#anti king bran

[laurellerual]

Do you know a detail of GoT that irritates me even after all these years?

This is Sansa the Queen of the North:

And this is Bran the King of the Six Kingdoms who reigns where the iron throne once stood:

But for some reason they bothered to come up with a crown design for only one of the two.

[silverflameataraxia]

"You'll find someone," Jon promised her. "King's Landing is a true city, a thousand times the size of Winterfell. Until you find a partner, watch how they fight in the yard. Run, and ride, make yourself strong. And whatever you do..."

Arya knew what was coming next. They said it together.

"...don't...tell...Sansa!"

Job messed up her hair. "I will miss you, little sister ."

Suddenly she looked like she was going to cry. "I wish you were coming with us."

"Different roads sometimes lead to the same castle. Who knows?" He was feeling better now. He was not going to let himself be sad. "I better go. I'll spend my first year on the Wall emptying chamber pots it I keep Uncle Ben waiting any longer."

Arya seemed puzzled at first. Then it came to her. She was that quick. They said it together:

"Needle!"

The memory of her laughter warmed him on the long ride north.

AGoT, Jon II

No one talked to Arya. She didn't care. She liked it that way. She would have eaten her meals alone in her bedchamber if they let her. Sometimes they did, when Father had to dine with the king, or some lord or the envoys from this place or that place. The rest of the time, they ate in his solar, just him and her and Sansa. That was when Arya missed her brothers most. She wanted to tease Bran and play with baby Rickon and have Robb smile at her. She wanted Jon to muss up her hair and call her "little sister" and finish her sentences with her. But all of them were gone. She had no one left but Sansa, and Sansa wouldn't even talk to her unless Father made her.

She went back to the window, Needle in hand,  and looked down into the courtyard below. If only she could climb like Bran, she thought; she would go out the window and down the tower, run away from this horrible place, away from Sansa and Septa Mordane and Prince Joffrey, from all of them. Steal some food from the kitchens, take Needle and her good boots and a warm cloak. She could find Nymeria in the wild woods below the Trident, and together they'd return to Winterfell, or run to Jon on the Wall. She found herself wishing that Jon was here with her now. Then maybe she wouldn't feel so alone.

Arya chewed her lip and said nothing. She would not betray Jon, not even to their father. All she could think of was the lesson Jon had given her. "Stick them with the pointy end," she blurted out.

AGoT, Arya II

Sorry for the long post, but I love how Jon said goodbye to Bran, Robb, and Arya, but not his other sister. Sansa who? 🤣

I love that Jon and Arya know each other so well that they finish each other's sentences. I love how they're comforted by the thought of the other.

I find it interesting that Arya's second POV is a stark contrast to Sansa's. Arya thinks about her brothers all the time, about how much she misses them...and Winterfell. But Sansa only thinks of Arya a handful of times and it's either hating on her or wishing she wasn't there, but Sansa never thinks of her brothers.

[rynnthefangirl]

So... the Three Eyed Raven is Bloodraven, right? And Bran becomes the new Three Eyes Raven, so he is kind of Bloodraven himself? Because that adds a whole new level of hypocrisy to the ending of Game of Thrones.

"Oh, we can't have Daenerys rule because she is a Targaryen born to an evil King, uses her dragons to bend people to her will, and is seen as an outsider and not well liked by the Lords of Westeros. Who should we replace her with on the throne I wonder....?"

"I know! The spiritual successor to that Targaryen born to an evil King, who used sorcery to bend people to his will, and was seen as an outsider and not well liked by the Lords of Westeros. Brilliant!"

[agentrouka-blog]

Hello, Rouka! I love your blog and the way your mind works. Thank you for all you contribute to the fandom. I saw your post about Jon not becoming a NK and wondered whether you think there is a possibility of Bran becoming the leader of the Others instead? What if the "King Bran" spoiler GRRM gave D&D actually meant a Night's King Bran ending instead of King of Westeros (or the south at least) Bran? I feel like he's being led toward something like that through his connection with the weirwoods, but perhaps his arc is about rejecting that type of power and choosing non-magical leadership instead?

Hello, and thank you so much for your kind words! :)

My take on the Night King is that there's more than a little of Stannis in there, a leader who succumbs to the seductive call of otherworldly power. The Night King and the Corpse Queen mentally enslave his fellow Night's Watch brothers (potentially through warg-like powers?) and make unspecified sacrifices that may or may not resemble those made by Craster. It takes an alliance of enemies to defeat them.

He brought her back to the Nightfort and proclaimed her a queen and himself her king, and with strange sorceries he bound his Sworn Brothers to his will. For thirteen years they had ruled, Night's King and his corpse queen, till finally the Stark of Winterfell and Joramun of the wildlings had joined to free the Watch from bondage. After his fall, when it was found he had been sacrificing to the Others, all records of Night's King had been destroyed, his very name forbidden. (ASOS, Bran IV)

All of this reeks of blood magic, to the point where I see the corpse queen as a metaphor for this icy version of blood magic, if she is not a priestly figure similar to Melisandre.

