#like robb is king arthur done wrong

[theredquill]

fics : of being reckless and young ( how damage gets done ) & we’re in love

[cafeleningrad]

001 Harry Potter | 002 Throbb | 003 Bob Andrews

Hey thank you! Yove no idea how urgently I needed a study break. (＃°Д°) Send me fandoms.... characters... ships... ✉

001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my: [Harry Potter, bookverse only]

Favorite character: Hard one but I think I'd go with Arthur Weasley

Least Favorite character: The Marauders. This is more an issue with Rowling's writing, setting them up as shining figures for Harry (except for quiet one-dimensional Wormtail) but then muddling with actions of straight up harrassement and bullying, allowing bullying to happen, later neglectful and selfish behavior. the narrative, even outside Harry's perspective, tries to characterize them as still shining figures, when I think so each individually did makes it so weird how highly every character around them speaks of them. Especially James but maybe he's your typical jock who gets away with harassment, even of his love interest, and the narrative doesn't adress that. *shrugs*

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Luna x Harry, Arthur x Molly, Hermoine x Victor Krum, Crookshanks x many treats, Hedwig x many treats

Character I find most attractive: Charlie Weasley (listen, I'm easy when it comes to redheads)

Character I would marry: Well, Charlie, I guess???

Character I would be best friends with: Padma Pateel

a random thought: Ok, but since when does run know that Malfoy owns a Hand of Glory? He brings it up in the Halfblood Prince, and I couldn't find any indication in the text that Draco actually bought it, let alone letting Ron know that he owns one?

An unpopular opinion: There's a lot of talk how the movies screwed up Ron although I feel up from Order of the Phoenix, Rowling gave Hermoine the emotional intelligence Ron actually had, lowering his intelligence, and basically didn't know how to involve him properly in the plot anymore. Don't get me wrong, I like Hermoine but I have the impression that the books were too influenced by the movie tweaks of making her more charismatic on top of being brilliant and hardworking. Not that becoming more socially competent shouldn't be a goal for her, social inaptness was her biggest flaw, yet that quality was stripped form Ron.

My Canon OTP: Hagrid x Madame Maxine, Bill x Fleur

My Non-canon OTP: Harry x Luna, Ginny x Neville

Most Badass Character: Neville Longbottom

Most Epic Villain: Bellatrix Lestrange

Pairing I am not a fan of: James and Lily, Harry and Ginny (never really got on what basis they actually felt romantic towards each other)

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): The existence of the Snape discourse speaks for itself.

Favourite Friendship: Harry and Hagrid, Hermoine and Ron, Seamus and Dean, the teachers among each other, especially when everyone unifies in their dislike of Lockhart

Character I most identify with: Pomona Sprout

Character I wish I could be: Minerva MacGonagal

002 | Send me a ship and I will tell you: [Throbb, bookverse only]

When I started shipping them: Roughly after reading ASOS, at Catelyn clutching the flayed skin of Theon's finger.

My thoughts: It's all about the angst, the friendship that was so genuine, Robb's fatal decision as a king to put his trust in his only friend, the deep, deep regret, the underlying unhappiness of Theon muddling the water between them....

What makes me happy about them: Robb and Theon both actually had no friends in their age. For Theon feeling so isolated, who actually never had a warm home or someone to comfort him except for Dagmer, there was Robb. Someone with whom Theon would actually like to talk about the Iron Islands and personal stories, and one of the few people with whom Robb could be himself.

What makes me sad about them: "Where was I? I should have been with him? I should have died with him."

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: The white washing of Robb's personality. Whereas Theon can be a wreck, Robb is always the eternal, spotless sunshine as in every bland wishfullfillment story. Basically Robb is there to fix Theon.

Things I look for in fanfic: Angst! Robb with a fleshed out personality!

My wishlist: Just for the angst: Theon meets Rickon when he's grown up and Theon is shaken to the bone how similar Rickon looks to Robb. Or worse: If Theon was to marry Sansa, the fact of them looking similiar to wach other leads to unsettling projections on her.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Robb was to marry Alys Karstark who by personality probably would've been good to contrast with Robb's domineering streak and moody moments. The match made in hell, serving Theon's MILF interest in the worst way, Theon and Cersei lives rent free in the back of my mind. No actually, Theon marrying Sansa could've been a likely outcome to secure peace the North and the Iron Islands. (Although, for my dear girl's sake, I hope Theon gains some empathy for women before they ever get married.)

My happily ever after for them: Robb had never sent Theon away, the Red Wedding couldn't have been orchestrated. Even after the Iron Born raid the Northern shore (as it is implied at Theon's arrival, Balon already readied vessels, no matter if Theon lived or not), Theon and Asha can secretly create a treaty overruling Balon's decreet and gain the Iron fleet for the support of the North. Even though Robb and Theon each are to marry a woman, they'd come together as often as they can.

