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#IN THIS HOUSE WE LOVE AND APPRECIATE SANSA STARK
axelsagewrites · 1 year
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Main Masterlist Here
House of the Dragon Masterlist Here
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Warnings/Guides
【P】Platonic【P】 🆇Smut 18+🆇
Request Line Up and Request Rules
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♡ Jon Snow ♡
🆇What he's like in bed🆇
Blind date
🆇Milady🆇
🆇Home Alone🆇
🆇Price of My Secrecy 🆇
Relationship Moodboard
🆇Couldn't Resist🆇
♡ Robb Stark ♡
Best Friend
Marriage night
🆇Dream🆇 🆇part two🆇
Frey Girl 🆇part two🆇
🆇I miss you🆇
Cloak
Honey Cakes (cloak part two or standalone)
Comfort
Sweet Girl
🆇NSFW Alphabet🆇
🆇Good girl🆇
Yearbook
Don't Die For Me
🆇Little Secret🆇
🆇Can't Catch a Break🆇
Goodnight Dear Husband
♡ Sandor Clegane ♡
Most People Say Goodbye Part One - Part Two
🆇Brat🆇
♡ Beric Dondarrian ♡
Home
♡ Thoros of Myr ♡
Favourite Friend
♡ Brienne of Tarth ♡
【P】Queen in the North and South【P】
♡Ned Stark♡
🆇MiLord🆇
🆇Wife🆇
♡Ramsay Bolton♡
🆇My Father Would Kill Me🆇
🆇Catch You🆇
🆇How Far Would You Go🆇
🆇Appreciate You🆇
🆇Bath🆇
🆇Little Mouse🆇
♡Roose Bolton♡
Perhaps
Not Yet
♡Edmure Tully♡
【P】Who We Call Family【P】
My Queen My Love
♡Theon Greyjoy♡
Dream of Sweet Memories
🆇Give it back🆇
♡Sansa Stark♡
Roommates
🆇NSFW Alphabet🆇
🆇What's This?🆇
Surprise Visit
♡Podrick Payne♡
🆇Praise🆇
♡Daenereys Targaryen♡
🆇My Queen🆇
♡Jamie Lannister♡
🆇Extra Credit🆇
♡Oberyn Martell♡
🆇Duty🆇
♡Margaery Tyrell♡
🆇Ropes🆇
♡Cersei♡
🆇Morning🆇
♡Tormund♡
🆇Real Man🆇
🆇Use your words🆇
♡ Yara Greyjoy ♡
Flirting
Preferences/Multicharacter
🆇Company🆇 - Yara and Ellaria threesome
🆇What they're like in bed🆇 – Robb, Jon, Sandor, Podrick
How they react to teasing – all
🆇What They're Like in Bed🆇 – Margaery, Sansa, Danny, Yara
Share pt1 🆇Competition pt2🆇 🆇Wait p3🆇 - Robb and Jon
🆇Hook ups🆇 - Theon and Jon
Love Languages - Jon, Robb, Bran, Tormund, Podrick, Oberyn
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Thanks for any support I appreciate it all xoxo Sage
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Dividers from here and here from @saradika
Post topper made on Canva
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countrymusiclover · 2 months
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40 - Rhaegar and Lyanna’s Child
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Part 41
The Lion Knight and Dragon Princess
Tags- just send an ask to be added @cdragons @kmc1989 @starkleila @noirrose21-blog @lover-of-books-and-tea
“What do you think we should do now that the dead are defeated?”  I mean surely we can’t keep making the children at such a young age cross the world.”  Jaime questioned me while we walked through the ground area of the training yard.  
It had been a few months since the greatest battle of the world of men.  Everyone who had fought during the battle was very exhausted and so Sansa, Jon and I had declared that everyone should rest before we planned the advance on Kings Landing.  “We can’t possibly leave them here.  They’re all still very young and need us to be there for them until they come of age.” 
“You make a good point, Vaella.  I must say your brother was most likely right that you will make a fine Queen.” Jaime shifted his gaze down to mine as we walked side by side one another very much in sync since we’d known each other for many years. 
The fabric of my white cloak blew behind me in the wind with me having some of my silver hair pinned back and the rest was loose.  “I appreciate your faith in me, I truly do.  I’m still just not sure I can gain the support of the Northern houses.  They are loyal to their own. I remember that quite well from my years of being a princess.” 
“It seems to me that you have a way in to get their support.  Talk with the bastard who brought us here to fight the Army of the Dead.” He had gotten used to having his longer hair like in the days he was a Knight and he grew a thick blonde beard looking very much like a northman. 
Sending him a slight glare I didn’t think the term bastard fit for Jon anymore.  He had proven he was worthy of the Stark name.  “He’s lived up to the Stark name, Jaime.” 
“Maybe someday someone will make him one.” My husband nodded, intertwining my hand in his real one, hearing someone coming towards us before I saw the man we were talking about getting closer to us with his direwolf Ghost following behind his heels until he reached the two of us. 
“Vaella, Ser Jaime, I figured it was time for you to meet my direwolf Ghost.  Each of the Stark children originally had one and it was my idea.” 
I smiled, lowering myself down on a knee in the snow, extending a hand out to the large wolf. “Hey there, Ghost.” The large wolf slowly came forward pressing his nose into my hand and he made a light noise that didn’t appear to be a growl. 
“Do you have anything else on your agenda for today, Snow?” Jaime raised a brow at the bastard before us. 
Jon shakes his head no before Ghost walked back over and stood by his boots. “Our men need a few more hours of rest before we go to get your sister to surrender her throne to our dragon queens.” 
“I must say I don’t think she’ll give it up as easily as you think.” He reminded him knowing his sister had craved such power for a long time and now she was officially Queen of the Seven Kingdoms.
Pushing myself upright before the two men I made my way up to Jon feeling like we needed to talk. “Jon, would you follow me?  I think it’s time you and I have a talk alone together.” 
“Sure, lady Vaella.” Jon nodded his head at me before Ghost, Jon and I made our way down into the crypt so that we weren’t disturbed by anyone else during our deep conversation.  Ghost laid down on the floor a few steps away from us while Jon and I stood in front of the Lyanna Stark statue that was down here. “She was my fathers sister.  He never talked about her though.” 
“I only met her one time.  The day she wed my brother Rhaegar and I wed Jaime.” I muttered twisting the wedding ring on my left hand weakly smiling at the memory. 
Jon glanced at me. “So he didn't kidnap her like they said?” 
“Gods no.  It wasn't anywhere close to that.  He loved her so much.  The fact that he was already married to a Martel wasn't a worry to him.  He'd give up his crown and kingdom to simply be with her.  If he could sing his whole life instead of sword fighting that's what he would have done.” 
Jon sent me a weak smile. “He sounds like quite a man.  He must have been an amazing brother.” 
“He really was.  You remind me very much of him, funny enough.  Did your father ever say who your mother was, her name by chance?” I questioned him with a raised brow. 
Jon knitted his brows in confusion. “What are you trying to tell me, Vaella?” 
“Jon, I think you're my nephew.  You would have to be the son of my brother Rhaegar and Lyanna.  The prince who was promised in the song of ice and fire.”  Reaching down to my hip I drew the dagger out holding it up to be in his view.  “This belongs to you because you defeated the great winter that is the Night King.” 
Jon gently took the blade from my grasp. “How do you know that?” 
“Because my brother told me in a letter before he died.  I didn’t quite get it the first time I read it.  But now it’s more clear than ever.” 
Something was tapping multiple times against the closed glass window of my chambers that showed me the entire view of the city almost.  Getting out of my bed once I had tossed the covers. “What are you doing out here, little Raven?” Pushing open the window I let the bird crawl into my hand seeing a tiny scroll and a lock of silver Targaryen hair wrapped around it. 
“Dear Vaella,  I am not sure if I will come back from this battle with Robert Baratheon so I have one final thing to ask of you, my little sister.  Lyanna is pregnant with my child and I’m not sure I’ll ever get to meet him.  So my last request is will you look out for him please - your brother Rhaegar.” I read the paper out loud feeling tears welling in my eyes knowing I needed to figure out who the prince or princess who was promised really was. 
“What if I told you I already knew that you and I were family.  Daenerys, Tyrion, Sam and Bran all know too.  Apparently the three eyed Raven showed my brother your wedding with my real parents.” Jon grins, turning his body till he was directly facing me. 
Throwing my arms around his neck I chuckled, never thinking I’d meet my brother's son who I thought was killed when Robert became king.  “Your father would be so proud of what you’ve done, Jon Targaryen.” He wrapped his arms around my waist holding me close. 
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i love love looove how you write!
if possible, could we get a sweet Robb Stark growing up with the daughter of one of the Stark bannermen who gets in a bad riding accident as a kid leaving her face scarred up meaning she doesn't really have any suitors when they get older but Robb realizes he's been in love with her all along !!
Flaws
Request: if possible, could we get a sweet Robb Stark growing up with the daughter of one of the Stark bannermen who gets in a bad riding accident as a kid leaving her face scarred up meaning she doesn't really have any suitors when they get older but Robb realizes he's been in love with her all along !!
Hi! Thank you for the kind words. I really love this request, thank you for sending it in. This is the last request I currently have in my inbox, I’m glad it’s a good one. I’m sorry for the wait, hopefully this is what you were looking for. I hope you enjoy it!
(Warnings: slight mentions of gore, mentions of an attack, blood and scars, slight angst, let me know if i missed anything)
You had lived in Winterfell for most of your life. Your father, a Lord and bannerman of House Stark, sent you to Winterfell just after your ninth name day, so that you could properly be raised as a Lady. 
Lord Stark, Ned, happily welcomed you into his home. You immediately grew close to all of the Stark children as the years went on, each of them taking a liking to you in their own way. 
You’d sneak Arya out of her lessons with the Septa, letting her guide you around the castle instead. You weren’t afraid to get your hands dirty or muddy your skirts, and Arya liked that about you.
You’d sit with Sansa while she did her needlepoint, letting her ramble on about the recent gossip she had heard that day. She was much different than her sister, but you enjoyed her all the same. She enjoyed having another girl her age that had similar interests as her.
You’d read to Rickon during your free time, doing all the little voices that would make him giggle. He was too young to understand why you were there, but his face always lit up at the sight of you. 
You’d watch Bran during his archery lessons. Your father thought it pertinent to teach you the skill, and you had gotten quite proficient at archery by the time you were Bran’s age. He loved when you’d attend his lessons, helping him practice a new skill. 
Despite how often he brooded, Jon appreciated your company more than most people of the castle. He always felt like an outcast in his own home, aware that his status was lower than his family’s. When he was with you, accompanying you to whatever your plans were that day, it was easy to forget about his position. Your position was lower than the Stark children’s too, and Jon thought it was easy to be around you. The majority of smiles he’d crack throughout the day were with you. 
Of all of Lord and Lady Stark’s children, you enjoyed Robb the most. The feeling seemed to be mutual. You were closest in age, and had so much in common. He loved everything about you. The way you were with his siblings, how easy you were to be around, how happy you made him feel when he was around you. 
His favorite thing to do with you was going horseback riding. It was one of the times he felt freest, galloping through the forest with you, watching the wind blow through your hair. 
Unfortunately, it was that very activity the both of you loved, that got you hurt. 
It happened when you were ten, on an evening ride. There was a miscommunication, and a hunting party ran right into you and Robb’s path. One of the men shot an arrow, which grazed the side of your face and slid down on impact as it cut in, before it fell to the floor.
You were knocked off your horse, and you hit the ground with a thud, unmoving. Robb had quickly dismounted, screaming your name. 
He thought you were dead when he rolled you over, and was met with blood running down your face, your breath shallow. He let out a cry as you groaned, immediately yelling for Maester Luwin to be fetched. 
He helped you onto the back of his horse, riding back into Winterfell. Maester Luwin did what he could, suturing the skin together, but there wasn’t much else he could do besides give you an ointment to put on the wound daily to help it heal.
The arrow left a scar that ran from the top of your eyebrow to the bottom of your cheek, stopping just above your jaw. 
It had lightened over the years, but was still a pale pink, marked over raised and uneven skin. It was gruesome, to be sure. You hated it in the months that followed after the accident. 
It took Robb a while to be able to look at you again. You felt shame in your heart when you’d see him turn his head. 
Sansa tried to help you cover it up. But it was to no avail. Makeup couldn’t cover it, and eventually, you stopped trying. You grew to accept it, finally. By the time you reached maturity, it didn’t pain you nearly as much to look at it.
Occasionally, some of the boys in the courtyard would laugh when they saw you, pointing and giggling. 
That hurt. 
There was no denying that. But you learned to put on a brave face, not letting anyone’s words or stares affect you. You learned to be alone, needing nobody but yourself.
Aside from the scar, you were still a lovely girl. You were still close to the Stark children, and they treated you normally. Robb eventually stopped turning away from you, starting to smile again when he saw you. 
Over the years, it was hardly even a problem for you anymore. It didn’t bother you again, until this evening.
On the eve of Robb’s nameday, a celebration was held in his honor. 
Everyone dressed in their finest clothes, flocking to the banquet hall. A feast was first, where Lord Stark toasted his son. 
After, as the festivities continued, people flocked to the dance floor. You weren’t one for dancing, never enjoying being the center of attention, especially after the accident. But you did enjoy being with your friends, so you stuck to the outskirts of the crowd. 
Sansa stayed with you for a while, before being whisked away by her friends. That sucked away all the fun you were having. 
You looked around the room, deciding that you had quite enough partying for the evening. You went to leave and look for Jon, who had already left the banquet hall, when something caught your eye. 
Or rather, someone.
Robb was in the center of the dance floor, a girl on his arm. His smile was bright, enough so that you could see it from all the way across the room. She giggled at something he said, covering her mouth with her hand coyly. It was the Lady Jeyne from a neighboring castle, the eldest daughter of a Lord and bannerman to the Starks. 
You felt your heart crumble at the sight. 
You didn’t know why. You had already accepted the fact that it was likely you’d spend your life alone, or married off to some Lord who cared more about your dowry than the scar on your face. 
You knew you didn’t have a chance with Robb. He was the heir to Winterfell, the next Lord Stark. He’d never look at you as anything more than a friend. 
But if that was true, why did it hurt so bad to accept?
Feeling your eyes well with tears, you quickly hurried out of the banquet hall, trying your best to make sure nobody noticed your exit. You headed for the training yard, knowing it would be empty. 
You angrily wiped your tears as you picked up a bow, nocking an arrow and pointing it towards the straw target at the opposite end of the yard. You took a deep breath, sending the arrow flying. 
It must have been an hour out there in the cold. You could see your breath as you focused on the target, letting arrows fly one after the other. You grew more tired by the minute, but you refused to give up, going to retrieve all the hours you had shot. 
As you collected them, you heard someone clear their throat, and you turned around startled, raising your bow.
“It’s just me,” Robb said, raising his hands in surrender. 
You put the bow down, narrowing your eyes. “You’re missing your party, My Lord. You should go back.”
“Should I?” He asked, furrowing his brows. “Why would I do that? You’re out here. Can’t I spend my name day with you?”
“Your name day is tomorrow. You can spend it however you please, then. For now, you can return back to your companion. Jeyne, wasn’t it? I’m sure she’s missing you.”
Robb frowned, stepping closer to you. “Jeyne? I don’t want to spend my evening with her. I’m sure she’s found someone to occupy her time by now. Why are you out here, don’t you have someone to be with?”
You scoffed, further closing the gap between you both. “Like who, Robb? Sansa left with her friends, and I couldn’t find Jon. Who else is there?” 
“I heard the blacksmith’s boy has taken an interest in you. Why not him?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” you said, sighing. “You know he has no interest in me.”
Robb shook his head in confusion. “Why wouldn’t he? You’re lovely, he’d be lucky to gain your affections.”
“You know why,” you muttered, turning your face from him. 
You felt shame creep into your chest, trying to fight the embarrassed flush that tinted your cheeks. Not enjoying your silence, Robb laid a hand on your shoulder to turn you back to him. 
“Know why? I don’t understand what you’re talking about. What’s going on, what happened?”
You couldn’t tell if he was feigning ignorance, or if he really was that oblivious. You fought the tears that welled up in your eyes, angrily clenching your fist. Your voice was thick with emotion, your tone harsh. 
“Just go, Robb. Enjoy your party.”
“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on,” he said, determined. 
You groaned, finally relenting. “I’m jealous, alright? I’m jealous.”
“Of what? Of Jeyne? Why would you ever be jealous of her?”
Is he that clueless, you thought to yourself. Surely he’d have figured it out by now, bound to have caught you drooling over him at some point. You just thought he chose not to see it, so he wouldn’t have to acknowledge it.
