#ii. ( 'so come home' calls a voice from the mountains / arc ii. )

[iceshrouded]

tag drop

[butterflies-dragons]

You’ll Be Queen One Day

This is something I wanted to say about the current debate of Queen Sansa.

For a big faction of the fandom, Queen Sansa is only D&D fan fiction and that won’t be Sansa’s endgame in the Books. ¡¡¡NEVER!!!    

According to Bryan Cogman, the man named by GRRM himself as the Keeper of the Lore, hints of Sansa’s Show endgame as Queen in the North were there since the Pilot Episode back in Season One:

BRYAN COGMAN: In the pilot, Sansa’s main function was informing members of her family and the audience that the only thing she wanted was to get out of Winterfell and go live in the big city and become queen—except a very different kind of queen than the one she ended up being. So Sansa’s storyline was always meant to have a note of triumph at the end, especially after all that she went through in the middle of the series. It was appropriate that she came full circle at the end. She was the only Stark left in Winterfell and leads the North into this new chapter. She’s the best hope for the North’s future.

—Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon: Game of Thrones and the Official Untold Story of the Epic Series by James Hibberd

"Winter Is Coming"

“In the pilot, Sansa’s main function was informing members of her family and the audience that the only thing she wanted was to get out of Winterfell and go live in the big city and become queen.”

Please take note that GRRM was very involved in the first four seasons of the Show. Especially the first one, he participated in the casting, he was part of the original pilot, he travelled to filming locations, he wrote one episode per season, etc.  

Season 1, Episode 1: "Winter Is Coming". Directed by Tim Van Patten & Written by David Benioff & D. B. Weiss.

SANSA: Do you think Joffrey will like me? What if he thinks I’m ugly? CATELYN: Then he is the stupidest prince that ever lived. SANSA: He’s so handsome. [CATELYN rolls her eyes.] SANSA: When would we be married? Soon or do we have to wait? CATELYN: Hush now. Your father hasn’t even said yes. SANSA: Why would he say no? He’d be the second most powerful man in the kingdoms. CATELYN: He’d have to leave home. He’d have to leave me. And so would you. SANSA: You left your home to come here. And I’d be queen someday. Please make father say yes. CATELYN: Sansa… SANSA: Please, please. It’s the only thing I ever wanted.

Watch the scene here.

Curiously enough, the immediately previous scene was a scene of Dany, the one where she said to Viserys: “I don’t want to be his [Khal Drogo] Queen. I want to go home.” A scene straight from the Books:

"I don't want to be his queen," she heard herself say in a small, thin voice. "Please, please, Viserys, I don't want to, I want to go home." 

—A Game of Thrones - Daenerys I

What a contrast with Sansa’s scene!

But Sansa’s scene is not from the Books. We don’t have any scene between Sansa and Catelyn at Winterfell.  

Sansa wanted romance more than being a monarch. She certainly was not opposed to marry a prince or a king, but her wishes were more about romance, being a Lady in a song, a wife of a gallant knight, and a mother of future ladies and gallant knights.      

This is what happened in the Books:

“Honors?” Ned laughed bitterly.

“In his eyes, yes,” she said.

“And in yours?”

“And in mine,” she blazed, angry now. Why couldn’t he see? “He offers his own son in marriage to our daughter, what else would you call that? Sansa might someday be queen. Her sons could rule from the Wall to the mountains of Dorne. What is so wrong with that?”

“Gods, Catelyn, Sansa is only eleven,” Ned said. “And Joffrey … Joffrey is …”

She finished for him. “… crown prince, and heir to the Iron Throne. And I was only twelve when my father promised me to your brother Brandon.”

—A Game of Thrones - Catelyn II

"Joffrey likes your sister," Jeyne whispered, proud as if she had something to do with it. She was the daughter of Winterfell's steward and Sansa's dearest friend. "He told her she was very beautiful."

"He's going to marry her," little Beth said dreamily, hugging herself. "Then Sansa will be queen of all the realm."

Sansa had the grace to blush. She blushed prettily. She did everything prettily, Arya thought with dull resentment. "Beth, you shouldn't make up stories," Sansa corrected the younger girl, gently stroking her hair to take the harshness out of her words. She looked at Arya. "What did you think of Prince Joff, sister? He's very gallant, don't you think?"

—A Game of Thrones - Arya I

Catelyn pushed Ned to accept the betrothal while Sansa corrected Beth’s comment about her being Queen.  

* * *

Later in the the Fourth Episode of the First Season, Cogman wrote a scene between Sansa and Septa Mordane where the septa says that Sansa will be Queen someday.

Again, this scene is not from the Books.

"Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things"

Season 1, Episode 4: "Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things". Directed by Brian Kirk & Written by Bryan Cogman.

SEPTA MORDANE: Someday your husband will sit there and you will sit by his side. And one day, before too long, you will present your son to the court. All the lords of Westeros will gather here to see the little prince... SANSA: What if I have a girl? SEPTA MORDANE: Gods be good, you'll have boys and girls and plenty of them. SANSA:What if I only have girls? SEPTA MORDANE: I wouldn't worry about that. SANSA:Jeyne Poole's mother had five children, all of them girls. SEPTA MORDANE: Yes, but it's highly unlikely. SANSA: But what if? SEPTA MORDANE: If you only had girls, I suppose the throne would pass to Prince Joffrey's little brother. SANSA: And everyone would hate me. SEPTA MORDANE: Nobody could ever hate you. SANSA: Joffrey does. SEPTA MORDANE: Nonsense. Why would you say such a thing? That business with the wolves? I've told you a hundred times... A direwolf is not... SANSA: Please shut up about it. SEPTA MORDANE: Do you remember your lessons? Who built the Iron Throne? SANSA: Aegon the Conqueror. SEPTA MORDANE: And who built the Red Keep? SANSA: Maegor the Cruel. SEPTA MORDANE: And how many years did it take to build... SANSA: My grandfather and uncle were murdered here, weren't they? SEPTA MORDANE: They were killed on the orders of King Aerys, yes. SANSA: The Mad King. SEPTA MORDANE: Commonly known as the Mad King. SANSA: Why were they killed? SEPTA MORDANE: You should speak to your father about these matters. SANSA: I don't want to speak to my father, ever. SEPTA MORDANE: You will find it in your heart to forgive your father. SANSA: No, I won't.

Watch the scene here.

* * *

Later in the the Sixth Episode of the First Season, there is a scene between Sansa and Joffrey where the prince says that Sansa will be Queen someday.

Once again, this scene is not from the Books.

"A Golden Crown"

Season 1, Episode 6: "A Golden Crown". Directed by Daniel Minahan. Story by  David Benioff & D. B. Weiss & Teleplay written by : Jane Espenson and David Benioff & D. B. Weiss.

SEPTA MORDANE: My prince. SANSA: My prince. JOFFREY: My lady. I fear I have behaved monstrously the past few weeks. With your permission? Joffrey offers Sansa a necklace. She turns around, for him to put it on her, as acceptance. SANSA: It’s beautiful. Like the one your mother wears. JOFFREY: You’ll be queen someday, it’s only fitting that you should look the part. Will you forgive me for my rudeness? SANSA: There’s nothing to forgive. JOFFREY: You’re my lady. One day we’ll be married in the throne room. Lords and ladies from all over the Seven Kingdoms will come, from the last hearth in the North, to the salt shore of the south. And you will be queen over all of them. I’ll never disrespect you again. I’ll never be cruel to you again. Do you understand me? You’re my lady now, from this day, until my last day. The two share their first kiss.

Watch the scene here.

I think that Sansa & Septa Mordane scene and Sansa & Joffrey scene were written from this Book scene:

“The king is dead.” Sansa could not say how she knew it, yet she did. The slow, endless clanging filled their room, as mournful as a dirge. Had some enemy stormed the castle and murdered King Robert? Was that the meaning of the fighting they had heard?

She went to sleep wondering, restless, and fearful. Was her beautiful Joffrey the king now? Or had they killed him too? She was afraid for him, and for her father. If only they would tell her what was happening …

That night Sansa dreamt of Joffrey on the throne, with herself seated beside him in a gown of woven gold. She had a crown on her head, and everyone she had ever known came before her, to bend the knee and say their courtesies.

—A Game of Thrones - Sansa IV

So far we have:

Sansa: “And I’d be queen someday.”

Septa Mordane: “Someday your husband will sit there [Iron Throne] and you will sit by his side.”

Joffrey: “You’ll be queen someday.”

The Sansa and Joffrey scene even got his own theme, a song composed by Ramin Djawadi called: 

You’ll Be Queen One Day

¿Why changing “Someday” for “One Day”? Maybe this curious detail means nothing... Maybe it means something...  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Why reiterate some many times that Sansa will be Queen, if it was clear that Sansa was betrothed with the Crown Prince Joffrey Baratheon, the Heir of the Iron Throne?  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

“—except a very different kind of queen than the one she ended up being.”

This is not the first time that Cogman alluded of that old say that says: “Be careful what you wish for” in regards of Sansa. He said something similar about Sansa’s arc in Season Five, specifically her marriage with Ramsay Bolton. 

Basically, when we decided to combine Sansa’s storyline with another character in the books it was done with the idea that it would be hugely dramatically satisfying to have Sansa back in her occupied childhood home and navigate this Gothic horror story she’s found herself in and, of course, to be reunited with Theon – setting her on the path to reclaiming her family home and becoming a major player in the big overall story. 

This stupid line “hugely dramatically satisfying” is BS of course. Men..........    

I have the impression that after they run out of canon material, D&D, Cogman and all, decided to recycle old plots. Here with Sansa, they basically gave her ANOTHER ONE GOTHIC HORROR STORY.

Since they didn’t like Sansa’s Vale plot as Alayne Stone, they gave Sansa “another lesson” like Kings Landing and Joffrey: “Be careful what you wish for”.

Sansa wished for a Southern Courtly Life with her Prince in Kingslading, and she got a Ghotic Horror Story. 

Sansa started to wish to return North, to Winterfell, to her Home, and D&D, Cogman and all decided to gave her Ghotic Horror Story 2.0 in Winterfell with Ramsay. Sexual abuse included. Men..........        

GRRM uses “Be careful what you wish for” theme very often, you just need to read his tale: “In The Lost Lands” or re-read Cersei’s story with Maggie the Frog. And as I just mentioned, Sansa’s wishes for a life at court in the south with her gallant Prince Joffrey. But D&D are just... not so good adapters.            

“So Sansa’s storyline was always meant to have a note of triumph at the end, especially after all that she went through in the middle of the series.”

¿How the majority of the fandom interpret these Cogman’s words? This way: “Queen Sansa is a reward for Sansa’s Season Five arc.” 

But Season One is four seasons before Season Five, and there were hints since the Pilot Episode... 

The fandom: SANSA WILL NEVER BE QUEEN, ¡¡¡NEEEVEER!!! 

..............................

“It was appropriate that she came full circle at the end. She was the only Stark left in Winterfell and leads the North into this new chapter. She’s the best hope for the North’s future.” 

Full Circle: From wanting to be Queen consort in the South to be the Queen in the North, by her own right.

Sansa’s Show endgame is also very in line with characters getting what they wished for but not in the way they thought. That is like the bit that follows: “Be careful what you wish for” = “You might just get it.” Seriously, go and read GRRM’s tale: “In The Lost Lands.” You can thank me later.     

Please also take note that GRRM has repeatedly said that:

Sansa is a major character. Part of the core that dominates the story.

He knows the endgame of the major characters for decades.

You can read more here.

So, if Queen Sansa is only D&D fan fiction, then WHOA! They planned it all since the very beginning, since the pilot episode itself. How surprising! Especially since GRRM was very involved in the Show back then.  

D&D wrote the pilot: “Sansa’s main function was informing members of her family and the audience that the only thing she wanted was to get out of Winterfell and go live in the big city and become queen.” AND GRRM LET THEM.

Cogman wrote a scene that was not from the Books where Septa Mordane says that Sansa will be Queen someday. AND GRRM LET THEM.

D&D wrote a scene that was not from the Books where Joffrey says that Sansa will be Queen someday. AND GRRM LET THEM.

D&D commissioned Ramin Djawadi to compose a theme for Sansa called: “You’ll Be Queen ONE Day,” for Sansa and Joffrey scene. AND GRRM LET THEM.

D&D wrote that Sansa’s Show endgame was being crowned Queen in the North. AND GRRM LET THEM.

And if you wanna read about Queen Sansa from the Books, please read these posts: Here and Here.

Good night.

[ushiwakatrash]

Small Distances

Hi!! It’s my first time writing! I hope you all go easy on me! ♥

Pairing: Bakugo x Fem!Reader

Warning: Cursing (i mean,,,, he is bakuhoe)

+ The Forest Training Camp Arc +

Quirk: Phoenix Fire - You can manipulate fire as well as grow wings on your back. You can make armor from fire as well as weapons like swords or flame axes but only you can wield it. The drawback is overheating that can cause you to black out. 

Part ii

To say you butt heads with a certain hedgehog everyday was an understatement. Ever since you started attending U.A., the two of you instantly clicked--in a bad way.

He always wanted to be on top, he always thought of himself as the superior one in any room he entered but when you came? Goddamn. He couldn’t faze you. No matter how hard he tried to intimidate you, he always failed.

(Y/n) wasn’t one to bow down to anyone either. So when she met him, she had finally found her match (which left her mad for a few days). They weren’t exactly friends but they leaned more on the ‘rival’ spectrum.

Because of their constant fights, the two grew close without them realizing. They started going to school together and he would walk her home after their training was over. It was unspoken but they had each other’s backs and would hate for the other to get hurt. Even if they wouldn’t admit it.

Today was the day of their training camp in the Beast’s forest to further enhance their quirks. She was on the bus beside explodo boy himself, talking about random fight strategies. 

“Alright get off you lot” Aizawa Instructed the bus stopped at cliff and students went out to get some fresh air. Mineta was screaming about how he wanted to go take a wee, but no one bothered to care.

Car doors open and a girl’s voice was heard “Yo, Eraser!” Their homeroom teacher bowed in response “Long time no see.” Two girls in pussy cat outfits came out and struck a pose calling themselves Wild Pussycats or something.

Midoriya’s nose started to produce steam as he fan boy-ed over the pro-heroes that honestly no one except him knew about. (Y/n) noticed a kid with them who had a hat with thorns and an evident frown on his face. Kinda looks like some blonde grumpy grump she knew.

“We own this stretch of land here. You’re going to be staying at the foot of that mountain.” the pussycat with brown hair stated. All of the students stared in shock. “Huh? Then why did we stop here?” Uraraka questioned.

Nervousness struck everyone and even if you didn’t look, you could practically feel the wide evil grin on Aizawa’s face. “Could this mean?...” Tsuyu spat with her voice shaking.

It was Sato’s turn to speak “No way...” Sero let out a shaky chuckle “Why don’t we get back to the bus,huh? FAST.” Kaminari followed “Yeah let’s do that” and the others nodded with sweat starting to form on their foreheads.

The Brunette pro-hero started to talk once more “It’s around 9:30 am right now. If you’re fast...maybe around noon?” she teased. Kirishima wore an expression of fear “No way... guys... GET BACK TO THE BUS! HURRY!”

Before they could reach the vehicle, the blonde pussycat blocked the way and using her quirk, she made the land collapse. “Kitties who don’t make it by 12:30 wont have any lunch!” the brunette teased once more.

Aizawa just stood there, aware of everything that’s happening “Sorry ladies and gentlemen, training camp... has already begun.”

“Since it’s private property, you can all use your quirks as you wish! You have three hours!”

Bakugo quickly ran to you by instinct and grabbed onto your arm. You lifted him up by sprouting wings from your back and both of you saw the beasts the blonde hero made as obstacles for the class.

Even without telepathy, both you and Bakugo knew what to do. “Get ready, dipshit!” (Y/n) shouted and she dropped him in an angle so he could directly collide with one of the beasts.

He used his quirk to blast them and (Y/n) sent out fireballs to make the explosion stronger. Iida, Midoriya and Todoroki followed shortly blasting any beast coming their way. The rest of the class helped each other to defeat the obstacles.

The sun was setting and they were all practically limping in exhaustion. Todoroki had frosbite visible on his face, Iida was dragging his legs, Midoriya looked like he was going to collapse, Bakugo was holding his wrist and (Y/n)’s sight was getting foggy and her body was getting too hot. Literally.

Everyone looked like they were about to pass out. “What do you mean three hours?!” “That’s the amount of time it would have taken us. Sorry!” Sato plopped his body on the ground. “You were trying to boast about how better you are? That’s mean...” 

Kirishima followed Sato’s words of despair “I’m so hungry... I’m gonna die!”  The blonde hero started praising them “I honestly thought you would take longer and you didn’t have that much of a hard time with my earth beasts like I thought.”

“You guys are great especially... you five!” she then pointed to Bakugo, (Y/n), Midoriya, Todoroki and Iida. “Were you able to act act without hesitation due to experience? I’m looking forward to where you’ll be in three years! I call dibs!” She then proceeded to charge at the boys you stood with.

A burst of emotion fueled within you causing you to hold a protective hand in front of Bakugo and the other held a glowing fireball ready to be released. The blonde pro-hero who you know now the name as Pixie-Bob chuckled after seeing the reaction she got. “Woah tiger, I’ll leave that one to you”

(Y/n)’s cheeks reddened as she realized what she’s done. “What was that for stupid girl?” Bakugo questioned. She let out an annoyed ‘tch’ and stuffed her hands in the pockets of her skirt, walking away from the scene clearly embarrassed.

“I’ve been meaning to ask, but who’s the kid?” the green bean asked. “Oh, that’s my cousin’s kid. Kota, come here and greet everyone.” The brunette pussycat named Mandalay instructed. 

Broccoli boy was the first to approach the kid. “Hey I’m Midoriya Izuku from the hero course at U.A” he greeted only for Kota to punch him where the sun don’t shine.

“Precocious kid” he softly chuckled. “He’s just like you” Todoroki commented which brought a small smile to (Y/n)’s face. She suddenly imagined what Bakugo’s kid would look like. Maybe the child would also get his explosive attitude. If the child inherited her quirk with Bakugo’s then that would make the explosions stronger.

Wait. What?

(Y/n)’s mind blanked out and her face exploded in all kinds of red. If she was thinking about a kid with their quirks combined... wouldn’t that mean that it would be THEIR kid?  Why did she even think of this? Oh this is very bad.

Let’s just say that day, she discovered her crush for the blonde crass hedgehog.

[yeniayofnymeria]

Arya Stark and Valkyrie

(It’s not my theory but i need to share. It’s really interesting subject.  It's really long but I promise, it's worth reading. )

I have a crackpot theory that the FM have some prophecy or at least some recruitment profile regarding a rare girl with Valkyrie-like abilities or role. The Red priests of R'hllor have their prophecy of Azor Ahai reborn and the Targaryens have the Prince that was Promised. There is the legend of the Last Hero about the Long Night that belongs to Westerosi First Men beliefs. But they are not the sole factions and societies and orders in the books that may have some sort of prophecy about a special person. I think the FM have a secret prophecy that fits Arya's profile. And I even go as far as to propose this prophecy is based on the identity of the First FM - a woman and not a man, who served the slaves as some nurse with food and drink. That's how she knew their prayers and was able to administer them the poison to help them die. And one of the sayings in the books is that poison is a woman's weapon.

What are Valkyries in mythology?

Valkyrie = "chooser of the slain". (meaning of the word)

Original Valkyries

Originally these were woman who were Odin’s helpers on the battle field. To prepare for Ragnarok, warriors needed to be picked amongst the slain to be able to fight for Odin in the final battle. These warriors would prepare and live in Walhalla, awaiting Ragnarok. The other warriors went to Freya’s Folkvangr. Valkyries were armed and wore armor, but they were not female warriors. Instead they surveyed the battle and then picked half of the slain men to go to Walhalla. These original Valkyries were old hags, ogresses and ugly women. And when there was no battle they served the fallen warriors in Walhalla as cupbearers.

Norns

These were the Norse version of the Greek fates, except there were many more Norns than just three. The good fairies and Malificent of the fairytale of Sleeping Beauty are some of the modern remaining leftover over beliefs in Norns. They could decide about the different fates for the whole course of a newborn's life (male and female).

Later Valkyries

In time Valkyries became beautiful maidens heroes could fall in love with. Who can blame the Norse for wanting to be served by beautiful maidens in Walhalla, instead of old hags, huh? Aside from maidenhood and beauty, they also gained certain Nornlike powers. Instead of just deciding which afterlife the slain of a battlefield could go to, the Valkyries gained the actual power to decide who would live and and who would die in war and battles, and therefore had the ultimate decision over which side would win a battle or war. Normally they would do this in concordance with Odin's will - they knew which side Odin favored. Because of this, battles would end up being dedicated to the Valkyrie believed to supervise the battle for Odin.

Some extra special powers: One Valkyrie had resurrection powers (Hildr), which resulted in an everlasting battle where the slain were revived every night so the battle would commence in the morning (for both sides of the battle were loved by Hildr). And another was more of a trickster who used potions to make a hero forget certain events and offer him advice to start a war (Gondul).

Summary of Valkyrie aspects

They are "choosers of the slain"

serve as cupbearers on their time "off"

beautiful young women

battles/fights get dedicated to them, though they do not actively participate

serve a person or order with Odin hints

believed to know a god's will when it comes to who's supposed to die, live, win or lose and make it come to pass with supernatural powers

Valkyrie aspects featured in Arya's FM arc

From the start of Arya's interaction with Jaqen we find hints of him either testing or pushing Arya to have her serve as a 'cupbearer' as well as empower her as a 'chooser of the slain'

One of the men in irons was talking to her. Warily, Arya approached the wagon, one hand on Needle's hilt.

The prisoner lifted an empty tankard, his chains rattling. "A man could use another taste of beer. A man has a thirst, wearing these heavy bracelets."

...

