lostinthemargins

[lostinthemargins]

Me officially jumping on the Reylo bandwagon after TLJ

[lostinthemargins]

Reunions I better see happen in S8:E1.

[lostinthemargins]

The Hound: fuck you.

The Hound: *tosses pebble*

Wight: eXCUSE ME?

Wight: *charges*

The Hound: shitshitshitshitshit unfuck you fuck me fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

The Hound: no. Actually. I was right the first time. Fuck you.

[lostinthemargins]

YAS PLEASE♥️

[lostinthemargins]

This.

Daenerys Targaryen: At this point, it’s just bad story-telling

The most important element of GRRM’s style of story-telling is that it follows certain key monomythic structures of story-telling, which form the heart of a good story. This structure is not followed for everyone - arguably, there are less than ten characters for whom Martin has painstakingly wrought a full arc.

Here is Dan Harmon’s (creator of Rick and Morty, [Adult Swim]) explanation of how he uses it, as mentioned on his blog (link to his tumblr included) [btw, this is a great read, and is the first part of a series about how to plot out a good story. If you’re an author, or aspiring, I highly recommend checking it out.]

Draw a circle and divide it in half vertically.

Divide the circle again horizontally.

Starting from the 12 o clock position and going clockwise, number the 4 points where the lines cross the circle: 1, 3, 5 and 7.

Number the quarter-sections themselves 2, 4, 6 and 8.

Here we go, down and dirty:

. A character is in a zone of comfort, . But they want something. . They enter an unfamiliar situation, . Adapt to it, . Get what they wanted, . Pay a heavy price for it, . Then return to their familiar situation, . Having changed.

He summarizes it something like this. I think.

Hero - Want - Go - Fight - Get - Suffer - Return - Changed

There are the obvious characters for whom this arc has been granted - Jon and Daenerys and Tyrion and Arya.

And there are the less obvious ones - Theon, Sansa, Jaime, Sandor, Sam, and yes, even Cersei.

Now, the books and the show aren’t complete, but with the prevalence of so many parallel plotlines, they move back and forth within this circle repeatedly.

Here’s Jon’s first arc, for instance - he is safe in Winterfell, he wants to be a knight, he goes to the Wall, he becomes a brother, he realizes the Wall is manned by criminals and unwanted sons, he is horribly disillusioned, he realizes he can never go back.

Here’s another arc - he wants to prove himself, he goes beyond the Wall with the Halfhand’s party, he gets captured by the wildlings, he murders Qhorin to gain their acceptance, he betrays Ygritte, he returns to the Wall, broken-hearted.

Fast-forward to the show canon - he wants to take back Winterfell, he leaves the Wall with Sansa after having won repeatedly against the wildings and established himself as a notable commander, he fails to recruit the Northern Houses, he assembles an army, he watches Rickon be murdered, he loses to the Boltons and is saved by Sansa, he returns to Winterfell.

Between arc 1, and arc 3, there is a larger arc at play - when he is at Winterfell he’s deeply dissatisfied with his social status, so he leaves Winterfell to become a ‘black knight’, he adapts to the Night’s Watch, he becomes a leader, he loses his lover, his father, his family, his brothers, he becomes the Lord Commander, he returns to Winterfell as King, but now with no ambition except keeping his people alive and safe.

This. This is good storytelling.

This is what makes Jon Snow such a compelling figure. Because he fucking suffers, and it affects him. 

It alters him.

It makes him a better man, a better friend, a better commander.

This does not happen with Daenerys. 

If anything, her arc is in reverse.

Look at her first arc - she starts off in a terrible position, she is raped, repeatedly, by her husband, and abused emotionally and physically by her brother (let’s just go with show canon, since GRRM apparently green-lit this nonsense). Clearly, not a position of comfort or safety, but it goes some way in establishing her as a sympathetic character. 

Her ascent cycle begins - she seduces her husband, sidelines her brother and watches him die, becomes a Khaleesi in her own right, has her husband promise her to take back Westeros.

(Note at this point this she’s enabling slavery - the Dothraki trade in slaves. Dany personally is served by three slaves. The Lhazareen women she ‘saves’ she does so by taking in as her personal slaves. But there’s plenty of metas about Dany’s White Saviour trope. You don’t need mine.)

(Note also, that she is perfectly happy for her husband’s horde to rain havoc, bloodshed and destruction on her own country. At no point does this trouble her, that if the Dothraki cross the Narrow Sea, the women that will be raped, the men that will be murdered, the children that will be orphaned - they will be her subjects. But there’s metas aplenty on this as well, Dany’s all-consuming lust for power. You really don’t need mine.)

When Drogo dies, and her baby dies - she suffers, yes, for about the span of five minutes. She loses the khal, and replaces it with? Dragons.

