#what do i know dogget from

[elibeeline]

Im on 7.22 of xfiles i remember this one from The Fanfics

[casuallycryingoverbooks]

Okay so after kind of a long break cuz i felt like i burned through most of season 8 waiting for Mulder to get back i just started watching s08e19 Alone. Here are my thoughts

Aaaaahhhhh i love Dogget he’s grown on me so much. He and Scully actually care about each other as friends

Mulder taking an active role in Scully’s pregnancy after being justifiably distant since he’d been returned makes me melt

“Agent doggets a big boy, he can tale care of himself. You have to worry about the little boy. Little girl? Little boy? Or little girl?” AH BARK BARK

No dogget’s spent too much time with Scully he’s touching unidentified goup with his bare hands

Dad!skinner telling Scully she’s not aloud into the office. Skinner acting like Mulder and Scully are the two children he never wanted but begrudgingly loves anyway is my everything

Scully you should mot be autopsying that body and everyone knows it except for you apparently and btw put a goddamn mask on

Mulder is concerned about his son and his wife, partner (girl?) friend more than any x-file

When tf was it confirmed that the baby is mulder’s?

I was so distracted by Mulder and Scully I forgot 8 was supposed to be worried about Dogget what’s going on

When x-files agents drop random history lessons>>> please tell me more about the prohibition

Skinner: mulder your not supposed to be out here. Mulder does what mulder wants

A “walk in the woods” or “nice trip to the forest” has never gone well for this man

“I didn’t catch a name agent-“ “kersh.” HAHAHAHA agent mulder is not a field agent but he doesn’t have to be if he’s not agent Mulder

Mulder looks really good in this episode

Nah dog (random evil biologist guy) get away from my new son (dogget)

Agent Harrison pisses me off, girl no way you read all the reports and went “i wanna do that!!!” And THEN you were freaked out. Like do i love the xfiles? Yeah! Is a career path im considering with an intelligence agency like the fbi? Yeah. Would i ever want to work on an xfile if they were real? Nope nope nope

MULDER SCULLY FACETIME CALLS ARE BACK HELLLLLLL YEAHHHHH

Skinner reprimanding Mulder is back can i get a waahooo?

“You re-gifted my apollo medallion” yes and i wish she fucking didn’t

ENZYMES THOSE ARE ENZYMES (ha, i was right)

“Talk about the blind leading the blind” man-

Rut row raggy

Yes, let’s shoot a firearm when we can’t see anything! That’s a really good idea!

Bad mulder! That is not something we say and then hang up on our wife, partner (girl?) friend

That is a big fucking lizard and I’m getting the feeling i was already supposed to know about it but wasn’t paying attention

Mulder bby they are not your colleagues you are unemployed

“It’s alright, it’s just me” Ahhhh soft dogget

Can Dogget and Mulder be bros please

Mulder you absolutely fucking moron ❤️❤️❤️

“Aim at me” “No!!! I’ll shoot you” “your not gonna shoot me”x4 Haha i cant believe that fucking worked

MULDERS HAND ON SCULLYS BACK AAAAH

Mulder giving Dogget the medallion ahhhhh

I’m very articulate rn

She’s such a fan hahaha

“It was never actually proven it was a spaceship-“ “it wasn’t?” + more bickering “you were frozen and then I hugged you untill you were not frozen anymore” THATS CANON NOW

[johns-prince]

I told him: “You know you love your own company. Even Cyn says you go days without speaking to her. She feels a million miles away from you.” John replied: “Ah, but she’s not, is she. She’s in the kitchen putting the kettle on.”

—Tony Barrow, Beatles Book Monthly Magazine, No. 149 (Sept. 1988) [×]

¶

There’s one line in the lyric I don’t really mean: “Well knowing you / You’d probably laugh and say / That we were worlds apart”. I’m playing to the more cynical side of John, but I don’t think it’s true that we were so distant. 

—Paul reads from his new book, The Lyrics (2021). [×]

¶

“I’m kind of expected to say, ‘[John] was a saint, he was always a saint, I remember him as a saint’, but it would be a lie. He was one great guy and part of his greatness was that he wasn’t a saint. He was a great guy but he was pretty sacrilegious. He was pretty up front about it. But it was half the fun.”

—Paul McCartney (c. 1984) in The Dream Is Over: Off The Record 2 by Keith Badman [×]

¶

“John is neither a saint, nor is he a sinner. He was just human, like the rest of us.”

—Cynthia Lennon, answering the question “John Lennon: saint or sinner?” The Independent, July 1999 [×]

¶

“Seeing Lennon focus on Ono rather than him[Paul] was as devastating as it would have been for Cynthia Lennon to witness the couple making love.”

—Peter Dogget, You Never Give Me Your Money. [×]

¶

“Then also we were like married, so you got the bitterness. It’s not a woman scorned this time, it’s two men scorned — probably even worse. And I had to make way for Yoko. My relationship with John could not have remained as it was and Yoko feel secure.”

— Paul McCartney, Interview by Duncan Fallowell in the Chicago Tribune, October 14th, 1984 [×]

¶

“Apart from giving me the courage to break out of my stockbroker belt... Yoko also gave me the inner strength to look more closely at my other marriage. My real marriage. To The Beatles, which was more stifling than my domestic life. Although I had thought of it often enough, I lacked the guts to make the break earlier.”

—Skywriting By Word Of Mouth by John Lennon (pg. 17) [x]

¶

“I still think at the back of John’s mind was this fascination of wanting to get back with the first girlfriend, if you like, and that was to get back with Paul, who he had so much history with.”

—Tony Barrow, The Beatles’ press officer, on the Lennon/McCartney reunion that was never to be [×]

¶

“I mean, I think really what it was, really all that happened was that John fell in love. With Yoko. And so, with such a powerful alliance like that, it was difficult for him to still be seeing me. It was as if I was another girlfriend, almost. Our relationship was a strong relationship. And if he was to start a new relationship, he had to put this other one away. And I understood that. I mean, I couldn’t stand in the way of someone who’d fallen in love. You can’t say, “Who’s this?” You can’t really do that. If I was a girl, maybe I could go out and…”

—April 3rd?, 1985 (Soho Square, London): Paul talks on German television show exclusive about the breakup of the Beatles and his personal breakup with John. [x]

¶

“But Paul was his own man and not afraid of John. In fact, musically and personally, the two were beginning to go in separate directions so perhaps Paul’s visit to me was also a statement to John.”

—Cynthia Lennon, John [×]

¶

“Paul, who believed strongly in the family and in family values, told me that he felt as if it was the Beatles themselves who were heading for divorce, not just John and Cynthia.”

—Tony Bramwell, Magical Mystery Tours [×]

I wanted to end this post with a quote from Cynthia, whether it was from a book or was an answer to a question, about how she simply misses lying in bed with John, and just the two of them talking. This quote from her book John [x] is relevant, but unfortunately I couldn't find the exact quote I wanted.

To accompany the sentiment from John's first wife though, is this quote:

“If John Lennon could come back for a day, how would you spend it with him?” “In bed.”

—Paul McCartney answers questions for Q magazine, 1998 [x]

[gabby-msr]

Is Mulder’s Quest Selfish or Selfless? Both? Neither?

Disclaimer: I love Mulder and Scully with all my heart, equally. This isn’t a post to dunk on one of them. It’s common to see Mulder blaming himself in fanfiction for everything wrong that happens to Scully and while, yes, I get it, the question of Mulder being selfish VS selfless has been bouncing in my brain for a while. This is my attempt at putting my thoughts on paper.

Mulder (and eventually Scully’s) quest is a costly one. It lasts for very many years and doesn’t exactly yield the expected returns. For this reason, a common interpretation of The X-Files is that there are terrible consequences to Mulder’s quest and they aren’t exactly “worth it.”  It isn’t a far-fetched idea because Scully has to remind Mulder THREE times over the course of the whole run that she wouldn’t change a day. Furthermore, one person can love the X-Files and also recognize that Scully’s life didn’t really get better for joining the X-Files - a lot of things were taken from her. 

But is Mulder to blame? This very determined man is alone (with Scully) fighting a nebulous evil that is actively harming people. I think we ought to look closer at what Mulder and Scully’s missions are, their repercussions, but also whether their fight is a worthy one. 

The Good Fight: Aliens and Men in Black

“Nothing else matters to me, and this is as close as I've ever gotten to it.”

- Fox Mulder, Pilot.

In the very first episode, Mulder opens up to Scully about his goal in life. It is not sprung upon her later in the series. From the get-go, we know that Mulder thinks that:

Extraterrestrials are responsible for his sister’s disappearance;

The US government is covering it up for some reason;

Proving this and finding Samantha are the only things that matter to him.

Over the course of the series, his focus changes somewhat. 

In seasons 2-3-4, he finds out about how women disappear, is returned with a chip in their neck, dies of cancer, and are left barren. He finds out because all of it happens to Scully and he is IRATE. In season 2, after her abduction, Mulder is out for blood to avenge Scully. At the same time, he feels guilty about her abduction, saying that he should’ve told her about the danger, that she didn’t know.

Meanwhile, in seasons 4 and 5, Samantha fades somewhat, and Scully becomes more important. He wants to hold accountable those who are responsible for the abduction and killing of women, as well as the medical rape of these women. There’s nothing negative to say about this. It appears to me to be an objectively good thing.

In the later years, after finding out what happened to Samantha, Mulder appears a little lost and less convinced by his quest. By Requiem, he wants to send Scully home from Bellefleur, saying that the cause isn’t worth it. That she should go home and carry on with her life, have children.  Why he “decides” to get on the ship remains a mystery to me, although a point could be made that once he was in the forest, he wasn’t a willing participant. 

In season 8, Mulder leaving the FBI appears, to me, as indicative that he’s kind of done. Whereas he would have fought tooth-and-nail to get the X-Files back, this time, he leaves of his own volition. Not only that, but this time, Scully is the one who has trouble letting go. 

Mulder reminding Scully that Dogget is a big boy and that she has to care of “the little boy” melts my shipper heart.

I wish the show had explored Mulder’s return more thoroughly in season 8 because he is still involved, but I get the impression that he has more to lose.

In season 9 and onwards, Mulder seems uber-focused on the end of the world in 2012. While we don’t get a good explanation for why Mulder and Scully broke up, this could be a reasonable explanation.

In the revival eras, Mulder appears to me as someone who isn’t as blinded by his quest as he used to be. Having lost Scully has probably shifted his priorities somehow.  

A Closer Look at the Syndicate: Was Mulder doing Good?

“CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN:  I’m in the game because I believe what I’m doing is right.

MULDER: Right? Who are you to decide what’s right?

CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN: Who are you?”

- The X-Files, One Breath, Season 2, Episode 8

So the X-Files world is doomed. Alien colonization is inevitable and would result in the extermination of humanity as we know it. Fortunately for us, a group of forward-thinking men in black, a type of shadow government, has decided to do something about it! Only this guy Mulder jeopardizes it all by threatening to expose them!

Umm... not quite.

A few times during the show, people tell Mulder that he is in the wrong for what he is doing, which begs the question: in the grand scheme of things, is Mulder doing something wrong? Is he threatening the very existence of humanity? 

- In Deep Throat, after being returned from the military base where his brain was wiped:  

“I just wanna say, everything you've seen here is equal to the protection we give it. It's you who have acted inappropriately.”

- The quote above from the Cigarette-Smoking Man, in One Breath. 

- In the episode Max, when Mulder is on a plane with a man who threatens to take it down:

MULDER: I'm sure all the other passengers on this plane would appreciate dying for your noble philosophy.

SCOTT GARRETT: Look out your window, Agent Mulder. You see the lights? Now, imagine if one of those lights flickered off. You'd hardly notice, hadn’t you? A dozen... two dozen lights extinguished. Is it worth sacrificing the future, the lives of millions, to keep a few lights on?

My understanding of the mythology is the following: The aliens will invade by infecting everybody with the Black Oil, and warned the Syndicate about it in 1973. They struck a deal whereby the Syndicate attempts to create alien-human hybrids. In exchange, the Syndicate members have to give up a member of their family to the aliens as collateral (in the Mulder family, that’s Samantha).

The Syndicate’s dilemma reminds me of the trolley problem in philosophy. However, in this case, it could be summarized as follows: Samantha dies, or, without Syndicate intervention, everybody, including Samantha, dies. 

So in the end, the Syndicate was only trying to save humanity? 

That’s debatable, and the means they used were absolutely ruthless and inhumane. Everybody was disposable. Abducting people like Max Fenig and Duane Barry, repeatedly, and causing them extreme pain and distress appeared to me to be absolutely despicable.  Likewise, abducting women, stealing their ova, creating babies with them, and leaving them barren and dying of cancer were also terrible. Furthermore, Samantha’s journals attest that she was tortured during the years between her abduction and her “death.” 

From my point of view, Mulder and Scully were the only people who took them seriously, who gave them some hope. 

At the end of the day, the Syndicate was looking to protect themselves more than humanity. And they hurt a lot of people along the way.

Mulder Fucks up Big Time

We cannot discuss whether what Mulder is doing is good without taking into account the times he FUCKED UP.

During the show, there are a few instances where Mulder is blinded by his quest. The most egregious example is from Paper Hearts, when he endangers the life of a little girl because he thinks there is a chance he might find out what happened to Samantha. Anybody else would have been sacked after this but this is the X-Files here.

One of his flaws is his impulsiveness. 

“Mulder, don’t get on the train.”

Mulder is somewhat aware of the dangers of his expeditions. One such example is when he goes to Arctica in season 2.

It’s a famous Scully ditch. In the end, Scully swoops in and saves the day, but Mulder didn’t intend it that way. He’d left her a letter explaining what he was doing:

“ Scully, when you get this message, I will be too far away for you to stop me, but where I'm going I cannot allow you to follow. I won't let you jeopardize your life and your career for reasons purely personal to me. You were right, Scully... you said a line has to be drawn somewhere. I'm drawing it for you here. I'll contact you when I can.” 

- Fox Mulder, End Game, Season 2 episode 17.

So he’s aware of the risks, especially in season 2, after her abduction. That doesn’t stop him from ditching her and needing her rescue, but he can acknowledge that a situation is dangerous and try to limit the damage to only himself. Given their bond, Scully rescues him, which could endanger her as well. 

The Cases in Between: The Flukeman, Vampires and Frankenstein 

And then there are the actual X-Files. What Mulder and Scully’s job should be. Between mytharc cases, Agents Mulder and Scully travel the USA to investigate the most outlandish claims. Sometimes their help is requested, but at others, they arrive at the scene of the crime and are treated like a nuisance. The entire X-Files policing universe, from the FBI to the average small-town sheriff, is rather hostile to Mulder and Scully’s unexpected methods, though as it often turns out, their contribution solves the case.

Exhibit 1: Squeeze/Tooms

In Squeeze, Scully’s help is requested by an old academy “friend” to solve a most bizarre string of murders. Mulder is drawn into the case too, although his ideas are not well received. Mulder is fought every step of the way and refused a surveillance details many times, only for Scully to be attacked. In this case, without Mulder and Scully acting like watchdogs, Eugene Victor Tooms would most likely be returning to the Baltimore area in 2023 to kill five more people.

Exhibit 2: Quagmire

This case turns out to be rather simple, and Mulder is also wrong in the end (or is he)? Regardless, the town sheriff they have to work with refuses to recognize there is an issue with the lake. His take on the multiple deaths occurring around the lake can essentially be summarized as people being drunk dumbasses around lakes. Even though Mulder turns out to be wrong about what is causing the deaths, he and Scully put a stop to it, and the lake is presumed to be safe again (though we never know on the X-Files).

These are only two examples of Mulder and Scully making their world a safer place. They barge in and are most often not welcomed, and yet, they end up saving people. If I were a victim of some type of monster, Mulder and Scully would be the ones I want investigating what happened. In a world of skeptics, Mulder shines. 

Repercussions: Deaths, losses, and sacrifices.

I will probably forget people/things. Apologies in advance.

Being in the close circle of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully has a huge disadvantage: a very high death rate. The following deaths can be attributed to the cause:

Melissa Scully and Agent Pendrell: the very definition of “wrong place at the wrong time.” Both their deaths are tragic and feel gratuitous. 

Fox Mulder’s dad: While his death is due to his decision to try and help Mulder for once in his life, it could be argued that he was the reason the Mulder family was on the path it was on in the first place. His involvement in the Syndicate was the reason for Samantha’s disappearance.

Emily: her very existence was a tragedy, and so was her death. She was created by evil people who never intended her to live. 

Honourable mention: Queequeg. 

Beyond death, Mulder and Scully sacrificed a lot of things to continue working on their quests:

Their lives: from the viewer’s point of view, it appears as though Mulder and Scully have nothing else going on in their lives other than the X-Files. While we can’t possibly know, especially considering we see very little of their personal lives, we know that neither Mulder nor Scully is “progressing” in their lives. Both are single without prospects despite looking really hot and their careers are at a standstill with “little to show for it.” 

Mulder seems especially eager to dedicate his life on the X-Files, Samantha, and exposing evil people who abduct people and make them suffer.  On the other hand, Scully questions her role on the X-File and their mission more than once. She even tries to appeal to Mulder to lead a normal life - a foreign concept for Mulder.

Whereas Scully is seen having a little bit of a life in the first season - her friend Ellen, going on a date with a boring guy - in the later seasons, it’s Mulder and Scully VS. the universe.

Scully progressively withdraws from her family: in season 5, we can see how the quest is taking Scully away from the family. She’s there with her family, except that she isn’t, not really. Her job is causing a rift between her and older brother, and even her mother doesn’t seem to understand her at times;

Scully’s ability to have children: considering how her ova stolen during her abduction, Scully was robbed of the possibility for children. It is a very sad discovery for her, one she has a hard time coping with;

Their BABY: due to their involvement in their mission, the safest option for William is for Scully to give him up. Repeating just to make sure we remember: SHE HAS TO GIVE UP THEIR MIRACLE BABY, THE ONE WE NEVER THOUGHT SHE COULD HAVE;

So..?

With that in mind, is Mulder and Scully’s quest worth it? Is it selfish or selfless? This post is going all over the place, trying to argue different things. At the end of the day, here are a few conclusions I can come with:

- As far as the average X-File goes, Mulder and Scully are the people you want working your case. They will not give up, and they will most likely the only people in the whole world to be compassionate and understanding. They have put a stop to many monsters who would go on killing people. Their work on the X-File is not in vain;

- As far as the mytharc goes, their mission is a noble endeavour. They are the only ones looking and trying to figure out why people like Max Fenig or Scully are disappearing and suffering. There is SOMETHING there. Alas, they are fighting something that is a lot bigger than just them, and their mission comes at a great personal cost. Beyond that, it hurts other people and the quest can blind Mulder in a way that endangers other people.

I don’t have a concrete conclusion beyond this and would love to discuss this further. 

All the pictures used are taken from the wonderful screencaps website: https://www.xfilesarchive.com/index.html Shout out to the owner, who really puts in a lot of time!

[reginarubie]

There is a knight named Sandoq the Shadow who is described as similar to Sandor. Sandoq the Shadow was sworn shield to Lady Larra of Lys. People think that it's foreshadowing for Sansan when they ignore the fact that Lady Larra was married to a Targ. Same way Joffery Dogget is compare to Sandor and fans think that him being sworn to Alysanne is foreshadowing for Sansan. Again they ignore that Alysanne married her brother who was a Targ.

Hello anon!,

As stated before, I haven't really been abroad the whole sansan ship, so I know very little about it save for my own opinion of it, but I think you are right, if they are using these supposed couples to base off their ship they chose to use bases which rest on quicksand for sure.

I already replied to an ask about Joffrey Dogett and why he and the Hound do not parallel each other, but actually are doing an inverse journey (in this ask: red decoded?, part II — as I believe that Dogett, also known as the Red Dog of the hills represents positively coded red while the Hound represents negatively coded red); to quickly resume, I believe they're doing the inverse journey because we have:

Joffrey Dogett:

religious knight, captain of the Warrior's Sons ➡️ outlawed who led guerrilla against Maegor the Cruel ➡️ loyal sworn shield to Jaehaerys Targaryen and Alysanne Targaryen

Sandor Clegane:

sworn shield of prince Joffrey B. ➡️ disloyal ("Fuck the king") member of the kingsguard of Joffrey B. ➡️ possible novice of the Quiet Isle's monastery

Pertaining these foreshadow they seem to find in ser Joffrey D. and Alysanne T. and Sandoq the Shadow and Lady Larra of Lys let's first see if Sansa fits with either lady (an exercise of futility, I know, but humour me):

Queen Alysanne Targaryen: known as good queen Alysanne, married her older brother, Jaehaerys Targaryen in secret on Dragonstone (though they did not consummate the marriage immediately); as a girl she's described as bright and pretty, courteous and biddable, she was gentle, kind and loving and was a proud lady at thirteen, though she was almost never wilful or stubborn. She loved her subjects and was beloved in return (If I ever am queen, I'll make them love me — Sansa Stark), she had a pleasing voice, loved her women's courts, music, dancing, reading and flying on her dragon. She was renown for her charities.

Sansa is that you in disguise?

Larra Rogare: considered a great beauty, tall and willowy. In KL she worshipped several Gods which were not the Seven (kind of like Sansa praying not only to the Seven of her mother's faith but to the Old Gods of House Stark and the North), Larra loved music and the music played by Sandoq made her always cry. Some said that she could transform into a cat (Sansa transformed into a wolf with bat-like wings and flew away from the Red Keep to the rumours). She was trapped in Maegor's Holdfast. Never having felt like belonging in KL, she returned to Lys her home and her husband became stern because of her absence (as their marriage had been one of love). Also, Larra was accompanied in KL by three brothers (Sansa has three brothers)

Sansa, Sansa, why do you keep popping up everywhere, dearie?

Now, onto the men in question, I've already stated that Joffrey D., has little of Sandor Clegane unless we count their reversal paths from one another. What more, Sansa was perpetually afraid of the Hound and romanticised the protection he offered her (common decency I say, but I digress) to comfort herself. It is not in the Hound that she draws comfort, but in the romantic idea itself (as I've previously stated when replying about the so called unkiss, here).

