#while cersei well. thats obvious

[ilynpilled]

love the twins needing each other in order to be capable of loving the self. love the both of them constructing a distorted mirror that allows for a fantasy to persist through a delusional relationship. cersei has power and jaime has purpose. then i love jaime hating cersei and hating the self in tandem. love desperate self-love turning into bitter self-hate

[thedawningofthehour]

6, 14, 17, 18, and 29 for the fic writer asks (or however many of those you want to answer!! I know thats a lot sorry lol)

6. Are there any fics from others you reread all the time?

@spectralsleuth's Little Scraps of Wisdom. It's the perfect blend of just fluffy enough to not require tons of mental energy, but also serious and angsty enough to keep my attention. Also the format makes it really easy to pick a section and just dip in-perfect for my ADHD ass.

14. If you could see one of your fics adapted into a visual medium, such as comic or film, which fan fic would you pick?

Doth, at least parts of it. The whole thing wouldn't translate well to visual media-there's tons of introspection, conversations that wouldn't be all that interesting visually. (at least not animated-you don't really get Cersei Lannister-esque performances from animated characters) Stuff like the actions scenes, big scenes with multiple people speaking, those would probably translate the best.

My Dishonored fic, god no. It's video game media and it's very obvious that that's the source material. It would be incredibly boring if you weren't in Daud's head the whole time.

17. What’s something you’ve learned about while doing research for a fic?

Uhh. Like. So much stuff?

For doth, it's been insanely broad. On any given day, my writing window might be filled with Wikipedia pages on scientific topics, cultural, history, law. Right now I have a bunch of pages open about military tactics and technology, a Google Maps of NYC, and then some articles on nobility and royal titles.

For The Red Queen, I had to learn a lot of architecture terms when writing Daud running around doing backflips off rooftops. I don't even think half of them even made it into the text, but I had to know what he was perched on top of like a daddy seagull. I also did a whole dive into the Black Death for that one. Oh, if you want an interesting fact, did you know the plague was actually carried by fleas and not rats like many assumed? That's partially why it was so bad in cities. Poland actually had a much lower death toll than the rest of Europe in part because of its high Jewish population (mostly refugees because many cities blamed them for the plague-because of fucking course they did) who washed more frequently than the average peasant at the time and their neighbors decided to get in on that too. Milan survived relatively unscathed because whenever someone showed signs of plague, they and their family members were walled up in their homes and set on fire.

18. What’s one of your favorite lines you’ve written in a fic?

I like the entire exchange between Leo and Draxum on the roof. There were a lot of details written into those lines that gave extra information or conveyed something about their mental states.

29. Share a bit from a fic you’ll never post OR from a scene that was cut from an already posted fic. (If you don’t have either, just share a random fic idea you have that you don’t plan on getting to.)

I've played around with writing out Cass's consensual kidnapping and walking in on Gale being brainwashed, with some blurbs about her adjusting to life in the Hidden City. They never really got past scraps, but I can post this scrap.

She’s just getting back from school, last week before winter break, her head swarming with final this and final that. Tom says hello to her from where he’s working at the dining room table. Casey says hello back and promptly excuses herself to go work on her final paper for English.

He should be happy about that. She’s actually doing her homework.

Tom’s not bad, she supposes. He’s nice enough and doesn’t try to catch her coming out of the shower. He and Cindy offered to pay the fee if she rejoined the hockey team this year. But he gets on her every last nerve. She’s their first foster and they are absolutely trying too hard. At least Cindy isn’t home enough to annoy her.

She shuts her bedroom door and drops her backpack on the floor. Ugh. She could kill whoever invented academic papers. Well, the Odyssey isn’t going to write about itself.

“I have to say, this wasn’t-”

Casey whirls around, grabbing the first thing she registers-some Hello Kitty knick-knack she keeps on her dresser, in this case-and hurls it at the intruder.

Draxum bats it away, barely raising an eyebrow.

[erzakyuubei]

Jonsa Book Foreshadowing

Not mine. Credit goes to Juligen from asoiaf forum.

YOU WILL MARRY A KING..............

“You,” Ned said, kissing her lightly on the brow, “will marry a king and rule his castle, and your sons will be knights and princes and lords and, yes, perhaps even a High Septon.”Arya screwed up her face. “No,” she said, “that’s Sansa." 

(Eddard V- A Game of Thrones)

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For me this quote is one of the most important quotes from the entire series because it pretty much sets up for the audience both Sansa and Arya story arc. Sansa will be the sister who will marry and have children and fulfill her childhood dreams of a happy family, which is why Love, marriage and children will be a constant theme in Sansa’s arc story. She will be treated as an object, passed around by the powerful players of the story, all interested in her claim of Winterfell and the North; she will be forced into marriage alliances and her future children will be desired for their claim in the North. Sansa will try to survive as much as she can, keeping still a slim hope to find love and happiness and maybe one day fulfill that sweet dream of a rebuilding her destroyed family.

Arya will follow another path; she will be a warrior and ruler on her own. Arya always wanted to be the keeper of her own holdfast, she wanted to be a knight and fight in battle and most important, I believe Arya wanted to feel the independence that most women in Westeros could never feel. Not that love and marriage is not impossible for her, but I feel George wants Arya to be a Queen regent on her own.

George is trying to tells us in this passage of the books that women should be able to choose their own paths and if its love, marriage and children what they wish for they should have it, but if its not, they should be free to figure out her own destiny. The tragedy of Lyanna Stark was that she never had a choice and was forced into marry someone she never cared for, and I believe George wants to show with both Sansa and Arya that girls should be free to choose their own dreams., because BOTH dreams are equality valid.

A CLOAK STAINED IN FIRE AND BLOOD......................

When she crawled out of bed, long moments later, she was alone. She found his cloak on the floor, twisted up tight, the white wool stained with blood and fire. The sky outside was darker by then, with only a few pale green ghosts dancing against the stars. A chill wind was blowing, banging the shutters. Sansa was cold. She shook out the torn cloak and huddled beneath it on the floor, shivering.

(A Clash of Kings - Sansa VII)

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Sansa cloaked herself with a cloak stained in "Fire and Blood" the words of House Targaryen. For me this has always been one of the biggest foreshadows on the book and its interesting to notice how George used the character of Sandor Cleagane as a redherring for this scene in order to not make so obvious the connection with Jon.

It was only when we make the connection of this particular scene with one that happened a few chapters before In the book A CLASH OF KINGS that it became pretty obvious this quote was about Jon Snow.

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“I’ve never lain with any woman but Cersei. In my own way, I’ve been truer than your Ned ever was. Poor old dead Ned. So who has shit for honor now, I ask you? What was the name of that bastard he fathered?”

Catelyn took a step backwards. “Brienne.”

“No, that wasn’t it.” Jaime Lannister upended the flagon. A trickled ran down onto his face, bright as blood. “Snow, that was the one. Such a white name … like the pretty cloaks they give us in the Kingsguard when we swear our pretty oaths.”

A Clash of Kings - Catelyn VII

When she crawled out of bed, long moments later, she was alone. She found his cloak on the floor, twisted up tight, the white wool stained with blood and fire. The sky outside was darker by then, with only a few pale green ghosts dancing against the stars. A chill wind was blowing, banging the shutters. Sansa was cold. She shook out the torn cloak and huddled beneath it on the floor, shivering.

A Clash of Kings - Sansa VII

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THE ORDER OF THE CHAPTERS OF THE BOOKS....

Every time Sansa’s marriage proposals are being discussed in the books, the next chapter usually its followed by a JON chapter. Once you put the two quotes together is that you really get it, what George was once again, very delicately trying to tells us.

In the first book A GAME OF THRONES, chapter 4 Eddard I, we have King Robert arriving at Winterfell and asking to visit Lyanna tomb in the crypts of the castle. While there King Robert decides to ask for Sansa’s hand in marriage for his son prince Joffrey. This is the chapter where Sansa and Joffrey become officially betrothed to each other and their Royal engagement its made official. The very next chapter? JON. This is also the chapter where Jon Snow will get drunk in the Feats for the king and ask uncle Ben to join the NightsWatch.

In a CLASH OF KINGS chapter 52, SANSA IV, Sansa will get her period and be finally “fit to bear children to the king”. Cersei then tries, as best as she can, to be a mother figure to Sansa in this very special moment and gives her a womanly advice. She tells her that love is a dangerous feeling that makes us all weaker and it should wiser for her to love only her children. Once again we have a chapter discussing Sansa future marriage to a king and the following chapter is JON VII.

Finally on A STORM OF SWORDS, we have the famous chapter 68, Sansa VI, where she laments that no one will ever marry her for love, its only her name and Winterfell they all want. The very next chapter of the book? JON. Again, thats not a coincidence, George does this, he said that he takes a lot of planning and caring about the way he writes and structures his books.

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A CLASH OF KINGS - THE WINTER ROSE

In A CLASH OF KINGS we will have George very quietly making the connection with Jon, Sansa and the tale of Bael the Bard.  While was I re reading the books I noticed that George was playing with the chapters orders and trying to tells us some hints of the story by putting characters chpaters next to each other. The first time Jon meets Ygritte on “A CLASH OF KINGS”, chapter 51, she tells him a story of Bael the Bard and the Blue Winter Rose:

"The Stark in Winterfell wanted Bael's head, but never could take him, and the taste o' failure galled him. One day in his bitterness he called Bael a craven who preyed only on the weak. When word o' that got back, Bael vowed to teach the lord a lesson. So he scaled the Wall, skipped down the kingsroad, and walked into Winterfell one winter's night with harp in hand, naming himself Sygerrik of Skagos. Sygerrik means 'deceiver' in the Old Tongue, that the First Men spoke, and the giants still speak.

"North or south, singers always find a ready welcome, so Bael ate at Lord Stark's own table, and played for the lord in his high seat until half the night was gone. The old songs he played, and new ones he'd made himself, and he played and sang so well that when he was done, the lord offered to let him name his own reward. 'All I ask is a flower,' Bael answered, 'the fairest flower that blooms in the gardens o' Winterfell.'

"Now as it happened the winter roses had only then come into bloom, and no flower is so rare nor precious. So the Stark sent to his glass gardens and commanded that the most beautiful o' the winter roses be plucked for the singer's payment. And so it was done. But when morning come, the singer had vanished . . . and so had Lord Brandon's maiden daughter. Her bed they found empty, but for the pale blue rose that Bael had left on the pillow where her head had lain."

(A Clash of Kings – Jon VI)

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Right next in the following chapter 52, Sansa has her first flowering. This is the chapter where Sansa gets her first period and its now “fit to bear children to the King.”

"The blood is the seal of your womanhood. Lady Catelyn might have prepared you. You've had your first flowering, no more." Sansa had never felt less flowery. "My lady mother told me, but I... I thought it would be different.""Different how?""I don't know. Less... less messy, and more magical.” Queen Cersei laughed. "Wait until you birth a child, Sansa. A woman's life is nine parts mess to one part magic, you'll learn that soon enough... and the parts that look like magic often turn out to be messiest of all." She took a sip of milk. "So now you are a woman. Do you have the least idea of what that means?" "It means that I am now fit to be wedded and bedded," said Sansa, "and to bear children for the king." …….

Do you want to be loved, Sansa?" "Everyone wants to be loved." "I see flowering hasn't made you any brighter," said Cersei. "Sansa, permit me to share a bit of womanly wisdom with you on this very special day. Love is poison. A sweet poison, yes, but it will kill you all the same."

(A Clash of Kings – Sansa IV)

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In the chapter 52, Sansa gets her period for the first time. She is taken to see Cersei who uses the moment to give Sansa womanly advice about love. She warns Sansa that love is dangerous and make us weaker. The following chapter of the book is JON VII.

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“Robert wanted to be loved. My brother Tyrion has the same disease. Do you want to be loved, Sansa?” “Everyone wants to be loved.” “I see flowering hasn’t made you any brighter,” said Cersei. “Sansa, permit me to share a bit of womanly wisdom with you on this very special day. Love is poison. A sweet poison, yes, but it will kill you all the same.”

(A Clash of Kings – Sansa IV)

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In the end of chapter Cersei warns Sansa about love and how dangerous it can be. The following chapter of the book is also JON VII. George really wanted us to picture Jon, Sansa and the Blue Winter Rose tale all together. For me this is one of the biggest clues that not only Jon and Sansa will marry but also, its their child that will continue House Stark.

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A STORM OF SWORDS - THE FALLING SNOW

In A storm of Swords, George used the prologue of the book to foreshadow Jon and Sansa romance, using the snow to symbolize Jon Snow. In the two paragraphs under, Chett will lament that heavy snow has ruined his plans for desertion and that Jon Snow and Sam stole his comfortable position as Maester Aemon’s steward: and that Jon Snow stole his position.