“Because she’s beautiful! She’s beautiful, and her face is flawless. No nasty scar marking half of her face that’s unbearable to look at. Maybe you’d look at me more if I looked more like her.”
He grew angry, his tone firm. “Y/N, don’t say that. You know that’s not true. You’re not hard to look at.”
You scoffed. “Don’t lie. I know how you felt. You’d turn your head every time you saw me in the months after. You couldn’t even look at me.”
“Is that what you think?” He asked, sounding hurt. “That couldn’t be less true.”
You were unsure now, but still angry, and you pressed the matter further. “Really? That’s what it seemed like to me. Couldn’t even get you to talk to me without flinching most of the time.”
Robb visibly bristled, taking a step back like your words had scalded him. He was quiet for a moment, taking deep breaths. Finally, his eyes met yours. 
“You’re wrong.”
“What?” You asked, shaking your head. 
“You’re wrong,” he reaffirmed. “I couldn’t stand to look at you, because every time I saw your scar, I was reminded that I did nothing to stop it.”
You felt like your breath had been knocked out of you as he spoke, you could tell that he was growing angrier by the second. He moved to stand right in front of you, eyes narrowed.
“When you were knocked from your horse, and you hit the ground…I thought you were dead. I thought they killed you, right in front of me. And every time I looked at you in the weeks after, I was reminded of how absolutely useless I felt. There’s nothing I could’ve done to help, I know that. But that didn’t make me feel any less bad about it.”
“It wasn’t your fault, Robb. You know that,” you said, suddenly feeling like your feet were planted to the floor. You couldn’t get yourself to move.
Robb noticed. 
“Why are you out here? Are you really that jealous over Jeyne?”
You sighed, shaking your head. “I don’t know. Maybe. Go ahead, you can laugh, I can take it. I know you think it’s ridiculous I’d ever feel this way about you.”
“I’m not laughing.”
You glanced up at him to meet his eyes. Your voice was quiet. “Why are you out here? Why aren’t you with her right now, it’s your name say celebration. You should go enjoy it.”
“I’m not enjoying anything while you’re out here alone. Why aren’t you with someone, like the blacksmith’s boy? I’m sure he’s a better way to spend your time than out here in the cold.”
You could hear the annoyance in his tone, perplexed by it. You took a step closer to him, not taking your eyes off of his. 
“Is that jealousy I’m detecting? Say whatever it is you’re not saying, Robb, I’m not interested in dancing around this conversation anymore.”
Robb’s eyes softened on you. You suddenly realized how close you were, moving to take a step back, but he grabbed your wrist, not letting you go.
“Have you always been this fiery?”
“What?” You asked, your voice barely a whisper. 
“I know you can hold your own, I’ve seen you do it plenty of times. But there’s this fire to you I think I’m seeing for the first time. Has it always been there?”
You shook your head in confusion. You were burning under his stare, yet unable to look away. It was like he was seeing you in a whole new light, one he had never noticed before.
“I don’t understand—“
“To answer your question, no. No, I don’t want to be in there with Jeyne. I’d much rather be out here with you. It seems I’ve been a fool, taking so long to realize that.”
Your lips parted in shock, and he smiled, cupping your jaw. 
“I’m not making a fool of myself, am I? You’re not going to leave me for the blacksmith’s boy are you?”
You let out a laugh, one that widened his grin. “No, you idiot. I don’t even know his name, and I can promise you he wasn’t looking at me in any way you’d have to worry about.”
“Then he’s the fool,” Robb said, his tone firm. “You’re beautiful.”
“Stop—“ You said, blushing, but he cut you off.
“I don’t think so, My Lady. Someone has to tell you, since you see it fit to deny it. We’ll have to do something about that.”
He ran a light finger down the length of your scar, ghosting over the skin. You held your breath, and he grinned, cupping your face in his palms. His heart was beating a million miles a minute, and he felt like his stomach was doing flips. 
The feeling was mutual. 
“You’re beautiful, Y/N.”
You smiled. “You’re an idiot, Robb.”
His grin widened as he boasted. “That may be. But it seems I’ve won you over anyways. I must be doing something right.” 
“Gods, you’re so lucky I love you. Pride isn’t a good look on you.”
“Everything is a good look on me, darling,” he said, pulling you into his arms. “Seeing as I love you, too, you’re unfortunately stuck with me.”
You settled into his arms, holding him tight. Your smile was impossible to hide as you grinned into his chest. 
“Unfortunately.”
A/N - Hi! Sorry this is a little short. I don’t love the outcome, but I wanted to get it out to you anyways. I hope you enjoyed it, let me know what you thought!
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mybworlds · 3 months
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Chapter 13: Face to face
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Pairing: The Hound x Sansa Stark
Summary: Sandor and Sansa realize what they feel, but their social rank will be a problem.
Chapter Warnings: /
Masterlist
Before to start... thank you to follow me, I appreciate it. This is a fairly long chapter, so take your time to read it and if you want to tell me what you think, thank you.
Thanks @vase-of-lilies for the banner
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Sansa couldn't sleep well at all that night: she constantly dreamed of two pairs of gray eyes staring at her, dreamed of kissing, touching and being touched by those big hands, of being loved by him. When the first light of dawn woke her up, she discovered herself… gripped by desire.
She felt shame mixed with excitement at that new sensation. She had never felt for anyone those sensations as strong and as all-consuming as she was feeling at that moment. Inevitably she wondered what her mother would do or say, she would have liked to confide to her all that she was feeling, but she feared that if she did, her mother might remind her of her origins and how he instead was of too low a lineage to even hope to be able to- but do what?
She wondered as she took to barely moving away from the camp what was happening to her: maybe she really was as stupid as Arya had told her on several occasions, maybe for real there was something wrong with her, maybe she should have just left things as they were. She and her sister were with Robb and their mother, the Hound probably would have been pardoned.
Perhaps it would have been enough for Sansa to just keep quiet and follow the course of events…but the strong beating of her heart reminded her that she could never just be a bystander to that sequence of events, but that she would have to play her part as well. And never more than at that moment would her part be truly important not only for her own fate or for Sandor Clegane's, but also for the House Stark itself.
She sat at the foot of an oak tree and closed her eyes: if he had been a knight or a lord, things… would have seemed acceptable to her family, but he was… a free man, yes he could use a sword, but he disdained having a title before his name and disdained belonging to anyone but himself. Moreover, he had been in the service of the Lannisters, had witnessed the beheading of Ned Stark, and had done nothing. Robb would never have consented to the union between them, she thought, but a moment later Sansa also thought that the Hound had never said anything to encourage her, it had probably all been a fantasy of hers due to the many hours of sleep lost, due to not having eaten as one should for weeks, due to the fear of being alone.
Yes, she was probably just very grateful to Sandor and that was it.
When she opened her eyes, Sansa met Jeyne's shy, dark eyes "Hello Sansa." she greeted her.
"Good morning." she returned the greeting by sketching a smile.
"Are you awake yet?"
Sansa nodded, "At this time we were leaving… when I was with Arya and the Hound." she explained.
"That must have been hard!"
"Yes, especially in the beginning. You live in the comforts and then…"
"I meant before I left with them. Robb told me about King Joffrey's cruelty, you had to marry him, right?"
Sansa breathed deeply feeling foolish for that childish wish of hers "Yes, but not doing it and running away was the best choice. You could never know if you would see the stars again with Joffrey. He was - he's a monster."
"Then let's say thanks to the Hound, shall we?" she said, smiling at her.
Sansa smiled "Yes, it's thanks to him that I'm free and that we are, both my sister and I, alive and here."
"Yeah. Sometimes the most unthinkable people surprise us." Sansa found herself nodding, their conversation interrupted by a shout and then an ever-increasing hubbub.
The two women approached the source of the din and saw the Hound holding a Bolton soldier by the throat and crushing him against the cage in which he was imprisoned.
"What's going on?" asked Robb followed by his mother and a little further behind by Roose Bolton and other soldiers "Dog, let him go!" spat the Young Wolf.
"Sure, Wolf, but not before this filthy worm has shown what he's hiding!"
"What are you talking about?" asked Catelyn Stark.
"About the message just received from the Lannisters, come on shit show him the message!" Sandor exclaimed jolting the man who was holding.
"Die." he hissed and Sandor clutched his throat tighter "Go to Hell!"
"So you really want to die?" spat Sandor, finally the soldier gave up and threw the message away.
Robb grabbed the message "It's the Frey seal." said Robb assuming an expression first confused then incredulous "We are ready, the trout is biting, for his wedding he will receive a pair of wolf furs, what does that mean?" he asked assuming an angry expression and turning to Roose Bolton.
The latter turned snow white and assumed a confused expression "I have no idea. My king, you know my loyalty to you. It's just a trick to separate our forces."
"Yet other rumors have spoken of your plotting behind my back with the Freys and Lannisters, now this. Too many coincidences. Lock them all up." sentenced Robb "And release the Hound! I've got to figure out what the hell is going on!" he blurted out, as the Stark army scrambled to carry out their King's orders, however, not everyone was locked up, unfortunately many escaped and Robb was forced to let them go. The King of the North ordered that Roose Bolton be assassinated for high treason; he would behead him himself by nightfall. The others would receive treatment not too different from their commander.
The Hound was given a small tent in which he could wash, change and eat.
He lay down on the small bed that had been prepared for him, and suddenly all the fatigue of the previous months seemed to suddenly wash over him. He closed his eyes and at that moment he saw Sansa enter.
"What are you doing here?" he asked her surprised as he sat down.
Sansa did not answer him, that little girl was beginning to make him feel uncomfortable and good at the same time.
She simply threw her arms around his neck holding him tightly.
"You are free." she said.
It was the first time she had addressed him on a first-name basis and without using much ceremony.
He melted into that embrace, reciprocated by squeezing her and laying a hand in the red cloud that was her hair.
Their embrace barely loosened, the two were a very short distance from each other, their noses brushed, they were eyes to eyes "This time I'm not going to ask you…" he told her as if to warn her of what he would do.
She smiled slightly confused "So it really happened?"
"Yes." he answered her in a huff.
"I knew it happened." she admitted, looking him straight in the eye.
She covered the distance between the two of them, she did it with élan and at the same time with innocence, that innocence of one who is giving herself completely to the other. Their mouths and tongues tasted each other first gently, then more and more intensely; Sansa felt herself on fire so much the transport she had toward him and toward that kiss, she wished it could be forever, but her breath soon failed and she was forced to pull away. She felt… embarrassment, but at the same time happiness because she knew it had been a gesture they had both sought and wanted.
"Sansa?" he called her and she looked up at him, "Now, go. Your brother will be looking for you."
She nodded, got up and went toward the exit, but before she did, she looked again at him who was still watching her, then she went out.
A few steps later she heard a voice calling her, it was her mother.
"Mother."
"Sansa, come." she invited her.
Her mother's tent was definitely larger than the Hound's, the bed that had been prepared for her on sight seemed to be more comfortable than Sandor's, and there was a large rug on the floor.
"Sit down." she said to her "Had breakfast?"
Sansa shook "Actually, I don't eat much."
"You've experienced too much that has forced you to change." it wasn't a question, it was a certainty.
Catelyn could only imagine how much her daughter had experienced, could only think of what Joffrey or Cersei had said to her while she was in King's Landing.
"Yes, Mother, it was… really hard."
"The Hound helped you," she told her, it wasn't a question. The woman was trying to make sense of what she had just seen: her daughter coming out of the man's tent.
"Yes, he… he was always abrupt, but he always showed me a semblance of goodness. He never laid a finger on me, indeed. The times he touched me were to wipe my split lip from a slap from a Royal Guard or when in the woods some knights attacked me and he rescued and cared for me. He took care of me, I never thought that someone like him could show such… it makes me smile to say it, but he showed great gentleness and above all respect for my person."
Catelyn sat down next to her daughter "Why then does your sister say that he touched you and beat you?"
"Mother, I lied in the past and said words that condemned a friend of her to death. That's why she said those things, because she knows that I care about him." she answered her impetuously before thinking about the words she used.
Her mother looked at her inquiringly for a long time, and Sansa blushed violently.
"Do you… love him, daughter?"
Sansa looked up at her "Mother, I don't know. What I know is that … when I am with him I feel so safe. I don't know if that's what love is… I thought I felt it for Joffrey too, but… the Prince I thought I was seeing was… just a mask hiding the monster. Sandor is… has a face… I mean, he's not handsome or charming, he doesn't wear jewels or lavish clothes, he doesn't have titles, but none of that can even compare to what he has done for me, to the protection and respect he has always shown me and granted me. I feel strong if I'm with him, and he is the first person to make me feel that way in so many moons."
Catelyn's gaze softened, but it was an instant "Sansa, you know how these things go, don't you?"
Sansa nodded sadly "He is of too low a lineage." she replied as if it were an answer learned by heart.
"Yes, unfortunately, one cannot marry solely and only for love."
"But Robb… he…"
"He's a man, Sansa," her mother reminded her, "Women cannot simply choose whom they marry. He should ask Robb for your hand, but I am sure he would not be ready to agree to marriage to him. Not now at least. He has much more important matters to think about."
"Yes. I know."
"Go eat something now. When the war is over we'll talk again, I promise."
Sansa smiled and then walked out of the tent.
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Sansa joined her brother in his tent, Robb looked extremely worried and tense "What happened?" she asked him, trying to find an answer to that expression.
"Your sister Arya."
"What happened to her?"
"It's… read her message." said Robb, Arya's handwriting was unmistakable: messy and utterly ungentlemanly.
This is no longer my place, from today I will seek my own way.
Sansa looked at her brother puzzled "I don't understand."
"Neither do I. We had just found each other and she… she runs away, why? Can you give me any explanation?"
"No." replied Sansa "Robb, what about the marriage agreed upon between our uncle and the Frey?"
"I'm thinking about it. We needed that passage, but if we went there as we found out yesterday we would be ambushed. It would take us longer, but we would still get to King's Landing, even without the Frey's help." Robb explained to her.
Sansa simply nodded.
"I will send a messenger to warn Walder Frey that the wedding has been cancelled."
Sansa nodded "That's the best choice, Robb." silence descended between the two for a moment "What do we do about Arya?"
"You know how stubborn and especially wild as a squirrel that little girl is," he left that sentence hanging for a moment, then added, "I'll send three of my best knights after her. They will find her quickly."
"Good."
Sansa made to turn and walk away.
"Sansa?" Robb looked at her for a long time "You're different."
Sansa barely smiled "What do you mean?"
"You've… grown up. You look more like our mother every day, that look at least is the same."
Sansa's smile grew "I'm proud I can be like her."
Robb nodded "Father would have been very proud. You are a Stark, a true Stark. A proud young she-wolf, ready to bite dogs, lions and anyone who stands against us and our return as victors."
Sansa on hearing the word 'dog', barely flinched, but smiled anyway and then made to take her leave, but Robb held her back again "What shall we do with the Hound?"
Sansa swallowed, wanting Robb not to notice her attachment to Sandor Clegane, but at the same time not intending to cause his death or removal "Why do you ask me?"
"Because you know him, you alone can tell me what is really behind that face… you know him more than any of us," Robb answered her as he looked into her sister's eyes.
"He's among the bravest men I know. If father were alive, I think he would appreciate the courage and loyalty he showed me. No one would. He helped me and extended a hand when everyone there in King's Landing was laughing at my beatings. He cleaned my blood caused by Meryn Trant's beatings. He was the only one who never affected me but made me understand what the world is. The real one. I owe to him my return here, I owe to him the fact that I made it in time to warn you,you owe to him the fact that I discovered the deception hatched by Roose Bolton behind your back, he made me realize who I really am."
Robb looked at her for a long time "You know, sis, you have expressed praiseworthy words toward him. I hope he knows he deserves them from you!"
Sansa barely smiled "He may not know who he is, but thanks to him I know who I am."
