#and like yes of COURSE this is jon's story and other characters will serve his narrative

[thankskenpenders]

Help me out here: Why is there so much Ian Flynn hate going around lately? I thought everyone loved that he was contributing to the games. Now suddenly they aren't. I guess that's par for the course for this series but I don't get it. He isn't perfect but I like what he's done. Am I a weirdo?

Ian Flynn has always had a lot of fans, but any creator putting their work out there is going to have detractors as well. That's just the nature of being an artist. To some extent, it's no big deal. He's not a perfect writer. Nobody is! I consider myself a fan of his work, but I've criticized plenty of individual writing decisions from him on here.

But Ian doesn't just have critics. He has his own obsessive hatedom. And the specific nature of Ian's hatedom is... interesting.

A decade ago, Ian was only the guy writing for Archie Sonic, meaning any debates over his work were quarantined within that tiny niche of the larger Sonic fandom. Only people who kept up with the comics month to month had any real reason to have an opinion on the guy, which means we're talking about merely thousands of fans as opposed to millions.

Within that group, he had some haters. You had the people who were mad about story changes made during his run, particularly things like ancillary characters getting killed off (although over the years we've learned that most of those were editorial mandates from Mike Pellerito). You had the people mad that Ian didn't push their favorite ship, with feuding SonAmy and Sonally fans claiming that he was CLEARLY biased towards one or the other. You had the people who just really, really liked one of the previous writers way more - usually Penders, as hard as that may be to believe today. That sort of thing. Pretty normal comic fandom type stuff. Again, it comes with the territory.

Unfortunately, many of those haters only got worse over time, morphing into reactionaries who constantly try to incite Comicsgate type culture war bullshit.

There are people still mad at Ian for making Sally bi and pairing her with Nicole instead of Sonic in the later Archie comics. There have been elaborate MS Paint red string conspiracy boards explaining how people like Ian and Jon Gray have apparently been destroying the franchise from the inside for years by Making Sonic Woke. (Jon gets dragged into this because people are still mad about him drawing The Slap 20 years later. Yes, really!!) There was an unhinged change.org petition trying to get Ian fired, specifically from people who were mad that the Freedom Fighters aren't in the IDW comics. There was even a very sad little fan campaign from these people trying to get Sega to move the Sonic comic license away from IDW and over to Udon, because they thought Udon would bring Sally and Bunnie back and also make them sexy again. There's a lot of this.

(Unfortunately, Penders has also exacerbated this by gossiping about Ian on Twitter and giving these fans ammo, but that's a whole 'nother discussion.)

The thing is, for years, people who only played the games or watched the cartoons had no reason to pay attention to any of this. Now, though, Ian isn't just writing for some weird spinoff comics that only the super nerds read. Now he's writing comics that are canon to the games, and ALSO some of the games themselves, and ALSO consulting on other tie-in media like Sonic Prime, and ALSO writing the official Sonic encyclopedia, and ALSO serving as part of the new Sonic Lore Team at Sega. And on top of all this, he's got an increasingly popular podcast where he fields questions about his work on all of these things, which serves as one of the fandom's main windows into creative decisions being made behind the scenes.

As a fan of Ian's work, it's been really cool to see him rise in prominence. But the dark side of this is that his obsessive haters from the Archie days now have WAY more of a potential audience of their own. Now, every Sonic fan has to have an opinion on Ian. What this frequently means is that you'll have the Comicsgate types taking things Ian writes or says out of context, attempting to get more of the general fandom to yell at the guy.

Unfortunately, there are a wide variety of Sonic fans who take the bait:

You've got hardcore fans who disliked basically any recent piece of Sonic media and are looking for someone to blame.

You've got the people who are concerned about the sanctity of Sonic's canon, who shoot the messenger any time Ian mentions a new retcon from Sonic Team on the podcast - or any time he even mentions the THOUGHT of changing anything about the canon, as we saw recently with the Sol Dimension nonsense.

You've got people who romanticize some sort of mythical artistic vision that Sega of Japan supposedly has (or had) for the franchise. To many of these fans, American contributors like Ian just don't "get" the heart of the series and are trying to turn Sonic into something different. (This "heart of the series" tends to be some mix of Japanese instruction manual lore, the cinematics from Sonic CD, the OVA, and/or the games written by Shiro Maekawa, depending on what Sonic media the fan in question grew up with.)

You've got fans of specific characters or ships who pin the blame for how their faves are depicted entirely on Ian - most vocally fans of Shadow, even though the root problem is that Sonic Team hasn't known what to do with Shadow since 2006. At best this stops at regular old criticism, but at its worst this devolves into claims that Ian has an agenda against certain characters.

You've got fans annoyed by a perceived over-emphasis on comic-original characters in the IDW comics, ignoring the obvious facts that these characters exist because the game cast is so tightly controlled by Sega, and also, you know, that people just like the IDW characters and want more stories about them.

You've got a LOT of discourse over IDW's Sonic being a hero who tries to give his enemies second chances, as if half of Sonic's closest friends aren't already former villains and rivals. Honestly this is very transparently just reheated Steven Universe discourse lmao

You'll also see people who just think they could do Ian's job better. They can't believe that THIS GUY is the American fan working on all these Sonic projects, when clearly THEY understand the characters and lore and themes SO much better than this charlatan.

All it takes is for someone in one of these categories to be unhappy about some recent piece of Sonic media, and for them to come across an out of context quote or comic panel that rubs them the wrong way, and suddenly the leftist Zoomer Sonic fans will join the latest dogpile on Ian alongside the reactionary Comicsgate types who are mad at him for Making Sonic Woke.

In general, when fandoms get upset, they tend to want a scapegoat. A person or two to point a finger at and go "THAT's who ruined the thing I love!" This tends to be based less on reality and more on which contributors are the most visible online. You'll sometimes see teenage and adult fans of children's cartoons single out a storyboarder who's particularly vocal on Twitter, blame them for every story decision they don't like, and harass them off the platform out of a sense of retribution for their favorite ship or whatever. Failing that, fans might choose to blame every nitpick, down to individual lines of dialogue and frames of animation, on a showrunner, just because that's the name they associate with the show. And unfortunately, when it comes to Sonic, Ian is now arguably the most prolific and outspoken contributor on the English speaking internet, and therefore a common scapegoat.

Some of the things I've seen Ian blamed for are truly wild. A lot of people have claimed for YEARS that he's just lying about the existence of creative guidelines and restrictions from Sega - or, as fans call them, The Mandates - even though they're just an inherent aspect of working on a licensed property. Others claim that The Mandates are real, but somehow Ian's fault. A vocal minority of fans have convinced themselves that Ian is the sole reason the Freedom Fighters don't exist in the IDW comics, even though Ian says he's been pushing to bring them back since day one.

Sometimes you'll see people say he ruined shit he didn't even work on. A few weeks ago on Twitter I saw someone claim that Ian had written a rejected script for Sonic Forces in which Tails died. I could not find a source for this for the life of me. As far as I can tell, the rumor seems to have been born from an alleged leaked script for Forces with margin notes from Aaron Webber that criticized the way Tails was written, and also an old tweet where Aaron joked that Tails would die in an upcoming episode of Sonic Mania Adventures. These merged into "Aaron Webber criticized a draft of the Forces script in which Tails died." How'd Ian get dragged into this? Who fucking knows!

It's all just a big game of telephone. All it takes is some asshole to make something up about Ian on Twitter or YouTube or a DeviantArt journal or some forum, and at least a couple people will believe it, and then it gets repeated as fact. Again, this used to be contained by the niche nature of the Archie Sonic fandom, but now there are WAY more people who are receptive to this shit.

It's just sad to me that Ian tries to be so open and honest about his work, to try to explain the rationale for certain things, to keep fans looped in on the direction the franchise is headed, and this just gives the Flynnspiracy types more quotes to take out of context and try to paint him as the devil. If it sounds like I'm being overly defensive and dismissing his critics, man... some of the things I've seen people say directly to him are just unbelievable. People will send paragraphs-long angry screeds in to his podcast that completely tear him apart, and he has to sit there and be like "Well, that's your opinion, and you're entitled to it." People literally pay for special guest interview episodes where they just rapid fire complaints about his writing at him directly to his face. I don't know how he does it. I would snap.

All of this over Sonic the fucking Hedgehog of all things.

I don't know how to wrap this up. Engaging with fandoms online is very tiring, which is why I tend not to do it. Things like this are too common. I guess, just... remember that making art collaboratively is a complicated thing. The people involved are generally trying their best given the circumstances, but they're only human. They make mistakes. But please treat them like humans. Criticism and dogpiling are not the same thing.

[yeniayofnymeria]

Theory: The End of A Stark "Will Sansa Die?"

Hi, Selam!

This week I would like to revisit a theory that I read years ago, but I have to say that I have rewritten it with my own additions and ideas. I want to say at the beginning what I'll say at the end, to be honest, for years I've had a 50% chance that Sansa will live or die at the end of the story, but I'm a little bit more on the possibility of her dying, but I have to say that it's still not a definite idea, I'm still not very sure.

Here I will not only discuss Sansa's possible signs of death, but also include some ideas between the lines on how her story might progress.

(It's going to be a bit of a long post and I hope my bad grammar doesn't kill your enjoyment of reading.)

As you know very well, none of the characters are safe, except for one person at least. For this reason, we approach almost every character, be it the main character or the lead, with the possibility that they might die.

While characters have their own missions in the story, the writers also impose other missions on them, and the two missions can be completely opposite as well as compatible. For example, even if character x sees himself as the savior of the story, the author can turn him into the villain of the story. People like Martin place hints about missions and story development in the text from the very beginning, and if we pay close attention we can see them, but sometimes we don't fully understand the purpose of the characters' existence. For example, I still can't figure out why Val exists. I think it's easier to predict the protagonists, after all, they are the main focus of the author, they are the characters that drive/shape the story.

Sansa is one of the main characters, like Cersei and Jaime, and there is no doubt that, like every character, the author has a mission for her. We're not going to discuss that here because that's not our topic, but the meaning that is attributed to her can affect the ending of the story.

In my opinion, the author has not yet used Sansa for her purpose. Yes, she served as Arya's foil at the beginning of the story, but I don't think her part in what happened between Ned and the Lannists is her raison d'etre, at least not her sole raison d'etre. Most fans think that she is the one who will turn into a player for the throne and make up for the Starks' lack of intrigue; some readers don't attach any special meaning to her; or some - like me - think that she will be partly involved in a game for the throne, but against Jon, to his detriment. It's impossible to know which of these three ideas will turn out to be exactly right without reading it, but some uncertainty about the character's purpose in the story creates a similar uncertainty about her possible ending, at least for me.

I'm thinking of two possible scenarios.

The first one is that, like when we start the book, she takes some actions against her family, which in this case it's Jon and Arya, but in the end she realizes what she did wrong, corrects herself and helps destroy the family enemy, which would be Littlefinger. That's a bit of a classic character development, so I'm actually leaning a bit towards that idea, especially with the prophecy of killing the giant that we think is Littlefinger.

In these scenarios, there are usually two possibilities; (1) the character survives and finds her own happiness by turning into a figure who supports her family until the end, or (2) she sacrifices herself for the sake of protecting her family / righting the wrong she has done(There are readers who think that because the Lady died instead of Nymeria, Sansa will sacrifice herself for Arya).

In the second scenario, she becomes the villain within the family and continues to reinforce her betrayal and is eventually executed within the family. Of course, the adjective "villain" here does not mean turning into a devilish temptress. For example, the desire to protect the inheritance rights of her brothers (against Jon) with good intentions and to elevate / secure her own position in return for all that she has suffered is quite possible and I think it would be a reasonable desire. Although I already think that she will act in this or a similar way, as I just said, she is more inclined to the possibility of correcting herself, but if she does not, "death" would be inevitable for such a figure. The person I got the theory from already thinks that Sansa will die by Arya's hand.

For this reason, we can approach the theory with two separate questions: Will Sansa die and if so, how/by whom?

First, let's look for an answer to the question "Will Sansa die, or rather, are there signs that she might die?". The short answer to this question is "yes". As we have already said, no character seems to be safe, so it will be possible to find at least one sign that could point to death for almost every lead and main character.

So, what are these signs for Sansa? Let's take them one by one.

Death Signs / Arguments

1- Our first sign is RED ROSE and SWEET SMELL.

When the characters smell sweet from someone or something, it is considered to be danger bells. Of course, we do not claim that they will die 100%, they may be there as a sign that they will face death and return from death, but if they have received more than one sign, it may be difficult to say that they will simply fall into a coma.

The red rose that Loras Tyrell gave Sansa at the tournament in the first book is remarkable. While he gave white roses to everyone else, he gave her a red rose, which Loras didn't even remember. It was probably a political gesture to honor his father for being the daughter of the Hand, which he did at Renly's direction in the show.

While white roses are usually associated with purity, innocence and cherishing, red roses are the most remarkable and most acceptable of all types of roses because they express love and passion. It is for this reason that it is the most valuable, at least spiritually, which is why Loras gives a red rose, but if we look at the author's intention, the fact that a sweet scent emanates from this rose can be interpreted as a sign that Sansa may die for the sake of love/love, considering the importance she attaches to love. Now let's elaborate on this scenario.

When we think of love, we usually think of romantic feelings between a man and a woman; if you remember the SanSan theory, Sansa's emotional bond with Sandor may be a path that leads to their deaths in the future. Almost everyone thinks Sandor will die in his fight with his brother, probably very few think he will survive. The part that interests me is the idea of how this will happen.

I have actually opened two threads for this in the past. Bran's coma dream, which refers to Sandor's fight with Jaime against his brother, and Sandor's motivation. If you haven't read it or forgotten the details, I recommend you to read it again.

Roughly summarized... So in the fight of the three shadows that we saw in Bran's coma dream, Sandor's motivation to fight his brother the Mountain could be to protect Sansa. Sandor will probably die protecting Sansa at the end of this fight.

Alternative Interpretation of the Rose Sign

Apart from the love for Sansa and Sandor, the red rose reference can also be interpreted as "love for family". After all, what we call love is not a uniform thing. Usually, when we buy roses for our mothers, we prefer red roses. This could fit the scenario that Sansa comes to her senses and dies trying to protect her family. Of course, I am closer to the love interpretation, but I think this is a possible scenario.

The Red Rose is the strongest death argument for Sansa. The ones after that can be considered equivalent or relatively less strong.

2- Let's continue with Lady The Direwolf.

Everyone knows that wolves symbolize their owners and are a sign of their fate. The Lady, like her owner, is a graceful and calm animal, but she is killed because of Cersei's hatred of wolves. Some interpret Sansa's naming of the wolf and its untimely death as a sign of two things. The first is that a character who was expected to be queen in the first book (because of her betrothal to Joffrey) will remain a lady forever , and the second is that Sansa will die with the early death of her wolf.

While I agree with forever lady interpretation, but I can't claim that I see the wolf's death as a sign that Sansa should also die, at least not directly. Yes, I'm not ruling it out as a possibility, maybe it is indeed a sign, but there is a more weighty view(for some people), which I'm a little closer to.

Wolves symbolize Stark children and their Stark identity. They are also the key to triggering the warg abilities. We know that Sansa is a warg, but it's a dormant ability that never triggers because her wolf died. Whereas all her other siblings have their wolves and their warg abilities have awakened.

So what does this detail mean for Sansa? Why is Sansa the only one of all the children who is deprived of this?

Well, like Nymeria, the Lady could have been kept alive somehow, but the author did not choose to do so. For some view is that Sansa is no longer a Stark as an "identity", that this aspect is dead. Don't get me wrong, of course she is still her father's daughter and a member of the family. We are talking about her spiritual Stark identity. If you remember, after letter she sent to her family, when Robb reacted angrily and asked what was wrong with this girl, Bran's answer was "her wolf is dead". It's a rather meaningless thought when you look at what's going on, but I think the writer is sending a signal here that Sansa's spiritual bond with the north and with the Starks has been severed.

In 2001, we see an interesting dialogue between the fans and Martin (actually, I remember there was something similar, but I couldn't find the source).

Well, 20-odd years later this information is still there, so I'm proceeding from the conclusion that it hasn't been refuted. And this is parallel to what I'm about to explain.

So, what exactly does Martin mean by that?

Now Sansa is disguised as Aleyna in the Vale and keep her role of father and daughter, as if performing a theatre with Littlefinger. No doubt she still remembers Sansa in her mind(even she is Sansa), but at LF's request, they continue to play father-daughter roles even when they are alone(it's important detail).

However, if you pay attention, there are changes in the names of the characters starting from the 4th book, this is a detail that Martin later thought of and added. The POV name is written in this way if the character feels himself as what or who he is at that moment.

In an interview in 2006, Martin explained that pov names are a sign of how the characters, but especially Sansa, think of themselves, and even in 2008, when asked if the Hound and Sansa will get together, He says: “Why? The Hound is dead and Sansa may be dead too, there is only Aleyne Stone.”

What is meant by death here, of course, is not bodily, but as a "spiritual-identity". There is a nice theory that the Hound is not essentially dead, but that the Hound within is dead. We've probably seen him in Brienne povs anyway... The author (seems) has made a statement that the same identity-spiritual death is also for Sansa. In later years, he explained the changes in these pov names of the characters as "identities are under attack." As a matter of fact, although we talking about Sansa, the identities of many characters such as Arya and Theon are also under attack. It looks like Theon has finally found himself, as we look at Mercy POV, we know Arya's holding onto her identity thanks to Needle and Nymeria, but Sansa?

She has neither a wolf nor an anchor like Needle to connect her to her identity.

Martin said the imaginary kiss was intentional and hinted at something; He explains by pointing to Sansa's psychology. When we first met Sansa, we saw that she told a little lie and we didn't dwell on it, we said we all tell little lies like that, but then the lies started to get bigger and more serious. Worse still, Sansa lies to herself the most, which is made most obvious by the imaginary kiss. Lying is one of the most striking situations in Sansa's story. She lies so often now that she begins to remember events that way (something we actually saw in the first book with the Mycah issue).

Considering Martin's emphasis on Sansa's psychology and Aleyna identity, in addition to the reason for the changes in pov names, Sansa will probably begin to consider herself as Aleyna in the future. It looks like Sansa will lose her identity while the readers wait for Arya. Of course, to me, this loss of identity will not be like the Faceless Men. Sansa will be well aware of herself, but she will see herself as Petry Baelish's bastard daughter Aleyna Stone; As we are used to seeing in spy movies, we can expect to see in Sansa the character starts to integrate with the identity she is acting after playing long enough.

In fact, this situation can be seen from time to time in actors who show method acting, they cannot get out of the role and their behaviors change because the point of this technique is not to portray the character, but to live. Like a method actress, Sansa does not portray the character of Aleyna, she is officially live it. You can easily observe this between the lines. Remember the scenes where Theon goes back and forth between The Reek and Theon. This shows that she will not be able to get rid of the LF effect for a long time, which is one of the reasons why I think she will act against Jon, because she is under the LF effect.

To summarize this matter, the death of Sansa's wolf is a sign for her breaking of her ties with Stark and the north, her distance from being a Stark spiritually and her slowly starting to assume the identity of Aleyna Stone. This, in the LF effect, makes her a pawn to be used against the Starks. If Sansa cannot find her identity again at the end of the story, I don't see it possible for such a person to live, she will definitely die at the end of the story.

3- Another argument, Blood Oranges

Actually, this is a bit sweet and death theory thing . Blood Oranges are death symbols that symbolize murder in the series. It caught our attention mainly in the Doran Martell scenes; Hotah was talking about the sweet smell of overripe and falling blood oranges, which, as you can see, also has a sweet side. Another notable example is the phrase "whatever you do, keep your hands clean" in the scene where LF squeezes and drinks a blood orange while LF's with Sansa, where they're talking about Joffrey's murder. Of course, these two are not the only examples, but the example that interests us is in the first book, between Arya and Sansa...

...the two sisters were talking about the Mycah murder at a time they were arguing at dinner and Sansa was lying again, Arya said "liar", squeezing the blood orange in anger, then she throws it to Sansa. The orange falls first on her head and then on her lap, staining her dress. Sansa's fear of Illyn Payne from the first moment she saw it; When we think about things such as having terrible dreams/fears that her head will be cut off, does the blood orange that hit her head indicate that she will be the victim of such a murder? Moreover, the orange falls into her lap, which is actually where her private area is; When she took off the dress, she was having a fit of crying, seeing that it was also covered in her underwear. Here Martin may have signaled that Sansa will be killed, there seems to be strong symbolism, especially when we combine it with the red rose scene.

The fact that her white silk dress was dyed a dark color (I think it was black) because it was stained shows that her innocence has been lost. Even if that's not his intention, the fact that she's poisoning Sweet Robin is a sign, or that she blames the singer for Lysa's murder. No doubt we have reason to justify this latest incident, but there may come times when we can no longer justify it, when Sansa can do things we can't justify.

4- For now, let's briefly touch on Sansa's dreams as the last argument.

