#what is the ship name for Theon/sansa?

[purplehawk16writing]

Hi! I actually wrote something!

I based it off @winterrose527 ‘s amazing A Lifetime Sentence on AO3. Go read hers then mine. Hers is at the link in the summary of mine here

[arellabella]

Names are important

GRRM doesn't choose random names and the names in AOIAF mean something especially for the main characters maybe not so much for the minor ones though. Some are hints to their possible endings and some are connections they have made through the books and some are names that links heavily to their house or birth status.

Name meanings for each of the main POV characters and gifs, though not for all.

Tyrion is a Latin originated name that means 'rock'. Tyrion being a Lannister was born and raised at Casterly Rock, it's the Lannister's seat of power. So this name is something Tyrion is connected to from the very beginning but it could also hint at his possible future of him becoming Lord of Casterly Rock by the end of the story.

Jon which is another way to write John, means graced by god. Sorry no gif for this one as I wasn't sure what would fit. But this could be a hint that he will indeed be the Prince who was promised. We also have to factor that this might not be his real name either.

Daenerys comes from Welsh origins meaning lady of light. I mean she was the one who birthed Dragons from the fire and fire/light is present throughout Dany's chapters.

Arya comes from Sanskrit origin meaning noble. It can also mean Spiritual which I'm guessing is connecting her to all the stuff that is going on with her right now.

Brienne also means noble and has Irish origins, it can also mean High. I guess just a connection to her High born status.

Sansa is also of Sanskrit origins meaning praise or charm. Sansa is the one always getting praised by others. I don't know it's all I could come up with.

Bran means Raven or Crow. I mean this one speaks for itself really.

Catelyn comes from Greek origins meaning Pure. I took the inspiration for the Gif of Pure water because of Catelyn's house being the Tully House having a connection to water and their symbol being of the Trout. I'm also guessing the Tully house is of the brown Trout since the house is more closely connected to rivers and lakes rather than the sea. Brown Trout live in Freshwater habitats. So you can really link Catelyn's name to her Tully roots.

Cersei comes from Greek origins meaning Bird. Cersei is a bird, and a caged one at that. It's ironic because Cersei likes to call others caged birds when in reality she is one herself and maybe even more so.

Jaime is a Hebrew name meaning he who supplants. I really don't know how this will fit in with Jaime really.

Ned, which is short for Eddard means wealthy guardian. Ned became Hand of the King and he was Lord of Winterfell, being a Guardian of sorts has always been in the inner structures of Ned's character.

Davos is English meaning either Son of David or beloved.

Samwell is another form of Samuel which means God has heard. I guess this is also something that will come to pass in the next two books.

Theon can mean, Godly, God, God of gods. It usually has Greek origins. I put angels wings for a various of reasons one being angels have a strong connection to god but also other reasons. I think Theon is the most interesting when it comes to names because at first glance he doesn't fit the name Theon but I think like Sam he's a character who's name will become more clear in the later two books.

Asha means one who lives well. Asha has always lived a good life in a lot of ways and while she still has to live in a society made by men for men she has still thrived. She is well liked, well respected within the Ironborn community and she captain's her own ship. Asha really isn't a main POV character but I think she might become one next book so I thought I'd add her as well.

[dalekofchaos]

If Ned Stark became King

Hypothetically speaking. Let's say Robert and Rhaegar killed each other in the Battle of The Trident and Ned had no choice but to take the Iron Throne because The Rebellion expected it of him. Here is how I could see things going.

Tywin lannister would have been sentenced to death do to his part in the deaths of Ella Martell, Rhaenys and baby Aegon.

Jamie has three options. He killed the King he was sworn to protect which should mean either a death sentence or a sentence to the wall. If he could convenience Ned that he did the right and honorable thing by keeping the city from being burned maybe he could have lived and be Lord of Casterly Rock.

If Jamie died, Tyrion would have become Lord of Casterly Rock.

He would send for Queen Rhaella and Viserys and baby Daenerys in peace promising safety. Rhaella would have been allowed to live and raise Daenerys possibly in the capital or on Dragon Stone. Viserys would have been sent to the Eryie as a ward of Lord Jon Arryn. ( Ned had fond memories of being warded there, a good place for a confused young child).

Now for Jon, this is my belief of what would have happened. Jon would have been named Prince and heir and betrothed to Ned's first born daughter, in this case Sansa. This would unite both the rebellion and House Targaryen uniting the kingdom again.

Stannis would have been given temporary lordship over Dragonstone, holding it for Viserys. And would still be Lord of Storms End.

The Martells would be happy because they would have been given the Mountain and Tywin would've been executed for his crimes. I could see Ned also fostering Jon there. By all rights Jon is sort of related to the Martells. Its unknown if Ella knew that Rhaegar was going to remarry or not, if she knew and told her family I could see them opening their arms to Jon.

Now for Winterfell, with Ned at Kings Landing, Benjen would be the stark in the north. Its unknown why Benjen joined the Nights watch, I think he just plain wanted to. Ned would ask Benjen to hold Winterfell for a time before he joins, till either Robb is ready to take over, or Ned leaves the thrown for Jon.

Since the Eddard-Catelyn marriage had already been arranged it would not change. Marriages would be vastly different however.

Eddard and Cats marriage ensures an alliance between the Tullys and Starks.

Robb would then be promised to Margaery Tyrell when they both came of age thereby ensuring an alliance between the Tyrells and Starks.