What more, Joffrey D. and lady Alysanne were not romantically involved with one another. Same with Sandoq the Shadow (who does bear a resemblance with the Hound, with his disfigured face) but who, again seems to be the opposite of the Hound who disregard anything which is not killing, as Sandoq despite being an incredible warrior, and an illiterate had a gift for music; and lady Larra.

Especially if we take into consideration that these ladies of whom Joffrey D. and Sandoq the Shadow were protectors (said to have protected their husbands — Joffrey D. was sworn to Jaehaerys and Sandoq protected Viserys and Aegon III) actually married for love!, with Targs!

Alysanne married her older brother Jaehaerys Targaryen: Jaehaerys was not the firstborn either, as he was the third son, of Aenys Targaryen and Alyssa Velaryon. He was known to be graceful and lean (remind you of anyone?, why in Bran I, AGOT, Jon is described exactly this way). He married Alysanne on Dragonstone in secret when he discovered his mother was thinking of betrothing her to someone else (well, well...reminds you of anyone else being petty over the possible betrothed of their "sister"?). He was known to be a great fighter and diplomat (again Jon, why ya here?, I am talking about Jaehaerys the Conciliator). Jaehaerys sat quietly and silent until Maegor had isolated himself and staked his claim when the various factions had abandoned his uncle (*cough cough* aunt!, "I am the blood of Aegon the Conqueror and Maegor the Cruel and of all Valyria before them" — Daenerys T. *cough cough*) ascending to the Iron throne. Also, do you know at which age he ascended? 14! (yeah Jon, we know you are 14 when AGOT begins).

Anyway Alysanne discovers she is to betrothed to... (you are going to laugh at this one) Orryn Baratheon! (Joffrey Baratheon anyone? No?) and Jaehaerys organises a wedding on Dragostone where they flee; though he does consummate the wedding because Alysanne was still too young. When Rogar Baratheon the king's Hand and step-father of the king declared them not married the kingsguard made a wall between him and the king and queen shielding them and defending them.

Anyway, do you know somebody else who is regarded by someone (*cough cough* Sansa *cough cough*) as her older brother but is actually a little brother, a third child? Jon!, we get it, okay? We do.

Larra married Viserys Targaryen: Viserys, younger brother to Aegon III Targaryen (have I mention that Jaehaerys oldest brother was named Aegon as well?, haven't I?, my bad) disappeared during the Dance of Dragons and disguised himself as a commoner (yeah we know Jon is disguised as a Snow to save his life) and he ends up in Lys where after his first steward dies he ends up in the Rogare family. There he meets Larra Rogare and marries her, she accompanies him to KL and they face serious, difficult situations together, she gives him several children before returning home to Lys as she always felt unwelcome in KL. He ascended after the death of his nephew but ruled only for a year because he died suddenly. It is believed that Viserys had it in him to be another Jaehaerys the Wise, as he was just as wise and shrewd (yeah, yeah, we know Jon is wise and shrewd). At the time they rumoured he had been killed (poisoned) by his successor.

Jon!, again, stop popping up everywhere!

So yes, sorry for the sarcastic tone of this reply, sometimes I get sassy 🤷🏼‍♀️, I hope I have not offended you.

Anyhow, the point is exactly this: Sansa has several hints toward both ladies (Alysanne and Larra) as Jon does with their husbands (Jaehaerys and Viserys) while their guards (Joffrey D. and Sandoq) are if apparently similar to the Hound, very very different from him; and even if they were similar to him, they did not have any kind of romantic involvement with either Alysanne or Larra. So, I believe the Sansan logic to apply Sansa/Sandor to these examples is a bit moot, and at the very best might foreshadow the Hound becoming part of the Stark battle guard (though as I've already said in the red decoded part II post, he has already had his turn as sworn shield to a ruler; I see more him leaving the monastery to lead a guerrilla against Dany or Aegon forces to be clear, as Joffrey D. did; or ending up North defending the Starks as Sandoq defended Larra and her husband and his brother) but not any kind of romantic involvement, imo!

I hope you enjoyed the read!, and thank you again for the ask! I wish you a very nice day!

[baronessblixen]

I absolutely loved your day 25 fictober fic!! Would you want to write a follow up for Mulder meeting his son for the first time in a while, entertaining all his crying and talking to him about all the things he has to look forward to in life? Tysm <3

A follow-up to "Every Morning, Every Night" that can also be read as a stand-alone. Thank you so much for the prompt, Bryony! Tagging @today-in-fic and @xffictober2021

Wc: 986

Fictober Day 28

Father and Son

He's not counting or anything but 32 minutes after he and Scully untangle their various limbs from each other, shower, and get dressed, there's a knock at the door. He startles briefly, fear still deep embedded in his system. Scully squeezes his bicep and smiles at him.

"It's okay, Mulder."

Easy for her to say. When she opens the door, there is Agent Dogget with narrowed, suspicious eyes, Agent Reyes with a sympathetic smile, and in her arms, a chubby little boy with a soft tuft of auburn hair on his head.

His son.

He's so big. And yet still so tiny.

"Hi," he says in awe, no longer seeing anyone else. William, his life still determined by reflexes, just kicks his small legs. Mulder touches one, amazed how alive he is, how real. Three weeks. He has missed so much. He has missed everything.

"He's hungry," Reyes says, handing the squirming infant to Scully. Doggett clears his throat and gives him another look. Mulder gets it. They're her friends and he's the guy who up and left.

"You stayin'?" Doggett asks, scrutinizing him.

"I am," Mulder says, looking him square in the eye. "I'm not leaving again. Thank you for helping Scully out while I was gone."

The look the other man gives him speaks volumes: don't hurt her again. Mulder nods, understanding him. He will do his damnedest to never cause Scully - or their son - another moment of pain.

"Do you want me to leave you alone, or?" Mulder asks five minutes later after Doggett and Reyes have left. Scully has taken off her shirt and William is happily nursing.

"Stay," Scully says wistfully, smiling at him.

"I don't want to... stare." Mulder blushes but he's unable to look away.

"They're just breasts, Mulder. You've seen them plenty of times. You saw them an hour ago."

"I know, I know. He's really going at it, huh?"

"He's a good eater. I wonder who he gets that from." Pride washes over him, along with love and the fierce sense of protection. How could he have ever left them? Leave them to fight on their own? Scully puts a hand on his thigh.

"Don't beat yourself up, Mulder. I can see it on your face. I asked you to leave, remember?" He nods. "I was wrong. We were both wrong. I've never been so thankful that you just don't stick to the rules." He leans over to kiss her, needing to taste and feel her again. He presses a soft kiss to William's head, too. The baby is unimpressed and too hungry to be distracted.

He watches mother and son in awe and fascination, just happy to be a part of their daily ritual. Eventually, William gets tired and doesn't drink anymore.

"Can you take him?" Scully asks quietly.

"I- do you think he'll... what if he cries?"

She merely smiles at him, touching his cheek. She smells like milk and something soft and warm. Home. He stares at William and isn't this what he wanted?

"Come here, big guy." He takes the baby from her and William opens his eyes, still as blue as ever, and stares at him. Mulder has read all the books and he should know but he doesn't know what William sees. If he sees anything at all.

"I'm going to go get cleaned up."

Scully leaves the room, leaving father and son alone.

"Your mom really trusts me," he says, swaying gently. He puts William on his shoulder, knowing he needs to burp. At least he remembers that much. He pats the small back, blown away by the solid weight in his arms and against his shoulder.

Will starts whimpering; he knew this would happen.

"Hey, it's okay. Your mommy will be right back. I know you prefer her." William sniffles as if to confirm his father's words. Mulder keeps rubbing the boy's back in circular motions, walking around the bedroom.

"I missed you so much," he mumbles against the boy's warm, silky head. "Every night I wondered what you were doing. You and your mom. I already missed so much, hm? You're heavier than when I first held you. I know I wasn't there for the first few weeks of your life, buddy. But I'm going to be here for the rest of it, okay? Your first step, your first words, your first tooth. I will teach you baseball. Or basketball. Whichever you prefer."

William's whimpering subsides, but he's still kicking his legs every now and then.

"You like moving your legs, hm? If you want to take dancing lessons, I will take you to every single one of them. You're my son." Now he's the one who's crying. Some tears land on the baby's head, making him squirm. "Sorry, buddy. There's so much we're going to do, you and I. And your mom. Do you know how great your mom is? Of course you do. There's just one thing I'm better at than she is, Will."

Mulder looks at the closed bathroom door before he leans down to the boy's small ear.

"Singing," he whispers. "I'm the better singer."

"Oh, are you?" Scully appears by his side, smelling like toothpaste and something sweet. She puts her hand over his on William's back. They're swaying in sync to music neither of them can hear but that they feel.

"Scully, you know I'm right."

"Hmm, so far William hasn't complained."

"He will. I can feel it. It's a father and son thing."

"Is it now?" She raises an eyebrow but there's nothing but joy in her expression.

"Let's ask him. Hey Will, do you think your mom is a good singer?" For a moment there's nothing. Mulder and Scully look at each other, sharing a smile. He will never tired of looking at her. Never.

Then, finally, William burps loudly and sighs.

"I think there's your answer, Mulder."

[tatooedlaura-blog]

Catching On

The fourth series reads as follows:

Apple Balancing ... Potential ... The Newbies ... The Dessert ... Dinosaurs and Cannibalism ... Sassy Sprinklepants ... The Secret Vault of Mudlerness ... Taco Night ... Neckhole Wrestling ... The Onesie ... Multiplication

To catch up: First series … Second series ...  Third series

@today-in-fic

just sayin’, there’s some of the sex ...

&&&&&&&&&&

This time, she was the one offering the multiple ‘holy shit’s’ in the living room.

“Holy Shit, Mulder.”

He shook his head at her, still stunned, “yeah, that’s what keeps running through my head as well.” Dropping back into the couch cushions, Will settled quietly on his lap, baby feet tapping a sporadic rhythm on Mulder’s belly, “she was an odd duck but not in a Layla odd way or a Dogget odd way. We talked for several hours and she believes everything I do and then some. I mean,” picking up Will and planting a kiss on his nose, received a giggle and a kiss right back, much stickier given the applesauce he had been eating when Mulder arrived home, “it’s like if you took all my ghosts, goblins, demons, and darkness and smashed them together with your ‘God does weird shit, don’t mess with him’ beliefs.” Wiping off the sticky kiss, “essentially, Monica Reyes is our fully formed love child.”

“That’s disturbing.”

Mulder’s hands went up, then moved to grip his head, fingers tugging at his hair, “I know! If she were to actually get this to work, she’d need somebody more disbelieving, yet easygoing, than Doggett to keep her in check. I mean … God …” he let his smile curve half his face, “it’s finally catching on.”

Scully couldn’t smile back at the moment, “you want to go with her, don’t you?”

He gave her a look that would be comical in any other circumstance, “what? No.” Comical moved to concrete, “I’ve got you and the youngling and two more beans on the way.” He raised a well-learned imitation Scully eyebrow at her, “now, if for some reason, I hadn’t managed to get you to fall in love with me and reproduce, I would think that you would be a pretty good fit to work with her at first. You’d be able to argue her religious leanings even though you believe them.”

“Are you saying that, if I hadn’t finally allowed you the pleasure of seeing me naked and doing the reproducing, you would have shipped me to southern Louisiana without a second thought?”

Standing, he retrieved a bag of M&Ms from the cupboard, handing them to her, red mixed with all the other colors, “do we need to review the contents of this bag and their meaning, young lady?”

By now, she was grinning, Will safely resting against her hip, “maybe later, once the kid is sound asleep.”

Mulder kissed her, first on the forehead, then, because he was totally allowed without getting smacked, on her mouth, “I am not going anywhere. You are not going anywhere. But I can’t guarantee things aren’t going to get a little weird here for awhile if I need to go for a week or so, just to see what she has down there.” Kissing her again, “maybe I’ll even bring you with me. Leave Will in the charge of his Gunmen uncles. Eat beignets naked in the jacuzzi, lick excess powdered sugar off your thighs, wander a little around the city without crutches and stitches and concussions, oh my.”

Shifting Will a little, she leaned up, kissing the dent in his chin, “when do we leave?”

“No comments on the Gunmen uncles?”

“Not right now. I will probably have some later but right now, I’m thinking I’d like to take your pants off.”

“Always my pants with you.”

&&&&&&&&&

Two a.m. and both were awake, room dark, mattress soft, voices low, “if this works, Scully … if she finds a partner and solves some things, and honestly, doesn’t get killed in the process, this will be phenomenal.”

“I know it will but it’s going to take awhile. She’s going to need someone she trusts who can do the medical side of all this, and she’s going to have to find them on her own.”

“You were assigned to me.”

“Yeah, and remember how much fun that was at the beginning. It took a few years for you to trust me.”

“Naw, I trusted you from the beginning.”

Poking him in the side, she moved to run her fingers lightly over his ribs, enjoying the hot skin under her hand, “you tolerated me from the beginning. You thought I was ‘hot’ from the beginning. You wanted me naked from the beginning. You didn’t trust me from the beginning.”

Mulder rolled to his side, his own hand gliding over her ribs and down over her bare ass, “you let me see you naked from the beginning so that one doesn’t count against me.”

“Half-naked.”

“Not in my mind.”

Scooting herself up against him, she closed her eyes, deep breath in signaling sleep not far away, “your version, my version, and, if you don’t mind, I’d like to not be talking about Monica Reyes while legitimately naked this time.”

He wiggled himself down until he could get her nipple into his mouth, hand still firmly on her ass, debating a finger slide in, “have I ever told you what I thought about doing after you barged into my room in that cute little bra?”

“Is it anything like what you’re thinking about doing now?”

“Not quite. Had I been debating fingering your ass like I am now,” finger indeed toying and dipping, “I would have definitely kicked you out of the room and gotten off in like a minute and a half.”

Scully was quite awake again and hips moving unconsciously, “then what were you thinking?”

“That there was a possibility, that if I could just get you to believe me, just once …” finger diving deeper, slipping easier, “then maybe I could get up enough courage to ask you out on a date.”

Her own hand maneuvered to her clit, just as wet as the rest of her, “there would have been a distinct possibility that if you had told me how good you were with your hands, I’d have said ‘yes’ even if I didn’t believe you.”

Mulder rolled her over, finger never wavering, until she was on her back and he had easier access. Shifting to his knees, he crouched over her, watching her, adoring her, “can you come?”

Hips bucking up, “are you kidding?”

With a laugh, he moved as deep as possible, her muscles spasming moments later around him, choking the blood flow to his finger for a few seconds until everything relaxed, the sheen of sweat on her forehead and chest making him grin, “good round one?”

Pretense gone, “go wash your hand.”

He did not argue.

By three, Mulder was pulling out of her, twice for him, three for her, towel underneath them soaked, her hair a damp, fluffy mass, his arm muscles shaking, bite marks to his collar bone stinging, bruises to her hips darkening from his iron grip as he pounded into her with enough force to knock the headboard against the wall.

“How did we not wake up small fry?”

Heart finally slowing, “no idea but don’t question it.” Getting her rolling eyeballs under control, “thank you.”

Collapsing beside her, “are you kidding? We left a dent in the wall. Thank you.”

“Do you think we made the twins seasick?”

Mulder laughed, “at least they won’t remember it.”

[no-reply95]

Dogget forgot that the other three actually tried to persuade Paul to return to them too after break up. Paul however, was angry and declined. And this might sound strange but i would actually say both John and George are actually hella possessive of Paul. The entitlement those two got for Paul...astounding. All the Beatles are possessive of each other, if Dogget try to say that in front of them...not sure it will be good.

I mean I haven’t read YNGMYM so I can’t speak to everything Doggett has said on the Beatles but from the excerpts I’ve read he does appear to fall into the camp of people who believe Paul was constantly pining for the Beatles to get back together in the 70s and would have dropped everything if John had said he was interested.

My issue with people like Doggett (if that is the camp he does fall into) is they are credible authors and do make an effort to write an unbiased book on the Beatles but then they clearly bring in their interpretations and select the evidence they find to fit their pre-determined interpretations rather than looking at the actual evidence in front of them and letting that shape their interpretations. I think Doggett, like a lot of other authors, falls into the trap where they see Paul’s post break-up announcement depression as demonstrative of his permanent attitude towards John, George and the Beatles reforming but that just isn’t based on reality. I’ll outline a few reasons why I disagree:

If Paul was so desperate for the band to reform why would he take them to court to legally break them up? Why wouldn’t he just acquiesce and accept Klein?

Why wouldn’t Paul play at Bangladesh? That would have been a great opportunity to mend fences with George and get him onside, in an alternative universe where Paul plays at Bangladesh can you see George playing on HDYS? I can’t.

Paul says that John specifically called him up to get the band back together after they failed to renew Klein’s contract, again if Paul was so desperate to reform the band how did he not bite on that offer from John?

Similarly to Bangladesh, John and Yoko invited Paul to play at the One to One concert and again he turned them down so clearly it wasn’t a case of John saying jump and Paul saying how high.

The above list is by no means exhaustive, there are so many instances in the 70s, heck even in the late 60s of John and George reaching out to Paul so this narrative that Paul would have dropped everything if John would have given the word is an invention of a narrative that seeks to show that John was the centre of Paul’s universe while Paul was just some guy that John could pick up and drop as he pleased. We don’t know everything that happened between the members of the band but from what we do know the facts just do not support this narrative so it would be great to get some non-boomers into the Beatles literature space because I for one am tired of these weird fanboy takes that are based solely on confirmation bias rather than (the closest approximation of) reality.

It’s a shame that Doggett’s Prisoner of Love book was cancelled because I think it’s likely that if he really did get to read John’s diaries that a lot of what was in there would have been pretty eye-opening and may have been cause for him to revise some of his interpretations from YNGMYM… Let’s see what happens in the future on this, hopefully this book can come out eventually.

[indefiniteimagines]

Not Even For A Minute || Poussey Washington Imagine *Requested*

Summary: Poussey has a crush on the reader and thinks she doesn’t like her back, but she does.

Pairing: Poussey Washington x Reader

Warnings: Fem!reader, lewd language/comments, language, reader doesn’t have a preferred sexual orientation, use of R slur, angst, fluff

A/N: Holy shit! This is my first piece of writing in actually only a couple of months, but I’m claiming years because I am officially back like I was in high school. I’m so sorry if this is not my best, I am EXTREMELY rusty, so take it easy on me for now :) 

It was dinner time at Lichfield and it was only my second meal in my new home. My new home filled with almost 200 other women. For the next 5 years, I will see the inside of this cafeteria 3 times a day, 21 times a week, 1,095 times a year and a whopping 5,473 times in total. You’re probably wondering why that matters, but it matters.

I take my tray and do a quick search for a place to sit. I find a spot at the very end of one of the middle tables. It was the only seat with no one in a two foot radius of me. I sit down and look at the food in front of me. My first dinner includes spaghetti, two mini oranges, a salad, and a brownie. It’s not horrible when you think about it. It’s a pretty standard meal. Well it would be without the questionable odor coming from the meatballs. I close my eyes and sigh. 

“Maybe she’s deaf.”

“She ain’t deaf.”

“HELLO!”

“She can’t hear you if she’s deaf, dummy.”

“Fine, then you try, Angie.”

I was so deep in my own world that I almost didn’t notice the cherry tomato that hit me in my head. 

“Hey, girl!”

I opened my eyes and looked to my left.

“Are you talking to me?” I asked with a hint of a nervous tone.

“Uh yeah, have been for the last 5 hours. You retarded or something?”

“5 hours ago? No that can’t be right. Remember, we was in the laundry room 5 hours ago, Tucky.”

“Jesus, Angie! I was being snide.”

“You mean sarcastic?”

“Snide means sarcastic.”

“Then why not just say sarcastic?”

I watched as “Tucky” closed her eyes and tilted her head in annoyance.

“I’m sorry, but did you guys need something?”

Tucky’s eyes snapped open, “Uh, yeah. Why’re you sitting here?” She took her bottom lip into her mouth as she waited for my response.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know anyone was sitting here.”

“She never said that,” Angie said while flashing her pearly browns.

“I’m confused.”

“Wow maybe she really is retarded,” Angie said.

“Tucky” nodded at Angie, “I think you’re right, Ang. Here, I’ll break it down real slow like for you: You don’t belong here.”

“Look, I don’t want any trouble. Just let me finish my dinner and I’ll never sit with you again.” I tried to reason with the little troll, but she just wasn’t having it. 

She nodded her head while picking up her milk carton. She then poured it all over my food. “Seems to me like you’re done.”

All I could do was stare with my mouth open. 

“Why did you do that?!”

“BECAUSE YOU DON’T BELONG HERE!” She screamed as she stood up and let one of her fist hit the metal table.

“Dogget! You’re done! Empty your tray.” A CO finally intervened from the next row over. Dogget and her Meth Mates got up from the table and walked out. 

All I could do was sit there with my head hanging low as I let a few tears escape. I’m not usually this weepy, but in my defense, all I wanted was that little brownie...which was now swimming in a pool of used milk. 

*A few tables over*

“Fuck was that about?” Poussey asked her family as she nodded her head over to the other table; finally arriving with her tray. 

“Mmmm, Meth Mouth and her cult were fuckin’ with one of the newbies,” Janae replied in the middle of finishing her bite.

Poussey hovered over her chair to get a good look at the bothered inmate and sat back down while shaking her head. 

After having a mini pity party for myself, I got up and dumped my spoiled tray before leaving the cafeteria. I go back to my temporary bunk and buried myself under my blanket. 

“Cheer up, Kid. You’ll be out of here sooner than you know.”

I gave a pitiful grin to the nice older woman.

“I like your eyeshadow.”

“Duh,” she said as she threw me a wink.  

I let out a sigh, got comfortable and laid in my bed until morning.

I finally fell asleep, but only for 2 hours. At the ass crack of dawn, I was woken up by the morning announcement, which had absolutely no enthusiasm. “Good morning, ladies. Try to seize the day. The world is your oyster.”

“You’d think she’d quit if she hates her job so much.” That was the first time I heard the redhead with the horrible bed head speak.

“Bell is about as enthusiastic as a wet bag of hair, but she’s one of the good ones.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said groggily.  

“You joining us for breakfast?”