Robb had the Hound summoned to his tent. Sandor was dragged in chains all the way inside, but there then those bonds were removed from him. Despite his sister's flattering words, Robb decided to leave two soldiers at the entrance anyway. "Do you not trust me, Lord Stark?" he asked them. "King in the North." he pointed out. "Ah, I've lost count of the kings lately!" he exclaimed wryly. "You'd better be less witty!" the Young Wolf admonished him. "What do you want from me?" the Hound asked him directly. "I was very impressed by my sister's words about you," he told him. "Really?" he asked puzzled. "Yes. She sees good in you." Robb fell silent, "Is there really any?" Sandor looked him straight in the eye "Ask your sister." he replied "On me I wouldn't bet anything, I live for myself. I stopped caring about anyone other than myself a long time ago." "You are either very stupid or very clever. Sansa, for some strange reason believes in you. She praises you, she uses admirable words. You, on the other hand, defame yourself." the King of the North looked him straight in the eye "Why? What are you trying to prove?" "I don't understand," Sandor replied. "What I want to understand is, have you come only for money or for other reasons? I do not completely believe in your innocence, but I believe in my sister and her words. If she trusts, I will try to trust what she says about you. But I need to know from you, from your voice, your intentions." The Hound lingered on his answer for a long time, but then decided to admit a half-truth "On the night of the Battle of Blackwater, I left everything behind, my place in the Royal Guard, my place next to the Child King, the Imp giving me orders. Everything. I was going to leave, but then I remembered your sister and all the suffering she went through day after day and decided to take her with me. She could have said no, she would still be there now, maybe that crazy Joffrey would have given her in marriage to the Imp to make her suffer! I decided to take her with me and I did. I did it for money… then I met that other little devil of your sister…" "Watch your mouth!" warned Robb. "And I decided to take her too, the reward would be double. That's it." "Did you ever hit my sister? At King's Landing or when you brought her here?" he asked him. "Never. I'd cut off my arm rather than hit her," he answered him, barely raising his voice. "Have you ever… touched Sansa?" Robb wanted to understand exactly if Sansa's words were true and if there was any truth in what Arya had told him, but from Sansa's words and the man's words before him he understood almost immediately that Arya had not been honest with him and that this had probably been the decision that had prompted her to run away. "I would never do that. I would rip my balls off if only I did it against her will!" exclaimed Sandor with fury. Robb lingered for a long time over the words that would follow, but finally resumed by telling him, "I believe you. How much do you want for your service?" Sandor thought about it for a while, but then chose to follow his heart for once, the heart he no longer even believed he had before the long road he faced with Sansa Stark. "Nothing." "What, you just said you came here to collect a reward, but now you want nothing?" "That's right." "Why?" he asked him narrowing his eyes and frowning. "You can't buy what you feel." In an instant Robb understood and put together his sister's words and Sandor Clegane's last sentence. Had they fallen in love? Robb thought about it for a few seconds, then dismissed him, saying, "All right. Thank you for what you did. I wish you a safe journey and safe arrival at your destination, whatever it may be." Sandor gave a half bow "I will leave in the morning, if I may." Robb simply nodded, then the Hound turned and left. He had to say goodbye to the young Stark girl.
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crownedtargaryen · 1 year
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hiii can u do headcanons of reader being the eldest daughter of house stark (but younger than both robb and jon) and reader is also 💅 (since ned literally kept jon being a targ as a secret for so long, i think reader would be out to ned bc reader trusts him lol. and would reader come out to catelyn and the stark siblings) thankieee
coming out to the starks. headcanons
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(a/n): i really hope this is good! tbh i was so nervous to write this cause i was afraid i’d mess it up!! :( genre: comfort, fluff prns: they/them all notes are appreciated. tag list: @hopelesswritergall @twizzy123 @daenerysapologist @ad-astra-again @clairacassidy
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Ned Stark
ned would DEF be shocked
at first he’d do the “are you sure?” while looking around to see if anyone heard you
he’s def afraid it’ll hurt his reputation, and when he sees you deflated he absolutely hates it
so he’d hug you tight, breath shaky and go “we’ll learn together.”
he definitely doesn’t know how to go about this at first, asking if he can still marry you off or not
he wouldn’t talk about it much after, but for a month he seems cautious on what he says to you
he’ll slowly learn though, and once you explain some things to him he’ll appeal to the gender(s) of your liking
“Look at that guy/girl over there… You think they’re cute?” he’ll laugh out and nudge you, becoming much more comfortable with the idea as he sees how happy it makes you that he’s supportive
he’d def be the one to convince catelyn to support you, arguing day and night until she opens her mind to the concept
would fight day and night for you, and if rumor spreads he’ll shrug them off, not one bit ashamed of his child.
Catelyn Stark
she’s totally not fond of it
she’d look at you in surprise. then, “no. you must continue your duties, you mustn’t say such things.” while cupping your cheeks and tears coming to her eyes
when you try to explain, she’d shush you softly with a shake of her head.
things are tense for a while, and she seems upset with you and this “choice” of yours
though, one night while you’re wandering the castle for a water, you’d hear Ned whisper-shouting at your mother
”please, my dearest lady wife… We must show our support.” you hear, as Catelyn yells harsh words to her husband
one day, she’ll come to you out next to a tree, sitting in silence for a brief moment before sighing and hugging you
then, she says softly, “I love you, and I love whoever you choose to love, my sweetling.”
Robb Stark
you can never find the “right” time to tell robb
so, you tell him as he’s leaned over a table, inspecting his war plans
when you say it, he turns his head in surprise for a moment then laughs, thinking you’re pulling his leg
when he sees you’re serious, he immediately stands up straight and will purse his lips
you can tell he doesn’t truly know how to feel, but he’ll eventually speak up
”That’s definitely news.” he’ll say with a soft chuckle
then, he moves in and hugs you tight
the hug is brief, then he ruffles your hair and goes back to his plans
when you’re surprised and give him a “that’s all???” he’ll nod and not even look at you
he just says “what, do you want a party? you love women/men, and I love women. if you aren’t surprised and over the moon about my likings, why should we yell and throw stakes and torches at yours?”
then, he fixes his map, not even turning around. he’s def scared, worried it’ll taint the family name if people find out, but nonetheless he loves you all the same.
Sansa Stark
she been knew.
she’d see you sneaking sly glances to those of the same gender, how your eyes wander just a bit too long for a glance
so, when you tell her, she’d just continue what she’s doing
”You’re not secretive,” she’ll say, looking to your flushed face with a laugh
”I knew before you knew.”
then, she’ll move over and hold your hand, smiling and squeezing it.
”I love you all the same, please remember as such.” she whispers as she looks back to her task and continues
she’ll def tease you about it though, asking if you have taken a liking to anyone specific and much like Ned will point people you may be attracted to out in crowds and nudge at you
Bran Stark
bran, honest to god, does not care
you tell him and he just smiles a bit and nods, then goes back to what he was doing
when you repeat yourself, unsure if he heard, he looks at you again
”So?” he’ll say
”So? This took a lot out of me.”
”Okay, congratulations on loving who you love.”
he doesn’t see the big deal about telling him, honestly just happy you are who you are. who you love doesn’t matter to him, and he’d never even bring up romantics with you. maybe a few questions on who you show interest in, but nothing more.
Arya Stark
she is OVER THE MOON.
you tell her and her eyes widen and she grabs your hands
”you are?!” she’ll whisper yell, grinning from ear to ear.when you confirm she heard right, she looks like she might cry.
”I have to say I too love differently than most. Women are quite the treat.”
she’ll then ramble about this servant girl she’s taken a liking to, a feisty one with a fire like no other
honestly, she’s happy she isn’t alone. though she’s fine with a man, her preference stays with women.
though, she does try to set you up, thinking she’s helping but is embarrassing you in the process
Jon Snow
he honestly has no reaction like Bran
at first he’d ask a few questions, trying to make sure he understands your preferences more clearly, then will ask who all you’ve told
“just you,” you’ll say, and he’ll smile ass gentle and sweet
”Your secret is safe with me.”
he doesn’t speak of it again until you’re out to your entire family, then he will ask his father how marriage will work and try to get the political matters understood, curiosity besting him
Cregan Stark
cregan loves that you’ve told him
he admires your courage and sees you as some powerful specimen to be able to admit such things
”shall we hold a feast?” he’ll say eagerly, if this man has a tail it’’d be wagging like crazy
when you decline his offer, he’d slightly deflate but then bear hug you
he LOVES to tease you about it, at his tournaments and feasts signaling to specific people and urging them to dance with you
he love embarrassing you as well, when you show interest in someone he’d poke fun and purposefully put you in situations to know them better
he’s seen hiring more accepting and open people, trying to make the environment comfortable for you and allow you to pursue folks without judgment
overall, he loves you all the same.
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jackoshadows · 1 year
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Don’t know if someone already asked that question so here it goes: what’s your opinion on Ned Stark? I think the fandom is too harsh on him
He's fine. I like him as the character who starts off and sets up the story for our actual protagonists. I like that he's flawed and has his own kind of morality and ideas of right and wrong, as fitting the fictional fantasy world he lives in.
I do think the fandom is too harsh in the sense of how he's reduced to this honorable fool. This interpretation of him (wrong, IMO) is so popular in fandom that it made it's way to the garbage show through D&D/Bryan Cogman adapting popular tumblr metas rather than actually reading the books and translating that to the screen. They wrote actual dialogue for Sansa 'Smart' where she warns Jon to not be stupid like Ned and Robb!!
This is one of the many reasons for why the show and the books are so canonically different. Benioff and Weiss think the likes of Littlefinger should rule the world and hence why they wrote dialogue for Littlefinger 2.0 aka Sansa stark where she disparages Ned Stark as stupid. In the books on the other hand, Ned inspires loyalty and brotherhood, with his bannerman rising up for Arya and Rickon Stark, while all the Lannisters can inspire is fear and hatred.
As GRRM himself explains:
It’s not enough to be a good man to be an effective ruler. It’s complicated and it’s hard and I wanted to show that with repeated examples in my books with my kings and hand of the kings - the prime minister if you would - trying to rule. And whether it be Ned Stark or Tyrion Lannister or Tywin Lannister or Daenerys Targaryen or Cersei Lannister trying to deal with the real challenges that affect anyone trying to rule the 7K or even a city like Meereen and it’s hard. You know, we can all read the books or read history and say oh, so and so was stupid and made a lot of mistakes and look at all these stupid mistakes they make. But these kind of mistakes are always much more apparent in hind sight than when you are actually faced with the decision about, oh my God, what would I do in this situation. How do I resolve this thing? Do I do the moral thing? But what about  the political consequences of the moral thing? Do I do the pragmatic, cynical thing and kind of screw the people who are screwed by it? I mean, it is HARD. And I want to get to all of that - GRRM
Ned had very few allies and people he could trust in KL. It was a viper's nest and as I mentioned in one of my earlier posts Jon Arryn leaves behind an absolute mess with the likes of the Lannisters, Littlefinger and Slynt holding too much power. There was not much maneuvering that Ned could do in the situation he found himself.
I like that he is flawed with his blindspots for Robert Baratheon that clashes with his morality. I like that children are his weakness - that he was ready to resign when Robert wanted to send assassins to murder Dany, that he tried to save Jaime's children while Jaime tried to kill his.
All in all, I think it's harder to be a 'good' man in Westeros than it is to be a bad one. I have read opinions on how the likes of Ned and Jon are boring because they are 'good' while everyone loves the hot bad boys like Jaime Lannister because he's just so 'complex'. I couldn't disagree more. Jaime attempts to murder the likes of Bran and Arya for Cersei and it's a simple enough decision for the likes of him in a Westeros that lets him get away doing this with no consequences. Ned Stark warns Cersei because he does not want to see her children suffer the same fate as Elia's children - and dooms his family and house.
When Westeros exemplifies the idea of 'No good deed goes unpunished', it's harder to do the morally right thing and I am doubly appreciative of characters who still do it. Daenerys trying to help the oppressed of Meereen simply because it's the right thing to do, Arya helping the prisoners in the cage or Weasel or sticking up for Mycah, Jon fighting against the centuries of hatred and xenophobia at the wall in his reform of the Wall.
So yeah, I like Ned Stark. He's an interesting, complex character and I can't wait to know more about him with Howland Reed's revelations of Robert's Rebellion and the Tower of Joy and what actually happened and how Jon Snow deals with the truth and reexamines his relationship with his 'father' and Arya holding on so strongly to her father's ideals, leadership and this image she has of him and how she is going to use his words, adapt and change that to lead the North.
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daenerysstormreborn · 11 months
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IS EACH POV CHARACTER A DOG OR CAT PERSON?
Tell me if you agree or disagree. Discourse encouraged.
Jon: tough one. All the Starks are tough because of their canine associations. Ultimately I think he’d love both but I lean towards cats for Jon because of his gentle, quiet, brooding nature.
Arya: she would love any animal placed in front of her but dog with preference
Bran: dogs, but specifically more mellow large breeds
Sansa: cats. She would love some dogs the way she loved Lady, but I can imagine her being overwhelmed by loud, rowdy, energetic dogs
Ned: dogs. Ned would be the type who thinks every cat is the same. He would act like he thinks dogs are too messy and don’t belong in the house or on the furniture but he’d let the dog sleep in his bed and feed it more table scraps than anyone
Catelyn: dogs. Cat would want to like cats but I think she would find them vexing
Tyrion: really hard to place. I lean toward dogs but I can’t explain why. But I think he’d be very amused by cats
Jaime: he’d think he prefers dogs until he lived with a cat and saw their mischief. Like Tyrion, he’d be very amused by the audacity and brazen attitude of cats
Cersei: neither. I think she’d think dogs are gross and dirty and would be frustrated by the independence of cats
Brienne: neither, in the “didn’t grow up with pets” type of way. She’d be hesitant and wouldn’t know how to interact with them but I think she’d love both once she learned about them
Sam: cats because I’m pretty sure it’s stated in canon that he specifically loves kittens. I think he’d want to like dogs but their energy would freak him out a bit
Davos: dogs, due to a lack of experience in cat ownership. He has a fixed idea of what cats are like in his head and he doesn’t like it
Theon: neither. Not sure about post-Reek Theon but pre-Reek Theon would not like pets
Asha: she would appreciate the nature of cats but prefer the company of dogs
Victarion: I cannot imagine this man loving an animal
Aeron: I do not think Aeron thinks about such things
Daenerys: she’d appreciate dogs but ultimately cats for their attitudes. I’ve always thought of dragons as being cat-like in behavior. Somewhat reclusive and occasionally testy, intelligent and curious, sometimes lazy, independent, and strong-willed
Arianne: dog lover vibes. Doesn’t hate cats but definite dog preference
Quentyn: also dogs but I think he wouldn’t like cats. Has the vibes of the guy who says he doesn’t like cats because one scratched his dog when he was a kid
Barristan: this is a man who says “no we will not get a pet” but ends up loving the pet the most. I think he’d get on better with cats based on vibes
Melisandre: cat person. No explanation needed I think
JonCon: absolutely no clue someone else help me out
Areo: also no clue please someone else decide
Hopefully I didn’t forget anyone. I didn’t include prologue/epilogue POVs. Please discuss.
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mneiai · 2 years
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Um that crack pairing you did a drabble once: Joanna (Fem!Jon) Stark x Joffrey Baratheon, they make it work…sorta…there is definitely murder happening at the least
Sooo I started writing this, then got a few more ideas, then it ended up more involved then I thought it would be, but then I cut other POVs I had written because I didn't quite like them, and then decided I needed to post SOMETHING up and here we go lol
Here is the referenced fic
Joffrey/Jon time travel soulmate AU. GoT ages but more ASOIAF-y Jon. Just, y'know, in a fem!Jon's body. And hints of Young Griff/Jon.
XxXxX
Of all the traps he could have set, Bryden had woven the most dangerous one Jon could imagine.
He appreciated that about his great uncle,. He knew never to underestimate Bloodraven's ruthlessness when it came to the defense of House Targaryen. But just as he had sacrificed his honor and freedom, he expected Jon to sacrifice much in turn.
Being reborn the daughter of Ned Stark--posed as the trueborn twin to Robb, though Jon knew in his heart that fire resided in his blood--had seemed severe enough a payment for setting right the wrongs of the last timeline. Yet, at the age of six and ten, Bryden's true trap was revealed.
Crown Prince Joffrey's soulmark had arrived, to much celebration even before the revelation it matched Joanna Stark's own. There was no doubt that Robert Baratheon had celebrated, had claimed it fate and fortune. Already, Jon knew from the small circle of correspondents he had created with other young ladies of the realm (Lady Catelyn--Mother--thought him dedicated to finding a good husband and Robb a good match, Father joked that Joanna should have been born a boy so he might have become a Maester, pain brief in his expression when his words caught up to him), he knew the South had named him the new Lyanna Stark, called him beautiful and graceful without ever seeing him.
That he had Lyanna's coloring could not be mistaken, of course, but the beauty of his body when he looked in the mirror was surely Valyrian, traces of Daenerys and countless other princesses and queens in his features.
If he had to be a princess, he wished to be as Alyssa, to be wild and free. He knew that would not serve him well under the Lannisters, though, and so he became as once Sansa had been: on the outside, a little bird for the lions to mold. But birds could be predators, too, and his heart was a wolf, his soul a dragon.