003 | Give me a character & I will tell you: [Bob Andrews]

How I feel about this character: He's so funny. Before he was the sheepish, barely noticed archivist of the trio, and at some point he collected girlfriends like Ü-eggs and charms every girl they need to talk to for investigations. Like all the three ???, I like him.

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: None really, although the episodes with the evil psychiatrist give me strong Mrs. Robinson associations.

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: His father. They seem to be on really great terms by the way the way Bob wants to follow him into his journalism career, and is constantly supported by his father during research.

My unpopular opinion about this character: He has a lot of unnoticed qualities which may not be prominently noticed yet flesh out the trio's dynamic quiet nicely. If it wasn't for the amazing dynamic between the voice actors, on paper Bob would've had remained incredibly unnoticable from all the three. It's a fun idea of Fröhlich's to turn him into the one with common sense whereas both Justus and Peter tend to have some sleeping criminal energy in them. (Justus is ready to do a lot of things "for science", Peter has no concept of neither property law nor unpicked locks.) He also adds a lot of human element when talking to clients which Justus and Peter both tend to neglect.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: In one episode his VW beetle gets badly damaged. I demand confirmation of an old timer loving mechanic fixing up the poor thing!

Favorite friendship for this character: Morton, Justus, and Peter, obviously

My crossover ship: none

[capsiclesteebrogers]

Redemption Arc Done Right

Okay, here is the post that nobody asked for, but I decided to make it either way. I already made a short post about how I think The Weeping Monk’s arc is similar to Jaime Lannister’s but now I will elaborate because it bogs my mind still.

SPOILERS FOR CURSED BELOW!

If you haven’t finished watching the show I recommend you don;t read it because I will give spoilers. So read it on your own risks.

So as I previously stated, The Weeping Monk reminded me heavily of Jaime Lannister from GOT and the similarities poped up episode after episode which made me think that his arc may be similar to Jaime and that it would make a lot of sense to be like that. Let me present to you my arguments.

1) Looking alike

What striked me first was how similar Lancelot (that’s The Weeping Monk’s real name) is to Jaime in terms of appereance. This may be personal, but I doubt I am the only who looked at both of them and saw how alike in features they are. They both have dirty blonde hair (Lancelot keeps his in a man bun but the writers were cowards and didn’t let Jaime have a man bun as well), a sharp jawline, a beard (although Lancelot’s is not as long as Jaime’s) and a slim but muscular figure. I will insert two pictures here so you can see for yourself (I have taken them from Google Images and don’t know who originally posted them).

SEE WHAT I MEAN? The resemblence is right here! I especially thought they looked similar when Lancelot fought the evil paladins and he got a bit bloody and it reminded me of when Jaime was Robb’s prisoner.

2) The Red Paladins aka Lannister Army

This may not be very obvious, but if you rewatch the last episode of Cursed (Season 1, Episode 10: The Sacrifice) and look at the Red Paladins’ tents you’ll see what I’m talking about. Now, their tents are white and the Lannister’s are red but the Paladins have red associated with them throughout the show. Look at this and tell me it doesn’t resemble the Paladins’ army.

Maybe it’s just me but it’s oddly familiar. I also say the Paladins’ resemble the Lannister army because Father Cardan’s relationship with Lancelot is somewhat similar to Tywin’s relationship with Jaime. They both expect their “sons” to live up to their expectations and be perfect soldiers. And yet both Jaime and Lancelot stand out and don’t fit in the crowd. Jaime because he cares about the innocent people and wishes to no longer be seen as Kingslayer and Lancelot because he’s actually fey and “damned”. They try to please the people who are above them but don’t seem to be enough. 

Jaime eventually escapes his abusive family (don’t try to tell me they weren’t) much like Lancelot escaped the Paladins and is set on a different path.

3) Reveal of name

This was the moment that clicked for me and I saw clearly how the two characters are similar. When Lancelot reveals his name to Squirrel (”Lancelot. A long time ago my name was Lancelot”) it reminded me of the moment when Jaime told Brienne his name. They are both with people who don’t really like them and in a moment of weakness they reveal something personal to them. When Jaime told Brienne his name after she called him Kingslayer (”Jaime. My name’s Jaime.”, btw Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s acting in this scene is superb) he wanted to finally escaped the nickname that was given to him and I think this is the moment where Lancelot shows his humanity and perhaps wishes to no longer be seen as The Weeping Monk.

4) Resented by their own people

Yet another similarity is the fact that both characters are resented by their people. Jaime is resented by the people of Westeros because he killed Aerys “The Mad King” Targaryen by driving a sword through his back and gained the nickname Kingslayer and Lancelot is resented and hated by the fey because he associates himself with the Red Paladins and wants to exterminate them and in return he gained the name, The Weeping Monk. 

We know that Jaime wants to get rid of his title as Kinglsayer because it doesn’t represent what he stand for and even though we did not see it yet, I do believe that Lancelot will want to escape his given name. I would even say (as stated above) that him revealing his true name is a step towards that path.

