#with a brooding and handsome and kind hero like Jon

[catofoldstones]

the ashford theory with j0n or aegon just means it signifies sansa's suitors and it ties into political marriage with what we see with the north heir crisis could have a j0nsa marriage betrothal but then again like the other suitors it might not even be endgame just something that happens as a plot point, its the fans resisting the idea of it so much but not with other characters ,when j0nsa could make perfect sense for the north heir crisis plot makes me laugh a bit and now the same fans say his targ heritage doesnt matter but they were so keen on it with others d@ny's hypothetical marriage to him , his targ/lyann@ heritage reveal is important to the plot maybe not to his personal motives (unless he goes nuts and demands the north by right as robb's heir) but its going to affect the plot whether they like it or not, j0nsa hypothetical match being so furiously debated feels like sore losing

You’re so correct, anon. It’s mostly because Sansa isn’t a fan favourite, and even with most people who do like her, they don’t want her to end up with anyone because of her general history with men (which is sort of understandable). But suddenly saying that Jon’s Targaryen heritage doesn’t matter just to argue against a ship is buck wild. I genuinely want to study the people who said this like rats in a lab.

[pumpkinstrawbrew]

░a░p░e░x░ ░p░r░e░d░a░t░o░r░

[̲̅&]

a 🆂🅽🅰🅲🅺

...

(a second batman x venom crossover. i mean, they just kinda keep having similiar themes all around, an' with two my fav halloween freaks. i cannot just pass this chance, haha.

either way, jon n' jack havin' a swell time as you can see. they're at the bottom of the food chain quite literally. poor twinky ghouls are about to become a dinner in more ways, than one. how unfortunate for them! but what a feast for a nosferatu n' alien parasite. one drinks 🩸, the other love eatin' human 🧠, so it's no biggie that both jon an' jack are scrawny an' undernourished. their predators aren't after their meat or limited fat. they are after more individual body parts an' components.

so yes, this is my halloween 'special' thingy! a conjoined mash-up about big bad predator an' their twangy, evil prey. the sort of dynamic, that both pairs had going on at one point or another. less so 'canically' for scarebat, since that series of comics *where batman was a savage vampire* is technically a separate 'what if' reality. but still, jon n' jack had a very real brush with smth, that is way stronger than them. an' only one made it out alive, but oh well, this is what AUs n' other stuff is for. bc how about no, an' how about some more homoerotic take on those scenes? like, it was 'hot' to me in some ways. esp with words like 'territorial dispute' an' implication of batman givin' scarecrow good ole vampire succ, post morten or not.

i honestly always amazed, when the comics does smth very servicing for my tastes / interests, without actually ever tryin' to pander to people like me. it's prob one of the most 'erotic' things to me as to an author. it's like a possible wink wink to someone, who wants to see it. but generally, just a part of the story. not even a big one, but that's just a tasty bit anyways! i always had a weakness to predator/prey thrope, esp when it's less of fluffy, twinlight kind of romance, but instead a gore-ish sort of deal, where one party can end up actually dying even if by pure accident. it provides some pretty big stakes. not to meantion, that there is always an unspoken paralell between sex n' death in horror genre. including consuming / stabbing / sucking blood an' such. it's important for me as horror movies fan. i like there to be some 'love' in my horror, even if it's not traditional or on the nose. it gives all those exederated gore-y / deadly scenes more meaning, if one wants to impliment it there. an' it just makes for a memorable scene as well.

also while i'm not super into the heroes 'turnin' bad' stuff, in this case, there is an appeal of flash / bruce going feral. it's hard to resist the playful thought about how bruce n' flash find their foe tempting, *iresistably attractive*, but in a different manner now. jack n' jon aren't no rosy maiden, who usually gets the spot of main dish / love interest, but this what makes it even better. jon an' jack are walking ginger bread, an' that's that, really. but tbf, they're kind of weirdos, who would always partly dig it. their handsome, brooding *arch*-enemy wants to eat them an' not some random hussie. that's very scary, an' also sexy lol.

still it's one of those moments in comics, where i wish that they kept the secenes going for a bit longer. just expanded on that suggestive possibility of them taking it step futher. but i also get why they didn't drag it out, cuz it wasn't the point of issue, anyways. just some lil fun moment. tho, i do love how batman *out of his mind or not* seemed to have enough mercy on crane to kill him off relativly quickly compared to the others. the riddler, pen-pen *yeah, i call oswald this* n' ivy had to suffer through the whole overdeal with full awarness, feeling their throats being ripped out, as they were still alive. jon was spared of such fate. the bat came, lectured him, broke his hand an' beheaded him. way quicker vs when you have to feel your meat and blood dripping all over ya. an' in venom's case, i loved how jack was so oddly forgiving of flash nearly decapitating him on the spot lol. flash *at that point* had already ate a fella or two. like bruce, he clearly wasn't proud of those times or enjoyd it, but out of all people, who managed to snap him out of the murder mode, it was jack. but hey, not on my watch! no one will die, but someone will be 'consumed', alright. that's just natural order of things or whatever. an' it's so bc i do make all the rules, haha.

as for more technical side of things, i did altered a few things. mainly with flash n' jack. i made flash's berserk venom form smalles an' all black, bc of well...uh, reasons. and also jack has an actual face here lol. also while at first, i wanted to draw him with his trade-mark messed up features, but kinda end up drawing him all 'dolled up' instead lol. so i suppose, along with all other au-ish elements, his face wasn't blown off in this universe either. an' on somewhat unrelated note, i like how both jack *even some of spiderman's ones* and jonathan are usually shown to be brunette or redhead. my pref will always be with those two being redheads, but still, it's a funny thing to ponder on. another technical bit is that, i wanted both jack n' jon being unable to use their hands / arms in one of the picture, since for me it's like snaring a 'prey' and then, they are kinda useless without it too. jon can land one hell of a kick for sure, but it won't help him to push away the vampire from his neck. also no fear gas to spray from his gloves, even if it would have acomplished nothing. in jack's case, it's similiar situation. he can throw / shoot lil flames from his gloves, the only thing that all symbiotes seem to detaste, besides specific levels of noise. but if he can't do it, and it's too risky to shoot flame from his helmet, welp, he's screwed lol. an' i also wanted to use venom's tongue as bondage tool lol. it was one of those things, that i always loved about venom symbiote / carnage looks an' anatomy, is how 'bendy' their bodies are. an' how creepy they can strech their body parts as well. both, bruce n' flash possess superhuman powers in this, so nor jon nor jack is actually a match for them. but taking away even the last of their defenses is a cherry on the top. jonathan is already always spooked animal, an' with someone as dumbly tunel-visioned as jack, it take a tad more to scare him shitless. esp bc he thinks, that he's such hot shit of a mercenary, haha.

so yups, this year batman n' flash got a treat. jack and' jonathan *in comparison* got tentacles and anemia respectively. can this count as trick? i mean, i guess lol. but on bright side, jonathan is kinda bruce's bf / blood bank in this one, an' jack is....well, he's a bitch. i mean, he touched the toxin, so now flash have to 'mark' him lol.

anyway, this is as pg-15 as i can go about it on here. i have two extra adult-ish artworks for these set ups. you can call it a follow up, if you want. here's the link, if someone is curious. but pls remember adults only. while there is no nudity in this one, there is still a clearly sexual cut in it. *also, i'm working on fics related to these set-ups as well. already workshoping vamp!bruce/crane one. sadly, had no free time to finish it all on halloween as well, but hey, it's always halloween on this blog!*)

[princess-in-a-tower]

Jon’s “Beauty and the Beast” Arc Intro

This is the continuation of my previous meta series about Sansa’s “Beauty and the Beast” arc, which can be found in the following links: part 1, part 2, par 3, part 4, part 5. In those parts, I analyzed several scenes from Sansa’s chapters that were inspired by scenes from Cocteau’s “Beauty and the Beast” film adaptation and argued that the men sharing those scenes with Sansa were not her actual Beast, but his foils.

In this meta series I will make a case on who I believe Sansa’s actual Beast is.

First of all, here is a comprehensive list of the things that characterize Cocteau’s Beast:

He is a Byronic hero

He’s an orphaned prince suffering from a curse

He is monstrous to look upon

He lives in an abandoned magic castle with glass gardens surrounded by woods

He’s half-beast half-man

He has a connection to a special kind of rose growing in his castle’s gardens

He hates being called “my Lord”

He takes girls of a lower birth than him as his prisoners and then lets them go

All that should be too much to ask from one single person in the ASOIAF universe, and yet, surprisingly, it’s not, because there is one character who, by the time ADWD ended, met all but one of the above requirements and by the time the series end will most likely meet them all.

And that character who embodies the Beast so perfectly is none other than Jon Snow.

