#{{ jon/ygritte }} should have stayed in that cave

[jackoshadows]

Quotes about love and lost love:

"When the sun has set, no candle can replace it" - Loras and Renly

You're mine," she whispered. "Mine, as I'm yours. And if we die, we die. All men must die, Jon Snow. But first, we'll live." - Jon and Ygritte

"I am grateful, but...you were well away. Why come back?" A dozen quips came to mind, each crueler than the one before, but Jaime only shrugged. "I dreamed of you," he said. - Jaime and Brienne

I crossed a thousand leagues to come to you, and lost the best part of me along the way. Don’t tell me to leave. - Jaime and Cersei

“I rose too high, loved too hard, dared too much. I tried to grasp a star, overreached, and fell.” - Jon Connington and Rhaegar

What do you know of my heart, priestess? What do you know of my sister? - Jon and Arya

"They could do as they liked with her, imprison her, rape her, kill her. It made no matter, she had lived too long and Ned was waiting.” - Cat and Ned

Needle was Jon Snow's smile. - Jon and Arya

What is honor compared to a woman's love? What is duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms . . . or the memory of a brother's smile? Wind and words. Wind and words. We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory, and our great tragedy.” - Maester Aemon

She just smiled at that. “D’you remember that cave? We should have stayed in that cave.” - Jon and Ygritte

"No, don't, don't cut my hair, Ned loves my hair." - Cat and Ned

"I took her castle and she took my heart." - Robb and Jeyne

[greenbloods]

asoiaf breaking the limited third person POV

“D’you remember that cave? We should have stayed in that cave. I told you so.” “We’ll go back to the cave,” he said. “You’re not going to die, Ygritte. You’re not.” “Oh.” Ygritte cupped his cheek with her hand. “You know nothing, Jon Snow,” she sighed, dying.

Stannis pointed his shining sword at his brother. "I am not without mercy," thundered he who was notoriously without mercy.

"Viserys smiled and lowered his sword. That was the saddest thing, the thing that tore at her afterward… the way he smiled."

As Daenerys Targaryen rose to her feet, her black hissed, pale smoke venting from its mouth and nostrils. The other two pulled away from her breasts and added their voices to the call, translucent wings unfolding and stirring the air, and for the first time in hundreds of years, the night came alive with the music of dragons.

[winnie-the-monster]

“Jon Snow,” she said, very softly. It sounded as though the arrow had found a lung. “Is this a proper castle now? Not just a tower?”

“It is.” Jon took her hand.

“Good,” she whispered. “I wanted t’ see one proper castle, before….before I….”

“You’ll see hundred castles,” he promised her. “The battle’s done. Maester Aemon will see to you.” He touched her hair. “You’re kissed by fire, remember? Lucky. It will take more than an arrow to kill you. Aemon will will draw it out and patch you up, and we’ll get you some milk of the poppy for the pain.”

She just smiled at that. “D’you remember that cave? We should have stayed in that cave. I told you so.”

“We’ll go back to the cave,” he said. “You’re not going to die, Ygritte. You’re not.”

“Oh.” Ygritte cupped his cheek with her hand. “You know nothing, Jon Snow,” she sighed, dying.

[gotham-at-nightfall]

Ygritte dies in Jon’s arms

He found Ygritte sprawled across a patch of old snow beneath the Lord Commander's Tower, with an arrow between her breasts. The ice crystals had settled over her face, and in the moonlight it looked as though she wore a glittering silver mask. The arrow was black, Jon saw, but it was fletched with white duck feathers. Not mine, he told himself, not one of mine. But he felt as if it were. When he knelt in the snow beside her, her eyes opened. "Jon Snow," she said, very softly. It sounded as though the arrow had found a lung. "Is this a proper castle now? Not just a tower?" "It is" Jon took her hand. "Good," she whispered. "I wanted t' see one proper castle, before ... before I ..." "You'll see a hundred castles," he promised her. "The battle's done. Master Aemon will see to you." He touched her hair. "You're kissed by fire, remember? Lucky. It will take more than an arrow to kill you. Aemon will draw it out and patch you up, and we’ll get you some milk of the poppy for the pain." She just smiled at that. "D'you remember that cave? We should have stayed in that cave. I told you so." "We'll go back to the cave," he said. "You're not going to die, Ygritte. You're not." "Oh." Ygritte cupped his cheek with her hand. "You know nothing, Jon Snow," she sighed, dying.

By Hed-ush

[rise-my-angel]

Why don’t you like Ygritte? I haven’t read the books but I’ve heard that she’s worst there?

The books make the dynamic between her and Jon a lot more clear that it isn't romantic. There are much stronger tones of Ygritte being sexually aggressive towards Jon that are not painted in a fun light, as Jon repeatetly rejects her advances, puts Ghost in between them when they sleep to protect himself from her advances. Jon many times has to tell her that what she thinks this is, it isn't anything like that (man kidnapping woman in her culture seems romantic and Jon struggles to get her to understand he doesnt want that at all). And in the cave she demands he sends Ghost away because she knows Ghost won't let her touch Jon, and it is a lot more clear that if Jon leaves the cave and doesn't have sex with Ygritte, they will take it as a sign he is still a Crow and will follow Mance's orders to kill him.

Now the book has issues, mostly that grrm does not explore Jons perspective of this dynamic as abusive or the sex as rape. But it was written in the 90's when male rape victims at the hands of female perpetrators was not a talking point and thus Jon doesn't really get to explore it.

But his experiances are exactly what we would see as abuse and rape were the genders flipped. I've also been in a scenario much like that with someone who was a lot like Ygritte and I can say it was an abusive dynamic and it was rape I experianced, and recognizing that in Jons interactions makes me unable to view her in a positive light.

In the show, there is a lot more work being done to make it cute, but really, Jon does not act like he's comfortable. He has moments like in the books where sure, it seems like he enjoys her company, but thats what being with an abuser is like. Sometimes, you do enjoy them, thats how you convince yourself to stay and that you love them, when youre really afraid of them.