“He could feel tears freezing to his cheeks. It isn’t fair, he wanted to scream. Snow would ruin everything he’d worked for, all his careful plans. It was a heavy fall, thick white flakes coming down all about him.How would they find their food caches in the snow, or the game trail they meant to follow east? They won’t need Dywen nor Bannen to hunt us down neither, not if we’re tracking through fresh snow. And snow hid the shape of the ground, especially by night. A horse could stumble over a root, break a leg on a stone. We’re done, he realized. Done before we began. We’re lost. There’d be no lord’s life for the leechman’s son, no keep to call his own, no wives nor crowns. Only a wildling’s sword in his belly, and then an unmarked grave. The snow’s taken it all from me … the bloody snow …”

 “Snow had ruined him once before. Snow and his pet pig.”

(ASOS Prologue)

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And later we have Jon Snow introducing himself as “the snow”……

“The singer rose to his feet. "I’m Mance Rayder,” he said as he put aside the lute. “And you are Ned Stark’s bastard, the Snow of Winterfell.”

 ( A Storm of Swords – Jon I)

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Then comes Sansa’s chapter at the end of the book, where she will feel snow falling down her lips and touching her almost like a lover……..

Snow was falling on the Eyrie.

Yet she stepped out all the same. Her boots tore ankle-deep holes into the smooth white surface of the snow, yet made no sound. Sansa drifted past frosted shrubs and thin dark trees, and wondered if she were still dreaming. Drifting snowflakes brushed her face as light as lover’s kisses, and melted on her cheeks. At the center of the garden, beside the statue of the weeping woman that lay broken and half-buried on the ground, she turned her face up to the sky and closed her eyes. She could feel the snow on her lashes, taste it on her lips. It was the taste of Winterfell. The taste of innocence. The taste of dreams.

(A Storm of Swords - Sansa VIII)

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A FEAST FOR CROWS - SANSA FIRST LOVE

In A FEAST FOR CROWS, chapter 23, we have Sansa playing the role of Alayne Stone, Littlefinger bastard daughter. In this chapter Sansa remembers Lord Yohn Royce son,  Ser Wayman Royce and how she fell madly in love with him when he visited Winterfell on his way to take the black on the Nights Watch. If we go back to the prologue of the first book, we will find out that surprising, Ser Waymar physical description is identical of Jon Snow. George is trying to tell us that Sansa will probably be physical attracted to Jon Snow once she is reunited with him later in the story. 

"Bronze Yohn knows me," she reminded him. "He was a guest at Winterfell when his son rode north to take the black." She had fallen wildly in love with Ser Waymar, she remembered dimly, but that was a lifetime ago, when she was a stupid little girl. "And that was not the only time. Lord Royce saw . . . he saw Sansa Stark again at King's Landing, during the Hand's tourney."

- A FEAST FOR CROWS,  Alayne I

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Waymar Royce is described as follows. Notice how similar this description is to Jon.

Ser Waymar Royce was the youngest son of an ancient house with too many heirs. He was a handsome youth of eighteen, grey-eyed and graceful and slender as a knife. Mounted on his huge black destrier, the knight towered above Will and Gared on their smaller garrons. He wore black leather boots, black woolen pants, black moleskin gloves, and a fine supple coat of gleaming black ringmail over layers of black wool and boiled leather.

A GAME OF THRONES, Prologue

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Jon’s eyes were a grey so dark they seemed almost black, but there was little they did not see. He was of an age with Robb, but they did not look alike. Jon was slender where Robb was muscular, dark where Robb was fair, graceful and quick where his half brother was strong and fast.

- A GAME OF THRONES, Bran I

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JON SNOW BECOMING SANSA'S HERO

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

( A Game of Thrones – Sansa III)

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.**

(A Clash of Kings – Sansa IV)

They were not little boys when they fought, but knights and mighty heroes. “I’m Prince Aemon the Dragonknight,” Jon would call out, and Robb would shout back, “Well, I’m Florian the Fool.” Or Robb would say, “I’m the Young Dragon,” and Jon would reply, “I’m Ser Ryam Redwyne.”**

A Storm of Swords – Jon II

Notice how Sansa's heros match with with the ones Jon's used to pretend to be as a child.

“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.

 A game of Thrones – Sansa VI

"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.

A dance of Dragons – Jon II

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THEIR DREAMS COMPLETING EACH OTHERS

Dreams of home and family

“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.”

A STORM OF SWORDS, Sansa II

“I would need to steal her if I wanted her love, but she might give me children. I might someday hold a son of my own blood in my arms. A son was something Jon Snow had never dared dream of, since he decide to live his life on the wall. I could name him Robb”..-

A STORM OF SWORDS, Jon XII

Rebuilding Winterfell……

The snow fell and the castle rose. Two walls ankle-high, the inner taller than the outer. Towers and turrets, keeps and stairs, a round kitchen, a square armory, the stables along the inside of the west wall. It was only a castle when she began, but before very long Sansa knew it was Winterfell.

A Storm of Swords - Sansa VII

Winterfell, he thought. Theon left it burned and broken, but I could restore it. Surely his father would have wanted that, and Robb as well. They would never have wanted the castle left in ruins.

A Storm of Swords - Jon XII

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There is so much foreshadow for this relationship that I always shake my head when people say there is nothing in the books about this romance.

Edited March 30 by prettylongclaw

[julibf]

WHY THE END OF GAME OF THRONES IS NOT WORKING FOR ME....

I told in some of my past metas, that I wrote after the show was done, why the ending was so unsatisfying and I am going to try to explain why here in some point. Its not because it was sad and heartbreaking, or some of our theories never really turned out to be true.

I am afraid to say, Its George RRM who is letting me down, not Benioff and Weiss. So lets start with the points that are making my head spin.

BRAN THE BROKEN KING

If accept Bran Stark as the final King of this story, I have to pretend I didnt read the past books A CLASH IF KINGS and a FEAST FOR CROWS, where we had very good contenders fighting for the Throne (Rob Stark, Renly Baratheon, Stannis Baratheon, Joffrey Baratheon, etc) Yes, some of those men were not so good from a moral point of view, but they brought strength, militar support, militar and political alliances, legitimate claims to the Throne...

I could go on and on and on. There is absolutely no reason for why would Yara Greyjoy would bend the knee to Brandon Stark and accept him as her leader and ruler; or the Prince of Dorne, or the Lords from the Westerlands. This choice is absolutely absurd and if you read the books you would know that picking a boy king, with no claim to the Throne or no powerful armies makes any sense at all. Whe we add the fact Bran had hardly any experience ruling or leading people during the 7 years of this story, this pic gets even more and more bizarre.Not to mention, I really dislike the idea that humans are incapable to control their own emotions, and because of that we must pick a God like creature with no emotions.

 I understand George wanted a surprising ending and he wanted to go against the expectations, but this choice is an utopia. I cant get behind this choice. I am sorry.

TYRION HAND OF THE KING

Again, do I have to pretend I didnt read the books and actually know that being a Kingslayer is a very terrible sin to carry on Westeros??? Tyrion is not a beloved figure in this story, even before he killed his own father, Tywin Lannister.

Tyrion decision to kill his father, not only started the downfall of House Lannister, it also made the entire region of the Westerlands political weaker and more vulnerable to future attacks.He must be a very despised figure in the entire realm. Yet, he will be the second person in charge of Westeros??

At this point I am at loss of words. I have no idea what George is planning with this.

JON KILLING DAENERYS AS A LOVER IS A TERRIBLE IDEA.

Awful, terrible, horrible idea. Any way you slice, this was a terrible idea to end such amazing novel. Its corny, outdated and down right dangerous, considering we live in a world where females are at risk of being murdered by their male partners all the time.

This is such underwhelming decision, in a sea of underwhelming decisions that I am starting to think George was simply trying to make us all hate this ending.

We could have the realm raising in Rebelion against the Queen of Ashes; we could have second Dance of Dragons; We could have Arya using her underused superpowers as a Faceless men to kill Daenerys. No, we will have Jon Snow, still making excuses for Daenerys terrible behavior, begging her to start acting better???? telling her she will always be his queen while putting a dagger into her heart!!!

Again, this ending is coming from George himself. I cant really blame the D’s for this mess.

JON SNOW AND DAENERYS TARGARYEN ROMANCE WAS ANOTHER TERRIBLE IDEA.

Awful, terrible, horrible idea. Any way you slice, this was a terrible idea to end such amazing novel. If you dont believe Political Jon theory, then Jon Snow is just a completely fool, who fell in love with a tyrant, closed his eyes to all her terrible behavior and in the end was forced to kill the love of his life to save humanity. He is a idiot. and it breaks my heart that this is how Jon Snow will be remembered by audiences.  Some people keep on telling me. “Oh, by, I dont think this is how George will write him, I think its going to be much better” But I have to say, I dont think it will.

I do believe Jon was playing Dany in the beginning of their romance and was manipulating her in order to use her dragons and armies to save the North, but I also believe that once he finds out she is his family too, he became a little torned between his Targ and Stark family. He is a family man in the end of the day and he must feel some sort of guilty for his actions towards D@ny.

I think that George will keep Political Jon hidden between the lines, just like the show did. He may write much better and be more obvious, but I dont think it will ever be revealed explicit to the audience. And this is what kills his character. If he doesnt reveal to the audience that Jon was playing Daenerys, than it seems Jon Snow never really learned anything from his past 10 years and it sucks!!

No matter how you slice it, if George will keep Jon’s actions hidden and make the audience believe he is madly in love with this entitled monster and will keep on defending her until the very end and this is the character assassination of Jon Snow.

If, he is madly in love with Dany and has to be told several times that he must kill her to save the world from her tyranny, he is an IDIOT who never learned a damn thing in his life. If he DOESNT love Dany, but out of duty still is loyal to her, and has to be told several times to kill her in order to save the world, he is an IDIOT who never fucking learns anything. I dont get what George is doing here. He is destroying the character he spend so much time bulding as a hero, but that's exactly what he wants to do it. Maybe there are NO HEROS. (what a shit message).

I wished Jon and Dany had been just allies and later became enemies. This would be a much better ending for both characters.

CHARACTERS ARCS THAT SEEMS POINTLESS BY THE END OF THE STORY....

Jaime can not put Cersei behind him and comes back to die with her in the end;

Jon Snow can never, ever, ever learn with his mistakes and is still struggling after so much pain and misery in his life, over duty and honour.

Jon Snow years and years learning to be a leader and ruler is absolutely pointless and he is sent back to the Wall, where he started???

Sansa, who dreamed about love and family all 5 novels, ends this story completely alone;

Arya, who desperate wanted to go back home since season 1, leaves once again, this time for good??? leaving her younger brother alone in the South (where Stark men dont do well), her sister alone in Winterfell and Jon all alone at the Wall. WHAT THE FUCK?????

Daenerys can never overcome her family tragedy of Fire and Blood, and becomes the monster her father was;

In fact, it seems that its impossible for humans to evolve and become better people than their parents, a God like creature must rule us all, otherwise we are lost. (I can not repeated enough times, what terrible message this ending is, and its no even true!!!!, we live in a world of no magic, and we were able to produce rules who brought us peace, progress and humanity.)

THE COMPLETE LACK OF JOY, LOVE AND HOPE....

What really got me by surprise in the end, it was how sterile and hopeless this entire story felt. George once said that he writes so much violence, deaths and rapes in his novels because it is part of real medieval life and would be a lie to avoid those themes in his books, but you know whats also real part of medieval life?? Marriages? Marriage alliances, happy normal ones, who produce children, heirs, LIFE, FUTURE!!!

Oh we had weddings on ASOIAF, but most of them ended in slaughter, death, rape, misery. I dont think we had one happy birth inthis entire story? Gilly had a child from her father rapist and Edmure was able to produce a child too, but his bride Roselin was actualy in tears when they had sex (because she was aware of the Red Wedding plans) 

What a miserable tale this was. Our heros never really get to experience real joy. They never get to fullfill their childhood dreams. But they do get to be raped and abused, so, maybe thats ALL IT REALLY happened in the medieal times. Oh wait, its not tue, The War of the Roses ended with the marriage of Henry Tutor and Elizabeth of York. They had a very happy marriage and produced several children. 

In our story, we dont get to have laughter, joy, happiness or hope for a future. We do get several pages of Theon being tortured and dismembered in the books; or Sansa being physically and mentally abused; or Jon being consumed by loneliness and grief. But I guess, thats all it happened in the medieval times, so..........

Funny thing is, you see, before the story started, marriages and children were a common occurence in Westeros. Ned and Cat had several children; Cersei and Robbert had 3; Lysa was able to produce a child too; The Tyrells keep on making babies, even God damn Lyanna Stark, who only spent a few months married to Rheagar, was able to had a child. What miracle, its almost like those events were normal facts in those days.