I drifted back to sleep before I could hear her response. I woke up in what seemed like an hour, but was only 30 minutes. For the slightest second I forgot where I was. I opened my eyes and was met with DeMarco standing right in front of me.

“Well good morning sleepyhead! Nice of you to join the living.”

“What? What time is it?”

“You see a clock in here? What I do know is that you got 10 minutes left for breakfast. You better hurry.”

I hop down off my bunk and start to change.

“Thanks.” 

“You don’t talk much, do you?”

I gave her a shrug as I zipped up my jacket and headed for breakfast. I arrived in the cafeteria and was able to get my food right away since there was no line. Some tables are still filled, but some are also empty. I scan the room and pick the table farthest away from Doggett and her followers. I was in the middle of eating my eggs when Angie walked by and sneezed on my tray. 

“Oops, ‘scuse me,” she said with a shit eating grin.

“God damnit,” I whisper to myself while trying not to deck this bitch.

“You shouldn’t say the Lord’s name in vain like that.”

I look up at her through hooded eyes, “Walk the fuck away.” My voice was low and I kind of scared myself.

“Oooo, devil eyes. Hey! She’s got devil eyes,” she says louder than the first time, except now she’s giggling and pointing at me while backing away. Doggett sucks her bottom lip at me while flipping her hood and getting up to walk out. I can feel people starring so I do a very quick observation and then stand up to leave. 

“Empty your tray,” the guard at the door told me. “Get some coffee while you’re at it. It’ll help you stay full until lunch.”

 I look up at his name that’s stitched into his shirt. Ohhhh, so this is O’Neil. I heard some of the girls talking about his scandalous relationship with CO Bell. Good for them. I turned around and went to dump my tray before following the advice and going for the coffee. 

“Yo, why they always fucking with her?” Poussey asked the table as she watched in disapproval as Y/N dumped her tray.

“Why do you care?” Taystee asked while rolling her eyes.

“For real? You ain’t notice that ever since China got out, Prince Charming over here been lookin’ for a new helpless, basket case? I mean, shit.”

“Aye don’t talk about Brook like that. Not cool, Cindy.”

“ “Cindy”? Bitch, fuck you think you is? My mama? Ugh, check ya tone.”

“Whatever man. I’m just tired of seeing Meth Madness fuck with people like they run the place.”

“Again, why do you care?”

“Shit just ain’t right, is all.”

“Mmmhmm,” Taystee replied as they got up from the table.

I turn around after filling my mug and notice that it’s just me, the inmates that clean up and the CO’s supervising them. I carry my warm mug through the halls and I notice there’s not as many people crowding them as there were last night. 

“Inmate! Where you are supposed to be?”

“Uhm, I’m not really sure.”

“Wrong answer!”

“Wrong?”

“Don’t get smart with me. Jefferson! Tell inmate...Y/L/N where she’s supposed to be.”

“Well, since it’s after lunch, we’re supposed to be headed to our work detail. Not whatever you was doing, apparently.”

The tall guard with the creepy mustache looked down at me and raised his eyebrows.

“Thank you, Jefferson.”

“I don’t have a work detail yet.”

He closed his eyes and sighed. When he opens them he looked back at Jefferson, “you work in the library, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Take her with you.”

She sucked her teeth, “Man, what do I say when someone asks why she’s there? No offense, but I ain’t taking no shots just because she’s somewhere she’s not supposed to be.”

“What’s a shot?”

“Jesus fuck. Will you both get out of my goddamn sight?” 

He snatched my mug; Jefferson and I gave each other a look and started towards the library. When we got there it was almost empty.

“You know, the labels are there to help the books be put back in their respectful place, not to look cute. I mean, damn.” I notice Jefferson chuckle at the girl we hear before seeing. She’s talking to a pair of inmates who are whispering to each other before tossing another book down and scurrying off. 

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” she calls after them, but to no avail. She sighs to herself before returning back to work. 

“Hey, P! Whatchu up to?”

“Practically cleaning up behind bitches. I mean, why is it so hard to put a book back in its original spot? Jane Eyre belongs in literature, not SAT Prep,” she called back.

“Truly first world problems,” Jefferson said unamused.

“Yooo, you ever heard of “Oedipus”? It’s mad crazy. Like this one part where the main dude...” she kept talking as she rounded the corner to finally come face to face with us.

“...who’s this?”

“Our puppy dog for the day,” Jefferson said as she rolled her eyes.

“Oh alright then. Well I’m working over here in history. Y’all can start in fiction. It’s a fuckin mess over there.”

“Um, then why don’t we all work in fiction?”

“Did you not hear me say it’s a fuckin mess? Have fun.”

I walked away, smiling to myself. I didn’t think anyone here would care for books like I did.

After the work day was over, I separated from the two friends and went back to my temporary bunk until dinner. The next day I followed Jefferson back into the library.

“Oh, puppy dog is back.”

Jefferson turned her head to me, “Don’t you know when you gettin your work detail yet?“

“Sorry, still no.”

“As much as I’m sure you love the view you get, I’m gettin tired of you following me.”

“I can ask someone if I can work somewhere else.”

“T-ha! And make me look like a problem? I think not.”

“Nah, we could use the extra help in here since bitches can’t put shit back where it’s supposed to go. Hate to break it to y’all, but foreign language is even worse than fiction was.”

“My god. Can’t you help us over here instead of doing whatever it is the fuck you doin?”

“Uh no.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m President of the Library.”

“Says who!?”

“Suzanne,” she said as a matter of fact while leaning forward to show us her ID that read “President Washington: Library”.

“Aw damn. It’s official and everything. Man, that’s some bull shit,” Jefferson said as she walked away.

All I did was look at the Presidential badge and smile.

“Since you don’t complain like some people, just know you’re first in line for Vice President. Just don’t tell Taystee,” she told me on the sly.

“Taystee?”

“Jefferson.”

“Ohh, got it.”

“I’m Poussey, by the way,” she said extending her hand.

“Y/N. Nice to meet you.”

“Yeah you too.”

She has a beautiful smile.

Towards the end of the work day, I found myself near Poussey’s section. Since our work for the time being is pretty much done, I start to browse the shelves when I spot a book dear to my heart, “Alice in Wonderland”. I get a mini rush of serotonin and pop a squat up against one of the shelves. I lose track of time, until I realize I no longer see anyone. “Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality”. You are right about that, Mr. Carroll.

“Hello?” I’m immediately startled. I start to shuffle to my feet and by the time I stand, I’m met with someone else.

“Whoa, shit. My bad. I didn’t think anyone else was in here.” Shit, I must’ve I said that out loud.

“Sorry, I guess I lost track of time.”

“It’s cool. So you haven’t been assigned a work duty yet, huh?”

I shook my head.

“I, uh, I must admit that this is the best job. Call me bias, but it’s the truth.”

“Thanks,” I say with a slight smile.

“You’re the one Pennsatucky and her crew keep messing with.”

“Yeah, that’s me.”

“Y’all got beef on the outside or something?”

“No, but I found it’s better to not provoke a methed out mental case.”

“Not wrong there. Well, I’ll see you around. Oh and be careful with Alice, she’s my favorite.”

The next few days were the same. I would follow Taystee into the library and listen to her and Poussey be absolute clowns. Poussey and I got to be closer since we were usually the last two to leave. We talked about how much time we have, our family, and she even told me about the Vee drama. During my stint of unpaid work in the library, I was finally able to change out of the highlighter jumpsuit and into a khaki set.

After an hour or so into a shift, I found myself distracted with my favorite book, “In Five Years”.

“Oh uh, that goes on the second to last shelf right behind you.”

“Huh? Oh yeah. It was actually already in the right spot, but it’s one of my favorites,” I tell her as I put the book back.

“What’s it about?”

“This woman named Dannie-“

“Y/L/N!”

We both looked towards the door and saw and the same pasty CO that sent me here.

“With me.”

I gave Poussey a grin and walked towards the CO,

“Where are we going?”

He didn’t answer me and just kept walking. I followed him to a warehouse that smelled of Clorox and musty water.

“Janitorial. Your job assignment. Morello will fill you in on what to do.”

“Oh yeah I can do that. No problem.”

The first couple of hours involved cleaning the halls, but I moved on to the Spanish bathrooms. Poussey was right, the library was the best job to have.

*A few weeks later at dinner

“I don’t know why you’d let Edward Scissorhands cut your hair and not me.”

“Because Danita only charges me a bag of Doritos. Not two cokes. Plus, she don’t even ask for the Cool Ranch flavor!”

“Beggars can’t be choosers. I do two cokes worth of work, Child.”

I laughed at Taystee and Sophia having their little banter in the food line. I walked with them to the table and sat down.

“...but then the dragon realized the little ghost girl was friendly, even though she was cold as ice. Fire and ice, that would never work!”

“Why not? What happened to opposites attract?” I ask sort of challengingly. 

“Mommy said ice is used to put out fires. Well, technically water is used to put out fires but ice is just water in solid form. So the fire would go out!”

“But do you know what happens when fire and ice mix?”

“The world goes dark?”

“No. They make steam,” I gave Poussey a “subtle” smirk.

“Mommy says steam is for showers, crab legs and “fun times”.

“I miss making steam with a fine gentleman with a curve on that dick.”

We all laughed along at what Cindy said and I agreed with her.

“There are just some things your fingers can’t accomplish,” I said jokingly while being serious. She pointed her fork at me, “I like her.”

Poussey was noticeably quiet throughout the rest of dinner. Only chiming in to seem interested. She didn’t even finish her tray before she was dipping out.

“Wait I’ll come with you.”

“Nah, stay and eat. I’ll catch you later.”

“Uh oh. Trouble is Lezzy Paradise?”

I almost didn’t hear Cindy as I kept watching Poussey leave the cafeteria.

“Stop it.”

Taystee rolled her eyes and shook her head.

For the next few days, it was hard to get ahold of Poussey. Since we knew each other’s schedules, it was easy for her to avoid me.

Meals were no better. She made sure to get there early so by the time I was sitting down, she was done.

“Aye, you need to fix that,” Janae told me with her eyebrow raised.

“I don’t know what the problem is.”

“I know you are not that dumb,” Boo said as she sat across from me.

“She’s kicking her own ass because she broke the #1 rule of being interested in pussy...” she continued.

I looked at her as I was waiting for her to continue.

“Never fall in love with a straight girl!”

“Love? What-When did I say I was straight-”

“The other night when that one was talkin bout curved dick and you chimed in basically foamin at the mouth at the thought,” Taystee said.

“Noooo, I was joking.”

“Yeah well, apparently she don’t know that.” I looked at Janae and sighed.

I had to wait until the weekend to see her. It was pouring rain and there was a leak in the library and the cleaning warehouse had a slight flood, so neither of us had work.

I snuck my way to her bunk only to discover her to not be there.

“There’s only one place she’d go...” Janae told me.

I made my way down and opened the door.

She was right.

“...there was another before you, but she got out. There’s a time machine in the laundry room. That was their place. That’s where she goes to think.”

“How’d you find me?”

“Your bunkie.”

“What do you want?”

“What’s going on? Why are you being so weird?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said standing up.

“Are we not friends anymore?”

“Friends,” she said with a sarcastic chuckle.

“Can we please sit?” I gestured to the inside of her hiding spot. She backed up slightly to let me further in to the time machine and we both sat down. Neither of us said anything for a while until I did,

“I’m not gay...”

She nodded her head with a sad smile on her face.

“...but I’m not straight either. I’m just me. I’ve dated guys, I’ve had experiences with girls-”

“Experiences? But you’ve never dated a girl?”

“No, but for the past few weeks, I’ve really wanted to,” I said with a slight smile.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because of this. I didn’t want to say something stupid and mess this up. And because I’ve never dated a girl before, but I have dated guys, I didn’t want you to think I was using you. I thought that because I don’t identify as anything, you wouldn’t like me back.”

“I thought you didn’t like me.”

“I didn’t want you to get hurt.”

“Look, I got my heart broken not too long ago by a girl that promised me forever. She didn’t identify as anything either and she ended up falling in love with a dude when she got out. We were both in a dark place when we met and getting to know each other and eventually falling in love helped. I could’ve given up on love and fate, but I haven’t yet. Look, maybe this-..this connection that we have, challenges what you thought you were. And maybe I'm gonna get my heart broken in a thousand different pieces again. But those are maybes. You can't live your life according to maybes.”

The next few months were bliss. Poussey and I have connected on a level I didn’t know was attainable. 

Today is Valentine’s Day and right now we’re back in the time machine. We’re both laying down, holding each other and looking up at the ceiling. 

“It’s about a woman named Dannie who’s this a high-powered corporate lawyer. She’s one of those types who has everything planned out. The story has a lot of twists and turns because her five year plan goes differently than she thought.”

“So why is it your favorite if it’s so inconsistent? For a woman who knows what she wants “Dannie” sure seems okay with settling.”

“It’s my favorite because it mirrors me. It mirrors us. In five years I saw myself at some job a teenager would have with my only responsibility being my phone bill.”

“What do you see now?”

“I see me with our dog, Keith, holding signs with your dad on your release day. Then I see us heading to our apartment where you can see it for the first time in person. Then we’ll go to our jobs, pay rent, and hound our parents for travel money.”

“I’m in your future?”

“You are my future.”

She gave me a kiss when there was a bang on the cardboard door, “Hey kids! They’re doing interviews in the bunks,” Boo informed us.

When we got to her dorm, there were a few guards asking ladies questions about love.

“Does anyone else want to be asked questions?”

“Yeah, I do,” Poussey said while raising her hand.

I feel Taystee put her elbow on my shoulder, “What the hell?” The rest of the family comes around.

“Okay Washington, what is love?”

“Love. It’s just chilling, you know? Kicking it with somebody, talking, making mad stupid jokes. And, like, not even wanting to go to sleep, ‘cause then you might be without ‘em for a minute,” she looked at me, “And you don’t want that.”

•taglist: @mina672

[r00m203]

10-15-2000

let's say scully kept a pregnancy journal

look, i know these sound nothing like her dramatic ass journals from momento mori or emily so just pretend with me that scully's feeling more ~casual~ here idfk. here's two entries to start

big thanks to my favorite ladies @stellaxxgibson @scintillatingbluefishies and @absolutetosh for the beta <3

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

My last entry in this journal is from Africa. The one before that, the hospital. Funny, they’re all addressed to Mulder.

Writing has been proven to improve immune function. I’ve read studies where journaling was determined effective in lessening symptoms of seemingly non-emotion related ailments such as asthma and rheumatoid arthritis.

I’ve only written as a means of therapy a few times in my life. When I did, I poured hours and hours into perfecting every sentence; every word; every letter. Everything needed meaning and weight. Missy was constantly writing, scribbling more accurately, and I never understood how she could care so little about the importance of what she put on paper. I’m going to try my best to let go and just write. The way she would. It’s probably what I should have been doing all along. God, I miss her.

I think journaling during this horri difficult time will be good for me, if not for processing emotions, then for documenting this pregnancy. If anything is wrong, I can look back and identify indications much more efficiently.

I’m currently 8 weeks. My symptoms include:

Fatigue

Tender breasts

Mild Constipation

Mild Extreme Nausea

The smell of most foods triggers intense bouts of vomiting. This morning Dogget burned his coffee and I had to sneak away to curl up on the bathroom floor three times. He probably thought I was being a bitch, as usual. It made me miss the way Mul

I have some light spotting, but my doctor assures me it’s nothing to be concerned about. I’m keeping a close eye on it nonetheless. I finally got a hold of Mom, and she’s coming with me to my 9 week sonogram. She didn’t ask any questions. I could tell she wanted to. I’m grateful she didn’t. It was hard enough to get through the phone call without bursting into tears.

I’ve been having trouble controlling my emotions lately. Maybe I should add that to my symptom list. I’ll underline. It’s been mostly sudden aggression and crying. Doggett has gotten the brunt of my outbursts. Anytime he so much as breathes I compare it to feel overwhelmed. He hums for exactly an hour and a half after lunch, he keeps the blinds half closed even after I open them when I get in, and he leaves fifteen minutes early every day. Mul I’m used to a quiet office. I like the blinds open. And we I always leave half an hour late.

Keep Reading 

i’ve been posting a lot and i appreciate these very talented ladies dealing w me in their notifs tytytyty @baronessblixen @sarie-fairy (sorry theres more sarah) @today-in-fic @storybycorey @o6666666

[butterflies-dragons]

Sansa - Alayne - Alysanne - Sara - Sansara

A great deal has already been said about how similar Sansa Stark and Good Queen Alysanne Targaryen are. Here some sources:

Sansa Stark and "Good Queen" Alysanne Targaryen parallels

open thread #1: alysansa

Good Queen Alysanne translates to Good Queen D@ny??

Don't you think that Alysanne has more similarities with Arya than Sansa?

Tidbits from Fire and Blood

More tidbits from Fire and Blood

An Idyll where love conquers all

Jaehaerys and Alysanne was a romance unequaled since the days of Florian the Fool and his Jonquil

Doug Wheatley, we need an explanation!

can I copy your homework?

Lord Commander Burley also renamed Snowgate castle in her honor, as Queensgate

is nourishing

What are you doing George?

Jonquil Darke “the Scarlet Shadow” & Joffrey Dogget “the Red Dog of the Hills”

There is a certain irony in people rejecting any Sansa/Alysanne connection

There’s plenty Sansa and Alysanne parallels and some situations may actually repeat themselves

so sansa and good queen alysanne am i the only that sees it?

What are some parallels/similarities between Sansa and Good Queen Alysanne? Are there any?

More Sansa = Alysanne

Queen Alysanne has a knight named Jonquil and meets Lord Commander Lothor at the wall

Sansa & Alysanne portraits 

Queen Alysanne and her cousin King Jaehaerys

Queen Alysanne/Sansa Stark parallel

Why is it so significant the parallel between Queen Alysanne and Sansa?

Queens

Now I will give you my contribution on the matter, mostly based on what I found in my recent first re-reading of Fire & Blood.  

MERCY

Five of Maegor’s Seven yet survived. Two of those, Ser Olyver Bracken and Ser Raymund Mallery, had played a part in the late king’s fall by turning their cloaks and going over to Jaehaerys, but the boy king observed rightly that in doing so they had broken their vows to defend the king’s life with their own. “I will have no oathbreakers at my court,” he proclaimed. All five Kingsguard were therefore sentenced to death…but at the urging of Princess Alysanne, it was agreed that they might be spared if they would exchange their white cloaks for black by joining the Night’s Watch. Four of the five accepted this clemency and departed for the Wall; along with Ser Olyver and Ser Raymund, the turncloaks, went Ser Jon Tollett and Ser Symond Crayne.

—Fire & Blood

This passage reminds me of Sansa asking mercy for her father Ned and saving Dontos’ life by denying him the mercy of a quick death: 

The king! Sansa blinked back her tears. Joffrey was the king now, she thought. Her gallant prince would never hurt her father, no matter what he might have done. If she went to him and pleaded for mercy, she was certain he'd listen. He had to listen, he loved her, even the queen said so. Joff would need to punish Father, the lords would expect it, but perhaps he could send him back to Winterfell, or exile him to one of the Free Cities across the narrow sea. It would only have to be for a few years. By then she and Joffrey would be married. Once she was queen, she could persuade Joff to bring Father back and grant him a pardon.

—A Game of Thrones - Sansa IV

"Do you deny your father's crime?" Lord Baelish asked.

"No, my lords." Sansa knew better than that. "I know he must be punished. All I ask is mercy. I know my lord father must regret what he did. He was King Robert's friend and he loved him, you all know he loved him. He never wanted to be Hand until the king asked him. They must have lied to him. Lord Renly or Lord Stannis or … or somebody, they must have lied, otherwise …"

—A Game of Thrones - Sansa V

Unhappy, Joffrey shifted in his seat and flicked his fingers at Ser Dontos. "Take him away. I'll have him killed on the morrow, the fool."

"He is," Sansa said. "A fool. You're so clever, to see it. He's better fitted to be a fool than a knight, isn't he? You ought to dress him in motley and make him clown for you. He doesn't deserve the mercy of a quick death."

—A Clash of Kings - Sansa I

JOFFREY & THE HOUND

In Fire & Blood we meet a character named Ser Joffrey Doggett, also known as the Red Dog of the Hills. He was a knight from House Doggett, a noble house from the westerlands, vassals of House Lannister. 

During the reign of Maegor I Targaryen, Ser Joffrey Doggett was a member of the Lannisport chapter of the Warrior's Sons, an order of Westerosi knights sworn to the Faith of the Seven.

Ser Joffrey Doggett’s family was burned by the fires of Balerion: 

Then Maegor himself took wing, flying Balerion to the westerlands, where he burned the castles of the Broomes, the Falwells, the Lorches, and the other “pious lords” who had defied his summons. Lastly he descended upon the seat of House Doggett, reducing it to ash. The fires claimed the lives of Ser Joffrey’s father, mother, and young sister, along with their sworn swords, serving men, and chattel. 

—Fire & Blood

The day of his coronation, Jaehaerys I Targaryen appointed Ser Joffrey Doggett a member of the Kingsguard: 

“I rose against your uncle just as you did,” replied the Red Dog of the Hills, defiant.

“You did,” Jaehaerys allowed, “and you fought bravely, no man can deny. The Warrior’s Sons are no more and your vows to them are at an end, but your service need not be. I have a place for you.” And with these words, the young king shocked the court by offering Ser Joffrey a place by his side as a knight of the Kingsguard. A hush fell then, Grand Maester Benifer tells us, and when the Red Dog drew his longsword there were some who feared he might be about to attack the king with it…but instead the knight went to one knee, bowed his head, and laid his blade at Jaehaerys’s feet. It is said that there were tears upon his cheeks.

—Fire & Blood

Much later, Ser Joffrey Doggett flew with Queen Alysanne on her dragon Silverwing:

Even for a dragon, the flight from King’s Landing to Oldtown is a long one. The king and queen stopped twice along the way, once at Bitterbridge and once at Highgarden, resting overnight and taking counsel with their lords. The lords of the council had insisted that they take some protection at the very least. Ser Joffrey Doggett flew with Alysanne, and the Scarlet Shadow, Jonquil Darke, with Jaehaerys, so as to balance the weight each dragon carried.