If you watch the show with that in mind, and pay specific attention to Jons silent reactions to her, 90% of the time, he seems uncomfortable and scared of her. I do not enjoy the framing of the show that it is a star crossed lovers dynamic.

I know people do not agree, and that's fine. But my views on Ygritte are directly correllated to me experiancing an abusive relationship where I was raped, with someone who treated me exactly the same kind of way Ygritte treats Jon.

Others may not see her in that light and understand, but my painting of Ygritte is through a lens of experiancing that in real life and knowing that the framing of romance is not really what that is like, trauma isn't experianced through a romantic lens and the scene of them in the cave genuinly triggers me to an upsetting degree because it makes me feel like I should be remembering my own experiance as romantic when I know it wasn't.

I have a tag for anti ygritte and anti jongritte which might go into more detail if you are further interested in why I've come to those conclusions.

I know my perspective of her upsets some people, and it isn't intentional. It's just how I've experienced that situation.

[esther-dot]

In the books Jon never fight face to face with Ygritte at the Wall unlike the show. In the show when Ygritte pointing her arrow to Jon but unable to kill him, Jon was actually happy to see her despite her wanting to kill him. In books he was commanding the battle from tower and have dilemma about shooting Ygritte. But we never shown what would have been if Ygritte gets hold on Jon. Would she killed him? Because she almost did when he left her. What do you think?

Sidenote: I was so annoyed after GoT when people tried to rewrite history and act like Jon killed Dany and Ygritte when, as you point out, in the show, Jon smiles at Ygritte and can't kill her! I guess it was easier to pretend he was a murderer of women/woman hater rather than admit Dany needed to be killed before she massacred more people but after they treated him the way they did in s7-8 I found that infuriating.

Anyhoo, Martin writes with a lot of room for us to draw our own conclusions. He doesn't outright say if it was Ygritte's arrow that got Jon:

"He lay on the ground afterward, clutching his prize and bleeding quietly, too weak to move. After a while, he realized that if he did not make himself move he was like to bleed to death. Jon crawled to the shallow stream where the mare was drinking, washed his thigh in the cold water, and bound it tight with a strip of cloth torn from his cloak. He washed the arrow too, turning it in his hands. Was the fletching grey, or white? Ygritte fletched her arrows with pale grey goose feathers. Did she loose a shaft at me as I fled? Jon could not blame her for that. He wondered if she'd been aiming for him or the horse. If the mare had gone down, he would have been doomed. "A lucky thing my leg got in the way," he muttered. (ASOS, Jon V)

In the show, Ygritte talks about killing Jon although the impression they gave the audience was that neither would have killed the other. Her words were presented in a way that conveyed she was extremely hurt by his betrayal, but when the opportunity came, she couldn't shoot him.

Book Ygritte was more vicious, more capable of killing Jon imo. She threatened him while he was with the FF and I don’t think it was entirely bluster. D&D romanticized their relationship overall which changed it’s purpose (and I don't think that was fair to Jon at all), but Martin is the one who gave them the soft send-off first, so even though they changed the lead-up, I didn't think it substantially changed their final moment:

He found Ygritte sprawled across a patch of old snow beneath the Lord Commander's Tower, with an arrow between her breasts. The ice crystals had settled over her face, and in the moonlight it looked as though she wore a glittering silver mask.

The arrow was black, Jon saw, but it was fletched with white duck feathers. Not mine, he told himself, not one of mine. But he felt as if it were.

When he knelt in the snow beside her, her eyes opened. "Jon Snow," she said, very softly. It sounded as though the arrow had found a lung. "Is this a proper castle now? Not just a tower?"

"It is." Jon took her hand.

"Good," she whispered. "I wanted t' see one proper castle, before . . . before I . . ."

"You'll see a hundred castles," he promised her. "The battle's done. Maester Aemon will see to you." He touched her hair. "You're kissed by fire, remember? Lucky. It will take more than an arrow to kill you. Aemon will draw it out and patch you up, and we'll get you some milk of the poppy for the pain."

She just smiled at that. "D'you remember that cave? We should have stayed in that cave. I told you so."

"We'll go back to the cave," he said. "You're not going to die, Ygritte. You're not."

"Oh." Ygritte cupped his cheek with her hand. "You know nothing, Jon Snow," she sighed, dying.

(ASOS, Jon VII)

I’m torn. I think she is reckless and angry enough she would absolutely risk his life, so her letting an arrow fly that *could* kill him seems in-character, but if she had him dead to rights and knew if she fired he would die? I’m actually not sure. Jon genuinely cared for her well-being, she was more interested in possessing him I would say, but all the same, I am doubtful about her following through on her threats/making the call when there’s only one possible outcome. I guess I’m hesitantly on team, Martin wouldn’t have written Ygritte killing Jon?

[closethedoorandcomehere]

Call for questions: ASoS Arya XI, Davos V, Jon VII

We will be recording the following chapters Sunday, September 17

*ASoS Arya XI: Arya & the Hound get to the Red Wedding

*ASoS Davos V: Business meetings at Dragonstone

*ASoS Jon VII: Jon and Ygritte should have stayed in the damn cave!

We would love your comments/questions, so if you have any specific questions for the podcast hosts, comment like this:

Question: [chapter name if applicable]: when will The Winds of Winter be released? (Apparently never 😦 )

[alliecatstrophe]

oh shit

[wolfqueen-is-here]

You need to be smarter

Sansa: You need to be smarter than Father. You need to be smarter than Robb.

Jon: *bends over backwards to act significantly dumber than both of them combined* ...nailed it.

[sourcherryandsprinkles]

What happens in the cave, stays in the cave | Jon Snow x Jeor Mormont daughter!Reader

Summary: You and Jon spend the night in a cave

Word count: 1.9k (it was originally a blurb, I guess I got a little carried away...)

