seeing some prophecy discourse which has once again reminded me why i personally find the prospect of dany as the prince that was promised really compelling. and it makes the targaryens so much thematically richer. like, they only survived the doom through the power of prophecy and then the visions marked them forever and this thing, this blessing which gave generations of targaryens some existential meaning eventually morphed into a curse which brought so many of them great misery—"my brothers dreamed of dragons too, and the dreams killed them, every one." (aemon, affc) and in due course almost ended their line once again with rhaegar. but then dany happened.
almost four hundred years since the doom when prophecy saved them and nearly killed them again on the trident, dany was born. dany who carries echoes of all her targaryen ancestors within her. she's aegon the conqueror come again but she's also maegor the cruel when she promises the khals who had hurt her khalasar would die screaming. she's rhaenyra in her struggles to wield power and establish legitimacy as a woman, she shares her sense of egalitarianism with egg, and she drinks from the cup passed from rhaegar, i.e. inherits (what he once thought of) his narrative destiny to help defend the realms during the long night.
dany who is both their beginning, since she's the first targaryen created and introduced to us on page and the narrative end point of their dynasty. which reflects all the way into her arc being cyclical by design as it calls back to the foundation of the valyrian empire in essos—during the fifth war the freehold torched old ghis with dragonfire so nothing would grow there again and centuries later this girl, the last dragon, is going to help plant trees there again. it's not about retreading old ground or rejecting her house words but about redefining what it means to be the blood of the dragon. which is not to say all that came before her was meaningless since this recontextualisation is only possible through the three centuries of ancestral history weighing on her. and dany's very existence echoes back in time because the prophecy itself has influenced the lives of generations of targaryens. three hundred years of history, all the glory and the horror concentrated in this one person-point. the prince that was promised not simply as a figure of the long night but as someone who is the apotheosis of their house. dany as both their beginning and their end, because the iron throne is presently a symbol of stagnation, a world in stasis, and it has to go. no restoration, instead the old world dying in fire and a new world being born in the aftermath.
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such a shame that edmure hasn't yet gotten to meet the only member of his family truly proud of his great victory of the stone mill. so proud she even believed he could destroy tywin on an open battlefield too! ofc if she knew robb/catelyn/brynden blackfish's opinion on all that, she'd no doubt be influenced by her mother's and big brother's thoughts of the uncle she hadn't met before, but it's not like either is in any position to tell her now. maybe that's the one silver lining of the rw, if/when edmure and arya there's nothing to stop her congratulating him on his defeat of tywin lannister.
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hey, sorry um. bad news but the horrors got your girlfriend. yeah, she's never getting her happily ever after anymore. her heart is being pumped by the sentient briars who cursed her and she is maximumly fucked up after dying for the third time. sorry.
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All the final lines of each part of every Hunger Games book
THG:
Part I:
“Because . . . because . . . she came here with me.”
Part II:
Before I can stop myself, I call out Peeta’s name.
Part III:
I take his hand, holding on tightly, preparing for the cameras, and dreading the moment when I will finally have to let go.
CF:
Part I:
It’s my mockingjay.
Part II:
This is no place for a girl on fire.
Part III:
“Katniss, there is no District Twelve.”
MJ:
Part I:
And his blood as it splatters the tiles.
Part II:
That I’m of more use to her dead than alive.
Part III:
I tell him, “Real.”
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catelyn throwing her blanket off her with ned’s cum still running down her legs in front of maester luwin vs Jon being ass naked dripping wet in front of alliser thorne, othell yarwyck and bowen marsh STOP calling each other names! neither of you have any fucking decorum
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