#lannister reread project

[elegantwoes]

“Robert will never keep to one bed,” Lyanna had told him at Winterfell, on the night long ago when their father had promised her hand to the young Lord of Storm’s End. “I hear he has gotten a child on some girl in the Vale.” Ned had held the babe in his arms; he could scarcely deny her, nor would he lie to his sister, but he had assured her that what Robert did before their betrothal was of no matter, that he was a good man and true who would love her with all his heart. Lyanna had only smiled. “Love is sweet, dearest Ned, but it cannot change a man’s nature.”

Imagine reading this passage and coming to the conclusion Lyanna eloped with Rhaegar voluntarily. If she doesn’t like Robert for fathering a bastard and thinks his actions are unethical, what makes you think she would fall for a guy who is married and has two children? Foul play was at hands. Anything else would ruin what little characterization Lyanna has.

'It would seem he has met some trouble on the road. My lord father is quite vexed. You would not perchance have any notion of who might have wished my brother ill, would you?” … “Your brother has been taken at my command, to answer for his crimes,” Ned Stark said.'

Look at Ned unfailingly staying on Catelyn’s side even though he doesn’t have the full story. Couple goals.

'Littlefinger did not need to be urged. “I will bring the City Watch,” he promised Ned.'

And yet you won’t come on time, asshole. Which no doubt was deliberately done.

'As you say, m’lord.” “Still … we wouldn’t want him to leave here entirely unchastened, so”—through the night and the rain, he glimpsed the white of Jaime’s smile—“kill his men.'

I will never forgive Jaime for practically killing Jory and crippling Ned. Never.

'When he opened his eyes again, Lord Eddard Stark was alone with his dead. His horse moved closer, caught the rank scent of blood, and galloped away. Ned began to drag himself through the mud, gritting his teeth at the agony in his leg. '

If I am forced to read this horrific part then so will you guys.

'Littlefinger and the City Watch found him there in the street, cradling Jory Cassel’s body in his arms.'

You are late, little finger. Poor Jory. Rest in peace.

[atopvisenyashill]

can you rank the great houses? 😊

obviously this is just my opinion on them, etc etc also thank you for this ask i love lists alskjdfj

9. House Arryn

Constantly dying off but they had a lesbian and a milf as rulers once so they have that going for them. House Royce is cooler, GIVE ME MORE BRONZE YOHN I'M READY FOR HIM!!!!

8. House Lannister

I’m sorry but They Are Just Fine. When I’m reading their chapters I feel something and then I mostly forget about them after I'm done. I wish we had a real Dance era book mostly for Joanna and Tyland tho.

7. House Tyrell

I think it’s really funny that they are upjumped stewards and the whole Reach has been pissy about it for generations. Mostly exist for other characters to project onto but by god do they reflect back in fun ways. I want to meet Willas so bad but I’m positive if we meet him he’ll die soon after so rip me!!

6. House Targaryen

Interesting villain house that George gets too distracted by too often. Lots of fun historical characters, the cyclical doom is amazing to read but Dany’s chapters drag so bad to me at some points and F&B just pissed me AWF. The best ones are usually tied to her magic (prophecy chapters, fever/vision dream chapters) or her dragons in some way and the dragon bond is also what I tend to find most interesting in her ancestors as well.

5. House Greyjoy

I haven't reread Victarian in years but damn Aeron, Asha, and Theon are all as great as I remember so I'm making the decision to put them this high on memory alone. But this family is just a group of the most delusional people ever, struggling in a culture that doesn't allow room for struggle, and the way Euron acts as this black hole of terror for all of them, until finally, finally, there is Asha, not only knowing and understanding that the way she's lived is wrong but going home and dragging everyone else through the dark and into the light with her. Also, their culture is just really fun and cool.

4. House Baratheon

Started by my number two enemy, Orys Baratheon, but damn do I love basically everyone else in this stupid ass House. The House as a whole really plays with masculinity; what it is, the damage you do when you measure up to your role, the lengths they will go to in order to pretend the fault lies elsewhere, craving the pleasures but refusing to deal with the consequences, and all of that fallout landing on their innocent children, dooming them for the next generation as well. I need more Baratheon women tho jfc.

3. House Tully

I literally love that the Tully’s are in canon known as being huge bitter bitches. The most fucked up idea of what family is in the world but by god do these people try, they all try so hard to live up to those words but the price of duty and honor is always the sacrifice of their children for The Family, and not actual protection of their family, and while Hoster recognizes this far too late, his children become determined to do Every Single Thing Wrong in order to be loyal to both The Family and their family. Unpleasant people, I love them so much.

2. House Stark

Taught me what family is!!!! The whole series for them is an examination of the family unit under pressure and how their attempts to stick to their assigned roles (The Mother, The Father, The Heir, The Dutiful Daughter, etc) just makes them completely break under the stress so they discover what's under that - AND IT'S LOVE BITCH. I HATE the analysis that their stories are about rejecting love or overcoming emotion because it all comes back to that moment with Ned in the dungeons, remembering how he chose Lyanna, Jon, and love over honor, the way he chooses Sansa over honor, THAT is the point, for all of them, trying to keep these impossible oaths of honor and ignore love but in the end, the father they venerate chose love because it is not just okay to yearn for love, it is human and natural and good to love others.

1. House Nymeros Martell

LISTEN. WHO ELSE COULD IT BE.

If the Starks are a family desperately trying to find each other again, than the Martells have long been lost. A House defined in its modern day by the violating loss of one of its daughters in a society that doesn't put much worth in losing daughters. It's the themes of justice and vengeance, waiting on the system that is not meant to help you to bring you peace, on the people who are at the outskirts of society finding the line between the overthrow of power and keeping the cycle going, it's STANDING AS AN ACT OF LOVE. For Doran to his Arianne, for Oberyn to Elia in the face of Tywin, for Elia to her children in the face of the Mountain, for Meria and Nymor and Maron and Loreza and Nymeria and Mors, the point is not just to stand up and fight but to stand up and fight for something, to fight for the people who depend on you because there is no one else to do it. A responsibility, a calling, an honor, a horror.

[howyouloveyourdragon]

thea's fic recs <3

hi everyone i'm going to be away for awhile so i won't be able to post after wednesday at all on this account until i'm back :( however, i will suggest you read from these amazing writers in my absence. if there is anything you want to ask me or just interact then i'm happy to do so on my personal account @simp-aholic so just send through an ask on there and i'll be happy to talk with you, my masterlist is also still up of course with any fic updates you might have missed or to reread from &lt;3

i'm sure that you've already heard of or read from them but i would still highly recommend that you check them out if you haven't already, these are just some of my favourites that i re-read <33 i can't wait to see you all when i get back :)

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from @valeskafics (everytime a new update comes out its like mwah my love is back from war) masterlist

✨ A Game of Proms (modern au, robb stark x oc) (also pretty sure this was the first ever ASOIAF fanfic i ever read so it'll always have a high position in my mental court) completed ✨ Blood Of My Blood (jacaerys, aemond, aegon x reader) ongoing ✨ Wolves and Dragons and Seahorses, Oh My! (modern au, aegon, aemond, jacaerys x reader) ongoing ✨ Party in your bedroom (almost everyone got & hotd x camgirl!reader) ongoing (nyra and ali for the win, fight me) ✨ Far Longer Than Forever (swan princess au, jacaerys x reader) completed

from @syzrina masterlist

✨ Roomates (modern au, aegon x reader x aemond) ongoing ✨ Fool's Gold (modern au, aemond x reader) completed ✨ Dress (modern au, aemond x reader) completed ✨ All I ask (modern au aemond x reader) completed

from @f4ll-for-you masterlist

✨ The Project (modern au, aegon x reader) ✨ Aegons Summer/The Intern (modern au, aegon x reader)

from @starkskeep

✨ When the Dragon Howls (cregan stark x reader) ongoing

from @hotdapologist masterlist

✨ As You Wish (aemond targaryen x reader) ✨I Know Places (lannister oc x martell reader x aegon targaryen)

literally everything from @its-actually-minicika (pls my wife is so talented but i'll link my top faves i guess 🙄) masterlist

✨The Yule Ball (gryffindor jacaerys, slytherin aemond, hufflepuff aegon x reader) ✨ I See You (aemond x reader) ✨The Harshest Winters (for my followers with darker tastes, book-canon aemond x reader x deceased jacaerys) ongoing

from @shruie masterlist

✨Yours To Take (daemyra x martell!reader)

AO3

✨ ride the dragon (do it quickly) by molter (alicent x rhaenyra) ✨ in paper rings, in picture frames, (in dirty dreams) by angstigone (aemond x oc) ✨ One Step Forward, Two Steps Back by Dulcewritess (aegon ii x oc) ✨ right where you left me by 14xn (alicent x rhaenyra) ✨ Nocturnal Sunshine by queenslayer (alicent x rhaenyra) ✨ oh and i wonder by barbiewrites (alicent x rhaenyra) ✨ through the mis, only sky by thedevilsgarden (alicent x rhaenyra) ✨ on the mend by thedevilsgarden (alicent x rhaenyra) ✨ HOTD PTA meetings by Pie_pie

[istumpysk]

Operation Stumpy Re-Read

A FEAST FOR CROWS

Summary & Foreshadowing Smorgasbord (Part III)

The epic conclusion of the blockbuster trilogy.

AFFC PART III: UNDER THE CUT

Chapter Transitions

JONSA 🐺❤️❄️

AFFC Part I: CLICK

Sansa Stark, Queen in the North

Jon Snow, King in the North

Jon (Aemon?) Snow

Ahoy Matey! Arya Stark Sails the Ocean Blue

Bran the Broken, King of Westeros

High Septon Rickon?

Pick Your Poison: The Twins Meet Their End in the Bowels of Casterly Rock . . . or King's Landing

Younger and More Beautiful Cersei

AFFC PART II: CLICK

Dark Daenerys Highlights & Laughs

Let's Dance: Stark vs. Targ

A Rat in a Maze 🐀🔪

The Usurper's Knife

Storm x Storm 🦑🖤🐉

Squid Game

Previous books:

AGOT Summary & Foreshadowing: CLICK

ACOK Summary & Foreshadowing: PART I / PART II

ASOS Summary & Foreshadowing: PART I / PART II / PART III / PART IV

Stumpy note:

If I didn't give you credit for discovering something or if I missed any foreshadowing, please contact me and I'll rectify that.

Once again, I'd like to thank everyone who participated in the reread project. All of you have great observations and comments, I wish I could highlight them all. 🙂

CHAPTER TRANSITIONS

Damn that man for breaking up this book, and ruining the chapter transition foreshadowing.

Prologue -> <- The Prophet

The storm is coming.

Thank you, @decadelongsummer!

"No," said Alleras. "It was Prince Rhaegar's young son Aegon whose head was dashed against the wall by the Lion of Lannister's brave men. We speak of Rhaegar's sister, born on Dragonstone before its fall. The one they called Daenerys."

"The Stormborn. I recall her now." - Prologue, AFFC

x

A storm was brewing, he could hear it in the waves, and storms brought naught but evil. 

[...]

He was born a lord's son and died a king, murdered by a jealous god, Aeron thought, and now the storm is coming, a storm such as these isles have never known.

[...]

Aeron tugged his beard, and thought. I have seen the storm, and its name is Euron Crow's Eye. - The Prophet, AFFC

+.+.+

Brienne I -> <- Samwell I

Two protagonists want to live up to their swords.

"A sword is only as good as the man who wields it."

[...]

When she slid Oathkeeper from the ornate scabbard, Brienne's breath caught in her throat. Black and red the ripples ran, deep within the steel. Valyrian steel, spell-forged. It was a sword fit for a hero. When she was small, her nurse had filled her ears with tales of valor, regaling her with the noble exploits of Ser Galladon of Morne, Florian the Fool, Prince Aemon the Dragonknight, and other champions. Each man bore a famous sword, and surely Oathkeeper belonged in their company, even if she herself did not. - Brienne I, AFFC

x

Once, when Jon came to consult with Maester Aemon, Sam had asked him why he spent so much time at swordplay. "The Old Bear never trained much when he was Lord Commander," he had pointed out. In answer, Jon had pressed Longclaw into Sam's hand. He let him feel the lightness, the balance, had him turn the blade so that ripples gleamed in the smoke-dark metal. "Valyrian steel," he said, "spell-forged and razor-sharp, nigh on indestructible. A swordsman should be as good as his sword, Sam. Longclaw is Valyrian steel, but I'm not. The Halfhand could have killed me as easy as you swat a bug." - Samwell I, AFFC

+.+.+

Brienne I -> <- Samwell I

Encounters with mice.

Thank you, @decadelongsummer!

"Ser Shadrich of the Shady Glen. Some call me the Mad Mouse." He turned his shield to show her his sigil, a large white mouse with fierce red eyes, on bendy brown and blue. - Brienne I, AFFC

x

Sam was reading about the Others when he saw the mouse. - Samwell I, AFFC

+.+.+

Samwell I -> <- Arya I

Three characters are on a collision course.

Dareon will join you at Eastwatch. My hope is that his songs will win some men for us in the south. The Blackbird will deliver you to Braavos. From there you'll arrange your own passage to Oldtown. - Samwell I, AFFC

x

Braavos might not be so bad. Syrio was from Braavos, and Jaqen might be there as well. - Arya I, AFFC

+.+.+

Cersei II -> <- Jaime I

Play-by-play on the state of Tywin Lannister's rotting corpse.

+.+.+

Jaime I -> <- Brienne II

Royal blood in back-to-back chapters.

"I see you wonder, what sort of name is that?" the man had cackled when Jaime went to question him. "It is an old name, 'tis true. I am not one to boast, but there is royal blood in my veins. I am descended from a princess. My father told me the tale when I was a tad of a lad." Longwaters had not been a tad of a lad for many a year, to judge from his spotted head and the white hairs growing from his chin. - Jaime I, AFFC

x

"Well, there's Darkes, I'm one myself. My husband says I was Darke before we wed, and darker afterward." She laughed. "Can't throw a stone in Duskendale without you hit some Darke or Darkwood or Dargood, but the lordly Darklyns are all gone. Lord Denys was the last o' them, the sweet young fool. Did you know the Darklyns were kings in Duskendale before the Andals come? You'd never know t'look at me, but I got me royal blood. Can you see it? 'Your Grace, another cup of ale,' I ought to make them say. 'Your Grace, the chamber pot needs emptying, and fetch in some fresh faggots, Your Bloody Grace, the fire's going out.'" She laughed again and shook the last drops from the pail. - Brienne II, AFFC

+.+.+

Jaime I -> <- Brienne II

Crows are feasting.

On the morning after the battle, the crows had feasted on victors and vanquished alike, as once they had feasted on Rhaegar Targaryen after the Trident. How much can a crown be worth, when a crow can dine upon a king? There were crows circling the seven towers and great dome of Baelor's Sept even now, Jaime suspected, their black wings beating against the night air as they searched for a way inside. Every crow in the Seven Kingdoms should pay homage to you, Father. From Castamere to the Blackwater, you fed them well. - Jaime I, AFFC

x

The looters come with the carrion crows after every battle. 

[...]

Lord Tarly's own striding huntsman appeared on many a badge and brooch and doublet. Friend or foe, the crows care not. - Brienne II, AFFC

+.+.+

Brienne II -> <- Sansa I

Blood calls to blood. Somebody is noticeably missing the second time we get the rundown.

Or would she seek her own blood instead? Though all of her siblings had been slain, Brienne knew that Sansa still had an uncle and a bastard half brother on the Wall, serving in the Night's Watch. Another uncle, Edmure Tully, was a captive at the Twins, but his uncle Ser Brynden still held Riverrun. And Lady Catelyn's younger sister ruled the Vale. Blood calls to blood. Sansa might well have run to one of them. Which one, though? - Brienne II, AFFC

x

She would have fled them both, perhaps, but there was nowhere for her to go. Winterfell was burned and desolate, Bran and Rickon dead and cold. Robb had been betrayed and murdered at the Twins, along with their lady mother. Tyrion had been put to death for killing Joffrey, and if she ever returned to King's Landing the queen would have her head as well. The aunt she'd hoped would keep her safe had tried to murder her instead. Her uncle Edmure was a captive of the Freys, while her great-uncle the Blackfish was under siege at Riverrun. I have no place but here, Sansa thought miserably, and no true friend but Petyr. - Sansa I, AFFC

+.+.+

Brienne II -> <- Sansa I

Sansa's hoarding gods.

But when Brienne asked about Sansa, she said, "I'll tell you what I told Lord Tywin. That girl was always praying. She'd go to sept and light her candles like a proper lady, but near every night she went off to the godswood. She's gone back north, she has. That's where her gods are." - Brienne II, AFFC

x

They hadn't, though, not for a year or more. Sansa had prayed to the Seven in their sept and old gods of the heart tree, asking them to bring the old man back, or better still to send another singer, young and handsome. But the gods never answered, and the halls of Winterfell stayed silent. - Sansa I, AFFC

+.+.+

Sansa I <- The Kraken's Daughter

Asha's hilarious reunion with a fostered ghost from her past.

"Asha?" A shadow stepped out from behind the well.

Her hand went to her dirk at once . . . until the moonlight transformed the dark shape into a man in a sealskin cloak. Another ghost. "Tris. I'd thought to find you in the hall."