Jaime Lannister and Lysa Tully would be betrothed thereby ensuring an alliance with The Westerlands and the Riverlands and, by extension, the Crown.

Because Jon Arryn had no heirs and was getting older he would be wed as well but since he was already Lord Paramount of the Vale his bride would be from a lesser vassal house from the Reach.

Prince Oberyn would be wed to Cersei hereby ensuring an alliance with Dorne and the Westerlands.

Arya Stark and Quentyn Martell

Arianne Martell and Theon Greyjoy

Viserys and Shireen

Daenerys and Willas

Varys and Baelish would be summarily dismissed from their services in the capital. They would be given holdfasts somewhere far away and forever be barred from the capital or from raising armies.

Grand Maester Pycelle would be sent to the Citadel for reassignment elsewhere. An election for a new Grand Maester would take place then (as is the Citadels way).

Small Council members:

Hand of the King: Jon Arryn

Grand Maester: Marwyn

Master of Coin: Olenna Tyrell

Master of Ships: Balon Greyjoy (bring him into the fold)

Lord Commander of the King’s Guard: Barristan Selmy

Master of Whispers: Prince Doran of Dorne (Bringing Dorne into the Fold as well)

Master of Laws: Brynden Tully

Lord Commander of the City Watch: Mace Tyrell

One of Ned’s first and continuing acts would be to repair the damage, both physical and emotional from Robert’s Rebellion and to repair the relations and trust between the common people and the Crown.

All soldiers that fought against Robert and Eddard during the campaign would be forgiven and pardoned and allowed to return to their homes without consequence. Their leaders, depending on their level of loyalty, would be offered a chance to swear fealty to the Starks. Any that refused would be sent to the Wall and their lands, estates, and positions would be given to loyal nobles.

Ned understood that the job of a noble is to help the people (he considers them his children), and he would immediately order all noble houses of a certain wealth to pay a one-time reparation tax to lift the poor out of poverty and to secure a positive working relationship with them.

Because so many noble houses have been killed off and there is a lack of trueborn individuals left in the kingdom tournaments would be held throughout the kingdom that would be open to the common man, the winners of which would receive a large reward of coin, be allowed to squire with the guarantee of knighthood, and a holdfast. These new nobles would be extremely loyal to the house that allowed them knighthood as well as the crown that elevated their status. These tournaments would also serve to lift the spirits of the common people.

If Ned took the throne the world would be a lot different and ultimately the story would be considerably more boring because the “game” would never happen.

[atopvisenyashill]

Feed my delulu bestie… Sansa & Theon book canon??? Your posts give me hope when I shouldn’t have it lol.

there's so much canon evidence dammit! i always get a lil put out when people say it’s a show only thing. certainly the show made it more popular but you can say that about like 90% of the ships in the fandom! and there’s a lot here already without the obnoxious sansa bolton show arc!

For one thing, theon straight up dreams about marrying sansa-

Sansa was the pretty one. He remembered a time when he had thought that Lord Eddard Stark might marry him to Sansa and claim him for a son, but that had only been a child's fancy.

I think this is very similar to Sansa’s fantasies about Willas Tyrell-

She pictured the two of them sitting together in a garden with puppies in their laps, or listening to a singer strum upon a lute while they floated down the Mander on a pleasure barge. If I give him sons, he may come to love me. She would name them Eddard and Brandon and Rickon, and raise them all to be as valiant as Ser Loras. And to hate Lannisters, too. In Sansa's dreams, her children looked just like the brothers she had lost. Sometimes there was even a girl who looked like Arya.

For both of them, they dream of a marriage that signifies a return to the safety and welcoming of childhood, of home. Notice the focus for both of them on Stark Identity - Theon wants to be accepted as true kin by the family that raised him in an attempt to cope with his status as a hostage while Sansa focuses on the idea of having children named for her lost family members in an attempt to cope with her continued instability also as a hostage.

Which brings me to their shared status as child hostages! While not a unique social status in the world of Terros, they are unique in being our only two PoVs that really dig into the harm of being a hostage. From Theon’s longing to be a Stark and the way it's held against him by Balon to Sansa’s longing to be Joffrey's queen turning to resentment over being “made a Lannister”, both of them go from a sort of rose colored happy go lucky outlook to an extreme drop into brutal reality as Theon reckons with his trauma while sacking Winterfell and Sansa is shoved head first into the danger of politics and intrigue.

As their time as child hostages morphs into a status that is more murky but considerably more dangerous - who knows what the fuck Littlefinger is planning, and whatever Ramsay has cooking it's obviously nothing good - both of them take on another identity in Alayne Stone and Reek. They are both forced into this identity by the person in control of them, becoming subsumed into this new identity. Here is, imo, a very interesting aspect of both their characters as they exhibit a sort of...mental break of a sort when they change identities. They "kill" their old identities and truly become this new person; they act different, they speak different, they actively reject reminders of their former identity, with their chapter names even changing from "Theon" and "Sansa" to their new names. And yet that former identity is a key part of who they are and it cannot stay buried for long-

I am not your daughter, she thought. I am Sansa Stark, Lord Eddard's daughter and Lady Catelyn's, the blood of Winterfell. She did not say it, though.

The old gods, he thought. They know me. They know my name. I was Theon of House Greyjoy. I was a ward of Eddard Stark, a friend and brother to his children. "Please." He fell to his knees. "A sword, that's all I ask. Let me die as Theon, not as Reek."

