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selfproclaimedunicorn · 11 months ago

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⭐ Chapter 8

This is another Yorick chapter, & it's also the final chapter before we reach "season 1, episode 1!" (yes, it took me 8 chapter to wrap up the "childhood arc")

It's weird, because I have many feelings about this chapter, but I am not sure how to articulate them? I will attempt, though! So, Yorick, like, he gets a taste of normal male interaction throughout a chunk of chapter 8. He's at Storm's End for His Boy Borros's wedding, & Borros's Boys™️are there, & they like him/accept him into the group as "Borros's weird younger cousin who he likes a lot, so we'll be nice to him." And I love Borros & His Boys™️so much. Devoid of context they are in a comedy, actually. Like, in the same way that, devoid of context, pre!Reek Theon is hilarious.

During his interactions with Borros & His Boys™️Yorick actually, like, comes out of his anxiety shell that he's been developing since he got forced to be Daemon's squire. They go on a "stag weekend" hunting trip, & just, like...they're all so regular. They're so regular. Yorick doesn't know what to do with himself because they aren't assholes to him like his dad or the City Watch, & they treat him like your average pre-teen with autonomy & opinions unlike Viserys. He gets his first sip of beer, I'm pretty sure he inadvertently gets The Talk just because all these late teens/early 20s guys are trying to Out-Chad each other. And he smiles, like, he smiles big & genuine & happy for the first time since he was, like, seven. He jokes with them! It's just...it is so wholesome & I want to live in the opening sequence of Chapter 8. I don't care that I, personally, don't like hunting: nothing can hurt you or be bad in the opening sequence of chapter 8! Don't look at the title being "Toppled Tower" or where we fall in the timeline of Alicent's life. That isn't important. And we can ignore Viserys. This isn't about him! Come back here, wholesome moments from Yorick having healthy male bonding!

Borros And His Nasty Boys (affectionate name because of events that happen surrounding later events) are absolutely delightful to me. They aren't "favorite side character" status, but they're good:

Borros Baratheon is simply, the most 20-year-old guy ever & he's taking his younger, first cousin once-removed under his wing to be a beacon of emotional safety purely because "he thinks I'm cool, & also he seems really lonely." He makes sure Yorick gets included in things & he laughs at his jokes & he's the aforementioned "giver of the first beer" (don't pay attention to the fact Yorick is 12. This is Westeros, it's fine)

Rory Dondarrion is accidentally relevant because I forgot Criston's dad worked for his family, & he's just Borros's more literate, less bombastic cousin who actually stops & things about things, but then still decides to go along with Borros for the laugh of it & also because "we are friends & you stick with your friends." And he just...he shows his love by making fun of you. Because he's just, like, a misplaced modern UK idiot boy who wears ugly street clothes & goes to the pub & unironically chants "LADS!" with his friends when he gets drunk

Symon Lonmouth is there so someone besides Laenor cares about Joffrey, & he's arguably the same archetype as Rory, but in a way more toned down way. He makes dumb jokes with his little brother, & he shows care for the people around him, & he takes things a bit too seriously because it's all fun & games until Yorick makes a dark joke & then he has no idea what to do with himself because he wants to be taken seriously so bad that it's silly.

Kevan Tarth, simply put, wants what Harwin Strong has. He wants to be chadly & universally hot, & he's not not successful at flirting, he's also just, like, 16. You are not going to be a gigachad at 16. Also, he is the cousin of Vaemond Velaryon's wife! That's not relevant to his character, but it is fun!

Not part of the regular friend group, but I also need to talk a little about the brothers of Borros's wife: the Caron brothers do not have characters, not really. The Caron brothers exist so I could name them after Peter & Edmund Pevensie, & proceed to give them that same age gap.

Chapter 8...chapter 8. I don't think it's one of my favorites (not to say I dislike it, I just have favorite chapters), but it does have a favorite sequence. A sequence of all time. I wanted to have quotes in this one, because I like when I can have quotes, but I would just be pasting the majority of the hunting trip into this ask 😅

#asks #sotf commentary #fic: sins of the father #borros & his nasty boys: stealing one of boreumd's boats to go commit crimes against humanity in essos #because their collective little cousin got dragged to war #(between chapters 10 & 11--so not relevant here. but I LOVE them. they're so ridiculous in concept)#(these boys shouldn't be in westeros they should be in the club)#nat tag

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littlerockerao3 · 3 years ago

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103 please 💙

I finally did it anon, I hope you like it!

Also, sorry if the ending kinda sucks I just god sad all of sudden and… yeah.

Btw, this is basically a compilation of Theon stealing Robb’s stuff

103. “Sharing is caring, now give me your fries”