Warnings: light smut

Request: Can you do Jon looking for the Lord Commander of the Night’s watch’s daughter after she gets taken by the wildlings. When he finds her, he help her escape and they hide in a cavern, the same cavern Ygritte and Jon went to in the show  

A/N: I don’t know if this will be geographically correct, but let’s pretend. 

-

While Beyond the Wall in search of the missing Benjen Stark with the other Crows, you had managed to stray away from the group and get taken by a group of Free Folk.

Your father, Lord Commander of the Night Jeor Mormont, was furious and immediately accused an old ‘friend’ – also called the King-Beyond-the-Wall – to be behind this. It was wrong of him to be making blind accusations, but it was his precious daughter that had been taken and, it turned out he hadn’t been completely wrong.

The men who had taken you hadn’t known your identity, they just wanted you for some…personal fun. It’s only when they brought you to their King that Mance Rayder recognized your mother’s eyes and decided to keep you hostage. The man has had a bone to pick with your father since his days among the Night's Watch – an old conflict between the two men.

The moment your disparition had been confirmed, Jon didn’t think twice and offered to go search for you. Although nothing was his fault, a part of him felt guilty. He should have kept a better eye on you. Jeor had been hesitant to send him, not particularly trusting of Jon or his intentions, but he wasn’t blind and knew the young Crow would be the only one who would protect you and your life before his.

It took Jon three days to find the Free Folk’s campment – to get to you. After evaluating his options, Jon infiltrated the Free Folk, telling them he had deserted the Night’s Watch to become part of the Free Folk. His plan would have worked if Mance Rayder hadn’t recognized him as Ned Stark’s bastard son, which got him captured too.

‘’You’re an idiot, Jon Snow,’’ you had told him when he got thrown in the tent with you, tied up. ‘’I’m flattered that you came to rescue me, but now we’re both gonna get killed.’’

You didn’t get killed. Mance had other plans for you. You’ll be heading to the wall via south along with the wildlings and serve of money of exchange when they invade the north. According to Mance, the Lord Commander won't care much about Jon Snow, but when he will see his daughter tied and with a blade pressed against her neck, he'll let them pass.

Mance's plan wasn't foolproof though. While they were on the move toward the south, you and Jon managed to free yourself and get away.

You and Jon had been on the run for hours, running through the snow-y mountains in the opposite direction of the Free Folk, and your legs were aching from all the running, threatening to give out.

And they did, as you tripped on a rock and fell on the snow covered ground. You cursed and tried to get up, but your body was exhausted.

‘’Jon!’’ you called, panting from running, feeling your heart hammering under your thick layers of wool, leather and fur.

Before you, the raven haired man stopped in his tracks. He looked over his shoulder to see you on the ground. ‘’You alright?‘’

You nodded. You weren't injured, just tired. ‘’I need a break. My- my legs can’t carry me any farther.’’

There was no way you'll be making it to Castle Black before night. Castle Black was hundreds of miles away. It's impossible to make that distance by foot before nightfall.

Jon looked around and nodded. ‘’Okay. We’ll take a break.’’

You didn't stay put for long. The area was safe for a short break, but not for a full night. You needed to find a place to hide away. A nook between trees or–

‘’Y/N! Where are you going,’’ Jon hissed, going after you like one would follow a running child. ‘’Seven Hells…’’

In the distance, you had spotted an opening in a mountain – a cave. It would be perfect to shield yourself from the wind and biting cold. Perhaps you could even make a fire.

Within the cave, Jon kept calling your name as you followed along its jagged walls. You ignored him and kept going, suddenly feeling a strange warmth the farther you went in. A frown creased between your eyebrows. You were in the coldest part of the north beyond-the-wall, warm air was impossible.

Your feet came to a halt and a grin curled on your mouth when you found a waterfall cascading down into a hot spring, explaining the warm air. You had never been to a hot spring, but you had heard of them. According to the men who had traveled beyond-the-wall, they were very rare and the only sources of warmth in the north.

‘’Jon! Come and see.’’

‘’No more running like that. I promised your father I would– What’s this?’’ he asked, looking around with a deep frown.

‘’A hot spring,’’ you explained. ‘’We’ll stay here tonight.’’

It’s been months since Jon had spent a night without wishing for an extra layer of fur to cover himself. Even in Winterfell, some nights were so cold that the warm water running through the pipes wasn't enough to keep the chambers warm. On those nights, Jon was thankful for a fireplace in his small bedchamber. He’s been missing the luxury of it on cold nights in the Night’s Watch’s bedchambers.

Eyeing the hot spring with envy, you reached for the buttons of your coat, undoing them and letting it fall off your body and to the ground, then proceeded to take off your boots, only to be stopped by Jon.

‘’What are you doing?’’ He gulped, getting more uncomfortable at each layer you were peeling off.

You rolled your eyes and continued undressing. ‘’Bathing. This is probably the only time I’ll see a hot spring. I intend of using it.’’ Slowly, you unlaced your pants, pausing before pulling them off. ‘’And you should too,’’ you added with a flirty smile.

When your pants hit the ground, Jon tore his eyes off of you. He wanted to see – he was dying to see what you looked like under your clothes –, but he had to resist the temptation or he would get as hard as the rock around you and break his vows.

‘’I-I’m good,’’ he replied, trying to find interest in the jagged rock walls.

You took off your last clothing item, standing naked while Jon still had all of his layers on. A snicker left your lips, seeing him purposely staring at a wall. ‘’Do I make you uncomfortable, Jon Snow?’’ you taunted, stepping closer to him.

Since his arrival at Black Castle, you suspected him of having an eye on you – like most men who were residing there. That’s what happens when you’re the only woman on land. Jon was different. He didn’t look at you like you were a piece of meat to empty his stones to. He wasn’t gross like them. He was kind and humble, honorable and loyal, charismatic – and he genuinely cared about you.

You weren’t indifferent to his dark curls and gray eyes, or that soft smile he kept just for you either.

‘’It’s polite of you to look away, but I would much rather you had your eyes on me. Perhaps not just your eyes.’’