"A man must be ashamed of the company he keeps, Arry," the handsome one said. "This man has the honor to be Jaqen H'ghar, once of the Free City of Lorath. Would that he were home. This man's ill-bred companions in captivity are named Rorge"—he waved his tankard at the noseless man—"and Biter." Biter hissed at her again, displaying a mouthful of yellowed teeth filed into points. "A man must have some name, is that not so? Biter cannot speak and Biter cannot write, yet his teeth are very sharp, so a man calls him Biter and he smiles. Are you charmed?"Arya backed away from the wagon. "No." They can't hurt me, she told herself, they're all chained up.He turned his tankard upside down. "A man must weep." (aCoK, Arya II)

Jaqen's first interaction is to ask Arya for beer, lifting his tankard. If she does that, she acts symbolically as his "cupbearer". Doing this for a prisoner/criminal is a hint he's testing her for empathy. He tries to persuade her to overlook Rorge's and Biter's behaviour, but she steps back and does not give him a drink.

The next time he textually adresses her (aside from thanking her for the treat of a spoon of rabbit) he asks her to free him and whether it is war

Before they could hoot her down again, the sound came shuddering through the night—only it was no wolf this time, it was Kurz blowing his hunting horn, sounding danger. In a heartbeat, all of them were pulling on clothes and snatching for whatever weapons they owned. Arya ran for the gate as the horn sounded again. As she dashed past the barn, Biter threw himself furiously against his chains, and Jaqen H'ghar called out from the back of their wagon. "Boy! Sweet boy! Is it war, red war? Boy, free us. A man can fight. Boy!" She ignored him and plunged on. By then she could hear horses and shouts beyond the wall. (aCoK, Arya IV)

So, the two first times Jaqen adresses Arya it's to have a drink, or to fight. Hmmm.... She frees them when all is lost and they must run, and the threesome is in danger of being burned alive.

QuoteJaqen saw her, but it was too hard to breathe, let alone talk. She threw the axe into the wagon. Rorge caught it and lifted it over his head, rivers of sooty sweat pouring down his noseless face. Arya was running, coughing. She heard the steel crash through the old wood, and again, again. An instant later came a crack as loud as thunder, and the bottom of the wagon came ripping loose in an explosion of splinters. (aCoK, Arya IV)

At Harrenhal she works under Weese, and later under Pinkeye, and part of her job is "serving" drinks.

QuoteWeese used Arya to run messages, draw water, and fetch food, and sometimes to serve at table in the Barracks Hall above the armory, where the men-at-arms took their meals. (aCoK, Arya VII)

Jaqen, Rorge and Biter join Amory's forces, while separately Arya, Gendry and Hot Pie are caught by the Mountain's men and marched to Harrenhal. During the march Arya starts to pray her list, which she recites nightly. We can regard her list/prayer as her marking people for death. She starts to become a "chooser of the slain". She's already a while in Harrenhal when Ser Amory returns and Arya discovers the three have joined Ser Amory. Rorge and Biter do not see her, Jaqen does, although he pretends he didn't.

I should have let the fire have them. Gendry said to, I should have listened. If she hadn't thrown them that axe they'd all be dead. For a moment she was afraid, but they rode past her without a flicker of interest. Only Jaqen H'ghar so much as glanced in her direction, and his eyes passed right over her. He does not know me, she thought.

She spent the rest of that day scrubbing steps inside the Wailing Tower. By evenfall her hands were raw and bleeding and her arms so sore they trembled when she lugged the pail back to the cellar. Too tired even for food, Arya begged Weese's pardons and crawled into her straw to sleep. "Weese," she yawned. "Dunsen, Chiswyck, Polliver, Raff the Sweetling. The Tickler and the Hound. Ser Gregor, Ser Amory, Ser Ilyn, Ser Meryn, King Joffrey, Queen Cersei." She thought she might add three more names to her prayer, but she was too tired to decide tonight. (aCoK, Arya VII)

Remember that FM are good in spying. It is not farfetched for Jaqen to have investigated Arya, and overhear her prayer. But very remarkable about her prayer is that she does not offer a sacrifice or price for it. That same night Jaqen wakes her.

QuoteJaqen H'ghar took his hand away. The cellar was black as pitch and she could not see his face, even inches away. She could smell him, though; his skin smelled clean and soapy, and he had scented his hair. "A boy becomes a girl," he murmured."I was always a girl. I didn't think you saw me.""A man sees. A man knows."She remembered that she hated him. "You scared me. You're one of them now, I should have let you burn. What are you doing here? Go away or I'll yell for Weese.""A man pays his debts. A man owes three.""Three?""The Red God has his due, sweet girl, and only death may pay for life. This girl took three that were his. This girl must give three in their places. Speak the names, and a man will do the rest."He wants to help me, Arya realized with a rush of hope that made her dizzy. "Take me to Riverrun, it's not far, if we stole some horses we could—"He laid a finger on her lips. "Three lives you shall have of me. No more, no less. Three and we are done. So a girl must ponder." He kissed her hair softly. "But not too long." (aCoK, Arya VII) The voice startled her. She leapt to her feet and drew her wooden sword. Jaqen H'ghar stood so still in the darkness that he seemed one of the trees. "A man comes to hear a name. One and two and then comes three. A man would have done."Arya lowered the splintery point toward the ground. "How did you know I was here?""A man sees. A man hears. A man knows." ... "Some men have many names. Weasel. Arry. Arya."She backed away from him, until she was pressed against the heart tree. "Did Gendry tell?""A man knows," he said again. "My lady of Stark." (aCoK, Arya IX)

Jaqen could not have known her name directly from Gendry. But he could have overheard her shout "Winterfell" just as Hot Pie did during the battle at the holdfast at the Gods Eye, or overheard the conversation where Gendry warns her how he covered for her when Hot Pie wondered about her shouting that, or oeverheard Hot Pie asking Gendry directly about it. There are three occasion where Jaqen could have heard and seen Arya's tie to Winterfell. Her name Arry and the name Winterfell do not make it hard for him to deduce she's Arya Stark of Winterfell.

But we can already conclude that Jaqen seems very interested in Arya in particular, in a manner he is not interested at all in others. He showed that interest on KR already, before the Gold Cloaks arrived (who ironically enough for once instantly reocgnized her as a girl). So, he offered her the three names. This is actually quite a lot. Supposedly the reasoning is that she saved 3 lives, and so 3 must die for balance. But the sole price for 3 names was throwing an axe into the cage. They basically still had to save themselves. She can choose any 3 names she wants, including a queen regent and a king. Quite a bargain isn't it? She isn't even required to go to the HoBaW for him to kill even one of those of names. In theory she could have said, "Tywin Lannister, Queen Cersei, King Joffrey." She has some high profile targets on her list, and Jaqen was willing to do them. She gives the name Chyswick and Weese, and then realizes she should make the last one count. Vargo Hoat brings in the Northern prisoners, Gendry doesn't want to help, she blows off steam in the godswood with her stick and Jaqen tells her he wants a third name.

QuoteHe looked down at her pitilessly. "Three lives were snatched from a god. Three lives must be repaid. The gods are not mocked." His voice was silk and steel."I never mocked." She thought for a moment. "The name . . . can I name anyone? And you'll kill him?"Jaqen H'ghar inclined his head. "A man has said.""Anyone?" she repeated. "A man, a woman, a little baby, or Lord Tywin, or the High Septon, or your father?""A man's sire is long dead, but did he live, and did you know his name, he would die at your command.""Swear it," Arya said. "Swear it by the gods.""By all the gods of sea and air, and even him of fire, I swear it." He placed a hand in the mouth of the weirwood. "By the seven new gods and the old gods beyond count, I swear it."He has sworn. "Even if I named the king . . .""Speak the name, and death will come. On the morrow, at the turn of the moon, a year from this day, it will come. A man does not fly like a bird, but one foot moves and then another and one day a man is there, and a king dies." He knelt beside her, so they were face-to-face. "A girl whispers if she fears to speak aloud. Whisper it now. Is it Joffrey?"Arya put her lips to his ear. "It's Jaqen H'ghar."Even in the burning barn, with walls of flame towering all around and him in chains, he had not seemed so distraught as he did now. "A girl . . . she makes a jest."

At first read it seems Jaqen simply wants to be done with the 3 name business and continue on his way to do his "real" duty. However, this is actually a deception on Jaqen's part. He in fact knows the Bloody Mummers intend to turn their cloak and massacre Ser Amory's men (and he is one of Ser Amory's men) and that the Wolf banners will fly on Harrenhal by the next day. It is war. A battle there will be. He hints that he knows this when he says, "A man hears the whisper of sand in a glass." But keeps this information hidden from Arya until the fights and massacres break out in the yard, after the weasel soup action. So, time is of the essence. If she wants to go with him to Braavos, it must be now, for perhaps the next day Robb's bannermen may recognize her. And if she does not want to come with him, she will be safe, but he has no wish to be targeted by the Bloody Mummers, or Robb's bannermen. Hence he must have the 3rd name now to complete his deal with her. Note how he sounds like salivating almost over her third name possibly being Joffrey. But she gives his name instead. She extorts Jaqen into helping her by giving him his name. Yes, he swore by all the gods, including for him the Many Faced God. But if he regards her as some type of "chooser of the slain" his distress at her giving him his own name would indeed be even more upsetting. This would mark him for death in the eye of the gods (and she does this in the godswood). He says he will not sleep until she unsays his name.

Jaqen's smile came and went. "A girl might . . . name another name then, if a friend did help?""A girl might," she said. "If a friend did help."The knife vanished. "Come.""Now?" She had never thought he would act so quickly."A man hears the whisper of sand in a glass. A man will not sleep until a girl unsays a certain name. Now, evil child." 

So, he orders her to make broth, and later appears with Biter and Rorge to fetch the broth. Jaqen makes a point of it to have her present as a witness, and dedicates the weasel soup action to her, by smearing his bloodied sword on her shirt. And while he dedicates it to her, he does not want her participate in the fight.

Biter licked the grease and honey off his fingers as Jaqen H'ghar donned a pair of heavy padded mitts. He gave a second pair to Arya. "A weasel will help." 

...

Inside the door a winding stair led down to the dungeons. Rorge led the way, with Jaqen and Arya bringing up the rear. "A girl will stay out of the way," he told her.

...

"Fuck, we need bowls, cups, spoons—

""No you don't." Rorge heaved the scalding hot broth across the table, full in their faces. Jaqen H'ghar did the same. Biter threw his kettles too, swinging them underarm so they spun across the dungeon, raining soup. One caught the captain in the temple as he tried to rise. He went down like a sack of sand and lay still. The rest were screaming in agony, praying, or trying to crawl off.

Arya pressed back against the wall as Rorge began to cut throats. Biter preferred to grab the men behind the head and under the chin and crack their necks with a single twist of his huge pale hands. Only one of the guards managed to get a blade out. Jaqen danced away from his slash, drew his own sword, drove the man back into a corner with a flurry of blows, and killed him with a thrust to the heart. The Lorathi brought the blade to Arya still red with heart's blood and wiped it clean on the front of her shift. "A girl should be bloody too. This is her work."

...

"This of the soup, that was clever," the man Glover was saying. "I did not expect that. Was it Lord Hoat's idea?"

...

"This man has the honor to be Jaqen H'ghar, once of the Free City of Lorath. This man's discourteous companions are named Rorge and Biter. A lord will know which is Biter." He waved a hand toward Arya. 

"And here—"

"I'm Weasel," she blurted, before he could tell who she really was. She did not want her name said here, where Rorge might hear, and Biter, and all these others she did not know.

She saw Glover dismiss her. "Very well," he said. "Let's make an end to this bloody business."When they climbed back up the winding stair, they found the door guards lying in pools of their own blood. Northmen were running across the ward. Arya heard shouts. The door of Barracks Hall burst open and a wounded man staggered out screaming. Three others ran after him and silenced him with spear and sword. There was fighting around the gatehouse as well. Rorge and Biter rushed off with Glover, but Jaqen H'ghar knelt beside Arya. "A girl does not understand?"

"Yes I do," she said, though she didn't, not truly.

The Lorathi must have seen it on her face. "A goat has no loyalty. Soon a wolf banner is raised here, I think. But first a man would hear a certain name unsaid."

She has served, she has chosen the slain, she chose a side in a battle and forced him to help fight for her chosen side. With the battle over, Jaqen has her unname him, changes his face, offers her to go with him to teach it, but when she refuses he gives her the coin, and teaches her the words, before he departs.

Not only Jaqen dedicates the Harrenhal switch to Arya. Shagwell (a singer/poet) does too, and many other people, including servants. Of course, Vargo Hoat would have switched sides anyway, but people regard her as the one who decided the battle for the Mummers and the Northerners.

All morning she watched the Bloody Mummers strip the dead of their valuables and drag the corpses to the Flowstone Yard, where a pyre was laid to dispose of them. Shagwell the Fool hacked the heads off two dead knights and pranced about the castle swinging them by the hair and making them talk. "What did you die of?" one head asked. "Hot weasel soup," replied the second.

Arya was set to mopping up dried blood. No one said a word to her beyond the usual, but every so often she would notice people looking at her strangely. Robett Glover and the other men they'd freed must have talked about what had happened down in the dungeon, and then Shagwell and his stupid talking heads started in about the weasel soup. ...

Vargo Hoat came forward. "My lord, Harrenhal ith yourth."The lord gave answer, but too softly for Arya to hear. Robett Glover and Ser Aenys Frey, freshly bathed and clad in clean new doublets and cloaks, came up to join them. After some brief talk, Ser Aenys led them over to Rorge and Biter. Arya was surprised to see them still here; somehow she would have expected them to vanish when Jaqen did. Arya heard the harsh sound of Rorge's voice, but not what he was saying. Then Shagwell pounced on her, dragging her out across the yard. "My lord, my lord," he sang, tugging at her wrist, "here's the weasel who made the soup!" ...

"My squire could take a lesson from you, it would seem. Frequent leechings are the secret of a long life. A man must purge himself of bad blood. You will do, I think. For so long as I remain at Harrenhal, Nan, you shall be my cupbearer, and serve me at table and in chambers."

And finally, Lord Bolton makes her his official cupbearer. The serving of drink reoccurs several times more after this, often combined with death.

With the men in the crow cages and Stoney Sept, when Lem and Gendry help her up, before Anguy puts them out of their mysery with his arrows.

With the man of Pinkmaiden, before Sandor gives him the gift of mercy and puts the dagger through his heart

With Sandor, as he begs her for the gift of mercy. She gives him the water, but refuses to give him the gift of mercy, possibly thereby choosing him to live on as the gravedigger on the Quiet Isle.

With the bravo at the pool in the HoBaW when she enters for the first time. She sees him at the pool, reaching. Takes the cup and fills it with the poisoned water and gives it to him. Thereby personally giving him the gift of mercy, completely unaware of it. As her first act within the HoBaW with the waif and KM nearby, watching her no doubt, this must speak volumes to their minds. She could have drunk from the cup herself or inspect the bravo first and cry for help instead. But her first act was to give him the gift of mercy.

Inside the HoBaW she serves as a cupbearer to the FM during their meetings.

The bars were too narrow to pass a cup through, but Harwin and Gendry offered her a leg up. She planted a foot in Harwin's cupped hands, vaulted onto Gendry's shoulders, and grabbed the bars on top of the cage. The fat man turned his face up and pressed his cheek to the iron, and Arya poured the water over him. He sucked at it eagerly and let it run down over his head and cheeks and hands, and then he licked the dampness off the bars. He would have licked Arya's fingers if she hadn't snatched them back. By the time she served the other two the same, a crowd had gathered to watch her. "The Mad Huntsman will hear of this," a man threatened. "He won't like it. No, he won't."

"He'll like this even less, then." Anguy strung his longbow, slid an arrow from his quiver, nocked, drew, loosed. The fat man shuddered as the shaft drove up between his chins, but the cage would not let him fall. Two more arrows ended the other two northmen. The only sound in the market square was the splash of falling water and the buzzing of flies.

Valar morghulis, Arya thought. (aSoS, Arya V)

...

They had passed a small pond a short ways back. Sandor gave Arya his helm and told her to fill it, so she trudged back to the water's edge. Mud squished over the toe of her boots. She used the dog's head as a pail. Water ran out through the eyeholes, but the bottom of the helm still held a lot.

When she came back, the archer turned his face up and she poured the water into his mouth. He gulped it down as fast as she could pour, and what he couldn't gulp ran down his cheeks into the brown blood that crusted his whiskers, until pale pink tears dangled from his beard. When the water was gone he clutched the helm and licked the steel. "Good," he said. "I wish it was wine, though. I wanted wine."

"Me too." The Hound eased his dagger into the man's chest almost tenderly, the weight of his body driving the point through his surcoat, ringmail, and the quilting beneath. As he slid the blade back out and wiped it on the dead man, he looked at Arya. "That's where the heart is, girl. That's how you kill a man." (aSoS, Arya XII)

...

Long before noon, Sandor Clegane was reeling. There were hours of daylight still remaining when he called a halt. "I need to rest," was all he said. This time when he dismounted he did fall. Instead of trying to get back up he crawled weakly under a tree, and leaned up against the trunk. "Bloody hell," he cursed. "Bloody hell." When he saw Arya staring at him, he said, "I'd skin you alive for a cup of wine, girl.”

She brought him water instead. He drank a little of it, complained that it tasted of mud, and slid into a noisy fevered sleep. When she touched him, his skin was burning up. Arya sniffed at his bandages the way Maester Luwin had done sometimes when treating her cut or scrape. His face had bled the worst, but it was the wound on his thigh that smelled funny to her. (aSoS, Arya XIII)

...

In the center of the temple she found the water she had heard; a pool ten feet across, black as ink and lit by dim red candles. Beside it sat a young man in a silvery cloak, weeping softly. She watched him dip a hand in the water, sending scarlet ripples racing across the pool. When he drew his fingers back he sucked them, one by one. He must be thirsty. There were stone cups along the rim of the pool. Arya filled one and brought it to him, so he could drink. The young man stared at her for a long moment when she offered it to him. "Valar morghulis," he said."Valar dohaeris," she replied. (aFfC, Arya I)

...

One time the fat fellow and the squinter came together. Umma sent Arya to pour for them. "When you are not pouring, you must stand as still as if you had been carved of stone," the kindly man told her. "Can you do that?"

"Yes." Before you can learn to move you must learn to be still, Syrio Forel had taught her long ago at King's Landing, and she had. She had served as Roose Bolton's cupbearer at Harrenhal, and he would flay you if you spilled his wine.

"Good," the kindly man said. "It would be best if you were blind and deaf as well. You may hear things, but you must let them pass in one ear and out the other. Do not listen." (aFfC, Arya II) 

Note: when she gives the bravo the sweetwater, the door was opened for her, but there was no one there to welcome her or guide her. She's a 10 year old child wandering into a hall with a pool of poisoned water. It seems strange and especially unsafe that they would let a child wander around into such a dangerous place, towards a pool that looks like water to the uninformed - a pool with stone cups along the rim of the pool to lavish thirst. Arya could have drunken from a cup herself. Or she could have inspected the bravo first and cried for help for his wounds. But she did exactly what the man was there for - the gift of mercy in a cup of sweetsleep poison - without even knowing it. Immediately after this the waif and the kindly man show up and approach her. They must have been watching her.  She chooses for Dareon to die. While initially it seems to Arya that she's punished for this by being made blind, in fact we know this is not punishment, but speeding up her training. In a way she's rewarded for the act.

"Just so," said the kindly man. "And the third thing?"

This time she did not hesitate. "Dareon is dead. The black singer who was sleeping at the Happy Port. He was really a deserter from the Night's Watch. Someone slit his throat and pushed him into a canal, but they kept his boots."

"Good boots are hard to find."

...

He turned to the waif. "My throat is dry. Do me a kindness and bring a cup of wine for me and warm milk for our friend Arya, who has returned to us so unexpectedly."

On her way across the city Arya had wondered what the kindly man would say when she told him about Dareon. Maybe he would be angry with her, or maybe he would be pleased that she had given the singer the gift of the Many-Faced God. She had played this talk out in her head half a hundred times, like a mummer in a show. But she had never thought warm milk.When the milk came, Arya drank it down. It smelled a little burnt and had a bitter aftertaste. "Go to bed now, child," the kindly man said. "On the morrow you must serve."(aFfC, Cat of the Canals)

Summary of Valkyrie elements in Arya's FM

"chooser of the slain"

cupbearer

the battle for Harrenhal gets dedicated to her

female

she is not supposed to participate in fights

FM and Valkyries

So,on the one hand we have Arya showing Valkyrie features in her arc, but this could either be symbolically done by GRRM, or it may be features the FM are looking for. Long before Harrenhal, before Arya has a list to mark people who should die in her opinion, Jaqen asks her to give him a drink and to free him referring to war, in other words he's pushing for the "cupbearer" and "battle" aspects then. And at the HoBaW, her first act is to be the bravo's cupbearer, which prompts the kindly man to approach her in his skull-face, while her "choice to slay" Dareon moves her training up. So, the "cupbearer" + "chooser of the slain" elements is what they test for and respond to. So the FM are definitely looking for those elements in a profile.

The cupbearing element serves a sense of inner humility as well as empathy. It requires a high deal of empathy and humility to give a dangerous criminal in a cage a drink. You won't do this, unless you recognize at heart that basically we are all humans. On the other hand it requires a marked sense of justice as well as confidence in it to put a list of names together marked for death: murderers, rapists, thieves, abusers, liars, deserters, and the truly monstrous end up there. Only two of them have hurt her directly (Weese, Polliver), three hurt her father, some her friends, but there are also those who hurt strangers to her (the Mountain, the Tyckler, Chyswick, Dareon). That Arya's list goes beyond personal harm shows Arya's list is less about personal revenge, and more about justice. So, the FM are looking for an empathic person with a marked sense of justice, and a rather egalitarian sentiment.

[special note: personally I'm not a proponent of the death penalty, on the contrary, and I am glad to be living in a country and of a union where the death penalty has long been scrapped out of constitution]

The gift of mercy

These are not the characteristics we tend to associate with hired assassins, hired to execute the job. Of course, nobody expected the Faceless Men to engage in assisted suicide either. More, the number of people they help with assisted suicide is far greater than the number of people they are hired to assassinate. And it is actually their first cause of origin.

