#sunset imagery

[agentrouka-blog]

The rulers of Tarth are called "the Evenstar" and "Evenstar" is the famous nickname of Arwen in LOTR. Does this mean that Martin is pointing out Brienne and Jaime as the Arwen and Aragorn of ASOIAF ? Since Brienne will eventually become lady of Tarth after the death of her father Selwyn. But Brienne is also a blonde warrior lady like Eowyn. Should either parallel be seen as meaningful ?

Hi there!

I am not a LOTR expert by any stretch of the imagination, so I wouldn't be able to give you a credible answer on the finer details of that nickname within those books.

(I do, however, doubt that it's meant to imply a parallel between this couple and Jaime and Brienne, mainly because they don't share literally any other parallels with these characters either jointly or separately, that I can think of. Eowyn comes closer, but that doesn't make Jaime any kind of Aragorn.)

An interesting I thing I found after a cursory search is that Arwen got this nickname in reference to the world as they knew it nearing its end. If that's true, then that's rather melancholy, but it would fit with the general theme in ASOIAF of upheaval, endings and renewal, best summed up by Leaf, one of the children of the forest:

The gods gave us long lives but not great numbers, lest we overrun the world as deer will overrun a wood where there are no wolves to hunt them. That was in the dawn of days, when our sun was rising. Now it sinks, and this is our long dwindling. The giants are almost gone as well, they who were our bane and our brothers. The great lions of the western hills have been slain, the unicorns are all but gone, the mammoths down to a few hundred. The direwolves will outlast us all, but their time will come as well. In the world that men have made, there is no room for them, or us." (ADWD, Bran III)

This imagery of the setting sun is matched by the concept of the Evenstar and both of these indicate endings.

Something often overlooked is that Cersei shares this imagery, too.

All hail his lady mother, Cersei of House Lannister, Queen Regent, Light of the West, and Protector of the Realm." (AGOT, Sansa V)

Also in reference to Tywin, her father:

By the time they left Maegor's Holdfast, the sky had turned a deep cobalt blue, though the stars still shone. All but one, Cersei thought. The bright star of the west has fallen, and the nights will be darker now.  (AFFC, Cersei I)

Warden of the West, in the westerlands, the Lannisters in all the glittering golden light are still associated with the finality of the sunset and evening.

The evenstar and the morning star both actually refer to the same thing, though: the planet venus, all depending on its visibility in the night sky. It was also historically referred to as "lucifer", which can be translated as "lightbringer", the name of the sword forged by Azor Ahai, which is a hugely ambivalent tale in the books and resonates with both Dany's dragons and several special swords named in the series. The powerful weapon as a mark of a hero or a knight is a central theme in the series, and GRRM is begging us to look closer at what is truly heroic and what is merely a show of power or conceit.

An interesting twist here is that Brienne's House and island of Tarth is equally ambivalent. Their arms are sun and moon both. And their seat has an interesting predecessor associated with a significant knight.

 The Sapphire Isle, as some call it, is ruled by House Tarth of Evenfall Hall—an old family of Andal descent that boasts of ties to the Durrandons, the Baratheons, and more recently to House Targaryen. Once kings in their own right, the Lords of Tarth still style themselves "the Evenstar," a title that they claim goes back unto the dawn of days. Many of the folk of Tarth, highborn and low alike, claim descent from a legendary hero, Ser Galladon of Morne, who was said to wield a sword called the Just Maid given to him by the Seven themselves. Given the role that the Just Maid plays in Ser Galladon's tale, Maester Hubert, in his Kin of the Stag, has suggested that Galladon of Morne was no rude warrior of the Age of Heroes turned into a knight by singers a thousand years later, but an actual historic figure of more recent times. Hubert also notes that Morne was a royal seat of petty kings on the eastern coast of Tarth until the Storm Kings made them submit, but that its ruins indicate that the site was made by Andals, not First Men. (The World of Ice and Fire - The Stormlands: The Men of the Stormlands)

Evenstar and Evenfall vs. the Morning. Obviously, there's a hidden history there that may be as interesting as the more recent connection of House Tarth to Duncan the Tall, another noted knight. But clearly, we are seeing a tension here between evening and morning. Brienne is the daughter of the Evenstar, but must she be an evenstar herself?

