#rani's asoiaf playlist

[queenbeyondthewall]

Final stop on the Lannister siblings/Hozier self-titled campaign is From Eden, one of my first Hozier infatuations and to this day one of my favourite songs of all time. The absolutely unavoidable aura of Jaime/Brienne that comes from this song motivated me to write these analyses. A romance between a completely disillusioned narrator and a youth whose idealism he recognizes, outwardly dismisses, and inwardly admires? I hope this is already screaming Jaime/Brienne at you.

Babe, there’s something tragic about you Something so magic about you, don’t you agree? Babe, there’s something lonesome about you Something so wholesome about you, get closer to me

Reading this as Jaime’s thoughts about Brienne is pretty straightforward, I think. Brienne’s story is rather tragic - she's an outcast due to the rigid gender norms of her society, lonesome and desperate for acceptance and respect (from people like Renly to Catelyn and eventually to Jaime himself.) The real tragedy is that we (and Jaime) can see that she’s one of the few truly good people in this story, despite the lack of appreciation from her surroundings. Her kindness, courage, skill, and honour are in short supply in Westeros.

No tired sigh, no rolling eyes, no irony No “who cares,” no vacant stare, no time for me

The Jaime/Cersei/Brienne triangle is pretty renowned, and not only for the obvious romances. These lines, especially in contrast to the warmth of the ones before, seem to highlight the aspects of his former life that Jaime has grown so tired of. The cool reception that Jaime receives from Cersei upon his return to King’s Landing, including the detachment of the sept sex scene and her mockery of his severed hand, contribute to showing him how the two of them might not be one soul in two bodies after all.

Honey, you’re familiar, like my mirror years ago Idealism sits in prison, chivalry fell on his sword Innocence died screaming, honey, ask me, I should know I slithered here from Eden just to sit outside your door

Now the chorus, aka the most braime set of lines that have ever been sung. On the face of it, this verse is gently dismissive of the idealism that Jaime sees reflected in Brienne from his own youth. Jaime would have us believe that he has seen through the lie of honour, of true knighthood, the lie that allows Kingsguard to be called the finest knights in the realm while they stand by and watch tyrants rape and torture and murder. Take this quote, for example.

“A boy knelt; a knight rose. The Young Lion, not the Kingslayer. But that was long ago, and the boy was dead.” - AFFC Jaime I

Really? If that boy and the idealism he represented died long ago, why does Jaime send Brienne off on a mission to rescue Sansa as his “last chance for honour?” Why does he name the sword he gifts her Oathkeeper? From Eden’s speaker dismisses the idealistic viewpoint of its subject in one breath, but is drawn towards it in the next, much as Jaime is drawn towards Brienne because of her relentless idealism, not in spite of it.

Babe, there’s something broken about this, But I might be hoping about this, oh what a sin.

There it is - hope. Jaime trusts Brienne because he hopes against hope that she can finally prove the ideals of knighthood as true and attainable.

A rope in hand for your other man to hang from a tree

Ok so this is a minor point but. THIS. This is the line that genuinely makes me stop and consider if Andrew Hozier-Byrne is secretly a massive asoiaf fan. WHY ELSE would he include a line like this that is so clearly a reference to the one and only Hyle Hunt?! Hyle Hunt, whose house’s sigil is that of a hung deer, who accompanies Brienne throughout AFFC, who was a suitor to her hand in marriage, whose last appearance on page is as he’s being hanged, and who is predicted to die in TWOW by hanging? I just. I can’t. It’s too much. Thematically I guess hanging is a motif throughout AFFC, especially in the Riverlands with Brienne and the BwB, and they will be very relevant to Jaime and Brienne's story early in TWOW. I guess.

This song is terribly romantic which fits because to me Jaime and Brienne are the main love story of the series. I had a lot of fun writing this and hopefully you can now join me in bashing my head against a wall every time I listen to this song and am reminded of them.