Again, both Theon and Sansa focus on their connection to House Stark - Sansa as the blood of Winterfell, Theon as a ward of Ned. For Sansa, it’s about going to the home she took for granted, the home Theon years for; a place she felt safe, a family that loves her, a space she can reflect on her memories and grief with peace and understanding. For Theon, that home never existed at all! It was something he made up in his head, cobbled together from half remembered feelings of love from his mother, a dream of what it might have been like to be an older brother and beloved son. Ultimately, Winterfell and the North represents to both of them the concept of reconciling reality with the dream & delusions they’ve built up in their minds, taking a step forward and growing into adulthood.

Now….the thing about adulthood is it typically involves marriage and that is something I think a lot of people don’t take seriously when it comes to Theonsa - oh theon is too gross or whatever. But the thing is that Theon experiences this kind of sexual violence and helplessness that he himself visited upon others and enabled and I think it puts him in this interesting and unique place of finally understanding a) how gross he actually is and b) connecting to Sansa through a shared sexual helplessness. Now I’m not saying like, ~theon being reek’ed was narrative setup and punishment for theonsa~ but i AM saying this is a natural stepping point (imo) of Theon’s arc.

Think about like. Theon looking the other way while his men rape the women he’s captured, uncomfortable but feeling like this is what is necessary to be seen as A Man (and pay no mind to what they means To Be A Woman). Bedding down with the miller’s wife just to enable the very brutal murder of her sons. Taking his frustration and powerlessness out on Kya sexually. And Kya still tries to escape with him (who else could have possibly helped her?), and he dwells on the ways in which he helped lead her to her death. Dwells on the boys whose bodies he hung on the walls. Dwells on the similarities between his own falling apart body and Jeyne’s bite marks and injuries from Ramsay. For me the next step is - Theon forced to see his own helplessness as a hostage of the Starks and then a captive of Ramsay’s when he confronts Sansa, who was a hostage of the Lannisters and [wild gesture] like the kept pet of Littlefinger’s. I think seeing his own suffering so acutely reflected in the girl he projected his idealistic fantasy of happiness and home onto would be fascinating!

And equally fascinating is Sansa’s perspective - I’m sure she WILL initially see his torture as some sort of cosmic retribution for betraying Robb! But the same as she ultimately only saw another child suffering when Joffrey died in front of her, I think she will see that whatever Theon deserves for what he’s done, being flayed and tortured by Ramsay is not retribution, it’s just more suffering. And once she starts to see past her anger, Sansa too I think will be quite disarmed by the similarities between them. To have been a hostage, to have been some sort of captive under an identity forced on you, to have that captor use his power to force sexual situations you are not asking for onto you, I think it would make Sansa wrestle more with her own place In The System - similar to how being a hostage makes her realize how fucked up her conception of knights and chivalry and court is when compared to the reality, seeing the effect she herself helped have as A Good Hostage Taker will make her reflect. Theon realizing Sansa is her own person with her own inner life and Sansa realizing the same about Theon!

Once again, its about what I talked about re: Sansa and Arya being the only Starks left in Winterfell or Sansa and Jon meeting first! To grow up and embrace adulthood by growing to appreciate the reality in front of you and not the fantasy you conjured up as a child. For Theon to love Sansa for who she is and wrestle with the REALITY of what marriage would be like - both in a sense that he’s physically traumatized & no longer “handsome” but also like, having lived through the concept of “They will make a STARK out of me” and thinking about what it means in the context of sex and relationships. For Sansa to love Theon for who he is and wrestle with the reality of, like, herself in the Lannister shoes in this position, and what being an heiress and marrying actually means for her going forward. Two people who are defined by their identities being eclipsed and overlooked, wrestling with whether they’re repeating that pattern on each other or actually healing and grieving and figuring out how to define themselves on their own and not against someone else.

[winterreigned]

𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐀𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘 𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐑 𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐒. he would see her there. every ship leads him closer to the next time they would meet. fate had brought to them the hands that would guide her to true safety. and his own two feet had led him to the sea. and every corridor he walks , he does so with the anticipation that she might be at the other end. any moment , any day. he would see her again.

asha does not understand his decision to part ways. she supports him anyway. born of the sea and suffocating — she is twice the beast that sings in his bones. and he is grateful for it. and there's no regret , nothing weighing him down all the way to winterfell from the islands. a steadier thing , land. his own legs have made peace with the dirt , some quarter lifetime spent landbound and the earth supported his sea legs all the same. held them in aim and in fall and it's all he greats the earth as an old friend , miles to go and only seconds to reacquaint.

his feet lead him to the great hall of winterfell swiftly , his men in tow behind. she is not present on the counsel. only jon and daenerys. theon thinks , for a moment , she might be somewhere else in the north. bidding for their aid for the war to come. ever dutiful , as he always remembered her to be. straight in all her edges and full of meaning he could not , with the whole of himself, understand. admiration persists , all the same.

he is asked his business. the dragon queen speaks , not jon. fire in the north is strange. gurgling. something melts in the distance. he doesn't feel like he is home. theon states his meaning clear: he would like to fight for the north. and moreso for sansa. there is silence. jon chokes on something immemorable. daenerys looks to him. he speaks. ' sansa did not make it home from her escape. her body lies in the crypts of winterfell. they are making a statue of her likeness as we speak. i am sorry, theon. i am. '

theon smiles. and then nods. and then commands his people to fall into rank with the northern army. and then he dismisses himself , bold and uncaring. he knows every step to the crypts. cold and without greeting. he would not believe until he should see.