"The tale of our beginnings. If you would be one of us, you had best know who we are and how we came to be. Men may whisper of the Faceless Men of Braavos, but we are older than the Secret City. Before the Titan rose, before the Unmasking of Uthero, before the Founding, we were. We have flowered in Braavos amongst these northern fogs, but we first took root in Valyria, amongst the wretched slaves who toiled in the deep mines beneath the Fourteen Flames that lit the Freehold's nights of old. Most mines are dank and chilly places, cut from cold dead stone, but the Fourteen Flames were living mountains with veins of molten rock and hearts of fire. So the mines of old Valyria were always hot, and they grew hotter as the shafts were driven deeper, ever deeper. The slaves toiled in an oven. The rocks around them were too hot to touch. The air stank of brimstone and would sear their lungs as they breathed it. The soles of their feet would burn and blister, even through the thickest sandals. Sometimes, when they broke through a wall in search of gold, they would find steam instead, or boiling water, or molten rock. Certain shafts were cut so low that the slaves could not stand upright, but had to crawl or bend. And there were wyrms in that red darkness too."

...

"Didn't the slaves rise up and fight?"

"Some did," he said. "Revolts were common in the mines, but few accomplished much. The dragonlords of the old Freehold were strong in sorcery, and lesser men defied them at their peril. The first Faceless Man was one who did."

"Who was he?" Arya blurted, before she stopped to think.

"No one," he answered. "Some say he was a slave himself. Others insist he was a freeholder's son, born of noble stock. Some will even tell you he was an overseer who took pity on his charges. The truth is, no one knows. Whoever he was, he moved amongst the slaves and would hear them at their prayers. Men of a hundred different nations labored in the mines, and each prayed to his own god in his own tongue, yet all were praying for the same thing. It was release they asked for, an end to pain. A small thing, and simple. Yet their gods made no answer, and their suffering went on. Are their gods all deaf? he wondered . . . until a realization came upon him, one night in the red darkness."All gods have their instruments, men and women who serve them and help to work their will on earth. The slaves were not crying out to a hundred different gods, as it seemed, but to one god with a hundred different faces . . . and he was that god's instrument. That very night he chose the most wretched of the slaves, the one who had prayed most earnestly for release, and freed him from his bondage. The first gift had been given."Arya drew back from him. "He killed the slave?" That did not sound right. "He should have killed the masters!"

"He would bring the gift to them as well . . . but that is a tale for another day, one best shared with no one."(aFfC, Arya II)

The gift of mercy was the origin of the FM. It requires empathy, humanism and a mind free from religious dogma for a person to come to such a conclusion and help people find freedom from agony and pain in death. This was someone with the ability to freely move amongst the slaves, witness their ordeal, hear their prayers, day and night. It was someone who seemed to have no special belief in one of the hundred gods prayed to, but instead recognized that all those gods were actually the one and the same - death. It sounds like an agnostic, who came to regard death as a god, and death is egalitarian, since everybody dies - rich, poor, sick, healthy, happy, miserable, handsome, ugly, old, young, the worst, the best, men and women.

The cupbearing element is heavily associated with the gift of mercy, bothin Arya's arc as well as the FM's practice of assisted suicide. Poison is their main weapon - both for assassination as assisted suicide - and poison is said to be "a woman's weapon". This is why I think the First was not a "he", but a "she". This was a free woman, most likely learned and of highborn religious liberal upbringing who served in the mines as a nurse or medical assistant, with knowledge on poisons, pain relief and daily confronted with the inability to save the afflicted, while overhearing the prayers for death. Such a person would far more likely come to the conclusions the First made - to become the instrument that gives the gift of mercy. In religion "an angel of death" is often male, but it is often the title given to female, serial killing nurses.

Targets of assassination

I killed Cat when I killed that singer. The kindly man had told her that they would have taken her eyes from her anyway, to help her to learn to use her other senses, but not for half a year. Blind acolytes were common in the House of Black and White, but few as young as she. The girl was not sorry, though. Dareon had been a deserter from the Night's Watch; he had deserved to die.

"And are you a god, to decide who should live and who should die?" he asked her. "We give the gift to those marked by Him of Many Faces, after prayers and sacrifice. So has it always been, from the beginning. I have told you of the founding of our order, of how the first of us answered the prayers of slaves who wished for death. The gift was given only to those who yearned for it, in the beginning … but one day, the first of us heard a slave praying not for his own death but for his master's. So fervently did he desire this that he offered all he had, that his prayer might be answered. And it seemed to our first brother that this sacrifice would be pleasing to Him of Many Faces, so that night he granted the prayer. Then he went to the slave and said, 'You offered all you had for this man's death, but slaves have nothing but their lives. That is what the god desires of you. For the rest of your days on earth, you will serve him.' And from that moment, we were two." His hand closed around her arm, gently but firmly. "All men must die. We are but death's instruments, not death himself. When you slew the singer, you took god's powers on yourself. We kill men, but we do not presume to judge them. Do you understand?" (aDwD, Blind Beth)

This paragraph is what often leads to people concluding that FM assassinate anyone for the right price, regardless of the target's morality, innocense and crimes. But that conclusion does not follow the story of the First's assassination of the slave master.

Let us being by examining the story of the First:

A slave prayed for a slave master's death, some time after the beginning where only those who yearned for the gift of mercy were killed, and offered a sacrifice (all he had).

The First thought this prayer and sacrifice would be pleasing to the god of death

Hence, the First considered the slave master marked by death and killed the slave master.

Did the First ever hear the Many Faced God whisper "that one", or saw it in a vision of flames? No. The First "thought it would please the god". The First and the FM regard themselves as the god's instruments who know what would please the god of death and simultaneously what would not please the god. So, in fact, the First and the FM are the ones who "decide" who dies and who lives.

But how does that mesh with "not judging them"? This is in reference to Arya having said to the kindly man that Dareon "deserved" to die. The kindly man is telling Arya that the mark of death comes from an intuition that would please the god of death, rather than using human laws or rationale of "deserving" death. The order is assumed to have an intuitive link with the god. And that is exactly what a Valkyrie is supposed to be. A Valkyrie doesn't go to a battle with a death-list handed by Odin. They just "know". The most famous Valkyrie is Brynhilde of the Nibelungenlied (the legends and stories on which Wagner based his 3-part opera). Brynhilde had agreed to side with a mortal man at every one of his battles. However, with one battle, she knew Odin wanted the other side to win, and she still made that man win the battle, going against Odin's wish. Odin punished her by making her a mortal woman, a shieldmaiden. She was a "fallen" Valkyrie.

So, the kindly man's message is not "we assassinate anyone for the right price", but "we assassinate those we know the god wants to die by assassination." And what he's warning against is the hubris of overriding the god's will they serve, but not necessarily saying she was wrong in regarding Dareon as being marked for death. After all, they sped up her training by at least half a year for Dareon's murder, which basically means in choice and actions at least, the kindly man sanctions Arya's choice. The blindness also serves as a type of "sacrifice", in exchange for the murder, even though the sacrifice was only temporarily and gained her more awareness than she had before.

With the insurance man she's trying to convince herself with all sorts of silly reasons he deserves to die. The KM does not want her to use such reasoning. And yet he gives her enough background info on the man - that he cons hard working captains, who put their live savings in their cargo and ship, out of their money and puts widows and their children out on the street to beg by refusing to pay up when the captain and ship are lost at sea. Once, she knows this, she has no further need to justify her action and does it.

Marked for death

"Death is not the worst thing," the kindly man replied. "It is His gift to us, an end to want and pain. On the day that we are born the Many-Faced God sends each of us a dark angel to walk through life beside us. When our sins and our sufferings grow too great to be borne, the angel takes us by the hand to lead us to the nightlands, where the stars burn ever bright. Those who come to drink from the black cup are looking for their angels. If they are afraid, the candles soothe them. When you smell our candles burning, what does it make you think of, my child?" (aFfC, Arya II)

The kindly man ends this paragraph by mentioning those actively seeking their dark angel by drinking the black cup - out of guilt or suffering. But note that "sins" are a part of the beliefs of the FM's faith. The sufferer will pray for the gift of mercy for himself. The great sinner not necessarily so, and yet the mark of death may still be put on him, and then he/she has to die by the hand of an FM as an instrument of the god of death.

Who have followers of the Many Faced God assassinated? (regardless of contract)

a slave master

Chyswick: a gang rapist

Weese: an abuser and liar

Balon: (based on GoHH's dream), a reaver

Pate: a thief and betrayer of his master for coin to someone who may have just as well had every intention to kill Marwyn

Dareon: a deserter, betrayer of friends and leaving them to die for all he cared, liar and ogling a 14 year old

a ship/cargo insurance man: cons captains and ship owners out of their money, and when they die along with their shipwreck, the widow and children end up on the street begging

the waif's stepmother: who poisoned the waif when she was a young girl to remove her as heir

possibly the Ugly Girl's father: a child beater

Not one of them can be called a "good" person. Even if people are grey, there's pearl-grey and there's anthracite. Pate is the lightest grey of them all, and that's because he's still so young and only just started on a path of darkening grey. Not one of these characters is a light pearly grey character, none.

Him of Many Faces and many names

"Him of Many Faces.""And many names," the kindly man had said. "In Qohor he is the Black Goat, in Yi Ti the Lion of Night, in Westeros the Stranger. All men must bow to him in the end, no matter if they worship the Seven or the Lord of Light, the Moon Mother or the Drowned God or the Great Shepherd. All mankind belongs to him . . . else somewhere in the world would be a folk who lived forever. Do you know of any folk who live forever?""No," she would answer. "All men must die." (aFfC, Cat of the Canals)

The title of the god of death can actually be seen as a reference to Odin. Odin has 170 names/styles and at least 50 disguises, appearing as a young man, an old man, a blind man, a beggar, a king, animals, on and on it goes. So, Odin is a god of Many Faces and many names, wearing disguises and masks. On top of that he is a god of death, resurrection, sacrifice.

Hence, a girl with Valkyrie aspects would be a servant of the god of Many Faces, and it would be very fitting that members of the order can change their appearance so drastically as the FM, and have the knowledge how to accomplish this.

Volunteer

There is a difference between the First FM and the Second. The First was a volunteer. The Second became FM because he offered all he had to have his prayer answered, and the First demanded he'd join her. The waif is not an assassin, but she is not strictly speaking a volunteer, even if becoming one of the guild was to her benefit. We do not know how the other acolytes were recruited, but we do know for certain that Arya is volunteering.

"Die?" she said, confused. What did he mean? "But I unsaid the name. You don't need to die now."

"I do. My time is done." Jaqen passed a hand down his face from forehead to chin, and where it went he changed. His cheeks grew fuller, his eyes closer; his nose hooked, a scar appeared on his right cheek where no scar had been before. And when he shook his head, his long straight hair, half red and half white, dissolved away to reveal a cap of tight black curls.

Arya's mouth hung open. "Who are you?" she whispered, too astonished to be afraid. "How did you do that? Was it hard?"

He grinned, revealing a shiny gold tooth. "No harder than taking a new name, if you know the way.""Show me," she blurted. "I want to do it too."

"Show me," she blurted. "I want to do it too."

"If you would learn, you must come with me."

Arya grew hesitant. "Where?"

"Far and away, across the narrow sea."

"I can't. I have to go home. To Winterfell."

"Then we must part," he said, "for I have duties too." He lifted her hand and pressed a small coin into her palm. "Here."

"What is it?"

"A coin of great value."Arya bit it. It was so hard it could only be iron. "Is it worth enough to buy a horse?"

"It is not meant for the buying of horses."

"Then what good is it?"

"As well ask what good is life, what good is death? If the day comes when you would find me again, give that coin to any man from Braavos, and say these words to him—valar morghulis."

"Valar morghulis," Arya repeated. It wasn't hard. Her fingers closed tight over the coin. Across the yard, she could hear men dying. "Please don't go, Jaqen."

"Jaqen is as dead as Arry," he said sadly, "and I have promises to keep. Valar morghulis, Arya Stark. Say it again." (aCoK, Arya IX)

...

"You know that you may leave this place. You are not one of us, not yet. You may go home anytime you wish."

"You told me that if I left, I couldn't come back."

"Just so."

Those words made her sad. Syrio used to say that too, Arya remembered. He said it all the time. Syrio Forel had taught her needlework and died for her. "I don't want to leave."

"Then stay . . . but remember, the House of Black and White is not a home for orphans. All men must serve beneath this roof. Valar dohaeris is how we say it here. Remain if you will, but know that we shall require your obedience. At all times and in all things. If you cannot obey, you must depart."

...

"Why would you wish to fight? Are you some bravo, strutting through the alleys, spoiling for blood?" He sighed. "Before you drink from the cold cup, you must offer up all you are to Him of Many Faces. Your body. Your soul. Yourself. If you cannot bring yourself to do that, you must leave this place."

...

..."You believe this is the only place for you." It was as if he'd heard her thoughts. "You are wrong in that. You would find softer service in the household of some merchant. Or would you sooner be a courtesan, and have songs sung of your beauty? Speak the word, and we will send you to the Black Pearl or the Daughter of the Dusk. You will sleep on rose petals and wear silken skirts that rustle when you walk, and great lords will beggar themselves for your maiden's blood. Or if it is marriage and children you desire, tell me, and we shall find a husband for you. Some honest apprentice boy, a rich old man, a seafarer, whatever you desire."

She wanted none of that. Wordless, she shook her head.

"Is it Westeros you dream of, child? Luco Prestayn's Lady Bright leaves upon the morrow, for Gulltown, Duskendale, King's Landing, and Tyrosh. Shall we find you passage on her?"

"I only just came from Westeros." Sometimes it seemed a thousand years since she had fled King's Landing, and sometimes it seemed like only yesterday, but she knew she could not go back. "I'll go if you don't want me, but I won't go there."

"My wants do not matter," said the kindly man. "It may be that the Many-Faced God has led you here to be His instrument, but when I look at you I see a child . . . and worse, a girl child. Many have served Him of Many Faces through the centuries, but only a few of His servants have been women. Women bring life into the world. We bring the gift of death. No one can do both." (aFfC, Arya II)

...

No, she thought. "Yes," she said."You lie. And that is why you must now walk in darkness until you see the way. Unless you wish to leave us. You need only ask, and you may have your eyes back."No, she thought. "No," she said. (aDwD, The Blind GIrl)

...

They hung upon the walls, before her and behind her, high and low, everywhere she looked, everywhere she turned. She saw old faces and young faces, pale faces and dark faces, smooth faces and wrinkled faces, freckled faces and scarred faces, handsome faces and homely faces, men and women, boys and girls, even babes, smiling faces, frowning faces, faces full of greed and rage and lust, bald faces and faces bristling with hair. Masks, she told herself, it's only masks, but even as she thought the thought, she knew it wasn't so. They were skins. "Do they frighten you, child?" asked the kindly man. "It is not too late for you to leave us. Is this truly what you want?" Arya bit her lip. She did not know what she wanted. If I leave, where will I go? She had washed and stripped a hundred corpses, dead things did not frighten her. They carry them down here and slice their faces off, so what? She was the night wolf, no scraps of skin could frighten her. Leather hoods, that's all they are, they cannot hurt me. "Do it," she blurted out. (aDwD, The Ugly Little Girl)

She offers no sacrifice in her prayer list

She gets 3 names for throwing an axe into a burning cage. These names could have been Tywin + Cersei + Joffrey and Jaqen would hae done them

Jaqen gives her a coin and the password, and offers to take her with him, but nowhere is there any force exerted by him

The kindly man offers to find all sorts of alternative lives to her if she desires it, and with each new step asks her she can still leave;

Jaqen's behavior and the kindly man's with regards to her volunteering in light of having killed 3 (well way more than 3) for her, while she offered nothing is in severe contrast to how the First recruited the Second. That is very peculiar and seems to suggest her volunteering is a requirement, either of a profile or prophecy. Arya then is more like the First - one who came to regard him- or herself as an instrument of the Many Faced God of her/his own volition.

Fighting

Of extra note that like Jaqen, the kindly man does not see any need for Arya to fight. Nor is she trained in sword fighting at the House. Instead, she is taught in making poisons. She learned one knife trick on the streets of Braavos, and she used it to cut open a purse and replace one coin with a poisoned one. And as I mentioned, while Valkyries presided, influenced and supervized a battle, they were not participating shieldmaidens. Instead they used their magical and divine powers, trickery and words. As assassin and spy, Arya is taught to use magic (faces), sleight of hand and poisons.

Conclusion This sums up the features of Arya related to the FM:

cupbearer

intuitive chooser of the slain

servant of a god of death of Many Faces and many names (Odin references)

the battle of Harrenhal is dedicated to her

no fighting (neither while guided by Jaqen or the kindly man)

female

volunteers like the First

It is likely the First was in fact a woman, while women are rare in the order. With Arya ticking off so many Valkyrie features, I think the FM have a prophecy regarding a girl-child to be the FIrst Born Again who strongly knows the will of the Many Faced God, and want her as the god's voice to guide them against the foes who would destroy humanity and defy the natural order of life and death, for she will intuitively know which deaths and which sacrifices would please the Many Faced God. (https://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?/topic/133891-the-valkyrie-of-the-fm-theory-about-the-first-and-the-first-reborn/ )

[la-leto]

Alex Honnold, star of the Oscar-contending doc Free Solo, is perched precariously halfway up an 85-foot wall. The seemingly superhuman climber who scaled a 3,000-foot sheer vertical wall in Yosemite National Park without any safety equipment is wearing a harness and tied into one end of a rope. In the unlikely event that he falls, the man on the other end, Jared Leto, will catch him. The wall arcs up and out at a steep angle — what rock climbers call overhanging ��� so a climber's body is nearly horizontal to the ground. When it's his turn to ascend the wall, Leto, breathing hard, is undeterred. "Nice, Jared, c'mon dude," Honnold, 33, shouts, doling out lengths of slack in the rope. "Stay with it, I'm with you."

Unlike the many people in Hollywood who have reached out to Honnold since the release of Free Solo, Leto, who fronts the rock band 30 Seconds to Mars and won a best supporting actor Oscar for 2013's Dallas Buyers Club, has been climbing with him since 2015. Leto was working on The Great Wide Open, a series of five short films about national parks and the men and women exploring them, including Honnold. Shortly after they met, the pro climber took Leto up a classic mountain route called Matthes Crest northeast of Yosemite Valley. It was one of Leto's first climbs, and they stayed out into the night. "We were just so psyched," says Honnold. Leto, 47, remembers scrambling along a thin blade of granite toward the summit and nearly falling off. "There was one part where I grabbed on the end of a rope during one really slabby section," he says. Leto continued to climb, and his friendship with Honnold grew. "I'm getting my ass kicked," the actor says, "which is great."

Leto makes a stealth appearance in Free Solo. Early on, filmmaker Jimmy Chin's camera lingers on an unidentified man's back as a disembodied voice (both belonging to Leto) asks Honnold if he would ever consider free-soloing the 3,000-foot granite monolith that is El Capitan, the mecca of the rock-climbing world. Honnold, of course, goes on to do just that, his ascent of El Capitan's Freerider route without ropes or harnesses ranking as a nearly unparalleled feat of physical achievement. On Feb. 24, the National Geographic-sponsored team that captured the epic journey on film, including Chin and his co-director and wife, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, might be going home with an Oscar statuette.

Free Solo has brought a slew of opportunities to Honnold. "It's like a snowball going downhill," he says. "And the film hasn't even hit streaming yet." In November, Honnold struck a multiyear brand ambassador partnership with car company Rivian, which considers Honnold a "superuser" because he lived in a van for so long. Rivian, which markets itself as the manufacturer of the "world's first Electric Adventure Vehicles," consults with Honnold on design. On Oscar night, Honnold is expected to show up in a Rivian R1T All-Electric pickup truck — and sport a custom-made tuxedo that The North Face is having made just for the occasion. (Honnold still uses the van that appeared in Free Solo for overnight climbing trips with his girlfriend, Sanni McCandless.) He has another ambassadorship deal with Beyond Meat, a company that makes plant-based products that resemble meat. He also has shares in the company, which could yield dividends when it stages its IPO soon. His nonprofit, The Honnold Foundation, which works on solar energy and aid projects for impoverished communities in the U.S. and abroad, has seen an uptick in attention and partnerships as well.

Black Diamond and Maxim sponsor his climbing gear. A company called Stride provides him with health insurance. Italian climbing company La Sportiva offers shoes, and Utah-based Goal Zero works with him to market solar chargers for phones. He gets paid handsomely to speak to investors and corporations, often repurposing a Ted Talk he gave last year about "mastery." He'll soon become part-owner of a national chain of climbing gyms, a speculative bid on an expected uptick of interest in rock climbing. Though he's avoided the big-time exposure that comes with big-time sports brands, Honnold will almost certainly make seven figures this year and next. Says his manager at RXR Sports, Jonathan Retseck, "For rock climbing, that's pretty good."

***

One recent morning, before Leto arrived at the Sender One climbing gym in South L.A., Honnold reflected on this new phase as a half-dozen people snuck by to snap pictures of him. Hollywood, too, has shown intense interest: Honnold was game when Edward Norton's agent got in touch about the two going climbing. (They haven't yet.) He met Brie Larson, who also has climbed and was training for Captain Marvel, at an Antonio Banderas screening. "I loved Zorro as a kid, and [Banderas] was talking about one of the scenes where he was climbing on a beam and forgot to clip in, and he was like, 'It's like free soloing,' " recalls Honnold. "It was pretty classic!"

It may come as no surprise that the man who scaled El Cap without ropes is unfazed by the pressures of Hollywood. At the climbing gym, as Honnold completes a difficult boulder problem — just slightly harder than the famous karate-kick move shown in Free Solo— he says, "I don't think any of it is that surprising if you think about it rationally. The scheduled time, the interviews, the publicists, being handled and stuff — it doesn't feel like a healthy lifestyle, but that's fine."

Of the awards-season rush, "It's obviously not how I would choose to spend my life," he says, "and the idea that freakin' actors do this for their whole careers blows my mind because it's not that fun, you know? It's really cool to meet these people that you've been inspired by, but you don't actually hang out. It's not quality time." Leto, who walks into the gym wearing a Grateful Dead shirt and black pants, adds that he lent him a tux for the Producers Guild Awards. "He could barely move in the thing, and the shoes I think were probably too small as well," notes Leto.

Since their first meeting in Yosemite, Honnold and Leto have climbed in Colorado, Nevada and in other places in California. "For the amount of time he's been doing it, he's actually phenomenal," Chin says, bestowing on the Oscar winner an even greater honor: "He's a climber."

