, except for network fears that nobody would care about a group of friends learning to deal without one of them being there? (Yes, it’s similar to This Is Us, but that show kept the central death a mystery from the audience, not the characters, to deliberately mimic emotional repression. A Million Little Things has no similar creative justification.) It stands in the way of a show that would otherwise hold promise. —TV

A Million Little Things debuts Wednesday at 10 pm Eastern on ABC. No, it’s not based on the famous James Frey “memoir.” That’s A Million Little Pieces.

CBS’s Magnum P.I. (Monday, 9 pm) is a terminally boring reboot of the Hawaii-set detective drama. No show that begins with a man skydiving from space should be this uninvolving!

NBC’s Manifest (Monday, 10 pm) wastes a good premise — a plane experiences turbulence that seemingly transports it forward in time five years — in favor of weak-sauce family drama and mystical hooey.

ABC’s Single Parents (Wednesday, 9:30 pm) has a great cast (including Leighton Meester and Brad Garrett) and great creators (New Girl’s Elizabeth Meriweather and J.J. Philbin) but a pilot that tries to do way too much with a thin premise (a bunch of single parents hang out). Maybe it’ll get better?

Original Source -> 4 new TV shows to check out this week, from Australian hitmen to beleaguered doctors

via The Conservative Brief

[wackygoofball]

Jaime x Brienne: You’ve Got Mail AU

Brienne of Tarth always loved books, the smell, the leather bindings, the feel of the paper between her fingers as she turns the page. Her personal favorites have always been the knightly tales she used to read as a young girl, sitting on her father’s lap, in his little bookshop, getting lost in their own little world where knights came to life to slay gruesome dragons to win the hearts of the maid they loved with a fierceness that let them overcome any obstacle.

Said bookstore is now hers after Brienne inherited it following her father’s demise, which left the young woman totally devastated, and yet with the devotion to keep her father’s business and legacy running, to bring to life the magic she was granted to enjoy while reading with her father when still a child.

However, that legacy is in great danger with the rise of a monster matching that of the tales she read as a girl – a brand-new, high-tech, chic Lannister Libraries, a chain store set on nothing but commerce and profit, which is about to open up not very far from her book shop.

Brienne of Tarth would not be her father’s daughter if she just gave in, though. She is ready to fight for her father’s legacy to live on.

A welcome change in her ongoing battle against the great evils of the business is Brienne’s e-pal, whom she has known for a couple of years now. She never met the man she has corresponds with daily, but for some reason, she feels like she can speak to him about things she otherwise does not dare to let anyone know. Even though they have the agreement not to give away personal information: Brienne doesn’t know his profession, his age, the color of his eyes, or his actual name. The only identificatory aspect she knows about him is that his nickname is “GoldenHand33,” the same way he only knows her under the pseud “OathKeeper1.”

And yet, Brienne feels as though she knows that man anyway, his thoughts, his mind, his dreams that, according to him, won’t ever come about because they do not correspond with what his father’s legacy would demand, and, to her surprise, she has a lot more in common with this rather snarky, witty man than Brienne first thought when they started chatting more or less by accident.

Over time, those e-mail exchanges grew to be her lifeline, the one thing to hold on to when times are rough. GoldenHand33 was one of the few people Brienne ever opened up to when it came to her father’s death beside her friends in “real life,” and now grows to be ever the more important to her now that her father’s legacy is threatened.

A small fair is supposed to flush money into cash register, or so Brienne’s hope, because her greatest fear of the business being crushed by the Lannister Library grows with every day passing. Between reading sessions with children, featuring, obviously, lots of knightly tales, games, and balloons, Brienne finds herself running into a man taking his nephews and niece to the small book fair. Though judging by the looks, and the oldest nephew’s misgiving behavior, that is normally not their usual social sphere. The blond man with almost painfully good looks proves to be quite a witty and charming character, seemingly wanting to teach the children some valuable lessons about life against the odds of how they could probably buy that place with their own pocket money.

And if Brienne is not mistaken, the man actually flirts with her. Though she deems that to be rather ridiculous, considering her ugly looks by comparison. However, all of Brienne’s thoughts regarding their newest customer turn bitter once she finds out that the man is Jaime Lannister, son of Tywin Lannister, CEO of the Lannister Library bookstore chain threatening her small business! Brienne is furious – and disappointed.

Hurt and frustrated, she turns to her online friend again, who, gladly, offers some much-needed solace and encouragement. Though, to her surprise, GoldenHand33 suddenly starts to suggest meeting in real life, something that the two ruled out from the beginning. And it would be a lie to say that Brienne didn’t consider it since. After all, she found herself comparing the few men she dated over the past years to her e-pal, and whether they manage to make her laugh as much as he manages even with nothing but written speech and emoticons. And sadly so, most men already failed that simple test.