he finds lyanna. and then ned. *gods , he doesn't look like himself.* and then an alcove. pedestal left for a statue. name carved on stone: sansa stark: returned to the winter.

knees hit the ground. he doesn't feel them. eyes could never leave the whole of her name and especially not the s. cold at the end of life. cold now. and he could keep her warm. and he kept her warm and why could she not stay warm. for all the gods' fucking sakes , why could the lot of them not lend one night of warmth to her. to the daughter of the winter. to the woman he had risked his life to save. and to the woman he loved. he never should have left her and it's his fault for assuming anyone might take that burden and bear it with even half the fervor he would.

theon looks back at every body in line behind him. some suit of soldiers , given sorely. stacking one by one and soon , in his face , she stands. white eyes. blue veins. *you did this to her and you should have taken her all the way and you will regret the afterthought that you are.*

theon looks at his fists. his knuckles. they're bleeding. oh. maybe he has been punching the stone floors of the crypts. *god, you fucking coward, it's not enough.* duty inflates him. he stands tall. purpose flowing. he finds his way to jon , through so many fucking corridors. theon hands him the dagger at his belt.

" you were my brother then and you are now. i could not save her in this life. let me find her in the next. " the tears have been falling for longer than he might remember. his arm shakes where he holds the seaglass dagger to jon. and he is ready to die. and he would see her around the next corridor.

actually boohooing like a fucking baby WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO THIS TO ME FOR I'M GOING TO SCREAM AND PUKE AND DIE.

[dontbotherwiththepronunciation]

The queen wore a high-collared black silk gown, with a hundred dark red rubies sewn into her bodice, covering her from neck to bosom. They were cut in the shape of teardrops, as if the queen were weeping blood.

I love this part so much because my mind instantly goes "Bolton looks" and my Theon x& Cersei (interpretative dynamic I like ships when they are unclear) au involves a Tywin who didn't die and sent Cersei to be married off to Roose and everyone is miserable. She would be horrible to Theon, but I think it would be hilarious to witness this terrible contrast in the way both of them deal with public humiliation and overall distaste for life.

This is a dumb concept of course but I'm still fond of it. I know the theoncersei ship is mostly a joke but I read that one fanfic on life journal and I think it could actually be so interesting if it were taken as a serious idea. Especially if we have a Theon who has been at the hands of Ramsay, but not enough to be so visibly changed as to not be recognised anymore. The idea of him being suddenly trusted back into society with people expecting him to act like nothing has happened because there would be no visual evidence is so interesting and painful to me. It has the type of trauma one develops after a failed suicide attempt, but even more complicated. An AU where he is expected to be functional (or as functional as he was during agot-acok) while internally dealing with everything that has happened to him...

I think there is something liberating about the Reek persona in the sense that there is no one who expects anything from him anymore (Alexa, play Bob Dylan's "Like a rolling stone"). He was so indignant when Jeyne asked for his help and to me that was entertaining because there was anger and rage at his internal treatment of her (What had she been thinking, that he would whistle up a winged horse and fly her out of here, like some hero in the stories she and Sansa used to love?) How dare she demand something from him? And then there is even more of that during TWOW when he is mentally raging at her for not remembering Mikken's name (Really Theon? Are YOU going to get mad at someone for hesitating at names?). Anyways there is so much anger in Theon during and after his torture, but it is always purely internal. From the outside, he is every whump fan's perfect protagonist. Poor little soggy meow meow who has been rivalling Dante's concept in Journey through Hell. From the inside it's a completely different thing (I like both of them. He is a reversible sweater and you can find beauty on both options); The way he refers to his torturers as "The Bastard's boys" (a nickname he doesn't dare to speak out loud but has given them himself. He indirectly refers to Ramsay as "Bastard" even if he is terrified of him) , the snark, the "she'll pray for you to march, Reek thought, and she'll pray that you never come back to her bed.", the way he thinks about the spearwives.

And yet all of that has to be repressed in order to keep himself alive and (considering the circumstances) safe. He has to swallow his pride and fury and his defiance and endure and I love that. Swallow your pride, my friend, it's not the worse thing you could swallow.

Cersei is different. Cersei almost always openly shows her disdain and fury at everything and everyone surrounding her and even after going through the cruellest humiliation she has suffered (Alexa, play Bob Dylan's "Like a rolling stone" again but this time the live version where people are booing him and he is sarcastically telling them how wonderful they are) she still keeps her head high, or as high as she can.

I don't know, both of them are on my top 5 pov characters and I would like them to interact beyond comedic relief type of dynamics (although I like those too) and I think there could be interesting explorations. I think in this weird nonsensical scenario where she becomes Cersei Bolton she would probably act like an anti-Jeyne in the sense that she too would demand for him to act more according to her notions of Theon Greyjoy but replacing Jeyne's soft and tender pleads for help with unjustified harshness and cruelty and a mocking type of defiance. Jeyne pets the dog, Barbrey taunts the dog, Cersei just straight up kicks it. I like imagining she would steal him from Ramsay as to have something mildly diverting in her boring Northerner lifestyle and that could be fun to explore.