—Fire & Blood

So here we have a character from the westernlands, vassal of the Lannisters, named Joffrey but also known as a red dog, whose family was burned by dragonfire and later became a member of the Kingsguard of Jaehaerys and also protected Queen Alysanne.  Ser Joffrey Doggett sounds like a combination of Joffrey Lannister and his sworn sword and later Kingsguard Sandor Clegane, the Hound. Both characters closely connected with Sansa Stark.

This is not the first time that GRRM did something like this. In the tale “The Hedge Knight”, part of his book “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms”, GRRM has surrounded the fair maid of the Ashford Tourney, a girl of 13 years old, with a lot of characters that remind us of Sansa’s suitors and other men somehow interested in her.  

And this is not the only time that GRRM did it in Fire & Blood either. Queen Alysanne is surrounded by a lot of characters that remind us of ASOIAF characters that surround Sansa Stark. 

APPEARANCE

Before Fire & Blood, GRRM gave us this description of Good Queen Alysanne Targaryen, as an old woman at the end of Jaehaerys I reign:

GOOD QUEEN ALYSANNE

Alysanne was the queen, consort, and sister of King Jaehaerys I, the Old King, and like him she lived a long life. Since you pictured him as an old man at the end of his reign, I figure it would be most appropriate to do her the same way, rather than as the young woman she was when Jaehaerys first ascended the Iron Throne.

You might consider Alysanne as the Eleanor of Aquitaine of Westeros, and model her on Katharine Hepburn's portrayal of Eleanor in the film THE LION IN WINTER. Tall and straight, unbowed by time, she had high cheekbones, clear blue eyes. Age left crow's feet around her eyes and laugh lines about her mouth, but her face never lost its strength. She was a fine archer and hunter in her youth, and loved to fly atop her dragon to all the distant parts of the realm. Alysanne was slim of waist and small of breast, with a long neck, a fair complexion, a high forehead. In old age her hair turned white as snow. She wore it in a bun, pulled back and pinned behind her hear.

Her relationship with King Jaehaerys was always very close. She was his most trusted counselor and his right hand, and often wore a slimmer, more feminine version of his crown at court. Beloved by the common people of Westeros, she loved them in return, and was renowned for her charities.

[Source]

Here is Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine in the film THE LION IN WINTER:

Katharine Hepburn‘s was 1.72 m.

After Fire & Blood, GRRM gave us this description of Good Queen Alysanne Targaryen, as a girl of 13 years old: 

Though she had only recently turned thirteen, the young princess rose to the challenge brilliantly, all agreed. For seven days and seven nights, she broke her fast with one group of highborn ladies, dined with a second, supped with a third. She showed them the wonders of the Red Keep, sailed with them on Blackwater Bay, and rode with them about the city.

Alysanne Targaryen, the youngest child of King Aenys and Queen Alyssa, had been little known amongst the lords and ladies of the realm before then. Her childhood had been spent in the shadow of her brothers and her elder sister, Rhaena, and when she was spoken of at all it was as “the little maid” and “the other daughter.” She was little, this was true; slim and slight of frame, Alysanne was oft described as pretty but seldom as beautiful, though she was born of a house renowned for beauty. Her eyes were blue rather than purple, her hair a mass of honey-colored curls. No man ever questioned her wits.

Later, it would be said of her that she learned to read before she was weaned, and the court fool would make japes about little Alysanne dribbling mother’s milk on Valyrian scrolls as she tried to read whilst suckling at her wet nurse’s teat. Had she been a boy she would surely have been sent to the Citadel to forge a maester’s chain, Septon Barth would say of her…

(...)

“My little flower,” was how the queen described her. Like Alysanne herself, Daella was small—on her toes, she stood five feet two inches—and there was a childish aspect to her that led everyone who met her to think she was younger than her age. Unlike Alysanne, she was delicate as well, in ways the queen had never been. 

—Fire & Blood

5.2 feet = 1.58 m.

Queen Alysanne’s “semi canon” description matched with Sansa’s a lot. But, from the “semi canon” source to the canon source (Fire & Blood), Queen Alysanne changed from tall (1.72 m) to small (1.58 m).  She kept two features that are very similar to Sansa though:   

Not purple eyes but BLUE EYES

Not silver hair but HONEY-COLORED CURLS 

And these two features are very close to the main features of House Tully: Blue Eyes and Auburn Hair. 

You can google “honey colored hair” and see by yourselves that honey colored is closer to auburn than silver. There are also metas about the matter out there, you can check them out too.   

There is not no mention of high cheekbones in Fire & Blood, but the illustrator of the book, Doug Wheatley, definitely gave Queen Alysanne high cheekbones and a very close resemble to Sophie Turner, the actress that played Sansa Stark in the Series:

This could be a coincidence of course. This is what GRRM has said about book illustrations while promoting Fire & Blood:  

Q: You have a very distinct idea of what the characters look like in your own head, because readers will always take their own?

GRRM: I do have ideas of what the characters look like in my own head but I’m perfectly willing to let the artist do different interpretations… You know, let different artists present their different interpretations of it, I’m fine with that. It’s not photography, so I love the idea of, you know, letting people use their own creativity within limits of course, but I love some of the works, many of the works I’ve bought original is hanging on, you know, on my own walls so…    

In conversation: George R. R. Martin with John Hodgman FULL EVENT 

Drawing Queen Alysanne with a close resemble to Sophie Turner was within the limits, it seems. 

I’m not saying Queen Alysanne and Sansa are identical twins, they don’t have to be, but they share significant physical features. They have differences as well, Alysanne is slim with small breast while Sansa is curvy with a big bosom. 

Queen Alysanne and Sansa also share these traits:

Alysanne was a bright but unremarkable girl; small but never sickly, courteous, biddable, with a sweet smile and a pleasing voice. To the relief of her parents, she displayed none of the timidity that had afflicted her elder sister, Rhaena, as a small child. Neither did she exhibit the willful and stubborn temperament of Rhaena’s daughter Aerea.

—Fire & Blood

This Alysanne’s description matches almost bit by bit these Sansa’s descriptions (including the contrast between Alysanne/Aerea and Sansa/Arya): 

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. Well, that and manage a household. Sansa had never had much of a head for figures. If she did marry Prince Joff, Arya hoped for his sake that he had a good steward.

—A Game of Thrones - Arya I

"Sansa was a lady at three, always so courteous and eager to please. She loved nothing so well as tales of knightly valor. Men would say she had my look, but she will grow into a woman far more beautiful than I ever was, you can see that. I often sent away her maid so I could brush her hair myself. She had auburn hair, lighter than mine, and so thick and soft . . . the red in it would catch the light of the torches and shine like copper.

"And Arya, well . . . Ned's visitors would oft mistake her for a stableboy if they rode into the yard unannounced. Arya was a trial, it must be said. Half a boy and half a wolf pup. Forbid her anything and it became her heart's desire. She had Ned's long face, and brown hair that always looked as though a bird had been nesting in it. I despaired of ever making a lady of her. She collected scabs as other girls collect dolls, and would say anything that came into her head. I think she must be dead too." When she said that, it felt as though a giant hand were squeezing her chest. 

—A Clash of Kings - Catelyn VII

Tyrion let them have their byplay; it was all for his benefit, he knew. Sansa Stark, he mused. Soft-spoken sweet-smelling Sansa, who loved silks, songs, chivalry and tall gallant knights with handsome faces. He felt as though he was back on the bridge of boats, the deck shifting beneath his feet.

—A Storm of Swords - Tyrion III

So the singer played for her, so soft and sad that Arya only heard snatches of the words, though the tune was half-familiar. Sansa would know it, I bet. Her sister had known all the songs, and she could even play a little, and sing so sweetly. All I could ever do was shout the words.

—A Storm of Swords - Arya IV

INTELLIGENCE

Fire & Blood remarks Alysanne’s intelligence a lot, she was an avid reader and she could have been a Maester of the Citadel:

No man ever questioned her wits.

Later, it would be said of her that she learned to read before she was weaned, and the court fool would make japes about little Alysanne dribbling mother’s milk on Valyrian scrolls as she tried to read whilst suckling at her wet nurse’s teat. Had she been a boy she would surely have been sent to the Citadel to forge a maester’s chain, Septon Barth would say of her…for that wise man esteemed her even more than her husband, whom he served for so long. That was far in the future, however; in 49 AC, Alysanne was but a girl of thirteen years, yet all the chronicles agree that she made a powerful impression on those who met her.

(...)

It is written that the young king and queen were seldom apart during that time, sharing every meal, talking late into the night of the green days of their childhood and the challenges ahead, fishing and hawking together, mingling with the island’s smallfolk in dockside inns, reading to one another from dusty leatherbound tomes they found in the castle library, taking lessons together from Dragonstone’s maesters (“for we still have much to learn,” Alysanne is said to have reminded her husband).

(...)

“If I had not become queen, I might have liked to be a maester,” she told the Conclave. “I read, I write, I think, I am not afraid of ravens…or a bit of blood. There are other highborn girls who feel the same. Why not admit them to your Citadel? If they cannot keep up, send them home, the way you send home boys who are not clever enough. If you would give the girls a chance, you might be surprised by how many forge a chain.”

(...)

For three days she lost herself in the Citadel’s great library, emerging only to attend lectures on the Valyrian dragon wars, leechcraft, and the gods of the Summer Isles.

(...)

Once the initial frost had thawed, his lordship took the queen hunting after elk and wild boar in the wolfswood, showed her the bones of a giant, and allowed her to rummage as she pleased through his modest castle library.

—Fire & Blood

Sansa shares Alysanne’s love for reading:

The queen took Sansa's hand in both of hers. "Child, do you know your lettersSansa nodded nervously. She could read and write better than any of her brothers, although she was hopeless at sums.

—A Game of Thrones - Sansa IV

Jeyne Poole and all her things were gone when Ser Mandon Moore returned Sansa to the high tower of Maegor's Holdfast. No more weeping, she thought gratefully. Yet somehow it seemed colder with Jeyne gone, even after she'd built a fire. She pulled a chair close to the hearth, took down one of her favorite books, and lost herself in the stories of Florian and Jonquil, of Lady Shella and the Rainbow Knight, of valiant Prince Aemon and his doomed love for his brother's queen.

—A Game of Thrones - Sansa IV

“Do you read well, Alayne?"

"Septa Mordane was good enough to say so."

—A Storm of Swords - Sansa VI

Here is Arya listing all of Sansa’s artistic talents:

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. Well, that and manage a household. Sansa had never had much of a head for figures. If she did marry Prince Joff, Arya hoped for his sake that he had a good steward.

—A Game of Thrones - Arya I

Arya is also here to tell us that Sansa is good at Heraldry:

No one ransomed the northmen, though. One fat lordling haunted the kitchens, Hot Pie told her, always looking for a morsel. His mustache was so bushy that it covered his mouth, and the clasp that held his cloak was a silver-and-sapphire trident. He belonged to Lord Tywin, but the fierce, bearded young man who liked to walk the battlements alone in a black cloak patterned with white suns had been taken by some hedge knight who meant to get rich off him. Sansa would have known who he was, and the fat one too, but Arya had never taken much interest in titles and sigils. Whenever Septa Mordane had gone on about the history of this house and that house, she was inclined to drift and dream and wonder when the lesson would be done.

—A Clash of Kings - Arya VII

Sansa understands songs sung in High Valyrian:

"I'm sore all over," Arya reported happily, proudly displaying a huge purple bruise on her leg.

"You must be a terrible dancer," Sansa said doubtfully.

Later, while Sansa was off listening to a troupe of singers perform the complex round of interwoven ballads called the "Dance of the Dragons," Ned inspected the bruise himself. "I hope Forel is not being too hard on you," he said.

—A Game of Thrones - Eddard VII

Then the heralds summoned another singer; Collio Quaynis of Tyrosh, who had a vermilion beard and an accent as ludicrous as Symon had promised. Collio began with his version of "The Dance of the Dragons," which was more properly a song for two singers, male and female. Tyrion suffered through it with a double helping of honey-ginger partridge and several cups of wine. A haunting ballad of two dying lovers amidst the Doom of Valyria might have pleased the hall more if Collio had not sung it in High Valyrian, which most of the guests could not speak.

—A Storm of Swords - Tyrion VIII

If the Eyrie had been made like other castles, only rats and gaolers would have heard the dead man singing. Dungeon walls were thick enough to swallow songs and screams alike. But the sky cells had a wall of empty air, so every chord the dead man played flew free to echo off the stony shoulders of the Giant's Lance. And the songs he chose . . . He sang of the Dance of the Dragons, of fair Jonquil and her fool, of Jenny of Oldstones and the Prince of Dragonflies. He sang of betrayals, and murders most foul, of hanged men and bloody vengeance. He sang of grief and sadness.

—A Feast for Crows - Sansa I

But, apparently, Sansa is bad with numbers...

It hurt that the one thing Arya could do better than her sister was ride a horse. Well, that and manage a household. Sansa had never had much of a head for figures. If she did marry Prince Joff, Arya hoped for his sake that he had a good steward.

—A Game of Thrones - Arya I

She could read and write better than any of her brothers, although she was hopeless at sums.

—A Game of Thrones - Sansa IV

Something changed then, because Alayne Stone is doing pretty well as de facto Lady of the Eyrie...

I can continue but this would be too long, so it’s better if I leave you this great post about Sansa’s intelligence: Sansa Smart

And here is GRRM himself talking about Sansa’s wits:  

Up to now Sansa has been a piece, that other people have moved around the board, to achieve her own goals, using her, discarding her, using her for a different purpose: You know, you’re going to marry Joffrey. No, you’re going to marry Loras. You’re going to marry Tyrion. She is beginning to at least try to understand how she can play the Game of Thrones and be not a piece, but a player. With her own goals, and moving other pieces around. And she’s not a warrior like Robb, Jon Snow. She’s not even a wild child like Arya. She can’t fight with swords, axes. She can’t raise armies. But she has her wits! Same as Littlefinger has.

—Game of Thrones Season 4: Episode #8 - A Different Purpose (HBO)

UNDERDOGS

Queen Alysanne Targaryen and Sansa Stark are two examples of “underdogs”:

No one paid attention to Alysanne until she was a maid of thirteen and was left in charge to entertain and charm lords and ladies at court. She grew up in the shadow of her older siblings, she was never expected to be Queen:

Alysanne Targaryen, the youngest child of King Aenys and Queen Alyssa, had been little known amongst the lords and ladies of the realm before then. Her childhood had been spent in the shadow of her brothers and her elder sister, Rhaena, and when she was spoken of at all it was as “the little maid” and “the other daughter.” 

(...)

We know very little about the childhood of Alysanne Targaryen; as the fifthborn child of King Aenys and Queen Alyssa, and a female, observers at court found her of less interest than her older siblings who stood higher in the line of succession. From what little has come down to us, Alysanne was a bright but unremarkable girl; small but never sickly, courteous, biddable, with a sweet smile and a pleasing voice. To the relief of her parents, she displayed none of the timidity that had afflicted her elder sister, Rhaena, as a small child. Neither did she exhibit the willful and stubborn temperament of Rhaena’s daughter Aerea.

—Fire & Blood

The same way as Alysanne was described as “unremarkable”, Sansa Stark is often described as “stupid”:

That gorget wasn't fastened proper. You think Gregor didn't notice that? You think Ser Gregor's lance rode up by chance, do you? Pretty little talking girl, you believe that, you're empty-headed as a bird for true. 

—A Game of Thrones - Sansa II

"Your Grace," he said sharply. "You truly are a stupid girl, aren't you? My mother says so."

—A Game of Thrones - Sansa VI

. . . ah, you're still a stupid little bird, aren't you? Singing all the songs they taught you . . . 

—A Clash of Kings - Sansa II

"Everyone wants to be loved." "I see flowering hasn't made you any brighter," said Cersei. 

—A Clash of Kings - Sansa IV

"He will," Sansa lied. "He is very . . . very comely."

"You said that. You know, child, some say that you are as big a fool as Butterbumps here, and I am starting to believe them. 

—A Storm of Swords - Sansa I

"Her heart was broken."

Sansa would have sighed and shed a tear for true love, but Arya just thought it was stupid. She couldn't say that to Ned, though, not about his own aunt. "Did someone break it?"

—A Storm of Swords - Arya VIII

"I forgot, you've been hiding under a rock. The northern girl. Winterfell's daughter. We heard she killed the king with a spell, and afterward changed into a wolf with big leather wings like a bat, and flew out a tower window. But she left the dwarf behind and Cersei means to have his head."

That's stupid, Arya thought. Sansa only knows songs, not spells, and she'd never marry the Imp.

—A Storm of Swords - Arya XIII

"NO!" Lysa gave Sansa's head another wrench. Snow eddied around them, making their skirts snap noisily. "You can't want her. You can't. She's a stupid empty-headed little girl.

—A Storm of Swords - Sansa VII

"Some books. I like the fighting stories. My sister Sansa likes the kissing stories, but those are stupid."

—A Dance with Dragons - Bran III

Sansa as Alysanne was not “remarkable” among her siblings, who often called her stupid, specially Bran and Arya, and was never expected to be the Heir of Winterfell or the Stark at Winterfell. She is the underdog...  

... And GRRM just loves underdogs:

Chris Long: Do you watch sports through that lens (characters developed all the time, unsung heroes/archnemesis of everybody/misunderstood as villains/some heroes are villains in disguise), with your writing background, and your penchant for creating characters, do you look at the characters in sports?  

GRRM: I do. You know, I think America loves the underdog, and we don’t like, except if it happens to be your dynasty, we tend not to like dynasties, you know?

—George RR Martin in The Fish Bowl with Chris Long

WEDDED BUT NOT BEDDED

Alysanne and Sansa flowered and wedded at a similar age. But both remained maidens: 

The princess was three-and-ten years of age, and had recently celebrated her first flowering, so it was thought desirable to see her wed as soon as possible. 

(...)

A modest feast followed the ceremony, and many toasts were drunk to the health of the boy king and his new queen. Afterward Jaehaerys and Alysanne retired to the bedchamber where Aegon the Conqueror had once slept beside his sister Rhaenys, but in view of the bride’s youth there was no bedding ceremony, and the marriage was not consummated.

—Fire & Blood

“How old are you, Sansa?” asked Tyrion, after a moment.

“Thirteen,” she said, “when the moon turns.”

—A Storm of Swords - Sansa III

“She is old enough to be Lady of Winterfell once her brother is dead. Claim her maidenhood and you will be one step closer to claiming the north. Get her with child, and the prize is all but won. Do I need to remind you that a marriage that has not been consummated can be set aside?”

—A Storm of Swords - Tyrion IV

Also Alysanne’s determination to marry his King brother Jaehaerys against her own mother's wishes, sounds pretty much like Sansa's stubbornness to marry Joffrey against Ned's orders.

Sansa, in an act of defiance, ran to Cersei and tells her of her father's plans, pleading that she might be allowed to stay and marry Joffrey.

"How well I know that, child," Cersei said, her voice so kind and sweet. "Why else should you have come to me and told me of your father's plan to send you away from us, if not for love?"

"It was for love," Sansa said in a rush. "Father wouldn't even give me leave to say farewell." She was the good girl, the obedient girl, but she had felt as wicked as Arya that morning, sneaking away from Septa Mordane, defying her lord father. She had never done anything so willful before, and she would never have done it then if she hadn't loved Joffrey as much as she did. "He was going to take me back to Winterfell and marry me to some hedge knight, even though it was Joff I wanted. I told him, but he wouldn't listen." The king had been her last hope. The king could command Father to let her stay in King's Landing and marry Prince Joffrey, Sansa knew he could, but the king had always frightened her. He was loud and rough-voiced and drunk as often as not, and he would probably have just sent her back to Lord Eddard, if they even let her see him. So she went to the queen instead, and poured out her heart, and Cersei had listened and thanked her sweetly … only then Ser Arys had escorted her to the high room in Maegor's Holdfast and posted guards, and a few hours later, the fighting had begun outside. "Please," she finished, "you have to let me marry Joffrey, I'll be ever so good a wife to him, you'll see. I'll be a queen just like you, I promise."

—A Game of Thrones - Sansa IV

Alysanne ran to Jaehaerys himself and they both elope to Dragonstone:

No record survives of what Alysanne Targaryen said or thought when first she learned that she was to be wed to a youth ten years her senior, whom she scarcely knew and (if rumor can be believed) did not like. We know only what she did. Another girl might have wept or raged or run pleading to her mother. In many a sad song, maidens forced to wed against their will throw themselves from tall towers to their deaths. Princess Alysanne did none of these things. Instead she went directly to Jaehaerys.

The young king was as displeased as his sister at the news. “They will be making wedding plans for me as well, I do not doubt,” he deduced at once. Like his sister, Jaehaerys did not waste time with reproaches, recriminations, or appeals. Instead he acted. Summoning his Kingsguard, he instructed them to sail at once for Dragonstone, where he would meet them shortly. “You have sworn me your swords and your obedience,” he reminded his Seven. “Remember those vows, and speak no word of my departure.”

That night, under cover of darkness, King Jaehaerys and Princess Alysanne mounted their dragons, Vermithor and Silverwing, and departed the Red Keep for the ancient Targaryen citadel below the Dragonmont. Reportedly the first words the young king spoke upon landing were, “I have need of a septon.”

—Fire & Blood

Curiously enough Alysanne’s first betrothed was Orryn Baratheon, just like Sansa’s first betrothed was Joffrey Baratheon.

LIKE IN THE SONGS

Alysanne and Jaehaerys eloping and first wedding had all the element’s of a fairy tale, like the songs Sansa loves to read: 

The Kingsguards as witnesses 

The Kingsguard arrived from King’s Landing by galley a few days later. The following morning, as the sun rose, Jaehaerys Targaryen, the First of His Name, took to wife his sister Alysanne in the great yard at Dragonstone, before the eyes of gods and men and dragons. Septon Oswyck performed the marriage rites; though the old man’s voice was thin and tremulous, no part of the ceremony was neglected. The seven knights of the Kingsguard stood witness to the union, their white cloaks snapping in the wind. 

—Fire & Blood

The Kingsguards fighting against the men that tried to separate the couple

From that day to this, the tale has been a favorite of lovesick maidens and their squires throughout the Seven Kingdoms, and many a bard has sung of the valor of the Kingsguard, seven men in white cloaks who faced down half a hundred. 

