#except Jeyne I guess

[winterrose527]

"help, i'm in love with my brother's boring wife" <- tell me what you would do with this AU???

Look all I'm going to say is that YOU brought up Jon Snow & Jeyne Westerling (no offense Jeyne, you seem generally fine) the other day as a potentially good angst pairing. So like hmm... let's see.

So modern AU, let's go political animals. Robb was on track to become the youngest senator Westeros had ever had. Things are bad in Westeros, which explains why he is 'in bed' with people two years ago he never would have so much as had dinner with. Walder Frey is Walder Frey and oh so subtly pushes him and his daughter together, and Robb is looking like he is going to win it all with Roslin Frey at his side who is actually lovely but he can't even look at her because every time he does he sees Walder fucking Frey.

Enter Jeyne Westerling. She's a low level staffer on his campaign (she got the job through 'connections' and I'll just let everyone deduce who was behind that). She's gentle and efficient and there's lots of late nights and take out and one thing leads to another.

Now all of this would be generally fine, in fact Jeyne had assured Robb that it didn't need to be a thing at all, except he kind of sort of wants it to be a thing because holy shit the seedy underbelly of Westerosi society is really getting to him and he sees Jeyne as his way out and sure maybe it kind of sort of makes him feel things that aren't quite there.

So somehow or another it's leaked to the press.

Frey pulls his backing, Roslin is the most sought after interview in all of Westeros and Robb's political career is over before it begins.

That's fine with him. For a time. After a while though he begins to have regrets. He doesn't blame Jeyne, he knows it was his decision to pursue her and his decision to let it derail him, but even still she's a reminder of what he gave up. It doesn't help that now Westeros is in even worse shape and there's nothing he can do about it because no one will take him seriously. The private sector still loves him and doesn't have the same qualms about infidelity as voters so he is doing just fine for himself, but still feels that sense of failure.

Enter Jon Snow.

While Robb was pursuing high office, Jon was in the military. He had a wild ride of it, but distinguished himself from a young age and rose through the ranks in spite of some very unhelpful superiors and a fuck up or two.

He gets discharged on medical, a horrible wound to his arm that won't quite heal and a long recovery ahead.

Robb offers him his and Jeyne's guest house while he's getting back on his feet.

Jon and Jeyne have met before over the years when he was on leave, and he'd always thought her dull as dishwater. He couldn't understand how his brother gave up a political career for her when there was so much work to be done.

When he was on tour, he had some ill-fated romances with less than good women who were all very intoxicating and beguiling but in the end not worth the angst.

Now he's home. He isn't old but he feels it. He is used to his body doing exactly what he wants it to at all times and now he finds himself having to get used to this new normal, having to rely on the generosity of someone that he resents because of the opportunities wasted.

Enter Jeyne.

Jeyne who suffered more than Robb did, because the woman always does. Who can't apply for a job without someone saying hey how do I know your name? because they never left the north. So she works from home part time and feels listless and bored and wishing that Robb would just call it, because she can't, because she still loves him in a way she isn't sure he ever actually fell in love with her.

When Jon comes home, she finds that thing that made her want to get out of bed in the morning during the campaign, a sense of purpose. She realizes that yes, she misses her affectionate husband, but more than that she misses feeling accomplished in her own right.

Jon resists at first, not wanting her company or her help, but slowly she wears him down and they start spending more time together, as she drives him to PT etc.

He realizes that she's not dull, she's quiet. That she's not foolish, she just follows her heart. He sees the girl who everyone said ruined Robb Stark's chances, and wonders - and is maybe the first to do so - what potential she never reached because of it all.

He fights his feelings, but he is having an effect on her. She stops asking herself whether Robb is happy and starts asking herself whether she is.

One night, Robb is working home late. She's made dinner for him but it's growing cold, so she asks Jon to come over. He tries to resist but there's something in her eyes - a shade of brown he'd never realized could be so pretty - that makes him accept.

When they get into the kitchen, he sees a nearly finished bottle of red and she sort of looks at him and looks away and gestures to the set table and says: some of it went in the sauce.

They sit down and eat and she is clearly tipsy and sad and he's trying to make her feel better and he's cracking jokes. She had never realized that he was funny, and no one had ever told him that he was.

It all could be innocent, except it's not. They know it isn't. If it was, it wouldn't be so awkward when Robb comes home and finds them sitting there together.

He gets himself a plate, and tries to make conversation with Jon, and Jeyne feels more ignored than she does when they're alone, because Jon is there and he's seeing it and she knows it.

And anyway it ends with the three of them sitting there. The one brother who gave up everything and said it was for her, and the one who felt like he'd lost everything until he met her.

[pixiecactus]

Sansa knew all about the sorts of people Arya liked to talk to: squires and grooms and serving girls, old men and naked children, rough-spoken freeriders of uncertain birth. Arya would make friends with anybody.

so i've seen this quote used in a "see arya is not an outsider" kind of way, and here are my two cents that nobody asked for.

for me arya being an outsider is deeply connected to her self-esteem issues... so in this badly written essay i will (just kidding i couldn't write an essay even for the life of me):

imo this quote is a passive way to show sansa's classism, yeah arya is a friendly little girl, that's true, but i take more this quote as sansa meaning arya's comfortable in making friends with "the lowest of the low". there's a reason why jeyne poole and beth cassel were only sansa's friends and not arya and sansa's friends. growing up in winterfell, arya's mother, her assigned teacher and her older sister and her friends told and showed arya time and time again how she's not an adequate lady and how her behavior as a 9 year old child is completely unacceptable of a lady from a great house. (which is a little hypocrate coming from someone who once was 12 year old "mud pie maker" catelyn tully)

hello "arya's self-esteem issues that people love to ignore", there's a reason why when gendry tells arya she looked pretty and ladylike (i know the phrase used is "a nice oak tree" but guess what my book copy is in spanish and here gendry says "un roble bonito" and bonito is directly translated as "pretty") arya thinks gendry is mocking her, because she believes only her father and jon would say something like that of her while being truthful.

for fucks sake, it gets even worse. arya was anxiously worried about her mother and brother not wanting her back because she had to survive in middle of a war, she had to pass as a boy to avoid sexual violence, which women, girls and even femme presenting people are the primary victim of, she had to kill in situations where it was "kill or be killed", she had to work as a slave, she's dirty and could be simply defined as a mess, completely the contrary of the idea of someone "ladylike" that has been drilled into her head by many people.