Contrary to what we are used to, Sansa's dreams appear as psychological dreams triggered by her trauma. This shows that they have a lot of violence, of course, there are some that are not, some of them include longing for home and family. Sansa often dreams of Payne and is afraid of dying. She had seen the rebellion in a dream and had been struck with a sword in the stomach. Although it is a weak approach, the fact that dreams are so violent and bad, but especially the Payne detail, may be a reference that Sansa's fear of death can become reality.

I have theory about "Tully Women Mental Health."

Even though they have a strong psychology image at the first stage, after a point, the last generation Tully women are like iron like Stannis, but they have a mind structure that is so sensitive that they break before they bend over. I thought that Sansa had her share of it because she looked like her mother in everything. When you combine it with what I have told you so far, it may be possible to predict that Sansa has a very sensitive psychology and will experience a breaking moment in the future.

Further of the death marks and the Possible Sandor Scenario, could Arya have an interior in Sansa's death or murder?

While I don't think Martin would get Arya to kill her sister or anyone in the family, I can't dismiss the possibility because the conflict between the two sisters is not to be overlooked. From the very beginning, Sansa was created to be Arya's foil. Foil characters are those in which the meaning of existence is opposite. Martin wrote Sansa because he didn't think everyone got along well in a family. So the "conflict" between siblings is Sansa's main purpose of existence.

As a matter of fact, the Sansa'a arc, which I expect to come to the fore in the story, will be exactly in this direction; The escalation of her conflict with Arya...

The development of tension between the sisters...

We already know Sansa in the first Arya POV, and as the contrasts between these two are revealed right before us, a small and simple sibling conflict is staged. After that, the two sisters have more conflicts with each other during their time together and they are getting bigger every day, but then the Ned case happens and the sisters separate. It has gone beyond being a simple sibling quarrel between them, but we cannot claim that it is an irreversible situation that still crosses the threshold; at least until Arya finds out that Sansa has said her father's plan to Cersei. Even then, the threshold may not have been fully crossed, but if Sansa, as Aleyna, starts making moves against Jon by advancing under the influence of Littlefinger, as I believe she will, then the threshold will be crossed for Arya.

After all, Jon's appearance as a surprise egg is definitely an obstacle to LF's goals, and he must eliminate Jon to realize his thoughts about the north. The most useful tool for this is Sansa herself. We can read a triple attack as I believe LSH will come and join this duo, but LF will stay behind to keep his hands clean as per his life philosophy.

It becomes much more meaningful at this stage that Arya is equipped with abilities that she can use in Game of Thrones, such as understanding lies and learning to gather information... etc. In any case, the point of "understand a lie" becomes more meaningful when you think of Sansa and LF, who are constantly lying and are used to telling, and it becomes a more important skill. Of course, we should not forget the likes of Varys and Illyrio. So it looks like the author chose Arya, not Sansa, to make up for the Starks' lack of intrigue. I mentioned and explained these abilities in a old thread of mine and I even mentioned that the Kind Man teaches Arya of mother languages of Dany, Illyrio, and Varys besides Braavos.

But yes, Sansa will also get involved in intrigue/game of thrones as LF's student, but she will use it against Jon. This will bring the conflict between Arya and Sansa to the peak.

We read that Sandor said that when he looked at Arya in one scene, he said he thinks Arya want to kill Sansa; It's also worth remembering that Arya said "I don't hate her" while Ned admonished her not to stab Needle into her sister, saying "that was just half a lie". Of course, these may be red herrings, but the possibility of not being must be considered. This might be a reference, as it was Arya who threw the blood orange at Sansa.

These are my opinions in general, what do you think about it? Will Sansa die, and if she does, how?

TLDR: There are several signs that could indicate Sansa's death. These are the sweet fragrance of the red rose; blood orange scenes, killing/injuring in her nightmares are a few of them. In addition, the death of Lady may indicate that she dies at the end of the story as a result of her breaking away from her Stark identity, and it may also be a sign that Sansa begins to see herself as Aleyna Stone over time and enters into a game of throne against Jon and Arya under the control of LF. As the tension between Arya and Sansa grows, in addition to the possibility of Arya having a share in Sansa's death, there may also be a possibility that Sansa will die here by taking part in the Sandor and Mountain fight.Of course, you have to read the articles in detail for them to make sense.

Thank you.

[bookpersonmaryj]

Tell us about your current project(s) – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?

4. Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like)

6. What character do you have the most fun writing?

8. Is what you like to write the same as what you like to read?

13. Do you share your writing online? (Drop a link!) Do you have projects you’ve kept just for yourself?

25. What part of writing is the most fun?

1.ooof okay so I have A Lot of current projects, but the one that I've been working on the most over the last week is probably the tma chatfic (working title, I'll have to come up with something better at some point).

it's, well, a chatfic, which you can probably guess from the title, but more specifically: (spoiler warning for the magnus archives here!!!) basically, all the avatars have a groupchat and Annabelle Cane adds Jon at some point after he gets promoted, because they all think he's Aware of serving an eldritch fear entity and are Surprised when he is clueless as to what the hell they're all talking about

i've been writing on it for over at least... two years i think? and a few days ago edited the bits i wrote separately to fit into the bit that's more story-like, at which point i discovered that i'm at 95 pages??? somehow??? so yea there's progress, despite there being literally no plot besides Jon Finds Out About The Entities And Has A Few Breakdowns.

what i love about it: Everyone Is Queer (because i was figuring out my gender at the time and thought i was just being supportive to trans/nb people and not relating that stuff to myself) and There Is No Angst (okay that's a lie, there's a bit angst, but mostly it's really entertaining and not angsty) and I have so much fun writing the characters???

pretty sure a lot of the characters are OOC but I don't really care, it's far too funny to have the avatars bully Jon for having a crush on Martin (yes this fic is also jonmartin with jon getting over his denial Very Quickly during what constitutes as s1)

honorable mentions here to the other fics i'm working on right now: the doctor who bodyswap au we all needed after potd where they Actually Bodyswap, the doctor who fic where some evil scientist tries to use regeneration energy for their own gain (it is as angsty as it sounds, yes), the tua fanfic where klaus refuses to let luther lock up viktor in that creepy basement in s1 (with added nb klaus and trans viktor because yes!), the sandman fanfic where dream loses the ability to speak after being locked up in a glass bowl for centuries (called 'cat got your tongue' because I Am Hilarious), and the ouat fanfic that's purely self-indulgent because i have a I Could Fix Her mentality when it comes to Regina (not just because of that but it's definitely part of it...)

4. mhhhh let's see!

There’s something going wrong in her mind, something is wrong with this whole regeneration, of course it is, forced regenerations aren't ever simple, but this is more than that, because she just let the Master leave with Yaz, with her TARDIS, and that’s not what the Doctor does, that’s not-

Is that still who she is? Is she still the Doctor now?

Yaz didn’t notice. The Master didn’t say anything, didn’t even gloat, didn’t even- And she’s not acting like the Doctor should, so what-?

She curls around herself, feeling unmoored when it’s different than before, the Master’s body – hers now – new and ill-fitting like putting on a glove that’s too small, or maybe it’s too big, or possibly both, somehow.

this is from my doctor who bodyswap fic, and i really liked this bit, because thirteen is questioning her own sense of self, after gallifrey, after techteun, after getting swapped into a body that isn't hers, and i just think that's a really neat concept to explore

actually, have some more of that fic, cause there are several lines i really like:

“Wait wait wait, can’t we talk about this?” she yelps, ducking behind machinery and twisting out of the way of more shots.

“The Cyberium is destroyed. You have destroyed the Cyberium. You will be deleted.”

They’re advancing on her, and she doesn’t have her sonic on her, it’s in her coat pocket, stupid Doctor, stupid Master, means she’s defenceless, means-

Except, she reaches into her pockets out of instinct, and there’s something in there.

“I don’t-” The words get stuck in her throat because they’re so untrue, doesn’t she want to do this, and it’s different now, this is a step she’s not been prepared to take, is she really going to do this?

“Stand down. You will be deleted.”

Yeah, right.

Them or her. Them or Earth.

The decision, in the end, is far too easy.

And then the Doctor stares at the tiny Cybermen, the Master’s TCE still raised, and something in her mind is spinning wildly out of reach, something has changed and she doesn’t quite know what it is, or if it can be reversed.

thirteen making master decisions instead of doctor decisions! love to see her make Bad choices

“I see you had time to change.”

The words spark memory, and the Doctor raises a brow at him, lifts her arms in a mockery of presenting the new clothes, and replies: “I always dress for the occasion.”

Is that amusement in his eyes or is she imagining it?

She lets her arms drop, crosses them over her chest again, considers him. It’s strange to stare at her own face and have it look back, except those eyes aren't hers, those eyes have always been his, she’d know them anywhere.

what's more 'master' than changing your outfit for the Drama of it?

yeah, I don't know where this story is going, but the second i've finished it i'll upload it! ^-^

EDIT: just found the Actual scene i wanted to share but got distracted from looking for, this is from my other dw fanfic where someone wants to take regeneration energy

All his attention is on the Doctor, beautifully bathed in gold, brimming with light and life, the force of a nuclear explosion coiling inside her, infecting her surroundings, leaking into the air and causing everything in her path to self-destruct.

i adore writing thirteen as incredibly destructive force of nature ^-^

that's all, carry on!

6. good question... I have a lot of fun writing the thirteenth doctor, but honestly? it's Klaus Hargreeves from the umbrella academy. i just can't seem to stop writing Klaus, especially nonbinary he/they Klaus who figures out their powers and chills with Benny while his siblings are ignoring the both of them. (this probably says Something about me but I Do Not See)

(honorable mention to my ouat self-insert which i Cannot write anymore because i started writing her before i figured out that i am not, in fact, cis, and now i'm having trouble identifying with the person that used to be me)

8. mhhh... in terms of Queer things yes, i read and write both of those things.

i do think i Write far more angst than i Read angst.

also, this question depends entirely on whether it's meant as reading books or reading fanfiction, because obviously i read the sort of fanfictions that i also write, and i guess yeah, i do also read the books that are sort of close to the sort of fanfiction vibes i like to read / write

13. yes i do! mostly just fanfictions, nothing 'original' just yet (i am working on it though!).

the ao3 link to my published fics is here, and there's also a German self-insert ouat fanfic on a German fanfic site, but uhhh that's sort of Very Unfinished and was started when i was still in school sooo... (i am planning on rewriting it at some point, and will try to finish it as well...).

as to the rest: there are... several projects that i've kept to myself, yes. i've taken my three (?) finished harry potter fics off the internet for now because i don't feel comfortable having them up with the way jk is behaving, and i won't post any of the ones i'm still writing on (i'm mostly just writing on them because if i have an idea i need it Out).

i also have A LOT of fanfics that are simply not finished yet, and because i know that i will not be able to stick to a posting/writing schedule i'd rather finish them before posting them, they'll stay on my laptop for now.

I am also working on a superhero book, but I've had to change a few of the original ideas i had because they don't really fit with the rest of the vibe of the book anymore, so i don't know when that's gonna be finished, if at all...

25. tough question... I have a lot of fun writing something with a twist, like, I as the writer am aware of a piece of information about the story/character I am writing that the reader is Not aware of but i am layering little hints into the story, and at some point i have a Reveal of the thing. i wasn't aware that this was something i did for a bit, until someone (you, dimitri, very specifically you) pointed it out in one of my fics and i realized that i Liked doing things like that actually, so yea!

also uhh i guess i really like how i can sort of work through some of my problems by projecting them onto characters? it helps sometimes...

i also enjoy writing something, and then having an idea, and suddenly the story is going in a wildly different direction as before, and i didn't anticipate it but i actually like this new direction, so i just roll with it. it's nice that writing is... alive, in a way.

wow, i wrote far more than i expected. thank you for asking these questions @rearranging-deck-chairs I had a lot of fun answering!

[equalseleventhirds]

Oh PLEASE go off about Annabelle in canon, I was actually considering writing a season 5 where annabelle joins Jon and Martin to put a stop to the entities. Like, it’s so weird to assume that only Jon would be actively fighting back against his monsterhood and putting Annabelle in a position where she utilizes her patrons knowledge to fight against it? Like.... *chefs kiss* but I wanna know what you think about her treatment in canon

fjksdlf anon... oh anon. i have said so many things about annabelle, mostly after like 197 aired bcos i was SO mad. but. let me see if i can summarize.

so, firstly, yeah what you said!! i think more avatars should actively work against their patrons! and annabelle, as supposedly someone great at trickery and lies and manipulation? COULD DO THAT. like, tma p clearly sets up that you've gotta be rebelling to do good, but there's more than one way to rebel against a corrupt system! outright refusing to do things is one, but careful sabotage is another! annabelle could have been that. she was perfect! an unwilling avatar! forced into what she became! clever & tricksy! aware of the web's plans! come on.

secondly, like, she had all these parallels to jon. so many! so many parallels!! she was set up as a narrative foil for him! and did those parallels come into play when she finally confronted jon? did he have to see & understand her life as it was like his? did she reveal she'd been fighting battles like his as well? did she even have a villainous 'we're not so different you and i' moment?? no! she just delivered the web's message for it! damn!!

...it's also not necessarily bad treatment but i am just like. personally miffed abt how bad jonny is at writing effective manipulation. she got martin to go with her by telling him she had a solution? really?? and all her big buildup as someone terrifying & dangerous by jon, and... she's just a messenger. not even doing anything. rly took that 'make sure people either under or overestimate you' thing to heart huh.

and with the purely narrative issues out of the way. the thing abt her being a black woman. the thing abt her treatment as a black woman.

like, she was lied to when participating in a morally questionable medical experiment and wound up physically, mentally, and emotionally changed. she lost her place in society, her family, her education, because of that. and canon says 'yeah that's bad & scary' but does it truly address the specific horror of that happening to a black woman?

and then in her service to the web, she rly is reduced to like, its obedient servant. she is utterly controlled. her life is sacrificed to its whims. other avatars got some benefit from their avatarhood, but does annabelle? we never see it! and in the end she's still not exerting any will of her own, not even with her dreams of a spooky children's show. she exists to deliver a message to jon in order to serve the desires of her patron. she even mentions so casually that maybe she'll get to live or maybe she'll die, but as long as her patron's desires are fulfilled that's all that matters. like... jonny, this is what you choose to do with your one specifically-described black woman? without even acknowledging how specially horrific that is for her bcos of her identity?

add onto that that in the final confrontation she morphs into a huge, scary spider in order to... what? talk to jon? deliver a message to him?? in a situation where she does not need to fight, is not even TRYING to fight, is in fact calmly having a conversation, is it REALLY necessary to make her large & monstrous & physically intimidating? especially when a 'final form' reveal isn't something like... any other avatar has.

and then! in posts abt jon being written like a white man i touched on this, but the thing where he gets to decide if she lives or dies based on, lbr, how he's feeling? if he's mad enough abt her taking martin to kill her, or if he personally wants to stop killing enough to let her go? pls do not put your 'aracial' character (played by a white man) in that sort of position over your one black woman. come on.

and ultimately parts of this happened bcos jonny used race as an aesthetic in early seasons and did not consider the implications of some of what he was doing, did not realize the special horror for her (and for other poc!) in the stories he was telling. but by season five he'd had time to think, and to have some realizations, and he could have AT LEAST explored annabelle as a more complex character, instead of totally ignoring her complexities, her parallels to jon, and her agency so he could use her to wrap up his big scary web plan.

[oonajaeadira]

The Mandalorian Tarot: Major Arcana

If you’re following me, you know this is a Mandalorian obsessive account. I love the man, I love the show, I write a Mando-fando that is all about pining and touch. I tend to go all in when I have an interest. 

Another one of my interests? Tarot. A friend challenged me to Mandalorify the major arcana. And because Jon and Dave know their stuff and are good with archetypes (which is all tarot really is), it was an easy fit.

YOU GOT MANDO IN MY TAROT. YOU GOT TAROT IN MY MANDO. TWO GREAT TASTES THAT TASTE GREAT TOGETHER.

But. I can’t draw, so I’ve dreamed them in words and included the Rider-Waite-Smith deck illustrations that I would riff on if I could.

READY? LET’S PLAY.

(All tarot illustrations by Pamela Colman Smith. All Mandalorian images property of Star Wars/Disney.)

UPDATE! @heathenashtattoos​ has taken up where I cannot and is making these cards a reality! I will post them individually and come back to link them to this post as we go.

0 THE FOOL = THE MANDALORIAN / IT IS MADE! --->

The story of the tarot is the Fool’s journey, the arc of becoming. So it makes sense to me that Din would be the fool. Fits even better, since he has tremendous Fool energy in his himbo tendencies, just rushing forward into situations without a lot of planning--he’ll deal with it when he’s in it--ready to rely on others to show him the way or guide/help him to the next step.

If I could draw: Din on the cliff, with his jetpack on, meaning he has no fear of falling. Instead of the bindle-stick the Fool carries, he’d have his pulse rifle slung over his shoulder. Instead of the dog nipping at his heels, Grogu. And, of course, the landscape would be Tatooine/Navaro-esque.

~~~

1 THE MAGICIAN = LUKE SKYWALKER , IT IS MADE! --->

The Magician is someone who is still learning to bend the laws of magic/the Universe, but very adept with their tools. Since Luke is only a few years into his Jedi training at this time, he makes a pretty good Magician.

If I could draw: Luke in his blacks, holding up his lightsaber. The Jedi symbol would replace the infinity sign. 

***

2 THE HIGH PRIESTESS = AHSOKA TANO / IT IS MADE! -->

High Priestess is further along the path of her magic than Magician, and her knowledge is more intuitive, her skills more effortless. Where the Magician is still learning the balance of light and dark, the High Priestess knows the value and pitfalls of both. It was always going to be Ahsoka.

If I could draw: Ahsoka sitting cross-legged in meditation mode, but with eyes open and a knowing smile. Instead of two pillars, she holds her lightsabers up and parallel to each other.

***

3 THE EMPRESS = PELI MOTTO / IT IS MADE! -->

The Empress is the mother figure, the energy in the universe that provides all that is needed and embodies the energy of creation. I can see the argument for Omera being the Empress--mostly because she is a mom and she’s soft and a lot of people see the Empress as a soft female figure, I get it. (And if I were to do a minor arcana, girl would show up as one of the Queens for sure.) But in the end, I gave it to Peli because she’s a recurring character, more relevant in his story, and if Din is the Fool, Peli is more an Empress to him. She’s able to be the provider of his particular needs; services to his ship to get him up flying, contact and location information, and she’s always willing to care for Grogu whenever she gets the chance.

If I could draw: Peli sitting in the dock, against the R4 unit, holding aloft a spanner and surrounded by her pit droids.

***

4 THE EMPEROR = BOBA FETT / IT IS MADE! -->

The Emperor is all about authority. And all I gotta say about Boba is BIG DICK ENERGY.

If I could draw: Just put him on the Jabba throne and let him lounge like a badass.

~~~

5 THE HIEROPHANT = THE ARMORER / IT IS MADE! -->

The Hierophant is the keeper of traditions and a spiritual guide. As the leader of the covert and keeper of the Way, The Armorer fits.

If I could draw: The Armorer, framed by her forge, holding aloft her tools, with Mandalorian acolytes. Instead of the crossed keys at the bottom, let’s just have a mythosaur skull.

***

6 THE LOVERS = FROG LADY AND FROG HUSBAND

This should be obvious and I will fight anyone who says it isn’t the right thing to do. I will die for this.

If I could draw: I would actually depart from the Smith depiction and just draw them embracing or holding each other by the arms and staring into each others’ eyes. Some kind of glowing background? Maybe the egg tank?

***

7 THE CHARIOT = THE MUDHORN

Oh. You thought I was going to say the Razor Crest, didn’t you. Don’t worry, I have plans for our beloved craft, but it ain’t here. The Chariot can be a ride, yes, but it’s about victory. Sometimes it’s about the victory over your inner “beastly” natures. To travel to the next phase in the journey, the Fool must take on the beasts that drive the Chariot and claim dominance over them, and when he does, they will carry him to the next level. Since it’s the victory of the beastly mudhorn that brings Din to his bond with Grogu and becomes his signet, Mudhorn for the win.

If I could draw: Again, I’d probably play on Smith’s imagery, put the charging mudhorn in the middle, and replace the rams with Din on his knees brandishing the vibroblade and Grogu in his pram with his Force hand up.

***

8 STRENGTH = CARA DUNE

Don’t come at me about including Cara. I am glad Gina got shown the door and I lose no love on that bigot. But. Cara is not Gina and to cut her out is to cut out Jon and Dave’s creation and I won’t do it.  I actually love her a lot--she’s got her flaws, but she’s sassy and strong and solid, and I would happily accept a piggyback ride from her any day. She’s also a major player in Din’s story and deserves a spot in it. Strength comes after the Chariot--once you’ve conquered the beast within, you have confident dominion over it and it becomes a companion or a tool for your use. Cara is one with her toughness, she’s used it to do some good and bad shit in her past, and she continues to wield it effortlessly and fearlessly. She is absolutely this card.