Jon smiled with sweetness and light as he imagined his teeth were as Balerion's. Dancing in Joffrey's clutches, he imagined his words were fire roasting the lesser creature to eat.
He would torment House Lannister, would make the carrion house suffer for all its crimes. For they had committed many against House Targaryen and despite how hard Jon would try to avoid the conflicts of last time, he knew they would cause suffering where they could.
Joffrey was a cruel child, just as he had been, before, but easily led when someone was subtle. More easily, perhaps, because Jon was supposedly his soulmate (he imagined Joffrey would have never had one, that Bryden slotted Jon into an empty space).
Soulmates were made to love and help each other, to strengthen and support.
Everyone assumed Jon would calm Joffrey's worse habits, would make him a better king. No one thought Joanna Stark could possibly be a monster in her own right, not such a dutiful and sweet girl.
Slender, soft fingers slid from his hand to his wrist, stroking over his soulmark and making him shudder despite himself. There was a bond there, nothing as serious as what he would feel with a direwolf or a dragon, but something. Joffrey knew nothing about how to use it, prodding like a child poking an animal with a stick, but Jon did.
Twisting around Joffrey's presence, making him enjoy having Jon in control of the bond (if he even noticed that was the case, which Jon doubted).
"You'll look beautiful in gold, my lady," Joffrey murmured to him as they danced at the last feast before they would go South, Jon's eyes having started to wander over his family as he thought through his preparations.
He forced his attention back to Joffrey. "And black, too, I believe," he stated, humor that no one else could not understand tinging his voice.
"And black," Joffrey agreed, "and red." He meant the Lannister colors, Jon knew, but he couldn't help but smile to that, too.
Yes, he would look wonderful in black and red. As all dragons did.
At the high table, Robert stared at him with naked desire and Jon flinched, drawing Joffrey's attention to it. The hands around him became tighter, more protective, and Joffrey's jaw clenched. He did not like to share his toys, not even with the father he always wished would notice him.
Jon tugged at his grasp, inclining his head. "Perhaps a last walk through the glass gardens, your grace."
Joffrey agreed with relief, a pensive Jaime following them as they exited.
***
Sansa still came South, but so did Bran (healthy and whole, spry and happy). When not with the larger party, Joffrey spent his time with Jon, who used all the tricks that women had once used on him and other men around him to keep Joffrey's attention.
Their direwolves, too, came with them, and Joffrey was soon one of the only Southrons not wary of them. His soulmate, after all, had one, which to him meant he practically had one himself. He boasted about "their" Ghost, how large he would grow, how vicious he would be, the enemies that would be fed to him.
Ghost normally just laid nearby, thoroughly unimpressed, or at one point was in the background playfully chasing a butterfly.
The three direwolves that came to King's Landing were the most obedient, Ghost because he had been through so much with Jon, Summer because even if Bran was more or less unaware of his abilities he was too powerful not to inspire obedience, and Sansa because Lady took after her and she spent a good deal of time training her. He could not imagine what had ever possessed their father to bring Arya South, let alone Nymeria.
At the Keep, Joffrey had an area of the Godsweed turned into a sort of stable for the direwolves, though they rarely left their sides. It was surprisingly thoughtful, though, as were the tailors that appeared on Jon's third day, with many beautiful samples of black, red, and cloth of gold.
If nothing else, Joffrey was aware of court fashions and the statements to be made with clothing.
Cersei, too, helped where she could. Less condescending than she was to Sansa, who even without a betrothal to Joffrey was treated like some pet.
"I am glad to be with my soulmate, of course, but I miss Robb," Jon 'admitted' to her during one of her gatherings, sat at her side as a princess-to-be as the ladies of court tittered below them. "Being without my twin for the first time is like I am missing a part of myself."
Her soft hands ran over Jon's shoulder. "You poor thing, being away from Jaime is so similar." She looked towards the door where Jaime stood guard and gave a longing sigh, as if he was not right there. "But you have Joffrey and your soulmate will help fill that hole inside of you."
She did not need to point out that she had no soulmate, that Robert was a poor substitute. Even Ned had started to admit how much Robert failed at being a king, husband, and father.
If only he knew what Joffrey could become, if left free.
"Yes, I am so thankful for Joffrey, of course, and I hope we have many years before we must rule." He shared an obviously fake smile with Cersei, whose own smile became more sincere as she registered Jon's lie, surely thinking he wanted Robert out of the way so Joffrey would rule.
Brynden's plots wove through Jon's life like thread, but he was now used to that. And while he could play at being Joffrey's soulmate, Jon was one of the few blessed with two marks--unknown to everyone else. And it was the second mark, kept hidden on his other arm, which he truly looked forward to. Because while Bryden surely had plans for that, as well, Jon was not without his own.
***
It had taken some time, and a great deal of warging into Balerion the cat, to set up a private meeting with Varys in one of the hidden chambers beneath the Red Keep. Varys was incredible at not keeping to any habit or schedule in his excursions, but with Jon watching when he thought he was alone, he had managed to locate the path he took back to his chambers when he left through a specific other exit.
He actually made Varys jump when he stepped out into the faint light of the torch, his black clothing having faded into the shadows and his face kept hidden by his hair. It was the work of a moment to use that briefest distraction to get close and press a dagger against Varys' pale neck.
The blade had been a gift from Joffrey, the elaborate Valyrian steel that had once nearly ended his little brother's life and started a war. Jon couldn't help but appreciate the irony of owning it and even moreso of using it against Varys.
"Lady Joanna, what a surprise!"
"Who do you support, Lord Varys? Stags? Lions?"
His eyebrows rose. "Why, I am the Master of Whisperers--"
Jon's cold look turned vicious, giving a smile that was just a display of teeth as he kept Varys from taking control of the situation. "Is it dragons?" He saw the first hint of a crack in Varys' demeanor and pressed. "Of red, my lord...or black?"
Varys kept up his simpering act, too exemplary a mummer to fail, yet. "I serve the realm, my lady."
With a scoff, Jon stepped away, dagger slowly tracing down Vary's body, resting against his belly now instead of his neck. He had gutted men before, though "Joanna" was unblooded and the threat seemed less to Varys, he was sure, than it was.
"It is a shame that my uncle has died, I could have been his bride, in the tradition of our house. But my aunt, I hear, has dragons." Watching Varys' eyes widen was very satisfying, knowing how much Varys coveted information and loved being the one with more than anyone else.
He pulled away completely, sheathing his dagger and, with slow movements, unwinding the bracelet on his right wrist to reveal the mark no one had know of but he and Brynden. He did not miss the way Varys' eyes took on a dangerous gleam as soon as they alighted upon it and Jon knew he had guessed right, that it was Varys' pet across the sea who was his match. Technically, Jon should not have any way of knowing of the dragon boy that Varys supported, was simply showing that Joffrey didn't have his sole allegiance and that he would not die if that soulmate did, as people with only one often did.
"I will need a steady, and subtle, supply of moon tea after my wedding, Lord Varys. It would be shameful to mix the blood of a dragon with lion."
Varys' eyes darkened for a moment, flicking down his body, and Jon wondered if he was thinking of how close the wedding was and how Joffrey would take what could have been Aegon's. If he was imagining a Blackfyre cuckoo growing inside one of the last Targaryens, if that was what his boy was.
"But of course...my princess." The bow was what one might give the heir to the throne and Jon realized that, even as Joanna, that was what he would be--Rhaegar's daughter before Rhaegar's sister, if others were willing to accept that his second marriage was valid. "But might I ask, how did you know? Call it professional curiosity."
He hoped his own surprise at the bow didn't show, even as he mentally kicked himself for not figuring that out himself. It didn't matter, Aegon had an army and Varys' assistance, Daenerys had dragons and would eventually have an army herself. Whatever chaos that Varys meant to sow this time around, all Jon could do was keep the Starks out of it and hope that he'd be spared excessive pain.
Instead, returning to the cold expression of a Stark, he took a few more steps towards the exit he would take, opposite Varys' normal route. "Dreams can show many things, my lord, as history tells us."
Let him think it was dragon dreams, that would be Jon's excuse for many things if he was ever confronted with his foreknowledge. If that didn't work, he could always admit to being a warg, but Varys was one of the last people he wanted to trust with that information.
XxXxX
Notes:
So, the backstory is: Lyanna and Rhaegar had a daughter, not a son. Ned sends Wylla and the baby ahead of him, as a girl is under much less threat than a boy, so no one remembers him traveling with his supposed bastard, and Catelyn is less furious when the baby arrives since she's less of a threat to Robb and manages to think clearly and put the truth together. She sets up a lie that the baby is Robb's younger twin sister.
To this, a more or less canonical Jon Snow is sent back in time and is in that baby's body the whole time. Having gone through a huge identity crisis already (and one other death), he holds onto much of himself over the years and thinks of his current identity as more of a role he's playing than his actual self, so unlike with my chaptered series Potentiality, he isn't technically a trans man, mentally he's disassociated from the body he's in and treats it as a cis girl's body.
Bloodraven is a complicated character. I know many people assume he would hate the Targaryens, but I find that hard to believe. He was a pragmatist, he knew that Aegon V would need to punish him and distance his reign from him. If he was upset at not being executed, there's a hundred different ways to die at the Wall, especially for a kinslaying, oathbreaking, Targaryen loyalist (and if there was even just one Bracken there, that would be enough lol). I personally think that he would like a Targaryen Restoration and if not that, at least the final destruction of the Blackfyres (if he knew/assumed Aegon and/or Varys were Blackfyres). Whether he's actually against the Others, whether he's actually helping Bran, whether he's actually loyal to the Children, all of that is up in the air, but I think he would never hate the Targaryens (hell, he wasn't even the only one at the Wall, Aemon went with him).
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marascomics · 5 years
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Coming at y'all hard with that Sansa content lmao, if you're a Danaerys stan then maybe keep away for a bit, am not her biggest fan atm
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thelegendofclarke · 7 years
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Just venting I need to get this out:I firmly believe that there are Key 6, not 5, players in ASOIAF. And Sansa is one of them. GRRM has himself named Sansa as one of his key protagonists (there were 6 in total inc Sansa) and also that Sansa,Arya and Bran's journeys were paramount for him. I know this subject has been done to death &I'm really sorry for imposing on you but yeah to me,based on all this,Sansa is one of the Key 6. (you dont have to post it. Just venting. Thanks for reading)
Hi! Sorry to bother you again. I’m the Key 6 players anon. You don’t have to post my initial ask. I know the whole thing has been done to death. I was just venting and getting it out of my system. I hope I didn;t offend. Thanks for understanding.
Hi Anonny!
Oh gosh please DON’T apologize, you didn’t offend me at all in the slightest! I am just slow af and take forever to answer things and am generally The Worst… But my Ask is always open for venting! Especially venting about people who don’t ~recognize, respect, and appreciate~ the Noble and Poetic Land Mermaid that is Sansa Stark.
Yeah, the Key Players debate does continue to be a kind of ~weird bone of contention~ in the fandom for some reason. I think (and like to hope) that a lot of the time when people talk about or make fanart for the Five Key Players, that they aren’t excluding Sansa or leaving her out maliciously. I think they might just be going off of, or wanting to acknowledge, the five main characters GRRM listed in his original outline for the series in 1993.
But you’re right, I have definitely seen people who insist that Sansa is not a main character or key player in the story, which simply isn’t true. GRRM even identified her as a main character himself in 2016:
I’d thought the whole story could be told in three books, and that it would take me three years to write them, a year per book. That picture was taken just a few weeks after I blew my first (bot not my last, oh no) deadline on the series. Ah, how innocent I was… little did that guy in the picture imagine that he would be spending most of the next two decades in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros with Tyrion, Daenerys, Arya, Sansa, Jon Snow, Bran, and all the rest. (x)
And even if GRRM’s word alone weren’t enough, Sansa’s character is vastly different from how she was originally planned. In the original outline GRRM basically had the Arya character involved in plot lines that now belong to Arya, Sansa, and Meera Reed (homegirl would have been BUSY AF); and the original Sansa character was basically who we would now identify as Margaery Tyrell if you are looking for a comparison. The original Sansa character ended up marrying Joffrey and bearing him a son and then choosing him over her family and ultimately paying the price. It was always ~super obvious~ to me that GRRM figured out that it just wasn’t going to be logistically possible to have the Arya character do everything she needed to do. I mean she was basically going to have to be in a minimum of two places at once: fleeing North beyond the wall with Bran AND in KL/WF getting entangled in a love triangle with Jon and Tyrion. So he ended up splitting and then modifying Arya’s storylines for the characters we now know as Arya, Sansa, and Meera.
The Sansy Pants as we now know (and love) her does start out a lot like the original Sansa, with dreams of marrying the prince and having his babies ect. She also does play a big part in what some people see as the betrayal and downfall of her family. But unlike the Sansa in the original outline, our Sansa learns. Her observations and inner dialogue become more and more keen and shrewd and move further and further away from the romantic fantasies and naivety that characterized her original POV. The romantic and fanciful AGoT!Sansa does make appearances throughout the series as Sansa wistfully, and sometimes resentfully, recalls the girl she used to be. But AGoT!Sansa’s memory is consistently suppressed and rejected in favor of a sharper, smarter, more cunning, and more guarded perspective (She hasn’t left her romanticism behind completely though as we know, just like she hasn’t forgotten her true identity. She is still Sansa Stark; “Lord Eddard’s daughter and Lady Catelyn’s, the blood of Winterfell”). 
If anything, this proves to me she’s going to be a Key Player and central to the story’s endgame. Like her siblings Sansa has lived through extreme atrocities and incredible adversity and come out the other side stronger and smarter, but still kind an noble. And like Bran has been honing his supernatural abilities and Arya has been honing her physical abilities, Sansa has been honing her own intellectual abilities. Her growing political savvy and transition from Pawn to Player is incredibly similar to Bran’s growing confidence in his magical abilities. Just like Bran is gradually becoming one of the central characters for the magical endgame of the series, Sansa is transitioning into her role as a key player in the pragmatic and political endgame of the series.
And going along with that, I think another reason people have a hard time believing that Sansa is going to be a Key Player is because she isn’t magical. All the other five Key Players (Bran, Arya, Jon, Dany, and Tyrion) have some sort of magical ability that’s central to their arc. Whether it’s dragon riding or blood magic or warging or being brought back from the dead, they all have some sort of magical skill and/or experience. There is, of course, the fact that Sansa could have been a warg or a skin changer, but her ability to do so essentially died with Lady. But honestly I think that’s kind of beside the point…
In the end I don’t think it matters that Sansa doesn’t have any significant magical abilities, because I don’t think GRRM is trying to write a story solely about magic where the magical storylines and characters are the only important ones. I think he is more writing a story that is set in a world where magic exists. ASoIaF isn’t divided into magical storylines vs. political storylines, the two co-exist and are of equal importance. Whether you want to view ASoIaF as a political world where there’s magic or a magical world where there’s politics, it still stands to reason that the lives of the characters are going to be affected by both. Just like the magically inclined Dany is driven by royal aspirations and entangled in political endeavors, the politically savvy Sansa does interact with and has been affected by magic. 
Both these things occur simply based on the fact that both exist and are pervasive over arching themes in the universe GRRM has created. Even though Sansa doesn’t have any obvious magical skills like Arya and Jon, she has interacted with magic and it has been a prevalent theme in her arc. Here are just a few examples:
The name Sansa actually means “invocation and charm” in Sanskrit. And while yes, this could just be a play on words with Sansa’s power to charm others, it gets brought up again in he advices Petyr gives her to seduce Harry the Heir: “Charm him. Entrance him. Bewitch him.” Seduction is described here like a spell. 
The Ghost of High Heart Prophecy- “I dreamt a wolf howling in the rain, but no one heard his grief. I dreamt such a clangor I thought my head might burst, drums and horns and pipes and screams, but the saddest sound was the little bells. I dreamt of a maid at a feast with purple serpents in her hair, venom dripping from their fangs. And later I dreamt that maid again, slaying a savage giant in a castle built of snow.” The bolded part is pretty clearly speaking of Sansa at Joffrey’s wedding. The purple serpents in her hair with blood dripping from their veins is referring to the silver hair net with purple amethysts given to Sansa by the Tyrells which they used to smuggle poison into the wedding feast. The “serpents in her hair” also really strongly parallels the myth of Medusa, who could turn men to stone with just one look.   
The smallfolk also talk about Sansa and the Purple Wedding in terms of magic and legend when telling the story to Arya and The Hound: “The northern girl. Winterfell’s daughter. We heard she killed the king with a spell, and afterward changed into a wolf with big leather wings like a bat, and flew out a tower window.” (Arya XII, ASoS) Not only do they say Sansa preforms a spell, but also that she skin-changes into a bat-wolf, all references to the dark arts. 