arya is loved by her brothers, smallfolk and the people that worked for the starks, but was made an outsider in her own homeplace because she's not good at performing the gender roles expected of her. nobility treats her as an outsider, just because this little girl is gender non conforming. arya is still growing up with low self-esteem with the feeling that nobody would ever want her except for jon. a feeling that was born of failing her obligatory "lady duties" and being bullied and mocked by this fact, by the very own teacher employed by her family and some family members alike. we have arya's own mother constantly comparing the child who excels at her tasks with the child that fails these tasks in an attempt for the child that is failing to improve, which is horrible methoding and only ends up with arya feeling even more inadequate as someone who is a member of a noble house.

even the "arya was clearly ned's favourite" is laughable for me, because even in the part where ned gives back needle to arya, and decides to indulge her with water dancing lessons, he's only doing this with the hope that this is simply a child's interest that arya will grow out of it, and she will finally have the realization that her only place in life is being a "dutyful lady wife" whose sons will be able to be everything she ever wanted to be only because they will be born with a cock between their legs, that's what he tells her. so there we have ned stark passively enforcing gender roles on the child that asked for the possibility of breaking gender norms while she's in a possision of power.

and having both parents telling her in one way of another that her behavior is wrong and not what is expected of her, this only reinforces arya's idea of how inadequate she truly feels, how she will never fit in nobility and how she will have to let go big parts of who she is, to comply with westeros's patriarchal idea of what a noble woman needs to be.

[atopvisenyashill]

i was tagged by @thewaaywetalk to list my crackships for asoiaf!!! fun prompt!

i mean i do think briensa is considered a crack ship bc they haven’t met yet in book canon and brienne isn’t shipped enough outside of braime bc no one has taste except me and three other people in this tugboat with me. check my girls-

god the northern lighting sucks so bad. anyways.

i have a hard time defining "crackship" largely because people will call anything a crack ship nowadays (*cue grandpa voice*) and back in my day people only called stuff that was like person/inanimate object or crossover ships crack but now you can ship two characters who have interacted, think about each other on several occasions, and have a bunch of narrative parallels and you get told its a crackship. personally, so long as they interact one (1) time i say it's got basis in canon!!!!!!!!

probably my most obscure is Black Aly and Alyn Oakenfist for F&B and Grey Worm & Jeyne Poole for the main series. I had a theory that the pact of ice and fire was a wife swap thing so not only would Jace marry Sara and his first born daughter would go north but also that Baela would marry Cregan as well because I thought anything short of Cregan getting some sort of dragon - literal or metaphorical - right now was dumb. egg on my face i guess alskjdf anyway i think more interesting for baela but i also thought it would be really interesting for black aly and alyn oakenfist especially considering his affairs - "i left my religion, my home, my entire life behind to marry this bastard turned legitimate that charmed me and he has the audacity to cheat on me with another valyrian" really hits for me, especially considering how close benjicot and addam were. once again, f&b is full of missed opportunities (to me).

the grey worm/jeyne poole thing came to me in a dream where grey worm and jon became friends and grey worm stayed in the north and married jeyne poole because they both have similar, extreme traumas and aren't noble born, and sansa gave jeyne away since all of jeyne's family was dead and grey worm started calling himself grey worm poole (i did say it was a dream) and now i just really really need something like that to happen to both of them or i'll die.

i'm gonna tag @transdimensional-void @kingcunny @maegorsbignaturals @riana-one @daenerysstormreborn @eggblackwood @allyriadayne no pressure but you better match my dumb ass energy aldjf

[barbreypilled]

You know that pair of posts like "who tf orders a sandwich like this" "why is the subway guy taking a picture of my sandwich am i doing it wrong"? Who orders the bad sandwich and what is on it

HAHAHAHAHA

Jon orders this exact sandwich

Bobby B gets a footlong meatball sub with no vegetables extra cheese and every sauce on Italian herb and cheese with sun chips and a red gatorade. He eats it at a table for 4 while watching cake boss out loud on his phone

Barb has actually flat out banned Pycelle’s order from being ordered ever on the basis that it isn’t a sandwich and there’s no way to ring it through but also because it’s so gross nobody can make it without gagging. it’s a large soup cup full of tuna and egg salad mixed together and topped with lettuce. He of course got very pissed about this and called what he thought was head office but was actually just Domeric in the back room doing a British accent. Pycelle also likes to get one cookie and pay for it with a $100 bill and call Kyra a commie when she explains to him that it’s 7 am and she physically doesn’t have change. he is also notorious for trying to order off menu. like dude u can’t just yell ‘lasagna’ at the sandwich artist and expect it to appear. there is no lasagna at subway

When Sansa and Jeyne come in after school they both just get cheese melted on white bread. It’s an easy order but it’s annoying bc they always pay in very small change and are SO LOUD and leave messes every single time like how are there that many crumbs from two six inch sandwiches where did that chicken bone come from

Ramsay has a different order every time based on whatever is most inconvenient for Theon. if he comes in when Barb is there she sprays him with cleaning solution until he leaves. his worst order was a salad bowl full of ham and salt which he ate with his hands before paying

Ned has a normal order (sweet onion chicken teriyaki on whole wheat w lettuce, tomato, onion, jalapeños, Swiss cheese, mayo and sweet onion sauce, the weird part is that he comes in on Monday and orders six at a time and saves them to eat though the week, except for one which he will often just take down while standing at the counter. he knows better than to come in when Barb is working because she hates his ass so much but he loves making small talk w Domeric. he calls him ‘big guy’ and ‘boss man’

Edmure eats the soup at subway. I have never seen anyone order soup at subway. you can. it’s there. I guess

[greywoe]

some thoughts on that first episode bc i might as well

- that first scene in the north did not make me very happy… maybe it’s just me who likes negotiations but i was looking forward to Jace’s World Tour of North/Eastern Westeros and his talks and bargains with the different houses (especially lady jeyne! i guess i can understand why they cut it out but i think when it comes to her there’s material to build an interesting character from, but whatever. another arryn L i guess :(), but what did we get but one (1) scene at the wall for some reason. i mean i like the night’s watch as much as the next person but this just felt like straight up GoT fanservice… like what does the threat beyond the wall have to do with this conflict? they could at least have given us some parley but there was barely anything of that either. cregan stark’s going to be important later so i thought they’d do more to establish him as a character now. but literally the next scene we see jace in he’s back at dragonstone….. ok (tho i guess they could return to the north later? idk we’ll see) (also, i care less for the sara snow subplot but i was sure they would do something with it since they love to go with the juicy stuff like forbidden love and whatnot)

- on that note i expect they’re going the singers’ route with erryk and arryk which i don’t really care for (they need to make me care more for those characters first) but it makes sense

- i’m ashamed of the fact that the alyn reveal made me go “ahh” aloud and my mum (who hasn’t read f&b) went “what???” and i just vaguely waved it off because it’s so annoying when people do that and i try not to but… i was surprised they introduced him so early

