#of what i wanted them all to look like. obviously bc these martells are pretty well fleshed out

[forwithinthishollowcrown]

ACOB headcanon:

This is for the anon that was concerned that the reds are leaning more blue. In my headcanon, the reds aren’t fighting specifically for the blue as a whole

Again, these are just ideas so you don’t have to like or agree with them all

• Daemon: just wants to cause chaos & take his revenge on Qyle & Qoren for what happened to Aemond and then he ends up being dragged into a conflict with Harwin & House Strong

• Alicent: wants nothing to do with anything and is just trying to look after everyone especially her younger kids. She tries to her best to keep her loved ones from escalating things & getting involved but ultimately fails

• Maegor: personally I think he’d be the reason people consider the reds to be neutral as he’s Daemon’s heir & eldest son. I don’t think Maegor would fight at all. He grew up on the Stepstones and watched how it transformed over the years. I think the first few years of his life were incredibly scary and violent due to the constant attacks & dangers the Stepstones faced. Even though it’s been years & things have improved (especially with the help of his stepmother), he knows that the Stepstones are still developing & whatever resources they have won’t last long against such old & wealthy & established houses like the Velaryons, Martells, etc. He’s also incredibly protective of Ceryse & presumably their children and I don’t think he’d want to risk their safety or their inheritance by dying in battle. Growing up, he overheard Alicent talking about the religious abuse she suffered but he probably overhead how after the death of her husband she was forced to remarry against her will & seperated from her children. He’d never in a million years want the same thing for Ceryse. In the character description it says Maegor is the most martial of Daemon’s son. So my headcanon is that Maegor, thinking ahead and realizing all the things that can go wrong in the war, doesn’t fight for any faction but instead stays at the Stepstones & raises the defenses & fortifies it the best he can. I got this idea from canon where the Iron Born take advantage of the war to raid the Westerlands. There’s always this fear of the Iron Born coming back to raid & I think Maegor and others in the Stepstones would have that same fear but of the Triarchy coming back to take the lands

• Saera: wholeheartedly supports her husband, Lucerys, who, as the heir to House Velaryon, obviously backs the Laena’s factions especially because his aunt Laena looked out for him a lot growing up after his father died & his mother remarried. Saera’s actually really upset when she asks Maegor to ally with them and he refuses because he is her only full sibling

• Elaena: initially agrees with Alicent & Maegor to not get involved but switches to the Blue faction after Viserys dies & she marries and has a son with the claimant for the blue faction, Aegon

• Ceryse: supports her husband & runs the day to day household duties of the Stepstones with her mother while Maegor is constantly checking on the islands perimeter & defenses & training of the soldiers on the island. She spends lots of time with her young children. Given her great intelligence, she also reads more and more books about historical battles & helps Maegor devise battle strategies and tactics.

• Viserys & Aemond: both pretend they don’t care at all about the faction but they’re both high-key stressed. They love their half siblings (Lucerys, Rhaena, & Joffrey). However, Viserys was pretty good friends with his cousin Aliandra growing up and secretly kept in contact with her after the eye incident. Aemond loves Aemma and doesn’t want her to stress out about him hurting her family especially now that she’s pregnant. Personally headcanon that Aemond is less bitter about his eye bc he has lots of loving familial support and he got a happy marriage & Vhagar out of it. (Side note, I know the way the eye scene and fight was portrayed in the show was incredibly tense and everything went down quickly but I still think it’s absolutely wild that the Velaryon/Strong boys didn’t even have to apologize for half-blinding him). They both initially agree to just chill out in the Stepstones but both sons feel obligated to go help their dad when they hear about his ongoing battle with House Strong

• Helaena: was completely caught off guard by the news that the war was starting despite her visions bc she’s been living happily and peacefully with Daeron in Oldtown for years completely oblivious to the growing tensions. Daeron goes to help his family but she decides to remain in Oldtown bc 1) she’s beloved by the people of Oldtown & her Hightower residents and knows they won’t let any harm come to her and 2) she’s not a fighter/warrior or strategist and she doesn’t care for politics or conflicts so she doesn’t want to get involved.