—Fire & Blood

This eloping, secret wedding and the Kingsguars involvement reminds me a lot of Lyanna’s “abduction” by Rhaegar and the Kingsguards “protecting” Lyanna in the Tower of Joy...  

A romance unequaled since the days of Florian and Jonquil

“That is how the singers tell the tale, certainly; the swift and sudden marriage of Jaehaerys and Alysanne was a romance unequaled since the days of Florian the Fool and his Jonquil, to hear them sing of it. And in songs, as ever, love conquers all. ”

—Fire & Blood

Florian and Jonquil love story is Sansa’s favorite. 

We are one now, and neither gods nor men shall part us

“As you command, Mother.” King Jaehaerys pulled his sister closer and put his arm around her. “But do not think that you shall unmake this marriage. We are one now, and neither gods nor men shall part us.” “Never,” his bride affirmed. “Send me to the ends of the earth and wed me to the King of Mossovy or the Lord of the Grey Waste, Silverwing will always bring me back to Jaehaerys.” And with that she raised herself onto her toes and lifted her face to the king, and he kissed her full upon the lips whilst all looked on.”

—Fire & Blood

An endless honeymoon

“It is written that the young king and queen were seldom apart during that time, sharing every meal, talking late into the night of the green days of their childhood and the challenges ahead, fishing and hawking together, mingling with the island’s smallfolk in dockside inns, reading to one another from dusty leatherbound tomes they found in the castle library, taking lessons together from Dragonstone’s maesters (“for we still have much to learn,” Alysanne is said to have reminded her husband), praying beside Septon Oswyck. They flew together as well, all around the Dragonmont and oft as far as Driftmark.”

—Fire & Blood

A maid observing her love while training

Every morning Jaehaerys trained with them in the castle yard, shouting at them to come at him harder, to press him, harry him, and attack him in every way they knew. From sunrise till noon he worked with them, honing his skills with sword and spear and mace and axe whilst his new queen looked on.”

(…)

“Jaehaerys was oft brusied and bloody by evening, to Alysanne’s distress, but his prowess improved so markedly”

—Fire & Blood

Jaehaerys training with more than one man at the same time reminds me of Garlan Tyrell and Jon Snow because they do the same:

On the edge of the yard, a lone knight with a pair of golden roses on his shield was holding off three foes. Even as they watched, he caught one of them alongside the head, knocking him senseless. "Is that your brother?" Sansa asked.

"It is, my lady," said Ser Loras. "Garlan often trains against three men, or even four. In battle it is seldom one against one, he says, so he likes to be prepared."

"He must be very brave."

"He is a great knight," Ser Loras replied. "A better sword than me, in truth, though I'm the better lance."

—A Storm of Swords - Sansa I

Jon swelled with pride. "Robb is a stronger lance than I am, but I'm the better sword, and Hullen says I sit a horse as well as anyone in the castle."

—A Game of Thrones - Jon I

“When Iron Emmett spied him, he raised a hand and combat ceased. “Lord Commander. How may we serve you?”

“With your three best.”

Emmett grinned. “Arron. Emrick. Jace.” . . .

“Which one do you want first?” asked Arron.

“All three of you. At once.”

“Three on one?” Jace was incredulous. “That wouldn’t be fair.” He was one of Conwy’s latest bunch, a cobbler’s son from Fair Isle. Maybe that explained it.

“True. Come here.”

When he did, Jon’s blade slammed him alongside his head, knocking him off his feet. In the blink of an eye the boy had a boot on his chest and a swordpoint at his throat. “War is never fair,” Jon told him. “It’s two on one now, and you’re dead.”

—A Dance with Dragons - Jon VI

An Idyll

“Queen Alysanne, for her part, was in no haste to return to court. “Here I have you to myself, day and night,” she told Jaehaerys. “When we go back, I shall be fortunate to snatch an hour with you, for every man in Westeros will want a piece of you.” For her, these days on Dragonstone were an idyll. “Many years from now when we are old and grey, we shall look back upon these days and smile, remembering how happy we were.”

—Fire & Blood

Sansa Stark is sighing somewhere... 

QUEENS

I found this very interesting detail in Fire & Blood: The Three Queens 

In 50 AC, the realm of Westeros found itself blessed with one king, a Hand, and three queens, as in King Maegor’s day…but whereas Maegor’s queens had been consorts, subservient to his will, living and dying at his whim, each of the queens of the half-century was a power in her own right.

In the Red Keep of King’s Landing sat the Queen Regent Alyssa, widow of the late King Aenys, mother to his son Jaehaerys, and wife to the King’s Hand, Rogar Baratheon. Just across Blackwater Bay on Dragonstone, a younger queen had arisen when Alyssa’s daughter Alysanne, a maid of thirteen years, had pledged her troth to her brother King Jaehaerys, against the wishes of her mother and her mother’s lord husband. And far to the west on Fair Isle, with the whole width of Westeros separating her from both mother and sister, was Alyssa’s eldest daughter, the dragonrider Rhaena Targaryen, widow of Prince Aegon the Uncrowned. In the westerlands, riverlands, and parts of the Reach, men were already calling her the Queen in the West.

—Fire & Blood

This passage obviously makes me think in The Three Queens mentioned by Littlefinger in a conversation with Sansa in A Feast for Crows:  

“You would not believe half of what is happening in King’s Landing, sweetling. Cersei stumbles from one idiocy to the next, helped along by her council of the deaf, the dim, and the blind. I always anticipated that she would beggar the realm and destroy herself, but I never expected she would do it quite so fast. It is quite vexing. I had hoped to have four or five quiet years to plant some seeds and allow some fruits to ripen, but now … it is a good thing that I thrive on chaos. What little peace and order the five kings left us will not long survive the three queens, I fear.”

“Three queens?” She did not understand.

Nor did Petyr choose to explain. Instead, he smiled and said, “I have brought my sweet girl back a gift.”

—A Feast for Crows - Alayne II

Thanks to this passage of Fire & Blood about The Three Queens: 

Queen Alyssa, Queen Regent, widow of Aenys

Queen Alysanne, Queen Consort, wife of Jaehaerys (but still a maid)

Queen Rhaena, widow of Prince Aegon the Uncrowned (& Maegor)

We can make the following association with these three ASOIAF characters in a similar position:

Alyssa/Cersei = Regents & Widows

Alysanne/Sansa = Wedded but No Bedded

Rhaena/Margaery = Twice Widows of Aegon/Maegor & Renly/Joffrey

But Fire & Blood has a little surprise in a footnote:

Footnote:

*1.- It should be noted, lest we be charged with omission, that there was a fourth queen in Westeros in 50 AC. The twice-widowed Queen Elinor of House Costayne, who had found King Maegor dead upon the Iron Throne, had departed King’s Landing after Jaehaerys’s ascent. Dressed in the robes of a penitent and accompanied only by a handmaid and one leal man-at-arms, she made her way to the Eyrie in the Vale of Arryn to visit the eldest of her three sons by Ser Theo Bolling, and thence to Highgarden in the Reach, where her second son had been fostered to Lord Tyrell. Once satisfied of their well-being, the former queen reclaimed her youngest boy and repaired to her father’s seat at Three Towers in the Reach, where she declared she would live quietly for the remainder of her life. Fate, and King Jaehaerys, had other plans for her, as we shall relate later. Suffice it to say that Queen Elinor played no role in the events of 50 AC.

—Fire & Blood

The fourth queen was Elinor Costayne, widow, mother of three living sons and one stillborn of Maegor. 

So we can make this final association:

Alyssa/Cersei = Regents & Widows

Alysanne/Sansa = Wedded but Not Bedded

Rhaena/Margaery = Twice Widows of Aegon/Maegor & Renly/Joffrey

Elinor/Daenerys = Widows, Mothers of three living sons: 3 Bolling sons/Drogo-Rhaegal-Viseryon & one twisted and malformed stillborn (unnamed/Rhaego)

Take note how Alysanne is described as “a younger queen” and “maid of thirteen”, because this could be a hint that Sansa Stark is the younger and more beautiful queen of Maggy The Frog prophecy.    

FLORIAN & JONQUIL

Sansa Stark’s favorite love story is the Tale of Florian and Jonquil, and Alysanne Targaryen is heavily associate with that story as well.

As mentioned earlier, Alysanne’s own love story is compared to Florian and Jonquil:

“That is how the singers tell the tale, certainly; the swift and sudden marriage of Jaehaerys and Alysanne was a romance unequaled since the days of Florian the Fool and his Jonquil, to hear them sing of it. And in songs, as ever, love conquers all. ”

—Fire & Blood

The Maidenpool incident

Alysanne suffered an attempt of murder perpetuated by three women at Maidenpool:

The town of Maidenpool was far famed for the sweetwater pool where legend had it that Florian the Fool had first glimpsed Jonquil bathing during the Age of Heroes. Like thousands of other women before her, Queen Alysanne wished to bathe in Jonquil’s pool, whose waters were said to have amazing healing properties. The lords of Maidenpool had erected a great stone bathhouse around the pool many centuries before, and given it over to an order of holy sisters. No men were allowed to enter the premises, so when the queen slipped into the sacred waters, she was attended only by her ladies-in-waiting, maids, and septas (Edyth and Lyra, who had served beside Septa Ysabel as novices, had both recently sworn their vows to become septas, consecrated in the Faith and devoted to the queen).

The goodness of the little queen, the silence of the Starry Sept, and the exhortations of the Seven Speakers had won over most of the Faithful for Jaehaerys and his Alysanne…but there are always some who will not be moved, and amongst the sisters who tended Jonquil’s Pool were three such women, whose hearts were hard with hate. They told one another that their holy waters would be polluted forever were the queen allowed to bathe in them whilst carrying the king’s “abomination” in her belly. Queen Alysanne had only slipped out of her clothing when they fell upon her with daggers they had concealed within their robes.

Blessedly, the attackers were no warriors, and they had not taken the courage of the queen’s companions into account. Naked and vulnerable, the Wise Women did not hesitate, but stepped between the attackers and their lady. Septa Edyth was slashed across the face, Prudence Celtigar stabbed through the shoulder, whilst Rosamund Ball took a dagger in the belly that, three days later, proved to be the death of her, but none of the murderous blades touched the queen. The shouts and screams of the struggle brought Alysanne’s protectors running, for Ser Joffrey Doggett and Ser Gyles Morrigen had been guarding the entrance to the bathhouse, never dreaming that the danger lurked within.

The Kingsguard made short work of the attackers, slaying two out of hand whilst keeping the third alive for questioning. When encouraged, she revealed that half a dozen others of their order had helped plan the attack, whilst lacking the courage to wield a blade. Lord Mooton hanged the guilty, and might have hanged the innocent as well, save for Queen Alysanne’s intervention.

—Fire & Blood

I find this incident a metaphor of that famous Littlefinger line: "Life is not a song, sweetling. You may learn that one day to your sorrow." Maidenpool was a place where a great love story occurred but for Alysanne was also the place where other women tried to murder her.  She was pregnant of her first child during the attack and later she gave birth a premature baby, Aegon. He died three days after birth. Alysanne blamed her son’s death on the women who attacked her at Maidenpool. Had she been allowed to bathe in the healing waters of Jonquil’s Pool, she would say, Prince Aegon would have lived.

The same ‘disillusionment’ happened when Jaime and Brienne arrived at Maidenpool in ASOIAF and found the pool full of corpses:

At Maidenpool, Lord Mooton's red salmon still flew above the castle on its hill, but the town walls were deserted, the gates smashed, half the homes and shops burned or plundered. They saw nothing living but a few feral dogs that went slinking away at the sound of their approach. The pool from which the town took its name, where legend said that Florian the Fool had first glimpsed Jonquil bathing with her sisters, was so choked with rotting corpses that the water had turned into a murky grey-green soup.

Jaime took one look and burst into song. "Six maids there were in a spring-fed pool . . ."

—A Storm of Swords - Jaime III

But this awful incident was the cause for Alysanne to take a female knight to protect her. A knight with a very singular name: Jonquil Darke.

FEMALE KNIGHT

Jonquil Darke

With hundreds of knights eager to compete for the honor of serving in the Kingsguard, the combats lasted seven full days. Several of the more colorful competitors became favorites of the smallfolk, who cheered them raucously each time they fought. One such was the Drunken Knight, Ser Willam Stafford, a short, stout, big-bellied man who always appeared so intoxicated that it was a wonder he could stand, let alone fight. The commons named him “the Keg o’ Ale,” and sang “Hail, Hail, Keg o’ Ale” whenever he took the field. Another favorite of the commons was the Bard of Flea Bottom, Tom the Strummer, who mocked his foes with ribald songs before each bout. The slender mystery knight known only as the Serpent in Scarlet also had a great following; when finally defeated and unmasked, “he” proved to be a woman, Jonquil Darke, a bastard daughter of the Lord of Duskendale.

In the end, none of these would earn a white cloak.

—Fire & Blood

Jonquil reminds me a lot of Brienne of Tarth, the True Knight of ASOIAF. Both female knights that competed for a place in the Kingsguard. Jonquil didn’t make it, but Brienne got a place in Renly’s Rainbow Guard. 

After the Maidenpool incident, Alysanne chose Jonquil Darke to be her sworn shield:   

“I need a protector of mine own,” she told His Grace. “Your Seven are leal men and valiant, but they are men, and there are places men cannot go.” The king could not disagree. A raven flew to Duskendale that very night, commanding the new Lord Darklyn to send to court his bastard half-sister, Jonquil Darke, who had thrilled the smallfolk during the War for the White Cloaks as the mystery knight known as the Serpent in Scarlet. Still in scarlet, she arrived at King’s Landing a few days later, and gladly accepted appointment as the queen’s own sworn shield. In time, she would be known about the realm as the Scarlet Shadow, so closely did she guard her lady. 

—Fire & Blood

At this point in ASOIAF, Briene of Tarth is in a quest to find Sansa Stark to fulfill the promises that Jaime Lannister and her did to Catelyn Stark:

“Hear me out, Brienne. Both of us swore oaths concerning Sansa Stark. Cersei means to see that the girl is found and killed, wherever she has gone to ground . . .”

Brienne’s homely face twisted in fury. “If you believe that I would harm my lady’s daughter for a sword, you—”

“Just listen,” he snapped, angered by her assumption. “I want you to find Sansa first, and get her somewhere safe. How else are the two of us going to make good our stupid vows to your precious dead Lady Catelyn?”

The wench blinked. “I . . . I thought . . .”

“I know what you thought.” Suddenly Jaime was sick of the sight of her. She bleats like a bloody sheep. “When Ned Stark died, his greatsword was given to the King’s Justice,” he told her. “But my father felt that such a fine blade was wasted on a mere headsman. He gave Ser Ilyn a new sword, and had Ice melted down and reforged. There was enough metal for two new blades. You’re holding one. So you’ll be defending Ned Stark’s daughter with Ned Stark’s own steel, if that makes any difference to you.”

“Ser, I . . . I owe you an apolo . . .”

He cut her off. “Take the bloody sword and go, before I change my mind. There’s a bay mare in the stables, as homely as you are but somewhat better trained. Chase after Steelshanks, search for Sansa, or ride home to your isle of sapphires, it’s naught to me. I don’t want to look at you anymore.”

“Jaime . . .”

“Kingslayer,” he reminded her. “Best use that sword to clean the wax out of your ears, wench. We’re done.”

Stubbornly, she persisted. “Joffrey was your . . .”

“My king. Leave it at that.”

“You say Sansa killed him. Why protect her?”

Because Joff was no more to me than a squirt of seed in Cersei’s cunt. And because he deserved to die. “I have made kings and unmade them. Sansa Stark is my last chance for honor.” Jaime smiled thinly. “Besides, kingslayers should band together. Are you ever going to go?”

Her big hand wrapped tight around Oathkeeper. “I will. And I will find the girl and keep her safe. For her lady mother’s sake. And for yours.” She bowed stiffly, whirled, and went.

—A Storm of Swords - Jaime IX

See? Jonquil Darke was Alysanne’s sworn shield as Brienne of Tarh is Sansa’s sworn sword. A sword made of Ice, literally.   

Later, when Alysanne visited the North for the first time, she met another “female knight”, a wildling girl:

Manderly also staged a small tourney in the queen’s honor, to show the prowess of his knights. One of the fighters (though no knight) was revealed to be a woman, a wildling girl who had been captured by rangers north of the Wall and given to one of Lord Manderly’s household knights to foster. Delighted by the girl’s daring, Alysanne summoned her own sworn shield, Jonquil Darke, and the wildling and the Scarlet Shadow dueled spear against sword whilst the northmen roared in approval.

—Fire & Blood

It would be no surprise if Sansa meets another female knight or warrior during her return to the North, a wildling spearwife, or a Mormont woman, or her wild faceless assassin sister Arya Stark.   

To finish with Jonquil Darke, take note that her name and surname are also references to Dontos Hollard, another character that acted as Sansa’s knight. Sansa called Dontos “Her Florian” and House Hollard was once sworn to House Darklyn of Duskendale, that are related to House Darke.

Also take a look at this color refrences:

Jonquil Darke was also known as the Serpent in Scarlet and the Scarlet Shadow.

Ser Joffrey Doggett was also known as the Red Dog of the Hills. 

Ser Dontos Hollard was also called Dontos the Red.

Only Brienne of Tarth breaks this pattern, because she was called Brienne the Blue, during his days as member of Renly’s Rainbow Guard. Wanna know who was the Red in Renly’s Rainbow Guard? It was Ser Robar Royce, son of Yhon Bronze Royce and brother of Waymar Royce, Sansa’s first crush.

But my point with all this Red/Scarlet colored references is that red is a color hugely associated with Sansa Stark, because of the red of her hair and the red of the weirwood tree. 

THE VISENYA AND THE RHAENYS 

During a discussion between King Jaehaerys I and his older sister Rhaena, these words were exchanged: 

“And Silverwing?” asked Rhaena. “Our sister—”

“—had no part in this. I will not put her at risk.”

The Queen in the East smiled then. “She is Rhaenys, and I am Visenya. I have never thought otherwise.”

—Fire & Blood

Rhaena compared Jaehaerys with Aegon the Conqueror, herself with Queen Visenya and Alysanne with Queen Rhaenys. 

This is part of a dichotomy that GRRM work with a lot: the Lady Woman Vs the Warrior Woman. A pattern that started with the Stark Sisters, and is replicated a lot in Fire & Blood with several Targaryen Sisters. Here some examples:

Visenya and Rhaenys

Rhaena and Alysanne

Aerea and Rhaella

Baela and Rhaena  

Rhaena was not exactly like Visenya and Alysanne was not exactly Rhaenys, but Rhaenys and Alysanne certainly shared a lot of similarities:

Rhaenys

Rhaenys, youngest of the three Targaryens, was all her sister [Visenya] was not, playful, curious, impulsive, given to flights of fancy. No true warrior, Rhaenys loved music, dancing, and poetry, and supported many a singer, mummer, and puppeteer. Yet it was said that Rhaenys spent more time on dragonback than her brother and sister combined, for above all things she loved to fly. She once was heard to say that before she died she meant to fly Meraxes across the Sunset Sea to see what lay upon its western shores.”

(...)

Queen Rhaenys was a great patron to the bards and singers of the Seven Kingdoms, showering gold and gifts on those who pleased her. Though Queen Visenya thought her sister frivolous, there was a wisdom in this that went beyond a simple love of music. For the singers of the realm, in their eagerness to win the favor of the queen, composed many a song in praise of House Targaryen and King Aegon, and then went forth and sang those songs in every keep and castle and village green from the Dornish Marches to the Wall. Thus was the Conquest made glorious to the simple people, whilst Aegon the Dragon himself became a hero king.

Queen Rhaenys also took a great interest in the smallfolk, and had a special love for women and children. Once, when she was holding court in the Aegonfort, a man was brought before her for beating his wife to death. The woman’s brothers wanted him punished, but the husband argued that he was within his lawful rights, since he had found his wife abed with another man. The right of a husband to chastise an erring wife was well established throughout the Seven Kingdoms (save in Dorne). The husband further pointed out that the rod he had used to beat his wife was no thicker than his thumb, and even produced the rod in evidence. When the queen asked him how many times he had struck his wife, however, the husband could not answer, but the dead woman’s brothers insisted there had been a hundred blows.

Queen Rhaenys consulted with her maesters and septons, then rendered her decision. An adulterous wife gave offense to the Seven, who had created women to be faithful and obedient to their husbands, and therefore must be chastised. As god has but seven faces, however, the punishment should consist of only six blows (for the seventh blow would be for the Stranger, and the Stranger is the face of death). Thus the first six blows the man had struck had been lawful…but the remaining ninety-four had been an offense against gods and men, and must be punished in kind. From that day forth, the “rule of six” became a part of the common law, along with the “rule of thumb.” (The husband was taken to the foot of the Hill of Rhaenys, where he was given ninety-four blows by the dead woman’s brothers, using rods of lawful size.)

—Fire & Blood

Alysanne

Queen Alysanne looked back on the short-lived glories of her father’s court fondly, however, and made it her purpose to make the Red Keep glitter as it never had before, buying tapestries and carpets from Free Cities and commissioning murals, statuary, and tilework to decorate the castle’s halls and chambers. At her command, men from the City Watch combed Flea Bottom until they found Tom the Strummer, whose mocking songs had amused king and commons alike during the War for the White Cloaks. Alysanne made him the court singer, the first of many who would hold that office in the decades to come. She brought in a harpist from Oldtown, a company of mummers from Braavos, dancers from Lys, and gave the Red Keep its first fool, a fat man called the Goodwife who dressed as a woman and was never seen without his wooden “children,” a pair of cleverly carved puppets who said ribald, shocking things.

(...)

The king’s first progress was meant to be a modest one, commencing with the crownlands north of King’s Landing and proceeding only as far as the Vale of Arryn. Jaehaerys wanted Alysanne with him, but as Her Grace was with child, he was concerned that their journeys not be too taxing. They began with Stokeworth and Rosby, then moved north along the coast to Duskendale. There, whilst the king viewed Lord Darklyn’s boatyards and enjoyed an afternoon of fishing, the queen held the first of her women’s courts, which were to become an important part of every royal progress to come. Only women and girls were welcome at these audiences; highborn or low, they were encouraged to come forward and share their fears, concerns, and hopes with the young queen.