Jon groaned, your suggestive words putting images in his mind and sending unwanted blood rushing south. ‘’Seven Hells…’’

You moved to stand before him and pressed your hands over the fur of his cloak, gliding them down to the leather that covered his chest. ‘’I want you, Jon Snow.’’ Your eyes flicked to his, the desire in his gray irises mirroring yours.

‘’We shouldn’t.’’ His skin was starting to feel clammy, plausibly from the heat coming from the spring. Was it really the spring, though? ‘’I've pledged my life to the Night's Watch, to your father. If I give in to my oath-’’

As much as you loved him for his loyalty, it was getting in the way of your sexual desires and starting to get on your nerves.

‘’You vowed to take no wife, hold no lands, father no children – I know the Night’s Watch’s oath,’’ you said with a little annoyance in your voice. ‘’It doesn’t say anything about having some fun.’’ You inched a little closer again, kissing his cheek and jaw as your bare body brushed his clothed one, trying to make him give in. ‘’If it makes you feel better, you can tell yourself we’re doing it to keep each other warm.’’

His forehead was prickling with sweat and the tent in his pants was getting difficult to conceal, difficult to fight.

‘’I can’t take what’s not mine.’’

‘’Then make me yours,’’ you replied simply, taking a fist of his fur collar and pulling him down so your lips could brush. ‘’Make me yours, Jon Snow.’’

Jon gave in – finally –, bending the rules and crashing his lips against yours in a searing kiss. He was putting so much in jeopardy – his honor and position in the Night’s Watch, your future by taking your maidenhood, his Lord Commander’s trust –, but the guilt was quickly replaced by fire in his blood.

His hands joined yours, unbuckling and untying, pulling and pushing at his clothes until he was completely naked too.

Women had never been a major interest for him. Back in Winterfell, although he was a Stark by blood, people saw him as a bastard above all and, no women wanted to fuck a bastard. They wanted Robb, who was, by name, more reputable, or even Theon Greyjoy.

You were the first woman who didn't care about his name, the first woman who ever wanted him.

Without breaking the kiss, you explored Jon's body, pleasantly surprised to find a decently muscled body and broad shoulders, all acquired through training and sword fighting. You wanted to kiss him all over, touch him all over, but the hard and uneven rock was starting to hurt your feet.

‘’Shall we get in the water?’’

As expected, the water was warm and agreeable, a contrast to the biting cold you’ve been living in all of your life. You let the water submerge your body up to your shoulders, covering you like a blanket. Only, that one was completely transparent.

You reached for Jon, wrapping your arms around his neck and kissing him again, deepening the kiss as you felt his strong arms circle around your back and pulling you against him, your naked breasts and peaked nipples pressing against his chest. The mix of inexperience and touch deprivation elicited a moan from his mouth and made his cock twitch, feeling a woman's body against his for the first time.

You chuckled, but didn't pull away. Instead, you rolled your hips, feeling his erect cock brush your folds, and he moaned again. ‘’You like what I’m doing, Jon Snow?’’ you murmured, twirling a wet curl around your finger.

In response, he grasped onto your hips with a vice-like grip and grinded his erection the same way you had teased him, his cock almost entering, but not quite. You whimpered softly, pulling on his hair as your eyelids fluttered. Fuck. He needed to be inside you – now.

‘’Two can play this game,’’ Jon teased, the waterfall behind you falling as a white noise, giving a romantic ambiance to the underground hideaway.

‘’Haven’t we played enough already?’’ you asked, looking into his gray eyes and running your hands along the muscles of his arms, moving onto his chest and abdomen next, and then back up his chest and shoulders. Using his shoulders as leverage, you curled your legs around his waist, causing the water to swish from the movements. ‘’I want to get to the finish line.’’

-

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[liiberum-blog]

hi i’m just here to say i could 10000% see jon and ygritte having 6 or 7 kids. i could also see jon being a stay at home dad to the little curly haired ginger babies.

[istumpysk]

Operation Stumpy Re-Read

ASOS: Jon X (Chapter 73)

Bastard children were born from lust and lies, men said; their nature was wanton and treacherous. 

This again. Can't remember a time Jon was ever lusty or wanton. That's certainly not why the Ygritte ordeal started, and he seems more than capable of resisting Val and Melisandre.

+.+.+

Once Jon had meant to prove them wrong, to show his lord father that he could be as good and true a son as Robb. I made a botch of that. Robb had become a hero king; if Jon was remembered at all, it would be as a turncloak, an oathbreaker, and a murderer. He was glad that Lord Eddard was not alive to see his shame.

Be thankful he's not alive to witness another shame.

+.+.+

I should have stayed in that cave with Ygritte. If there was a life beyond this one, he hoped to tell her that. She will claw my face the way the eagle did, and curse me for a coward, but I'll tell her all the same.

We already made the connection, but is that the first direct comparison between Ygritte and the eagle?

Interesting he would put that in this chapter.

+.+.+

"That old maester says I cannot hang you," Slynt declared. "He has written Cotter Pyke, and even had the bloody gall to show me the letter. He says you are no turncloak."

"Aemon's lived too long, my lord," Ser Alliser assured him. "His wits have gone dark as his eyes."

"Aye," Slynt said. "A blind man with a chain about his neck, who does he think he is?"

Aemon Targaryen, Jon thought, a king's son and a king's brother and a king who might have been. But he said nothing.

+.+.+

"No need for that, my lord," said Ser Alliser. "Lord Snow will do as we ask. He wants to show us that he is no turncloak. He wants to prove himself a loyal man of the Night's Watch."

Thorne was much the more clever of the two, Jon realized; this had his stink all over it. He was trapped. "I'll go," he said in a clipped, curt voice.

Alliser Thorne, who is supposedly against favoritism in the Night's Watch, is licking the boots of newly arrived member Janos Slynt, and calling him lord.

+.+.+

"We're not sending you to talk with Mance Rayder," Ser Alliser said. "We're sending you to kill him."