Now that I have presented you with a few similarities between the two I can tell you that I think Lancelot’s arc will be similar to Jaime’s. He will go to serve a good queen who cares about her people (Jaime went to Sansa and Lancelot is going to Nimue) and atone for his mistakes (Jaime utlimately fought for the living and Lancelot will fight for the fey) and ultimately become an honorable man.

Him going to find Nimue resembles Jaime’s wish to go North, find and protect Sansa. Nimue also resembles Sansa to me because she is a queen chosen by her people, didn’t fit very well at the beggining, is concerned with the well-being of her people (the scene where Nimue discuses food and how to feed the fey reminded me of when Sansa talked to the lords about securing food for the North), so it would make sense for Lancelot to serve her and pledge to her cause.

I think it would make a lot more sense for his character to be a Knight for Nimue and a protector rather than a love interest. A good redemption arc takes time and developement and I don’t think a romance is necessary, especially not with Nimue. To me, it doesn’t make sense. I am also a bit tired of the “enemies turned lovers” trope and it bugs me the wrong way that people completely disregard Arthur and his importance in the plot (and how convenient that the fandom ignores the black love interest, hmm). So many people jumped onto this ship and I can’t for the life of me understand why.

I don’t deny the connections and similarities between Nimue and Lancelot but that doesn’t mean that they have to be romantically involved and “endgame”. I also think they may be siblings, mainly because of what Merlin said at one point about “his kin” to Nimue. I can’t remember from the top of my head what he said exactly, but he didn’t refer to her as “my daughter” or even “my child”, but “my kin” and it made me think that it implies that Nimue is not his only child. 

This was such a long post, but I had to make it because it has been on my mind for a couple of days. Let me know what you think about Lancelot’s arc and what are your theories because I am curious about what other people think.

[dialux]

fear not for the future; weep not for the past

In honor of the trailer, which we have waited for for far too long! Another ridiculous take on Jon assuming his parenthood, though this is... less humorous? Idk, but it does take up the task of explaining the Jon & Catelyn relationship of my dreams!

[In which Catelyn knows the truth, and tells Jon while Ned’s off on a state trip.]

...

“If you hate me that’s fine,” Jon said, sharply, before turning and running.

Catelyn sighed, inwardly and out. Jon was a better kid than Robb- easier, at least, being both quieter and less temperamental all at once. But when he got angry he tended to stay angry, and he also had a terrible habit of running into the woods when he felt like being alone.

With Ned off to Castle Cerwyn for a week with delegations from all seven kingdoms, and Jon having apparently been in such a bad mood as to snap at Arya and make her cry- Arya, crying, over something unrelated to chores!- Catelyn had confronted him, and the boy had shouted for well over a quarter hour before fleeing. But now she had a good idea of what was bothering him, and Catelyn didn’t feel remotely ready to deal with it.

Though- staying silent would likely be crueler than telling the truth.

Jon deserved the truth.

She’d fought over that very point with Ned, before he left. Jon hadn’t been so suspicious of his mother’s personality then, though, and yes, if Catelyn told him the truth there would likely be a moon’s turn of irritated looks from her husband to deal with, not to mention a cold bed.

And yet.

Jon deserved the truth.

Mind made up, Catelyn made her way towards the godswood. She didn’t bother to look at the trees, where Robb always liked to hide; Jon liked his feet planted on solid ground, and Winterfell’s swordsmaster had spent years training that flatfootedness out of him. Instead, she looked at the shadows.

And there he was: Jon, curled into a ball that made him look smaller than his gangly years; hidden in the dark curve of a sycamore overlooking the pools.

Carefully, Catelyn picked her path through the snow and leaves, until she was close enough to feel the heat of the pools’ steam on her frozen fingers.

“I’ve never hated you.”

“Like I’ve never hated you?” was the immediate response.

That stung. Catelyn hadn’t ever been so close to Jon, that was true enough; but she’d never hated him either. To think that he had wasn’t a pleasant thought.

He’s a child.

“This is about your mother,” she said, instead, keeping her voice soothing.

“Everything is about her,” Jon replied bitterly, after a long pause. “Everyone else knows, though, and it was staring at me all along. You-”

“Everyone knows?” Catelyn demanded. Adrenaline jolted through her, but she forced herself to stay calm. 

“Did you know her?” Jon asked flatly, head poking out of the shadows to level a look almost exactly like Ned’s at her. He sounded more hesitant than angry now, and Catelyn thought she could all but taste the desire soaking through his voice. Yes, she decided. Ned was wrong to keep this from him. “Was she- how was she?”

“She was very pretty,” Catelyn said slowly. She’d met Lyanna Stark for all of a few minutes at Harrenhal’s Tourney before the girl had run off; what she’d heard of her since hadn’t been very complimentary.