Later, Leto, who has put on 10 pounds since playing Dallas Buyers Club's transgender drug addict, shares that the physical change is part of preparation for his role as the archvillain in Morbius, the Marvel spinoff about the vampiric character. "The world's most fearsome predator," Leto quips. Warming up on a few moderately easy routes that snake up alongside Sender One's imposing overhang, Leto adds that he hopes to pack on 10 more pounds: "It's great because I go from being very sick and very infirm to being strong and monstrous" in the movie. The friends have climbed at indoor gyms whenever the Las Vegas-based pro climber has been in town to promote Free Solo, and Honnold has been careful not to push Leto too far out of respect for his actorly obligations. "Jared's climbing is not the most important thing for him, obviously," he says, adding: "I think it would be cool to do stunts — I want to wind up as Tom Cruise's stunt double, to do climbing in a movie. Don't you think that'd be fun?" One of his early climbing heroes, a well-known Yosemite legend named Ron Kauk, climbed for Sylvester Stallone in Cliffhanger and for Cruise in Mission: Impossible II.

Understandably, most people still want to talk about Honnold's ascent of Freerider, even though his climbing career has moved on in some ways, including a record speed ascent of another route on El Cap and an expedition to Antarctica. "But then I spend all day, every day, talking about the Freerider climb, so in some ways I haven't moved past it at all," he says. "It's the first time in my life I've had that kind of weird disconnect between what I'm working on versus what I'm talking about."

He hadn't climbed outside in more than a month, and yet now, as he moves from bouldering to a few rounds on the hang bar to the overhanging wall, he seems content. "I feel surprisingly strong for the fact that I live in hotels now," he says. Honnold and a friend have been toying with the idea of attempting a route somewhere on the Trango Towers, a massif of 20,000-feet-high granite peaks in northern Pakistan that has attracted top climbers for years. "I just want to get to the top of some of the most striking towers in the world," he says. "Honestly though, we'll see if it even happens because of scheduling."

In other ways, Honnold's life post-Free Solohas mellowed. He's happily ensconced with McCandless at the Vegas home they purchased during filming of the movie. They climb together often. Co-director Vasarhelyi points out that Honnold has successfully managed to scale this emotional challenge. "They found love," she says. "It's a Shakespearean story, the little engine that could." Honnold says the emotional drama of the documentary belies a more serene domesticity that he thoroughly enjoys. "You only see a few minutes onscreen, so it doesn't show that you're living together in harmony," he says. "It only shows the moments of tension around this big challenge." Still, it seems evident that conquering the solo climb has freed up something deeper in Honnold. Whereas in the movie Honnold was demonstrably uncomfortable when hugging his friend Tommy Caldwell's kids, now he struts around the gym proudly holding Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi's daughter, Marina, in his arms. They call him "Uncle Alex."

Later, as he belays Leto, who scrambles up another route, a friend stops by to chat. Honnold asks about the friend's romantic relationship. "It's casual," the friend says. "Is it consistent?" Honnold asks, and the friend nods. Honnold thinks on this for half a second. "Consistently casual is still consistent," Honnold says, smiling. "After three great years with Sanni, I feel qualified to give relationship advice." He says he wants a family and kids of his own one day. "Are you going to let them climb?" the friend asks. Honnold doesn't hesitate. "I'm sure my kids will grow up underneath the moonboard in my home." For someone who has explored the most extreme corners of what's physically and psychologically possible, Honnold seems keen to resume a life of normal pleasures. "As soon as the Oscars are over, he's going to be itching to get in a van with Sanni and go on a climbing trip and life as usual," says Retseck. Leto reaches the top of the wall. Honnold brings him down, they laugh, and move on to the next route.

[liesandarbor]

A Falling Star in Westeros Pt II: Analyzing Ashara Dayne

A Falling Star in Westeros

Part II of V in a collection of writings regarding the mysterious and ‘late’ Ashara Dayne, her potential effect on narrative, and compelling arguments for and against her fate. Part II deconstructs popular -  yet unlikely - theories surrounding Ashara's fate, and, while not as thorough as Part I, lays groundwork for future parts of the series.

Ashara Dayne by Bellabergolts

Tower of Joy: a Conspiracy

Ned's wraiths moved up beside him, with shadow swords in hand. They were seven against three.

"And now it begins," said Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning. He unsheathed Dawn and held it with both hands. The blade was pale as milkglass, alive with light.

"No," Ned said with sadness in his voice. "Now it ends." As they came together in a rush of steel and shadow, he could hear Lyanna screaming. "Eddard!" she called. A storm of rose petals blew across a blood-streaked sky, as blue as the eyes of death.

-Eddard X, AGOT

Readers are left puzzled by George RR Martin’s remarkably vague accounts of Robert’s Rebellion. Whether the fever dream retelling of the Tower of Joy in Eddard X, or missing birth timestamps, everything has been left deliberately unfinished, leaving room for major speculation. Martin’s tight-lipped nature on the Rebellion even transcends into what HBO adapts:

We're not doing Robert's Rebellion either. I know thousands of you want that, I know there's a petition... but by the time I finish writing A SONG OF ICE & FIRE, you will know every important thing that happened in Robert's Rebellion. There would be no surprises or revelations left in such a show, just the acting out of conflicts whose resolutions you already know. That's not a story I want to tell just now; it would feel too much like a twice-told tale.

(Notablog, 5/14/17)

The Rebellion changed how war was waged in Westeros, destroyed relationships, and scarred our main characters in the process - both physically and emotionally  (promise me/the tolling of the bells/Jaime, my name’s Jaime). While Martin’s exposition throws us in the shoes of main characters (a brother and a girl dying in a bed of blood, a melancholy but noble prince, the ever-paranoid king, a man at war to bring his betrothed home to him, independence from the crown), we are reminded of what the ‘Game of Thrones’ is about: power, money, land, and control. Smallfolk fought for their homes against rebels (Gulltown, Summerhall, the Reach), many dragged into war for lords they had no reason to respect.  The suffering was on a different plane than ever before, and not just for the high lords.

The Rebellion wasn’t necessarily about Rhaegar leaving his wife to get his rocks off with a Northern girl.  In fact, the Northern girl was merely a blip - whether prophecy, lust, romance, or fate - in the middle of a bigger plan.  With Tywin Lannister financially backing Rhaegar at every turn (The Fall of the Dragons: the Year of the False Spring, TWOIAF), and Rhaegar ready to depose his paranoid, cruel father from the throne, tensions were at an all time high throughout the kingdom.  Add insulting the North, Dorne, and someone with an influential social network - and big ‘ol warhammer - and you have a mess on your hands.

Other essayists have more than explored pre-ASOIAF plots and politics in depth. Whether you’re reading the so-gripping-it’s-almost-dubious Harrenhal Conspiracies by Reddit user U/KingLittleFinger, the impeccably thorough Southron Ambitions by Stefan Sasse, or the illustrious Rescue at the Crossroads by Lady Gwynhyfvar, these compelling pieces highlight one similar train of thought: there’s information about this Rebellion that we, as readers, are missing.

Martyn Cassel had perished with the rest. Ned had pulled the tower down afterward, and used its bloody stones to build eight cairns upon the ridge. It was said that Rhaegar had named that place the tower of joy, but for Ned it was a bitter memory. They had been seven against three, yet only two had lived to ride away; Eddard Stark himself and the little crannogman, Howland Reed. He did not think it omened well that he should dream that dream again after so many years. -Eddard X, AGOT

Ned remembered the way she had smiled then, how tightly her fingers had clutched his as she gave up her hold on life, the rose petals spilling from her palm, dead and black. After that he remembered nothing. They had found him still holding her body, silent with grief. The little crannogman, Howland Reed, had taken her hand from his. Ned could recall none of it. "I bring her flowers when I can," he said. "Lyanna was … fond of flowers."

-Eddard I, AGOT   

Eight cairns stand in the blazing heat of Dornish mountains.  A small crannogman and a silent, grief-stricken man built them, after defeating three Kingsguard members, emerging the final surviving combatants out of the eight “dead”.  How long would it take a semi-catatonic, grieving man to pull down that tower?  Days? Weeks?  Did Ned Stark suddenly snag a +3 in Masonry while we weren’t paying attention? These two men - and whoever ‘they’ were - lugged the body of a dead sister, a newborn baby, a wet nurse , and an ancestral sword southwest to Starfall, following their weary hearts out of the mountains to return north; to return home. Not a single body’s bones returned to their families: not Arthur Dayne, Oswell Whent, Gerold Hightower, Willam Dustin, Ethan Glover, Theo Wull, Martyn Cassel, or Mark Ryswell.  

Rejoining the current narrative, the state of Westeros reads mostly as ‘everything has been swept under the rug, and everyone is pretending nothing happened.’ Ned hasn’t seen Robert Baratheon in nine years, or Howland Reed in fifteen; he hides in his winter fortress, safe within PTSD encrusted walls.  Every loose end from the Rebellion tucked behind Winterfell’s gates, threatening to spill out at any moment.

Why did Benjen join the Night's Watch? Good question. One day you will get an answer. But it will not be today.

-SSM

If the only other Tower of Joy survivor was Howland Reed - and no one has seen him in years - the weight of hiding Lyanna’s dragonspawn becomes far easier to manage. But we know that’s not the case. They weren’t the only ones carrying the knowledge of Jon Snow’s parentage - they couldn’t be.  

With indefinite language like “they found him still holding her body”, and conflicting stories, like Edric Dayne’s Dornish milk-brother story ("Brother?" Arya did not understand. "But you're from Dorne. How could you and Jon be blood?" "Milk brothers. Not blood. My lady mother had no milk when I was little, so Wylla had to nurse me." Arya VIII, ASOS), we’re sideswiped with waves of mystery.

Stark returns home with a baby on his hip, quite obviously carrying the family genes, and his younger brother immediately signs up for a life of celibacy in a freezing tundra (SSM).  Three kingsguard are placed in the mountains of Dorne, with the knowledge that what they are guarding is worth more than their lives. House Dayne sends their own serving woman, Wylla, to the tend the tower. Ashara plunges from the Palestone Sword Tower as the Rebellion ends, her body conveniently never found (SSM).   Martin has even hinted the Reed children “might know something about it” (SSM), something backed up by Bran II, ASOS.  The question is no longer ‘what happened in that tower?’ - it’s what created that tower? What actions put our leading lady in this tower, and why?

Compelling Arguments against Ashara Dayne as other “Popular Theories”

Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly stopped for me –   The Carriage held but just Ourselves –   And Immortality. - Emily Dickinson

The shadow cast by Lyanna and Rhaegar’s romance found many agency-deprived Rebellion ladies meeting their doom.  Often called “The Dead Ladies Club” by members of the fandom (commonly coined by JoannaLannister), we rifle through pages of women led to slaughter by the same societal standards that they’re told will nourish them.  While not the leading, love interest, Ashara Dayne encompasses the “lady-in-purple” idea; a sexualized enigma.  Ashara’s reintroduction furthers her importance, the reader glimpsing her through Catelyn, Arya and Barristan chapters.

As far as dead ladies go, Lyanna Stark clocks in at a whopping twenty-six mentions by name in AGOT, while Ashara Dayne bottoms a lowly ten for the entire series.  Does that ten look small? Of course. But the consistent spacing of that ten serves as an important reminder: Ashara Dayne’s mystery still lies in the ocean, unresolved.

The game of Telephone surrounding Ashara’s fate warrants questioning.  Characters hiding post-Rebellion are constantly being introduced to the story, and each page begs: what reveal comes next?  

It’s not enough to ask “why” Ashara would be in hiding to justify some of the crazier theories.  Isolating her arc helps us closely examine the mystery at hand, balancing theories by what adds depth to her story.

If Ashara fakes her death, as popular theories tend to offer, there are many interesting ideas about her fate - but many tend to fail under a microscope.

Justice for Elia

Yet sometimes Dany would picture the way it had been, so often had her brother told her the stories. The midnight flight to Dragonstone, moonlight shimmering on the ship's black sails. Her brother Rhaegar battling the Usurper in the bloody waters of the Trident and dying for the woman he loved. The sack of King's Landing by the ones Viserys called the Usurper's dogs, the lords Lannister and Stark. Princess Elia of Dorne pleading for mercy as Rhaegar's heir was ripped from her breast and murdered before her eyes. The polished skulls of the last dragons staring down sightlessly from the walls of the throne room while the Kingslayer opened Father's throat with a golden sword. -Daenerys I, AGOT

One dark day in 283 AC, Elia Martell of Dorne learned that monsters were real. As family and life were ripped from her arms, one thing was certain: Dorne would not forgive the parties involved until Justice was served.  From ASOS on, we are introduced to the Justice For Elia plot, and as we travel along, the plot thickens - as it tends to.  A long-thought dead exiled Lord and a ragtag crew of Rebellion Nobodies turns up, advocating for what seems to be the lost son of Rhaegar and Elia, Aegon Targaryen.

The Soiled Septa

There was something wonderfully wicked about the thought of peeling the septa out of those chaste white robes and spreading her legs. Innocence despoiled, he thought … though Lemore was not near as innocent as she appeared. She had stretch marks on her belly that could only have come from childbirth.

-Tyrion IV, ADWD

At the surface, Ashara Dayne as Septa Lemore is an easy fit.  A group of B-List Rebellion members emerge from the depths of the story, embarking on a journey to enthrone Rhaegar Targaryen’s suddenly-alive-son. A mysterious septa with long, dark hair and tactfully placed stretch marks ignite a spark in the reader.  “Wait! You said everyone is in hiding from the rebellion! This is the perfect place to find Ashara!” Readers wait with baited breath for a reveal in (fake!)Aegon’s camp, and they’re waiting for something that will never come.

Afterward, Nurse had Ser Jorah's chains fastened to a stake near the cookfire whilst he escorted the two dwarfs inside the master's pavilion and showed them where they would sleep, in a carpeted alcove separated from the main tent by walls of yellow silk. They would share this space with Yezzan's other treasures: a boy with twisted, hairy "goat legs," a two-headed girl out of Mantarys, a bearded woman, and a willowy creature called Sweets who dressed in moonstones and Myrish lace. "You are trying to decide if I'm a man or woman," Sweets said, when she was brought before the dwarfs. Then she lifted her skirts and showed them what was underneath. "I'm both, and master loves me best."A grotesquerie, Tyrion realized. Somewhere some god is laughing. "Lovely," he said to Sweets, who had purple hair and violet eyes, "but we were hoping to be the pretty ones for once."

-Tyrion X ADWD

Lemore is introduced through both Tyrion and Jon Connington. Tyrion spends a solid half of ADWD gushing about Valyrian Lore in his brain, and the other half feeling sorry for himself (and being a general drunken sack of crap). Given what we know about Tyrion’s obsession with old Valyria, and what we know about Ashara’s physique: why didn’t Tyrion mention Septa Lemore’s eyes?  ‘He’s distracted by her body,’ arguments arise, ‘he was already overwhelmed by the stretchmarks.’ Well, friends, those arguments are ridiculous.

When Lemore climbed back onto the deck, Tyrion savored the sight of water trickling between her breasts, her smooth skin glowing golden in the morning light. She was past forty, more handsome than pretty, but still easy on the eye. Being randy is the next best thing to being drunk, he decided. It made him feel as if he was still alive. "Did you see the turtle, Hugor?" the septa asked him, wringing water from her hair. "The big ridgeback?"

-Tyrion IV, ADWD

The most defining description of Ashara in eleven on-page mentions are her haunting (or laughing) violet eyes.  In Tyrion IV, Tyrion sees Young Griff’s eyes are a dark blue or purple in the dusk.  In Tyrion X, a few chapters after Lemore’s stretch marks appear, Tyrion makes note of a slave’s purple eyes.  Too easy to miss, and completely out of character for Tyrion to ignore.

The prince arrived to join them four days later, riding at the head of a column of a hundred horse, with three elephants lumbering in his rear. Lady Lemore was with him, garbed once more in the white robes of a septa. Before them went Ser Rolly Duckfield, a snow-white cloak streaming from his shoulders.

-The Lost Lord, ADWD

Prince Aegon Targaryen was not near as biddable as the boy Young Griff had been, however. The better part of an hour had passed before he finally turned up in the solar, with Duck at his side. "Lord Connington," he said, "I like your castle."

-The Griffin Reborn, ADWD

Tyrion isn’t the only POV with an affinity for purple eyes, either.  Connington turns attention to Young Griff’s eyes, reminiscing on Rhaegar’s deep purple set.

"Your father's lands are beautiful," he said. His silvery hair was blowing in the wind, and his eyes were a deep purple, darker than this boy's.

-The Griffin Reborn, ADWD

Yet Connington - one of Ashara’s famed tourney dance partners (Bran II, ASOS) - fails to mention that Lemore catches his eye in the same way. In fact, there is no mention of Lemore’s eye color in any of the chapters she appears in.

Were eye color not enough to dispel the Lemore/Ashara theory, age throws it where it belongs: in a trash can.  Tyrion guesses Lemore past forty - where Tyrion has misjudged age in ASOIAF before (“Tyrion sighed. "You are remarkably polite for a bastard, Snow. What you see is a dwarf. You are what, twelve?" "Fourteen," the boy said.” - Tyrion II, AGOT), one to two years is not a very drastic difference. Martin has stated Ashara would be in her thirties if alive (SSM) - to be in her forties, she would have been born between 250 and 260 AC, which puts Ashara 22 to 32 years old during the Tourney at Harrenhal.  While 22 isn’t unbelievable, anything older just doesn’t fit Martin’s thematic and harrowing depictions of young, tragic Rebellion ladies. (see Ashara Dayne Age Calculation in Pt.I reddit/tumblr)

Aegon’s crew unfolds in ADWD, revealing these nameless survivors of the Rebellion - and countless questions.  An exiled lord, a rogue almost-maester, an apprentice smith with a shady past, and a soiled septa; all with reasons to hide, implementing the “rightful king” on the iron throne. But where does Ashara fit?  Besides Connington, the group seems to be comprised of… well, nobodies. In fact, the whole plot is pretty dead end, whether the real Aegon or not - Aunt Dany and her Dragons loom just ahead, surrounding Young Griff’s political campaign with fire, blood, and ultimately death.  

"Prince Aegon was Rhaegar's heir by Elia of Dorne," Ser Jorah said. "But if he was this prince that was promised, the promise was broken along with his skull when the Lannisters dashed his head against a wall."

-Daenerys V, ACOK

Many find themselves desperately wanting to fulfill the Lemore connection, to find closure for the mystery behind Ashara Dayne.  But when readers tug at the plot to make their theories fit, there are parts that don’t flow.

So be it. He had grown fond of Lemore, but that did not mean he required her approval. Her task had been to instruct the prince in the doctrines of the Faith, and she had done that. No amount of prayer would put him on the Iron Throne, however. That was Griff's task. He had failed Prince Rhaegar once. He would not fail his son, not whilst life remained in his body.

-The Lost Lord, ADWD

Ashara Dayne, after losing friends and family, goes into hiding, only to emerge, championing Elia Martell’s born-again child and teach him about the Faith.  Heck, let’s take it deeper, like most fans tend to: Ashara Dayne, who had a stillborn child, mad with grief after Ned Stark returned her family’s ancestral sword home, ‘slaying her brother’, emerges from committing suicide, championing Elia Martell’s born-again child and teaching him about the faith.  Ashara once more is turned into the sexy woman getting watched by seven guys on a boat, much like her place in the Tourney at Harrenhal, and much like her place in the fandom: stuck on a pedestal.

The months Ashara spent attending Elia of Dorne - yes, months, and definitely no more than a year - weren’t months of Ashara skipping down hallways, giggling and singing songs with fellow bedmaids and the Princess. Rhaenys’ birth was extremely traumatic, leaving Elia bedridden half a year (The Griffin Reborn, ADWD).  It is doubtful the Daynes and Martells were distant, per se, but besides Ashara’s dancing with Oberyn at Harrenhal, Arthur being a sworn brother to Lewyn, and House Dayne’s fealty to House Martell… we don’t have textual basis for a strong relationship between the Dayne and Martell family. In fact, the strongest friendship Arthur is referenced having throughout TWOIAF and ASOIAF (besides Connington and sworn brothers) happens to be with Rhaegar Targaryen.

Comparing it to present-day ASOIAF, Alys Karstark hadn’t seen the Stark brothers since she was six years old (ADWD, Jon IX). Northmen are loyal (to a fault, as we know the Dornish vassals can be), but there is nothing that suggests that House Martell and Dayne’s children were more than casual friends, just as House Karstark and Stark: it is more likely they merely met whenever their parents convened/arranged.

The Rebellion Dayne gang aren’t brought up in a single Dornish chapter, barring Gerold’s introduction (The Queensmaker, AFFC).  The first mention of Ashara through someone related to her, Ned Dayne, informs Arya her dad was in love with her; with not a single Martell name-drop. Beneath the theory’s already fragile surface, there is weaker motivation: Ashara Dayne showing up with a group of B/C-list Rebellion characters to help a son she never met, of a friend she barely knew, relies closely on House allegiancy.

And what about the eventual demise of “Aegon” “Targaryen”? With Young Griff’s heritage speculated (and arguably accepted as fandom-wide canon at this point) to be from the Blackfyre line or faked, the laid seeds of “Aegon Targaryen” are lost in Ashara Dayne’s narrative. Jon Connington spends years in exile raising the “perfect Prince”, only to fail once more, never avenging his silver Prince.  Ashara once more finds herself enveloped in tragedy for someone else’s story.  This ending does nothing but cheapen her original demise.

Fan theories often outline outlandish ideas, too complicated to be solved in the last two ASOIAF books: Ashara was in love with Rhaegar and couldn’t be with him, Ashara was dishonored by Aerys II and had his baby; there’s even a rather unsavory “Brandon Stark and Ashara Dayne” theory I’ll tear apart later.

So where are the textual ties to the stillborn/baby alive theories?

Daenerys has the same eyes. Sometimes when the queen looked at him, he felt as if he were looking at Ashara's daughter …

But Ashara's daughter had been stillborn, and his fair lady had thrown herself from a tower soon after, mad with grief for the child she had lost, and perhaps for the man who had dishonored her at Harrenhal as well. She died never knowing that Ser Barristan had loved her. How could she? He was a knight of the Kingsguard, sworn to celibacy. No good could have come from telling her his feelings. No good came from silence either. If I had unhorsed Rhaegar and crowned Ashara queen of love and beauty, might she have looked to me instead of Stark?