The remaining direwolves often think of think of “the sister they had lost”, which is obviously Lady. And it’s significant that because Sansa lost Lady, her brothers can’t track her the way they do their other siblings. This indicates that there is in fact a magical bond/connection between each Stark and their wolf allowing them to connect with and track each other as a pack, and that with Lady’s death Sansa’s magical connection was severed. 
GRRM has also explicitly stated that all the Stark children have warging abilities: “[On whether the trait of being a warg ran in the Stark family] I don’t know if I want to get into genetics - this is fantasy, not scifi… I don’t think this is necessarily a ‘Stark’ ability, though all the children have it to one extent or another. They also realize it to one extent or another.’
Her presence in Bran’s dream in AGoT (Bran III) where she is surrounded by shadows, each representing characters she has and possibly will interact with (The Hound, Jaime Lannister, and possibly Robert Strong)- “One shadow was dark as ash, with the terrible face of a hound. Another was armored like the sun, golden and beautiful. Over them both loomed a giant in armor made of stone, but when he opened his visor, there was nothing inside but darkness and thick black blood.”
Maggy’s Prophecy- Sansa is also potentially the “younger and more beautiful” queen in Maggy the Frog’s prophecy about Cersei. And while she might not ~actually~ end up being the younger and more beautiful queen, Cersei believes she could. This is significant because it shapes Sansa and Cersei relationship and fuels Cersei’s hatred of Sansa from the first time they meet. It’s the same reason Cersei hates Margaery, they are a threat not only to “all she holds dear” but also to her power. 
SO tl;dr Sansa Stark is ~important af~ and DEFINITELY a Key Player in ASoIaF. I know you already knew this haha, but just take comfort in the fact that there is a gd mountain of evidence against anyone who claims differently. So they can just sit there in their Wrongness and be Wrong :)
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diablocodys · 7 years
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sansa: *says anything*
everybody: what a fucking reincarnation of Satan himself     also shes a bitch
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siyora · 4 years
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Game of Thrones Rewatch: Sansa Stark
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dragon-of-the-soutn · 2 years
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So lots of the old GOT fandom is returning due to hotd which is great! Love that we’re all here! But you know what’s not great?
The Sansa vs Daenerys bullshit beginning again and I for one WILL NOT HAVE IT!
Sansa and Daenerys are BOTH amazing characters with there strengths and flaws and the fact none of you are able to appreciate one character without immediately tearing down the other is disgusting. Do better.
There’s having interesting and nuanced discussions about a characters flaws and motivations, and then there’s just calling one character a b*tch because you ship them with Jon Snow. Like really? In the year of our Lord 2022 we’re doing this kind of ship wars? Really?!? We’re tearing down other women (being fictional is besides the point) because of a man?!?!?!?!??
I’m sorry to break it to you all but in the Winds of Winter there isn’t going to be a Sansa, Jon, Daenerys love triangle. Jon is going to come back as a Beric Dondarrion style fire zombie with so many issues while Sansa and Daenerys will have better things to do than have a catty fight with another woman in a position of power they just met five minutes ago. Oh and this goes for the stupid House Stark vs House Targaryen drama to. Both Houses are war criminals who have done horrible things in this feudalist system to keep themselves in power.
Both characters were fucked over by GOT, please, it’s been three years please can we let this die.
If you want a character to hate, hate book! Euron or Ramsey. You know, two character that are actually evil psychopaths that deserve everything that’s coming to them.
Just do better.
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bellarkeselection · 3 years
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Ned's Daughter
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Request from @whateverthecostner Reader being Ned Stark's oldest daughter and goes with him to King's Landing. I would love to see Tyrion's reaction to the curvy stark girl and maybe her reaction to the charming, intelligent Lannister.
When the Lion's came to our home I didn't meet the third Lannister child of Tywin Lannister. Until I rode to the capital King's Landing with my father Eddard Stark and my two sisters. Sansa was off hanging around the prince and Arya was at her dance lessons learning how to sword fight. Leaving me alone to roam the unknown halls of a place that seems to be twice the size of Winterfell. Brushing my hands down my dress the sunlight streaming through the windows highlights my curvy sides that I've always been ashamed of. My mother and father said I shouldn't worry about it, that I'm beautiful no matter what.
"Looks like you need a bigger dress then girl." Whipping my head towards the voice I realized it belongs to a member of the Kingsgaurd who snickers my direction. "I'm suprised the Queen let someone like you inside the castle. You must be an embarrassment to your house." Dropping my head I try to not let tears show from his hurtful words. But it's hard when my younger sister Sansa has the perfect body that men can't help but not stare at. Footsteps approach as I feel some tears starting to fall down my face. "How dare you make a Lady cry, Ser Manson."
Lifting my eyes open to see Lord Tyrion standing before the Kingsgaurd arms crossed over his chest. Arya had kept asking if she could meet him when King Robert Baratheon came to my home. The rumors were indeed true of him being a dwarf. "This doesn't concern you imp. She needs to be judged for how she looks-" Tyrion clicked his tongue staring up at the guard. "Then I guess I can bring to light that you've broken your vows and have been planning to marry, oh what's her name. Chloe, my sister the Queen's handmaiden." The guard shuts up at that, still standing there so Tyrion throws his hands up. "Are you waiting for an escort. Leave my sight before I decide to tell my sister of your plans!"
"That takes care of him..." Tyrion dusted his hands on his pants stepping closer to me. "Please no more tears my lady. I'd much rather see a smile on your beautiful face." He wipes away stray tears as I sniffed. Hearing him call me beautiful makes me feel a lot better about myself. "Thank you my lord-" Tyrion waves his hand around. "No my lord, Please call me Tyrion." I simply nod my head offering my hand that he shakes. "Y/n, thank you so saving me Tyrion." He eyes me up and down stopping at my eyes holding a weak smile. "Can I give you some advice Y/n. Don't pay any attention to that idiot. He's a fool to not see how beautiful you, just as you are."
I blushed a little hearing him saying that word for the second time about me. There was something about when he says it that holds a different feeling than when my parents said it. He extends his hand out for me to take suggesting a walk. "Would you like to accompany me on a walk through the castle?" Placing his hand in mine I smiled down at the Lannister. "Could we stroll to the library perhaps?" Tyrion's green eyes lit up at your words, never meeting a woman who enjoy or at least could read. "Y/n Stark, I believe I'll find your company quit enjoyable." Squezzing his hand intertwined with mine I replied. "I feel the same about you, Tyrion Lannister."
Comments really appreciated 😊
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reginarubie · 2 years
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The mythology series [Jonsa] ~ Orpheus and Eurydice reversal ft. Drogo and Dany
Ciao my Jonsa folks, and lurkers and lovely anons and everyone around! As I've spoken numerous times (thank you to all the lovely anons that actually forwarded their opinions and considerations because you were fundamental for this meta!) I realized quite of sudden that another possible mythological parallel for our Jonsa had completely gone over my head without my noticing, and decided to try and contextualize it in our asoiaf mythology metas.
The myth is the one and only of Orpheus and Eurydice, the heartbreaking story of an unconventional hero (Orpheus) and his unconventional methods to try and save his beloved wife (Eurydice), and whilst Orpheus fails (wether by choice, or because overcome by feelings) these two tropes of the lost spouse and of failing to save a loved one are most prominent in Sansa's arc, and Sansa seems, to me, as if she fits the bill of the gender reversal Orpheus.
As always, the premise remains unchanged. Myth and legend as well as history are layered matters, with layers and concepts often beyond my comprehension as I am in no way an expert (I only collect evidence and research the matter and try to draw my own conclusions). So yes, we do it for fun, yes any input by anyone who knows better or simply has a different opinion or interpretation is welcome and appreciated.
Now, on the seatbelts, we're in for another ride!
Orpheus and Eurydice, the unconventional hero and his lost spouse, Ovid ~ the North remembers/if I look back I am lost, asoiaf, GRRM
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As always, another premise, no these fantastic artworks are not mine, I merely collect them on internet to make the whole meta more aesthetically pleasing, so credit to the artists and if any would like their art removed because reasons just let me know!
But, this on the art I must say, I chose these four pieces for a very particular reason, also displayed by the quotes I've chosen to parallel and also the order in which they are put is significant and I will discourse on a bit as of why.
First raw, we have Orpheus and Eurydice by sir E.J. Poynter (some of you may have guessed it) which I chose for the colors, I know I said gender swapped, so Orpheus is supposed to be Sansa and Eurydice Jon, but it does hold interest that Orpheus here is shown with dark hair and the colors of House Targaryen, red and black, paralleling visually Jon whilst Eurydice has reddish hair and wears the colors of House Stark, white and green, doing the same for Sansa; also with the detail of them holding hands (which I will return to shortly) and besides it a lovely Jonsa piece in which Sansa looks back at Jon and holds his hand beneath a gentle snowfall.
Second raw we have Orpheus and Eurydice by Emil Neide in which Orpheus is shown facing the three headed dog of Hell (Cerberus) with his harp set aside, and a staff in his hand, he faces forward with intent and determination (doesn't look like a man about to be overcome by impatience and feelings) whilst Eurydice follows almost completely naked half in shade. This piece gave me a very strange vibe I would no expect of this myth because Orpheus looks determined and conquering (especially with the addition of that staff in his hand) and there is no physical touch whatsoever between him and Eurydice, almost like love is not foremost, not like the power of this man facing off the three-headed dog (again with the three headed imaginary — three headed dragon, the symbol of House Targaryen and the three cities Daenerys conquers on her campaign east after Drogo dies) which is why I have chosen the piece besides it for Daenerys in which she's shown conquering and determined whilst she thinks of her lost dream of sitting on the IT with Drogo and Rhaego. They gave me the very same vibe, so to speak (also it's important the lack of physical contact between Orpheus and Eurydice in Neide's painting with the quote I've chosen for Daenerys which is also the same one which makes the whole connection between Daenerys and Drogo and Orpheus and Eurydice believable.
First things first, let's speak about queen Proserpine and her look-alikes in these two different version of contextualization of the myth in asoiaf.
Proserpine, queen of the Underworld ~ Melisandre of Asshai and Mirri Maz Duur, priestesses
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The art of Proserpine (first one to the left) is from the costume concept of queen Proserpine by Anna Biagiotti, from Monteverdi's “Favola d'Orfeo” .
But if the destinies refuse my vow,  And no remission of her doom allow;  Know, I’m determin’d to return no more;  So both retain, or both to life restore. — Ovid, Metamorphoses, the Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice
Mirri Maz Duur sat back on her heels and studied Daenerys through eyes as black as night. "There is a spell." Her voice was quiet, scarcely more than a whisper. "But it is hard, lady, and dark. Some would say that death is cleaner. I learned the way in Asshai, and paid dear for the lesson. My teacher was a bloodmage from the Shadow Lands." (...) “I had to save him” — GRRM, AGOT, Daenerys VIII
"I can show you." Melisandre draped one slender arm over Ghost, and the direwolf licked her face. "The Lord of Light in his wisdom made us male and female, two parts of a greater whole. In our joining there is power. Power to make life. Power to make light. Power to cast shadows." “Shadows” the world seemed darker when he said it. — GRRM, ADWD, Jon VI
It is very interesting that both in the contextualization for Drogo and Dany and Jon and Sansa we have a woman coming, or who has studied, in Asshai and that both use the shadow magic and blood magic taught there and there learned to resuscitate the gender swapped Eurydices.
I've already considered briefly the fact that every time a character is resurrected in asoiaf it seems there is a foreign who has learned the prayers and chants, and magics of Asshai and its magic involved:
Beric Dondarrion is resurrected by Thoros of Myr, a red priest
Lady Stoneheart is resurrected by Beric Dondarrion using the prayer and magic of the Last Kiss learned from Thoros
Drogo is kept alive by Mirri Maz Duur on insistence by Daenerys Targaryen, using magic she has learned from a shadow binder in Asshai
Daenerys Targaryen (yes this one is controversial but I have my theory about resurrection in asoiaf and Daenerys has been resuscited/born again in that fire and there is a reason for it) has learned from Mirri Maz Duur and is using the folklore talk she probably received from her brother to make the blood sacrifices required (I've spoken on it at length in this serie, so I won't digress on it beyond here)
Jon Snow, currently laying dead in a pool of his own blood and snow at Castle Black, where coincidentally is Melisandre of Asshai another red priestess (who is foreshadowed, by the show, to be the one performing the rite on Jon to resurrect him).
So, it comes to mind how there is always involved someone who knows blood magic, and dark sorcery from Asshai in whatever capacity (Thoros knows it as prayer, just as Mel does; Mirri Maz Duur calls it magic)
Now, in the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice the queen of the Underworld, Proserpine, whose heart melted by the young's grief coupled with her husband's sadness at his story convinced both deities to grant Orpheus to take back his wife to the land of the living grieving on him the duty he would fail— not turning to look at Eurydice until they're out of the Underworld — a duty he was probably fated to fulfill from the very beginning.
Proserpine or Kore, or Persephone is a very layered figure and often the limits of each layer does not coincide perfectly with the one under it or above it, so to speak.
In various versions of the same myth the deities of the Underworld are either well disposed to Orpheus or mocking of him and ‘true’ love and Proserpine sees the throne at the centre of this matter, wether she and her husband offered genuinely Orpheus his wife back or presented to him only her shadow and deceived him and set him up to fail. It is said that Hades wept and she felt her heart melt for Orpheus grief, but in other version, both deities are mocking of Orpheus and his attempt to deceive them to get back his wife, promising his life when he would not give it.
Proserpine herself is the goddess of spring and queen of the underworld thus she reconcile in herself two worlds apparently inconciliabile. This dualistic nature is persevered in the asoiaf form she takes both as Melisandre that as Mirri.
As goddess of spring she is goddess of rebirth and all new lives, she is a creational power in a way as goddess of fertility as well; as queen of the underworld she is an unyielding force not be trifled with, often more ruthless than her own husband from whom she enjoyed intriguing autonomy.
[In some versions of this very myth she's the one who grants Orpheus the allowance to leave the Underworld with his wife and imposing of him the duty not to look back to her... her duality is even more starkly clear when we think of the way she disposed of Theseus' friend who tried to steal her from Hades, and ended up by her own idea, permanently fixed on a seat in the Underworld, forever unable to move even an inch.]
This duality she has, and in some ways the influence she enjoys on her king, is without doubt completely filled by Melisandre, to a lesser degree by Mirri Maz Duur.
Melisandre of Asshai is a foreign — in the same way as Proserpine is a foreign to the Underworld — woman (who has suffered terrible abuse and has been sold as a slave, who never once enjoyed enough freedom) who has enchanted Stannis Baratheon, her king, and on whom she exercises a great deal of influence. Melisandre is shown capable to dispose of enemies thanks to her dark sorceries and blood magic and create the shadow of a life to forward her goals but as she often repeats she has the power to both unmake life and make it. This duality is basically the same one recognized to Proserpine especially if we consider the degree of influence Mel enjoys on Stannis — as men around consider her, his red woman and true queen — with the degree of freedom and autonomy Proserpine had in her duty as Hades' queen.
We've seen her plan for blood-sacrifices (Edric Storm) thus we know she is less squeamish than we'd like to use human sacrifice to reach her goals, in the same way, if we go by show canon (and considering she is the only one who could call Jon back to his body from Ghost presently) she will be the one to bring Jon Snow back to his unliving body, but in the text is often foreshadowed that Jon already is half a wildling, half a wolf and it's possible that his time spent in Ghost might make him return more beast than man and that it will be the influence of another to bring him truly back to himself. Give him his identity back when he has been returned back from death only functionally.
On the other hand, Mirri Maz Duur does not fit the bill as completely as Mel does. Mirri is a follower of the Great Shepherd who has enjoyed a great degree of freedom and has studied in all lands, also Asshai, and has learned not only healing science but also magic and sorcery and right now — after having enjoyed a great degree of wealth during her free life, she has been captured by Drogo in his quest to bring slaves to the slave cities to fund a campaign west to put his son on the Iron throne — is in the service of Daenerys Targaryen.
The duality though, is respected as Mirri Maz Duur is a woman of healing, she's a healer and a priestess herself of the Great Shepherd. Also, as I have discussed plenty in the serie linked above about Daenerys resurrection, she does not pose immediately as a threat to Drogo, she treats his wound and dresses it and tells them how to care for it only to see her care disregarded and unlistened to, after believing she might get her freedom back or live as a treasured woman in the service of the khaleesi (as Daenerys asks her to help her with the birth) and has been claimed as hers, is instead abandoned by Daenerys, left to be mistreated and abused and her resentment grows, still it is not her fault the dothraki do not follow her instruction pertaining Drogo and he is near to death. As she is a healer she also knows the dark sorceries of Asshai and employs them when Daenerys promises to free her if she saves Drogo, using a blood sacrifice to do so. When her time comes to be sacrificed she tries to reason with Daenerys, promises her expertise to help her to reach her goals using also dark sorcery.
