#grrm writes faster than me

[akittenwrites]

i am ABSOLUTELY ADORING YOUR DAEMON SERIES!!!! IT JUST HITS ALL THE RIGHT PLACES IN MY HEART!!!! i will definitely be waiting for the next chapter! i do have a question, how often do you post so that i know where to be aware you updated?

LOVE LOVE LOVE THE SERIES OF YN QUEEN LF THE NORTH

Thank you sooo much love!!!! It always makes me happy when somebody tells me they like my fics so much ❤️

Unfortunately I am a slow writer that has been slowed down even more by life (all good things though, I'm travelling a bit). So I don't really have a schedule to post. HOWEVER, I intend to post the next chapter before february ends. And then I'll be gone for a month because I'm going to Thailand, sorry 🥲

But don't worry, it's only three more chapters and it will be finished!!

Love ya!!

[pterodactylterrace]

Can’t believe I have to actually say this.

Team Black: IT IS NOT OK TO PERSONALLY ATTACK A REAL PERSON OVER THEIR OPINIONS ON A FICTIONAL CHARACTER.

The Targaryens are not real. Me and my children are. Do not question my parenting over my thoughts on a fantasy novel.

Context: I said Rhaenyra was a bad mother. She literally cursed her unborn daughter, tried to claw her out and called her a monster. When confronted about my opinion, I pointed out I had hard pregnancies and labors, and I never once cursed my child or tried to claw her out of me. Which led to the above comments.

It is not appropriate to attack a real person over their views on a fictional character. I know I’m a better mother than Rhaenyra. I’m real, and she is the product of someone’s imagination.

How about instead of attacking me, we get to the real issue: GRRM isn’t good at depicting mothers or children.

NO mother is going to put getting her crown back over the health of her unborn child. No mother would send her 14 year old off knowing how dangerous it would be. She knew her brother would be gathering support. She knew Aemond would likely be going on these errands for the same reason she sent her sons on dragons. Faster and makes a bigger impression. After just losing a child rather traumatically, no mother would send their 14 year old off knowing their unhinged uncle that said 14 year old mutilated as a child would be doing the same thing. That’s bad parenting to the level of implausible writing.

A three year old is sneaking out to go see their dragon. Around other adult dragons. Which will eat people if they aren’t careful. No. Just NO. At 3, he would be supervised at all times. At 3, he wouldn’t be able to open the chamber doors by himself. It takes willful ignorance and neglect for that to happen. You think any sane parent is letting their toddler wander around unsupervised, let alone to go hang out with man eating, fire breathing, giant sky lizards UNSUPERVISED.

It was dangerous enough a ten year old was sneaking down to claim a dragon. He had to sneak because he knew his parents wouldn’t let him do it, because they know it’s unsafe. So Alicent won’t allow her 10 year old around dragons unsupervised, but Rhaenyra allows her 3 year old to do it? How is it even a debate that she is a bad parent. Her kids didn’t turn out polite or well rounded because of her, but the people she hired to raise them. Septons or nanny’s. Her only job is to give them rules to follow, and she couldn’t even handle that.

Also, not a good ruler. The small folk hated her because she refused to give up her lavish lifestyle when she found the coffers empty. They were starving while she feasted.

Rhaenyra ruling over “an entire island” before she was 20 isn’t the huge accomplishment people think it is. Jaehaerys did that at 14. Cregan ruled the entire North at 18. Neither one had Daddy less than 3 hours away if something went wrong.

You know who was a good mother? Helaena. She offered herself in place of her son. She was so broken by his death that she couldn’t live with herself. That is normal behavior for a mother who loves her children. 💜

[brawltogethernow]

Considering his fondness for the characters, would you read a Spider-Man or Fantastic Four mini-series, written by George R.R. Martin? Are there any other mainstream comic books you would be interested in seeing him work on?

Thank you for this ask, which made my soul shrivel up like a raisin. I would read this hypothetical title, but like. With extreme wariness. (Or, you know, I would open Twitter to see what The Grape Vine was saying about it with extreme wariness and then read it with the resulting expectations.)

Given the choice between the two I would fob him off on the FF, as uh. This property has already weathered being written by various weirdos overly preoccupied with rape, reproductive trauma, and...I’m pretty sure sibling incest. I feel like I remember chatter that some version/adaptation tried to make Sue/Johnny a thing. THROWS THEM TO THE WOLVES BECAUSE I KNOW THEY CAN TAKE IT DSLFKSLD -- THE ONLY GRRM(tm) SPECIAL SPIDEY HAS DEALT WITH IS GRATUITOUS POINTLESS SIDE CHARACTER MURDER AND THAT ALWAYS SUCKS.

This is very weird because while I did not know he liked these stories, I can sort of see why, from my extrapolation of the sort of things he likes gleaned from his work and what I have seen of his public statements. I do not imagine we like them in the same way, lmao.

I cannot...think of any mainstream properties that would benefit from his touch at all. (To answer the opposite question, he should absolutely not be allowed to write any Wonder Woman.) Is there a comic adaptation of the Alien movies? He could totally do that one. Are there any franchises that would encourage his skill at writing from the point of view of clever characters while not sagging under the weight of everything else about his work. It’s not like there isn’t a place for intensely cynical fiction, though I’d hope for an editor with the guts to leash a very famous writer enough to moderate his disregard for the reader and weird fucking pacing that seems faster than it is because people are brutally murdered so much.

This just turned into me dragging a popular author.

Maybe I’m misjudging GRRM and some of the above are themes he can go without. I have only read ASoIaF -- though I have read all of it. (Long past the point where I would have dropped the series if I hadn’t agreed in advance to a book club kind of thing.)

[jackoshadows]

I would like to address some posts I saw that talk about misogynistic double standards when it comes to Jon and Sansa regarding bullying - that Sansa gets criticized and taken to task for bullying Arya but Jon gets a pass for bullying fellow recruits at the Night’s Watch.

First of all, who is giving Jon a pass for bullying Grenn and the others? Are there like 5 page essays out there writing about POV traps and how Grenn was unfairly jealous of Jon and hence deserving of being bullied, how it’s just new recruits being new recruits and Jon did nothing wrong etc.?

Jon’s my favorite character, and I will outright state it - Jon bullied the other recruits at the NW because he was a privileged brat. He was wrong to do it. The text pretty much calls him a bully and unlike some stans, no one is twisting those words to argue otherwise.

And I have never seen anyone defend Jon’s actions there. In fact I have seen these same Sansa stans use Jon’s actions at the Wall to justify Catelyn’s emotional abuse of a child. That even though Jon is a bastard, he was better off than other NW recruits and hence should shut up and stop whining about Catelyn. That his treatment by Catelyn was okay because he had it better than most others in Westeros.

Jon’s actions at the wall are just not mentioned often because it’s accepted that he did wrong. The reason why Sansa’s bullying is often brought up is because Sansa stans write essays about how Sansa never bullied or mocked Arya, how it was just sibling being siblings, how it was because Arya was jealous and hated Sansa, how Arya’s wrong and biased POV is meant to trick readers into hating Sansa when Sansa never actually did anything wrong etc. So it’s book readers responding to this whitewashing of Sansa - because one can read the very real effects this bullying had on Arya’s self esteem and self worth.

In fact the only time Jon’s actions are brought up are when Sansa stans bring it up as whataboutism, to point fingers and accuse others of misogyny - even though no one is actually defending Jon Snow.

And you know what? Yeah, Jon was a bully. But he acknowledges that he did wrong, learned and grew from his mistakes. And I love that about Jon.

“No. They hate you because you act like you’re better than they are. They look at you and see a castle-bred bastard who thinks he’s a lordling.” The armorer leaned close. “You’re no lordling. Remember that. You’re a Snow, not a Stark. You’re a bastard and a bully.”

Donal Noye leaned forward, into Jon’s face. “Now think on this, boy. None of these others have ever had a master-at-arms until Ser Alliser. Their fathers were farmers and wagonmen and poachers, smiths and miners and oars on a trading galley. What they know of fighting they learned between decks, in the alleys of Oldtown and Lannisport, in wayside brothels and taverns on the kingsroad. They may have clacked a few sticks together before they came here, but I promise you, not one in twenty was ever rich enough to own a real sword.” His look was grim. “So how do you like the taste of your victories now, Lord Snow?”

“Don’t call me that!” Jon said sharply, but the force had gone out of his anger. Suddenly he felt ashamed and guilty. “I never... I didn’t think...” - Jon, AGoT

Jon noticed Grenn a few feet away. A thick woolen bandage was wrapped around one hand. He looked anxious and uncomfortable, not menacing at al . Jon went to him. Grenn edged backward and put up his hands. “Stay away from me now, you bastard.” Jon smiled at him. “I’m sorry about your wrist. Robb used the same move on me once, only with a wooden blade. It hurt like seven hells, but yours must be worse. Look, if you want, I can show you how to defend that.” - Jon, AGoT

Dareon gave him a look. “The stewards are fine for the likes of you and me, Sam, but not for Lord Snow.”

I never asked for this,” he said stubbornly.

“None of us are here for asking,” Sam reminded him.

And suddenly Jon Snow was ashamed.

Craven or not, Samwell Tarly had found the courage to accept his fate like a man. On the Wall, a man gets only what he earns, Benjen Stark had said the last night Jon had seen him alive. You’re no ranger, Jon, only a green boy with the smell of summer still on you. He’d heard it said that bastards grow up faster than other children; on the Wall, you grew up or you died. Jon let out a deep sigh. “You have the right of it. I was acting the boy... - Jon, AGoT

Jon Snow being hurt by words calling his mother a whore and later making Satin Flowers,a  prostitute, his steward despite opposition.