[atopvisenyashill]

pov you just read the red wedding chapters & now you’re thinking about how they cut lady stoneheart from the show and you’re coping with sad music

o children nick cave and the bad seeds / runaway aurora / time to pretend mgmt / endless night jason raize / running up that hill kate bush / until we bleed lykke li / upward over the mountain iron & wine / what the water gave me florence + the machine / rhiannon fleetwood mac / the dismemberment song blue kid

[queenbeyondthewall]

Oh who am I kidding I think a lot about a lot of things because I am a massive nerd. HOWEVER two things I definitely think too much about are asoiaf and my favourite songwriter Andrew Hozier-Byrne, so what better subject for my inaugural post? The album Hozier, with all its themes of identity, toxic relationships, disillusionment, love, sex, and substance abuse, was unintentionally written for the Lannister siblings. Here's why.

Ladies first, so let me begin with our disastrous girl Cersei and the absolute banger that is Angel of Small Death and the Codeine Scene. This one starts off strong:

I watch the work of my kin, bold and boyful

Cersei’s one half of the famous incest ship from the famous incest series, of course, so we’re talking of her kin. Bold and boyful sounds to me how Cersei would describe Jaime in his youth - the picture of Westerosi masculinity and everything she could never be on account of her sex.

Toying somewhere between love and abuse

How better to describe Jaime and Cersei’s dynamic? Twisted, toxic, narcissistic, and yet the two definitely see their feelings for each other as love.

Freshly disowned in some frozen devotion

To me, this lyric can be generally applied to all three of the Lannister siblings and their relationship with their father. Tywin has disowned them all in some manner - Cersei for being a woman, Tyrion for being a dwarf, and Jaime for his refusal to forsake his position as a Kingsguard. Cersei, however, is the only one of the three who has not been completely disillusioned of her devotion to the man - a primary motivation throughout feast is an aspiration to live up to him and prove herself as his heir. 

With her sweetened breath, and her tongue so mean She's the angel of small death and the codeine scene With her straw-blonde hair, her arms hard and lean She's the angel of small death and the codeine scene

The whole of the chorus couldn’t be more Cersei - Jaime’s continually calling her his “sweet sister,” she has a famously mean mind and sharp tongue, and of course that characteristically Lannister blonde hair and beauty. “Small death and the codeine scene” is Hozier-speak for sex and substance abuse, which are both things that Cersei defines herself and her relationships by. I can’t help but think of the Sansa POV Blackwater chapters, where Cersei is getting drunk and “teaching” her a horrifying lesson about the power of female sexuality.

All fetor and fertile, it’s bloody and raw but I swear it is sweet

Fetor like the rot that Cersei inherits from Tywin’s legacy and that permeates his corpse at the funeral, and fertile like the one value she has as a queen in Westeros. Her blazing rise to power after Tywin’s death is built on cruelty and avarice - it’s also what Cersei craves beyond anything else.

I’ll wander the concrete  Wonder if better now, having survived

Coming down from her blaze of glory, of course, is the horror of her walk of shame. Cersei intended to get through it on pride alone, but where we left her POV in feast was with her horrible realisation of the intense vulnerability of her exposure to the public. She survived it, however, and with the hints in the Kevan epilogue of her scheming at full force once again… damn it George we need to see winds!

[queenbeyondthewall]

Alright so next on the Hozier self-titled/Lannister sibs agenda is the one and only Tyrion Lannister and his theme song Foreigner’s God. I simply cannot listen to this song anymore without thinking of him. It might be one of the most tragic songs on the album which is a perfect fit for one of the best tragic anti-heroic characters I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Let’s go.

She moved with shameless wonder The perfect creature, rarely seen Since some liar brought the thunder And the land was godless and free

This verse, to me, really represents the purity and innocence of Tyrion and Tysha's youthful love affair before Tywin (the liar who brought the thunder) pulled it to shreds. The word shameless is particularly apt in reference to Tyrion: 

“Tyrion hated weakness, especially his own. It shamed him, and shame made him angry.” - ASOS Tyrion I

“And make no mistake—this was the last time I will suffer you to bring shame onto House Lannister. You are done with whores.” – Tywin Lannister, ASOS Tyrion I

Nothing cuts him quite so deep as shame, especially from his father, and especially in reference to his dwarfism and his relationships with so-called “whores.” Speaking of,

Her eyes look sharp and steady Into the empty parts of me But still my heart is heavy With the hate of some other man’s beliefs

I interpret this verse in reference to Tyrion’s relationship with Shae, a defining feature of our understanding of his character. She's a bright, lively young woman, and they are almost sweet with each other, he seems to genuinely trust and care for her. Their relationship, however, is stained by the intense hatred Tyrion has for himself and the world around him, due in no small part to the Tysha incident and Tywin’s continued dismissal and disrespect of him. Tyrion compares the two girls to each other constantly, as though desperately seeking the kind of carefree love he once felt free to have, and not finding it.