She suffers what, in the universe this story is set in, amounts to, at best, a MINOR SETBACK, and has this addressed by gaining MYTHICAL WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION.

This is Daenerys’ arc, (along with the most vocal, popular reactions)

So, she starts off low (awww),  becomes a Khaleesi, (yay!), loses her rapist, destructive, murderous husband, (…awww), becomes a Mother of Dragons, (YAY!) advances onto Astapor, (YAY!) gains a slave army, (YAY!) marches on to Yunkai (YAY!), loses Jorah, (…aw.), conquers Meereen (YAY!) destroys the economies of three cities, (…) does nothing except throw a fit when Barristan is murdered by the Sons (…) is almost murdered by the Sons of the Harpy (..awww??) saved by Drogon (YAY!) taken by the Khals to Vaes Dothrak (awww) murders the Khals, and burns their most important religious site to the ground, to free herself from being sold into slavery* (YAY!) sails to Westeros. (YAY!) with three mythical, all-powerful weapons of destruction (YAY!)

*Oh, the fucking irony.

And so her character stays within the same loop of -

Arrive at new place.

Intimidate via dragon.

Murder those who get in her way.

Instate herself as Queen.

Rage when the people refuse to accept her.

Astapor, when she cannot actually afford to buy the Unsullied:

Yunkai, when the City sends a diplomat:

Meereen, at the fighting pits:

Slaver’s Bay, after Tyrion’s peace talks fail and the Cities’ economies are on the verge of collapse:

The sheer profusion of victories accorded to her character is frankly insane.

She never loses anyone she cares about, because she cares about no one. She says it herself. Over, and over. Westeros isn’t a country, a people, a culture. It is reduced, for her, to a pointy chair, and the legacy of her mad, murderous ancestors. 

If the smallfolk must die, let them. If the soldiers must die, let them. If the Lords must die, let them. 

She’s callous to the point of psychopathy, and so, I repeat.

SHE.

NEVER.

SUFFERS.

Even Cersei, arguably the series primary remaining antagonist has suffered far worse than the woman they’re pushing as the Saviour-Hero. 

Cersei loses her father, loses all three of her children, watches her son die in her arms, is tortured in a dungeon, is made to parade naked through the streets of her own city, is heaped with literal excrement and abuse and the kind of horror that would break anyone.

Sansa loses her father, her mother, her oldest brother, her youngest brother, she is beaten and humiliated in front of her peers, subjected to Petyr’s advances, repeatedly beaten and raped by Ramsay Bolton, forced to look at her Father’s decapitated head, forced to look at her ally in Winterfell, dead and skinned bypassed by the Northern Lords for her bastard brother even though her efforts turned the tide of a war Jon Snow lost. 

Jaime loses his father, is betrayed by his brother, who joins the enemy, loses all three of his children, watches his daughter die in his arms, loses his sword hand, is tortured by brigands, is called Kingslayer for saving a city from burning to the ground.

I could go on, but the point is this -

Daenerys has lost nothing. Daenerys has gained everything.

If she survives this story, if she initiates the Targaryen Restoration, if she takes the Iron Throne easily, not only does it devalue the entire point of A Song of Ice and Fire, it is a step backward for the story - a series that has devoted itself to destroying fantasy tropes, deconstructing human ambition, and reminding us, again and again and again, that the most important battles are the ones that fought in our hearts.

It is a betrayal on a scale that spans two decades of ambitious, brilliant, life-changing work. 

It reduces the worth of everything they’ve constructed so far.

It isn’t the show we were promised.

But it could be.

[lostinthemargins]

Daenerys Targaryen: At this point, it’s just bad story-telling

The most important element of GRRM’s style of story-telling is that it follows certain key monomythic structures of story-telling, which form the heart of a good story. This structure is not followed for everyone - arguably, there are less than ten characters for whom Martin has painstakingly wrought a full arc.

Here is Dan Harmon’s (creator of Rick and Morty, [Adult Swim]) explanation of how he uses it, as mentioned on his blog (link to his tumblr included) [btw, this is a great read, and is the first part of a series about how to plot out a good story. If you’re an author, or aspiring, I highly recommend checking it out.]

Draw a circle and divide it in half vertically.

Divide the circle again horizontally.

Starting from the 12 o clock position and going clockwise, number the 4 points where the lines cross the circle: 1, 3, 5 and 7.

Number the quarter-sections themselves 2, 4, 6 and 8.

Here we go, down and dirty:

. A character is in a zone of comfort, . But they want something. . They enter an unfamiliar situation, . Adapt to it, . Get what they wanted, . Pay a heavy price for it, . Then return to their familiar situation, . Having changed.

He summarizes it something like this. I think.