1. He is a Byronic hero:

Jon Snow’s Byronic hero status is self-evident by his portrayal in the books, considering he exhibits all the traits of one. Nevertheless I need not expand on this further since GRRM outright identified Jon as one in one of his interviews:

When asked which character most resembles him, Martin said that “Theon [Greyjoy] is the one I’d fear becoming.” Otherwise, his answers aren’t surprising. “The character I’m probably most like in real life is Samwell Tarly,” he said. “Good old Sam. And the character I’d want to be? Well who wouldn’t want to be Jon Snow — the brooding, Byronic, romantic hero whom all the girls love.”

George RR Martin, Meduza, August 22, 2017

Not so coincidentally (considering the interviews were given only 5 months apart), GRRM uses the exact same words (Byronic, romantic hero) to describe Vincent, the Beast in his own TV show (which was inspired by Jean Cocteau’s 1946 classic La Belle et la Bete):

Vincent was an intellectual who loved words and stories and poems. He was not by that reason like a geek or a figure the other characters made fun of but was in fact a classic, Romantic, Byronic hero.

George RR Martin, The Hollywood Reporter, March 16, 2017

2. He is a cursed orphaned prince:

Jon has never known his parents, since Rhaegar died before he was even born and his mother died while birthing him. Since his birth, Jon has been cursed to carry the name of a bastard to hide his kingly status. He is not monstrous to look upon, but the stigma of his bastardy is a curse for him all the same… A curse very similar to the Beast’s, if you think about it, considering he is convinced that no woman would want a bastard like him. Where Cocteau’s Beast was given this curse because his parents didn’t believe in fairytales, it’s quite possible that the opposite will be true for Jon’s parents, whose elopement suggests that they believed in fairytales too much. Like the Beast’s curse, Jon’s curse can be broken too, by his parentage reveal (which has been teased since the very first book) that will turn him from bastard to prince.

3. He is monstrous to look upon

This is the one requirement Jon Snow seems to lack as of now, as I mentioned above. Jon, according to everyone, looks like Ned, who was rather plain-looking, so he’s not exceptionally handsome, but still he could be considered unconventionally attractive. There is substantial book evidence though to suggest that Jon will lose one (or both) of his eyes before the series is over, as you can read in @rose-of-red-lake’s meta here and my meta here. This would mean that his face will get disfigured and he will most probably not look handsome at all by the series’ end. This would put a nice twist to the “Beauty and the Beast” trope where the Beast transforms into a beautiful prince. Jon’s transformation, instead of being straightforward, will have a duality. The lifting of the curse will indeed turn Jon from a bastard to a prince like in the original fairytale, but this transformation will most likely also cause him to turn from attractive to disfigured, thus subverting the original fairytale as well.

4. He lives in an abandoned magic castle with glass gardens surrounded by woods

Ever since the “curse” was placed on Jon, he had to live in Winterfell. Winterfell was built by Bran the Builder himself, who, as we know, placed powerful spells on both the Wall and Storm’s End while he built them. So it stands to reason that he used the same spells while building his very own castle. That means that Winterfell is an enchanted castle, like the one Beast lived in… and it even has glass gardens and is surrounded by woods. And Winterfell may not be actually deserted, but Jon did describe it as such in his very first POV chapter:

Otherwise the castle was dark and deserted. Jon had seen an abandoned holdfast once, a drear place where nothing moved but the wind and the stones kept silent about whatever people had lived there. Winterfell reminded him of that tonight.

A Game of Thrones - Jon I

As mentioned above though, GRRM used some details from the Disney version as well, so it’s always snowing in Winterfell, even in the summer, the First Keep is decorated with gargoyles, there are wolves prowling in the woods surrounding the castle and Jon’s own chambers were in a turret.

Jon’s stay at Winterfell in AGOT was very short though. For the biggest part of the books Jon has been living in Castle Black, which checks off a lot of the “boxes” presented above. Castle Black is not enchanted by itself, but it’s built in the shadow of one of the most magical structures in existence, the Wall, north of which lies the Haunted Forest, where direwolves hunt. Moreover, most of its towers are empty and abandoned and falling to ruin, amongst them, the one Jon sleeps in:

"I chain him up in the old stables when we're training. They board all the horses in the east stables now, so no one bothers him. The rest of the time he stays with me. My sleeping cell is in Hardin's Tower."

"That's the one with the broken battlement, no? Shattered stone in the yard below, and a lean to it like our noble king Robert after a long night's drinking? I thought all those buildings had been abandoned."

Jon shrugged. "No one cares where you sleep. Most of the old keeps are empty, you can pick any cell you want." Once Castle Black had housed five thousand fighting men with all their horses and servants and weapons. Now it was home to a tenth that number, and parts of it were falling into ruin.

A Game of Thrones - Jon III

And Castle Black may have no glass garden like Winterfell, but Jon certainly wanted to build one:

Glass, Jon mused, might be of use here. Castle Black needs its own glass gardens, like the ones at Winterfell. We could grow vegetables even in the deep of winter.

A Dance with Dragons - Jon VII

5. He is half beast – half man:

Jon may not look like a werewolf the way the Beast does, but he is half a beast anyway due to his link with ghost. This means that he is treated like a beast by a number of people throughout the books due to their prejudice that wargs are somehow evil (which is a view that Jon partly shares).

Lord Janos was red-faced and quivering. "The beast," he gasped. "Look! The beast that tore the life from Halfhand. A warg walks among us, brothers. A WARG! This . . . this creature is not fit to lead us! This beastling is not fit to live!"

A Storm of Swords - Jon XII

"Then you had best be on your way, boy." Slynt laughed, dribbling porridge down his chest. "Greyguard's a good place for the likes of you, I'm thinking. Well away from decent godly folk. The mark of the beast is on you, bastard."

[…]

"No," Lord Janos protested, flecks of porridge spraying from his lips. "No, unhand me. He's just a boy, a bastard. His father was a traitor. The mark of the beast is on him, that wolf of his … Let go of me!

A Dance with Dragons - Jon II

"I see what you are, Snow. Half a wolf and half a wildling, baseborn get of a traitor and a whore. You would deliver a highborn maid to the bed of some stinking savage. Did you sample her yourself first?" He laughed.

A Dance with Dragons - Jon X

Marsh hesitated. "Lord Snow, I am not one to bear tales, but there has been talk that you are becoming too … too friendly with Lord Stannis. Some even suggest that you are … a …"

A rebel and a turncloak, aye, and a bastard and a warg as well. Janos Slynt might be gone, but his lies lingered. "I know what they say." Jon had heard the whispers, had seen men turn away when he crossed the yard.

A Dance with Dragons - Jon III

He was walking beneath the shell of the Lord Commander's Tower, past the spot where Ygritte had died in his arms, when Ghost appeared beside him, his warm breath steaming in the cold. In the moonlight, his red eyes glowed like pools of fire. The taste of hot blood filled Jon's mouth, and he knew that Ghost had killed that night. No, he thought. I am a man, not a wolf. He rubbed his mouth with the back of a gloved hand and spat.

A Dance with Dragons - Jon III

6. He has a connection to a special kind of rose growing in the castle’s garden:

In Cocteau’s story, Belle’s father stole the Beast’s favorite rose from his garden and this set the whole fairytale in motion. In Jon’s case, everything started when Rhaegar stole Lyanna from her father using a crown of blue winter roses (which sounds exceedingly similar to the story of Bael the Bard and the Rose of Winterfell). And of course there is the following line as well, which further establishes a connection between Jon and blue winter roses:

A blue flower grew from a chink in a wall of ice, and filled the air with sweetness…

A Clash of Kings - Daenerys IV

7. He hates being called my lord:

"And the grumkins and the snarks," Tyrion said. "Let us not forget them, Lord Snow, or else what's that big thing for?"

"Don't call me Lord Snow."

A Game of Thrones - Jon III

“I’ll speak to Lord Mormont on the morrow.”

She wiped her hands on her skirt. “M’Iord-”

“I’m no lord.”

But others had come crowding round, drawn by the woman’s scream and the crash of the rabbit hutch. “Don’t you believe him, girl,” called out Lark the Sisterman, a ranger mean as a cur. “That’s Lord Snow himself.”

A Clash of Kings - Jon III

"You will not deny that you are Jon Snow, I hope? Stark's bastard?"

"Lord Snow, he likes to call himself." Ser Alliser was a spare, slim man, compact and sinewy, and just now his flinty eyes were dark with amusement.

"You're the one who named me Lord Snow," said Jon. Ser Alliser had been fond of naming the boys he trained, during his time as Castle Black's master-at-arms.

A Storm of Swords - Jon IX

Uneasily, he knelt, wondering why this brittle king had need of him.

"Rise. I have heard much and more of you, Lord Snow."

"I am no lord, sire." Jon rose. "I know what you have heard. That I am a turncloak, and craven. That I slew my brother Qhorin Halfhand so the wildlings would spare my life. That I rode with Mance Rayder, and took a wildling wife."