[daenystheedreamer]

You asked me my fave ASOIAF ships so it’s only right that I ask u what yours are 🫶🫶

oh honey you got a big storm comin 😈 

SLAY TIER GOD TIER S TIER GOAT TIER

JAIME/BRIENNE: god it's just so. like its truly insane. they are beauty and the beast but there's LAYERS like ok first look. oh she's a girl and he's a boy so she's beauty and he's the beast. but jaime is so sexyhot and brienne is ugly so he's the beauty and she's the beast. oh but she's brienne the beauty and he's a lannister lion. oh but she's the only kind and good and pure soul in the world and her eyes are so, so beautiful and jaime is so horrible and destroyed inside and out and he's so cruel but he doesn't want to be but he does. AND he dreams of fighting alongside her nude like ok RRRING RRING um hi freud i gotta crazy guy for you to psychoanalyse yeah he's got daddy AND mommy AND sibling issues and he’s a little gay with it.

THEON/ROBB: look ok. coming out as a robb neutral. THATS KIND OF A LIE look i love robb he's just a boy he's forced into the meat grinder he's hamlet he's doomed i love that that's so fun. but i'm not one of those people who's like WE NEED A ROBB POV or like mad he died. i'm a theongirl first and foremost and the way i love throbb is through the lens of theon my traumatised horrible catboy.

RHAENYRA/ALICENT: god what can be said that hasn’t. vicious lesbian divorce. psychosexual incestuous passive aggressive actually aggressive love hate inner child growing old always on their mind everything is about the other constrained by patriarchy doing patriarchy but in a way that benefits you. and she’s her stepmother.

FUN TIER

JONSATIN: yeah yeah its a bit of a yaoi ship i know i know. mostly i like it cos it gives satin something to do LMAO i really like him so i have to give him personality and wants and a backstory and jon is a great puppet for that. on jon’s side honestly satin is like the nicest choice for him everyone else has so much baggage...

LORENLY: its like canon i like it. i like the doom and tragedy i like how renly is a fun guy and loras is such a cunt.

DAENSA: i think they would be a nice couple :) i think they would be good for each other. nice fluffy ship, very sweet. lemontreecakes forever!!

SANSAERY: its like what if regina george and cady heron were lesbians. i love manipulative bitch margaery whos like shit she’s genuinely nice and pure and cute goddamnit. and sansa who has to slowly realise she’s being used but that even though their relationship is kinda fucked up it IS complex. also really funny that she was comphet for marge’s gay brother.

GENDRYA: she’s 9 so im like meh on it but its very sweet. the living-vicariously-through-your-children marriage robert wanted with sansa and joffrey. well actually its the genderfreak lyanna clone and anarchist robert clone. 

STAVOS and MELYSE: idk melisandre and selyse’s ship name. i could be serious about it but it’s just funny to me. you can still fuck even when youre at the rotting decrepit old age of 34 and you once cut off your domestic partner’s fingers

HONOURARY MENTIONS

JonValJon: i dont like ValJon because it so often negates val’s character and her wants and desires also jon is 15 and val is like clearly an adult woman but the name is really funny i like les mis eh heh heh

Theonsa: i like show theonsa i think its sweet. book theonsa i dont like because shes a lesbian.

Brienne/Sansa and Brienne/Margaery: show only. its cute and brienne x margaery is kinda hot ngl. also Brienne/Cersei that’s also hot. sorry im gay.

[alleyskywalker]

Unpopular opinion: Theon x Jeyne is a very underrated pairing. They were both bullies, both strove to be accepted by the Starks (Jeyne was friends with Sansa, Theon with Robb), both were traumatized by Ramsay, both had name dichotomies (Theon/Reek, Jeyne/Arya) and both came from families with an affiliation with water (Theon’s family were seafarers, Jeyne’s is named after a pool). And the ship has the fairytale aesthetic of a prince saving a lady in a tower from the monster in the castle.

So, I disagree on Theon being a bully. I don't see evidence of that at all in canon (barring maybe one suspicious incident with Benfred Tallhart, but it's too vague and out of context to make such a conclusion on, imo). But to everything else YES. They have such wonderful parallels - the ones you mentioned and also the whole "growing up in the shadow of your prettier/richer/more powerful or popular/etc" (best) friend and the rank differences (inherent for Jeyne, situational for Theon) vis-a-vis the Starks and to some extend the way both Robb and Sansa act toward them, with a certain amount of superiority. And then of course the co-trauma and the romantic themes...

And yea so much High Romance in this, not just because of the fairytale themes you mentioned of the heroic escape/lady in the tower tropes, but also the bit of Beauty-and-the-Beast with how Jeyne kind of brings him back to himself a bit? It's not just her, and Theon never fully breaks mentally of course, but she's the one he manages to be brave for, to overcome that existential fear of Ramsay for. Theon gives off the sense of the kind of guy who'd always wanted to be a hero, who does have a fundamental grasp and desire for decency, but is often misled and confused about how to go about things in the absolutely insanely shitty situations he's constantly in. And finally, with Jeyne, he's able to self-realize. And she's the first in a long time to see him not just as human but as a man, as someone who could help her and save her. And we talk a lot about how Theon is the one who sees Jeyne and helps Jeyne and not "Arya." But she also sees him for himself as well. She recognizes him - and she links their past and their present. She'd had a crush on him as a girl, and they're both so different now but, but it's still what she calls back to when she asks him for help. They save each other.

