#the man becoming a tree

[pmpknsoup]

i find the horror of "whats the threshold between human and no-longer-human", and of dehumanization incredibly fascinating, and it really feels like thats the direction the magnus protocol is headed. very excited

[smile-files]

mommy let you use her ipad, you were barely two

and it did all the things we designed it to do

now look at you, look at you!

(objectober 2024 day 10: internet)

[geraskierfanficprompts]

Prompt 135

Julian has a favorite tree in the woods near his home. Julian was barely old enough to walk when he first hugged his favorite tree in the greenwood. For years he visited, picnicked with, spoke to it, hugged it, and tended it. When he was around 8 years old, an older boy began bullying him for escaping court and lessons to spend time in the woods and sing. Julian sobbed into the embrace he gave his favorite tree. Julian has told his tree for years that he loves music, that he hates being a viscount. He hates it, he hates it, he hates it. When his bully follows him into the woods one day, Julian is afraid. His bully raises a fist to hit him, only for a branch from his favorite tree to fall and bonk the older child on the head. The child ran away crying, and Julian was just fine. The bully never picked on him again. Julian thanked his tree, before growing worried over the dropped branch. Healthy trees don't drop branches, surely- So he makes sure to tend to his favorite tree extra the next few months, make sure it's healthy. No more branches drop, it was just that one on that one day. Julian continues to grow, and Julian continues to rebel. He decides one day as a teenager that he's decided he's going to run away. He climbs his tree, and lounges in the suspiciously comfortable set of branches, and tells his tree the whole plan. He's going to become a bard, and change his name, and travel the continent. "I'll miss you. Terribly. Thank you for being with me all these years." Julian sobs as he hugs his tree. He sleeps in the arms of his tree that night, away from his supposed home. It was his last night in the area for years. Jaskier is on his way to perform for a court, and unfortunately, to get there he must cut through lettenhove. He's sure if he keeps his head down, doesn't play any music, and just rushes through, they'll never even notice he was there. But he can't NOT visit his tree. It's been years. So one night, he creeps into the woods near his father's manor. When he spots the tree, healthy and strong as always, he tears up. "It's me. Julian. I- I'm Jaskier now, but It's still me. I'm so happy to see you. I'm so sorry it's been so long-" He walks closer, going to hug his tree, when he hears a voice clear it's throat, and he spins around in surprise. Fuck. His father. "Julian. I knew you'd end up back here." "...I was just leaving." "No. No, you weren't." And guards reveal themselves, coming out of the woodwork. Jaskier swears there's even extra hired muscle there, as if Jaskier is something to fear. In a fight against men with weapons? No. In a fight via poetry and insults? Yes! Doesn't help here, though. "You are coming home, and you will fulfil your duty." "I don't care about my duty! Just as you've never cared about me!" "And why would I care about such a disrespectful mutt, Julian!?" The guards creep closer, just as his father clenches his fist, and Jaskier is trapped. If he tries to run, they'll catch him. If he climbs, they'll climb too. If he fights, he'll just be hurt as they drag him away. But then the guards freeze, their eyes widening in horror. One drops his weapon and runs. Jaskier is confused. Sure, he raised his lute like a weapon, but it shouldn't be that frightening. I mean the men here had blades! "Back away from him." A deep voice growls, startling Jaskier. Jaskier turns and sees that a man is walking out of his favorite tree. The man is hench, and in armor, and holding two giant swords, and he just came out of Jaskier's tree. Tree man THERE IS A TREE MAN! Jaskier is trying very hard to process this, when he hears his father snap to the guards to fight the man off and capture the viscount by any means necessary. A guard grabs Jaskier's arm hard enough to bruise, and suddenly the man no longer had a hand, as the Man From The Tree slices it cleanly off, and blocks Jaskier from their view with his own body.

After a few minutes of sword clangs and panic, the men all retreat. Jaskier's father spits out one last insult to him before running off with his men.

And then the gorgeous guardian turns back to him and hugs him, tight and warm.

"My tree?" "My Jaskier."

[clownsuu]

Is Ulent (Plant dude) still alive my guy?

I miss the tired tree (´°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥ω°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥｀)

YOU REMEMBER MY OLD ASS SON ULENT?????

GEEEEEZ he’s such an old fard character I am shocked anyone remembers him! Let alone ask for anything about him-

He’s completely fine btw! Still being the ye ol tree man himself Enjoying tea and talking to the trees-

[iliothermia]

Making a piece to this song right now..

[icewindandboringhorror]

Some fantasy traveler inventory details (like what they would carry in their bags), based on two of the recent costumes I did.. love finding random little scraps and items and putting them together lol

[kakmem]

Forgot to post the blorbos whoops

[seriousturd]

Shhh they’re sleeping

[pareidolla]

massive plot twist that btg aren't the biggest advocates for stp selfshipping like... the two leads were literally the same person. this entire game is just one big complicated selfship. what happened here

[hollowwhisperings]

Jojen is Fine, Actually: "Weirwood Paste" is Weirwood Paste.