A Storm of Swords - Jon XI

Does he want me to say I love him? Jon's voice was stiff and formal as he said, "I am a man of the Night's Watch."

"Words. Words are wind. Why do you think I abandoned Dragonstone and sailed to the Wall, Lord Snow?"

"I am no lord, sire. You came because we sent for you, I hope. Though I could not say why you took so long about it."

A Storm of Swords - Jon XI

8. He takes girls of a lower birth than him as his prisoners and then lets them go

This is a recurrent theme in Jon’s arc. It starts at the Frostfangs, where he takes Ygritte as his prisoner and then lets her go and continues with Gilly and Val in Castle Black, where he does the same thing for them.

Plus one bonus parallel that is inconsequential, but GRRM added anyway because he’s That BitchTM:

Both Jon and the Beast wear one glove. The Beast has one magic glove that allows him to teleport wherever he wants. Jon was injured while defending Jeor Mormont by the wight in AGOT, so he took to wearing a glove to cover the burns on his right hand. Soon enough he started wearing gloves in both hands because wearing only one looked stupid to him.

All in black, he was a shadow among shadows, dark of hair, long of face, grey of eye. Black moleskin gloves covered his hands; the right because it was burned, the left because a man felt half a fool wearing only one glove.

A Clash of Kings - Jon I

So, taking all this into account, it becomes obvious that Jon and the Beast share an overwhelming amount of parallels. Are those parallels enough to prove that Jon is the actual Beast to Sansa’s Belle though? I believe they could make a pretty good case on their own, but as it happens, GRRM has incorporated an abundance of “Beauty and the Beast” inspired scenes in Jon’s arc as well, whose analysis will be the subject of the rest of this meta series.

[blacksunscorpio]

Scorp you're a genius! So relatable and I love how you don't judge others or anyone who comes to you for help. Keep it up! I just had to ask since I see that you make pop culture references to make analogies with astrology. You've mentioned GoT a few times and im a huge fan! Can you do a quick post on Game of Thrones characters and their potential zodiac signs? I'd love to hear your input! Thank you so much!!

Game of Thrones Characters & Their Zodiac Signs

Aries

Khal Drogo- Impulsive. Warlike. Bloodthirsty. Alpha. Conqueror. Hardcore athlete [did you see him on that horse?] Extremely sexual. Forceful. When he first meets Daenerys, he forces himself on her. Afterward, however, he is the first to go to war if he feels the people around him have been disrespected.

Aerys Targaryen- Impulsive, sadistic. Boastful. imperial. He would be the Emperor [reversed] in Tarot, lol. Not as good with being a tactician as he ought to have been. Cruel. Rage problems. The need to be the first and the best. Fire and blood, anyone?

Taurus

Maergery Tyrell - Classy, wealthy, sexy, laid-back, frank but with an air of elegance. Highgardeners have a love for the finer things in life. A love of fine wines and foods. Beautiful clothing and aesthetics. RICH RICH. Get on their bad side and they will take their time finding a way to subvert your authority.

Robert Baratheon- Love of luxury, bullheaded, strong, takes no shit. Fixed in his opinions of others, highkey jealous. In his youth, he enjoyed the gifts of Venus: Charm, wealth coming from the noble house of Baratheon, widely considered handsome by almost all in the 7 kingdoms. 

Gemini

Tyrion Lannister- Silver-tongued. HIGHKEY intelligent. Social. Charming. Great sense of humor. A freak [in the sheets]. Chatty. Always finds his way out of a sticky situation. Finds a way to use his intel to bolster diplomacy between his family and the families who hate them.

Little Finger- Cunning, quick-witted, works behind the scenes, manipulative, a  snake, jack of all trades. Top dog in the social circles of the 7 Kingdoms. There wasn’t a person who didn’t know of him and his... reputation. He singlehandedly, through his Machiavellian tactics, caused the events of Game of Thrones to unfold. 

Cancer  

Cersei Lannister- Protective, moody, caring [to her kids], motherly, cantankerous, jealous. A savage. People don’t give Cancer’s the credit they deserve in terms of what they’re capable of. Cersei is a prime example of the type of person who can show unrivaled levels of devotion to the one’s they love. “No one matters but us.” She can be cruel because she lets her emotions rule her actions. When her safety is threatened, she makes sure no one else feels safe either. She loves with a ferocity only rivaled by...

Catelyn Stark- Another mother who would die [quite literally] for her children. Fierce, Protective. Doting. JEALOUS. Let’s not forget how she treated Jon all because she believed Ned’s lie about him being a bastard. Followed her son into battle. Damn near lost her hands fighting off Bran’s would-be assassin. 

Leo

Jaime Lannister- Proud. Handsome. Princely. Funny. We seem him go from underdeveloped Leo [arrogant, selfish, bully, prideful, snob, loyal to no one but himself] to developed [Kind, helpful, warm, honest]. Fought bears for his friends. Skilled and proud fighter even without the use of both his hands. Unfortunately, his loyalty caused him to stay loyal to his twin towards the end, but such is the nature of a Leo. They’re hard-pressed to abandon those they truly care for.

Brienne of Tarth- LOYAL. Proud. Devoted. A bit of a flare for drama especially brandishing her sword. Brienne is the definition of Leonine traits. Hard to miss. Devoted to those who show her kindness, i.e Renly, Catelyn, Jaime, Sansa, etc. Always at the front lines in war screaming “STAND YOUR GROUND”. Unrivaled levels of bravery and courage. Not to be fucked with. A true Queen.

Virgo

Samwell Tarley- Intelligent. Scholarly. Methodical. Always with his nose in a book. Unproblematic king. Caught the things everyone else missed, especially when he was an apprentice in Old Towne. Figured out how to cure Jorah Mormont’s affliction on his OWN without any formal training. Genius.

Lord Varys- Remember, Virgo is also ruled by Mercury who is the most cunning of the planetary rulers. Varys always had a spy to collect intel on everyone. A tactician. Never lost his temper. Always had the scoop but didn’t partake in gossip for gossip's sake. Not afraid to be critical or tell those “in charge” his opinion. We can see this specifically when he critiques Aerys, Daenerys, and Robert. 

Libra

Davos Seaworth- a skilled diplomat. Davos is always seen seeking balance and fairness in the situations he finds himself in. The minute you see this man in a scene you know he’s going to give a moving speech and get someone out fo a sticky situation. He convinced the Iron Bank to support Stannis. Convinced Daenerys to entertain Jon Snow when they traveled to Dragonstone. Always breaking up a fight. He is in full support of law and order, especially when he called for Melisandre’s head after discovering her part in Shireen’s death [RIP.]

Rhaegar Targaryen- Had a love of music. Harmony. Balance. He brought two families together [Stark and Targaryen]. He was also blessed by Venus in my opinion because he was said to be extremely handsome. A fabulous singer. A fighter yes, but a lover first. Very good with diplomacy but not the best with defending himself against his cousin sign, Taurus [Robert Baratheon].

Scorpio

Daenerys Targaryen- Many see her as an Aries but I have to respectfully disagree. Daenerys is a Scorpio in my opinion. Remember, Scorpio is honorary fire. She was literally “reborn from the ashes”. A Phoenix, Scorpio’s final form. She went from a silent and meek girl to a skilled and commanding Empress. Unlike Arians, she did not jump headfirst into battle. It took many arrows in her dragons, many slights to her ego, copious council from her advisors, dozens of her loved ones lost for her to go nuclear. Like her father, she hungered for power, a very Scorpionic trait. However she, unlike her father, listened to reason [Jorah, Tyrion, and Barristan Selmy]. She had a long fuse until she didn’t, and then that’s when she rained fire and blood on everyone in King’s Landing. She was skilled at retribution and was unapologetic with it *cough* the Tarleys *cough*.. Unlike Arians who pop off at the drop of a hat, she gave her enemies fair warning if/when they crossed her.

Arya Stark- You already know what it is with this one. Arya is pretty much death [Pluto], personified. Stealthy. A tactician. VENGEFUL. I think we all fist-pumped when she served Filch Walder Frey his sons in that pie. Never forgets a slight. Keeps a list of people who’ve wronged her [All Scorpios can probably relate]. You never see her coming. She is “no-one”. She is the assassin that slips through the back. She may seem calm at first but trust that she has been planning your downfall for a while. LOYAL. The definition of a Scorpio.

Melisandre- Dark. Mysterious. Unafraid of the occult. So much of her life is unknown and I’m sure that’s how she preferred it. Even her Lord of light was mysterious. Strong supernatural abilities and highkey psychic. Knew immediately how many “eyes” Arya would “close.” Had ties to the underworld which is demonstrated with her ability to resurrect the dead. Came through at the clutch in the last battle wielding fire [Mars] with her witchcraft. It’s no secret that Scorpios are some of the most skilled in sorcery.