- aegon ii keeps being the most entertaining character on the show and he was the highlight to me. thank you for bringing a tinge of comedy. i’d say keep it up, but… well

- this is old discourse but i don’t have much of a problem with them showing alicent being groomed and manipulated in the show which probably makes her seem more sympathetic to viewers (and i can’t help but fall for every instance the lingering and complex feelings between her and rhaenyra that still clearly affect her come up) but now i’d like to see her being more active. i liked her confronting otto but (so far) for the most part she seemed a bit uninvolved and inactive (except for the sex scenes with criston… -_- which i guess are intended to bite them in the ass later which is why it’s continuously brought up, but so far i do not care for it). i just want to see her contributing more of her own i guess. but there’s plenty of time for that in the upcoming episodes, especially now after the death of another child 😔

- i sure hope we get to see more of baela and rhaena. this was only the first episode, i will have hope in my heart

- helaena’s line about being scared of the rats felt like clever foreshadowing when i heard it, except that the blood & cheese thing happened just a few scenes later……. suddenly it didn’t feel so clever anymore, nobody will have forgotten it at that point (the best foreshadowing imo is stuff that you maybe don’t notice at first and only catch on your rewatch)

- and about that, as relieved as i am about the violence being toned down, reading the book the whole “damning one child to die but the other one is slain, so now you and your child have to live with the fact that you named him to be killed” business was very impactful so i’m a bit disappointed nonetheless. for a show that so clearly opts for emotional impact, i mean… though i suppose cutting a kid or two out is understandable. but the way they made a whole deal about not knowing the sex of the twins (and the assassins being surprisingly gentlemanly about it lol) made me wonder if they mean to do a big plot twist where helaena was lying about it and actually rescued jaehaerys, but also that (unnecessarily) changes some things and what would be the point of that. 🤔 i did really like helaena’s acting during the scene though, opting for pure shock and dissociation rather than making it a dramatic tearfest. i like helaena as a character too, from what little we have seen of her anyway, and i wish she’d had more moments previously in the show so that we as viewers would be even more emotionally connected to her, but she gets pretty sidelined in comparison to her brothers. we don’t get to know much about her in the book so i feel like that’s what the show is for! expanding upon the book!

[weirsight]

hotd 2.05

is the battle at rook's rest not enough to warrant new embroidery in the intro? guess not.

"don't they realize we won the battle?" criston...my guy...there's still a naval blockade that's preventing traders from getting into the city, which is causing the smallfolk to starve. think, you beautiful dummy.

no, but shouldn't the smallfolk at least feel a bit relieved or grateful that the dragon who stomped on them during their king's coronation last season is now dead?

probably the only time i won't be annoyed at the ringing of the bells 🔔🔔🔔 in king's landing.

getting severe flashbacks to sam treating jorah's greyscale in got s7.

"someone will have to rule in his stead." not the time, aemond. maybe wait until the small council meeting.

at first, i thought it was a bit lame that alicent was so quick to catch on that aemond was at fault. however, the more i think about it, the more i feel like it make sense. she knows that her eldest sons don't get along that well, and aegon is prone to ridiculing people. alicent could've easily figured that aemond either injured aegon on purpose or neglected to protect him in the battle. plus, aemond isn't exactly being subtle about wanting power and control. he doesn't seem all that shellshocked at his brother's severe near-death state. or if he is, he's doing a good job at hiding it. 🤔

"there has been peace in our lifetime. you've seen no more battles than i have." a well deserved reply but then what was rhaenys going on about going to battle again with meleys? 🙄

speaking to jace's phrasing of "coddled princeling" it's a nice enough allusion to how rhaenyra grew more and more paranoid about keeping her sons close after losing most of them during the war.

anyone who refuses to submit to the targaryens + their dragons fully knowing they might die right then and there has my utmost respect. house bracken truly said we're sick of your dragon shit!

"i did not think they would be so eager to die." then clearly you've underestimated the ridiculous levels of spite some people have, daemon.

i'd be upset too, if i were jeyne arryn. just imagine the last time the eyrie was visited by some of the largest dragons in the world and upon being promised protection during a targaryen civil war...you get two dragons the size of hunting hounds. lame!

i know everyone else has said it at this point, but the whole 'men make war, women make peace' theme is starting to grate on my nerves.

"do not underestimate your subjects" words of wisdom from our mistress of whispers. the blacks and the greens might not understand how valuable it is having the smallfolk placated (except for otto), but i'll never forget the numerous times there was a riot in king's landing that nearly ripped apart the royals and their small council.

not sure how to feel about rhaenyra connecting with baela more than with rhaena. maybe it's because they're both dragonriders, but then that makes it more glaring that rhaena is being treated as an afterthought by her family.

idk why i never considered that the show would allude to daemon's mommy issues because this family is an incestuous basket weave knot.

i get alicent's "petition" for regent, given that she and otto were running the show once viserys started literally falling apart, but if the green council episode showed us anything, it's that the men will carry on plotting with or without the women around.

i thought this would be the riot episode for sure, but i guess not.

of course the freys would want harrenhal. it takes a certain kind of person in westeros to claim a haunted castle for their own.

"cries of anguish" can alys hear the screaming or is she just stating the facts of wartime atrocities?

matt does have pretty good chemistry with gayle. it helps that their scenes together manage to incorporate both character introspection and worldbuilding, what with all the information they're feeding the audience with regarding harrenhal and the riverlands.

i like seeing baela get more scenes, but i would've liked it even more if she had a moment with rhaenys before she died. right now, it kinda feels like she doesn't have much of a connection to her velaryon heritage, despite being fostered on driftmark for several years.

sending alfred broome to corral daemon might be a crapshoot, but at least it keeps him busy.

hey, hour of the wolf mention! 🐺🐺🐺

"in proper fear of your targaryen master." uh ... YIKES.

the riverlords calling daemon a tyrant to his face was 😙👌

i don't think i've ever been this proud of the riverlands and their lords until now. granted, not all of them were present to rightfully scold daemon for his sanction of more unnecessary atrocities committed in rhaenyra's name, but a scene like this stands out as totally profound. here are the lords and ladies of vassal houses standing before a targaryen long presumed to be erratic and refusing to bend their knees to him.

if king's landing is on lockdown, then why hasn't larys purged everyone from mysaria's spy network? he was fine "replacing" all of alicent's staff before jaehaerys got murdered. shouldn't the greens be on more of a high alert since their king got turned into a fried egg?

as underwhelmed as i am regarding the beginning of aemond's Prince Regent Arc™️ ... i must say that the cinematography and blocking of him standing in the throne room was excellent.