Given Brienne's connections to knighthood, to Galladon whose story she tells in AFFC, it may well be that she herself represents that renewal, a shift from evening to morning. Where the story of Duncan is one of disintegrating ideals, Brienne represents the choice to uphold them. She chooses to take up Duncan's abandoned arms, commissioning to have them painted on her shield:

It was more a picture than a proper coat of arms, and the sight of it took her back through the long years, to the cool dark of her father's armory. She remembered how she'd run her fingertips across the cracked and fading paint, over the green leaves of the tree, and along the path of the falling star. (AFFC, Brienne II)

Which GRRM goes out of his way to associated with finality and endings:

She had made a better job of it than he could ever have hoped for. Even by lantern light, the sunset colors were rich and bright, the tree tall and strong and noble. The falling star was a bright slash of paint across the oaken sky. Yet now that Dunk held it in his hands, it seemed all wrong. The star was falling, what sort of sigil was that? Would he fall just as fast? And sunset heralds night. "I should have stayed with the chalice," he said miserably. "It had wings, at least, to fly away, and Ser Arlan said the cup was full of faith and fellowship and good things to drink. This shield is all painted up like death." "The elm's alive," Pate pointed out. "See how green the leaves are? Summer leaves, for certain.  (The Hedge Knight)

The falling shooting being likened to death is another interesting nod to the comet that lights the sky through much of ACOK. The one that heralded the birth of the dragons. Death.

It is the tree that represents life here. Given this context, Duncan's arms may not be her final arms.

A parallel in terms of imagery, knighthood and even history, may be House Dayne. Much like House Dayne (of Starfall) has an ancient origin and a fancy special sword named Dawn, you could argue that it has fallen from grace, the last "Sword of the Morning" (named so for the star constellation only visible before dawn) having been killed after guarding an imprisoned teenaged girl dying from childbirth. That's not knightly honor. Gerold Dayne is called "Darkstar" and describes himself as "of the night". He does not carry Dawn. Ham-fisted metaphors, no?

This is all my convoluted way of saying that no, I don't think this nickname is meant to tie Brienne and Jaime to Aragorn and Arwen, but rather part of a broader metaphor for disintegration and renewal, especially in association with knighthood, all expressed through Brienne herself.

Brienne, caught between Duncan (evening) and Galladon (morning), represents renewal, life, the way forward.

Jaime lacks this imagery entirely. He's no Aragorn. He's walking into the sunset with the Light of the West.

[gensjunia]

she literally has stigmata :/

[newwavesylviaplath]

in the land of gods and monsters, i was an angel

[strawberry-s0ap]

a stimboard for every stardew valley marriage candidate!

7/12 - elliott!

x x x / x x x / x x x

[herohimbowhore]

Sunset Lap vs. Storm Lap: A Dichotomy Between Two Drivers

Something that's been running in my mind a lot is how we view drivers and events in Formula 1. There are a few ways we can go about it, with the two main ones being the imagery and the stats.

Imagery, in my opinion, is so important in Formula 1. In a sport where things change every year and no true stats or comparisons across teams/eras exist, it is the imagery that people remember.

Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher crossing the finish line just 0.011 seconds apart in Indianapolis 2002. Sebastian Vettel on his knees and bowing to his Red Bull after he won the World Championship. Lewis Hamilton with the Brazilian flag wrapped around him. Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, and Sebastian Vettel doing donuts together at the end of the 2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The two Ferraris driving past a broken-down Red Bull.

The imagery is important in not only what we remember, but also in how we think of drivers.

Images of Charles Leclerc's 2022 Austin sunset lap and Max Verstappen's 2023 Brazil storm lap will go down as iconic Formula 1 images.

But, the images can also play into how we perceive the two drivers. Sunset vs Storm. Leclerc vs Verstappen. Ferrari vs Red Bull.

There is a visible dichotomy between Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen through the images of their laps.

Sunsets hold many meanings across literature, cultures, and art. In most cases, the sunset represents the completion of a cycle. The setting sun brings an end to a day. Often times it is attributed to the ending of something - life, laws, a journey, etc.

But other than that sunsets are also a thing of beauty. A moment in time when a golden shine settles over the earth and everything is bathed in that glow. It is the boundary between the bright skies of the day and the darkness of night. They also represent the beauty of the world.

Storms, just like sunsets, can mean many things based on how you would like to interpret them. Oftentimes, the connection to storms isn't very pleasant. Filled with thoughts of fear and impending doom. In gothic literature, storms are often seen as harbingers of doom. Foreshadowing the inevitable.

Where sunsets bathe everything in a fleeting, golden light; storms bathe everything in a lasting darkness. A destruction of nature as rain pelts everything in sight. While storms are typically destructive, they have an ability to cleanse

So how can this be used to explain the dichotomy in Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen?

The imagery in these laps exemplify how we as fans see the two drivers.

On one hand, we have Charles: il predestinato, il principe, the sun of Maranello. And on the other hand, we have Max: mad Max, the Dutch Lion, Super Max.