(...)

Men oft speak today of Queen Alysanne’s laws, but this usage is sloppy and incorrect. Her Grace had no power to enact laws, issue decrees, make proclamations, or pass sentences. It is a mistake to speak of her as we might speak of the Conqueror’s queens, Rhaenys and Visenya. The young queen did, however, wield enormous influence over King Jaehaerys, and when she spoke, he listened…as he did upon their return from the Vale of Arryn.

It was the plight of widows throughout the Seven Kingdoms that the women’s courts had made Alysanne aware of. In times of peace especially, it was not uncommon for a man to outlive the wife of his youth, for young men most oft perish upon the battlefield, young women in the birthing bed. Be they of noble birth or humble, men left bereft suchwise would oft after a time take second wives, whose presence in the household was resented by the children of the first wife. Where no bonds of affection existed, upon the man’s own death his heirs could and did expel the widow from the home, reducing her to penury; in the case of lords, the heirs might simply strip away the widow’s prerogatives, incomes, and servants, reducing her to little more than a boarder.

To rectify these ills, King Jaehaerys in 52 AC promulgated the Widow’s Law, reaffirming the right of the eldest son (or eldest daughter, where there was no son) to inherit, but requiring said heirs to maintain surviving widows in the same condition they had enjoyed before their husband’s death. A lord’s widow, be she a second, third, or later wife, could no longer be driven from his castle, nor deprived of her servants, clothing, and income. The same law, however, also forbade men from disinheriting their children by a first wife in order to bestow their lands, seat, or property upon a later wife or her own children.

(...)

Alysanne remained in the Red Keep, presiding over council meetings in the king’s absence, and holding audience from a velvet seat at the base of the Iron Throne.

(...)

“I see no honor in any of this. I knew such things happened hundreds of years ago, I confess it, but I never dreamed that the custom endured so strongly to this day. Mayhaps I did not want to know. I closed my eyes, but that poor girl in Mole’s Town opened them. The right of the first night! Your Grace, my lords, it is time we put an end to this. I beg you.”

(...)

And so it came to pass that the second of what the smallfolk named Queen Alysanne’s Laws was enacted: the abolition of the lord’s ancient right to the first night. Henceforth, it was decreed, a bride’s maidenhead would belong only to her husband, whether joined before a septon or a heart tree, and any man, be he lord or peasant, who took her on her wedding night or any other night would be guilty of the crime of rape.

—Fire & Blood

As you can see, we can easily associate Sansa Stark with these shared similarities between Queen Rhaenys and Queen Alysanne.

SINGERS AND KNIGHTS 

Queen Alysanne was fond of singers and gallant knights, just like Sansa:

Three of the brothers had been singers before taking the black, and they took turns playing for Her Grace at night, regaling her with ballads, war songs, and bawdy barracks tunes. 

—Fire & Blood

Ser Simon Dondarrion

Though his castle was small and modest compared to the great halls of the realm, Lord Dondarrion was a splendid host and his son Simon played the high harp as well as he jousted, and entertained the royal couple by night with sad songs of star-crossed lovers and the fall of kings. So taken with him was the queen that the party lingered longer at Blackhaven than they had intended.

(...)

But the champion’s laurels went to the gallant and handsome Ser Simon Dondarrion of Blackhaven, who won the love of the commons and queen alike when he crowned Princess Daenerys as his queen of love and beauty.

—Fire & Blood

A young and handsome noble man that played the high harp as well as he jousted sounds like Sansa Stark’s ideal man. 

Also, the name Simon and the surname Dondarrion are very subtle references of Jon Snow, an idea that I’m developing in an unfinished meta. 

Ser Ryam Redwyne

Queen Alysanne knew in person to the famous knight Ser Ryam Redwyne: 

It was a time for celebration and celebrate they did, with a tourney at King’s Landing on the anniversary of the king’s coronation. Princess Daenerys and the Princes Aemon and Baelon shared the royal box with their mother and father, and reveled in the cheers of the crowd. On the field, the highlight of the competition was the brilliance of Ser Ryam Redwyne, the youngest son of Lord Manfryd Redwyne of the Arbor, Jaehaerys’s lord admiral and master of ships. In successive tilts, Ser Ryam unhorsed Ronnal Baratheon, Arthor Oakheart, Simon Dondarrion, Harys Hogg (Harry the Ham, to the commons), and two Kingsguard knights, Lorence Roxton and Lucamore Strong. When the young gallant trotted up to the royal box and crowned Good Queen Alysanne as his queen of love and beauty, the commons roared their approval.

—Fire & Blood

Later, Ser Ryam Redwyne served as Lord Commander of the Kingsguard under Jaehaerys I Targaryen and Viserys I Targaryen.

In Sansa’s case, while having a nightmare of the riot of King's Landing, Sansa wished to be saved by Ser Ryam Redwyne Florian the Fool, or Prince Aemon the Dragonknight, but none appear:

That night Sansa dreamed of the riot again. The mob surged around her, shrieking, a maddened beast with a thousand faces. Everywhere she turned she saw faces twisted into monstrous inhuman masks. She wept and told them she had never done them hurt, yet they dragged her from her horse all the same. "No," she cried, "no, please, don't, don't," but no one paid her any heed. She shouted for Ser Dontos, for her brothers, for her dead father and her dead wolf, for gallant Ser Loras who had given her a red rose once, but none of them came. She called for the heroes from the songs, for Florian and Ser Ryam Redwyne and Prince Aemon the Dragonknight, but no one heard. Women swarmed over her like weasels, pinching her legs and kicking her in the belly, and someone hit her in the face and she felt her teeth shatter. Then she saw the bright glimmer of steel. The knife plunged into her belly and tore and tore and tore, until there was nothing left of her down there but shiny wet ribbons.

—A Clash of Kings - Sansa IV

The only man that effectively, but unbeknownst for her, had fulfilled Sansa’s wishes for a hero, was Jon Snow: 

Frog-faced Lord Slynt sat at the end of the council table wearing a black velvet doublet and a shiny cloth-of-gold cape, nodding with approval every time the king pronounced a sentence. Sansa stared hard at his ugly face, remembering how he had thrown down her father for Ser Ilyn to behead, wishing she could hurt him, wishing that some hero would throw him down and cut off his head. But a voice inside her whispered, There are no heroes, and she remembered what Lord Petyr had said to her, here in this very hall. “Life is not a song, sweetling,” he’d told her. “You may learn that one day to your sorrow.” In life, the monsters win, she told herself, and now it was the Hound’s voice she heard, a cold rasp, metal on stone. “Save yourself some pain, girl, and give him what he wants.”

—A Game of Thrones - Sansa VI

“You are refusing to obey my order?” “You can stick your order up your bastard’s arse,” said Slynt, his jowls quivering. […] “As you will.” Jon nodded to Iron Emmett. “Please take Lord Janos to the Wall—” […] “—and hang him,” Jon finished. […] This is wrong, Jon thought. “Stop.” […] “I will not hang him,” said Jon. “Bring him here.” “Oh, Seven save us,” he heard Bowen Marsh cry out. The smile that Lord Janos Slynt smiled then had all the sweetness of rancid butter. Until Jon said, “Edd, fetch me a block,” and unsheathed Longclaw. […] The pale morning sunlight ran up and down his blade as Jon clasped the hilt of the bastard sword with both hands and raised it high. “If you have any last words, now is the time to speak them,” he said, expecting one last curse. Janos Slynt twisted his neck around to stare up at him. “Please, my lord. Mercy. I’ll … I’ll go, I will, I …” No, thought Jon. You closed that door. Longclaw descended. “Can I have his boots?” asked Owen the Oaf, as Janos Slynt’s head went rolling across the muddy ground. “They’re almost new, those boots. Lined with fur.”

—A Dance with Dragons - Jon II

WATER AND BREAD FOR THE SMALLFOLK

Alysanne procured clean water for the people of Kingslanding:

Queen Alysanne served each of them a tankard of river water at the next council meeting, and dared them to drink of it. The water went undrunk, but the wells and pipes were soon approved. Construction would require more than a dozen years, but in the end “the queen’s fountains” provided clean water for Kingslanders for many generations to come.

—Fire & Blood

Sansa made Joffrey gave some money to a poor woman with a death baby:  

Halfway along the route, a wailing woman forced her way between two watchmen and ran out into the street in front of the king and his companions, holding the corpse of her dead baby above her head. It was blue and swollen, grotesque, but the real horror was the mother's eyes. Joffrey looked for a moment as if he meant to ride her down, but Sansa Stark leaned over and said something to him. The king fumbled in his purse, and flung the woman a silver stag. The coin bounced off the child and rolled away, under the legs of the gold cloaks and into the crowd, where a dozen men began to fight for it. The mother never once blinked. Her skinny arms were trembling from the dead weight of her son.

—A Clash of Kings - Tyrion IX

But the people was hungry and wanted bread: 

From both sides of the street, the crowd surged against the spear shafts while the gold cloaks struggled to hold the line. Stones and dung and fouler things whistled overhead. “Feed us!” a woman shrieked. “Bread!” boomed a man behind her. “We want bread, bastard!”

—A Clash of Kings - Tyrion IX

Bread that Sansa would have given them, If she had it:

Tyrion called to her. “Are you hurt, Lady Sansa?” Blood was trickling down Sansa’s brow from a deep gash on her scalp. “They . . . they were throwing things . . . rocks and filth, eggs . . . I tried to tell them, I had no bread to give them”. 

—A Clash of Kings - Tyrion IX

In the Show they translated this Sansa’s line of dialogue to this one: “I would have given them bread if I had it.”  

Sansa, like Queen Alysanne, knew that love was a surer route to people’s loyalty than fear: 

“The night’s first traitors,” the queen said, “but not the last, I fear. Have Ser Ilyn see to them, and put their heads on pikes outside the stables as a warning.” As they left, she turned to Sansa. “Another lesson you should learn, if you hope to sit beside my son. Be gentle on a night like this and you’ll have treasons popping up all about you like mushrooms after a hard rain. The only way to keep your people loyal is to make certain they fear you more than they do the enemy.”

"I will remember, Your Grace," said Sansa, though she had always heard that love was a surer route to the people's loyalty than fear. If I am ever a queen, I'll make them love me.

—A Clash of Kings - Sansa VI

THE NORTH

Did you know that in the ASOIAF Books, Queen Alysanne is mostly mentioned in Stark POVs? Yes, she is. Queen Alysanne is mentioned by Jon, Bran, Catelyn and Sansa. You can also count Samwell Tarly in this list, because he is now a Black Brother of the Night’s Watch and Jon’s best friend. 

Jon, Bran and Samwell mention Good Queen Alysanne’s visit to the North and the Wall.

In Catelyn’s and Sansa’s case, they heard singers singing the song “Alysanne”, that according to Sansa is a sad song.  

Winterfell

In Winterfell Good Queen Alysanne met Lord Alaric Stark. A man that reminds me a lot of Stannis Baratheon:  

Alaric Stark

Alaric Stark was best left in Winterfell; a stubborn man by all reports, stern and hard-handed and unforgiving, he would make for an uncomfortable presence at the council table.  

(...)

Lord Alaric had a flinty reputation; a hard man, people said, stern and unforgiving, tight-fisted almost to the point of being niggardly, humorless, joyless, cold. Even Theomore Manderly, who was his bannerman, had not disagreed; Stark was well respected in the North, he said, but not loved. Lord Manderly’s fool had put it elsewise. “Methinks Lord Alaric has not moved his bowels since he was twelve.”

(...)

Her reception at Winterfell did nothing to disabuse the queen’s fears as to what she might expect from House Stark. Even before dismounting to bend the knee, Lord Alaric looked askance at Her Grace’s clothing and said, “I hope you brought something warmer than that.” He then proceeded to declare that he did not want her dragon inside his walls. “I’ve not seen Harrenhal, but I know what happened there.” Her knights and ladies he would receive when they got here, “and the king too, if he can find the way,” but they should not overstay their welcome. “This is the North, and winter is coming. We cannot feed a thousand men for long.” When the queen assured him that only a tenth that number would be coming, Lord Alaric grunted and said, “That’s good. Fewer would be even better.” As had been feared, he was plainly unhappy that King Jaehaerys had not deigned to accompany her, and confessed to being uncertain how to entertain a queen. “If you are expecting balls and masques and dances, you have come to the wrong place.”

—Fire & Blood

Stannis Baratheon

"Robert can barely stomach his brothers. Not that I blame him. Stannis would be enough to give anyone indigestion."

—A Game of Thrones - Bran II

"Oh, a shred, surely," Littlefinger replied negligently. "Hear me out. Stannis is no friend of yours, nor of mine. Even his brothers can scarcely stomach him. The man is iron, hard and unyielding. He'll give us a new Hand and a new council, for a certainty. No doubt he'll thank you for handing him the crown, but he won't love you for it. And his ascent will mean war. Stannis cannot rest easy on the throne until Cersei and her bastards are dead. Do you think Lord Tywin will sit idly while his daughter's head is measured for a spike? Casterly Rock will rise, and not alone. Robert found it in him to pardon men who served King Aerys, so long as they did him fealty. Stannis is less forgiving. He will not have forgotten the siege of Storm's End, and the Lords Tyrell and Redwyne dare not. Every man who fought beneath the dragon banner or rose with Balon Greyjoy will have good cause to fear. Seat Stannis on the Iron Throne and I promise you, the realm will bleed.

—A Game of Thrones - Eddard XIII

A king's first duty is to defend the realm, and Mance attacked it. His Grace is not like to forget that. My father used to say that Stannis Baratheon was a just man. No one has ever said he was forgiving." 

—A Feast for Crows - Samwell I

"A boy he may be, my lord, but … King Robert was well loved, and most men still accept that Tommen is his son. The more they see of Lord Stannis the less they love him, and fewer still are fond of Lady Melisandre with her fires and this grim red god of hers. They complain."

—A Dance with Dragons - Jon III

At this point in ASOIAF, Stannis is in the North trying to take Winterfell from the Boltons. And as Queen Alysanne melted all the ice of Lord Alaric Stark, I think Sansa could do the same with Stannis Baratheon.  Sansa would easily befriend Princess Shireen as well:    

Even a lord as stern and flinty as Alaric Stark found himself helpless before Queen Alysanne’s stubborn charm.

(...)

The longer the queen stayed, the more Lord Alaric warmed to her, and in time Alysanne came to realize that not everything that was said of him was true. He was careful with his coin, but not niggardly; he was not humorless at all, though his humor had an edge to it, sharp as a knife; his sons and daughter and the people of Winterfell seemed to love him well enough. Once the initial frost had thawed, his lordship took the queen hunting after elk and wild boar in the wolfswood, showed her the bones of a giant, and allowed her to rummage as she pleased through his modest castle library. He even deigned to approach Silverwing, though warily. The women of Winterfell were taken by the queen’s charms as well, once they grew to know her; Her Grace became particularly close with Lord Alaric’s daughter, Alarra. 

—Fire & Blood

Night’s Watch

Alysanne then decided to visit the Night’s Watch:

In the North, Queen Alysanne grew restless with waiting, and decided to take her leave of Winterfell for a time and visit the men of the Night’s Watch at Castle Black.

—Fire & Blood

Once at Castle Black she met the Lord Commander: 

Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, Lothor Burley, assembled eight hundred of his finest men to receive her. That night the black brothers feasted the queen on mammoth meat, washed down with mead and stout.

—Fire & Blood

Lothor Burley sounds pretty much like Lothor Brune, another of Sansa’s protector.

Curiously enough, Queen Alysanne had this exchange with Lord Commander Burley:

Burley was apologetic for the quality of the food and drink presented to the queen, and the rudeness of the accommodations at Castle Black. “We do what we can, Your Grace,” the Lord Commander explained, “but our beds are hard, our halls are cold, and our food—”

“—is nourishing,” the queen finished. “And that is all that I require. It will please me to eat as you do.”

—Fire & Blood

This exchange is very similar to the one between Sansa Stark and “Lord Commander” Edd Tollet during Season 6 of the Show:

Edd Tollet: Sorry about the food. It’s not what we’re known for. 

Sansa Stark: That’s alright. There are more important things. 

From Snowgate to Queensgate  

Queen Alysanne left her mark in the Night’s Watch forever: 

Above all else, a queen must know how to listen,” Alysanne Targaryen often said. At Castle Black, she proved those words. She listened, she heard, and she won the eternal devotion of the men of the Night’s Watch by her actions. She understood the need for a castle between Snowgate and Icemark, she told Lord Burley, but the Nightfort was crumbling, overlarge, and surely ruinous to heat. The Watch should abandon it, she said, and build a smaller castle farther to the east. Lord Burley could not disagree…but the Night’s Watch lacked the coin to build new castles, he said. Alysanne had anticipated that objection. She would pay for the castle herself, she told the Lord Commander, and pledged her jewels to cover the cost. “I have a good many jewels,” she said.

It would take eight years to raise the new castle, which would bear the name of Deep Lake. Outside its main hall, a statue of Alysanne Targaryen stands to this very day. The Nightfort was abandoned even before Deep Lake was completed, as the queen had wished. Lord Commander Burley also renamed Snowgate castle in her honor, as Queensgate.

—Fire & Blood

This is an action that Sansa could easily replicate as Queen in the North. House Stark was always a friend of the Night’s Watch. And as Queen in the North Sansa would probably have statues to honor her all along the North.

Also the “Snow” gate becoming the “Queen” gate gives me a lot of Jon and Sansa romantic vibes.

A New Gift 

Queen Alysanne proposed a New Gift: 

Lord Stark and King Jaehaerys would never be fast friends; the shade of Walton Stark remained between them to the end. It was only through Queen Alysanne’s good offices that they ever found accord. The queen had visited Brandon’s Gift, the lands south of the Wall that Brandon the Builder had granted to the Watch for their support and sustenance. “It is not enough,” she told the king. “The soil is thin and stony, the hills unpopulated. The Watch lacks for coin, and when winter comes they will lack for food as well.” The answer she proposed was a New Gift, a further strip of land south of Brandon’s Gift.

The notion did not please Lord Alaric; though a strong friend to the Night’s Watch, he knew that the lords who presently held the lands in question would object to them being given away without their leave. “I have no doubt that you can persuade them, Lord Alaric,” the queen said. And finally, charmed by her as ever, Alaric Stark agreed that, aye, he could. And so it came to pass that the size of the Gift was doubled with a stroke.

—Fire & Blood

Jon remembers Ned Stark’s wishes for the New Gift:

Your brothers will not like it, no more than your father's lords, but I mean to allow the wildlings through the Wall . . . those who will swear me their fealty, pledge to keep the king's peace and the king's laws, and take the Lord of Light as their god. Even the giants, if those great knees of theirs can bend. I will settle them on the Gift, once I have wrested it away from your new Lord Commander. When the cold winds rise, we shall live or die together. It is time we made alliance against our common foe." He looked at Jon. "Would you agree?"

"My father dreamed of resettling the Gift," Jon admitted. "He and my uncle Benjen used to talk of it." He never thought of settling it with wildlings, though . . . but he never rode with wildlings, either. He did not fool himself; the free folk would make for unruly subjects and dangerous neighbors. Yet when he weighed Ygritte's red hair against the cold blue eyes of the wights, the choice was easy. "I agree."

—A Storm of Swords - Jon XI

This is something Sansa would do as Queen in the North, to fulfill Ned’s wishes, either with the wildlings or northern people, or both.

Also, take note how Jon is always choosing the redhead girl over a threat to the realm and humanity... After all, Jon is the shield that guards the realms of men.    

The Wall and Beyond

Finally, to finish the North section, we have that Queen Alysanne’s reaction to the Wall and the lands beyond, is very similar to the reaction Jon Snow imagines Sansa would have to that sight:  

Her first sight of the Wall from above took Alysanne’s breath away, Her Grace would later tell the king.

—Fire & Blood

The pale pink light of dawn sparkled on branch and leaf and stone. Every blade of grass was carved from emerald, every drip of water turned to diamond. Flowers and mushrooms alike wore coats of glass. Even the mud puddles had a bright brown sheen. Through the shimmering greenery, the black tents of his brothers were encased in a fine glaze of ice.

So there is magic beyond the Wall after all. He found himself thinking of his sisters, perhaps because he'd dreamed of them last night. Sansa would call this an enchantment, and tears would fill her eyes at the wonder of it, but Arya would run out laughing and shouting, wanting to touch it all.

—A Clash of Kings - Jon III

And this passage about Alysanne ride atop the Wall from Snowgate to the Nightfort and the descending to the ruinous castle, reminds me a lot of Sansa’s descending from the Eyrie to the Gates of the Moon:  

Lord Commander Burley himself took the queen into the haunted forest (with a hundred rangers riding escort). When Alysanne expressed the wish to see some of the other forts along the Wall, the First Ranger Benton Glover led her west atop the Wall, past Snowgate to the Nightfort, where they made their descent and spent the night. The ride, the queen decided, was as breathtaking a journey as she had ever experienced, “as exhilarating as it was cold, though the wind up there blows so strongly that I feared it was about to sweep us off the Wall.” The Nightfort itself she found grim and sinister. “It is so huge the men seem dwarfed by it, like mice in a ruined hall,” she told Jaehaerys, “and there is a darkness there…a taste in the air…I was so glad to leave that place.”

—Fire & Blood

"Ser Sweetrobin," Lord Robert said, and Alayne knew that she dare not wait for Mya to return. She helped the boy dismount, and hand in hand they walked out onto the bare stone saddle, their cloaks snapping and flapping behind them. All around was empty air and sky, the ground falling away sharply to either side. There was ice underfoot, and broken stones just waiting to turn an ankle, and the wind was howling fiercely. It sounds like a wolf, thought Sansa. A ghostwolf, big as mountains.

—A Feast for Crows - Alayne II

I HOPE MY HUSBAND FALLS OFF HIS HORSE

This is just a funny parallel:

What do those “highborn ladies do whilst their lords are out deflowering maidens? Do they sew? Sing? Pray? Were it me, I might pray my lord husband fell off his horse and broke his neck coming home.” 