• Valaena: she’s really young when everything starts so her mother arranges for her to go & stay with her older sister Rhaena in Pentos far away from the conflict

So yeah, compared to other families the reds come off as more neutral. Daemon, Viserys, and Aemond’s main fight is against House Strong not the blues or the blacks. Saera & Elaena are for the blues. With his father and brothers either dead or away fighting, Maegor has to prioritize the Stepstones. Everyone else tries to stay the hell out of it and just look after their own

Honestly yeah the reds are just trying to survive at this point in time so their fights in the war are a lot more personal.

[autumnleaves1991-blog]

January AU Writing Challenge

I think at this point we all wish we could live in an Alternative Universe and for the month of January I will be. I am celebrating reaching 300 followers with a writing challenge! Thank you so much for your support and positivity! 

Each week will be a different theme and each day will have a prompt. You can send in asks for any of the characters below and I will update the list as we go! 

Make your requests HERE 

Characters to choose from: 

Pedro Boys: Javier Pena, Agent Whiskey, Oberyn Martell, Pero Tovar, Marcus Pike, Marcus Moreno, Maxwell Lord, Max Phillips, Frankie ‘Catfish’ Morales, Ezra (Prospect), Din Djarin (The Mandalorian) 

Oscar Boys: Santiago ‘Pope’ Garcia, Llewyn Davis, Nathan Bateman, Evgeni (W.E), Poe Dameron 

Week One Theme: College AU January 1st-7th 

1 - You keep reserving the good study room in the corner of the library with the windows- Santiago ‘Pope’ Garcia 

2 - My friend dragged me to this party, and I just saw my ex quick make out with me -Javier Peña

3 -  My computer crashed, and you’re the student worker at the IT center. - Evgeni 

4- I’ve been sitting in this seat all semester. Why did you decide to sit in it today?-  Max Phillips 

5-  We’re studying in the library, and there are two people very obviously fucking in the stacks, and we keep sharing embarrassed glances - Santiago ‘Pope’ Garcia 

6 - I’ve ordered take out every night this week, and you always seem to be my delivery person

7 - Every single table in the union is full. Do you mind if I just sit here for a while? - Llewyn Davis 

Week Two Theme: Store AU (Book, flower, coffee shop)  January 8th-14th 

8 -  Barista and person who has a ridiculous coffee order- Maxwell Lord 

9 - At the coffee shop, there is a chess set in the corner, and every morning, I move one piece. Later in the day, someone else always moves a piece too. I’m dying to know who I’m playing against. - Nathan Bateman 

10 - you give me a different fake name every time you come into Starbucks, and I just want to know your real name bc you’re cute, but here I am scribbling “batman” onto your stupid cappuccino. - Santiago ‘Pope’ Garcia 

11 I like buying books at this one bookstore in particular because you work here and I think you’re cute au. - Oberyn Martell 

12 - I only came to this coffee shop bookstore cause I was thirsty and it was nearby, and I saw you reading and drinking at one of the tables and kept coming back au- Marcus Pike 

13 - when you paid for your book, you kept talking about how much you were looking forward to it, so I read it too out of curiosity, and we bonded over it au- Ezra (Prospect) 

14 - You buy a weird amount of flowers, and I’m concerned as to why- Ezra (Prospect) 

Week Three Theme: Modern AU January 15th- 21st 

15 - My pet ran away, I got fired from my job, it started raining out of nowhere, and I fell in the mud, and you’re just a random stranger at my bus stop, but I need someone to talk to. 

16 - I adopted a kid, and you help me take care of them all the time since we’re neighbors, but you came over and got so involved in the kid’s life so much they think that we’re both their parents instead of just me. - Marcus Moreno 

17 - I met you at a convention, and you’re cosplaying Person B to my OTP, and I’m cosplaying Person A

18- We’re internet friends, and we’re meeting up in real life today, and I’m super paranoid because what if you’re a deranged killer and– omg, you’re perfect. - Nathan Bateman 

19 - Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy, but can you go on the bungee jumping thing with me? Because I’m too scared to go by myself. - Santiago ‘Pope’ Garcia 

20 - You keep coming in to get your laptop fixed, but I’m pretty sure you’re breaking it on purpose, but you’re cute, so I’ll let it slide. - Marcus Moreno 

21 - We’re playing Monopoly in the local library, and the game just got serious; I think the librarians are about to kick us out. - Poe Dameron

Week Four Theme: Parents/Expecting Family AU  January 22nd - 28th 

22 - you’ve been sleeping at mine because your house is being renovated, and we aren’t even dating, yet every time you wake up to the baby crying and sigh, “I’ll go,” I feel like we might as well be married. - Poe Dameron 