Sagittarius

Missandei- Exotic. From Naath which is an island just above the mysterious continent of Sothoryos. A world traveler. Lucky enough to escape slavery [until the end]. Jupiter's influence is here in my opinion because she is so kind and friendly. Also a polyglot and gifted with the ability to speak 19 languages. Her fire is seen at the end of the series when she tells her best friend “Dracarys”-- meaning “fire” in High Valyrian. She isn’t afraid to call wrath down on others.

Olenna Tyrell- Loud, unapologetically blunt, zero-filter, feisty. Olenna to me is the definition of Sagittarius. Always speaks her mind. Clap back queen. Will call you out. Was also quite promiscuous in her younger years. Very charismatic and extremely likable despite her penchant for saying whatever was on her mind.

Capricorn

Tywin Lannister- I can’t see the patriarch of the most notorious family in Westeros being anything other than a Capricorn. Methodical. Structured. Business-minded. Karmic [A "Lannister always repays his debts"] Cold. Cruel. Unfeeling. Like Saturn, he is the father figure. Basically ran the 7 Kingdoms for Aerys, [which was probably why the latter was so salty towards him.] Always has a plan. The man you want in charge if we’re strictly talking about law and order. Vindictive [had the mountain kill Elia because Rhaegar rejected Cersei.] He’s the ultimate son-of-a-bitch.

Jon Snow- Brooding hero that he is, Bae Jon Snow is without a doubt a Capricorn in my eyes. Duty-bound. Serious. A leader in his own right. Could also be cold and unfeeling in terms of distributing karmic justice. Lest we forget the “fetch-me-a-block” situation with Janos Slynt. In addition, the moment he was resurrected he took vengeance against the black brothers who betrayed him. Saturn, Like Pluto, is all about karmic justice. The beating he put on Ramsey after The Battle of the Bastards was one thousand percent a karmic beating. A proper lover as well, according to Ygritte, Jon also knew how to handle himself in the bedroom, a trait very akin to Capricorns.

Aquarius

Bran Stark- I thought about making Bran a Pisces, but then I changed my mind. Remember Uranus rules sudden insights and hardcore psychic receptivity. It also rules sudden and unexpected catastrophes or surprises/ sudden breaks. Bran suffered a literal “tower” moment at the beginning of the series which resulted in his psychic powers developing. Once he became the three-eyed raven, he became very detached from the world.

Grey Worm- Aquarius is also androgynous. Grey Worm is a eunuch. He is always down to fight for a cause though, specifically his queen’s. Cares about others, specifically Missandei, and was seen towards the latter season speaking up for the Unsullied against the slavers. Fierce combatant but also very detached. His job is his job.

Pisces

Jaqen H’ghar- Much like Neptune, Pisces’ ruler Jaqen has a mysterious and illusive personality. He wears “many faces”. Skilled at illusion and very very intuitive. Has a soft side though which is clearly seen with how he treats Arya. Hardly ever flies off the handle. Calm. Cool. Collected.

Hodor- Sweet and gentle giant, Hodor is a Pisces to me. Affected by psychic trauma, it’s revealed why “Hodor” is the only thing he can say. Calm. A bit of a baby. Caring. Easily adaptable [think of all the terrain he carried Bran through]

Eddard Stark- I don't care what anyone says, Ned stark to me represents the most developed form of a Pisces. Like the Hanged-Man in Tarot that represents sacrifice and which Neptune Rules, he willingly sacrificed his reputation as honorable for his sister, Lyanna. He later sacrifices himself for his children when he died at Joffrey’s [little bitch] command. He is wise. Though appears cold, he is actually a well of feeling and caring. Unfortunately, he also suffered from the naivety of Neptunian influence which is why he wasn’t very skilled at the Game of Thrones, which calls for more tactical ruthlessness. Pisceans however also have the rage of Poseidon flowing through their veins [which people like to forget]. This was displayed when he pinned Petyr Baelish to the Wall in King’s Landing for daring to dishonor Cat by inviting her into a Brothel. RIP, King Stark.

[jade-masquerade]

Jonsa Halloween Day 4: singing to the stranger, begging for his kiss (quotes and monsters)

Written for @jonsa-halloween Day 4: Quotes and Monsters

“Seasons of My Love” ebbed away, replaced by the far more upbeat “Fifty-Four Tuns.” Those on the floor formed two lines again and then looped into two circles that rotated opposite of each other, switching their direction each time the chorus came around again. Even though Sansa had looked forward all night to this particular song and the ribaldry and laughter it never failed to bring about, she clung tight to Jon.

There were a few other couples that did the same, unwilling to separate from their partners or share them with another for even a moment, though Sansa suspected some were also unaware of the change in pace given their deep state of infatuation with each other. The couple of Florian and Jonquil she saw earlier were now entwined with each other and sharing a series of sloppy kisses, while Shella had rucked up her skirts a bit to grind up against the solid leg of her Rainbow Knight, her mouth hung open as he palmed her breasts.

 Sansa glanced away quickly once she realized what they were doing, blushing, even as the wanton part of her that had persuaded her to engage in this masquerade in the first place wondered how that would feel, if it would be as pleasurable as the few times she had permitted her hand to wander beneath her dressing gown or better.  

 She knew what those lining the floor must think, that they were one of those similar pairs too enamored with each other to care about those around them or to give consideration to where they were.   She was surprised when the thought of that thrilled her rather than disturbed her, that the prospect was one that she could contemplate at all.    

 Sansa had thought of how sweet to see Jon once again, but this was more than that. This was heady, overwhelming in a strange, exhilarating kind of way. It all easily could have made her weak-kneed, but Jon’s steady hands held her up as they swayed, so warm she could feel them through the wool of her dress

 She couldn’t help but think Jon had grown handsome in their time apart. He looked nothing like the golden princes she loved in her youth, but rather rugged, with a mystery to him, and an edge and a certain darkness. It didn’t frighten her though; instead there was a familiarity, a comfort with him, that she had lacked with so many of the others she had crossed paths with during her time as Alayne.

 Truthfully, she understood this feeling Jon had mentioned, as silly as it sounded. She had experienced it too, when he swept her into his arms, even before she’d known who he truly was. Many a time she had prayed to the gods, old and new, for a respite from this series of nightmares, for an escape, and when moons had gone by without so much of a sign, she had nearly lost the faith all together, but she found amusement in the irony now that Jon came dressed as the Stranger himself.

 They danced more intimately than Sansa had with any of her previous partners that night, yet she felt no need to pull away. Before she had known, she’d suspected there might have been a glimmer of desire there on Jon’s part, but even then he tried nothing and took no liberties. Jon held her as tight as Walder Upcliff had, she felt his body strong and firm against hers, and his eyes darkened the way she’d noticed with several other men, but those reactions in Jon did not frighten her. Perhaps it was all simple male mechanics; she knew there were no women in the Night’s Watch, after all.

 “You shouldn’t be here!” she hissed, suddenly panicked, glancing down at his Night’s Watch blacks. 

“Nor should you,” he said, his tone a low, gravelly rumble that that made her belly flutter.  

 “I don’t have a choice. Cersei would have had my head, or the Boltons,” she said. “But Father always said deserters…” She couldn’t bring herself to say the rest, but she knew he had grown up hearing the same, even witnessing such justice.  

 He reached up, unlaced the top of his tunic, and pulled down the collar. A couple of raised, healed over wounds marred his chest there—one along his sternum, one even deeper just to the right of that where it surely would have penetrated his heart—and she could feel more beneath his shirt as she drew her hand down his body.    

 She gasped as she traced along them. She supposed anyone else would have called them ugly, but she knew scars meant strength, that they meant survival. “How did you…?”

“I didn’t.” He told her of his brothers’ betrayal, of Ghost, of the red witch. “So I thought that satisfied my vows.”

If he were anyone else, she might have thought it a jest, or perhaps a tale told with the intention to scare her, but she knew better than that of Jon.

 “Do you think me a monster?”

 There are no heroes, she’d thought once. In life, the monsters win. The girl she’d been then had known nothing, having just witnessed the cruelties of life for the first time. Now, though, she knew better: that sometimes heroes did terrible things, and that sometimes those the world considered monsters were not always what they seemed. “No. Of course not. Does that make me a fool?”

 “Not any more than I.”

 Compared to those that surrounded them, countless Ser Artys Arryns, several Symeon Star-Eyes, and even a few Ser Aemon the Dragonknights, perhaps Jon looked to be a monster with his hood up and mask on, hair dark, eyes dark, but appearances could be deceiving. There were some who had dressed as monsters—Balerion the Black Dread, freakish chimeras, vicious hellhounds—but Sansa knew now that more often than not mere men, even those with the handsomest faces, could be far more dangerous than any creatures from the kinds of stories Old Nan used to tell.

 “I’ve never known a monster to be so kind.”

 He smiled at that, and she was struck again by how much he had changed and how little he resembled the brooding boy she remembered.  “You don’t know all of what I’ve done.”