“Words won’t make your mother a whore. She was what she was, and nothing Toad says can change that. You know, we have men on the Wall whose mothers were whores.” Not my mother, Jon thought stubbornly. He knew nothing of his mother; Eddard Stark would not talk of her. Yet he dreamed of her at times, so often that he could almost see her face. In his dreams, she was beautiful, and highborn, and her eyes were kind. - Jon, AGoT

Jon is constantly getting his worldviews and his privilege challenged at the wall. He is confronted by some ugly truths about himself and he then takes that advice and changes for the better. It’s the same when he goes among the Wildlings and recognizes that they too are human beings deserving of being on the other side of the wall. We get this gem from him:

“We look up at the same stars and see such different things.”- Jon, ASoS

That’s the difference between how Jon and Sansa are treated in book one. When Jon acts bratty and selfish, other characters call him out on his actions, he acknowledges this, apologizes and makes up for it.

With Sansa, on the other hand, we don’t really see anyone taking her to task over her behavior. Quite the opposite. Catelyn and the Septa only encourage it. Ned ‘both sides’ the issue, often talking to Arya about how she should get along with Sansa and behave like sisters. We never see him giving those same talks to Sansa.

Which is weird because most parents would talk to their elder kids to bring about peace in sibling disputes. But in this case, Ned keeps reasoning with his younger daughter instead of his elder one. Probably because everyone thinks that Sansa is the good girl and Arya is the problematic, unruly one.

And because she is never reprimanded over her behavior, Sansa continues to be a spoiled and selfish brat right till Ned is executed at the end of the first book.

Sansa does become more empathetic in the later books after she becomes sadistic Joffrey’s political prisoner and she tries to help where she can. But while GRRM said this about her:

Sansa was the least sympathetic of the Starks in the first book; she has become more sympathetic, partly because she comes to accept responsibility for her part in her father's death.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html?tag=westeros-21&ie=UTF8&docId=49161

I don’t think I have actually read Sansa showing true remorse or regret for tattling Ned’s plans to Cersei. Or even feeling bad about how she treated Arya. As late as ASoS she thinks of her dead sister as being unsatisfactory compared to beautiful, graceful Margaery Tyrell. In the Vale, she pretends to be a bastard and yet never once recalls the bastard brother she looked down on.

There is a lot of self pity in Sansa’s POV chapters and she reprimands herself for being naive and stupid. But she never acknowledges the way she treated Arya, the Trident incident and Mycah, betraying her family etc. She does reflect at one point on how she wrongly trusted the Lannisters and she would never do that again.

Other than that there is very little introspection in Sansa’s POV chapters. Jon feels guilt, Arya feels guilt, Dany feels guilt, even Catelyn feels a twinge of regret and guilt about her treatment of Jon after meeting Mya Stone. But this is something I find lacking in Sansa’s POV chapters.

But when readers point this out, we are labelled misogynistic haters who just hate Sansa and want her to suffer, and how Sansa has nothing to apologize for, she did nothing wrong, she’s flawless and blameless of everything.

I am hoping we get acknowledgement, regret and apologies from Sansa when the older, wiser sisters meet again and resolve their issues. There is nothing wrong in apologizing for bad behavior. Everyone does it. It does not make one a super villain. It would go a long way towards humanizing Sansa and making her more likeable, in my opinion.

So anyways this turned into an essay, but yes, Jon Snow was a bully in AGoT when he went to the wall and beat up some new recruits. There is no defense of that behavior and I am glad that Donal Noye gave him a good talking to and set him straight about his privilege.

[satashiiwrites]

Writing Tag Game

Tagged by the lovely @radio-chatter and felt like this would be fun to play along with.

How many works do you have on AO3?

20. Which wow. I hadn’t realized I had that many out there. Then again my wip folders tend to breed so I don’t really keep track of what’s out there and what’s not. I write until things are done-ish and then throw them out into the world.

What’s your total AO3 word count?

878,763 words as of 8.25.2021

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I usually never sort by kudos. However, I’m not really surprised by the results.

Family, Familia, ‘Ohana.  Which is a McDanno, Buddie, Navy Seal Buck crossover fic. From two very popular ships. So I am not one iota surprised that this has the most kudos of all my stuff since it’s a wip. 

It All Started Because of the Kiss Cam—again Buddie 911 fic. Popular ship. This is a pattern for sure because…. One shot Buddie…

Hydrotherapy for the Soul—again one-shot Buddie fic…followed by 

Sometimes All It Takes is a Kiss Cam… which is the Eddie version of events of the other kiss cam fic. Also Buddie. 911. I’m not sure what it takes to be popular in Buddie/911 but I’m sure that the reasons i’m writing in it isnt’ to be popular.

An Andromeda Tale. Finally my OTP long form MReyder fic. It actually makes me sad looking at the kudos scale here from 1-5.  This fic will always be my wip baby that someday i hope to finish (preferably before GRRM finally gets his stuff finished so I can say i did faster. yes I’m petty that way). 

Of note…. Weirdly in sixth place (and I’m surprised it didn’t beat out AAT) is my lone foray into TOG Joe/Nicky. So yeah. Three out of the six are wips. All the one shots are Buddie 911 stuff that happen to have shower or hot tub scenes. Maybe I just have a target audience with the Buddie stuff that I didn’t know I had? Idk. 

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Most of the time yes. I’ve gotten a few comments of late that basically are “update?” Or “update soon please” which I don’t really know how to reply to.  Either way my heart goes pitter-patter every time I see I have a comment. 

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Recurrence is going to have a real… angsty ending. If I ever get around to pushing it out the door as it’s been sitting half-written for most of a year.  The Scott and Reyes in that fic kinda get their relationship turned inside out and around again since it’s based on the premise “if you had to do it over again, would you?”.  It’s from Reyes POV and he’s so unbelievably sad and pining over Scott. But when he re-encounters Scott the whole question of is it real or not, is this his Scott starts messing with things.  Scott doesn’t know what to believe—he wants to believe that the Reyes in front of him is in love with him, that he’s real and that neither of them is in a computer simulation/hallucination. 

Yeah it’s… the ending is when they find out what is and isn’t real. Scott’s a lot braver than Reyes at that point. I think it’s a good ending and not unhappy but yeah.  Gotta finish that fic some day. 

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

I prefer happy-ish endings. I actually kinda love Hydrotherapy for the Soul’s ending. (And yes I think I like Evan Diaz better than any combo of their names—personal preference here and Eddie in this fic isn’t an angsty mess unlike FFO). 

Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the strangest one you’ve written?

*waves hand at Family, Familia, ‘Ohana* it’s a combo of two of my fandom loves. I may still eventually get around to a Mass Effect firefighter AU which may or may not have a lot to do with 911. Or maybe some soapy medical show. 

Or there’s my current wip that’s occupying too much of my run-plot sessions: the fic not called Bradley the Damned, a GK Bradnate, RayWalt that’s kinda inspired by Ramses the Damned or any other British mummy story (the mummy 1999 etc). 

I do love a good crossover where it makes sense.  I’m not one for just borrowing characters and sticking them all in the same house or anything…. Gotta have plotting reasons to do things. 

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yes. 

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes… the unrealistic kind?  Like most writers. Mostly it’s about the emotional involvement but I will occasionally write it just for smut’s sake—On the Edge of a Blade would be an example of this as I just wanted to write Scott discovering he had a shaving kink. 

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No?  But then again I don’t really go looking so there’s pretty good odds I wouldn’t know if I had.  I also am perfectly fine if something I write or say in discord/tumblr/AO3 inspires someone to write something that’s fine with me.  I assume no idea is wholly original. I think the only thing I would object to is if someone borrowed things word-for-word with minor differences. 

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Again, nope. I’d be open to the idea but nobody’s ever asked. 

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Also no.  But then again there’s been some discord/tumblr convos that have sparked ideas.  I owe some credit to @radio-chatter, @quietborderline and prolly @interstellar-chaos at this point since sometimes something they say sparks ideas. 

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

MReyder—Reyes Vidal/Scott Ryder is kinda my OTP of OTPs. I just think they’re fascinating together. I do know that my headcanons about Reyes (who gets a whole maybe 20 some minutes of screen time in MEA) are not universal.  I also have various different versions of him and Scott scattered in my fics. So yeah.  I love thinking about variations of them.  Also I have a very temperamental Reyes-muse who likes to wander into new ideas waaaaaay too much.

Other ships I love: Sterek. McDanno. Buddie. Bradnate. Ineffable husbands. Johnlock. Bagginshield. I do read others depending on mood but those are really the majority of my reading time if I’m reading fic nowadays. 

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I’d love to say I play on finishing all my wips… but some days AAT feels so massive of a project that I’ll never finish it despite having written the ending already.  So yeah. Good intentions but we’ll see if I accomplish this. 

I do also have a few snippet scenes written that I’ve just started calling fics-i’ll-never-finish/write.  I have debated putting them up on AO3 but I suspect that would just get a bunch of “please finish this” comments and some of them really are just fragments. 

What are your writing strengths?

Idk?  I would say complex plots and interweaving details. My brain just works this way—I like tucking in new little details. 

What are your writing weaknesses?

Inability to edit down. I’m beyond wordy mainly because I just refuse to conform to writing advice I see on the internet.  I just figure if it’s not people’s jam they don’t need to read it. 