And then just the pure id (to me) of the story that's like...the girl who was pretty but insecure, always in the shadow of her best friend, not overly valued, in love with the boy who was too out of her reach for one reason or another, who didn't really notice her, and he was perfect to her though with so many issues of his own. And then they meet years later and nothing is the same and they've both been through so much and have changed, and it turns out that they both just want the same things in the end: safety and comfort and acceptance and love. And they give that to each other and save each other, at first maybe because each other is all they have, but then later, when they both have a choice - if they still choose each other? If the girl gets the guy she's always wanted after all, but not because she got a hot makeover or whatever but because they've been through it together and really connected and it's not perfect at all and so very different from when she was first in love with him... It's not a fairytale and yet it is at the same time? That's the kind of trope-adjacent High Romance I want. That's how you write het, as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, sorry, this was very stream of consciousness but I have a lot of feelings about Theyne but too tired for in-depth actual meta.

[stevesxyellowxsweater]

For the ask game! 💕

☠️ - What's one of your most controversial ships you like? 💗 - Name an accent you love to hear 🍉 - You're transformed into your favorite blorbo. On a scale of 1 to 10, how screwed are you.

What's one of your most controversial ships you like?

I'm a big Sansa Stark and Theon Greyjoy shipper, but then I can pretty much ship Sansa with everyone because she's my girl. Also shoutout to Zuko and Katara!

Name an accent you love to hear?

I really love Scottish, Italian too.

You're transformed into your favorite blorbo. On a scale of 1 to 10, how screwed are you.

Let's face it, it's Steve Harrington. Other than being beaten up every season I think I'd be okay. Maybe about 5?

Random question ask game

[patrocles]

throbb? Sansaery? Daemon/Nettles?

THROBB 10/10 ship name. In the books I don't really ship them at all, Robb feels SO much younger than Theon. But show!throbb absolutely fucks. There's absolutely a queer undertone to this dynamic that a better writer could have explored, especially when you utilize the quote "I should have been with him. Where was I? I should have died with him." Especially since the show went out of its way to make Theon his only friend in the war. Neither of them were beating the fruity allegations when Robb told Theon he didn't have to call him 'your grace' when no one else was around. And so if EYE was writing Theon in the aftermath of the Red Wedding, I would have shelved all the castration jokes in favor of Theon truly having to grapple with Robb's death and his feelings surrounding him (jealousy, unrequited love, repressed bisexualty, etc). It wasn't just that they were best friends, but Theon loved him, was in love with him, and he still betrayed him. Could something have happened? Something that was always just beneath the surface? Maybe, but now he'll never know. Robb should have been an ever-present figure in Theon's arc for the rest of the series. And how so much of Theon's quest for redemption is rooted in accepting the way in which he loved Robb, accepting his own grief for what it was, and being able to let it go to finally attain absolution.

SANSAERY - I feel like I'm in the minority in that I actually don't care about this ship all that much... And if we're keeping it 100 I don't really like Natalie's Margaery all that much either. I definitely think they should have kept her the same age as Sansa, and I think I'd feel better about them in the show? Idk there's something about her going from a scheming, but still ultimately a pawn-of-the-patriarchy teen girl, to the sexy seductress with quippy lines to shade Cersei and sleeps with a pubescent child bc the writers are freaks that kind Icks me. And even in the book it's hard to really think of their friendship as anything tangible when Sansa is so desperate for a friend and then gets dropped the second the Tyrells plans for her falls through. HOWEVER, should Margy live (and I hope she does!) I would really like to see them reunite at the end, after everything they've both been through.

DAEMON/NETTLES - If "get a job! get away from her!" was a ship. I genuinely think of them as like Jason Bateman falling for Juno while she's a teenager and carrying his surrogate child simply because they bonded over nerd shit. (obviously sans the child) Like he's old now, and she represents the youth he misses and the ~Targaryen Values~ that he's obsessed with. (the dragonriding, the ferocity). I don't think she was his daughter, but I definitely think he treated her like one even if they had a sexual relationship. He traded Rhaenyra in when Nettles was the best replacement for what Rhaenyra no longer had- youth. Not to mention, he replaced Rhaena too, his own daughter, for the one that had a dragon and could fight alongside him. And the thing for Nettles is that Daemon was her only real access to social mobility, despite her own capabilities. I'm so glad that old bitch died and she got to live as a fire goddess in the Vale.

[grey-joys]

WIP Ask Games

Tagged by @ship-ambrosia

Rules: post the names of all the files in your wip folder regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have wips!

I actually write in physical notebooks!

Theon/Sansa

Teal Notebook, yellow sticky note: Pomegranates

Green Notebook, blue sticky note: In a Crowd of Thousands

In DMs: What rhymes with boat? (Inside joke haha)

I do have other WIP, but for a fandom I am not actively involved in, so I won’t post about them here. That, and I don’t like mixing platforms

I don’t know anyone besides the person who tagged me, so no tags :)

[jackoshadows]

where Martin has ever stated Joner* is canon in the books. - Um, why should he? They have not even met yet in the books 😂

Where it says the whole story is about them. - More gaslighting and lies. Which fans are saying that the whole story is about Jon and Daenerys?

Jonry* literally came from an old outline and now people use it to connect it to their close sibling relationship as they are “secretly in love canon.” - ngl, this is hilarious coming from the same people who use the old outline to make the argument that their obnoxious crackship is canon 🤣🤣🤣🤣. And no, neither the original outline or Jonrya fans are saying that they are secretly in love - another lie. It's them who come up with the most absurd sexist nonsense like -'pre-canon crush', not other shippers. Rather, as the OG outline clearly states, Jon and Arya's platonic love turns to romantic love when they meet again, they are horrified by it and R+L=J was a solution. After all, GRRM send off that OG outline to his editor along with the first 13 chapters of AGoT where Jon loves Arya dearly and gives her Needle.