 She shrugged. “We’ve all done what we need to survive. And do monsters not usually have skin icy to the touch, or mottled and scaled?”

 “Old Nan’s stories always seemed to suggest so,” he said, the corners of his mouth pulling up again.  

 “Yours is quite warm,” she said, feeling her cheeks heat.

 Sansa glanced away, but she felt his gaze stay on her all the same. She wondered if she should say more, or if he would think her the monster instead if she admitted to finding him comely before she had recognized him, and even after, even now, she found herself rather taken by his looks.    

 “Who are those men?”

 Sansa scanned across the floor. Alyssa and Harry had disappeared, and she desperately hoped she would not be expected to play along that she’d lost her maidenhead to him or performed something else more perverse for him this night later on when she was compelled to take up the mantle of Alayne again. An unidentifiable man had his face buried in Myranda Royce’s bosom as she giggled. And then her eyes fell upon Ser Shadrich standing on the edges of his tip toes to whisper in the ear of Lothor Brune.

“Littlefinger’s men.” She turned away quickly, but evidently not fast enough, and she could feel the growl in Jon’s chest when he met their stare. A tremble went through her, and she was grateful for the support of Jon’s strong arms.

 “We should leave,” he said.

“No, we can’t,” she said. “They’ll only know something is out of sorts and follow.”

“At least pull up the hood of your cloak,” he said, pressing his cheek right up against hers so his words would have no chance of being caught by another.

“My hair will make no matter if they can still see my face,” she said, and she wondered if Jon could feel the pounding of her heart, the fear slipping down her spine.

“Sansa…” He turned so her back faced them, but her skin still prickled with the familiar feeling of their eyes boring into her. If they had reason to suspect, if they decided to near, if they drew close enough to snatch her mask…

 “Kiss me, please,” she pleaded. She wondered if he would think she’d lost her mind, wondered what it would take to convince him. “Just kiss me.”

 He flicked his eyes over to where Petyr’s men stood again, and then, so quickly she didn’t even have time to close her eyes, he pressed his lips to hers.

 She snapped them shut, if only to block out the world around them. She expected Jon to linger there for a few moments, still and tepid, just long enough for them to lose interest and get swept up in ale or other matters. But then he began to move, slowly at first, and then she discovered that Jon’s kisses were nothing like the ones she had been imagining, nothing like the ones she had experienced before, kisses that were stiff and perfunctory, cool and pepperminty.

 No, these kisses were hot and hard and fast until they became deep and full of an intensity in which she could easily find herself carried away, and suddenly there was nothing strange about him and oddly enough nothing strange about this either. She was merely a lady kissing a man she loved, and she sank into this sense of familiarity, desire stirring inside of her, her body responding before she could think of what this meant.  

 When they broke away and she looked up at last, Ser Shadrich and Ser Lothor had vanished, but the heat had not gone from Jon’s eyes.

[sanrionharbor-blog]

Sansa and Tyrion’s Character Arcs (Part I: Tyrion)

Being a writer, I’ve been pouring through Shawn Coyne’s The Story Grid over the past two weeks. One of the points he makes is that every part of a story–from beat to arc–has the same 5 elements: inciting incident, complication, crisis, climax, resolution.

And being as obsessed as I am with Sansa and Tyrion of GOT in particular, I thought I’d use the hey-day of the series season finale episodes to indulge in some character metas. 

We’re going to (mainly) focus on the inciting incident.

So, not only does GOT have an overarching inciting incident/complication/crisis/climax/resolution that it’s moving towards, but each season has them, each episode/chapter has them, each  subplot has them, and each character has them.

According to Shawn Coyne, an inciting incident promises one thing: “…the ending.”

So let’s dive a little deeper and see what Sansa’s inciting incident and Tyrion’s inciting incident tells us about them. I’m writing separate posts since they’re both long–first up is Tyrion!

Tyrion

To start on a side note that will eventually get to the point:

I really wonder if show-Tyrion and book-Tyrion can come to the same conclusion. 

Book-Tyrion is much more morally grey than show-Tyrion, for one. They make different decisions after the Purple Wedding (in the show Tyrion is notably celibate whereas book-Tyrion hits an all-time low and is not above sleeping with drugged-up, unresponsive prostitutes–though he manages to empathize with them, he still uses them to run from his own darkness). 

Now, I’m equally invested in both versions of the character and believe they have the same arc/themes overall. So on one hand I can see them playing out beat-by-beat, just with different palettes, if you would, but only because of the power of the inciting incident:

So, an inciting incident does more than promise an ending–it sets the character on a path of no return. So, more than a character’s introduction, it’s when their story first goes down an irreversible path.

Furthermore, an inciting incident is called an incident for a reason: it’s not necessarily a decision made by a character, but something that happens to him (but more on that in a minute).

Tyrion’s Introduction

First we’ll note Tyrion’s introduction in the book:

“Jon found it hard to look away from [Jaime]. This is what a king should look like, he thought to himself as the man passed.

Then he saw the other one, waddling along half-hidden by his brother’s side. Tyrion Lannister, the youngest of Lord Twyin’s brood and by far the ugliest. All that the gods had given to Cersei and Jaime, they had denied Tyrion. He was a dwarf, half his brother’s height, struggling to keep pace on stunted legs….one green eye and one black one peered out from under a lanky fall of hair so blond it seemed white. Jon watched him with fascination.”

Later, still in the same chapter:

“The dwarf grinned down at [Jon]. ‘Is that animal a wolf?’

‘A direwolf,’ Jon said. ‘His name is Ghost….what are you doing up there? Why aren’t you at the feast ?’

‘Too hot, too noisy, and I’d drunk too much wine,’ the dwarf told him. ‘…might I have a closer look at your wolf?’

…he pushed himself off the ledge into empty air. Jon gasped, then watched with awe as Tyrion Lannister spun around in a tight ball, landed lightly on his hands, then vaulted backward.

Ghost backed away from him uncertainly.

The dwarf dusted himself off and laughed. ‘I believe I’ve frightened your wolf. My apologies.’”

They talk a little more, and it’s interesting to note that Tyrion isn’t threatened by Ghost, merely fascinated, and he correctly deduces that Ghost is more shy than harmful, despite Ghost baring his teeth. This could be foreshadowing that the Lannisters will have dominion over the Starks soon, but Tyrion was never a player in that. Despite his loyalties to his family, he was the one that reached out to Jon when he saw Jon was crying, he was the one who bonded with Jon at the wall and honored Jon’s request to take care of Bran, he was the one who took the time to design a saddle for Bran, and who later treated Sansa with dignity despite every cultural and social protocol having taught him to do the opposite.

No, I think this has more to do with Tyrion’s fascination with direwolves, and perhaps the Wolf, in general. I also believe it’s foreshadowing (not the deliberate kind, but the instinctual kind that most writers aren’t even aware of), to Tyrion’s possible later loyalty/ally status with the Stark’s. More on that when we get to his first POV.

Tyrion’s First POV Chapter

The very first POV that features Tyrion ends on this line (I know most of you have read it before):

“When he opened the door, the light from within threw his shadow clear across the yard, and for just a moment, Tyrion Lannister stood tall as a king.”

And then there is Tyrion’s first chapter written in his POV–where certain details stand out to me [all emphases mine]:

“Somewhere in the great stone maze of Winterfell, a wolf howled. The sound hung over the castle like a flag of mourning…something about the howling of a wolf took a man right out of his here and now and left him in a dark forest of the mind, running naked before the pack.”

That’s the opening of Tyrion’s first POV. No lion metaphors here. Instead, Tyrion briefly imagines being part of a wolf pack–is he running in front as a leader, naked and free and accepted, or because he’s being chased down, naked and hunted and vulnerable? 

Regardless, the chapter ends here:

“‘My sweet brother,” [Jaime] said darkly, “there are times you give me cause to wonder whose side you are on,”

Tyrion’s mouth was full of bread and fish. He took a swallow of strong black beer to wash it all down, and grinned up wolfishly at Jaime. ‘Why, Jaime, my sweet brother,’ he said, ‘you wound me. You know how much I love my family.’”

For some reason, Tyrion is metaphorically identifying with wolves. These exchanges also tune us into the hint of whimsy and empathy in his character, which co-exists with his book-smart/world-weary outlook. 

Still, neither of these moments include Tyrion’s inciting incident. No, Tyrion’s inciting incident is a direct result of ASOIAF’s inciting incident: the moment Catelyn Stark receives a letter from her sister Lysa Arryn about the death of Jon Arryn, Lord Paramount of the Vale and Hand to the King.

This is powerful stuff in itself, even if the death had been natural. But we’re about to be lead through a political spiderweb that’s being spun over a dark, fuzzy expanse; and we can only make out what that darkness is when the spiderweb isn’t so clearly in focus: Winter, and not just any Winter, but the Long Night. 