If I could draw: I would put her maybe sitting on top of the downed ATST. I’d replace the infinity symbol over her head with the one on her cheek (Rebel Alliance).

~~~

9 THE HERMIT = KUIIL

The Hermit is a loner, yes, but in his solitude he looks within, learns from all he’s been through, and becomes wise. He holds aloft a light of wisdom and truth. This was always going to be Kuiil.

If I could drawn: Just our buddy, looking out over the Arvala-7 landscape, holding aloft an in-universe working lamp. No need to get fancy. He would want it to stay simple.

***

10  THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE = IMPERIAL SYMBOL AND STORM TROOPERS

The Wheel is fate. You win some, you lose some. Sometimes you’re on top, and sometimes the Wheel crushes you beneath it. You are helpless to its roll and where you’ll land. Storm Troopers are such a sad bunch. They are keepers of Imperial Law on the ground. On a good day, they capture a Rebel or hold off an attack. On a bad day, their Moff just blasts them to make an example.

If I could draw: The wheel would just be the Imperial symbol and there’d be Troopers on and under it. Maybe the one on top is just standing there, looking authoritative. The one underneath has been blasted. Some Wheels have two more figures--one on each side--and I’d add those too. The one on the down-going side would be falling, arms flailing, blaster shooting (if only sound were available, there’d be a Whilhelm scream), and the one on the up-going side would just be dangling by one arm, along for the ride.

***

11 JUSTICE = COBB VANTH

Well, it just feels right to make the Marshal into Justice. But it’s not just a literal translation of making sure the right thing gets done and the bad guys are punished. Justice is about wiping away emotion and making decisions with bare truth, looking at every side of the situation and understanding what is really there. And I think Cobb fits this well. He doesn’t want to give up his armor because of what it means for the protection of his people. But he’s willing to consider it, if there’s another way he can protect them. Emotionally, he doesn’t want to deal with the Tusken Raiders, but he does it because he can see it’s the best course of action. He flies into battle with the Krayt Dragon. He gives up his armor without a fight. He makes a fair trade and sees the balance in it because he walks away from the emotion and chooses the best course of action. Cobb Vanth for Justice, errybody.

If I could draw: Cobb in the Fett armor, but with the helmet at his feet. In one hand, a bottle of spotchka. In the other, the Tusken mushroom drinky thing; he’s holding them with equal balance.

***

12 THE HANGED MAN = MIGS MAYFELD

The Hanged Man is not just about a dude who’s hanging upside down. (If that was the case, I would have just gone with Gor Koresh and called it a day.) Hanged Man is about changing your perspective to see things in a new way so you can grow. Many times, this growth also requires sacrifice. Over the two episodes we see Mayfeld, we know he goes from Imperial sharp shooter, to traumatized deserter, to merc, prisoner, and exonerated friend. He’s seen some shit, given up a lot, and he’s willing to see how he can be a help to others and find redemption for himself.

If I could draw: Hear me out. Take the image of Mayfeld hanging upside down from the Crest hatch into the prison ship. Mirror that above with an image of him in his Imperial Ground Transport gear. Flip it all upside down so bad Mayfeld up top, good Mayfeld on bottom, images mirrored but inverted, hence “looking at things a new way and getting everything a little topsy-turvey.”

~~~

13 DEATH = MOFF GIDEON

Death is about transformation, so it’s not always the most sinister card. But Death does not discriminate. It comes for us all, constantly stalking, and it will strike you down to serve its needs. You need to face Death to get to your redemption. But really, Gideon is our big baddie here, so why the hell not.

If I could draw: I would forgo the Smith illustration and go for the Marseilles tradition on this one. Gideon and the Darksaber replaces Death and the scythe.

*** 

14 TEMPERANCE = IG-11

Temperance is the transformation that comes after Death. Once Death has chopped your physical being into pieces with his scythe, Temperance is there to take all your pieces and put them back together into something new and better. It’s also a card that asks you to re-evaluate your priorities and see if you can find better motivations than you previously had. IG’s death and reprogramming speak loudly to me on this.

If I could draw: IG pouring the tea.

***

15 THE DEVIL = THE CLIENT

Here’s another baddie card that’s all about your worst faults, about excess and giving into the stuff that will eventually kill your soul. The Client holds on hard to the Empire, doing whatever he’s ordered to do to be one of the top dogs. And in the end, it doesn’t matter. Gideon takes him down like he’s nothing.

If I could draw: The client, wearing his Empire bling, with chains around Doctor Pershing and a rough-looking Storm Trooper.

***

16 THE TOWER = THE RAZOR CREST

I don’t know about you, but Chapter 14 killed me. And not because the Dark Troopers flew away with Grogu. We all knew Din would never stop at getting him back. But when the Crest was destroyed, it was like someone punched me in the soft parts, and I made a lot of severely anguished noises. The Tower is the most tragic card in the tarot. It’s when forces beyond your control make a very big (and usually negative) impact in your life and everything changes. You are left to pick up the pieces and survive any way you can with the skills and resources you’ve been blessed with.

If I could draw: Just that moment of the ray hitting our beautiful Crest, just as it begins to break apart, maybe with Din, Boba, and Fennec watching in horror in the foreground.

~~~

17 THE STAR = GROGU

The Star is hope. It comes after the biggest tragedy in the deck to tell you that not all is lost. There is always something there to live for. C’mon, kids. In this series, there was only one choice.

If I could draw: Just Grogu. Maybe drinking his soup. Or maybe he’s levitating his metal ball overhead, reaching up to it with a smile on his face. *coos*

***

18 THE MOON = BO KATAN KRYZE

We all like Bo Katan, sure. But remember my Clone Wars/Rebels fiends, she was Death Watch, and they were terrorists. She sided with Maul to take over Mandalore. Sure, she’s come a long way and her path is a bit more honorable now, but she’s got an agenda, which makes her hard to trust. Since the Moon is about more feminine energies and has themes of illusion and deception--things look great in the moonlight, but maybe not as they really are--Bo Katan’s our girl.

If I could draw: Head and shoulders profile, double-imaged so you see her face, but her Nite Owl helmet superimposed in profile over it. Nite Owl signet on the bottom. Possibly flanked by her two Nite Owl cronies.

***

19 THE SUN = GREEF KARGA

Everything's sunny when Greef’s around! He’s the feel-good gramps that’s going to make any situation A-Ok! If you’ve got a problem, Greef can sort it out...or he knows someone who can! The sun is always gonna shine on you and take you back.

If I could draw: Just Greef smiling and being cheesy with the halo of the sun around him. 

***

20 JUDGEMENT = FENNEC SHAND

This card traditionally shows the resurrected rising from the grave, ready to be judged. Fennec’s got a lot to answer for in her life, but she is being given a second chance, and my number one girl crush is going to do new and wonderful badass things with it.

If I could draw: I’d either just show her opening her gut pocket to show her new works, all full of aura, with her looking down at it reverently. OR I might do a scene of her being rescued by Boba.

~~~

21 THE WORLD = THE HELMET

Din’s helmet is the world he lives in. But it’s also a symbol of The Way. The World represents completion, a wholeness of self and being, the end of the journey. And since Din is our Fool, his journey is an exploration of his morals and honor, what it means to walk the way of the Mandalore, and what the meaning of the helmet is for him. He may choose ultimately to keep it on and go all-in on Mandalorian-4-lyfe (Child of the Watch style), or he may understand that the helmet is just a symbol and the honor was in him all along; he can wear it or not wear it and it’s all the same.