In our story, no House can produce children, even bastards!!! Jon, Theon and Tyrion had quite lots of sex during this story, yet no children was ever produced. Maybe all men in Westeros became sterile, once ASOIAF started it. 

AS YOU SEE....

By the end of the day, I am disappointed in George, not really the TV show, which is even more sadder. I think he wrote a very beautiful story, but his ending is taking away all my joy for those characters and this novel. I know he wanted avoid the expected and subvert the expectations, but he is shooting his own story in their foot. And its braking my heart.

What terrible way to end such fascinating tale...

“[Bran] will be a good ruler bc he’s inhuman - which is a very depressing message. GoT was always about the struggle between human good & human evil w/in each person. Bran being king suggests that the solution to human evil isn’t human good, it’s being not human.”  

ALT SHIFT X described in great words, how I felt about this ending, and you could sense his disappointment in the final message of this story too. It's was an extremely nihlistic ending. Westeros hasn't changed in facts it's worse politically. 

A SONG OF ICE ANF FIRE VS LORD OF THE RINGS....

Now, lets compare this to LORD OF THE RINGS ending, who also got a bittersweet ending. Remember, George RRM is always comparing those stories and believes he is having a conversation to Tolkien. 

Honest to God, in comparison LOTR looks like a Disney movie. It has a beautiful coronation ceremony, humanity came together to save the world from evil, and THEY TRIUMPHED!!!! There is JOY, LOVE, HOPE. Aragorn is King of the Reunited Kingdom, the people love and admire him (can we say the same about King Bran?) . 

He marries his childhood love, Arwen and produce an heir. This brings hope and a sense of future for the reader. This story is uplifting, its inspiring, its quite frankly, a good story. 

Its impossible not feel good about this story and the ending is one of the reasons this story has touched so many people, from all over the world and has remained a classic. Because, the tale of humanity coming together to defeat the evil is a theme that its always occurring in our life times. This is something that Tolkien experienced personally, having to fight in the WWII.

The nazis were defeated because several countries, put aside their differences and fought for the good of humanity and yes, it is possible. And after WWII we actually managed to achieve a lot of humans rights for several people who were considered less in the early century. 

In GOT there was no joy or celebration, no weddings to form new alliances; to make peace; no births to bring new heirs, to bring a hope for the future. In fact, most wedding in the show were always associated with death and pain. Death and pain, yes, there was a lot of death and pain in ASOAIF. Thats all it has to offer the reader and viewer? Death, pain and misery??

I understand that George wanted to do the different and not give what the reader really wanted. But I have to be honest to you, in my opinion, this was a unfulfilling, uninspiring, unpleasant story. I said a few times, i have no desire to re read those long books. This story brought me no joy. And I understand that, stories are not obliged to bring us joy, but, they are supposed to make sense. And, I just dont think the ending made a lot of sense for those who read the books. Hey, maybe that was our mistake. Hee

What sad story :/

[meisanimam]

8, 19, 27

8. what is each of your muses otps? notps?

this is gonna get super long but I’ll only touch on the basics. Graham’s OTP is obviously Graham/Emma but I also really ship Graham/Ruby while Graham/Regina is the biggest NOTP to ever NOTP. I don’t have a lot of NOTPs for Charming other than the obvious incest ones I’ve seen around but my OTP is definitely either Charming/Snow or Charming/Ruby. I don’t care one way or another about Oberyn. Jaime’s NOTP would be jaime/brienne while I really enjoy Jaime/Aurora I also gotta go with the old favorite Jaime/Cersei. Han’s OTP is obviously Han/Leia and the NOTP would be luke/han. I don’t ship Vaisey with anyone but a HUGE NOTP is Vaisey/Guy. No thanks, get that out of here. Robin Hood’s OTP is Robin/Marian but I also shipped him with Guy in a very rival!mance sort of way. But I don’t know if I liked it enough to be considered an OTP. A NOTP for Robin would definitely be him/any gang member. Marian is MARIAN/GUY THATS THE ONLY SHIP THAT MATTERS. Though I also shipped her with Djaq. 

And of course Robin. Isabella I don’t really care one way about but she’s a lesbian so ... give me all the girls. For Derek I enjoy both Derek/Meredith and Derek/Addison. A NOTP would definitely be Derek/Mark. Indiana’s OTP would either be Indiana/Marion (duh) or Indiana/Lara. I think any NOTP would be any slash paring because in my head Indy is a hardlined heterosexual. Ned, I obviously ship Ned/Chuck but my biggest OTP is just Ned/Happiness. As far as a NOTP, Ned/Emmerson because I’ve seen that one around. 

Lancelot’s OTP is Lance/Gwen .. as far as a notp goes probably lance/elaine. I don’t really ‘ship’ the bnha kids since they’re well.. kids, but there are a few I think are cute together. We’ll leave it at that. For prompto my biggest OTP is Promoto/Ignis. Like, pry it from my cold dead hands.  I guess a notp would be prompto/noctis because i’ve always seen noct with gladio. Dutch’s OTP (the way we write it and the way we write it only) probably Dutch/Arthur. I also highly ship Dutch/Molly but .. its toxic. As far as a notp goes, Dutch/Hosea. I don’t really have an OTP for Watson, but a notp would be Watson/Holmes. I know its a popular one but I don’t ship it at all. I ship Septimus with power. A notp would be Septimus and death.

19. for each muse, is there a character you wish had a blog so you could interact with them?

THIS IS GETTING SO LONG. I’m just gonna name the ones I wish were around. Obviously for Ned, I wish there was a Chuck but we’d have to have major chemistry for me to enter a ship. For Dutch, a Hosea. I mean some of these there are blogs out there, I’ve just been too lazy to find them. I love the Jaime and Tywin dynamic so thats a blog I’d love to interact with. Oberyn and Tyrion. Bakugo and Deku. A leia for Han obviously. A marcus for Indiana would be really fun.I’d love to see a blog for Vaisey’s sister? It shows a side of him we don’t normally get to explore so that would be great fun. I’m sure there are others but this is getting long enough already.

27. is there a rule that someone keeps breaking for your muses?

NO FORCE SHIPPING. I’ve gotten a lot of force shipping. Even if it goes no farther than IMs in some cases or one reply, it makes me very uncomfortable when people assume things. I have a hard time writing romance, etc with partners I haven’t written with for a while so when new partners jump right on that train and bombard me with things it can be a little overwhelming. Also when people don’t specify muse and make me work for it. I’m always afraid I will choose someone they don’t know/don’t want to interact with. So, unless I know you and we’ve spoken, choose a damn muse. Please.

[where-theres-smoak-2]

GOT 8X05 REVIEW

I feel like this episode was the Marmite of Game of Thrones, you either loved it or you hated it. Me? I did love it. I mean there are some things I had an issue with but as an overall episode I thought it was a good watch. For some reason I keep finding myself in this position where the majority of people hate an episode but I like it but there you go. As I said before these are just my own thoughts and feelings and I have no issues with anyone else having a different opinion or feeling differently about the episode everyone is entitled to their own feelings and I’m not here to judge or tell someone they’re wrong for feeling a particular way. I respect other peoples opinions as I would hope they respect mine. But anyway if you would like to know what I thought about the episode continue reading again it is very long so fair warning and obviously there are spoilers. 

Dany’s Decision

So I’m going to start with Dany as I feel like that was the thing most people seemed to have the strongest feelings over. Again unpopular opinion here but I personally didn’t have an issue with her actions, ok I’ve worded that badly obviously I didn’t enjoy watching her burn thousands of people alive but I had no issue with how it was written. Mostly because it made sense to me, I understood her motive and her thought process in that moment (it might also have been influenced by the fact that I’ve been waiting for ehr to go Mad Queen ever since season 3 so instead of feeling sudden to me it actaully flet long overdue). The best way for me to explain why it made sense to me is by walking through Dany’s storyline this episode in particular. I think the key to understanding her actions is understanding the state of mind she’s in at that moment. If we start at the beginning of the episode and how we find Dany. For us the audience only an episode has passed but for Dany and the other characters its been at least 2 weeks. We know this because Tyrion told Dany last episode that Jon and his men were a fortnite away and Jon arrived this episode. That means that for two weeks now Dany has locked herself in a room by herself, she’s completely isolated herself and has refused any food. She’s had two weeks of grieving and missing Missandei. I feel like during those two weeks her mind has unravelled and she’s now essentially just a shell of who she used to be. Which is made obvious when we next see her and her hair is unbraided and unkempt and she’s pale and has such a hollow look in her eyes, I mean hats off to Emilia because her acting this episode is her best so far in my opinion I brought everything she was selling.I know alot of people said that Dany just snapped when the bells rang but in my opinion she was broken long before that moment she was broken from the very beginning of this episode. I do think Dany at this earlier point in the episode is in a very deep depressive state which is understandable given everything she’s gone through so far. She’s put a wall up and has hidden all her feelings behind it as a way of coping with all she’s lost so now she just feels hollow and empty. I think this hollow feeling is shown most when she learns of Varys’ betrayal and has little reaction to it, as she says to Tyrion it doesn’t matter anymore. I mean if you compare her reaction to how she reacted when others betrayed her like Doreah and Jorah she was furious and heartbroken and you could see this written all over her face. But with Varys although she displays a little anger she doesn’t have much of a reaction at all because all of her feelings are muted right now. 

Again when she actually executes Varys she displays little emotion. She doesn’t get angry at him or sad, she doesn’t cry or yell she just calmly sentences him to death. If you look at her reaction to the situation compared to others there is a huge difference. Tyrion is naturally very upset by the entire thing as Varys is his friend and Tyrion feels guilt over betraying him. But even Jon looks uncomfortable by it, even he displays some kind of emotion despite not knowing Varys very well and yet Dany shows no emotion at all. Again another side note here but I am curious about Varys putting his rings in that cup next to the pot in which he burnt the note. I do wonder if that is some kind of clue that will allow one of his little birds to find the note and take it to someone who will get the word out about Jon. The note might not have burned all the way as Varys put the lid on which might have doused the flames. Well only time will tell. 

Then we get that scene with Jon by the fireplace. Here we have a slight shift is Dany’s demeanour. As a quick side note I think its interesting that Dany sees Jon telling Sansa and Arya as a betrayal, it’s like she’s mad at him for not loving her more than his sisters. I think this is in large part because she never experienced that loving brother/ sister relationship herself. Her own brother was abusive towards her and never really gave her that love or trust that Jon and his own siblings have so she doesn’t understand why Jon would trust his sisters like that when all she knew from her own brother was betrayal. But anyway getting back on track I think during this scene we see a little crack in Dany’s wall and she does display some vunerability and emotion. My heart broke for her when she made that speech about how she has no love here only fear. I think it started to dawn on her last episode at the feast and that feeling of isolation and loneliness has only grown and on top of that she’s got the grief of losing both Misaandei and Jorah. Some of her emotions creep through and we see tears in her eyes and the pain and grief on her face. It’s around Jon these feelings come out a little and she seeks comfort from him, seeks love. Unfortunately Jon is unable to give her what she needs. He to is struggling with his emotions and feelings and isn’t in the greatest frame of mind himself. He had a different upbringing from her and while she doesn’t care that he’s her nephew he is struggling with the fact that she’s his aunt. It no longer feels right to him and he just can’t love her the same anymore. I do think that if Jon had been able to return Dany’s feelings then the following events could have been avoided but instead we see Dany throw that wall back up again only this time she is completely isolated from everyone. Jon was her last link to her humanity and in that moment its severed. 

Which brings us to the next scene in the episode with Tyrion in the throne room. What’s important about this scene is that it starts with Tyrion trying to remind Dany that the people in Kings Landing are not her enemies. This is important because it tells us that Dany has forgotten this, you don’t need to remind someone of something unless they’ve forgotten it. The other part that is important is Dany’s respose to Tyrion saying that they were no different from the people of Meeren. Because she does see them as different from the people of Meeren. The people of Meeren turned on the Masters when they saw Dany arrive. They rejoiced her arrival, they gave her their love. The people of Kings Landing did not. They turned to Cersei for protection, they only gave Dany their fear. One of the biggest things I saw people having an issue with is that Dany would never kill the innocent. In some ways thats true she has often been the protector of the innocent or rather the protector of those she believes to be innocent. Because lets be honest this isn’t the first time Dany has killed someone who was innocent, she just believed that they weren’t and so believed she was in the right to kill them. Two examples of this are when she crucified Hizdar zo Loraq’s father only to later learn that he had spoken out against crucifixation himself and wasn’t what Dany believed him to be and then when she executed Dickon Tarly. Who again was just a stupid kid who was standing by his father. Both were innocent and yet on both occasion Dany believed them to be bad people and her enemies. This is important because to understand Dany’s actions you need to look at it through her eyes and in my opinion she didn’t look down at the people of Kings Landing and see innocent people. We the audience knew they were innocent but she saw them as her enemies and so believed she was in the right and her actions were correct. She’s spent her whole life being told that Westeros is her home and the people were eagarly awaiting her return, she came here expecting people to love her and rejoice at her arrival but instead she was met by fear and treated as a foreigner and an outsider. 