The wind whistled through the bars, and Jon Snow shivered. 

Bran?

+.+.+

A raven was pulling out bits of brain from the giant's shattered skull. It looked up as he walked by. "Snow," it screamed at him. "Snow, snow." Then it opened its wings and flew away.

BRAN?!

+.+.+

But as the distance between them diminished Jon saw that the horseman was short and broad, with gold rings glinting on thick arms and a white beard spreading out across his massive chest.

We're reminded of Tormund's gold rings in this chapter.

+.+.+

"You fought us hard here." Tormund turned his garron back toward the wildling camp. "You and your brothers. I give you that. Two hundred dead, and a dozen giants. Mag himself went in that gate o' yours and never did come out."

"He died on the sword of a brave man named Donal Noye."

"Aye? Some great lord was he, this Donal Noye? One of your shiny knights in their steel smallclothes?"

"A blacksmith. He only had one arm."

"A one-armed smith slew Mag the Mighty? Har! That must o' been a fight to see. Mance will make a song of it, see if he don't." 

Would any other brave one-armed men be willing to attempt such a great feat against such an enormous foe?

Not speculating, only daydreaming of the possibilities.

+.+.+

"To Donal Noye, and Mag the Mighty." The skin was full of mead, but a mead so potent that it made Jon's eyes water and sent tendrils of fire snaking through his chest. After the ice cell and the cold ride down in the cage, the warmth was welcome.

Careful.

+.+.+

"She's dead."

"Aye?" Tormund gave a sad shake of the head. "A waste. If I'd been ten years younger, I'd have stolen her meself. That hair she had. Well, the hottest fires burn out quickest." He lifted the skin of mead. "To Ygritte, kissed by fire!" He drank deep.

"To Ygritte, kissed by fire," Jon repeated when Tormund handed him back the skin. He drank even deeper.

Lmao.

A toast to Ygritte, the girl with the red hair, who was kissed by Jon.

Just kidding! Burn in hell, witch.

+.+.+

"That Longspear stole me daughter. Munda, me little autumn apple. Took her right out o' my tent with all four o' her brothers about. Toregg slept through it, the great lout, and Torwynd . . . well, Torwynd the Tame, that says all that needs saying, don't it? The young ones gave the lad a fight, though."

"And Munda?" asked Jon.

"She's my own blood," said Tormund proudly. "She broke his lip for him and bit one ear half off, and I hear he's got so many scratches on his back he can't wear a cloak. She likes him well enough, though. And why not? He don't fight with no spear, you know. Never has. So where do you think he got that name? Har!"

Is this about Lyanna or something?

+.+.+

Jon had to laugh. Even now, even here. Ygritte had been fond of Longspear Ryk. He hoped he found some joy with Tormund's Munda. Someone needed to find some joy somewhere.

@agentrouka-blog with the nice catch!

It was so sweet and silly that Sansa had to laugh, despite everything. Afterward she was absurdly grateful. Somehow the laughter made her hopeful again, if only for a little while. - Sansa III, ASOS

+.+.+

"You know nothing, Jon Snow," Ygritte would have told him. I know that I am going to die, he thought. I know that much, at least. "All men die," he could almost hear her say, "and women too, and every beast that flies or swims or runs. It's not the when o' dying that matters, it's the how of it, Jon Snow."

When you don't have to work for it.

Thanks George.

+.+.+

Easy for you to say, he thought back. You died brave in battle, storming the castle of a foe. I'm going to die a turncloak and a killer. Nor would his death be quick, unless it came on the end of Mance's sword.

No lies detected. He won't die in a battle, and it won't be a quick death. We're counting on that last part.

+.+.+

"Kill him," urged Harma. "Send his body back up in that cage o' theirs and tell them to send us someone else. I'll keep his head for my standard. A turncloak's worse than a dog."

Here comes poetic justice.

+.+.+

"Once a horse is broken to the saddle, any man can mount him," he said in a soft voice. "Once a beast's been joined to a man, any skinchanger can slip inside and ride him. Orell was withering inside his feathers, so I took the eagle for my own. But the joining works both ways, warg. Orell lives inside me now, whispering how much he hates you. And I can soar above the Wall, and see with eagle eyes."

Using horse and mount seems noteworthy.

+.+.+

It was warm within. A small fire burned beneath the smoke holes, and a brazier smouldered near the pile of furs where Dalla lay, pale and sweating. Her sister was holding her hand. Val, Jon remembered. "I was sorry when Jarl fell," he told her.

Val looked at him with pale grey eyes. "He always climbed too fast." 

Hang on, is someone talking? I think I hear something, but I don't see any interesting fleshed out characters anywhere.

+.+.+

She was as fair as he'd remembered, slender, full-breasted, graceful even at rest, with high sharp cheekbones and a thick braid of honey-colored hair that fell to her waist.

It's giving stopgap. It's giving placeholder. It's giving fill-in. It's giving second-string bench warmer. It's giving understudy. It's giving Sunday leftovers. It's giving dollar store variety. It's giving budget DIY basement reno. It's giving often duplicated, never replicated. It's giving temporary road closure, construction ahead, please use shoddy detour.

Worse, she was beautiful.

"Your bosom will be as lovely as the queen's,"

Sansa had gotten their mother's fine high cheekbones

I had heard that Lord Littlefinger's daughter was fair of face and full of grace

"OH, SWEET SHE WAS, AND PURE, AND FAIR! THE MAID WITH HONEY IN HER HAIR!"

"You will love Highgarden as I do, I know it." Margaery brushed back a loose strand of her hair. 

Too bad this wet floor sign has pale grey eyes instead of blue.

Her breath was white as well … but her eyes were blue, her long braid the color of dark honey, her cheeks flushed red from the cold. - Jon XI, ADWD

Whoops, never mind.

+.+.+

Jon kept his face as still as ice. Foul enough to slay a man in his own tent under truce. Must I murder him in front of his wife as their child is being born? 