If I could draw: The World usually depicts a circle or sphere of some kind, the symbol of perfect completion. The helmet is close enough, so it takes up the center. Traditionally, there are four symbols in the corners that give more meaning to The World, and I would replace them with The Razor Crest, Grogu, the Mudhorn Signet, and the pulse rifle or blaster. These represent his home, his foundling, his clan, and his religion, all of which make up more of the whole; what it means to him to be Mandalorian.

~~~~~~~~~~

Challenge accepted and faced. 

Adira dops her witchy mic….

[sweetestpopcorn]

Do you really think Daemon Targaryen is an example of a grey character? Daemon is supposed to be 'light and dark in equal parts' but... we never see it? We see him degrade his first wife Rhea and her homeland the Vale all the time (but does try to steal said homeland once she's dead), jape about his infant nephew Baelon dying, child-grooming his 14-year-old-niece Rhaenyra, possibly murdering the son of his greatest ally Laenor, sending Blood and Cheese to kill a perfectly innocent 6-year-old Prince Jaehaerys, and to counter all that... what? What he did that made him a good person?

Hi!

First of all I'm sorry it took me so long to answer this but this required some work on my part so I could give a satisfactory answer (I hope).

Second, I would like to reiterate that I will judge Daemon's morality not according to the current time we live in and our universe and laws, but according to the ASOIAF universe and the time during which he lived (to the best of my abilities). I know, I know, why am I giving this warning this should be obvious... not in the ASOIAF fandom unfortunately.

Third, finally answering the question, I think that issue is far from being a straightforward one. Any character in F&B will be that much harder to judge than characters in the other ASOIAF novels (e.g., Dany, Jon, Cersei, Catelyn, Joffrey...) because we don't get their POVs. We don't even see them as events are unfolding and they are being perceived by a third party whose POV we do get - like we do with Robb Stark for instance - instead we get to read about someone writing about them based on what other people who were not reliable sources, wrote about them centuries before. F&B itself is written in a way where pretty much you get to choose what you believe in from what information you are given, and boy oh boy do we have some wild takes (!) not backed up by facts! But I guess it is interesting to a point that you can choose your version - under certain limits of course that don't directly contradict the facts given (though some people will also do this, but sure why not?).

Daemon, though a vast portion of the story is focused on him, since him along with Rhaenyra are the most developed characters of the Dance, remains a very illusive and mysterious character. Many times you are told what he did but you are told very little about why he did it - hence the ability people have to choose what they want to believe, or what they think makes more sense. I do believe him to be a grey character in the sense that I would argue perhaps the only real "black" characters we get in ASOIAF would be Joffrey, Ramsay, and the Mountain (maybe Euron as well but I am not 100% sold on that yet). These are characters who don't have redeeming qualities. They are cruel, and they like to be cruel. None of them had a fall from grace where they started good and then turned bad, and none of them had any sort of redemption where they could have started bad and then became good. With these three characters from the oldest memories people have of them we see them doing bad deeds and showing no remorse. Some examples I can think of at the top of my head are Joffrey opening a pregnant cat to see her kittens, the Mountain murdering his sister and pressing Sandor's head against the fire, the latter because he was playing with one of his toys, and Ramsay we have his adventures with OG Reek and of course him likely killing his half-brother.

Daemon isn't such a character.

Yes we do see him do some very... reproachable (nasty) things such as the ones you mentioned. But he also did some very good things. I will try to list some of his qualities and good deeds.

Daemon reformed the Gold Cloaks, making them into a true order men were proud to serve in. He inspired so much loyalty that decades after he was no longer their Lord Commander many of the men still remembered him and betrayed the Greens for Daemon - not because they were on the side of the Blacks, or because they thought Rhaenyra was the rightful queen, they did it because of Daemon. It takes a hardworking person, a talented fighter and a true leader to inspire this sort of loyalty, because they were loyal to him, they did not act out of fear.

"Daemon gave us these cloaks, he said, and they are gold no matter how you turn them." (Fire and Blood, pg. 456)

Still about his time in the Gold Cloaks, while his methods were at times cruel, they were effective, so he had (some) sense of justice. And here we see the grey. One on side he did good, on the other, his means were dark and he seemed to like them that way.

"That he made the city more orderly no man could doubt, but his discipline was a brutal one." (Fire and Blood, pg. 355).

As a young man, Daemon also seemed to be well liked by his family. Viserys had fond memories of him and a great love for him - which made him forgive Daemon time and time again - and his grandfather Jaehaerys thought him worthy of Dark Sister. Here it is worth mentioning that although Jaehaerys had had several sons, only to Daemon did he gift Dark Sister. Would he have done so if Daemon was this complete psychopath? This popcorn thinks not.

“Though the king did not wish Daemon to succeed him, he remained fond of his younger brother, and was quick to forgive his many offenses.” (Fire and Blood, pg. 355).

“Though far from being blind to his brother’s flaws, he cherished his memories of the free-spirited, adventurous boy that Daemon had been.” (Fire and Blood, pg. 358)

“(...) Prince Daemon had earned his knight’s spurs at six-and-ten, and had been given Dark Sister by the Old King himself in recognition of his prowess.” (Fire and Blood, pg. 354)

Daemon was also a charming man. Much like Rhaenyra, he could charm those around them and make them love him... when he wanted and could keep his anger in check (again, much like Rhaenrya).

“As charming as he was hot-tempered (...)”. (Fire and Blood, pg. 354).

And speaking of Daemon’s niece, let’s not forget he was able to win her affections and keep them through I would argue all of his life. She became enamoured of him while she was just a child, he managed to get into her smallclothes prior to her sweet sixteen (extensions to this incursion can be debated concerning which version, or which mixture of the versions people believe) and if you believe Septon Eustace - which given what happened a few years later makes the most sense - made her want to marry him. And let’s not forget he regained these affections even after she married Laenor (against her will) and had a “special friendship” with Harwin Strong and had three children, with the two getting reacquainted with each other quite soon after both his wife and Rhaenyra’s on paper husband, and dude who actually performed the duties of a husband, passed away, resulting in them marrying and having a baby - I will let yall decide which happened first. This was an incredibly bad call on Rhaenyra’s part since it did not help with her reputation and honestly whenever I see someone say she married him for “political reasons” I laugh until my face hurts. Sure, “political reasons”.

“Princess Rhaenyra was also enamoured of her uncle, for Daemon was ever attentive to her.” (Fire and Blood, pg. 355)

“Princess Rhaenyra was a different matter. Daemon spent long hours with her, enthralling her with tales of his journeys and battles. (...) Rhaenyra insisted she was in love with her uncle and pleaded with her father for leave to marry him.” (Fire and Blood, pg. 368)

“King, court, and commons were all outraged by the news. Neither Daemon’s wife nor Rhaenyra’s husband had been dead even half a year (...) Septon Eustace claims that Rhaenyra knew her father would never aprove of the match, so she wed in haste to make certain he could not prevent the marriage. Mushroom puts forward a different reason: the princess was once again with child and did not wish to birth a bastard.” (Fire and Blood, pg. 384)

Why am I bringing this up? Let’s compare Daemon for instance with someone like Joffrey, who I argued is a full black character. Could he win Sansa Stark’s affections? Yup. Did it last? Nope. Because dude was a total psycho who could not hide his nature for too long. Could Daemon keep Rhaenyra’s affections and inspire love? He could if we look at the text, just look at how Rhaenyra speaks about him during the Dance:

“My prince would ne’er lay with such a low creature.” (Fire and Blood, pg. 493)

“Only then shall my prince be freed.” (Fire and Blood, pg. 494)

Note that she does not refer to him as “the prince”, or “the prince consort”, or “Prince Daemon”. She calls him “my prince” twice and I don’t believe this was an accident. 

Still about Rhaenyra, we see another core element of Daemon. He was loyal. Loyal to her and her cause, just as he had once been loyal to Viserys during the Great Council of 101. Whatever his reasons behind it, it remains that he stood by her side to the end. Even in his killing of Prince Jaehaerys, he did it as a revenge and the way it is written does imply that at least to a small extent, he did it for her.

“(...) whilst Daemon Targaryen, a hot-tempered and quarrelsome young man of twenty, had gathered his own band of swords in support of his brother Viserys.” (Fire and Blood, pg. 344)

“As the black council sat to consider how to strike back, a raven arrived from Harrenhal. “An eye for an eye, a son for a son.” Prince Daemon wrote, “Lucerys shall be avenged.”“ (Fire and Blood, pg. 422)

Even concerning Nettles, while he did not let her be killed as Rhaenyra commanded, he did not speak one word against his queen. In fact, was Daemon a completely selfish and self-serving character and he could have simply said “Well f_ck this b_tch”, get on top his dragon and go live somewhere far with Nettles. Instead, he sent her on his way and faced Aemond, likely knowing it would be his last battle.

Was he tired of living? People might argue so, and I do see merit in the argument, but there’s no clear evidence of it in text. Furthermore, what is clear is that while Aemond lived, Rhaenyra’s throne was in danger as they knew that the war would not be done until Aemond was gone. I am absolutely certain that Daemon also knew that had he left, he likely would be condemning his niece and son to death. No one but him was strong enough to be a threat against Aemond. Was there more behind it? We can argue so and I do think there was but facts remain he did not left Rhaenyra or her cause.

And still about Neetles we see another important side of Daemon. His mercy. For whatever his reasons might be, he helped a young girl escape an unjust death sentence. Was he a black character, do you think he would have cared about this chick he was banging/was his daughter - depending on the version you believe - for a second? He would just not give two f_cks. But he did.

I could go on and there’s more right at the top of my head such as his affections for Mysaria and for their unborn baby, but this is getting way too long and not even I can stand myself for such a prolonged period of time. But all in all, though Daemon remains an illusive character people love to hate or hate to love or sometimes both, I do stand by the fact that he’s neither black nor white, but grey. A man who did great things and terrible ones too, written by people who had no love for him, but through whom the Targaryen line continued. And friendly reminder that all his children (that were born alive) made it through the Dance and went on to further the lines of several houses ;)

So long live Daemon Targaryen, the Rogue Prince, and most important of all Daddy of our Lord and Saviour Baby Cheeks Aegon aka Aegon III!

[nicad13]

How well does The Mandalorian pass the Bechdel Test?

I kinda got grumbling about representation of women in Mandalorian fanfiction as it relates to the abundance of nameless reader-insert characters a couple days ago. Namely, the general failure of the Bechdel test – does the story have two women who talk to each other about something other than a man? One step further – do both women have names? Two steps further – do they talk about something other than babies?

It shouldn’t seem that radical – two named characters who are women who talk to each other about something other than men or babies. Yet so few fanfics pass this benchmark. Among a set of authors who I suspect are mostly women.

Granted, the source material of the show presents a challenge in that the focus is, well… a man and a baby. And then I had to think about how long it took for the show itself to pass the Bechdel test, and I’m pretty sure it didn’t happen until late in the second season.

The first time two named women appear in the same episode was s1e4: Sanctuary, with Cara Dune and Omera. While Omera is named in the credits, I don’t think anyone calls her by name during the episode. I’m also pretty sure Cara and Omera don’t talk to each other directly. The closest we get is when Cara is telling the villagers they have to abandon their homes and Omera protests. Omera later serves Cara a beverage and Cara thanks her. Aaaannnd… that’s it! I don’t feel like this passes.

The next time we get two named women in the same episode is s1e8: Redemption, with the Armorer and Cara. Whether “the Armorer” as a title counts as a name is up for debate. I guess Din goes nameless most of the season as well, so I’ll allow it. Regardless, in their limited time together in the Forge, they don’t really interact. Cara notes that the Imps will arrive soon and the Armorer instructs them on how to escape. Aaaannnd… that’s it! Season One fails the Bechdel test.

The next time we get two named women in the same episode is s2e2: The Passenger, with Peli Motto and Frog Lady. Again, whether “Frog Lady” actually counts as a name is up for debate, and I don’t think Peli is ever called by name, either. They do have a brief, but direct, conversation confirming the presence of Mandalorians on Trask, albeit it’s in Frog language and we can’t understand it. I’d give this one a maybe, depending on how strong one wants to hold to the criteria.

Next up: s2e3: The Heiress, with Bo-Katan Kryze and Koska Reeves. I don’t think Koska is ever called by name. There’s some battle interaction, and they’re having a conversation at a table, though we don’t hear any of it. Weak maybe.

Next up: s2e5: The Jedi, with Ahsoka Tano and Morgan Elsbeth. Finally, a solid pass! Ahsoka and Morgan have a direct verbal exchange at the beginning of the episode regarding the well-being of the townspeople and they are both called by name. Ahsoka questions Morgan directly after winning their duel, and there is, presumably, an interrogation, though it’s off-screen.

Next up: s2e7: The Believer, with Cara and Fennec Shand. Both are named and they have a conversation about setting up their strategy, and closely coordinate their shots while Din and Mayfeld escape the compound. Solid pass.

Last up: s2e8: The Rescue, with Cara, Fennec, Bo-Katan, and Koska. Bo-Katan calls Koska off of Boba at the cantina; battle planning directly between Bo-Katan and Cara, with Fennec participating in the general planning; the radio exchange between Bo-Katan and the unnamed Imperial coms officer; some battle conversation between Cara, Fennec, Bo-Katan, and Koska as they mow Stormtroopers down on their way to the bridge; and a few direct lines between them on the bridge itself. Solid pass.

So, out of 16 total episodes in the first two seasons so far, only 7, fewer than half, have at least two women who appear in the same scenes, and only three of those are what I would call a solid pass. Not a fantastic track record.

What surprises me here is the number of near misses – four of the seven came so close but didn’t quite make it. It becomes more surprising when you consider Dave Filoni’s prior work. While the male:female character ratio in The Clone Wars wasn't stellar, whenever two women were in the room together, they almost always had names and they almost always had direct conversations with each other about politics or battle strategy or something. Rebels was even better by way of Hera Syndulla and Sabine Wren together on the same ship. My memory of Jon Favreau’s prior work isn’t super-sharp on this subject, but the MCU didn’t offer a whole lot of opportunities (though I admit I’ve managed to miss most of the newer Spiderman stuff). Maybe Dave needs to steer Jon in the right direction on this for later seasons.

Point being: one of the great uses of fanfic is filling the gaps left by the source material. The Mandalorian has some huge gaps in terms of women with names who talk to each other (about something other than men and babies). The potential is enormous. Did Cara and Omera develop a friendship on Sorgan? Cara and Fennec seem to get along well – how did they become such fast friends? Why is Koska so loyal to Bo-Katan? These are all easy things to tuck in around our favorite Man and Baby. Like, you know Cara and Fennec are having conversations about their favorite guns while Din’s in the back losing his mind over finding Grogu. It’s not hard. (And yes, I’m working on a few of these, myself.)

I’ll also admit I’ve been so wrapped up in my own writing lately that I haven’t had much time to check out AO3. If anyone has some good examples of Mando fanfic that passes the Bechdel test, please feel free to reblog with recommendations! OCs with names - actual developed characters who are their own people - count as well! (Conversations can, of course, include our favorite Man and Baby, but just not be limited to them.)

Happy writing!

[janiedean]

Book!Theon is Azor!Ahai, not Jon. It makes no sense narratively for Jon to be AA, and it’s the most stereotypical thing ever, and he’s already stereotypical, he’s the red flag for the audience. Theon’s chapters are full of hints, he has the perfect salt/smoke/stars/dragons thing at the end of ACOK, when he “dies”. His story is about destroying death, his entire narrative, with things that come from mythology and ancient literature, points to that. The show is trash, but don’t you think that it’s a little weird that Theon is there at the end and then Arya comes out of nowhere and becomes AA? And what ending does she get? Exploring the unknown SEA with SHIPS? Being free and on her own? Maybe it doesn’t make sense for her because it’s not for her. D&D already took everything else from Theon, they took this too. And even if he’s not AA, he’s still clearly connected to magic and all of that, he didn’t go though so much for nothing, he didn’t take his name back for the first time in his life, his name that literally means “godly”, for nothing. He has something big to do, and it’s about himself, not Robb and the Starks. And he’s also so clearly connected to the politics of the north and of the iron islands, a villain was literally created for him, so I don’t understand how can you say he’s not really important and all he’s got left to do is retire in a house and be sad. Of course he has a lot of trauma and that’s important, but I don’t like how people reduce him to that and act like just because those things happened, he can’t do anything else

anon with no ill will and I swear I don't want to sound pedantic or anything but I, uh, never came to the conclusion you say I came from - that said let's go in order even if I think I already went through all the reasons why it makes literally no sense if it's anyone but jon, but let's start with one thing:

It makes no sense narratively for Jon to be AA, and it’s the most stereotypical thing ever, and he’s already stereotypical, he’s the red flag for the audience.

it's stereotypical.... to us maybe, but it is not to westeros. like, you're looking at it through audience-lens because it has been years and the show confirmed r+l=j and we all figured that shit out, but to westeros, the idea that the prince that was promised is a bastard guy serving on the wall aka a state-sponsored prison where people go to not die and is filled to non-desirables to society is... the least likely option in existence? no really, but again:

first thing that should quiet all doubts, when melisandre asks r'hollor to see azor ahai bc she wants to see stannis, r'hollor shows her jon snow and instead of going like 'uh wait why am I seeing another dude' she's like 'I want to see stannis but r'hollor shows me jon snow there must be some disturbance on the line', like she doesn't even consider for a second that it might be jon;

no one else has brought WITHIN THE NARRATIVE jon up as a likely candidate - they said stannis, they said dany, they said whoever but no one ever said hey jon snow might be AA, because again no one even suspects that it might be jon;

other matter that you're overlooking here: if theon is azor ahai.... it means that the rebellion basically was for nothing? because like the entire shtick with rhaegar targaryen's bad life choices™ is that he was apparently a swell dude, then he read a book where somehow it was exactly explained how the apocalypse was gonna happen, he deduced that he was the guy who had to father AA/the prince that was promised and in order - first he doesn't care about fighting but suddenly after that he starts getting learned; - he immediately worries over having THREE children from which we can deduce from the narrative that as far as he knows in order to fight when the wights come he has to have three kids for three dragons and one of them is azor ahai; - the moment his wife can't have more than two even if he's sure that he already had the right one (aegon) he still runs off with lyanna to make sure he has the third because it's that important that HE rhaegar targaryen fathers the three heads of the dragon... to the point of starting a civil war and most likely giving arthur orders to make sure that the kid lives at all costs even if he thinks lyanna's kid is NOT AA; - let's remember that the entire schtick is also that 'he is the ptwp and his is the song of ice and fire' which means that this kid of rhaegar's is the person these books are titled after.

now, let's look again at tyrion's infamous quote which I always bring up in these cases but let's refresh our memory here Prophecy is like a half-trained mule. It looks as though it might be useful, but the moment you trust in it, it kicks you in the head now: given this, we can absolutely assume that no single prophecy in this book goes the way the person at the end of it interprets it... which means that rhaegar was wrong on a lot of accounts, but guess what, the thing is that one out of three of his kids is dead (if we count aegon as trueborn, if he's not then two on three but I think he's trueborn) and the one who hatched the eggs/has the dragon is DANY so he already was wrong on head of the dragon #1, and he can absolutely be wrong on aegon being tptwp which would mean mistake #2 and we should know about the prophecy, but one of his children being AA and his being the song of ice and fire looks a bit too much of a stretch to be incorrect and have AA being someone else's son also would be.... but if AA is jon ie the one he had for last that he was sure was not AA and who doesn't even have the targ name (nor the stark one) and no one suspects having that kinda ancestry then yes it fits exactly all the parameters and it still allows for rhaegar to have partially misinterpreted the entire thing even in large chunks but not enough to make it look like he was completely making shit up, which... I mean the long night is coming I don't doubt he had very good reasons to want to stop it; also, anon not to beat the dead horse, but: - jon's death fits all the prophecy parameters already there's the bleeding star, the smoking wound and the salt of the tears which btw is not obvious nor something you'd immediately do 2+2 about... which fits perfectly with the above - jon died and came back to life in the godforsaken show like he's literally the only idiot who resurrected in it and we're supposed to handwave it the way dnd did? - jon has a valyrian steel sword that he can handle while theon atm really doesn't - we could argue that ygritte could be a possible nissa-nissa contender though I mean maybe it could also be that he and val get hot and bothered and it turns out it's her or someone else and that hasn't happened yet but surely there's more evidence for that with jon than with theon - theon has like... povs in two books for a total amount of less than fifteen chapters, jon has at least ten chapters per book or so on, which just mathematically makes jon a main fiver character while theon is not and like I understand deconstruction and all but you don't make your ace in the hole mystical prince hero character someone who has had fifteen chapters total at most unless I remember wrong the amount he had in acok in comparison to someone who was a main throughout the entire thing - like guys I say it as someone whose third-fave char is theon, theon is not a main fiver™ character and that's okay that's not the point, and with that I don't mean he's not important, I mean that he's not one of the five main ones that have most of the plot stuff on their shoulders and he's not THE main character, because if theon is AA then these books are named a song of theon greyjoy and considering that the main five are jon tyrion arya dany and bran I think it's highly not probable that at the end of it theon is the one character to rule them all

and that was for how jon fit the criteria, but theon doesn't fit them because again he doesn't have a number of chapters/povs that justifies such a plot twist, balon is certainly not rhaegar and I don't see how rhaegar reads a prophecy wrt balon and thinks it's about him, the heads of the dragon should be three and theon had three siblings two of which are dead and asha has no tie to the dragon storyline, this means that theon should be able to ride/command a dragon and we know that in theory just targs can and there's already three of them around - dany jon and aegon - and if anyone who's not a targ has a narrative reason to ride a dragon is tyrion not theon... and tyrion is a main fiver too, also there's the nissa-nissa/burning sword angle and as it is theon could absolutely use a bow again but a longsword with his hands maimed like that and no muscle mass would be a bit implausible, in order for the reborn prophecy to actually make sense it means his last adwd chapter should have smoke, salt and the bleeding star which it doesn't but jon's has so there's that

now, re what you said wrt theon:

Theon’s chapters are full of hints

not really? he doesn't have a tie to the magical storyline beyond his connection to bran. they have hints for a lot of things but that he's AA? idt so

he has the perfect salt/smoke/stars/dragons thing at the end of ACOK, when he “dies”

okay but then I could use the same argument for saying that AA could be davos when he survives blackwater because he says he woke up in wreckage of smoke in salty water, and then stannis has equally valid arguments bc he has the shiny sword and he's in dragonstone etc and we all know it's not stannis, also an AA death at the ending of acok when the topic has barely been introduced in dany's vision is entirely too early for me to drop that bomb

his story is about destroying death, his entire narrative, with things that come from mythology and ancient literature, points to that.

his story is about overcoming trauma and abuse and not dying in the process (which is why I think the show was trash) and okay but everyone in these books has something that comes from a mythology or ancient literature, like jaime brienne and c. all have arthuriana roots same as bran, doesn't make any of them a viable AA candidate

The show is trash, but don’t you think that it’s a little weird that Theon is there at the end and then Arya comes out of nowhere and becomes AA?And what ending does she get? Exploring the unknown SEA with SHIPS? Being free and on her own? Maybe it doesn’t make sense for her because it’s not for her.