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I’m guilty of this.  I know there’s been discussion of that’s not how people think in real life but I do think for a reader that it’s not exactly about authenticity here always. Sometimes it’s about making a point that I either feel is best expressed in another language—ie spanish or angaran—to emphasize something for a character. I usually think of it as an emotional thing. My friends who are bilingual do tend to slip into Spanish around their family and they will switch back and forth.  I know some people don’t do that and insist it’s not real but I do think that some people do.  

Also sometimes I like the texture of using that language is more expressive than the english counterpart—i will argue that Spanish and Arabic endearments sound beautiful to me compared to an english translation of them. I know mileage varies on this but it’s never meant to be weird or malicious. 

I also think Keema is that type of person who uses emotional, family manipulation on Reyes that way to get some positive influence on him. So she calls him the angaran equivalent of my son, dear heart, etc. 

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Back in the day?  Idk. Prolly Vision of Escaflowne or Gundam Wing. For this writing handle it’s been Mass Effect Andromeda. 

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Are we supposed to have favorites?  I mean… if you make me pick…AAT will always be my baby even if it’s unfinished. If you’re asking finished stuff I’m going to have to currently go with Seguir but it’s sequel/Reyes counterpart fic is maybe a third written and I kinda like it just as much. 

Really I just like everything I’ve written but sometimes I also tend to pick it apart. Which is why I usually just call it done and toss it up on AO3. 

tagging whoever wants to play along! @quietborderline @interstellar-chaos no pressure but I’m curious as to your responses!

[empressofmankind]

is there a reason why Euron has a pirate accent in your fics? is it supposed to be that loren is hearing an accent because she’s from a different region?

It may seem whimsy but I actually have (legit) reasons!

In no particular order:

You're on the ball regarding her perceiving the Ironborn as having (strong) accents compared to the Westerland dialects she's used to. I think she finds it attractive, in that way accents can be? Gnaeus (her sworn sword, also an Ironborn) uses a lot of the same speech patterns. And Cersei, regarding Gnaeus, uses it to sneer about it being proof he's one of those dispiccable island hicks.

There are absolutely in-universe questionable novella's featuring hot Ironborn pirates *air quotes* taking what they want *air quotes*. You cannot convince me otherwise. And if so, Euron no doubt knows about this, and may well be exaggerating his actual accent for effect.

I consider Ironborn in general, and Euron in particular, a bunch of pirates, not vikings. You see, I had already claimed the latter for the Lannisporters and, especially, the Lannisport Lannisters, as compared/contrasted to their Casterly Rock kin. Loren is that sort of faux Viking maid category Eowyn or Lagertha. In my main fic, she serves as a foil to Cersei that way. I didn't want to double up on thematics and aesthetics, so the Ironborn get to be more piratey than vikingy.

A pirate-type character being overly familiar and/or private space invasive doesn't immediately clock as creepy or dangerous to most readers (in fact, quite the opposite), because we're collectively weaned to pirates just being Like That (and, oddly, being quite harmless for the most part). In this way it allows me to still pack a surprise punch to the reader when I do let him be vile.

The pirate vibe neatly serves my need for a believable combination of "high key terror on the sunset seas that should be taken deadly serious and that makes my Westerland vikings look like respectable nouveau medieval-rich merchants" one chapter and "excessively poor boyfriend choices and here's why" the next and "but consider these absolutely balls-to-the-wall drunk shenanigans" the one after that.

Euron's canonically very extrovert, extra, empathic and flamboyant in his mannerisms. And he's fucking funny? And laughs at his own jokes. He likes fine things and easy pleasures, and drinks far too readily and too much. Eternal bachelor, ten bastards and zero wives, obsessed with his ship. He's bored quickly, has a short attention span and given to talking about strange places he may or may not have been. If that isn't a toxic narcissist pirate, I don't know what it is.

Sleazy birate is my entire sexual orientation?

It is the quickest way to convey to readers that really particular personality vibe I wanted for him. I throw that accent around, and most people will have an immediate and specific idea of what he's going to be like thanks to most popular media writing pirates one way and one way only. And then all I have to do is add the incessant gaslighting and random cruelty to complete the dumpster fire.

I like pirates. A lot. A lot. It probably stems from my own love of the sea and sailing, and wistfully dreaming about a pirate's life

I treat the accent as a reflection of his overall mood. In general, the more he sounds like Jack Sparrow, the less immediate danger you are probably in. It's a very convenient way to show-don't-tell his mercurial nature, without constantly having to rely on describing what he's doing with his face, or worse, tell the reader. While on topic, the more he smiles, the faster you should run.

The Pirates of Dark Water is my childhood

Back in 2005 when I read GRRM waxing poetically about him being "the most comely of Lord Quellon's sons" (AFFC, The Iron Captain) combined with a potential-plot-device eyepatch my brain went 'hot pirate' and never looked back. See my sketches of him for further details. In my defence, I was literally 17, like Loren. And he 23. Peak mysterious terrible-life-choice boyfriend material, right there. I was also in mourning over Tywin and desperate for a new fav

It's the easiest way to have a whole lot of readers (f/m) immediately clock the raw sexual energy I want him to ooze with every word he breathes

PotC puns, and I am not sorry.

The duality inherent to pirate stereotypes allows me to play with the contrast between how Loren perceives him in her PoV, as compared to, for example, Victarion in his PoV

It's arguably canon, e.g:

"We shall have no king but from the kingsmoot." The Damphair stood. "No godless man—"

"—may sit the Seastone Chair, aye." Euron glanced about the tent. "As it happens I have oft sat upon the Seastone Chair of late. It raises no objections." His smiling eye was glittering. (AFFC, The Iron Captain)

[asoiaf-source]

Fighting Hate with more Hate. That always works, right?

“Sansa’s fans are so defensive of her because of the rest of the fandom demonize her and hate her for no reason.” - helenakey

So then the answer is to demonize the other women characters for no reason?

Of course there are going to be ‘fans’ that hate on a character for no reason, I’ve seen people post unnecessary and unreasonable hate on many of the characters, not just Sansa, and they can be as annoying, but they are not representative of the entire fandom. Not ALL fans are hating on her, and some are just looking at the character critically. I’m new to the tumblr metas (avoided for a long time due to the toxic reputation), but i’ve been on ASOIAF forums for a long time and there are plenty of Sansa supporters, even if she is still quite a polarizing character due to how people wish to interpret her... but Sansa stans on tumblr take it to the next level!

I’ve never seen this side of her fans before, or at least so much nearly every day, and subsequently the many rebuttals! And how often they like throwing other characters under the bus, often for hypocritical reasons. Like the OP yendany said, they ignore the trauma in other characters or dismiss it as not as bad, when it is often much, much worse. They criticize and attack other female characters to prop up Sansa ‘better’ survival skills, or attribute qualities to her she doesn’t possess (I see this a lot in fanfiction, before I realized the self-insert aspect), or use her age as excuse when all the main characters are young or even younger than her. The line porcelain to ivory to steel... can really apply to any character that has to grow up and face the harsh realities of the world... so it is really hypocritical to think Sansa is special in some way for overcoming her situation, all the characters are going through the same struggle, and many have it much worse. That is where I think so much of the anti-sansa stans come from, the hypocrisy and the tearing down of other just as deserving of sympathy/empathy characters, especially other women characters. It is a weird juxtaposition, that anyone with a reasonable sense of objectivity can pick up on and often do.

I mostly see it done against Arya and Dany, the two more prominent female characters in the books (thus the 2 who draw more focus than #3 Sansa?). The two female characters GRRM is telling a lot of his story through and spending a large amount of the text (right from book 1) to develop their growth as characters and showcase their strengths, intelligence, determination, fortitude, agency, cleverness, resilience and so much more. It’s as if because the other women are not ‘pure’ or see themselves that way and stronger in personality and character that somehow their suffering doesn’t affect them as much because they are tougher and didn’t let anything that happened to them stop them from growing stronger. They aren’t dwelling in victim-hood too long before they pick themselves back up and move forward.

And yet, they cheer when Sansa starts to grow stronger... Sansa’s growth has been much slower, we are moving into book 6 and she is just starting to gain a bit of agency, but she is still heavily under the tutelage of Baelish. We will see how far she gains in the next book and if she will break with Baelish by the end of it and be a fully independent player. But her development isn’t nearly on the same scale as Daenerys and Arya. That isn’t to imply that she isn’t going to be important, but it is clear from the text that she is not one of the main focuses for GRRM, or he would have developed her faster and given her more to do. We will see how much ground he can cover in 1-2 books, but there is only so much he will be able to accomplish and have it be believable, especially with so many POVs and story lines that he needs to develop.

I actually think their attempts to (over) defend her backfire, as so many feel the need to point out the falsehoods and misinterpretations, especially when they are wildly mean-spirited and completely refutable by the text. As I traverse through the ASOIAF metas I often come across fans metas writing rebuttals to other posts, to ‘correct’ their conclusion or ‘facts’. I’ve read so many of these they are starting to get repetitive, I also read some of the Sansa-stan posts they are rebutting and, yeah I can see why so many get upset. If you don’t like it when others tears down or dismisses Sansa, why do you think fans of the other characters wouldn’t comment when you go after their favs, especially so mean-spiritedly.