Tw: mentions of sex and they’re naked at some point. Then it’s all just fluff.

~~~

Robb’s so used to staying the night at Theon’s sometimes he gets confused when he wakes up alone at his own place. Today though, it’s not one of those mornings.

It’s late in the morning and he’s cooking eggs, in his boyfriend kitchen, when Theon comes join him.

“Is that my hoodie?” Robb asks. The white hoodie with a small wolf print on the left shoulder is the first things he sees after Theon’s messy hair.

Theon yawns loudly and shrugs, “I don’t know, could be. Let me check…” he stretches his arms above his head and the hoodie goes up and exposes his bare belly. Theon nods at that, “Definitely”.

That’s the thing when Theon steals Robb’s clothes, they always look too loose around his shoulders yet they’re too short to fully cover his belly when he’s stretching. Robb kind of loves how that makes him look younger than his age. It also makes his features look softer, and when his hair is all messy like that... god, all Robb wants is to cuddle with him on the couch all day long.

“You thief” he says instead, sticking his tongue out at him.

Theon just rolls his eyes, slips his hands inside the hoodie’s front pockets and presses a kiss to the corner of Robb’s lip, “It just smells so much like you, I love it”.

Robb snorts, amused. “Babe. You wear my clothes more than I do, they basically smell like you by now”.

He’s not wrong, and Robb knows Theon knows. Robb’s closet at his apartment is almost empty, by now, it’s all in Theon’s closet and drawers. Sometimes he wonders how come he hasn’t moved in with him already.

“Hey, sharing is caring” Theon replies, taking one hand out of his pockets to pinch Robb’s side. Robb swats that hand away and rolls his eyes, “It is, it is.”

“You made breakfast?”

“Will be ready in five, can you set the table?”

Robb checks on the eggs, and when he turns back around to stare at Theon, he’s caught up in a proper kiss. It doesn’t last as long as he expected nor as they both wanted, but they know there’s going to be time for it later. It’s Sunday, after all.

“Sure gorgeous” Theon caresses his cheek, then moves to grab the plates from the cupboard and all they need. Robb’s hoodie goes up one more time, and it’s leaving Theon’s lower back exposed. Robb smirks, stare at those cute little dimples right above Theon’s glutes, and thinks that that hoodie is going to come off in a little.

Theon parts from Robb’s lips after the umpteenth overly dramatic howl coming from downstairs, “Why the hell is he howling like that?!”

Robb snorts, rests his head on the pillow, his breath struggling to go back to normal. He looks up at Theon, who’s still over him, hands still resting on Robb’s bare and sweaty chest.

“I think I forgot to fill up his water bowl” he says, his voice muffled by another ark and dramatic howl. Theon rolls his eyes, “Jeez, that’s a husky not a wolf”.

That could be: Robb found Grey Wind and his siblings in some alley, he just knows his mom was a wolf. His dad could have been a husky, cause Grey Wind is by far the most dramatic animal Robb has ever had to deal with.

Theon jumps out the bed, Robb already misses his warmth, and walks towards the door.

“Hey, don’t walk naked past him” Robb says, fixing the pillow under his head and running a had through his sweaty hair.

Theon huffs loudly, “God, he walks naked past me everyday Robb”, he says, yet still turns around and opens the nightstand’s drawer and grabs a pair of underwear.

“Hey that’s my underwear” Robb realizes.

“It’s the first pair I found” Theon rolls his eyes, as he puts the red underwear Robb’s mother got for him a few months ago, along with tons of more stuff, when Robb finally got his own place.

“It’s still mine” he mumbles.

Theon sighs, hands resting on his hips, eyes frowning in his typical “don’t start” stare. “For fuck’s sake Robb, it’s your house don’t you remember? Of course it’s your stuff.”

Robb shrugs, thinking about how actually his own place is filled with Theon’s stuff, and how Theon’s place is filled with Robb’s stuff.

“But there’s plenty of your stuff too here” he says, in fact.

That causes Theon’s upper lip to curl up lightly: Robb’s noticed how much he likes when somebody points out things like this. He just loves to know his stuff is at Robb’s place and Robb’s stuff is at his place, Robb guesses. That’s fair. Robb likes it too, though he doesn’t show it so much: it’s not like he wears Theon’s clothes everyday, unlike Theon does with his clothes, instead.

Theon puts one knee on the bed and arches forward to kiss Robb’s still puffy lips “Just grab one of mine so we’re even. And sharing is caring, by the way.”

He’s about to kiss him one more time, suggesting a round two would be very much appreciated, but Grey Wind starts barking and howling again.

Theon grunts almost as loudly at the dogs, only to yell right after, “I’m coming you dipshit, calm down!”

“Hey! Do not call our child that!”

“Fuck you”

One of Robb’s eyebrows rises as he stares at his boyfriend making his way downstairs to finally give his dog some water. Jeez, Theon looks good in Robb’s underwear.

Theon is still buckling his belt as he walks out the bathroom and past the corridor to approach Robb, who’s waiting at the door, “Hey I’m ready, we can go”.

Robb studies his boyfriend for a few seconds, before asking, “You don’t have a bag or what?”

They’re going to spend the night at Robb’s, cause Grey Wind is staying at Sansa’s (she talked about some dog resort and apparently she wants to take Lady there but wants to bring Grey Wind along “just in case Lady won’t make any friends”, and then they say Robb’s the dog mom) and it would be very nice to have sex in Robb’s bed for once, without Grey Wind scratching the door and barking, disappointed for being left out.

Theon just shrugs carelessly, “Nah I’ll just steal your clothes”.

Typical. Robb should have expected that. He rolls his eyes, ad wraps an arm around him, whispering, “The thing is, sweet boyfriend of mine, that all my stuff is at your place, cause in case you haven’t noticed, you keep stealing it.” He kisses his forehead, “There’s literally no more clothes at my place”.

He can see Theon struggling to hide a smirk, as a cute shade of red starts blushing his cheeks as he looks away and mumbles, “I don’t steal your clothes that often”.

Robb’s eyebrow jerks up in front of the biggest bullshit he’s ever heard, “You do”.

“No I don’t”

“You don’t?” Robb pulls the corner of Theon’s shirt, “You’re wearing my hockey jersey. There’s my name in the back, since when your last name is Stark huh?”

Theon’s cheeks are bright red now. It takes him the hardest effort to go back looking into Robb’s eyes and say, softly “Hey, sharing is caring”.

The sound that comes out of Robb’s mouth is more of a snort rather than a laugh, but he can’t keep the smile off his face, “You keep using that as an excuse”.

“Because it’s true!” Theon’s hands gently cup Robb’s neck, thumbs caressing his jaw.

Robb pulls him closer and tilts his head on one side, “It still doesn’t give you the right to steal all my clothes! Literally, my house is empty”.

He doesn’t mind, really. He doesn’t mind. If it was up to him, Theon would have moved in at his place already. If it was up to him, Theon’s last name would have been Stark ages ago, by now. He likes it when Theon wears his clothes, when he uses his stuff, when he acts like Robb’s stuff is his stuff cause that’s actually how it really is, after all. But he likes it even more when Theon blushes when someone points it out.

“I don’t see what’s the problem, we can just stay here, order Chinese and watch a movie” Theon suggests. Robb just stays silent, but keeps his eyes curiously staring at Theon’s, just to make him blush some more.

“Come on babe!” Theon exclaims, then he just jumps into Robb’s arms so suddenly that Robb can barely wrap his arms around his thigh to keep them both from falling.

“I hate you so much” he mumbles, giving in, as Theon smooches his face with kisses.

“So do I baby” he whispers to his ear, as Robb leads them both towards the couch.

When Theon opens the door for Robb to get inside he’s shirtless, his face is green and his hair is wrapped in a towel. Robb frowns, recognising the familiar smell.

“Is that my beauty face mask?” He asks.

Theon starts walking to the living room, “Yeah? Before you say anything: you left it here at my place for days, I’m allowed to use it”.

Robb waves his hand distractedly: he hasn’t seen Theon for three days, fuck work and fuck how tiring it is, and he doesn’t have the patience he usually has to tease him. He needs to kiss those lips a little, first.

“Wash it off, I need to kiss you” he says.

“Needy” Theon is smirking as he’s walking to the bathroom. Robb would like to take him seriously but it’s impossible when he looks like that. Actually, it’s impossible to take Theon seriously when he’s smirking. Actually, it’s impossible to listen to whatever Theon’s saying when he’s smirking cause you just can’t keep your eyes and focus anywhere but on those lips.

He comes back a few moments later, face all clean now and hair still a little wet but naturally wavy and naturally sexy. Robb engulfs him in a hug so tight he fear he could break some of his bones, he looses his grip just so that he can start kissing his mouth repeatedly before they eventually share one long proper kiss. They’re both smiling into the kiss cause they both know they’re thinking the same thing, that is: sometimes they still act like teenagers who just got together and that’s fine cause it’s funny as hell.

“Are you ready?” Robb asks Theon at some point.

Theon nods, patting his shoulder, and moving away from him to run to his bedroom, “Yeah, I just gotta put on a shirt. I think I’ll use one of yours”.

“I’m not even going to pretend to act surprised”

“Hey, sh-“

“Sharing is caring, I know I know.”

Theon comes out his room wearing Robb’s dark blue hoodie, the only oversized hoodie Robb owns (or used to own) that doesn’t expose Theon’s lower back and belly if he stretches out or leans over.

“N’aww, you’re learning” Theon says, squeezing Robb’s cheeks with his thumb and index finger.

“Let’s go.” Robb says, gently pulling Theon’s hand away from his face.

He’s driving today, so Theon takes control over the aux cord and spends all their small trip playing nostalgia songs. Robb’s new place has yet to be fully furnished, so they’re going shopping to get some knick-knacks, tablecloths, even some small plants, so the mess won’t be too huge when Grey Wind will knock them over.

When they get inside the car again, still having to decide which shop they should stop at next, Robb hears Theon’s stomach growling.

“You hungry?”

Theon keeps scrolling through his phone, searching for a new song to play, “Just a little. I could fancy a snack though.”

Robb doesn’t need to be told twice and turns to the nearest fast food on the way. Theon’s too busy figuring out which songs he wants in his new Spotify playlist to notice where they’re headed, until Robb eventually asks him what he would like to eat.

Theon looks around and his eyes lit up the moment he realizes they’re in line at the drive thru, “Aw babe, you shouldn’t have”.

“What do you want?” Robb repeats, smiling at him.

Theon waves his hand, “Just some French fries”.

They stay silent for a few minutes before they get to take their order and they’re asked if they want small, medium or large fries.

“Large” both Robb and Theon say at the same time, Robb says it out of instinct and it causes Theon to extend his hand to squeeze his cheeks one more time, “Aw you know me so well!”

Then, Theon reaches for his wallet in his pocket, “Here, I just-”

“I got it” Robb hands the cashier his card before Theon can even do anything. He hands him his fries and gets a kiss on the cheek in return, “I really don’t deserve you”.

Robb tries to ignore how his cheeks are feeling warmer, so he lightly shakes his head and says, “It’s just some fries”.

“You noticed I was hungry and you got me food. You’re adorable.”

Theon silently eats his fries. Robb stops the car near some park so they can go take a walk in the meantime. Theon is humming the song they just heard in the car, it was one hell of a catchy song and Robb would probably have it stuck in his head too, if he hadn’t just realised that maybe, just maybe, he’s hungry too.

“What?” Theon asks him the moment he catches him staring at him eating.

“Can I have one?” Robb asks.

Theon frowns and immediately shakes his head, “No way, get your own!”

That reply is so unexpected it causes Robb to chuckle against his will, “Excuse me?! I literally paid for them!”

“You could have got your own!”

Robb folds his arms against his chest, “Well sharing is caring, now give me your fries.”

Now Theon is laughing too, he grabs one of the fries and feeds it to Robb.

“God I seriously should have got my own too” he mumbles, and Theon hands him the packet of fries afterwards, “I guess we can share”.

“Thanks babe” Robb smiles, extends his hand to grab the pack and notices the small silver thing around Theon’s wrist.

He frowns, “Hey, is this my bracelet?”.

“You left it at my place” once the pack is in Robb’s hands, Theon hides his own inside the pocket of his hoodie.

Robb’s eyebrows are both raised in confusion and amusement now, “And you thought wearing it was better than returning it?”

“I like to wear your things, okay?!” Theon’s a blushing mess. He’s smiling, tho.

“Oh believe me I noticed”

Theon just shrugs, “It makes me feel closer to you” he confesses, avoiding any kind of eye contact.

Robb grabs him by the arm and forces him to look into his eyes, instead.

“Even when I’m right here?” He asks, smiling wickedly at him cause god, how he loves to see him blush like that.

Theon chuckles nervously, then moves to caress Robb’s cheek, “Yeah especially when you’re right here.”

Robb doesn’t get it, but doesn’t say so. He just wait for Theon to understand it on his own and eventually explain himself. It takes him a few minutes and one deep breath, but in the end he says, “Sometimes I wonder how the hell is possible that you’re with me and it helps me, cause then I’m just “of course he’s with me, I’m wearing his briefs””.

That confession is lovely, though Robb doesn’t like how insecure Theon still seems to be. “Insecure” and “Theon” aren’t exactly words that look good if put next to each other, but sometimes it’s just this way: when it comes to their relationship, Theon gets insecure at times. Insecure of himself, like he doesn’t deserve Robb. Robb will never get tired of telling him he’s all he wants and he could never replace him, but sometimes he just wishes Theon would understand it.

“We’ve been together for years by now, hon” he tells him gently.

Theon just shakes his head, “Doesn’t change a thing. I’ll never get used to how amazing you are”

He leans forward to kiss Robb’s lips. They should be having a serious conversation right now, but Robb fears it’d ruin the mood. They can talk about it tonight as they’re lying in bed, that’s usually the moment when they share their deepest conversations. Right now, he just smiles at him as he pulls away, and says, “If sharing is caring does it mean I can wear that beautiful white shi-“

“Absolutely not”

Yeah he should have expected that. Still, “But-“

“Your big ass shoulders would rip it” Theon shakes his head firmly and pats both Robb’s shoulders with his hands, as if to prove his point.

Robb pouts, “You love my big ass shoulders”.

“I sure do, but I love my expensive shirts too”.

“Then can I wear your purple hoodie? The one with the squid?”

Theon’s eyes lit up. It looks like a bulb just turned on above his head, like Robb just gave him the best idea ever.

“Now that would look good on you.” He says, “You know what else would? My cream jumper. God you’d be so adorable with that on. We need to go back to my place so you can try on all my clothes. Come on, let’s go.”

Robb lets him grab his hand as they basically run to the car. When they get home, Theon literally makes him wear all his clothes (expensive shirts excluded, of course). They all smell like Theon. Robb gets why Theon likes to wear his clothes so much, this actually does make him feel closer to him.

Though he notices that night, that the sheets smell like both of them, instead. He doesn’t know how come he never noticed this, but it’s the best smell in the world. Theon is sleeping in Robb’s pyjamas, Robb is sleeping in Theon’s. It all just feels so good.

#throbb #throbb one shot #Theon x Robb

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winterrose527 · 3 years ago

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What does Robb and Jons apartment look like? Does theon live with them?

So I think their apartment is actually pretty nice, mostly because they let Catelyn decorate it. When they are fresh out of college, most of their furniture comes from Winterfell - either the main house (which gives Catelyn an excuse to get new stuff) or from the additional structures on the property.

They've got things on the wall rather than art. Not jerseys or anything but maybe different stuff from growing up that they mount to the wall. The girls are somewhat jealous because it looks really cool and they literally didn't think about it whatsoever.

Sansa is always finding things for them when she goes to flea markets and stuff, and since she has a key sometimes they'll come home and there will just be new things there.

I feel like when she had a bout of pneumonia, Myrcella was so bored that she decided she wanted to learn how to knit and rather than start with a scarf like a normal person she just immediately started with blankets. She was nowhere near as good as Sansa, but she'd used a bunch of her scrap yarn that happened to be good colors for the boys apartment. When she was out of her fever state she tries to get them not to take it, saying that she'll make them a better one but they make a huge point of always having it out and they actually fight over it all the time because though it's pretty ugly it's actually the coziest one they have. She's made them better ones since which they appreciate but that one is still their fave.

They aren't varied cooks but there are a few things that each of them make really well and they are pretty good at sharing food - except ice cream which Robb eats by the carton from the carton.

They have everyone around to theirs to watch football games on Sundays, and sometimes Sansa and Myrcella will come with a huge haul from the farmer's market and use their kitchen to make a big batch of something and Robb and Jon are very 🥰 because everything is so much better when they are there and so they always make sure to have things that the girls like around - like hummus and vanilla coffee so that they want to be there (as though they are there for the hummus and coffee).