-The Kingbreaker, ADWD

Not a single character factually knows of Ashara’s stillbirth; Barristan, an established unreliable narrator, thinks of how he might have done things differently to avoid the war, and the memory of Ashara’s “child” come rushing to the front. Martin time and time again wants the reader to remember that characters don’t always see things through a “20/20” lens, as seen in Barristan’s thoughts regarding Quentyn Martell.

Prince Quentyn was listening intently, at least. That one is his father’s son. Short and stocky, plain-faced, he seemed a decent lad, sober, sensible, dutiful … but not the sort to make a young girl’s heart beat faster. And Daenerys Targaryen, whatever else she might be, was still a young girl, as she herself would claim when it pleased her to play the innocent. Like all good queens she put her people first—else she would never have wed Hizdahr zo Loraq—but the girl in her still yearned for poetry, passion, and laughter. She wants fire, and Dorne sent her mud.

-The Discarded Knight, ADWD

Dany unrolled the parchment and examined it again. Braavos. This was done in Braavos, while we were living in the house with the red door. Why did that make her feel so strange?

She found herself remembering her nightmare. Sometimes there is truth in dreams. Could Hizdahr zo Loraq be working for the warlocks, was that what the dream had meant? Could the dream have been a sending? Were the gods telling her to put Hizdahr aside and wed this Dornish prince instead?

-Daenerys VII, ADWD

It becomes easy to accept Barristan’s thoughts on Daenerys’ suitors at face value, until we remember Daenerys’ thoughts on Quentyn.  We know that, had he come to the Dragon Queen earlier, it would have been an easy alliance.  Barristan finds Daenerys’ behavior rash when it comes to Daario Naharis, the studly sellsword with nothing to offer her but his weapon and member. But at this point in the story, Daenerys has ceased sleeping with Naharis, and sacrificed personal and political ambitions to keep peace in Meereen.  

Where Barristan sees a young girl choosing fire, he does not know every conflict that plagues her mind, each internal thought she grapples with. The idea that Barristan projected what happened to Ashara isn’t farfetched.  Once more, the reader is given more information than Barristan seems to know - we know that there is more at play in the story than the idea that Daenerys is a silly little girl with silly little girl dreams.  Barristan’s projections on Quentyn sound a lot like “might she have looked to me instead of Stark” come again.

The Baby Swap

“Or was it the grieving sister, the Lady Ashara? She threw herself into the sea, I'm told. Why was that? For the brother you slew, or the child you stole?” -Eddard XII, AGOT

The idea of the Tower of Joy being part of a bigger conspiracy allows  ideas and answers that, while eccentric, are open minded approaches in sifting through text. With the amount of information that we aren’t given, credit where credit is due: some crazy stuff could have gone down surrounding the Tower of Joy.  We just don’t know.  What we can use to reel us in is how the reveal would come to be - and how it affects the overall story.

Some theories go too far.  When the phrases “Ashara + Aerys = Aegon”, “Ashara + Brandon = Jon/Aegon”, “Ashara + Ned = Jon/Aegon” pop up in any which order, I can’t help but cringe.  I say this at the risk of crucifixion, but if you’re with me thus far, some of these ideas are too outlandish to work. Whether you accept the canon of the show, or have actually read the same books we have been reading, Jon’s parentage has been more than hinted at. However this mess pans out,  I feel we’ve come to the point in our adult lives where we can and should accept that Rhaegar and Lyanna are the parents of Jon Snow/Stark/Garyen/Sand.  Ned’s fever dreams, his trauma, sheltering his family and daughters, and his entire AGOT investigative arc loses all emotional resonance when Jon’s parentage is assigned to someone not Lyanna and Rhaegar.  Daenerys’ House of the Undying visions,  Ned’s ferocious love for ‘whoever Jon’s mother must have been’ (Catelyn II, AGOT); they become hollow thoughts on a piece of paper, and not at all how Martin plants and harvests his writings.  

“Prince Rhaegar's friend might have been on hand when my father sacked King's Landing, to save Prince Rhaegar's precious little son from getting his royal brains dashed out against a wall."

The lad flushed. "That was not me. I told you. That was some tanner's son from Pisswater Bend whose mother died birthing him. His father sold him to Lord Varys for a jug of Arbor gold. He had other sons but had never tasted Arbor gold. Varys gave the Pisswater boy to my lady mother and carried me away."

"Aye." Tyrion moved his elephants. "And when the pisswater prince was safely dead, the eunuch smuggled you across the narrow sea to his fat friend the cheesemonger, who hid you on a poleboat and found an exile lord willing to call himself your father. It does make for a splendid story, and the singers will make much of your escape once you take the Iron Throne… “

-Tyrion VI, ADWD

The younger sister of Arthur Dayne gets knocked up in King’s Landing by someone of extremely convenient genetics, and has the child taken away from her - possibly as “the Pisswater Prince”.  Varys, being the one who stole a child from Ashara, switches the babies, and she raises Elia’s son as her own until the time is right.

When the lad emerged from the cabin with Lemore by his side, Griff looked him over carefully from head to heel. The prince wore sword and dagger, black boots polished to a high sheen, a black cloak lined with blood-red silk. With his hair washed and cut and freshly dyed a deep, dark blue, his eyes looked blue as well. At his throat he wore three huge square-cut rubies on a chain of black iron, a gift from Magister Illyrio. Red and black. Dragon colors. That was good. "You look a proper prince," he told the boy. "Your father would be proud if he could see you."

-The Lost Lord, ADWD

Martin highlights Aegon and Rhaegar’s difference in eye color through Connington’s chapters. As PoorQuentyn mentions on Tumblr, Martin drops a Doylist hint for the reader in these chapters: the son’s eyes are not like the father’s - something Connington clings to, refusing to actually confront (“his eyes were a deep purple, darker than this boy's.”-The Griffin Reborn, ADWD).  If one of Ashara’s purposes in the story is to serve as a red herring for Jon Snow’s parentage to the public eye, she can’t possibly fulfill that and some sort of pseudo-mother for F!Aegon.  The truth of the matter: that’s sloppy, and there isn’t enough page-time for it.

Clear pathways lead from the stories of the Rebellion, and unite in current narrative. Elia Martell’s plot lives on through relatives as they seek revenge for the injustice done to their family, but ends in fire and blood through miscalculations along the way.  Lyanna Stark’s tragedy fronts us the savior, and allows us to follow Jon Snow as he transforms into the front line of battle against the Others and the Long Night to come.  Is Ashara Dayne left with no real end to her plot, solely serving purpose as a sacrificial lamb?  Where do her lines lead, and what results because of her story?

The Wild Wolf

"Someone has been down here stealing swords. Brandon's is gone as well."

"He would hate that." She pulled off her glove and touched his knee, pale flesh against dark stone. "Brandon loved his sword. He loved to hone it. 'I want it sharp enough to shave the hair from a woman's cunt,' he used to say. And how he loved to use it. 'A bloody sword is a beautiful thing,' he told me once."

"You knew him," Theon said.

The lantern light in her eyes made them seem as if they were afire. "Brandon was fostered at Barrowton with old Lord Dustin, the father of the one I'd later wed, but he spent most of his time riding the Rills. He loved to ride. His little sister took after him in that. A pair of centaurs, those two. And my lord father was always pleased to play host to the heir to Winterfell. My father had great ambitions for House Ryswell. He would have served up my maidenhead to any Stark who happened by, but there was no need. Brandon was never shy about taking what he wanted. I am old now, a dried-up thing, too long a widow, but I still remember the look of my maiden's blood on his cock the night he claimed me. I think Brandon liked the sight as well. A bloody sword is a beautiful thing, yes. It hurt, but it was a sweet pain.

-The Turncloak, ADWD

If the Rebellion and main text revolve around Lyanna and Rhaegar’s Tower of Joy lovefest - and the bouncing, bundled product of it - there are silly theories we can knock off from the start.  Ashara Dayne and basically anyone producing Jon Snow, for instance.

Passion is a driving force where this Ashara theory is concerned, and hinges on little to no textual evidence, but rather, once more, an easy means to ending Ashara’s plot.  Brandon Stark, the older wolf brother: sexy, arrogant, wooing the tantalizingly ‘hot’ Dornish girl.  First requesting her favor to dance with the solemn younger brother, and later ‘dishonoring’ her in the heat of the night.  Where this theory works as an easy fit (‘had she turned to me instead of Stark, losing a child, killing herself out of grief’)  the finer details fail under examination.

Look.  We get it.  Brandon Stark was a Northern Stud. He hooked up with highborn girls, had long hair, dared to ride to the red keep - with an army - to call out the problematic silver-haired prophecy abiding hipster, Rhaegar Targaryen.  He was “badass”.  Cat knew it, Ned knew it, Barbrey knew it.  But did he really have time to throw one more highborn Lady into his juggling act?

Following Brandon’s timeline, his betrothal to Cat took place somewhere between 276 and 277 AC (Catelyn VI, ACOK).  In 281 AC, Brandon would have been posing as next-in-command for House Stark at the Tourney at Harrenhal, as Rickard didn’t attend - possibly keeping an eye out for an advantageous betrothal for Ned, the middle brother.  With Hoster Tully’s lack of attendance (speculated via the insult of Jaime Lannister’s Kingsguard induction - and not marrying Lysa) there’s no chance Brandon would risk further spectacle.  Brandon, the born leader, was still seeing Barbrey (tourney was pre-wedding date announcement to Catelyn) and betrothed to Catelyn Tully; someone would tell.  Someone always tells.

Some theorists latch on to forbidden love in the dungeons of the Red Keep, and the dates just don’t line up. The only opportunity for Ashara Dayne to get pregnant by Brandon Stark would have been during the Tourney at Harrenhal in 281 AC.  Following the tourney, Elia Martell returned home to Dragonstone, giving birth to Aegon in early 282 AC. Ashara, ‘not long at court’ (The Kingbreaker, ADWD) would make for Dorne; and if rumors were true, pregnant.  Brandon Stark’s famous death at the hands of Aerys II Targaryen took place in early 282 AC in the throne room of King’s Landing.

Ashara’s ‘death’ - and Brandon’s more certain one - is used as a convenient device in these theories.  Without either to give their living word, how can we possibly disprove it?  But at the same time, how can we possibly prove it?  Brandon’s story is over; the songs have been written, the wild wolf has been put to sleep. But Ashara’s mentions don’t fade, like her story has. What would Ashara Dayne’s romance with a very officially dead man, many years ago, add to the narrative?  With Jon Snow’s parentage being of the Dragon and the She-Wolf, and both Ned and Brandon long gone, there would be zero point in any Ashara and Brandon reveal: dead or alive.

Wrapped in Starlight

"If you have some warning for me, speak plainly. What do you want of me, Quaithe?"

Moonlight shone in the woman's eyes. "To show you the way." -Daenerys II, ADWD

Quaithe of the Shadow appears in Daenerys’ POV’s across ASOIAF (ACOK I, II, III, ASOS III, ADWD II, X).   A Shadowbinder from Asshai maintaining a certain amount of mystery, she appears periodically to deliver cryptic messages and prophecies to Daenerys - she even projects herself through the stars.  Where Quaithe is bathed in starlight and enigmas, many speculate the imagery and mystique matches Ashara Dayne, leaving hints to help the Dragon’s daughter.  

Once more, an easy fit from outside - a woman with a hidden identity and lacquered mask, speaking in riddles, never revealing herself to reader or POV character.

Dany had not noticed Quaithe in the crowd, yet there she stood, eyes wet and shiny behind the implacable red lacquer mask. "What mean you, my lady?"

-Daenerys III, ACOK

Much like the Lemore theory, diving skin-deep into the Quaithe as Ashara theory is enough to break it.  Dany mentions Quaithe’s eyes twice - once in ACOK, another in ADWD.  Wouldn’t Daenerys be surprised by and eager to explore Quaithe’s purple eyes, something that would signify some sort of Valyrian connection to her; Daenerys, who yearns for home, constantly craving the company of the family she never knew?

Two direct mentions of Quaithe’s eyes make the page, with zero descriptions of color.  In ADWD alone, Daenerys focuses specifically on Ser Barristan and Missandei’s eye colors.  if Quaithe had anything majorly important about her eyes, the audience would be aware.

Most sinister of all the sorcerers of Asshai are the shadowbinders, who's lacquered masks hide their faces from the eyes of gods and men. They alone dare to go up river past the walls of Asshai, into the heart of darkness.

-TWOIAF

"All sorcery comes at a cost, child. Years of prayer and sacrifice and study are required to work a proper glamor."

"Years?" she said, dismayed.

-Arya II, AFFC

And so the theory goes.  Ashara Dayne, in hiding from the Rebellion, begins training to become a shadowbinder, with 15-20 years under her belt to suddenly become heckin’ mystical, wearing a mask, communicating to Daenerys with a glass candle, haunting her dreams, meeting her in Qarth.

"What feeds a dragon's fire?" Marwyn seated himself upon a stool. "All Valyrian sorcery was rooted in blood or fire. The sorcerers of the Freehold could see across mountains, seas, and deserts with one of these glass candles. They could enter a man's dreams and give him visions, and speak to one another half a world apart, seated before their candles. Do you think that might be useful, Slayer?"

-Samwell V, AFFC

Last of the three seekers to depart was Quaithe the shadowbinder. From her Dany received only a warning. "Beware," the woman in the red lacquer mask said.

"Of whom?"

"Of all. They shall come day and night to see the wonder that has been born again into the world, and when they see they shall lust. For dragons are fire made flesh, and fire is power."

When Quaithe too was gone, Ser Jorah said, "She speaks truly, my queen . . . though I like her no more than the others."

-Daenerys II, ACOK

While House Dayne’s mystical qualities seem to be important, Shadowbinders are of the night.  They work their art in darkness, where Ashara and her immediate family seem to be of the light, Arthur as the Sword of the Morning.  With so little text about Quaithe and House Dayne, this is a theory that’s as  hard to rebuff as to prove.

If Quaithe is using a glass candle to communicate with Daenerys, or at least is aware of the burning glass candles, she is using/seeing a Valyrian method of magical contact; which ...isn’t very Dayne.  Descending originally from First Men, and commonly theorized from the Great Empire of the Dawn, Valyrian sorcery and Shadowbinding both hold one similar trait: House Dayne doesn’t seem to have a history with it.

The woman took a step backward. "You must leave this city soon, Daenerys Targaryen, or you will never be permitted to leave it at all."

Dany's wrist still tingled where Quaithe had touched her. "Where would you have me go?" she asked.

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

-Daenerys III, ASOS

So where does the Daenerys connection come into play?  Did Ashara Dayne hold so much regard for Rhaegar Targaryen - and whatever prophecy may or may not have come into play - that she threw herself off of a tower, faked her death, and dedicated the next decade and a half to becoming a magical sorceress for his sister?  Doubtful - that doesn’t seem to be where her loyalty lie.

The biggest truth of any of these theories? We don’t have enough page time for them.  Whatever Ashara’s fate becomes in the books, the nature of its reveal won’t take up more than a handful of pages - at best.  With eleven mentions (ten by name) in the story, and 155+ plot threads to be wrapped up, Ashara currently has about 850 words surrounding her plot - out of 1.77 million words in the entire story.  That’s far less than 1% of the plot. This story is huge, and while Ashara Dayne played an integral part in the Rebellion - whatever it was - a chapter long reveal of these theories is not in the cards at this point.

[bitchfromtheseventhhell]

@insomniarama got the ask below and she punted it my way:

i’m guessing from context clues your ask is about the show.  i’m gonna hit you with book stuff so sorry if that’s to the side of your question (i’m not actually sorry this was super fun to write).

part of what’s fun about this ask is that it’s not just about the old gods, while also being entirely about the old gods.  there’s a lot of religious intermixing going on, but there’s that constant undercurrent of the old gods of the north in arya’s heart and experience.

Arya went to her knees. She wasn't sure how she should begin. She clasped her hands together. Help me, you old gods, she prayed silently. Help me get those men out of the dungeon so we can kill Ser Amory, and bring me home to Winterfell. Make me a water dancer and a wolf and not afraid again, ever.

Was that enough? Maybe she should pray aloud if she wanted the old gods to hear. Maybe she should pray longer. Sometimes her father had prayed a long time, she remembered. But the old gods had never helped him. Remembering that made her angry. "You should have saved him," she scolded the tree. "He prayed to you all the time. I don't care if you help me or not. I don't think you could even if you wanted to." 

"Gods are not mocked, girl."

The voice startled her. She leapt to her feet and drew her wooden sword. Jaqen H'ghar stood so still in the darkness that he seemed one of the trees. "A man comes to hear a name. One and two and then comes three. A man would have done." (Arya IX, ACOK)

this passage captures so much with so little and it’s honestly incredible.  you have:

arya, frightened, praying to the old gods

arya, a little girl, who doesn’t know if she’s praying the right way--complicated further by the fact that this religion is one that is not an organized religion. just you and the gods, and the person who taught her about that religion in her multifaith household was her father.

her father, who the old gods couldn’t save.

her father, who died on the steps of a sept.

this couples interestingly with her mother, who observed the faith of the seven in her multifaith household--who was the reason her household was multifaith--dying and being resurrected by a prayer to the lord of light.

which will likely matter tremendously in arya’s coming arc in twow/ados

and, when she berates the gods

someone 

who has devoted himself to one god (the many faced god) 

who arya will, in turn, one day begin “learning” from/about

and whose temple has a weirwood face in it

while pretending to devote himself to another god (the lord of light) 

the faith that will resurrect her mother in the next book (and also jon snow in twow lbr here)

comes and tells her that “the gods are not mocked.”

like holy damn right there that’s a lot of religious connections all in one short passage.

add into that arya doesn’t refer to her repeated “weese, dunsen, chiswyck, raff the sweetling, the tickler, the hound, ser gregor, ser amory, ser meryn, king joffrey, queen cersei,” as her nightly prayer on multiple occasions.  

add in the following level:

She slashed at birch leaves till the splintery point of the broken broomstick was green and sticky. "Ser Gregor," she breathed. "Dunsen, Polliver, Raff the Sweetling." She spun and leapt and balanced on the balls of her feet, darting this way and that, knocking pinecones flying. "The Tickler," she called out one time, "the Hound," the next. "Ser Ilyn, Ser Meryn, Queen Cersei." The bole of an oak loomed before her, and she lunged to drive her point through it, grunting "Joffrey, Joffrey, Joffrey." Her arms and legs were dappled by sunlight and the shadows of leaves. A sheen of sweat covered her skin by the time she paused. The heel of her right foot was bloody where she'd skinned it, so she stood one-legged before the heart tree and raised her sword in salute. "Valar morghulis," she told the old gods of the north. She liked how the words sounded when she said them.  (Arya X, ACOK)

this nightly prayer--and even that valar morghulis--is a dedication to the old gods.  arya’s nightly list, after all, is a call for justice, and for what’s right, so her dedicating it to the gods of her father makes sense.  but i think that’s something that frequently gets lost in arya’s list: that it’s not just the wrongs she’s seen, it’s an act of dedication to fixing the wrongs of the world.  it is, in its own way, a holy act--not because killing is holy--but because arya has dedicated that prayer to the old gods of the north by connecting them to that “valar morghulis.”  

i think that’s part of the issue: as i mentioned, the faith of the old gods of the north is not one that’s organized in the sense that it doesn’t have prayer books and religious leaders.  it’s just got practice and those practices, it’s implied from bran’s visions in adwd which definitely involved human sacrifice, have changed and likely will continue to change over time.  it is, as we learn in adwd, a religion that’s based on greensight and providing greenseers with knowledge, which is why there’s an emphasis on praying before the heart tree: you’re providing your thoughts and information to the “gods” that they might take that information and, potentially, guide the world to resolve (or exacerbate) the issue.  however, because of what we know, greenseers aren’t gods, they’re men, which means that, fundamentally, the religion--as all religions are to an extent--is as much about an individual’s beliefs and practices as it is about what the religion was established to do in the first place and that’s where things get interesting for arya.  

it’s clear that the old gods mean a lot to arya, especially in her early books.  she thinks of them far more than she thinks of the seven, despite having been raised by a septa (though given her relationship with septa mordane, this doesn’t surprise me at all) and that she was raised by a mother who observed the seven and actively felt uncomfortable in the godswood of winterfell.  she certainly believes in them enough to hold them accountable for their failures, specifically their failure to save her father from joffrey and ser ilyn.  

and, given what happens to her father and at the red wedding, and--as far as she knows--to bran and rickon at theon’s hands, it shakes her faith:

The old gods are dead, she told herself, with Mother and Father and Robb and Bran and Rickon, all dead. A long time ago, she remembered her father saying that when the cold winds blow the lone wolf dies and the pack survives. He had it all backwards. Arya, the lone wolf, still lived, but the wolves of the pack had been taken and slain and skinned. (Arya I, AFFC)

but here’s the thing--arya doesn’t let things go.  not ever.  she holds onto pain from her first chapter in the whole series, and she holds onto memories of injustices and refuses to allow others to try and sway her memory.  so yeah, she can tell herself that she thinks that the old gods are dead, she can even hold them accountable for their failures to protect her family and those whom she loves.  she can even believe, as the passage above implies, that they died along with the rest of her family, but in the very next chapter, you have: 

Polliver had stolen the sword from her when the Mountain's men took her captive, but when she and the Hound walked into the inn at the crossroads, there it was. The gods wanted me to have it. Not the Seven, nor Him of Many Faces, but her father's gods, the old gods of the north. The Many-Faced God can have the rest, she thought, but he can't have this. (Arya II, AFFC)

like ok--she may think the old gods might be dead, but that entire passage is about her soldiering on, her feeling extreme pain at being the “lone wolf” and being “packless.”  and the thing about the first passage is that it’s fundamentally false: the old gods aren’t dead (such as they were ever alive), and nor too are bran, or rickon, or sansa, or jon.  she is not the lone wolf: she’s just off on her own and is going to be reunited with her pack.  her isolation shakes her faith, sure, but so much of what’s happened to her generally has shaken her tremendously--the red wedding is an easy example of that.  but i read the first passage as disillusionment with what she thought the old gods should be doing, not with what the old gods might still do for her; it’s also disillusionment with what the old gods might have done for those she loves, which she sees as what they’ve done for her--but i don’t think that that’s all of what they have done for her.  after all, she doesn’t throw away needle.  needle is jon snow’s smile--something the old gods wanted her to have.  

and, on top of that, in twow, we have this:

Except in dreams. She took a breath to quiet the howling in her heart, trying to remember more of what she’d dreamt, but most of it had gone already. There had been blood in it, though, and a full moon overhead, and a tree that watched her as she ran. (mercy, twow)

those wolf dreams she has starting in asos, the dreams where she’s warging into nymeria from afar--if you have a fairly passive religion that’s based on whether or not greenseers are watching you and taking the knowledge you give them and implementing it--to have a tree be watching her wolf is a major religious deal in her faith.  it’s not only about whether or not she has faith in the gods--it’s about whether the gods have chosen her--and they have.  that much is clear from acok, if not earlier:

"But there is no pack," she whispered to the weirwood. Bran and Rickon were dead, the Lannisters had Sansa, Jon had gone to the Wall. "I'm not even me now, I'm Nan."