But Ned had loved her- still loved her- and Jon was her only child. Catelyn wouldn’t taint those memories with her own suspicions.

“Pretty, and bright. She could wield a sword better than half the men her age, and if her father had allowed it, she’d likely have entered all the tourneys in the world. And when you’re as small as she was- it’s courage and brains that won her battles, until the last. Ned tells me you get that from her.”

Lyanna’s brains, had been his actual words, and not an ounce of her ambition. He’d disappear for the Wall if I allowed it, accept the black and the oaths without a second glance.

Sounds like her brother, Catelyn had replied, just as Jon disarmed Robb with a flick of his sword that looked impressive even to her. Ned had looked so surprised, and Catelyn had smiled, slow and wide. He is your son as well, Ned, now. And just because he holds his words important doesn’t make him a fool. Or have you forgotten who challenged Theon Greyjoy to a duel of honor when he was not but ten?

“What did she- look like?”

“Long hair,” Catelyn murmured, eyes closing. “Dark as yours. You’ve her eyes, as well, the shape and the size- though the color’s all Ned’s. Arya’s, as well. Your grandmother’s, apparently.”

“You’re lying to me!” 

Catelyn jerked away, nearly losing her balance on the leaf-strewn ground. When she straightened, Jon’s hands were fisted at his sides and he looked mulishly stubborn. Like Ned had looked, back when Catelyn first pushed him- irritated; somber; regretful but not repenting.

“Her eyes were purple,” said Jon, and the disgust seemed to swallow him whole. “That’s what that Dornish ambassador said! Her eyes were purple, and she killed herself, and-”

She twisted to fully meet Jon, face to face, and asked sharply, “Who did you think your mother was, Jon?”

He shrank back, just a little, at Catelyn’s face, before straightening defiantly. “Ashara,” he said. “Ashara Dayne.”

“Ah.” Surprise left Catelyn faint. She considered letting Jon keep believing in the lie- it was easier, all truth told- but unfair, in the end, to Ashara Dayne’s memory, to Ned’s own honor, and to this little boy standing in front of her. “I see why you’d believe that.”

“But it isn’t true,” Jon said, defeated.

“No,” said Catelyn gently. She reached forward and wrapped her hand over Jon’s shoulder, using the leverage to sink to her knees in front of him. “No, it isn’t true. But it is past time you knew, I think.”

He stilled, body like stone under her fingers. His eyes- so similar to Ned’s; so dissimilar, too: more hurting, more angry, more bitter- didn’t look away from her.

“Ned didn’t tell you at first because it was dangerous,” Catelyn explained. Better Jon understood this before it was overshadowed by the revelation. If Jon were to spill even a hint of it to anyone- the consequences could be disastrous. “Children have loose lips; and if news reached the King, there might not have been much left of us Starks by the time he was done with us. Better you remain ignorant and loved and safe, Ned thought, even if it was all a lie.”

“Father... committed treason?” Jon whispered. 

“At the end of Robert’s Rebellion, he went to Dorne to find his sister, Lyanna. He found her at the Tower of Joy and slew Arthur Dayne, two others of the Kingsguard- and he entered the tower to find her on a bed of roses and blood.” Oh, how Catelyn had had nightmares after Ned had told her! How cruel the world had been to Lyanna Stark, to Ned, to all those Ned had once named family! “She did not live to see dusk, but she was not alone in the tower. For beside her was a babe, just a few days old.”

Jon frowned. “A babe?” Then, realizing: “Me.”

“Yes,” affirmed Catelyn. “You.”

“But then- my father wasn’t- isn’t-”

“Lyanna was stolen away by a man,” said Catelyn, watching Jon sadly. “Do you remember who?”

He looked numb. Shell-shocked.

“Rhaegar Targaryen.”

“And a son of Rhaegar Targaryen would be...”

“A prince.”

“Not a prince,” corrected Catelyn. “The crown prince. And with Rhaegar dead? He’d be king.”

Jon shook his head. “Nobody’s going to ride to give me a- a- throne. Nobody.”

“And that matters little.” Catelyn cupped his jaw and brushed a lock of hair from Jon’s forehead. “The things Robert Baratheon is known for- restraint is not one of them. He attacks threats with his hammer, and beats them until their blood turns rivers red.” A gruesome picture- she did regret how Jon turned white and strained- but also necessary. Better he be wary now than careless. And if he remembered how Rhaegar died, all to the better. “Do you see why we wished to keep it silent?”

Understand. Understand that there are no easy choices in this. Understand that we have done the best we can.

Slowly, Jon nodded. 

“Yes,” he whispered. “I do.”

Catelyn let her hand drop, and bowed her head. Jon left, but Catelyn remained, silent, shrouded in shadows, under trees that left her shivering and frightened. Finally, she rose and almost walked away, but then paused at the edge to the godswood.