—Fire & Blood

Those lords Alysanne was referring to sounds very much like Harry the Heir: 

A lady's armor is her courtesy. Alayne could feel the blood rushing to her face. No tears, she prayed. Please, please, I must not cry. "As you wish, ser. And now if you will excuse me, Littlefinger's bastard must find her lord father and let him know that you have come, so we can begin the tourney on the morrow." And may your horse stumble, Harry the Heir, so you fall on your stupid head in your first tilt. She showed the Waynwoods a stone face as they blurted out awkward apologies for their companion. When they were done she turned and fled.

—The Winds of Winter - Alayne I

Sassy Queens!

A FEMALE RULER

A ruler needs a good head and a true heart. A cock is not essential. —Alysanne Targaryen

Queen Alysanne wanted a female Targaryen ruler. She really wanted it. She tried. She failed.    

This is a bit hypocrite tho... Since Alyssa, Jaehaerys and Alysanne herself wronged Rhaena and her claim to the throne, but still...

You could argue Jaehaerys and Alysanne ruled together, but despite the great influence and counsel of Queen Alysanne, she was not the ruler. Jaehaerys was. Alysanne was only the Queen consort.

Alysanne wished for her daughter Daenerys to be Queen, but Jaehaerys wanted a male heir to succeed him on the throne, so he chose his son Aemon:

“She is so clever, she will be reading to me before long,” she told the king. “She is going to be a great queen, I know it.”

(...)

Jaehaerys loved all three children fiercely, but from the moment Aemon was born, the king began to speak of him as his heir, to Queen Alysanne’s displeasure. “Daenerys is older,” she would remind His Grace. “She is first in line; she should be queen.” The king would never disagree, except to say, “She shall be queen, when she and Aemon marry. They will rule together, just as we have.” But Benifer could see that the king’s words did not entirely please the queen, as he noted in his letters.

—Fire & Blood

Alysanne also wished for her granddaughter Rhaenys to be Queen, she was the only child of the heir to the throne, Prince Aemon, but Jaehaerys wanted a male heir to succeed him on the throne, so he named Prince Baelon, Aemon’s younger brother, the Prince of Dragonstone:

Baelon, a seasoned knight of thirty-five, was better suited for rule than the eighteen-year-old Princess Rhaenys or her unborn babe (who might or might not be a boy, whereas Prince Baelon had already sired two healthy sons, Viserys and Daemon). The love of the commons for Baelon the Brave was also cited.

(...)

The most prominent dissenter was Good Queen Alysanne, who had helped her husband rule the Seven Kingdoms for many years, and now saw her son’s daughter being passed over because of her sex. “A ruler needs a good head and a true heart,” she famously told the king. “A cock is not essential.”

(...)

The queen died of a wasting illness in 100 AC, at the age of four-and-sixty, still insisting that her granddaughter Rhaenys and her children had been unfairly cheated of their rights. 

Sansa Stark has a lot of Queen foreshadowing and imagery around her and she could be the one female ruler to defeat patriarchy in ASOIAF.  

SARA SNOW

Let me tell you about a northern girl, the mysterious bastard girl from Winterfell, a wolf girl called Sara Snow:

But we turn to Mushroom to find the tales other chronicles omit, nor does he fail us now. His account introduces a young maiden, or “wolf girl” as he dubs her, with the name of Sara Snow. So smitten was Prince Jacaerys with this creature, a bastard daughter of the late Lord Rickon Stark, that he lay with her of a night. On learning that his guest had claimed the maidenhead of his bastard sister, Lord Cregan became most wroth, and only softened when Sara Snow told him that the prince had taken her for his wife. They had spoken their vows in Winterfell’s own godswood before a heart tree, and only then had she given herself to him, wrapped in furs amidst the snows as the old gods looked on.

This makes for a charming story, to be sure, but as with many of Mushroom’s fables, it seems to partake more of a fool’s fevered imaginings than of historical truth. Jacaerys Velaryon had been betrothed to his cousin Baela since he was four and she was two, and from all we know of his character, it seems most unlikely that he would break such a solemn agreement to protect the uncertain virtue of some half-wild, unwashed northern bastard. If indeed there ever lived a Sara Snow, and if indeed the Prince of Dragonstone perchanced to dally with her, that is no more than other princes have done in the past, and will do on the morrow, but to talk of marriage is preposterous.

(Mushroom also claims that Vermax left a clutch of dragon’s eggs at Winterfell, which is equally absurd. Whilst it is true that determining the sex of a living dragon is a nigh on impossible task, no other source mentions Vermax producing so much as a single egg, so it must be assumed that he was male. Septon Barth’s speculation that the dragons change sex at need, being “as mutable as flame,” is too ludicrous to consider.)

This we do know: Cregan Stark and Jacaerys Velaryon reached an accord, and signed and sealed the agreement that Grand Maester Munkun calls “the Pact of Ice and Fire” in his True Telling. Like many such pacts, it was to be sealed with a marriage. Lord Cregan’s son, Rickon, was a year old. Prince Jacaerys was as yet unmarried and childless, but it was assumed that he would sire children of his own once his mother sat the Iron Throne. Under the terms of the pact, the prince’s firstborn daughter would be sent north at the age of seven, to be fostered at Winterfell until such time as she was old enough to marry Lord Cregan’s heir.

—Fire & Blood

How is Sara Snow connected with Queen Alysanne and Sansa Stark?

At this point in ASOIAF, Sansa Stark is under the disguise of Alayne Stone, a bastard girl, like Sara Snow.  Both young maidens, and both were called wolf girls: 

The green knight laughed again. "Barristan the Old, you mean. Don't flatter him too sweetly, child, he thinks overmuch of himself already." He smiled at her. "Now, wolf girl, if you can put a name to me as well, then I must concede that you are truly our Hand's daughter."

—A Game of Thrones - Sansa I

And regarding Queen Alysanne, Sara Snow is linked with her through their husbands. 

According to Mushroom, Sara Snow married a Targaryen Prince in secret. And who was this Targaryen Prince? It was Prince Jacaerys Velaryon, the older son of Rhaenyra Targaryen, the Prince of Dragonstone, Heir to the Iron Throne.

Prince Jacaerys Velaryon was a Targaryen Prince with brown hair (Like Jon Snow). He was probable a bastard (Like Jon Snow) son of Rhaenyra Targaryen and Ser Harwin Strong, called Breakbones.

Curiously enough, Jacaerys Velaryon supposed father, Laenor Velaryon wanted to name him Joffrey (Like Sansa’s first betrothed Joffrey Baratheon, also a bastard).

Jacaerys is a traditional Velaryon name. House Velaryon is of Valyrian descent, and its members often have Valyrian features, such as silver hair, purple eyes, and pale skin. But as I said before, Jacaerys had brown hair, like Jon Snow.

Also, Jacaerys sounds like the Velaryon version of Jaehaerys. The short for Jacaerys was Jace. 

Sara Snow and Jacaerys Velaryon married in secret like Alysanne and Jaehaerys. 

Alysanne and Jaehaerys eloped because their mother planned to marry Alysanne with Orryn Baratheon (This is also parallel with Rhaegar and Lyanna).  

Jacaerys Velaryon was already betrothed with his cousin Baela Targaryen. Jacaerys Velaryon broke that vow to marry Sara Snow in secret.

These two couples Sara Snow & Jacaerys Velaryon and Alysanne and Jaehaerys Targaryen are two similar versions of Rhaegar and Lyanna, a Targaryen Prince with a Stark maiden or, in Alysanne case, a maiden that reminds us of a Stark one. All three secret marriages that broke a previous betrothal.

Curiously enough, Cregan Stark (Sara Snow’s brother) and Jacaerys Velaryon  signed “the Pact of Ice and Fire”, a pact sealed with a marriage, a marriage between the Stark Heir (Cregan’s son) with a Velaryon/Targaryen Princess (Jacaerys’ daughter).  

Under the terms of the pact, Jacaerys’ firstborn daughter would be sent north at the age of seven, to be fostered at Winterfell until such time as she was old enough to marry Lord Cregan’s heir.

That pact never happened because Jacaerys Velaryon died childless.

Mushroom said that Vermax (Jacaerys’ dragon) left a clutch of dragon’s eggs at Winterfell. This could have meant that Sara Snow (Jacaerys’ wife) was already pregnant with Jacaerys’ first child and if that child were a girl, she must have married her cousin Rickon Stark. But that never happened.

What did happen was that Jon Snow, the son of a Targaryen Prince with a Stark Maiden, was raised at Winterfell, next to his cousin Sansa Stark, older daughter of Lord Eddard Stark, with whom he can fulfill the “the Pact of Ice and Fire”. 

Rhaegar himself probably tried to fulfill “the Pact of Ice and Fire” with Lyanna Stark. And Jon Snow would be the fruit of that fulfillment, a son of Ice and Fire. 

Here you can read more about Jace & Sara.

ALYSANNE “BLACK ALY” BLACKWOOD

Alysanne Blackwood, also known as Black Aly, is not very similar to Queen Alysanne or Sansa Stark. She was a woman more like Arya Stark. In summary: Not a Lady.

But Alysanne Blackwood became the second wife of Lord Cregan Stark, wich made her Lady Stark, Lady Alysanne Stark.

RICKON STARK

Lord Cregan Stark had a son with his first wife Arra Norrey, a boy named Rickon Stark. And little Rickon sang for the new Lady Stark:

The wedding itself was said to be splendid, however; Black Aly and her wolf pledged their troth before the heart tree in Winterfell’s icy godswood. At the feast afterward, four-year-old Rickon, Lord Cregan’s son by his first wife, sang a song for his new stepmother.

—Fire & Blood

This will probably never happen, but imagine our little Rickon Stark singing for his sister-mother Sansa Stark... But our beloved Rickon is a wild wolf pup so he would probably howl instead of sing, after all: 

“The Starks know no music but the howling of wolves.” —A Game of Thrones - Catelyn V

SANSARA TARLY

If you thought that all this similar/linked names are just a coincidence, that Sara Snow has nothing to do with Queen Alysanne and Sansa Stark, now let me tell you about “more coincidences”, let me tell you about Sansara Tarly.

In Fire & Blood, during the searching for King Aegon III second wife, we meet a character named Sansara Tarly:

Perhaps the boldest letter came from the irrepressible Lady Samantha of Oldtown, who declared that her sister Sansara (of House Tarly) “is spirited and strong, and has read more books than half the maesters in the Citadel” whilst her good-sister Bethany (of House Hightower) was “very beautiful, with smooth soft skin and lustrous hair and the sweetest manner,” though also “lazy and somewhat stupid, truth be told, though some men seem to like that in a wife.” She concluded by suggesting that perhaps King Aegon should marry both of them, “one to rule beside him, as Queen Alysanne did King Jaehaerys, and one to bed and breed.” 

—Fire & Blood

Sansara is literally a combination of Sansa and Sara.

Sansara is from House Tarly, and our beloved Samwell Tarly is, what I call, a Male!Sansa:

Yes, it’s just amazing how similar Sansa Stark and Samwell Tarly are. They have a lot of common interests and they sure would be the best of friends:

Whatever pride his lord father might have felt at Samwell’s birth vanished as the boy grew up plump, soft, and awkward. Sam loved to listen to music and make his own songs, to wear soft velvets, to play in the castle kitchen beside the cooks, drinking in the rich smells as he snitched lemon cakes and blueberry tarts. His passions were books and kittens and dancing, clumsy as he was.

—A Game of Thrones - Jon IV

Sam remembered the last time he’d sung the song with his mother, to lull baby Dickon to sleep. His father had heard their voices and come barging in, angry. “I will have no more of that,” Lord Randyll told his wife harshly. “You ruined one boy with those soft septon’s songs, do you mean to do the same to this babe?” Then he looked at Sam and said, “Go sing to your sisters, if you must sing. I don’t want you near my son.”

—A Storm of Swords - Samwell III

And during a few passages in the ASOIAF Books you can read how Samwell prays to the Mother: “Mother have mercy, Mother have mercy, Mother have mercy.”, just like Sansa. 

It is said that Sansara Tarly “has read more books than half the maesters in the Citadel”. This is a direct connection to Queen Alysanne, another book lover that could have been a Maester of the Citadel; and also to Samwell Tarly who is actually studying at the Citadel to become a Maester (Thanks to Jon Snow). Another book lover? Yes, Sansa Stark.     

Sansa - Alayne - Alysanne - Sara - Sansara

What an interesting chain of names George, all of them connected, so subtle of you:  

SANSA’S bastard name is ALAYNE  

ALAYNE can be formed removing a letter S and one letter N from ALYSANNE    

SARA was called WOLF GIRL like SANSA

SARA is a bastard like ALAYNE 

SARA married in secret with JACAERYS just like ALYSANNE married in secret with JAEHAERYS (Also JACAERYS = JAEHAERYS) 

ALYSANNE “Black Aly” Blackwood married Lord Cregan Stark and became LADY STARK, LADY ALYSANNE STARK 

SANSARA is a combination of SANSA and SARA

SANSARA is from House Tarly, like Samwell Tarly who is a Male!Sansa

SANSARA is as cultured and well read as ALYSANNE (Also like Samwell and Sansa) 

GRRM chooses the names of his characters very carefully. For example, here is what he has said about the Stark Sisters’ Names:     

The names Arya and Sansa are meant to represent the polar opposites of their characters, Arya being a hard sounding name, Sansa a softer more pretty name, etc. [Source]

After all of this, if GRRM decides to name a next character of the ASOIAF Universe: ‘ALYSANSA’, I would not be surprised.  

I rest my case.  

[scullydubois]

thoughts on Per Manum (8x13)

Written by Chris Carter & Frank Spotnitz  Directed by Kim Manners

Am I ready for this one? Based on the vague knowledge I have of it, no

Oh fuck, we’re going all the way back in this ‘previously on’...that’s how you know some shit’s about to go down

The baby’s freaking heart rate...ahhh

They locked him the fuck out

What kind of C-section….

Well then…

DD’s back in the credits

Ladies it’s crying time

Apparently it’s crying time for Scully too...this is not what I asked for

His wife was murdered!! Listen to him!!

Fuck….Scully’s really about to think that she’s gonna give birth to an alien

They stole his wife’s alien baby you guys...AND killed her

Doggett you’re gonna make this worse

That was a smooth transition but also excuse me how dare you

We’re not doing fucking well...we’re doing fucking well...we’re not

I’m actually having a hard time watching this….I don’t know why but it feels invasive or something

He really never fucking told her about the ova huh...alright

Doggett, exit the premises

Why the fuck is the waiting room so white...is this a dream

Holy fuck

Mental breakdown hours am I right ladies

Oh fuck Scully’s doctor is with the alien baby

This back and forth is kinda confusing, her hair doesn’t look that different

Where dafuq did she get an ova from...did she have a viable one?

Ladies….ladies...ladies….wherever will she find a father?

I’m not getting out of this alive, that’s for sure

A normal looking ultrasound...check!

Just tell Dogget you’re pregnant, Scully

Or don’t

This dude be making threats

There are other women out there like Cathy….hopefully not too much like her though

Okay mental breakdown hour continues

Oh god, deep breaths everyone, well get through this together

My safety is being threatened

“But the answer is yes” ANYONE WANNA SCREAM WITH ME

Now that my life has been changed…

The music...I will kill someone

Oh boy

She’s taking a leave of absence...uhhh

Doggett, stop being salty, let a woman live her life

I’m not doing fucking well

This army research hospital seems good though

Doggett don’t fuck up

Ahhhh...that’s all

Mulder better be in this episode again or I’m suing

Is she being recorded?

Fuck

It’s a set-up...haha this is fine

This guy better actually be a friend of Doggett’s 

This is intense af

SHIT

FUCK IM MAD

Doggett knows now

We’re suffering tonight

Fuckkkk

“Never give up on a miracle”

I’m about to jump out a window 

Thank you for coming to my daily X-files mental breakdown and goodnight

Consensus: Yeah...uh...yeah.

4 out of 5 stars

[helihi]

Farewell OITNB - The Good, the Bad, and the Dirty

So... Orange is the New Black ended. I binge watched the last season in 2 days, and I’ve got some thoughts. The last season was def better than we had ben getting for the past couple of years.

Beware spoilers ahead:

The Good

This season was definitely better than... IDK everything after season 5? One of the main issues of OITNB had, as the show progressed, was the writers addiction with throwing new characters into the mix, and although that makes sense in context, it’s a bad practice for a show.

I watched Chernobyl after it came out, and one of the characters, Ulana Khomyukl, is not based on a real person, but a group of people that actually existed and helped Valery Alekseyevich Legasov. Though being mentioned by named would have honored the real people, her character worked perfectly for a show. You can’t have a huge cast, not only because you don’t have enough screen time to showcase all of them and present them as 3D characters, but also because it will detract from the show’s substance.

Well, rest assured that the writers of OITNB didn’t make that mistake, they dialed back to the most of the OG cast to properly give them a send off (Taystee, Crazy Eyes, Piper, Alex, Nicky, Red, Lorna, Cindy, Daya, Aleida, Gloria, Flaca, María, Dogget, Caputo, and Figeroa), while also giving the better of the newest addition a coherent plot line ( Artesian McCullough, Tamika Ward, Karla, and Joel Luschek to some extent).

Though I have a section at the end for how I personally feel about each character’s story lines, I have to say Taystee’s, Caputo’s, and Nicky’s storylines are the best of the season. T and Mr. Caputo’s stories are interlinked, specially with Ward’s, but they retained the original message of the show: the penitentiary system is broken, fucked up, and it hurts people (+ it makes corporations money, thanks to season 4 onward).

I AM SO HAPPY THEY GOT RID OF BADDISON SO EARLY, I HATED HER GUTS. Part of the biggest clean up efforts from the writers, was getting rid of people who would interfere with a clean and tight end, which included killing Daddy off (I’m so sorry for her), beating the shit out of the most unanimously hated additions of season 6 and throwing her off, and giving most of Max’s characters a secondary role or a background role (let’s be honest Adeola should running the gang).

Huge thanks to Larry for doing something right in his life: he is correct about Piper, it’s almost as if the writers were aware of how the audience views Piper.

Though some storylines hit you in the gut, they do stay believable. A happy ending for everyone was not only impossible, but incoherent with the type of story they were telling. I do have to say I’m not happy about a couple, but we’ll get to that later. (See The Bad and The Dirty section).

You got 3 main story lines:

Ice: This includes the storylines for most of the Latin American characters (Gloria, Flaca, Maritza, Blanca), Fig, n Nicky. You can find my thoughts in The Dirty Section.

The broken penitentiary system: which includes Caputo, Taystee, Dogget, Suzzane, Piper, Ward, and Lorna. I believe this is the overall main theme of the show and the one which was developed the best and most believable. On one hand you have the people who have their hands tied and still try to do the best: Caputo (who gets some small victories, but loses everything because of #MeToo), Ward (who did her best, but wasn’t enough against the corrupt system and the capitalist philosophy that runs the company), Tayste (who got life even though she’s innocent, and never got justice for her friend, but found a way to move forward), Dogget (who was part of the circle of poverty and abuse, never got rehabilitated [which should be the purpose of prison] and killed herself after being berated again), Suzzane (who got locked in prison, though she didn’t belong there), Piper (through her parole experience), and Lorna (who never got the help she needed.

The Diaz Family: Daya, Aleida, Taystee, and Dogget to some extent.

I am so happy about the Poussey fund, and that it exist in real life. One of the things this show has done is show light on a lot of issues in the penitentiary system to people who really don’t care about it, or are ignorant about it. I hope this show has more impact than the fund. I hope it actually gives purpose to new activists, but that’s just wishful thinking.

This show peaked in season 2, but I feel comfortable, and satisfied with the overall ending of the show. Also, the cast is amazing. I hope they do great things in the future.

The Bad

Hey, u know what could really be fucked up? Yo-yoing with Taystee’s life for an entire season. I hated how the show painfully elongated her decision regarding suicide. It felt like the show was purposefully hoping to tug at your heart, and during her 2nd round of goodbyes I was like ‘either kill her already or let her be’, it really pissed me off. I understand that she was put in a horrible spot, but narratively, it felt like a cheap writing ploy to get you hooked.

Here I am, still hoping the most disgusting guards get fucking sent to prison, but of course that never happens. I didn’t like Pornstache little moment at the end, I don’t care if he’s not harassing more women any more, he is just like Barney from HIMYM in a way: hey I have a daughter now! I get it! WOMEN ARE PEOPLE. It just sends a bad message, and it actually doesn’t show them viewing women as people, because they are probably one of those hyper protective fathers who are just a residue of the ‘women are property’ ideology that men have with their daughters. They will assume every man is like they were, and they will hate when some guy ‘takes their princess away from them’. Also, Hellman can fuck off. I hated him.

McCullough and Daya are the top tier worst decision makers. I don’t like where the story took these characters, and I hate the writers trying to justify it. McCullough had the chance to make the right call and she didn’t why? Hey, have a flashback that actually connects with reality but feels like a justification. Daya’s life has always been a fuck up, but boi did they need a villain this season.

Why did they completely dropped Maritza like that? People have been saying it’s because the actress is super busy, but man. Give me 1 epilogue scene. Hell, even that lady that help Blanca in the ICE detention center got one!

Also, I watched some moments of season 1 and 2, and boy was this season not funny at all. RIP to the casting as well, the flashbacks weren’t that impactful when the character is supposed to be younger but it’s played by the same actor. Remember the earlier seasons?

The Dirty

Okay, I’m gonna say, I’m not 100% into the ICE storyline. It’s brutal, it has things directly taken from real life, but it also feels like a writer’s shock value wet dream. Instead of showing the horrible and unsanitary way women, men, and children are kept, apparently PolyCon, or whatever the company’s name is, actually has more ‘humane’ concentration camps. And yeah I’m calling them for what they are.

One one hand, the stories are realistic: Blanca, who gets fucked over, but it’s able to get a happy ending thanks for the help of her old and new friends; Shani, who get’s fucked over and sent back to a place where they will kill her; Karla who gets separated from her children, even though they have nobody in the US; Maritza, who didn’t know she wasn’t a citizen; the lady who got fucking raped entering this country. 