Jonery* literally comes from sporadic lines throughout chapters - which again coming from Jonsa shippers who ship Jon and Sansa because SNOW FELL ON HER FACE THAT ONE TIME and side history book family trees is bloody hilarious 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

You want to know what are facts though? Lyanna was a Stark, not a dragon. Jons first love and Sansas first love looked a like. In the very first few chapters in AGOT it’s all centered around Jon and Sansa being married off to a king!

I love how they proclaim as fact that Ygritte looks like Sansa when in the books Jon keeps comparing Ygritte to Arya in terms of her looks and personality and refers to her uncombed hair and gap toothed smile with affection and GRRM has talked about how that comparison is about Jon's type regarding the girls he loves and admires.

6.  Jon’s mother is strongly connected to the winter rose story, which only one other person fits that story. Give you a hint.. It’s not D or A. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Right, Arya with her several in text comparisons to Lyanna and Mance trying to steal 'Arya' out of WF as Abel the Bard and Daenerys seeing the blue rose at the Wall in the house of the Undying has no connection to the winter rose story you guys! It's all about the character not referenced AT ALL with regard to this subplot.

7. When it actually comes to love, Jon follows Sansa, and not just love but marriage and having children. No other character does this happen to. - More idiotic fanfiction. Tyrion wants marriage and children. In fact he wanted that with Sansa!! Theon wanted marriage and children. The adolescents Jon and Dany want marriage and children. It's only the pre-teens like Arya and Bran who don't think of that yet because when the story started they were little kids and then have been subjected to a lot of trauma, loss of family and have focused on survival. Pretty much every character in the books wants love, marriage and children. That's the bloody theme of the books - Wind and words. Wind and words. We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory, and our great tragedy.

8.  Sansa becomes a bastard, and so does. Oh wait, no one else does! 

"In Pentos I am Yollo," he said quickly, to make what amends he could, "but my mother named me Hugor Hill." - Tyrion, ADwD

Well, look at that! Tyrion also pretending to be bastard, the parallels are writing themselves. All this Sanrion foreshadowing!

9. Every Stark child thinks about Winterfell but only Sansa and Jon think of rebuilding it. - More fanfiction. Sansa has never thought of rebuilding Winterfell because she is a 13 year old hiding away in the Vale under LF's tutelage with not much agency. Jon only thinks of rebuilding Winterfell because he is considering Stannis' offer to legitimize him as Lord of Winterfell and he is trying to justify it in his mind as Ned and Robb being happy if he brought Winterfell back to it's original glory. He then refuses the offer because of oaths to the Old Gods and has focused on rebuilding the Wall.

10. Jon-nel and Sansa anyone? - yes that obscure off the book side history books family tree is evidence of this crackship despite nothing being written for it in the books....

11.  Everything I just stated right now is facts. It’s not interviews by whoever saying whatever, it’s not theories, it’s not putting together certain lines just to fit my ship. It’s facts!

Lie after lie after fanfiction after made up fanon and a bunch of sexist headcanons is what that is. Facts? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 There was not one single fact or legitimate theory in that word salad of farcical nonsense.

12. Now, show me where in the books D or A have this with Jon. I’ll wait.

I've been on a bit of a hiatus but I couldn't resist...

Two questions:

Where to start?

What to emphasize?

[futuregws]

On so many levels, but just out of curiosity what stood out to you the most?

Trigger warning: mentions of abuse and r*pe

I'm assuming this is about my game of thrones post?? If not then I'm sorry it's been a long day.

But I'm gonna answer as if it is if it isn't let me know, so I feel like game of thrones as a whole is just much worse in that aspect and I feel like it will only get worse bc I'm still in the beginning I'm about to finish season 2, and I know of one character that is still not in the show and he's the worst of the worse so I'm obviously only gonna speak on the scenes I did see but my mind might change. So the one that made me originally make that post was the scene I don't remember what episode honestly but it's S2 and its when Tyrion sent those women to joffrey's room, and he made one of them (I always forget her name for some reason) beat the other, it was the whole watching them go from their own acting they have to do with clients of pretending to enjoy to then seeing the actual fear in their eyes, and the part that really just made me very uncomfortable and it was just a no, its when he gives that girl that huge thing to hit the other with it killed me to watch that, and overall the way they treat women like objects when they are talking between each other saying that they will get the other a woman to fuck, and manyyy more other comments but the fact that their goals is to r*pe women for example the scene with Theon where he's giving commands to the people that are going with him on the ship and one of them mentions that one of their goals is to r*pe the women, and don't get me started on the scene where Sansa almost gets r*ped and then the next day another thing that truly disturbs me happens which is them wanting to almost control her period so that she can get pregnant, her fear when she saw that she had gotten it for the first time and she got so scared bc now she could be forced to have his babies its just too much and something else I noticed that really bothers me is the unnecessary nude scenes with women bc it's always women there isn't one episode where we don't see a women's boobs and I'm just like why?? And the fact that even in scenes such as when they attack joffrey (the same episode and situation where sansa almost gets r*ped) they felt the need to have a background actor(I'm not sure if that's what they are called) get her dressed ripped like FOR WHAT. And honestly I could go on and on I knew that this show had a lot of scenes like this bc I saw what people said when episode 4 of hotd came out and people were so relieved to finally see a positive sex/nude scene that wasn't r*pe and the women was actually enjoying it, but I did not think it was THIS much. But anyway sorry I'm rambling, but yeah THE scene that stood out the most like I mentioned was really the Joffrey and the two girls scene I just was not expecting it