I don't think that this represents a concrete leadership position over the Others, certainly not in the future. (I think the ice threat will be definitively ended.) But it's a template of abuse of power that fits villains like Stannis or Dany, and it may touch on an ancient crime committed by a Stark in connection with blood magic and is likely related to the Starks' inherited warg powers.

I do think that Bran is connected to this tale, in terms of a parallel, as he too is enslaving Hodor with his mind and unable to resist the temptation of abusing his warging ability. He could become the Stark that turns evil, if he chose. He is the representation of the ancient history of House Starks that likely needs correcting. All those Brandons...

"Some say he was a Bolton," Old Nan would always end. "Some say a Magnar out of Skagos, some say Umber, Flint, or Norrey. Some would have you think he was a Woodfoot, from them who ruled Bear Island before the ironmen came. He never was. He was a Stark, the brother of the man who brought him down." She always pinched Bran on the nose then, he would never forget it. "He was a Stark of Winterfell, and who can say? Mayhaps his name was Brandon. Mayhaps he slept in this very bed in this very room." (ASOS, Bran IV)

His growing power and his ability to see and even manipulate the past may even end up leading Bran into a position that seems like a mirror to Daenerys with the Dothraki. She is more than likely going to unite the khalasars at Vaes Dothrak, or at least defeat the current leadership, cause immense destruction to their holy site and end up leading a sizable new army of dangerous warriors.

Bran seemingly taking up a position of power, leadership or influence over the wights or in collusion with the Others is a very plausible development in the lead-up to his return South and the resolution to this threat. The weirwood cave is unlikely to remain safe for long. The crone-like Bloodraven married to the tree, drawing Bran into his world, mirrors the dosh khaleen. If Vaes Dothrak faces destruction, so does this strange underworldly cave world.

It's for Bran to decide whether he wants to choose blood magic and follow that dark part of his heritage, or whether he wants to right some wrongs and sacrifice his powers and his dreams, turn away from the corpse (queen) and fight for human life.

[spectrum-color]

What really stands out about the deep dive I’ve done in r/asoiaf is how much discourse changed after the show ended from people basing their arguments on the actual text to trying to twist the story and characters so it fits the GoT ending. The problem with this is that it makes absolutely no sense with what we’ve been given so far: Arya leaving the North and her family to be an explorer, Sansa becoming Littlefinger 2.0 and queen of an the North ( which is independent because she said so and everyone shrugged,) Jaime going back to his sister to die and this being presented as peak romance, Jon doing absolutely nothing of significance during the Long Night, Bran as high wizard king of the remaining kingdoms, Cersei as a beloved and powerful queen (?!?!?!) Dany as a psycho tyrant who gets put down by Jon, and Tyrion being welcomed back with open arms by the Westerosi nobility who never even mention the whole convicted of kingslaying thing.

There is no textual support for any of this. In some cases (Tyrion, Arya, Dany, Cersei) it directly contradicts established characterization, and in others (Jaime, Bran, Jon, Sansa) it makes no sense from a story or worldbuilding perspective. For every “Theon dies protecting Bran during the Long Night” that could track with where we’ve been going, there’s like 5 cases of Tyrion (TYRION) being upset about Kings Landing being sacked and his siblings dying or Sansa praising Cersei as her role model or Dany suddenly having been evil all along because she didn’t act more upset about her abusive brothers death. The way this all slots so awkwardly into the existing story makes me think either this isn’t how the the books will wrap up or GRRM is pulling a How I Met Your Mother and struggling to force an awkward, nonsensical ending in because it was his original idea and that’s why he’s having such a hard time wrapping it up.

[hamliet]

Rereading A Clash of Kings

In light of my recent Fire & Blood reread, I decided to reread the whole ASOIAF series because, well, why not. Below are some general observations/musings on the themes, character arcs, alchemy, and foreshadowing of book 1. I’ll do this for the others as well. It’s not really a meta so much as observations and thoughts.

Thoughts on A Game of Thrones here.

Themes

Duty vs Love

"Do you want to be loved, Sansa?" "Everyone wants to be loved."

"I see flowering hasn't made you any brighter," said Cersei. "Sansa, permit me to share a bit of womanly wisdom with you on this very special day. Love is poison. A sweet poison, yes, but it will kill you all the same."

Incorrect.

But actually, it's not so simple. Yes, love makes you weak to a degree, but love also restores, and a loveless existence is something that turns you into Cersei. Not a good thing. Stannis, too, doesn't need to be loved, and this will destroy him.

However, all of our heroes mention wanting to be loved. Tyrion pays Shae to pretend she loves him. Sansa wants to be loved. Daenerys wants to be loved. Arya even thinks it. Theon desperately wants love from his father, and does terrible things to get it.

Catelyn also betrays her own son to free Jaime out of love--love for her daughters. She utterly throws duty away for love, which is very understandable, and yet also something that is going to contribute to the Red Wedding in the next book.