I don’t think I ever felt so much negativity towards the Sansa character until I had to read so many skewed and biased metas turning her into some kind of saintly YA Disney princess type that is just too good for this cruel world. That kind of character has no place in a series like this. You can’t help but want to point out the wild inaccuracies, and it makes me feel a negativity towards a character I didn’t feel negative to before. And I don’t want to feel negative towards her, she is a Stark and I root for the Starks, especially the kids. I often defended her against those who (I feel) just don’t understand what it is like to be a preteen girl, I relate to a lot of Sansa’s weaknesses and how she feels, especially at that age, and that is her appeal (to me) - the fact that she starts off very weak.

Sansa is weak both physically and mentally, she cares too much about rank, privilege, and what others think about her, her desire to conform, for everything to be proper, and properly in their place. She has the luxury to think that way because she is a rich, pretty, noble girl who ranks at the top of society, of course she sees life as great and never questions it... she is already at the top and winning from birth. This is why (I think) she is so hard on Arya, she messes with her idea of what is proper/good/right.  Arya isn’t pretty and doesn’t try to be, she acts more boy than girl, she plays with dirty, smelly, poor children, etc... Those are all an embarrassment to Sansa and go against what a proper lady of her rank should do and care about. Once they head south, all the things Arya gets away with at home will stand out even more and reflect badly on Sansa, by association. So, she criticizes and distances herself even more, because she wants to join the elite glamorous world of the nobility.

The other girls don’t have those weaknesses, that is why they are seen as better able to cope than Sansa does.  They grow quicker and stronger faster because they are not as inhibited by what the ‘rules’ are. This isn’t a criticism of Sansa, this is an observation and I think it is the entire point of including a character like her in the story. GRRM could have followed the original outline for her, but he wanted to ‘reform/rescue’ her character and give her (I hope) a better path back to her family and happiness. I think it is GRRMs way to show how young girls should NOT romanticize noble life or being pretty will lead to a ‘perfect’ life. That thinking of yourself as a lady or being a princess/queen isn’t what is important. That marring a ‘title’ (lord/prince) or a handsome face is not enough to lead to happiness. It is what you do with your life, and how you care about others and who cares about you - that is what is important. But some Sansa fans seem to miss that and want her to have all those thing and more... they want it both ways, her to learn all those things, and yet still get all those things... a beautiful princess life clear of the harsh actions to gain it and also a happy family married to the best, more heroic and honorable man - a fairy tale ending. And that is not ASOIAF.

They are reducing her entire arc to becoming a nicer, more pure, and pretty, prize for a man to love, marry and make their queen. If so, GRRM will botch the ending of his series and all the points he *seems* to be making thus far.

A major theme (to me) in Sansa arc is her lack of value in her home and family. Sansa (to me) is like the small town girl who can’t wait to leave her family / Winterfell behind and to move to the big glamorous city (King’s Landing) and become royalty. But once she got there wasn’t able to accumulate with its more complicated and corrupt realities of the court. Even setting the cruelty of Joffrey aside (he is an aberration, not a normal example), how everyone else ostracizes or ignores her (except the hound, and to some extent Tyrion - although he isn’t all that great). The way the Tyrells treat her before and after her wedding is much more representative of how typical court life and nobility behaves normally (I think). Sansa never saw the true value of being surrounded by people who love and care about YOU and whom you can trust and rely upon - until that is all taken from her. She slowly sees how the people at court are corrupt and deceitful under all the beauty and glamor she so aspired to only after being fooled more than once, and (to me) no longer wants any part of it, but is forced to play, thanks to Baelish.

This is a point I find many of her fan miss, they think Sansa is going to learn to play the game, destroy everyone with her cunning and beauty and rise to the top to be queen or a ruler - a path which will ultimately lead to down a very dark and cynical path... but somehow they think Sansa will be different, and her rise will be more like a Disney princess story, one where she will gain power without having to sink low to do it. That is NOT the kind of book GRRM is writing.

”I’ll make them love me.” - another childish statement, you can’t make people love you, you earn love and respect. And Sansa hasn’t done that once the entire series, she hasn’t made a single friend. No one is looking to follow or fight for/beside Sansa, save Baelish, and we all know that plan is doomed to fail, as he isn’t to be trusted or relied upon and wants to use her. I would even question her friendship with Jeyne Poole as it is clear she never saw them as equals, and that is not real friendship... more like Jeyne was a companion/lady-in-waiting type.

The few people who care about her (other than family) either are working on behalf of an oath to Catelyn, or have their own ambitions/sexual desires/pity for her and not necessarily care about her for herself because she was a good and loyal friend to them. Maybe this will change in the next book, but with Baelish keeping close tabs and guiding her, who knows how well she will be able to make any genuine relationships with others given all the secrets she has to keep.

Her only realistic path to leadership is through marriage and that is hardly giving her agency as a heroic rise to a leader of a men... more like sleeping her way to the top.  Not something I want for Sansa, and I hope her ‘marriage’ to Tyrion works as plot armor against her being used like that.

Besides GRRM has kinda stressed that ‘real’ leadership comes from understanding people, observation, and experience, and not just from strategics marriage (Margaery, Cersei) or inheritance (Joffrey, Tommen, Cersei - she could prove the point all on her own :). Every leader in the book so far has to make compromises, make hard decisions and even make harsh, sometimes very bad decisions and live with those consequences. None of the characters in the series have escaped this as much as Sansa has, since so much of her story thus far is about her lack of agency, and being a pawn used by others (and to some extent she still is with Baelish). For her to make it to the end w/o doing anything and staying ‘pure’ and that is how she ends up on top, by essentially not taking many large personal risks, allowing others to do all the heavy lifting morally, mentally and physically. If winning means standing on the sidelines watching everyone else do the WORK, and just giving suggestive nudges here and there to have things turn out in your favor so you can just coast to the top (that is the Baelish way)... well, that is kinda the worst message GRRM could leave us with.

If GRRM wants Sansa to become a leader, she will have to get her hands dirty too, she will have to take great personal risks to gain power and accept the consequences good or bad that result, learn from them and move forward... otherwise it defeats one of the main points of his series and turns her into a simplistic cliche version of a character.  Every character with a POV has gone through this, it is one of the major themes in ASOIAF, a more realistic, less easy way of looking at how you obtain power and learn by experience and a series of victories and defeats. Thus far Sansa has also avoided examining her actions and how they have affected her, she either never thinks about them, changes the facts to suit her better, or blames others without seeing the part she also played... I’m not blaming her, but her action did contribute to the situation... she never seems to realize this and I feel it is going to eventually hit her hard, she has to mature and grow out of her ‘unreliable narrator’ eventually, and it must lead to something for GRRM to make it such a large part of her narrative of coping with her trauma. I assume he wrote her this way for a reason and is going to do something with it.

I’m looking forward to a darker more realistic Sansa who has more agency and understanding, and I expect her to make her own mistakes and moral compromises (well she already has, but there was some coercion - but it also means she is capable of doing so) just like all the other POVs have had to do. I also look forward to her finally owning up to her past actions and how they also contributed to where she is now. If she can’t take some personal responsibility she will never grow. That is a part of having agency, understanding how your decisions and actions affect you and others.

I wish all the back and forth would stop, cause I’m tired of seeing it in my feeds, but I guess it has been going on for years - the same arguments/rebuttals - so I guess it will continue, even after we get the next book... I think only the completion of the entire series will end some of these arguments, but who knows - after some of the meta I’ve read, there will probably be even more, lol.

Well, I wanted to comment and give my two cents, but it ended up being longer and I guess for me all this is still new and offsetting.  I guess I had more to say that I thought, even though I edited A LOT out because I wanted to keep it focused. I’ve just started to dip my toes into this crazy platform, so I’m sure this is just the tip of the toxic metas that I heard can be found here... can’t wait to read the anti-dany metas... that is sure to fill me with a sad rage as well, i know the show did her no favors, sigh....

[agentrouka-blog]

My case for Sansa, even if it gets grim

Going off of my last post about GRRM’s mad genius.

It’s going to be hard as a Sansa fan, I think. Not just in the canon we know but in the romance department. GRRM isn’t writing a romance. He is writing an epic exploration of stories. Jon as a hero starts out beleaguered, stupid, idealistic, unrefined. He is going to get darker, more subversive, more and more alienated from his younger self. Harsher, uglier, post-modern, distorted. Or perhaps simply more archaic. Closer to the other side of his heritage. He is not JUST a hero, in other words. He doesn’t belong to just one person. (Though a deconstruction is likely to be followed by some form of reconstruction.)

But.

GRRM named the entire epic “A SONG of Ice and Fire”. Not myth. Not fairytale. Not folk tale. Not archaic oral tradition. A song is art. Songs are as old as time, rhythm and rhyme help us remember the order of words, music feeds our emotions. If memory is the end, songs are the means. They can be simple and bawdy, they can be intricate, complex. Even characters who don’t idolize “tales of knightly valor” know the songs, refer to them, even use them as forms of communication. They affect people, they play a prominent role.

 It is like textile work: ancient, practical but also comforting and potentially so intricate it is astonishing. It can be simple and bawdy. It can be fine. GRRM goes on and on about clothing. (Also food, but that’s another story.) Mance Rayder leaves the Night’s Watch because of his cloak. The red and black cloak that was made for him especial, that the Watch was going to take away, because it was only fit for burning anymore. Clothing matters, songs matter. People who care about songs matter.

It’s no accident Sansa on the show focused on food and leather-lined armor and communicated through clothing. She has a range of appreciation from lemon cakes to sinewy meat stews, from fine dresses to armor, from “Gentle Mother, font of mercy” to.. well, we’ll see. Those things comfort and protect our bodies and, metaphorically, our souls. Sansa is not just courtly love. It is no accident that Sansa wants the music to stop when she is not Sansa, when she is Alayne.