This is all happening at once, and Tyrion is actually an early witness to the complementary foci of ASOIAF:

Myth: He visits the Wall with Jon Snow and, while he doesn’t encounter any wights, he does encounter several people who’re convinced about such things. He’s skeptical, but we learn over time that Tyrion is a closeted romantic. Sure, he’s reading up on the lives of Maesters and pouring through ledgers and history books half the time–but he’s also obsessed with true love and handsome knights and dragons.

Humanity: He’s a casualty of Jon Arryn’s murder and Catelyn Stark’s having been deceived (though Catelyn acts heroically based on what she believes to be the truth). He’s kidnapped by Lady Stark and forced to stand trial for two murders he did not commit. This is his inciting incident. It’s what gets Tywin to declare war on the Starks and what inadvertently puts Tyrion in the pathway of both Bronn and Shae. It leads him to his newfound confidence as a military strategist, even as a pseudo-knight, in subsequent battles–including the one that costs him his nose, and any illusion that his looks could be improved or his stature increased by acting like a knight. Acting like a knight (like Jaime, like the son his father wanted, like the heroes Tyrion grew up reading about) did not win him the approval of Tywin, the adoration of the people, the reality of knighthood, or the true affection of any lady. And we know how his story goes from here.

But none of it would have happened without Tyrion’s Inciting Incident. And he had no choice in the matter either. This was his point of no return.

So, what are the themes established here?

Themes from his introduction:

-Even though he’s compared unfavorably to his brother Jaime, who is described as “what kings should look like,” the POV ends with Tyrion standing “tall as a king.” So, in a word, kingliness. 

-His intro through Jon’s eyes establishes him as larger than life, despite his size. He’s breezy, irreverent, whip-smart, aware of his status (as a Lannister and as a pariah), and even surprisingly acrobatic (or at the very least self-sufficient, and possessing the element of surprise). He’s also empathetic–he gives Jon advice on how to navigate the world and finds common place between them. Remember, he’s a noble and Jon is a bastard. He’s under no obligation to treat him kindly. It’s simply his character; one of Tyrion’s better qualities. 

-In short, Tyrion fulfills a role as: outcast (dwarf) and elite (Lannister noble), adviser (or Hand), jester (“Generations of capering fools in motley…’), and, at least inwardly, a king. And all of these are mythical archetypes and play well into the fantasy tropes that GRRM is exploring, deconstructing, and reconstructing.

-I also highlighted the part about Tyrion’s one black eye and one green, and his hair so pale it was almost white. This has less bearing in the TV show, obviously, but many of these clues not only point out his physical otherness, but can symbolically point to:

Looking at the world from two perspectives

Divided loyalties (the green eyes of the Lannister’s, and that one dark eye–dark like the Stark’s?)

Or does it represent a divided lineage?

B/C, though I’m not sold on the theory, one wonders if the “Tyrion as the third head of the dragon” isn’t hinted through his white-blond hair? Yet another secret Targaryen?

Themes from his first POV chapter:

-Tyrion finds it easy to identify with the Wolf (and yes, with a capital ‘W,’ encompassing the Starks, the direwolves, the archetype). And throughout the story he easily empathizes with the Starks, despite the Shakespearean-level rift between his family and theirs.

-He loves his family. But he is also separate from his family. 

-Tyrion’s strength (and weakness) will be his mind

Themes from his inciting incident:

-I see themes of justice/injustice, truth/deception, and acceptance/prejudice.

-In fact, Catelyn Stark seizes him with these words: “…I call upon you to seize him and help me return him to Winterfell to await the king’s justice.”

-To return to Winterfell. 

-To await the king’s justice.

Tyrion: The Ending Is In The Beginning

So this essay has been largely book-focused. The biggest differences between book-Tyrion and show-Tyrion, in the first arc anyway, are simply Tyrion’s sex appeal. Let’s be honest. In the show, his introduction comes by way of brothel (and it’s also a way to introduce the show-only character, Roz), whereas in the books it comes by way of unfavorable comparison with his brother. Peter Dinklage is also very handsome, and I’m not complaining AT ALL about his casting (because I love him), and D&D had a limited range to pick from anyway, but Tyrion in the show is more attractive and that colors several scenes–especially the ones with Shae and Sansa.

But it doesn’t matter that much in the end. Because the point is that Tyrion’s arc isn’t about his overall attractiveness (but physicality, yes). Tyrion is still playing roles that are traditionally given to conventionally handsome characters, not just to outsiders or “monstrous” archetypes. 

So the interesting part is that his looks play a tangential role, but not a main one. His physicality is always at play, but not so much his attractiveness. For example, both show and book Tywin hate that their son is a dwarf; the ugliness of book-Tyrion is just the T.P. at the bottom of Tywin’s ill-fitting shoe. Again, tangential. It changes the palettes of book and show Tyrion’s overall story visual, but not the actual shape of their story.

So regardless of the differences between the show and the book, Tyrion’s ending can still be found in the book A Game of Thrones’. And not only because that’s a universal law of storytelling (the inciting incident promises the ending) but it’s exactly what George R.R. Martin has confirmed. 

So what can we infer about Tyrion’s ending from his beginning?

Here is where we find Tyrion at the end of season 1 of GOT and in his last POV in the first book of ASOIAF [all emphases mine]:

In the wake of Jaime’s kidnapping, Tywin has just told Tyrion he’s sending him to King’s Landing. 

“It was the last thing Tyrion Lannister would ever have anticipated. He reached for his wine, and considered for a moment as he sipped. ‘And what am I to do there?’

‘Rule,’ his father said curtly.

Tyrion hooted with laughter. ‘My sweet sister might have a word or two to say about that!’

That part about Cersei seems more pertinent now that we’re heading into Season 8 of Game of Thrones and she’s a prominent villain. She’s at least a major obstacle in Tyrion’s current story line (and, in fact, always has been). 

But more importantly is his father’s command to rule. Tyrion Lannister is groomed for rulership throughout his story, and this will probably be his destiny: whether that come in the capacity of being king or some other kind of leader. Perhaps there won’t even be an Iron Throne at the end of all of this, but Tyrion, worldly and well-traveled and ruthless and empathetic as he is, could be a spearhead for a new political system. Perhaps the Magna Carta of Westeros is coming? 

Let’s hark back to Tyrion’s inciting incident. He was going to await the king’s justice. What if the king’s justice turns out to be Tyrion’s justice? And Tyrion, after being held accountable all his life for things he had not done wrong (though not being punished for the things he has done wrong–after all, he’s no saint), will find his justice by a king, someway-somehow. Either with Tyrion as said King, or by being Hand to just such a King, or even, tragically, by finally facing a justice he cannot escape–at the hands of a king. (Or Queen). 

Tyrion’s arc will end when he is finally taken off trial. He thought he’d finally made it when he was free of his father’s (physical) shadow and when he found full acceptance (he thought) with Daenerys. But here’s where Tyrion’s theme of divided loyalties comes into play. He’s been struggling with finding where he stands throughout his storyline. Even when he was advising for Dany, he was still hoping that Cersei had the capacity for change. I think what he loved most about Cersei was her motherly instincts, her children (sans Joffrey). And he probably does feel guilt over Myrcella’s death. So Tyrion is seeking justice; he wants Cersei’s baby to live because he loves him/her instinctually, because it “atones” for the other children, because blood runs thicker than water, because he won’t be the reason the Lannister name is snuffed out. 

“…To return to Winterfell and await the king’s justice.”

In Season 8, Tyrion does return to Winterfell. If there were a third trial (orchestrated perhaps by Daenerys or by Cersei), it would probably take place at King’s Landing or the Dragon Pit, but there’s still the fact that Tyrion’s story is inextricably linked with Winterfell. 

He is particularly bound up in the stories of Bran, Sansa, and Jon. And in a series inspired by the War of the Roses, he could be the link that brings the Lannisters (Lancasters) and Starks (Yorks) to true peace. To finally establish justice and resolve the conflict that started this whole saga. 

Tyrion has been denounced in two trials and made to suffer consequences to his agency and reputation, despite the deception at play. His agency and reputation still need restoring. He still has neither of these things with Daenerys. 

He needs to emerge victorious from a third trial. Whether that third trial is literal or metaphorical.  It’s very possible that Tyrion will finally stand trial for a murder he is guilty of: Cersei could put him on trial for the murder of Tywin Lannister, and Tyrion will have to face the spiritual shadow of his father and the reality of his guilt once and for all. 

This third trial will establish Tyrion’s character; it will close his arc. Whether he dies physically or not, he will be spiritually enlightened/restored. 

And I’d have to agree with Peter Dinklage–that would be a really beautiful end for Tyrion Lannister, however it plays out. 

(Please share your thoughts as I am OBSESSED with Tyrion theories). 

(Next Up: Sansa Stark). 

