#this has been in my drafts for so long 😅😵

[cappymightwrite]

Hi! I loved your blue rose meta. I wanted to ask you that Sansa had sexually assaulted in books and threatened with rape many times. How do you think it gonna be acknowledge in last two books? Will Sansa gonna be safe from rape just like she was in last books?

Thank you! (Meta in question) Sorry for the very late response 😅

This topic isn't generally one I like to speculate on much. I cannot stress how much the s5 storyline upset me, so much so that I really can't read any fics that reference it, or count it as canon, no matter how sensitively written. Likewise, I don't really like to dwell on Jeyne's assaults too much either, though I'm strongly Justice For Jeyne. I just don't like to be in that headspace.

But anyway. I can talk about it a bit for the purposes of this ask.

Obviously, the threat of assault is certainly always there throughout Sansa's narrative, as mentioned by @butterflies-dragons, notably in the use of songs. But as butterflies-dragons concludes, and as stated by @agentrouka-blog, I tend to agree that "I do not think that Sansa is going to suffer any assault worse than she already has." Because what purpose does it serve at this point? It wouldn't be subversive in any way to have the most romantically inclined girl r*ped at this point in the narrative, in fact it would be pretty redundant thematically because Sansa has already had the rug pulled out from under her in terms of her disillusionment arc. She's already been assaulted, several times in fact, and is currently being assaulted and groomed by Littlefinger. Furthermore, the reader has also had the point hammered home through the horrific Jeyne Poole storyline. It's unnecessary, quite frankly. It would be a waste of a word count to emphasise a point — that no one, particularly young, naive girls, are safe from violence, including sexual violence — that has already been very firmly asserted from multiple perspectives and POVs.

So, while I think TWOW will certainly take us to darker places than ever before, I think it would be a grave and gratuitous misstep if GRRM chose to include an escalation of the kind of assaults Sansa has already suffered. Look, I'm sure TWOW (and ADOS) won't be entirely devoid of sexual assault, but at least for both Stark girls (I did worry a bit after reading Arya's Winds chapter), I don't think it needs to be escalated. And that's not just me projecting my own wants for their respective arcs, objectively speaking, I don't think it's needed. I don't think it adds anything that we don't already know.

But back to Sansa specifically. Do I think those previous moments of abuse will be addressed/referred to? I think in order for Sansa to heal... yes. I think they will certainly be addressed in the sense that, when they inevitably reunite, Jon and his behaviour (in general and towards Sansa) will be presented to us (and Sansa) as a clear contrast. Being presented with contrasting, non-abusive behaviour will be key to having that reflection on past events expressed, I think.

This fits in to Jon and Sansa being the true subversion of the beauty and the beast trope. And subversion is the key word, because a note for note copy of that trope is not healthy, it's not without abuse. The difference with Jon as the beast, compared with pretty much all other iterations of the trope, compared with the Hound as well, is that Jon hasn't had, and will not have, this problematic character development from cruel and violent to supposedly tamed by love into something more "gentle." Thanks to Jon's pov, we know exactly who he is, and while I do expect post-warg/resurrection Jon to go through some angsty cosmic alienation and to become fully steeped in Byronic traits... he's not going to be cruel to Sansa only to be gentled by her virginal influence, because like I said, contrasts are going to be key. Jon needs to be presented as a contrast to all the awful men prior to him in Sansa's arc in order for us and her to have the tools for some solid reflection/realisation, not as contrast to his earlier untamed behaviour, if that makes sense?

So really, this is why Jonsa is so crucial to Sansa's arc, her healing process, and her reclaimation of self. And vice versa. We know that Sansa suppressed and romanticises her trauma in order to cope, and I think it will be painful for her to have to confront the reality of certain traumatic moments, e.g. that the Hound really did intend to r*pe her that night on the Blackwater, that Tyrion wasn't just "as frightened as [she was]" on their wedding night, he was the adult in that situation and he wanted to r*pe her too and did also assault her. Those are going to be painful truths to face, a headspace and recollections she will understandably not want to be in or have, as evidenced through her avoidance of the reality of these events thus far in the series. But they are necessary to address and crucially she won't be without support. Because Jon as a contrast to these men isn't a passive, inactive thing, he isn't a contrast to their behaviour soley through what he doesn't do, but also through what he does.