considering that maisie williams was shocked that arya was AA and she also thought it made no sense and that dnd never thought theon had his own storyline while I can agree on the fact that it fits more for him as an ending than for arya, I don't think that means it makes him AA, same as I think that they gave sansa his storyline and possibly his confrontation with ramsay and I'm not 100% convinced on the last part anyway but that just means they didn't realize theon doesn't exist for the starks' storyline, also like.. in the show everyone but c. was in WF and theon was already dead when arya did her thing and honestly idt the battle of the long night will ever go like that anyway so idt even partially show truthing is bringing us anywhere

and even if he’s not AA, he’s still clearly connected to magic and all of that, he didn’t go though so much for nothing, he didn’t take his name back for the first time in his life, his name that literally means “godly”, for nothing

I never said it was for nothing which I'll elaborate in a second and ofc he's connected to the magic storyline... because he's connected with bran's storyline and his last round of atonement has to happen through bran in the sense that since he was the one basically forcing bran out of wf now he most likely has to facilitate bringing him back or smth (surely not dying for him), but like whatever magical stuff he has going on it has to do with bran dot, not with AA which I still think he doesn't have a stricter text connection to than davos has for that matter and idt davos is AA as I think I made clear

He has something big to do, and it’s about himself, not Robb and the Starks.

never said he didn't, and I also said that I wasn't going to speculate in detail about what theon has to do because I don't think there are enough text elements to say it now but there will be when wow comes out for sure, but like again I don't want to make predictions when I don't have the elements and wrt theon's themes/possible canon ending etc I always said that he most likely isn't going to inherit the islands but that he'll do something huge before the books are done which is gonna be tied to the northern storyline and possibly to bran because he has to go specular to acok - acok is his downfall, adwd is 'I'll find myself again', wow+ados have to be what would theon do if he decides his own thing while being his own person, or recycling my old THEON HAS HEGELIAN THEMES IN HIS STORYLINE acok = thesis, adwd = antithesis, wow+ados = synthesis so obviously he has something huge in the plans.... I just don't think it means he's AA

And he’s also so clearly connected to the politics of the north and of the iron islands, a villain was literally created for him, so I don’t understand how can you say he’s not really important and all he’s got left to do is retire in a house and be sad

aaand here we get to the point which is that... I never said that? I honestly never said that? I said he has to overcome his trauma and live and thrive and be happy after that. if he retires in a house at the end of ados after he does whatever he has to do in the main plot it's going to be because it's what he wants to do and most likely he and jeyne are going to be adorbs while doing it together or smth or if he goes back to the islands and advises asha then he's going to be happy doing that too, but like... the entire point of theon's sl is that he overcomes that horrendous abuse while not being a perfect good victim™ throughout and still be happy after and gain his redemption? that's what I always said. I never said that now he can just retire and be sad. trauma recovery is becoming happy after getting over your trauma. not being sad. and like.... sometimes not getting amazing mythological things but just being happy by yourself is actually a goal? again, grrm is a lapsed catholic. if I know that breed and I do, he doesn't think redemption and happiness are in shortage at the supermarket. and in order for theon to have narrative importance/weight/relevance he doesn't have to do magical mythological IMPORTANT™ things (even if I think he does have something cooked up as I said above), but like the entire point of his sl is the trauma recovery. he's there for that. that's literally his point in the plot and the fact that grrm created a villain for him means that he thinks it's an important thing to explore.

also I personally think that theon's arc is the best written thing in those books so like I don't want to undermine its importance, I just don't think that in order to be important™ then theon has to be dragged kicking and screaming into main fiver territory because there isn't the need.

. Of course he has a lot of trauma and that’s important, but I don’t like how people reduce him to that and act like just because those things happened, he can’t do anything else

I don't like that either esp. when coming from dnd who didn't even let him have it fully, but: and when did I ever do it? I never said that theon is only his trauma. my standing opinion wrt theon is that he's grrm's best written/constructed character (along with jaime) and his most innovative one (jaime following but theon wins it) because theon deconstructs the backstabber trope which I already went on about but:

again usually ppl who backstab the good protagonist™ get caught and punished and you never hear their pov

theon has all the povs

he's the main char in that storyline not robb

he has entirely understandable reasons that ppl decided aren't sympathetic just bc they don't want to admit that in his position they'd have done the same thing

the audience hates him for having contributed to robb's downfall but then he gets a comeuppance that's completely not what anyone would deserve for that and he gets the spotlight/the sympathy again

he gets narrative redemption saving jeyne so you can see he's not an asshole at all

has to get through horrific abuse for his entire life not just with ramsay, he's not a good victim™ but he's still written in a way that makes you want to root for him and at the end he actually comes through so you want him to keep on succeeding

which is smth that with the backstabber trope never happens

now the thing is that theon's there bc a) identity issues b) trauma recovery storylines that then get tied to bran's main one but like idg why just having the recovery storyline would make him lesser - saying he's not a main fiver doesn't mean he's not important, it means he's not a MAIN™ character... which in asoiaf doesn't matter bc even ppl without povs are important to the narration and are there to drive a point (see sandor and stannis), and I don't see why saying that the most important part of his sl/the one grrm wants to stick with the readers is the survivor part of it rather than whichever heavy magic related plot thing he has to play in the future means undermining his importance. and while I think he has that role, idt it's the most important one he has bc being a survivor is what sells his storyline/the entire arc of his character.

then if come wow I'm wrong I'll be like okay I fucked up, but: honestly, imvho there is no way that azor ahai is not jon snow, the fact that collectively as a fandom we think it's obvious doesn't mean people in westeros do, each single point of evidence is at jon and if occam's razor is a thing then it's jon and that's okay because as deconstructed chosen one as he is, jon is still the protagonist of these books and regarding the prophecy above, it makes a lot more sense that this series is titled a song of jon snow and not a song of theon greyjoy and I say this as someone who vastly prefers theon as a character. also, if smth is well-written, readers should see it coming, so the fact that jon is AA isn't predictable if it's true, it's grrm.... knowing how to write a book and plant his hints because if everyone guessed right then if he makes it suddenly someone else bc jon is too predictable then it's dnd making it arya bc SURPRISE WE NEEDED YOU TO GO LIKE WTF HAS JUST HAPPENED INSTEAD OF FOLLOWING THE NARRATION TO ITS NATURAL CONCLUSION, not 'it's too predictable' or the audience red herring the way jaime being the valonqar is an audience red herring. jon being AA should be absolutely obvious for the reader who paid attention and a total surprise for the other characters in the narration, the audience red herring is more dany than anyone else imvho and I'm dying on that hill for now, thanks for coming to my ted talk but like I don't see how it's anyone but jon personally X°D

[sepedarodatiga]

Symbolic marriage in the story only serve to disappoints, why would they give us that

I’m just going to put it out there, I ship jonsa and reylo. Even though there are people who ships both just like me, I think there aren’t very many. Most people, if they ship one, don’t ship the other and even leaning towards a different ship. So I apologize in advance if this post found the wrong people. I will try to tag appropriately.

I have recently came across a hero archetype defined by Lord Raglan, an anthropologist who studies folklore. This simple discovery has led me to a revelation on why this is the two stories that I am invested in, because they are essentially the same story, following the hero archetype that Lord Raglan had defined. Here is how Jon Snow fits into the archetype and here is how Kylo Ren fits into the archetype.

And the ship.. well the shipping part occurs because of the tension built by the story between the two characters with their respective love interest. That is also why I got involved shipping two ships that are... controversial? problematic?... I mean, yes exactly, the tension is what making it interesting. Jon and Sansa are siblings but secretly they are cousins who can marry? OH MY GOD. Kylo and Rey are attracted to each other but they are on opposite sides? OH YES, gimme.

Anyway, following Raglan’s archetype, the two protagonists (Kylo Ren is a villain protagonist), would have married their love interest, before they become King (or Supreme Leader). And (shippers had found) that it DID happen in the story, BUT ONLY SYMBOLICALLY.

I mean, yeah, thanks very much for giving the tension relieve symbolically. No wonder non-shippers totally missed that and accused shippers as delusional. And moreover, we are STILL waiting for the actual relieve. We are STILL waiting for an ending and resolve that NEVER CAME because the story just move forward with its trajectories and leave us shippers behind.

I felt like now I owe an explanation on what I mean with symbolic marriage. In Raglan’s archetype, the protagonist “marries a princess, often daughter of predecessors” before they becomes King. I will break it down one by one starting with reylo.

Rey is not a princess, but she an equivalent of a princess in this story, being the main female protagonist and a jedi knight. Kylo’s “kingship” is being the Supreme Leader that he took from Snoke, and Rey is also not Snoke’s daughter, but she is Luke Skywalker’s apprentice, another patriarchal figure in Kylo’s story. Maybe I’m pushing it a little, but I do think it still fits. You are of course free to think otherwise.

I have read meta from reylo shippers that the hand touch scene during the force bond seems to emulate Hindu marriage rituals where the bride and groom will clasp their hands around a sacred fire and say their vows. Kylo and Rey did this. Their hand touches near the fire and they say their vows: you are not alone/neither are you.

What follows after this they slay Snoke together (so actually the sequence is a bit messed up, but not by a lot) and then Kylo becomes “King”. And of course after that the story moved on to which he lost favour of his followers and driven away followed by death. So the marriage, the slaying of the beast and the ascension to the throne was the story’s climax, there was no happy ending to look forward to, only a tragic ending. And the marriage, which is the culmination of the story, was only done symbolically. I don’t know why they think that will ever going to satisfy viewers?

Now on to jonsa.

Jon’s kingdom is the North; he has become the King in the North in the story, and therefore the princess, daughter of predecessor, is a Northern princess. Sansa Stark fits into this as the daughter of Ned Stark whom Jon met before he is hailed as King in the North. And just like reylo, their marriage only happened symbolically.

Jonsa shippers had noticed that Sansa was given Jon’s cloak after her arrival at Castle Black when they were eating their soup by the fire reminiscing about the past and asking forgiveness. In Westeros, a wedding ceremony would involve the groom covering the bride in his cloak. And then after they were talking about the past, they drank ale from the same cup which is a common wedding ritual practice from around the world, including from Scotland where The North in Westeros is sort of based upon (cmiiw). Followed after that is their vow for the future: “where will you go/where will we go”, and “if I don’t watch over you father’s ghost will come back and murder me”, effectively taking over Sansa’s protection from his father. In return, Sansa gave Jon a cloak just like the one Ned Stark used to wear, as a form of blessing for Jon to become Ned’s successor.

And then they continue slaying the wild beast Ramsay and Jon becomes the King in the North, with Sansa by his side.

Then the story move on with Jon reigning uneventfully for a time and then he decided to make alliance with Daenerys and so on to his tragic ending. Jonsa shippers weren’t given an actual romantic relationship between them, only in the subtext.

At least reylos was finally given a confirmation in the last minute, but jonsas are being kept in the delulu land, while the books are not out yet which gave us only another source of frustration. But for both, the UST stays unresolved, because the marriage is only symbolic.

So I just want to say....I don’t know, thank you for the double disappointment I guess? I do hope other people had it better than I did.

[mk-wizard]

So Long, Garfield: A fanscript on how Garfield could end well

Hello, fans and fat cats. Here I am with another Garfield essay, but this one is different. It is not exploration, fan theory or character analysis, but a fanscript on how the iconic comic strip cat could end on a high note. Keep in mind that this fanscript also tries to uphold all the things that made Garfield great and brings the original concept as well as many original ideas full circle. The premise of Garfield was that we saw life through his eyes namely how he saw his owner Jon’s life at how socially awkward, pathetic and bad with women he was. The audience was also subtly led to believe that if Jon ever did finally find a woman namely his most often go-to-gal Garfield’s vet Liz who found him revolting, it would mean the end of Garfield. Yet when that happened, it still went on. I think the story should end now and here is a fan script that I put together on how Garfield could end in my opinion on a high note while honouring its legacy. It is divided into four parts which symbolize the four stages of a very drastic change in one’s life. Specifically, how everything around Garfield changes in an almost domino effect kind of way because Jon and Liz finally became a couple. Note that that four stages serve as four story arcs which make up what would make for Garfield’s very last volume in the book series.

1- Jon wants to marry Liz meaning she will move in and the household dynamic and lifestyle will change forever (resistance). - After becoming an official couple, Jon and Liz decide to move onto the next big step which is to get married. Before, when they were just dating, it made Garfield a bit jealous yet he could deal with it because at least everything else was the same in his life and he grew to like having Liz around as a visitor, but having her around full time means things will change the household dynamic forever. It turns out that adapting to having Liz live with them is going to take a lot changes and it means the way they act, live and do every day tasks will not be the same anymore. Initially, Garfield will react very bad to this because unlike Jon, he likes bachelorhood and isn’t ready to give it up, so he would probably do everything he could to foil Jon’s attempts to propose to Liz and even go as far as making Liz very uncomfortable in an effort to get her to dump Jon. However, Garfield’s stunts in fact backfire as Liz turns out to be very tolerant and patient with him as she is not only good with animals since she is a vet, but kind of see right through him so she sympathizes with him not wanting her to intrude. Also, despite all of Garfield’s efforts, Jon still somehow manages to propose to Liz and she says yes. When that happens, Garfield stops resisting and just resigns. Note that from here on end, the planning of Jon and Liz’s wedding is ongoing in the background.

2- Lyman finally finds his own place and job meaning he will move out, but so will Odie (denial). - This leads us to phase two which also brings up the forgotten yet still present idea that Lyman is Jon’s roommate and Odie is not actually Jon’s dog. After so many years, Lyman finally lands a great job and is able to move out, BUT if he goes, so will Odie. Obvious, neither Garfield or Odie are happy about this because they’re actually good friends. I would imagine that there would be tons upon tons of gags of trying to stop the move out from happening like the pets emptying out the luggage to trying to sneak Odie away so that he secretly stays in Jon and Garfield’s house, but of course, all of these attempts to keep the status quo would not only fail, they would make both Jon and Lyman very angry. I imagine the punchline in the end would be that it turns out that Lyman is only moving away into his own house a few blocks away which is just walking distance. Also, the serious side that keeping Odie isn’t just unrealistic, it’s mean because he’s all Lyman’s got. Of course, Jon and his own friend still be cool. It is also here we finally find out what Lyman does for a living; he is a photographer and he will be taking pictures for Jon and Liz’s wedding. And bittersweetly, while it turns out Garfield and Odie won’t be split up that far apart, them not living together is still a huge change to get used to as their absence in each other’s lives is felt.

3- Nermal comes to terms with leaving kittenhood and abandonment issues in his mind (depression). - At this phase, Garfield is sad and depressed, and things seem to get worse as Jon and Liz are going to the Arbuckle farm to celebrate their engagement. And fun long lost fact; Nermal is the kitten of Ma and Pa Arbuckle... but things have changed there too and so has Nermal. Mom and Dad have their own announcement which is that they are retiring and have decided to start traveling which means they are leaving the farm and the little guy in Doc Boy’s care. And while the parents are optimistic about this new phase in their lives, Doc Boy is facing some issues as Nermal is no longer a kitten. He is now a “teenager” meaning he is no longer cute and has taken up a rebellious as well as an unfriendly streak. He has become spiteful and does unkind things which as first annoys Garfield until he notices a familiar pattern and recalls he went through the same thing... when his previous owner, a pasta chef gave him to Jon. Despite all of his better judgement, Garfield gets Nermal to have a heart to heart talk, and Nermal admits that he is hurt that Mr. and Mrs. Arbuckle are leaving him behind. He thinks that they are abandoning him because he’s not a cute little kitten anymore. Of course, it turns out that the real reason they are leaving him with Doc Boy is out of love. Nermal has needs and requires stability that the Arbuckles cannot give him at their age, so they are leaving him with Doc Boy so he’ll be in good hands and have a good life. Garfield then finally comes to terms with his own abandonment issues and discovers that the pasta chef did the same thing. He didn’t give him to Jon to get rid of him because he was eating the lasagna all the time. Garfield getting older and hungrier was a sign that he was growing up and needed a good home, so the chef helped Garfield find an owner who could be there for him full time. Through this, for the first time ever, Garfield and Nermal finally find common ground and get to like each other. It turns out that underneath it all, Nermal is a lot like Garfield in how he likes to eat and secretly enjoys mischief. So much so that like how Garfield loves lasagna, Nermal adores country style apple pie. At the end of the engagement party and trip, both Garfield and Nermal’s spirits are lifted, and while Nermal has eased up a little, it is hinted that he has become Doc Boy’s “Garfield” which makes Garfield for the first time ever, finds Nermal cute for it.

4- Jon gets to know Liz’s parents and Garfield rethinks his own relationship with Arlene (acceptance). - Nearing the end of the wedding plans, Jon must now get to know Liz’s parents and become accepted by them. It turns out that Liz’s dad is an easy going guy who seems to have a lot in common with Jon while her mom is the stern one who seems to have a lot of Liz’s sarcastic and no nonsense demeanor. She is also a big time zoologist. Meanwhile, Garfield is taking in all of the changes that are going on around them and decides that maybe, change isn’t so bad after all. Namely, maybe it isn’t so bad to love someone other than yourself. This makes him think that instead of just being casual with Arlene yet keeping her at an arm’s length, he decides he wants to go steady with her and officially become boyfriend and girlfriend with her. In the midst of all of this, it turns out that despite how intimidating Liz’s mom has acted towards Jon, she actually always accepted him and thinks he is a good match for her daughter because they balance each other kind of like how her own quirky and socially awkward husband balances himself with her. More importantly, Jon makes Liz happier than any other man she has met before. Once that resolution is made and all of the wedding plans are made, Garfield at long last introduces Arlene to the family indicating that they are officially together. Of course, Jon and Liz being who they are, take an immediate liking to Arlene and agree to take her in meaning that she is also not part of the household too. At this point, the wedding plans are finally put into place which offers tons of hilarious antics namely the things that go wrong to the things that are over the top. Though at the end, the wedding finally happens and the final scene is of Jon and Liz becoming husband and wife while Garfield thanks the audience for coming this far with them and saying goodbye.

The End

Well, there you have it. This is my fanscript on how Garfield ought to end in the best way possible. What do you all think of it? I would love to hear what you all think. Do you think any of this will happen?

If you have a fan theory, character analysis or anything of a comic media you want me to make an essay for, let me know in my ask section. Also, please give this a like, give me a watch and support me either by Ko-fi or Patreon. Links are in my profile.

Thanks guys and as always, stay safe.

[silverducks]

Jaime Lannister – A theory on his ending in the books

So, as you can probably tell from my blog, I’m not quite yet over the ending of Game of Thrones, which I binged watched and finished about a month and a half ago now.

The main issue is the ending, or the last 3 episodes to be more precise, where so many things didn’t make a whole lot of sense. The main one being, for me, how the story ended for Jaime Lannister.

So, whilst writing all my super long character analysis for Jaime is definitely helping, (I’m about half way through the next one), I’ve also been reading about possible ways his story could go, and how it might end in the books.

And today I came across a theory I really, really like. It’s become my new headcanon for what will happen in the books and I’ve added a mix of other theories I’ve read to it as well.

Now, show and book spoilers beneath the cut.

First off, I’d like to say I haven’t yet read the books, so this post is based on the show and what I’ve read happens in the books. None of these theories are my own, but I’ve combined them all together in a way that actually makes a lot of sense to me. So until the books prove me wrong – or I come across an even better theory, this is my new headcanon.

(I don’t have any links as they’re random posts/comments etc I’ve found on the net on my phone, but I’m not claiming these ideas as my own, just putting it all together, so I hope the lack of links to source is ok.)

So without any further preamble, the theory is that Jaime and Tyrion’s story arcs and endgame in the book were reversed in the show. This would mean that the main plot points the writer, George R.R. Martin (GRRM) told the screenwriters (D&D), were swapped around between the two characters.

That would mean that it would be Jaime who became the hand of the King, not Tyrion, and Jaime who put forward the idea of the Bran becoming King.

And I love this theory, because it would be such a fitting end for Jaime. And below I will explain why.

Firstly, the idea of Jaime becoming the Hand of the King for Bran is a wonderful final step in his character arc – he’s gone from throwing this kid out of a tower to try and kill him, to serving as his main advisor, trusted with the power and command of the King. Jaime and Bran’s character arcs are already connected, much more than Tyrion’s ever was, and for the similar reason why Bran gave it to Tyrion, he could give it to Jaime – in fact it makes more sense!

And rather than a redemptodeath for Jaime, he doesn’t have to die, and can instead have a fulfilling life, continually making up for past wrongs as the Hand, and with the real love of his life, Brienne. She could still be Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, as per the show, but married to Jaime (they’d change that outdated celibacy/non marriage rule easily enough), giving her a much more satisfying ending. And why does Jaime have to die? He’s atoned for his past wrongs, lost that darn hand that (symbolically in the show), did push Bran out the window, and it doesn’t serve any other higher story telling purpose… And by becoming the Hand of the King, after he lost the hand that hurt said King, is even more symbolic.

I know Jaime has refused to be Hand before, but that was old Jaime. And if we assume Jaime continues on his road to self-betterment, then he can continue to learn and improve the skills that would make a good Hand. He’s becoming more honourable, but has seen enough of the world to know sometimes there’s a conflicting choice (unlike Ned in series one). He’s been learning to rely on his own wits and brains much more since he can’t now just fight his way out of everything – and is proving pretty smart. He is proving to be a good commander of the army and has been a Lord Commander for the Kingsguard. And has enough Lannister cunning, but with actual mercy and honour, to make it work. A stark King with a Lannister Hand!

Imagine, ending the very first episode of the show with Jaime pushing Bran out that window, to ending with Jaime by his side, advising (and also of course) protecting him. How good is a full circle/reflection piece for Jaime as that!

And in a similar vein, Jaime can be the one to put forward to the council of Lords (I assume something similar happens in the books, but much better written), that Bran should be King. That being the all-knowing Three Eyed Raven means he’s a good match. And surely the other Lords would more likely listen to Jaime – who is a good commander – than Tyrion, who hasn’t really won over many of the Lords in Westeros. After all, he was sentenced to death for killing a King (they don’t know it was a set up), and also killed his father and escaped. He’s been in a foreign land serving a foreign (to them anyway) ruler who has just sacked their Capitol city. Doesn’t it just make so much more sense that they’d listen to an alive Jaime? Yes he killed the King too, but he also did a lot of other good stuff as per his redemption arc etc.

Anyway, I just think it makes more sense – and then the Kingslayer Jaime, becomes the Kingmaker Jaime – again another wonderful full circle arc for him.

So, from a storytelling theme, symbolism and arc perspective, I think it just makes so much sense!