Hero - Want - Go - Fight - Get - Suffer - Return - Changed

There are the obvious characters for whom this arc has been granted - Jon and Daenerys and Tyrion and Arya.

And there are the less obvious ones - Theon, Sansa, Jaime, Sandor, Sam, and yes, even Cersei.

Now, the books and the show aren’t complete, but with the prevalence of so many parallel plotlines, they move back and forth within this circle repeatedly.

Here’s Jon’s first arc, for instance - he is safe in Winterfell, he wants to be a knight, he goes to the Wall, he becomes a brother, he realizes the Wall is manned by criminals and unwanted sons, he is horribly disillusioned, he realizes he can never go back.

Here’s another arc - he wants to prove himself, he goes beyond the Wall with the Halfhand’s party, he gets captured by the wildlings, he murders Qhorin to gain their acceptance, he betrays Ygritte, he returns to the Wall, broken-hearted.

Fast-forward to the show canon - he wants to take back Winterfell, he leaves the Wall with Sansa after having won repeatedly against the wildings and established himself as a notable commander, he fails to recruit the Northern Houses, he assembles an army, he watches Rickon be murdered, he loses to the Boltons and is saved by Sansa, he returns to Winterfell.

Between arc 1, and arc 3, there is a larger arc at play - when he is at Winterfell he’s deeply dissatisfied with his social status, so he leaves Winterfell to become a ‘black knight’, he adapts to the Night’s Watch, he becomes a leader, he loses his lover, his father, his family, his brothers, he becomes the Lord Commander, he returns to Winterfell as King, but now with no ambition except keeping his people alive and safe.

This. This is good storytelling.

This is what makes Jon Snow such a compelling figure. Because he fucking suffers, and it affects him. 

It alters him.

It makes him a better man, a better friend, a better commander.

This does not happen with Daenerys. 

If anything, her arc is in reverse.

Look at her first arc - she starts off in a terrible position, she is raped, repeatedly, by her husband, and abused emotionally and physically by her brother (let’s just go with show canon, since GRRM apparently green-lit this nonsense). Clearly, not a position of comfort or safety, but it goes some way in establishing her as a sympathetic character. 

Her ascent cycle begins - she seduces her husband, sidelines her brother and watches him die, becomes a Khaleesi in her own right, has her husband promise her to take back Westeros.

(Note at this point this she’s enabling slavery - the Dothraki trade in slaves. Dany personally is served by three slaves. The Lhazareen women she ‘saves’ she does so by taking in as her personal slaves. But there’s plenty of metas about Dany’s White Saviour trope. You don’t need mine.)

(Note also, that she is perfectly happy for her husband’s horde to rain havoc, bloodshed and destruction on her own country. At no point does this trouble her, that if the Dothraki cross the Narrow Sea, the women that will be raped, the men that will be murdered, the children that will be orphaned - they will be her subjects. But there’s metas aplenty on this as well, Dany’s all-consuming lust for power. You really don’t need mine.)

When Drogo dies, and her baby dies - she suffers, yes, for about the span of five minutes. She loses the khal, and replaces it with? Dragons.

She suffers what, in the universe this story is set in, amounts to, at best, a MINOR SETBACK, and has this addressed by gaining MYTHICAL WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION.

This is Daenerys’ arc, (along with the most vocal, popular reactions)

So, she starts off low (awww),  becomes a Khaleesi, (yay!), loses her rapist, destructive, murderous husband, (…awww), becomes a Mother of Dragons, (YAY!) advances onto Astapor, (YAY!) gains a slave army, (YAY!) marches on to Yunkai (YAY!), loses Jorah, (…aw.), conquers Meereen (YAY!) destroys the economies of three cities, (…) does nothing except throw a fit when Barristan is murdered by the Sons (…) is almost murdered by the Sons of the Harpy (..awww??) saved by Drogon (YAY!) taken by the Khals to Vaes Dothrak (awww) murders the Khals, and burns their most important religious site to the ground, to free herself from being sold into slavery* (YAY!) sails to Westeros. (YAY!) with three mythical, all-powerful weapons of destruction (YAY!)

*Oh, the fucking irony.

And so her character stays within the same loop of -

Arrive at new place.

Intimidate via dragon.

Murder those who get in her way.

Instate herself as Queen.

Rage when the people refuse to accept her.

Astapor, when she cannot actually afford to buy the Unsullied:

Yunkai, when the City sends a diplomat:

Meereen, at the fighting pits:

Slaver’s Bay, after Tyrion’s peace talks fail and the Cities’ economies are on the verge of collapse:

The sheer profusion of victories accorded to her character is frankly insane.

She never loses anyone she cares about, because she cares about no one. She says it herself. Over, and over. Westeros isn’t a country, a people, a culture. It is reduced, for her, to a pointy chair, and the legacy of her mad, murderous ancestors. 