Yet, why does one fit the bill completely, whilst the other not so much?
For one, Drogo does not die. He isn't resurrected by Mirri's magic, he is kept alive by Mirri's magic and that too at a price, at Daenerys own insistence and freedom.
Though she does parallel the fact that Daenerys is presented with a shadow version of her husband so much she demands to know when he will be as he once was, and Mirri gives her the famous speech of up-bending of the world for him to return to her.
Yet, Mirri is not the one with the power here. Daenerys is. This much Mirri tells her, herself. See what life is worth when you have nothing else. Drogo is the external representation of what Daenerys and her ambition to the IT have done to Mirri's own identity. She's not the one granting Daenerys to return back to the land of the living with her husband back as he was, she tells her from the beginning Daenerys will pay a price and Daenerys often wonders if she knew and didn't acknowledge it which is what spurns her even further.
On the other hand, Melisandre is the one with power and influence, we don't know the extent as to why she will resurrect Jon but it's possible she will do it because she has seen him fighting in her fires, that she thinks he might be instrumental in the Lord's Plan.
Jon, also technically, is not dead. To be more precise his body is dead, but his spirit has latched onto Ghost due to their bond, as it happens between warg and animal, yet it is possible that whatever rite Melisandre will celebrate will help his spirit return to his body. She'd been the one paving the way for his return to his body and its revival, if we go by book precedent she possibly will bestow on him the Last Kiss to purify him and that instead of simply cleansing him will bring him back to his own body and possibly rebirth him in the flame she'll breath in his mouth.
In conclusion, Melisandre seems to fit much better the bill than Mirri does when we think of the character from the myth they are supposed to cover from.
Eurydice, the Lost Spouse ~ Drogo and Jon, the dead and the living
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Again she dy’d, nor yet her lord reprov’d;  What could she say, but that too well he lov’d? — Ovid, Metamorphoses, the Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice
When the third dagger took him between the shoulder blades, he gave a grunt and fell face-first into the snow. He never felt the fourth knife. Only the cold … — GRRM, ADWD, Jon XIII
The birth had left her too raw and torn to take him inside of her, as she would have wanted, but Doreah had taught her other ways. Dany used her hands, her mouth, her breasts. She raked him with her nails and covered him with kisses and whispered and prayed and told him stories, and by the end she had bathed him with her tears. Yet Drogo did not feel, or speak, or rise. And when the bleak dawn broken over an empty horizon, Dany knew that he was truly lost to her. (...) Never, the darkness cried, never never never. — GRRM, AGOT, Daenerys IX
Actually when one looks at it, it's the exact opposite as to Drogo. Meaning that, both Jon and Drogo would in this interpretation fulfill the role of Eurydice (the dead spouse) only point is, because of the intervention of two very different entities they find themselves specular to each other:
Drogo's body is alive, but his spirit is gone or at the very least unreachable due blood sacrifice and dark sorcery — he doesn't speak, nor move, nor eat, nor drink unless helped and he does not interact with people; those around him collect infos about some facts about him (he likes to feel the sun on his skin, barely by observation) he is vegetative. This state is caused by the dark sorcery and blood sacrifice Mirri does on insistence of Daenerys, appealing to dark magic and blood sorcery.
Jon's body is dead, but his spirit is alive or at the very least reachable due to the intervention of the gift received by the Old Gods — he has warged into Ghost whilst dying, latching onto the bond they share, which ensues that his soul has not left the human plane to the beyond life yet, and he is still alive but trapped into Ghost's mind and body. Who has given Jon his bond with Ghost? The Old Gods, they are the entity that intervened to avoid Jon's absolute death. Indirectly or directly that they may have acted, in the text it's pretty clear Jon received Ghost by the Old Gods because as a prize for his selflessness in defending the Starks and he created the bond with him through them and it, thus at the very least indirectly they are the one that intervened to make sure he would be reachable and survive even if only in the capacity of staying into Ghost's body.
This (☝️) is why Jon fits better the bill of Eurydice if confronted with Drogo, whose body and soul remain connected and “alive, whilst unreachable”, while instead Jon, exactly like Eurydice, has seen his body dying but his soul is actually reachable and in a physically (Ghost) the same way as Eurydice's body is dead, but her soul is reachable physically in the Underworld.
In the myth Eurydice is a nymph who falls in love with Orpheus and who is loved in return by him. Their love has brief life, sadly, as the very day of their wedding Eurydice dies.
There are many versions of this myth, in some Eurydice falls in a nest of vipers (or steps on one) during a run from a satyr who, obsessed with her, tried to steal her from Orpheus; in others, instead, she's killed by Dyonisous maenads as they dance at her wedding, possibly because Orpheus had insulted the God.
One thing is very sure, her story represents the most famous myth pertaining Orpheus, though it might be one the last to be added to his name (but we will speak more of it, when we see the parallel between Orpheus, Sansa and Daenerys).
Now, thinking back on the way Eurydice dies, it seems to me pretty clear that Drogo doesn't fulfill the role as well as Jon does. Drogo dies because of his own doing, yes, he gains the wound that will kill him in a duel, due to his policy pertaining what his wife is entitled to, but if he had just listened to the instruction Mirri had given him he would not have suffered death. It is his own doing that is his fall.
And whilst Jon pays for his own doing, too, the very idea of the nest of vipers and he having stepped on it, or on just one, fits best with the reason why Jon is killed. In the show they make it look like Jon is killed because he let the wildlings through the Wall, that is not the case in the books, whilst the NW might be less than impressed with that, it's not Jon's doing, though there is his influence on the matter, it is the doing of Stannis and Jon is not held accountable of that, or better, that's not the pretense for which he is killed.
The reason why he is killed in the books is because, received Ramsay's letter, he decides to move with the NW to capture Winterfell from the Boltons and save whom he believes to be Arya in their clutches, unaware she is in fact Jeyne Poole and not his sister, breaking thousand of years of tradition of the NW not getting involved in the political matters of the Realm.
He, metaphorically, stepped on a nest of vipers of which he was very aware of — he was aware his politic would not be appreciated and that he was not appreciated as Lord Commander by all — unaware that it would bite back, or unaware of the extent they would go to, to impede his actions. He steps on several traditions, plunging people who are sworn off the Realm's matter, to a war they possibly cannot win.
It also fits with the fact that by destroying thousand of years of tradition, he is also breaking his oath to the Old Gods, in the name of whom he had vowed to devote his life to the NW and the enemy North. Was his death the Gods' punishment? The same way as Eurydice got killed in some version of the myth because Orpheus had insulted Dyonisous?
Also, do you know what the name Eurydice means in greek? It means wide justice and I do feel like it's fitting of Jon and in a wide way of the form of justice inflicted upon him (and her in the myth if we take in consideration the version in which she's killed because Dyonisous has been insulted) because he broke his oaths to the Gods actively and without turning back this time.
It certainly fits more with Jon than Drogo, also because we've seen Drogo taking, and taking and never once think of what is just, something that is not even contemplated in the dothraki way, as the dothraki way is that of the strongest eat the weakest. Instead justice and wide justice is integral part of Jon's arc. As lord commander of the NW he is the one administering justice at Castle Black, not only that, he is forever running after the very idea of what honorable Ned Stark would've done or wanted him to do.
He could give her a quick clean death, at least. He was his father's son. Wasn't he? Wasn't he? — ACOK, Jon VI
The realization twisted in his belly like a knife. They had chosen him to rule. The Wall was his, and their lives were his as well. A lord may love the men that he commands, he could hear his lord father saying, but he cannot be a friend to them. One day he may need to sit in judgment on them, or send them forth to die — ADWD, Jon III
And, tbh, I had not know prior to do this meta, but damn if it doesn't fit Jon like a glove, much better than it does Drogo.
So, yeah, I do think that whilst superficially Drogo may seem like he fits the bill to be a male counterpart to Eurydice that is not the case for the reasons stated above; Jon, on the other hand, seems to fit every little detail about the character down to the very point of having been killed, and effectively die to be then returned to the land of the living.
Also... this is mostly show-canon but yes, anyway, forgiveness is something deeply rooted into Eurydice's story, for she does not resent her husband in any way, because, she saw the love before the failing to bring it to completion. She saw proof of his love in his attempt, more than in his success. Especially if we consider that one of these instances happens when Jon and Sansa have to go their separate ways:
Sansa: can you forgive me? (...) forgive me. Jon: alright, I forgive ye. — GoT, s6e4 Sansa: can you forgive me? Jon: the North is free thanks to you. Sansa: but they lost their king. Jon: Ned Stark's daughter will speak for them. She's the best they could ask for. — GoT, s8e6
Eurydice, dying now a second time, uttered no complaint against her husband. What was there to complain of, but that she had been loved? — Ovid, Metamorphoses And I’d be the immediate forgiveness, in Eurydice. — Talk, Hozier.
Yes, okay, heartbreaking, I am sorry....but it fits so well, it almost looks like it has been done on purpose (nothing to say in your defense, Martin?)
Orpheus the unconventional hero ~ Daenerys and Sansa, unconventional heroines of their story
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(...)a single lyre raised more lament than lamenting women ever did; and that from the lament a world arose in which everything was there again. — Rainer Maria Rilke
“(...)A harp can be as dangerous as a sword, in the right hands.” — Sansa VI, ASOS "What if Lord Nestor values honor more than profit?" Petyr put his arm around her. "What if it is truth he wants, and justice for his murdered lady?" He smiled. "I know Lord Nestor, sweetling. Do you imagine I'd ever let him harm my daughter?" I am not your daughter, she thought. I am Sansa Stark, Lord Eddard's daughter and Lady Catelyn's, the blood of Winterfell. — Sansa I, AFFC
“I forgot, you've been hiding under a rock. The northern girl. Winterfell's daughter. We heard she killed the king with a spell, and afterward changed into a wolf with big leather wings like a bat, and flew out a tower window. But she left the dwarf behind and Cersei means to have his head.” That's stupid, Arya thought. Sansa only knows songs, not spells, and she'd never marry the Imp. — Arya XIII, ASOS
"But?" said Dany sharply. "Tell me. I command it." "Prince Rhaegar's prowess was unquestioned, but he seldom entered the lists. He never loved the song of swords the way that Robert did, or Jaime Lannister. It was something he had to do, a task the world had set him. He did it well, for he did everything well. That was his nature. But he took no joy in it. Men said that he loved his harp much better than his lance." "He won some tourneys, surely," said Dany, disappointed. (...) Dany did not want to hear about Rhaegar being unhorsed. "But what tourneys did my brother win?" — Daenerys IV, ASOS And saw her brother, Rhaegar mounted on a stallion as black as his armor. Fire glimmered red through the narrow eye slit of his helm. The last dragon, Ser Jorah's voice Whisper faintly. The last. The last. Dany lifted his polished black visor. The face within was her own. — Daenerys IX, AGOT
And here comes the dissonant notes. Orpheus. The myth of Orpheus and his descent in the Underworld is one of the last added myths to his name, he is featured in the myth of the Argonauts as one of them and he was considered a deity (as he was the son of Apollo and a Muse) in Thrace.
Orpheus was also considered to be a prophet and his end was none to kind after he failed to save his own wife.
Now, both girls have the dragon-dream and the wolf-dream, Sansa keeps having wolf-dreams even after her direwolf, Lady, is killed. And both seems to be linked to magic whilst in different manner.
If ya don't believe in the power of manifestation, lemme just:
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Sansa is THE queen of manifestation. Now, her wish and prayers may not always turn out the way she wants them (look at her wishing to become queen, and be loved by a golden prince *cough* Targaryen prince *cough* and ending up with Joff, to her praying for a true friend and knight and been subjected to Dontos and LF, but having Brienne coming her way, her wishing for a true friend to end up in LF's grasp but that also taking her to the Vale and to the Royces)
I'd not stand between Sansa Stark and something she prayed for, I tell ya.
Anyway digressing.
On the superficial level when one thinks of Orpheus they think of the sad, lost hero who descended in the Underworld, convinced Hades and Proserpine to let him recover his wife, but then, failed to get her to land of the living.
Yet, that is not all that Orpheus was. Whilst for Eurydice we know of her — as far as I have been able to find — only in relation to Orpheus, the same cannot be said for him.
To begin with in ancient Greece there was a whole cult called orphic based off prophets of which he was the legendary founder, a Thracian bard and poet he was also a potent prophet, an argonaut and the son of a God and a Muse.
As far as I have understood in ancient Greece, and possibly elsewhere as well, they had this idea that beauty of the exterior meant beauty of the interior, thus heroes were always beautiful and Orpheus is not an exception.
As for many of the myths we've spoken about, let's talk etymology first, just like Eurydice seems to mean ‘wide justice’, the meaning of Orpheus own very name is as layered and uncertain as the origin of his myth and legend.
In the end etymologists have concluded that his name's meaning spans over several planes:
hypothetically some them claims its etymology deriving from h₃órbʰos (meaning orphan, servant, slave) and ultimately the verb root *h₃erbʰ- (to change allegiance, status, ownership) which would configure him as someone who is under someone else's power and manages to change the boards in his favor and change status.
If we were to trust this etymology we'd conclude that both girls, Daenerys and Sansa, may parallel the meaning Orpheus' name seems to hold. Both of them, as I've previously stated, end up being powerless and at the mercy of others, but manage to change the odds in their favor thanks to their resilience, wit and unyielding strength of will. But, this is only one of the several etymologies for this name.
the most plausible etymology remains the greek one of ὄρφνη (órphnē; 'darkness') and and ὀρφανός (orphanós; 'fatherless, orphan').
Again, both girls do fulfill the bill completely or in part the bill of this etymology. Both are orphans and fatherless, and both feel very kneel the absence of the father — both of them style themselves after their fathers or what they know of them — until Daenerys learns the truth she thinks that she wants to make her kingdom beautiful and have her people smile at her as they did her father; whilst Sansa, as I've numerously affirmed is Ned moral heir and she parallels her own father so much. Both girls do, positively and negatively. Daenerys is impulsive and easily she goes for the neck instead of trying the diplomacy route, but I've said time and time again that that is not only due her own character but behavior she picked up by being around the people she ended up surrounded with (Viserys, the Dothrakis, Daario) to survive the trauma she endured.
Daenerys has certainly shown hints of her darker side already (the harrowing of Astapor, the torture of the wine seller daughters), whilst of Sansa's own dark side we've seen despairingly little (maybe because she is one of the purest characters of asoiaf world, which doesn't mean she's not stubborn, and naive or doesn't make mistakes based off impulsivity — just look at her and Joff and Cersei).
One of the few things which all storics seems to agree on is that Orpheus was a priest, in the polytheist sense of the term, he founded cults to Apollo and Dyonisus and he was the keeper of the orphic secrets as a seer. He was deeply involved into faith and religion, and on this matter I must say that only Sansa fits the bill.
Sansa knows the prayers to the Seven, as she has learned them from Cat and possibly her septa, but she also knows the Old Gods of her father and she's often shown praying, singing and chanting. It is an incredibly fundamental part of her own arc to the point that despite all she's suffered and suffering her belief remains steadfast:
There are gods, she told herself, and there are true knights too. All the stories can't be lies. — Sansa IV, ACOK
And when she reaches the Vale, she feels like she is alone because there is not a Godswood with a Heart Tree there, and it seems like the Gods aren't even there.
Even the gods were silent. The Eyrie boasted a sept, but no septon; a godswood, but no heart tree. No prayers are answered here, she often thought, though some days she felt so lonely she had to try. Only the wind answered her, sighing endlessly around the seven slim white towers and rattling the Moon Door every time it gusted.  — Alayne II, AFFC
What is Daenerys stance of Gods? We never see her actively praying though I must say there are moments she must've done so, before it all begun or in the very beginning:
Yet when she slept that night, she dreamt the dragon dream again. Viserys was not in it this time. There was only her and the dragon. Its scales were black as night, wet and slick with blood. Her blood, Dany sensed. Its eyes were pools of molten magma, and when it opened its mouth, the flame came roaring out in a hot jet. She could hear it singing to her. She opened her arms to the fire, embraced it, let it swallow her whole, let it cleanse her and temper her and scour her clean. She could feel her flesh sear and blacken and slough away, could feel her blood boil and turn to steam, and yet there was no pain. She felt strong and new and fierce. And the next day, strangely, she did not seem to hurt quite so much. It was as if the gods had heard her and taken pity. — Daenerys III, AGOT
Tbh this whole thing points more imo, to her starting to humor the dragon in her, that relentless, fierce and scouring fire that she'll claim as hers, that she'll use to drawn strength from in her lowest moments but also unleash with her wrath whenever she feels justified about it.