23 - our children are in the same class, and we both hate their teacher. Eventually, the parents’ evenings are just us competing who can call out snarkier comments. - Maxwell Lord (Also my darling Kat’s birthday) 

24 - our kid is only a year old, but they already rule the household and every single aspect of our lives. - Frankie ‘Catfish’ Morales 

25 - we are the only two parents who agreed to attend the school trip (bonus: “so I guess we share this hotel room?”) - Frankie ‘Catfish’ Morales 

26- “the scans have just come through, and it’s been revealed that we were wrong. You’re not having a baby…you’re having two! congratulations!” - Maxwell Lord 

27 - “fine, fine, fine. rock, paper, scissors to see who has to go calm down the baby.” “glad that we’re dealing with this like adults.” - Nathan Bateman 

28 - we left you to babysit our kid for literally three hours. What happened?!?- Frankie ‘Catfish’ Morales (guest starring: Benny the babysitter)

Bonus Days 

29- Called tech support and flirted with the geek squad tech working the phones by themselves - Santiago ‘Pope’ Garcia 

30 - Ran into each other at the bookstore and tried to get the last copy. - Marcus Moreno 

31- We’ve been hooking up for the past few weeks, and holy shit, it turned out you’re my fifth grader’s teacher. Oh god, this embarrassing! - Maxwell Lord 

Taglist: @josepedropascal​ @mrschiltoncat​ @mrsparknuts​ @ghostwiththemostbitch​ @zannemes​ @oldstuffnewstuff​ @anetteaneta​ @a-seeker-of-imagination​ @artsymaddie​ @aellynera​ @lucifer-​ @houseofthirst​ @phoenixhalliwell​ @maxlordsgf​ 

[sneakyhomunculous]

RPT Phoenix Report: Back to Back!

Part 1: Preparation 

“How should I begin this? I’m just so offended; how am I even mentioned by all these fucking beginners?” 

Let’s back up a bit. 

I’m coming into this half season fresh off a 5th place finish in the last MC, which means I’m qualified for RPT1/2 and PTFinal 1. 

From what I could make of the shoddy convoluted details at the beginning of this year; I believed I had a serious upper hand in the Rivals race. 

Only 4 tournaments count. The 3 I am qualified for and the 2nd PT final which I’ll have multiple chances to que for as well. 

Almost everyone else has at most 1 RPT Q and a pipe dream. 

With this info, I decide I am going to go for it. I know I am still an underdog, but I believe I am one of the few people in the world in this spot to somewhat reasonably set this goal of top 12 paper rivals for myself. 

At the same time, the world we live in is an Arena dominated one. 

I hate it of course. 

Like most of you reading this; I play the game for mostly 1 big reason [the fierce competition]. Arena is severely lacking in this department.

Only standard, a mindless ladder with the only reward being a single lottery ticket into a ~15k USD 0.5% equity drawing. (that requires you to play standard for 8 hours on a saturday there will assuredly be a GP you want to play.) 

A petty, infuriating chore. 

Bc standard is so chalked and flooded with players anyway; You are forced to play casual [but ranked] drafts against the bots.  

Slamming BO1 games with 15 land decks until your eyes bleed and the mythic achievement is reached! 

Then you close the unbearable program down not to be touched again until the next time this chore is required; or the lottery drawing is happening.

Nice system! 

All that being said, I’m still not going to handicap myself, and so I decide I will go for Arena as well. 

Unfortunately I have no early advantage there, and the spots are obviously unbelievably high variance. 

There are only 2 Invys and 2 Mythic point challenges, and if you miss the first invy you are almost drawing dead at a 1-12 spot. Especially with special invites and re-ques for top finishers all factored in. 

So far I am failing on the Arena front. 

I was too attached to my beautiful Urza Oko deck (I didn’t prepare enough for the first MCQW I would be double queing along side the modern GP in Austin. It cost me as I woke up and played poorly to a swift 2-2 exit with Jetski Fires before heading over to the GP) 

I lost a win and in and got 17th there. Never have I played a tournament with a bigger edge over all non mirrors in the field! Unfortunately I played 7 mirrors and managed a lowly 4-2-1 in them. 

I can’t make it through these gauntlets on autopilot anymore. 

I’m only 27, but my seemingly rapid reduction in processing speed has made me feel like I’m somehow getting too old for this grind.  