There’s also the part where she talks about how she’s securing freedom for the future generations. I think this is important because I also believe that to some extent on top of seeing them as her enemies she sees them as collateral damage. Like she’s thinking ok if I kill/sacrifice these people (who are my enemies anyway because they’ve sided with Cersei) then I’ll save more lives in the future. It’s this idea of sacrificing the few to save the many. Another thing worth noting in this scene is once again Dany is displaying very little emotion even when she tells Tyrion that Jaime has been captured and threatens him. Also I do feel like at this point Dany is seeing enemies everywhere. She doesn’t trust anyone, Jon has betrayed her, Varys has betrayed her, Tyrion betrayed her when he spoke to Varys before her, Sansa has betrayed her by telling Tyrion, Jaime has betrayed her by going back to Cersei, the people of Kings Landing have betrayed her by siding with Cersei. In some cases she’s right but in others its irrational to be thinking like that but it doesn’t matter anymore because her mind is already broken. 

And so we’ve reached that pivotal moment where she is sitting on Drogon upon the wall and the bells are ringing out across the city. This is the moment the gods throw that coin and we all held our breaths to see where is would land. This is also the moment when Dany begins the final arc of her story. All of characters are now at the end of their stories. Some of them have already began their final arcs, some are at the end of their final arcs but in my opinion this is the moment that Dany’s begins. And in this moment both we as an audience and Dany look back on her journey that has brought her to this moment. I mean lets put ourselves in her shoes for a moment. When those bells rang she got everything she ever wanted, the thing she wanted most that she’s been working towards for 8 seasons, the Iron Throne is hers. In this moment though I was reminded of that quote that Tyrion said to Cersei ‘a day will come when you think yourself safe and happy and suddenly your joy will turn to ashes in your mouth.’ Dany has always wanted the throne and I think a huge part of that is the desire to feel safe to be happy in the home that was stolen from her. This moment should be the happiest moment of her life, she should feel joy and she might’ve for a split second but then that joy turns to ashes in her mouth because as much as this is what she always wanted she never wanted it like this. She’s reached the end of her journey, she’s won her prize but when she looks back at all she’s gone through and all she’s lost she realises the prize was not worth the price. It’s a hollow prize. She has been beaten and raped, betrayed by her closest companions, lost her husband, her children, her friends and now she finds herself with a throne but nothing else. Those she loved most were all taken from her. Now think back to the season 1 finale she tells the Dothraki exactly what she will do to those who hurt the people she cares about ‘those who would harm you will die screaming.’ Then later when she is outside of Qarth she tells them  "we will take back what was stolen from me and destroy those who have wronged me. We will lay waste to armies and burn cities to the ground." And as she thinks back on all of this suddenly all of those emotions she’s been holding in come flooding out. The grief, the pain and overshadowing everything else the anger. It’s in that moment that she realises it’s not enough, the Iron Throne no longer means anything to her what she really wants is revenge and so every promise shes made through out the series comes true and she takes what is her in fire and in blood. She takes all of that anger out on the city. Also I do want to say that Emilia did an amazing job in that moment. I mentioned above that I think she did some of her best work in this episode but that moment when she was looking across the city and you could see all those emotions rolling across her face gave me chills. She looked devastatingly beautiful. 

When you think about Dany’s journey it really is one of tragedy. She lost at least 8 of those closest to her, at least 5 people have betrayed her, the man she loves turns out to be her nephew and also could be the one to take everything she’s ever wanted away from her. She spent her whole life wanting to return home only to realise when she got there that she didn’t belong there after all. And at the end of it all she’s left completely alone and unloved as she said all she has left is fear. Another thing I think is important to remember about Dany’s character is that she’s never been one to shy away from violence. Her entire stiryline has been littered with her burning and killing others. And yes this is the same of many characters in Game of Thrones but the thing with Dany is she seems to take some kind of enjoyment out of killing her enemies. If you take her reaction to killing and compare it to Jon for example. While Dany enjoys killing those who wronged her Jon struggled with killing his own murderers. Jon has never particularly enjoyed killing anyone. And so because of all of this combined to me her actions made perfect sense and in my opinion very much in line with her character. I think her story was very well written and I look forward to see where it goes in the next episode. 

Jaime and Cersei

Now I did say that there were a couple of things I had an issue with in this episode and the biggest of those was Jaime’s arc. In fact I’m very conflicted about how I feel about this one which is why it took me so long to get this review out I was mulling it all over and trying to figure out how I felt about it. When Jaime left at the end of episode 4 I was so sure he was going to kill Cersei I was also sure that was what I wanted to see. But as you all know that didn’t happen. He really was just going back to Cersei and to be honest at the time that the episode aired I was p*ssed about this. I thought it was all really stupid and I didn’t understand anything about Jaime’s storyline in this episode. I thought his fight with Euron was stupid, I thought him returning to Cersei was stupid and I thought his death was stupid and I was very angry about it for days. But this is where the conflicted part comes in. As time went on I began to think more about it and I realised that I don’t think I really did want him to kill Cersei just because she’s pregnant with his child and I feel like having him kill a woman who is pregnant with his child would be as big of a betrayal of his redemption arc and his character. 

That being said I’m still not satisfied with how it all ended for him. I mean I get what they were going for with it, it’s this idea that not everyone gets their redemption. And yes I get that it comes from the fact that while we can see that Jaime is a good man who has come a long way and deserves a redemption act and an epically heroic death Jaime himself does not. He doesn’t think he’s a good man in fact he thinks he’s a hateful person and he decides that Cersei is what he wants after all. And yes I can appreciate the poetry of them meeting again after their separation in the same place as where he left her. I didn’t hate every single moment they had in fact there were some parts of their storyline that I loved. That moment when they were reunited I thought was very well done and written. But the one scene that really got to me was their last one. I mean I teared up and got very emotional when Cersei said ‘I want our baby to live.’ To me that scene was soo well acted by Lena I mean I actually felt sorry for Cersei. These were her final moments and in those moments she was the most human we’ve seen her, I think the most vunerable to. It’s been said over and over again throughout the series that Cersei’s one redeeming quality was her love for her children and that really comes through in that moment. She was just a mother who wanted her child to live and she knew that wasn’t going to happen and seeing that devastation Cersei was feeling was heartbreaking to me. That was superb writing, to make the audience feel sympathy for a character who up until this point was one of the most hated characters on the show. The writing for that scene was great Lena’s acting was off the charts and in some ways I was glad Jaime was there with her and their child at the end. I wanted to feel joyous about her death, to be celebrating and instead I felt her pain and fear and I fpound myself hoping she would find a way out of it and that her child would get to live and I never thought I’d be hoping for Cersei to live.  

And yet there was still something about Jaime’s storyline that left a bad taste in my mouth. While I was ok with Cersei’s part and her actions which all seemed in line with her character I wasn’t satisfied with Jaime. The thing is there is one thing they could have done to make me happy with everything he did in this episode. And that is if they had shifted the focus onto their child as oppose to Cersei. If they had him say he wanted to save his child and it just happened to be that in order to do that he had to safe Cersei too. Like his main goal was making sure the baby lived I would have been good with it. Because then he’s a father trying to protect his child. They could still have kept everything the same in the episode, him sneaking into Kings Landing, his fight with Euron, him finding Cersei and trying to get her out so they can start a new life together and ultimately failing and dying in the tunnels. But with the focus on him trying to save his child it wouldn’t have ruined his character development and in a way it still would have been a redemption arc, he would have died trying to protect an innocent life. Bonus points if he had also got there in time to persuade Cersei to surrender to Dany in an attempt to protect the people of Kings Landing.

However by having him go back purely for Cersei I do feel like they threw Jaime’s character development out of the window harder than he threw Bran out back in season 1. Only they did a better job than Jaime because unlike Bran Jaime’s arc was well and truly murdered. Ok that might be a little harsh but I do feel like it could have been improved. The thing is it could so easily have been fixed by just having a little more put into it. If we had a few scenes showing Jaime feeling conflicted. Like maybe in that scene with Tyrion when he says Jaime knew exactly who Cersei was but he loved her anyway Jaime could have said something along the lines of I miss her and sometimes I wonder if I should have left her, maybe I belong with her. It would have shown us he was conflicted. Then it would have had the audience wondering who he was going to choose, would he stay with Brienne or go back to Cersei? Instead everyone was completely blindsided by his decision to go back to Cersei because he had barely mentioned her since leaving. He had been all about Brienne from the moment he showed up in Winterfell right up until the moment he left. 

I do still think that his fight with Euron was stupid. Like the fight itself was fine, it was tense and kept me on the edge of my seat, it was well choeregraphed. But I was confused by the premise of it or how it fit in with the storyline. Like what was the point of it, I didn’t even really get why they were fighting or what they were fighting over. Was it over Cersei? Was it just because they didn’t like each other? It just didn’t make sense to me. I’d have preferred if Yara had shown up and we had that fight between them.  

 Now the thing is I’m not sure if its just bad writing or whether I’m just bitter because it’s not what I wanted for Jaime. Like I said there were some parts that I thought were great and as an overall stroy arc I really enjoyed watching Jaime’s. It’s been entertaining to see him go from this prissy prince charming who was way to cocky for his own good to an honourable man who had complex layers. The tragedy of Jaime’s story is that although he got close he was never truly able to escape Cersei and in the end she was his desturction. I do think that she was always going to be his undoing. But as I said if it had been written with a bit more care it would have worked, I’d have understood it and it would have had more of an impact but ultimately I was just left feeling angry and wishing for what could have been.

The Sacking of Kings Landing   

However you felt about Dany’s decision you can’t deny that these scenes were visually spectacular as well as gut wrenching. I do think it was a very clever choice to not show anything from Dany’s prespective again, it was all from down in the streets. It put us the audience in the same space as the civilians who were having to live this horror. These scenes really did remind me of the Sacking of Troy like I could see so many similarities and I remember the first time I watched the film Troy and how emotional I got over those scenes and I defintely got the same emotions when watching these scenes. Just that disbelieve of what you are watching, mixed with the horror and the sorrow and even anger at the men who are terrorising these innocent people. 

I wasn’t at all surprised by Grey Worm’s and co’s actions. Horrified yes but not surprised. He has had this anger brewing up for the last two weeks over what happened to Missandei. Similarly to Dany I think this was the moment it all came out. As for the Northmen again I didn’t find it surprising. We’ve scene Stark men behave this way before. When Brienne was transporting Jaime they came across Stark men who had killed and hung three women because they had laid with Lannister men. I think their actions were best explained by Jorah way back in season 3 and he says ‘there’s a beast inside every man and it stirs when you put a sword in his hand.’  In this scene he also gives us more foreshadowing, firstly when he asked Barristan if he had ‘ever seen a war where innocents did not die by the thousands.’ and then again when he talks about the first Sacking of Kings Landing when he says he saw ‘butchery. Babies, children, old men. More women raped than you could count.’ I’ve said over and over again that the Game of Thrones series works through parallels and circles and history repeating itself. This was the writers telling us exactly what was going to happen to Kings Landing. It also served to show how war effects not just the soldiers who can be over taken by bloodlust but the innocent civilians who get caught in the middle of it all. 

One of the more heart wrentching things for me was seeing Jon’s reaction to it all. Jon has seen battles before but he’s never seen anything like this. His own men became the bad guys. It really hit me to see him desperately trying to stop it and just not being able to. He tries everything, he yells at his men to stop but that fails, he even ends up killing one of his men. Seeing that denial and disbelief as he looks around at all the carnage just pulled at my heart strings. I do think it was quite smart of him to yell retreat and fall back to get his men to stop. He play into their fear and puts it into their heads of we need to leave now or we’re going to die. Which you know was right the city was literally falling down at that point but his men did stop and they did retreat. But I do think this is going to have a very deep effect on Jon, it was one thing to see the woman he loves burn the city down it was another to see the Northmen behave that way, especially when he’s held them in such high regard, we’ve always seen the Northmen as the good guys and as having more honour so to see that questioned is terrifying and very upsetting. I said that I have a theory that Jon will go and join the Wildlings North of the Wall at the end of the series and I actually am even more certain of this now, I really do think this had done a number on Jon and really messed him up. 