(Also I feel like Theon does not live with them or if he does it isn't for very long, but he's over all the time. They don't know how he keeps getting keys.)

What do you think???

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schnoogles · 4 years ago

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For the fluffy holiday fic prompts: Jonsa and #3, secret Santa! 🎁🎅

omg YAY!! thanks so much for the prompt love💕💕

so this kind of got away from me here LMAO but i hope you like it!!

send me a prompt!

“Come on, Jon! Just pull a name out!”

Jon Snow sighed at his friend. The Starks always played Secret Santa every Christmas. And unlike Theon, Jon normally doesn’t stay with them during the holidays, he goes back home to his mother’s. So he’s never played with them before.

Unfortunately, with his starting grad school this year, Jon couldn’t afford the flight home to his mother’s, and Lyanna couldn’t afford the flight to Winterfell. And since he already spends most other holidays and breaks with them, this year, he finally accepted the Starks’ invitation to spend Christmas there.

“Yeah, Jon. You have to, I’ve already put your name in,” Robb’s younger sister, Arya, said smugly, “If you don’t pull a name, it sucks for whoever’s left in the hat.”

Sansa, Robb’s other sister, wiggled the Santa hat with the last slip of paper in front of Jon’s face. She smiled at him. “Give in, Jon. You know you want to.”

“Whoever has my name could always draw again?” he suggested hopefully.

“Nonsense,” Catelyn said, “Jon, you’ve practically been family since Robb brought you home for freshman spring break. Don’t feel awkward about this, it’s all in good fun.”

Other than his own mother, Catelyn Stark was probably the best and kindest mother in the world. Jon couldn’t say no to her.

Jon wished he said no to Catelyn. Of all the names he could have picked. Of all the names! He had to pull Sansa’s. And it wasn’t like there was anything wrong with Sansa. Quite the opposite in fact. She was great. Perfect, actually. And that was the problem. Sansa Stark was perfect and had everything. What could Jon “poor undergrad” Snow possibly get her that she’ll like?

Sansa feels stupid. She couldn’t for the life of her figure out what to get Jon for Christmas. Of course with her shit luck, she’d pull the name of the one person who she’s most nervous about pleasing. But it’s fine. It’s fine. She can just ask Theon to switch with her. He’ll do it, no problem. Besides, he owes her.

“Bro, just get her some jewelry or something. Sansa likes pretty things.”

Jon rubbed his temples. Robb is absolutely no help. But Jon should’ve expected that. “I can’t just get her jewelry, Robb. I don’t think she even wears any. This has to be a good gift!”

“Why?” asked Robb, with a mouthful of butter toffee pretzels.

Before Jon could even think of an answer, a snort came from the hallway. When Jon and Robb looked, they saw a smirking Arya leaning on the doorframe.

“You’re really asking why?” Arya rolled her eyes and then laughed at her brother. “Wow you’re stupid.” She walked away and left an offended Robb and a stressed Jon.

He groaned. “What do you even get someone who already has everything she could possibly want?”

Sansa crossed her arms as she glared at Theon. He hadn’t stopped laughing. “Are you done yet?”

“Sorry, babe. Dunno how to help you here,” he chuckled.

“You could switch with me!”

“Nah, I like who I have.”

“You owe me!”

Theon stopped laughing. “Wh- for what?”

“For saving your ass when-”

“Nuh-uh. Nope!” Theon wagged his finger at her. “You don’t get to keep using that one. I’m sorry we dated the same asshole, but talking the cop out of arresting me for keying that car was forever ago!”

Sansa huffed. “Fine. But can you at least help me? I have no idea what Jon likes! He’s such a… minimalist. What do you get someone who doesn’t want anything?”

“Wow you’re really desperate aren’t you?” Theon looked at her sadly before giving her the biggest shit eating grin. “I mean. Knowing Jon, there’s only one thing he’d like to unwrap for Christmas. You know, tall, red hair, blue eyes, goes by the name Sansa-”

“Theon!”

He laughed. “What? You like him, Sans! Just make your move!”

She sighed. “Please be serious about this?”

“Alright, alright.” Theon thought for a bit. “I heard Tiles are all the rage now. You can get him that?”

“What’s are Tiles?”

“It’s like… like Find My iPhone, but like ‘Find My Whatever it’s Attached To’ instead.”

“Oh. Okay, yeah.” Sansa nodded. “Jon’s pretty forgetful, that should be good, right?”

“Yeah! Like they’re very handy. He can attach it to like -uh- his backpack? Uh… clothes- no. Uh.. a baby…”

Sansa looked at him like he was stupid. Which, fair.

“Oh! Oh, keys! Keys are what people usually attach them to.”

Maybe asking Theon for help was a bad move. Sansa doesn’t understand how she became such close friends with this idiot.

“Oh!”

Jon jumped and turned around. “Sansa? What are you doing up?”

She smiled wryly at him. “I could say the same thing about you.” When he did nothing but smile abashedly at her, she continued into the kitchen and got a mug out of the cupboard. “So,” Sansa said, after realizing Jon wasn’t going to say anything, “What’s someone like you doing up way past his bedtime?” As she continued on making her tea, she looked up to Jon, waiting for an answer.

Jon blinked at her. “Uh…”

Sansa chuckled. “That bad?” She finished making her drink and leaned on the counter, lightly blowing on the cup. “Well, I’m up because I’m a light sleeper. Especially when I’m stressed. Loud noises tend to wake me up.”

Jon suddenly felt incredibly guilty. “Oh gods, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize I was being loud-”

“No no,” Sansa cut him off. “Sorry, that was poorly worded. Lady got up and had a late night snack.”

“Ah.” Jon nodded in understanding and took a sip from his own mug. Hmm, she’s a light sleeper. Maybe I can get her a-

“Yeah, and my white noise machine doesn’t help much either.”

Nope. Jon sighed. What could he get for her? He cleared his throat. “So, what’s got you so stressed.?”

Sansa looked down at her mug. “A mix of a lot of things actually. This time of year always makes me feel a little melancholy.”

Jon scrunched his eyebrows.

“The ghosts of boyfriends past,” she explained.

Right. Jon’s known her for four years and she’s had a total of three boyfriends. Each one worse than the last in his humble opinion. And that had nothing to do with his crush on her, no sir.

“Yeah, Theon mentioned one earlier and it just got me thinking, you know?” Jon nodded at her to continue. “I’ve always loved the idea of some pretty prince charming sweeping me off my feet and showering me with gifts. Guess I realized, I don’t want any of that. Gifts are meaningless if there’s no thought or love behind them, you know?” She looked down embarrassedly, suddenly mortified that she just shared so much with him.

Jon gave her an out. “I still can’t believe you and Theon dated the same person.”

Sansa snorted. “Theon will date anything with pretty hair and a heartbeat.”

Jon cracked a smile. “Not ugly hair and a heartbeat?”

“Oh, gods no. He’s shallow like that.”

They both giggled.

“So…?” Sansa raised an eyebrow at him.

Oh, right. My turn. Jon cleared his throat. “Oh, um, yeah. Stress keeping me up too.” And then Jon suddenly had a thought. Is it considered cheating though? Oh well. “I have absolutely no idea what to get my Secret Santa if I’m honest. You -uh- got any ideas on what you’re getting yours?” He took a discreet sip from his mug.

Nope. “Yeah, I have an idea, I think,” she replied vaguely. “Something meaningful, you know? Can’t tell you though, sorry! It’s Secret Santa. But anyways, Jon, don’t sweat about the gift! This is supposed to be fun! Besides, you know us, we don’t need any fancy schmancy gifts.” How about you take your own advice, Sansa. “Now, that can’t be all you’re stressed about.”

Jon laughed in his drink. “Always so perceptive. No, you’re right. I mean- I am stressed about the gift, but I’m also just… I can’t help but think about my Mom, you know? Sure she has friends back home that she could spend Christmas with, but I can’t help but feel guilty for being here, while she’s at home alone right now. And I just really miss her.” He shrugged and took another sip of his drink. “So, whatcha got there? What kind of tea is it?”

“Oh, er, it’s chamomile. It helps me sleep.”

“That sounds nice. Maybe I should try that and see if it’ll help me sleep too.”

Yes! Maybe I can get him a pack of-

“Too bad I’m more of a hot water type of guy.” He smiled at her and took a sip from his mug. “Never really found the need to drink much of anything else at home.”

A fucking minimalist.

“So,” Arya said, “You got anything yet?”

“Nope,” came a muffled reply from Jon.

“Sucks.” He groaned in his hands and Arya felt pity. “Tell you what, I’ll let you in on a big Sansa secret.”

Jon perked up at that. “What?”

“She doesn’t give two fucks about gifts.”

“That… that doesn’t help, Arya.”

“No, I’m serious. Look,” she said forcefully, “Sansa’s had friends and boyfriends who’d always give her the most lovely and expensive gifts, right?”

“... Still not helping.”

Arya sighed. “What I’m trying to say is those boyfriends? Look around Jon, are they in her life anymore?”

It hit her like a shit ton of bricks. Well, actually. It was more of a passing thought as she was watching her third Christmas movie of the day.

So, with her parents’ permission and Theon’s help, she got to work.

Arya groaned. “You know, it’s called ‘1 hour photo.’ Meaning that the photos won’t be ready for one hour.”

“I’m sorry! I’m just anxious and I wanna get started as soon as possible.”

She rolled her eyes at Jon. He enlisted her help to buy all the things he needed for Sansa’s gift. And to provide some photos.

It was Christmas Day. It was Christmas Day and Jon found he was really missing his mother. He tried calling earlier, but she didn’t answer. She was either still sleeping in, as that was their usual routine, or she was at a friend’s. He sighed. He’ll try calling her again later on in the day.

Jon got up and joined the rest of the house downstairs.

It was Christmas Day. It was Christmas Day and Sansa was nowhere to be found. She told everyone they could get started on gifts without her if they wanted to, but of course no one was going to do that. So they planned on opening gifts after breakfast instead.

They were all in the kitchen eating when they heard the front door open and close.

“Sorry I’m late! I’ll join you guys in just a bit!” She shouted from the other room.

Jon eagerly stood up, intent on helping her with whatever last minute thing that she must’ve gone out to buy. But before he could even move, Theon promptly pushed him back down in his seat.

“Where ya going, buddy?”

“Just gonna see if Sansa needs any help.”

“No worries, I got it.” He proceeded to pour Jon a cup of orange juice. Jon confusedly thanked him and raised the glass to drink it. When he gave Theon a questioning look, Theon explained. “To help quench that thirst of yours.” Arya and Bran snorted into their food while Jon choked on his drink. Robb did neither of those things.

“Wow, you’re such a good friend, Theon!”

“Just getting into that Christmas spirit, Robb.”

He walked smugly out of the room to see whatever it was that Sansa had just gone out for. When Jon finally calmed down, he looked up to see Ned and Catelyn Stark staring right back at him. Both had their eyebrows up in amusement. Oh gods. I can never come back here again.

A few minutes later, Sansa and Theon returned. Jon noted there was nothing in either of their hands. He wasn’t the only one who noticed.

“Didn’t get what you were looking for?” Bran asked.

“Nope,” Sansa replied nonchalantly, “Must be what I get for trying to go to the store on Christmas Day.”

“So you’re telling me we could’ve opened presents by now?” Rickon was shaking his head at his big sister. Hey may be well into his teens, but Rickon was still excited for Christmas gifts.

“Sorry! Tell you what, is everyone done eating? Let’s get to presents right now!”

Catelyn made a move to start clearing the table, but Sansa waved her off. “I’ll do it after we open presents Mom. Don’t worry about it!”

Everyone grabbed whichever gift had their name on it. To keep things anonymous, every gift was wrapped in the same paper and the names were stuck on with pre-printed stickers. Ned passed out the gifts to be opened one by one. When Sansa opened her gift she let out a soft gasp.

“Oh,” she whispered softly, “This is perfect.” She began flipping over each page of the homemade scrapbook. They were filled with photos from the last few years. A lot of the pictures were ones she didn’t even know were taken of her and her family. Family dinners, camping trips, random moments on campus with her friends and family. It was filled with small moments that she forgot had happened. There was even a wristband from a concert Robb and Jon and Theon had taken her to.

“What is it darling?” Her mother asked.

Sansa closed the book and held it close to her chest. “It’s a scrapbook. Filled with a lot of really good memories.” She smiled. She wondered who got her such a thoughtful gift. Before she could try to figure out who it was, Rickon interrupted her.

“Wait, where’s Jon’s gift?” He and Ned looked around the tree to see if they had missed one.

“Oh, no it’s okay!” Jon started waving his hands. “I don’t need a gift!” He was actually a bit relieved. He was awkward when it came to accepting gifts.

“Oh no!” Theon declared very loudly in a strange, overly dramatic voice. “Jon doesn’t have a gift? That’s awful!” At some point during that announcement, he had slowly tilted his head towards the stairs.

Sansa slapped her forehead in disdain. Theon doesn’t have a subtle bone in his body.

“Wait yeah, that’s not right,” Robb agreed. “Jon’s Secret Santa: what the heck?”

“No, I’m good!” Jon argued. “I don’t need a gift.”

“That’s a shame. Should I just hop on a flight and head home then?”

Jon froze when he heard the voice behind him. His jaw slowly dropped and he turned around.

The woman before him tilted her head and smiled. “Hi baby.”

“Mom?”

“Merry Christmas!” Lyanna laughed as her son rushed to hug her.

“What are you doing here?! How’d you get here? Is this why you didn’t answer your phone earlier? Oh my gods!”

Sansa smiled softly at Jon. She figured it out. The one thing he probably wanted most this year was to be with his mother.

“You’ve got some wonderful friends here, Jon.” Lyanna turned around and gestured to Sansa. “This lovely young woman here booked me a flight and picked me up from the airport this morning. If she’s not your girlfriend, then you better get to it!”

“Mom!”

Lyanna ignored her son then looked at the rest of the Starks and laughed. “You people really go all out for Secret Santa gifts don’t you?”

After the initial embarrassment, Jon looked at Sansa with a mixture of disbelief and awe. And she smiled sheepishly back at him.

“Surprise?”

Jon shook his head and chuckled. “I don’t know what’s more unbelievable. You booking a last minute flight for my mother, or the fact that we both pulled each other’s name for Secret Santa.”

Sansa’s eyebrows rose. “You made this for me?” She asked softly.

It was Jon’s turn to look sheepish. He scratched the back of his head, suddenly feeling bashful. “Uh… yeah. I couldn’t think of what to get you. And then you said how you think gifts are meaningless if there’s no thought for the person receiving it and uh, I know how you love your friends and family and-”

Sansa interrupted him by engulfing him in a hug. “Thank you. I love it.”

“Oh noooo, wouldja look at that?”

Theon had somehow attached a suspicious looking holiday plant to the fishing rod he got from his Secret Santa. And he was now dangling it above Jon and Sansa as he lounged on the couch.

Sansa, too busy glaring at Theon, didn’t notice Jon’s blush. When she turned back to Jon, she opened her mouth to give him an out, but he beat her to it.

“I’m game if you are.”

I am SO game.

Sansa leaned in and Jon met her halfway.

“Wait that’s holly, not mistletoe!”

“Robb, shut up. You’re ruining their moment.”

#jonsa fic #jonsaff #jonsa #actuallyjonsa #idk where i was going with this #brought to you by my friend saying you can attach a tile to a baby #💀💀😂#I HOPE YOU LIKE IT KATHARINE #💞💕❤️#my writing #jonsaaaaaa #dreams-for-spring #writing prompt

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cywscross · 5 years ago

Photo

From @lightveils on Twitter (free to use wherever!). I’ve been meaning to do this for a while. I definitely have enough fics to fill it lol~

-0-

A Fic You Love Without Knowing The Source Material:

I was born for this by esama (Assassin’s Creed | Altair x Desmond | M)

Juno did her best to lead him to her preferred fate, but the end is coming and Desmond has doubts.

A Fic With A Premise That Shouldn’t Work But Does:

Proposing To Strangers by moonstalker24 (Teen Wolf | Peter x Stiles | G)

At the end of a strained relationship, crime novelist Stiles chooses to hide from the world inside a bar with far too many motorcycles outside it for comfort. Here he'll meet the man of his dreams, eat food and propose marriage, all within the first five minutes.

Peter doesn't know who this kid is, but he's cute and looks like he could use a break. So he feeds him. He's not expecting a marriage proposal, but with what comes after, he doesn't really mind.

A Fic You’ve Reread Several Times:

Hooverville by twothumbsandnostakeincanon (Teen Wolf | Peter x Stiles | E)

Town to town, train to train, tent to tent.

By 1932, the dust had begun to blow and the jobs were gone.

Anonymity was a byproduct of looking for work, which made it both necessary and convenient.

Stiles had enough secrets of his own to know to look the other way when he saw something that shouldn’t be possible.

The ghost of a tail giving enough balance to disembark a moving train.

Near silent Latin whispered on the edge of a tent encampment.

A flash of burning eyes.

He had more than enough to worry about without adding the oddities of others, and besides- having unusually sharp teeth certainly didn’t make a man worse than the ones running from the wife and kids they couldn’t feed.

So Stiles kept his observations to himself. He kept his everything to himself.

Until he met a man. One with eyes so blue they seemed to glow- and then they did.

Stiles tried to look away, but for the first time he was stopped.