But when you also look at the show itself, in comparison to the books and where the show sort of went wrong, it makes more sense too.

So, just to give a bit of background on it, the theory I read today about Jaime and Tyrion’s role reversal was in a post mainly looking at how Tyrion’s character seems to be going in a very different direction in the books versus the show.

The idea is that book Tyrion is in a much darker place in the books than show Tyrion, and this, in the upcoming books, could continue. This could send book Tyrion down a difficult, morally dark path, which could result in him becoming more of a villain type character, perhaps taking on more and more of his father’s bad traits. This makes sense to me, as Tyrion was most like his father and was certainly cunning. And where the books start to properly deviate from the show, after series four, Tyrion could go either way. He has just killed his father and his lover. And in the books he also falls out with Jaime when Jaime tells him the truth about his first wife (that she wasn’t a whore like Tywin said). Being in this foreign land with all these dark thoughts and deeds haunting him, I can definitely see him turning into more of a bad guy.

So, basically, a completely different story arc for Tyrion.

In terms of his endgame? Well, if he’s swapped with Jaime’s then I guess it means he might die. Maybe after killing Cersei, hence them dying “together.” Or at least be punished such as sent to the Wall or something. I don’t think GRRM said either Lannister brother actually dies in Cersei’s loving arms, so I’m guessing they took some differences in both Jaime’s and Tyrion’s endgame, if the theory is correct.

And I’m tempted to believe it is, because it helps explain Tyrion’s kind of dodgy characterisation in the later series of the show. He just wasn’t really the same after series four, which at the time, I just put down to D&D not being clever enough writers to write a clever character such as Tyrion. But with this theory, it actually makes more sense. Tyrion was such a fan favourite character in the show, the underdog, clever, snarky good guy, I can understand why D&D didn’t want to take him down this other, darker path. In the books, there’s much more time and details and PoVs to make it work, whereas the show would struggle, especially against such a popular fandom character.

It also explains why Jaime never told him the truth about his wife, or they had their big fall out in the show.

And by changing Tyrion’s story arc so much, they didn’t really know what to replace it with (I think we all agree D&D are not the best writers), so his characterisation was not only off in later series, but it meant they took Jaime’s end game and gave it to Tyrion instead. And this further makes sense as they might have thought having just Cersei (a female) the only bad Lannister at the end was too much, especially when one of the other main female characters, Dany, was also going bad. So, they made Jaime “hateful” in the end to better match and even out Cersei, because it was supposed to be Tyrion…

(I do think D&D were also unhealthily obsessed with Cersei and Twincest, so they probably thought it have them an extra good reason.)

And there’s a really good reflection in this between the two brothers – Jaime starts out the villain, but ends up the underdog hero, Tyrion starts out the underdog hero, but ends up the villain.

But, in changing Tyrion’s character, if indeed it does, it then also has a knock on effect for so many other things.

The theory also said that he might negatively influence Dany, when they meet. For example, help to slowly bring out her suppressed mad/dark side, encourage her to take Kings Landing (which the theory points out Tyrion actually ends up hating because of how the people there view him.) So perhaps if Tyrion’s influence is so vengeful in the books, maybe’s Dany’s own turn to madness makes much more sense. And the lack of Tyrion’s negative influence in the show, undermines this. And this could then make Jon’s decision to have to kill her much harder etc.

So, I do think it’s quite possible, looking at Tyrion’s side, that they gave him a very different story arc, and so had to swap it up with Jaime’s endgame.

The show has certainly mixed and matched up characters from the book, so this would help explain why the main beats are still GRRMs, but why they didn’t just work for some of the characters. So not completely made up and ruined, but they just weren’t able to make the pieces fit together properly in their changed version. (And I do think they could have easily done a much better job, so I’m not letting D&D off the hook.)

Now, back to Jaime, because as much as I love all the characters, I’ll be honest, it’s only really Jaime and Brienne who I obsess enough over to properly theorise about.

Why do I think this works so well for Jaime? Well, first off, the whole him dying in Cersei’s arms just does not make any sense at all to me (hence all my super long posts about it). Especially if we take into account how over Cersei show Jaime seems in series 8, until that scene in episode 4. He behaves like he’s completely cut ties with her, fallen out of love with her and has fallen truly in love with someone else instead – Brienne. This is even more obvious in the books, where Jaime actually burns Cersei’s letter where she’s begging for help. And when he looks back on it later, he’s dreading retuning to Kings Landing and facing her. In fact, he thinks that Cersei might well die, but there’s nothing he can do anyway and perhaps she deserves it. Granted we do have 2 more books to go, but this is like the complete opposite of his ending in series 8, that I think it’s highly unlikely it was meant to happen in the books. A LOT of stuff would have to happen for book Jaime to change his mind now.

But as they gave Jaime’s ending to Tyrion, as per our theory, then what do they do with Jaime? Well, why not have him die in Cersei’s arms and fulfil their Twincest fix. Have Jaime be the bad brother Lannister, not Tyrion.

In fact, I don’t think D&D knew what to do with Jaime either, as he changes so abruptly in the show. It’s like they had to try to cover Jaime’s actual plot points from GRRM (which I’d assume were things like fighting the dead, getting together with Brienne), but then suddenly have him change his mind and rush back to Cersei... Also, as much as I loved Jaime in early series 8, he doesn’t really do anything pivotal. If you take him out of the equation and have him never even in series 8, the actual storylines all stay the same anyway. So, for me, this further adds weight to the idea that, in swapping Jaime’s endgame with Tyrion, they were left with the same problem, what do we then do with Jaime?

It’s like other aspects – they try to change one thing, but by changing that, it affects everything else so what you’re left with doesn’t make sense for the characters.

Now, so far I’ve talked mainly about the show, because overall I do think the main plot points in the show will happen in the books. And if you consider the role reversal between Tyrion and Jaime, it makes more sense why what happened did happen (which makes no sense in the show story itself).

But this is where I start to tie the various theories I’ve read together – it also makes a lot of sense in the books, for Jaime to not die, but instead be Bran’s Hand.

Other than the wonderful symmetry we’d get, as mentioned above, there’s a few things that happen in Jaime’s arc just in the books that make it even more possible, which I’ll talk about now.

So, most of this comes from Jaime’s fever dream, or also called his Weirwood dream. Now, there’s lots of analysis on this dream on the net, and there’s lots of ideas, some conflicting, of what it could mean. It’s not all relevant to this particular theory, so I’ll just summarise it. Basically, in the books, Jaime doesn’t go back to save Brienne from the bear straight away. Instead he travels quite far away with Bolton’s men, and goes to sleep on, what we assume, is a Weirwood stump. At the same time, Jaime is also suffering from a fever due to his hand becoming infected. Now, that means he’s potentially delirious, but also the dream is potentially prophetic. The Weirwood trees are those magic trees that Bran uses to have visions and to find the first Three Eyed Raven. I’m sure there’s more about them in the books as well. But it’s this potential for it being prophetic that I’m most interested in here.

Ok, so the dream starts a bit like a nightmare – Jaime is led somewhere underground that’s dark and feels dangerous by lots of ghosts. He first assumes it’s under Casterly Rock, and indeed he thinks he’s surrounded by the ghosts of the Lannister family. He’s scared and naked (eg vulnerable) and his father, sister and Joeffrey come. Cersei is holding a torch – the only light in the world for Jaime, but they leave and Jaime is left scared again in the dark. Before they go, he begs them for a sword, which Tywin says he gave him, and he begs Cersei to not leave him. Jaime finds a sword and as he touches it, the blade flames blue, providing some light. Now, a lot of analysis on this part of the dream tie it to Jaime’s metaphorical death, (ie of the old Jaime going to Hell) or breaking away from his family so they leave him. The light of Cersei’s going out, and instead a new light on Jaime’s sword coming, could also then symbolise that he’s breaking away (or about to) from Cersei and finding himself, his own light, instead. I also think, as we know Tywin and Joeffrey die later in the books and show, that it’s also foretelling their deaths. Which means it’s likely that Cersei dies before Jaime in the books, hence why he leaves her and he can’t follow. So this firstly means Jaime can’t die in Cersei’s arms.

Now, the next bit of the dream gets interesting, because who shows up next, after Cersei and his family has gone? Brienne of course! She appears (also naked) and Jaime imagines she looks not only more like a woman now, but also that in the light she could also be beauty, and a knight. This is generally taken to show Jaime’s growing (and so far subconscious) attraction to Brienne – and that he sees her as both a warrior and a woman. Now she asks for a sword, and also asks to be able to keep him safe, as she has pledged this and must keep her oath. A sword appears and Jaime gives it to her, and it also starts burning with blue flames.

Now, I think these two swords represent Oathkeeper (the one Jaime gives to Brienne in series four) and Widow’s Wail, which Jaime gets after Tommen dies in series 7. And these are two Valyrian steel swords that were from the melted down sword Ice, which used to be Neds. Now, I don’t think this is coincidental, but again I’ll come back to this.

Brienne is there to help protect Jaime, but she also asks him what’s down in this dark place (which may or may not still symbolise Casterly Rock or another place). Jaime says doom, and Brienne is worried it’s a bear (foreshadowing her being in the bear pit later). We hear, but don’t see Cersei saying that if the flames go out, Jaime will die.

In the next part of the dream ghostly, mist like figures appear and Jaime recognises them as his former Kingsguard and then Rhaeger, the heir to the throne before he was killed in Robert’s rebellion. These ghostly figures accuse Jaime of not keeping his oaths and seem about to attack. Jaime tries to plead with them and give his reasons, and Brienne is still there ready to defend him. These ghosts likely represent the internal guilt and self-hatred Jaime still has for killing the Mad King, but also for not saving Rhaeger’s own children, which were murdered on Tywin’s orders. As the ghost like figures continue to accuse Jaime, the flame on his own sword goes out, and the ghosts rush in, and then Jaime wakes up. As soon as he wakes up, pretty much, he demands Bolton’s men take him back to Harrenhal, where he then saves Brienne just like in the show.

Now, I read a lot of people saying this foretells Jaime’s death, that his flame goes out, but I disagree. I think the fact that Brienne has a matching flame, on a twin sword to his, means that Jaime doesn’t die – after all Cersei says flameS. Instead, I think this ending to the dream foretells that Brienne will actually save Jaime – that as long as she is alive, Jaime will also be.

Now, onto more foreshadowing theories from this dream – I think the ghostly, mist like figures also represent the White Walkers, and that him and Brienne are there facing them means that they will indeed (just like in the show) stand together to fight them in the books. As this has also happened after Cersei has left Jaime with his now dead father and son, I think it means she’ll already have died by this point.

I also think his guilt and the mention of Rhaegar’s children, which Jaime feels guilty about failing to protect, will also tie into Jon’s storyline. As the only surviving child of Rhaegar, I think once Jaime finds out, and Jon, Jaime will pledge himself to protect/serve Jon to make up for this guilt. I then think, based on this, that Jaime will effectively save Jon’s life in the battle with the White Walkers and then, Brienne will have to save Jaime’s. After all, she says in the dream she pledged to protect and save Jaime.

Now, the reason I think the end of the dream means Brienne saves Jaime, is not only because her flame keeps burning in the dream, but also because, as soon as Jaime wakes up, he decides he has to save Brienne. As we are going with the idea that this dream is prophetic from the Weirwood stump, it seems very important that Jaime rescues Brienne, so she can be there to fight with him. And what better reason than having to save him, when his own light (the sword flames) has failed?

And those swords – two halves of one whole, from Ice, the Stark’s sword. Turning into blue flames and helping them in the battle against the dead. Likely at or near Winterfell like in the show… When the books have a theory about a special sword called Lightbringer, wielded by the hero Azor Ahai to defeat the Others..

Soooo, perhaps this is really going into the realms of fan theory, but I definitely think that ICE could be Lightbringer, and that Brienne and Jaime, with Jon (who imo is the Azor Ahai character) will be imperative in helping to defeat the White Walkers. And that Jaime will fall in this battle, and Brienne will have to be there to save him so he doesn’t die.

Now, you might ask, what does all this random dream theorising mean for Jaime becoming the Hand of the King? Well, first of all I think it foreshadows that both Jaime and Brienne have a major part to play in the battle against the dead – much more than in the show. And that as Jaime is near death, it was super important for Brienne to be there to save him. And that it was super important for Jaime to give Brienne the sword Oathkeeper, and have Widow’s Wail himself – two halves of the same sword. So, all this must happen, and Brienne must save Jaime, which is why Jaime was given the prophetic dream in the first place. After all, if he hadn’t of saved Brienne, none of the above could go as it should…

And, this is where Bran comes in and this is more my own idea than anything else, so forgive me if I’m just not understanding the books properly. But as Bran himself sees visions through the Weirwood trees, which I suspect are due to them being sent either by the old Three Eyed Raven, or markers from Bran himself in the future, or perhaps fate or another unseen magical force. Then I wonder if the reason why Jaime was sent this vision, is because of Bran – and also the White Walkers. That Jaime had to help in the fight, but also had to be saved by Brienne. (Maybe even because it’s through his interactions with Brienne that he does become a better person and chooses to fight). And he had to be saved, because it was his destiny to be the Hand of the King to Bran. And also to save Jon so Jon can defeat the White Walkers. And that perhaps, this saving of Jon by Jaime is another reason why he is chosen as the Hand of the King.

I would also like to add in here, my other theories for book Jaime, which can lead him up to being Hand of the King, and tie up other loose ends in his story arc. So, the books and the show deviate a lot for Jaime after series four – he breaks away from Cersei much earlier and he’s currently off on an adventure in the Riverlands with Brienne in the books. A story arc not put into the show, featuring Lady Stoneheart (LSH). Now, she is a re-resurrected, zombie like version of Catelyn Stark, who is hell bent on revenge for the Freys and the Lannisters for the Red Wedding. She’s threatened Brienne with the death of Pod, unless she brings her Jaime. (At least that’s what most people infer from the books, it’s left open ended on a bit of a cliffhanger.

Now, my theory on this is that somehow Jaime and Brienne will have to fight each other in a trial by combat (echoed in the show itself by Brienne’s line about maybe having to fight Jaime). Of course they won’t be able to kill each other and will somehow be able to escape from, or kill Lady Stonehart.

So, why am I mentioning this? Well, GRRM himself has said he was disappointed they didn’t include the LSH plot in the show. Instead, D&D completely cut it out and sent Jaime to Dorne instead (as in series 5, which isn’t in the books). But for GRRM to say he wanted it in the show, makes me think there’s something very significant that is going to happen from it – either to the characters, or their relationship. Something which will later prove to be important in the rest of the story. This makes me think that Jaime and Brienne have a much bigger impact on the overall story arc than they were given in the show. And if it is more important, it makes the idea they’d have an important ending as well – Hand and LC of Kingsguard respectively – make more sense. And perhaps add more weight to the idea that Jaime HAD to save Brienne.

Now, after LSH, my idea is that Jaime will have to go back to Kings Landing and Cersei – but not in a romantic way. I think, like in the show, Jaime’s going to have a story arc that takes him on the role of commanding the Lannister’s forces against Dany’s when they get to Westeros. And if we assume Cersei does die before the battle with the undead, maybe this is also when Jaime kills Cersei – if he is the Valanqar, the one prophesised to kill Cersei. Or it could be someone else…

I then think the battle for Kings Landing will happen before that of the White Walkers, so Jaime then goes to help in the North, and catches up with Brienne again, who has been busy saving Sansa after her and Jaime parted ways (on good, but still unrealised and not yet acknowledged romantic terms) after LSH. I then think, like in the show, Jaime and Brienne will get together near the end, but this time not only will there be no Cersei for Jaime to rush back to (and throwing his character arc out the window like he does in the show), but he will still live to then become King Bran’s hand.

Of course, there’s still so many unknowns, and all, none or bits of this could happen, so I really hope we do get to see the last two books and find out what really happens.

But until then, I’m going to stick with the idea that Jaime marries Brienne, and becomes the Hand of the King and survives!

There, that’s the end of my theory – several all tied together really. I’d be interested to know what people think.

I know that my later reasons are more random ideas, but I do think, above all, the idea that Jaime is going to be the Hand of the King, not Tyrion, helps explain why the show didn’t really make sense for those characters (Jaime's 180 change at the end being the main one). But also just the wonderful symmetry of a redeemed Jaime fulfilling the role of Hand, for a King he once tried to kill, after he became a better person after losing his own hand…

[aflyingcontradiction]

The Magnus Archives Relisten: Episode 89 - Twice as Bright

Jon: Right. But no more abattoir metaphors, please. Jude: Suppose it’s not really me, is it?

Yeah, too Fleshy.

Jon: I just have a few questions. Did you burn down a section of Gwydir Forest last year? Jude: Not alone, but yes. You should have seen how devastated they were, such a loss. Jon: I’m sure the Forestry Commission were mortified. Why? Jude: Stop that! And it was because Nikola Orsinov asked us to.

Jon doesn't even know what he's doing and Jude is getting all bristly, like a scared cat hissing.

Jon: I just… er, you were a friend of Agnes Montague, correct? Jude: She’s not one of your little stories. Jon: According to the statement of Jack Barnabas, she very much is.

Anyone going to throw things at me if I say "Oooh, burn!" in this context? Because, this is very much an Ooooh burn sort of situation.

Jon: Yes, yes, I understand, you could easily kill me, I’m at your mercy, blah, blah, blah. I have heard it before. And from things much scarier than you.

Jeez, Jon, where's all THIS coming from all of the sudden? Man, I wish I ever went from 'exhaustedly done with the world's shit' to 'I'm giving the world its shit right back!' like that!

Jude: Are you trying to talk me into killing you? If I wanted, I could reach through your chest like runny wax, and hold your heart while it cooked. No-one would even notice, if I didn’t give you time to scream.

Oh god, I love Jude. Every other avatar we've met is all quiet menace until they go full-monster and even then they're just 'JooOoon, coming to fiiiiind youuuu'. And here's Jude just CHEWING the goddamn scenery with relish, cutting things asunder with her edge. I've said this multiple times to people while discussing TMA but Jude is just basically the navy seal copypasta of avatardom and I'm enjoying her so much right now!

Jude: Hard to say. When I look at you I feel that burning liquid pain, eager to flow out and purify your rotten carcass, but I feel that a lot. Jon: Oh. M-More or less than normal? Jude: Hard to say when every nerve ending’s on fire. Hard to tell degrees. Jon: Third degree, maybe?

I cannot tell you which of the two I want to squeal at more right now. I adore this entire dialogue so much.

Jude: Oh please, your god is nothing! The Eye, Beholding, Ceaseless Watcher, whatever you call it, that’s all it does, it watches and knows, sitting bulbous and comfortable in the ignorance of infinite knowledge. I serve a reckoning, a surging tide of destruction and pain.

Okay, but you still react like a cat that's been sprayed with water whenever Jon asks you a question, Jude, love, you're not fooling anyone...

Jude: The unfathomable contest of eternal forces is not the only reason I might want someone dead.

This is important right here. Obviously the idea that avatars are still their own people, regardless of the Entity they serve, became really obvious somewhere along the line, but at this point in my first go I was still basically thinking in terms of "Hm, well, this power and that power interact in this way... wait, that makes no sense..." and sort of discounting that it's not always ABOUT the powers, despite how obvious that was!

Jon: Statement of Jude Perry, regarding… some advice.

Jon just vacillates wildly between fear and being so DONE with Jude's bullshit and I'm enjoying every minute of it.

Jude: The pain is sensational. You feel your flesh cooking, your nerves screaming out as they die exquisitely. Your whole body changes texture as you become that which feeds the fire. In that agonising, beautiful transformation, you can feel it ignite again and again and again.

Okay, now she's just making self-immolation sound tempting...

It was Agnes, of course. I don’t know where she found me, I only remember sitting in a booth with a beautiful young woman who smelled like matches and incense.

Well, someone's certainly smitten...

And with each act of glorious, hateful destruction, I felt my god’s love embrace me, consume me, give me life. Any feelings of pity or mercy I might have had for the poor woman I fed from were cauterised.

Ah, come on, like they existed to need cauterising in the first place...

And so I ended it. For all the agony and pain on Gretchen’s face, she didn’t seem surprised when I doused myself in kerosene and set it alight. I think she screamed. She must have screamed.

Tbh, Gretchen may have been traumatised for life but Jude seems to have lost interest in her after, so that was probably fucking lucky for poor Gretchen here.

Jon: Michael? (...) Corridors, weird limbs, laughs like a… headache? Jude: What? No. He’s pale, got a big, weird scar. Smells of, um… Jon: Oh, ozone! Jude: Yeah, that’s the one. Hangs around with the Fairchilds sometimes.

I love that the podcast is lampshading the fact that they've got two recurring characters named Michael (AND one Mikaele on top but at least he's usually referred to by his last name). I wonder at what point Johnny went "Whoops, I may have created a confusion." (I mean, not that it's unrealistic, my UK friend group-and-adjacent-people had enough Andrews, Johns and Matts that they basically all ended up with weird nicknames but it's just a bad idea to have identical names in fiction.)

Jude: Come on. It won’t hurt. (...) I lied. Jon: - SCREAMING IN INCREASING AGONY -

I mean, first of all, duh, yeah, OF COURSE SHE LIED! But also, Johnny is not a bad actor. The scream reminded me a little of that one time that my partner managed to scald a hand with boiling water while making tea (one of the worst sounds I've ever heard, incidentally, would like to not hear that again.)

My impression of this episode

First of all, I adore Jude. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean I'd be friends with her (I mean, duh, she was despicable as a human being and is now a fully devoted servant of the Entity-of-torment-and-loss, having near-orgasms over the idea of making people suffer, so...) but as a character she's just so beautifully over the top! It's fun! And Jon's interaction with her is incredibly interesting because, well, this may be the first time that Jon meets anything Entity-adjacent that is actually afraid of HIM (and yeah, Jude may be putting on a tough act, but she seems fucking terrified.) That was just really fun to watch, to be honest. A little bit of ... vicarious power fantasy, perhaps, at least until Jude turns the tables again. This was just a really enjoyable episode!

[alicenttully]

Something I’ve always been curious about, why exactly do book Dany stans hate Sansa? (assuming they’re not show watchers). They’ve never interacted in the books (yet) and their arcs have nothing to do with each other. I can understand show watchers because Sansa flat out rejected their precious white savior, but the book readers hatred is odd. (Just like all antis)

Honestly someone (maybe @sayruq @trinuviel or @cleverjonquil ) who have been in the fandom longer than I have would probably give a more satisfactory answer BUT I would probably say it's a number of factors -

1. Many Dany stans are like Arya stans in that they have "not like other girls syndrome". Therefore, they can't comprehend that a feminine character like Sansa could possibly have any narrative importance, or be a hero in her own right. Because if Sansa had been a character in a different story, she would have been reduced either to a love interest, a background character, gives up her ladylike interests for "character development", or killed to be someone else's motivation (ie Ned) Instead, she is a major POV character and has been called "central part of the story" along with Bran & Arya, she has a political arc with strong Queen foreshadowing, has her own endgame antagonist ALL the while still existing as a feminine character. Now, I know someone will challenge this by arguing that Daenerys is also feminine, which is true. But the difference between Dany and Sansa is that Dany is much more admissible because she has dragons etc

2. Which kind of goes into my second point. Many book Dany fans are male, fantasy readers, and they're used to seeing characters like Daenerys in the genre. I've said before that when you read Sansa's chapters and compare them to her siblings/Dany, Sansa arguably feels like she could be in a different literary genre to them. She's also a more realistic child character than Dany or Arya. That's not to say that Arya or Dany are "grown ups" (because reading Arya's chapters, you get a sense of how young Arya is too - for example, her insistence that Ned never loved anyone but her mother... which awww) but like.... Arya is a tiny 9 year old at the end of AGOT when she flees the Red Keep. Realistically, throwing a kid in the middle of a war zone - she should have died. Arya's survival is in many ways miraculous.