Identity and Illusions

A key element of Romantic literature is focusing on the internal, not the external. Part of that includes a focus on the self: who am I? where do I fit into the world? Y'know, that Jungian and human stuff.

A Clash of Kings focuses on that to an extreme, deconstructing the assumptions the characters have about themselves.

We have Catelyn at her childhood home in Riverrun, watching her father's life flow out. She angsts about her role as a mother, and loses more and more children. Robb is a king now, and their roles are now reversed to a degree: he gives her orders, not the opposite. Her sons Bran and Rickon are "killed." Arya and Sansa are lost. In the end, she becomes a traitor, the thing Ned was falsely executed for, against her own son.

Arya chooses many new names for herself. She never felt like she fit in as a girl, so at the start of the book, she's a boy named Arry. When Yoren and the others are killed, she adopts the name Weasel, named for a real girl who ran off into the woods and hasn't been seen since. There's longing here: Arya sees herself in the child, who grieved openly and loudly and annoyed everyone else but whom Arya couldn't abandon. She gives herself that name, but she still cannot grieve openly. It's not safe.

When you cannot grieve, you turn to vengeance. Arya murders a man in cold blood with her own hands escaping Harrenhal at the end of the book. Hot Pie expresses horror, which yes, is negative framing even if it's not for no reason that Arya did it.

Jon affirms himself as a man of the Night's Watch over and over, but at the end of the book he's told by Qhorin Halfhand that being a man of the NW might mean betraying the Night's Watch. Sometimes, duty itself is betrayal--and of course, it's a change in his identity. He's to infiltrate Mance Raydar's troops. Since Mance too was once a Night's Watchman, it taunts Jon with the possibility of losing identity.

"They only spare oathbreakers. Those who join them, like Mance Rayder." "And you." "No." He shook his head. "Never. I won't."" You will. I command it of you." "Command it? But . . . " "Our honor means no more than our lives, so long as the realm is safe. Are you a man of the Night's Watch?"

But we're also given hints that identity is not always what it seems. Ygritte tells Jon "Be that as it may, what's certain is that Bael left the child in payment for the rose he'd plucked unasked, and that the boy grew to be the next Lord Stark. So there it is-you have Bael's blood in you, same as me." Who is a wildling, and who is a Stark? It's not clear.

Theon is an identity mess in this book. He asserts himself a Greyjoy, but his father mocks him as being a Stark. Even when he's committing atrocities on behalf of House Greyjoy, he does it thinking of... well:

Theon told himself he must be as cold and deliberate as Lord Eddard. 

He keeps waffling about whom he is, and then plays on identity himself. He murders and burns the miller's boys, calling them Rickon and Bran. And he takes Reek into his service, when Reek turns out to be Ramsay Bolton. Reek, of course, is who Theon will become--and it is also who Theon could become. Not the sniveling, pathetic creature Reek, but instead Ramsay himself, if he lets his lack of love from his father consume him.

Sansa, of course, must pretend to be in love with Joffrey, while clinging to her blood as a Stark. She does all she can to stay herself, to believe in knights and kindness, and saves who she can when she can.

Davos, too, has a primary conflict about identity. He is a father, a smuggler, a loyal servant to Stannis because he admires Stannis' justice. But when he sees Melisandre and her demon shadow babies, he clearly wonders whether or not Stannis is still justice, even if subconsciously. After losing three sons in the battle of Blackwater Bay, he's set up to see a conflict between his identity as a father and his position with Stannis.

Tyrion... oof. I've already talked about how he asked Shae to become Tysha, under the delusion that he would be in control this time. He falls for Shae anyways, that is very clear, and everyone gets hurt for it. He hasn't been able to grieve openly for Tysha, and as a result he's stuck in a cycle. Plus, throughout the book he's the one saving everyone in King's Landing, and he still gets the hatred of everyone around him for it. When the novel ends, he's survived battle and an assassination attempt, and he now looks like the monster the people call him. But is he? (No.)

Daenerys... I'll talk more about her in the alchemy section below, but her entire arc is about learning who she is as the last Targaryen. She also learns about what magic is, and how rotten it appears under the surface. The heart in the House of the Undying is "a human heart, swollen and blue with corruption, yet still alive. It beat, a deep ponderous throb of sound, and each pulse sent out a wash of indigo light. The figures around the table were no more than blue shadows. As Dany walked to the empty chair at the foot of the table, they did not stir, nor speak, nor turn to face her. There was no sound but the slow, deep beat of the rotting heart." If you lose yourself in prophecies, you become a shadow of a person.

Look Back or Be Lost

In addition, Dany's prophetic narrative connects strongly to Jon's in terms of themes: sometimes to accomplish goals, you must do something that looks like the opposite of accomplishing your goals. It's all part of the journey. Sounds like a theme that might be emphasized by oh, the hero accidentally burning King's Landing:

"To go north, you must journey south. To reach the west, you must go east. To go forward you must go back, and to touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow."