"I wanted to see you."

"What part of me, I wonder?" She grinned. "Well, here I stand, all grown up. Look all you like."

"A woman." He moved closer. "And beautiful."

Tristifer Botley had filled out since last she'd seen him, but he had the same unruly hair that she remembered, and eyes as large and trusting as a seal's. Sweet eyes, truly. That was the trouble with poor Tristifer; he was too sweet for the Iron Islands. His face has grown comely, she thought. 

[...]

"If you like. It's nought to me. You look so lovely in the moonlight, Asha. A woman grown now, but I remember when you were a skinny girl with a face all full of pimples."

Why must they always mention the pimples? "I remember that as well." Though not as fondly as you do. Of the five boys her mother had brought to Pyke to foster after Ned Stark had taken her last living son as hostage, Tris had been closest to Asha in age. He had not been the first boy she had ever kissed, but he was the first to undo the laces of her jerkin and slip a sweaty hand beneath to feel her budding breasts.

I would have let him feel more than that if he'd been bold enough. Her first flowering had come upon her during the war and wakened her desire, but even before that Asha had been curious. He was there, he was mine own age, and he was willing, that was all it was . . . that, and the moon blood. Even so, she'd called it love, till Tris began to go on about the children she would bear him; a dozen sons at least, and oh, some daughters too. - The Kraken's Daughter, AFFC

+.+.+

Brienne III <- Samwell II

Someone gets an escort to Eastwatch with one of Brienne's ancestors.

He sent me north aboard the Golden Dragon, and insisted that his friend Ser Duncan see me safe to Eastwatch. - Samwell II, AFFC

+.+.+

Brienne III -> <- Samwell II

Where's little Dickon Tarly? Not at Horn Hill.

"Mooton's daughter, she's a maid," the man went on. "Till the bedding, anyways. These eggs, they're for her wedding. Her and Tarly's son. The cooks will need eggs for cakes."

"They will." Lord Tarly's son. Young Dickon's to be wed. She tried to recall how old he was; eight or ten, she thought. - Brienne III, AFFC

x

"I am a man now, Mother," I could tell her, "a steward, and a man of the Night's Watch. My brothers call me Sam the Slayer sometimes." He would see his brother Dickon too, and his sisters. "See," I could tell them, "see, I was good for something after all." - Samwell II, AFFC

+.+.+

Brienne III -> <- Samwell II

Two sides of Hyle Hunt.

They had a wager.

Three of the younger knights had started it, he told her: Ambrose, Bushy, and Hyle Hunt, of his own household. As word spread through the camp, however, others had joined the game. Each man was required to buy into the contest with a golden dragon, the whole sum to go to whoever claimed her maidenhead. - Brienne III, AFFC

x

Looking at the water only made him think of drowning. When he was small his lord father had tried to teach him how to swim by throwing him into the pond beneath Horn Hill. The water had gotten in his nose and in his mouth and in his lungs, and he coughed and wheezed for hours after Ser Hyle pulled him out. - Samwell II, AFFC

+.+.+

Jaime II -> Cersei IV

Kingsguard having affairs with their queen.

"Who?" Ser Loras craned his head around to see. "Ten black pellets on a scarlet field. I do not know those arms."

"They belonged to Criston Cole, who served the first Viserys and the second Aegon." Jaime closed the White Book. "They called him Kingmaker." - Jaime II, AFFC

+.+.+

Cersei IV -> <- The Iron Captain -> <- The Drowned Man

Who is smart enough to give Asha some land for her help?

"Could we make use of the ironmen?" asked Orton Merryweather. "The enemy of our enemy? What would the Seastone Chair want of us as the price of an alliance?"

"They want the north," Grand Maester Pycelle said, "which our queen's noble father promised to House Bolton."

"How inconvenient," said Merryweather. "Still, the north is large. The lands could be divided. It need not be a permanent arrangement. Bolton might consent, so long as we assure him that our strength will be his once Stannis is destroyed." - Cersei IV, AFFC

x

"To end this war before this war ends us. We have won all that we are like to win . . . and stand to lose all just as quick, unless we make a peace. I have shown Lady Glover every courtesy, and she swears her lord will treat with me. If we hand back Deepwood Motte, Torrhen's Square, and Moat Cailin, she says, the northmen will cede us Sea Dragon Point and all the Stony Shore. Those lands are thinly peopled, yet ten times larger than all the isles put together. An exchange of hostages will seal the pact, and each side will agree to make common cause with the other should the Iron Throne—" - The Iron Captain, AFFC

x

"Peace," said Asha. "Land. Victory. I'll give you Sea Dragon Point and the Stony Shore, black earth and tall trees and stones enough for every younger son to build a hall. We'll have the northmen too . . . as friends, to stand with us against the Iron Throne. Your choice is simple. Crown me, for peace and victory. Or crown my nuncle, for more war and more defeat." She sheathed her dirk again. "What will you have, ironmen?" - The Drowned Man, AFFC

+.+.+

The Iron Captain -> <- The Drowned Man

Fun times at the kingsmoot.

+.+.+

Arya II -> <- Alayne I

Two sisters have new names.

She bit her lip. "Could I be Cat?"

"Cat." He considered. "Yes. Braavos is full of cats. One more will not be noticed. You are Cat, an orphan of . . ." - Arya II, AFFC

x

As the rising sun came streaming through the windows, Alayne sat up in bed and stretched. - Alayne I, AFFC

+.+.+

Alayne I -> <- Cersei V

Time to pluck the roses.

"How old are you, child?" asked Lady Waynwood.

"Four-fourteen, my lady." For a moment she forgot how old Alayne should be. "And I am no child, but a maiden flowered."

"But not deflowered, one can hope." Young Lord Hunter's bushy mustache hid his mouth entirely.

"Yet," said Lyn Corbray, as if she were not there. "But ripe for plucking soon, I'd say." - Alayne I, AFFC

x

"Only?" The queen let a hint of anger edge her words. "I must confess, I am running short of patience with dear Osney. It is past time he broke in that little filly. I named him Tommen's sworn shield so he could spend part of every day in Margaery's company. He should have plucked the rose by now. Is the little queen blind to his charms?" - Cersei V, AFFC

+.+.+

Samwell IV -> <- Cersei IV

Summer Islanders and the Faith have very different views on sex.

"You do not understand. Last night we . . ."

". . . honored your dead, and the gods who made you both. Xhondo did the same. I had the child, else I would have been with him. All you Westerosi make a shame of loving. There is no shame in loving. If your septons say there is, your seven gods must be demons. In the isles we know better. Our gods gave us legs to run with, noses to smell with, hands to touch and feel. What mad cruel god would give a man eyes and tell him he must forever keep them shut, and never look at all the beauty in the world? Only a monster god, a demon of the darkness." Kojja put her hand between Sam's legs. "The gods gave you this for a reason too, for . . . what is your Westerosi word?"

"Fucking," Xhondo offered helpfully. - Samwell IV, AFFC

x

Septon Raynard assumed a regretful tone. "His High Holiness sent me in his stead, and bade me tell Your Grace that the Seven have sent him forth to battle wickedness."

"How? By preaching chastity along the Street of Silk? Does he think praying over whores will turn them back to virgins?"

"Our bodies were shaped by our Father and Mother so we might join male to female and beget trueborn children," Raynard replied. "It is base and sinful for women to sell their holy parts for coin." - Cersei VIII, AFFC

+.+.+

Brienne VII -> <- Jaime VI

Talk of diverting the Trident.

The innkeep never hung another sign, so men forgot the dragon and took to calling the place the River Inn. In those days, the Trident flowed beneath its back door, and half its rooms were built out over the water. Guests could throw a line out their window and catch trout, it's said. There was a ferry landing here as well, so travelers could cross to Lord Harroway's Town and Whitewalls."

"We left the Trident south of here, and have been riding north and west . . . not toward the river but away from it."

"Aye, my lady," the septon said. "The river moved. Seventy years ago, it was. Or was it eighty? - Brenne VII, AFFC

x

When the castle falls, all those inside will be put to the sword. Your herds will be butchered, your godswood will be felled, your keeps and towers will burn. I'll pull your walls down, and divert the Tumblestone over the ruins. - Jaime VI, AFFC

+.+.+

Jaime VI -> <- Cersei IX

Cersei's titles.

On her head a circlet of hammered bronze sat askew, graven with runes and ringed with small black swords. When she saw Jaime, she laughed. "Who in seven hells is this one?"

"The Lord Commander of the Kingsguard," Jaime returned with cold courtesy. "I might ask the same of you, my lady."

"Lady? I'm no lady. I'm the queen."

"My sister will be surprised to hear that."

"Lord Ryman crowned me his very self." She gave a shake of her ample hips. "I'm the queen o' whores."

No, Jaime thought, my sweet sister holds that title too. - Jaime VI, AFFC

x

"We waited long enough." He thrust his fingers inside the bodice of her gown and yanked, and the silk parted with a ripping sound so loud that Cersei was afraid that half of the Red Keep must have heard it. "Take off the rest before I tear that too," he said. "You can keep the crown on. I like you in the crown." - Cersei IX, AFFC

+.+.+

Alayne II -> <- Brienne VIII

Brienne won't show her fear.

And yet the thought of leaving frightened her almost as much as it frightened Robert. She only hid it better. Her father said there was no shame in being afraid, only in showing your fear. "All men live with fear," he said. Alayne was not certain she believed that. Nothing frightened Petyr Baelish. - Alayne II, AFFC

x

I will not be afraid, she told herself, but it was too late for that. I will not let them see my fear, she promised herself instead. - Brienne VIII, AFFC

+.+.+

Cersei X -> <- Jaime VII

Cersei's ripping up her clothes.

I will teach them what it means to put a lion in a cage, Cersei thought. She tore the shift into a hundred pieces, found a ewer of water and smashed it against the wall, then did the same with the chamber pot. - Cersei X, AFFC

x

Jeyne never saw him at all. The widow rode with downcast eyes, huddled beneath a hooded cloak. Underneath its heavy folds, her clothes were finely made, but torn. She ripped them herself, as a mark of mourning, Jaime realized. That could not have pleased her mother. He found himself wondering if Cersei would tear her gown if she should ever hear that he was dead. - Jaime VII, AFFC

+.+.+

Cersei X -> <- Jaime VII

Right before walking into a disaster (a book delays Jaime), the twins are cold as ice.

Cersei could feel the eyes of the Seven staring at her, eyes of jade and malachite and onyx, and a sudden shiver of fear went through her, cold as ice. I am the queen, she told herself. Lord Tywin's daughter. Reluctantly, she followed. - Cersei X, AFFC

x

He woke in darkness, shivering. The room had grown cold as ice. Jaime flung aside the covers with the stump of his sword hand. The fire in the hearth had died, he saw, and the window had blown open. He crossed the pitch-dark chamber to fumble with the shutters, but when he reached the window his bare foot came down in something wet. Jaime recoiled, startled for a moment. His first thought was of blood, but blood would not have been so cold.

It was snow, drifting through the window. - Jaime VII, AFFC

+.+.+

Prologue -> <- Samwell V

AGOT

Prologue: ice threat introduction.

Final chapter: fire threat introduction.

ACOK

Prologue: cold-hearted King Stannis with his dying maester.

Final chapter: kindhearted King Bran with his dying maester.

ASOS

Prologue: Cursed snowflakes, and Jon Snow.

Sansa VII: Drifting snowflakes, and Jon Snow.

AFFC

Prologue: Pig boy Pate.

Samwell V: Pig boy Pate, back from the dead.

The alchemist pulled his hood down.

He was just a man, and his face was just a face. A young man's face, ordinary, with full cheeks and the shadow of a beard. A scar showed faintly on his right cheek. He had a hooked nose, and a mat of dense black hair that curled tightly around his ears. It was not a face Pate recognized. "I do not know you."

"Nor I you."

"Who are you?"

"A stranger. No one. Truly."

[...]

The cobblestones rushed up to kiss him. Pate tried to cry for help, but his voice was failing too.

His last thought was of Rosey. - Prologue, AFFC

x

"My thanks." There was something about the pale, soft youth that he misliked, but he did not want to seem discourteous, so he added, "My name's not Slayer, truly. I'm Sam. Samwell Tarly."

"I'm Pate," the other said, "like the pig boy." - Samwell V, AFFC

+.+.+

JONSA 🐺❤️❄️

Once again, thank you to @ladyofasoiaf for making the manual on all things jonsa. I heavily rely on it when making these posts. :)

Where would a girl in grey go?

If Dontos and this northern girl helped murder our sweet king, it seems to me that they would want to put as many leagues as they could betwixt themselves and justice. Look for them in Oldtown, if you must, or across the narrow sea. Look for them in Dorne, or on the Wall. Look elsewhere. - Brienne II, AFFC

x

But when Brienne asked about Sansa, she said, "I'll tell you what I told Lord Tywin. That girl was always praying. She'd go to sept and light her candles like a proper lady, but near every night she went off to the godswood. She's gone back north, she has. That's where her gods are." - Brienne II, AFFC

x

As they were making their way to the next pier, Podrick shuffled his feet, and said, "Ser? My lady? What if my lady did go home? My other lady, I mean. Ser. Lady Sansa."

"They burned her home."

"Still. That's where her gods are. And gods can't die." - Brienne V, AFFC

+.+.+

Coming after a Brienne chapter, we learn Brienne's ancestor once escorted a royal to Eastwatch.

He sent me north aboard the Golden Dragon, and insisted that his friend Ser Duncan see me safe to Eastwatch. - Samwell II, AFFC

+.+.+

Not yet.

She's a clean ship, 'Strider, not so many rats as most, and we'll have fresh eggs and new-churned butter aboard. Is m'lady seeking passage north?"

"No." Not yet. She was tempted, but . . . - Brienne V, AFFC

+.+.+

The same breakdown appears in back-to-back chapters, only Sansa forgets someone.

Or would she seek her own blood instead? Though all of her siblings had been slain, Brienne knew that Sansa still had an uncle and a bastard half brother on the Wall, serving in the Night's Watch. Another uncle, Edmure Tully, was a captive at the Twins, but his uncle Ser Brynden still held Riverrun. And Lady Catelyn's younger sister ruled the Vale. Blood calls to blood. Sansa might well have run to one of them. Which one, though? - Brienne II, AFFC

x

She would have fled them both, perhaps, but there was nowhere for her to go. Winterfell was burned and desolate, Bran and Rickon dead and cold. Robb had been betrayed and murdered at the Twins, along with their lady mother. Tyrion had been put to death for killing Joffrey, and if she ever returned to King's Landing the queen would have her head as well. The aunt she'd hoped would keep her safe had tried to murder her instead. Her uncle Edmure was a captive of the Freys, while her great-uncle the Blackfish was under siege at Riverrun. I have no place but here, Sansa thought miserably, and no true friend but Petyr. - Sansa I, AFFC

+.+.+

A stag won't find Sansa, but a dragon might.

"Where?" Brienne slapped another silver stag down.

He flicked the coin back at her with his forefinger. "Someplace no stag ever found . . . though a dragon might." - Brienne III, AFFC

+.+.+

Of course it could never be.

There's a new High Septon, did you know? Oh, and the Night's Watch has a boy commander, some bastard son of Eddard Stark's."

"Jon Snow?" she blurted out, surprised.

"Snow? Yes, it would be Snow, I suppose."

She had not thought of Jon in ages. He was only her half brother, but still . . . with Robb and Bran and Rickon dead, Jon Snow was the only brother that remained to her. I am a bastard too now, just like him. Oh, it would be so sweet, to see him once again. But of course that could never be. Alayne Stone had no brothers, baseborn or otherwise. - Alayne II, AFFC

+.+.+

Someday a man will drown in her eyes.

Petyr studied her eyes, as if seeing them for the first time. "You have your mother's eyes. Honest eyes, and innocent. Blue as a sunlit sea. When you are a little older, many a man will drown in those eyes." - Sansa I, AFFC

x

The man kept staring at him, with eyes as big and black as wells. I will fall into those eyes and drown. - Jon V, ASOS

+.+.+

Coming after a Sansa chapter, Asha has an amusing reunion with an old ghost who was fostered at Pyke.

"Asha?" A shadow stepped out from behind the well.

Her hand went to her dirk at once . . . until the moonlight transformed the dark shape into a man in a sealskin cloak. Another ghost. "Tris. I'd thought to find you in the hall."

"I wanted to see you."

"What part of me, I wonder?" She grinned. "Well, here I stand, all grown up. Look all you like."

"A woman." He moved closer. "And beautiful."

Tristifer Botley had filled out since last she'd seen him, but he had the same unruly hair that she remembered, and eyes as large and trusting as a seal's. Sweet eyes, truly. That was the trouble with poor Tristifer; he was too sweet for the Iron Islands. His face has grown comely, she thought. 

[...]

"If you like. It's nought to me. You look so lovely in the moonlight, Asha. A woman grown now, but I remember when you were a skinny girl with a face all full of pimples."

Why must they always mention the pimples? "I remember that as well." Though not as fondly as you do. Of the five boys her mother had brought to Pyke to foster after Ned Stark had taken her last living son as hostage, Tris had been closest to Asha in age. He had not been the first boy she had ever kissed, but he was the first to undo the laces of her jerkin and slip a sweaty hand beneath to feel her budding breasts.