[doublehex]

Critiquing Criticisms

So guys, I want to talk about criticism today.

Wow, i thought that this story couldn't get any worse. Apparently i was wrong. I actually keep checking in, to stare at what an absolute piece of shit story you're writing here.

You try to give it some conflict, but at heart this is just another wank fic. 'Hey, i don't want anything actually BAD to happen to our precious heroes, so let's just scratch out that whole incident at Winterfell for no real reason.' 'Wait, Robb Stark is LOSING the war? Well, better give him an army of 100,000 men and smoking hot beautiful wife to stop that happening' 'Hmm, do you think Tywin Lannister might be inconvenient? Well, better just scratch him off - not his son though, because i quite like that Jaime, but Cersei is a bitch so she better die. Joffrey definitely needs to die, that can happen as a passing mention.' 'Hmm, Theon is a complex, conflicted character - i don't want to hurt him, but don't want him to screw anything either. Oh well, off to the Wall Theon goes! Yeah, instnt redemption arc minus the actual crime!'

Can you not see the clear author fiat there? Or have you deluded yourself into thinking its good storytelling?

Asoiaf is a complex world, and you're just pissing on it because you want characters you like to live. You don't want any morally grey actions, so everything has to be super clean good guys and bad guys. Your bad guys in Essos are all caricatures. You've absolutely horribly stole all of the depth from your good guys just because you don't want them to make mistakes.

Even this whole Dany and Jon seperation is pure shipping angst. 'Hey - lets make Jon a savage but handsome gladiator while Dany becomes a hot dragon queen mother, and then they can pine over each other from a distance rather than being next to each other'. I'm sure that throwing some arbitrary obstacle into a shipping story has never been done before. Anything as an excuse to give them a saucier sex life, right - because it was just at risk of becoming too tame when Drogo died. Oh, and then Jon will escape and Dany will conquer the city with three dragons, a son, and dozen armies, and they'll be happy ever after, because actual conflict and moral dilemma is only for other stories, right?

Of all the things you've done, Jon as a gladiator is just one of the worst. The angsty, brooding gladiator too. There is a whole genre of sexy gladiator-AU fanfic stories, but you seriously think that yours orginal and ok? Guess what - every time a fanfic writer wants to make thier characters more 'edgy!' and 'exciting!', they put them in as gladitors - it's right up there with the high school AU. Which just shows where this fic rates.

Don't even get me started on how apparently every man and his dog (Aegon, Arya, Sansa, Barristan, wolfguard, whatever his name is) is suddenly massively obsessed with finding your super-duper, golden pair, and travelling all around the world just for them. Yep, Dany and Jon are so good for each other that they've randomly become the most important couple in the world, and everybody has to run to help them be together.

Everybody knows that Jon and Dany are going to end up together, but you're still trying to stretch it out as if there might be a modicum of doubt.

This is worse plot structure than the TV show ever. This is blatant shipping and wish fulfillment that the author tries to disguise as a decent story.

Obviously, right off the bat, we know that this is a terrible piece of criticism. Like, there is no beating around the bush. The guy just wants to troll and flame under the guise of commentary. I don’t want to talk about the specifics of why this comment is so toxic, but make this a teaching moment for how you can better frame your comments.

First off, it is never a good idea to say “This is what the creator should be doing”. That’s because it is boring, and oversteps your bounds as a critic. Your job is not to propel your desires for the type of book, movie, game or show that you are reviewing. You should be trying to connect two different ideas – what type of story if the creator trying to tell and how well does he accomplish that?

Or in simpler terms, “review on what the X actually is, rather than what you think it should be”.

Using this review as an example, the commentator does not like two types of fics. Fics were shipping has any kind of major emphasis, and fics that deviate from canon. Those that have read chapter 15 now knows that pretty much the opposite of everything in ACOK has happened. Stannis wins Battle of Blackwater, Edmure allows Tywin to pass and Robb crushes him in the Westerlands, and Winterfell still stands. I pretty much wanted to explore what would happen if the roles were reversed in ACOK.

Instead of talking about the ways in which I mishandled the foundations of these “what if” scenarios, he instead decided to bash the very fact that these scenarios exist in the first place. That is not good criticism, that is not an interesting review to read, it says nothing about the quality of the chapter; it is just bad writing.

Also, hyperbolic language is not going to get your message across. And this review is RIDDLED with over the top language. It is going to be hard to take any comment seriously if all you do is portray X or Y story as the worst or best thing in human history.

As an example, his comments on how Jon is a gladiator/bloodsworne. He throws several assumptions out there – that there is a whole genre of sexy gladiator AU, that my idea is original, and that it is right up there with high school AU. I am pretty certain that the first point is false, that I stated on several occasions that Spartacus gave me the idea for Jon’s arc. But the point of his discussion on how it is at the same tier as high school AUs is what I want to focus on for just a second.

Let us dispel with the notion that because something is popular does not mean it does not have merit. Apparently, Jon as a gladiator is a popular basis for an AU. That’s news to me. That does not mean, however, that it cannot be done well. I am not saying I am doing Jon’s gladiator arc well, but the potential is still there. It would be comparable to saying that just because someone has a love triangle in a fantasy or space opera narrative that it cannot add to the story.

Essentially, at the end of day, proper criticism comes from a place of love and respect. You love whatever it is you are talking about, and that should come through in your words. This guy has no love at all – he just wants to hate on me. And his comment is very boring as a result. He is not saying anything interesting, because pure hate does not allow you to say anything interesting.

Review what you see, instead of what you WANT to see, and your comments will be all the more meaningful.

[frankiefellinlove]

Bono's introduction to Bruce's hall of fame induction:

Apr 8, 20081999-03-15 Bono inducts Bruce Springsteen Transcript of Bono's speech: Bruce is a very unusual rock star, isnt he really? I mean he hasn't done the things most rock stars do. He got rich and famous, but never embarrassed himself with all that success, did he? No drug busts, no blood changes in Switzerland. Even more remarkable, no golfing! No bad hair period, even in the '80s. No embarrassing movie roles, no pet snakes, no monkeys. No exhibitions of his own paintings. No public brawling or setting himself on fire on the weekend. Well, you can't be a big legend and not be dysfunctional. It's not allowed. You should at least have lost your looks. Everyone else has. Did you see them? It's like Madame Tussaud's back there! And then there's Bruce Springsteen. Handsome, handsome mother with those brooding brown eyes, eyes that could see through America. And a catastrophe of great songs, if you were another songwriter. Bruce has played every bar in the U.S.A., and every stadium. Credibility --- you couldn't have more, unless you were dead. He's America's writer, and critic. It's like in 'Badlands,' he's Martin Sheen and Terrence Malick. To be so accessible and so private... But then again, he is an Irish-Italian, with a Jewish-sounding name. What more do you want? Add one big African sax player, and no one in this room is gonna f*** with you! He was the end of long hair, brown rice and bell bottoms. He was the end of the 20-minute drum solo. It was good night, Haight-Ashbury; hello, Asbury Park. He was a new vision, and a new community. More than a community, because every great rock group is kind of like starting a religion. And Bruce surrounded himself with fellow believers. The E Street --- wasn't just a great rock group, or a street gang. It was a brotherhood. Zealots like Steve Van Zandt, the bishop Clarence Clemons, the holy Roy Bittan, crusaders Danny Federici, Max Weinberg, Garry Tallent and later Nils Lofgren. And Jon Landau, Jon Landau, Jon Landau, Jon Landau, Jon Landau. What do you call a man who makes his best friend his manager, his producer, his confessor? You call him the Boss. And Springsteen didn't just marry a gorgeous red-headed woman from the Jersey Shore. She could sing, she could write, and she could tell the Boss off. And thats Patty right there. At some point I remember riding in an elevator with gentleman Bruce, where he just stared straight ahead of himself, and completely ignored me. I was crushed. Only when he walked into the doors as they were opening, did I realize the impossible was happening. My god, Bruce Springsteen, the Buddha of my youth, is plastered! Drunk as a skunk! Pissed as a fart... Something was going on, though. As a fan I could see that my hero was beginning to rebel against his own public image. Things got even more interesting on 'Tunnel of Love,' when he started to deface it. A remarkable bunch of tunes, where our leader starts having a go at himself, and the hypocrisy of his own heart, before anyone else could. But the tabloids could never break news on Bruce Springsteen. Because his fans ... he had already told us everything in the songs. We knew he was spinning. We could feel him free-falling. But it wasn't in chaos or entropy. It was in love. We call him the Boss. Well that's a bunch of crap. He's not the boss. He works *for* us. More than a boss, he's the owner, because more than anyone else, Bruce Springsteen owns America's heart.

[geekprincess26]

Bless Me, Father

Written for Day 3 of Jon x Sansa Fanfiction’s 15 Days of Valentine’s challenge.

Father Samwell Tarly was having a difficult day.