The way I have dealt with it? 

Accepting it. 

As much as I hate to admit it; I am not the same 17 year old wunderkind anymore and the young guns have a big edge on me. 

I have to take all the necessary steps to take care of myself and do everything in my power to make sure when I’m in the trenches; inside the matches in the important tournaments; I can be as focused on the games as possible. This is just so I can make the playing field close to level. 

Otherwise I am going to be reading cards, and playing slow unconfident magic. 

This is a big one; I believe. 

I think one thing a lot of players are lacking in pushing themselves to higher levels is the confidence in their decisions. I used to struggle with this a lot (still do sometimes) and I would constantly second guess things multiple times every turn. 

Over time, I’ve learned that if you put in the work... 

You practice; 

Play actual games and learn the interactions; 

You can really lean on your instincts and exude confidence in yourself that goes a long way in winning matches of Magic the Gathering. 

(Look at almost all of the best players. They are confident in their decisions in the games, even when they end up making mistakes.) 

But enough with the nonsense; let’s get to the tournament prep so we can blaze through that boring shit and get to the sweet 16 PT rounds 

(spoilers: there may be more than 16) 

Collin Rountree is torn between testing with Me Ty Will and the Houston Slack, and testing with team 5% captained by Allen ���The Process” Wu. 

Of course the choice is obvious, but Collin doesn’t want to leave all the local bangers in the dust. 

He lobbies on our behalf, and Me Ty Will and Eddie all join team 5%. 

I am not a stranger to large testing teams. 

I spent four PTs testing with team TCG/SCG and we averaged around 15 people. The difference was that we always met up in person a week or more ahead of time for an intense testing period, and also I guess we had more dueling personalities.

Shoutout to everyone on those squads those were great times. 

But when you have Steve Rubin Seth Manfield Corey Burkhart Andrea Mengucii mixed with Brad BBD Martell Kibler mixed with Me Fennell GerryT Josh Cho mixed with Ari Lax trying to organize everything for everyone..... 

Anyone who knows these people can see how this led to some logistics issues and some heated arguments about who is not pulling their weight, or who is just showing up late and mooching, or who keeps brewing decks with no mana bases and sideboards and bringing them to Brad telling them they are great and we have to play games with them (another shoutout to Fennell, hope he reads this and fires up a modo draft tonight. And shoutout to Brad for creating the no 75, no games rule. You can’t fucking say you made a deck if you don’t have a manabase or a sideboard, and some brewers out there may need to hear that again.) 

Team 5% (7.1673746%) is all online testing. 

We use a discord with dedicated channels to all the constructed decks, all the limited topics, logistics, and chalkdiesel/washed bad beat/rant rooms/RIP Rimrock Knight etc. etc. so you can see how it stays pretty clean, organized, and simple. 

But no really, having so many people gives us an edge on many fronts. 

There is usually always someone available to battle. We can cover a lot of ground really quickly. Multiple people are brewing and many people are tuning the known decks. Lots of different opinions and we end up covering all the limited archetypes quickly as the drafts pile in. 

All of this being said, my best two PT results from the past are when I worked alone. 

I usually draft infinite (75-100) times (when I lose I drop and draft again. And sometimes I drop when winning just to draft again) and I just try to play the best deck in constructed. 

This I have learned is a recipe for success for me. 

But I was happy to join this team. My intention was to just do the same thing, but have some people to talk to while I drafted 75-100 times and tuned the best deck. 

I worked with a few of these players back in the TCG days (shoutout to Ari and Corey, and again to Corey for winning the PT let’s gooooooo) and everyone that I heard was currently on this 5% team; I liked. 

So for my testing I did almost purely magic online. 

I did around 60 drafts after all was said and done. In constructed, I played a ton of UW control and small amounts of all the other stock decks, and watched a lot of streams. 

I wanted to be familiar with the format but not go too hard until the days leading up to; during; and right after the first 2 RPTs. 

What a weird dynamic, having 2 pro tours 5 days before deck submission for your pro tour. 

It really worked out in our favor because our team is so big and we were able to quickly attack the new and perceived future metagame. 

Nothing at those two tournaments made me waiver from wanting to register UW control. 

I was still beating everything, and I predicted the metagame would be 20%ish UB invertor and then spirits, red, black, and sultai delerium/invertor uro decks would be all around 10%. 

When I say I was beating everything, I was beating everything. 