We have not yet seen Sansa sew. We have not yet seen her write a song. We have seen what her singing can do, though. It pulled the Hound away from the edge of atrocity. We have seen what the songs she loved have done to others, they inspired them, they keep them going. That same thing is what Sansa does: she inspires Dontos (though he turns false), is a point of reference for Jaime’s inner conflict. She is the center of a quest for Brienne. By being who she is, doing as she does, she has a power.

When Sansa and Jon meet up, she sews for Jon, she sings for Jon. That is utterly beyond doubt. It will feed his soul, for the time that they are together. It will build him in the same way his deaths dismantle him.

Songs can also torment. The Reynes of Castamere send their regards. Marillion sends his regards. Tom Sevenstrings is smirking.

(We’ll see what ironically named Needle as an instrument of destruction and protection will bring to the table, too.)

Point is, Sansa is intimately entwined with songs.

“He has a song,” the man replied. “He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire.”

  “An albino,” Theon Greyjoy said with wry amusement. “This one will die even faster than the others.”

Jon Snow gave his father’s ward a long, chilling look. “I think not, Greyjoy,” he said. “This one belongs to me.”

 Red and white, ice and fire. And it will NOT die even faster than the others. The song is not Jon. It is itself, independent. But it belongs to him.

Mind,

Then Ghost emerged from between two trees, with Val beside him.

They look as though they belong together.

Val of the honey-colored hair, dressed in white, red of cheek, adorned with weirdwood. You catch my drift?

The song, Sansa, what she represents, is valid. No matter how bitter some things may taste in the story for Sansa, I do not for a second believe that GRRM intends to see her “Alone and humiliated, (taking) the long way back to the inn, where she knew Septa Mordane would be waiting.“ If that was his intention, he would have killed Sansa. He killed Robb. He doesn't pull punches.

So, whatever ends up happening within the books and its many layers, it will not be about grinding Sansa into the dirt and laughing at her despair. You don’t write a song in our modern times in order to depict how “stupid” songs are. You do it because the songs demands it. She will come out on top.

Whichever way this will be the most meaningful for her.

[darrowsrising]

HowlerPod interview with Pierce Brown:

Howler Rule No. 3: Never make fun of someone who shat their suit. 

A couple he married is still together and the Seattle leg tour is done in a church, so Pierce Brown thinks the Church of Darrow might really happen (sign me the fuck up, I’m worshipping Reaper since ‘I would have lived in peace, but my enemies brought me war.’)

He could never blame his dog, Eo, for anything. His rug can smell of piss and he would blame himself.

He wrote all the povs independently and then pieced them together.

He cosiders DarkAge the best book in the series and if you disagree, that’s fine, fuck you!

He had to write four chapters in three day, roughly 70 pages, because he realised he had gaps and he pulled all-nighters to meet the deadline. He said it the deadline was hard not to respect, because you can’t push a book 3 times, unless you are George R. R. Martin. Btw, GRRM’s Dance of Dragons is what got him to write: he pre-ordered the book three times and didn’t know, so he ended up with 3 copies plus the one he bought from the bookstore.

He said Mustang is the best (so, haters can eat their hearts out for all I care) and he loves her dialogue with Holiday, she’s just so sharp (he says he is bragging here, but he ain’t wrong). Creating her voice was interesting to him, as until now we see her as a projection of Darrow. The hesitation and difficulty he had about doing her pov was ‘can I do her justice?’, because she is a cypher, an enigma, she’s never been explained. 

His best friend says he doesn’t trust her, says ‘she shady, man’ and that he suspected her that she was going to kill Darrow and take over the Society and didn’t trust her until Morning Star ended. Pierce was like’I guess she didn’t...wasn’t up to anything...’.

To Pierce there are three ways to seeing Mustang: 

1 .expectations;

2. Darrow’s perspective;

3. how she sees herself; which isn’t an actual representation of herself, because that’s how we are, we don’t really see ourselves, we are biased, we’re insecure, we’re trapped in this echo-chamber of self-doubt. 

She, on the other hand, is a living, breathing character who has these self-doubts, but she’s a hottie (it was a thing Erin commented about her, that she’s a hottie, but the smartest person in the room and Pierce said she’s a hottie, but not condescending at the same time) and has all this wisdom, but is well aware of her motality and the things her father thought her. Which is sometimes contradictory as Nero often disobeyed his own rules.

For Mustang’s pov, he took away Darrow’s perspective and minded only her reflection of herself as well as what others think of her and juggled both. She is mindful of who she is and what people think about her which was interesting, because Darrow doesn’t give a fuck about what people say about him. And that’s part of the problem, but also part of who he really is.

People want to blame Darrow for shit, but Golds...there can be many people in a room, but when Darrow enters, everybody takes a step back. (Proud Howler right here!)

Apollonius au Valii-Rath, the Minotaur of Motherfucking Mars. (Yes, he said that!)

No, he has no idea how he created him. Apollonius never gets his dialogue edited. His grandiloquence is part of the show and just so fun to write. He gets to mess with a bad version of a Paradise Lost dialogue, from sentence structure to getting Apple to refer to himself in first, second and third person. The guy is a madman, but also so dangerous, because he has that mania behind his eyes. He’s also the guy that speaks three inches from your nose: ‘Wow,why are you so close?’ and Apple is like ‘Do you fear intimacy?’ (he said it in a cool af voice, just go listen to the podcast Pixies, I’m doing this for posterity). Pierce Brown’s favourite scenes include Apollonius at the feast table. He sometimes listens to violin concertos when he writes him. Someone asked him if he’s also naked while writing and listening and he says ‘how else do you think I write?’. The FedEx guy knows by now when he writes an Apollonius chpater. He can write Apollonius faster than most his characters because he is ridiculous and insane and doesn’t have to second guess himself. Apple just want to be the apex hunter of his world, the apex killer. He wants his legend to live on and his vendettas are good, but he’s never scheming, his motives are out there, while everyone else is scheming.

When it comes to death of the characters, he’s trying to strip away plot-armour. He also thinks it’s funny every now and then. But honestly he tries to make the world scarier, making the reader terrified. He also tries to balance it, not make it like No Country for Old Men hardcore and non-romantic endings. 

1. He loves Darrow, he wants to keep him alive

2. He wants to see him mince shite. (at least that’s what I heard, deal with it)

3. He wants to deal with his guilt complex.

4. He needs his story to go on

So Darrow has a bit of a plot armor, but the rest don’t, at least not to the same degree. Some survive really bad stuff, but that’s because this story is one that doesn’t take itself too seriously, he hopes.

He’s like ‘Go away!’ at people who talk about Darrow’s plot armor.( Someone needs to cut that part and send it to me as a gift for whatever occassion you can imagine. Because SAME!!!) Because he compensates by ptting him through hell (that the smmary of it, just go listen to the episode, you’ll love it)

MY QUESTION GOT ASKED FIRST!!! VALIDATION!!!

Howler Questions:

How do you rank Darrow in a top 50 razor fighters of all time?

He said this one is hard, but as his characters get better, this pops up a lot. It gets to a point where these guys can either get lucky or they might slip, make a risky move or mess up and lose. If they try something their master said not to do they can either lose or get lucky.

Darrow could lose to Lorn in his prime, but otherwise he might get him. Especially in 0 gravity, as Darrow is better in 0 gravity. Sevro is probably the best in 0 gravity as he could invert gravity, but there are characters in DA that can also do that. 

There was a laziness to a degree, a formality to dueling, because they were in a  period of peace. This new generation was raised in war, so now everyone is better, everyone knows their stuff. Everyone knows Darrow knows the Willow Way and because of that everyone practices fighting the curved blade. DArrow has to change up his razror style, he himself has to change, because his enemies expect his stuff now.

Right now, if Iron Gold!Darrow or Dark Age!Darrow would fight Aja (Morning Star), they’d probably kill each other. Aja was 60 or 50 in Morning Star, she just looks younger, because Golds. Octavia is over 110 and Lorn is pretty well over that age too.

Another question (not by me): What advice woul you give your teenage self?

Don’t be afraid to be weird.

Last Howler question: did you ever wrote charcters after people you don;t like and did you kill them?

No, because he writes books that go out of this world. He thinks there are better worlds out there than this one, even if they are terrible. And he thinks that the best way to deal with his enemies is to forget them.

Random thing that I found interesting:

If there was an olympics for everyday things, he’d get a medal at:

Cooking. He cooks anything italian, provecial french cuisine, he knows Julia Child books cover to cover...

Also at spoiling his dog.

His favourite Pixar movie was Up and he cried only when the dog slipped into the house and said ‘because I love you’. Otherwise he doesn’t cry at Pixar movies.

He cried do at Legend of the Fall when Brad Pitt comes home to find out his dad had a stroke.

He assumed he was the ArchPrimus of the whole series.

He’s into the book Rubicon by Tom Holland and The Boys on Amazon Prime.

He asked HowlerPod what are they into these days and Ben said The Boys too, but Erin said Dark Age. The she asked if that is alright or too on the eye, but Pierce said ‘Ben why didn’t you said that. Traitors comes from the front.’ But Erin admitted she was buttering him up in order to get some recipes from him.

Great interview! Also, my 2 seconds of fame! Thank you HowlerPod for this amazing interview!

Hail Howler 1!