Stannis can't go one second without trying to ambush a king in a tent.

+.+.+

He closed the fingers of his sword hand. Mance was not wearing armor, but his own sword was sheathed on his left hip. And there were other weapons in the tent, daggers and dirks, a bow and a quiver of arrows, a bronze-headed spear lying beside that big black . . .

. . . horn.

Jon sucked in his breath.

A warhorn, a bloody great warhorn.

"Yes," Mance said. "The Horn of Winter, that Joramun once blew to wake giants from the earth."

The horn was huge, eight feet along the curve and so wide at the mouth that he could have put his arm inside up to the elbow. If this came from an aurochs, it was the biggest that ever lived. At first he thought the bands around it were bronze, but when he moved closer he realized they were gold. Old gold, more brown than yellow, and graven with runes.

Weaponized ellipsis! I won't fall for it.

Gold bands with runes!

+.+.+

Jon faced him. "If you've had the Horn of Joramun all along, why haven't you used it? Why bother building turtles and sending Thenns to kill us in our beds? If this horn is all the songs say, why not just sound it and be done?"

It was Dalla who answered him, Dalla great with child, lying on her pile of furs beside the brazier. "We free folk know things you kneelers have forgotten. Sometimes the short road is not the safest, Jon Snow. The Horned Lord once said that sorcery is a sword without a hilt. There is no safe way to grasp it."

Take a lesson, Bran. The man who trusts in spells is dueling with a glass sword - Bran VII, AGOT

x

"A wise woman." Melisandre rose, her red robes stirring in the wind. "A sword without a hilt is still a sword, though, and a sword is a fine thing to have when foes are all about. - Jon VI, ADWD

Gosh, it's so hard, who do we believe? Maester Luwin and Dalla or a crazy person?

+.+.+

"Why don't you, then?" Jon could have drawn Longclaw then, but he wanted to hear what the wildling had to say.

"Blood," said Mance Rayder. "I'd win in the end, yes, but you'd bleed me, and my people have bled enough."

Mance Rayder passing the vibe check.

I still don't know what to make of him though.

+.+.+

"But once the Wall is fallen," Dalla said, "what will stop the Others?"

A Dothraki army in snow?

+.+.+

Open the gate and let them pass. Easy to say, but what must follow? Giants camping in the ruins of Winterfell? Cannibals in the wolfswood, chariots sweeping across the barrowlands, free folk stealing the daughters of shipwrights and silversmiths from White Harbor and fishwives off the Stony Shore? "Are you a true king?" Jon asked suddenly.

[...]

"You can kill your enemies," Jon said bluntly, "but can you rule your friends? If we let your people pass, are you strong enough to make them keep the king's peace and obey the laws?"

"Whose laws? The laws of Winterfell and King's Landing?" Mance laughed. "When we want laws we'll make our own. You can keep your king's justice too, and your king's taxes. I'm offering you the horn, not our freedom. We will not kneel to you."

Doesn't work like that, Mance. You have to give up something to get something.

+.+.+

I am my own champion, my own fool, and my own harpist.

How fun.

+.+.+

"If you refuse," Mance Rayder said, "Tormund Giantsbane will sound the Horn of Winter three days hence, at dawn."

It's Tormund who sounds the horn? Why not Mance? :)

+.+.+

Harma thundered past before Mance could reply, riding at the head of thirty raiders. Her standard went before her; a dead dog impaled on a spear, raining blood at every stride. 

I can hear the soft whisper of a poem starting.

+.+.+

"Might be you're telling it true," he said. "Those look like Eastwatch men. Sailors on horses. Cotter Pyke always had more guts than sense. He took the Lord of Bones at Long Barrow, he might have thought to do the same with me. If so, he's a fool. He doesn't have the men, he—"

"Mance!" the shout came. It was a scout, bursting from the trees on a lathered horse. "Mance, there's more, they're all around us, iron men, iron, a host of iron men."

I think he's trying to make it seem like it's the ironborn coming, but I was too busy laughing at sailors on horses to appreciate the effort.

Moving forward I will be calling the Dothraki that.

+.+.+

Mance donned his helm with its raven wings.

A helm with raven wings? What is that about?

+.+.+

Then the skinchanger threw back his head and screamed.

The sound was shocking, ear-piercing, thick with agony. Varamyr fell, writhing, and the 'cat was screaming too . . . and high, high in the eastern sky, against the wall of cloud, Jon saw the eagle burning. For a heartbeat it flamed brighter than a star, wreathed in red and gold and orange, its wings beating wildly at the air as if it could fly from the pain. Higher it flew, and higher, and higher still.

Ygritte, Daenerys... love it either way.

I'm sorry a bird had to die for my enjoyment.

+.+.+

The scream brought Val out of the tent, white-faced. "What is it, what's happened?" 

Did someone just say Shireen should die? What the hell?

+.+.+

"The birth!" Val was shouting at him.

A queen is in labour! Blood inside and outside the tent! Where's the king??

+.+.+

A blaze of banners flew above them. The wind was whipping them too wildly for Jon to see the sigils, but he glimpsed a seahorse, a field of birds, a ring of flowers. And yellow, so much yellow, yellow banners with a red device, whose arms were those?

It took me until now to register that the Florent sigil features a ring of blue flowers. Whatever that means.

+.+.+

The King-beyond-the-Wall was waiting outside, his ragged red-and-black cloak blowing in the wind. 

x

The free folk still had the numbers, but the attackers had steel armor and heavy horses. In the thickest part of the fray, Jon saw Mance standing tall in his stirrups. His red-and-black cloak and raven-winged helm made him easy to pick out. 

Oh yeah, the gifted red-and-black cloak that convinced him to desert the Night's Watch. Goes perfect with those atrocious red-and-black swords.

Too bad we don't do red-and-black in these parts.

Give us a proper cloak, Sansa. No rubies.