"was it worth the price?" can this show please just address the kinslaying and the attempted kinslaying? there needs to be an actual conversation about what aemond did and how it not only affects him but everyone else inside and outside of his family!!!

alicent living to see her son unintentionally follow in his father's footsteps and become a bedridden invalid.

"mummy" please stop, you're hurting me. 😢

i recognize that rhaenyra holds visenya in such high regard, but i feel like more attention should be given to rhaenys as well. she was also noted for being an efficient diplomat. i guess they probably didn't want to confuse conqueror!rhaenys with the queen who never was.

yes, let's entrust our most valuable assets to a bunch of strangers in the hopes that they'll help us win the war. surely this cannot make anything worse. 🙃

[asoiafzambi]

"Spoilers" Spoilers! Spoilers?

Like always, this could all be totally fake yadda-yadda ... and if the leakers make this all up, they should definitely go into fanfiction writing, because some of that shit is hilarious.

I just like to elaborate on my thoughts about it, fake or not.

Daemyra at odds:

I don't like it. What can we daemyra stans say except we don't like it (that early in the timeline)? But the showmakers seem to be dead set on it. Not sure if there will/can be a short reconciliation at some point (maybe when they take King's Landing together?) but I wont hold my breath.

Daemon at Harrenhal:

If you wanted to make the already insanely split online fandom rip each others throats out and set everything and themselves on fire, having Daemon get roofie-raped by Alys Rivers is definitely a way to go about it, and I will be there like:

I'm not squeamish about SA in media/fiction. In GOT the Sansa stuff was just absolutely nonsensical, because she is not Jeyne Poole and what the fuck is Littlefinger doing? If they really needed Sansa raped (que?), then do something with Harry the Heir, you lazy fucks. Dany/Drogo and Jaime/Cersei at the Sept is definitely very iffy in the books too.

Back to HOTD, I will be rather disappointed though, if Daemon doesn't get what happens and thinks it was just a dream, because I really want to see his reaction to getting raped by a 150 year old red-zombie-witch.

Making Alys a 150 year old red-zombie-witch is a bit fanservicy already, together with the desperate tie-in to Aegon's I conquest (got a new show to sell, I guess).

Jace/Sara vs. Jace/Cregan:

Here I will make myself very popular by saying I actually greatly prefer Jace/Sara over Jace/Cregan.

I don't mind Jace being gay/bi, but I just think it makes absolutely no sense for Cregan. It's probably because I'm an ole Stark 'hater'. Since fandom is dead set on the bromance, they might do it, and I will roll my eyes a bit and just write Sara/Jace/Cregan thruple fic to piss everybody off.

I would much rather have a steamy Daemon/Laenor or Daemon/Hugh (if he is Viserys' son omg*) scene, but with that I'm probably just showing my age.

But nevermind with whom Jace fucks around up north, for the love of gods don't let Baela be crushed or whiny about Jace' betrayal. She should spit/laugh in his face tbh. Screw the angry black woman cliche, she has every right to be angry with prince dumbass. Immediately moving on with Alyn is obligatory anyways.

* I mean, visiting him in his smithy and complimenting his hammer ... seriously?

Blood and Cheese:

They seem to have backpedalled on the 'accident' ideas a bit (because nobody likes it that much), but I think it will still be a misunderstanding.

If Daemon instructs Blood (and Cheese) to beat the crap out of Helaena until she says a name, what he means is until she names one of her brothers for the one on one revenge. But poor Hel will have no idea what's going on with these thugs jumping her and in the end just say the name of one of her kids to make them stop.

Blood: Instructions unclear, cut the head off of a pre-schooler.

Cue everybodies shocked face vs. Daemon's stupid face: Wait? Helaena has kids? I kinda forgot (could be pretty meta).

There is also a leak version now where Daemon has absolutely nothing to do with B&C and it's all Rhaenyra's idea, which also would probably make fandom explode and seems a bit far fetched.

Corlys and Rhaenys and Marilda and her bastard boys:

I really hope the cheating plot wont be that prominent. I'm not a fan of the modern-romance spin on 'medival' marriage. This might be my personal damage though, because my narcisstic demi-romantic, poly ass will never be able to warp her mind around the concept of monogamy. I will just find it weird that Rhaenys would actually believe Corlys kept it in his pants during his years-long adventures and be baffled that he didn't.

I would also like it, if Rhaenys wasn't just mad on her own behalf, but maybe also a bit on Marilda's behalf. Like: Dude, you get this side-chick for your voyages/campains, impregnate her twice, and then what ... show up every five years with a package of milk? Talk about being a nasty deadbeat bitch, my man.

Rook's Rest:

I actually really liked how one of the leaks described Rhaenys' death, with her ashes falling from the sky after being grilled by Vhagar and onto Corlys and Aegon on the ground. What a wonderful nasty picture. I'm also fine with Aegon finding this hilarious and getting the show'sTM facebeating from Corlys for it.

I think that's all. Now I have to actually go back to writing my brazillion AU WIPs ... damn writers block.

[alicent-apologist]

Great new chapters! Love the insight into Jacaerys’s childhood and mindset. Also Lady Arryn and Lady Jessamyn are so cool. Bit worried about Jacaerys making a case in front of the Arryn court since he’s already stumbled a bit since landing there. Guess it’s a good thing that the Vale already made up their mind about which side they’re going to pick. Hopefully Lady Arryn’s are useful, although whether or not Jacaerys actually listens to her is a different matter.

Camyla really came in clutch and saved the greens. By making it look like Lucerys wasn’t killed by Aemond, Aemond won’t have the stain of being a kinslayer. Plus it’s saves the greens some pretty bad pr and will make the blacks look all the worse with Blood & Cheese. I love how literally everyone including Rhaenys and Lady Arryn except Rhaenyra recognized that it was bad move to send Lucerys to Storm’s End. Poor Aemond though, both Camyla and Alicent are upset with him. Also Camyla loves her family so much and seeing how much it kills her to ask her parents to take the blame to spare her daughter Alyssa and any other children she might have is so sad. Idk if you’ve already re-written the scene where Alicent confesses to what actually happened at Harrenhall but I think it’d be really sweet if Alicent confessed to Camyla first before anyone else and the two bonded over their situations.

Can’t wait for the rest! For the question in the notes about the pov’s, I think that maybe one long chapter with multiple pov’s is my preferred option but whatever works best for you. I’ll take quality over quantity any day

Quick question: is the “Something’s Coming (so out of breath)” the final installment of the series or is it the second part in a multi-part work (not including 2 Targaryen 2 Doe since that’s just a collection of shorts)? Like how the “The Targaryen Doe” covered the lead up to the war so will SCSOOB cover the entire war or just a part of it?