Here’s a link: https://www.howlerpod.com/

[elegantfirepoetry]

I. AM. SKEEVED.

THIS IS NOT GOING TO BE A FAMILY FRIENDLY POST SO IF YOU ARE UNDERAGE (OR J0NSAS STAN BECAUSE THAT IS ALWAYS THE CASE) YOU BETTER GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE. RIGHT NOW.

They fucked up everything. EVERYTHING.

The entire fandom has waited two years - TWO YEARS FOR FUCK'S SAKE!! - for this FUCKED UP SEASON?!?!!!

Daenerys' storyline.

Jon's love and soul.

Gendry's heart.

Varys' promise.

Tyrion's loyalty.

Jaime's character development.

Brienne's love.

Sansa and Arya's attitude.

Missandei's wish.

Grey Worm's future.

And do not let me even start with Ghost and Rhaegal's destiny!!

Seriously the only one who has not changed a bit and is still the same bitch is Cersei.

All of this is sickening and absolutely hateful! I feel physically pain and I feel I could throw up any moment now. I wish I could get drunk and throw up just to get drunk again.

I am fucking hating Game of Thrones right now because all Daenerys Stan are now so fucking furious (me first line) and are rooting for her to bring fire and blood because - seriously what more she has to lose? The people won't recognise her sacrifice, they antagonise her just for the heck of it (Sansa, you little bitch I am talking to you) and hate her no matter what she does, no matter how much she loses - over King's Landing and that is exactly what the HATERS will forever bring up to right their opinion.

I wish she wouldn't burn King's Landing only because I don't want to give the haters the satisfaction of being right.

But she has lost so much and she is about to lose so more and to find out that Jon did the only thing that she begged - BEGGED! FUCK! BEGGED!! - not to do and this will only end up in shit!!!

I am not sure if I want to finish the season. I might delete this account faster than a fart in an hurricane, go back to the fanfiction world as I promised myself I would have done if the season would suck up (AND IT'S SUCKING UP) and live the rest of my life in denial, unless GRRM finally finish his last fucking books and gives me back a spark of hope.

My last words over all of this episode shall be this.

Now, excuse me, I am going to write my list of people I want to kill.

D&D are the first.

[joannalannister]

Are the ASOIAF audiobooks worth buying? I've heard the narrator isn't good at all.

I like the audiobooks. They were worth buying for me. YMMV.

I don’t listen to podcasts. I don’t particularly like watching youtube videos. (I would much rather have instructions or information written down for me to read.) Nothing is ever going to replace my ASOIAF ebooks. I would die if you took my ebooks away from me…but…. But. 

I had a (relatively mild) migraine yesterday, and it was nice to close my eyes and just let AGOT wash over me. Even better than Rainymood. Sometimes I am too tired to do anything, but I’m not tired enough to sleep, and I don’t particularly want to watch tv - the audiobooks fill that void nicely for me. 

I get impatient with a lot of audiobooks (I can read much faster than most narrators speak), but I do not feel that way while listening to ASOIAF. GRRM has written a lot for tv, and I think that medium has made him well attuned to the way his writing sounds when spoken aloud. There’s a rhythm to his words that is beautiful to hear. 

Also, I think I visualize the scenes better when I close my eyes and just listen. (It probably helps that listening to someone else forces me to slow down.) For example, I had either forgotten or I didn’t realize it until today that in the scene where Tyrion first speaks to Jon Snow, Tyrion is sitting over the door to the Great Hall. (I do not think that is a small door. How did he get up there?) I think previously I had imagined Tyrion on top of a merlon or some other part of a castle wall that people can see over. 

So, like, I did not originally imagine Tyrion up that high. We know from later books that Tyrion likes to view the world from on high (the Iron Throne, the battlements of the Red Keep), so what does it mean that Tyrion sought out this place “on the ledge above the door to the Great Hall, looking for all the world like a gargoyle.” What made him climb up there? Why? I imagine it was for the same reasons Jon sought the emptiness of Winterfell’s courtyard. 

And I notice different things when I listen as opposed to when I’m reading. For example, 

“Gods, Catelyn, Sansa is only eleven,” Ned said. “And Joffrey … Joffrey is …”She finished for him. “… crown prince, and heir to the Iron Throne.”

istg, while listening to the audiobook, istg it felt like Ned was looking for a way to say, “Joffrey is a Lannister.” I never had that feeling during one of my rereads (and I don’t even have that feeling now, looking at that text I just copy/pasted), but istg the audiobook made me feel it. That “Joffrey … Joffrey is …” in the audiobook made me feel like there was something terribly, terribly wrong, in a way that the written line has never captured for me. The narrator of the audiobooks takes that pause, that silence, at the end of “Joffrey is …” and uses it to ominous effect. Something is so wrong here that Ned cannot even find the words to tell you what it is. 

And I never really noticed this before, but this

“In Highgarden there are fields of golden roses that stretch away as far as the eye can see. The fruits are so ripe they explode in your mouth—melons, peaches, fireplums, you’ve never tasted such sweetness. You’ll see, I brought you some. Even at Storm’s End, with that good wind off the bay, the days are so hot you can barely move. And you ought to see the towns, Ned! Flowers everywhere, the markets bursting with food, the summerwines so cheap and so good that you can get drunk just breathing the air.”

leads nicely into this

“She was a Stark of Winterfell,” Ned said quietly. “This is her place.”“She should be on a hill somewhere, under a fruit tree, with the sun and clouds above her and the rain to wash her clean.”

to suggest that Robert is really talking about himself, not Lyanna. Robert wants to be on a hill somewhere, under a summer sun, with the rain to wash away his sins. 

So, idk, I like the audiobooks. I think the main series novels are better to listen to than GRRM’s history books (which are a great soporific! the history books put me to sleep in 8 minutes flat! almost every time!), but I think GRRM’s writing itself is weak in the histories, so I wouldn’t fault the narrator for the history books. 

There are certainly problems with the audiobooks. I don’t like how the narrator pronounces certain names. (For example, I pronounce Petyr like Peter; the narrator’s pronunciation is Bad. V Bad.) 

I don’t imagine Tyrion having that mousey, squeaky voice, but then again, I never imagined GRRM to have such a high, squeaky voice before I heard him. (ILU @George, I say that with love.) 

Also, I’m not ashamed to admit this, but some of the words GRRM uses, I know what they mean but I have never heard them spoken aloud, so hearing them for the first time can be a wtf moment while I reverse engineer the spelling and subsequently update my mental pronunciation. 

So I personally find the audiobooks to be a great supplement to my ASOIAF experience. I would not want the audiobooks to be my first time through, and if I was trying to introduce someone to the books, I would give them ebooks instead of audiobooks, because GRRM’s writing is so dense and he packs in so many details. But for a second or third time through? I think the audiobooks are great. 

Should you buy them? Depends on what you want them for, and what you’re willing to overlook. If you can’t put up with the weird pronunciation of Petyr’s name, they’re not for you. 

But if you want to close your eyes and hear that ache in Ned Stark’s heart over the family he lost … to hear the bitterness in his voice … if you want to feel the chills pass through you as Ned says sadly, “Now it ends” … then maybe you would like them. 

[stupidstubbornbravebitchoftarth]

Sorry if this is a bit depressing but I just had the most horrible thought & need to vent. We know that GRRM told D&D about some characters’ endings - what if the ending he told them for Jaime was that he and Cersei die together??? And 8x05 was D&Ds Interpretation of that (it was shit and I hated it) but what if it was partly true?? I’m legit panicking rn, I cried for weeks after season 8 finished bc I couldn’t cope I have no idea what I’ll do if Jaime somehow dies with Cersei in the books too..

I know what you feel like and every once in awhile I get depressed about that too. But I am also pretty good at envisioning Brienne and Jaime on Tarth, teaching their little baby girl how to fight with a sword, while the sun sets over dark green meadows and the sapphire blue waters and they are at peace at last – it helps.

Disclaimer my knowledge about the whole GRRM vs. Dumb&Dumber debacle is very superficial – so what I am gonna tell you now is mostly what I can remember having read in other people’s posts lmao.

So for starters I believe having read somewhere that GRRM has been less and less involved in the actual writing process of the show BC he finally started working on the books. Praise God, She is too kind. He actually said he is kind of sorry for it but work e.g books caught up to him and it seemed like he didn’t even like the ending for the show (see the post where people compared his reaction to Marvel’s Endgame vs. The Reaction to his own show – it’s somewhere on my blog but I can’t Tag for shit so yeah just Google it it’s probably faster …. )

So for me that COULD mean that he was less and less contact with the writers and honestly maybe he actually wrote some of what he told D&D but then changed his mind and wrote other endings without telling D&D because a) he felt like it b) it’s his work c) probably thought D&D were fucking incompetent d) it was too late anyway

Also I just think that if he really kills Jaime off, which is always possible but I don’t think is going to happen,  it will be way more justified death, a just death not some fucking bricks. Like we know he is looking at Jaime and Brienne as a Beauty and the Beast retelling and Cersei is not of that much importance to him and he literally said that Jaime and Cersei’s relationship disgusts him or something along the lines of that. So I really cannot come up with a lot off GRRM worthy scenarios of Jaime dying with his sister other than maybe he will have to sacrifice his life to take her down or some shit but that is boring … in my opinion. Like I just don’t see a realistic ending that involves both of them dying at the same time for the simple reason that in the books Jaime is way more important than Cersei and I, personally wouldn’t sacrifice such a multifaced character like Jaime for a probably very funny to write but sometimes rather one dimensional alcoholic maniac, powerhungry villainess … like Jaime’s redemption arc is far from complete but Cersei’s plot? Idk I am not that far in the books yet but to me it seems like all signs are pointed towards her demise. Again it’s ASOIAF so GRRM could probably still find a way to redeem her or whatever but I don’t really see the point in it. I always felt like he is writing Jaime and Cersei in a way that, as the story goes on, reveals  that they in fact don’t mirror each other but are polar opposites actually pulling away from each other e.g the further Jaime heads towards redemption “the path of light” if you wanna say it like that, the further Cersei heads towards darkness and the only way they are equal can be found in the intensity their characters are involving, showing that House Lannister can be a force of evil and a force of good in equal measure or something going into that direction – it’s just a feeling though.