"You are Arya of Winterfell, daughter of the north. You told me you could be strong. You have the wolf blood in you."

"The wolf blood." Arya remembered now. "I'll be as strong as Robb. I said I would." She took a deep breath, then lifted the broomstick in both hands and brought it down across her knee. It broke with a loud crack, and she threw the pieces aside. I am a direwolf, and done with wooden teeth. (Arya X, ACOK)

the old gods are literally whispering to her in this scene, telling her to be strong, reminding her she has the wolf blood.  it’s important: they’re speaking to her here.  and she hears them.  and she acts.

so all this is to say that religion in arya’s story is complicated, but that there is this constant pulsing undercurrent of this old faith in the north--both in how she acts, how she thinks, how things matter to her, and in what they expect of her in the future and what they’re keeping an eye on her for.

[odanurr87]

2018: My year in games

2018 was another good year for gaming as far as I’m concerned, provided you haven’t played Fallout 76 that is. Sony’s still releasing great exclusives, to the point I’m left wondering whether they can keep it up, and we’ve had some interesting releases on PC as well. I don’t have a clue as to how Microsoft is doing, but their one exclusive title I might’ve been interested in, Sea of Thieves, had a messy release and is only available on the Windows 10 store (no, thanks). Notably absent in the release schedule this year was EA’s BioWare, who have been working to release Anthem come February 2019, a title I have little hopes for considering how much it departs from the games the developer is known for as EA tries to embrace the Destiny “live services” crowd everyone is so keen on getting these days (*cough*Bethesda*cough*). CD Projekt RED is also on standby as they continue to work towards Cyberpunk 2077′s release... sometime. Well, at least we know we’re probably getting it sooner than Star Citizen or Half-Life 3. Thankfully, it was a year absent of controversies, like, say, a studio using a franchise to cash in on the battle-royale rage with minimal effort, or a company mocking consumers and telling them not to buy their game... Oh... Well, shit, guess no year is absent of controversy then, but it’s nice to see EA’s spreading the love.

But enough remembrance. You’re here for the list of my top games of 2018, or whatever category I come up with to sort them into, and that’s exactly what you’re going to get. 100% guaranteed, no microtransactions included. This year I’m going to try something different, listing the best games I played this year without ranking them, then selecting my favourite among these, my GOTY if you will. It may be rather unusual, and we all enjoy debating whether this game is the best or that other, but, on the plus side, it builds suspense for my GOTY, doesn’t it? After all, once you see a number other than 1 next to a title, you already know it won’t be my #1 choice. That and I’ve had a tough time trying to rank these games, especially the ones I’ve only just played. Perhaps I’ll change my mind later, but, for now, let’s what games were deserving of some praise this year, shall we?

PSA: This list won’t feature Red Dead Redemption 2 in any way, shape, or form, largely for two reasons: 1) I haven’t played it; and 2) it doesn’t particularly appeal to me, and its large runtime is one of the reasons why.

Let the epicness begin to this theme!

Best Aesthetic

Let’s start with a classic. Last year, the award went to Abzû for its excellent blend of pastel colours, pleasant gameplay, and wonderful soundtrack. It’s only fitting then that this year the award go to the game I recently called “2018′s Abzû”...

Released only a few weeks ago, Gris is another great example on how a game can exquisitely combine gorgeous artwork with an infinitely beautiful soundtrack, and provide an engaging, and rather creative, gameplay experience. Indeed, I'd go so far as say that is one aspect where Gris actually stands out over Abzû, with puzzles that are quite simple, but may require some lateral thinking from the player at times. The level design is fairly intuitive and I was hardly ever stumped as to what to do or where to go to next. Or maybe I was too busy enjoying the watercolour landscapes to pay much attention to where I was going. While Gris won't take more than 4 to 6 hours of your life, depending on whether you've found all collectibles, it is a visual and auditory spectacle well worth your time.

Runners-up:

Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom

Forgotton Anne

The PlayStation Exclusives

A Telltale-like game on steroids with spectacular visuals, thanks to an insane amount of mocap, and a great soundtrack, Detroit: Become Human really pushed the envelope in regards to choices and consequences within a narrative, so much so that every chapter has a story tree that shows the choices you made as well as the different branching-off points. Our story takes place sometime in the future of Detroit and explores the onset of an android revolution through three different characters, all of them androids: Kara, a housemaid android who runs away with a little girl called Alice; Markus, a domestic android turned rebel leader; and Connor, an advanced prototype specifically designed to help the police track down deviant androids.

Gameplay-wise, Connor’s story is definitely the best of the three, as it allows for more input from the player as Connor has to solve cases with his partner, Lt. Hank Anderson, played by Clancy Brown. These sections of the game are similar to the ones in the Arkham games, requiring you to analyze the scene and put together the clues to recreate past events. At times though, you’ll be placed in adrenaline-filled chases of suspects that make an impressive use of QTEs. As much as I loved this human-android crime-solving duo, the award for most dramatic and emotional story has to go to Kara and Alice’s odyssey to find a new home in the midst of all the chaos. I couldn’t help but feel immediately protective of Alice so I naturally roleplayed Kara as a mom, trying to set a good example for her through my actions. My one regret about this story concerns a decision the developers made, that takes place towards the game’s end and chips away a little at the significance of their relationship for no real value. As for Markus, he felt the more underdeveloped of the three, perhaps because he’s written more as a symbol than a person, becoming the Messiah for all androids (the game’s anything but subtle about this). He’s given a romance arc with the gorgeous Minka Kelly that, sadly, feels unearned, as her character, North, doesn’t have that many intimate moments with him.

Damn you for so obviously pulling at my heartstrings you two!

No story is without flaws and Detroit: Become Human is no exception. While it does feature humans interacting with androids here and there, I was surprised that the android revolution was 100% human-free, what seems rather disingenuous. The game also does little to explain android deviancy and actually muddles the issue by giving its Messiah a unique ability that ends up being not so unique after all. Furthermore, the story doesn’t explore at all the possibility that, even after going deviant, some androids would prefer to stay with their families rather than join Markus’ uncertain revolution. The game’s not particularly subtle in its depiction of android segregation in human society, to the point some of it struck me as more than a bit ridiculous (exclusive stairs for androids?), but I rolled with it thanks to the strength of some of its characters.

Clocking in at around 12 hours, give or take, this is one game that encourages multiple playthroughs as you read the decision trees to figure out where exactly you want to take the characters next and how to do that. A blind first playthrough is encouraged, especially if you want to end up an emotional wreck. For my part, Detroit: Become Human scratched my sci-fi and Telltale itch this year, and that’s why it makes it on my list.

A solid action-adventure title, and one that further disproves EA’s bold, but dumb, claim that single player games are dead. While perhaps not as visually striking as titles like Horizon Zero Dawn or Assassin’s Creed Odyssey -probably due to do the muted colour palette used to depict this world-, God of War remains engaging gameplay-wise, throwing in a healthy mix of satisfying combat and puzzles that will put Kratos’ skills to the test, as well as interesting side quests that never feel like a chore to play, thanks to how well integrated they are to the game’s theme and main story. The customization system is simple enough to understand and use, what is always welcome, and plays a key role in ensuring you will survive your journey, allowing you to upgrade your weapons, craft unique armours, and further tune the both with enchantments, through the tireless efforts of the best side characters in the game, the dwarves Brok and Sindri. The only fault I can find here is related to progression, and how the better armours in the game are available a little too close to the end. By that time, I had three great sets of armour to choose from when I could’ve used at least one of these earlier.

For those new to the franchise, as yours truly, you play Kratos, voiced by none other than Christopher Judge (Teal’c!), a Greek God (with a capital G) who has decided to exile himself to somewhere around Scandinavia after the events of the previous games. The game’s premise centers around trying to fulfill your deceased wife’s last wish to spread her ashes from the highest peak of the mountain. Along for the journey comes your BOY, Atreus, who does his best to connect with a father he rarely knew growing up, what strikes me as odd. Being a Spartan, and given his background, Kratos is more tight-lipped than I would’ve preferred, what makes communicating with his son rather difficult, at least in the beginning. While I understand and welcome what they tried to do with the characters here, I feel the father-son relationship could’ve used further development, especially in regards to a radical personality shift Atreus experiences out of the blue mid-way through the game and is gone just as quickly.

Infused as it is in Norse mythology, comparisons with 2017′s Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice seem inevitable, but whereas that game retells the myths via a great narrator, in God of War you actually get to partake in this mythical world and explore some of them. Perhaps precisely because I had previously played Hellblade, most of the twists didn’t come as a surprise, but that doesn’t make them or the story any worse for it. I also have to give the game credit for its ending, which avoided some of the more cliché options available to it. Given the running theme, it would’ve been easy to turn it into something else entirely, and a few minutes leading up to it, I feared that’s exactly what the game would do, but was pleasantly surprised to find out otherwise. It even went the extra mile of hiding away the post-credits scene where one could expect to find it.

In the end, despite a few flaws in its storytelling, God of War is a solid entry in the single player action-adventure genre that I can easily recommend to anyone. If Hellblade didn’t scratch your Norse mythology itch, then God of War most assuredly will.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say this game has done for Spider-Man what the Arkham series did for Batman. Marvel’s Spider-Man is a great Spider-Man story and a very entertaining superhero game, that truly makes you feel like the highly acrobatic, web-slinging, joke-cracking, crime fighter. Swinging your way through NYC was a great rush, reminding me of Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst’s best parkour moments. But Spider-Man is only half of what makes the character great, and the other half, Peter Parker, is perhaps the best adaptation of the character I’ve seen to date, foregoing the tale of his early days as a superhero and reporter for The Daily Bugle, instead focusing on his career as a research assistant under Doctor Otto Octavius. He’s still broke as fuck though.

The story throws you right into the action at the onset, as you ensure Wilson Fisk finally goes to jail for the many crimes he has committed. It doesn’t take long before a new criminal group moves into town however, one that is far less concerned about civilian casualties and is determined to bring down the mayor of NYC, Norman Osborn. So begins a rather complicated web of lies and secrets that both Peter and Spider-Man will have to untangle as the city is slowly engulfed in chaos. Joining you in this fight are NYPD captain Yuriko Watanabe, Mary Jane Watson, now a reporter at The Daily Bugle, and even Miles Morales. Of the three, I liked Yuri the best and felt we could’ve used more time bonding with her. I know very little of Miles’ run as Spider-Man and, while I welcomed his addition to the game, it felt a little lazy to make him such a carbon-copy of Peter. As for MJ, she thoroughly annoyed me with her shtick of getting mad at Spider-Man for constantly saving her, moreso considering how she recklessly puts herself in extremely dangerous situations to begin with.

Less MJ and more Yuri please.

The game features an open world that gets layered with side activities the more you progress through the main campaign. It’s a good idea so as not to overwhelm players with a ton of busy work right at the beginning, and I’ll admit some of them give the player more insight into Peter’s past and Harry Osborn’s character. However, busy work they remain, and you’re obliged to tackle at least some of them if you want to buy suits or upgrade your equipment. While often creative, especially Harry’s research stations, their abundance highlight the lack of more (and more interesting) side quests (the amount of loading screens doesn’t help either). Furthermore, teases like Felicia’s Black Cat returning to NYC or even Silver Sable’s introduction were begging for side quests of their own. Even so, the game’s worst sin by far is how it forces you to play scripted “stealth” sections with Miles and MJ that I kept wishing I could skip. I’m a huge fan of stealth games, but these sections felt extremely forced, perhaps done out of a need to give these characters some agency.

In the end though, Marvel’s Spider-Man is one of the best superhero games to date, and perhaps the best story we never got to see on the big screen, but it naturally benefits from a running time longer than 2 hours. Ironically, it’s similar to the recently released Aquaman, in the sense that it throws a lot of familiar faces and action-packed set pieces at you, particularly towards its emotional third act, unfortunately sacrificing some villains (in terms of storytelling) in the process. Furthermore, this final act feels a little rushed, as if it were missing a cutscene or two in the beginning, and likewise in the end to explain the state of the world. Yet for me, Marvel’s Spider-Man’s crowning achievement remains making me feel like one of my favourite Marvel superheroes as I parkour, fight, and web-sling my way through New York City.

Best Soundtrack

This was not an easy choice to make as there were several titles with solid scores this year, such as Detroit: Become Human, created by three different composers for each of the characters, Peter Due’s Forgotton Anne, or even Joe Haisashi’s Ni no Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom. Even John Paesano makes a comeback from his average work on Mass Effect: Andromeda with an excellent main theme for Spider-Man as well as a few other great tracks like “City of Hope” (which plays every time you traverse the city), “Responsibility” and “Behind the Mask.” But the difficulty in choosing one of these increased exponentially when Gris released to an absolutely mesmerizing score by Berlinist, putting me in a similar predicament as last year. In the end though, only one gets to take home this prestigious award, and that game is...

This one was almost a toss between Gris and Detroit, but, in the end, I have to give it to the latter for the sheer amount of work put by Philip Sheppard (Kara), Nima Fakhrara (Connor), and John Paesano (Markus) into crafting three separate and distinct scores that not only feel authentic to each of the characters but are also wonderful to listen to on their own, effectively elevating the source material, something not many titles can boast. If you were to force my hand right now to pick between one of the three, I’d naturally have to go with Philip Sheppard’s score, as his Kara leitmotif was the one that stuck with me the most throughout the game. It’s a simple string composition but the things he does with it, the way he builds upon it, it’s something truly wonderful. It doesn’t hurt that I loved Kara and Alice’s story the most, from an emotional standpoint, and Philip Sheppard’s score plays no small part in this. Having said that, I also have to congratulate Fakhrara’s Connor score, far and wide the one that feels more at home in this sci-fi world, and Paesano’s work in elevating Markus’ character through his music, with great tracks such as “Something You’ve Never Seen Before” or “Markus’ Speech,” to mention a couple. Like last year’s NieR:Automata, Detroit: Become Human’s score is definitely worth a purchase.

Runners-up:

Gris

Forgotton Anne

The Animated Adventures

Of all the games in this list, none fit the category of “family game” better than Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom. Everything from its bright and colourful art design that could be lifted straight from a Studio Ghibli production at times, imaginative world and characters, and cheerful soundtrack, made this game a delight to play from beginning to end. It was truly refreshing to play such a straightforward and sincere story about a young prince who wishes to unite the world in peace, working together with his mentor and a motley cast of allies from all corners of the world. The story is framed as a series of chapters, with opening slides and even a narrator to close each one, and it follows Prince Evan as he's exiled from his kingdom after a coup, yet finds the strength in his newfound commitment to bring peace unto the entire world. As such, he founds a new kingdom that you get to micromanage throughout the game, building and creating different facilities, undertaking research or crafting new weapons and armour, finding new recipes for your cook, or scouring the world for people keen on becoming the first citizens of your new kingdom. Unless you’re planning on rushing through the main story, kingdom building will take a good deal of your time, as you’re sent on quest after quest to gather ingredients, find missing people, or engage in battle from time to time. To give an example, it took me 37 hours to beat this game and I still had a ton of things to do on my quest log!

As perhaps one would expect from such a kid-friendly game, Ni no Kuni II is surprisingly easy to play, so much so that people actually complained it lacked difficulty levels, which were eventually added in a patch. If I had to criticize it for something, it would have to be for its world map exploration, which looks similar to Worlds of Final Fantasy, a design decision that clashes with the vibrant Ghibli-like art that is prominent throughout. Perhaps it was outsourced to a different studio than Level-5? Also, the amount of side content in this game can get a bit overwhelming and more than a little repetitive, but if my runtime proves anything, it’s that you can engage it at your own leisure (indeed, it takes 90 hours for a completionist run), or not. The game also features a sort of in-world Facebook/Twitter where you can check posts with pictures of events that have transpired, people looking for new jobs or challenges (a nice way to search for citizens), or even examples of the world’s flora and fauna. It’s a nice little feature that makes the world feel a little more alive and reactive than it really is. As for its score, composed by Joe Hisaishi, while it does have great tracks such as “The Curious Boy” (my personal favourite), “Kingmaker’s Theme,” or “Happily Ever After,” not to mention its main theme, and is solid overall (more so than other titles in this list), it’s probably not one I’ll often find myself listening to, which is why I didn’t award it with my Best Soundtrack award.

All in all, Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is a title I’d heartily recommend to anyone who wants to experience a charming and colourful bedtime story in a little country a long, long way from here...

Developed by ThroughLine Studios and released by Square Enix earlier in May, this game wasn’t even on my radar, but, like Ni no Kuni II, Forgotton Anne is a game brimming with imagination, that pleasantly surprised me with its great voice acting and soundtrack. Unlike Ni no Kuni II however, the game maintains its beautiful, hand-crafted, aesthetic throughout, making you the protagonist of an animated adventure with high production values, as you take on the role of Anne, a human tasked with enforcing the law in a world of forgotten objects turned sentient, called Forgotlings. When a group of rebel Forgotlings strike a power plant, Anne will have to track down the mysterious rebel leader and uncover the truth about herself and this world. Forgotton Anne is a game that allows you to roleplay a ruthless Enforcer as well as one that prefers more peaceful means of resolving conflict and these decisions are acknowledged throughout the game. Equipped with the Arca, a glove that allows you to manipulate anima (or soul energy), Anne will often be presented the choice of 'distilling' Forgotlings or sparing them, opening or closing certain doors for you.

The game plays as a platformer with puzzles that revolve around your use of the Arca to open doors, power up consoles, etc. These are not terribly difficult but you may find one or two that leave you scratching your head for a bit. Exploration is encouraged by way of collectibles and, in fact, a feature is introduced at the end of the game that allows you to travel back in time and replay certain levels in order to track down memorabilia and unlock achievements. It's a neat way of allowing replayability while in the context of the story and it gets extra marks from me for the additional effort.

While the story is largely predictable, it's by no means any less good for it and was, to my mind, perfectly executed. One lingering issue I have, nonetheless, is how the game makes a reveal halfway through, believing it'll have more impact than it actually did as I'd already been playing under the basis this was true. Perhaps they should've made more of an effort to hide it in the beginning. Then again, maybe that would've drawn more attention to it. Another issue I had storywise has to do with how underdeveloped, and slightly contradictory, I felt one of the endings was. It's a feeling I also had when playing the original Life is Strange and realizing how much more effort was put into of the endings as opposed to the other.

When all is said and done, Forgotton Anne is a charming animated adventure that will undoubtedly pull at your heart strings, but also make you smile merely for being allowed to partake in this world of ill-tempered teddy bears, trigger-happy guns, and Shakespearean mannequins, and it’s a definite recommendation.

Lara’s Final Chapter

Shadow of the Tomb Raider delivered almost everything I wanted from a new entry in the Tomb Raider series, but not all I would’ve expected from Lara’s final chapter. Together with her friend Jonah, Lara must stop Trinity from finding an ancient artifact in South America that has the power to reshape the world. However, in her rush to beat Trinity to the finish line, Lara may have inadvertedly set in motion a series of events that threaten to trigger an apocalypse. As a result, Shadow of the Tomb Raider turns out to be a darker game than its predecessors, a fact highlighted at several points throughout the game, but never sufficiently explored, though I give it credit for acknowledging it. Sadly, while Shadow tries to tie together the Trinity storyline from Rise, we learn very little in terms of the composition and overall goals of this shadowy organization, that is now practically reduced to providing cannon fodder for our favourite Croft. The main villain is a little more nuanced and sympathetic than previous ones, and for once the series doesn’t tie your hands behind your back during the final boss fight. Unfortunately for the game, I was more invested in fighting his lieutenant, who gets killed in a cutscene.

In terms of gameplay, Shadow doubles down on tomb raiding, adding underground and underwater exploration, but one can’t help but feel its maps are more constrained than in Rise, favouring the Uncharted series’ more linear approach, particularly when it comes to the game’s combat sections, which feel more scripted than ever before. Perhaps by way of compensation, the game introduces a new stealth mechanic that allows Lara to camouflage herself, thus getting insanely close to her enemies, and the ability to hang enemies from tree tops a la Arkham series. The crafting system now allows you to harvest insects to craft poison grenades or special arrows that turn your enemies against each other, though, regrettably, these are introduced rather late in the game. Weapon customization also makes a comeback as does Lara's ever-increasing wardrobe. Shadow also tries something new by introducing side quests, but thankfully never so many as to feel burdensome.

This game looks pretty to boot too.

The music is mostly unremarkable, working to great effect immersing you in the setting and building on the game’s atmosphere, as I’m sure was Brian D’Oliveira’s intention, but there's nothing that'll stick with you after you're done tomb raiding your way to the end. The pieces that stood out to me the most are “Lara's Dream” and the end credits song, “Goodbye Paititi,” but that’s about it. This might partially explain why Lara’s final chapter lacks emotional resonance; a lot of the emphasis is placed on the action, few, if any, leitmotifs or themes are introduced, with (maybe) only the main theme carried over from previous games. It would be wrong to lay the blame entirely at Shadow’s feet when the first game didn’t establish a musical narrative beyond Lara’s theme though. I don't recall a Jonah theme or a Trinity theme, for instance. Perhaps if the series had maintained a coherent musical narrative with its score the story beats would've been more impactful.