Thank you!

Jace is very lucky that he got an easy first task with the Vale! It gives him time to learn diplomacy away from his mother without having to worry too much about making mistakes. Make no mistake though, Lady Jeyne is very much measuring him up and seeing what he's made of. She'll be teaching him a bit and seeing how well he takes to her lessons but also what his instincts are. Some things cannot be taught!

Camyla did do very well with that move! I'm glad her struggle with that move did come across though. It did paint a bigger target on her family but it also did do a lot to prevent bad pr for the green faction. We'll have to see what that means for the Dance going forward ...

It was very stupid to send Luke to Storm's End in this timeline, but it was also really stupid to send him in the original timeline so I felt Rhaenyra would do it 😂 A political mastermind, she is not.

Awww, that would be a sweet moment! I'll see what I can do!

The multi-pov thing is exactly what I wanted to hear so it might be what I'll be doing!

As for your question, I do think it'll just be one story that will cover the whole of the Dance. It might be a very looooong fanfic but I think it'll work better as one.

Thank you for the kind message 💕

[goodqueenaly]

How likely is it that on leaving Skagos Davos makes for Eastwatch instead of White Harbor (closest harbor after all) and delivers Rickon to Ramsay, who'd be chasing Arya/Jeyne there? ...thus setting up the foreshadowed battle between Ramsay's hounds and the Direwolves

Not at all, IMO.

For one, Davos has a very clear mission: deliver Rickon Stark to Wyman Manderly in exchange for Wyman’s fealty to Stannis. To have any kind of delay or alteration of this mission would be not simply an affront to the considerable risk Wyman took in pretending to execute Davos while actually keeping him in safe relative comfort in advance of this mission, but also a huge risk to securing one of the most important bannermen, if not the most important, of Winterfell for the cause Davos most believes in - that is, Stannis. Nor is Davos a fool, which he might have to be to think it makes more sense to go overland via the Wall back to White Harbor than returning the way that he came. Even if the threat of Mance Rayder’s host has been substantively broken, Davos has every reason to know that the North is not a safe place, with both ironborn and Bolton forces having made incursions. Why would Davos risk a long, slow, dangerous overland journey (including, presumably, through Bolton land!) with Rickon when he is both personally better with a ship and can likely sail back to White Harbor much faster? For the sake of going to a castle with which he has barely any connection and an institution which has to remain facially neutral to feudal politicking?

Additionally, I see no reason why Ramsay would be chasing Jeyne-Poole-as-Arya to the Wall. Ramsay made his demand to Jon Snow to have Jeyne-Poole-as-Arya and Theon returned to him; it seems ludicrous even for Ramsay, in my opinion, to send such a letter and then march to the Wall anyway, doing nothing for his cause except losing any element of surprise in such an attack. Moreover, Ramsay has and will have much bigger problems at home (or, rather, the Starks’ home of Winterfell) than assembling an army to march on the Wall (assuming he even could do so, which is a very implausible assumption). Ramsay already knows that stepmother Walda is pregnant, and may have guessed (or been told by Roose) that his, Ramsay’s, status as sole heir to the Bolton holdings is at best in question in light of this fact. If Ramsay then decides that the best course of action is to murder Roose and Walda - and I think he will - then he’s going to unconsciously remove the only protection he has, and suddenly be surrounded by people who both very much (and justifiably!) hate him and have the openly anti-Bolton Stannis almost literally knocking at the door. I firmly believe, in other words, that Ramsay is both not long for this world and going to die at or in the immediate vicinity of Winterfell, brought down by the consequences of his own sadism and evil.

Also, consider the narrative gain of having Davos go back through White Harbor with Rickon. It seems pretty likely, I think, that Littlefinger will go with Sansa and Harry to Winterfell via ship: against the significant danger and struggle of trying to journey through the impassable snowy mountains of the Vale, the wartorn Riverlands, and up the long way through the Neck to the Stark ancestral castle, a journey by ship out of Gulltown would be much faster, safer, and easier for both Sansa and the army Littlefinger promised her (and which seems poised to support her). Where would this navy land except at the North’s only major eastern port, White Harbor - and, consequently, what will either Sansa or Rickon think (depending on who gets there first) of hearing that her brother or his sister, each of whom the other thought or might have thought dead, is in fact alive and going back home? Indeed, add Arya to the mix (if Justin Massey, bringing her back to the North, decides White Harbor is a safer bet than Eastwatch) and there is even more possibility for interesting writing - Stark siblings on the trails of each other, all set to converge at Winterfell (and giving their ambitious factions concerns to chew on, with a surplus of Stark heirs where there had been seemingly none). I’m not saying any of this is guaranteed, but given what I see as the high likelihood of a Stark convergence on Winterfell in TWOW, I think GRRM has interesting possibilities to play with by making White Harbor the gateway for the return of two, maybe three Starklings.

Comparatively, I see no setup whatsoever for a direwolf-dog fight in TWOW. So far as I can tell, any theory on that is based on two lines in “Reek III”, when Ben Bones says that Ramsay “trained 'em [i.e. his dogs] to kill wolves as well” and when Ramsay proclaims his father that if Rickon and Bran “show their ugly faces … my girls will rip those wolves of theirs to pieces”. This I would say is far less a setup for some future battle between the animals and much more a reflection on Ramsay’s character: as @turtle-paced rightly notes, Ramsay so sorely wishes to compensate for his inability to hunt down Bran, Rickon, and their wolves (which he of course boasts of having done to Roose despite the total political blunder of doing so) that he needs to prove to the world that he could do that, if only he ever got the chance. Not every line in the books is secret foreshadowing, especially when it’s barely focused upon or brought up again (as here); GRRM, like any good author, writes to develop characters and set mood as much as to foreshadow future events, and I think here the latter reading is the correct one.

[dontbotherwiththepronunciation]

no no I get it. except the dog motif part we all need to stop talking about dog motifs they're boring and the two characters were hunted by dogs anyway not the dogs themselves. but prey animal motif is scarier for everyone I guess, implying paradoxical injustice of their role. and then you'd be maliciously distracting from the main victims of the narrative by having sympathy for more minor characters! anyway I've lost the original point of what I was saying

Haha, I must disappoint you since I don't think I'll ever get over Dog Motifs, they have been there for me since I was little and will probably be there for the next few years. And I still believe they are appropriate for Jeyne & Kyra. Kyra is thematically linked to the dogs by having one named after her and Jeyne is also implied to have been at their mercy too but she also became part of the bastard's bitches by being another woman who was victimised by Ramsay and her connection to Theon. I feel like it even fits (barely) the Beauty & the beast thing a little, but with the heroine (whom at this point had been only portrayed in an antagonistic light) being victimised and then turned into a monster. I overall really love the way dogs have been portrayed so ambiguously in asoiaf. People talk about Theon & the Hound but there's also Brienne traveling with the septon and the dog and Ramsay turning abused women into them to further victimise other women. There's a long web-weaving thing on dogs in asoiaf that has been hanging around my drafts for a few months now.