Also several prophecies and dreams are still unexplained and unresolved as far as I know like why is homeboy dreaming of naked Brienne with a sword in her hand – other than the fact that he is utterly and eternally in love with her

Why are literally all of their dreams revolving around each other

And, this is something I think about at least 435 times a day – D&D are fucking illiterate. While Gwendoline Christie does an amazing, incredible, showstopping, Oscar worty portrayal of everybody’s favorite highborn Ser fucking Brienne of Tarth – D&D’s interpretation of Brienne is …. well the thing you would excpect from two white dudes. They completly left out one part of Brienne which makes her so dear to many – the soft side, the femine side of her, the romantic side.  While she is the best fighter in Westeros, that’s not all she is and wants to be. Like tons of better analysts and writers pointed out – People tend to forget that she a) is a HIGHBORN LADY b) had to become a swordswomen to somehow make it in the Patriachy she is living in – which with her being deemed as ugly is even more of hellish nightmare. She didn’t really see another option other than becoming a Knight because everything else would have meant a lifelong endurance of humilation and submission. So at 16 she said, Fuck it, I will FIGHT any man who wants to oppress me for the rest of my life,  AND SO SHE DID. Her other option would have been eternal unhappiness and marriage to a man like four times her age. She became who she is because she had to. Unlike Arya who always hated being Lady however, Brienne is in someways way more similar to Sansa – both of them believe in tales of knights in shining amour that save maidens. Like as far as I can remember Brienne doesn’t hate being a Lady – she hates how she is being treated for it, THAT being said I think D&D failed to portray the overwhelming amount of that Brienne, so I am not very convinced that D&D truly interpreted and wrote things in the final episode the way GRRM would have – I mean look at the script lmao.

Also one way Jaime Lannister could potentially DIE is in a not literal way. Like the Death of Jaime Lannister could also be him becoming Jaime of Tarth? “Dying” in the arms of the woman he loves? – When he sleeps with Brienne for the first time on their wedding night or at least for the first time ( I mean having sex pretty much equals marriage in their world and they are both big softies so….) Or him “dying” by doing something extremly heroic therefore complety parting ways with the arrogant, the “evil” character parts of him (obessed with Cersei etc.) , signaling the completion of his redemption arc – like idk he slays a dragon for the lack of a better example so “Kingslayer” dies but “Dragonslayer” lives on. Like I am 90% sure the Kingslayer part of him is going to die and the Oathkeeper lives on. 

Also what happens in Beauty and the Beast? The beast dies – or so we think. What if Jaime pulls a Jon and gets murdered and then revived. Honestly we really don’t know how D&D interpreted what GRRM told them.

To sum up

Yeah, Cersei and Jaime could probably end up dying together again and I would probably never know happiness again.  Anything is still possible and everybody is entitled to their theories until the books come out and prove all of us wrong anyway. I personally don’t think it is going to happen I am just willing to believe that GRRM is a better writer than D&D and that is not very hard. For one, Cersei is not THAT important, Jaime’s redemption arc is unfinished and several prophecies unexplained. Jaime and Brienne’s arcs are connected and killing one or both of them of would be an extreme huge loss of unique and multifaceted characters as well as potential for the overall history, and also I think hard to pull of. I personally wouldn’t worry that much because yes Jaime could get killed off but if GRRM decided to do that it will make sense. The thing that made me so fucking depressed over Jaimes death is first and foremost the way he left Brienne which book!Jaime would  simply not do and even  for show Jaime it was soooo fucking out of character that I refuse to believe D&D even watched the other three episodes of Season 8. Like I just refuse to believe that GRRM would even write something like 8x4. Jaime’s death would make me sad because rarely I think you really need to kill a character to tell a good story but at least I know that book!Jaime is going out with a bang not a brick. Also there are not a lot of signs (if any ??) pointing toward Jaime’s death, most signs and prophecies can be interpreted in tons of different ways. Nothing is certain.

If it were upto me he would die in the Epilogue as an old man in the arms of Brienne surrouned by their kids and grandkids. In peace.

So if I were you I would stay out of the theory rabbithole as much as possible. I didn’t join the Jaime Lannister is Alive Clown Club for nothing. Just snuggle up with some snacks and the fluffiest and/or smuttiest Braime fic and have a good time.

Always remember Jaime and Brienne are chilling in the meadows of Tarth, having told the rest of the realm to kindly fuck off unless they are absolutely certain that it will be necessary to call Jaime “ Oathkeeper” of Tarth and a very pregnant Ser Brienne of Tarth to fight whatever creature from the Seven Hells was unleashed onto Westeros now. The only visitors allowed are the Stark Kids. Somewhere in the background Pod is somehow getting chased by a giant dog that stole his sword. The End.

[janiedean]

Since you mentioned The Dark Tower I've been thinking lately that if GRRM finished ASOIAF now it would be the same amount of years it took King to finish TDT (he released the last 3 books back to back IIRC) and were you satisfied with that ending? Because to an outsider the way it's described it seems awfully disappointing (if you only ship characters from the movie or haven't finished ignore me please). Also is there any chance in hell GRRM would go for that publishing strategy?

in order:

I loathed the dark tower ending. truly, utterly, completely loathed it - I liked everything until 1/3rd of book seven and then it went utterly, completely and truly down the fucking drain, but ngl it was typical king. I mean, whenever I read a king book I go in assuming the ending will suck and I made peace with it, but ngl I hated it with a vengeance;

also the movie doesn’t exist to me lol like I only saw the trailer and it was painful like hell I’m giving it two hours of my time;

however, the thing with TDT is that king finished it after a near-death experience that made him realize on his skin that he could actually DIE BEFORE FINISHING and that put the fear of god and of not finishing into him, he locked himself in his house for two years and wrote the entire thing in one go, and ngl I’m sure he changed a lot about the eventual ending after it because he made the death experience an actual plot point and as much as I didn’t hate it UNTIL 1/3RD OF BOOK 7 I eventually decided it was a piss-poor decision that also didn’t line up with half of the stuff he had decided to do before (I mean there’s stuff in insomnia that’s obv. foreshadow for the end of DT that doesn’t actually happen in DT......), so.. on one side I’m glad he finished it bc it was AN ENDING, but ngl if the exchange would have been that it’d have taken him another twenty years and did the original plan I’d have taken that one;

also ngl grrm wrote 1-3 of asoiaf in seven years-ish which is not THAT much, if he stops feeling pressured and figures his plot points out he could actually finish faster than we think;

personally if he locked himself in a room and finished both wow and ados at once and published them in a year I’d be down with it, but it doesn’t seem like his modus operandi...? idk depends on how inspired he is but tbh I think he just wants to be done with winds now.

anyway: I trust grrm to finish way better than TDT finished bc grrm writes coherent endings and king.... doesn’t half of the time lmao that said a lot of people liked the ending, fandom is split 50/50 on it, but personally? I’d delete it from existence xD

[jackoshadows]

Jon and Sansa had nothing in common as children in book one...

I constantly keep hearing from Sansa fans - on the Jon Snow Tag - about how Jon and Sansa had similar/parallel journeys and were pretty similarly bratty when they were children - pointing to Jonsa because they are so compatible you guys! -  and that only Sansa gets unfairly criticized as opposed to Jon. Let’s tackle this:

Was Jon emo and bratty in the first few chapters in AGoT? No doubt. But as Maester Luwin aptly put it, bastards grow up faster - they have to deal with the harsh realities of life - unlike the popular, privileged daughter of the Warden of the North. Jon does look down on the other recruits of the NW as soon as he gets there, but Donal Noye very swiftly puts an end to that by explaining the circumstances to Jon and Jon LEARNS. Jon then goes about teaching Grenn and Pip and the others, protects Sam, talks to Aemon about taking in Sam etc. That’s the character growth that Jon shows in book one.

Meanwhile, Sansa continues to be bratty and selfish for pretty much the whole of the first book despite Ned’s constant pleas and warnings for the girls to not fight, that they were in a dangerous place (KL), that they had to be united as a family, that the Lannisters were bad people who had killed loyal Stark men. Sansa ignores all this and learns too late - after Ned loses his head, she is trapped in KL and the Lannisters start abusing her.

Sansa also goes against her family twice - she lies about the Trident incident, not supporting her own sister against Joffrey. And she tattles to Cersei all of Ned’s plans that was useful for Cersei to trap the girls - Sansa, Jeyne, Arya - in KL as opposed to on a ship bound for WF. Jon on the other hand wanted to leave the NW to fight for Ned, Robb and the rest of his family when he heard what happens. He feels deeply that he cannot save the people he loves:

Forgive me, Father. Robb, Arya, Bran... forgive me, I cannot help you. He has the truth of it. This is my place. "I am... yours, my lord. Your man. I swear it. I will not run again. - Jon, AGOT

That’s why it’s all the more significant when Jon does end up breaking his NW oaths for Arya at the end of the last book ADwD. Jon ends up choosing love over duty finally - like honorable Ned did.