“Don’t be like that sweetheart. Aren’t you curious?”

A Fic You Still Remember Many Years Later:

All True-Hearted Souls by mardia (Temeraire | Laurence x Granby | G)

“For God's sake, if someone doesn't talk Laurence out of these constant heroics, I wouldn't bet a farthing on his chances; no, and not ours either.” Four times that John Granby helped save William Laurence's life. Laurence/Granby. Spoilers up to Empire of Ivory.

A Comfort Fic:

Nothing Improper by Bunnywest (Teen Wolf | Peter x Stiles | G)

“How long since someone touched you, sweet boy?” Peter asks, his voice barely a breath in Stiles’ ear. “Days? Weeks? Months?” Stiles nods imperceptibly at that last one.

“After…after everything, after Allison,” is all Stiles manages to get out.

A Cathartic Fic:

Swing by ShippersList (Teen Wolf | Peter x Stiles | T)

Stiles wants to fly.

A Fic You’d Print And Put On Your Bookshelf:

Nose to the Wind by Batsutousai (HP | Tom x Harry | M)

While Harry had been content with his second chance, that didn't keep him from thinking what he could have done different, how many people could have survived if he hadn't been set on the very specific path he'd walked. Third time is the charm, though, right?

A Fic You Associate With A Song (x2):

Strange Duet by BelleAmante, thiliart (thilia) (Teen Wolf | Peter x Stiles | M)

The past three years have been a series of shocking, or not so shocking, successes for 2018 Tony award winner and two time Grammy nominee, Stiles Stilinski. You don’t typically find classically trained opera singers singing alternative folk rock to crowds at Coachella. Nor do you find indie singer/songwriters winning best actor awards at the Tony’s for their Broadway debuts. Stilinski has made it his lifetime habit to defy and exceed all expectations.

-or-

A Steter fic loosely based on Phantom of the Opera

Full Circle by Nike Femme (FMA | Roy x Ed | T)

Edward Elric returns with amnesia. He has lived the past four years as Auric, a Gatekeeper. But there are some battles that only he can fight. Will his friends be able to awaken Ed, and what happens to Auric if they do?

A Fic That Inspires You:

Off the Line by esama (FFVII | Cloud x Vincent | T)

In which Cloud gets a Virtual Reality Dream Console – ShinRa's latest in virtual reality technology. Aaand everything pretty much goes downhill from there.

A Fic That Brought You On Board A New Ship:

Me and Mine by linndechir (Fast and the Furious | Deckard x Owen | E)

The last time they'd spoken, Deckard had told Owen that he was tired of cleaning up his messes. But the first thing he did after breaking out of prison was to take Owen to the other end of the world so they could lick their wounds and start planning their revenge.

A Fic You Wish Could Be A Movie:

Moving In (To Every Single Aspect of Danny’s Life, Including the Boring Bits like Dry-Cleaning) by westgirl (Hawaii Five-0 | Steve x Danny | T)

It felt wrong for Steve to sound unsure of his place in Danny’s life. His place in Danny’s life was at Danny’s side, driving him slowly insane. Steve should feel secure about that.

A Fic That Led To You Making Friends With The Author:

Begin and End by Rikkamaru (Log Horizon x HP | G)

This is how it begins: a boy rejected by his family, a boy reunited with his brother by his sister-in-law's intervention. A boy who found a family in an online game. But how will it end?

FREE SPACE:

Reverti Ad Praeteritum by Batsutousai (Fullmetal Alchemist | Roy x Edward | M)

Unwillingly forced to serve as a human trial for a crazy alchemist experimenting with time travel, Edward Elric finds himself standing across from Truth in the moment it takes his leg from him. Armed with the knowledge of what's to come and burdened with guilt for the choices he'd made as an adult, Ed sets out to fix every mistake he ever made and save every life they ever lost, no matter what it takes.

A Fic You’ve Gushed About IRL:

Designation: Miracle by umisabaku (Kuroko no Basket | M)

It's been three years since seven human experiments, called "Miracles," escaped Teiko Industries, alerting the world to the presence of super-powered children. Now they're finally integrating into society-- going to normal high schools, playing basketball, falling in love-- and trying to find out if it's possible to truly escape their past.

A Fic You Associate With A Place (have to self-rec for this one):

Safe Harbour by cywscross (Teen Wolf | Peter x Stiles x Chris | T)

Peter didn't think he'd find a home here. He certainly didn't think he'd find a home with two other men.

Chris and Stiles prove him wrong.

A Fic That Made You Gasp Out Loud (kind of? it was suspenseful):

Sanctuary by DiscontentedWinter (Teen Wolf | Peter x Stiles | E)

The Hale Wolf Sanctuary isn’t just for wolves.

It turns out it’s for Stilinskis as well.

A Fic You Found At The Right Time:

slow increments by Areiton (Teen Wolf | Peter x Stiles)

Peter is enigmatic, egotistical, sometimes barely sane. He's sharp and cutting and takes more time to care for the pack than anyone.And sometimes, John catches him watching Stiles.

A Fic That You Would Read Fic Of:

if you try to break me, you will bleed by Dialux (Game of Thrones | Jon x Sansa | T)

It had been a slash across her chest from a White Walker’s sword that finally ended her life. Sansa’d landed in a puddle of her own blood, and she’d died quickly, quietly.

And then she’d awoken with a gasp, trembling, in a bed that had burned under Theon’s betrayal.

A Fic That Made You Laugh Out Loud:

The Path towards Unwilling Godhood by Sky_King (Bleach | Kisuke x Ichigo | G)

Ichigo has never had the most normal life, and this latest chapter of it is no different.

"I'm not a god!"

A Fic With A Line (Or Two) That You’ve Memorized By Heart:

Atlas by distractedKat (Star Trek | Spock x Jim | T)

Between what was and what will be stands James Tiberius Kirk, in all his fractured patchwork glory. Because saving the Federation was only the beginning.

A Fic That Gave You Butterflies:

The Rest of Our Lives by mia6363 (Teen Wolf | Peter x Stiles | T)

“I don’t know, as a kid I watched a lot of movies, you know? And at first I figured like… I’d be on some great adventure that would take me away from it all, you know? Like Indiana Jones comes around and is all, ‘Hey Stiles, buddy, come with me we’ve got to go save the world.’ Then… you and… everything happened… then I just… I figured I’d die before I was eighteen.”

A Fic That Embodies Something You Value In Life:

The Boy Sleuth by Shey (Teen Wolf | Peter x Stiles | T)

Stiles is eight when he discovers a box of his mom’s old Nancy Drew Mysteries in the back of the guest bedroom closet.

A Favourite AU:

Love What is Behind You by KouriArashi (Teen Wolf | Peter x Stiles | M)

Basically what it says on the label. Hunger Games type fusion. Stiles doing way better than anyone anticipates. Peter finds him intriguing. Ruthless, devious assholes working together to ruin bad guys, as the Steter ship is meant to be.

A Fic You Stayed Up Too Late To Finish Reading:

Of Dwobbits, Dragons and Dwarves by ISeeFire (The Hobbit | Fem!Bilbo x Fili | T)

Bilba has been a slave her entire life. All she knows of the outside world is what she sees from time to time outside the gates of Moria and the stories her mother used to tell her. Stories of a place called the Shire where her mother once lived and a placed called Erebor where, as far as she knows, her father still lives. Stories of dragons a thousand times larger, and more intelligent, than the beasts the orcs rode and of a strange concept called freedom where one was allowed to live as they wished with no one to tell them what they could, or could not do.

The stories meant little to Bilba. The only future she had was to live, and die, as a slave as countless number had before her.

And then the orcs dragged an injured female firedrake through the gates, her rider screaming obscenities behind her as he fought to reach her side...and everything changed.

A Fic That Made You Feel Seen (another self-rec lol):

i am addicted to death (so remind me what it’s like to live) by cywscross (Teen Wolf | Peter x Stiles | T)

Stiles is sixteen years old. He has already died seventy-eight times.

#Fic Rec Bingo #Bingo #Misc Fanfic Rec

153 notes · View notes

janiedean · 4 years ago

Note

Hi! I'm the Plato anon for before. First of, thank you so much for your offer, but I think I managed on me own. Second, could you elaborate on the "analysing as YA" vs "analysing as an adult" approach? I assumed that "discourse people" on this website generally don't go beyond "antagonist is bad because they are against the hero!" out of ignorance/lack of interest except to score Internet Fame Points, not that it was due a specific mindest. I also don't really read YA (except Tiffany Aching)

TIFFANY ACHING!! T_T ANON LET ME HUG YOU it’s like the only YA I actually liked in my entire life apart from nick hornby’s one book but that wasn’t typical lmao

THAT SAID, well your discourse people point is pretty much part of it but since I’m here and I can rant have the entire thing I was too tired to hash yesterday ;) so, in order:

first thing, we need to establish that ya books and **adult** books generally have different target audiences which is fine and good because obviously if you want to write a thing you’ll do that for An Audience That You Have In Mind; this doesn’t mean that adults can’t read ya or that teenagers can’t read **adult books** because everyone can read what they want (and personally for one I never cared for ya in my entire life not even when I was the target audience), but it simply means that some books are meant to be liked by one category first and eventual others later and they need to be talked about in that specific context first and everything else later - then there might be books that are aimed for kids/young readers or sold like that or that can be read on more than one level which can be appreciated for different things later in time (for example I read huck finn at sixteen and I absolutely loved it but it was a book that here is seen as good reading material also for eight year olds, and at eight I wouldn’t have liked it for the reasons I did at sixteen, and if I read it now I would still like it, while a bunch of the books for kids I read when I was seven is stuff I enjoyed then but forgot now and probably was good for that age but didn’t stick with me);

second thing, that means that when I discuss a young adult book aimed at teenagers I will never hold it to the standards I would hold a book aimed at a general adult audience, especially if it’s the kind of ya like dunno as stated the vampire diaries aimed at teenage girls which is obviously the kind where you have the fantasy world with the hot dark guy who swoons the high schooler protagonist off her feet etc because that stuff is basic teenage girl fantasy 101 and like... I’ll expect a bunch of romance tropes, the usual push and pull, the guy eventually being into her, the protagonist being someone a fourteen year-old can see herself in, probably a few sexual elements thrown here and there and so on, because that’s the shit marketed at fourteen year-olds who want to read that and like... it’s really not that deep. I can’t ask the vampire diaries to be moby dick because it’s not meant to be. or, if I read percy j/ackson - which is another thing I have zero interest in but I know about because I see tweets from the author - I expect to have a bunch of teens coming into their own coming from different backgrounds because the author wants to represent properly a lot of categories so most of his readers can have someone they can see themselves in and like if a thirteen year-old who suspects being lgbt or whatever sees themselves in the gay kid from per/cy jackson guess what that’s what that book is for, so I won’t judge it on like... being a faithful representation of greek myths or how good the style is or whatever, because even if to me it’s not top notch writing or has a plot idc about it has to be for teenagers and pre-teens, not for me, a thirty year old who again didn’t even like pre-teen aimed literature when she was a pre-teen;

third, I can extra clarify it using the damned hp discourse, as in: when I say I’m tired of people not reading anything else or reading everything like hp, it means that they read it when they were growing up/were teens and it was aimed at them which is fine, but then twenty fucking years later when the people in question are way beyond their twenties (guys I’m almost 32 and I remember when the first one came out come on) when talking about any single piece of media in existence (movies, comics, other books) use hp characters/situations as the terms of paragon - like guys I had to read sn/ape comparisons with theon and ky/lo ren on the basis that THEY’RE GREY CHARACTERS as if sn/ape is the only grey character that ever existed, people keep on talking about vold/emort as the only bad guy that ever existed and so on, and like... you can’t talk about, idk, asoiaf or any book aimed at an adult audience like you’d talk about hp, because at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if I read comparisons between sn/ape and ivan karamazov and I think I don’t need to specify how completely nonsensical that would be;

now, with all of this explained, what I mean is: ya in general - which is not a fault per se of the genre since it’s aimed at teens and pre-teens - tends to have... very fixed narrative schemes depending on which teens it’s addressing - like, stuff like tvd or twilight is obviously the romance teenage girl fantasy where you have the girl fighting to be with the dark beautiful supernatural creature in question, per/cy jackson is more like I’ll give you a bunch of relatable characters having cool adventures against bad guys with the occasional redemption so we can see that people are redeemable but you still have right vs wrong, hp is sort of like that in the sense you get relatable-ish protagonist with relatable friends growing up throughout the entire thing and fighting on the good side vs the evil side including the usual death of the mentor plus people who seemed bad actually not being bad™ except that PJ has more povs and better rep from what I gather but that’s not the point so it’s basically the growing up journey for the young protagonist(s) the kid sees themselves in, then there’s stuff like hunger games where you actually have the dystopian worldbuilding just written to be enjoyable by younger people who don’t want to get too depressed (and ngl I haven’t read the books but I’ve seen the first two movies and guys the way everyone ignores the classist commentary in thg to discuss the love triangle is... a staple of the problem tbh) but still try to introduce deeper themes and have more nuanced characters and at the same time are still written to be enjoyed maybe by the more adult side of the target, and at the same time I can’t say that thg is the same as 1984 when it comes to target audience because 1984 doesn’t make the ugly dystopian themes more accessible using the love story/teenage protagonist etc;

at this point the problem is: if you only ever read ya and nothing else in your life (which is what a lot of people here do - guys again when I got here in 2011 if people didn’t discuss hp they discussed john gr/een, the only *adult*-aimed book I see discussed on tumblr is asoiaf... because of got X°DDD) then you end up seeing every other piece of literature expecting what you do out of a young adult and then you expect adult literature out of young adults/ya to approach certain implications the way an adult novel would, which is... frankly ridiculous;

specific examples: I see blogs which are principally about like ya fantasy books ie acotar or shadow/hunters or whatever shitting on grrm because AAAAH HE’S PROBLEMATIC/MISOGYNIST/HE HAS VIOLENCE AND RAPE IN THE BOOKS BLAH BLAH and like... spoilers: if I wrote a fantasy series aimed at fourteen year-olds who want their fantasy romance with the hot dark guy who is maybe a tiny bit problematic but turns their leaf for them I would hold back on blood and violence, if I wrote a fantasy for adults where I want to be realistic about misogyny I will not, and the fact that grrm gets judged on what happens and not how he writes it (and again, saying that a guy who has 1/3rd of his pov characters female except that it’s actually 50/50 because there are no throwaway povs except for mel while guys have a lot more of them and all the female povs have narrative weight [and mel has it before she gets one] and all of them have a different personality and he also has the same trope [brienne and arya] in two people with wildly different personalities and needs which is basically a goddamned miracle is a misogynist because there’s misogyny in his fantasy world is ridiculous imvho) which is.... exactly expecting of asoiaf what you’d expect out of acotar, when grrm and acotar’s writer write for wildly different audiences. now, if I had read acotar at 15 and asoiaf at 15 I’d have had no doubt re asoiaf being more my thing because again the subgenre acotar goes for is not my thing because I never related to that fantasy while brienne is my rep, but in general a 14yo girl who likes the acotar-like stuff will not care for grrm.... which is normal because grrm writes for adults of both genders, not teenage girls (I mean teenage boys also have their own subgenres for which the same rules are valid), and someone who likes percy jackson (aimed at both genders but like... pre-teens early teens) who doesn’t gaf for grrm won’t because it’s not aimed at them unless they like grrm for other reasons ie idk they realize that they relate to jon snow idk but you see my point, so like tldr that’s what I mean with if you only read ya you’ll expect adult writers to handle their themes like ya writers would and like... sorry but if I write stuff for adults I won’t feel the need to specify that the bad guy is B A D with neon lights because an adult should grasp that from the narrative, I don’t need to make sure it’s obvious bc it’s aimed at kids;