But I can imagine young Daenerys completely overcome by the physical pain, begging the Gods to make it stop, to make her stronger and the dragon dream being her own mind conjuring a metaphorical reason as to why she was becoming stronger, making her identify with something she believes untouchable and undefeatable. The dragon.
But after she comes to Vaes Dothrak she starts to think of all Gods exactly the way the valyrians did before. They are there, perhaps, but not caring enough to show any sing of worship or respect.
She wondered what the Lamb Men had thought, when they first saw the dust of their horses from atop those cracked-mud walls. Perhaps a few, the younger and more foolish who still believed that the gods heard the prayers of desperate men, took it for deliverance. — Daenerys VII, AGOT
"No," Dany whispered as tears ran down her cheeks. "No, please, gods hear me, no." — Daenerys VIII, AGOT
What had she ever done to make the gods so cruel?  — Daenerys VIII, AGOT
This particular last quote is specular to a quote from Sansa herself, that on her wedding night to Tyrion after all she has endured thinks along the same lines, but the difference in phrasing, I believe, might be of importance.
But before that, Sansa herself is told more than once that gods are cruel, she herself wonder of it privately but always resolves that they aren't.
Tyrion turned to Sansa. "My lady, I am sorry for your losses. Truly, the gods are cruel." Sansa could not think of a word to say to him. How could he be sorry for her losses? Was he mocking her? It wasn't the gods who'd been cruel, it was Joffrey. — Sansa I, ACOK
And, again, during their wedding night:
This is not right, this is not fair, how have I sinned that the gods would do this to me, how? — Sansa III, ASOS
See the difference between their mindsets resides in one simple word, Daenerys asks herself “what had she done” (as far as I know, but I am not a native speaker, so I may be mistaken, do is a neutrally connotated verb, it doesn't hold neither a positive nor a negative enforcement) whilst Sansa asks herself “how have I sinned” she uses the verb “sinning” which is negatively connotated.
She doesn't question that the Gods seems to be unfair, or not just, she questions in which way she might have sinned that she finds herself in this situation, whilst Daenerys plight is more outraged is more like “I've done nothing wrong in my life, why are you punishing me?” sort of thing. But again, I am not native speaker, so I may be mistaking the author intent here, still it strikes strange the one would sound so entitled and the other so modest whilst the sentiment behind the self-posed question is similar.
Let's turn back to Daenerys:
"My baby," she screamed, and perhaps the gods heard, for as quick as that Cohollo was dead. — Daenerys VIII, AGOT
"It was her fate, Khaleesi," said Aggo. If I look back I am lost. "It was a cruel fate," Dany said, "yet not so cruel as Mago's will be. I promise you that, by the old gods and the new, by the lamb god and the horse god and every god that lives. I swear it by the Mother of Mountains and the Womb of the World. Before I am done with them, Mago and Ko Jhaqo will plead for the mercy they showed Eroeh." — Daenerys IX, AGOT
And whilst she believes the gods have sent her the comet to show her the way, she seems to slowly rise herself to their own peak, to the point that, when in Meereen she actually thinks as if she's one of them.
From here she could see the whole city: the narrow twisty alleys and wide brick streets, the temples and granaries, hovels and palaces, brothels and baths, gardens and fountains, the great red circles of the fighting pits. And beyond the walls was the pewter sea, the winding Skahazadhan, the dry brown hills, burnt orchards, and blackened fields. Up here in her garden Dany sometimes felt like a god, living atop the highest mountain in the world. Do all gods feel so lonely? Some must, surely. — Daenerys VI, ASOS
So, it sounds to me like peak difference between Daenerys and Sansa in their view of the Gods, and only one of them aligns with Orpheus. You guessed it, Sansa.
Now, Dany is convinced her dreams come true, and she's the one having visions in the House of the Undying. Does she have prophetic dreams? Or is she shaping her experience through the eyes of the dreams she makes?
Daenys the dreamer seems to have foreseen the end of Valyria and it seems that Aegon the Conqueror saw the enemy to the North, and if Martin is truly trying to tell us something Viserys' dream in HotD is clearly intended to describe Jon. So perhaps Dany does see specks of the future in her dreams and shapes her actions based on it.
Sansa's dreams, on the other hand, seem more focused on what she prays for. She prays for a champion and a friend, she dreams she calls for the knights of her stories who did not come to save her. Dreams for her, barred for the wolf-dreams she keeps having, seem to be a way to cope with what is around her more than about something that is about to happen.
I think Sansa's foretelling abilities are more in her daydreams, though she often dreams of Winterfell, of home, usually in her wolf-dreams. She dreams of children who look like her siblings. Those are her wishes coming to life in her mind through her dreams and I've already said about Sansa and the power of manifestation haven't I?
So, imo, whilst Daenerys' dream might be prophetic she shapes her whole life and actions on them instead Sansa's dream (save for the wolf dreams) are Sansa unconscious mind manifesting what she can no longer manifest openly. So, maybe Daenerys will get what she saw in her dreams — her being the last dragon, her dying at the fauces of a dragon, burned alive... as she may think she's immune to fire, whilst Martin has repeated several times that, that was a una tantum happening because of all the magic involved more than a fire immunity she doesn't have. She might be resistant, but I wouldn't be surprised if she ended up in fire at the end — because both of them are manifesting different things and shaping their lives after them. Daenerys conquest and fire and blood; Sansa's own childhood home, safe and sound and children who look like her siblings to remember them by.
So far, so, both girls seem to be on par to hold their part with Orpheus, but when speaking of the traits that make him, Orpheus....Daenerys surprising falls short.
It seems that Orpheus was not your average greek hero, it seems instead that he had inherited from his mother (a Muse) and his father in some myths (Apollo) the gift of music and poetry and that whilst Hermes might have created the lyre it was him who perfected it, some scripts say that it was Apollo himself that taught Orpheus to sing.
Before we delve into what people thought he could do with his gift, I must say this — it is tightly interwoven both with his religious figure and role as figurehead, as in the past more than today, religion and chants and hymns and songs were intertwined and expression of each other — his gift, in particular seems to take another connotation I seldom see spoken of. He's a great communicator, capable to communicate even with inanimate objects and ill-disposed toward him creatures, gods or people. His gift thus, is that of communication. Which he perfected so well he made of it a superior art, in a way so distinguished and powerful than even gods were powerless against it.
It is found written in poets as Simonides of Ceos that Orpheus's music and singing could charm the birds, fish and wild beasts, coax the trees and rocks into dance, and divert the course of rivers. Basically his communication was so good he seemed to have a magic hand with people, gods, animals, plants and even inanimate objects.
Now, though some call Daenerys charming, they often do that after she has become a powerful queen and conqueror, to take a leaf from Bilbo Baggins' book when she's a loaf of bread to be buttered very well to not get on her bad side, and boy does she have a bad side.
And, what of Sansa?
I have read once, and I reiterate (though I don't know who was OP of this genial take of her character) that the only thing we really should say about Sansa, which would say it all, is that she had a men-eating beast and she taught it to eat daintily from her hand and put a ribbon on her because manners are important.
Sansa is shown as capable of navigating an hostile court and use her charm to remain alive and at times to help others as well.
She convinces Joffrey not to execute Dontos, making up on the spot some kind of bad-luck omen in killing a man the day of one's nameday;
She convinces Joffrey not to have the woman with the dead babe killed but to give her coin instead (during a riot, nonetheless)
She manages to calm down a flock of scared women during the siege of KL, even whilst scared for her own life and without someone to look up to and to imitate in her pursue of being in charge of the ladies of the court.
"I will remember, Your Grace," said Sansa, though she had always heard that love was a surer route to the people's loyalty than fear. If I am ever a queen, I'll make them love me. — Sansa VI, ACOK
With her singing, whilst scared for her life and with a knife pointed at her throat, she manages to calm the Hound enough that even if he entered Maegor's Holdfast to rape her, kill her or take her with him he leaves her without hurting her further.
Tyrion himself watches her move around the court at Joffrey and Margaery's wedding and think that she'd make a good wife and a good queen if Joffrey had, had the sense to love her. Because thanks to her communication skills and courtesy she manages to be beloved even in an hostile court; to the point that while fleeting from Joffrey's murder she's told she's a kind lady, because she's crying after she saw the way Joff died.
Whilst posing as the bastard of a very hated man, she manages to fulfill the role left open by her aunt's death, becomes her cousin's primary caretaker and acts de facto Lady of the Eyrie. Lords and ladies respect her despite her apparent bastardy and her apparent parentage.
Also, signing can have another meaning as well. How many times have we heard it used in the sense of “making someone sing/tell the truth”?
“A harp can be as dangerous as a sword, in the right hands” LF says to Sansa and it's true, and Sansa is the one playing the harp. And it is reinforced when LF brings her to testify against Marillion and about Lysa's death and Sansa thinking on how the Royces should want truth and justice, more than whatever LF would offer them. I've said it many times — this foreshadows Sansa's journey with justice and how she is supposed to sing the truth — sings her stories (just like one of Varys' little birds) to the right ears to get LF under trial for his own doing and bring forth his demise in the same way her singing the truth about Joff to Olenna and Margaery spurned them to assassinate him.
And again, music and chants not only have a great deal of importance with religion, but also magic. Why, Mirri chants as she makes her sorceries and prayers and magic.
“Sansa knows no spells, only songs” followed closely with “and she'd never marry the Imp” makes me go all like...but she did marry the Imp forced as she was, so maybe she knows no spells but her songs works their magic, just as her communication skills do.
Sansa tells tales of valor, the same ones she once believed in, to Sweetrobyn in an attempt to make him feel more valiant, to make him act more honorable and she decides to surround him with valiants knights so that he may learn from their example, be loved by them and thus be protected. Just like a bard. And it works.
Sansa's own brand of magic, her communication skills works like a swiss-clock.
Now, this foreshadows directly with other specular pieces in Jon's chapters, creating a connection that despite Drogo and Dany being together and “in love” lacked.
Jon uses her communication rules in his daily life — telling Gilly her name is pretty to please her, as he cannot help her.
Jon sees beyond the Wall and he thinks that Sansa would be awed by the beauty of it like in a song, call it an enchantment and had tears in her eyes (in a similar situation, seeing snow for the first time since leaving home, Sansa acts in that exact same way).
When Jon is thinking of Winterfell, he sees his last memory of his sister, singing softly to herself as she brushed Lady's coat.
Poetic and prophetic as Jon is now in Ghost, a direwolf, sharing in his conscience, and we all think that, that might mean that when he is returned to his body he will take part of that ferality of the direwolf back with him, to enhance his own ferality. And what is, his last memory of Sansa? Her brushing Lady's coat — remember how Nymeria rebelled when Arya did the same? — whilst singing. Effectively charming a men-eating beast to be pliant and obedient to her.
Aww.... Jonny boy will you get all pliant and obedient too when Sansa comes around? After all you've been defending strenuously her claim to Winterfell, as strenuously as Arya's life when you choose to leave Castle Black to fight.
And why did I say, up above, in the beginning that it was important that Orpheus and Eurydice are shown holding hands?, with Orpheus leading as Sansa does in the piece I've chosen to parallel?
If you are familiar with my Jonsa-foreshadowing metas you might already be acquainted with what I think of Sansa building WF back up from snow and dawn stealing in her garden like a thief (flower = maidenhead; her garden — a thief stealing in her garden...stealing her virginity?; here), of her thoughts as she descends to the Gates of the Moon with Sweetrobin (here) and an entire series entitled “it's poetry, it rhymes” (x and xx) about Jon/Ygritte being only a decoy for Jon/Sansa (I swear I had no idea when I chose that title for those metas, but right now I'm starting to think it was because subconsciously I might had already gotten the vibe of Orpheus and Eurydice). And thus, you might already know where I am heading with the digression of hand holding.
So the excerpt of the text we want to look at, for this, can be found in Alayne II, AFFC, for some insight, Sansa has been hiding in the Vale for a bit as Alayne and she and Sweetrobin are making the journey down the Eyrie to the Gates of the Moon before winter hits and they get snowed in. Sansa is as scared as Robert is, but she shoulders on and braves on and lends some of her bravery to Robert by telling him stories of the Winged Knight.
“Ser Sweetrobin,” Lord Robert said, and Alayne knew that she dare not wait for Mya to return. She helped the boy dismount, and hand in hand they walked out onto the bare stone saddle, their cloaks snapping and flapping behind them. All around was empty air and sky, the ground falling away sharply to either side. There was ice underfoot, and broken stones just waiting to turn an ankle, and the wind was howling fiercely. It sounds like a wolf, thought Sansa. A ghost wolf, big as mountains. And then they were on the other side, and Mya Stone was laughing and lifting Robert for a hug. “Be careful,” Alayne told her. “He can hurt you, flailing. You wouldn’t think so, but he can.” They found a place for him, a cleft in the rock to keep him out of the cold wind. Alayne tended him until the shaking passed, whilst Mya went back to help the others cross. — Alayne II, AFFC
Wolf's howling is often considered a bad omen, but not for Sansa. Why? Because Sansa is a direwolf, she's a Stark, she identifies with a wolf and a Stark and how do wolves communicate? Howling.
The wolves howl to communicate with each other, especially when they are at great distance from each other, they do to communicate where they are, if there is a danger or if there is a prey which is why to a wolf, howling is a good sign, it means the others of the pack are alive, they are safe and that they are communicating something. To another?, a prey or an enemy? It means they are coming, and it’s not just one, it’s more than one. They are organising, they’re coming for you.
This particular excerpt is a foreshadowing of Jonsa, or Jon and Sansa working as a team. The ghost wolf as big as mountains refers to Jon, as his own direwolf is named Ghost, he is a literal ghost and one of his childhood memories is posing as a ghost in the crypts to scare his siblings; what more, Jon was born in the mountains of Dorne, at the tower of joy — thus only he can be the ghost wolf as big as mountains.
And, what is Sansa doing whilst Jon's presence looms so closely to her?
She is helping her cousin she takes him by the hand (*cough cough* the bride is handed to the groom *cough cough*) then she tends to him until his shakes passes; it seems to me that it foreshadows Sansa finding Jon in a clear fit after he returns from his “death” and warging in Ghost and she will tend him back to normality/life (or as normal as he will be after being resurrected)… sing him back to life, telling him stories of their father's honor and Robb's valor as well to remind him of home, to bring him back to himself (you know since her other cousin is comforted and calmed by music and her tales when he has his fits?)
Together she and her cousin face the perilous journey ahead (empty air and sky, the ground falling away sharply to either side. There was ice underfoot, and broken stones just waiting to turn an ankle— sounds like winter to me; wait *le gasp!* it is actually winter) and hand-in-hand they cross to the other side, where they are safe (back home in Winterfell and the North). That’s to me what that passage is hinting at.
So you see, it fits perfectly, like a glove, with the idea of Orpheus leading Eurydice by the hand, after his singing literally moved mountains and rivers and beasts — the three headed dog — and melted the will of the queen of the Underworld and of her husband granting him the boon he so much wished for. And what is on the other side? On the other side of winter it's spring, and I've said more than once that Sansa is not only the first child born in Winterfell but the only Stark born during spring as summer has lasted for nine years when AGOT begins and Sansa is eleven so she either was born during the last of winter when life starts to rewaken or in early spring with rebirth, whilst on the other side of death is life. Will Sansa show Jon back to spring and life in the same way as Orpheus brought Eurydice back to the threshold of the land of the living? It certainly seems so.
And what is one of Sansa most heartfelt traits? She remembers. She refuses to forget her father and her mother, her siblings. She dreams of them, she remembers them, she tries to do right by them.
As the northerners says “The North remembers” and remembrance is, sometimes, the only way to keep someone dead alive.
Before I delve into the last part of this meta, and the trope of failing to save a loved one, let's see the quote that would make you think Daenerys is the perfect Orpheus lookalike (wrongly, imo).
In another one of her dreams the “stars” supposedly tell her a secret, which is more of a warning in my opinion: «To go north, you must journey south. To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward, you must go back. To touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow.» so this sounds like a warning for her: look back or you will be lost. But what does Daenerys think about looking back?
If I look back I’m lost.
Which is a mantra for her, a mantra she started when everything went south with Drogo. Orpheus is charged not to look back before Eurydice has stepped into the land of the living again. It is because he is fearful, not hearing her steps behind him, that he does turn around in some version of the myth, in others he looks behind because he already stands outside the threshold of the Underworld and wrongly assumes she does as well whilst shielding her from the light of the sun which would've brought her back to life.