The best we can, she thought, remembering rumors from the south that Robert would ride north soon. Let us pray it will be enough.

[janiedean]

between jaime and theon, who do you think has the more well written redemption arc?

well, counting that imo both of them have arcs that are more identity than redemption in itself... if you want the short answer: theon, because while jaime’s deals with redemption... it’s more a reversed redemption arc, as in, it’s not about him redeeming himself, it’s about him realizing he’s always been a decent person all along. now, I had ranted about the subject already once so if you want the full version focused on jaime there’s the meta, but going into it again and comparing it with theon...

first thing we should probably take into account when comparing them: as someone else who sadly deleted since then, these books have exactly TWO instances of people doing a truly selfless heroic knightly grand gesture and those instances are a) theon saving jeynep, b) jaime going into the bear pit for brienne, which says a lot given that they’re perpetrated by two people that everyone in the narrative (and a lot of people outside) see as oathbreakers/assholes/people with no honor;

now, before we go back there... the thing is that while I think theon has an identity arc first and foremost (I mean he has chapter names corresponding to his identities let’s be real here), but it is more or less straight-up redemptive in the sense that it follows all the basic steps, ie theon does something wrong that he regrets more than just about anyone else at this point (betraying robb), realizes where he went wrong and what he wants from life and decides to be better than that. now mind that with theon it’s strongly interlinked with the identity arc, because he saves jeyne (his narrative redemptive moment) after realizing who he is and who he wants to be and what he wants from life, while his bad actions/betrayal were rooted in the fact that he had an identity crisis and was desperately trying to be what he thought his father wanted/didn’t want to deal with that situation/couldn’t admit to himself that he had with robb what he wanted from his family (acceptance/love/someone caring about him for himself/his personality, not his surname or his worth as a hostage or only surviving male son etc.). now, never mind the whole deal where (still imvho) theon and robb are foils in the sense that robb’s damning (narratively) moment was marrying jeynew while theon’s redemptive (narratively) was saving jeynep, he gains the narrative redemption the moment he does something selfless (ie saving jeyne as in someone no one gave a shit about) regardless of facing death because that’s what theon would have done (remember ‘theon greyjoy would have helped her but not reek?), when we can argue that his betrayal and previous fuck-ups weren’t exactly selfless but more desperate ways to assess who he thought he had to be. except that when he does that he fucks up, when he does what he really wanted to he does the heroic deed, therefore showing that he has the potential to be a more than decent person (which is most likely what robb saw in him), so his arc is both about finding his identity and redemption through accepting it;

so like... we can say that theon’s redemption arc, while tied to his identity arc, is pretty much straightforward;

now, the thing with jaime is: he doesn’t have a straight up redemption arc, because tbqh the only thing he’s done in these books that he should be redeemed from is pushing bran from the window (like guys the incest is nothing you need **redemption** from technically especially since it’s an abusive relationship where he’s not the abused part and I’ll die on that hill, killing aerys was just good sense and he wouldn’t have lied about tysha to tyrion if tywin hadn’t pushed him to do it by the way that’s abusive/manipulative as well and anything else is... about on par of what anyone else in these books has done). what jaime needs is to realize he’s his own person and not his sister and find his own way, and that realization comes through coming to terms with the fact that the person he is at the beginning of the books is not the person he wanted to be when he was young but he still has the potential to be that person and he actively strives for it and tries to do better, which.... isn’t exactly **redemption** clear-cut;

also the rest goes under the cut because this is long af sorry I have feelings on these two.

like, to make it extremely basic: jaime starts as a generally good person. 

now, before anyone harps at me, I’ll take a break from the checklist to say that it’s the text specifying it - he’s the only one in the family who genuinely loves tyrion when no one else would, as genna lannister put it

"Jaime," she said, tugging on his ear, "sweetling, I have known you since you were a babe at Joanna's breast. You smile like Gerion and fight like Tyg, and there's some of Kevan in you, else you would not wear that cloak . . . but Tyrion is Tywin's son, not you. I said so once to your father's face, and he would not speak to me for half a year. Men are such thundering great fools. Even the sort who come along once in a thousand years."

he has the good qualities from all the other lannister uncles/relatives but nothing of his father (I mean she mentions his smile, his strive for honor and being a good fighter, that’s... positive qualities), he’s put at the opposite, or I mean, as tyrion once put it:

My brother, Jaime, thirsts for battle, not for power. He's run from every chance he's had to rule.

and this when it was made clear in book one from tyrion’s povs that his opinion of jaime and cersei was wildly different, which would be hard if they were the same person. also:

That boy had wanted to be Ser Arthur Dayne, but someplace along the way he had become the Smiling Knight instead.

like. that’s jaime thinking about what happened to him since he joined the kingsguard. seems to me like he has a clue that something went wrong there.