But the most heart-wrenching moments in this episode were seeing the people siffering through this nightmare. Watching children being burned and seeing buildings falling down on people. But the moment that really made me cry was seeing those people in the street cradling their loved ones who were either already dead or were severely injured with burns and missing limbs and hearing them cry and scream. It messed me up a little. I had to take a few moments to get myself together again. It really did show you the horrors of war. I’m not even sure I’ve really got the words to convey how strongly those moments made me feel. But I said above that this was one of the most visually spectacular episodes and alot of that was shown by the destruction of the city. It was horrifying and yet I could not take my eyes off of the screen. Seeing part of the red Keep fall down into the sea, just crumbling away. Or when the dragon fire literally dissolved buildings. Also as gruesome as it was seeing the charred bodies of the victims. It all looked incredibly realistic.

One last note on this part is the music. As always Ramin Djawadi is a genius. I could spend the rest of my life listening to his score for Game of Thrones. But in particular when you had that slow build with the pulsing in the background like a heartbeat. I mean the while score was amazing but that part in particular stands out in my mind. It almost sounded like the kind of music you’d get in a horror movie.  

Tyrion

Ah my poor Tyrion. He has long been one of my favourites but this episode reminded me why. He always tries to do whats right. The last time he was in Kings Landing the people were pretty much cheering for his head and yet despite that he tries everything he can to save them. I do have my issues with him betraying Varys but at the same time I understand that he was trying to do what he thought was right. He clearly didn’t make the decision lightly and was deeply effected by it, That scene with him saying goodbye to Varys showed how much Tyrion really does care. 

Also that scene where he lets Jaime go and says goodbye to him. My gosh it was another case of truly amazing acting. There were so many moments in that scene that made me cry and also reminded me of why I love Tyrion so much. When he told Jaime that he was the only one who didn’t treat him like a monster and how he never would have survived his childhood without him really made me appreciate the bond between these two brothers. It was so sad to watch them say goddbye and that hug my poor heart. But the line that got my the most that just made me have so much respect for Tyrion was when he said ‘tens of thousands of innocent lives, one not particularly innocent dwarf, seems like a fair trade’. It really showed how much he cares about the people and the saddest part is that they probably wouldn’t give two hoots if Tyrion were to be killed. 

I will admit I am very nervous for Tyrion. I don’t think Dany is going to take too kindly to Tyrion letting Jaime go. The most frustrating part is that Tyrion technically didn’t fail Dany again. He assured her that the people would ring the bells and surrender and then he tried to do everything he could to make sire that happened with minimal bloodshed. And he succeeded. The city surrendered and it was with little bloodshed it was Dany who then went coastal and started burning everything in sight. Yet it is Tyrion who will possibly pay the price. I really hope they don’t kill him next episode. But I am very nervous. 

Clegane Bowl

This was just epic. I loved everything about this scene. From the Mountain killing Qyburn to Cersei just peacing out and getting out of there as quickly as possible to the fight itself. Also the location was perfect. That stairway that’s just crumbling away and now leads nowhere. You know that there’s nowhere for either of them to run, this ends here and it ends now. Also that shot of the dragon fire and then Drogon flying over the top was soo cool. Over the top? Probably but I didn’t care I still loved it. I also loved how gritty it was. How it built as well. It started out with the swords but they got closer and closer until eventually it was bare hands, tooth, nails and daggers. 

I also loved the throwbacks with the Mountain trying to crush the Hound’s skull the same way he did Oberyn, also the dagger through the eye which is a throwback to two things one is Jory in season 1 who got stabbed through the eye by Jaime. But also that’s the way Arya said she was going to kill the Hound ‘one day I’m going to stick a dagger through your eye and out the back of your skull.’ There is something kind of poetic about the Hound then using that against the Mountain. The fight was tense and violent and I kept wanting to hide behind my fingers everytime the Hound got thrown about. The Hound really had to struggle for this victory. 

Also as much as I hated seeing The Hound die his death was still epic. I couldn;t have thought of a better death for him. It just seemed fitting that he dies with his brother and it’s by falling into fire. Again that shot of them both falling from the tower and into the flames below was visaully outstanding and along with the music again it all added to the epicness of it all. So yes I am very happy with how the Hound’s storyline was brought to a close and I think they stayed true to the character all the way through. 

Arya and The Hound 

Arya’s stroyline this episode was actually my favourite part of this episode. I liked the scenes in the beginning with her and the Hound showing up and basically just telling that soldier I’m here to kill the Queen now get out of my way. I thought that was very humourous and very Arya. 

But one scene that I think was so important to Arya’s arc and that really had me tearing up was the Hound telling Arya she had to leave or she’d die here. In that moment I saw a father concerned for his daughter. I do think the Hound has come to love Arya and has alot of affection for her. This scene was just such an honest scene. I also love that it was the Hound that convinced Arya to fight to live and that from that moment Arya fought as hard as she could to live. Also it was so touching to have her call him by his actual name. When she said thank you to him I really do think she was thanking him for everything he’s done for her. It was a thank you for trying to get me back to my family even if it was for money. A thank you for teaching her all those lessons that helped her survive. A thank you for fighting for her. And a thank you for giving her a reason to fight to live. It was also a goodbye. She knew she was never going to see him again. There was just something so sweet and yet so sad about that moment. And again brilliantly written and acted. 

I also liked how the juxtaposed Sandor’s fight with the Mountain with Arya’s fight to escape the city. When the Hound fell Arya fell. When the Hound was pulled back to his feet and few moments later so was Arya. The thing that was so poignant about those moments was that knowledge of the Hound was essentially fighting to die and Arya was fighting to live. It’s these two characters that have been so linked and are so similar who are now heading in opposite directions from each other, one towards death and the other towards life. 

Another scene that caught my attention was when Arya falls and is being trampled by the fleeing people before she is pulled back up. This scene reminded me so much of when Jon was being trampled during the Battle of the Bastards. In both instances its two characters that had given up on life who suddenly have that desire to live and so they fight their way back to their feet, back to life. I like that they made that connection between them as well as the connection between Arya and the Hound. The other thing I noticed was that Arya was wearing her hair very similar to Jon. In fact there was a scene where they show the back of Arya as she moves through the crowd of people and from the back her hair looks so much like Jon. I don’t know if it has any significance but it did jump out at me in that moment. 

Arya’s journey through Kings Landing was so harrowing, like she should’ve died about ten times over and I’ll admit when I saw her laying on the ground with the blood on her face and covered in dust and ash I did think for a moment that she was dead but thankfully she wasn’t.

There were a few things that I did notice though. The first one is the man who stops her, It’s a very quick scene but I don’t think it was an accident that the guy looked so much like Gendry. I mean it took me a hot second to realise that it wasn’t him they looked so much alike. Now it might be the Gendrya shipper in me talking but I do think the show has made efforts to link Gendry with life and the Hound with death within Arya’s story. I don’t think its an accident that right after she decides she wants to live she has an interaction with someone who is the splitting image of Gendry. This is particularly interesting when you pair it with the fact that one of the last things she does before deciding to embark on her journey to death with the Hound is reject Gendry’s proposal. Then one of the first interactions she has after deciding to follow the path to life is with a man asking for his wife. I don’t believe in coincidences this was planned and has significance to Arya’s storyline.  

 But I think the biggest part of Arya’s journey this episode was that family she tried to save.She comes across them three times. Once when she is entering Kings Landing, then when the Mother pulls her to her feet and then later when she finds them hiding in that house. I again think its important that its a family she interacts with. Firstly because another thing she did when she left Winterfell to kill Cersei was walk away from her family. So this family ties into that, she wants to live and so that brings her back to her family. Also I again think its linked in with Gendry and that original rejection of that life of settling down as lord and lady and starting a family. The man looking for his wife and the family are significant because those were the things she was running away from when she was sure she was going to die but now that she wants to live those are the things she’s running towards. 

Another thing I noticed was that the little girl was carrying a toy white horse. Now this seems to be another thing that hold alot of symbolism in Arya’s storyline. In season 7 when Arya decides to return to winterfell she is riding a white horse. When Gendry arrives at Winterfell he is also riding a white horse. Now we have this little girl holding a white horse toy while Arya is trying to escape winterfell. Then of course Arya sees the white horse that she rides out of Kings Landing which I will talk about some more in a moment. BUt the other thing that has symbolism for Arya is the black horse. When the Hound arrives at Winterfell he’s riding a black horse and when Arya leaves with him she too rides a black horse. The other thing worth noting is that heartbreakingly when the mother and daughter are burned the little white toy horse is charred so badly it turns black. To me the symbolism is obvious, the white horse is life and the black horse is death. 

The moment that left the most impact on me in this episode was that moment when Arya looks down at the burned bodies of that family, they really did remind me of the ash bodies from Pompeii, I visited Pompeii and Herculaneum a few years back and saw the ash bodies in person, there was one display that showed a whole family huddled together and seeing that mother and daughter reminded me so much of that. But anyway back to what I was saying. The thing that struck me the most was she looks at the bodies and it focusses in on that toy horse and then she looks up and there standing amongst the death, and burning debris and ash is a white horse. I said this was the most visually spectacular episode ever and that shot of Arya approaching the Horse with the ash falling down was the one that took my breath away the most. There was something so tragically beautiful about it. I don’t even know how to properly describe it but well it was just hauntingly georgeous. Also the same can be said of that shot of her rding out of Kings Landing.  But this is the moment that she really embraces life. I am excited to see where Arya’s story goes next. 

Things that were not so hot. 

Above I said there were some things I had an issue with. Now I’m not going to put Jaime’s storyline here because I already talked about it above but ere are some other things that I think definietly needed some improvement. 

1) The Golden Company Who? Ok like really, what was even the point of these guys. They literally did nothing but die. There was all this hype about how strong they were and yet all they did was stand outside the gates then get burned. Like fine if they were to be defeated but after all the hype we could’ve at least seen them fight a little. 

2) Yara Where Are Ya? So I mentioned this briefly above but it feels like they’ve forgotten about Yara. Like I feel like this was the perfect episode to bring her back into the storyline. She could have snuck up on the Iron Fleet and done a double whammy attack with Dany on Drogon and Yara firing from behind them cornering them in. Also it would have made more sense to have Yara fight Euron than Jaime. But hey that’s just my opinion. 

3) Please Sir, Can I Have Some More? This season needed more episodes. I get that D&D supposedly had this vision of a 73 hour or whatever it was movie. But I do think it suffered for it and it would have been better for them to throw that vision out and go for the longer season. I do think Jaime’s storyline would have benefitted from it. Also though I am happy with the pacing of Dany’s storyline others might have been happier with more hints put in there. I just feel like this season needed fleshing out a little more in some places and that could’ve been achieved if they had those extra episodes. 

4) And Who Are You Again? Ok so this one is slightly linked to the one above but if they had more episodes they could’ve shown us more Cersei. Maybe it was just me but she just didn’t seem to be in this season very much. I feel like they sacrificed alot of her storyline for the sake of showing what was going on with Jon and Dany. So we only really got a couple of scenes with her before she died. I do feel like they should have explored more of her relationship with Euron because it was such a difference between now and when we last saw them, they seem much closer and more lovey dovey. The same can be said of Sansa and Bran they haven’t been explored as much as they could’ve been again I feel like they’ve been put on the back burner a bit so they can focus more on Jon, Dany, Tyrion and Arya. So we need more focus on some of the characters and that could’ve been achieved if there were more episodes. 

Anyway that’s it for this review. Once again these are just my own opinions. As one last word, A friend asked me what my opinion on the leaks were. Well I haven’t read the leaks and I don’t intend to I’ve actually blacklisted that tag though judging from the amount of ‘this post contains’ blocked posts on my dashboard and in the tags I’m assuming something has happened with the leaks. But I will do another review for the final episode and tell you what I think then. I’m both very excited and very nervous for the last episode. Still struggling with the idea that in less than 24 hours the last ever episode of Game of Thrones would’ve aired.  

