#the free folk

[thenorthsource]

"One day on a ranging we brought down a fine big elk. We were skinning it when the smell of blood drew a shadow-cat out of its lair. I drove it off, but not before it shredded my cloak to ribbons. Do you see? Here, here, and here?" He chuckled. "It shredded my arm and back as well, and I bled worse than the elk. My brothers feared I might die before they got me back to Maester Mullin at the Shadow Tower, so they carried me to a wildling village where we knew an old wisewoman did some healing. She was dead, as it happened, but her daughter saw to me. Cleaned my wounds, sewed me up, and fed me porridge and potions until I was strong enough to ride again. And she sewed up the rents in my cloak as well, with some scarlet silk from Asshai that her grandmother had pulled from the wreck of a cog washed up on the Frozen Shore. It was the greatest treasure she had, and her gift to me." He swept the cloak back over his shoulders. "But at the Shadow Tower, I was given a new wool cloak from stores, black and black, and trimmed with black, to go with my black breeches and black boots, my black doublet and black mail. The new cloak had no frays nor rips nor tears . . . and most of all, no red. The men of the Night's Watch dressed in black, Ser Denys Mallister reminded me sternly, as if I had forgotten. My old cloak was fit for burning now, he said.

“I left the next morning . . . for a place where a kiss was not a crime, and a man could wear any cloak he chose."

[beyondmistland]

Even without the oncoming collapse of the Wall and arrival of the Others, wouldn’t the Free Folk south of the Wall be doomed to a similar existence various indigenous peoples, such as the Māori, Native Americans, Aboriginals, etc. experienced over history?

No for a couple of reasons.

The Free Folk share a lot in common with the northmen (such as religion and language, as implausible as that is). Furthermore, while there are cultural differences there is also cultural understanding.

Without the return of the Others providing an impetus for the Free Folk to unite under Mance and migrate south, nothing changes because the lands beyond the Wall aren't worth the effort from the perspective of the Seven Kingdoms.

Thanks for the question, anon

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

I honestly can't believe the people who think Jonsa will be canon in the books when Jonrya is right there. At least Jonerys *kinda* makes sense, butJon mentally compares Arya's body to Ygrittes when they're having sex. That literally happens. Explain that away.

(So help me, if you guys use this one as an excuse to reopen the pro-shipping debate...)

Before I go any further, I will address the elephant in the room. The only one The Golden Company ferried over. I am aware that in the original outline, Martin planned to put Jon and Arya together. So it's easier to see this as leftover remnants of that could-have-been romance. Problem is, that outline also had Tyrion crushing on Arya. It had Sansa pregnant with Joffrey's child, it had Cat getting killed by The Others. See what I mean? It's not the released series, and it's certainly different enough for me to pretty much disregard what it offers.

One quick correction, if you don't mind my doing so. Technically, Jon mentally compares Ygritte's body to Arya's when he's picturing her naked, but not actually when they're doing the deed. I...realize that hardly sounds any better, but the actual lines, about how underneath her furs, she could be "as skinny as Arya" just seems innocent enough for me to take it as innocent.

Another important note. While I'm not condemning the idea of shipping half siblings (or...cousins? R + L = J isn't confirmed in the books, but even if it's true, they were raised as siblings...y'know what, it doesn't matter.) since this is ASOIAF after all, what I will condemn is shipping Jon and Arya as anything other than a "distant future" idea because...there's a considerable age-gap and while it's not quite as pronounced in the books, the character are also younger. I believe Arya is nine in AGOT, which is the last time Jon would have seen her? So uh, no. He better not be thinking about her that way.

Really, I think there's a much more logical (and non-sexual) explanation for what happened here.

Jon doesn't compare Ygritte to Arya because he has a thing for Arya. He compares them because he has literally no other frame of reference for women. No, seriously, think about it. The only women/girls that he's ever interacted with are Cat, Sansa, and Arya. Cat despised him and iced him out. Sansa was rude to him (as she was to basically everyone) and mocked him for being a bastard. Arya, on the other hand, was Jon's best friend. She was also the only girl, (again, he knew all of three, growing up) who defied gender norms, meaning that she was not just the only girl, but only person in general that Jon knew who acted like one of The Free Folk.