3. There are Dany stans who also happen to be Arya stans who hate Sansa. I get the feeling that some Dany & Arya stans also have an "alliance" (lol) but they'll 100 per cent turn on one another when given the opportunity or if the other character does something that pisses the other fandom off - for example, the horrible things said about Arya by Dany stans when surprise, surprise, she sided with her blood (that is, her inferior sister Sansa) instead of a invader/tyrant that would only bring more blood and carnage to a continent that has been devastated by a war very recently, in the show. There are a lot of hints in the books that show Arya is going to feel very similar. Like Arya named her direwolf after a woman who found refuge for her people after fleeing the Valyrians.

4. Book Dany stans love Dany because they've misinterpreted her arc as being a heroic one. They see her as a saviour because they've mistaken her anti slavery campaign as being wholly altruistic, and they think shes going to retake Westeros and reestablish her family dynasty (perhaps with Jon) or she's going to sacrifice her life fighting the Others AFTER she's decimated Kingslanding. Accidentally of course. They overlook a lot of red flags in her narrative. For one, her whole mantra of "If I look back I am lost" is her refusal to contemplate her mistakes. Her whole Dance arc. People say it's boring, but I think those chapters are very revealing about where George intended to go with her character. He could not have been more blatant when he has her think that if she gets to fly on Drogon, it'll be "worth it" despite at the same time having her witness the absolute nightmare Drogon has created by him showing up. The fact that Dany is an isolated POV character - think how much people's view of Dany might have been changed if we had Mirri's POV to counter hers- but then again, considering how much WOC are treated like monsters in situations when they're the ones who have been hurt by white women, racists would still try to rationalise what Dany did to her. Arya has a similar issue -she's interacted with other POV characters who all have their perceptions of her (Jon, Ned, Sansa) but while the first two paint her in a very favourable light - you know Arya is a daddy's girl (which I identify with, I'm much closer to my dad) and Jon & Arya adore each other. When it comes to Sansa, she doesn't think Arya hung the moon (she doesn't hate her either to be clear) but it's very obvious that when it comes to AGOT, that George was very heavy-handed with the way he wrote them. And because of that people walk away with the perception that Arya is the underdog and Sansa the mean older sister. But at the same time it's not that simple. The perception isn't entirely accurate. Yes Arya is in many ways an underdog, but Sansa isn't an enemy. Her moments of being "mean" are the result of the trauma she very recently went through and isn't processing healthily, her issues with Joffrey etc, her repressed anger towards Ned (the person who killed Lady) There's also the fact that Arya projects onto Sansa in her first chapter - she blames her for getting her into trouble with Septa Mordane etc. Like Sansa wasn't doing anything but chilling with Jeyne girl. You're the one who spoke too loudly. You're also the one who insulted the Crown Prince, and if Sansa was really the bitchy sister antis paint her as, she would have told Septa Mordane. But instead she covers for both Arya AND Jon's asses (because he's the one that Arya is mimicking) It seems like such a minor thing because I don't think readers at that point would understand how serious that is for someone of Jon's station to be insulting the heir to a throne. Like don't get me wrong I don't care that he did lol, but that considering the nature of Westeros - smallfolk/lowborn etc they've brought up to have a respect/fear for their lords/kings (now whenever or not that is a good thing is another question.... abolish feudalism!! equality baby!!! However thats not going to happen in Dany, Sansa & Arya lifetimes. I feel like Brans election as king is going to be one small step towards progress) and that was a dumb thing for Jon to do. Like it reminds me of how Ilyn Payne insulted Aerys by saying that Tywin was the true king and then Aerys had his tongue ripped out.

Just as book Dany stans love Dany because they've wildly misunderstood her plot and character, these same Dany stans hate Sansa because they've wildly misinterpreted her character, her arc, and motivations. For example some think she is on an redemptive arc after her "betrayals" in AGOT. Or I've come across Dany stans who geniuely think Sansa is going down a dark path and is a "villian in the making".

5. Some Dany and Arya stans have a similar view of Sansa in that she is only meant to serve/support them & couldn't be important in her own right. And they resent the idea of that not being the case.

Wow I didn't mean to get so long winded. Hope this answers the question though lol!

[thelatelockdownlist]

A Series on Series 04: Deborah Harkness’ All Souls Trilogy: A Discovery of Witches/Season 1

Hi! I’m Alex, a YouTube Newbie and this is The Late Lockdown List where I talk about the list of things I’ve got on my mind since the lockdown started. 

Today, on the fourth episode of A Series on Series, I’ll be talking about Deborah Harkness’ All Souls Trilogy, starting with the first book,  A Discovery of Witches

and the basis of the season 1 of the TV series. 

Let’s dive a little bit into it. 

Why is it called the ‘All Souls Trilogy’?

I could do research, but having read the entire series, I think it’s because the male lead, Matthew Clairmont or Matthew de Clermont, in the book belongs to the All Souls College at Oxford University.  

A bit of trivia: All Souls College does not have undergraduate members, and it’s unique in the sense that all members automatically become fellows -- full members of the college’s governing body. The examination for the fellowship has once been described as ‘the hardest exam in the world.” 

If you’re not familiar with the book or the TV series, just know that there are going to be a lot of spoilers. With that out of the way, first a primer:

The two main characters here are Diana Bishop 

-- a Yale historian, visiting scholar at Oxford (where she also got her PhD) and reluctant witch. 

She’s the daughter of two very powerful witches, 

but due to the tragic death of her parents she’s shied away from witchcraft and very seldom uses her power, if at all. After her parents’ death, she was raised by her maternal aunt Sarah and her partner Emily who are both witches. 

They tried to teach her, but Diana’s grief at her parents’ death caused her to all but reject magic. 

Then we have Matthew Clairmont (aka Matthew de Clermont of the powerful vampire de Clermont family, aka Matthew Roydon), a geneticist, All Souls College fellow and 1,500-year-old vampire.

There are creatures in this series: daemons, vampires and witches. They’re not HUMAN. That’s why they call themselves ‘creatures’ -- to differentiate themselves from us. Daemons 

are blessed with creativity and cursed with madness. 

Vampires

are -- well, the usual kind that we’re familiar with. Here, though, they mate for life, like wolves. 

Witches

have magic -- different kinds like time walking, precognition, flight, transmogrification, telekinesis, witchwind, witchfire, witchwater, and manipulation of the elements.

Basically, if you’re familiar with Harry Potter and Twilight, then you know what witches and vampires are. Speaking of the whole Harry Potter and Twilight thing, The New York Times calls this the ‘Harry Potter for grownups’ 

and NPR calls it ‘Twilight for the intellectually restless.’ 

Make of that what you will.

For me, I don’t compare this with the other two. I think it stands very separately from those. Since this is written by an historian, the approach is markedly different. It’s well-researched -- as are most historical romance novels -- because it does deal with a certain time period.  

What I love about this -- and you’ll be hearing this from me a lot -- is the world building. I judge a book by the world it creates for me. I have to be able to LIVE in that world. And in most cases, I have to WANT to live in that world.

This is a world inhabited by creatures I’ve been fascinated with my entire life -- except for daemons. I did my first thesis on vampires -- let’s not talk about why it didn’t get accepted. It’s still a sore point for me even after so many years later. And as for witches, well… family tradition has it that my maternal great grandmother was a witch. In fact, growing up, I’d heard

whispers of her supplementing her income by being a ‘healer.’ I’m not sure how much of that is true but I like to believe that it is.

So vampires and witches, I’m sold. I can tolerate the daemons.

Another thing I love about this are the well-written characters. While I can’t actually relate to Diana Bishop, I don’t have to for me to like her. She just needs to be alive for me in the book. And she is very much so. I envy her graduate degrees -- I wish I had the discipline to obtain a PhD. And spending time at the Bodleian. *sigh*

Anyway, I can understand her rejection of magic. After all, in a way it’s what took her parents away from her. But I like how she was able to adjust when she realizes that she’s got this power -- which is far stronger than anyone thought it would be. 

As for Matthew -- *sigh* -- I’m a sucker for vampires. Yes, I went there. I love him. He’s a scientist and he’s good with his hands. By that, I mean he used to be a stone mason so he can build things. What? I like a guy who’s handy.

I also like the love story. Matthew and Diana are equals -- in the sense that they are partners in the relationship. Of course, with Matthew having been alive for more than a millennia -- plus vampire, plus a guy, he has a tendency to be domineering, convinced that he’s doing all things to protect Diana. However, Diana is a POWERFUL witch. She’s a scholar, too. She can take care of herself. Matthew may be physically stronger, but Diana is a POWER. And as she grows into that, Matthew struggles to keep up as well curb his tendency to be overprotective. For the most part, they do keep this balance. 

On to the differences of the book from the show:

Overall, the TV series was faithful to the book. Most of the scenes in TV series are in the book. The show is gorgeous. I love the architecture and just the overall mood. I think Teresa Palmer makes a good Diana, but I love Matthew Goode. Period. But he is very, very good as Matthew Clairmont. 

I know Teresa Palmer is Australian and Diana Bishop is American so I’m not sure if it’s just me, but I do hear Teresa’s native accent here and there. It’s not distracting, but since I know that the one she uses for her character is not her original accent, I can’t help but hear the Australian one. Matthew Goode, on the other hand, is British, and Matthew Clairmont is as well. Well, for the last couple of centuries he is, but he’s originally French. But overall, I have no problem believing they’re really Diana and Matthew. 

As for Gillian Chamberlain,

the other witch at Oxford who in the TV series is sort of Diana’s friend… in the book, they’re merely acquaintances. She’s played by Louise Brealey aka Molly Hooper in Sherlock. 

I love the actress and I love that I found Gillian both slightly annoying and a bit pathetic. Because in the book, she is. So I love that that’s how she’s also played in the series.

Then we have Aunt Sarah. When I saw Alex Kingston, my first thought was, “River!” If you don’t know, Alex Kingston played ‘River Song’ in Doctor Who. 

And I loved her in that. So I knew I’d love her here, too. I do have the same ‘thing’ with her as with Teresa. Alex Kingston is British and here she plays an American. I can hear the accent. It’s not distracting, but it’s there.

And then there’s Peter Knox. 

In the book, I found him arrogant, condescending and just a generally irritating person. In the series, he is more so. And the actor who plays him played Ser Alliser Thorne in ‘Game of Thrones.’ 

He was one of the Night’s Watch who tormented and had a hand, literally, in killing Jon Snow. But he got his comeuppance when he was hanged with the rest of the traitors. He was very convincing as a conniving SOB in GOT. And he is here, as well. In fact, he’s equal parts menacing and irritating. Which is a terrifying combination because if he’s just irritating, you can swat him away like a gnat. But because he’s menacing, you know you have to watch your back.

Satu Jarvinen 

in the show is exactly how I thought she would look like when I read her in the book. In fact, the actress Malin Buska, infuses her with a somewhat edgy, emo attitude that really works. You can see why Satu and Peter work well because they seem to have something missing inside them that they think the other one has. It’s not a romantic connection -- more that of villains who don’t think they’re bad people.

And Ysabeau de Clermont. 

Lindsay Duncan plays her, who also played Lady Smallwood in Sherlock. 

She does have the whole ‘lady of the manor’ aura -- both regal and frightening. I really liked how she snobbishly said how modern day witches are so uneducated -- all because Diana even with her post graduate degrees didn’t speak Occitan.

FAVORITE SCENES:

The rowing scenes: 

This is very self-serving because I like rowing. I haven’t had a lot of chances to row in the water. I bought a rowing machine at the start of the pandemic and actually did a few months of rowing for 20 minutes three times a week. Then I stopped. I can’t remember why. But I love the scenes of Diana rowing -- which she does to rid herself of excess energy caused by her power -- because I imagine rowing along the Thames myself. 

Any time they’re in the Bodleian: I love libraries. I’ve loved them since I was a child. I loved them when I was in college. I was actually really excited that my university decided to extend the library hours on Fridays just so I could stay there and read to my heart’s content. Also, whenever I go to a foreign country, I always go to the national library.

This isn’t in the show, but in the book, but I love how everyone at the Bodleian scrambled to cater to Matthew when he went to the library. I liked how irritated Diana was that this guy took her spot… that they gave it to him solely on the basis of his being an All Souls fellow. In the TV series, they don’t really emphasize how much of a big shot Matthew is at Oxford. 

I like how Matthew, when he was talking to his daemon friend, Hamish Osborne, was self-aware enough not to immediately think that Diana had the same feelings for him as he did for her. Since he’s a 1,500-year-old vampire who knew Charles Darwin, of course he’s a great resource for a history of science researcher. 

I love that part when Diana was trying to guess how old Matthew was and she asked, “Survived the fall of Carthage?” and he says, “Which fall of Carthage?” It was a playful exchange, and you can see that he was showing off a bit.

Sept-Tours: 

literally ‘Seven Towers’ and is the current family home of the de Clermonts. It must be hell to heat, but as most of the residents are vampires, it shouldn’t be a problem. It’s beautiful and like Matthew, I would probably claim my own tower as well. 

While it’s not my favorite scene, I think they did the part of Satu torturing Diana 

-- in the pretext of trying to ‘open her up’ to see what her power is -- was done well. When I read that scene, I was wondering how much of it they were going to put in the book. So it was heartening to see that ‘horrifying’ scene there.

I’m not sure how I feel about the ‘instalove.’ You know that thing that sometimes happens where the leads just fall in love at first sight? In the series, it feels like it’s instalove. Diana and Matthew first meet at the Bodleian -- the day after Diana experiences the magic in Ashmole 782. It’s a book all creatures have been trying to find. Matthew, in particular, has been searching for it for more than a century. It’s thought to explain the origins of all creatures. Matthew is initially drawn to Diana because she is able to “call” the book. 

Anyway, going back to the idea of ‘instalove,’ I mean, sure there was chemistry… but...  In the books, their connection was fostered both by the time they spent with each other and their curiosity about Ashmole 782. I was more convinced in the book about that part than in the TV series. Or maybe it’s my deep-seated and sometimes difficult to conceal bias FOR the book versus its live action adaptation.

~

The Congregation: Secret island! 

It’s actually on an island in Venice, concealed from humans. It has nine members, 3 from each supernatural race. And since the de Clermont patriarch established it, one of the rules is to always have a de Clermont on the Congregation. It was created during the Crusades as a self-regulating body for the creatures. Because most of the creatures abused their powers and abilities to influence outcomes during the Crusades, they attracted unwanted attention from humans. Ostensibly to keep the creatures safe from humans, the congregation agreed to several covenants: the main ones being that they must not interfere in human politics and religion and for creatures not to mix together, especially in terms of romantic relationships. 

This is the covenant Diana and Matthew break. In fairness to Diana, she had no idea. She didn’t even know about the existence of The Congregation, much less the covenant. And so Matthew does this whole ‘noble idiot’ thing where he denies his feelings for her… but of course, in the end, they end up together.

Moving on, the first book ends with Diana and Matthew going back to New York to Aunt Sarah’s and Aunt Em’s house. The original plan was for Diana to learn more about her magic from her witch aunts. The problem is that Diana’s magic isn’t the same as theirs. And they need someone to teach her so she can call the book again -- this time intentionally.

They’re joined by married daemons, Sophie and Nathaniel; two vampires: Marcus, Matthew’s vampire son, and Miriam, an ally of the de Clermonts and Matthew’s  colleague at the lab, and Hamish. As there are now 3 witches (Sarah, Em and Diana), 3 vampires (including Matthew) and 3 demons, this is in effect a ‘coventicle’ -- this will be important later in the books.

They’re all gathered there for different reasons: Sophie, because she’s meant to give Diana something that has been passed down in her family for generations (and one that’s needed for the timewalk, the vampires to update Matthew regarding their research (and I guess for moral support as well), and Hamish both because he’s Matthew’s best friend and lawyer (real world legalities must be observed before one undertakes a timewalk). 

They leave for Sept Tour, which Matthew volunteered as their HQ of sorts, on Halloween. That night, Matthew and Diana are going to timewalk. And seconds before they could do so, Gerbert de Aurillac, Peter Knox and Satu Jarvinen arrive to stop them. 

Of course, they don’t and we see our couple land somewhat shakily in 1590 London…

And the season ends there, setting us up for the next one and The Book of Shadows.

FINAL NOTE:

I LOVE IT!

Like I said earlier, it’s faithful to the book in the sense that I didn’t find anything that was off.

If you loved the books, I’m sure you’ll love the TV adaptation as well.

I was a little nervous that I wouldn’t love it as much. I’d been burned before, you see. (I’m looking at you, American Gods. Even Ian McShane and Orlando Jones’ Mr. Nancy couldn’t keep me hooked.)

However, I wasn’t disappointed in this one. There’s a lot to love here and I’m glad that there’s a second season -- and now they’re even done filming the third.

So that’s it for the first book and Season 1. Catch you in the next episode for The Book of Shadows and Season 2. Bye!

[ladyandtheghost]

How “The Dany-Show” ruined GoT at the core: 3-point system

1. Sansa vs. Cersei: 

How is it possible that we had a million reunions - many of them involving secondary characters for fluff and fan service with zero impact on the plot - but these two women who had so much drama, so much unresolved business, never saw each other again? This is where you would have found the good story to tell and a major plot strand to resolve: the conflict between the Starks and the Lannisters. This is what started it all, this is where it should have ended. This is the story they should have focused on. 

So why didn’t they? 

Because Game of Thrones was already dead and gone and the series had become The Dany-Show and nothing but The Dany-Show. 

Every character, every story arc, everything had to be directed towards Dragon Barbie and her drama. So of course there was no time or space for anything that was not related to the The Dany-Show. Basically a black hole that sucked all the great storylines and characters into its dark void. 

Massive loose plot strands like the Stark-Lannister showdown were left to rot, because it was far more important to show off that CGI budget for gratuitous dragon shots and inane conversations between secondary character including sex jokes on the main. 

There was literally more screen time allotted to the dragons than to Cersei...

After four seasons of Sansa and Cersei constantly referring to each other and the day they would meet again (willingly or not), it’s scandalous that they shoved so many characters back together for pointless reunions that were more or less blatant fan service (Bronn and the Lannister boys, really?!) but the big conflict, the personal drama that was playing out between Sansa and Cersei - that had actually taken on political dimensions now - did not even get a single scene? 

Wrong choice. 

I mean can you even imagine how Lena and Sophie would have acted the shit out of their reunion, because I can and it makes me furious that we were robbed of it. When two characters have so much unfinished business, so much foreshadowing and so much history that still isn’t resolved, the least you can expect is to give them at least a half-assed resolution - but we did not even get that, because it had nothing to do with The Dany-Show. Because all the characters have to only think about Dany and relate to Dany and if there is to be a conflict between female characters, it has to involve Dany and no one else. 

Poor Lena deserved better than to be reduced to playing a two-dimensional shadow of Cersei Lannister who was little more than a prompt giver to The Euron Greyjoy Side-Show (because sex jokes!) 

Also Bonus fuck-up: the prophecy of the YMBQ? Cersei died in the arms of Jaime, if anything Dany’s attack had given her back the one person/thing she cares about. So how exactly did Dany rob her of “all you hold dear” when Dany’s attack caused Jaime to literally drop Brienne like a hot potato, declare his undying love for Cersei and run back into her arms for his final moment? 

Before that, Sansa had already “taken” Jaime into her services together with Brienne. He’d actually switched sides to serve “another queen” (just not Dany) and at least this prophecy made sense for two seconds but of course the YMBQ had to be Dany because it’s The Dany Show, whether it makes sense or not...

They just didn’t care anymore, did they? 

2. Little...who?: 

So we have half a dozen characters rolling up to Winterfell who knew Littlefinger and his dirty business, and Arya, Sansa and Bran are about to go: 

Only for some reason: NO ONE asks. 

There is not a single reference to the fact that the Stark kids found out that Littlefinger is the mastermind behind 90% of everything that has happened since S1 and that he was executed for this. It’s like it never happened and he never existed and neither did all the important plot points before S8. 

Did Jon ever find out that Littlefinger betrayed Ned and conspired with the Lannisters to bring down the Starks? 

Did Tyrion ever find out that Littlefinger framed him at the Purple Wedding?

Did Varys ever find out that his nemesis was outsmarted and defeated by three teenagers?

Nope. Nope. And nope.  

Ain’t we all?

A character who’s been hailed as MVP by a huge part of the fandom because he knew how to network and play the game™ that is advertised in the title like no other, isn’t even mentioned again. One of the most popular theories re: S8 was (ridiculous as I found it myself) “Littlefinger isn’t dead” because many people felt he was still important to the story and there was also a lot of unfinished business with other characters he was connected to...Jon, Varys, Tyrion, Cersei, Sansa...

Instead, Littlefinger himself, his death and every plot point he was ever involved in was simply erased -  because Littlefinger and his relation to these characters had nothing to do with, i.e. did not contribute to...you guessed it...The Dany-Show and therefore POUF, he never existed...

3. R+L = who gives a f***

But you know, these are minor grievances compared to the fact that Jon’s character was not only dumbled down and turned into a complicit in genocide...

Jon’s parentage story arc - you know, THE big revelation and PLOT TWIST  - was turned into a side note, a five-minute mini drama that was more about how this will affect poor little Dany and her feelings. 

They gave us scenes of Dany waxing on about how Jon’s being the one true king stresses her out because she wants the throne and what she expects him to do about it - but they ROBBED us of the moment Jon tells the Stark siblings that he is not truly their brother, but their cousin. 

Because who cares about how Jon feels about this and his “siblings” coming to terms with the fact that:

their father Ned Stark had kept Jon a secret from everyone 

that he had not fathered a bastard and betrayed their mother

but saved the one true heir, at cost of his honour, 

they lived with the Targaryen crown prince and raised him under everyone’s nose...

No, no, the important thing is how Dany feels about it all and how it affects her. 

After the huge build-up, the theories, the overt foreshadowing,  even more infuriating - after throwing poor Elia and her children under the bus and making Jon legitimate...

After literally EVERYTHING in this series leading up to the moment when everyone would know who Jon Snow truly is...it had no effect on the story whatsoever, besides contributing to Dany finally revealing the full extent of her insanity (which was only a matter of time anyways)

Heir to the Iron Throne? Targaryen Prince? Rhaegar’s son? PTWP?

The point is: Drama for poor little Dany because her nephew doesn’t want to fuck her anymore is the actual heir. 

You can’t even say that it led to her advisors finding out and betraying her because that is something they should have done ages ago, at the latest when she burned the Tarlys. It gave them a legitimate alternative option, yes, but it was not the first time they thought she needs to go...

At least R+L=J served one good purpose: it rubbed Dany’s nose in it that she is not special at all. She is NOT the last Targ, nor the “princess that was promised” - and it was never her destiny to rule, she was only ever the “aunt” of the prince. 

Sadly, this is again ALL about Dany and her feelings and how everyone else reacts to her in light of the news that Jon is Aegon. 

So R+L=J is not even about Jon in the end, it’s just another element of The Dany-Show. And once Dany is gone, it’s like R+L=J also got erased (just like Littlefinger and the Stark-Lannister-conflict) 

...because let’s just send the Head of House Targaryen and last of his line beyond the wall again just because the murderous army of the mad tyrant, whom he heroically freed us from, demands it...and of course we have to wrap up the last five minutes of this shitty episode. 

Conclusion: 

D&D just REALLY didn’t care anymore once The Dany-Show was over and it’s painfully obvious to see. The good news is that all of these plot points that got erased/dumbled down/ignored^^ are things that are important to GRRM, which gives me hope for the last books at least...

[eldritchteaparty]