However I must admit that my actual favourite motif for Jeyne is the sheep in wolf's skin one. My current icon is a wip that will hopefully portray that when finished. And while there's no canon reasoning for it, I have developed a taste for imagining her to have some sort of deer related theme. Probably because of this art and also my love for Adriana La Cerva's character arc particularly her last episode.

[lady-asteria]

Top five characters in ASOIAF who aren’t Sansa Stark and top five characters in “Amphibia” who aren’t Marcy Wu (head of the chess club, master RTS player, Straight A student…except for gym but only cause she was reading in class…which only proves her point!) and top five characters in “The Owl House”…just in general.

Wow, how did you guess my bias towards Sansa and Marcy?!

ASOIAF

1) CAT! Best character ever- Like, peak in literature. She's the political animal, the mother, the personification of Revenge and Justice.

2) I adopted Theon Greyjoy and this is everyone's else problems now

3) My beautiful Jeyne Poole

4) My baby Arya

5) The legend Arianne Martell

Bonus- Dany and Brienne bc my poor girls

Amphibia

1) The queen herself Anne Boonchuy

2) Sasha Waybright the biconic

3) My boy Sprig

4) Maddie bc witches >>>

5) Grime bc EVIL FATHER? Who become better thanks to kid?!

The Owl House

1) My dearest Luz

2) My sweet Amity

3) My Willow who deserves all the love

4) My baby boy Gus

5) My son Hunter

[kingsansa]

Pp prompt : regret (so intrigued to see how you could use this word)

She doesn’t cry much. Not at first. She refuses to give him that power and cry over him.

But he wins, anyway. She second guesses herself in practice, popping more of her turns—months worth of progress rolled back as if it was never made at all. She always makes sure to leave the rink an hour before hockey practice starts so there’s not even a chance that she’ll see his face. She eats less. She’s so exhausted that she sleeps more. She spends more time at Jeyne’s because there’s not one place at her own house where she doesn’t have at least one memory of him, not even her bedroom. But she knows that’s her fault. Nobody else’s.

Being with Jeyne helps. It’s both a distraction and digging into the worst of her wound. It helps and it makes it worse.

Theon kissed Ros at a party on Saturday.

On Sunday, Jon told her that he wouldn’t have time for her anymore with the draft coming up.

It’s not the same. But it is.

“You haven't said I told you so yet.” Jeyne says, voice thick and flat.

They’re laying in bed, staring at the ceiling, the pretense of Netflix abandoned. Her mom is baking cookies downstairs, the scent wafting through the house. Comfort food is big in the Poole household.

Sansa thinks about these last couple months and how much they fought, more than they fought ever before. Partly because she never kept her disapproval of Theon a secret. And mostly because she was keeping Jon a secret from her, and even though Jeyne couldn’t tell, she knew something was off.

She could say it. But she knows if Jeyne knew what happened with Jon from the very beginning, she would have told her he was bad news too. But she’d never say I told you so.

“I don’t want to.” She whispers.

Jeyne’s breathing hitches, and Sansa knows she’s trying not to cry again.

“I feel so stupid.” Her voice wavers.

“You’re not stupid.” Sansa reaches for her hand. “He is.”

Jeyne doesn’t hold it back. She just lets it sit there limply as she continues to stare up at the ceiling. Then she squeezes her eyes shut.

“Why would he do that to me?” Her voice cracks. “Why would he act like everything we did meant something when it didn’t at all?”

And unbidden, she thinks of everything. Those nights in her room. Those moments underneath the stairs. Those kisses in his car. Every single thing he said to her. Every single thing.

“I don’t know.” It comes out shaky. “I don’t know.”

Jeyne curls onto her side, and her shoulders start to shake. Sansa holds her tight, eyes burning, and when Jeyne holds her back, she thinks that she’ll never forgive Theon for this. Ever.

Mr. Poole gives her a ride home. In the backseat of his car, her chest is a dam on the verge of bursting. Quick breaths in, quick breaths out. Her eyes stinging and blurring, she takes out her phone. She knows it’s a bad idea, and it’s enough to make her hesitate. Then she’s reading their last conversation.

A month without seeing him, really seeing him. Spotty texts and bandaged apologies that would last for a while until the cycle started up all over again and the insecurities came back. Am I too needy or do you just not need me? Do you even still wanna be with me? Am I a burden to you?

Until, Sunday:

You’re not a burden. But I’ve already told you about the pressure I’m under right now. This isn’t just about me. I don’t really have time for this anymore. I’m sorry.

It still feels like a sucker punch, reading that, except her gut isn’t numb anymore.

An hour later, after she didn’t respond, too busy reeling:

I understand if you’re upset with me.

Nothing else for another two hours. Then:

Just tell me that you’re okay please.

They saw each other at school the next day, and the day after that. He didn’t try to catch her alone. Sansa did her absolute best to avoid him, anyway. Even the sight of the back of his head made her bite the inside of her cheek until she tasted blood. She can’t imagine what would have happened if he had the courage to not-dump her in person.

You’re a fucking coward, she types now, then deletes it.

I wish I never kissed you—delete.

I just feel like if you wanted to make time for me you would. Delete.

If you wanted to be with me you would. Delete.

I love you and that’s not enough for you.

And maybe she would have hit send if it wasn’t for the tears dripping down her cheeks, onto her phone. She deletes the message. Wipes her eyes, then her screen. She won’t give him anymore of her. She knows she will regret it.

Mr. Poole drops her off and she thanks him, throat tight. Her house is in chaos as it always is. Nobody notices that she’s home. She makes her way up the stairs quietly so it stays that way. She shuts her door behind her. Once again, she is alone in the last place she had him.

She shoves her pillows off of her bed, even though they don’t smell like him anymore. Throws off her covers because they’ve touched him. She wishes she could throw herself away, too. Then she starts to cry so long she wonders if she’ll ever be able to stop.

[jackoshadows]

How do you think Arya is going to react when she learn what happened to Jon and everything else at the wall in her name? Especially considering she's been acting as the lady Stark by condemning a deserter, gave food to a brother on a mission in Braavos and had a mentor in the watch in acok ?

How would Arya react to hearing about Jon's death?