Still, I do think this indicates that Daenerys's journey ends in the north, not in the south. Quaithe would have otherwise said "to go south, you must go north." And technically, Dany still is going to stop in the east (Essos) before going west (to Westeros). To go forward and be a hero, she'll have to look back. In contract to "if I look back, I am lost," looking back is exactly what will save her in her darkest hour, I believe. While Dany assumes the shadow references Asshai, and it's possible this was once the plan, I think there are lots of other interpretations of this... including Jungian. Symbolically, to be a hero, you have to accept your shadow, or the negative elements, which Dany is absolutely denying in this book with "If I look back, I am lost."

Alchemy

Let's start off with Daenerys and identity. I talked about how A Game of Thrones ends with her reborn as red sun, as opposed to white moon. She then wanders through the Red Waste, which is filled with pools that are "scalding hot and stinking of brimstone." (Brimstone is sulfur.)

The rest of the story is about her encountering white and moon and finding it does not fit her anymore. They stay at an abandoned city "pale as the moon and lovely as a maid." It's abandoned, empty, filled with only loneliness. Then they arrive in Qarth, a white city, only to find it is rotten to the core. Daenerys has to leave the white behind. She's even noted to no longer be comfortable under her old markings:

 Dany's tight silver collar was chafing against her throat. She unfastened it and flung it aside.

Other marking details include Sansa being solidified as white and the moon, with her wearing "a moonstone hair net." However, both Sansa and Arya have been having attempts to dye them red... that aren't good things. Most notably, Arya throwing wine on Sansa's white silk in the first book, and here:

The Lorathi brought the blade to Arya still red with heart's blood and wiped it clean on the front of her shift. "A girl should be bloody too. This is her work."

Arya ends the book after murdering a man thinking that the rain (water) will wash the blood off her hands.

Metals

Robert was the true steel. Stannis is pure iron, black and hard and strong, yes, but brittle, the way iron gets. He'll break before he bends. And Renly, that one, he's copper, bright and shiny, pretty to look at but not worth all that much at the end of the day."

Stannis isn't just iron; he's lead and tin as well. Robert is iron. Renly is copper, the highest of base metals (probably the best to be a king among the Baratheon brothers), but still, well, a base metal.

Oaths

The oaths the Reeds swear to Bran seem to be somewhat alchemical in nature:

"Hearth and heart and harvest we yield up to you, my lord. Our swords and spears and arrows are yours to command. Grant mercy to our weak, help to our helpless, and justice to all, and we shall never fail you." "I swear it by earth and water," said the boy in green. "I swear it by bronze and iron," his sister said. "We swear it by ice and fire," they finished together.

All the colors that had been missing from Vaes Tolorro had found their way to Qarth; buildings crowded about her fantastical as a fever dream in shades of rose, violet, and umber. "On the morrow, you shall feast upon peacock and lark's tongue, and hear music worthy of the most beautiful of women. The Thirteen will come to do you homage, and all the great of Qarth.

Foreshadowing

Again, George's foreshadowing is sometimes odd. Still:

Varys smiled. "Here, then. Power resides where men believe it resides. No more and no less." "So power is a mummer's trick?" "A shadow on the wall," Varys murmured, "yet shadows can kill. And ofttimes a very small man can cast a very large shadow."

This pretty clearly foreshadows f!Aegon, the "mummer's dragon." He's a shadow, which may kill but also is not real because he isn't the actual Targaryen Aegon VI. Tyrion concludes this conversation by asking Varys "who are you?" again hinting that Varys' identity is the key to his motives (he is a Blackfyre).

Arya and Sansa's relationship was troubled in AGOT, but they miss each other. When Arya wishes for King's Landing to be destroyed by water (again water=Arya), she thinks: Sansa was still in the city and would wash away too. When she remembered that, Arya decided to wish for Winterfell instead.

Bran has a crush on Meera for sure: the girl caught him staring at her and smiled. Bran blushed and looked away.

Catelyn thinks to herself: the face of a drowned woman, Catelyn thought. Can you drown in grief? Well, considering what will happen to Catelyn's body after the Red Wedding (being resurrected out of a river)... seems pretty clear foreshadowing.

Lastly, Daenerys's prophecies will get their own section, but another thing of note is that right after Dany's chapter about the blue rose that smells sweet growing from a chink in the ice, Jon's next chapter contains this line from Qhorin to Jon:

Sometimes a man forgets how pretty a fire can be.

Both have beauty associated with the other, along with their primary element.

Prophecies

Oh Seven the chaos. The first visions of Dany in the House of the Undying are obvious--Westeros being ravaged by the war; Robb turning to Dany for justice for the Red Wedding (again, Dany is seen to be a friend, as hope, to/for the Starks, not an enemy).

She then sees two visions of her past, bringing back the "If I look back I am lost" idea. She sees her childhood home with the Red Door, and she sees the dangerous past that she hasn't let herself face yet: her father, Aerys, essentially screaming to burn them all.