+.+.+

It's done, Jon thought, they're breaking. The wildlings were running, throwing down their weapons, Hornfoot men and cave dwellers and Thenns in bronze scales, they were running. Mance was gone, someone was waving Harma's head on a pole

The author remembers.

+.+.+

Tormund's lines had broken. Only the giants on their mammoths were holding, hairy islands in a red steel sea. 

Everybody clap!

+.+.+

The fires were leaping from tent to tent and some of the tall pines were going up as well. 

Stannis can't go one second without burning a tree.

+.+.+

Robert, Jon thought for one mad moment, remembering poor Owen, but when the trumpets blew again and the knights charged, the name they cried was "Stannis! Stannis! STANNIS!"

Jon turned away, and went inside the tent.

Perfect reaction to Stannis Baratheon showing up anywhere.

Final thoughts:

The endgame ship has finally arrived, y'all!

Experience the drama, angst, and conflict. Be captivated by these complex, multi-layered characterizations. Feel the power of storytelling at its finest.

-> return to menu <-

[winnie-the-monster]

Bastard children were born from lust and lies, men said; their nature was wanton and treacherous. Once Jon had meant to prove them wrong, to show lord father that he could be as good and true a son as Robb. I made a botch of that. Robb had become a hero king; if Jon was remembered at all, it would be as a turncloak, an oathbreaker, and a murderer. He was glad that Lord Eddard was not alive to see his shame.

I should have stayed in that cave with Ygritte. If there was a life beyond this one, he hoped to tell her that. She will claw my face the way the eagle did, and curse me for a coward, but I’ll tell her all the same.

[inlovewithquotes]

"Good," she whispered. "I wanted t' see one proper castle, before.....before I...."

"You'll see a hundred castles," he promised her. "The battle's done. Maester Aemon will see to you." He touched her hair. "You're kissed by fire, remember? Lucky. It will take more than an arrow to kill you. Aemon will draw it out and patch you up, and we'll get you some milk of the poppy for the pain."

She just smiled at that. "D'you remember that cave? We should have stayed cave. I told you so."

"We'll go back to the cave," he said. "You're not going to die, Ygritte. You're not."

"Oh." Ygritte cupped his cheek with her hand. "You know nothing, Jon Snow," she sighed, dying.

-A Storm Of Swords

[agentrouka-blog]

Jon had compared Ygritte with Mel as he get confused with Mel appearance and trickery of light. I think Jon subconsciously comparing them but not in positive light. Both are described having red hair and associated with fire. Both are predatory towards Jon. Jon described them warm but it's fake. Ygritte tried to send away Ghost and Mel tried to trick Ghost with magic. While Jon wary of them at one point he trusted them.

Honestly, I think Mel actually used a glamor in that moment. The same way she must have used magic to make Ghost act so docile and familiar with her. She wanted Jon unsettled, off his game and open to her suggestions. Her aim here is to gain his trust and cooperation for her own purposes.

"The bones help," said Melisandre. "The bones remember. The strongest glamors are built of such things. A dead man's boots, a hank of hair, a bag of fingerbones. With whispered words and prayer, a man's shadow can be drawn forth from such and draped about another like a cloak. The wearer's essence does not change, only his seeming." (ADWD, Melisandre)

The reason he sees Mel, specifically, while he is pacing around in emotional turmoil after learning about Arya, is because Mel is standing in the exact same space Ygritte died. It's all she has here, it might even be undirected, and it's a weak and only momentary glamor, unlike with Mance.

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.  (ADWD, Jon III)

->

Someone was behind him, he realized suddenly. Someone who smelled warm as a summer day. When he turned he saw Ygritte. She stood beneath the scorched stones of the Lord Commander's Tower, cloaked in darkness and in memory. (ADWD, Jon VI)

Melisandre's smell had previously reminded him of Ygritte (hot metal), and it does again in this instance, though in a more positive image. That's all it takes. Mel might not even know who she appeared as to him. All she needed was to startle him.

Though it's my theory that Jon is projecting a lot of his misdirected guilt over not helping his family onto Ygritte. He's asking her forgiveness for his "betrayal" in his Stark crypt nightmare with all the Red Wedding imagery, which is obviously kind of nonsensical. He feels guilty, he thinks he should see her in the afterlife and tell her he should have stayed with her in that cave. None of this nonsense makes sense, but it does if you replace her with his Stark family. "We should never have left Winterfell" said to his own family? Has a more realistic ring to it.

He is currently broken up about not allowing himself to try and help his favorite sibling Arya - and ta-daa a vision of Ygritte appears in the spot where she died. Another transfer of guilt.

Except it's Melisandre offering him help in aiding his sister. Reaching out her hand to draw him into her sphere.

Jon resists, though, which is why she is so determined to get more information for her "girl in grey" vision in her own chapter.

[reginarubie]

"She(Ygritte) will claw my face the way the eagle did, and curse me for a coward, but I'll tell her all the same."-Jon(ASOS). Jon here compared Ygritte with Orell's eagle. Ygritte described to have 'blue grey' eyes and Jon described eagle to be 'blue grey' in colour. The eagle had attacked both Jon and Ghost while Ygritte had almost killed Jon.

Ciao anon!, sorry for the delay, thankfully my night-shift week is over and done with now!

You point out an interesting quote from the books, though I feel like a premise is in order. I was a show watcher before I read the books; the way it's framed in the show the Jon/Ygritte relationship it seems this great romantic, tragic Romeo and Juliet story inside the asoiaf world. And let me tell you, when I got to their story in the books I was appalled at what I found and I think this quotes you've chosen perfectly compress exactly Ygritte' character and what Jon thinks and feels about her (on a basic level, though later he would claim to have loved her, though after I read the books it always felt forced and wrong imo, but that remains my humble opinion).

Bastard children were born from lust and lies, men said; their nature was wanton and treacherous. Once Jon had meant to prove them wrong, to show his lord father that he could be as good and true a son as Robb. I made a botch of that. Robb had become a hero king; if Jon was remembered at all, it would be as a turncloak, an oathbreaker, and a murderer. He was glad that Lord Eddard was not alive to see his shame.