anyway, back to the point: jaime starts as a good person. and a good person who wants to do good things in life, as in, becoming arthur dayne, ie a knight without stain or honor, and we all know that technically knighthood = positive things;

what happens is that since he goes into the kingsguard his picture gets destroyed - he does it on cersei’s advice and that’s what kickstarts their relationship for good (because the first time they have sex is when she proposes it to him and he accepts both for that and because he wants that kingsguard place in his romanticized vision of it, and we could talk for an hour of the fact that cersei actually had hoped to marry rhaegar just before, so if it actually had happened he’d have ended up without his name/inheritance/position and without cersei but nvm that), then he takes his job and finds out the king is out of his mind, that he can’t protect anyone he should (rhaella), has to watch people get burned alive/strangled/raped in front of him, copes by dissociating (which is like, basic ptsd trauma symptom in war veterans and he was fifteen-seventeen at that point), his picture of honor/valor/knighthood gets destroyed apparently beyond repair, he kills aerys to save everyone else after being put in an impossible position (because he was the only kingsguard in the entire castle which was a fairly stupid decision if you ask me) and then everyone decides he has shit for honor and sees him as the worst without bothering to ask and at that point he says fuck it and embraces it;

as in: he turns into the smiling knight (as he put it) by giving in to cynicism/nihilism and only worries about cersei/his family and says fuck it to his romantic notions even if he desperately wants to believe it and actually if you read his povs, going beyond the part where he’s too world-weary for his own good..... like honestly jaime lannister has the emotional maturity of a seventeen-year old which is pretty much showing that he was so traumatized by what went on with aerys that he basically never moved on from that and coped with it by a) not thinking about it, b) being angry about it when he did, c) embracing what others thought of him like ‘well you think I’m that bad fine have it your way’, which is also... basically teenage angst level but again: he hasn’t moved on from that;

(this while being into a codependent toxic af relationship with cersei that about a) annihilates his sense of identity because he thinks he��s the same as her when he’s all the contrary and acts the contrary, b) is not sexually healthy because being like that with one person only and those premises is not healthy I mean guys fuck’s sake this guy is older than thirty and couldn’t process getting hard when seeing a naked woman, it’s a problem, c) doesn’t help him get out of his issues but actually makes them worse)

now, back to the matter: at his lowest narrative point he pushes bran from the window, except thatThe man looked over at the woman. “The things I do for love,” he said with loathing. He gave Bran a shove.now, everyone ignores that bran himself perceives that jaime said that with loathing, so he knows he’s doing something extremely shitty, but he’s embracing it as necessary in order to save his hide and cersei’s and also because he’s embraced this concept that whatever he does people will think him honorless so what’s the damned point?

then, after two other massive trauma episodes ie being imprisoned for an entire year and losing his sword hand ie his livelihood, he has to face what he wants and who he wants to be because the fact that he doesn’t have the hand a) takes his fighting skills away from him, b) takes what makes him cersei’s exact mirror, c) forces him to rely on other people in the immediate aftermath and the fact that throughout this whole thing he’s stuck with brienne ie someone who reminds him of the person he wanted to be and who actually manages to uphold those ideals and keeps on doing it regardless gives him a wake-up call and makes him realize that he actually... did still want to be the person he used to be;

so like..... the arc jaime is having right now isn’t 1) I’m a bad person, 2) I did something heinous, 3) I realized that and I repented, 4) I’m trying to atone for it, which is the technical redemption arc as it is and which is more true for theon than for him. the arc jaime is having is 1) I was a good person, 2) I turned into someone I didn’t want to be after traumatic events, 3) I did something awful also as the result of years spent not dealing with it and I regret it, 4) I lost a part of me that was to me 99% of what I thought I was good for, 5) I realized that I turned into someone I didn’t want to be, 6) I’m trying to do better and be that person;

btw, before the argument comes like BUT HE NEVER REPENTED:

If truth be told, Jaime had come to rue heaving Brandon Stark out that window. Cersei had given him no end of grief afterward, when the boy refused to die. "He was seven, Jaime," she'd berated him. "Even if he understood what he saw, we should have been able to frighten him into silence.""I didn't think you'd want—"  (mind that here it’s even BEFORE the hand loss and his answer is that he acted based on what he thought she wanted, now I’m not saying she is to blame but that since he was acting thinking that he was doing what she wanted then he didn’t act doing what he would have done if it hadn’t factored into his decision)

"Well, he's beyond suspicion now." Robert's death still left a bitter taste in Jaime's mouth. It should have been me who killed him, not Cersei. "I only wished he'd died at my hands." When I still had two of them. "If I'd let kingslaying become a habit, as he liked to say, I could have taken you as my wife for all the world to see. I'm not ashamed of loving you, only of the things I've done to hide it. That boy at Winterfell . . .""Did I tell you to throw him out the window? If you'd gone hunting as I begged you, nothing would have happened. But no, you had to have me, you could not wait until we returned to the city."