Chapters: 15/22 Fandom: The Magnus Archives (Podcast) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist Characters: Martin Blackwood, Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Tim Stoker (The Magnus Archives), Sasha James, Rosie Zampano, Oliver Banks, Original Elias Bouchard, Peter Lukas, Annabelle Cane, Melanie King, Georgie Barker, Alice "Daisy" Tonner, Basira Hussain Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Fix-It, Post-Canon Fix-It, Scars, Eventual Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, I'll add characters and tags as they come up, Reference to injuries and blood, Character Death In Dream, Nudity (not sexual or graphic), Nightmares, Fighting

Summary: Following the events of MAG 200, Jon and Martin find themselves in a dimension very much like the one they came from--with second chances and more time.

Chapter summary:  Sasha calls a meeting to discuss their current situation, now that Martin and Jon have told their story.

New chapter of my post-canon fix-it is up! Read above at AO3 or read here below.

Tumblr master post with links to previous chapters is here.

***

Martin’s phone buzzed; he didn’t bother opening his eyes. He felt Jon lean toward the coffee table from where he sat underneath Martin’s legs.

“It’s Sasha,” Jon said. “Do you want to get it?”

“Not really.”

The phone continued to buzz.

“Do you… want me to get it?”

Martin realized she would probably just call Jon’s phone next anyway. “Yeah. Yeah, sure.”

Jon picked up on speaker. “Hey, Sasha.”

“Oh—oh, I thought I called—oh. I did.” There was a pause on the other end. “Is he—is Martin ok?”

“He’s—he’s here. He can hear you.”

“Martin, um—how are you?”

Martin still didn’t open his eyes; he started to answer, but he hadn’t spoken loudly for a little while and his voice was gravelly. He cleared his throat. “I’m ok.”

“All right.” There was another pause. “Jon, how are you?”

“I’m—I’m fine.” Jon moved the phone to rest it on Martin’s leg from its spot on the table, and now Martin did open his eyes. He guessed it was about mid-afternoon from the light in the sitting room. “What’s going on?”

“I was calling to tell you—” There was yet another pause. “Jon, I have to ask, do you already know what I’m going to say?”

“Oh,” Jon sat back against the couch. Martin sighed, but shook his head and shrugged when Jon looked at him. He hadn’t meant anything by it, or if he had, he didn’t know what it was. “I—no, not really. Although if you wanted, I could—”

“No, that’s all right. I think I prefer—well, I was calling to say that the police have allowed us to open up the Institute again. But not—”

“Not the archives,” Jon finished. “Or the tunnels.”

“Right. And I was thinking—they’re not going to be there investigating or whatever tonight, and while it’s closed to the public, maybe—we should meet there. All of us.”

“Who is all of us, exactly?”

“Well, I talked to Melanie and she’s told Georgie, and they have some questions… and I talked to Elias. I’m not sure exactly where he is with all this, he didn’t say much, but I’d like to invite him. Obviously Tim is still gone, but—anyway, what do you think? Would you come? Both of you?”

“Hold on.” Jon muted the phone and turned to Martin.

“What?” Martin asked.

“Do you want to?”

Martin sat up, crossing his legs to face Jon. “Is this my decision?”

“If you want it to be.”

“I’m—I’m not sure.” Before Jon answered him, though, he reconsidered. “Wait. Is it safe? Won’t the cops be watching or something? If they’ve closed it off—I mean, it’s probably not on the honor system.”

Jon went quiet and Martin could tell he was doing more than just turning it over—he was reaching out for something. “I think—for the moment—that could work in our favor.”

Martin waited to see if Jon would offer more of an explanation, but wasn’t particularly surprised when he didn’t. “Fine. If it’s safe, it’s your decision.”

“I can’t promise it’s safe, but—it’s as safe as anything else.”

Martin nodded and closed his eyes again. He didn’t bother listening to the end of the conversation. It was fine, really. Going was no worse than not going.

***

When they arrived that evening, there were two signs that the archives were closed; one was the crossed lines of blue tape reading “POLICE LINE: DO NOT CROSS” at the top of the stairs, and the other was a literal sign taped to the banister indicating that the archives were closed until further notice. Martin carefully lifted up one side of the tape.

“After you,” he told Jon.

“Thanks,” Jon said, stepping gingerly over the lower piece of tape.

As they entered the office, Sasha, Melanie, and Georgie, who had arrived before them, fell silent around the conference table. Jon and Martin stood awkwardly, almost apologetically, until Sasha attempted to bridge the discomfort.

“Thanks for coming,” she said.

Jon nodded, and Martin turned his gaze toward the floor. He hadn’t noticed until that moment, but the rug, the same generic office rug that wasn’t quite the right size to fit under the conference table, had the same exact stain on it that it had in the other dimension. It came from some time before the rug had come to be in the assistants’ office, and Martin had no idea what its origin was, but that really wasn’t important.

Nothing was going to be any different.

“Martin.” Jon said his name with an emphasis that indicated it wasn’t the first time he’d said it, and Martin looked up to find Jon already sitting, with an extra empty chair pulled over to the table for him.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, making his way to the seat. This put him between Jon and Melanie; Georgie was on the other side of Melanie, and Sasha was to the other side of Jon. Between the five of them, they took up just about all the room they could comfortably have at the table.

Sasha spoke again. “Well, I don’t know if we’re still waiting for Elias, but—we might as well go ahead. Jon, I told you on the phone that I talked to Melanie and Georgie, and they had some—questions they wanted to ask.”

“Of course,” Jon said. Martin glanced at Melanie’s face to find the steely, unyielding expression she had worn so often when he had known her before. He realized he hadn’t missed it. Georgie, on the other hand, looked worried. He had seen that expression on her as well, but there was something different about it now. Maybe it was a hint of the fear she could still feel here.

“To be fair,” Georgie started, “Melanie has some questions. I really don’t think we should be here. I’m—I’m really only here for her.”

“You feel like it’s safer to stay away,” Jon said quietly.

“Well—yes, frankly. Melanie’s already been through enough, and honestly—it just doesn’t feel like we can really help. It feels like—like we can only get hurt. And that just doesn’t seem—responsible.”

“That could be true.”

Melanie broke in. “Wait, before we—"

Melanie stopped speaking as Sasha sat up; they all followed her gaze to find Elias standing in the doorway. He looked small, Martin thought. Tired.

“Sorry for being late. Didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“No—no, you didn’t. I wasn’t sure if—well, I’m glad you’re here. I’m sure we can—” Sasha looked around at the table, trying to figure out where they could most easily squeeze in another extra chair.

“I’m fine. I’m—I’m fine here.” He sat on the corner of Tim’s desk, facing the group.

“Are you sure?”

“I think I’ll just listen, if that’s all right.”

“Yes, of course. That—that’s fine.”

Martin could not have explained exactly what it was he noticed, but something about the way Jon was sitting changed just slightly, and Martin realized Jon couldn’t see Elias from his position at the table. He leaned in close to him.

“Do you want to switch seats?” he whispered.

Jon looked at him long enough that Martin realized he was considering, but then shook his head. “No. No, I’m all right.” Despite his words, his fingers grasped Martin’s below the edge of the table, and Martin realized that he’d maybe inadvertently overestimated Jon’s level of comfort with this situation.

“Everything all right?” Sasha asked.

“Yes,” said Jon, and then after a moment, “thank you.”

“Go on, Melanie.”

Melanie looked from Jon to Martin, and then back to Jon again. “What do you want?”

“What?”

“What do you want? Why did you tell us all this?”

“I—I don’t want anything.” Jon looked back at Melanie in confusion.

“Then why did you tell us all this?”

“It was me. I thought we should,” Martin interrupted. “It didn’t feel right to keep hiding it.”

“Well then, let me ask a different question—why didn’t you tell anyone for so long?”

“When everything—when we first—” Martin hadn’t really planned on doing any talking, and he wasn’t prepared. He stopped and gathered his thoughts, then started over. “After everything happened, it took a while for things to—to come into focus. For a bit we could only remember the—the other place, and we weren’t sure where we were, or if you were all you—and then after we understood everything, well, it was just complicated. After what happened in the tunnels yesterday though—it was just—it was time. Probably past time, I don’t know.”

“Hm.” Melanie’s expression didn’t change. “So what are you going to tell us we should do, now that we know?”

Tell them to do? Martin looked at Jon; this wasn’t really a question he had anticipated.

“Nothing,” Jon said.

“Nothing,” Melanie repeated. “No advice for defeating these—fear powers, whatever they are? No explaining to us how we have to help you become more powerful so that you can—”

“No.” Martin felt a bit of anger when he realized what she was implying. “No, it—it’s not like that. Jon—Jon’s not—”

“No.” Jon squeezed his hand. “No advice. No—requests.”

“Sasha said—Sasha said that in the other world, the Institute—was like a trap, I guess. Like once people worked there, they couldn’t leave. They had to serve these things.”

“Just one of them. Just the Eye.”

“And you were in charge.”

Martin started. “What?”

“Jon was the archivist there instead of Sasha. And he had some kind of power. And—” She looked directly at Jon. “You still have it now.”

“That’s true,” Jon said.

“It was Jonah,” Martin blurted out. “It had nothing to do with Jon. Jonah Magnus was in charge of the whole thing. It was all him, he was the one who set it all up, who trapped everyone into working for him, and—”

“Right,” Melanie said. “Jonah Magnus, the—the old dead guy who started the Institute.”

“But he wasn’t dead there,” Martin snapped. “He was—”

The pressure of Jon’s fingers on his changed, and he stopped.

“He was Elias,” Melanie finished. “Or Elias was Jonah. Something like that.”

“Jonah—” Jon turned his head to look at Elias, who was still sitting quietly on the edge of Tim’s desk.

“It’s all right,” Elias said. “Say whatever you need to say. I’m fine.”

Jon turned back to the table. “Jonah killed Elias. And used his physical body to stay alive and run the Institute.”

Melanie looked like she was about to say something else, but then she glanced at Elias again and seemed to change her mind.

“Ok, look—what I really want to know is—what if—what if I do try to—help, somehow. Am I—am I already trapped here? And would it—would I really just be working for this—this Eye?”

“You’re not trapped here,” Jon said. “None of you—none of us—are. But that’s not really what you want to know, is it?”

“What do you mean?” Melanie asked.

“You want to know if you can trust me.”

Melanie thought. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess I do.”

Jon contemplated for a moment. “I don’t know.”

“Jon.” Martin couldn’t help it. “Yes, of course you can trust him. Jesus Christ, Jon.”

“Hm.”

Silence fell momentarily over the small group, until Georgie spoke again.

“All right. Let me—it sounds like, there, Melanie and I did everything we could to—to avoid it. To stay away. And clearly that didn’t work out, but—well, I’ve already said it, I’m inclined that way now. So tell me. How did I feel about it? In the end?”

Martin bit his lip; his frustration with Melanie and Jon’s back-and-forth left him. He remembered their conversation on that last night as well as he imagined Jon did.

“What?” Georgie said. “Be honest.”

Jon took a breath. “You regretted it.”

“Oh, of course she did,” Melanie countered immediately. “Look, Georgie, maybe I do want to at least—but that’s just—I don’t want you to make any decisions because of him. How do you know if you can trust him? Even he said—and how do you know he’s even really your Jon?”

“How do I—”

“Oh, I don’t mean—” She turned awkwardly to Martin. “I don’t mean her Jon, I just—”

Martin put a hand to his forehead. “I don’t think anyone thought—”

“Wait.” Jon let go of Martin’s other hand to hold up a finger, and everyone stopped talking. They listened to the silence until Jon spoke again. “You can come in, Basira.”

Sasha stood up as Basira, arms crossed and looking slightly disconcerted, entered the assistants’ office.

“Oh,” Sasha said, “I know the archives are off limits—we were just—”

“It’s all right,” Basira said. “I’m not here to arrest any of you.”

“Oh,” Sasha said again, slowly sinking back into her chair. They all stared uncomfortably. “Then, um… why are you here?”

“I saw you were all here”—she pointed to a corner of the room, where Martin couldn’t actually see anything but had to assume there was a camera of some sort installed— “and I suppose I wanted to—try to find out more about what happened the other day.”

“And to ask about Daisy,” Jon added.

Basira looked at him, apparently trying to make up her mind about something, but then she nodded slowly. “Yeah. And to ask about Daisy.”

“Oh,” Sasha said one more time. “Hang on, I’m sure we can find somewhere for you to—”

“I’ve got it,” Elias said, grabbing Tim’s chair and bringing it out from behind his desk for her to sit on. They all turned awkwardly toward her from their seats at the table.

“Well,” she said, “I don’t find myself in this situation often. This is not exactly how I imagined this going down.”

“Sorry.” Martin found himself apologizing for the situation. “If you want, I could—”

“Oh, no, it’s fine.” Basira waved him off. “It’s good for my hubris, anyway. So look—we’ve been getting a lot of very strange reports lately. I have a feeling you know what I mean. And we’ve had some incidents ourselves, but—the point is, some of the people who came to us mentioned they had talked to you all here at the Magnus Institute. They had this idea that you all studied things like that here, or—or something. And then yesterday, you clearly knew something about whatever had happened down there in the tunnels. At least, you two did.” She turned to Martin and Jon. “You two and the other one—you know, the hot one?”

“Tim,” Jon said, then looked at Martin. “I don’t—she said that once in—”

Martin put his hands up. “Why is everyone doing this tonight? I really—I’m really not that sensitive.”

“Right,” Jon said. “Sorry.”

“Anyway,” Basira continued, “when I remembered about the missing person thing and thought about the timing, and just—it felt like there might be some connection. So when I saw you were all here, I thought that instead of reporting it, I’d just come see what I could find out. And if—well, if you did know something, then—yeah.”

“And do you still want to talk about Daisy now?” Jon asked.

“Yeah, I think so. It’s just—she’s my partner, you know? And—it’s hard. I feel bad.”

“Go on,” Jon said. “Tell us.”

Martin recognized something in his tone.

“Jon.”

Jon turned to meet his eyes.

“It’s all right,” he said. “She wants to talk.”

Martin wasn’t sure if it was all right, but Basira certainly didn’t seem bothered.

“So here’s the thing. Like I said, Daisy is my partner. I’ve worked with her for years now. We put our lives in each other’s hands all the time. I don’t know how to describe that to someone who’s never experienced it. I think the point is, we trust each other. More than most people will ever have to trust another person. And I’ve worked hard to earn that trust. I know her. Don’t get me wrong—she’s not perfect. She’s always been—determined, and sometimes that’s maybe pushed her to take things out of step or—I don’t know. But she’s always wanted justice. That’s always been important to her. Trying to make things right. Or at least as right as they can be. I mean—you see a lot of bad stuff on the force, really bad stuff, and there are some things that nothing will ever make right, but—you know.

“After everything started happening though—around the time you reported these two missing—something changed in her. And it’s been getting worse. There are some days when I feel like I don’t know her now. At first, I thought it was just the stress of dealing with the incidents, signing the section forms, all of that, but—then I started seeing it. That look in her eyes. I’m sure you saw it yesterday. That’s not her. Not really. Lately it’s like it doesn’t seem to matter to her whether she’s even got the right person. And then—she’ll disappear for days sometimes. She’s done that before, but she’s at least always told me where she was going or what case she was investigating. Now I have no idea. And the worst part is that I don’t think I really want to know. I suppose that makes me kind of a shit partner.

“You know, I really don’t know why I’m saying all of this. Don’t repeat it to anyone—if you do, I’ll lie. I just—I want it to stop. I want whatever’s happened to her to stop.”

Jon nodded. “And what have you figured out so far?”

“Well, let’s see. There’s some kind of monsters here. And they have something to do with you.” She looked at Jon and Martin.

“Close enough,” Jon said. “What else do you want to know?”

“What’s their purpose?”

“Fear. They create it, and they survive on it.”

“Ok, and—what do they have to do with Daisy? Why are they messing with her?”

“Technically, they’re not,” Jon answered.

“What does that mean?”

“It means—Daisy is drawn to them. One of them, in particular. It’s called—it’s called the Hunt.”

“Does she know about the—the Hunt? Is she aware of it?”

“Not directly.”

“So she doesn’t know what she’s doing.”

“No.”

“And is she—is she afraid?”

“No,” Jon shook his head. “She—she’s happy, I suppose. She likes it. But if she knew, and she could choose—she wouldn’t choose it.”

“I see.”

They waited a moment.

“Is there—anything else you want to know?” Jon asked.

“Not really. Not unless there’s something I can do. I’d rather not keep things from Daisy. Just—are you trying to stop it?”

“Yes,” Sasha answered.

Martin felt a small pulse from the lump still lurking in his gut.

“To be completely honest,” Jon said, “it’s not likely we can.”

“But we’re going to try,” Sasha said.

“Good.” Basira stood up from her chair. “What do you need from me? Obviously I’m somewhat limited, but I might be able to help with something.”

“What do you think, Jon?” Sasha asked.

“Maybe—keep the archives closed. Officially. For a while. If they’re open, and we’re here—they’ll only be a target.”

“Easy enough,” Basira answered. “Speaking of, though—try not to come back here. I can’t guarantee I’d be the only one watching. Or even that I’d be able to warn you if—if someone else were interested.”

“Got it,” Sasha said. “Anything else, Jon?”

“Not at the moment. If we need anything else, though—”

“Here��s my number.” Basira was already writing on a pad of paper on Tim’s desk. “That is my direct number, but—be careful. I don’t know what’s going to happen between now and—whenever.”

“Understood.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to—stick around?” Sasha asked. “I’m sure we’d—”

“Better not,” Basira answered, setting the pen back down on the desk. “But I’ll do what I can. And really—don’t stay here too much longer tonight, either.”

“All right,” said Sasha. “Thank you.”

“I haven’t done anything yet.” Basira headed toward the door. “Save your thanks.”

“That was strange,” Sasha said, after Basira had left. “Jon, did you know she would come?”

“I knew—I knew Basira was in charge of watching the archives. And I knew she was worried about Daisy.”

“I see,” Sasha said.

They sat in silence for a few moments.

“So what are we doing?” Georgie asked. “Are we—are we really going to try to stop it?”

“Yes,” Sasha said again, even more insistently than the first time.

“Sasha,” Jon said softly, “I don’t—”

“I know, you’re not sure we can.”

“Hang on,” Melanie said. “Jon, do you—do you know we can’t stop it? Or—or are you saying that because you couldn’t before?”

“I don’t—” Jon looked down at his hands, where they had come to rest on the table. “No. I don’t know that we can’t stop it.”

“Then we have to try,” Sasha said. “Think about it. There’s no apocalypse here. Jonah Magnus isn’t here. Most people—other than us—don’t even really know these things exist. These rituals, they were all deliberate, right? Somebody had to choose to start them. And we know so much more than you did. Maybe we can find a way.”

Jon answered with silence; Martin turned to stare at the wall.

“At least say you’re with us, Jon. If the rest of us try. At least be on our side. You too, Martin.”

Jon sighed. “Yes, of course I’m on your side. If that’s what you choose.”

“Martin?”

He turned back to find Sasha looking at him expectantly.

“Look—it’s not like I’m—”

Jon took his hand. “This is what you want, isn’t it?”

“We need you, Martin,” Sasha added.

Need. He remembered telling Jon once that they didn’t need him—that Jon didn’t need him. His own words echoed in his head. Everyone’s alone, but we all survive.

They didn’t all survive, though, did they?

“Fine.” He still didn’t believe they needed him, or even that having him around would change anything—but he wouldn’t abandon them, either. “I’m—I’m here.”

“Good.” Sasha said. “Melanie? Georgie?”

“What do you think?” Melanie asked, turning to Georgie.

“Well,” Georgie said, “I know I don’t want to have any regrets. And I do trust Jon. But Melanie, I meant it, you’ve been through so much already, and—”

“We’re in,” Melanie said. “For now, at least.”

“All right,” Sasha said. “Elias?”

They all turned toward him.

“Hm.” He smiled faintly, almost inwardly. “Sure. Why not?”

“That’s all of us, then. And I’ll get Tim back here as soon as he’s ready.”

“So—now what?” Georgie asked.

“I—” Sasha frowned. “I don’t know. I suppose we can’t stay here much longer, though. We’ll have to come up with another meeting spot.”

Elias cleared his throat. “Are we safe?”

Everyone turned to Jon in a way that Martin found very familiar.

“Safe—how?” Jon asked.

“Are we safe? When we leave here—will we be all right?”

“That’s complicated.” Jon thought. “I suppose we’re relatively safe, for the moment. That could change any time, though, and I wouldn’t necessarily know if it did. And once Annabelle—understands that we’re—”

“Annabelle is the—the Web lady?” Sasha asked. “The one that came here with you?”

“Yes,” Jon said.

“I guess what I’m wondering is—would we be safer if we were together?” Elias asked.

“I don’t know.”

Martin thought about the time after the Unknowing, and before he’d ended up in the Lonely. Certainly the other assistants had all felt safer staying together. Probably they had been. And Martin, well, he hadn’t really been that concerned about his safety then, had he? He’d sort of just been waiting for something to—

“Yeah,” he said. “Probably.”

Jon nodded.

Elias continued. “Well, if you want—and I can understand if you don’t—you all can come and stay with me and Allan. I’ve certainly got enough spare rooms to go around.”

“To be honest, I wouldn’t mind,” Sasha replied. “I mean—I know Melanie and Georgie have each other, and Jon and Martin, but I—yeah. If it’s ok.”

“Of course it is. What about the rest of you?”

“We—have a cat,” Melanie said.

“That’s fine. Bring the cat.”

Melanie and Georgie spoke in whispers to each other for a moment, and then turned back to the rest of the group.

“If Sasha’s going, we’ll go,” Melanie said, slipping her hand into Georgie’s.

“Thanks.” The relief was evident in Sasha’s voice. “Martin? Jon?”

“It’s up to you,” Jon said, turning to Martin.

“We’ll go.” Martin was almost surprised to hear the words come out of his own mouth; he certainly hadn’t made anything like a conscious decision.

“All right, then.” Elias stood up from Tim’s desk, and Martin thought he saw some relief in him as well. “It’s a bit out in the country. Who has a car?”

***

Martin was trying, but the one small duffel bag he had wouldn’t quite fit everything he wanted to bring. They had an hour or so to pack before Elias was coming to pick them up, and he knew it really wasn’t a big deal—it wouldn’t be that hard to come get something else if he needed it—but that didn’t temper his frustration. If he managed to get his toiletries in the bag, then there were a couple of shirts that just didn’t want to let the zipper close; he could fit the shirts, but then—did he really need more than one pair of pants?

“Ugh.” He let the shirts drop to the floor and slumped back against the bed.

“I have room,” Jon said, from his seat on the floor next to Martin. His suitcase was neatly packed already, and he’d pretty much been watching Martin struggle for five minutes.

“It’s not—hang on, I can do this.” He unpacked the duffel bag again. It was more of a gym bag than anything actually meant for traveling. He’d never gone anywhere when his mother had still been living with him, and then after she had moved out, he still didn’t like being too far away from her. The bag had really only ever served for overnights—which he’d done less often than he might have, too.

Once again, he came up short on space. It was those two shirts.

“God damn it.”

“Just put them in my suitcase,” Jon said.

Without answering, he leaned forward and put all his weight on the small stack of clothing that was already in the bag with one arm, and tried again to jam the shirts in on top of them.

He stopped when he felt Jon’s hand on his elbow.

“Martin—do you want to do this? Do you want to go?”

He sat back on his calves. “I don’t really have a choice, do I?”

“Of course you do.”

“Jon—you know I’m not going to stay here if you’re going.”

“That’s not what I meant. If you want to stay—I’ll stay here with you.”

Martin leaned back against the bed again, and Jon did as well. Their arms met at the shoulder.

“Do you mean that?” Martin asked. “Would you be mad?”

“I wouldn’t be mad. Martin, you—you waited for me. In Scotland. You waited for me to be ready. I’ll wait for you.”

Martin nodded; Jon shifted his weight to rest against him, and Martin slipped his arm just behind Jon’s back.

“So this is that, then? This is us leaving the cabin again?”

“Maybe.” Jon let his head fall against Martin’s chest. “Maybe not. Maybe it comes to nothing.”

“You know, this—kind of reminded me of packing to go there. To the cabin. Except—” His throat caught.

“You don’t have to talk about it.”

“I want to, though.” Martin took a breath. “Talking to you—it always makes me feel a bit better, at least. I know you’re not like that, when you—just give me a moment.”

“Take all the time you need.”

Martin looked around the room, as much as he could without pushing Jon away. The bed, the dresser—he hadn’t been there that long, but the amount of time was irrelevant. Despite the questions he’d had later about their living situation, it had stopped being Jon’s bed the moment he’d gotten there; it was their bed. Their dresser. Their bathroom. It was silly to even care about sharing most of those things, but it had mattered. It was what he’d wanted. And as much as Jon could, it was what he’d wanted, too. Martin knew that.

“I was—maybe it was selfish—but I was happy when we went to that cabin. Or maybe—maybe just hopeful—but it had been so long since I’d had any hope, it felt like happiness.”

“Me too,” Jon said.

“And I’m—I’m sad now.” Martin laughed in spite of himself.

“What’s funny about that?” Jon asked.

“Remember when we argued about expressing your emotions, and I asked you how you felt about the apocalypse, and all you said was—sad?”

“Oh,” Jon smiled too, now. “I do remember.”

“I’m—I’ll do better. I feel hopeless. Worse than hopeless, when I think about how we felt then, because we it was so different. We still thought we could stop it. Call it off. Now, it’s—it feels like it’s just the end. And we’re walking into it.”

“Not necessarily. It could—they could all decide there’s nothing we can do, and we’ll be back here in a week.”

“But if we are—isn’t that—isn’t that just as bad? Doesn’t it just go the same place, with one more failure behind us?”

“Martin, we really don’t have go. Not yet.”

Martin thought. He didn’t want to leave. But he also knew if they stayed—while everyone else was together, scared, groping for answers—it wouldn’t be the same. It was over, either way.

“Jon?”

“Yes,” Jon answered quietly.

“I’m—I’m glad we had this.”

“Me too.”