He’d been told by Professor Targaryen on his first day at seminary that a priest’s work would never end or lack for challenges, and that had certainly proven true.  As with every other parish he had served during his relatively short tenure in the clergy, Wintertown had its share of illness, poverty, and various other forms of human misery.  On some days, he would visit half a dozen homes of people who were bedridden or depressed or otherwise in need of advice and prayer, and after that just as many rooms at the county hospital.  On almost as many, he would fall asleep at the dinner table without so much as having taken off his collar for the evening.

But Wintertown, more than any other parish he had served, had also given him unexpected joys.  His parishioners had initially been more suspicious of and less friendly toward him than had those to whom he had ministered in his two prior postings, but once he had won their trust, they had welcomed him warmly.  The library at the parsonage put the collections at his prior parsonages to shame. And to his unexpected delight, Wintertown’s congregation was teeming with young families.  The parents were not so stubborn or set on having things done just as their prior pastor had as were some of the older parishioners Sam had encountered, and the children, to his great surprise, almost all took to him from the start – especially, for some reason, little rascals like Rickon Stark, who much to his older sister’s horror had first greeted Father Sam by tackling him into the mud and roaring ferociously because, he said, he was trying to greet the new priest like a proper northern direwolf.

No, Wintertown was by far Father Sam’s favorite parish so far, and most days there gave him more than enough joy, or at least assurance that he had entered the right profession. Today, however, was not one of those days.  It was the day of the week that he always had set aside to listen to the confessions of any parishioner willing to give them.  This was not always a bad thing, for Wintertown was small, and sometimes the young priest would spend an hour or more reading one of the many volumes in his library while waiting for his next visitor.  Today, though, he had a head cold and had awakened later than usual, and then only to the jangling of his telephone.  Old Mrs. Mordane’s husband was dying, and so Father Sam had no chance to so much as brush his teeth before he threw on his clothes and headed out the door.  While at the hospital, he had encountered the Mormont family, whose youngest daughter, Lyanna, had just fallen from a tree and been brought into the emergency room badly injured.  Naturally, Father Sam had stopped to pray with them.  He was running over an hour late for his confessions by the time he left the hospital, but then his faithful old Ford Model B had finally given out a mile from the church, and he had had to huff and puff all the way there in the rain.  When he finally arrived, it seemed that almost half the town had turned up for confession.

Father Sam spent the next several hours huddled miserably but faithfully in the confessional booth. By the time Miss Sansa Stark, none other than the previously horrified older sister of young Rickon, arrived to make her confession, he was hungry and thirsty, and irritated to boot.  His irritation was increased, strangely enough, by the fact that he knew her confession would be boring, for Miss Stark was not much of a sinner.  She taught the second grade at Wintertown’s sole school, and students and parents alike loved her, for she was gentle and kind and always had a smile even for her most mischievous students.  She had raised her three younger siblings singlehandedly after the deaths of their parents and elder brother in a terrible automobile accident, and by all accounts she did a wonderful job, Rickon’s shenanigans notwithstanding.  She even baked cookies for catechism class.  And yet Miss Stark felt herself a rather sinful person, for every week without fail for the past year and a half, she had confessed that she struggled with lustful thoughts toward Dr. Jon Snow, the other half of Father Sam’s biggest dilemma – and also Father Sam’s only remaining parishioner still waiting to have his confession heard.  

Father Sam had long suspected that most of the young ladies of Wintertown, had they been as sensitive as Miss Stark, would have confessed that they too had lustful thoughts toward the handsome young physician.  His black curls, piercing brown eyes, and brooding demeanor gave him the aura of a hero straight out of one of the historical novels that were all the rage among young ladies these days.  However, he had never encouraged any of the young ladies in their affections; in fact, he had seemed more or less oblivious to their intentions.  The only young lady of whom he had ever taken any real notice was Miss Stark.  Father Sam was more keenly aware of this even than the most sharp-eyed of his parishioners, although it was obvious to more than half the congregation at this point, even if nobody spoke of it openly.  It would not take a sharp pair of eyes, after all, to see the way Dr. Snow shifted that brooding gaze toward Miss Stark while singing a hymn, or to notice the way that gaze softened whenever he did so.  Nor did it take too much intelligence to see the pink tint that spread across Miss Stark’s porcelain face when Dr. Snow helped her into his automobile, which he used to transport the four Starks to and from church every Sunday, or when he let Rickon climb all over him and cover his nice clothes in dirt for the hundredth time and tell an abashed Miss Stark that really, it was no trouble at all.  And anyone who could see out of one eye could also see the smile that lit up Dr. Snow’s face every week when he helped Father Sam prepare for catechism class and saw Miss Stark walk into the room with her cookies.

Even if Father Sam had seen none of this, he heard plain evidence of it.  For one thing, two of Miss Stark’s three siblings, Miss Arya Stark and Master Brandon Stark, were old enough for the confessional booth themselves, and more than once each of them had confessed to wanting to smack their older sister over the head for being not only oblivious to Dr. Snow’s affections, but also idiotic enough to believe she did not deserve such a fine man. Furthermore, every week like clockwork Dr. Snow entered the confessional booth and admitted to having lustful thoughts for Miss Stark.  Father Sam would shake his head behind the curtain, for Dr. Snow was always quick to say he would take such thoughts to his grave rather than bother Miss Stark with unwanted attentions, even if those attentions were to take the honorable form of a request for courtship, or even a marriage proposal.  In fact, when Father Sam would mildly mention that the kindnesses the young doctor bestowed on Miss Stark were evidence of care and generosity, not depravity, and even suggest that Dr. Snow might find his conscience relieved if he were to ask Miss Stark for a chance to show just how honorable his intentions were, Dr. Snow would only shake his head in that brooding way of his and remark about how much better Miss Stark deserved.

It was at those moments that Father Sam experienced some of his least priestly inclinations, for he wished then to smack some sense into the other man, or at least give him a fine scolding.  On occasion, he had had the most wicked temptation to open his mouth when one of them was in the confessional and reveal the other’s exact feelings.  But that, of course, would be a violation of one of his most sacred duties, which was to keep his parishioners’ confessions in the strictest confidence.  Not even a judge or man of the law, even during the investigation of a crime, could be required to force Father Sam to speak of what Dr. Snow, Miss Stark, or indeed anybody else told him once seated in that consecrated booth.

This matter, however, was not a criminal one nor even a case of a mortal sin, and Father Sam had begun to wonder of late whether it would also be a sin to deny two people like Dr. Snow and Miss Stark their chance at finding happiness and love, which, after all, were two of God’s greatest gifts to the human race.  So when Miss Stark entered his confessional on that wet and miserable night and Father Sam heard the sound of tears creeping into her voice, his irritation fell away in a heartbeat, and in between the sniffles, he felt an idea begin to form at the back of his mind.  By the time he had finished hearing Dr. Snow’s weekly bout of sighing and self-loathing, it had become a plan.

A few weeks later, Miss Stark brought her usual batch of chocolate chip cookies to catechism class. Father Sam announced to his young students that this week they would be studying the subject of love.  As Miss Stark and Dr. Snow, whom Father Sam had politely requested assist her, quietly set out the cookies at the back of the classroom, he asked his students to discuss instances of people around them showing love to each other.  Young Rickon Stark immediately raised his hand, and Father Sam was only too happy to call on him.

Rickon rose to his feet and stood next to his desk.  “My sister Sansa loves my brother and sister and me,” he said, ��because she cooks dinner for us and talks me and Arya out of fighting and takes us to see Dr. Snow when we get sick.”  Oblivious to the blush rising in his sister’s cheeks, he continued.  “And she loves Dr. Snow because she lets him read the books she borrows from the library and helps him smile when she brings us in to see him.” Ignoring the identical flush that had swept across Dr. Snow’s face, he said, “And Dr. Snow loves her.  He opens doors for her, like a gentleman does, and says nobody is as intelli-intellectual and kind and pretty as she is.  He offers to drive her home from school when the weather’s bad.  And he smiles at her when she’s not looking.  And I think he ought to marry her.”

He sat back down, and Father Sam had to hand it to the boy for not grinning like a Cheshire cat at his sister and the doctor, who had each flushed a bright shade of scarlet.  After perhaps five seconds, which seemed to stretch on for five years, Dr. Snow turned not just his eyes, but his whole head toward Miss Stark.  Not one moment later, she mirrored his action.  She quickly looked down at the floor, but a few seconds later Dr. Snow whispered something unintelligible, and Miss Stark looked shyly back up at him. He said something else, and she nodded and followed him out of the room.

Father Sam beamed at Rickon Stark and took out his Bible to begin the rest of the class.  It opened to the spot he had bookmarked the previous night, and his eyes fell on the beginning of Psalm 8:2: “Out of the mouths of babes…”.

One year later, Father Sam looked at that passage again and smiled.  It was one of the Scripture verses they had chosen for him to read at their wedding.