[jonandtormundendgame]

Modern AU where all the Stark kids meet at pride without realizing any of the others are there too and they’ve all got their partners with them. None of them are out to each other. They all thought THEY were the gay Stark. They were wrong. Sansa has Margaery and they’re both covered in kiss marks in lesbian flag colours. Jon and Tormund have Tormund’s daughters with them and they’re acting like an old married couple even tho there’s an age difference there. Podrick thought he was being cute by putting rainbow flags on Bran’s wheelchair, but Bran is too stoic and only grins about it when Podrick isn’t looking. Arya and Gendry are together but both wearing bisexual colours. Rickon is trans but only his tutor Osha knows so far, and brought him to his first pride to hang out. Robb brought both Theon AND Talisa with him and it’s obvious he’s been giving them both kisses all day.

In which they all assumed they were gayer than the others.

[cat-stark]

"jon x sansa x theon (to no one’s surprise) and i just need to finish up some fics so i can start writing fics for my ot3" fiNALLY SOMEONE BRAVE ENOUGH thank you for your service

nonnie, you don’t even know, i literally have so much planned for this ship.

[dontbotherwiththepronunciation]

I'm following the shipping anthropology like it's my paid job ofc but was there anything interesting about gen preferences ? Iirc exacty if there was a question about it/what it was like but I'm curious if anyone shared

Sorry for the last response! I went over the answers many times already and one of my regrets is not digging deeper into general non-romantic dynamic preferences so I am sorry I will have to disappoint you when it comes to it since I was too short-sighted. Here are the stats for Greyjoy dynamics, some comments on Robb and Theon as friends and a few general comments on possible friendships. Character studies type of gen fanwork sadly wasn't mentioned.

Extremely surprised by Theon & Euron being more interesting than Theon & Balon to the common fandom.

Many throbb people and also less Theon-centric people who answered the survey also spoke of Theon and Robb as friends or friends to lovers which I found interesting because this wasn't the case with other ships that are are based on somewhat positive interactions/emotions, like show! theonsa or theyne (who I don't consider his friends either).

i picked theon/robb mostly because that's been his healthiest relationship during his life but i generally don't engage with shipping content besides occasionally seeing fan art. i enjoy the dynamic of childhood friends turned lovers as well as like maybe them bonding over their mistakes in the afterlife. i like to think robb would forgive theon eventually, he doesn't seem the type to give up on his loved ones. -

Very close tie between Theonsa and Throbb for me. I enjoy a dark twist on the childhood friends trope, I like the potential for exploring Theons trauma from being a hostage vs his genuine love for Robb and Sansa

I don't feel strongly about it, I don't think Theon and Robb would ever say or do anything explicitly romantic/sexual "in canon", but I get that it can be fun to explore it. I like to explore how their friendship developed, how they grew so close, and the crushing guilt, regret and trauma of the betrayal

I live for TheonxRobb fics but mostly the ones about the war time, the angst about betraying Robb or his family, reactions to the red wedding, angsty flashbacks to their childhood and so on. it's the childhood friends to lovers to enemies to tragedy that does it for me. but when I'm in mood I can get super into fluffy fics of the two, since Robb isnt really a pov character there's much more leeway for the writer, I can read I fic about them and not be bothered if Robb is ooc (hard to be out of character when you are not much of a character lol) because I'm not familiar with inner thoughts and all that, theres more freedom for imagination.

I find Theon/Robb interesting because the themes of friendship/brotherhood/betrayal are really interesting to me. Theon's guilt, mania, depression and his complex relationship to the Starks are best shown through the Throbb (ew name lol) dynamic. I also think it's hilarious. Mordern AU throbb is insane..

I wish he was in AGOT a little more! Like I don't think we get a full conversation between Theon and Robb besides when Robb yells at Theon, which sucks because they are basically best friends.

I feel like Robb was Theon's only friend in Winterfell for a long time. Like he was the only person the idiot could sorta trust

Catra from she ra! Redemption and identity and sexy bad boy stuff again. Childhood friends to lovers. Enemy/rival of the childhood friend/lover. Most of the characters in Yellowjackets. (Jackie is Robb).

I just ignore things that bug me. I don't like calling him reek. I don't think he was "right to betray the Starks" or that he didn't betray them. I think he did betray them despite being a ward, or at the very least he betrayed robb who was his friend. Theon says as much, what he did was wrong and it supposed to be wrong.

Others

let him have other friends in modern aus, the whole botley family is right here.

Back to the iron islands support group thing we came up with. I would really love it if Wex, Falia, Jeyne & Theon would become friends (and maybe it develops into something else with one of them, maybe it doesn't). Not found family, he has a family, but friends! Good friends who treat him right and don't look down on him. He had friends in Winterfell and he had friends in the Iron Islands! He is not unloveable or unloved but life has made it very difficult for him to keep those friendships or for those friendships to even be healthy and these three people have gone through similar situations in their life and could find some happiness and carelessness in each others company.

I need to know who his dead or grown into strangers friends were. Was Botley one of them? Was that the reason he looked down on him and Qarl later on? Was Baelor one of them? grrm why add that extremely relatable line and not expand on it?!? You know me, I know you. Killing ourselves over this.