The whole ICE won’t let you get an abortion because they ‘care about life’ it’s like poetry, and real. The abortion debate is one the show kinda low key tackled, but nothing was better than that line.

FUCK ICE AND EVERYTHING IT STANDS FOR. FUCK EVERY EMPLOYEE AND PERSON WHO LETS THAT HAPPEN.

The #MeToo movement. Hey, do you remember when they killed Poussey, and how that was supposed to be a Black Lives Matters reference? But remember how the guard that killed her didn't actually represent any of the people who really present a threat to actual black people in real life? Boi, did they fuck up there.

Here it’s the same, well kind of, this is why this is in The Dirty section and not The Bad section: Caputo learned from it, and realized he did wrong. However, isn’t it kind of ridiculous how we’ve been shown actual monsters: rapists, abusers and people who harass in other staff members, but the one who got hit was the one the audience is more empathic towards? Couldn’t you have picked Hellsman, Pornstache, McCullough, or some of the previous guards?

‘I mean, he fucked up, but he’s not one of the bad ones.’

I know it was one of the final rectifying moments for Caputo, but are all the #MeToo jokes a little daft at times, specially considering what Dogget had to go through.

Character focused thoughts:

Piper - Imma be honest with you. I never liked Piper. However, her storyline for the season is completely in character and relevant. It shows the hardships of life after prison (though we've seen that before), and how fucking selfish and idiotic Piper is. Bless her parole officer, she told her how much of an idiot she is. Forgive me, but I don’t like her ending up with Alex. Zelda was the healthier choice, but it makes sense for Piper to choose Alex. God, I’m so glad I don’t have to deal with her ever again.  Though it’s true that her family was all repression and that conditioned her, after 6 seasons, you’d think she’d have learned her lesson how fucking privileged she is, but no. She’s still an idiot, I don’t care if she ‘got better’, she still choose Alex.

Alex - I feel bad for her. She’s got a lot of insecurities, issues, and she never learned how to deal with them. She fucked an officer the first chance she had. Her relationship with Piper will always be toxic, I’m sorry guys, but they are both deeply unstable. I’m happy she didn’t become Hellman’s victim, that was awful. I’m happy she's in Ohio. It’s safer for her that way, and she has friends.

Nicky - My girl, did they do you dirty. Though on one side I’m happy she took the mantle of ‘Mother Hen’, taking Red’s old role and showing how much she developed as a person and a character, I’m so sad that she lost her mother, her best friend, and her new love all in one season. She’s strong, the ending proves that, but I’m so sad she’s alone. I’m so sad that she believe she had done wrong to her family, but I’m happy she took Red’s advice, Lorna was too much. Regarding her plot line with Shani. I’m devastated. It was so cute, so honest, and caring. They deserved to be happy. This storyline shows you (in case you didn't know) how much of a good person Nicky is. I love you girl, I wish you the best.

Red - Another person that got fucked over. I am angry that this ‘dementia’ ending came out of nowhere. Am I dumb? Was it foreshadowed??? One one hand, there’s some people prefer this since it gives Red a peaceful ending. Her anger and bitterness will be gone, and she will have a peaceful death. On the other hand, Red will die not Red. She will disappear, and that’s just fucking dirty. I think this type of illness is tragic, and so painful to the person and to the people that love them. Thanks, I hate it.

Lorna - Is anyone else angry that her racism and her islamophobia gets a hard pass this season for some cheap laughs?  Lorna loses her son, her marriage, and we get a flashback of her disassociating and some of a background story of why she’s so hyper-fixated in marriage and children, but still that doesn’t change how sad it is to see her this far gone. From the moment you see Vinnie, you know that’s not going to end up well, or at least it’s what I thought. Lorna is unstable, and she never got or will get the psychological help she needed. But worse than that, they took everything from her, and left her like a shell of who she was. Her racism doesn’t get a pass though. It’s shameful that a child of immigrants would act that way, specially knowing the shit situation Shani is going through. Though the show tries to pass it off as ‘jealousy’ it was completely dehumanizing, and it never gets addressed. Nicky never stands up for Shani and puts Lorna in her place. Shame on the writers.

Daya - Ok, Daya has been ‘how to fuck up 101′, but originally, her story was sad, and you rooted for her. Her family was fucked up, the cycle of poverty, the toxic environment, her abusive mother and stepfather explained a lot about her. However, Daya’s only good choice in the show was give her baby over to Pornstache’s mom, other than that it has been bad choice after bad choice. If you thought getting addicted to drugs was a bad look for her, becoming a drug lord is worse. I still think Adeola was a better pick for gang leader, but the show runners had to do something for Daya. I thought they were gonna set up a new Carol and Barb relationship with Daya and her mother, but that was not the case (actually, Carol and Barb never get mentioned, which is weird). I really hope Aleida killed her in the end. She spent her whole life complaining about her mother, and she became someone worse than her. Pulling your younger sister into the shithole with you? Low. VERY LOW.

Aleida - We all hated you. In fact, despite some good deeds, you’re still trash. Aleida is an abuser, a cheater, and a liar. She can use the whole ‘providing for the family’ bullshit excuse like Walter White all she likes, but you can’t dismiss her pathological need to do illegal things and get it on with the worse men she could possibly find. Her flashback regarding her mother explains a lot about her childhood, and how an abusive and toxic environment can create more toxic and abusive people, but Aleida didn’t get better, Aleida continued the path she hated. She may have told her other to ‘fuck off’, but she became her. No, she never became the pimp of her children, you got to give her credit for that, but Aleida realized she was a bad mother, and still chose the easy road. I really hope she killed Daya. It’s not going to fix things, but GOD I NEED THAT.

Flaca - I’m happy were she ended. Though her character was always comedy relief, her relationship with Gloria and her time in ICE gave her a purpose. I hope she continues helping those woman, and becomes the new Gloria of her generation. I’m sad she didn’t truly get reunited with her best friend. Show Clitvak hell, girl.

Maritza - I’m so sorry, baby. You deserved better, but your storyline is realistic, and there was no other way it could’ve ended. I wish we could’ve seen an epilogue scene with her. After all, she got sent to Colombia, where she knows no one. All because of a fucking piece of paper and a lying mother. ICE is so fucked up.

Gloria - I’m so happy she got released. Luschek can suck a huge dick, the least she could’ve done for her was let her have her happy ending. I feel a little cheated about her two elder daughters reveal, but I’m happy that after all she went through, she gets to be with her family. Of course Gloria would help the women in the ICE facilities, of course she would risk her freedom and happiness for other mothers. She made naive and bad choices in men, in economic tactics, but in the end, she redeemed herself and became a different person. I will forever be happy about the ending she got.

María - She’s a mixed bag. At first she’s like Daya, her love story with Yadriel made us all cry, and we all felt sad when he took Peppa away. However, turn’s out María is a cheater, Yadriel is high likely not Peppa’s bio dad and she never had the courage to tell him. I didn’t like her ‘bad girl’ phase, but I’m happy in this season she actually get rehabilitated. Caputo’s program made her realize she’s not just a victim, but rather a perpetrator as well. I know she’s not the best person, but she’s making a try. I hope she gets to be with Peppa when she gets out. I’m happy that she let Yadriel be happy, but then again, she was kinda a dick to Gloria until the last minute, sot here’s that bitter realistic flavor in your mouth.

Blanca - Honey, you are the person who deserved a happy ending the most. Though Season 6 fucked you over, you were blessed with Karla and things went your way for once. I can’t believe she got sent to prison for covering up for that fucking old lady. Blanca is a model, she went through hell when in ICE, she almost lost Diablo for good, and was in a very dark place before Maritza showed up. Though Maritza gave her her heart back, she was dumb enough to get a high over the phone number. SIGH. You deserved to be with Diablo, and though we don’t know how he got released, I’m happy she’s happy.

Taystee - I hated the yo-yoing regarding her suicidal thoughts. She wasn't going to get a happy ending. The system is broken and she’s another victim of it, but I’m happy she has an end goal, and she’s doing what she does best: finances, advice, and teaching. She got the best believable ending she could’ve gotten, and I love the fact that she’s there with Suzzane. She’s one of my favorite characters, and I’m happy she didn’t die.

Suzzane - I’m kinda mad they veered into Suzzane’s trial and conviction at the beginning, how they set up this conflict with justice and the system though her eyes, and then dropped it off for some comedic chickens. She doesn’t belong were she is, and her parents should do something about that, but that’s never going to happen. She has matured, and though she’s lost a lot, chicken therapy actually helped her, and she has a very good friend who will stay by her side till the end. I’m happy where she ended, and I hope she is still as bright in the future.

Cindy - Boy, Cindy. I kinda hated you after what you did yo Taystee, and though I have to say, she was put in a tight spot, I’m actually happy for her. From being comedic relief, to finding herself and her religion, to actually owning up to her mistakes. Cindy has grown a lot. I’m happy she will try to make her up to her mom and her daughter, I’m kind of sad she’s homeless. Wouldn’t that break her parole?

Dogget - She deserved better. We can all agree on that. Dogget was abused her whole life, by her mother, by her father, by her peers, by the men she liked. She killed people, became violent, and delved into drugs, but after 6 seasons she had sown so much development. I miss her moments with Boo, though I enjoyed her relationship with Suzzane. Nothing makes me sadder than Crazy Eyes placing and egg on her pillow after she has passed away. Like many inmates, Dogged could’ve been rehabilitated, and the system failed her. She never got her justice, and her rapist is still out there, free. She was made feel like shit by everyone, always, and though having her relapse is cheap, especially after all this time, it’s not unrealistic. That doesn’t change the fact that she deserved better.

Ward - She was too good for this world. From not being emphatic to the inmates to re-establishing her friendship with Taytee, Ward changed a lot. I hope she continues doing good for inmates as an activist. I’m sorry you never had a real chance.

Caputo - And the big bad man, became a ray of hope, a bastion of a redemption arc. He found a calling, love, and now a family. Joe, the ‘nice guy’ who got fucked by life and began to reset it, actually found the light after connecting with the inmates he was supposed to help. Caputo ay be the best written character in the show. I’m not a 100% happy with the #MeToo aspect, but that was the last learning chapter for him. I hope he finds a job, and he’s able to continue growing as a person. He’s going to be a great father.

Figeroa - Who could’ve guessed we’d stan the devil? It’s amazing how all it took was ICE for Figeroa to realize how fucked up the world is. I’m happy she’s deciding to adopt, and though I’m not sure if she’s going to be the best mother, she has grown a lot. I hope she helps people like she helped that woman at ICE. Thank you for not brining another kid to this fucked up world. You’re doing great Natalie.

Shani - She deserved better. Though a FGM storyline for a muslim is kinda stereotypical and awful. I’m glad the show actually tackled it through her relationship with Nicky. I’m so saddened by her ending, but then again, it was obvious from the begging. I’m so fucking angry and sad.

Karla - What was that epilogue for? Do you want me to hate life more? Karla might have the most realistic story out of everyone in ICE. Shit’s so fucked up, that ending scene was not needed. She deserves to reunite with her children, they couldn’t have ask for a better and smarter mother.

Luschek - Fuck him. His last act towards Gloria doesn’t redeem him. He fucked over every inmate who ever trusted him. His selfish, destructive, and toxic. He can rot in hell.

Anyways, I’m too typed out.

I overall give OITNB as a series a 5/10.

You have a very interesting concept with an amazing cast and characters that falls short to cheap writing and some terrible decisions from the producers.

I hope everyone in the cast continues to be amazing, and I hope more stories like this one are actually written.

I hope Netflix cancels 13 reasons why. Goodbye.

[media-mel]

VFX ARTISTS REACT EPISODE 2

EPISODE 2

Detective Pikachu

Bulbasaurs walking

Contrary to Sonic from Episode 1, the green on the CG Bulbasaurs match the green of the grass in the background, selling the realism. The eyes are pushing it a little, but even then, not that much.

Pikachu

The hairs on pikachu clumps up; it tuffs. It's not all evenly spaced apart. This is also realistic to IRL animals. 

Hair has a lot of ambient occlusion. Underneath the hair, near the roots, most of the hair above is blocking a lot of the light. And you can see the layers of the hairs on top of each other. Hair is not 100% opaque, it is actually slightly translucent. So the fringes of the hair on Pikachu's tail is still catching the light, creating an outline of lighter hair against the rest of his tail in shadow. So the little tips of the hair catches the light, then the light passes through it after being diffused a little.

specific 1-point, directional lighting helps a lot in creating cg scenes. 

Jurassic Park 1

T Rex in rain at night

Radiocity, global illumination = The way light bounces [ img: the "under highlights" on an egg when its on a white counter ]. If I shine a flashlight on my hand (which is near someone else's face), you can see the bounced light still appear on the other person's cheek. In CG, to get that, you have to simulate a ray coming out of the light, hitting a surface and scattering and bouncing off. But you have to do that many many times to get your scattering and get your environment.

So they couldn't do that in 1993, so they set their scene at night with a single source of light. Notice the rest of the T Rex (where the headlights of the cars aren't hitting) are just pitch black. So you don't have to worry about bounce light- great! But they also make it rain, so they can have specular lighting, make it feel like it's reflective, but all they have to reflect is a white spot. He's shiny on his hands, his toes, his thighs, but all it's reflecting is a blob of white (because of the singular direction of lighting).

Because of the animatronic T Rex, they had the perfect reference for lighting.

The museum scene

For one frame, the velociraptor that the T Rex picks up is completely missing. "What I think happened was that the actual files, the 3D models they sent to the cache to be rendered, for whatever reason on that 1 frame the velociraptor model disappeared." [ The way they talk about it, it's like it was a simple computer failure that could have happened at any point, at any frame through out the whole movie, and that they're lucky it failed then and not during a focused part on the T Rex or something ] "AAA we have to re render this and we have two weeks and it takes to months to render!"

Jurassic World 1

The effects here are technically better then they were in Jurassic park, so why do people think it looks worse?

In Park, when you see the raptors, they're real animatronic costumes, so that's what they're going up against. 

There's two things you get with real:    1. Motion looks a lot more realistic, because when you're animating CG by hand, it can go anywhere *waves hands around*    2. Acting. These kids are acting so much better with real pots and pans falling on them and real velociraptors chasing them VS J World which is "aight look at this man with the green tennis ball" Because no matter how good these dinosaurs look, our eye can still register it as fake. So, we will always recognize subconsciously that the actors are never in any real danger-- and your suspension of disbelief is a little shattered. 

J Park treated the dinosaurs as if they were real, they didn't make any shot last more then they need to. But because World is-- they can do whatever they want. So they're going artistic with it and creative-- but as they're being more artistic and creative, it's being less real. 

Aladdin ( 2019 )

Genie (bad shot)

There's a specific part of our brain that recognizes faces. All the checkmarks are there, that's not just a person-- that's clearly Will Smith. And it's not even the fact that he's blue. It's like his proportions. His face looks a little too small for that size of a head, his neck looks a little too thick, and I think a lot of that is driven by the actual camera focal point, length and placement, and what not.

Amazing CG body. The muscles on his back, they flex, and they move, and they indent, pull the skin with them. And from the front, the body still looks good.

But it feels like a face of a man who does not have that body was just pasted on there. It almost looks like the blue on his face doesn't match, it may be a color grading thing where they just put a mask there and brightened his face.  "Oh like a power window ?" "Yeah!" But now his face should be only as bright as his left peck, but it's brighter. 

Genie (good shot)

This looks great, cause it's lit well and you're not showing too much. And also because of the lower angle, the proportions are specifically thrown off. He looks super huge, so it's triggering our brains a little bit less.

A big thing is the lighting. In this shot, there's a nice edgelight, and there's a clear defined keylight, and it's giving his face volume and character. Versus the other shot, which is just this ambient wash, with just like this little bit of light from the side.

See and this once again comes back to very specific directional lighting.

Genie (desert)

Notice the discoloration on his abs, almost as if it was body paint. So a lot of we know about media's reality is not actually reality, but what we've seen in special effects. So for example, when people get shot in movies, we expect there to be a pop and dust and blood, and that's not actually what happens when people get shot. When you do visual effects, you're not always going for reality, you're going for a simulated special effect. And therefore you'd have slight discolorations like this, this actually makes it look more real, like makeup, as opposed to an actual blue person.

Terminator 2

Dogget's character blending backwards to forward

This is mostly a compositing thing. This isn't CG 3D modeling or anything, this is classic After Effects type stuff.

With this shot, ILM kind of pioneered morphing. And morphing is actually pretty simple, it's a distort while  doing a cross fade.

Michael Jackson's Black or White

You're not even really able to see the crossfade of these morphs, in fact they may have kicked it up a notch where they don't actually do a crossfade but rather a pixel color change. 

(Lady's hair grows from short to long) The use of practical shot to drop her hair to help the morph. They have enough of this choreographed where they know when they needed to drop her hair to help achieve the morph.

It's important to note they're not doing an overall crossfade uniformly, they're doing splotches and bits of crossfading though different intervals of time. First it was her hair coming down, then parts of her face, parts of her shoulders, it all flows consistently.

[j-philly-b]

That Rumple/ Belle comment just made me snort my drink all over my table! Are you still going to watch it? I have by now accepted that the writers and I don't see eye to eye on a lot of stuff (mostly, everything Rumple and Regina) and I cope by laughing about it, or else I'd cry... Anyway, what bothers me is Rumple going for yet another prophecy?! Prophecies have arguably ruined both his and his mother's lives, you'd think he'd be smarter than that, sigh...

Have prophecies ever worked out for anyone onthis show? Prophecies, fate, free will, I feel like those stories are neverexplored as well as they could be on the show.

That being said, I will watch it because I amsome sort of tv watching masochist – I watched Glee until the bitter end (talkabout a toxic fandom), I suffered through the Dogget and Reyes years of the X-Filesand still came back for more when they decided to resurrect in on Fox, I stayedwith TWW after Sorkin left (what they did to Toby!), I held on to hopethroughout the third season of Penny Dreadful, and I still remember being alittle kid and watching Fonzie water ski over a shark, but I stuck it out withHappy Days and into Joanie Loves Chachi.

Have you seen the promo pics for 7x04? I knowyou sent this before those were published this afternoon. Talk about headsexploding. I’m assuming that those photos are flashes of the prophecy that wasreferenced in the episode synopsis, and not an actual jump to the future forthose two. Because come on! I cannot even express how disappointing it is thatthe writers are ignoring what happened in 6a with this couple, ignoring whathappened in 3b, ignoring what happened in S4.

The thing that really kills me, is that when Istarted watching this show, Rumple was my favorite character. There was a lotof depth to be mined from him, and Robert Carlyle is an actor who can play thatcharacter incredibly well. But the writers failed both the character and the actor,and fell into a routine with Rumple – oh no, he’s just looking out for himself!Wait, Rumple can do the right thing, albeit reluctantly, if only to save hisfamily! Hang on, Rumple pulled a last minute switcheroo and is evil again, boohiss! Ugh, whatever, there’s no path for the character, there’s only a circle.It got boring and frustrating.

So yes, I will watch 7x04 because I want toknow the deal with Alice, and I will even hold out hope that Rumple won’t getanother recycled storyline. But I’m not going to hold my breath over it either.

[xxapril-starxx]

Queer Studies 304: Week 10 Queers Still Castrated in Media?

According to an article by the PinkNews website titled, “New evidence reveals Germany castrated gay men decades after Nazi rule ended,” the act of gay men being castrated has “been happening up until the late 1960s, according to historian Jens Kolata.” Apparently back in this time period, especially in Germany, they were “unmanning” because they were a disgust to the human race. The article still reads that,“the act of castration continued up until 1978, with 12 of the 51 castration reports pertaining to men who had sex with men.” As I read this information from this website and other news pages, in school, we were’t really taught about these horrible events that happened and that goes the same way for media, as media doesn’t push audience to learn about castration of the gay community, I couldn’t find any T.V. shows or films that dealt with this topic, but I did find media that covered members of the LGBTQ+, getting harass or assaulted. 

Orange is the New Black

In the Netflix Show, Orange is the New Black, many of the characters face the most hardest of challenges of them. However, one thing that this show does that stands out from most shows, is that it shows the abuse and killings that can happen in a prison if you are a prisoner who identifies themselves as part of the LGBTQ+ community. In the first season of the show, the main character we follow, Piper, is faced with different challenges, and one of her biggest challenges is learning how to deal with one of her fellow prisoners, Tiffany “Pennsatucky” Dogget, who is a girl, who is heavily religious and preaches the word of Jesus to everyone and heavily despises all members of the LGBTQ+ community. Throughout the whole first season we see Tiffany verbal attack other gay characters, but at the end of the first season, we see Tiffany trying to kill Piper with a sharp wooden cross because she believes that Piper needs to be smited and that God doesn't love Piper because she is bisexual. 

Moonlight

In the Academy Award winning film, Moonlight, audience members travel with a man named, Chiron and his adventures to manhood. In the film Chiron falls in love with his childhood best friend, Kevin. This film portrays that in the Black community of Miami, being part of any homosexual acts is deeply frowned upon and very ‘unmasculine.” Moonlight tells it audience that the only way to be “a man” in the Black community is to fight with the others, and be highly aggressive.

 In the film, there is a scene where Chiron is encountered by a group of male students who all circle around him and alienate Chiron as they know he is gay and are ready to beat up Chiron. However, before we see Chiron get beat up, we see that Kevin is pressured by one of the students to beat up Chiron, his best friend. As Kevin is also seen part of the queer community in this film, he is scared to be single out and assaulted like Chiron, so Kevin follows the words of his other classmates and follows their instructions to give the first hit, and hit Chiron. Chiron doesn’t even fight back with Kevin because he can not believe that his own best friend and lover is doing this act to him, just to show masculinity. 

In conclusion, even though media shows little to no history of queers being castrated, I think today’s media does show a great representation of what it is like to grow up as a member of the LGBTQ+ community and what challenges they have to face. However, there should be more media covering the horrific events that happen and castrated many.

Cites:

Lecourt, Nina, et al. “Germany Still Castrated Gay Men Two Decades after Nazi Rule Ended.” PinkNews, 26 Jan. 2017, https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2017/01/26/new-evidence-reveals-germany-castrated-gay-men-more-than-two-decades-after-ww2/.