That's two very different types of nicknames/monikers that follow these drivers who grew up racing together.

Sunsets align with the image that has been created around Charles Leclerc. Beautiful, golden, and an expected end to the championship drought at Ferrari. He is the sun of Maranello that shines over the Scuderia. The predestined prince that will bring back glory to Maranello. Born in Monaco, raised in Maranello, Charles Leclerc is who the Tifosi have set their hopes on. Chanting "Oh Leclerc portaci il mondiale" (oh Leclerc bring up the world championship." There is no doubt that the kid who grew up with Ferrari backing, the first FDA driver to make it to Ferrari, will be the one to end the years-long drought that Ferrari has faced. When Charles did his sunset lap, we saw how he will be remembered by Ferrari and the Tifosi no matter how his career progresses, a golden moment in time. A driver who gave his all to the Scuderia and bled rosso corsa, a tifoso at heart. And when Charles Leclerc wins a championship, then he'll be the sun setting on a championship drought that has lasted well over a decade now.

Whereas, the storm is the perfect imagery for Max Verstappen and how he's made his mark on the sport. Destructive, a sign of doom, fear, inevitability, and change. Max Verstappen came into the sport so young and so many questioned if he should even have his seat. And in those early days, he made a name for himself. He was bold in the maneuvers he made, reckless some might even say. Mad Max, as said by so many of the 2010s drivers. He had Nico Rosberg terrified. Given a good car that didn't have reliability issues, everyone knew what Max Verstappen could do and the potential he held to bring Red Bull the championship. And he did do that, ending the Mercedes/Lewis dominance and starting the Red Bull/Max dominance. In 2023, as Max did a qualifying lap as a storm brew, shrouding the track in darkness, we saw a hint of how Max will be remembered. The inevitability, the man who took Formula 1 by storm and made his mark.

So imagery is very important in how we think of the drivers and the narratives that follow them. Should there be documentaries made of these drivers in years to come, it will be images like these that will be used to show who they were as drivers.

_____________________

Currently cleaning out my drafts and found this little essay of me rambling on about imagery in F1. I hope it made some sense

[gothicbaptism]

Not gonna lie, listening to Ethel Cain while driving past the church I grew up in was kinda cathartic

[solar-halos]

i’m coming for another one of yall this mood board monday. this one is for you and me on the rock by @the-sun-and-the-sea

[nevbisvevbis]

posting normal imagery

[crimeronan]

it's wild to me that some aphantasiacs identify so strongly with Being An Aphantasiac that they build their entire online brand around Aphantasiac Awareness and Having No Visual Mind but it's even wilder to me how some OTHER people talk about aphantasiacs. ended up on an informative yt short where the guy was like "some people can't picture their own apartment, their wardrobe.... or even their mother's face :(" and i legit got kinda offended. like. literally why do i need to be able to picture my mom's face. i can recognize her when i see her and i can tell you exactly how she feels and what she means to me and the reason i can do that is..... Because i can't picture her face. because my internal processing sounds exactly like my external storytelling, it's All Words, there's no visuals to quantify or translate. finding out that most people Don't have aphantasia has explained a lot about 1) why tricks like a "mind palace" have literally never worked for me even though i can remember ANYTHING by setting it to music, and 2) why my written visual descriptions improve when i'm drawing from setting or picrew or photo refs. other than that i'm like. i'm doing just fine dude. you are the one being extremely weird about this.....

[completeoveranalysis]

[2]

Chapitre 192 - A Touch of Memory

Aka Broody Family Photoshoot Time!

The giant tree roots they’re posing with mirror a couple of other times this imagery has come up, but it’s looked a bit different each time. Let's see...

There's this time in Chapitre 43, which is still stunning, as well as Chapitre 100. There's also the two [redacted] standing on branches in Chapitre 161, and the two Sakuras doing the same in 181. Very fun that it was always branches before though, but now we're getting down into the roots of it all!

And gnarled roots at that! Were the bare branches in some of the earlier covers implications of a dying future, and now we're closer to the start of all that? Do the dried out and harsh looking roots mirror the fact that the PAST is also damaged, as we're finding out? Time is dying all the way through? The landscape behind them looks equally barren and Acid Tokyo-like, which was already a dying future caused by apocalyptic events.

Or do the roots themselves resemble the different timelines and dimensions? How they’re not distinct and easy to tell apart anymore, but mixed and layered and complicated to follow?

But trees aside I'm loving the black birds, leaving us with black feathers drifting down the scene instead of the usual white. What a change! Such Sakura-less imagery! Is that because she’s completely gone, or because she wasn’t quite the Sakura we thought she was? Does anything different happen with the feathers that were never collected now that Sakura is gone - do they work differently, or do they just keep working the same? Inquiring minds in Acid Tokyo would like to know! 