If the smallfolk must die, let them. If the soldiers must die, let them. If the Lords must die, let them. 

She’s callous to the point of psychopathy, and so, I repeat.

SHE.

NEVER.

SUFFERS.

Even Cersei, arguably the series primary remaining antagonist has suffered far worse than the woman they’re pushing as the Saviour-Hero. 

Cersei loses her father, loses all three of her children, watches her son die in her arms, is tortured in a dungeon, is made to parade naked through the streets of her own city, is heaped with literal excrement and abuse and the kind of horror that would break anyone.

Sansa loses her father, her mother, her oldest brother, her youngest brother, she is beaten and humiliated in front of her peers, subjected to Petyr’s advances, repeatedly beaten and raped by Ramsay Bolton, forced to look at her Father’s decapitated head, forced to look at her ally in Winterfell, dead and skinned bypassed by the Northern Lords for her bastard brother even though her efforts turned the tide of a war Jon Snow lost. 

Jaime loses his father, is betrayed by his brother, who joins the enemy, loses all three of his children, watches his daughter die in his arms, loses his sword hand, is tortured by brigands, is called Kingslayer for saving a city from burning to the ground.

I could go on, but the point is this -

Daenerys has lost nothing. Daenerys has gained everything.

If she survives this story, if she initiates the Targaryen Restoration, if she takes the Iron Throne easily, not only does it devalue the entire point of A Song of Ice and Fire, it is a step backward for the story - a series that has devoted itself to destroying fantasy tropes, deconstructing human ambition, and reminding us, again and again and again, that the most important battles are the ones that fought in our hearts.

It is a betrayal on a scale that spans two decades of ambitious, brilliant, life-changing work. 

It reduces the worth of everything they’ve constructed so far.

It isn’t the show we were promised.

But it could be.

[lostinthemargins]

Leonardo’s Mona Lisa is just a thousand thousand smears of paint. Michelangelo’s David is just a million hits with a hammer. We’re all of us a million bits put together the right way.

Chuck Palahniuk, Diary (via wordsnquotes)

[lostinthemargins]

A lot of parents will do anything for their kids except let them be themselves.

Banksy  (via wordsnquotes)

[lostinthemargins]

…Her wings are cut and then she is blamed for not knowing how to fly.

Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (via wordsnquotes)

[lostinthemargins]

She liked to disappear, even when she was in the same room as other people. It was a talent, as it was a curse.

Alice Hoffman, The Red Garden (via wordsnquotes)

[lostinthemargins]

And I began to let him go. Hour by hour. Days into months. It was a physical sensation, like letting out the string of a kite. Except that the string was coming from my center.

Augusten Burroughs, You Better Not Cry (via wordsnquotes)

[lostinthemargins]

Why wasn’t friendship as good as a relationship? Why wasn’t it even better? It was two people who remained together, day after day, bound not by sex or physical attraction or money or children or property, but only by the shared agreement to keep going, the mutual dedication to a union that could never be codified.

Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life (via wordsnquotes)

[lostinthemargins]

Do not fall in love with people like me. I will take you to museums, and parks, and monuments, and kiss you in every beautiful place, so that you can never go back to them without tasting me like blood in your mouth. I will destroy you in the most beautiful way possible. And when I leave you will finally understand, why storms are named after people.

Caitlyn Siehl, Literary Sexts: A Collection of Short & Sexy Love Poems  (via wordsnquotes)

[lostinthemargins]

I’m stuck between being so proud of Theo for taking Gabe’s pain and being upset that he didn’t take Liam’s pain.

[lostinthemargins]

Okay, Let’s fight.

[lostinthemargins]

A snippet from the Thiam fic I am currently writing:

Theo rounds on him until Liam is forced to look him in the eye. His hand lands on Liam’s shoulder before he realizes he made the decision to move, fingers flexing when Liam flinches. That spicy scent that had started this whole thing is still bright, but it is thicker in the air. Theo has to consciously force himself not to lean into Liam and bury his face against that too-warm skin. It’s unsettling.

Shuddering, Liam swallows hard. “I…” His gaze drops from Theo’s eyes to his chest and back up again. It seems as if he’s struggling with decision until he finally says, “I don’t know what’s going on.” His voice is small, almost lost.

He tries to cover the vulnerability with anger and frustration, brows tilting down and jaw clenching like he wants to snatch the confession right back out of the air between them. It makes the protectiveness inside Theo rise up, which happens more and more often when Liam is involved. He doesn’t know the extent of which things are fucked up, but he wants to help if he can.

[lostinthemargins]

Y'all really thought that you were gonna get canon Thiam after how they treated Sterek? And now you’re acting like y'all were treated the worst?

Fools.