Granted these were in leagues, but it was mostly all against real decks and my constructed rating was skyrocketing above my limited. 

Not a thing I am accustomed to. 

I had a 17-1 record against mono red, and no cap. I had a 12-2 record against mono black. I had a 8-1 record against UB invertor. 

I crushed Collin so badly with our teams current front running mono white devotion that he decided to add 4 Gideon Ally of Zendikar to the maindeck and try again. 

A 4-0 for me later in which he resolved 5 Gideons led to him telling the discord he is off it. “Bursavich just beat me every single game and I resolved gideon in all of them.” 

The only deck I ever lost matches to was spirits but I still won more than I lost against it. 

Around Monday our team was all piling on to the breach deck realizing how good it was, and I joined in to. 

I played a prelim and a league and immediately bought all of the cards from cardkingdom. But after my next few matches I was feeling very conflicted. 

I was very worried how bad UW was against breach, but I didn’t think breach would break 7-8% or the metagame anyway. And I can tweak UW some to have a shot I tell myself. 

The breach deck is obviously busted, but it’s a combo deck with a weird puzzle-like 3 step combo. 

First you have to get 2 lands into play and then play lotus field, then u have to play a thespians stage and copy it, and then u have to kill your opponent with ur huge amounts of mana. 

But the deck is so consistent and sort of resilient that I found myself trying to play it like a midrange deck. 

I have these faes and grazers and pores and viziers, I can block! And Fae for planeswalkers and grind people out or take all these weird dynamic lines... and then I realized I was fucking up a lot. 

The games are not always intuitive to me, and I won’t be able to live with myself if I register this and play horribly to lose games I should win, considering there will likely be some number of games my deck fails and I can’t win (or my opponent is prepared with damping sphere or one of the other 1-2 cards that do anything at all to stop this abomination of a deck) 

So a few hours after ordering the breach cards I am going to bed Monday night and I know I’m going to play UW control... 

Shoutout to the squad though! 

They really crushed it over these few days and perfected the breach list and had all the matchups figured out down to the T. 

Our limited meetings were great and I believe they really helped everyone a lot and we had an overall great showing in limited. 

I spend all day Tuesday and Wednesday with magic online open and the discord on my other monitor. 

I occasionally jam some games with teammates but for many many hours I just stare at my UW decklist while catching up on the latest breach tech. 

I just stare at the deck..... 

For hours

I went to get lunch and came back and stared some more. 

It was perfect and there was just nothing to cut. 

I wanted another hard counter in my deck but could not find the space. 

I have been moving 1 card around here and there, swapping 3rd field of ruin for the 4th Glacial, swapping back, then swapping back again. going down to 1 absorb and back to the 2/2 split back to 1. Moving around seal away D sphere narset lantern thassas intervention Mystical Dispute elspeth etc. etc. but mostly keeping the same core 73-75 cards the same. 

With a few hours left in submission and all the data pouring in, we realize that LSV Huey and a large swath of great players have all been spotted in leagues today playing breach. 

I am suddenly panicked bc the matchup is still quite bad. 

I have a few good cards, but nothing to swing it past like a 33% matchup at best.

I know damping sphere is my only real option if I want to respect it, and I’m of the mindset that doing so is normally a bit silly. 

While the deck is obviously busted, it’s been 5 days and many players are uncomfortable playing decks of this style. 

My general guess is that it breaking 6-7% of the field will still be unlikely, and I think it pushing above 10% would be crazy. 

So I can expect to play vs it once on average?? 

Not so fast. 

This is a new RPT with a wide open field, but still a lot of goats at the top. 

Turns out you almost always have to defeat multiple goats to get the trophy in PT’s... 

And I didn’t fly to Phoenix just to have a good ole time and settle for 6th place, so I man up and delete 2 Monastery Mentor for 2 Damping Sphere. 

This will hurt me in mirrors and vs Invertor, but I am confident I will be fine anyway. 

With 10 minutes left in submission I consider adding a 3rd sphere but am too lazy to open back up my laptop and know I won’t be able to cut any of the beautiful cards in my sideboard for it anyway. 

Enough with the boring shit; let’s get to the tournament!!! 

Part2 coming tomorrow!