Our story ends in an uneventful note that I feel doesn’t do the series justice. It’s not a bad ending, but it doesn’t pack the same punch as, say, Uncharted 4 did. In a way, this is a curse of its own making, as the Tomb Raider series is tonally different from Uncharted; and whereas the strength of the latter rests in Nate’s interactions with his friends and family, Lara has always been terribly isolated in these games, Jonah notwithstanding. Thus, while not exactly the swan song our tomb raider deserves, if you played the previous two games, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is definitely not one to miss.

Best Side Content

I don’t think any other game I’ve played this year has come close to making its world come alive nearly as much as this game did. With plenty of side quests and side activities, it would be easy to make them seem like busy work, but this game somehow manages to turn them into events the player can look forward to, building the world these characters live in, making it feel real. Some are so entertaining that I found myself delaying the main campaign so I could play more of them. No game released this year did this better than...

While the game shows some signs of its age (it was originally released in 2015 in Japan), what it lacks in visuals it more than makes up packing its world full of fun things to do. Do you want to go out for drinks and do some karaoke? You can do that. How about some batting practice? You can do that too. Dinner? Sure. Car racing? You bet. Can I rock the dance floor? Like freaking Travolta. You can even play games at your nearest SEGA arcade, bet big on an underground fight ring (there are two), get into real estate or manage your cabaret club, by far the mini-game I had most fun with. The amount of detail put into some of these mini-games is beyond ridiculous and would definitely justify having a game of their own. Beyond these activities, you also get to meet a lot of interesting NPCs that have their own unique stories to tell and that you always feel glad to have helped at the end of the day. You can help a mother rescue her daughter from a cult, have the Chinese mafia fake a ring for a guy’s girlfriend, teach a dominatrix how to be better at her job, or even share your stories with a radio programme to win a prize, to mention a bare few. You can also have a few laughs at how bad Majima is tailing people and trying to hide from them.

Yakuza 0 is an example of side content done right, that foregoes the modern-day open-world formula, opting for a more constrained setting a la Deus Ex: Human Revolution, but that feels big and rich thanks to its content and characters. And on that note, let’s give it up for Judgement Kazzy!

Runners-up:

God of War

Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom

Assassins No More

Last year, Origins made it into my list through sheer spectacle, the lure of exploring Ancient Egypt, and the promise of a return to the modern storyline of the Isu with the introduction of a new set protagonist, Layla Hassan. This year, Odyssey ups the ante by delivering a story that, while still revolving around a family drama, no longer makes revenge the driving force of the narrative. Indeed, for a good chunk of the game, our character’s motivation (Kassandra, in my case) is a blend of making a living as a mercenary and exploring the world beyond her small island of Kephallonia. Given how beautiful and colourful the world in Odyssey is, I’d say it was a smart choice. The game also introduces more interesting side quests than its predecessor did, and better tied to the main campaign, with one of my favourites being the Silver Islands arc; perhaps in no small part thanks to how cute the rebel leader, Kyra, is. In fact, Kassandra can romance a TON of people as she explores the world and runs errands, but, sadly, no relationship is as well crafted as, say, your relationship with Triss or Yennefer in The Witcher 3. Some might come close to being as impactful, such as your relationship with Daphnae, one of the Daughters of Artemis, but they’re all mostly just one-night stands, with one particular relationship coming out of the blue as the game ends that I wished the game had set up and built further.

I know I said cute, but hot works too.

Gameplay-wise, Odyssey plays very much like Origins, with a more streamlined crafing system, that requires less variety (but still tons) of resources to upgrade your gear, but with blocking gone after the shield was removed, an odd design choice. You still get to level up your character, though the leveling-up curve is rather steep at the beginning, forcing you to play much of the side content that would qualify under busy work. It doesn’t help that the in-game store sells a Permanent XP booster that gives you an additional 50% XP for $10, as well as materiales to upgrade your gear, and has the balls to outright call them “Time Savers.” Ubisoft further pushes the in-game store and Helix credits by introducing a new currency in-game, necessary to buy crates with random legendary gear drops from a special vendor, that you get at a much slower rate than your usual credits. I’m not too mad about this, given that the game does reward you with some great-looking armours through normal playthrough, but it’s something we should be on the lookout for future titles.

Naval battles make a return and, simple as they are, I welcomed the distraction and opportunity to sail the Aegean Sea and discover new locations and secrets. At times, Odyssey manages to replicate the sense of wonder and mystery I experienced when playing Skyrim. On the other hand, Conquest battles, its newest addition to the franchise, fail to live up to the expectation. Beyond their limited scope, the worst sin they commit is how inconsequential they are, having no impact in the world around you beyond what banner the closest fort will fly. Curiously, these battles are missing from the main story's end content, what seems odd considering they would've been a perfect fit for the story. In fact, there's a stark contrast between Chapters 1-7 and 8-10, with the latter chapters moving at a brisk pace that is not necessarily justified. On the plus side, Ubisoft has seemingly embraced the Isu civilization, what has allowed them to include mythical creatures like the Minotaur or Medusa, and even throw in Atlantis for good measure. I only hope they’ll go the extra mile and throw in some Greek Gods as well.

The game has some well-placed humour as well.

For all the things it does better than Origins however, I feel Odyssey takes a few steps back, especially insofar the modern-day storyline is concerned. While Layla Hassan makes a comeback, her story is so short and uneventful that it comes across as an afterthought, jumping ahead in time and introducing a whole host of new characters we have never met and referencing events we know nothing about. Layla herself experiences a radical transformation from being skeptical of the assassins’ intentions to becoming one of their strongest supporters. Nothing about the modern-day storyline makes a lot of sense, with many gaps that are probably filled in with other material such as comics and novels, but I’ve always believed that to be the hallmark of lazy and poor storytelling. Either commit to the modern-day storyline or don’t, Ubisoft, you can’t have it both ways.

Overall, I feel like Odyssey is an improvement over Origins, and that’s why it makes it on the list. I am however, skeptical that Ubisoft will pull it off a third time before the charm and novelty of an open-world Assassin’s Creed game wears off -it already is thanks in no small part to its side content-, or before they push the Helix Store so hard down our throats that they have their own Battlefront 2 controversy. Perhaps they still have a shot with a game set in Japan or China. Only time will tell.

My favourite game of 2018

This wasn’t a particularly easy choice to make considering the different strengths and weaknesses of the games in this list, not to mention their different approaches to storytelling. Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey is a strong contender, but its world is so filled with busy work, its modern-day story so underdeveloped, and the push of the Helix Store so blatant, that I cannot in good conscience say this was my favourite game of 2018, let alone GOTY. Likewise, Shadow of the Tomb Raider was initially well-positioned in my mind to take it home, but it just didn’t stick the landing for what it’s supposed to be (but hopefully isn’t) Lara’s final chapter. Another single-player action-adventure title, God of War, gets almost everything right, but I couldn’t connect with the story of Kratos and Atreus in the same way I did, say, Kara and Alice in Detroit: Become Human. I could go on knocking out competitors, but I’d rather talk about my favourite game released in 2018...

Yakuza 0 is not a perfect game, but it gets pretty close at times. Set in the 80s, Yakuza 0 follows the characters of Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima, two rookie Yakuza who, for different reasons, have fallen in disfavour with their respective families, and need to figure out whether they have what it takes to return to the fold. That’s about as much as I can reveal without talking spoilers. No story in any of the games I played this year gripped me nearly as much as this one did (some moments in Detroit: Become Human come close), not only because of how well-written the characters are across the board (including the villains who come across as fearsome opponents), but also because of its many twists and turns that will keep you guessing what the real goal of the different players you find yourself involved with is. Your character, be it Kiryu or Majima, and his understanding of events by the game’s end, is radically different from his starting point, as you unveil plots within plots within plots, a result of the many and varied agendas at play here. To say this game has as many layers as an onion would be high praise... for the onion. Both Kiryu and Majima are powerful characters in their own right when fighting thugs, as demonstrable by the gameplay, but Yakuza 0 is quite ruthless in showing you exactly how out of their depth they are when they decide to take on... bigger opponents. You would think this is because Kiryu and Majima get beat up, and they do, a lot, but I actually found it’s the conversations they have with other characters, the villains in particular, that’s the highlight of the game. Yes, characters in Yakuza 0 talk, a lot, so you’d better get used to it, but these conversations, excellently voice-acted, fill the atmosphere with so much tension, dread, or sometimes anticipation, that you can’t help but be absorbed by them, as you can never guess what the other party might say that will surprise you. And this game surprised me a lot.

Man, the conversations in this game...

Having said that, it is true many of the twists and turns that were a surprise in the beginning started to feel a bit trite when they’re re-used in the final chapters. One that annoyed me in particular was the game’s use of the “Your Princess is in Another Castle” trope (incidentally, God of War also does this to some extent), sometimes forcing events a little much to pull it off. I suppose this has to do with the fact that this “Princess” becomes the sole motivation for your two characters towards the end, getting shuffled around so both Kiryu and Majima can get a crack at the villains. It works thanks to the strength of the characters and their dialogue, but I would certainly take issue with a lesser game that kept me running around the place for 4 or 5 chapters straight. I also felt that, of the two leads, Kiryu’s ending is the one that feels more natural to his character, as opposed to Majima’s, who experiences an odd personality shift that doesn’t seem to jibe with what we know of him. It’s possible this has to do with the fact that, while Yakuza 0 is the starting point in the series for our two protagonists, it’s not the first game in the series. As a matter of fact, there were 5 Yakuza games, released over the space of 10 years, prior to Yakuza 0.

Having previously awarded it with my “Best Side Content” award and praising it for its world-building, despite not being an open-world game (yes, you can have invisible walls and still make a great game!), Yakuza 0 only needed to deliver on its story and characters, and it did that in spades.

And that’s it for my list of the best games I played in 2018! It’s a bit of a long read, for sure, but I could hardly have done these games justice had I written less, and in some cases I probably didn’t write enough. What about you? What are some of the best games you played in 2018?

[illbefinealonereads]

Blog tour! Let’s talk about The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai.

The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai Algonquin March 2020 352p ISBN 9781616208189 $26.95

“An epic account of Viet Nam’s painful 20th century history, both vast in scope and intimate in its telling . . . Moving and riveting.” —VIET THANH NGUYEN, author of The Sympathizer, winner of the Pulitzer Prize With the epic sweep of Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko or Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing and the lyrical beauty of Vaddey Ratner’s In the Shadow of the Banyan, The Mountains Sing tells an enveloping, multigenerational tale of the Tran family, set against the backdrop of the Viet Nam War. Tran Dieu Lan, who was born in 1920, was forced to flee her family farm with her six children during the Land Reform as the Communist government rose in the North. Years later in Hà Noi, her young granddaughter, Hương, comes of age as her parents and uncles head off down the Ho Chí Minh Trail to fight in a conflict that will tear not just her beloved country but her family apart. Vivid, gripping, and steeped in the language and traditions of Viet Nam, The Mountains Sing brings to life the human costs of this conflict from the point of view of the Vietnamese people themselves, while showing us the true power of kindness and hope. This is celebrated Vietnamese poet Nguyen Phan Que Mai’s first novel in English. 

“The Mountains Sing is an epic account of Vietnam’s painful 20th century history, both vast in scope and intimate in its telling. Through the travails of one family, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai brings us close to the horrors of famine, war, and class struggle. But in this moving and riveting novel, she also shows us a postwar Vietnam, a country of hope and renewal, home to a people who have never given up.”  —Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of The Sympathizer, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize

“A sweeping story that positions Vietnamese life within the rich and luminous history of national epics like The Tale of Kieu and the Iliad. Expansive in scope and feeling, The Mountains Sing is a feat of hope, an unflinchingly felt inquiry into the past, with the courageous storytelling of the present.”

—Ocean Vuong, 2019 MacArthur Fellow and author of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

“Good literature frees us from

being trapped in our own skins by allowing us to identify with characters and see the world through their eyes. Reading this novel, I was moved by Nguyen Phan Que Mai’s beautiful, even poetic, depictions of enduring courage. I came away with a deeper understanding of the war in which I fought.”

—Karl Marlantes, bestselling author of Matterhorn, What It’s Like to Go to War, and Deep River

“Quế Mai tells the story of the war that tore apart Việt Nam, and of the generation lost to the war, by braiding around it two beautiful strands told by the older and younger generations of a family. This book is an act of love, compassion, and ultimately healing, and very much needed by all who survived the war.”

—Thi Bui, illustrator, and author of The Best We Could Do

“Marvelous…The Mountains Sing is a beautiful story of the simple challenge of keeping a family together and the courage of perseverance.  It is told with the sureness of a master storyteller who has the spirit of a poet. A large and complicated story, marvelous to read.” —Larry Heinemann, author of Paco’s Story, winner of the 1987 National Book Award

“In this moving family saga, author Que Mai gives us a rare glimpse into the lives of ordinary North Vietnamese as they struggle to survive the calamities that descend over their country – from the Japanese occupation during World War II, to the harsh and ideological rule of the communists, to the American bombing of the North, and to the shocks and aftershocks of the Vietnam War.  It is a story of loss and sorrow, of longing for peace and normalcy, and—above all—of the triumph of hope over despair, told in the authentic voices of a resilient and resourceful grandmother and her granddaughter. “

—Mai Elliott, PulitzerPrize FinalistforThe Sacred Willow: Four Generations in the Life of a Vietnamese Family

(more…)

“Over the last two decades we have been gifted with works by Vietnamese writers who have brought us into the consciousness of those that Americans saw only as backdrops for their own stories. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai not only adds to that rich body of work, she daringly Trầnscends it.”

—Wayne Karlin, author of Wandering Souls: Journeys with the Dead and the Living in Viet Nam, editor of Curbstone’s Voices from Vietnam series

"A poignant and vivid portrayal of a brutal slice of Vietnamese history from a perspective that is so rarely heard abroad: that of the Vietnamese themselves. We are starkly reminded of how those wars—and wars everywhere—wash over and drown both the guilty and innocent alike." —Doreen Baingana, author of Tropical Fish: Stories out of Entebbe, winner of the 2006 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize “Based on Quế Mai’s family history and on the lives of the people around her in village and city life, The Mountains Sing is the story of four generations of the Trần family told from the point of view of the family matriarch and her granddaughter, a wise young girl who provides, in contrast to her grandmother’s rich and moving story, the perspective of the generation that literally grew up with the war. But this is not simply another war story, or another example of so-called ‘Vietnam Lit’ because this is a manuscript distinct in its story-telling techniques. This is a story about the power of hope and love in the face of the worst imaginable circumstances, framed by a beautifully clear arc and peopled by the fully developed characters of the Trần family who come alive and seem to sit right there beside us to tell their story. In The Mountains Sing, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai has found a true and clear voice in English that is rich and compelling the way only those who come to English as a second language can sometimes manage.” —Bruce Weigl,Pulitzer Prize Finalist and author of the bestselling memoir The Circle of Hanh “Although I am hesitant to use the word, this is an epic novel. Quế Mai has pulled off something rather extraordinary here—she is teaching her readers large swathes of Vietnamese history, while never losing a novelist’s connection with the emotional reality of her characters. Since she is writing not simply about a war but one still in living memory, parts of this story are very painful and dark but she neither shies away from this nor alienates the reader from it. There were points when I wanted the horror to stop, but I never wanted to stop reading. The structure is clever, the writing often evocative, the characters convincing and very touching and the whole narrative deeply engaging. And this is a first novel! Impressive.” —Sara Maitland, author of seven novels including Daughter of Jerusalem, winner of the Somerset Maugham Award “The Mountains Sing is an enthralling family saga, set against the turmoil of war and a changing political climate. Inspired by real life events, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai’s story will thrill, shock and terrify the reader in equal measure. It will also inspire them with its life-affirming qualities of everyday heroism and survival against all the odds.” —Philip Caveney, author of twelve adult novels and winner of the 2016 Scottish Children's Book Awards

Born into the Viet Nam War in 1973, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai grew up witnessing the war’s devastation and its aftermath. She worked as a street vendor and rice farmer before winning a scholarship to attend university in Australia. She is the author of eight books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction published in Vietnamese, and her writing has been translated and published in more than 10 countries, most recently in Norton’s Inheriting the War anthology. She has been honored with many awards, including the Poetry of the Year 2010 Award from the Hà Nội Writers Association, as well as international grants and fellowships. Quế Mai first learned English in 8th grade and The Mountains Sing is the first novel written in English by a Vietnamese national to be published by a major American publisher. Currently based in Indonesia, Quế Mai’s journalism regularly appears in major Vietnamese newspapers. For more information, visit www.nguyenphanquemai.com.

Genre: Historical Fiction, Adult Fiction

Rating: 5/5 stars

Review: I’m having a really hard time trying to find the words to express my love for this book. It’s written beautifully. The writing captivated me right away, it flowed really well, it was well paced and lyrical. The story extends over several generations, and despite that, it kept my interest throughout. I wish I could say that I couldn’t put it down, but at times I had to as I was getting overwhelmed with emotion. The book offered a lot of insight into historical events that I was unfamiliar with before it. It did spark my interest for more information with how well the circumstances were described though. I think that, because of these descriptions, as well as the characters that were well-developed and vivid, the book offers a one of a kind glimpse into the culture and mentality of Việt Nam. The Mountains Sing is an important read that you shouldn’t miss out on. I absolutely recommend it.

[iceshrouded]

for chaoticor,  continued from here.

what he had intended to be a joke,  a lighthearted remark seemed to have struck a chord within his daughter and so he sat down.  the tendency to think too much,  to dwell on things seemed to be genetic;  some of the lines on ultear's face seemed to have been taken directly from her mother's.  mistakes had been made.  by many people,  by him because he was the one who had let the original mistake happen,  by her because unknowlingly,  she had repeated his mistakes --- no one was without blame,  even if he was not sure if he could harden his heart enough to put any of the blame on ur.  

he sat down on the bench behind the house and offered the seat next to him --- not because he thought she would take it but because it would be rude of him not to try and make this conversation,  strange and awkward as it was,  a little bit more comfortable.  ‘ ‘ i have many fond memories of this place, ’ ’  he said slowly as his gaze wandered away from the young woman and towards the mountain range that was sprawled out in the distance.  it had been a good place to bury his heart when he had had to leave,  he thought,  but that was surely a conversation for another day.  babysteps.  healing took time,  especially when the wounds had been left unattended for so long.  ‘ ‘ so when i left zeref behind,  i went back here. ’ ’

to heal from his physical wounds and catch his breath,  at first.  where the brat ur had trained had gotten him,  his chest was still scarred as if his own skin was refusing to let him forget.  but ur had been there.  she had been alive and she had been vibrant as ever.  as she had been when he had had to leave.  then,  ur had looked at him,  at all that he was and all that he had been,  and she had chosen to let him stay,  to let him rebuild a life with her.  

[mikeyd1986]

MIKEY’S PERSONAL BLOG 125, October 2018

With the weather being a mostly sunny 28 degrees, it’s a shame that I didn’t have the motivation to do much of anything on Monday morning. At least I managed to call the NDIA and get an activation code so that I could link my NDIS plan to the mygov account and also access the services on myplace participant portal. My lack of enthusiasm could probably have been detected in my voice to the call centre worker who herself sounded like she was off with the fairies. But I really needed to get this done so that I could start using the funds in my plan. To be honest, I’m still confused as hell about this process but hopefully it’ll get easier for me over time.  https://www.ndis.gov.au/participant-portal-user-guide

I also did a bunch of housework which gave me a good excuse to get myself outside in the sun for a few minutes but otherwise today I’m very much home bound. Despite how little energy I had, I was determined to push myself out of the house and get to the final session of the Men of Doveton - 2018 program. However, I’m still feeling in two minds about it especially after how shitty and overwhelmed I was feeling from last Monday night. So I hesitated...again.

I had to ask myself some tough questions like: Who am I doing this program for? What if I don’t go and don’t finish the program? Will the others in the group be angry, disappointed, upset, worried or simply not care? Is this program making me happy and/or making me feel better about myself? The truth is that I feel like I’m going through the motions right now and attending the program more to please others which is NOT a good reason to be participating.

My relentless anxiety has been badgering me saying: If you don’t go, you’re a failure. The others think you should attend, so you should attend. You’re so close to finishing it. What are you doing with your life? What will the other guys think if you don’t go tonight? I also feel the need to place barriers around myself in order to protect myself from being hurt by others. It’s probably the irrational fears talking but at the same time, I really don’t want to put up with people giving me drama for not finishing the Men of Doveton program. https://www.wikihow.com/Make-Tough-Decisions-for-Yourself

The fact that I’m still stuck on the fence is a decision in itself. That I shouldn’t be forcing myself to attend because of outside expectations or what others will think about me if I don’t attend. I guess my own expectations about what I wanted out of this program have also been pretty unrealistic. You can’t form close friendships with 20 or so other males overnight. Also “dropping out” of a program is not failing. My excitement levels for the Men of Doveton program have significantly dropped since I started it back in July. So I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not for me. It’s not making me happy so it’s time to shut the gate on it. https://www.communityreachcenter.org/news/5-steps-developing-healthy-realistic-thinking/

I dropped out of my Bachelor of Science degree at Monash University 4 years ago for the same reasons. Sure I had an interest in science and enjoyed some of the material I learned in my first couple of years studying there. But at the time, I really wasn’t thinking long term, about where this degree would take me. Could I see myself becoming a scientist, researcher, lab technician or doing a PhD? Nope. So there’s my answer. And 4 years later, the world hasn’t ended. I’m still here. Life goes on.