reverse: when I see people saying ‘the vampire diaries is problematic because it’s about people who are a hundred years old preying on teenage girls so we need to stop teenage girls from reading that kind of thing because it makes them think it’s okay to go with someone that much older than them’, we’re at the opposite problem in the sense that you’re asking a young adult novel what you would ask of AN ADULT NOVEL when there’s no point in it. like, a teenage girl knows perfectly that damon salvatore doesn’t exist and vampires don’t exist and werewolves don’t exist - the entire point of tvd is that she gets to fawn over the hot supernatural dude who changes for the better thanks to the female protagonist she most likely sees herself in and she gets to have a few nice fantasies about that which is like... normal for people who are developing their sexualities, most people wouldn’t actually want damon salvatore the way he’s exactly in canon irl because they know it’s a fantasy and so it should stay. like, sorry but as someone who watched the show because ian somerhalder is hot in her twenties and tried the first book and gave it up at page 30 because I couldn’t do it, I can 100% assure anyone that the biggest issues with tvd books are that the writing is really fucking bad (for my standards at least), with the tvd show that from S4 the writing spiraled downwards and no one wanted the magical vampire pregnancy witch twins ridiculousness, but none of the content actually was shit that anyone would take seriously like that and I wouldn’t expect tvd to approach that subject realistically. if I read a vampire book aimed at adults who actually wants to write such a relationship as creepy WELL YES OF COURSE I’D EXPECT IT TO BE OBVIOUS ABOUT IT BEING CREEPY, but if it’s aimed at freaking teenagers... it’s a fantasy and not really that deep, take it for what it is and let teenage girls enjoy thinking about smooching damon salvatore (or stefan or whoever) without assuming they need to be protected from Horrible Vampire Fiction™, same as no one goes bitching about unrealistic sex scenes in serialized romance books because people read them because they’re unrealistic and escapism, not because they expect nobel prize worthy exploration of themes from them;

now, ^^^^^^ would not happen if people actually read variedly and studied some decent lit analysis in school - but like, after I had to read I think at some point that of mice and men is ableist... THAT’S the damned point - with ya you can take a lot of the plot at face value, with adult lit you can’t and you have to see motivation beyond the action of the characters and you can’t do that if you only read books aimed at pre-teens/teenagers where obviously that’s... more spelled out than it would be in a book aimed at an adult audience;

that by the way also means wildly missing actual adult themes discussion in ya, because again, I haven’t read thg but from the two movies I’ve seen it’s fucking obvious that the whole thing is an anti us-classism commentary from how the districts are built to how the games are rigged to pretty much everything in the worldbuilding, but all the discourse I see on tumblr is about either the love triangle or katniss being miscast or president snow being a jerk and whatever else, but I never once saw anyone saying ‘heeeeey the people in katniss’ district are an in your face metaphor of poor people in the us of a belonging to certain categories while the first few districts are absolutely the 1% and the entire point of it is that she wants to tell you A CLASSIST SOCIETY IS BAD AND WILL LEAD TO REVOLUTIONS’, which to me was... like, glaring, it was literally what 90% of the entire thing was about and no one ever discusses it in a fandom-wide sense (I mean... I saw a bunch of hg posts back when the movies came out, I never saw this brought out), which... is a problem because it means that the moment people are put in front of a ya product that actually tackles that kind of issue.... they go and worry about the love triangle (which seemed to me the excuse to draw the people in the story) not about the social commentary, and like, maybe a twelve year-old won’t catch on the social commentary, a twenty-year old especially from the us should, and I don’t see that happening;

and sorry but that is because if you only engage with content aimed at a younger audience than your target first you assume that every piece of literature should be consumable/readable/enjoyable by a younger audience (and sorry but no, some of us don’t want to write stuff making sure teenagers like it) and then ask of actual ya media to cater to their *adult* needs and not to the needs of the target audience because wow obviously if you’re 25 you won’t want out of literature what you wanted at fourteen;

and this also is valid for children’s media because again, I’m cutting it short, but adults watching st/even universe and sending people death threats because they don’t agree with their opinion of a cartoon aimed at an audience that’s at moooostttt eight years old is a thing that shouldn’t even fucking exist, and if you think steven/universe is that important at an adult age you need to re-assess your priorities;

tldr: adults should not expect media aimed at kids/teens to cater to their interests and shouldn’t analyze it the way they’d analyze a piece of media aimed at an adult audience and should not presume that every piece of media should have the scope/schemes of medias aimed at kids/teens because some of us don’t want to read that.

now, I’ll leave you with a nice short anecdote which hopefully will further clarify what I mean and add to another point which would be, kids and teens don’t give a fuck about what you, an adult, do: when everyone was in a frenzy about my little pony back in 2013 or so I had to see a ton of posts like ‘AAAAAH MEN/BOYS WHO ARE INTO MLP ARE STEALING THE SHOW FROM YOUNG GIRLS HOW DARE THEY ENJOY IT WE NEED TO KICK THEM OUT’ with added people saying that a ten year old male kid who tried to kill himself bc his friends bullied him bc he liked mlp deserved it and the likes, my only thought was that... when I was 8-10 in elementary school and was actually the target for cartoons and stuff, sailor moon was the rage between all girls my age me included, we’d spend recess playing pretend (and I’d get stuck playing sailor mars bc no one wanted her, sad) and our hugest first world problem in existence was that we needed technically a mamoru and of course no self-respecting boy in elementary school would have admitted under death threats to watching sailor moon because it was a girls’ thing (aaaaah gender roles in the early-mid 90s, how fun) so everyone despaired because ofc no one wanted to play mamoru... and the few times any guy actually showed up like HEEEEY I WANNA DO IT BUT PLEASE DON’T TELL MY FRIENDS I LIKE SAILOR MOON we’d all be like OMG YOU’RE OUR NEW FAVORITE PERSON PLEASE YOUR SECRET IS SAFE because we couldn’t believe we found the magical boy™ who wanted to do it, and if anyone had told us that the kid in question was stealing sailor moon from us we’d have laughed in their face.

like.

kids don’t ask of media what you, an adult do, and it’s unfair of you, an adult, to ask children’s/ya media to cater to your damned interests, which are amply catered to by the tons of adult literature around which also forces you to push on your views and read more challenging things and to not read/watch stuff at face value, which is why I would really appreciate it if the amount of 20yo people on here who I consider adults engaged with more adult media and let themselves be challenged instead of just going back to ya/kids’ things, which are good for teens and kids and can be enjoyed by everyone but should not be the only goddamned genre you measure all other literature against because then you get people saying that lolita is pro-pedo when it’s exactly the goddamned contrary, but if you think that pov character = protagonist = good guy (which is... staple kids/ya stuff for obvious reasons) then you decide that humbert humbert is someone you’re supposed to root for. too bad that you’re not and the author was an actual csa victim so it’s a completely ridiculous reading that wouldn’t happen if you didn’t read lolita the way you read hp.

... okay, I’m done, sorry for how long this was, I hope it cleared things for good xD

#literature for ts #janie rants #idek #Anonymous #ask post #suicide attempt cw

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luchibelle · 5 years ago

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Catelyn Stark, a wild woman

More similar to Arya than you would expect

Catelyn Stark has adapted well in her society, she has managed to find her place in a medieval society where women had very little power. She played an obedient role most of her life but at times she fights back the same way Arya would in her position. It is usually said that Sansa resembles Catelyn more than Arya does. Arya is wild and impulsive, unlike Catelyn. The more I think about it, the more I disagree with that statement.

Let's just focus on her actions in A Game of Thrones, the first book. Only one book, or the post would never end.

One of the first things she ever does is travelling to King's Landing. Any woman would have stayed at Winterfell ruling the castle delegating in someone else to inform Ned of Bran's attack and her suspicions on the matter. Four men (Ser Rodrick, Maester Luwin, Theon and Robb) knew everything too, any of them could have sent the message. Instead, Catelyn takes the job and brings Ser Rodrick to defend her, instead of letting him go alone. That is a very rare behaviour for a woman of her time.

There was only one place to find the truth of it, Catelyn realized. “Someone must go to King’s Landing.” (...) She looked at Ser Rodrik with his great white whiskers, at Maester Luwin in his grey robes, at young Greyjoy, lean and dark and impetuous. Who to send? Who would be believed? Then she knew. (...) “I must go myself.”

AGOT, Catelyn III.

Two chapters later, Catelyn decides to arrest Tyrion in the name of the King. Let it sink, IN THE NAME OF THE KING. She does it without consulting his husband or his majesty Robert of House Baratheon. That's an impulsive decision she takes on the spot.

“This man came a guest into my house, and there conspired to murder my son, a boy of seven,” she proclaimed to the room at large, pointing. Ser Rodrik moved to her side, his sword in hand. “In the name of King Robert and the good lords you serve, I call upon you to seize him and help me return him to Winterfell to await the king’s justice.”

AGOT, Catelyn V.

When the mountain clans attack her, she tries to fight back instead of hiding behind a rock. That is something Arya would have done too, they may not know how to defend themselves but they will try nonetheless. They try to fight back, none of them act as the stereotypical maiden in distress that hides and waits for a man to save her.

Catelyn Stark was trapped against the stone face of the mountain with three men around her, one still mounted and the other two on foot. She had a dagger clutched awkwardly in her maimed hands, but her back was to the rock now and they had penned her on three sides.

AGOT, Tyrion IV.

They arrive to the Eyre, meet Lysa, do a trial by combat that proves Tyrion inocent and finally Catelyn decides it's time to go home. On the march she finds out Ned has been imprisioned and Robb has called his banners. A medieval woman would have headed home, done with so many adventures. Let men handle the situation. But not her, Catelyn decides to go to her father instead of taking care of her children, one of them a baby, as a mother should be doing. And while she is at it, give Robb some advise on war tactics.

Robb nodded and roled up the map. “I’ll give the commands, and assemble an escort to take you home to Winterfell.” Catelyn had fought to keep herself strong, for Ned’s sake and for this stubborn brave son of theirs. She had put despair and fear aside, as if they were garments she did not choose to wear... but now she saw that she had donned them after all. “I am not going to Winterfell,” she heard herself say, surprised at the sudden rush of tears that blurred her vision. “My father may be dying behind the walls of Riverrun. My brother is surrounded by foes. I must go to them.”

AGOT, Catelyn VIII.

She is willingly going to a war zone instead of retreating to safety. Catelyn is scared but that doesn't stop her from going where she wants to go.

Arya is scared too on the march to the Wall with the Night's Watch recruits, she is scared while she crosses the Riverlands, and yet the fear doesn't stop her. She could have stayed at King's Landing as a hostage, much safer than a war zone. Instead, she chooses the danger because it will get her where she wants to go, Winterfell.

The Stark party arrives to the Twins and they must negotiate with Lord Frey to cross the river.

Catelyn Stark shared all their doubts, but she had only to glance at Ser Stevron to see that he was not pleased by what he was hearing. A few more words and the chance would be lost. She had to act, and quickly. “I will go,” she said loudly. “You, my lady?” The Greatjon furrowed his brow.

AGOT, Catelyn IX.

Greatjon furrows his brow confused, in his mind he is thinking: why would Catelyn go make a deal with Lord Frey when they have a lot of lords out there who swore fealty to House Stark waiting to have a chance to proove their loyalty? It reads as an impulsive decision, she thinks there is no one better than her and goes negotiate fast so Robb won't have a chance to think about it carefully. We know Catelyn is very cappable of doing the job; that does not mean it is normal to let a woman do it, not in a society like the westerosi.

Two chapters later, in Catelyn's last chapter, we get a glimpse on what the Greatjon and Lord Karstark, representing the westerosi men, think of women. And how Catelyn reacts to it.

“You are a woman, my lady,” the Greatjon rumbled in his deep voice. “Women do not understand these things.”

“You are the gentle sex,” said Lord Karstark, with the lines of grief fresh on his face. “A man has a need for vengeance.”

“Give me Cersei Lannister, Lord Karstark, and you would see how gentle a woman can be,” Catelyn replied.

AGOT, Catelyn XI.

She is not like the other women, Catelyn doesn't stand by watching. While at peace, she has played her role: ruling a castle, raising her kids and essentialy being a good wife. Once the war starts, she spends her time out there having adventures and putting herself in a dangerous position. That speaks of Arya to me. And just like her daughter, Catelyn feels constricted by society, even if she might not be aware of it. They don't act as they are expected to do. As it should be because "the woman is important too".

What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

#asoiaf meta #catelyn stark meta #catelyn stark #catelyn tully #arya stark #agot #a game of thrones #asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #grrm #george rr martin #luchibelle #a feast for quotes

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goodmeowningcols · 5 years ago

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Jonrya Week 2020: Day 5 - Wounds

Jon Targaryen was completely crushed three years ago when his favourite little cousin Arya got lost in the Ruby Ford at the Trident after a suspicious incident including Joffrey Lannister and Sansa. No matter how hard the authorities tried, she was never found again. This led her father Ned to die of a broken heart.

Presently, he lives in Winterfell with his cousins Robb, Bran, and Rickon, as well as their foster brother Theon Greyjoy. Sansa, the eldest, moved to the Vale to live with her Aunt Lysa because her current boyfriend Harry Hardyng lives there. Jon’s mother Lyanna has been helping Aunt Cat out as she grieves her husband.

One evening, a child with close-cropped hair crosses his path in the Wolfswood while running away from sinister-looking adults with panic. Jon sneaks the child into the castle and his room. Taking a closer look under the glow of a lamp, Jon realises that the child is actually Arya, driving him to tears.

Arya doesn’t talk much at first and seems to have forgotten a lot of things. Jon wonders where she’s been all this time. Slowly, he comes to know her story as she reveals it little by little.

Arya had escaped a secret cult that kidnaps and brainwashes children into committing all sorts of atrocities. She’s been kept a prisoner all this time, as they force her to use her innate warging ability to go into the Underworld using various avatars. There are horrible things there, monsters from the North’s ancient history. The most heinous wants her, as if he knows her from a previous life. He is the leader of an undead army. They call him the Night King.

And now her kidnappers are on her trail. Worse, this organisation is extremely connected, with the most powerful bank funding it. Even the government is in its pocket. They will stop at nothing to have Arya back in their clutches for she is their greatest weapon.

Jon swears to protect her from them and to do that, he must first keep her a secret. So she stays in his room where he brings her food, talks to her, and just holds her when she cries. He also gives her a sword from the vaults so that she could protect herself: it is an ancient heirloom called Needle.

Most of all, he’s supportive and caring and tries to make her happy. He even calls her pretty, reassuring her as she looks at her short hair in front of a mirror, because she still remembers Sansa and her friends who used to bully her and call her ugly names. Jon tells her that she can now grow her hair long and like before, he will mess it no matter the length. This makes her smile, causing him to smile back. There is warmth inside his chest.

Soon, Robb, Theon, and Bran find out about her and they all give Jon a piece of their mind for keeping her a secret from them. Still, they keep her a secret for as long as they could.

But soon, the fragile gate that divides their world from the Underworld crumbles and one by one, the wights and White Walkers emerge, intent on revenge against the city that defeated them. They’re forced to tell adults but thankfully his mother Lyanna is a fighter through and through, and Uncle Benjen, who is a cop, is staunchly on their side.

They soon discover that with the exception of Theon, all the Stark children could warg, with Bran being the strongest. This includes Jon. Soon they’re fighting as powerful direwolves from the Lands of Always Winter, ripping wights to shreds with their teeth. It is Bran and Arya who ultimately close the gate together, keeping away the Night King from their world.

The days after are tough as the adults protect Arya from the cult. Uncle Benjen manages to broker a deal with them so she could go back to a normal life.

Arya goes to school for the first time in over three years. She’s decent at it, having been taught by tutors even in captivity. She and the boys hang out together and sometimes they even include the baby Rickon. They have endless days of playing Dungeons and Dragons, Atari, biking in the Wolfswood, or just listening to Rock and Roll.