I should have stayed in that cave with Ygritte. If there was a life beyond this one, he hoped to tell her that. She will claw my face the way the eagle did, and curse me for a coward, but I'll tell her all the same. He flexed his sword hand, as Maester Aemon had taught him. The habit had become part of him, and he would need his fingers to be limber to have even half a chance of murdering Mance Rayder.

— Jon X, ASOS

I think it is telling that this passage happens just after Jon thinks of the shame he has brought to his family and his lord father. We can see in these two passages, which juxtaposition is clearly meant to create a logic-bridge between the two, how Jon is forever at war with himself between the man he thinks his father would have wanted him to be (never forget how the "story" between Jon and Ygritte actually begun — He could give her a quick clean death, at least. He was his father's son. Wasn't he? Wasn't he?— Jon VI, ACOK) and the man circumstances and necessity have made of him (a turn cloak, an oathbreaker and a murderer) which has completely broken his fantasy of the kind of man he had wanted to be when he had departed from Winterfell at the beginning of AGOT.

It is immediately after a momentum of resignation by Jon in this aspect (which is central because his whole arc hinges on his bastard identity) that he also resigns himself to this "love" he bears Ygritte. It's almost like this resignation of his is a direct consequence from his resignation of having disappointed all expectations his father's name had imposed on him. With his own identity as Ned Stark' son butchered, in his mind, the next logical step would be never leave that cave. Not much because he loved Ygritte and wanted to stay with her, but because he should've stayed in that cave with Ygritte, I think (but again I am not native speaker so I may be reaching here) the cave is the object of his wish in that moment, not Ygritte because of the way the sentence is phrased.

If Jon truly loved Ygritte and wished to be with her, the phrasation would've been "He should've stayed with Ygritte in that cave" instead of "He should've stayed in that cave with Ygritte".

He puts the cave and the feeling of privacy during the terrible time he spent with the wildlings before his love for Ygritte, it's almost like if he is to have one (the privacy from the world — the cave) he needs to accept that Ygritte will be there (and resigns himself to that). It's not a "I want to be with Ygritte and stay in that cave", no, it's a "I want to stay in that cave with Ygritte". The cave and Ygritte come hand-in-hand and to enjoy one he has to accept the other.

It's like Ygritte is for him to natural consequence of the end of every illusion of his identity, and Jon has a very strong sense of identity:

I will kill him if I must. The prospect gave Jon no joy; there would be no honor in such a killing, and it would mean his own death as well. Yet he could not let the wildlings breach the Wall, to threaten Winterfell and the north, the barrowlands and the Rills, White Harbor and the Stony Shore, even the Neck. For eight thousand years the men of House Stark had lived and died to protect their people against such ravagers and reavers . . . and bastard-born or no, the same blood ran in his veins. Bran and Rickon are still at Winterfell besides. Maester Luwin, Ser Rodrik, Old Nan, Farlen the kennelmaster, Mikken at his forge and Gage by his ovens . . . everyone I ever knew, everyone I ever loved. If Jon must slay a man he half admired and almost liked to save them from the mercies of Rattleshirt and Harma Dogshead and the earless Magnar of Thenn, that was what he meant to do.

— Jon II, ASOS

This moment of weakness that comes during Jon X, ASOS happens as Jon is imprisoned in the ice cell below the Wall, there is no source of comfort if not the memory of that cave — especially because Jon tarnished his honour and his sense of identity for the NW and they answered by putting him in a ice cell — as Ygritte laid dying she told him they should've stayed in that cave and he promised they would see it again, to comfort her. It's like he is doing the same thing with himself. He is using the memory of the cave as comfort. And in fact he never thinks about that cave again.

Because the moment he leaves the ice cell, makes Lord commander, Jon has established his sense of identity once again (still the blood of Winterfell, sorry Ygritte, no cave anyway).

What more, the tone when he thinks of the cave is completely different than when he thinks of Ygritte, in the very same passage. The passage itself begins with "bastards were born of lust and lies" (which is, conveniently what bonded him with Ygritte, but I digress) and ends with him associating Ygritte with Orell's eagle. It's not a good thing.

I think of Jon "love" for Ygritte like I do for the infamous unkiss of Sansa and the Hound. They do not draw comfort from the people in the memory (Ygritte and the Hound) but they romanticise the setting (the cave; the chamber and bed in KL) because they seek comfort in the romance they both dream of. And just like in the unkiss with the Hound this opinion of mine is correlated with the Hound cruel mouth pressing down on hers (instead that against hers) the same way the Hound pressed her down the bed and demanded a song knifepoint; in this occasion I feel it's the association with Oral' eagle that attacked both Jon and Ghost which corroborates this theory.

And Orell' eagle is associated with danger and hate toward Jon.

Can a bird hate? Jon had slain the wilding Orell, but some part of the man remained within the eagle.

— Jon II, ASOS

Orell was withering inside his feathers, so I took the eagle for my own. But the joining works both ways, warg. Orell lives inside me now, whispering how much he hates you. And I can soar above the Wall, and see with eagle eyes.

— Jon X, ASOS

The eagle is associated with hate for Jon, and that he would think of Ygritte like some human-form of the eagle who would claw at his eye and call him a coward indicates exactly that the love he bore Ygritte was tarnished with hate (it was forced) and that Ygritte becomes a sort of vessel for what Jon thinks of himself (a coward). Ygritte is not anymore Ygritte, she is what Jon will make of her in his memory (a woman he loved, a woman he hated, a woman who'd think him a coward because it's what he is thinking of himself), it's again a romanticised version of Ygritte in a way; Ygritte' memory serves as a purpose or propellent of sorts for him to put aside his wildling identity and take back his Stark one.

There is a reason everytime he thinks romantically of Ygritte, her very memory reminds him it's not love with a very simple phrase (you know nothing, Jon Snow).

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