I would have let him feel more than that if he'd been bold enough. Her first flowering had come upon her during the war and wakened her desire, but even before that Asha had been curious. He was there, he was mine own age, and he was willing, that was all it was . . . that, and the moon blood. Even so, she'd called it love, till Tris began to go on about the children she would bear him; a dozen sons at least, and oh, some daughters too. - The Kraken's Daughter, AFFC

+.+.+

Newly flowered Asha had an awakening during the war.

Her first flowering had come upon her during the war and wakened her desire, but even before that Asha had been curious. He was there, he was mine own age, and he was willing, that was all it was . . . that, and the moon blood. - The Kraken's Daughter's, AFFC

+.+.+

Fourteen-year-old Arianne loses her maidenhead to a bastard.

My father is many things, but no one has ever said he was a fool. The Bastard of Godsgrace had my maidenhead when we were both fourteen. - The Soiled Knight, AFFC

+.+.+

Experienced but still green after taking the black white.

It was her turn to flush. Her seduction of Ser Arys had required half a year. Though he claimed to have known other women before taking the white, she would never have known that from the way he acted. His caresses had been clumsy, his kisses nervous, and the first time they were abed together he spent his seed on her thigh as she was guiding him inside her with her hand. - The Princess in the Tower, AFFC

+.+.+

The Dornish (Aegon), the ironborn (Daenerys), and the north (Jon) are wedding dragons.

Thank you, @decadelongsummer!

Oh, but they must, or see the realm riven once more, as it was before we wed the dragons. - The Captain of the Guards, AFFC

x

None is fit to sit the Seastone Chair, much less the Iron Throne. No, to make an heir that's worthy of him, I need a different woman. When the kraken weds the dragon, brother, let all the world beware. - The Reaver, AFFC

x

"Why shouldn't we rule ourselves again? It was the dragons we married, and the dragons are all dead!" - Catelyn XI, AGOT

+.+.+

The blood of Winterfell.

I am not your daughter, she thought. I am Sansa Stark, Lord Eddard's daughter and Lady Catelyn's, the blood of Winterfell. - Sansa I, AFFC

x

Ygritte was with him, laughing at him, shedding her skins till she was naked as her name day, trying to kiss him, but he couldn't, not with his father watching. He was the blood of Winterfell, a man of the Night's Watch. - Jon VI, ASOS

+.+.+

She likes them bold.

If not for Petyr Baelish it would have been Sansa who went spinning through a cold blue sky to stony death six hundred feet below, instead of Lysa Arryn. He is so bold. Sansa wished she had his courage. - Sansa I, AFFC

x

Surprisingly, Stannis smiled at that. "You're bold enough to be a Stark. Yes, I should have come sooner. If not for my Hand, I might not have come at all. - Jon XI, ASOS

+.+.+

Sister and brother, Maiden and Warrior (more).

"Why would Cersei need the Warrior? She has me." Jaime turned his horse about, his white cloak snapping in the wind. - Jaime II, AFFC

x

I thought that I was the Warrior and Cersei was the Maid, but all the time she was the Stranger, hiding her true face from my gaze. - Jaime IV, AFFC

x

The Maiden lay athwart the Warrior, her arms widespread as if to embrace him. - Davos I, ACOK

+.+.+

Radiant sisters.

"How is Cersei? As beautiful as ever?"

"Radiant." Fickle. - Jaime V, AFFC

x

He was twelve, younger than Jon or Robb, but taller than either, to Jon's vast dismay. Prince Joffrey had his sister's hair and his mother's deep green eyes. A thick tangle of blond curls dripped down past his golden choker and high velvet collar. Sansa looked radiant as she walked beside him, but Jon did not like Joffrey's pouty lips or the bored, disdainful way he looked at Winterfell's Great Hall. - Jon I, AGOT

+.+.+

The author gives Snow & Stone some space.

She could see Sky six hundred feet below, and the stone steps carved into the mountain, the winding way that led past Snow and Stone all the way down to the valley floor. - Alayne I, AFFC

x

Steep stone steps crept up the mountainside past the waycastles Stone and Snow, but they came to an end at Sky. - Alayne I, AFFC

+.+.+

Jon's heart is all Stone.

Thank you, @winkydinkle!

He could not blame Gilly for her grief. Instead, he blamed Jon Snow and wondered when Jon's heart had turned to stone. - Samwell III, AFFC

+.+.+

Sansa has a crush.

"Bronze Yohn knows me," she reminded him. "He was a guest at Winterfell when his son rode north to take the black." She had fallen wildly in love with Ser Waymar, she remembered dimly, but that was a lifetime ago, when she was a stupid little girl. - Alayne I, AFFC

x

Ser Waymar Royce was the youngest son of an ancient house with too many heirs. He was a handsome youth of eighteen, grey-eyed and graceful and slender as a knife. - Prologue, AFFC

x

Jon was slender where Robb was muscular, dark where Robb was fair, graceful and quick where his half brother was strong and fast.

[...]

Jon's eyes were a grey so dark they seemed almost black, but there was little they did not see. - Bran I, AGOT

+.+.+

The princess in the tower wishes she had wings.

A falcon soared above the frozen waterfall, blue wings spread wide against the morning sky. Would that I had wings as well. - Alayne I, AFFC

x

"The little bird thinks she has wings, does she? Or do you mean to end up crippled like that brother of yours?" - Sansa IV, ACOK

x

The northern girl. Winterfell's daughter. We heard she killed the king with a spell, and afterward changed into a wolf with big leather wings like a bat, and flew out a tower window. - Arya XIII, ASOS

+.+.+

Sansa gets the head, but still needs flowers.

One of the Mountain's men had tried to rape the girl at Harrenhal, and had seemed honestly perplexed when Jaime commanded Ilyn Payne to take his head off. "I had her before, a hunnerd times," he kept saying as they forced him to his knees. "A hunnerd times, m'lord. We all had her." When Ser Ilyn presented Pia with his head, she had smiled through her ruined teeth. - Jaime IV, AFFC

x

"Ser Harwyn says those tales are lies." Lady Amerei wound a braid around her finger. "He has promised me Lord Beric's head. He's very gallant." She was blushing beneath her tears.

Jaime thought back on the head he'd given to Pia. He could almost hear his little brother chuckle. Whatever became of giving women flowers? Tyrion might have asked. - Jaime IV, AFFC

x

Frog-faced Lord Slynt sat at the end of the council table wearing a black velvet doublet and a shiny cloth-of-gold cape, nodding with approval every time the king pronounced a sentence. Sansa stared hard at his ugly face, remembering how he had thrown down her father for Ser Ilyn to behead, wishing she could hurt him, wishing that some hero would throw him down and cut off his head. - Sansa VI, AGOT

x

The smile that Lord Janos Slynt smiled then had all the sweetness of rancid butter. Until Jon said, "Edd, fetch me a block," and unsheathed Longclaw. - Jon II, ADWD

x

"What's wrong with flowers?" - Jon V, ASOS

+.+.+

A ghost wolf.

There was ice underfoot, and broken stones just waiting to turn an ankle, and the wind was howling fiercely. It sounds like a wolf, thought Sansa. A ghost wolf, big as mountains. - Alayne II, AFFC

+.+.+

Roses kissed by frost.

"When he is a man grown," said Cersei.

Their smiles withered like roses kissed by frost. - Cersei V, AFFC

+.+.+

Children of the mountain.

Thank you, @butterflies-dragons!

She pushed her hair back. "Then one day he wasn't. Men come and go. They lie, or die, or leave you. A mountain is not a man, though, and a stone is a mountain's daughter. I trust my father, and I trust my mules. I won't fall." - Alayne II, AFFC

x

"The mountain is your mother," Stonesnake had told him during an easier climb a few days past. "Cling to her, press your face up against her teats, and she won't drop you." Jon had made a joke of it, saying how he'd always wondered who his mother was, but never thought to find her in the Frostfangs. - Jon VI, ACOK

+.+.+

Ser Byron enters Sansa's story.

"Dutiful and beautiful," said an elegant young knight whose thick blond mane cascaded down well past his shoulders.

[...]

"Knights they are," said Petyr. "Their gallantry has yet to be demonstrated, but we may hope. Allow me to present Ser Byron, Ser Morgarth, and Ser Shadrich. Sers, the Lady Alayne, my natural and very clever daughter . . . with whom I must needs confer, if you will be so good as to excuse us."

The three knights bowed and withdrew, though the tall one with the blond hair kissed her hand before taking his leave. - Alayne II, AFFC

x

The character I'm probably most like in real life is Samwell Tarly. Good old Sam. And the character I'd want to be? Well who wouldn't want to be Jon Snow — the brooding, Byronic, romantic hero whom all the girls love. - George R. R. Martin

+.+.+

A fool or a knight?

"Ser Galladon was a champion of such valor that the Maiden herself lost her heart to him. She gave him an enchanted sword as a token of her love. The Just Maid, it was called. No common sword could check her, nor any shield withstand her kiss. Ser Galladon bore the Just Maid proudly, but only thrice did he unsheathe her. He would not use the Maid against a mortal man, for she was so potent as to make any fight unfair."

Crabb thought that was hilarious. "The Perfect Knight? The Perfect Fool, he sounds like. - Brienne IV, AFFC

x

"A fool and a knight?" said Jonquil. "I have never heard of such a thing."

"Sweet lady," said Florian, "all men are fools, and all men are knights, where women are concerned." - The Hedge Knight

+.+.+

Who's the pig boy?

Thank you, @fedonciadale!

Spotted Pate the pig boy was the hero of a thousand ribald stories: a good-hearted, empty-headed lout who always managed to best the fat lordlings, haughty knights, and pompous septons who beset him. Somehow his stupidity would turn out to have been a sort of uncouth cunning; the tales always ended with Spotted Pate sitting on a lord's high seat or bedding some knight's daughter. But those were stories. In the real world pig boys never fared so well. - Prologue, AFFC

x

His face darkened. "I am. I'm your father, and I can marry you to whoever I like. To anyone. You'll marry the pig boy if I say so, and bed down with him in the sty." His green eyes glittered with amusement. - Sansa III, ACOK

+.+.+

Jon and Sansa know the power of song.

Thank you, @agentrouka-blog!

Dareon will join you at Eastwatch. My hope is that his songs will win some men for us in the south. - Samwell I, AFFC

x

A harp can be as dangerous as a sword, in the right hands. - Sansa VI, ASOS

+.+.+

King Robert liked to play with his cousin.

There had been a female cousin too, a chunky little widow with breasts as big as melons whose husband and father had both died at Storm's End during the siege. "Her father was good to me," Robert told her, "and she and I would play together when the two of us were small." It did not take him long to start playing with her again. - Cersei V, AFFC

+.+.+

Sansa wants to dance.

What would she do when the music began to play? It was a vexing question, to which her heart and head gave different answers. Sansa loved to dance, but Alayne . . . - Alayne II, AFFC

x

When the musicians began to play, she timidly laid her hand on Tyrion's and said, "My lord, should we lead the dance?"

[...]

Perhaps she ought to have remained beside her husband, but she wanted to dance so badly . . . - Sansa III, ASOS

x

"You could dance with me, you know. It would be only courteous. You danced with me anon."

"Anon?" teased Jon.

"When we were children." She tore off a bit of bread and threw it at him. "As you know well."

"My lady should dance with her husband." - Jon X, ADWD

x

A snowflake danced upon the air. Then another. Dance with me, Jon Snow, he thought. You'll dance with me anon. - Jon XII, ADWD

+.+.+

Prince Aemon's back.

"And the Dragonknight?" She flung the bedclothes aside and swung her legs to the floor. "The noblest knight who ever lived, you said, and he took his queen to bed and got her with child." - The Soiled Knight, AFFC

+.+.+

Who could ever love a bastard?

Ser Loras had given Sansa Stark a red rose once, but he had never kissed her . . . and no Tyrell would ever kiss Alayne Stone. Pretty as she was, she had been born on the wrong side of the blanket. - Alayne II, AFFC

+.+.+

Poisoned gifts.

Petyr arched an eyebrow. "When Robert dies. Our poor brave Sweetrobin is such a sickly boy, it is only a matter of time. When Robert dies, Harry the Heir becomes Lord Harrold, Defender of the Vale and Lord of the Eyrie. Jon Arryn's bannermen will never love me, nor our silly, shaking Robert, but they will love their Young Falcon . . . and when they come together for his wedding, and you come out with your long auburn hair, clad in a maiden's cloak of white and grey with a direwolf emblazoned on the back . . . why, every knight in the Vale will pledge his sword to win you back your birthright. So those are your gifts from me, my sweet Sansa . . . Harry, the Eyrie, and Winterfell. That's worth another kiss now, don't you think?" - Alayne II, AFFC

x

"Jon." Melisandre was so close he could feel the warmth of her breath. "R'hllor is the only true god. A vow sworn to a tree has no more power than one sworn to your shoes. Open your heart and let the light of the Lord come in. Burn these weirwoods, and accept Winterfell as a gift of the Lord of Light."

[...]

Stannis gave him a measuring look. "Does this mean you will not wed the girl? I warn you, she is part of the price you must pay, if you want your father's name and your father's castle. This match is necessary, to help assure the loyalty of our new subjects. Are you refusing me, Jon Snow?"

[...]

Stannis put a thin, fleshless hand on Jon's shoulder. "Say nothing of what we've discussed here today. To anyone. But when you return, you need only bend your knee, lay your sword at my feet, and pledge yourself to my service, and you shall rise again as Jon Stark, the Lord of Winterfell." - Jon XI, ASOS

+.+.+

Lancel Lannister's story continues to raise eyebrows.

Lancel had taken to quartering the lion of Lannister with the Darry plowman, it would seem. He saw his uncle's hand in that, as in Lancel's choice of bride. House Darry had ruled these lands since the Andals cast down the First Men. No doubt Ser Kevan realized that his son would have an easier time of it if the peasants saw him as a continuation of the old line, holding these lands by right of marriage rather than royal decree. - Jaime IV, AFFC

x

Maybe he is praying for his cock to harden. In King's Landing it had been rumored that Lancel's wounds had left him incapable. Still, he ought to have sense enough to try. His cousin's hold on his new lands would not be secure until he fathered a son on his half-Darry wife. - Jaime IV, AFFC

x

When his coz did not answer, Jaime sighed. "You should be sleeping with your wife, not with the Maid. You need a son with Darry blood if you want to keep this castle." - Jaime IV, AFFC

+.+.+

More men marrying into houses.

When he was not singing, Nimble Dick would talk, regaling them with tales of Crackclaw Point. Every gloomy valley had its lord, he said, the lot of them united only by their mistrust of outsiders. In their veins the blood of the First Men ran dark and strong. "The Andals tried t' take Crackclaw, but we bled them in the valleys and drowned them in the bogs. Only what their sons couldn't win with swords, their pretty daughters won with kisses. They married into the houses they couldn't conquer, aye." - Brienne IV, AFFC

+.+.+

Val does cosplay. Again.

King Stannis had plans for Val, he knew; she was the mortar with which he meant to seal the peace between the northmen and the free folk. - Samwell I, AFFC

x

"Whoever?" Stannis gave him a measuring look. "Does this mean you will not wed the girl? I warn you, she is part of the price you must pay, if you want your father's name and your father's castle. This match is necessary, to help assure the loyalty of our new subjects. Are you refusing me, Jon Snow?" - Jon XI, ASOS

x

"The girl's happiness is not my purpose, nor should it be yours. Our alliances in the south may be as solid as Casterly Rock, but there remains the north to win, and the key to the north is Sansa Stark." - Tyrion III, ASOS

+.+.+

Sansa -> Bolton requires a Stark daughter to claim Winterfell -> Jon.

"Your Grace has forgotten the Lady Sansa," said Pycelle.

The queen bristled. "I most certainly have not forgotten that little she-wolf." She refused to say the girl's name. "I ought to have shown her to the black cells as the daughter of a traitor, but instead I made her part of mine own household. She shared my hearth and hall, played with my own children. I fed her, dressed her, tried to make her a little less ignorant about the world, and how did she repay me for my kindness? She helped murder my son. When we find the Imp, we will find the Lady Sansa too. She is not dead . . . but before I am done with her, I promise you, she will be singing to the Stranger, begging for his kiss."

An awkward silence followed. Have they all swallowed their tongues? Cersei thought, with irritation. It was enough to make her wonder why she bothered with a council.

"In any case," the queen went on, "Lord Eddard's younger daughter is with Lord Bolton, and will be wed to his son Ramsay as soon as Moat Cailin has fallen." So long as the girl played her role well enough to cement their claim to Winterfell, neither of the Boltons would much care that she was actually some steward's whelp tricked up by Littlefinger. "If the north must have a Stark, we'll give them one." She let Lord Merryweather fill her cup once again. "Another problem has arisen on the Wall, however. The brothers of the Night's Watch have taken leave of their wits and chosen Ned Stark's bastard son to be their Lord Commander." - Cersei IV, AFFC

+.+.+

The author's constant reminder.