But it is Jon she goes to at the end of the day, needing his quiet comfort as she’s plagued with nightmares. Jon is secretly happy despite the circumstances. He will always have a place for her next to him.

Thankfully, the biggest problem they have the next year is the school’s Snow Ball. The rest of the boys find dates, but Jon goes directly to Arya and asks her to be his.

Arya smiles a rare smile and says yes.

#jonrya #jonarya #jonrya week 2020 #jonrya week #jonrya january 2020 #jonrya january #jonrya fic #jon/arya #jon x arya #modern jonrya #modern asoiaf #stranger things au #asoiaf #got #jon snow #goodmeowningcols #arya stark

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mcdynamite · 5 years ago

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[Spoilers] I think GoT 8.05 made perfect sense, and here’s why:

Hello people of Tumblr! I’ve seen a lot of people bashing the most recent episode of Game of Thrones for a number of reasons and I want to step up to the plate and go to bat for the show. To clarify, I dislike D&D as much as pretty much everyone else who watches the show. I think the writing has been lazy, the dialogue has been lacking, and the lead in to some of the things that have happened this season could definitely be better. But everything that happened in 8.05 makes sense, and I actually liked the episode. This is why.

Cersei’s Demise is kinda perfect.

I know a lot of us, myself included, were looking forward to a brutal, sadistic death for a brutal, sadistic woman. But here’s the thing... in its own way, it was a totally brutal way for her to go out. Think about it, Cersei has spent pretty much her entire life talking her way out of things, manipulating people, and in general feeling more powerful than everyone else around her, including her family. She died finally realizing that she was completely helpless and all hope was lost. She died knowing that her arrogance and often unnecessary brutality was what had cost herself, her children, the man she loves, and even her own father their lives.

She couldn’t sass the collapsing rock to death. She couldn’t stall and wait for The Mountain to come to her aid. She couldn’t do anything but break down and cry and tell Jaime she wanted their baby to live, trapped in the same underground passages where she vowed to destroy all three of Dany’s dragons. Cersei wasn’t publicly executed in front of thousands of onlookers. She died UNDERGROUND, unthought of and uncared for by anyone else in the world but Jaime. She died the same death as all of the innocent citizens who died that day in part because of her own arrogance. It wasn’t special. It was lonely, hidden, and desperate - a fitting end for a woman who’s lived her whole life believing in her own importance.

And speaking of Cersei, even Jaime’s apparent regression makes some sense.

Ah, Jaime Lannister, one of the most emotionally complicated men in all of Westeros. I’m not gonna lie, this disappointed me because I had hoped for better for Jaime, but not because it didn’t make sense. We were ALL rooting for Jaime to ditch Cersei, become the noblest man in the whole world and just be with Brienne, who clearly loves him. But if you take a minute to think about it, while Jaime’s character development has been significant, it never really veered away from loving Cersei.

He’s always been doing what’s best for her, and yes, that includes when he left her to head North. Jaime did that because humanity was in danger, and as such, Cersei was in danger. Barely over a season ago in 7.03, Jaime tells Olenna Tyrell that his love for Cersei has grown beyond his control. He openly admits it and tells Olenna that he doesn’t believe people will care how Cersei took the throne once they’re living in the world she built. He clearly still loves Cersei here, and while he’s tempering some of her most heinous ideas, like flaying Olenna alive, he’s still carrying out her orders. “For Cersei,” as he always says.

Jaime’s love for Cersei went far beyond his control. It was almost more like an addition than true love. His love for Brienne was pure and kind, but even the purest love can’t sway the grasp of an addition. Cersei was all Jaime had ever known, so even if he loved Brienne, even if he knew Cersei was hateful, even if he knew she was doing unspeakable things to the people of Westeros, it STILL makes sense that he went back. It’s legitimately not at all different from some abusive relationship in real life. One partner may realize that the other is abusive and hateful, but they can’t bring themselves to walk away, and when they do, they may go back. That doesn’t make them bad people, and it certainly doesn’t “undo” all of Jaime’s character development over the course of the series.

Jaime Lannister is an immensely complicated character, and this is GAME OF THRONES we’re talking about. It’s a very human show. So frankly, if he has genuinely left Cersei without a second glance, that would have been immensely disappointing. It’s just not how people work, not after admitting how deep in the relationship he was literally just 9 episodes prior and only leaving to protect mankind from being destroyed.

And finally, let’s talk about the psychotic break of Daenerys Targaryen.

First, just a quick reminder at how utterly human this show is. We’ve got all sorts of realistic depictions of human nature in Game of Thrones. We have very real depictions of PTSD (looking at you, Theon and Sansa), realistic depictions of the horrors of slavery, realistic depictions of racism and ableism, the list goes on for miles. It’s made abundantly clear throughout the series that the Targaryens have a strong family history of mental illness, so here we go people. Let’s talk about mental illness.

Obviously, there are no therapists in Westeros to diagnose Dany with any particular illness, but it’s reasonable to hypothesize that Dany is experiencing psychosis, also known as a “psychotic break”. Something important to not about psychosis: it’s sort of like a break from reality, so the way someone behaves during a psychotic break is not at all who they normally are as a person. And here’s another thing about psychosis: YOU DO NOT SHOW SIGNS OF IT YOUR ENTIRE LIFE, especially not major ones. Not every person who commits a heinous act of violence grew up murdering small animals and saying sadistic things to family members and friends as a child. I’ve seen a lot of anti-Mad Queen Dany arguments online, and I’d like to debunk a few of them with regards to how mental illness often actually works.

1. Dany was an abused child, why would she hurt children?

Yikes, you guys. This is a really weak argument. Many studies have shown that childhood trauma is associated with greater disposition towards psychosis later in life. Obviously not everyone who has gone through a childhood trauma will experience psychosis, but it can actually be a direct contributing factor to a psychotic break.

2. Dany has always showed compassion to innocent people like the slaves across the sea, so why doesn’t she now?

Again, psychosis is not a direct reflection of who someone is as a person because it represents a break from reality. You don’t have to be an intrinsically horrible person to do something bad when you’re not in control.

3. The warning signs were there, but they were too weak to justify what happened to King’s Landing.

When a person experiences psychosis, the EARLY warning signs (let’s just say for the purposes of this argument are things that happened prior to the start of season 8) are often subtle or even unnoticeable until you’re looking back retrospectively. These can include things like spending more time alone than usual (check), suspiciousness or uneasiness with others (check), and having no feelings at all (check, remember when she ended things with Daario and the show made a big deal out of how she didn’t really feeling anything about it?).

The slightly later warning signs (so, this season) include strong and inappropriate emotions (check, she wants to have sex with her nephew not too long after she accused him of trying to steal her throne), social withdrawal (check), odd beliefs (check, her belief that she was sent by god to change the world), and suspiciousness (check). The warning signs were there and frankly exactly what one would expect to see in someone in the prodome (or very early stages) of psychosis.

4. It just happened so suddenly, the build up wasn’t enough.

Actually, it SUPER was enough. Recently, Dany has lost two dragons, her most trusted advisor, her best friend (who she watched be beheaded) and has arrived in a country where nobody likes or trusts her. All of these are pretty freaking traumatic, and a traumatic event can trigger psychosis. Boom. Bang. It makes sense.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand why people are upset about this. We were all rooting for Dany, our hero who walked out of the flames all those years ago with three baby dragons clinging to her. What happened in 8.05 was devastating to watch, but it wasn’t unrealistic. It was actually very well done from a standpoint of how things actually work in the real world. You can be frustrated with how things turned out, you can be devastated by the destruction of King’s Landing and Dany’s break, and you can be pissed about the lazy writing of this season, but you shouldn’t be angry with the show runners for Dany’s descent into madness. It was actually remarkably well done.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Valar morguhlis.

EDIT: Obviously not everyone who goes through a period of psychosis is violent. It is an INCREDIBLY small percentage who actually inflict harm on others during a psychotic break. With that being said, rare as it may be, it does happen, it is a real thing that happens in real life, and cases in which a violent outburst happens are pretty spot-on similar to the way it happened to Dany. As someone who has experienced psychosis myself, I of all people know that not everyone becomes violent. But the portrayal of Dany throughout the whole show does align with the prodome of an exceedingly rare, but real, type of psychosis. I’m sincerely sorry for not clarifying this in my original post 💙

#Game of Thrones #Game of Thrones spoilers #got #got spoilers #daenerys targaryen #dany #daenerys #cersei #cersei lannister #jaime #jaime lannister #cersei x jaime #drogon #got 8x05 #the bells #mad queen #mad queen daenerys #mad queen dany #kings landing

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zalrb · 5 years ago

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Do you think characters in GOT get over deaths very quickly. I've never see characters grieve for more than one episode and then they're just back to normal like nothing happened. The only time I saw more emotion was from Robb when ned died. Jon barely had a reaction to learning half his family were dead, not the grief you'd expect to see anyway

No, I don’t think they get over deaths quickly, I think that it just manifests itself in ways that are different than other TV series. GoT characters have vendettas, that’s how they process and deal with grief.

Like the Starks have an entire vendetta based on the deaths of their family members, it’s just summed up in these lines:

but it’s constant, the North remembers, the North never forgets, that’s all about what the south/Lannisters have done to them. Even the King in the North when it goes to Jon and then Queen in the North when it goes to Sansa is a continuation of Robb’s legacy

It’s always with them. Arya literally becomes an assassin to avenge her family.

If you want to talk about tears, Sansa quietly mourns for her father for a good part of season 2 and she was actually about to push Joffery off a bulding for it in 1x10 until the Hound stops her

By the time Robb dies Jon isn’t indifferent, he’s stoic because he chose to be a part of the Night’s Watch. When Ned died, he had his crisis of faith and he chose to honour his vows so at that point he has to stick with his choice but like I said, it’s always with the Starks and Jon being fiercely protective of Sansa is also a manifestation of his grief that he could do nothing to help Robb, Ned and even Catelyn so he’s going to do what he can to a) protect Sansa from further torment b) make sure she doesn’t die like other members of his family

Oberyn’s entire purpose coming to King’s Landing is getting vengeance for his sister

Ellaria and the Sand Snakes are all about avenging Oberyn’s death

Cersei mourns Myrcella by killing Ellaria’s daughter

Cersei mourns Joffrey and Tywin by putting a hit out on Tyrion

By the time Tommen dies, she’s definitely more hardened but she deals with it by being angry at Tommen “he betrayed me” plus Cersei and Jaime cocoon themselves and insulate themselves in each other, “We’re the only ones who count”

Jaime deals with the eventuality of Cersei’s death by dying with her.

Theon is in constant repentance not just for betraying the Starks but for the boys he murdered, he never forgets that.

Tyrion deals with killing Shae and Tywin by being drunk for months as well as helping out Jaime and Cersei.

Even The Hound deals with the butchering of that sort of congregation he was living with by going after the Brotherhood

Ser Davos deals with the death of Shireen by threatening to murder Melisandre and the only reason why he doesn’t do it when he sees her is because she kills herself.

Even Stannis’ wife deals with the death of Shireen by committing suicide.

I would say that the only character who doesn’t really mourn is Daenerys. Like they wanted me to believe she viewed her dragons as children but a) she never treated them like children, she didn’t even treat them like pets, she treated them like weapons b) when two of them died, at the most she looked mildly shocked and inconvenienced, which is an Emilia thing, but there was also the emphasis on Jonerys which overshadowed the dragons, which was a writing thing.

#game of thrones #GoT #sansa stark #jon snow #cersei lannister #arya stark #the starks #house stark #jaime lannister #tyrion lannister #house lannister #the lannisters #ser gregor clegane #the hound #ser davos seaworth #melisandre

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bisexualgendryas · 5 years ago

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jonsa + gendrya soulmate/soulmark au

(not gonna really write it till I’m done with the bodyswap but I was imagining a scenario where getting soulmarks, which are house-related, from a witch is like, a tradition among nobles (esp in the Riverlands) and thought of an interesting thing imo. this got....a LOT longer than I thought, I expected to literally just write up a smol outline and uhhh yeah there’s some more than that. some is almost written like an actual fic lol. here y’all go tho.)

at some point when the Stark Kiddos are young, like a couple or a few years pre-asoiaf, Cat brings up to Ned how her father had taken her to get a soulmark, and that her house Stark mark was part of why her father reached out to Rickard (though this is also evidence it’s not the most accurate, as engagements generally would be made with the eldest children, in her case Brandon, when she did ultimately fall in love with Ned, but whatever. it’s a tradition, and she’s taken the concept to mean that daughters would be wed to better husbands, and since she’s got two daughters that’s pretty damn important to her.)

so Cat takes Robb, Sansa, and Arya on a trip to a woods witch in the wolfswood. Robb never has a mark show up, and Arya's takes a really long time, long enough that Cat practically forgets and when she asks later Arya says she hasn’t noticed one (she has a small stag, but she doesn’t want her parents to have a reason to marry her, let alone to a prince, so she assumes a little white lie won’t hurt. later, after having met Joffrey and Tommen, she still stands by that, even though Tommen doesn’t seem horrible).

Sansa’s mark, though, is...problematic. more problematic, even, than Cat knows, but still problematic enough that along with the weirdness of her only other potentially marked siblings’ situations Ned and Cat decide that they’ll just arrange marriages for Bran and Rickon (and the others) normally...because Sansa has a little three-headed dragon on her back, saying that their poor daughter was meant to bind them to the exiled house Targaryen.

Ned suggests perhaps it had been meant to be Elia’s son, knowing better than to up and admit that they have a Targaryen at Winterfell, and Cat tells him that the marks fade if the soulmate dies - if the gods had meant her to love Aegon, the mark wouldn’t have shown itself, so surely it means Viserys.

Sansa can’t see it herself, so, for the most part, she forgets it, though she’s careful not to get too much help from her handmaidens with bathing and such. Shae’s the only one she explicitly tells, and they get to be sad about her lost chance at love - but then, perhaps there’s someone else out there, Shae suggests, for the mark remains well after Westeros has gotten word of Viserys’ death. perhaps there’s a bastard out there, or perhaps it means Daenerys. Sansa thinks neither would be quite so bad, certainly not as bad as Joffrey, but clings to the idea of a bastard - she had a bastard brother, after all.

her mark does fade, at one point, years later, after she’s been wed to Ramsay and he’s forced her to explain ‘herself’. “your mad dragon prince is gone, my wife. he’s not coming to save you, no one’s coming to save you,” he mocks, but when Ramsay leaves the castle to fight Stannis off, she saves herself, with a few helping hands. in the chaos, it’s Brienne who notices, a few weeks later, that the mark has returned to her back. surely that means Ramsay was only lying to hurt her, or even that the magic isn’t accurate (which would really be fine with Sansa, because the whole thing hadn’t really done their family good), or maybe even that he really had died and there’s some other resurrected bastard out there, but really, what would be the chances?

(it’s really not important to her anymore - she’s long since known no one will marry her for love, so what’s the point of her childish hopes for it? she just continues to hope for her family, and most of those hopes are answered, even if things are very different than they used to be.)