CW: humanitarian diets, body horror, general blasphemy, mention of grooming (in the context of creepy tree wizards).

Okay so my being a HUGE Jojen (& House Reed in general) fan gives me an Obvious Bias against the idea of Jojen Dying Offscreen.

My being a huge literary nerd & lore geek, however, informs my Metaphor Senses that Jojen is Fine*, Actually.

The "Weirwood Paste" is Weirwood Paste: made of weirwood seeds, locally sourced. Said "Local Weirwood Tree" being. Y'know. Brynden Rivers.

It's Brynden Paste.

(*Fine: chronically ill, majorly depressed, freezing cold, surrounded by creepy tree people, stuck in a zombie wasteland, if he ever goes home he Dies, repeatedly dreaming of his own death... but, at least, Not Dead nor Being Eaten by the Prince of his Dreams? He's "Fine".)

First and foremost: storytelling conventions, even in a series as "deliberately unconventional" as ASOIAF, tend to tell audiences that NO ONE is genuinely "dead" until you see a body. And personally check its pulse. And test for rigor mortis. And maybe stab them in a lethal place, jusr to be Sure. And then burn the body, scatter its ashes, send couriers off in different directions to hide what remains in Remote Places never to be known of by the other couriers. Maybe Silence the couriers if they come back.

Er, you get the picture.

Most subscribers to "Jojenpaste" are in it for the lolz or assume The Worst due to Jojen's non-presence in the latest Bran chapters (aaand Jojen's being Very Permanently Dead in That Dragon Show). It's also an "easy" assumption that Since GRRM Is GRRM, any & all opportunities for Humanitarianism will be fully utilized.

Except... the weirwood paste is ALREADY "made of people" just because it's Weirwood (specifically, weirwood seeds) and the series has consistently described weirwood trees as "[human]".

Weirwood have "bone white" bark; they have Faces carved into them; they "Watch" and "Listen" and "Witness": this is consistent across POV characters, even before Jojen casually brings up "oh they're what Greenseers Become" or any meetings with a Literal Tree Man.

Weirwoods are described in human terms, doing human things, and at least 1 major character has been directly equivicated with Weirwoods for Plot Purposes: Ghost the Direwolf (and wolves, of course, are consistently used to mean "someone of House Stark" and the Starklings especially).

Then there is The Creepy Tree Man in the room: Brynden Rivers, called "Three-Eyed Raven" by Bran and Jojen (for that was how their Dreams interpreted him) or "The Last Greenseer" by the Singers (...despite BRAN very pointedly Being There To Prove Otherwise).

Brynden is also, as mentioned, a Tree Now.

A Weirwood Tree.

Y'know. Like the ones whose seeds make the Paste Bran's been eating.

So, unless the Singers have been sneaking about in Others' Territory to collect seeds from a different weirwood tree... that Paste is made of BRYNDEN.

Bran being fed "Brynden Paste' while Brynden Indoctrinates Teaches Bran to be a Tree Wizard makes far more sense, logistically & thematically, than Jojen getting shanked offscreen to belatedly be revealed to be "part of Bran all along".

For one thing, Meera would gladly set the Cave & everyone in it on fire if anyone so much as looks at her baby brother suspiciously. For another, Brynden is Right There for the eating & is filled with all sorts of Prophecy Juice: he's a Blackwood, he's a Targaryen, he's a Royal Bastard, he was an Infamous Spymaster with "A thousand eyes and one", he's done weird sacrifice BS before, he's a Greenseer (Jojen "only" has Greensight), he's a Living God (as per Singer & First Men Lore), the Cave Cult is trying to turn Bran INTO him...

There is a lot more "logic" to Bran's Magic Lessons featuring his knowingly (subconsciously, at least) eating Brynden than his secretly eating his friend. Human sacrifice tends to require Knowledge of the cost being paid & being Willing to do it anyway: Bran might be too tripped up on Paste to consciously connect the "Weirwood Paste" he eats with "that Human Weirwood Tree i'm sitting next to" but the Singers explicitly tell Bran the Paste is made from Weirwood Seeds. Bran "knows".

Godeating (metaphoric & literal) is a trope that is most commonly found in JRPGs, nowadays, but it has Precedent throughout western mythology: the Titan Kronus ate each of his children as they were born, Zeus alone escaping, in an effort to Dodge Prophecy; Zeus inherited Said Prophecy and, being his Father's Son, ate his first wife. The details of the Titanomachy (the War against the Titans by their reasonably upset kids) are Lost but Zeus, at least, gained all his Wife's Wisdom (& her pregnancy too) after eating her: Athena may or may not have Taken It Back upon breaking out from her Eaten Mother & Dear Old Dad.