Then here's the chaos: Viserys's death, Rhaego (what could have been). Rhaegar's death, saying Lyanna's name.

mother of dragons, daughter of death

Dany has embraced the former, but she also needs to embrace the latter. That doesn't mean becoming a harbinger of death; in fact, facing her legacy of slavery and death (the Targaryen history) means the opposite.

Glowing like sunset, a red sword was raised in the hand of a blue-eyed king who cast no shadow....

A cloth dragon swayed on poles amidst a cheering crowd. From a smoking tower, a great stone beast took wing, breathing shadow fire. . . . mother of dragons, slayer of lies . . .

Oh hi, Stannis and Aegon. Aegon's not a real Targaryen anymore than Stannis is the real Azor Ahai: instead, she has to slay both of their lies.

Her silver was trotting through the grass, to a darkling stream beneath a sea of stars. A corpse stood at the prow of a ship, eyes bright in his dead face, grey lips smiling sadly. A blue flower grew from a chink in a wall of ice, and filled the air with sweetness. . . . mother of dragons, bride of fire . . .

This seems to pretty clearly represent Drogo, Euron, and Jon.

 . . three heads has the dragon . . .

Pretty standard ish? I would guess it's Daenerys, Jon, and Tyrion, though Bran is a possibility.

three fires must you light . . . one for life and one for death and one to love . . .

Okay. Again, I think for life is clearly understood to be Drogo's pyre to hatch the dragons. Death is likely the conflagration to burn King's Landing, even if accidental (my guess is Dany knows some of KL will burn but sets off the wildfyre, but not intentionally). To love is likely to defeat the Others.

three mounts must you ride . . . one to bed and one to dread and one to love . . .

There seems to be debate about whether this applies to literal rides or to Daenerys's love interests. If the former, it would likely be Dany's silver, then Drogon, and then... no idea. This seems likely to me, yet the distinct lack of a third one makes me question whether this is really the accurate interpretation, or if it's intentionally something that can be interpreted either way.

The husband one could be Drogo/Daario, Euron, and Jon. Yes, Euron. I do think Danaerys's struggle in A Dream of Spring will be between love in Jon and power in Euron. Again, the positioning of the ship between the clear Drogo/silver mount and Jon as the blue rose makes me think this is a distinct possibility.

three treasons will you know . . . once for blood and once for gold and once for love . . .

Again, Mirri Maz Duur is likely the first one, and possibly Jorah or the Harpies are the gold, or even Illyrio, or something to do with King's Landing. But the last one is interesting. I think people assume this is Jon killing Dany thanks to That Show, but I think the preposition indicates something that breaks a pattern. She's going to know three treasons. Who's to say she's the betrayed in every instance? "For" implies action, which makes me wonder if Daenerys will "betray" Jon in the endgame to save the world, via not sacrificing him as her love but instead sacrificing herself to save the world and him in it.

Again, the obvious thing is that love is Dany's endgame. Love, love, love. Not choosing ambition over love, Show That Shall Not Be Named.

[otp-that-was-promised]

In the year 2022, people still think D4ny is still going to be queen of Westeros. I'm???

[sayruq]

Bran stans brace yourselves because I know the Jon Snow show will have it out for him (and Sansa)

[silverflameataraxia]

Friendly reminder that Arya, Jon, Tyrion, Dany, and Bran are central to the plot of ASOIAF.

Sansa is not.

[lemonhemlock]

i feel like well at least personally bran is the only character arc who i dont see so defined, like we obviously know where jaime-cersei-tyrion are going and even dany and sansa

but for bran for me is a mistery cause i do see him being consumed in magic but thats it

You & me both. I have no idea what he intends to do with Bran. I don't think there's going to be any magic left at the end of the series?? Wouldn't that interfere with all-powerful, all-seeing Sauron!Bran? Also, generally speaking, people who have dabbled in magic have been shown to be slowly corrupted/consumed by it. Is Bran just going to be fine after being consumed by a tree? I don't know, man. 🙇‍♀️

[agentrouka-blog]

Do you think ASOIAF is still going to end with Bran on the throne? I kind of find that so incredibly disingenuous. I was so sure pre-GOT Ending that the 7K would all go back to being independent states, since the Targs "unified" (saying this sarcastically) Westeros, and ASOIAF is obviously going to end with the Targs dying out. So it wouldn't make sense to me to still keep that Targ symbolism (the IT and unification of Westeros) intact.

Also, I find such an ending racist. The North is obviously going to secede with Sansa as queen ... But everything that the North wants to be, is what Dorne is. And then Dorne is not going to secede (they're already halfway there anyways) and accept a Stark overlord? There is no way in Hell I see that happening. Dorne has suffered the most from the Targs and has rejected them the most and deserve the independence they have always fought for the most, but they are the ones that are not going to secede? No way.