[cheasethings]

how cedar symbology reinforces the theory of Others as evicted weirwood spirits

asoiaf meta

this.. essay? heavily relies on theories and information gathered in the Mythical Astronomy of Ice and Fire by Lucifer means Lightbringer, so props to him and i hope this makes sense if youre unfamiliar with that work.

linking cedars to weirwoods:

"'Who knows more of gods than I? Horse gods and fire gods, gods made of gold with gemstone eyes, gods carved of cedar wood, gods chiseled into mountains, gods of empty air . . .'" -The Iron Captain, AFFC note 'carved'

"He did not like this Isle of Cedars either. The hunting might be good, but the forests were too green and still, full of twisted trees and queer bright flowers like none his men had ever seen before, and there were horrors lurking amongst the broken palaces and shattered statues of drowned Velos, half a league north of the point where the fleet lay at anchor. The last time Victarion had spent a night ashore, his dreams had been dark and disturbing and when he woke his mouth was full of blood. The maester said he had bitten his own tongue in his sleep, but he took it for a sign from the Drowned God, a warning that if he lingered here too long, he would choke on his own blood." -The Iron Suitor, ADWD

note 'too green' and the fact that Victarion has Strange Dreams sleeping here and wakes with weirwood stigmata (a mouth full of blood, like a weirwood)

HIstory of cedars:

"For centuries Meereen and her sister cities Yunkai and Astapor had been the linchpins of the slave trade, the place where Dothraki khals and the corsairs of the Basilisk Isles sold their captives and the rest of the world came to buy. Without slaves, Meereen had little to offer traders. Copper was plentiful in the Ghiscari hills, but the metal was not as valuable as it had been when bronze ruled the world. The cedars that had once grown tall along the coast grew no more, felled by the axes of the Old Empire or consumed by dragonfire when Ghis made war against Valyria. Once the trees had gone, the soil baked beneath the hot sun and blew away in thick red clouds. "It was these calamities that transformed my people into slavers," Galazza Galare had told her, at the Temple of the Graces. And I am the calamity that will change these slavers back into people, Dany had sworn to herself." -Daenerys III, ADWD

"Where were these cedars? Drowned four hundred years ago, it seemed." -THe Iron Suitor, ADWD

"On the day the Doom came to Valyria, it was said, a wall of water three hundred feet high had descended on the island, drowning hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children, leaving none to tell the tale but some fisherfolk who had been at sea and a handful of Velosi spearmen posted in a stout stone tower on the island's highest hill, who had seen the hills and valleys beneath them turn into a raging sea. Fair Velos with its palaces of cedar and pink marble had vanished in a heartbeat. On the north end of the island, the ancient brick walls and stepped pyramids of the slaver port Ghozai had suffered the same fate." -THe Iron Suitor, ADWD

from these quotes we get a story of valyrians destroying cedars (directly or indirectly).  In slaver's bay, the desertification resulting from the cedar's destruction creates the economic conditions that forces the three sister cities to start trading in slaves.  Most valyrian actions fall into the pattern of the BLoodstone Emperor, that is to say, behavior that starts a Long Night (symbolically).  

Linking the Slavers to the Others:

aside from the obvious fact that the Others are slavers, enthralling their victims bodies and minds to wage their war (i believe the wights are conscious, but thats another story) theres a lot of stuff linking meereenese culture specifically to the faith of the seven and other Other symbols, mostly through color symbology.  if you're not familiar with the new gods' links to the Others, for now just think about how the rainbow of the seven is contained in White.

meereen is constructed of bricks of every color.

"she and her lord husband passed beneeth the bronzes, to emerge at the top of a great brick bowl ringed by descending tiers of benches, each a different color. Hizdahr zo Loraq led her down, through black, purple, blue, green, white yellow, and orange to the red, where the scarlet bricks took the color of the sands below. ...Across the pit the Graces sat in flowing robes of many colors, clustered around the austere figure of Galazza Galare, who alone amongst them wore the green.  The Great Masters of Meereen occupied the red and orange benches. The women were veiled, and the men had brushed and lacquered their hair into horns and hands and spikes. Hizdahr's kin of the ancient line of Loraq seemed to favor tokars of purple and indigo and lilac, whilst those of Pahl were striped in pink and white.  ... The black and purple benches, highest and most distant from the sand, were crowded with freedmen and other common folk." -Daenerys IX, ADWD

the graces wear rainbow colors (while their leader alone wears green...) Loraq wear indigo and other purples.  indigo is a relatively rare color in asoiaf, most notable in the House of the Undying, who are symbols of the Others. (other things it describes are the strangler crystals, twilit skies, rhaegar's eyes, and the Mallister sigil.) Pahl wear Other colors.  contrast to the freed and common people sitting in the black (and purple, so this isnt perfect) benches.

and from the dany III quote above, "I am the calamity that will change these slavers back into people, Dany had sworn to herself." Dany will presumably be one of the heros to fight against the Others, and put them to rest.

what it means:

Together with the history about cedars, the story i get from this is: Valyrians destroy trees and Slavers (Others) are born from the resulting desert (cold dead lands).  this to me is strong evidence for the theory that Azor Ahai/the Bloodstone Emperor invaded the Weirwoods through killing Nissa Nissa in blood sacrifice to open them up, forcing out the spirit of the trees, who become Others, and starting the Long Night.  the bit about "Once the trees had gone, the soil baked beneath the hot sun and blew away in thick red clouds" reinforces this in my mind.  the balance provided by the trees has been destroyed, and thick red clouds appear after the soil gets blasted by the fire of the sun. if the moon meteor theory is right, this is the same thing as the balance provided by the fire moon being destroyed, and meteors that drank the fire of the sun raining down and throwing up huge clouds of debris.  another symbol for the fire moon cataclysm, the doom of valyria, sends a tsunami to destroy the isle of cedars. same story.  meteors cause tidal waves when they drop in the ocean.

the long night is caused by the destruction of the moon, which is also Azor Ahai trying to obtain greater power by usurping the moon's power, and Nissa Nissa the Amethyst Empress's power.  (consider the idea that all valyrian steel swords are made from the fire moon meteors, just as the sword Dawn is made from a pale falling star, which means superior weapons for your army.)  In similar fashion, the Others are caused by the invasion of the weirwood net, which is Azor Ahai trying to obtain the gods’ power by usurping the power of the trees.

the Cedar Forest in the Epic of Gilgamesh also seems to echo this story, but im not super knowledgeable about it, so ill only briefly talk about those links.  Gilgamesh and Azor Ahai both try to invade a forest to steal the trees for themselves.  Gilgamesh must fight and kill Humbaba, the demon guardian of the forest (who wears seven layers of armor), in order to get away with this.  Azor Ahai must conquer and force out the Others.  After Gilgamesh succeeds, he spurns the goddess Ishtar.  Ishtar then begs her father to use the bull of heaven (taurus) to destroy Gilgamesh and his city, threatening to open the gates of hell, letting the dead out to roam the earth and eat the living.  Sounds like some Other shit to me.  Taurus also holds the Pleiades, which LML has identified as the Faith's seven pointed star and the seven stars given to Hugor of the Hill.  the bull of heaven makes craters in the earth with its breath.  Bulls are also symbols for the moon in greek myth, so to me this sounds like both came true in asoiaf.  the moon wreaks havoc on planetos and Azor Ahai's city Asshai creating lots of craters, and also the gates of hell are opened by the Others.  all because Gilgamesh and Azor Ahai were total assholes, though theyre remembered as heros.

Gilgamesh also has dreams before entering the Cedar Forest, one of the bull of heaven and another where "The skies roared with thunder and the earth heaved, Then came darkness and a stillness like death. Lightning smashed the ground and fires blazed out; Death flooded from the skies. When the heat died and the fires went out, The plains had turned to ash.”  however  both of these are interpreted to mean that gilgamesh will succeed.  mhm.  succeed in starting the long night by causing a firestorm of space rocks.

as a sidenote, there are only 11 times cedar chests are mentioned in asoiaf.  i have a few thoughts about them.

THings in cedar chests:

men's clothes- -ned's light linen undertunic -renly's clothing -boy's clothing for tyrion from illyrio (inlaid with lapis and mother-of-pearl)

women's clothes- -the hound's white kingsguard cloak, blood and smoke stained, hidden under sansa's summer silks -wool and linen clothing for sansa given by littlefinger on the ship from KL -arianne's clothes when she's locked in a tower, she refuses to dress like a 'child' -ramsay's quilted doublet and well worn breeches stolen for jeyne to wear for her escape

misc- -dany's dragon eggs, given by illyrio -yunkish gold, a gift to dany so she wont attack yunkai (bound in bronze and gold) -a dwarf's head, given to cersei (inlaid with ivory in a pattern of vines and flowers, with hinges and clasps of white gold) -the 3 pickled heads of dany's envoys to mantarys

they are decorated in lapis, mother-of-pearl, bronze, gold, ivory, and white gold- all ice symbols ('hands of gold are always cold').

the women's clothes are what im most sure about- theyre all given by men to women, more specifically by solar figures to lunar figures.  Sansa gets Sandor's cloak which she then dyes green and wears as she escapes King's landing. Sansa then recieves more clothes from Littlefinger, primo evil Azor Ahai figure. this is all in the context of her journey from fire to ice as it were, from kings landing to the eyrie and from Sansa the fire maiden to Alayne the ice queen, which has been theorized to echo the story of Nissa Nissa entering the weirwoods. Jeyne pool gets clothes stolen from Ramsay.  Arianne gets her own clothes, but given by Doran for her imprisonment.  To me this all reinforces the idea of Azor Ahai dressing Nissa Nissa in the Weirwoods. another detail is that Arianne chooses to dress in her most revealing clothes, saying "Prince Doran might treat her like a child, but she refused to dress like one."  if Nissa Nissa was a child of the forest, or had blood of the cotf, this makes a lot of sense.  Azor Ahai treating a lunar figure like a child of the forest means using her greenseer blood to open the weirwoods to himself. Similarly, Tyrion, an Azor Ahai figure, gets a child's clothes from a cedar chest, i.e. Azor Ahai becomes a greenseer.

as for the others, im not as sure. dany's eggs being inside cedar/weirwoods seems to show simply that dragon people like Azor Ahai, or Azor Ahai and Nissa Nissa's children are in the trees or became greenseers, but the would be Tyrion's head and the envoys' heads arent as clear to me.  Ned and Renly also are clothed in weirwoods apparently which doesnt seem that symbolically far fetched. Neds a Stark and Renly dies and is reborn, and also has green armor that tells you your future if you peer into it (but only if youre Catelyn).

[motherofkittens94]

tagged by @greyjoysea and @staryjoy 

GOT PREFERENCES

Do you watch the episodes when they air? usually not being a brit who doesnt have hbo  i watch like a day or two later when it airs on sky Atlantic  or on now  tv the first three i watched on dvd from a friend who had the boxset it was when we were sharing a house walked in  the logue one  Morning and she watching it and its that bit where the mountain cuts off the horses head and im like what the hell are you watching ?? i just woke up i wasnt expecting violence this early in the morning ? and then sat down and watched it with her and im like and watched the whole rest of season   one and im like what the hell is this show  ??  ....is there more ?? btw my brother said he got half way through season one and said it  was boring im like season ones the best ?? and hes like oh i dont enjoy  historical drama im not interested in medieval history and im like face palm he thinks this is historical and he also doesnt like history wtf i mean  how am  i related to this fool but yeah thats tangent  and i told him get to ep nine so he could see ned stark beheading he said maybe but if i agreed to watch stranger things with him lol :/ 

How often do you rewatch it? Do you rewatch it from season one? ive re watched all the way  it through a few times but usually would only watch my fav episodes ive seen the red wedding so many times though because wed always watch it with some friend whos just getting into and hasnt seen that one yet so we can see their reaction 

Do you rewatch the previous episode before the next one airs? Not usually on each  occasion but my aunt and uncle always do so when i watch with them i do  

Do you eat anything while watching? if so, what do you eat? not usually a proper meal but  i might have snack like crisps or popcorn unless its a glory scene 

One character that everyone seems to like that you don’t care much for hmm cersei ?? and i didnt lime petyr baelish much but he seemed popular at least among my friends  but i do agree he shouldnt had a better death scene they took all the cleverness out of him and though i hadnt liked him it was a shame in a way like the couldnt find way him to go down in a clever interesyting way so they had to dumb him right down  book pb wouldnt get caught like that people like show euron apparently me  hmm not show much to put it nicely also ave mixed feelings about stannis book book and show wise and i like jon but hes not the ultimate  hyped favourite like he is with a lot of people and perfer theon to him tbh 

Your 3 favourite pairings Throbb theonsa jon ygritte jaime brienne thats four but theres two theons so 

Favourite scene: robb getting crowded any scene where theon smiles  theons monologue  theon and sansa hug jon and sansa arya sansa hug jon and ygritte kissing on the wall jaime jumping to save brienne theons speeches both tyrions speeches both but the one in season one was really funny tyrion dragging the chair across the room when everyone is is science idk that cracked  me up bronn duelling for tyrion the one where Catelyn announces to everyone that (she thinks)  tyrion tried to kill bran cause that was the first ep id seen thats the bit that got me hooked  theon getting back up and fighting that ironborn guy pdrick saving tyrion  and i still maintain that viserys had the best death also not to be a basic bitch but that first time dany does her fire thing in season one i was #stunned 

One character you wish got more appreciation: theon duh #nomoredickjokes2018 but also meera and jojen too i suppose  and shireen and sansa and they could've (shouldve) done more with myrcella and tommen   and brienne too was underused and gendry also idk if if i like the way the tried to iron the grey parts out of tyrion and jon  and bran i wish they done brans story better and wed have got that tree scene with theon also as a disabled gal  certain comments some people make about uselessness of bran sometimes make me uncomfy tbh 