Jaime sighed. "Then let them wed. It will be years before Tommen is old enough to consummate the marriage. And until he does, the union can always be set aside. Give Tyrell his wedding and send him off to play at war." - Jaime I, AFFC

x

"I said some words and gave her a red cloak, but only to please Father. Marriage requires consummation. King Baelor was made to wed his sister Daena, but they never lived as man and wife, and he put her aside as soon as he was crowned." - Jaime IV, AFFC

x

"She is old enough to be Lady of Winterfell once her brother is dead. Claim her maidenhood and you will be one step closer to claiming the north. Get her with child, and the prize is all but won. Do I need to remind you that a marriage that has not been consummated can be set aside?" - Tyrion IV, ASOS

+.+.+

Jon vs. Tyrion Pregame.

"Well," said Sam, "he will not want it said that Stannis rode to the defense of the realm whilst King Tommen was playing with his toys. That would bring scorn down upon House Lannister."

"It's death and destruction I want to bring down upon House Lannister, not scorn." Jon lifted up the letter. - Samwell I, AFFC

+.+.+

Big brothers.

My betrothal was announced at a feast with half the west in attendance. Ellyn Tarbeck laughed and the Red Lion went angry from the hall. The rest sat on their tongues. Only Tywin dared speak against the match. A boy of ten. Father turned as white as mare's milk, and Walder Frey was quivering." She smiled. "How could I not love him, after that? That is not to say that I approved of all he did, or much enjoyed the company of the man that he became . . . but every little girl needs a big brother to protect her. Tywin was big even when he was little." - Jaime V, AFFC

+.+.+

That uncomfortable subject.

"How old are you, child?" asked Lady Waynwood.

"Four-fourteen, my lady." For a moment she forgot how old Alayne should be. "And I am no child, but a maiden flowered."

"But not deflowered, one can hope." Young Lord Hunter's bushy mustache hid his mouth entirely.

"Yet," said Lyn Corbray, as if she were not there. "But ripe for plucking soon, I'd say." - Alayne I, AFFC

___

"A child?" said Sansa, uncertainly.

Lysa waved a hand negligently. "Not for many years. You are too young to be a mother. One day you shall want children, though. Just as you will want to marry." - Sansa VI, ASOS

x

"I will." He cuddled close and laid his head between her breasts. "Alayne? Are you my mother now?"

"I suppose I am," she said. If a lie was kindly meant, there was no harm in it. - Sansa I, AFFC

___

She studied Alayne's face and chest. "You are prettier than me, but my breasts are larger. The maesters say large breasts produce no more milk than small ones, but I do not believe it. Have you ever known a wet nurse with small teats? Yours are ample for a girl your age, but as they are bastard breasts, I shan't concern myself with them." - Alayne II, AFFC

___

"The gods made men to fight, and women to bear children," said Randyll Tarly. "A woman's war is in the birthing bed." - Brienne III, AFFC

x

"How apt. The men will bleed out there, and you in here." The queen signaled for the first course to be served. - Sansa V, ACOK

___

Jeyne Westerling had been Robb Stark's queen, the girl who cost him everything. With a wolf in her belly, she could have proved more dangerous than the Blackfish. - Jaime VI, AFFC

x

"A child born of traitor's seed will find that betrayal comes naturally to her," said Grand Maester Pycelle. "She is a sweet thing now, but in ten years, who can say what treasons she may hatch?" - Sansa IV, AGOT

___

To break her fast the queen sent to the kitchens for two boiled eggs, a loaf of bread, and a pot of honey. But when she cracked the first egg and found a bloody half-formed chick inside, her stomach roiled. - Cersei III, AFFC

vs.

An immense round fat man, as big as three Moon Boys, he came cartwheeling into the hall, vaulted onto the table, and laid a gigantic egg right in front of Sansa. "Break it, my lady," he commanded. When she did, a dozen yellow chicks escaped and began running in all directions. - Sansa I, ASOS

+.+.+

A king must have an heir.

And Cersei … I have Jon Arryn to thank for her. I had no wish to marry after Lyanna was taken from me, but Jon said the realm needed an heir. - Eddard VII, AGOT

x

"Jeyne," she called after, "there's one more thing Robb needs from you, though he may not know it yet himself. A king must have an heir." - Catelyn III, ASOS

x

"Young, and a king," he said. "A king must have an heir. If I should die in my next battle, the kingdom must not die with me. - Catelyn V, ASOS

x

He had not touched another woman since he gave her to the crabs. I will need to take a wife when I am king. A true wife, to be my queen and bear me sons. A king must have an heir. - The Iron Captain, AFFC

x

Victarion was turning to go when the Crow's Eye said, "A king must have a wife, to give him heirs. - The Reaver, AFFC

x

Many promised him their voices: Fralegg the Strong, clever Alvyn Sharp, humpbacked Hotho Harlaw. Hotho offered him a daughter for his queen. "I have no luck with wives," Victarion told him. His first wife died in childbed, giving him a stillborn daughter. His second had been stricken by a pox. And his third . . .

"A king must have an heir," Hotho insisted. "The Crow's Eye brings three sons to show before the kingsmoot."

"Bastards and mongrels. How old is this daughter?"

"Twelve," said Hotho. "Fair and fertile, newly flowered, with hair the color of honey. Her breasts are small as yet, but she has good hips. She takes after her mother, more than me." – The Iron Captain, AFFC

+.+.+

Does the moon tea have anything to do with jonsa? I'll include it, and let you decide.

She had surrendered her virtue at six-and-ten, to a beautiful blond-haired sailor on a trading galley up from Lys. He only knew six words of the Common Tongue, but "fuck" was one of them—the very word she'd hoped to hear. Afterward, Asha had the sense to find a woods witch, who showed her how to brew moon tea to keep her belly flat. - The Kraken's Daughter, AFFC

x

"I swore a vow . . ."

". . . not to wed or father children. Well, I have drunk my moon tea, and you know I cannot marry you." She smiled. "Though I might be persuaded to keep you for my paramour." - The Soiled Knight, AFFC

x

"The little queen has appetites that Tommen is as yet too young to satisfy." That was always a danger, when a grown woman was married to a child. Even more so with a widow. She may claim that Renly never touched her, but I will not believe it. Women only drank moon tea for one reason; maidens had no need for it at all. - Cersei IX, AFFC

x

"As you will." Jaime turned to the daughter. "I am sorry for your loss. The boy had courage, I'll give him that. There is a question I must ask you. Are you carrying his child, my lady?"

Jeyne burst from her chair and would have fled the room if the guard at the door had not seized her by the arm. "She is not," said Lady Sybell, as her daughter struggled to escape. "I made certain of that, as your lord father bid me." - Jaime VII, AFFC

x

"You're bastard-born yourself. And if Ygritte does not want a child, she will go to some woods witch and drink a cup o' moon tea. You do not come into it, once the seed is planted." - Jon II, ASOS

x

Tears ran down her aunt's puffy red face. "I gave you my maiden's gift. I would have given you a son too, but they murdered him with moon tea, with tansy and mint and wormwood, a spoon of honey and a drop of pennyroyal. It wasn't me, I never knew, I only drank what Father gave me . . ." - Sansa VII, ASOS

+.+.+

Two prophetic conversations have Sansa and Cersei on the same path.

"When will I wed the prince?" she asked.

"Never. You will wed the king." - Cersei VIII, AFFC

x

"No," Ned said. He saw no use in lying to her. "Yet someday he may be the lord of a great holdfast and sit on the king's council. He might raise castles like Brandon the Builder, or sail a ship across the Sunset Sea, or enter your mother's Faith and become the High Septon." 

[...]

Arya cocked her head to one side. "Can I be a king's councillor and build castles and become the High Septon?"

"You," Ned said, kissing her lightly on the brow, "will marry a king and rule his castle, and your sons will be knights and princes and lords and, yes, perhaps even a High Septon."

Arya screwed up her face. "No," she said, "that's Sansa." - Eddard V, AGOT

+.+.+

Ashford Tournament!

Thank you @nobodysuspectsthebutterfly for the theory! (lol)

Thank you @butterflies-dragons for the additional parallels!

"Will there be another champion in Ser Humfrey's [Hardyng] place?"

"Lord Ashford had a mind to grant the place to Lord Caron, or perhaps the other Ser Humfrey, the one who gave Hardyng such a splendid match, but Prince Baelor told him that it would not be seemly to remove Ser Humfrey's shield and pavilion under the circumstances. I believe they will continue with four champions in place of five."

Four champions, Dunk thought. Leo Tyrell, Lyonel Baratheon, Tybolt Lannister, and Prince Valarr [Targaryen]. - The Hedge Knight

___

Lyonel Baratheon

Sansa must wed Joffrey, that is clear now, we must give them no grounds to suspect our devotion. - Catelyn II, AGOT

x

___

Leo Tyrell

The words came tumbling out of her. "Yes. I will. I would like that more than anything. To wed Ser Loras, to love him . . ." "Loras?" Lady Olenna sounded annoyed. "Don't be foolish, child. Kingsguard never wed. Didn't they teach you anything in Winterfell? We were speaking of my grandson Willas. He is a bit old for you, to be sure, but a dear boy for all that. Not the least bit oafish, and heir to Highgarden besides." - Sansa I, ASOS

x

Willas Tyrell was green as his surcoat and had no business riding in such company. The Fat Flower thrust him into tourneys at too tender an age, just as he did with the other two. He wanted another Leo Longthorn, and made himself a cripple. - Tyrion V, ASOS

___

Tybolt Lannister

"Yes. You are a ward of the crown. The king stands in your father's place, since your brother is an attainted traitor. That means he has every right to dispose of your hand. You are to marry my brother Tyrion." - Sansa III, ASOS

x

The Baratheon and Lannister defeat the maiden's brother(s).

Tybolt Lannister and Androw Ashford rode against each other thrice more before Ser Androw finally lost shield, seat, and match all at once. The younger Ashford lasted even longer, breaking no less than nine lances against Ser Lyonel Baratheon, the Laughing Storm. Champion and challenger both lost their saddles on their tenth course, only to rise together to fight on, sword against mace. Finally a battered Ser Robert Ashford admitted defeat, but on the viewing stand his father looked anything but dejected. Both Lord Ashford's Sons had been ushered from the ranks of the champions, it was true, but they had acquitted themselves nobly against two of the finest knights in the Seven Kingdoms. - The Hedge Knight

___

Humfrey Hardyng

When Robert dies, Harry the Heir becomes Lord Harrold, Defender of the Vale and Lord of the Eyrie. Jon Arryn's bannermen will never love me, nor our silly, shaking Robert, but they will love their Young Falcon . . . and when they come together for his wedding, and you come out with your long auburn hair, clad in a maiden's cloak of white and grey with a direwolf emblazoned on the back . . . why, every knight in the Vale will pledge his sword to win you back your birthright. So those are your gifts from me, my sweet Sansa . . . Harry, the Eyrie, and Winterfell. - Alayne II, AFFC

x

A lady's armor is her courtesy. Alayne could feel the blood rushing to her face. No tears, she prayed. Please, please, I must not cry. "As you wish, ser. And now if you will excuse me, Littlefinger's bastard must find her lord father and let him know that you have come, so we can begin the tourney on the morrow." And may your horse stumble, Harry the Heir, so you fall on your stupid head in your first tilt. - Alayne I, TWOW

x

At the last possible instant, Ser Humfrey's stallion reared away from the oncoming point, eyes rolling in terror, but too late, Aerion's lance took the animal just above the armor that protected his breastbone, and exploded out of the back of his neck in a gout of bright blood. Screaming, the horse crashed sideways, knocking the wooden barrier to pieces as he fell. Ser Humfrey tried to leap free, but a foot caught in a stirrup and they heard his shriek as his leg was crushed between the splintered fence and falling horse. - The Hedge Knight

___

Prince Valarr Targaryen

Jon Snow was the only brother that remained to her. I am a bastard too now, just like him. Oh, it would be so sweet, to see him once again. - Alayne II, AFFC

x

But they were all dead now, even Arya, everyone but her half-brother, Jon. Some nights she heard talk of him, in the taverns and brothels of the Ragman's Harbor. The Black Bastard of the Wall, one man had called him. - The Blind Girl, ADWD

x

Six pups they'd found in the late summer snows, him and Robb; five that were grey and black and brown, for the five Starks, and one white, as white as Snow. - Jon XII, ASOS

x

He was a shorter, slimmer, handsomer version of his sire, without the twice-broken nose that had made Baelor seem more human than royal. Valarr's hair was brown, but a bright streak of silver-gold ran through it. - The Hedge Knight

x

The last pavilion was Prince Valarr's. Of black silk it was, with a line of pointed scarlet pennons hanging from its roof like long red flames. The shield on its stand was glossy black, emblazoned with the three-headed dragon of House Targaryen. One of the Kingsguard knights stood beside it, his shining white armor stark against the black of the tentcloth. 

[...]

And the black-and-white knight, Lord Gawen Swann, challenged the black prince with the white guardian. - The Hedge Knight

+.+.+

[sayruq]

If it turns out Bran is able to have children, who do you think he should marry. While Breera is cute I don't see it happening.

Should marry - probably an influential house, perhaps a lannister given how their wealth is imperative to helping westeros recover from the long night. Maybe Rosamund Lannister from Lannisport. But having a Lannister be queen will definitely be controversial after everything they've done.

He will probably marry a Southerner, likely someone whose kingdom is not as accepting of his reign perhaps. I can see him marrying someone from the Westerlands (not a Lannister because I don't think they'll have much wealth left thanks to @istumpysk reread project) in an effort to give the War of the Five Kings a peaceful conclusion. Same with a girl from the Iron Islands. I can also see him marrying someone from Dorne to bind the Dornish to his kingdom like Daeron II did and as a way of establishing a continuation between Aegon VI's reign and his reign.

[agentrouka-blog]

I never understood Brienne crashing the Vale Tourney. There is a lot of distance to cover and I bet Stoneheart is just going to let her go. At present I think her Winds Storyline will center around Stoneheart, Brotherhood, meeting Arya, knighted by Jaime I hope so etc. What are your predictions as to how her arc might shape in Winds?

I have no solid predictions, unfortunately!

I do agree that Brienne making it to the Vale seems an unlikely development, and I do agree that her focus in TWOW will be on the Lady Stoneheart plotline.

Of course, this plotline will be told out of chronological order with most of the Westerosi plot we've already been presented, essentially. 

Jaime disappears with Brienne - and stays disappeared - very soon after the surrender of Riverrun (which is before Sansa descends fron the Eyrie) and a not insignificant amount of time passes since then, including Cersei's entire imprisonment, part of which involves waiting for Kevan Lannister to make his way to KL from the other side of the continent, the Walk of Shame and the aftermath leading up to the ADWD Epilogue. Arianne's two TWOW sample chapters take place around that time, as well. As does Sansa's sample chapter. In theory, Brienne could well be on her way eastward again. We have no way of knowing, yet.

That said, the speculation I have developed so far (primarily with @istumpysk due to her excellent reread project) is that the Lady Stoneheart plotline could well lead up to a split in the Brotherhood. 

Whatever plan Brienne has formed in how to deal with the threat to Podrick and Hyle Hunt and Jaime, it's likely to receive help from within the Brotherhood as well. We have fully morally compromised members like Lady Stoneheart and Lem, and then we have ambiguous figures who regret the murderous turn from helping the smallfolk and conducting actual trials toward vengeful murder and mock trials.

Thoros is a prime candidate for turning on Lady Stoneheart and helping Brienne and her companions (perhaps even Jaime) escape, and the fact that he is a priest of R'hllor like Melisandre opens up many parallels to, say, the split in Stannis' camp between moderates and religious fanatics, which is also paralleled in the desire to kill a "guilty man" (Theon v. Jaime) and the threat to an innocent child (Shireen v. Podrick) and vengeance against usurping traitorous lords (Frey/Lannister v. Frey/Bolton).

The escape of Brienne and her companions may mirror the escape of Theon and Asha, and the fallout for the Brotherhood in their absence (yet more atrocities) may well mirror the lead-up to the burning of Shireen. At that later point, hopefully Arya would have made it back to Westeros to help tie up that plot with a turn toward something unexpected: mercy.

That said, I think - probably like Asha and Theon - Brienne and Jaime are likely to split paths before long. Hopefully their relationship will be crowned by a knighting (as suggested by the significant meeting place of Pennytree), and Brienne sets out to fulfill her promise to Catelyn while Jaime sets out toward his endgame: his children and his sister/wife, doing what Rhaegar failed to do and putting them before himself.

So, by the time the TWOW plot sets in, some of this may have already happened, actually. Brienne's path may be obscured from us until she shows up somewhere to meet/rescue one of the Stark sisters, be it Arya or Sansa.

I am starting to lean back toward it being Sansa, but I would still prefer it to be Arya, simply because of the juxtaposition of their different ways of being mortally dangerous female characters in a deeply sexist world. A true knight from the songs and a tiny assassin baby. Perhaps we'll get a mix of both and Brienne meets Arya without recognizing her, unknowlingly setting her on the path toward Lady Stoneheart while making her way north to trail Sansa.

If she does meet her there and begins to mirror her storyline with Catelyn (as suggested in the show) she may take up a role somewhat similar to Jonquil Darke for a while, until perhaps she is sent on another quest.

Bran was going to be a knight himself someday, one of the Kingsguard. Old Nan said they were the finest swords in all the realm. There were only seven of them, and they wore white armor and had no wives or children, but lived only to serve the king. Bran knew all the stories. Their names were like music to him. (AGOT, Bran II)

Brienne, Jaime and Catelyn's stories are connected through children, his three bastards but also Sansa, Arya and Bran, so I think it would be nice if Bran finally got to meet a real knight like he had dreamed of: a true knight.