When Jon leaves Winterfell, he goes straight to the Night's Watch, which is exclusively men. He doesn't encounter a woman again until Ygritte. Want to know why he compares Ygritte to Arya? This is why. She reminds him of his sister, which one can take as a sign of shipping, but it could easily be platonic as well. I feel like it would have been stranger for him not to compare them. Ygritte is literally the second girl in Jon's life that he feels anything positive for, and she's also Jon's first exposure to the Free Folk, who embody a lot of qualities as a whole that Arya also has.

Ultimately, Jon loves his family, the North, and the Free Folk, and that's all interconnected. I don't think it really has much to do with shipping.

[stil-lindigo]

Ahmed Saad or @/90-ghost's brother in law is currently doing his best to organise the evacuation of his family from Gaza. This family suffers from a combination of ailments that all require medical attention. This is the description on their GFM page:

Hello, I hope you all are doing well!

My name is Mohamed Monir Ahmad Mahmoud, I’m a hemophilia patient from Gaza. I decided to start this campaign with all the hope that you could support me in evacuating Gaza to do surgery for me and my daughter and start a fresh life with my 5 kids out of the ongoing genocide in Gaza [...] I was supposed to go out at the end of 2023 to have surgery on my knees but since 7 October, I had no chance due to the procedures on Rafah crossing, the gate of Gazans to the world. Now, my knees and elbows are bleeding with no access to any type of care and if things stand as they are in Gaza, I won’t be able to walk or make any effort because of the bleeding (currently I am barely able to set up a small fire in front of the tent to prepare food for my kids).

What I ask is 60,000, for travel costs because each one would need to pay 5,000-8,000$ to be allowed to leave Gaza through Rafah crossing and we need around 3000$ more in Egypt for our stay and to obtain visas. We will be heading to Brazil where my brother Diaa lives and there is a huge chance to do the surgeries and access health care as the health care for Hemophilia patients in Brazil is one of the most advanced in the world.

please give generously!!

[caterjunes]

i'm the girl who makes up all the fake folk etymologies. it's fun and easy for me. nobody pays me, i just do it for the love of the game.

[sylvaridreams]

Rips off my shirt to reveal I'm wearing another shirt that days I ❤️ CHARACTERS THAT SUCK

[defleftist]

Thrilled to see someone carrying on the tradition of protest folk music. Keep fighting the good fight!

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Always a fascinating ethics question.

(Mind you it's less of a trolley problem and more of a Cornelian dilemma, because every solution has a detrimental effect on someone - leave the wildlings and they get wighted; move them across the Wall, and they may attack the NW and the people of the north. Whereas a trolley problem only would apply if taking the Weeper (and other wildlings) out of the way of the Others thus diverts the Others onto different innocent victims. The Others being the trolley in this case; they and the wildlings can't be the trolley at the same time, ethics questions don't work that way even if you shift perspectives.)

Anyway, yeah, Jon's priorities are basically like “we need to save them - yes all of them - and we'll figure out what to do with them (and protect the innocents) afterwards.” Whereas much of the NW reluctantly accepts the saving bit, but thinks “what to do with them” should be the first priority. Especially with winter coming. Which alas brings up its own ethical dilemmas on who gets food first when stockpiles are low...

the question of Jon letting the Wildlings through is such a fantastic moral dilemma. And the argument against it, that they are dangerous, is just as brilliantly written. Is there a point at which you could decide a person is worthy of death? Because not let the Weeper through is to leave him for dead.

It’s a divided version of the classic trolley problem. From one perspective, the choice seems really easy: Jon could do nothing and let the train run over everyone north of the Wall, or he could act and let the people come south, avoiding the train.

Except there’s a second perspective to the problem layered on top of this one. From the perspective of the Northmen south of the Wall, the trolley problem looks like this: Jon could do nothing and everyone south of the Wall gets to avoid the wildlings, their hated raiding enemy, or Jon could act and send the hated Wildlings south of the Wall directly towards the people he said he would protect. Their version of the problem also looks easy, but with the reverse outcome.

So to them, it feels like Jon is choosing the wellbeing of the Wildlings over the wellbeing of the Northmen. Though Jon of course believes the two can coexist.