Or are these feathers more about the non-Sakuras left behind, and the fragments of themselves they need to put together to make it to the end of this all? Maybe they're a parallel to the actual feathers that are shards of Sakura’s memory, except these ones are like the scattered pieces of Lava Lamp’s backstory that we were never privy to until now. 

Meanwhile their individual clothing styles are still on point. LOVE that Kurogane and Fai’s scarves so clearly match the same arcs, like two halves of the same matching set of lines. They’re looking off in different directions but they’re BOTH looking to the sides, leaving only Lava Lamp to stare directly ahead, while his scarf is torn in two different directions.

I think you could probably also get some mileage out of their respective birds and how they reflect their past characterisation - Kurogane’s looking stoically ahead, Fai’s almost looking like it’s screaming at him while he looks conflicted and pensive, and even though Lava Lamp is battle ready his bird is all the way off to the side, completely separated from everyone else

Also the characters have small shadows themselves, though not very pronounced - but there is also a sort of shadowy root off behind the rest of them, visibly black while the rest of aren’t. Is that the secret timeline behind everything else, that we’re slowly discovering? Or is that Evil Wolverine’s influence worming it’s way underneath the fabric that makes up everything else? 

I would also just… like to have Kurogane’s boots. 

That's not a metaphor. They’re just extremely nice. 

[capricioussun]

What job/hobby would Lace choose, if he could?

Very happy to talk abt Lace bc I've been thinking abt him a lot (valentines day is the main cause of this as it always makes me think of him <3)

Depending on when in his primary storyline, he'd probably give several different answers! Underground, he probably would've loved to work at Grillby's being one of the, uh, "servers", but unfortunately, he got roped into being in the guard before he really got the chance to consider anything else.

Post surfacing in a non-mv setting, he'd honestly feel a bit lost for a haute minute, but then he might get into something like journalism as a writer or photographer honestly! Sometimes i do wonder if he might become an accidental model, which is actually partially tied to the next answer-

While it may also eventually happen in a non-mv setting, i think it would happen for certain or more quickly in a mv surface setting, but he'd become a dancer! Though it's not something he realizes he wants to do until he’s already doing it lol, it was recommended as a sort of physical therapy type activity to help him find a healthier coping mechanism for his magic issues, and once he started, it wasn't long before he completely fell in love with it.

I say that ones partially tied to the model idea because a looong time ago, I'd had this whole little mental movie abt him getting asked to participate in a shoot/interview by a magazine guy who'd seen him dance. Since he’s generally out of the loop of mainstream media, he doesn't realize it's actually for a huge magazine, a story about monsters and how they've been finding their way settling into surface life amongst humanity.

Idrk how all that stuff works so you'll need to suspend your disbelief a little for that one, but basically just generally the idea of getting "scouted" and not really realizing it until suddenly people are calling and emailing him and asking about his "agent" and he’s like um hello??? What- but that one isn't as certain as the former two, which are definitely more solidified as part of his lore 👍

So basically that's all to say he doesn't usually pick jobs so much as fall into them lmao, he gets a little overwhelmed, but really, his heart lies in interacting with others and seeing the world. Very curious and friendly this one 💖

[enjamin-the-benitor]

giving that character cloud imagery if no one will do it I’ll have to do it myswlf

[sunnyanddumb98]

Don't mind me just quoting myself "In my dream, when turning, the bus tilts so much that I see directly at the sea. I love watching the sunset from that road: the ships full of containers, the sun shining over the sea like fireworks or champagne, the sea lions diving from the ruins of an ancient port, the teenagers on skates, teenagers with beer, teenagers on weed, everyone sitting on the rocks among seagulls, staring at the sea, like meerkats or sunflowers. Toddlers and shiny things "

[lifesver]

once you're stripped clean, what's at your core?

RIPPLING SUNSET

you’re the nicest person i’ll ever meet, probably. with an undying passion to protect those who can’t protect themselves, you’re energetic and bubbly to a fault. it’s cute, watching you run around trying to tie up loose ends. i feel bad for you — out of everyone you know, you probably have some of the deepest trauma, more than anyone’s aware of. this isn’t something that you want attention for at all, and you’d really just rather forget it exists at all… even then, it seems like you can never escape it. i wish you a pleasant rest of your life, full of rippling sunsets and free of prying eyes.

[strawberry-s0ap]

kris dreemurr (deltarune) stimboard with themes of homemade food, blankets, sunlight and warm colours for @tobysteastore !

x x x / x x x / x x x

[dragonjadearts]

*force theme swells dramatically in the background*

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