[joannalannister]

Dusk had begun to settle over the waters of Slaver's Bay before Dany returned to the deck. She stood by the rail and looked out over Astapor. From here it looks almost beautiful, she thought. The stars were coming out above, and the silk lanterns below, just as Kraznys's translator had promised. The brick pyramids were all glimmery with light. But it is dark below, in the streets and plazas and fighting pits. And it is darkest of all in the barracks, where some little boy is feeding scraps to the puppy they gave him when they took away his manhood.

—A Storm of Swords

[makerkenzie]

They're both enjoying this too much.

I reread Catelyn's last POV chapter in ACOK last night. This time I was looking for Catelyn's mindset in approaching Jaime for questioning. More broadly, I was looking for the contrast between how Catelyn thinks while going to Jaime, and how Robb thinks while refusing to bend the knee.

Yeah, so I reread the chapter, and I found her conversation with Jaime so, so funny. Like, get-the-popcorn funny. It's so entertaining because Catelyn is usually such an introspective, thoughtful character, and then she's so happy to get into it with Jaime...why? Because she can? Yep, it's pretty much because she can.

Early in the chapter, she's miserable because she got the news of Bran and Rickon's supposed deaths. She thinks to herself, "I am a creature of grief and dust and bitter longing. There is an empty place within me where my heart once was."

She can say that all she wants, but her behavior tells a different story. Look at how warm and loving she is, telling Brienne about her daughters. Look at how open and raw she is, pouring her heart out to her dying father.

She's already established that a) yes, she wants all the Lannisters dead, but b) ONLY AFTER she gets her daughters back alive. We know she's already asked to trade Jaime for the girls, and Robb flat-out refused.

So now it's midnight, there's Brienne to protect her, and it's time to pay a visit to Jaime in the dungeon.

Nominally, the conversation is for Catelyn to determine whether she can trust Jaime to hold up his end of an agreement. That much is true, but there are also some things Catelyn needs to know and she wants the answers in Jaime's own words. That much is understandable, but EVEN BEYOND THAT, Catelyn never misses a chance to roll around in the verbal mud with Jaime, arguing like a pair of estranged lovers.

Now Jaime's behavior in this encounter is one thing. He's a prisoner. He's been uncomfortable and isolated for months, he's lonely and bored, and he doesn't know whether his family are still alive. He is literally chained to a wall in a dark cell. If he wants to derail the conversation to get a rise out of Catelyn, that hardly demands an explanation. Catelyn, on the other hand, is in a position of responsibility, she has the ability to hurt Jaime whereas he is unable to fight back or run away. She's asking him to do her a big favor. Or at least asking him to make her a big promise. In this context, Catelyn should want Jaime to feel like he owes her something.

So with that in mind? It's on Catelyn to be the adult in the room. And yet! The conversation keeps going way off-topic! Not just because Jaime's an asshole, although he's hardly wearing his Adult Hat here. No, it's because Catelyn is so happy to harangue Jaime about what a trashcan he is, no matter how irrelevant to the project of being reunited with her living children.

I tell you, she's enjoying this shit. She'd never admit it out loud, in fact i'm sure she'd never even admit it to herself, but she is leaning very hard into this encounter and not for practical reasons. There's something about Jaime that she just can't leave alone. Part of this conversation, granted, is GRRM beginning some character development on Jaime. Part of it is that, sure. Part of it, though? Is that Catelyn can't help herself.

For example! When she asks Jaime about Bran's fall, that serves two purposes: 1) she's testing Jaime's willingness to answer truthfully, and 2) she wants the closure of knowing it wasn't an accident. Jaime's answer---"I flung him from a window"---gives her both of those things! But then Catelyn starts scolding him about how he's supposed to behave, because he's a knight. It's like, she knows he's better than this. Even though he just told her what she already suspected, she's still acting all surprised.

And later! They get onto the subject of what Robb and his bannermen want to do with Jaime. Right? Catelyn could turn that back to showing Jaime how her prisoner exchange is his best shot at leaving Riverrun alive. Instead, she lets it devolve into her lecturing Jaime about what a shitty knight he is. Again: she's straying off-topic and rolling around in the mud with him.

This is before I even begin to unpack the part where they talk about Ned's brother Brandon.

[memecucker]

there’s a post on here i saw that said something along the lines of how GRRM basically used the latter parts of the GOT show as a beta test for how well plot threads would be received and that seems like a misinterpretation of how GRRM let the show runners look at his notes and godbook and stuff bc if you read the books they clearly set up things entirely differently when the show began to approach the current point in the books including with some of the cliffhangers. Eg; there will certainly be nothing like Theon and Yara/Asha beating Euron to Meereen and warning Dany not to trust him because his fleet has already reached the city while Theon and Yara/Asha had been captured by Stannis who is also actually successfully building a power base in the North by virtue of being the only alternative to Bolton rule for Stark loyalists. And that’s not even mentioning major book characters not at all in the show like Lady Stoneheart or Old Griff and Young Griff.

Also i actually tried to look up if the show runners ever explained why they left out Lady Stoneheart and they basically said they didn’t want to spoil a certain cliffhanger in the books involving her which like is a really dumb excuse in that instance bc “Zombie Catelyn Stark who feels only hate and a desire for revenge so strong she kills children affiliated with Lannisters, Boltons or Freys with no hesitation” isn’t exactly a concept that would be hard to take in an original direction (especially since the last action she did while alive in both the books and show was killing a child). But that aside I think the statement about deliberately avoiding plot developments that would act as “spoilers” for the books is actually something that went into the writing and why certain elements in the later seasons felt a bit disjointed (I mean, the ultimate reason is still that they rushed season 8 by speedrunning resolutions for series long slow builds so the showrunners could go onto that Confederate alt history show that got cancelled and that Star Wars project which was also cancelled but this is still part of it i think). So basically in knowing the direction of the books they intentionally went in entirely different directions and pulled an FMA ‘03 (though at least FMA 03 tried to be creative with the ending...)

Anyway the only reason i’m saying this is is bc the show makes it canon that Jon is the son of Lyanna and Rhaegar and i’m lowkey hoping that means this isn’t the case in the books bc jfc so many RLJ people in the book fandom are so fucking insufferable bc they also usually believe it was a love marriage and end up sounding like Sansa at the beginning by just thinking the most romantic version of events is the true one and are basically obnoxious shippers but it’s in a fandom where shipping isn’t a big thing so it also feels weird and think the fact that anything that could be interpreted as a hint of Lyanna and Rhaegar’s child being someone else (*cough* Young Griff *cough*) or the stuff about Ned being in love with Ashara Dayne are just “red herrings” as if GRRM hasn’t been fully aware for a long time that a large chunk of the fandom basically thinks RLJ is as good as canon anyway this has been a rant i’ve been rereading the books and rewatching the show in chunks

[writergirl2011]

I posted 288 times in 2021

77 posts created (27%)

211 posts reblogged (73%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 2.7 posts.

I added 426 tags in 2021

#jaime x brienne - 76 posts

#jaime lannister - 59 posts

#dee writes things - 58 posts

#fanfiction - 54 posts

#brienne of tarth - 53 posts

#diamond in the rough - 52 posts

#the baseball story - 48 posts

#yo ho yo ho - 11 posts

#lol - 8 posts

#it's a writer's life for me - 7 posts

Longest Tag: 105 characters

#do i have time to finish my idea for this prompt and continue the baseball story by the end of the month?

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

So...I wrote a thing.  About a cardboard cutout of an eventually naked Jaime. And there’s sex on a desk.

Maybe I should lead with sex on a desk. *shrugs*

19 notes • Posted 2021-01-01 03:17:23 GMT

#4

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Game of Thrones (TV), A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth Characters: Jaime Lannister, Brienne of Tarth, Hyle Hunt, Sansa Stark, Margaery Tyrell Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - College/University, Based on a Twitter Post, nothing but fun here, this story is completely angst free, unless your name is hyle hunt, then I suppose there's angst, no beta we die like men Summary:

Hyle Hunt thinks he's the luckiest freshman at King's Landing University when he gets Jaime Lannister for a roommate. There's bound to be tons of hot girls hanging around him, right?

Right????

~*~

Yes, I know I should be working on the baseball story.  But this kinda happened instead.  Enjoy!!

22 notes • Posted 2021-06-07 10:45:43 GMT

#3

Chapters: 9/9 Fandom: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, Game of Thrones (TV) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth Characters: Brienne of Tarth, Jaime Lannister, Selwyn Tarth, Tywin Lannister, Sansa Stark, Margaery Tyrell, Robb Stark, Jeyne Westerling, Sybell Spicer, Theon Greyjoy, Tyrion Lannister, Cersei Lannister, Arya Stark, Catelyn Tully Stark, Lysa Tully Arryn, Tysha (ASoIaF), Jon Snow, Galladon of Tarth, Maggy (ASoIaF) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Woke Up Married, Destination Wedding, those two tags are mutually exclusive, or are they?, Idiots in Love, Romantic Comedy, mischief on a balcony, inexcusable use of karaoke for a declaration of love, Smut, a dollop of angst, but always a happy ending Summary:

Two strangers meet in a bar, have a few drinks, and wake up married the next morning.

That's just the beginning of their story.

~*~

Aaaand now that the Big Reveal for the 2021 Jaime x Brienne Fic Exchange has happened, it appears that I have once again won the Longest Fic Award because apparently, I've never met a song prompt that I couldn't turn into an 82K-word story.  This was for @samirant, who wanted something for the song "Sunday Kind of Love" by Etta James.

23 notes • Posted 2021-08-21 03:21:37 GMT

#2

Jaime x Brienne 2021 Exchange Fic Recs!!!

Hey there! While I haven’t quite gotten through all of the fics in this year’s Jaime x Brienne Fic Exchange, I wanted to go ahead and get this rec list posted ahead of the reveal tomorrow night. I plan to add to it once I finish the final batch of stories and go back and reread a few I bookmarked. So without further ado, and in no particular order, here are some of my favorites:

Desserts. [Modern AU] This wonderful story was written for me and it’s a lovely character study of chef!Jaime and his growing relationship with Brienne (who is his sous chef even if it takes him forever to admit it). But what will Jaime do when Hyle Hunt walks into his restaurant, stating that he’s Brienne’s fiancé? Jaime’s response is epic, so don’t miss out on this one!!

Bug Juice: Jaime and Brienne’s Summer at Camp. [Modern AU]. A story with a Myrcella POV! This author did a fantastic job of combining a 90’s children’s show with a GoT Season 8 fix-it. Myrcella’s running commentary on the last episode of the season is hilarious as she finds out whether her Uncle Jaime will finally get together with Equestrian Director Brienne!

Come Home. [Show canon divergence]. This was so beautifully written. When Selwyn sends Brienne an urgent message for her to come home, Brienne doesn’t know what to expect. What she finds is that Evenfall Hall has a very problematic guest that’s inevitably going to attract trouble when the world finds out he’s there. To say more would spoil the surprise.

On Paper. [Modern AU]. Poor Addam Marbrand, forever stuck dealing with Jaime’s perpetual inability to flirt effectively. One of the funniest stories I read in the exchange.

Safe. [Modern AU]. Oh. My. God. The train heist story. Electric sexual tension between Jaime and Brienne, competence kink, and a wonderful backstory woven throughout. Guh.

Ding Dong Ditch, Baby. [Modern AU]. Jaime needs Brienne’s help when someone leaves an unexpected package for Tyrion on his doorstep. Complicating matters is that their one date was an absolute disaster, not that that will keep the sexual tension at bay!

Unrestrained Summer Fun. [Modern AU]. Jaime, Brienne, and Cleos spend one memorable summer together as children, and are reunited about twenty years later. The author cleverly recreates their trip through the Riverlands in a series of misadventures only kids could have. I loved this story so much!!

Has the Past Passed? [Modern AU]. Jaime and Brienne were driven apart by a misunderstanding. Ten years later, Jaime returns—as Brienne’s on the verge of marrying another man. It’s not every story that has you feeling sorry for Hyle Hunt for a while, and the author handles the sticky situation deftly.

they say your body is full of sin (it’s the door through where peace begins). [Modern AU]. Take a premise that could’ve been a pretty quick, hot-and-heavy PWP (5+1 masturbation fic). Throw in Jaime’s complicated history with his father driving him to become a camboy, lonely journalist Brienne tuning into his channel, and don’t forget the feelings. Lots and LOTS of feelings. And baked goods. Have I left anything out? Probably. This story is amazing.

Where I Cannot Stand. [Firefly AU]. I must admit, I’ve never watched Firefly. That will soon be rectified as this story was fantastic. Jaime and his ragtag crew take on two passengers for their trip to the Twins. One of them is a tall, mysterious blond acting suspicious and bringing along a large crate. To quote Jaime at one point in the story, “What could go wrong?” (Seriously, Jaime, you’d think you would know NEVER to say such a thing.)

right here, forever. [The Martian AU]. MARTIAN AU! MARTIAN AU!!! Brienne finds herself stranded with Jaime on Mars—not ideal considering they’ve got a complicated history. One of my favorite movies mashed up with my favorite OTP? That’s my catnip.

Thanks to the @jaime-brienne-fic-exchange mods for putting this together!!

28 notes • Posted 2021-08-20 02:46:47 GMT

#1

2021 J/B Smut Swap Recs

So rather than tear my hair out trying to deduce who wrote what smut stories in the last sixteen hours until the reveal, I’ve decided to put together a little list of my favorites from the exchange.  Not that I didn’t enjoy all the stories, because I definitely did, but these are the stories that stayed with me—for one reason or another—long after I finished reading them:

Popcorn.  Jaime and Brienne as bickering coworkers at a movie cinema with a broken reclining chair.  Their way of trying to fix it is highly recommended.  Sweet, snarky, and hot.

Light My Fire.  It’s the end-of-season party at Winterfell Resorts, and Jaime and Brienne find themselves alone in a very cold room with a roaring fire.  True confession time: I had no idea what a union suit was until recently, and even then I thought, “What’s so sexy about long johns?”  Union suits are NOT long johns and after reading this story, I am a convert to the “union suits are sexy” camp.

Binary Explosive.  Jaime and Brienne have to figure out how to defuse a bomb before their combined heart rates reach 200, a task that isn’t helped by the fact that they’re tied together with the bomb between them and years’ worth of sexy adventures coming to mind to spike those heart rates.  Brienne trying to get to the knife on Jaime’s thigh (which, oops, he put on the other thigh this time) is just...*whew*.  Definitely a can’t-miss story!!!

Apart, Together, Together Apart.  Set in a post-book canon world, where Jaime remains the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard and Brienne’s the Evenstar on Tarth.  They get to spend a lovely, but too short, week together.  I love the realism of this story because I like to think it’s what would happen if Jaime successfully rescues Tommen from the clutches of everyone in King’s Landing.

what is dark in me illumine.  Holy.  Hell.  LITERALLY, because Jaime’s a demon that Brienne can’t resist (not that she’d want to, come on).  From the scene at the bar to the insane hotness of what happens in Brienne’s bedroom, this story is SOMETHING ELSE.  Seriously hot.

Second Chances.  I get that Jaime/Addam/Brienne may not be everyone’s jam, but this story was just amazing.  Brienne is anxious and tentative at first, but in the end, she knows what she wants and asks for it.  I love it!!

Stage Whisper.  This one was written for me and I’m so HAPPY!!!  It’s got Jaime’s hopeless wooing of Brienne (seriously, the man has NO GAME ever ever ever, and I love him for it), Sansa getting the bright idea of making them share a room together, and EVERYONE (including Sweetrobin, although I’m sure Sansa kept his ears well-covered) hearing what happens after.  I love love love love love this story!!!!!

29 notes • Posted 2021-02-20 21:23:33 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[she-who-the-river-could-not-hold]

#100daysofwriting | day 013

prompt series created by @the-wip-project to encourage writers to talk about their work and to share their progress! also tagging my fellow writers joining in on the fun: @thelittlefanpire, @hopskipaway, and @kinetic-elaboration! if anyone else joins, def make sure to tag me!

Today’s prompt is about if you have a character “type.” And without fail, absolutely.

I’ve always been drawn to characters who are usually morally gray. Sometimes it’s in a trashy YA novel where the good girl can’t help but be drawn to the brooding vampire (I was way too young for some of those series lol), or it’s Clarke Griffin who is ruthless but always in the name of what’s right. Buffy who’s forced to walk a line that she struggles to maintain (mirrored especially through Faith). Or sometimes it straight up is the villains: it’s the Cersei Lannisters who in all sense and purpose is a villain, but has that nugget of “did she ever have a chance though?,” the Amy Dunne’s who might say something somewhat right but at the end of the day is wrong.

It’s why even though I started out writing fluff, which feels like a natural entrance to fanfic, to not having much interest it in anymore (primarily in the creating sense). My favorite movies and shows are all very gray and I’d much rather delve into that than anything else. I understand that a lot of the “edgy” works out there feel like too much or are overly depressing for no reason, but it is also usually what I end up preferring.

For instance with my Murven fic, I loved working with two characters that have different baggage and different methods of coping and finding a way to bring them together. I don’t want to erase what they’ve gone through, I want them dealing with that gray area but not having it disrupt them falling together.