And their argument would go like this: the Weeper is a killer, shouldn’t we draw the line at who we let through? But of course the question really is: at what point can we decide that someone’s life is worth less than our own?

[swampybogg]

[choccy-milky]

💖🎊the end, & thank you for reading!!🎊💖

im so thankful for all the support i got on this story, and i wouldn't have finished it if not for all of you, and for the love i got for seb and clora. so thank you again for giving me the motivation to write this 600k+ monster, and to see it through to the very end. LOVE YALL💖🫶 (ao3/wattpad)

[gophergal]

Guilt tripping people does nothing but cause vulnerable folks to spiral and make folks who dont live with moral OCD feel negatively toward your cause

[thenorthsource]

The Wildling and the Lost Boy (for anon)

AGOT – Catelyn III

"Rickon needs you […] He's only three, he doesn't understand what's happening. He thinks everyone has deserted him”

AGOT – Bran VI

"What are you doing here?" [...]

"They are my gods too," Osha said. "Beyond the Wall, they are the only gods."

[…] “The cold winds are rising, and men go out from their fires and never come back … or if they do, they're not men no more, but only wights, with blue eyes and cold black hands. Why do you think I run south with Stiv and Hali and the rest of them fools? Mance thinks he'll fight, […] but what does he know? […] He's never tasted winter. I was born up there, child, like my mother and her mother before her and her mother before her, born of the Free Folk. We remember." Osha stood, her chains rattling together. "I tried to tell your lordling brother. […] But he looked through me […]. So be it. I'll wear my irons and hold my tongue. A man who won't listen can't hear."

AGOT – Bran VII

"I lived my life beyond the Wall, a hole in the ground won't fret me none, m'lords," she said.

[…] Ser Rodrik had ordered Osha's chain struck off, since she had served faithfully and well since she had been at Winterfell. She still wore the heavy iron shackles around her ankles—a sign that she was not yet wholly trusted—but they did not hinder her sure strides down the steps.

[…]

Rickon patted Shaggydog's muzzle, damp with blood. "I let him loose. He doesn't like chains." He licked at his fingers.

ACOK – Bran V

"Osha," Bran asked as they crossed the yard. "Do you know the way north? To the Wall and . . . and even past?"

ACOK – Theon IV

Osha would need to carry Rickon; his little legs wouldn't take him far on their own.

[…]

Theon Greyjoy knew he was beaten […] Osha had deceived them with some wildling trick.

ACOK – Bran VII

Bran heard fingers fumbling at leather, followed by the sound of steel on flint. Then again. A spark flew, caught. Osha blew softly. A long pale flame awoke, […] Osha's face floated above it. She touched the flame with the head of a torch. Bran had to squint as the pitch began to burn, filling the world with orange glare. The light woke Rickon, who sat up yawning. […]

There stood Osha holding the torch, […] and the double row of tall granite pillars and long dead lords behind them stretching away into darkness . . . but there was Winterfell as well, grey with drifting smoke, the massive oak-and-iron gates charred and askew, the drawbridge down in a tangle of broken chains and missing planks.

[...] "Are we going home?" Rickon asked excitedly.

[…] Osha carried her long oaken spear in one hand and the torch in the other. A naked sword hung down her back, one of the last to bear Mikken's mark.

[…]

"Take me home!" Rickon demanded. "I want to be home!" […] They stood huddled together with ruin and death all around them.

"We made noise enough to wake a dragon," Osha said, "but there's no one come. The castle's dead and burned, just as Bran dreamed,” […]

"Hodor must stay with Bran, to be his legs," the wildling woman said briskly. "I will take Rickon with me."

[beyondmistland]

Would the Thenns practice thraldom?

They might though I doubt their valley can sustain the additional numbers.

Thanks for the question, anon

[shripscapi]

Ygritte commission for @jaehaeryshater 🩵

[psalidodont]

insane little critter

[chloesimaginationthings]

Will you sell The stickers outside The patreon???

Maybe in a year or so from now if I have any leftovers!! But to guarantee you’ll get these stickers it’s better to join the Patreon ^^

I plan on eventually making some FNAF merch that is for my shop though!