The reality is that I have gained some benefits from participating in this program including counting and recording my steps daily, using a journal to record things that I’m grateful for, being more aware about men’s health issues, tools to help me cope better with depression and anxiety symptoms, being able to successfully participate in group sporting activities, learning new ball handling skills, making a few friends and forming relationships with like-minded males going through similar issues. So in that sense, this program hasn’t been a waste of time for me. https://www.caseystadium.ymca.org.au/whats-on/upcoming-events/event/men-of-doveton-free-health-program-2/2018/07/30

On Tuesday night, I went to an RPM class at YMCA Casey ARC in Narre Warren. It’s been a couple of weeks since I last went to a group fitness class so I consciously lowered my expectations. Tonight wasn’t my best performance but everytime I step onto the bike, I make sure to give it my all. Numbers don’t bother me as much as I used to because I’ve got enough awareness around my limitations and capabilities. Placing the bar too high is never a good thing because you set yourself up for disappointment but it’s still healthy to challenge yourself a little bit. https://www.lesmills.com.au/archived-rpm

Tonight we did release number 80 which features the tracks Easy Love by Sigala, Everybody’s Somebody by Don Diablo feat. Bully Songs, New Memories by DubVision & Afrojack and Get Low by Hardwell. It was a challenging set of tracks which featured intense racing sections, multiple sprints and attacks, uphill climbs and power rides. As usual, our instructor Kay was very empowering, motivating and encouraging to get us through the class. I couldn’t quite reach the speeds or resistance levels that I normally get to but I was fine with that because I was still constantly moving and pushing myself through the workout without burning myself out. https://www.lesmills.com/workouts/fitness-classes/rpm/tracklists/

On Wednesday morning, I had my annual free health assessment done at my workplace. My experience with doing these in the past haven’t been great mainly because I’m always susceptible of getting a bad reaction to getting my finger pricked by the needle. The good news was that I recognised the female nurse who facilitated the service last time. The bad news is that I still had that damn reaction. No matter what I try to do...take deep breathes, try to relax my body, tel myself that “I can do this”...it still happens and I have no control over it.

“Here we go!” I thought as I broke into a sudden cold sweat, red faced and feverish, my ears buzzing intensely and the blood draining from my face. Luckily, the nurse was switched on and responded very quickly, getting me to lie down on the floor and elevate my legs up on the chair. Thankfully I seemed to recover quicker from it faster than last time but it doesn’t make it any less embarrassing and annoying to go through. The other positive was that we were inside the boardroom and therefore I didn’t have other team members witnessing any of this. https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/blood-draw.html

As for the results, they were mostly good. I got a blood glucose reading of 7.0 which is in the acceptable range, a blood cholesterol of 5.42 which is better than average, and my blood pressure was 117 over 74 which is acceptable-good. My BP had to be taken twice as the reaction made the initial reading invalid and dropped into severe-low territory. Waist measurement was 107cm and neck measurement was 44cm. Both of these can be improved with diet and exercise. The one area I was mostly concerned with was my chances of getting diagnosed with type II diabetes especially with a family history of it. https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/health-checks-for-men

With all the factors considered (gender, age, waist/hip measurements), I’m slightly over into the high risk category. The good news is that I do have some degree of control over it by improving my lifestyle habits like being more physically active, eating more healthier foods, cutting back on alcohol etc which I try to do but have recently been slacking off on a bit due to increased stress and anxiety, low mood, poor quality of sleep. But I am determined to keep on top of it and try really hard to prevent getting any major heath problems when I get older. https://www.diabetesaustralia.com.au/type-2-diabetes

On Thursday night, I went to my HIIT Strength small group fitness training session at CinFull Fitness. Truth be told, I was in a really weird headspace tonight probably from all the millions of thoughts in my head and external distractions. My anxiety was ready to pounce (Seriously what are you doing here Michael? You’re not female, a mum or a housewife!) but I did my best to tell it to zip it. The female to male ratio doesn’t bother me all much and even if I don’t relate to the other clients, who cares? I’m there to improve my fitness and self confidence, not to catch up on the goss (no offence ladies!).

We did a circuit-style session with various stations set up, doing intervals of each exercise with a short 10 second break in between. There was a mixture of weight training (bicep curls, dumbbell power lifts, kettle bell squats) and resistance training (push ups, mountain climbers, battle ropes). The fatigue set in fast but overall I did okay. I think I just had a lot on my mind but the class was a positive distraction from it and we did have a few laughs which is always a good thing. https://www.facebook.com/CinFullFitness/

On Friday morning, I attended the individual intake session for the research study Addressing Insomnia in Adults with Autism held at La Trobe University Psychology Clinic in Bundoora. This is the first time I’ve participated in research that relates to both my autism and my sleep problems so understandably I was feeling a bit daunted by the whole idea. However, I brought my mum along to the psych clinic for support. Being my first time driving to this university campus, I did freak out a little with the traffic, trying to get my bearings and be sure that I was parking in the correct car park (we even witnessed a parking inspector doing the rounds, enough said!). https://aspergersvic.org.au/Research-Requests

Once I arrived at the Psychology Clinic (located inside the George Singer building), I did seem to relax a little. We met with a provisional psychologist named Eliza who gave me some information about the study and some questionnaires to fill out as well as a consent form and a withdrawal form. She then guided us from the waiting room into one of the consultation rooms. This session was more like a general interview just to get some insight into my medical background and sleep problems.

Eliza was very warm, compassionate and easy going. Certainly not as cold, clinical and formal as I was anticipating inside my head. She asked me about my family history, why I decided to participate in the study, my expectations about the group intervention, what will be involved, what I think causes me to have disturbed sleep patterns and lack of quality sleep and how it impacts on my daily lifestyle and well-being.

I told Eliza that I’ve been having these sleep problems for about two years or slow due to work-related stress, general anxiety and depression symptoms, having lots of pressure and expectations from society, keeping busy and having lots of commitments and not being able to switch my brain off. I usually go to bed around 10-10.30pm and it can take up to 1-1.5 hours to fall asleep. Then I usually wake up around 3 or 4am and again struggle to go back to sleep again. Overall, I get around 4 to 5 hours of sleep per night on average.

These sleep problems have had a major affect on my well-being including poor focus and concentration, low energy, daytime sleepiness, difficult in getting motivated, regular crashes, physical and mental burnout. The group intervention part will involve me wearing a actigraphy watch device that measures physical motion and sleep/wake cycles for 7 days and filling out an online sleep diary as well as attending 4 two-hour group therapy sessions on ways to manage and improve my sleep.

I’m really hoping that this research study will be a pro-active stepping stone for me in helping to improve my sleep problems and all of the symptoms that I’ve mentioned above. I’ve tried many different natural therapies including using a weighted blanket, lavender spray, relaxation and guided meditation videos, using a vapouriser machine, reading, writing down my worries, having a bath or shower, taking herbal sleep vitamins but none of these have been 100% effective. http://otarc.blogs.latrobe.edu.au/sleep-help-for-adults-on-the-spectrum/

On Friday night, I attended a ten-pin bowling social night for the Adults in Their Thirties Aspergers Victoria group held at Healthways Recreation Centre - Mont Albert North. I actually found this drive to be a lot more mentally draining than the one I did this morning especially driving through Surrey Hills and Box Hill. The roads are so damn narrow and when you’re not completely familiar with an area, you can easily get yourself lost. Luckily I had my Google Maps navigator lady switched on to prevent that from happening.

Besides the moderate amount of traffic and the long distance I had to travel, it actually wasn’t too difficult getting there. I arrived just a couple of minutes before 7pm and found a few of the other Aspies upstairs where the bowling alleys are located. This particular bowling area has been around since 1961 with a retro 1980’s inspired colour scheme and design, featuring splashes of red, blue, yellow and pink.

The computer monitors are also a throwback to 8-bit computer processors with green text on a black background. As we soon learned, all the scores had to be recorded manually on the keyboard which added an additional level of problem solving to the night (aka figuring out how many pins have been knocked down). It’s been around 6 years since I last did ten pin bowling but I was surprised to see my beginners luck returning with a few spares and a couple of strikes.

It was also nice getting to know a few new members I hadn’t met before and chatting with Marcus Heath and Lucas Eldridge in between turns. For dinner, the group leaders organised a delivery of pizzas in the function room / kitchen area next door as well as some drinks. I honestly didn’t feel like being that social tonight but it was just nice to have some social company for once considering how low I’ve been feeling lately. I really needed this night to get out of the house and be with other Aspies around my own age. https://aspergersvic.org.au/events-groups

“If you can't wake up in the morning ‘Cause your bed lies vacant at night. If you're lost, hurt, tired or lonely. Can't control it, try as you might. May you find that love that won't leave you. May you find it by the end of the day. You won't be lost, hurt, tired and lonely. Something beautiful will come your way.” Robbie Williams - Something Beautiful (2002)

[mana-junkie]

A 2nd Edition Gamma World Tale Cast of Characters: Wyke, Pure Strain Human (Chris) Abrum, Pure Strain Human (Wendel) Voxx Ulla, Pure Strain Human (NPC)

“Peoples of the world – you appear bent upon the destruction of a civilization that has taken centuries to build, and the extinction of life on earth

If that Is your will … so be it!

We, The Apocalypse, demand an immediate cessation of this insane violence, or we will end it for you … with a force you cannot conceive.

We have the power!

The choice is yours!”

And then the world went dark. The Apocalypse came and sent mankind on the verge of extinction, the earth twitched and buckled reshaping the world, lakes changed, canyons ripped about the land and mountains were formed once again.

It is the year 2471 AD.

Our adventure begins in the settlement of Kandor Kull, where Wyke, Abrum and Voxx reside… growing up in a Tech II level community built up on the ashes of an old college.  It has a population of 900 but during the winter the population swells to 1500+ as farmsteads families move in for the duration of the Big Cold.

Kandor Kull’s population is roughly made up of 55% Pure Strain Humans, 30% Humanoids, and 15% Mutated Animals. It is named Kandor Kull since it was the name of the ancient ruins that are there.  The town is located along the shores of Nor’Bay, which is part of Lake Yuron. There are ruins of the ancient located just below the waters of Nor’Bay near the town.

Kandor Kull is ruled by a “Dean” and a council of six “Instructors”. It is they who look after the well being of the town and to send out scouts to the surrounding area to see what stuff they can bring back.  After a very long and hard winter, supplies took a heavy hit due to Mother Nature in all her wrath; two storage buildings were destroyed in a fire, and also a surprise bandit raid during the winter (which is the first time this happened in years).

This year means Kandor Kull has to rely heavily on the surrounding farmsteads to stock up just encase next winter is cruel and harsh as well.  It is a beautiful late spring day when Wyke, Abrum, and Voxx have been summoned to Kandor Hull to meet with the Council.

Kandor Hull is located next ruins of the U-knee-versy and Kampis and is the only original building left standing from the ancients due to the structure being sound and solid. This is where the Dean and Council live and also conduct daily business dealings of Kandor.

Dean Hew (PSH) is a man in his late 50’s and have been in charge now for the past decade. His guidance lead Kandor Kull into a new age of growth. As well as Councillors; Lamana (Mutated Animal), Urban Hoc (Humanoid), Nease Winno (PSH), Derrin Howser (PSH), Heeble Tick (Humanoid) and Milli Moonlite (PSH) sit in high back chairs on a raised dais as townfolk sit on seats along either side of the wall.

Dean Hew greets each of our heroes by name and thanks them for attending.  He then informs the audience of the incidents of the past winter and what had happened and that when the snow had finally melted several of the farmstead families went back to their farms to prepare for the fall harvest. It is these good people that make Kandor Kull thrive during the cold wintry nights and without their help Kandor Kull wouldn’t be as prosperous as it now is.

Dean Hew calls forth a young lad from such a farmstead, his name is Hank, he has come from a farmstead just 30km from town along the North Road. Hank tells that his family had arrived home once the road was good to travel and begun tilling the earth and fattening up the livestock until the next winterspell.   His father and oldest brother, as well as a neighbor, were digging a new well when the ground gave way as they were digging and revealed a chamber. The eldest brother and neighbor decided to explore the chamber while the father went topside to gather some torches and weapons in case they are needed.

When he emerged from the well, he could hear someone yelling from below and he went back down leaving Hank, his mother and youngest sibling behind. The father disappeared into the well and never returned. Hank’s mother decided to send Hank to Kandor Kull for assistance and their you have it.

Wyke, Abrum, and Voxx all decide to go and help Hank’s family.  The Dean and Council are thankful and they proceed to leave right away.  But, before they do the Council gives each of them three days of ration, as well as 4 torches, and 1 50 foot silk rope to assist them.  And on that note our heroes are on their way. As they walk the streets of Kandor Kull they are being followed by a group of children who will cheer them on, they will escort our heroes to the edge of down and wave to them as they walk down the See Deer Road.

Wyke is leading the way, Abrum up close behind him and Voxx trailing behind and taking up the rear guard.  They travel for a few kilometers when Wyke hears something from the woods.  He singles the other to take cover and when they do, a group of Badders (Mutated Badgers) emerge from the thick underbrush and onto the old road. Our heroes hold up and watch the Badders continue down the road, stop at a few rusted out relics along the road and one of the Badders decides to investigate the wrecks while the others continue on.

Our heroes creep up along the brush and watch as the Badder reaches into one the vehicles and pulls out a long slender rod and hold it up to the sunlight. It seems to be metal and shines in the light, it looks like it has some dials on it as well. The Badder realizes his group has continued on down the road will alert them to his discovery. He trots towards them with his discovery. Wyke, Abrum, and Voxx move along the brush and then Abrum is attracted to a deliciously aroma. It smells like freshly baked apples in a pie. His mind suddenly has an image of an apple pie and now he’s hungry and goes to investigate. He breaks cover and just walks across the road toward to river. Wyke keeps an eye on the Badders to see if they notice Abrum but they seem to be focused on the silver rod. Voxx tries to stop Abrum but he shrugs her off and wanders to the river.

Just off the shore there are lily pads floating and Abrum steps on one and that’s when the lily-pad snaps shut. Abrum is now clamped in the jaws of a Ber Lep. The creature secrets an acid which burns Abrum as well. Wyke and Voxx come to assist Abrum, trying to pry open the jaws of the one beast and keeping an eye of the other lily-pads that seem to be floating closer and closer to our heroes.  In a desperate attempt to get away Abrum accidentally stabs himself causing more damage to his leg.

Voxx keeps an eye on the toher Ber Leps  and Wyke helps Abrum escape from the grip of the Ber Lep. The creature is finally dealt with and both Wyke and Abrum get to the show and rest. Voxx tends to Abrum’s wounds.

By the time they get to the old road the Badders are long gone, much to the relief of our heroes. So, they investigate the wreck were the Badder found the silver road. Wyke finds several silver discs in a case, as well as a pendant (which are dog tags).

  Wyke divides up these discs among them and they continue down the road where they find a pristine looking vehicle. Mainly glass and metal and with an skeletal occupant inside dressed in a weird tunic. They try opening the door but to no avail, they try to pry but that doesn’t seem to do anything at all. In fact, this thing doesn’t looked scratched up as well.

Other than the occupant of the strange craft they see a case in the backseat, a square card device that is inserted in the dash of it. Abrum decides to break one of the silver disc and insert it in the slot near the door handle. There is some sort of “voice” and then a series of chirps. Which scares the hell of everyone and they begin to flee. Wyke runs to the water, while Abrum and Voxx flee to the other old relics down the road for cover.

Around the strange craft an arc of electricity happens which goes out in a 1 meter then stops. Our heroes return to the craft, and Wyke hears something in the water. A huge splashing sound and they see a huge beast in the review that apparently has a Ber Lep in it’s mouth.  They watch the huge beast slip under the surface and disappear into the murky waters, and glad that it didn’t come towards them.

The vehicle seems to be hovering off the ground now, Abrum figuring that the device, even though is not unlocked but have been activated. They find that it is easy to push as well, since it’s hovering a foot off the ground. Our heroes decide to push the vehicle and use it for a shield if they happen to stumble upon the Badders once again.

They arrive at the farmstead late in the day, having pushed the craft with them and that’s when they spot splatters of blood on the ground that is next to the hole in the ground. There is no sign of anyone else around. Abrum says that maybe they should push the craft over the hole for now and then check the farmhouse to see if everyone is alright. Wyke doesn’t have a good feeling about the whole situation at all, but he knows that something is amiss.

Wyke with musket ready goes up to the door of the farmhouse, Abrum readies his bow while Voxx is looking around the grounds to see if she can see anyone about. Wyke knocks on the door and it swings open. Inside are two Dabbers… there are specks of blood on the floor and walls and they are caught off guard.  Abrum thinks that these could be the Badders that were on the road earlier.

Our heroes spring into action as well.  It’s a brutal fight but the Badders are dealt with and with little damage to our heroes. They look around the farmhouse and find no one else, Abrum checks to see if there is a trap door under a rug. Wyke looks outside and sees the body of Badder out back. The Badder has half his head blown off.

Abrum and Wyke will investigate and Voxx stays close to the craft. They find that the Badder has been shot and they also discover the doors to a root cellar. They go to the door and stand to either side of it and open it. Wyke calling down to see if anyone is there… and sure enough it’s the farmer’s wife and young son.

She is armed with a musket and she wants to see a face before she emerges from the cellar. Wyke peers over and she lowers the weapon and emerges. She thanks them for coming and dealing with the Badders as well.

Abrum asks if they saw the Badders with a strange rod. She tells them that she saw them over the “well” and one of them dropped it in. Our heroes decide to clean up the farmstead, drag the Badders body off into the woods and then rest up and tend to their wounds before they go down the 10 meter well. But, before they completely rest, Wyke wants to be lowered down the well so he can retrieve the rod. Abrum has 15 meter rope and the farmer’s wife says there is rope as well they can use. Voxx and Abrum lower Wyke down and it opens up into a cavern with what looks like to be rails on the ground, with torch in hand Wyke cannot see the silver rod on the ground.  He signals for the other to pull him back up, since it’s no use to do a ground search just yet.

He emerges from the well and tells them the rod is not that, but there is a passage. Our heroes decide to rest up before they go into the well. The farmer’s wife prepares a feast for them and rolls out some cots for them to rest as well. Abrum and Wyke decide it would be best to do so in a day or so, they push the craft over the well and hope that nothing comes out at night.

Just to be on the safe side they set up watch.

.. to be continued…

The Sky Goes Clank (Session 1) A 2nd Edition Gamma World Tale Cast of Characters: Wyke, Pure Strain Human (Chris) Abrum, Pure Strain Human (Wendel)

[iceshrouded]

"Were you a magic professor of some kind, mister..." She trails off. Is she supposed to address him by his first name? Wouldn't that be rude? Not that Mary has ever cared about formality, but Ur was kind. She owed that much to her partner. "... Your Tallness." Is what she opts for, flipping through the pages of her lengthy ( and colour-coded ) notes. "You seem to know a lot off the top of your head." She adds, finally looking over at him with genuine curiosity.

in the many, many years of his existence life, he had mistaken for many things.  sometimes, he had helped the deception along  ( most importantly, when he had passed for a perfectly normal human being ),  but most often, he had simply not bothered to correct a false assumption.  still . . . a professor, from what he could recall, had never been among it --- and under different circumstances, he might have run with it, might have seen how long he could maintain the charade, but mary was a fun kid.  that prank would have to wait for another, less likable person . . . maybe ur’s other student.  ur might have taken understandable issue with his attempt on gray’s life and . . . other things, but pranking them should be permitted --- it was not his fault if they were gullible, after all.

looking up from the two day old newspaper article he had been reading, he turned his attention towards their guest.  ‘ ‘ sorry to disappoint, ms magenta, ’ ’  he responded gravely, despite the fact that the corners of his mouth were seeking proximity to his ears, because all of this was funny,  ‘ ‘ but i’ve never taught magic anywhere. ’ ’  jerking his head into the direction of ur’s favourite chair, he shrugged.  ‘ ‘ she never got a formal teaching licence either, i think, but she has a magister degree in magical theory. ’ ’

and while ur was not the sort to brag with this sort of thing, he did feel like it was his not-exactly-sworn-but-still-important duty to ensure that the light that shone on his partner was bright enough --- it was not just what she deserved, it had always served to make some of his esteemed colleagues quite miffed.  heavens, he would have thought that some of them would learn that they would never hear a favourable assessment of their skill from him, especially not in comparison to his partner, but no, they had asked him more than once.

‘ ‘ and i’ve been a curious traveller for most of my life, ’ ’ he added, gazing fondly at the mementos and souvenirs he had gathered during some of these voyages, ‘ ‘ so i picked up a lot along the way --- not just pretty baubles, of course.  scrolls, scars, books, journal entries . . . and enough facts to win any quiz. ’ ’  he halted for a moment, unable to restrain his smirk.  ah, invel’s face had been rather priceless.  ‘ ‘ and i do have a good memory for interesting things. ’ ’

[iceshrouded]

@sensoriella​  »  meredy

the cards had been dealt out long before this moment, and he smirked as amusement swelled up inside of him. she might not know who he was as they had never dealt with each other in the past, but he knew who she was, not just from pictures in newspapers, but from a photograph and from stories. his daughter got her sentimental side from him, it seemed.

‘ ‘ we have been getting far more travellers in our neck of the woods than before, ’ ’ he mused aloud as he approached, his footsteps far louder and yet less threatening than they might have been under different circumstances. ‘ ‘ greetings, stranger. ’ ’

[iceshrouded]

@chaoticor sent →  “ so this is what death is like. ”

he did not have to turn his head to look at ur to know that she was glaring. he was quite certain that this was not what the authors of romance novels meant when they spoke how sometimes, people did not need words when they were in love, but such contemplation only served one purpose: to distract from the matter he should attend to.

his daughter. alive. awake.

in theory, he had had enough time to fully let this sink in, to prepare to this eventuality. in practice, he had been . . . preoccupied with a hundred other things. perhaps, he had not allowed himself to take the time to really think about this. thus, he was out of his depth. the same --- and now, he was turning his head --- the same applied to ur who was standing by the window, ruining the sleeve of her sweater with how much she was pulling on it.

‘‘ the short version is: no, this is not death. i don’t think we’d end up in the same place, at any rate. this is the . . . kitchen. where your mother was telling me what to buy at the grocery store and--- ur? ’’ he said, gesturing towards ultear. ‘‘ some help? please? ’’

[iceshrouded]

@chaoticor sent →  “ Is my hair sticking up? ”

looking up from the newspaper  ( which was two days old ),  he winced. it was. of course it was. he was also fairly certain that she knew it; it was difficult not to notice it. a part of him wanted to reach out, smooth the hair down for her, maybe remark that in days when his hair had been longer, he had often looked similar. alas, this was not the time to be reminiscent over hairstyles he had tried  ( and gotten rid of )  over the years.

setting down his coffee cup, he nodded. ‘‘ it does look a little like a bird build a nest on your head so you may wanna borrow your mother’s hairbrush, ’’ he said dryly but with some humour. ‘‘ after coffee, perhaps? i made . . . a lot. ’’ 

old habits, they said, died hard, and he was inclined to agree there; still half-asleep, he had made enough coffee to sustain a two-people-all-nighter, only to wake up a little more and realise that it was very early in the morning instead of very late at night.