Now, obviously, I still write fluff fics and have some WIPs coming up that are more fluff-oriented. And they’re still very fun! But ultimately I think my dream writing focuses on messy storylines and morally gray characters. Usually with a happy ending of course where their decision to make the right choices wins out!

Fic(s) Worked On Today:

Bellarke, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina AU

Inching closer and closer to that finish line with this fic! Just have to merge two scenes, and then one complex scene, and the final section of it. I don’t think it’ll be too hard, just can’t let myself get intimidated by making something feel “intense”

I’ve already completed the moodboard and I love it! I try to not make them until I’m close to the end but once I do, it always helps motivate me to wrap up writing and not get distracted!

Bellarke, Troped: Conclave + Canonverse AU

I mainly just reread it to see what’s holding me up with it. To absolutely no one’s surprise, it’s a handful of dialogue scenes. I think I’m very nervous to make it sound authentic to a world I’m not used to writing and I’m definitely overthinking it

I’ve started pinning some photos for the moodboard but I’m not satisfied with it yet, I’ll definitely be spending some more time on it before making it

I’m probably going to try looking over some other fics and do some outlining. I want to keep flushing them out since I’ve really found the better my outline, the faster I’m able to write. So we'll see how it goes!

link to my ao3 | masterlist of these posts

[elegantwoes]

'This is the high road,” he gasped, looking at Lady Stark with accusation. “The eastern road. You said we were riding for Winterfell!” Catelyn Stark favored him with the faintest of smiles. “Often and loudly,” she agreed. “No doubt your friends will ride that way when they come after us. I wish them good speed.” Even now, long days later, the memory filled him with a bitter rage. All his life Tyrion had prided himself on his cunning, the only gift the gods had seen fit to give him, and yet this seven-times-damned she-wolf Catelyn Stark had outwitted him at every turn. The knowledge was more galling than the bare fact of his abduction.'

Remember how this scene of Catelyn outwitting Tyrion was completely omitted from the show and replaced with a scene that Tyrion is all knowing. David and Dan really couldn’t bear him to be seen less smarter than another character, especially a woman. That is an even more reason to love this scene. Catelyn put Tyrion in his place and the fandom has to deal.

Tyrion felt the heat rise in him. “It was not my dagger,” he insisted. “How many times must I swear to that? Lady Stark, whatever you may believe of me, I am not a stupid man. Only a fool would arm a common footpad with his own blade.” Just for a moment, he thought he saw a flicker of doubt in her eyes, but what she said was, “Why would Petyr lie to me?'

No Catelyn, please, don’t do this to me. I have put up with Ned foolishly believing Littlefinger. I don’t need you in the mix. You are better than this, Catelyn.

'And you are truly a fool, Lady Stark. Littlefinger has never loved anyone but Littlefinger, and I promise you that it is not your hand that he boasts of, it’s those ripe breasts of yours, and that sweet mouth, and the heat between your legs.'

Remind me again why Tyrion is considered to be this exceptional intelligent man by the fandom? If he was truly intelligent he wouldn’t have egged his captors on. He’s asking to be killed here. That quote about Littlefinger fits Tyrion very well too. All cleverness but no wisdom whatsoever.

'Give me your word that you will put down your swords again after the fight is done.” “My word?” The hoofbeats were louder now. Tyrion grinned crookedly. “Oh, that you have, my lady … on my honor as a Lannister.'

You walked right into that one, Catelyn.

'I believe that’s horse blood,” Tyrion said. The singer’s hand came crawling out from beneath the dead animal, scrabbling in the dirt like a spider with five legs. Tyrion put his heel on the grasping fingers and felt a satisfying crunch. “Close your eyes and pretend you’re dead,” he advised the singer before he hefted the axe and turned away'

I don’t feel that much pity for Marillion, considering what he’ll do in the future, but that doesn’t mean what Tyrion is doing is right. He just put a man’s livelihood on the line and all of that just because he wrote an unkind song about you. Tyrion is so vindictive and temperamental.

'Tyrion ducked under his sword, lashed out with the axe, the man reeled backward … and Catelyn Stark stepped up behind him and opened his throat. The horseman remembered an urgent engagement elsewhere and galloped off suddenly.'

Saving Catelyn is one of the rare good deeds of Tyrion.

'You need a woman now,” Bronn said with a glint in his black eyes. He shoved the boots into his saddlebag. “Nothing like a woman after a man’s been blooded, take my word.” Chiggen stopped looting the corpses of the brigands long enough to snort and lick his lips. Tyrion glanced over to where Lady Stark was dressing Ser Rodrik’s wounds. “I’m willing if she is,” he said. The freeriders broke into laughter, and Tyrion grinned and thought, There’s a start.'

And he ruins this with his creepy commentary. It should be noted that Tyrion will lust after Sansa too in the future. Let that sink in for a moment. Imagine being attracted to both Catelyn and Sansa. A mother and daughter.

'Marillion grew visibly pale. Tyrion trotted up beside him. “Craven,” he said, “rhymes nicely with raven.” He kicked his horse and moved past the singer, up to Ser Rodrik and Catelyn Stark.'

Tyrion actually said something funny.

'As I was saying before we were so rudely interrupted,” Tyrion began, “there is a serious flaw in Littlefinger’s fable. Whatever you may believe of me, Lady Stark, I promise you this—I never bet against my family.'

Can we do away with this plot please? It paints Catelyn and Ned in a bad light for ever believing Littlefinger.

[mysticalmuddle]

2,10, 22 for the ask.

2. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

In general? Plots. Actiony plots. I’m so so bad at ‘em and I wanna write them so so much. 

More specifically? A fic I have been poking at on and off since October--no foreign serpent. It’s an Oberyn-centric canon divergent au of the War of the Five Kings, that parallels heavily Oberyn’s relationship with Elia and Jon’s relationship with Arya. I’ve been attempting it for so long because, well, I’m really bad at remembering analytical details like ‘how many men’ and ‘which army is where’ and ‘what did GRRM say about this?’ and ‘who exactly is with Robb when he’s here? there?’ and without those details, the writing itself seems very flat. But!!! It’s a strong place to play in, exploring what I know about Elia just from the text and asking questions based on that. What kind of woman walks among vipers unafraid? What kind of woman sees baby Tyrion Lannister and makes that girlish noise? Elia seemed to delight in Oberyn’s behavior--even when it verged on cruel--so what did that approval teach him? How does Elia’s seemingly impossible love, bravery, and compassion affect Oberyn, who has now spent just as much of his life mourning her as he has had her?

The emotions are also really solid and good and I could name names about who I just know will find it delicious, so I’m super excited about that. Lemme give you a sneak peak:

What that not the way? Elia had a gentle heart. Too gentle. She had loved even the monstrous things.

10. How would you describe your writing process?

Chaotic. Bad. Idk--I’m laughing but it’s more than a little true. My first draft is always horrible and disgusting and unfit for human eyes (though this doesn’t stop me from plaguing interested parties with snippets of it). Most of the actual writing comes during the editing, which I do in a highly structured way, in a series of drafts, each of which serve a different purpose. But as horrible as the first draft is, all the golden lines inevitably come from that  😂😂😂

22. Do you reread your old works? How do you feel about them?

On occasion, yes! Especially juuuust after I publish them, because that’s when I obsess over tiny mistakes. But most of my reading is other authors’ works, or out of this fandom works, because stories you write yourself lose the surprise factor, just like you can’t tickle yourself. The main catharsis for me--and I write for catharsis too much--is the actual writing, not so much the reading. 

[observedchaos]

Differences between Harrenhal bath scene in ASOS and “Kissed by Fire” (3x05)

I am still struggling to find the will to complete my meta on eye contact during the Harrenhal bath scene in Kissed by Fire given my gif and tag troubles (Pointers on how to get gif posts to show up in tumblr tags welcome!). 

Since I am rereading ASOIAF, I thought I would do a compare list and see if I can find some motivation. 

Not even near death will keep Jaime from quips, as he laments the lack of invitation for his “fleas”

GRRM highlights Jaime’s helplessness by making him incapable of unlacing his breeches

I, for one, am grateful that we get to see NCW undo them himself for ...reasons

Jaime explicitly sends the Bolton attendants away, citing Brienne’s nakedness

Our King of Projection calls them “scum” for gaping at her teats after gaping at her teats in the previous paragraph

Of course, he makes sure to insult her size. Wouldn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea

And he obviously only climbs into the tub with Brienne due to the tub’s spaciousness.

Sets up the irony of his later arousal at her pubic hair (a sentence I did not expect to write) by proclaiming he isn’t “interested in what she has got between them”

Actually does some scrubbing, which always bothered me in a “character looking away from the road while driving” way

The transition into his jab about Renly is rather more disconnected.

It is clearer that he is trying to get a rise out of her (pun not intended but enjoyed) by mentioning the reasons she scorns him and a sexual comment that he knows will embarrass her

this after savoring her blush

He frames the loss of his hand as karmic comeuppance. As always, his insults reveal what he thinks of himself.

Sets up his agitation that Brienne may think him such a villain that he deserves his maiming

Brienne actually climbs out of the tub and covers herself. In the book, her reaction is more one of hurt than the defiance of Brienne’s stance in the show

Indicates the books emphasis on Brienne’s vulnerability which is harder to see in the show

Bitter jealousy of Robert, which I find more interesting

Robert gets everything that Jaime ever wanted. Cersei, sympathy, belief that he is the paragon of romantic love. “Saved the realm.” How this must chafe Jaime who defines himself by love.

This works much better as a catalyst into Jaime’s story than “the look,” imo. But I can see why the level of detail would not work in the show.

Interesting nod to Tyrion perhaps being a Targaryen by mentioning his use of wildfire in the Battle of Blackwater

A lot more detail about Jaime’s actions that day, which I won’t get into other than to note:

Varys is an antagonist rather than just Pycelle. aiding Aerys burn those in his way

I prefer the brevity of the show as I think it gets the point across. This does have interesting character notes about Jaime. though. 

Jaime passes out due to striking his stump against the tub

We get to see Jaime’s internal monologue, which makes his identity crisis explicit

Feeling vulnerable, he labels Brienne as “looking ridiculous.”

Which levels the playing field for his pride. Could also be an attempt to align himself with her, mentally

More noticing of the detail of Brienne’s body.  Gee, I wonder why he includes “kiss me” as an option.

Not technically a difference because the show cuts away and it could have happened but the care taking is shipping gold

I also LOVE that he keeps himself from insulting her (a fundamental Lannister habit) because he doesn’t want to risk making her so mad she kicks his ass.

the IDEA that this “gentle” woman who just cradled and washed him would beat him up is so damn ludicrous that it is pathetic

 Jaime is over here deflecting for his LIFE

[istumpysk]

Operation Stumpy Re-Read

A FEAST FOR CROWS

Summary & Foreshadowing Smorgasbord (Part I)

Get in loser, it's foreshadowing time.

AFFC Part I: UNDER THE CUT

Sansa Stark, Queen in the North

Jon Snow, King in the North

Jon (Aemon?) Snow

Ahoy Matey! Arya Stark Sails the Ocean Blue

Bran the Broken, King of Westeros

High Septon Rickon?

Pick Your Poison: The Twins Meet Their End in the Bowels of Casterly Rock . . . or King's Landing

Younger and More Beautiful Cersei

AFFC PART II: CLICK

Dark Daenerys Highlights & Laughs

Let's Dance: Stark vs. Targ

A Rat in a Maze 🐀🔪

The Usurper's Knife

Storm x Storm 🦑🖤🐉

Squid Game

AFFC PART III: CLICK

Chapter Transitions

JONSA 🐺❤️❄️

Previous books:

AGOT Summary & Foreshadowing: CLICK

ACOK Summary & Foreshadowing: PART I / PART II

ASOS Summary & Foreshadowing: PART I / PART II / PART III / PART IV

Stumpy note:

If I didn't give you credit for discovering something or if I missed any foreshadowing, please contact me and I'll rectify that.

Once again, I'd like to thank everyone who participated in the reread project. All of you have great observations and comments, I wish I could highlight them all. 🙂

SANSA STARK, QUEEN IN THE NORTH

The lady of the house has duties to perform.

"In the game of thrones, even the humblest pieces can have wills of their own. Sometimes they refuse to make the moves you've planned for them. Mark that well, Alayne. It's a lesson that Cersei Lannister still has yet to learn. Now, don't you have some duties to perform?"

She did indeed. She saw to the mulling of the wine first, found a suitable wheel of sharp white cheese, and commanded the cook to bake bread enough for twenty, in case the Lords Declarant brought more men than expected.

[...]

The solar next. Its floor was covered by a Myrish carpet, so there was no need to lay down rushes. Alayne asked two serving men to erect the trestle table and bring up eight of the heavy oak-and-leather chairs. For a feast she would have placed one at the head of the table, one at the foot, and three along each side, but this was no feast. She had the men arrange six chairs on one side of the table, two on the other.

[...]

It might be that the lords would talk late into the night. They would need fresh candles. After Maddy laid the fire, she sent her down to find the scented beeswax candles Lord Waxley had given Lady Lysa when he sought to win her hand. Then she visited the kitchens once again, to make certain of the wine and bread. All seemed well in hand, and there was still time enough for her to bathe and wash her hair and change.

[...]

Alayne met them in the Crescent Chamber beside a warming fire, where she welcomed them in Lord Robert's name and served them bread and cheese and cups of hot mulled wine in silver cups.

Petyr had given her a roll of arms to study, so she knew their heraldry if not their faces. - Alayne I, AFFC

x

"Then he has none to throw at me. Isn't there some work you should be doing? And you, Maddy . . . are all the windows closed and shuttered? Have all the furnishings been covered?"

"All of them, m'lady," said Maddy.

"Best make certain of it." - Alayne II, AFFC

x

"Lord Robert is feeling stronger," Alayne told the serving women. "Fetch hot water for his bath, but see you don't scald him. And do not pull on his hair when you brush out the tangles, he hates that." One of the squires sniggered, until she said, "Terrance, lay out his lordship's riding clothes and his warmest cloak. Gyles, you may clean up that broken chamber pot." - Alayne II, AFFC

x

Petyr Baelish was clear across the Vale, though, attending Lord Lyonel Corbray at his wedding. 

[...]

Alayne understood all that well enough, but it meant that the burden of getting Sweetrobin safely down the mountain fell on her. - Alayne II, AFFC

+.+.+

JON SNOW, KING IN THE NORTH

Are you sure?

Mance's blood is no more royal than mine own. He has never worn a crown nor sat a throne. He's a brigand, nothing more. There's no power in brigand's blood. - Samwell I, AFFC

+.+.+

Jon's acting like a king.

Lord Janos would have sent Snow ranging naked on a mule. 'Scamper on up to Craster's Keep,' he would have said, 'and fetch me back the Old Bear's cloak and boots.' We saved him from that, but now he has too many duties to drink a cup of mulled wine by the fire?"

Grenn agreed. "His duties don't keep him from the yard. More days than not, he's out there fighting someone."

[...]

Jon, he'd said, but Jon was gone. It was Lord Snow who faced him now, grey eyes as hard as ice. "You have no father," said Lord Snow. - Samwell I, AFFC

x

Only Robb and baby Rickon were still here, and Robb was changed. He was Robb the Lord now, or trying to be. He wore a real sword and never smiled. His days were spent drilling the guard and practicing his swordplay, making the yard ring with the sound of steel as Bran watched forlornly from his window. At night he closeted himself with Maester Luwin, talking or going over account books. Sometimes he would ride out with Hallis Mollen and be gone for days at a time, visiting distant holdfasts. Whenever he was away more than a day, Rickon would cry and ask Bran if Robb was ever coming back. Even when he was home at Winterfell, Robb the Lord seemed to have more time for Hallis Mollen and Theon Greyjoy than he ever did for his brothers. - Bran IV, AGOT

+.+.+

Many monarchs are implicated, so we'll put it everywhere.

Should Jon fear his black brothers?

On the morning after the battle, the crows had feasted on victors and vanquished alike, as once they had feasted on Rhaegar Targaryen after the Trident. How much can a crown be worth, when a crow can dine upon a king? - Jaime VI, AFFC

+.+.+

Sounds like a steward with royal blood.

Thank you, @agentrouka-blog!

Did you know the Darklyns were kings in Duskendale before the Andals come? You'd never know t'look at me, but I got me royal blood. Can you see it? 'Your Grace, another cup of ale,' I ought to make them say. 'Your Grace, the chamber pot needs emptying, and fetch in some fresh faggots, Your Bloody Grace, the fire's going out.'" She laughed again and shook the last drops from the pail. - Brienne II, AFFC

x

"There is no shame in being a steward," Sam said.

"Do you think I want to spend the rest of my life washing an old man's smallclothes?" - Jon VI, AGOT

+.+.+

Looks can be deceiving.

"Looking for mermaids, Slayer?" asked Dareon when he saw Sam staring off across the bay. Fair-haired and hazel-eyed, the handsome young singer out of Eastwatch looked more like some dark prince than a black brother. - Samwell II, AFFC

+.+.+

Sworn to protect the realm.

"The Iron Throne must defend the Faith," growled a hulking lout with a seven-pointed star painted on his brow. "A king who does not protect his people is no king at all." - Cersei VI, AFFC

+.+.+

JON (AEMON?) SNOW

Sounds familiar.