I can see her leaving the FM and heading for the wall to enact some Stark/old kings in the North style justice on the people who assassinated her brother. She''s not going to be considering the right or wrong of Jon breaking his oaths. It's Jon. Similar to how Jon broke his oaths for Arya because it's Arya. They see each other as the exception to all rules.

Whether Arya is able to get to the wall is the big question. Arya never seems to be able to get to her destination of choice... She could get diverted to the Riverlands.

I suspect Arya gets the news of the mutiny from Justin Massey and his crew who get to Braavos with Jeyne Poole in tow. Jeyne may fill her in on what's happening in Winterfell and the North in her name. All this travel - Massey to Braavos and Arya to Westeros is going to take a lot of time, so I am guessing Jon will be resurrected and be KITN by the time Arya gets North.

Anyways I do think that hearing of Jon's death is going to be the impetus for Arya to leave the FM cult paralleling Jon breaking his oaths, dying and probably leaving the NW after resurrection because of Arya.

[atopvisenyashill]

What is your opinion on the Alicent, Dyana, and Aegon scenes in the show?

I think they were good but needed more build up like the entire back half of the season needed more build up.

I thought the actress who played Dyana was phenomenal, the way she’s shaking more than sobbing was really well done. Similarly, the way Alicent switches from offering comfort she wishes had been given to her to threatening Dyanna to protect Aegon in like .2 seconds is Insane, i felt that switch on a physical level in my gut. I think all of Alicent/Aegon’s scenes are well done and this one is no exception - the way they’re having two wildly different conversations because she doesn’t understand how he can’t understand that he’s raped someone and the horror that’s he’s inflicted on Dyana but he can’t understand why she’s so mad that he’s just trying to find a minute of relief in a life he hates. The repeated theme here of Alicent barging in on Aegon naked and “vulnerable” to further emphasize how violated he feels by her, but meanwhile they are talking about him violating someone else and he’s making himself the victim of it!! And then having Helaena walk in on the ending of this conversation - the way Alicent is really grappling, likely for the first time, with the fact that she trapped her own daughter in a marriage as sexually and emotionally abusive as the one she was trapped in by her own father (because before this, I think she just refused to confront it, in that “thinking around a subject” way that some of the characters do) but the person who may be hurting her daughter is in fact her own son.

but the thing i dislike is that if you notice, i spend a lot more time talking about alicent’s feelings than aegon or helaena or dyana. it’s because the back half completely fumbles making any of the new characters fleshed out characters. alicent has depth, and even if i’m critical of how they adapted her character, the character herself is full of layers, if sometimes inconsistently written. aegon is barely written. helaena is even more nonexistent than he is. and i feel, in the original show as well as the main series, we would have gotten to know more about dyana outside of being raped.

in my view, the whole show is building to this moment here, at least on the greens side - from aemma referring to herself and rhaenyra as “royal wombs” to alicent wearing her dead mother’s dresses when she’s pimped out to viserys by her own father, to the entire confrontation between alicent & rhaenyra about sleeping with daemon/criston, all of this was leading up to alicent being confronted with the idea that her son would victimize another woman the way she herself has been victimized, and his own sister to boot. and, idk, i just feel like, with all that the reek storyline is theon’s, or the riverlands storyline is about jaime, there’s a level of respect that george gives characters like pia, kya, weasel, etc who are technically just here to show us how awful the peasant class and especially women are treated by the nobility, because even though they pretty much only suffer on page, i guess i just feel like george sees them as people who had a life before it was violently derailed and condal & hess just see dyana as a vessel for their story. i think helaena suffers from this and honestly so does aegon; the depth that exists is because of the actors and not a purposeful thing done by the writers. and it’s because george makes room in his narrative to just give it room to breathe while condal & hess are going a mile a minute here.

i think dyana should be on the level of focus as like a shae or jeyne poole too, because this is a pivotal moment here for two of the central characters. and not to keep whinging on but i think aegon should be on the level of importance as daemon & viserys, aka as high as dany, tyrion, and the starklings but he’s like, kevan lannister. he certainly has a character but we do not get his pov except at the very end bc he is an important character in this story but this story is not about him. helaena is like. idk maybe bronn level, when she should be at minimum brienne & twins level. and tbh idk how you fix the way all the characters who aren’t in the og cast feeling underwritten without just straight up having two seasons before viserys dies instead of one. which was the main issue the main show had, that they weren’t giving the books the room to BREATHE & grow even though that’s the whole thing about asoiaf is how much it grows in scope. and instead of just giving it over to condal bc he clearly still had the drive and passion and those two dumbasses just wanted to leave to do a star war, the back half feels rushed in a way that the front half does not. i keep wondering if this was hbo interfering bc condal hess & miguel don’t even have the excuse of “i’ve been writing on this series that i only kinda like for years and i want to leave” that the idiots have & i think it’s clear that even if sometimes condal & hess have some annoying ideas about the themes and plot, they’ve always had the PASSION for the project to keep it going!!

i feel like i’m bitching too much in this post because again, i think the writing and acting in that scene is amazing, and i also think the people who bitch a lil Tew Much about aegon being a rapist in canon are just like, the same as the people who get upset about the choking scene in that they wanted f&b adapted but they wanted THEIR TEAM to be the unambiguous good guys when this is a story in canon and in the adaption that is much deeper than that. there’s this undercurrent literally from ty’s introduction that aegon has these impulses that are really dangerous and vile (similar to my boy joffrey!!) that people overlook or enable until he reaches this point where he is both a victim and a monster. and in the books, this seems clear to me as well, from the rumors about him being familiar with maids, to the entire existence of gaemon palehair implying that even if he wasn’t literally AT the baby murder pits, he was IN THE AREA often enough that a woman he bedded and got a child on could absolutely get her son snatched up and taken to the baby murder pits which doesn’t speak very highly of aegon!!, the fact that he calls rhaenyra a whore after one (1) bad interaction, the fact that he celebrated aemond making the fatal mistake of murdering luke, like even before the dance takes off, he’s exhibiting worrying behavior that is being covered up. i do think book aegon is probably more similar to robert than joffrey, but i like the change of making him more wet and pathetic as that other anon put it lmao. kinda similar to the larys thing, that we already have a robert. we already have a viserys. we don’t need aegon to be like them too. in a book you can do stuff like that but in a much shorter form tv show, you gotta switch it up a lil bit and i think giving him like an ~aesthetic change was a great idea. he fits with the changes in alicent so welllll, and he still says interesting things about aemond & helaena. it’s just like, clearly all in tom and mine’s heads ya know. but if no one else got me, tom & olivia’s insane acting got me!! ALSO JUSTICE FOR TY TENNANT HE DESERVED MORE THAN TWO EPISODES!!!!!