The parallels about Jon and Sansa both wanting to leave WF also makes no sense. I mean, if you want to strip away all context, then yes, they were the two characters who wanted to leave WF in the beginning. But does not context matter in these so called parallels?

When Jon had his little tantrum with Benjen about leaving WF, it had just been made very clear to him what his status was among the siblings. Catelyn had made him sit at the lower tables while his siblings sat with their esteemed guests. Jon was bitter and angry. As we saw, Catelyn makes it very clear to Ned that Jon had to leave WF if Ned left for KL. Which was why Ned agrees to Jon going to the wall despite 14 being too young to make such a decision. Jon basically did not have a home anymore - the home he grew up in is not his - Catelyn made sure of that. Jon wanted to leave WF to make something of his life in a place - NW - where even a bastard could climb the ladder based on merit.

Sansa? She had a home. She had a loving family. A mother who doted on her. She was considered beautiful and admired for her skills unlike Arya. She wanted to leave WF to marry Joffrey and become Queen of the 7K.

So there’s a reason for why Sansa gets more criticism than Jon in the first book. Jon is an underdog trying to make something of his life as an outcast in Westeros. Sansa selfishly betrays her family twice - despite already having what Jon desired (home and family) - so that she could marry Joffrey and become queen. For reasons like this:

“Go Ahead, call me all the names you want," Sansa said airily. "You won't dare when I'm married to Joffrey. You'll have to bow and call me Your Grace." - AGOT

As show Sansa tells LF at the end of season 6 - “I came here every day when I was a girl. I prayed to be somewhere else. Back then I only thought about what I wanted, never about what I had. I was a stupid girl.”

Of course, then show Sansa negated that development by once again acting like her mother, never fully supporting Jon and passive aggressively undermining him in season 7 - but that’s D&D’s terrible writing that does not allow characters to grow for plot reasons.

Sansa gets criticized because she was a character created to have conflict among the Starks as per GRRM - not because she’s a girl.

When the series was originally conceived, it was only three volumes long and I did not know that several of the main characters were going to be stuck with being children for so much of it. The hardest chapters for me to write are the ones about Bran, just because he is the character most involved in magic, the youngest child and he is so seriously crippled--I have to write in that sense of powerlessness and it has always to convince. Sansa was the least sympathetic of the Starks in the first book; she has become more sympathetic, partly because she comes to accept responsibility for her part in her father's death. Jon Snow is the truest character--I like his sense of realism and the way he copes with his bastardy.   - GRRM

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html?tag=westeros-21&ie=UTF8&docId=49161

Jon and Sansa do not have much in common at all. Both in the books and the show. That’s why their stories have nothing to do with each other in the books,  why they hardly ever think of each other and why their stories will most probably never intersect. I mean, Sansa spends an entire book impersonating a bastard in the Vale, and never once, not once thinks about the bastard brother she grew up with in WF! Is that not amazing?! In fact Sansa admits to forgetting about Jon till Myranda Royce brings up his name. That’s how unconnected Jon and Sansa are in the books.

On the show, we see them clash again and again. Sansa keeps important information about LF and the Vale from Jon and then berates him about fighting with less men. Jon, like Ned, tells Sansa that they have to trust each other and be united as a family. Sansa undermines Jon, disagrees with his policies, Jon never listens to Sansa and instead does what he thinks is right.

As in the books, Jon has the steady, unwavering support of Arya - who stands up for Jon and defends him when he is not there to defend himself. Remember this in the books?

Sansa looked at Arya. “What did you think of Prince Joff, sister? He’s very gallant, don’t you think?”

“Jon says he looks like a girl,” Arya said.

Sansa sighed as she stitched. “Poor Jon,” she said. “He gets jealous because he’s a bastard.”

“He’s our brother,” Arya said, much too loudly.

A variation of this is pretty much what we saw last season as Sansa complains about Jon and Arya defends him on the show:

Sansa: I warned Jon this would happen. That he couldn't leave the North and expect it to just sit and wait for him like Ghost.

Arya: He didn't. He trusted you to hold it for him

Their clash over Jon escalates so much that Sansa considers having Arya executed to depose Jon and Arya lets her know that she is keeping an eye on her.

LF: He was named King in the North. He can be unnamed.

Sansa: Even if I wanted to, Arya would never go along. She always loved Jon far more than she ever loved me, and she'd kill anyone who betrayed her family.

Jon and Sansa have a non-existent relationship in the books and an almost antagonistic relationship on the show. That’s why Jonsa is just an absolutely baffling syndrome. I don’t know of any actual Jon Snow fans shipping Jonsa.  Jon-Dany, Jon-Arya, Jon-Sam, hell even Jon - Satin and Jon - Val are more believable positive relationships than Jonsa. I constantly hear from the Sansa fans about how much Jon loves Sansa. Like where? You guys want to see what actual love is? You will see it next season when Jon finally reunites with Arya.

[medschoolash]

people are quick to criticize d&d while forgetting that books and tv are two completely different mediums and they're trying to adapt 5 bricks so ofc they're going to cut/simplify a lot things + that when it comes to misoginy/racism/ableism etc. the books aren't better in fact i'd say they're worse; that they actually improved some things like aging up the characters, cersei (which in the books comes as across as a misogynistic caricature while in the show she's amazing), downplaying s*nsan etc.

They are trying to adapt a huge series with a massive list of characters and a very convoluted plot THAT’S NOT EVEN COMPLETED! 

I can’t tell you how many times I scratch my head on here when people degrade the writers for their writing choices because “they don’t have the books and it shows” as if that’s their fault. It’s so weird like the only person who can control the books is GRRM. If DnD don’t have the tools you think they need to craft the accurate book ending you think you know despite having never seen the pages then who’s fault is that besides the book writer’s? 

This translation was always gonna be deviate, and it’s BEEN deviating, which is another interesting thing I see spread on here a lot as well. You can’t tell the exact same story in the exact same way on two different mediums. You can’t even tell a story in a movie the same way you can on television but this concept is often lost in the haste to immediately trash the show for having the audacity to actually be a show that has to end without it’s source material because they can’t make someone else write their books faster. Things will be cut, characters will be combined, storylines will be sped up. That doesn’t make one version of the writing inherently inferior to the other and one story inherently inferior and that’s what a lot of people don’t get or refuse to get because then they wouldn’t be able to thump their chests with each other over being the superior book reading consumer. 

I also agree that some romanticizing of the novels happens around here. People flip back and forth about what they truly want to see. One second they don’t want sexism and abuse and all the social justice buzzwords on television but then they also degrade the show for leaving some of it out? Like the show adding rape for sansa is just so so terrible but they are also terrible for omitting Tyrion’s more blatant pedophilia and disrespect of women? So do y’all want more abuse of women or less or does it just depend on what better serves your personal desires? make that make sense to me anon. I mean with the way people swear the show is a disgusting perversion of the novels you would think GRRM didn’t start his story with literal teenagers and children getting raped, crippled, and thrust in to wars that end in their deaths. You would swear that this man didn’t make the conscious choice to create a fictional race of uncivilized people who rape, and brutalize for sport POC. You would think this man didn’t make the conscious choice to have the literal embodiment of white supremacy go on a mission to save all the brown slaves. I have a hard time believing these people only suddenly got uncomfortable with these topics when the show started. What more than likely happened was it was all acceptable for the books because it’s books and you don’t get nearly as many cool points for virtue signaling on the internet over a book. 

I heard about the Cersei upgrade a long time ago and I’m def grateful for that change because imagine a narrative where Cersei Lannister isn’t a complex nuanced boss bitch. I would hate to see it.

Either way, I truly hope that everyone can find some satisfaction in what they are making the conscious choice to consume. Otherwise you just wasted years of your life being miserable when you didn’t have to be. 

[uozlulu]

Identity ask: 2, 12, 22 Please

2. have you ever found a writer who thinks just like you? if so, who? - Back when I watched seasons 1 - 5 of Supernatural if I thought “I want ___ to happen” or “I bet ____ is going to happen,” it almost always did, so Kripke is probably similar to me in some way, though some things that happened on that show was like can we not. I’ve also been told by more than one person that when I talk about my writing process and how some days it’s just not happening or it’s like 600 words and other days it’s like 3,000 words I sound like GRRM.  

12. dog person or cat person? - I would like to be both, but I think dogs can accept me faster than cats can.  I think cats want to analyze my atypical behaviors and I can understand that

22. list the top five things you spend the most time doing, in order.

In the average day

Sleeping - 5 - 7 hours

Watch TV/movies - 4 - 6 hours

Playing games - 4 - 6 hours (I play while watching TV, helps me concentrate)

Writing - 3 - 6 hours (depends on what’s going on, how well things are flowing, etc…)

Duolingo - 2 - 3 hours (I’m using it to learn 4 languages)

Some days I run errands which shuffles things around a bit. If I make bread or pizza that’s a 3 hour commitment, though half that time is just waiting for stuff to rise. If I’m prepping for a holiday I can end up devoting the morning to dessert and the afternoon to bread . I try to get some writing in on busy days even if it ends up being like a half an hour’s worth. Chores take up some time but they vary depending on day. If it’s a super busy day I do only Spanish so I can get my Duolingo daily xp and so on those days Duolingo lasts like 5 - 15 minutes. I also regularly exercise 30 - 60 minutes a day. 

===

Identity ask happening in my ask box (no time limit)