[janiedean]

ooh so linked to the Brienne ask re: the kingsguard part. What are your thoughts on Aerys’ kingsguard, especially like Arthur Dayne who Jaime from what I remember has complicated feelings for but pretty much idolises him. And they’re so loved by almost everyone in universe!!! Like idk how to think about them really my feelings for them are also complicated

+ okay good because I honestly don’t see why people love them so much like most of the things we’ve heard about them are like. Objectively bad. And like yeah the idea of them is cool but well that can only go so far. also I’m sorry if these asks are a mess I’m exhausted!! ALSO I think you’re amazing for answering all of us anons with such detail I always love coming on to your blog

(putting both asks in the same place uu)

in order: the fact that they're loved by everyone in-universe and fandom actually likes them (or at least arthur dayne hahahahaha god) is like... some of george's best trolling because guess what the entire point is that they're supposed to look like amazing people/the real deal when instead they're all terrible the end - except again for the poor martell prince whom we don't know enough about and I'll give him a pass bc martell people are usually not stupid af but in order:

as I said george has made a point of stating that knighthood is a rotten institution and the kg especially aerys being like... what should be the highest honor for a knight is equally as rotten as knigthood in general and is made of people who do Not Deserve The Title - I mean again hey it's orders so marital rape is fine, hey we're leaving the 15yo to man an entire castle? WHY NOT, the king is mad? WELL WE SWORE TO SERVE HIM, like not counting martell prince there isn't one single person in the aerys kg except jaime who actually upheld the oaths they swore ie protecting the innocent so make of that what you will

the fact that jaime aka the fifteen year old is literally the only one who gets the job and then goes there like 'hey we're basically covering for marital rape what the fuck' and no one else bats an eyelid should already say everything there is to say about these people's moral standard

the fact that none of them actually stuck up for the fifteen-year old who was obviously not ready for the job nor tried to idk do anything to make it easier on him or whatever also says everything about their moral standard because honestly fuck you

the fact that everyone thinks they're amazing jaime included when they're all pretty much shitty is like... well, same as fandom does, which means that the readers bought what people in-narrative do... except that the moment you scratch the surface it's really damned bad

and I'm saying barristan is on thin ice because from his chapters you can see he's like... not a bad dude but like his reaction to jaime being in there still when he saw aerys is 'ah that fucker who killed the king and was so proud he had to try and get into it at fifteen'? like??? fuck you?? honestly the fact that all of them literally served a dude who put people on fire and was a menace/danger to the realm and then have the gall to think that jaime is the worst or who didn't like try to help him or anything while he was obv struggling with his vows and the fact that he was serving a madman says all about their moral standards, again

and honestly arthur dayne is the literal worst of all of them because like - first of all oh you knight the 15yo who goes along with you slaying bandits and you don't try to dissuade him from joining the kg? what the fucking fuck am I supposed to think - second of all you don't even warn him of what is expecting him when he joins when you've been there for a while? - but third of all which drives me insane and I hate that fandom sleeps on it and goes around happily like ARTHUR/LYANNA THE SHIP OF DREAMS... okay listen like I have literally zero investment in lyanna as a character or in r + l and I don't necessarily think he did everything - I think they had a mutual infatuation and eloped and she sorely regretted it and then it was on r. who shouldn't have like acted on it because he happened to be the 20+ year old with a wife and kids, but there's the whole tower of joy situation - in which sorry but we have arthur fucking off KL with other kg people and leaving all the others in the literal shit bc they'd have to deal with aerys and it'd be less of them than they should be, to go with rhaegar to the tower of joy to help him elope which whatever, and then lyanna was left there after r. had to go back... when her brother and father were burned alive and like if she knew that then I doubt she'd have wanted to stay and if she didn't then they withheld fairly important fucking information, so like he stayed there guarding a pregnant 15-16 yo who most likely did not want to be there and who is pregnant by his best friend whose family oh accidentally murdered half of hers........ and lyanna was there even after rhaegar died so I mean it's not like the moment he happened this dude goes and says 'hey maybe we should actually go back and see if we can solve this mess' no he kept her prisoner there anyway - on top of that... here I'm wildly speculating but: he had to know rhaegar was dead and when ned showed up if we are to believe him and idt he was unreliable on that... ned didn't want to fight him or kill him he just wanted to get his sister and leave and like he was most likely in love with ashara aka arthur's sister so why the fuck would he want to kill him right, and like rhaegar's dead and arthur has nothing to lose by letting ned up especially knowing that lyanna is fucking dying in childbirth like she's dying her brother's there just let him up and solve it later esp when the dude doesn't want to kill you....... but no ned had to kill him because he wouldn't budge and why the fucking fuck wouldn't you budge at that point? your side lost the war, the guy you were friends with that you did all of this for is dead, the girl is about to die at least let her die with her family, why? - only thing I can deduce from it: that rhaegar told him that the baby's survival was the most important thing because third head of the dragon blah blah blah and that if the war was lost to just grab the baby and lyanna if she survived and fuck off to essos until he grew up, except that lyanna didn't survive so the conclusion is that he tried to stop ned from going up there bc he'd have found out about the baby and tried to stop them and at that point who gives a fuck if lyanna died or not but he'd have liked... let her die and kill ned in the process and done that most likely, and sorry but when they knightly vows are, I would like to remind everyone, In the name of the Warrior I charge you to be brave. In the name of the Father I charge you to be just. In the name of the Mother I charge you to defend the young and innocent. In the name of the Maid I charge you to protect all women…. like... what, what exactly has this dude done that would qualify as that? because lyanna would be young and innocent and a woman and he basically is letting her die, that behavior does not qualify as bravery and he'd like... deny the kid a chance of growing up with his family period if he killed ned and he didn't seem to particularly give a fuck las we checked, and that's like not counting the whole 'oh I won't tell the 15yo who idolizes me that he's signing