She (Dany) feels like she cannot look back at first when she learns of Rhaego's fate, and wonders if she truly knew the price to pay. Then again it happens when she kills Drogo, which also contains a bit of a spoiler for her end:
Inside the tent Dany found a cushion, soft silk stuffed with feathers. She clutched it to her breasts as she walked back out to Drogo, to her sun-and-stars. If I look back I am lost. It hurt even to walk, and she wanted to sleep, to sleep and not to dream. She knelt, kissed Drogo on the lips, and pressed the cushion down across his face. — Daenerys IX, AGOT
This is the moment she's lost forever to her dream of the little girl returning to the big house with the red door and the lemon tree. This is the moment, possibly, that in her mind starts her plan to sacrifice Mirri, Drogo and herself to the flames, putting the dragon eggs on Drogo's body.
Because as I have discussed at length her choice to make the blood sacrifice and what it entails (to which degree she understand it, it's unclear) is predetermined, it's deliberate. And it gives her the dragons in return. And possibly it started here.
And what does Daenerys do? She goes in the tent, takes a cushion with the intent of killing Drogo with it and then walks back out, in doing so she does look back. And as she herself says “if I look back I am lost”, she was lost in this moment in which she finally embraced the dragon quietly before the storm hit with the blood sacrifice.
What is back of her, her responsibility scares her, so she looks only forward. And it is a pattern:
she thinks it when she creates her khalasar before entering the pyre (again mention of death, her death and the blood rite, and the smoke and the fire) in Daenerys X, AGOT;
she thinks of it when she enters Astapor to buy the Unsullied (also because if she looks back she sees her following — people who stood by her through thick and thin — and think it insignificant) in Daenerys III, ASOS;
she thinks it again and again, every time she is faced with a choice she refuses to look back, to acknowledge her errors and learn, she just looks forward.
As long as she survives she has won, no matter the ruin she has left behind. She justifies the blood on her hand and does not look back (ADWD, Daenerys VII);
every time events should spurn her to look back she refuses because if she does she’s lost. Because to survive she has to keep walking (Daenerys X, ADWD) and if she looks back she doesn’t walk and she is lost.
At last when she embraces the dragon (while on the run with Drogon) she sets on her decision to not look back (Daenerys X, ADWD).
To me this foreshadows that she will keep looking forward and the moment she looks back consciously (like they framed it in the show: when she is touching the Iron throne and looks back beyond her shoulder to Jon who will kill her) is the moment she’s lost, might be she will realise the destruction she has brought and what she has become, just before dying (a depth the show failed to deliver to us, probably also because of the shortness of the last season coupled with the lack of the inner dialogue from the characters).
Instead what is Sansa's mantra? To be brave, as brave as a Stark, as brave as her lady mother and her brother and as brave as a lady from a song.
And she is.
Orpheus failing ~ the trope of failing to save a loved one
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Or bid the soul of Orpheus silfn notes as warbled to the string, Drew Iron tears down Pluto's cheek, And made Hell grant what Love did seek. — John Milton
Tyrion reclined on an elbow while Sansa sat staring at her hands. She is just as comely as the Tyrell girl. Her hair was a rich autumn auburn, her eyes a deep Tully blue. Grief had given her a haunted, vulnerable look; if anything, it had only made her more beautiful. He wanted to reach her, to break through the armor of her courtesy. — Tyrion VIII, ASOS
No," she wept, "no, please, stop it, it's too high, the price is too high." More stones came flying. She tried to crawl toward the tent, but Cohollo caught her. Fingers in her hair, he pulled her head back and she felt the cold touch of his knife at her throat. "My baby," she screamed, and perhaps the gods heard, for as quick as that, Cohollo was dead. Aggo's arrow took him under the arm, to pierce his lungs and heart. — Daenerys VIII, AGOT
The trope of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is that of failing to save a loved one. Orpheus manages when none other did, he enchanted Cerberus and made Hades cry with his grief, melting also Proserpine's heart with his mourning and love for his wife. His music was able to move rivers and mountains and enchant animals and beasts and yet, humanly he fails the only human task given to him. Have faith.
It is because he is afraid they have deceived him, paranoid even, that he turns around before the time, setting Eurydice to return to the land of the dead nothing more than a shade.
Sansa and Daenerys both share, in AGOT, the struggle with failing to save a loved one. Sansa tries her best to convince Joffrey to grant he father pardon and send him to the Wall, exiled but alive; whilst Daenerys is ready to sacrifice everything to keep Drogo alive and at her side.
Both fail.
Sansa loses Ned and her innocence.
Daenerys loses Rhaego and her innocence. She later kills Drogo herself.
Yet, after this moment their roads take completely different turns and whilst Daenerys often rethinks about Drogo and what happened to him and Rhaego she slowly is become paranoid, afraid of being deceived and uncertain of whom to trust.
Sansa, on the other hand, keeps finding herself in the same situation over and over. Despite her attempts at diplomacy Robb wages war, gets named KitN and Sansa pays the price for every victory he gains, despite her prayers both him and her mother are killed, as well — to her knowledge Rickon and Bran — Arya is nowhere to be found and Sansa is all alone.
She manages to save Donto's life from Joffrey, but ends up unable to save him from LF.
Now, she's struggling for power in the Vale against LF, unawarely or awarely that she is doing it, and the point of contention is lord Robert whom she is protecting where LF is using him.
Just as his grief makes Orpheus more convincing, it seems like grief makes Sansa more beautiful to someone's eyes, and whilst I disagree with Tyrion, I do think that all she's suffered because of her inability to save Ned emotionally has made her even more astounding as a character. Her unfailing kindness and gentleness, her softness despite all that hurt are enhanced by the fact that they remain intact despite it all, as poetically said in this passage:
A pure world, Sansa thought. I do not belong here. Yet she stepped out all the same. — Sansa VII, ASOS
Having failed once does not hinder her from trying again and again. And it's not even her loved ones, or people she knows personally.
During the bread riots Sansa manages to convince Joffrey to throw the woman with the dead babe coin instead of ordering her death.
Despite failing to save Ned, Sansa keeps pushing, she keeps trying to help others, to save others. As I've said more than once, Sansa will most possibly manage to save Jon, bring him back to himself, but in doing so she might as well loose him.
Just like in the show, Sansa telling the truth about him is done to save him, to protect him; Sansa re-organizes the whole army of northerners in disarray and threatens to wage war on KL if Jon is harmed, she manages to gets him to be pardoned by the king even though it means he's exiled at the Wall... yet in doing so, she also looses him however temporarily that might be.
[Ask me again in ten years]
So, seeing all of this, I believe Sansa might manage to save Jon, she might manage that against all odds staked, but in doing so she might have to sacrifice (temporarily I hope) her chance to be with him.
And it's bittersweet and heartbreaking, especially if Jon acts out of love for her and their siblings as suggested by the show, protecting her in return and damning himself in doing so.
And what of Daenerys? Daenerys has lost her sun-and-stars, she's lost her brothers and her father and mother, and her son. She's gained the dragons, her children. And, as Illyrio Mopatis said:
"The frightened child who sheltered in my manse died on the Dothraki sea, and was reborn in blood and fire. This dragon queen who wears her name is a true Targaryen. When I sent ships to bring her home, she turned toward Slaver's Bay. In a short span of days she conquered Astapor, made Yunkai bend the knee, and sacked Meereen.” — Tyrion II, ADWD
And, you know why I think Daenerys sort of died and got resuscitated during the events of Daenerys X, AGOT?
When the fire died at last and the ground became cool enough to walk upon, Ser Jorah Mormont found her amidst the ashes, surrounded by blackened logs and bits of glowing ember and the burnt bones of man and woman and stallion. She was naked, covered with soot, her clothes turned to ash, her beautiful hair all crisped away … yet she was unhurt. (...) Wordless, the knight fell to his knees. The men of her khas came up behind him. Jhogo was the first to lay his arakh at her feet. "Blood of my blood," he murmured, pushing his face to the smoking earth. "Blood of my blood," she heard Aggo echo. "Blood of my blood," Rakharo shouted. And after them came her handmaids, and then the others, all the Dothraki, men and women and children, and Dany had only to look at their eyes to know that they were hers now, today and tomorrow and forever, hers as they had never been Drogo's. 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. — Daenerys X, AGOT
This is the moment, the moment Daenerys Targaryen, the dragon, the Mother of Dragons, the conqueror is born, and she is born after a blood sacrifice, after a dark sorcery rite. She is reborn in fire and blood.
And as the time goes on, we see less and less of the Dany we've barely known in the beginning of AGOT, the small girl for whom we feel sad. She becomes a conqueror, stepping on others freedom and lives in order to get to the Iron throne, to drink the wine of vengeance for the Usurper's skull (no matter that Bobby B is dead). Formally she frees only the slaves at the end of AGOT and Missandei, she buys the Unsullied, tells them they are hers and then overlaps the concept of freedom with that of dracarys, but she never formally frees them.
She can't look back, not because if she does she looses herself, but because she'd find that Dany, the small girl who loved her brother and her big house with the red door and the lemon tree and see she failed her. That small girl she could've made happy, had she taken her dragons, her khalasar and turned to Vaes Tolorro, made the earth beautiful and alive again.
Instead, the chants, the song she is associated with is neither of prayer, nor of kindness or gentleness. It's the song of dragons and dragons plants no trees. And the more we see of her journey during ADWD, the more we see how her communication skills grow lesser and lesser, how she starts to depend more on the dragon, embraces it, when she sees that diplomacy tastes like defeat on her tongue.
Daenerys Targaryen looses her communication skills in her journey, until all that will be left of her will be fire and blood, and then she will turn back and see she failed to give her inner child back her home.
Sansa Stark, opposite, gains and perfects her communication skills, she depends on them to stay alive, to get back home, to rebuild it from ashes and make it full of life again.
Yes, maybe both failed to save a loved (or several) ones, maybe both of them are fated to fail — Dany toward Drogo and Sansa toward Sansa — in the sense they will save them, but be separated from them. And it's bittersweet and heartbreaking, but, in conclusion I'd say Jon and Sansa fit the bill of parallels with Orpheus and Eurydice much more than Daenerys and Drogo do.
Daenerys to mourn her losses starts a conquest. Sansa to mourn her losses starts to rebuild her home and her family. Perhaps they are two faces of Orpheus... but tbh I feel like the purest form of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is better represented in asoiaf with Jon and Sansa, rather than Drogo and Dany because:
Daenerys does not fit the bill of parallel with Orpheus because his distinctive trait is communication and we see her loose it.
Drogo is not an Eurydice parallel, because he dies only after Daenerys has done her pact with Mirri, by her own hand.
Daenerys in her grief does not turn to creation — like Orpheus did, composing music and poetry even after he failed to save Eurydice — she turns to destruction, to conquest.
As opposed to Jon and Sansa, who, for now (I am sure proof will keep piling up, because these whole collection of foreshadowing and proofs comes before they even interact in the book!) are yet to share a single scene together in the books:
Jon's body is dead, his soul reachable (just as Eurydice) fitting the bill perfectly
the way Jon's killed is reminiscent of Eurydice stepping on a nest of vipers either to flee someone trying to steal her, or because the menaids were angered
Sansa fits perfectly the bill of Orpheus, her fundamental traits and we see her hone her communication skills and depend on them and use them for good.
Jon's presence looms in Sansa's periphery foreshadowing her nursing him back to himself after his ‘death’ and helping him, by leading him through winter and to spring (why, Sansa learns that Jon has made LC as she's in the Vale)
Jon's last memory of Sansa is of her managing her men-eating direwolf whilst singing to her and brushing her coat — foreshadowing of Sansa managing to tend him back from ferality after his prolonged stay in Ghost.
Sansa's arc and refusal to stop trying to saving the people around her.
Jonsa finishing arc in GoT with them protecting each other to the very end and it causing their separation (it is unclear if it is temporary or not, seems to be hinted at as temporary tho as Orpheus separation from Eurydice as he too will die one day and reunite with her in the Underworld)
So... yeah, it turned long — again — still, hope you enjoyed it! Thank you to all the lovely anons who forwarded their opinion, this meta would not have turn out this way without your input so thank you and I hope you enjoyed it! Do you agree? What do you all think of this?
Let's hear your opinions! As always sending all my love ~G.
You can find my other mythology essays here:
Cersei and Daenerys — Venus decoded
Sansa and the mythological figures she embodies (Persephone/Kore, Isis, Medusa, Gunnlöd, Psyche) — the Myth of Sansa Stark
Jonsa foreshadowing part VIII — Love and Psyche
Jonsa foreshadowing part IX — the story of Osiris and Isis
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Some of the things I love about HotD so far (1x01-1x05):
No map table at Dragonstone - it's not needed like Stannis needed it, the Targaryens had already conquered Westeros and ruled it
How sexist Westeros is (not that I love the sexism obviously but I appreciate them staying true to the history GRRM wrote and showing how horribly women were treated all in the same breath)
The convo with Daemon and his mistress - especially the lines "I came to you for liberation." "Liberated from what?" "Fear." - they really put that little parallel in there to Dany
Rhaenyra and Rhaenys each - The Heir and The Queen That Never Was - both heavily affected by the misogyny/sexism of the time
Going back to politics and there's already a good build up
Dragons and the bond (I hope we get to see more in depth about this though, we haven't seen too much of the dragons themselves yet)
Daemon though I am not a fan of his (Matt Smith is phenomenal!!!)
the Targaryen sense of saving the world - ngl this annoyed me at first because it felt like it retconned the Starks/the Night's Watch/the North but it actually makes total sense, the Targaryens would have naturally thought they were the only ones that could save the world, it's very in character for that house, and this is their story/Rhaenyra's POV
"In those days, House Targaryen stood at the height of its strength, with 10 adult dragons under its yoke. No power in the world could stand against it." - love this line from the intro voiceover in episode 1 because it drives the point home that not only are the dragons used for power (and how the Targaryens hold it) but also that the dragons are under their control by using the word 'yoke'
14 succession claims heard -> only came down to 2 (GRRM likes to use #'s, especially #3, so this has to tie in somehow)
"For he knew the truth. The only thing that could tear down the House of the Dragon was itself." - absolute truth! what a great line!
9th year of Viserys' reign (again with the #'s, something has to tie in here)
love the score - more majestic and awe-inspiring when it comes to the dragons (I see you, Ramin)
love the dragonpit at its height (and noticed its one of the highest points in the city outside of the Red Keep), also love how dragons can fly overhead while people walk the streets of KL and no one reacts (not only are they used to it but Rhaenyra is not Daenerys - purposeful shot)
Alicent is dressed like Sansa would have been (pre-marriage) - Rhaenyra like Daenerys - "That's almost large enough to saddle two" "I'm quite content as a spectator, thank you"; "You want him to have a son?" "I want to fly with you on dragonback, see the great wonders across the narrow sea, and eat only cake." "I'm being serious." "I never jest about cake." "You aren't worried about your position?" "I like this position. It's quite comfortable."
love the shot of the gate that leads into the Red Keep (it's like we're picking up where we left off but showing us before the ruin of the city to show us how different this story will be in itself - same with the courtyard shot)
the music once again is brimming with life, it's just so different to GoT and you really get a different feel, that it's a different time, different reign, Ramin's genius strikes again
love the council meeting room and table, definitely a different room used, with that view; and again ties into House Targaryen being at the height of their power (the GoT council room/table was in a different room that also had a view but not as high)
the Triarchy killing pirates - Viserys: "And are we meant to weep for dead pirates?" - kind of gave me deja vu with a different vibe of that 8x05 scene with Dany and Tyrion ("They're hostages." "They are. In a tyrant's grip. Whose fault is that? Mine?" -> the whole 'evil men' thing) not to mention the Triarchy made me think of the Sons of the Harpy
love the cast, especially Milly, Matt, Emily, Eve, Steve, Savannah, and Rhys
after Rhaenyra says she'd rather be a knight than have children in the scene with her mom, she goes to be the royal cup bearer in the council meeting and listen in/learn; in the godswood it has alicent asking Rhaenyra about Nymeria -> I'm getting strong Arya vibes
the Iron Throne is massive - love the throne room
Alicent's "green" scene in 1x05 - right there is a queen (and I swear I get a mixture of Cersei/Margaery/Sansa vibes from her in this moment)
Milly and Alicent (along with Matt and the incredible cast as well as the writing) really crushed it and invested me into this show - I will miss these two tremendously and I hope Emma and Olivia are just as mystifying to watch (I'm sure they will be)
And of course, these two right here:
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