she, like their parents, had thought that Arya didn’t have a mark, and while Arya is uncomfortable when Sansa mentions her own soon after their reunion, Sansa doesn’t jump to thinking she’s been wrong, only that it’s related to their displeasure about Jon giving up northern independence - until Arya says she thinks the marks are “bullshit”, because she has one and hers hasn’t even ever disappeared, and there aren’t any Baratheons left, not even princess Shireen, not even Robert's bastards, who were all hunted by Joffrey and Cersei soon after Robert's death...but Sansa has always wanted and deserved love, so perhaps there is some Targaryen bastard out there. Arya will concede on that point and that one only.

for a couple months, at least, that is.

Sansa gets the whispers from one of her handmaidens that Arya's taken a liking to one of the smiths, and soon enough, Arya is up in arms because she’s spent years ignoring her little stag mark and has just found out that the blacksmith she’s, well, courting, is in fact, Robert’s bastard, which means...any number of things, none of which she’s sure how she feels about. but Sansa encourages her to tell him about the mark, because she just ran away from her soulmate on what could possibly be their last night alive. if Jon is with his love, and many others were, too, shouldn’t Arya spend the night how she wants, with someone she loves?

“I already hated the idea of losing him - of losing anyone - but if I never have to see that stupid stag mark after tomorrow, I...”

“you’re stronger and more stubborn than anyone else I know, but I imagine any man who loves you could come close. what if you both live? what then?”

“what if it’s not even him?”

“only a few moments ago, you told me you wanted to be together without even knowing. why wouldn’t it be him?”

it’s not really what Arya wants to hear, but she leaves anyway, seemingly accepting that that’s Sansa’s final answer, and Sansa goes to find Theon. the sisters reunite a few hours later, up on the ramparts as the castle finishes what battle preparations it can, and while Arya doesn’t give Sansa any details before handing her a dagger and telling her to go down to the crypts, she confirms that she went back to him, if only for the one night.

it’s not the one night, though, because they do survive, and while she’s happy for Arya she still has to try not to be jealous, even as she encourages Arya to marry her soulmate, while her own is nowhere to be found.

then, Jon puts himself in between them and Daenerys for what she dearly hopes is the last time, and Arya decides they need to talk about it - privately.

he says, again, that he’s not a Stark, and they both fight him on it, but Bran does not. Jon looks to Bran and Bran looks at Jon and says it’s his choice as though they’re supposed to know what that means, even though Jon is the only one who does. and so, Bran tells them that Jon is not their father’s son, but their aunt’s - and Rhaegar’s.

their first moments are full of too much emotion to name, and Sansa’s swept up in Arya’s insistence that Jon will always be a brother to her, and gathered up into hugs, and then it’s the moments after, when they’re all silent, standing there with Ghost between them and tears in all their eyes, that she realizes what that means about the sigil on her back. and from the concerned glance that Arya meets her eyes with when Jon turns away from them, Sansa knows that she’s realized too.

#jonsa #actuallyjonsa #gendrya #sansa stark #arya stark #things by charley

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gascon-en-exil · 5 years ago

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Joining the Game Late: S7E7 “The Dragon and the Wolf”

Synopsis

Jaime and Bronn debate the logistics of fighting without cocks. As the meeting at the Dragonpit looms, Jon doesn’t understand urban population density and Cersei works out her kill order. Tyrion, Bronn, Brienne, and Podrick have their various reunions before Sandor sets up CleganeBowl and Dany flies in fifteen minutes late (not yet with Starbucks). Everyone there kind of hates each other, most of all Euron, but there’s a wight in a crate to make everyone pay attention. Euron wants to go hide out on his island, and Cersei wants something that Jon won’t give because he doesn’t understand the concept of lying. Dany and Tyrion rightfully let him have it because they are all fucked and know it, and Tyrion’s private conversation with Cersei goes badly but at least he comes out of it alive because something something pregnancy. Littlefinger teaches Sansa how to assume the worst, which comes back to bite him when the Stark siblings conspire to take care of him for good. Theon and Jon discuss Ned, leading to a last bit of foreshadowing and a victory for the cockless as Theon leaves to save his sister. Cersei fails a second time at having one of her brothers killed as Jaime leaves her. Sam’s back in Winterfell, and he and Bran share notes and discover that Jon is secretly a trueborn Targaryen at exactly the time that he’s on a boat having sex with his aunt. Arya and Sansa have an actual bonding moment, and Bran watches Eastwatch fall to the undead who, as mentioned, have an ice dragon now.

Commentary

Let it be said that, for me at least, this finale largely makes up for the stumbling of the past two episodes. Some of that is purely in hindsight, as is the case with the Winterfell plotline and the setup for Littlefinger’s death. While it’s still very obvious that the writers couldn’t think of anything else to do with him and the use of Bran’s flashback powers to “prove” that Littlefinger betrayed Ned is as silly as everything involving Bran is now, the summary exposure of all the conflict and death that have resulted from the man’s actions is satisfying to hear laid bare. His execution is also satisfying and pathetic, cutting short his disturbing attraction to Catelyn and her daughter with the dismissal it properly deserves. Not a great narrative execution prior to this moment with the show duping the audience along with the target, but no point in complaining about that twice.

Other stories still aren’t great in hindsight, namely the wight hunt which still ran purely on stupidity and action movie logic, but their resolution is still sound. There’s a certain irony to the gathering in the Dragonpit; background exposition reveals that it was the Targaryens chaining their dragons in there that led to them growing smaller and weaker, but putting some of the show’s most dynamic and engaging characters and also Jon Snow in there is a recipe for solid writing. Not CleganeBowl because who genuinely cared about that, but Cersei and Dany or Jon being an idiot and everyone having fun calling him an idiot or even the smaller reunions before the big meeting between characters who shared storylines in the middle seasons. This is the first time that Cersei and Tyrion have had scenes together since Season 4, and their private meeting especially is powerful and tense and only slightly mitigated when I wondered if every dialogue scene involving Cersei now is going to end with her referring to her pregnancy. It also comes up in the appropriately parallel scene at the end of the episode with Jaime, where (from what I can tell) she comes closer to having the Mountain kill him than she did with Tyrion which says all manner of interesting things about how she views betrayal. I am less sold on the followup on Theon’s end, save that there’s a punchline in there calling back to the episode’s first scene where Bronn and Jaime wonder what could motivate a man without a cock to fight. But never mind that - Jaime and Cersei are finally separated (consistently established only to be ruined at the last minute redemption arc my ass - the guy dies in, what, five episodes?), Theon’s off to be a hero, the Starks are all together as the White Walkers destroy the Wall and Cersei’s going to sit this one out, and Jon and Dany...well....

Obviously, the incest doesn’t bother me*. Notwithstanding my personal indifference, this is the same show that showed a twin brother and sister having sex in its first episode after all. I even like that Sam’s contribution to the reveal (that Bran didn’t know about because...?) is the real problem here: that Jon is a trueborn Targaryen and thus a threat to Daenerys’s right to claim the Iron Throne. Splicing this revelation with the sex scene between the two leads is delightfully twisted in a very GoT way, which goes a way toward making up for the actors’ lack of chemistry or the by-the-numbers development of their relationship. It does add certain uncomfortable layers to what’s going to become of them and Dany especially in the final season, but I’ll get there soon enough - although maybe not that soon if the episodes continue to be this long. My ultimate plan for this liveblog is to finish by the end of March, which should be manageable even if the episodes for Season 8 each take a little longer to work through than normal. Put it this way about these two though: I’m glad that their approximate equivalents in Fire Emblem: Three Houses were not sexually (or, arguably, romantically) involved prior to the scene where one of them kills the other before a throne, and that the game instead leans harder on the family angle even though ironically Dimitri and Edelgard are not biologically related like the GoT characters that partially influenced them.

*My theory for why some people seemed uncomfortable with this reveal when it happened is that Jon and Dany were developed as protagonists from the start of the show and their interactions this season like standard romantic setup. This would contrast against the Lannister twincest, which we’ve known about since the first episode and that involves two characters who are (mostly) on the villainous side of things.

#Game of Thrones #GoT

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7deadlycinderellas · 5 years ago

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If the summer of our lives could just come again, ch9

Ao3 link

The next six turns of the moon at Winterfell are tumultuous.

Ned and Catelyn barely speak to each other, except when completely necessary. All of their children step around them on tiptoes, not wanting to upset them further.

Sansa and Arya both go to their mother often. Sometimes they work, but often they just sit with her. Catelyn had been so shocked the first time that Arya had asked if she could brush her hair that she had been momentarily brought back to normality.

“And then you just pin them on top,” Arya tells her when she finishes rolling up the braids on top of her head.

“You really wear it like this?” Catelyn asks her dubiously.

Arya shrugs,

“I sometimes wore it like this in Braavos. It guarantees that it will stay out of the way.”

“Braavos, that was-”

Arya stops to think. Howland Reed had been right when he’d said that timekeeping hadn’t exactly been a priority for them.

“Fifteen or sixteen. I was there for nearly two years.”

She hasn’t said a word to anyone, about what she had learned there. She would rather shut it back in the past.

Catelyn pins the last braid, pats Arya on the neck and says, “done.”

Arya’s quiet for a while, before finally sticking her toe in the shallow end by saying,

“I know you’re mad at Father now. But I really think you should have been mad at him earlier.”

Catelyn stares straight ahead.

“Men have needs, but most of them don’t bring their bastards home with them.”

“Are you kidding? If Gendry did that to me, I’d kick him out on his arse and keep the babe just to spite him. “

That nearly makes Catelyn chuckle, but Arya’s face is deeply cross.

“‘Men have needs’, that’s just an excuse so they can do whatever they want and we can’t say a word against them. Can you imagine what would happen if you had done that? Made him raise a child that wasn’t his and wouldn’t tell him where it came from.”

Arya’s voice quiets to a whisper.

“But Jon had no say in any of this.”

Sansa at one point, while the two of them are working on letters to send to some of the other Northern houses, suggests she could write to Jon.

“I spent a lot of time when I was hiding in the Vale, thinking about the way I treated Jon as a child. Despite it all, when I finally made it out of hell and to Castle Black, he embraced me with a smile all the same. I’m sure he could come to forgive you if you try.”

Catelyn doesn’t respond to that. She doesn’t believe it. She knows that she couldn’t have forgiven someone who treated her like that. She doesn’t feel like she deserves it. She doesn’t tell either of her daughters how hard she had prayed to be able to love Jon as her own, and the shame she had felt when she couldn’t keep her promise.

It hits Sansa at some point, that much of Catelyn’s anger isn’t so much over the lying to her for years, it was that Ned’s lies had allowed her to treat Jon the way she had without reprimand. When she’d pled with her father to tell earlier, Ned had explained that he felt if Catelyn had treated the boy well, it would have brought far more attention than the already unusual situation had. It would have been especially bad, he explained, if Jon had managed to come out looking Targaryan. It’s a weak excuse, Sansa knows, but it holds up, she guesses.

Ned busies himself keeping up with the others. He becomes an expert at changing the subject when people try and talk to him.

He watches as Meera teaches Arya to use her spear. The older girl moves as though the spear is just an extension of her arm, and though Arya is untrained, she has a grace to her movements that she wouldn’t have before.

“They work well when you’re retreating, because you can keep your distance while attacking. You can throw it too, but don’t risk it unless you can risk losing it.”

Don’t leave yourself unarmed because you threw it, she thinks to herself, no matter how great it was to see one of those things explode.

Sansa’s getting better and better with the bow. Once Bran finally gets his wrist splint off, he comments that she might even be better than him.

“Of course I am, “ she tells him, sounding artificially haughty, “I’ve always been good at my lessons.”

“The archer who trained me did say he preferred teaching girls, because we don’t go in expecting to already know everything, “ Meera comments. She casts an eye across the yard to Arya, who’s trying to shoot blindfolded. They are all, obviously, giving her a wide berth.

“Though I imagine there are always exceptions.”

Sansa spends much of her time inside though, with the adults. She’s always been tall for her age, and she holds herself with such grace now that it’s hard for everyone to remember that she’s supposed to only be thirteen.

Her and Ned finish off the letters to the other Northern houses. When Ned expresses doubt at sending them by raven, Davos volunteers to deliver them himself.

“I think it would do good for me to learn more of the north, I got a trial by fire last time.”

“You’ll need to be careful,” Sansa tells him, the idea of him leaving again tugging at her heart. “Our bannermen don’t know you.”

“Don’t fret too much over me,” Davos reassures her, “As I told another girl recently, I was a smuggler for a long time. I can get myself out of binds.”

It’s a few days after he leaves that they get the first letter from Storm’s End, in Shireen’s neat but childlike script. Davos would have been so pleased, Sansa thinks, to never have to tell Shireen he couldn’t read.

When Ned tucks the letter away, he asks Sansa,

“She was the one-”

Sansa nods silently. She never met Shireen, but she remembers Davos’s rage. She remembers how Arya had shook her head hearing about it, how Gendry had hidden his face in his hands. She wonders if Gendry would have thought of the girl as a cousin. None of them miss Melisandre, and Sansa had completely agreed with Arya’s assessment. They would never let Stannis stay king after that.

“Have we decided to go forward with our plans for the Boltons?”

Ned nods. They’d decided the best way to deal with their treachery would be to have someone ride a day or two behind Davos, and slip inside and find information. Someone who might not be immediately recognized as one of Stark’s men.

“You won’t like what happened.”

Sansa looks at him questioningly. Then, with horror, it dawns on her.

“Theon?”

“He volunteered.”

He volunteered, Sansa thinks, why on earth would he do that?

She corners him after supper that night, and demands an explanation. To Theon’s credit, he does looked surprised by her onslaught. Sansa doesn’t quite remember if she’s spoken to him alone before this, before.

“You don’t know what you’re getting into,” she implores, “The stories that have been coming out of the Dreadfort…”

“I’m not afraid of Roose Bolton, or his bastard,” he insists.

“Well you should be!” Sansa yells, pausing to take a breath.

“I’m sure Robb’s let slip some of the reasons that it seems we’ve all lost our heads,” she says quietly, her face downcast.

“Yes, he keeps going on about some malarky that you’ve all seen the future.”

Sansa grits her teeth and stares him in the eye.

“The Bolton’s bastard broke you before,” she starts, “He tortured you, gelded you, made you forget your own name.”

She reaches out to touch him on the shoulder.

“You survived though, remember that.”

Theon grabs her hand, and it’s almost tender until he lets his voice go high and puckers his lips before smacking them on her cheek.

“Why Sansa, I didn’t you cared so much.”

Making a face, she reaches up and pinches his nose between her fingers.

“Things like this, Theon, is the reason we keep pelting you with rocks.”

She walks off, and imagines the confused look on his face must be him thinking, that was you all?

It still leaves her deeply unsettled. She is happy when Arya quietly slips into bed beside her that night. Sandwiched between her and Lady, Sansa can pretend it will all be okay.

Theon rides away the next morning, and Sansa tries to put it out of her mind.

Nearly two moons in, Sansa has her first wolf dream.

It’s one of the only nights that Lady doesn’t sleep inside. She’s inside the godswood, running. The dry late-summer grass pricks underneath her paws as she pursues her goal. She slips out into the courtyard, on her soft-padded feet, nearly silent. She cannot get across the moat, not without being seen, but she can climb, to one of the empty guard towers, letting her see over the outer wall into the rest of the North.

Sansa-in-Lady catches sight of where the small party including Tyrion has camped outside Winter Town. Were she not inside, Sansa might feel her heart twinge. They don’t stop, don’t come inside. She has no opportunity to try to talk to him again.

She wakes up the next morning with dried tears on her cheeks. She’s not sure who they’re for. And for that day, she has a hard time keeping the bad thoughts away.