ASOIAF should end with the full eradication of the Targaryens, the 7K all becoming independent like before, the IT destroyed, and Bran the new Bloodraven overseeing the continent as a tree or whatever. But the North only seceding and another Stark ruling over the rest of the continent? That's just blatant favoritism not to mention an unsatisfactory ending to characters (the Dornish) that have nothing to do with the Starks.

Hi there!

I've made a few post on the subject of what I think the King Bran endgame will be.

Great Council and Harrenhal

Harrenhal and the Starks

Bran the Loophole King by a Lake

Arya prepares Harrenhal

Who stays and who goes independent?

How boy king Bran might work

Bran as a human king not a greenseer

Essentially I think the show ending is a very strongly altered version of it - to the point of absolute absurdity. It feels like they dedicated less time to the political restructuring of Westeros than they did to Tyrion shuffling chairs around before that travesty of a small council meeting. It's nonsense. They didn't care about their ending. Neither should we.

To make my predictions brief: Bran absolutely and definitely will give up his powers in the course of resolving the ice threat. There is absolutely NO way GRRM would place some kind of surveilance godking on a throne and call it a "bittersweet ending". Anyway, KL is done, no more Iron Throne. A Great Council is held to decide the future of Westeros (Congress of Vienna-style but better). They elect a new king (hereditary or electoral, who knows) and the new model of monarchy is likely to be at least somewhat parliamentary with Bran as a figurehead - an intentionally weak figure head! - based on his maternal ancestry line (Tully-Whent) and its connection to Harrenhal, where this new ruling body will be situated.

Very likely Tyrion may be involved in machinations that will raise Bran to the throne, sway the election in his favor in some way. (Foreshadowed by him providing the design for a special saddle for Bran - a special "seat".) His actual endgame will follow after and it will not be happy.

I would be immensely surprised if Dorne did not reestablish independence the same as the North.

[lavalais76]

Jon & Sansa | Winter in my Heart

I am simply obsessed with these 2. All the Metas and Fan Fiction from you beautiful kindred souls makes me feel so alive! I appreciate each and everyone of you. @istumpysk and @esther-dot @starwarsprincess1986 @sherlokiness @stormcloudrising , you guys give me LIFE with your Metas.

I'm more of a book fan because the show did these characters no justice. We all know WHY. I hope you guys are ok with me posting all these sappy videos. Im sort of new to Tumblr, and I love it here. When I heard about the Kit and Sofie movie set at the time of "war of the roses" I became even more obsessed with Jon and Sansa.

They are obviously giving it away with this movie and trying to get the "Anti's" to get comfortable with the fact that these 2 are inevitable. Before Sansa appeared at Castle Black and even before the show begin I always wondered what the deal was with these 2. It just didn't make any sense, or as someone else put it: "Jon and Sansa are the LOUDEST SILENCE". I ALWAYS had that feeling that the girl in grey would be her. There isn't a single doubt in my mind.

I think something horrible will go down in the Vale and the Blackfish will help Sansa some sort of way to get to Jon. I read many Metas where they say Jon will come back from the dead a mindless beast, and he will have no POV. That's just impossible. Our main character/HERO a mute stuck in a wolf.

First of all I don't think Jon is dead AT ALL. I believe he is hanging on by a string due to blood loss and shock and possibly in a coma like Bran was at the beginning of the series. He will warg Ghost and find out many things about himself through Ghost while his friends (the wildings) nurse him back to life. Though VAL is not one of my favorite characters, some say she is a healer. That could be good for Jon.

Melsandra will probably burn Shrinee anyway because she thinks Stannis is dead. I also think Jon was drugged before the stabbings. The way he spoke of clumsily trying to retrieve LongClaw, and he just gave me a weird vibe. I DO NOT TRUST Satin guys. I know everyone loves him but if Jon were drugged, Satin always provided the drinks. Maybe I'm reaching too far, but that's just my gut feeling. Satin is Judas.

Cerci Lannister had plans on taking Jon off the Chess Board as well, so there is no telling if she orchestrated the whole thing or not. Whatever happens, it's gonna be real UGLY when Jon wakes up. Jon Snow as we knew him is definitely DEAD and died in the snow. The real BEAST is what we will have left of Jon. He will make the Hound look like a little poodle dog.

I do also believe he will be in those woods as Ghost while Sansa is being chased by Ramsay's hounds. He will definitely kill them all including whomever is with the dogs. There was a passage in the books if I remember correctly how when Ghost was a pup, and he was eating. A dog approached to try and steal his prize. Jon said the Dog was much bigger than Ghost, but all Ghost had to do was look at her and she ran away. Ghost got right back to his prize.

I've always wondered if that was a foreshadowing for Ghost fighting the hounds. Another thing, WHERE do Ghost go when Jon wonders of his whereabouts? Well, I'm almost done here Jonsa family. I hope I'm not boring you guys to death with this long book of a post I am writing.

I DO believe Sansa is the Girl in Grey and I'll die by that. I also think that after Ghost!Jon saves her, Brianne and Jamie or Brianne and Company will get her to Castle Black. The dying horse in my opinion is not a real Horse. It could be a person. We've already had the real dying horse with Alyas. Sansa doesn't have to be dressed in Grey either because so many other things links her to Grey.