Fanfic or nah? i usually only read theon based ones and thats usually just theon robb theon sansa or sometimes theon jeyne p cause i cant do bolton heavy stuff im a whimp  but i read the occasion jon / ygritte or jaime / brienne and once i tried theon jon  but i wasnt sold soz :/ i read theon ygritte once as well  that actualy worked surprising well and theon domeric .. aha  thats mine  and @blueagia s baby  

but i guess id be open to others maybe 

Favourite quote:  from just the show ?  meeras some people will always need help that doesnt mean theyre not worth helping  also tyrions death is so final but life is full of possibilities and   mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone if it is to keep its edge. That's why I read so much Jon Snow also sansas not a killer .. not yet anyway sansa - or maybe hell give me yours theons sy he is is theon greyjoy again also i like that quote about theons smile but obvi thats not in the show bronns this is bronn son of .. you wouldnt know him  just because it was funny 

Do you avoid spoilers? :  i do because im a blabber if i know id tell everyone omg this happens and that - i dont do on purpose really not with the intention of spoiling it for people  i just blurt it out like  i ruined he Rains of Castamere for someone once by saying oh is this one where robb dies ? and i didnt realise she hadnt seen it  yet and shes like robb dies :( :( and im  like oh umm i meant ...  rob - ert baratheon obviously ! haha whoops and i told someone else about jofferys death because shed said she seen it all  but she said later  i wish joffrey would die and  i was lil tipsey then so im like  .. but he does die ? youve seen it right? in season 4 ? hes poisoned ?  at his wedding ? to Margaery?? and shes like ....thanks beth ..... turns outs shed only  seen season 1-3 whoops again but hey i was drunk  that time so i  now avoid spoilers to avoid spoiling people and when i read the books my then housemates told me not to tell them what was different in case they wanted to read the books later on and didnt want me to spill and i did try to keep to it but i blabbed a few things tbh 

Favourite house words: We do not sow greyjoys ftw 

One character you’d bring back from the dead: ygritte shireen  robb maybe catelyn  and hoder !!

One character you’d kill, or kill sooner than they were killed balon greyjoy also ramsay but i wouldve done  it differently and theon shouldve been there or at least known about it also randyll tarly like fuck that guy ive seen people defending him and im like no offense but you are serious me and a friend had a bet on the boltons i bet against roose dying and he bet against ramsay dying we both lost lmao 

Direwolves or dragons? Dragons 

Which was more satisfying: Ramsay dying or Joffrey dying? hmm i actually joffrey probably because it was more unexpected i didnt see it coming i didnt think hed die  -i wanted ramsay to die and i wanted to like ramsay dying  and wished i had liked it more but it wasnt  done  the way i wanted it and it seemed so obvious like it wasnt a shock like joffrey dying was  i think in a way they over did ramster and just ran out f things fro him to do that he hadnt already like i was like hmm sewating nevously what can we do now ...err  kill your dad! kill a baby! kill  a stark  kill .. jon snow ...??  aye fuck it get rid of guy ay 

 i liked season six   better than season 7 or 5 but it made me lol in a way cause it seemed like they went ok ok you didnt like it last time when we killed all the women we heard you! we did ! weve changed things yes  so how about this instead ...   the woman kill everyone ! yea ? you like that ? we good now ?  sweet as ! put more women killing eveyone into season 7 dave we on the money 

Wildlings or the dothraki? Wildlings

Favourite lannister?  Tyrion but jaimes growing on me 

Favourite stark? i think sansa tbh 

Would you rather be able to be resurrected anytime, but gain scars and all like Beric, or become a faceless man? Resurrect any time like Beric

Would you rather have the rebellion tv show or the conquest tv show?  id pefer Rebellion but id watch a conquest show i think 

tagging @saltwaterwoods @whiteladyofrohann  @unamatta  @wedonnotcare @faller1344 @starkrysis @iladylittlefinger if you want to :) 

[une-nuit-pour-se-souvenir]

UWAAAAAAAAH #BOATSEX WAS BAD UWAAAAAAAAAH

That’s the point, it’s not supposed to be good.

You’re not getting any meaningful gesture that resolves the couple, no first glances after intents are made obvious, no first kiss or first touch, no undressing of each other and no getting in bed together, etc. You’re not getting anything that you’d read in 99% of the smut fanfics out where which are wish fullfillment. Instead, it cuts right into the business with Jon making the same face I do when I wonder if I locked my car when I’m already way too far away from it to check. This is also why every single Cersei x Jaime love scene is portrayed as icky and indecent as well. You’re not supposed to romanticise incest.

You’re getting Bran drumming over and over again in the background about how they are AUNT AND NEPHEW, so you won’t forget they’re AUNT AND NEPHEW while they’re doing the nasty (one of the nastiest of nastiests). If that’s not already horrifying enough on it’s own, they actually don’t know they’re AUNT AND NEPHEW so thats double the horrifying and come on, triple the horrifying because you’re already antecipating there will be a shitfest when they find out they’re AUNT AND NEPHEW (Daenerys because she’d lose her claim to the throne and Jon because he was raised with incest as a sin). Scratch that, four times the horrifying because YOU do know they’re AUNT AND NEPHEW, so you’re already throwing the awkward shitfest on your own in advance (or you should be throwing one).

You’re getting Tyrion looking at their locked door in a negative manner, so you’ll feel something isn’t right with this situation (yes, even after all that INCEST INCEST INCEST sirens going off while they jam it, they insert that Tyrion scene just to rub the wound one last time before they storm out for a two year hiatus). Some lot even thought it was jealousy, but that’s a negative feeling too and Tyrion is a VERY popular character, so the viewers are very prone to take his side and to mimic his feelings. The director has denied it’s jealousy, but worry about how this will affect Daenerys’ leadership, which is what you should feel too if you’re not too busy distracted by that abomination taking place.

You get a Rhaeger looking like Vyseris, so you’ll be reminded of that arsehole that nobody liked and all the bulshit he did way back in season one, to conjure negative feelings about it which goes well with REMINDING you that this marriage instigated a huge war with huge casualities. You are also indirectly being reminded how Targeryens most likely turn insane sooner or later and that leads to war, how breeding between them has led to all that insanity too (and all the talk about children will indirectly remind you of this as well). You even get the actors disgusted by it off camera, their reaction have gone viral. If it was supposed to be an epic love scene, that kind of reaction from the actors would have never see the light of day. That too ciments the feeling of DISGUSTING. Not to mention the framework of these last few episodes, which are filled with potential trolling from top to bottom, but also negative feelings towards these two.

In fact, the most common complaint about this abomination of a pairing besides the incest, is that A) they don’t have any development and B) they don’t have any chemistry (but their actors did fine with former lovers, so it’s not an acting problem here). So what better to illustrate their relationship than to frame their sex scene without any development as well? Just cut it to the shocking value moment. Don’t forget, that sex scene skips all romance that compromise 99% of every smut fanfic ever written. You really think they’d be that clueless to skip all that fanservice by choice when they even tried to fanservice rape? What better to show no chemistry but a scene where he looks like he just remembered he forgot to turn off his stove where he was preparing his favourite meal on? Honestly, only if lenght of it was shorter than his interaction with other characters (oh wait, IT IS)!

All the trolling, yes. There’s too much trolling. For example, Jon leaving the North to Sansa (and the same people who nominated Jon as King in the North, now want to nominate Sansa as Queen in the North). Jon has already done the honey love trap with Ygritte and then betrayed her in the end, all the book nerds expeting some videogame reveal about the final weapon Lightbringer.  The infamous ‘anything before the word but is bulshit’, the warnings of not doing the same mistakes as Ned (honour over reason) and Robb (this is interesting, because the book is also honour over reason, while the show literally makes Robb fall for a “foreign whore” who lead to his downfall) did. Daenerys and her emulating her cray cray father plenty of times beforehand, how Daenerys reacts when she’s put in a position where her goals are threatened (and Jon is the ultimate threat). All of that nonsense with Littlefinger (another can of warms by itself). That what resulted of Daenerys getting closer to Jon was his rescue and the switch o Vyserion alliances, the one weapon needed to bring down the wall.

The complete betrayal of both characters. Jon gave up the north, when the knows none of the Starks (his family, whom he always wanted to belong) won’t accept, nor will any northener. Daenerys (after a stint of emulating her father, the Mad King), put her goal of becoming Queen of Westeros (that she spent SEASONS preparing for) in the backburner, actually walking the path of someone else (shocking!). Tyrion is being forced to choose between Daenerys (who treats him like shit, you’re not supposed to agree with this treatment at all) and his family (and he was shown to be very conflicted at the Field of Fire episode as well). The Starks are all upset by Jon’s decision. Nobody is happy about it.

Even the scenes are shot with no beauty. They did this style choice over and over again at the Wall, beyond the wall, and Winterfell under Bolton rule. The environment was harsh, you could feel how that stylistic choice fit so well with those harsh scenes, invoking an uncomfortable scene. You cannot say this is simply because of how the north is, because when they wanted to add warmth to a scene they easily done such as Jon with Ygritte at the cave, or Jon with Sansa at Winterfell (or with her at the Wall, or Sam when they’re bonding).

There is the obvious pretty fanservice because by some retarded reason people really wanted these two to hook up, so they go for the obvious (Look at Kit’s pretty butt! Spend money on this ridiculous t-shirt praising incest!), BUT all of it’s framed in a negative manner so those who like the pairing are frustrated and unsatisfied (and be reminded how bad it is over and over again) and so those who don’t like it to be disgusted by the whole thing.

TLDR: #boatsex is bad because it’s supposed to feel bad.

[adelaideattractions]

GoT fans reeling after finale's shock twist

WARNING: SPOILERS. Televisions most anticipated finale is over and Game Of Thrones is no more, with one final, massive twist and an ending that could have come straight from the books of JRR Tolkein. Look away now if you havent seen the final episode, as we prepare to enter a spoiler-filled discussion of one of the biggest events in television history. First of all, the biggest mystery is why this season was a mere six episodes. As the last episode proved, there was just too damned much to fit into this truncated season.

media_cameraDaenerys Targaryens fate is sealed in the shocking Game of Thrones finale. Picture: HBO And, like a dragon trying to squeeze into the boot of a family car, some things just didnt fit. Well, as George RR Martin promised, the ending was bittersweet with elements of both, as well as a fair sprinkling of WTF over the top and a strong aftertaste of Tolkein. We knew the showdown was going to be between Daenerys Targaryen and her secret nephew Jon Snow. But, just like Danys descent into the Mad Queen in the last episode seemed to take no time at all, Jons decision to go from enjoying auntcest to committing aunticide was way too fast. Basically, he had a quick chat with Tyrion and then stuck his dagger into her heart. This was the pivotal moment of the final season and it would have really benefited from another episode or more to ratchet up the tension. After all, Dany wanted him to not just be by her side but in her bed. Yet that itself jarred a little with the way she acted towards him previously, when he refused to return her kiss. Incidentally, you have to commend Drogon for being more precise with his dragonfire than a laser-guided missile.

media_cameraTensions were high! Jacob Anderson as Grey Worm and Kit Harington as Jon Snow. Picture: HBO Last episode he managed to collapse almost all of the throne room. Yet not one brick damaged the Iron Throne. Likewise in the basement, he managed to dislodge just enough bricks to kill Jaime and Cersei but not so many that they looked like Lannister-flavoured jam when Tyrion uncovered them. Anyway, it was obvious that Dany needed to die because, as she helpfully told everyone in hearing, she wasnt going to stop until she ruled the world. But, just like Bill Shorten measuring up new furniture for The Lodge, she was a little premature.

media_cameraEmilia Clarke AKA Daenerys Targaryens fate was sealed in the finale. Picture: HBO Jon, prompted by Tyrion, decided to kill her. Yet where were her guards? Sure, Drogon was hanging about outside but Grey Worm couldnt have been so busy murdering prisoners that he forgot to stick a couple of spearmen around her? Drogon flying away with Danys body was a nice touch, although this is where things start to get a little weird. If Drogon was so attached to Dany, why didnt he kill Jon? Why just burn the Iron Throne instead? And, if he recognises Jons Targaryen blood and therefore dominance over him, why did he fly away and not come back?

media_cameraBrooding Kit Harington as Jon Snow. Picture: HBO And, once Danys body was gone, why did Jon admit to Grey Worm that he had killed Dany? Drogon was gone, with her body and the throne was melted. He could have plausibly said that the dragon went mad and killed her. So then it came down to the remaining noble Houses to choose a new ruler.

media_cameraIntense stares from Maisie Williams as Arya Stark, Isaac Hempstead Wright as Bran Stark, and Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark. Picture: HBO Despite Sams best efforts, they found the idea of democracy very amusing. Not quite as amusing as Edmure Tully putting himself forward as the next king but pretty close. Then came the big twist Bran is to be the next king. There is the small matter that he spends most of the time in the past and doesnt really care about people since he became the Three-Eyed Raven but it is certainly a clever switch rather than just having Jon end up there.