When the thoughts take hold, she retreats to her preferred coping mechanism. Crying didn’t do anything, it never had, and prayer no longer brings her any peace. So for now, it’s sewing. She’s nearly finished Arya’s gown, and when she tries it on, it looks almost right.

“Be a bit until you can wear it, but it looks good right?” she asks.

Arya nods. Then she twitches, transferring her weight from one foot to the other, restlessly.

Sansa smiles indulgently,

“You can go.”

And Arya scampers off to leave Sansa to touch up the embroidery and move on to her other projects. She mends everything, adding growth stripes to her own gowns. She takes in several cast off pairs of Jon’s breeches for Arya, so they might actually fit her right.

She sews pockets into the waistbands of her skirts and the insides of her petticoats. While her lessons in archery have been somewhat fruitful, she knows they won’t make a difference against a human monster. She stitches them to fit daggers.

She offers to make a dress like Arya’s for Meera too, but the other girl goes wide-eyed, and turns out to be nearly as bad at standing still as Arya is.

“I haven’t worn a nice dress in ages,” she comments when Sansa takes her measurements.

“How come?” Sansa wonders.

Meera shrugs,

“Mud that sticks to you like pitch, there are spots in the water where you can sink without noticing. Plants that spew spores in all colors. We wear our boots to our knees, and tuck in the fabric to keep the bugs out. Anything nice would get wrecked, the only women who wear gowns there are the ones who can stay inside pretty much all day. And textiles are one of the things we always have to trade for, we can't really produce much except skins, so you want to make sure anything nice lasts.”

“That’s sad,” Sansa comments, “Even if you don’t like wearing them, it makes me think that you don’t have occasion to wear anything special.”

“Weddings mostly,” Meera admits.

Sansa remembers, dimly, having been taught that House Reed was one of the poorest in Westeros. That the crannogmen were an insular group who mostly kept to themselves. Jojen’s taken to stealing his way into all of Bran’s lessons that Maester Luwin still tries to give him. He tells them that the don’t have a maester at Greywater Watch at all.

“How?” Arya asks him, “I thought maesters went where they were assigned.”

Jojen shrugs, “I guess the citadel forgets about us. They wouldn’t be the only ones.”

All of them are sitting outside the rookery. Bran had wanted to try and describe to them what he had been planning to do with the new clutch of ravens.

“The ravens we use to carry messages work the way they do because they can always find their home. Which means that they can pretty much only fly to one location. I’m trying to train this group to fly in the cardinal directions when prompted. Then if we need to, I can warg and guide them.”

He points to the strings he has tied to each of the bird’s feet, each in a different color, and when he ran out, in two contrasting colors.

“These are because I still haven’t quite learned how to tell them all apart when I’m not in them yet.”

“You should try keeping some other birds too,” Jojen suggests, “Ravens are the smartest of the bunch, but doves and pigeons can carry messages too. And ravens are really easy to see to shoot down. No one expects the others.”

That’s a good idea, Bran thinks. Especially since he’s begun to become protective of the clutch already. Seven chicks. That’s all four of his siblings, and Jon and him. And Theon too, he supposes.

“If this works,” Arya suggests, “You could even send them over the wall, use them as spies.”

“That’s one thing I was thinking,” Bran responds, feeding the mother a bit of corn. The babies are all still learning to fly, and she’s not quite ready to let go.

“The other is that if I can guide them, then we could get messages to people who aren’t at keeps. I could down one of them in the middle of the road if we really need to.”

Arya especially appreciates the force behind Bran’s efforts. She remembers months upon the open road with no way to get word to anyone that she was alive. And the only way to get news was word of mouth, which was never exactly accurate.

Gendry still tends to keep to himself. He’s tight-lipped, and for the most part, no one seems to bother him. Even the servants, usually so curious, seem to treat him rather like a piece of furniture. Sansa’s awfully grateful for that. It’s been hard enough keeping things quiet enough that the servants don’t feel the need to question too much. She has a feeling some of Varys’s little birds in the north may have already picked up something amiss.

After five moons, Arya finally convinces Gendry to take a brief break from the weapons making and spar with her and Robb.

“He can’t help taking it easy on me, you might actually give him a challenge.”

Soon, over the clinks and clangs of sword practice, Arya finds herself shaking her head.

“All these years, and you still can’t stand side-face right? Gods, no wonder you picked up that damn hammer. “

“I don’t have to take this, other people here will talk to me,” he counters, only half accusingly, before taking off, probably back to the shed behind the forge where him and Meera have been stashing the dragonglass heads in progress.

After a moment, Arya realizes that his exit has left her and Robb alone. She feels briefly uncomfortable. Sansa’s words all those moons ago come back to her.

“So…” he starts off, and Arya feels her heart jump up into her throat. “How did it happen?”

“What?” she asks, suddenly confused.

“The blow to the head he took. Or was it a high fever? Whatever misfortune it was that convinced him to marry you.”

Arya feels her stomach sink. She hugs herself tightly.

“Why does everyone seem to think this is so funny? I know I’m not exactly a great beauty, but I didn’t think I was hideous.”

Robb’s face suddenly freezes, and Arya wonders suddenly if he was joking. Either way, it seems he realizes he’s hurt her feelings.

“I didn’t mean- It’s just, you always-”

“Always said I never wanted to marry some old Lord twice my age who cared for nothing but my name? I didn’t.”

“You’ve always been, well-”

Arya laughs, harshly.

“I was a child Robb. I know I was disobedient and rash, and I can’t say that’s entirely changed, but…” she trails off. “I didn’t think that meant people thought I was horrible to be around.”

Robb reaches out and scoops her into a hug.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. I don’t know anything about what happened to you two, and I shouldn’t have laughed.”

She hugs him back, suddenly feeling ashamed that she’s been avoiding him. He may not understand, but he’s always so hard to be a good brother, a good son, and someday a good lord.

“I’m sorry, “ she says into his shoulder, “I didn’t mean to jump down your throat. I think this rift between Mother and Father is just really bothering me,”

Robb is silent in response, but Arya knows he agrees. Despite knowing how their marriage began, all of the Stark children had always been very secure in the knowledge of their parents love for each other. To see them not speaking after a fight, even whole moons later, was really messing with all of their heads. It had been seeming to settle down a bit; earlier in the week Catelyn had even stopped to question Arya about marrying a blacksmith. Arya had been expecting it for so long that she’d already had a rebuttal prepared.

“He’s good to me,” she assures Robb, “He always has been, even when I didn’t deserve it. “

She claps Robb on the back once,

“And so if you feel the need to ask him any more invasive questions, think long and hard about whether or not you want to hear the answer.”

She hears Robb laugh, and for the first time in far too long, Arya hugs her brother.

“I should go find where he ran off to,” she says, after a bit, “Maester Luwin asked for his help later today.”

“What for?”

“Oh! You didn’t hear? Bran’s getting his cast off today.”

Not a minute too soon, in Bran’s opinion. In the past weeks, his leg has begun to itch worse than anything else in his entire life, but no one will let him scratch. Luwin, especially, chides him, comparing it to scratching at a scab, ending with it being pulled off too soon, reopening the wound.

Also, no one told him the cast would be removed outside the forge, using a saw.

“You’ve done this before right? You’re definitely not going to miss and cut my leg off?”

Maester Luwin shushes him as Gendry hands him the saw and helps to hold the end of Bran’s foot when he begins to cut. He was grateful to whichever maester it was in history who had developed the building plaster. Forcing the boy to stay bed bound and immobile while his leg healed would have been absolutely impossible.

Summer nudges at his good leg as Bran cringes, feeling the pressure as the saw breaks through the layers and they crumble away. He pets the wolf, grateful for his presence.

He is less grateful for the crowd that forms; all of his siblings as well as Jojen and Meera seem to have seen fit to watch. Even Rickon is sitting still. He wishes they weren’t here, them seeing this gives him the same feeling as them watching him have to be carried.

(Except Meera, she used to pull off his boots and make sure his toes hadn’t frozen and fallen off without him realizing, so he doubts this is strange at all for her.)

With a loud crack, the cast finally gives way and Bran feels the air hit his left leg for the first time in moons. He also cringes, realizing that the gauze underneath smells like it’s sunk to the bottom of a lake.

His leg is pale as death and stings with the pinch of baby skin, the parts that aren’t dotted and marked with rough scar tissue. Maester Luwin runs his fingers over the bone, palpating carefully.

“The bone callus is still there, so it’s probably still got a bit of healing to do,” he says carefully, “so no running or stressing it.” he gestures at Gendry, “You should have the smith make you a cane to use instead of the crutches now.”

Bran’s so damn happy he can’t even think to much about not being able to run. He’s just glad for his two feet. Gendry finds him a poker to use while he works on the cane. He uses it to balance and pulls himself to his feet.

Meera furrows her eyebrows watching.

“You’re crooked,” she says, pointing. “Your left foot hangs.”

Bran notices. It’s not just the foot not touching the ground, it feels like it’s rotated slightly outward. He pulls off his other boot just to make sure. Luwin tuts, poking and measuring.

“This was always a risk. It could be the muscles pulled from disuse, it could be the ligaments in your hip. Or the break could have just happened when your bone was ready to grow and it hasn’t caught up to the other side.”

The older man sighs deeply.

“I fear you may be limping for many years Bran.”

It’s something new, to be sure, but he can’t even sum up the energy to be upset by it. Sometimes he thinks he sees Mother or Robb looking at him pityingly when he walks with the wrought iron cane Gendry fashions for him, and he just shakes his head.

It’s at nearly exactly six moons that Theon returns to Winterfell.

The young man is shaken, deeply. Even plied with tea and stew, it takes him time to speak. He eventually does, telling of exactly what the children had told him to expect. Several men within the Dreadfort, thieves mostly, he thinks, strung up for days with the skin flayed from various parts of their body. Stories from the servants of men being fed to dogs. And quieter whisperings of what Roose’s bastard liked to get up to in his spare time. He’d discovered this disguised as a guard, blending in with a very (so they all think) un-Theon like ease.

Despite his fear, when Ned asks if he will ride with him and the other men, to confront the Boltons, Theon immediately says yes.

The others are proud, and Robb tells him before they leave, that he had said if he didn’t personally get to see the men held responsible, then the images would never leave his mind.

Winterfell feels empty without Ned, but there is no time for worrying. A few days after the men leave, a raven comes from King’s Landing. Both Sansa and Catelyn had been secretly expecting it to come for a while, but had hoped it wouldn’t.

“He won’t be able to refuse again.” Catelyn admits, emotional at the thought despite the previous moons.

Sansa nods. She understands this. Robert having let him refuse before had likely been only an extension of their years long friendship. And she is certainly not letting him go alone.

Sansa had thought she had set foot in King’s Landing for the last time, but apparently the Gods had decided to challenge her.

Later that night, Jojen has another vision. It’s of a gated homestead of splintery wood, sitting atop a hill. Against a snowing sky, it burns. It burns to ashes as several women stand outside the gate, watching. There’s a pair of smaller figures with him, the size of children perhaps. They don’t appear human though, even standing shrouded in the shadows of the haunted forest. They all watch as the building burns.

He wakes, unsure of what is happening, or may happen soon.

#game of thrones #A Song of Ice and Fire #time travel fix it #gendrya #breera #fic

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she-wolf-of-highgarden · 6 years ago

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The Horse-Face Issue

One thing i find interesting is Arya and her association with the name “horse face” and Sansa. Not in the sense about Arya’s internal feelings or her own building of resentment or insecurity. That has been talked about enough for me not to talk about, no, what i find interesting is that we never hear Sansa refer to Arya as “horseface” yet Arya associates the name with her and Jeyne Poole.

As i mentioned Sansa never calls Arya “horse face” in her POV. She calls her stupid (a classic Stark insult), hairy, smelly and stupid [Sansa III, AGoT] and unsatisfactory [Sansa II, ASoS] but never horseface. Not even Jon references Sansa calling Arya that. The only time Arya specifically says that Sansa alone (i.e. no friends involved) called her that was in ACoK:

She bit her lip, groping for another name. Lommy had called her Lumpyhead, Sansa used Horseface, and her father's men once dubbed her Arya Underfoot, but she did not think any of those were the sort of name he wanted.

The only other person to reference it is Theon in ADwD:

Arya Underfoot, he almost said. Arya Horseface. Robb's younger sister, brown-haired, long-faced, skinny as a stick, always dirty. Sansa was the pretty one. He remembered a time when he had thought that Lord Eddard Stark might marry him to Sansa and claim him for a son, but that had only been a child's fancy. Arya, though … "I remember her. Arya.” - Reek I, ADwD

Talk like that will get you killed, or worse. That lesson he had learned as Reek. "You are the real Arya, my lady. Arya of House Stark, Lord Eddard's daughter, heir to Winterfell." Her name, she had to know her name. "Arya Underfoot. Your sister used to call you Arya Horseface.” - the Prince of Winterfell, ADwD

Judging by those chapters the younger generation of Winterfell knew what Jeyne Poole was calling Arya. We also see someone else who associated “horseface” with Sansa. Granted he could be using “sister” in place of “Jeyne Poole” since he is trying to convince Jeyne to be Arya. He never says he is doing that, however.

Part of the problem we face is that we dont know much about life before King Robert’s arrival. The majority of what we get comes from Arya. We do get some things from Sansa and interestingly, though she doesnt always think kindly of Arya (or at all, but that probs has to do with her defense mechanism), she has decent memories of her sister. The one that stand out the most (to me) is

They made a race of it, dashing headlong across the yard and past the stables, skirts flapping, whilst knights and serving men alike looked on, and pigs and chickens scattered before them. It was most unladylike, but Alayne sound found herself laughing. For just a little while, as she ran, she forget who she was, and where, and found herself remembering bright cold days at Winterfell, when she would race through Winterfell with her friend Jeyne Poole, with Arya running after them trying to keep up. - Alayne I, TWoW

It goes against the usual idea that Arya was always following the boys about. It seems that Arya, for a time, followed Sansa and Jeyne. Its actually a very normal scene. An older sibling racing off with a friend with a younger sibling trying to go with the big kids. The question, of course, is when this ends. If i had to guess, it stops with “horseface” and the neighing.

It wasn't fair. Sansa had everything. Sansa was two years older; maybe by the time Arya had been born, there had been nothing left. Often it felt that way. Sansa could sew and dance and sing. She wrote poetry. She knew how to dress. She played the high harp and the bells. Worse, she was beautiful. Sansa had gotten their mother's fine high cheekbones and the thick auburn hair of the Tullys. Arya took after their lord father. Her hair was a lusterless brown, and her face was long and solemn. Jeyne used to call her Arya Horseface, and neigh whenever she came near. It hurt that the one thing Arya could do better than her sister was ride a horse. - Arya I, GoT

We also know that Jeyne is the one who came up with the name, but she does not mention Sansa in reference to it:

It was me made up that name. Her face was long and horsey. Mine isn't. I was pretty." Tears spilled from her eyes at last. "I was never beautiful like Sansa, but they all said I was pretty. Does Lord Ramsay think I am pretty?"

Sansa’s role in the horseface issue is not completely clear. We know she was involved somehow, even if the role was actually small one. Its not uncommon for an older (or even younger) sibling to allow a peer to give their sibling a hard time. Sansa could have laughed one time or had not told Jeyne to stop and Arya took it as silent agreement and others (like Theon) took it that way too. Or Sansa really did call Arya “horseface”. We dont really know. I hope we get to see more of Arya and Sansa’s childhood before everything went down the proverbial drain, especially from Sansa since its rare we get to see it from her POV. I also hope i get more information on the horseface issue since even in Bravos Arya is still stuck on it.

#Arya Stark #Sansa Stark #Jeyne Poole #Theon Greyjoy #sisters stark #meta #valyrianscrolls #A Song of Ice and Fire #asoiaf #I try to be fair with the stark sisters #whew its been a minute #what was the last actual meta i wrote #i cant remember #but heres one!#asoiaf meta

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