[sayruq]

The thing with the Jeyne Sansa discourse is that people are so obsessed with " it was Jeyne and not Sansa in the books " when they should be criticizing whether rape should be used as a plot device for triggering the redemption arc of a child killer because at the end of the day the plot benefits only Theon.

Besides the rape as a plot device, there is also a cruel fucked up irony to what Jeyne goes through. Jeyne is jealous of Arya and that is because no matter how good she does in her lady education and how much uninterested is Arya in her's , she will always end up getting more opportunities than Jeyne because one is the daughter of a high lord and the other is a daughter of a steward. We see how Jeyne wants to marry a lord and guess what she has that dream fulfilled but it is to a ugly psychopathic bastard like Ramsay instead of someone gallant like Beric . She even becomes Lady of Winterfell which isn't something she hoped for in her life. Then we know she is mean to Arya about her looks and guess what happens her body is full of lash marks and she is on the brink of losing her nose. As much as I hate to say this and maybe Grrm isn't consciously writing this shit but Jeyne's arc reeks me of karmic punishment to some degree.

Now coming to Sansa, I am always surprised when book purists say D&D made Sansa goes through unnecessary torture (which I agree ) but Grrm doesn't. Like most of the shit Sansa goes through in KL in the show are toned down as compared to the books. In the show, she is once beaten by the KG whereas in the books , each one of them with the exception of Sandor Clegane have taken a turn in beating the shit out of her. In the books, she is repeatedly forcibly kissed by Dontos, Sandor Clegane creepily commenting about her pre pubescent body and that Blackwater incident, Tyrion lusting after her, Marillion attempting to rape her ; like none of these made it to the show and it makes me happy . Even LF is far more creepy in the books than he is in the show. Atleast Sansa had a genuine friendship with Shae and Margeary in the show . So all of this argument about how GRRM doesn't unnecessarily torture people falls flat .

The most of KL arc of Sansa also has that same twisted fucked up irony albeit to a lesser degree that we see in Jeyne's arc. You loved reading about KG when you were a child now get abused by them. You wanted a sister who could share your hobbies with you, guess what here is Margeary but later she is going to drop you like a hot potato. One of the thing that contrasts Sansa and Arya's arc after Ned's death is inspite of the trauma that they undergo, Arya has some positive companionship whereas there is none for Sansa. Even the ones who speak up for her or aren't trying to take advantage initially ( Tyrion, Dontos , hound ,Tyrells) end up showing their true colors finally. Tyrion speaks up for her but lusts after her and wants to steal her claim . Sandor Clegane is the perfect definition of how sometimes your protector can also be your abuser. He saves her from the riot and Sansa thinks that he will never harm her and after that she goes to her room during the Blackwater and then he basically attempts to do what Cersei tells men do after the war. No wonder the girl ends up rewriting the whole episode because it is difficult for her to process the blurring of Sandor Clegane the protector and Hound the abuser ( similar compartmentalization she uses with Petyr the protector and LF the heartless schemer) . Dontos sells her out. The Tyrells give her good company and she enjoys it but then they throw her under the bus. And then you have fandom telling Sansa can't make friends when you have characters in her arc whose intentions towards her are not altruistic in the first place and always is either centered around using her as a pawn or wanting to fuck her.

Sorry for the rant, but I really love how you often call out Grrm and no matter how incompetent D&D are as writers that doesn't make Grrm above criticism and how some of his takes are quite problematic even if he is aware of them or not.

I feel like people have forgotten what KL was like for Sansa. As for Jeyne, on top of being reduced to plot device for Theon's development, it does feel like punishment for her earlier behavior which is an ugly look for GRRM

[sansacherie]

I’ve been reading ‘Lolita’ lately, and I just keep comparing it to Sansa and the way certain parts of fandom respond to her.

Whenever I read all of the ways Humbert tried to explain and justify his attraction to young girls, I’m reminded of when those people talk of Sansa’s “sexual awakening”, or say that we shouldn’t consider her a child because society didn’t see her as one, and that it’s the time of her menarche rather than age that decides this. All of this leading them to the conclusion that there is nothing wrong with the adult men who desire her...

I guess after years of seing the stuff pedoshippers will write about Sansa, I’m no longer surprised that so many have managed to also misconstrue Lolita in a way that paints Humbert as the poor tortured protagonist to the shallow Dolores.

I’ve never read Lolita, but I am vaguely familiar with it.   And yeah, it’s not a good look at all if some of the stuff you’re spouting is disturbingly similar to someone like Humbert.

Furthermore, the idea that Sansa isn’t considered a child in Westeros is blatantly wrong.  I stg, read the fucking text.

Gods, Catelyn, Sansa is only eleven," Ned said.

A child. Theon had forgotten how young she was. Sansa's age.

Sometimes he envied the girl all her pretty little dreams. She reminded him of Sansa Stark, the child bride he had wed and lost. Despite the horrors Penny had suffered, she remained somehow trusting. She should know better. She is older than Sansa.

"A child?" said Sansa, uncertainly. Lysa waved a hand negligently. "Not for many years. You are too young to be a mother. One day you shall want children, though. Just as you will want to marry."

There was hunger in his green eye, it seemed to her, and fury in the black. Sansa did not know which scared her more."You're a child," he said.

The only reason that Sansa was married to Tyrion so young was that Tywin wanted to take advantage of the situation.  You only need to compare Sansa’s situation to Catelyn’s to know it was not normal.  Catelyn was betrothed at age 12, but she wasn’t excepted to marry Brandon until she was much older.  Sansa was betrothed to Joffrey at age 11, but there was the understanding that it wouldn’t occur for “years”.  When Robb gave Arya’s hand to Elmar, it was agreed that the marriage would not be a thing until they were “of age”.  And you know what aggravates me the most about the people who dismiss the child marriages as simply being “Westeros simply reflecting real medieval societies”?  They’re often the same people who attack Catelyn for her feelings about Jon, even though she’s pretty much a product of her society’s views on bastardry, or they’re the people who hold Sansa’s classism against her even though this is something that has been drilled into her.  (unpopular opinion- every single character in this story is classist to some degree, some worse than others.  And yes, I do include Arya in that.  You don’t grow up in a classist society without internalising some of that.  However, it’s also pretty clear that the Starklings are also pretty far from the worst and feel that sense of responsibility to their people- otherwise, we wouldn’t have that adoration of the Starks)  

And ultimately, I don’t really give a damn if such things are OK or not in Westeros.  Just as we shouldn’t condone the injustice of Mycah’s death, or the deaths of any smallfolk person at the hands of the nobility, why the hell should anyone read the terror of child brides like Sansa, Daenerys or Jeyne and possibly think this is something that is perfectly OK? Fuck that.