"He was a good man," he began . . . but as soon as he had said the words he knew that they were wrong. "No. He was a great man. A maester of the Citadel, chained and sworn, and Sworn Brother of the Night's Watch, ever faithful. When he was born they named him for a hero who had died too young, but though he lived a long long time, his own life was no less heroic. No man was wiser, or gentler, or kinder. At the Wall, a dozen lords commander came and went during his years of service, but he was always there to counsel them. He counseled kings as well. He could have been a king himself, but when they offered him the crown he told them they should give it to his younger brother. How many men would do that?" Sam felt the tears welling in his eyes, and knew he could not go on much longer. "He was the blood of the dragon, but now his fire has gone out. He was Aemon Targaryen. And now his watch is ended." - Samwell IV, AFFC

+.+.+

Little Aemon Steelsong (he has a song!) with the royal blood will be passed off as a bastard.

Thank you, @sherlokiness!

"Maester is not a name. You could call him Aemon, though."

Gilly thought about that. "Dalla brought him forth during battle, as the swords sang all around her. That should be his name. Aemon Battleborn. Aemon Steelsong." - Samwell IV, AFFC

x

"I do," said Sam, "but I could lie in a letter. I'm better with a quill in hand. I had a . . . a thought. When things are more settled here, I thought maybe the best thing for Gilly . . . I thought I might send her to Horn Hill. To my mother and sisters and my . . . my f-f-father. If Gilly were to say the babe was m-mine . . ." He was blushing again. "My mother would want him, I know. She would find some place for Gilly, some kind of service, it wouldn't be as hard as serving Craster. And Lord R-Randyll, he . . . he would never say so, but he might be pleased to believe I got a bastard on some wildling girl. At least it would prove I was man enough to lie with a woman and father a child. He told me once that I was sure to die a maiden, that no woman would ever . . . you know . . . Jon, if I did this, wrote this lie . . . would that be a good thing? The life the boy would have . . ."

"Growing up a bastard in his grandfather's castle?" Jon shrugged. "That depends in great part on your father, and what sort of boy this is. If he takes after you . . ." - Samwell IV, ASOS

+.+.+

AHOY MATEY! ARYA STARK SAILS THE OCEAN BLUE

Did Princess Nymeria do anything other than sail on ships? It's hard to tell.

There were two seats on the dais, near twin to one another, save that one had the Martell spear inlaid in gold upon its back, whilst the other bore the blazing Rhoynish sun that had flown from the masts of Nymeria's ships when first they came to Dorne. - The Captain of the Guards, AFFC

x

He rolled off of her to sprawl staring at the ceiling. A great crack ran across it, from one wall to the other. He had not noticed that before, no more than he had noticed the picture on the tapestry, a scene of Nymeria and her ten thousand ships. - The Soiled Knight, AFFC

x

She leaned her back against a fluted pillar and wondered if her brother was looking at the same stars tonight, wherever he might be. Do you see the white one, Quentyn? That is Nymeria's star, burning bright, and that milky band behind her, those are ten thousand ships. She burned as bright as any man, and so shall I. - The Queenmaker, AFFC

x

We are in part, Your Grace. Nymeria's blood is in me, along with that of Mors Martell, the Dornish lord she married. On the day they wed, Nymeria fired her ships, so her people would understand that there could be no going back. Most were glad to see those flames, for their voyagings had been long and terrible before they came to Dorne, and many and more had been lost to storm, disease, and slavery. - The Queenmaker, AFFC

x

Arianne would have given much and more for a copy of Ten Thousand Ships or The Loves of Queen Nymeria, anything to occupy her thoughts and let her escape her tower for an hour or two, but such amusements were denied her. - The Princess in the Tower, AFFC

+.+.+

We could be like Nymeria, and sail beyond the Sunset Sea.

Lord Gylbert began to speak. He told of a wondrous land beyond the Sunset Sea, a land without winter or want, where death had no dominion. "Make me your king, and I shall lead you there," he cried. "We will build ten thousand ships as Nymeria once did and take sail with all our people to the land beyond the sunset. There every man shall be a king and every wife a queen." - The Drowned Man, AFFC

+.+.+

The ship has a name.

"Just so. Your father was oarmaster on a galley. When your mother died, he took you off to sea with him. Then he died as well, and his captain had no use for you, so he put you off the ship in Braavos. And what was the name of the ship?"

"Nymeria," she said at once. - Arya II, AFC

+.+.+

Arya dreams of home while on a ship.

His father was shouting orders. Sailors scrambled up and down the three tall masts and moved along the rigging, reefing the heavy purple sails. Below, oarsmen heaved and strained over two great banks of oars. The decks tilted, creaking, as the galleas Titan's Daughter heeled to starboard and began to come about.

The star of home. Arya stood at the prow, one hand resting on the gilded figurehead, a maiden with a bowl of fruit. For half a heartbeat she let herself pretend that it was her home ahead. - Arya I, AFFC

+.+.+

Like any other person who seeks adventure.

Arya never seemed to find the places she set out to reach. - Arya I, AFFC

+.+.+

Arya prefers the boat.

She had crossed the narrow sea to get here, but if the captain had asked she would have told him she wanted to stay aboard the Titan's Daughter. Salty was too small to man an oar, she knew that now, but she could learn to splice ropes and reef the sails and steer a course across the great salt seas. Denyo had taken her up to the crow's nest once, and she hadn't been afraid at all, though the deck had seemed a tiny thing below her. I can do sums too, and keep a cabin neat. - Arya I, AFFC

+.+.+

Arya likes the sailors and harbors best of all.

Only Braavosi were permitted use of the Purple Harbor, from the Drowned Town and the Sealord's Palace; ships from her sister cities and the rest of the wide world had to use the Ragman's Harbor, a poorer, rougher, dirtier port than the Purple. It was noisier as well, as sailors and traders from half a hundred lands crowded its wharves and alleys, mingling with those who served and preyed on them. Cat liked it best of any place in Braavos. She liked the noise and the strange smells, and seeing what ships had come in on the evening tide and what ships had departed. She liked the sailors too; the boisterous Tyroshi with their booming voices and dyed whiskers; the fair-haired Lyseni, always trying to niggle down her prices; the squat, hairy sailors from the Port of Ibben, growling curses in low, raspy voices. Her favorites were the Summer Islanders, with their skins as smooth and dark as teak. They wore feathered cloaks of red and green and yellow, and the tall masts and white sails of their swan ships were magnificent. - Cat of the Canals, AFFC

+.+.+

No matter where she goes, Arya always comes back to the harbor.

Some days she rolled her barrow past the towers of the mighty to offer baked clams to the guardsmen at their gates. Once she cried her catch on the steps of the Palace of Truth

[...]

Customs officers from the Chequy Port would buy from her, and paddlers from the Drowned Town

[...]

One time, when Brea took to her bed with her moon blood, Cat had pushed her barrow to the Purple Harbor

[...]

Other days she followed the sweetwater river to the Moon Pool.

[...]

But she always returned to the Ragman's Harbor. – Cat of the Canals, AFFC

+.+.+

A young man hurts his hand, and has to become an oarsmen. I don't want to get into it, so you'll have to trust me that the Arya is strong on this one.

"You come work with me, Cat," urged Tagganaro as he was sucking mussels from their shells. He had been looking for a new partner ever since the Drunken Daughter put her knife through Little Narbo's hand. "I give you more than Brusco, and you would not smell like fish."

"Casso likes the way I smell," she said. The King of Seals barked, as if to agree. "Is Narbo's hand no better?"

"Three fingers do not bend," complained Tagganaro, between mussels. "What good is a cutpurse who cannot use his fingers? Narbo was good at picking pockets, not so good at picking whores."

"Merry says the same." Cat was sad. She liked Little Narbo, even if he was a thief. "What will he do?"

"Pull an oar, he says. Two fingers are enough for that, he thinks, and the Sealord's always looking for more oarsmen. I tell him, 'Narbo, no. That sea is colder than a maiden and crueler than a whore. Better you should cut off the hand, and beg.' Casso knows I am right. Don't you, Casso?"

The seal barked, and Cat had to smile. She tossed another cockle his way before she went off on her own. - Cat of the Canals, AFFC

+.+.+

BRAN THE BROKEN, KING OF WESTEROS

I bet they trade places.

"A letter to King Tommen?"

"At Winterfell Tommen fought my brother Bran with wooden swords. He wore so much padding he looked like a stuffed goose. Bran knocked him to the ground." Jon went to the window. "Yet Bran's dead, and pudgy pink-faced Tommen is sitting on the Iron Throne, with a crown nestled amongst his golden curls." - Samwell I, AFFC

+.+.+

The five year gab is abandoned, and the author immediately produces new history of a 10-year-old Stark chosen to rule.

"My lord, when I was looking through the annals I came on another boy commander. Four hundred years before the Conquest. Osric Stark was ten when he was chosen, but he served for sixty years. That's four, my lord. You're not even close to being the youngest ever chosen. You're fifth youngest, so far." - Samwell I, AFFC

+.+.+

He meant to call a council.

Rhaegar had put his hand on Jaime's shoulder. "When this battle's done I mean to call a council. Changes will be made. I meant to do it long ago, but . . . well, it does no good to speak of roads not taken. We shall talk when I return." - Jaime I, AFFC

+.+.+

A man who sounds a bit like Bran tries to win an election.

Thank you, @decadelongsummer!

The Farwynds there were even queerer than the rest. Some said they were skinchangers, unholy creatures who could take on the forms of sea lions, walruses, even spotted whales, the wolves of the wild sea.

Lord Gylbert began to speak. He told of a wondrous land beyond the Sunset Sea, a land without winter or want, where death had no dominion. "Make me your king, and I shall lead you there," he cried. "We will build ten thousand ships as Nymeria once did and take sail with all our people to the land beyond the sunset. There every man shall be a king and every wife a queen." - The Drowned Man, AFFC

+.+.+

Many monarchs are implicated, so we'll put it everywhere.

(Three-eyed?) Crows are dining on kings.

On the morning after the battle, the crows had feasted on victors and vanquished alike, as once they had feasted on Rhaegar Targaryen after the Trident. How much can a crown be worth, when a crow can dine upon a king? - Jaime I, AFFC

+.+.+

Jaime Lannister slays kings, and makes kings.

"They belonged to Criston Cole, who served the first Viserys and the second Aegon." Jaime closed the White Book. "They called him Kingmaker." - Jaime II, AFFC

x

The man looked over at the woman. "The things I do for love," he said with loathing. He gave Bran a shove.

Screaming, Bran went backward out the window into empty air. There was nothing to grab on to. The courtyard rushed up to meet him. - Bran II, AGOT

+.+.+

Crowns switched to bells, then passed to a cripple.

Jaehaerys and his queen slept there during their journeys, it is said. For a time the inn was known as the Two Crowns in their honor, until one innkeep built a bell tower, and changed it to the Bellringer Inn. Later it passed to a crippled knight named Long Jon Heddle, who took up ironworking when he grew too old to fight. - Brienne VII, AFFC

+.+.+

HIGH SEPTON RICKON?

An eight-year-old boy is selected as High Septon.

"After that one died, an eight-year-old boy was elevated, once more at King Baelor's urging. The boy worked miracles, His Grace declared, though even his little healing hands could not save Baelor during his final fast."

Lady Merryweather gave a laugh. "Eight years old? Perhaps my son could be High Septon. He is almost seven." - Cersei VI, AFFC

+.+.+

Any number of boys.

Cersei did not doubt that there were any number of boys who would do more honor to the crystal crown than the wretch on whom the Most Devout had chosen to bestow it. - Cersei VI, AFFC

+.+.+

Might not have to look too hard.

Are you a priest or a greengrocer? "And what might I do to make it . . . riper?" If he dares mention gold, I will deal with this one as I did the last and find a pious eight-year-old to wear the crystal crown. - Cersei VI, AFFC

+.+.+

PICK YOUR POISON: THE TWINS MEET THEIR END IN THE BOWELS OF CASTERLY ROCK . . . OR KING'S LANDING

You're going to need the original theory to make better sense of this.

If you want to read the theory in its entirety (including the new evidence below), click on the link. I strongly suggest this option.

If you're familiar with the theory and only want the AFFC additions, keep reading.

To summarize:

Jaime and Cersei will intentionally drink poison as a castle crumbles above them.

The valonqar prophecy.

The old woman was not done with her, however. "Gold shall be their crowns and gold their shrouds," she said. "And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you." - Cersei VIII, AFFC

+.+.+

Cersei wakes from her valonqar nightmare choking in the same manner as Joffrey. . . when he drank poison.

The valonqar shall wrap his hands about your throat, the queen heard, but the voice did not belong to the old woman. The hands emerged from the mists of her dream and coiled around her neck; thick hands, and strong. Above them floated his face, leering down at her with his mismatched eyes. No, the queen tried to cry out, but the dwarf's fingers dug deep into her neck, choking off her protests. She kicked and screamed to no avail. Before long she was making the same sound her son had made, the terrible thin sucking sound that marked Joff's last breath on earth. - Cersei VIII, AFFC

+.+.+

Like what?

Father found no better man. Instead he gave me Robert, and Maggy's curse bloomed like some poisonous flower. - Cersei V, AFFC

x

He touched one of the crystals lightly with the tip of his little finger. Such a small thing to hold the power of life and death. It was made from a certain plant that grew only on the islands of the Jade Sea, half a world away. 

[...]

Cressen no longer recalled the name the Asshai'i gave the leaf, or the Lysene poisoners the crystal. In the Citadel, it was simply called the strangler. - Prologue, ACOK

+.+.+

The twins are dry, and need some wine.

It's ill luck not to eat the pie," he scolded as he filled his mouth with hot spiced pigeon. "See, it's good." Spitting out flakes of crust, he coughed and helped himself to another fistful. "Dry, though. Needs washing down." Joff took a swallow of wine and coughed again, more violently. 

[...]

The boy's only thirteen. Joffrey was making a dry clacking noise, trying to speak. - Tyrion VIII, ASOS

x

The little queen is making excuses for her brother. Cersei's mouth was dry. I need a cup of Arbor gold. - Cersei VII, AFFC

x

"I was just . . . remembering." Her throat was dry. "You are a good friend, Taena. I have not had a true friend in . . ." - Cersei VII, AFFC

x

"It was. I know it was." Cersei shuddered. "My throat is raw. Be a sweet and pour me some wine." - Cersei IX, AFFC

x

So passed the longest night that Cersei Lannister had ever known, save for the night of Joffrey's wedding. Her throat was so raw from shouting that she could hardly swallow. - Cersei X, AFFC

x

"I've sent him wine."

"Wine?" Brienne was lost. "Robb? Or . . . Theon Greyjoy?"

"The Kingslayer." The ploy had served her well with Cleos Frey. I hope you're thirsty, Jaime. I hope your throat is dry and tight. "I would like you to come with me." - Catelyn VII, ACOK

+.+.+

Ser Ilyn keeps mocking Jaime.

The boy's only thirteen. Joffrey was making a dry clacking noise, trying to speak. - Tyrion VIII, ASOS

x

Ser Ilyn opened his mouth and made a clacking sound. A laugh, Jaime realized. Something twisted in his gut. - Jaime III, AFFC

x

The pockmarks on Ser Ilyn's face were black holes in the torchlight, as dark as Jaime's soul. He made that clacking sound.

He is laughing at me, realized Jaime Lannister. - Jaime IV, AFFC

x

He made that clacking sound that might have been a laugh and drew his sword up Jaime's throat till the point came to rest between his lips. Only then did he step back and sheathe his steel. - Jaime V, AFFC

x

"If I keep at this for another year, I may be as good as Peck," Jaime declared, and Ser Ilyn made that clacking sound that meant he was amused. "Come, let's drink some more of Hoster Tully's good red wine." - Jaime VII, AFFC

+.+.+

Cersei's feeling tight.

It is blood I need, not water. Tyrion's blood, the blood of the valonqar. The torches spun around her. Cersei closed her eyes, and saw the dwarf grinning at her. No, she thought, no, I was almost rid of you. But his fingers had closed around her neck, and she could feel them beginning to tighten. - Cersei I, AFFC

x

Seated on her gold-and-crimson high seat beneath the Iron Throne, Cersei could feel a growing tightness in her neck. - Cersei VII, AFFC

+.+.+

Cersei's going to have Jaime kill the younger and more beautiful queen.

Cersei is the younger and more beautiful queen. (Next section)

Anger flashed across the child's face. "If she tries I will have my brother kill her." - Cersei VIII, AFFC

x

She did. I knew it all along, she thought. Even in the tent. "If she tries I will have my brother kill her." - Cersei VIII, AFFC

+.+.+

Jaime Lannister, The Kinslayer.

He never said he meant to kill our father. If he had, I would have stopped him. Then I would be the kinslayer, not him. - Jaime I, AFFC

x

The height of folly was reached when a plump fool came capering out in gold-painted tin with a cloth lion's head, and chased a dwarf around the tables, whacking him over the head with a bladder. Finally King Renly demanded to know why he was beating his brother. "Why, Your Grace, I'm the Kinslayer," the fool said.

"It's Kingslayer, fool of a fool," Renly said, and the hall rang with laughter. - Catelyn II, ACOK

+.+.+

A dragon's coming for the twins.

"The puppet lions grow greedy and arrogant as this treasonous tale proceeds, until they begin to devour their own subjects. When the noble stag makes objection, the lions devour him as well, and roar that it is their right as the mightiest of beasts."