In ADWD, Davos IV, Wyman Manderly comments that "not every man has it in him to be Prince Aemon the Dragonknight or Symeon Star-Eyes, and not every woman can be as brave as my Wylla and her sister Wynafryd," which is true, but that doesn't exclude the possibility of a person like that appearing all together, does it 😉😏

"Sweet one," her father said gently, "listen to me. When you're old enough, I will make you a match with a high lord who's worthy of you, someone brave and gentle and strong. This match with Joffrey was a terrible mistake. That boy is no Prince Aemon, you must believe me." – AGOT, Sansa III

Thanks for the ask! Again, apologies for the delay 😅

[xiaonesis]

How did you come up with the concept of GWS? Were there specific experiences/influences that inspired you? - From :3 Anon

This is yet another difficult question! But I like the burn from being grilled TwT;

So, first off, The Rot is NOT inspired by Covid-19 hahaha (someone asked before). The timing is purely coincidental and I did not even think about Covid when I planned out GWS.

The Rot was something I came up with to work as the main difficulty that MC/Reader has to overcome, amongst other things. It is less inspired by a specific event and more as a tool I brewed to work in the big picture of GWS. I can’t say much without revealing things right now though lmao 

We’ve barely scraped the surface of GWS XD So there is a lot of things that have yet to come up that I can’t mention here but I will touch on what I can.

For the overall concept of GWS, I have always loved the idea of isekai and fantasy worlds (Lord of The Rings was a major part of my childhood and ngl, I always wanted to go to Middle-Earth and I don’t mean New Zealand 😂 which is beautiful btw) and I felt the itch to write a HQ fic whilst watching S4 (mainly cause I wanted to write abt Inarizaki & Kuroo). At the time, I only thought of writing ONE main fic (no oneshots, no ficlets etc my lazy ass didn’t want to write different fics at the time) so I started off with wanting to write a fic that combines HQ+Isekai+Fantasy and went brainstorming from there. 

I mentioned a few times before but I was brainstorming for weeks before even writing Chapter 1 😂 even drew out two draft maps of Hyquile 😅

Besides that, other little themes and details are influenced by my own experiences/that of family & friends. Ie: I did not want MC to be yet another volleyball manager/player so I gave her dance/pole dance instead; having learned pole dance myself, I thought if it came to it later, I would be able to describe her challenges with it better that way. 

Then the other running theme of separation/dissociation in GWS is kind of based on my own experiences with it, as I grew up feeling very disconnected from my family (I lived apart from my parents growing up, due to their work). Even if we are kind of close now (?), the feeling never goes away in my subconscious, and I have been living in a separate country from them for almost half my life. I just kind of took that and applied it on a more major thing (being in an alternate world lmao🤣).

And there will be more to come, but I love mythology, fairytales (lol my Osamu fic, ‘novel’ XD), folktales & legends; particularly Asian ones. So I wanted to write a story that will let me introduce these to others. The Nox Somnus Talon that Bokuto used early on is based on the Filipino Ibong Adarna, and then the Death Worm that Bokuto mentioned in passing is from a Mongolian legend. Will you see more of them and others? Only updates will tell😙 

Touching back on The Rot and a magical disease that suddenly slowly corrupts & takes the life of their victims, it lightly touches on the sicknesses that goes on in my family at large (I don’t know why, people get sick very often in my familia😵)

This is getting long so I will cut it off here but this question might need to be re-Asked again once GWS gets further. Cause like I said, we’ve barely scraped the surface  🤣