I remember she had a green cloak in Kings Landing that belonged to the hound and if I'm not mistaken she also got on the boat with LF with that cloak on. Where is it? I do not know.

Anyway, Sansa will arrive at Castle Black shortly after Jon wakes up from his coma (refuse to believe he died and actual death) People will SAY he rose from the dead as they did Sansa when she left Kings Landing. It will be a myth, but people will believe it. Jon will NOT be the same. I believe he will have all of his memories which preserved in Ghost but he will become "THE BEAST" After he has "killed the boy." He would have tapped into his powers and possibly converse with Bran and Bloodraven.

Jon will probably forget what happened in the woods and in his wolf dreams but he will have the shock of his life to see Sansa Stark of ALL people come through those gates. She's come to the end of the world to seek HIM out. He will realize it was the wrong sister he almost got murdered behind.

Everyone will fear him at Castle Black. He will be a cold blooded killer with no humanity left until she walks through those gates. It's a craving Jon had (to see her again) but he kept that to himself. We know this from Ygritte, Alays and Val. He was looking for Sansa in all these women, and now the real deal stands right before him.

I'm not saying it's going to be an easy journey, but she will be the ONLY ONE to calm the beast. Jon will protect her of course (or steal her) but he will be mean to Sansa at first. He will eventually fall madly in love with her and vice versa. She will sing to him, annoy him, anger him, pacify him and Jon won't know what hit him.

They will fall in love because of what they both endured. Jon will be OVER protective of Sansa in the books, possibly locking her up in a tower like Stannis has Val, but this time there is a real princess in the tower that Jon WANTS to steal. I know I've reached my limits here. I am sorry for rambling or any errors, I'm just so happy to have ran across you fine people. If I didn't tag someone is because I don't remember the names and I'm still fairly new on Tumblr.

You guys are the BEST!

[nightswatchdisbandmentera]

Thinking of the most prominent succession struggles in asoiaf and realizing that a good majority of them are not even because of some evil bastard usurping their trueborn relative. Alys Karstark’s dilemma is caused by her uncle wanting to forcibly marry her and steal her birthright. Renly is Stannis’ trueborn brother and yet he declares himself king despite Stannis being older. Euron is Balon’s trueborn brother and Asha’s uncle and yet look at what he did. Littlefinger wants to use a trueborn Harry Harding to take over Sweetrobin’s rights (though not so openly). And the Dance of the Dragons was between a trueborn pair of brother and sister. And if we are to see a repeat of it, it will be between a trueborn daughter of the last Targaryen king (Dany) and a trueborn son (Aegon) of the previous crown prince.

That’s what makes the whole “Jon was a threat to Catelyn’s children” argument so frustrating because people act as if Jon was a ticking time bomb that was going to blow at any minute, purely on account of him being a bastard. When historically, we’re given much more precedent for trueborn relatives to usurp each other.

This frustrating argument arises out of two problems:

ASOIAF stans are not engaging as critically with the text as they should be. Catelyn’s historical evidence lies in the series of Blackfyre Rebellions which happened after a legitimized bastard rose up against his brother. But context is key here. Not only were there several factors that led to this fallout (e.g., Daemon being given the conqueror’s sword Blackfyre, anti-Dornish sentiment not working in Daeron’s favor, Daeron himself being a suspected bastard, Daemon’s overall popularity, etc), but people ignore Bloodraven (a BASTARD!) who supported his trueborn brother’s claim during this series of conflicts. Daemon did not rebel because all bastards are inclined to treachery and all bastards bring evil to those around them. If any bastards raised near trueborns are a threat to the trueborn’s inheritance, then why not Bittersteel? Why not Shiera? Why didn’t other Stark bastards rebel against their trueborn siblings? Several factors led to the conflict specifically between Daemon and Daeron. Instead of taking Catelyn’s filtered history at face value, we should instead recognize that Daemon was given legal basis to push for his claim (after a series of events that symbolically recognized him as the worthy and true heir) as he was now a legitimized son, and succession struggles are, more oft than not, likely to happen between recognized legitimate competing claims. And here’s the thing, Ned Stark at no point indicated that he was going to give Jon legitimacy in the North. And he never indicated that he would give it to Jon over Robb. On the contrary, everyone knew that Robb was the heir. Robb was the one being given lessons, Robb was the one helping Ned attend to visiting lords, Robb was the one who would inherit Ice, etc. By Alys’ account in ADWD, preparations were being made for Robb’s future (NOT for Jon, who was largely ignored). There was no opportunity for Jon to pose any threat to Robb or his children because Ned did not give him legitimacy and he did not allow him to gain backing with the Northern lords. Aegon IV created Daemon and his subsequent rebellion(s), but Ned Stark did not do the same with Jon. Despite Catelyn treating Jon as a walking crisis center, there’s little evidence to the effect. In fact, we might as well say that Bran or Rickon or any of Sansa’s or Arya’s sons would pose an even bigger threat to Robb’s legacy than Jon would, you know given historical precedent and all that.