I mean, he says he’s ashamed of it, not me. but like, that’s someone trying to do better than before and wanting to be a better person and going past his trauma (and actually he matures a lot in between asos and adwd so it’s obvious he’s somehow gotten unstuck from his aerys-related issues);

so like..... going back to the point: theon actually wants to actively do something to atone for his betrayal or wishes he could, and while saving jeyne is not what he probably thought as in ‘atoning for having betrayed robb’, it was narratively, because the pay-off is that he’s free of his abuser, knows who he is and who he wants to be and has solved his identity issues and can only go forward. on the other hand, jaime isn’t seeing his previous misdeeds as something he’s actively searching atonement for, and it’s less clear-cut because theon is moooreee or less a straight line, jaime’s having to deal with wanting to act in a certain way but circumstances throwing him back (ie he wants to try and have a relationship with tommen, cersei sends him away; he doesn’t want to break his vow to cat but has to go to riverrun anyway; he doesn’t want to raise arms against them so he bluffs with the trebuchet baby which makes everyone assume the worst of him and works because of that, but on the side he tries to do better see the deal with pia, sending brienne to look for sansa actively going against cersei’s orders, freeing tyrion AGAIN against cersei’s orders and telling him the truth about tysha and so on);

but at the end of it: 1. theon is a generally okay person who has postured a lot as a defense mechanism while being a hostage, starts with an identity crisis that leads to his wrong/bad actions that eventually contribute to causing robb’s death (admittedly I think that the red wedding was a go anyway bc it was tywin scheming it but theon fake killing robb’s brothers > robb sleeping with jeyne > perfect excuse for frey to defect) and to his own torture and abuse at ramsay’s hands, he has to work through his issues, deeply regrets his actions, realizes who he wants to be and eventually does something heroic the moment he comes to terms with it as his big narrative redemptive moment.2. jaime used to be a good person who after going through heavy trauma has stopped giving a fuck about his old dreams and embraced his worst sides also as a coping/defense mechanism [while being stuck in an abusive relationship that annihilates his sense of self], did something heinous at his lowest point, underwent even more trauma that forced him to reshape his entire life, met someone who showed him he could try to be the person he wanted to be/was before aerys, regrets his actions but doesn’t specifically look for redemption through them but actively searches it after (as in: he doesn’t want to be redeemed for trying to kill bran but he still upholds his vow to catelyn and tries to save at least her daughter by sending brienne ie the one true knight in the room after her, frees tyrion and comes clean with him etc) and tries to be a better person all along;

this also is symbolized by when they have their heroic moments as described above, because theon saving jeyne is at the end of his adwd arc, which works as a good bookend for his story and for his identity arc, while jaime jumping in the pit for brienne is in the middle of asos/in the middle of his asos arc, so while jeyne’s rescue is theon’s ending point/crowning achievement, jaime’s rescuing of brienne is his starting point. he doesn’t do it as the crowning achievement of his arc - hell, his arc isn’t even over within asos -, and while it’s not the first thing he does actively post-hand loss (he saves her from being raped and tells her about aerys), but it’s the first grand gesture he makes and he doesn’t even know why he does it but he feels like he has to and goes for it without even blinking twice, while theon does ponder it. like, theon’s redemption (narratively) has been earned and he knows he’s done that:

"Don't you call him that." Then the words came spilling out of Theon in a rush. He tried to tell her all of it, about Reek and the Dreadfort and Kyra and the keys, how Lord Ramsay never took anything but skin unless you begged for it. He told her how he'd saved the girl, leaping from the castle wall into the snow. "Weflew. Let Abel make a song of that, we flew." Then he had to say who Abel was, and talk about the washerwomen who weren't truly washerwomen. By then Theon knew how strange and incoherent all this sounded, yet somehow the words would not stop. He was cold and sick and tired... and weak, so weak, so very weak.

like.... theon says to let abel make a song of that. he knows he’s done something song-worthy. he’s 100% aware of it, post-fact. jaime really is not - he doesn’t think of his bear pit moment as a song-worthy moment (but brienne herself does:“Ser Jaime?” Even in soiled pink satin and torn lace, Brienne looked more like a man in a gown than a proper woman. “I am grateful, but … you were well away. Why come back?” vsthe griffins on his cloak rippled and blurred and changed to lions. Jaime! she wanted to cry, Jaime, come back for me!, but her tongue lay on the floor by the rose, drowned in blood.like, brienne ie the person he saved has definitely interiorized it as A Total Song-Worthy Moment)and the fact that he ended it with the whole I dreamed of you thing which is honestly not the least romantic thing he could have said doesn’t mean that he hasn’t... gone for it knowing what he was doing, differently from theon, and again: theon’s grand gesture is what seals his narrative redemption after he finds out who he really is, jaime’s is what kickstarts his own search for the person he used to be and that he wants to be again and that he actually forgot/thought he couldn’t be, which... is the exact contrary of male!cersei as he has thought until now.