"And is that the end of it?" Cersei asked, amused. Looked at in the right light, it could be seen as a salutary lesson.

"No, Your Grace. At the end a dragon hatches from an egg and devours all of the lions." The ending took the puppet show from simple insolence to treason. "Witless fools. Only cretins would hazard their heads upon a wooden dragon." - Cersei V, AFFC

+.+.+

But where will it happen: King's Landing or Casterly Rock?

King's Landing

Cersei's asking for a storm to rock the Red Keep.

"No one wants rain," said Cersei. For herself, she wanted sleet and ice, howling winds, thunder to shake the very stones of the Red Keep. She wanted a storm to match her rage. - Cersei III, AFFC

x

"Even if Tyrion were still hiding in the castle, he won't be in the Tower of the Hand. We've reduced it to a shell."

"Would that we could do the same to the rest of this foul castle," said Cersei. - Cersei III, AFFC

+.+.+

God forbid dragonfire enters into the equation.

Jaime ignored that. "If these flames spread beyond the tower, you may end up burning down the castle whether you mean to or not. Wildfire is treacherous." – Cersei III, AFFC

+.+.+

Cersei's front row seat.

The Tower of the Hand gave out a sudden groan, so loud that all the conversation stopped abruptly. Stone cracked and split, and part of the upper battlements fell away and landed with a crash that shook the hill, sending up a cloud of dust and smoke. As fresh air rushed in through the broken masonry, the fire surged upward. Green flames leapt into the sky and whirled around each other. Tommen shied away, till Margaery took his hand and said, "Look, the flames are dancing. Just as we did, my love."

"They are." His voice was filled with wonder. "Mother, look, they're dancing." - Cersei III, AFFC

+.+.+

Who's going to die beneath the Red Keep?

Unless my brother murdered Varys too, and left his corpse to rot beneath the castle. Down there, it might be years before his bones were found. - Jaime I, AFFC

x

Tyrion hung back a moment. Varys had already betrayed him once. Who knew what game the eunuch was playing? And what better place to murder a man than down in the darkness, in a place that no one knew existed? His body might never be found. - Tyrion XI, ASOS

+.+.+

A dragon has been waiting for Jaime beneath the Red Keep.

He remembered the sullen orange glow of the coals in the iron dragon's mouth. The brazier warmed a chamber at the bottom of a shaft where half a dozen tunnels met. On the floor he'd found a scuffed mosaic of the three-headed dragon of House Targaryen done in tiles of black and red. I know you, Kingslayer, the beast seemed to be saying. I have been here all the time, waiting for you to come to me. And it seemed to Jaime that he knew that voice, the iron tones that had once belonged to Rhaegar, Prince of Dragonstone. - Jaime I, AFFC

+.+.+

Jaime's going to have some problems if he's ever down there again.

Jaime had led a dozen guards below, with torches and ropes and lanterns. For hours they had groped through twisting passages, narrow crawl spaces, hidden doors, secret steps, and shafts that plunged down into utter blackness. Seldom had he felt so utterly a cripple. A man takes much for granted when he has two hands. Ladders, for an instance. Even crawling did not come easy; not for nought do they speak of hands and knees. Nor could he hold a torch and climb, as others could. - Jaime I, AFFC

+.+.+

Casterly Rock

Tywin's under the Rock. Is he asking for company?

Her brother was growing his beard again as well. The stubble covered his jaw and cheeks, and gave his face a rough, uncouth look. He might at least have waited till Father's bones were interred beneath the Rock. - Cersei II, AFFC

x

There were watery caverns deep below Casterly Rock, but this one was strange to him. "What place is this?"

"Your place." The voice echoed; it was a hundred voices, a thousand, the voices of all the Lannisters since Lann the Clever, who'd lived at the dawn of days. But most of all it was his father's voice, and beside Lord Tywin stood his sister, pale and beautiful, a torch burning in her hand. - Jaime VI, ASOS

+.+.+

Cersei's place.

Her uncle was unmoved. "If you are resolved against another marriage, I will not force it on you. As to the other, though . . . you are the Lady of Casterly Rock now. Your place is there." - Cersei II, AFFC

+.+.+

Rolling thunder echoed off the Rock.

She was ten when she finally saw her prince in the flesh, at the tourney her lord father had thrown to welcome King Aerys to the west. Viewing stands had been raised beneath the walls of Lannisport, and the cheers of the smallfolk had echoed off Casterly Rock like rolling thunder. - Cersei V, AFFC

+.+.+

Jaime practically asks for it.

Harrenhal had seen more horror in its three hundred years than Casterly Rock had witnessed in three thousand. - Jaime III, AFFC

+.+.+

Makes for a big target.

She's known no home but Harrenhal, he reflected. Every castle in the realm will seem small to her, except the Rock.

Josmyn Peckleton was saying the same thing. "You must not judge by Harrenhal. Black Harren built too big." - Jaime IV, AFFC

+.+.+

What will the queen do?

"This city is a cesspit. For half a groat I would move the court to Lannisport and rule the realm from Casterly Rock."

"That would be an even greater folly than burning the Tower of the Hand. So long as Tommen sits the Iron Throne, the realm sees him as the true king. Hide him under the Rock and he becomes just another claimant to the throne, no different than Stannis."

"I am aware of that," the queen said sharply. "I said that I wanted to move the court to Lannisport, not that I would. Were you always this slow, or did losing a hand make you stupid?" - Cersei's III, AFFC

+.+.+

YOUNGER AND MORE BEAUTIFUL CERSEI

Thank you for the theory, @agentrouka-blog!

The prophecy.

"I will be queen, though?" asked the younger her.

"Aye." Malice gleamed in Maggy's yellow eyes. "Queen you shall be . . . until there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear." - Cersei VIII, AFFC

+.+.+

One more time.

The younger her.

"I will be queen, though?" asked the younger her. - Cersei VIII, AFFC

+.+.+

While dreaming of her encounter with Maggy the Frog, Cersei frequently switches to third-person narration, giving the impression the girl is someone else.

She dreamt an old dream, of three girls in brown cloaks, a wattled crone, and a tent that smelled of death.

[...]

Cersei watched the girls huddling, whispering to one another. Go back, she tried to tell them. Turn away. There is nothing here for you. But though she moved her mouth, no words came out.

[...]

Lord Tywin's daughter was the first through the flap, with Melara close behind her.

[...]

Leave her be, the queen wanted to cry out. You little fools, never wake a sleeping sorceress. Without a tongue, she could only watch as the girl threw off her cloak, kicked the witch's bed, and said, "Wake up, we want our futures told."

[...]

The girl with the golden curls put her hands upon her hips. "Give us our foretelling, or I'll go to my lord father and have you whipped for insolence."

[...]

Beneath her golden curls, the girl's face wrinkled up in puzzlement. 

[...]

Anger flashed across the child's face. "If she tries I will have my brother kill her." Even then she would not stop, willful child as she was.

[...]

"What is a valonqar? Some monster?" The golden girl did not like that foretelling. - Cersei VIII, AFFC

+.+.+

One more time.

"Begone," she told the girls, in a croaking whisper.

"We came for a foretelling," young Cersei told her. - Cersei VIII, AFFC

+.+.+

Are there two queens present?

"Here," she whispered, "give it here." When Cersei offered her hand, she sucked away the blood with gums as soft as a newborn babe's. The queen could still remember how queer and cold her mouth had been.

"Three questions may you ask," the crone said, once she'd had her drink. "You will not like my answers. Ask, or begone with you."

Go, the dreaming queen thought, hold your tongue, and flee. But the girl did not have sense enough to be afraid. - Cersei VIII, AFFC

+.+.+

In the middle of the dream, we're told Maggy the Frog was young(er) and (more) beautiful when she arrived at Lannisport, but age and evil had left their marks on her.

Sounds familiar.

The old woman's eyes were yellow, and crusted all about with something vile. In Lannisport it was said that she had been young and beautiful when her husband had brought her back from the east with a load of spices, but age and evil had left their marks on her. - Cersei VIII, AFFC

x

"You are being foolish. I am only here to help you."

"To help me to my grave. I asked for you to leave. Will you make me call my gaolers and have you dragged away, you vile, scheming, evil bitch?"

Cersei gathered up her skirts and dignity. - Cersei X, AFFC

+.+.+

In a later chapter, Taena Merryweather reassures Cersei by telling her she was young(er) and (more) beautiful than the hateful Maggy.

Taena took her hand and stroked it. "This was a hateful woman, old and sick and ugly. You were young and beautiful, full of life and pride. She lived in Lannisport, you said, so she would have known of the dwarf and how he killed your lady mother. This creature dared not strike you, because of who you were, so she sought to wound you with her viper's tongue." - Cersei IX, AFFC

+.+.+

Immediately after waking from her dream, Cersei calls on old Pycelle. Younger Pycelle used to be a magnificent man, but the cells and razor ruined him.

Sounds familiar.

Pycelle had been old as far back as Cersei could remember, but there was a time when he had also been magnificent: richly clad, dignified, exquisitely courteous. His immense white beard had given him an air of wisdom. Tyrion had shaved his beard off, though, and what had grown back was pitiful, a few patchy tufts of thin, brittle hair that did little to hide the loose pink flesh beneath his sagging chin. This is no man, she thought, only the ruins of one. The black cells robbed him of whatever strength he had. That, and the Imp's razor.

"How old are you?" Cersei asked, abruptly.

"Four-and-eighty, if it please Your Grace."

"A younger man would please me more." - Cersei VIII, AFFC

x

She screamed and kicked and howled until her throat was raw, at the door and at the window. No one shouted back, nor came to rescue her. The cell began to darken. It was growing cold as well. Cersei began to shiver. How can they leave me like this, without so much as a fire? I am their queen. - Cersei X, AFFC

x

They brought lye soap, a basin of warm water, a pair of shears, and a long straightrazor. The sight of the steel sent a shiver through her. They mean to shave me. A little more humiliation, a raisin for my porridge. She would not give them the pleasure of hearing her beg. I am Cersei of House Lannister, a lion of the Rock, the rightful queen of these Seven Kingdoms, trueborn daughter of Tywin Lannister. And hair grows back. - Cersei II, ADWD

+.+.+

Another prophecy.

The old woman was not done with her, however. "Gold shall be their crowns and gold their shrouds," she said. "And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you." - Cersei VIII, AFFC

Cersei and Jaime will intentionally drink poison.

+.+.+

Cersei says she'll have her brother kill the younger and more beautiful queen. In other words, Cersei will have Jaime kill Cersei.

Anger flashed across the child's face. "If she tries I will have my brother kill her." - Cersei VIII, AFFC

x

She did. I knew it all along, she thought. Even in the tent. "If she tries I will have my brother kill her." - Cersei VIII, AFFC

+.+.+

Cersei wakes from her valonqar nightmare choking in the same manner as Joffrey. . . when he drank poison.

The valonqar shall wrap his hands about your throat, the queen heard, but the voice did not belong to the old woman. The hands emerged from the mists of her dream and coiled around her neck; thick hands, and strong. Above them floated his face, leering down at her with his mismatched eyes. No, the queen tried to cry out, but the dwarf's fingers dug deep into her neck, choking off her protests. She kicked and screamed to no avail. Before long she was making the same sound her son had made, the terrible thin sucking sound that marked Joff's last breath on earth. - Cersei VIII, AFFC

+.+.+

Cersei fears the prophecy because Maggy foretold Melara's death, yet it was Cersei who chose to kill Melara that evening. Cersei's actions are making the prophecy come true.

Cersei did not want to hear that. "This maegi made certain prophecies. I laughed at them at first, but . . . she foretold the death of one of my bedmaids. At the time she made the prophecy, the girl was one-and-ten, healthy as a little horse and safe within the Rock. Yet she soon fell down a well and drowned." Melara had begged her never to speak of the things they heard that night in the maegi's tent. If we never talk about it we'll soon forget, and then it will be just a bad dream we had, Melara had said. Bad dreams never come true. The both of them had been so young, that had sounded almost wise. - Cersei VIII, AFFC

x

A young girl sat beneath a fountain, drenched in spray, and stared at her with Melara Hetherspoon's accusing eyes. - Cersei II, ADWD

+.+.+

Cersei is destroying herself.

"You would not believe half of what is happening in King's Landing, sweetling. Cersei stumbles from one idiocy to the next, helped along by her council of the deaf, the dim, and the blind. I always anticipated that she would beggar the realm and destroy herself, but I never expected she would do it quite so fast. It is quite vexing. I had hoped to have four or five quiet years to plant some seeds and allow some fruits to ripen, but now . . . it is a good thing that I thrive on chaos. - Alayne II, AFFC

+.+.+

The beginning of the end.

In her final chapter, Cersei is imprisoned, but not before claiming the younger and more beautiful queen is finished.

Maggy the Frog should have been in motley too, for all she knew about the morrow. Cersei prayed the old fraud was screaming down in hell. The younger queen whose coming she'd foretold was finished, and if that prophecy could fail, so could the rest. No golden shrouds, no valonqar, I am free of your croaking malice at last. - Cersei X, AFFC

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AFFC: Part II

Touch me.

Dark Daenerys Highlights & Laughs

Let's Dance: Stark vs. Targ

A Rat in a Maze 🐀🔪

The Usurper's Knife

Storm x Storm 🦑🖤🐉

Squid Game

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[kenobibensolo]

Pick your top ten ships without reading the questions!

1. Obidala (Obi-Wan/Padme – Star Wars)

2. Zutara (Zuko/Katara - Avatar the last air bender)

3.GingerFlower/GingerRose (Hux/Rose Tico - Star Wars)

4. Reylo (Rey/Kylo Ren - Star Wars)

5. Dramoine (Draco/Hermione - Harry Potter)

6. Wolveroenix (Jean Grey/Logan Howlett - Xmen)

7. Sherlolly (Sherlock/Molly - BBC Sherlock)

8. Jaimsa (Jaime Lannister/Sansa Stark - GoT) *but like age-appropriate/aged up Sansa*

9. Wolfstar (Remus Lupin/Sirius Black - Harry Potter)

10. Fleurdora (Fleur/Tonks - Harry Potter) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1: Do you remember the episode/scene/chapter that you first started shipping 6?

Yes, the first Xmen movie when Jean walks into the room where Logan is and moves all the doors with her mind, kinda showing off, I was like, damn he’s hooked. And then I was hooked on them lol.

2: Have you ever read a FanFiction about 2?

No, actually. I probably should.

3: Has a picture of 4 ever been your screen saver/profile picture/tumblr avatar?

Oh my glob yes, so many times and so many places. 

4: If 7 were to suddenly break up today, what would your reaction be?

First, they’d have to get together lol! But if they were together and broke up I honestly wouldn’t be shocked. Sherlock is a bit much. 

5: Why is 1 so important?

Because I think they are two people who were handed a pretty raw deal at the hands of the same man and they would find solace and comfort and all things good in the world with each other. Also, I always felt like their temperaments and attitudes towards life matched much more. Even in the movies you can see their friendship is so solid, she trusts obi-wan without any fear. 

6: Is 9 a funny ship or a serious ship?

Def a funny ship. Those two are hot messes especially when it comes to each other. 

7: Out of all of your ships listed, which ship has the most chemistry?

I want to say Obidala because I believe the on-screen chemistry was high for them both but ultimately I think Reylo. It’s the only ship I sail that’s actually canon, so the chemistry is def there and is there on purpose, not just me projecting.

8: Out of all of the ships, which ship has the strongest bond?

I’m gonna say Obidala or Wolfstar. Obidala because again, Padme and Obiwan were really good friends. She trusted her children to him. Then also Wolfstar because of all they’ve been through and fought for. 

9: How many times have you read/watched 10’s fandom?

I just finished rereading the books and watched the movies recently with my little cousin.

10: Which ship has lasted the longest?

The longest would have to be Zutara because I was so young when the series first came out. It was like my first introduction into that sort of thing. 

11: How many times, if ever, has 6 broken up?

Well depends on what comic you read or what movie you’re watching! lol!

12: If the world was suddenly thrust into a zombie apocalypse, which ship would make it out alive, 2 or 8?

Well seeing as Jaimsa kinda went through something similar I’m gonna go with them. 

14: Is 4 still together?

THEY KILLED MY BABY BOY BEN. So yes, technically they are still together but Ben is vibing in the world between worlds right now.

15: Is 10 canon?

Oh def not. Just me projecting my love for both of their characters, their weirdness bond and my love of bad ass women.

16: If all ten ships were put into a couple’s Hunger Games, which couple would win?

Wow that’s difficult, so many of them have special powers and such but I’m gonna go with Wolveroenix because Logan basically can’t die. 

17: Has anybody ever tried to sabotage 5’s ship?

JK Rowling did from the start and she succeeded. We could have had it all.

18: Which ship would you defend to the death and beyond?

Obidala. I’d give up every last one of the others for Obidala. 

19: Do you spend hours a day going through 3’s tumblr page?

Rose and Hux pairing has been a hyper fixation of mine lately so yes.

20: If an evil witch descended from the sky and told you that you had to pick one of the ten ships to break up forever or else she’d break them all up forever, which ship would you sink?

UGH! NOOO....okay, I’d choose Sherlolly, cause I know that ship would probably have the highest break up risk on it’s own.