Treating Jon’s mere existence as one that inherently comes with dire consequences for “le poor trueborns” plays into bastardphobia, which is actually in world bigotry (and grrm considers Jon to be a marginalized individual on account of his bastardy). Saying that Jon is a threat to the Stark kids is saying that all bastards are threats to trueborns but like….so are the trueborns. History, actual hiatory, shows us that trueborns are a bigger threat to each other. But no one is saying “Bran is a threat to Robb’s kids” even though there is precedent. Bran is also getting a lordling’s education just as Robb is, and Bran is allowed to engage with the upper class on important occasions and gain visibility just as Robb is, and Bran is even expected to command his own castle and men (which would even give him ability to stake his claim). So why isn’t he a threat? Instead, Jon is the one who is singled out - because he’s a bastard. He’s being singled out because Catelyn said he should be singled out, despite there being little actual evidence to his supposed incoming usurpation. Which is ironic because the literal purpose of his story is to critique these bigoted views. Jon is just as honorable and good and kind as any other trueborn son, if not more so. And we have seen him sacrificing his own happiness for his siblings (e.g., the direwolf pups and refusing Winterfell because he will not usurp Sansa’s rights). It’s one thing for Catelyn to show ignorance, but we as readers should know better because we have a full picture and not only do we have an understanding of the history being cited by Catelyn (and what is being purposefully ignored), we also know Jon. So we should be saying, “wait no, there’s no indication that Jon is any more a threat than any one of Ned’s sons”.

It is understandable (but not justifiable tbh) that Catelyn is biased against Jon; he is the ever present product of her husband’s affair. But that’s just it, she’s biased. So she has a biased application of history. And she has a biased (and bigoted) view of Jon’s place in it. We as readers have a full picture though. So shouldn’t we be having more nuanced dialogue regarding this instead of taking her biased word for it?

[selkiewife]

I am so interested in the fact that Ramsay, who was himself a miller’s son (his mother was the miller’s wife), chooses the miller’s sons from Acorn Water to pass off as Bran and Rickon in A Clash of Kings. Yet we don’t find that out Ramsay was also a miller’s boy until this conversation Theon has with Roose:

(TW: Rape, Murder, general fucked-upness):

“...This miller's marriage had been performed without my leave or knowledge. The man had cheated me. So I had him hanged, and claimed my rights beneath the tree where he was swaying. If truth be told, the wench was hardly worth the rope. The fox escaped as well, and on our way back to the Dreadfort my favorite courser came up lame, so all in all it was a dismal day.

A year later this same wench had the impudence to turn up at the Dreadfort with a squalling, red-faced monster that she claimed was my own get. I should've had the mother whipped and thrown her child down a well … but the babe did have my eyes. She told me that when her dead husband's brother saw those eyes, he beat her bloody and drove her from the mill. That annoyed me, so I gave her the mill and had the brother's tongue cut out, to make certain he did not go running to Winterfell with tales that might disturb Lord Rickard. Each year I sent the woman some piglets and chickens and a bag of stars, on the understanding that she was never to tell the boy who had fathered him. A peaceful land, a quiet people, that has always been my rule." 

~ A Dance with Dragons, Reek III

It just makes me wonder. Most likely Ramsay chose the miller’s boys to pass off as Bran and Rickon because they were convenient. But the idea that Ramsay himself was also a miller’s boy who was originally dismissed as nothing by his father, adds another layer. And I keep turning it around in my head. Is Ramsay forcing a parallel between Theon and Roose so that he can punish Theon the way he can’t punish his father? Did Ramsay know that Theon had slept with the miller’s wife? Apparently Ramsay stops at the mill with Ser Rodrik when he is still posing as Reek and she sells them hay for their horses. Even if Ramsay didn’t know of the tryst between Theon and the miller’s wife, he at least sets Theon up to dismiss the miller’s sons as worthless, just as he had been dismissed. Obviously, Ramsay also views the lives of the miller’s sons as worthless as well. But, there is something there I think? Maybe? some subconscious desire to set Theon up to play the role of his father and then to cut him down for it and make him as worthless as Ramsay himself was once treated? 

There are other parallels and anti-parallels between Theon and Roose- Theon’s ACOK’s arc paralleling Roose’s ADWD’s arc. Theon mocking Roose at Robb’s councils turning into Roose mocking Theon in ADWD, and Theon’s premature aging vs Roose never seeming to age- @amuelia has a wonderful artwork about this! Could the miller’s sons be another parallel? I don’t know... thoughts? Tell me even even you disagree completely! I just want to talk about it lol. 

[greatbastard]

Anti Jaime propaganda in agot starts so strong its like Jon I Jaime killed the last king Bran II Jaime fucks his sister also he pushes a little boy out of a window (damning) and then Ned II. Jaime sat on a chair.