After some more time, and a particular party where she had to suffer through meeting with Jaime Lannister again, Brienne agrees to a date with one click on the SEND-button. And she must admit, the closer the date comes, the more excited she gets, even though Brienne is about twice as nervous and afraid of it. After all, she knows that she is no beauty, not what is conventionally perceived as charming or attractive, and she doesn’t want to lose her online companion.

They are supposed to meet up in a small restaurant, with their distinctive features being her early version of The Dance of Dragons, which they discussed about a lot online, since both have a fable for medieval history, whereas GoldenHand33 is supposed to arrive with, who could have guessed? a golden hand.

However, the man keeps her waiting.

What she doesn’t know is that the man is just outside the door, but too hesitant to walk in, instead, pacing outside, pondering about what to do.

Because that is Brienne of Tarth inside, the woman who was quite outspoken when she met him, not knowing that he is GoldenHand33, just like he had no clue that she is OathKeeper1, at a party where she directly attacked him and his father’s business, and that even though Jaime quite enjoyed her company while roaming through her little bookstore down the street. However, Jaime had absolutely no clue that the woman whom he has been flirting with online for the past years is the same woman who was charmingly kind to him in the store, only for all of that to turn to bile as she met him again, aware that he is the son of the man threatening her business.

Rarely has Jaime dreaded it as much as right at this moment that he was born a Lannister. Because that makes Brienne hate him the moment on he walks inside, he knows.

With a heavy heart, Jaime decides against the date, even though it breaks him about as much as it must break her, rushing back to his apartment to send her an apology via e-mail, hoping that she will forgive him until he found a solution.

However, matters only turn worse when Jaime gets news from his father that Brienne will be forced out of business, making them a monopoly in the capitol, which assures him ever the more that there is simply no way that Brienne will ever forgive him for working at the store chain that just annihilated her small business, for letting his father’s legacy – which he would rather not share in at all – destroy that of her beloved father.

Brienne, meanwhile, tries to come to terms with having to give up her father’s dream as she closes down his little bookshop, just like she has to deal with the sting she still feels about having been ditched by her e-pal. While she accepted his apology, it still hurt her, since it came right at the moment where she could have used the support. Needless to mention that GoldenHand33 rather kept his distance since, seemingly hesitant about chatting with her after the failed attempt of a date.

A nasty cold seems to be the icing on that cake of misery, and Brienne just wants to cave in at home, not knowing where to go from now on, what to do next, suddenly encountering the issue of having to find a new dream, and form her own legacy, as it appears.

But where to start? Brienne was so set on her father’s bookstore that it never occurred to her to do something else, to do something for herself.

Things take a sudden turn when the person knocking on her door is not one of her friends, but apparently the man she considers partly responsible for her world having been shattered, Jaime Fuckin’ Lannister.

Brienne’s irritation grows exponentially when the man whose father’s business just ended her father’s legacy tells her that he needs a friend, and that the person he chose of all people… on the entirety of the planet… is her.

“You are the one person I have ever met who insulted me to my face. And I think I need more of that in my life. Thus, the solution seems rather straightforward – I need a friend like you in my life.”

“And I don’t get a say in that?”

“I fear not.”

“The Seven must have sent you to test me.”

Yet, to her even greater surprise, Brienne finds herself befriending that man against all odds, soon enough laughing at his jokes and antics, having to discover that, yes, the man is human, and not some great monster from the tales, that he can be kind and what she would coin “knightly,” and that despite the fact that the man has one more blemish to add to the list of things that annoy Brienne out of her mind – the man even has a yacht. Because if there is one kind of people that she openly despises, then it is people with a yacht.

It is through Jaime that she starts to formulate her own wishes for her future, surprised to find someone supporting her and her ambitions, and having a keen understanding of the burden that comes with a father’s legacy. While Jaime’s is far different from that of her father, the two relate on a level they never thought they would. Nevertheless, she remains hesitant about starting over, feeling as tough that letting go of the bookstore, of that life, would somehow betray his legacy, him.

Whereas Jaime has to fight his own battles, as she can read between the lines of what he is saying, seemingly wanting to get out of the realm of Lannister Libraries as much as she wanted them gone while she still had her bookshop, seemingly having much smaller, much more personal agendas than that of the empire his father dreams of.

And in that, the two find themselves united in ways they didn’t believe possible.

But what of Brienne’s feelings for the man she spent so much time chatting with?

Can she trust Jaime Lannister the same way she dared to trust GoldenHand33?

Does GoldenHand33 deserve a second chance the same way she granted it to Jaime?

And what is she supposed to do with her life, now that she no longer has her father’s legacy to guide her? What is Jaime supposed to do about his father’s?

What tale is going to be hers? What is going to be Jaime’s? And what of GoldenHand33 and OathKeeper1 in this whole mess?  

Does the tale play out in real life, or will it stay hidden in electronic messages forever?