Always a well-dressed fraud Who wouldn’t spare the rod

Back and back again to Tywin and the impenetrable shadow he casts over Tyrion’s life. I love thinking of Tywin as a well-dressed fraud - there’s a hint there of the Lannister ostentation and hunger for power. Spare the rod in biblical reference to corporal punishment and to Tywin’s neverending efforts to dampen the spirit of his younger son. 

She feels no control over her body She feels no safety in my arms I’ve no language left to say it But all I do is quake to her Breaking if I try and convey it The broken love I make to her

The darkest part of Tyrion’s story, without question, is the drunken, cruel, destructive spiral of self-loathing and self-pity he is set on by a culmination of his traumas and betrayals. I’m sure many readers felt the same horror as I did watching Tyrion take out his inner torment upon the poor “sunset girl” in the brothel. I find Tyrion’s relationships with women to be very important in underlining the tragedy of his character - someone who has been on the receiving end of some of Westeros’ cruelest societal and personal biases, someone with true innate empathy, and yet who falls just short of extending his understanding of these hardships to other disadvantaged people around him (namely women, especially prostitutes). Tyrion’s relationship with sex has been warped ever since the rape-by-proxy he suffered at the hands of his father. The outcome? More pain to innocents, which this verse communicates in striking clarity.

Screaming the name of a foreigner’s god The purest expression of grief

This song has a simple but impactful refrain. I saw a post recently speaking of Tyrion as a victim - angry, hateful, imperfect. Sometimes I think the wit that so endears Tyrion to us as a POV distracts from the very real grief and trauma that is a driving force for his character. Tyrion, to me, is the character with the most ambiguous path forward through winds and dream, and I can’t wait to see how he continues to grow from rock bottom. Part of that, I think, will be an altogether different sort of relationship with Penny and Daenerys, two new young women in his life.

[queenbeyondthewall]

"Theon," a voice seemed to whisper.

I’m just a man, but I know that I’m damned All the dead seem to know where I am

The voice had been as faint as rustling leaves, as cold as hate. A god's voice, or a ghost's. 

The tale that began on the night of my birth Will be done in a turn of the earth

Theon wondered if he would ever see the Drowned God's watery halls, or if his ghost would linger here at Winterfell.

Die if I must, let my bones turn to dust, I’m the lord of the lake and I don’t want to leave it

"I'm Prince Theon now. We're both princes, Bran. Who would have dreamed it? But I've taken your castle, my prince."

Under the waves and the earth of an age  Lie a thousand old northerner’s graves

“I dreamed that the sea was lapping all around Winterfell. I saw black waves crashing against the gates and towers, and then the salt water came flowing over the walls and filled the castle. Drowned men were floating in the yard.”

Deep in the night when the moon’s glowing bright They come rising up into the night

He was trapped here, with the ghosts. The old ghosts from the crypts and the younger ones that he had made himself, Mikken and Farlen, Gynir Rednose, Aggar, Gelmarr the Grim, the miller's wife from Acorn Water and her two young sons, and all the rest. My work. My ghosts.

Every eye on the coast ever more Will remember the sight of the ghost on the shore

There are ghosts in Winterfell, he thought, and I am one of them.

I’m going away for a long time

The Ghost on the Shore, Lord Huron // A Dance with Dragons, George R. R. Martin // A Clash Of Kings, George R. R. Martin

[queenbeyondthewall]

So it’s been a minute since I did the Lannister Siblings/Hozier self-titled analyses, and while I haven’t had any ideas that were as elegant or unified since, I have been finding some neat little asoiaf character parallels in some of my favourite music lately. I was thinking I might start writing some freeform meta about them, just as a chance to get to critically revisit some of my favourite characters since I don’t plan on doing a reread anytime soon. Rani’s asoiaf playlist, if you will!