Consuming something in order to "become" what is eaten is Fairly Common, if not with that specific phrasing: vampires seldom explain their reproduction as "eat me to become me", whilst the adorable Nintendo character Kirby & his method of Powering Up via Playing Vacuum, is Rephrased out of Sheer Self-Preservation (no one, not even I, likes to admit that The Cute Pink Blob is an Eldritch Abomination). Many JRPGs & works in eastern media use similar themes of "monster eats monster" and "let's eat god" for the purposes of High Stakes Action. Japan & East Asia has a lot less "baggage" when it comes to utilizing themes from Abrahamic verse, meaning that western works using themes of [consuming the divine] and [apotheosis] use Vampire Methodology. Such is the case in the Dragon Age series & its Order of Grey Wardens (who are, From A Certain POV, dragon god vampires).

Within the ASOIAF series itself, Dany's eating a horse heart (raw) has Humanitarian Themes in service of Prophecy and [Divinity]: the horse heart to the Dothraki, a society of horselords, could be what weirwood seeds are to First Men (especially given Jojen's whole "btw, the trees are gods are former greenseers").

Brynden & the Cave's Singers (whom I dearly hope are some long-exiled Cult & not reflective of Singers as a whole) are not particularly subtle in their Intentions for Bran: he is to be their New "Last" Greenseer. Bran is to Become Brynden or Brynden is to Become Bran: either and possibly both are plausible, though how compliant with the Singers' goals Brynden may be has yet to be revealed.

(the Brynden of F&B and D&E strikes me as someone who would gladly bodysnatch some poor kid for his own Agenda: the Singers seem unlikely to support fire-breathing foreigners, not without a Contingency Plan; somewhat likely to want Bran for the purposes of installing a Tree Hivemind Police State; and maybe, possibly... "just" wanting a Second God for their Cult in Bran, who probably Smells Better).

SUMMARY

Weirwoods are Personified in almost every appearance. Weirwood Trees are considered Gods. Jojen (& some Singers) have stated that the Next Evolutionary Phase of a Greenseer is "Weirwood Tree". Brynden "the Last Greenseer" is part of a Weirwood Tree.

Brynden & the Singers are Turning Bran Into A Weirwood Tree.

Bran's current diet is Tree Paste. His magic teacher, Brynden, is Part-Tree. The Nearest Tree to make Paste from is Brynden. The Paste is made of Brynden.

(Let's NOT think too hard on which parts of Brynden: I've only gotten this far in this Meta by using "Hunanitarian" as a pun.)

Eating Gods to Become A God is an existing Trope. Brynden is a God, by Singer & First Men definitions. Bran is being Groomed to Become Brynden, a God. To Become Brynden, Bran must Eat Brynden.

TL;DR

The Weirwood Paste is Weirwood Paste and Brynden is the Weirwood: the Paste is not "Jojen", it's BRYNDEN.

Jojen is Not Paste: Jojen is Alive but Not Well & Very Depressed.

[plumsaffron]

Some person said they’ll eat me.

I said “Okay Aaravos."

[conartisthaiji]

i am a niclays roos apologist btw like free my man!!! he did do all of that but he was sad :(

[fisheito]

kuya is such a particular peepaw princess. my golie. he wears SPF 800, carries a lacey purple parasol, and dons massive UV-blocking sunglasses every time he steps into the sun adn huey is just like

uh. ok. message received. i'll take u to the sunless grimdark automaton country next time

[kiawren]

Anyway guys I got to this part and WUEUEUEUEU😭😭😭 HE SAID MY NAMEE.... I ALREADY GOT SPOILERS ON THE DIALOGUE BUT I STILL FELT SO!!! 😭😭 "Thank you for being there." Boy I purposely didnt save this part so I could replay this battle and dialogue with you 💀💀💀 and it's like a side quest thing so I can keep progressing the main story and save it then do this part again and again without saving it 💀💀 I actually forgot to do this right after Olivia's trial so when I went back my team was overlevelled and I purposely swapped some lower level pkmn from the boxes so the battle would last longer yeah all for you kia/we😭😭👍👍

[daisybell-on-a-carousel]

Can I say that Jason let's himself be forged into a weapon so he can be can be held

[normalenjoyer-png]

like dream blinded by positivity, pretty soon after the incident, gets really close to killing nightmare, and nightmare grabbing him by the cloak. pulling him close as he's losing form. "YOU KILL ME YOU BECOME ME, DREAM. YOU HAVE TO TAKE UP THE ROLE OF THE GUARDIAN OF NEGATIVITY. SURELY YOU DONT WANT TO BE AS ABSENT AS OUR MOTHER." he coughs and spits in his face and dream pulls himself away in disgust.