media_cameraPeter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister. Picture: HBO Although what is the point of Jon secretly being the true heir to the throne and the one person who can unite the North and the other six kingdoms? There is also the matter of Bran living for probably hundreds of years, thus creating the problem of the Kings Hand becoming the real power in the land. After all, the devious chamberlain/vizier is a staple of fantasy stories. Anyway, with little details like that swept aside, there is just time to wrap up everybody elses stories.

media_cameraGame of Thrones (GOT), Season 8, Episode 6 (Post-Air, 1/2), The Iron Throne", Final Episode - Tobias Menzies as Edmure Tully. Picture: Macall B. Polay/HBO Sansa takes the North for herself as a separate realm and becomes a queen. Why she felt the need to do that when a Stark is on the throne of the kingdom (ie the North has won and is ruling everywhere else) feels a little forced. Bronn gets Highcastle and a seat at the Small Council, where he is joined by Tyrion as the Kings Hand, Ser Davos and the now Archmaester Sam Tarly. Podrick gets knighted, while Brienne is now in charge of the Kingsguard and gets to write Jaimes story in the kindest way possible.

media_cameraFans have been divied on the finale of GoT. Picture: HBO Jon, meanwhile, gets to go and lead the Nights Watch again. The Nights Watch. Who are guarding a Wall that has a bloody great hole in it where the Night King came south. A Wall made to stop the Night King (who is dead) and the Wildlings (who are now everyones friends). Plus, hes the last Targaryen and the last one capable of controlling Drogon, if he decides to come back for a quick fire sale. But hey, Jon gets to meet up with Ghost and Tormund again, so thats not all bad. Finally, Arya has had enough of Westeros and decided to leave. Not for Braavos but instead to sail into the west. Sound familiar? Probably because sailing into the west is what the elves, Gandalf, Bilbo and Frodo did at the end of Lord Of The Rings. Still, her adventures could make a great sequel. And that leaves Tyrion to sum up the ending beautifully: Nobody is happy, which makes a good compromise, I suppose. Farewell, Game Of Thrones. Gone but never forgotten. To be reborn, like Jon Snow, through endless re-runs and planned prequels. After all, as the Greyjoys say, what is dead may never die. Originally published as GoT fans reeling after finales shock twist https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/entertainment/television/game-of-thrones/game-of-thrones-finale-recap-fans-reeling-over-shock-twist/news-story/871fcfc1cfe68c3d8928b409e63f5542?from=htc_rss

[fireeaglespirit]

So.. finally we have GoT back.

It was a bit too slow for my tastes, and perhaps due to my constant visits to watchers on the wall, kinda spoiled almost everything.. but still..

The episode had such endearing moments! I think my favorite part was the Hound, tbh he’s so good. That whole part was great and just added some interesting layers to the story and his character in general.. he’s really the damn gravedigger of AFFC if that wasn't obvious xD

Good things:

0. Lyanna Mormont, the best thing ever... and Jon. Indeed he’s seen what females are capable of when given the means to fight... its like a new era is coming to Westeros. Wars have this good side that makes things change, as it happened in our own world, women finally got more roles since war demanded it... things just have to evolve fast and there’s no time for stupid non sense.

1. Dany, obviously I’ve been waiting to see this for years, and in the next ep. or soon we’ll see the most expected reunion of Ice and Fire :3 that little Missandei touch... such good scenes

2. Arya kicking ass and avenging her family while still keeping her humanity intact, oh I love how she kept women alive and the little encounter with the soldiers was good in some ways.

3. Cersei queen, no need to serve any men anymore, oh thats somewhat delicious to see...

4. Bran and esp Meera finally having some peace and time to breath

5. Jon and Sansa was nice, I feared it would be a disaster... well I love that Sansa is keeping LF in check. And Brienne and Tormund, gah! I can’t wait to see the crypt scenes next week... Jon is coming along a very good king as expected.

6. Jorah, omg.. hope this guy gets alright.

Not so good things:

1. The pace was too slow for my tastes? idk... felt like omg we have only 6 episodes left. They better start heating things up...

2. As much as I like the Sam stuff, just too much time spent on unnecessary poop (it was hilarous but..) and just to discover something we already knew??? Sam I love you but this episode wasn’t so great for you. I think good things will come of this storyline anyway so I’ll be patient.

3. No Ghost as always, FFS. I love those wolves... just don’t kill them off, ok?? So many are dead already.

4. Euron is weird, I mean... he isn't doing much for me and looks like a modern guy with that outfit, just weird. I’m not a big fan of the Greyjoy storyline in general.... just Yara/Asha, she is nice. See her next ep.

I’m mostly excited to the next episode.. for fucks sake I need Nymeria and Arya reunion. And finally the Jon reveal we’ve been promised xD

[caffeineandchristmas]

game of thrones rewatch

season 1, episode 2: the kingsroad 

 1. ok so everyone is all “awww jorah loves his khaleesi,” but how come no one ever mentions the fact that he is in love with someone who is young enough to be his daughter? 

2. she seemed to be riding the horse fine, did she really need to be physically assisted to her tent?

3. viserys literally has the actual bone structure of a cartoon disney prince. look at that jaw line!

4. yaaaaaas tyrion. slap that bitch. 

5. yaaaaas. slap him again.

6. clearly 3rd time’s the charm

7. oh look is his hair is a little darker. definitely suits him better than that weird beach blonde business 

8. oh cersei, trying to look all calm while knowing that bran is going to survive. 

9. how is it we all forget that cersei had another kid? and how come it wasn’t documented in that book that ned was reading? 

10. it probably may have made it look less suspicious if cersei had one child with “black of hair” rather an all children with yellow hair, right? 

11.  i hope arya and john have a nice reunion too in the future

12. awww needle <3 

13. why does the “i know which end to use” remind me of the “i know where to put it” line when sam and john are talking about sex? lol 

14. the starks are such good huggers.

15. catelyn. john’s been around for like 18 years. homegirl can really hold a grudge. thats what you, the lannisters, and the freys have in common...except they actually do something about the grudges they hold. 

16. ok yes, ned came back with another’s woman’s son, but that does not mean that it is his!!!!!! 

17. “You Starks are hard to kill.” Are they really though? I mean, what, only half of them are alive now?

18. See!! Ned, ugh!!! John does have your blood. Just freaking tell him already. You are never going to see him again. I am curious to find out how John is going to find out. Bran vision? 

19. My favorite Robert line, “Thank the gods for Bessie...and her tits.” robert was crude, but at least he spoke his mind. 

20. i just love how tyrion left to go to the wall just because he wanted to. 

21. also, im interested to see the reunion between tyion and john too. 

22. either jaime or arya will kill cersei...but i hope they will conspire together

23. that guy cersei got to try to murder bran is also creepy looking. good job, hbo, for giving me the willies.

24. yaaaaaaaas. dire wolves to the rescue.and he’s all “i just killed a guy, im gonna lie here.” 

25. what are they putting in dany’s hands? if they are treating wounds, what are they from? too much banging?

26. “there must always be a stark in winterfell.” mmmmm yeah, that’s not always going to be true; good thing they are back now

27. i’d much rather watch this kind of sexy scene, rather than something so crude and obvious (like the whores that are banging when littlefinger is telling that story...honestly, i dont even remember what that story is about because i am so distracted by all the noise....)

28. honestly, though, this scene gets me every time. i think it is my favorite intimate scene in all of the show

29. ugh sandor clegane is just a pitbull. he looks scary but is also a softie. i think he is so underrated. 

30. nymeria to the rescue!

31. see joffrey talks a tough game but he’s such a little pansy

32. i really do hope nymeria and arya get reunited in the future...

33. damn you cersei and your manipulative ways...she really does have that manipulative smile down though

34. cersei gets sansa to defend joffrey, and then she orders lady to be killed...that is cold blooded af

35. and so arya’s kill list begins...

36. so how is it that lady’s death is the thing that brings bran out of the coma? i know the the starks and dire wolves are connected, but how EXACTLY did that work? 

37. it must have been so hard for ned to kill his own daughter’s dog...he really had it tough in this season

38. also, sean bean plays “deep emotional brooding” so well. gets me in the feels

[pr]

i'm just going to call this got plot now

even tho no one cares so. jaime.

he is brought back into the war with sansa's comment of, "i wanted to see your sister executed. it seems i wont get the chance to," and storms off. now i know youre thinking oh well shes just saying shes not physically there for it, but everyone already knew that: she is in winterfell. so what shes saying is, based on the fact that the iron fleet just wiped the floor with dany's ass, the targaryens are about to be fucking obliterated and cersei's reign will continue.

so that leads to jaime's conflict. the story being spun (which d&d are also cultivating with their comments during inside the episode) is that jaime feels like his sister is going to win, and despite "trying" to be happy with brienne (spoiler alert: he is happy), he always goes back to cersei "like an addict". this would ultimately mean his plotline would be for literally nothing, and his character development is destroyed just like that.

now, while that seems a plausible thing for d&d to do.....i do not feel that is the case. because remember that good old "cersei, your little bro is gonna kill you" prophecy we've put on the back burner? well. surprise, bitch.

when sansa tells jaime that update, he begins to realize oh my fucking god: either dany is going to destroy millions of people in her rage, or my sister is going to win. and i dont like those odds. so despite actually loving brienne - which, he chose to stay with her in the fuckin north, yall, the reality is if he actually still "loved" cersei he would never have made this choice in the first place, and one ass beating is not going to change that monumental decision but i digress - he is making the choice to journey back to the red keep and kill cersei.

now. heres the thing. ive already mentioned d&d wants us to believe jaime is betraying us. and there is a second red herring that is going to add fuel to that flame: arya.

shes heading back south with the hound, under the guise of she has someone to kill. now we already know gregor is on her list, but obvious clegane bowl 2k19 is happening (and she must know that too), so who does that leave? miss cersei ass bitch. and we already know arya has been the hero slaying the dragon in the episode prior, so naturally, we are going to be inclined to believe that is where her arc is headed.

d&d also said during the previous inside the episode that they wrote arya's plotline in a way that we forgot about what she was doing and that's why the resolution was so dramatic, because she came out of absolutely fucking nowhere. so now, they obviously can't do that again, and they know that they can't.

so they also know because of that expectation of arya being the unsuspecting hero, all eyes will be on her throughout the final battle so the narrative doesnt get the drop on us again. we will expect her to destroy cersei as she creeps her way through the red keep. and she will get there, at the pivotal moment, with cersei at the edge of her blade - and jaime lounging luxouriously in the background, presumed by arya to be a double crosser (we'll come back to this shortly...).

but somehow....cersei will get the better of her. either through some trick, or arya's death (because honestly, what could stop arya besides the god of death?), because we cannot have the same hero twice (which we know d&d says they do, as thats what they said they did with jon's intentionally useless actions at the climax of the last episode lmao).

but just when we think all hope is lost.......jaime. fucking. shanks. that. bitch.

wait whaaaaat

yes, jaime will indeed return to king's landing under the guise of loving his sister once again. he will seduce his way into her nest, perhaps feign joy over their son the future king of the realm. he and yuron will have some words - perhaps come to blows - and he will be present for arya's bitter defeat. but. he will fulfill his destiny and kill that bloody bitch - and perhaps he will also die in the process.

now, i know we all want to think dany, jon, or tyrion could ultimately also kill cersei, as they all have motivations to do so. but. i believe their plotlines are much, MUCH more tangled up in what is happening between the succession shennanigans. the battle for them will be spent in tensions with one another, dany fighting madness and rage and fear of jon that will come to a head in some drastic way; jon will be not only physically fighting but dealing with what his role in the kingdom is and if he is willing to be a ruler, his view of that position shifting as he watches dany burn her people alive; and tyrion will be mediating the two as best he can along with staying alive at the bare minimum. im not confident they will ever meet face to face with cersei again.

and yes, i could be wrong, but what a waste of jaime's character would it be to have him want cersei again!!! and what good will his presence do?!?! cersei has made up her mind to go to war, his words would do nothing to stop it. he cannot fight in an impactful way, and he knows he can't. and he has NO interest in being king much less a leader, hes made that clear time and again. so i think itd be a complete disservice to what d&d has committed us to emotionally to completely obliterate all of that for, what.....this weird incestuous love.....thing??? (besides, jaime's redemption is almost 100% due to d&d, and they are way too narcissistic to blow the one thing they've done right lmao (or are they?).)

no...this is jaime's task. the kingslayer and the queenfucker. he ended the targaryen reign and began the lannister reign, and now he will end the lannister reign and begin the targaryen reign, this is his destiny, and i believe he already knows that.