his life away to trauma nor I will support him for shit when he does' part of it, but the tower of joy stuff is shady whichever way you look at it and honestly the more time passes the more I'm convinced this guy is just a complete pos and the worst of them all except gregor when it comes to like 'people thinking you're a good knight and you're actually a pos instead' and I'm dying on that hill until george proves me wrong

and on that the thing is that... I ranted about it once here but basically jaime idolizes the shit out of him because he never saw that even if his subconscious kinda knows because when he had the weirwood dream his greatest fear was confronting the former kg and everyone was accusing him of stuff he couldn't have physically prevented (more ranting on the weirwood dream here) and he's there like 'ah I wanted to be arthur dayne but I became the smiling knight instead' but like... actually he is more of a true knight than arthur dayne can ever hope to be? because like in the above meta I was talking specifically about how to pia he's like... better than arthur dayne, but like not to be that person but jaime who thinks he's the gregor clegane of his time and not arthur dayne, while arthur dayne was... doing the shady toj thing with lyanna - saved an entire city from aerys blowing it up - risked his neck for brienne even if he didn't even like her as in he got himself kicked in a healing stump when he couldn't even stand up for himself so she wouldn't be raped - risked his neck going back for her at harrenhal and jumped into the bear pit without even knowing how he'd manage it - was actually being a decent person to tommen until c. forced him to leave - the moment he saw what happened with pia he gave her her rapist's head when she's like a commoner no one gaf about and took her into her service - when his squire wanted to bed her he like told him to be kind to her jfc - is per tyrion the only relative who actually loved him/freed him/actually stuck up for him (and tysha is on tywin thank you all very much and jaime feels so great about it he doesn't think about it until he can't anymore) (also he was the one chasing the bandits away in the first place so he was probably there like oH I HELPED A MAIDEN too lmao god fuck tywin) - actually stuck for his cat vow bc he took riverrun without bloodshed - sent brienne after sansa with the magic amazing sword because he wanted to upheld their shared vow to cat going against his own family - the moment brienne shows up like hey wanna blow this joint and leave the army you don't wanna lead to find sansa he didn't even like blink before saying yes and I'm supposed to think that in between him and arthur dayne he isn't the only one who actually stuck to his vows as well as he could/knows anything about them/is actually a trueknight™? because lmao the fact that jaime doesn't fancy himself one because of aerys when everyone fancies arthur dayne one when the latter did absolutely fucking nothing beyond slaying bandits to put his money where his mouth was while jaime didn't even like brand himself like that and still did all of that and half of it was acting on instinct not even like doing the math before and *he* was the one wanting to be knighted at fifteen and took his vows seriously when oh wait knightly vows are basically the epitome of selflessness is like again grrm trolling the hell out of everyone characters included but it's clear from the narrative imvho and I can't wait for the moment he serves the just desserts and a) jaime realizes it b) everyone else in-narrative realizes it c) bran timetravels to the fucking toj and we find out what actually went down there and this saint arthur narrative is burned to the ground because honestly no

there, I think I spat out almost all of my venom XD