so like... imo theon’s a straight-up redemption arc within an identity arc that deconstructs a bunch of tropes (traitor first and foremost), jaime is a reverse identity arc which includes redemptive themes but where the driving force isn’t his need for redemption, is the fact that he needs to reconcile the person he has the potential of being with a) growing the hell up, b) detaching himself from cersei, c) finding his sense of self, d) overcoming his trauma. and while theon has in common with him the part where he has to find himself and overcome trauma, I think that his arc is really more redemption-driven than jaime. theon wants to atone and finds out he can because of the person he actually is, jaime needs to realize he’s his own person and to do the things he wants to, not what others think of him.

so, to go back to my first point: for this whole heap of reasons, I think that as a redemption arc theon’s is better because it’s... a redemption arc in itself, while jaime’s is basically second coming of age with redemptive themes so I wouldn’t call it like that. I mean, I hate this whole discourse about IS HE ON A REDEMPTION ARC OR NOT bc to me he’s on a self-discovering arc that includes doing things that redeem his past actions, but he’s not actively looking for it in the usual terms. that said I need to specify a few things:

I personally think theon in himself is the best written and conceived character in these books but that jaime is right behind him and they’re technically martin’s greatest literary achievements as characters so it’s not like if I say that theon’s better written I think jaime’s is badly written, ALL THE CONTRARY;

I also think that theon beats jaime for originality and identity arc (not redemption bc jaime’s arc is not redemptive imo as stated), but jaime as a pov is tbqh really a gem when it comes to a) dealing with military-like ptsd symptoms, b) long-lasting emotional abuse, c) using sarcasm as a coping method/defense mechanism, d) lessons in How To Not Deal With Trauma (ie not thinking about it), because while ofc there are parts that are not realistic (ie: someone with jaime’s background should have had a nervous breakdown of horrid proportions a long time before the series started tbh) the fact that people tend to brush it off without realizing it just because he looks fine on the outside tbh says a lot about how people overlook trauma in men when they happen to not show it in the reader’s face/in someone’s face (no one can deny it with theon and sandor, because they show it physically, or tyrion because he talks about it and he’s aware of it, and whoever usually gives it to jaime only says ‘ah it starts after the hand loss). and it’s not george’s fault because imvho he wrote it perfectly given that jaime himself isn’t aware of it, but I just find it very telling;

I think both of them are really great narratives when it comes to exploring reaction to life-lasting trauma and abuse (except that for theon is straight-up physical, jaime is mental/emotional) and both arcs in that sense are written really well;

I also don’t know how fair it is to compare them for the same themes also because jaime’s a fairly reliable pov (sarcastic but reliable, he's not the lying to himself type) while theon’s wholly unreliable/has a journey towards reliable-ness more or less but idk if we’re there so that’s that to take into account too;

I also don’t think anyone in these books has a clear-cut anything arc because it’s all tropes deconstruction and nothing is ever played straight-up, so... again, that’s the opinion but I don’t think it says much as a whole because neither of them is a redemption arc that follows the tropes (I mean theon’s is straight-up but his kinda character - ie traitor who betrays the hero - is not usually given it, but I ranted about it in the above meta).

... this probably went way beyond your question, but here, have a rant.

[gameofthronestldr]

Brandon Stark

“Old stories are like old friends. You have to visit them from time to time” - Brandon Stark

Born: 290 AC at Winterfell

Hair: Auburn

Eye Color: Blue

Features: Crippled, unable to walk

Culture: Northmen 

Father: Eddard Stark

Mother: Catelyn Stark

Siblings:

Robb Stark

Sansa Stark

Arya Stark

Rickon Stark

Jon Snow (paternal cousin raised as bastard half-brother)

Titles: 

Prince (formerly)

Acting Lord of Winterfell (formerly) 

Aliases:

Bran Stark

Little Lord

Bran the Broken

The Winged Wolf

Three-Eyed Raven

Allegiance:

House Stark

Three-Eyed Crow

Religion: Old Gods of the Forest 

Direwolf: Summer

History

Brandon Stark, commonly called Bran, is the fourth child and second son of Eddard and Catelyn Stark. 

Bran was born and raised at Winterfell. He has an older brother Robb, a younger brother Rickon, two older sisters Sansa and Arya, and an older "bastard half-brother", Jon Snow, who is actually Bran's first cousin by his aunt Lyanna Stark. Bran was named for Ned's elder brother, Brandon, who was brutally executed by the Mad King along with Bran's paternal grandfather Rickard Stark. He is only called "Brandon" by his mother when he has done something wrong. Bran dreams of being a knight of the Kingsguard, and his favorite hobby is climbing the walls of Winterfell, using its old rooftops and passageways to get around.

Bran is a warg and currently the new Three-Eyed Raven, using his supernatural gifts to assist his family in the war against the White Walkers.

Appearance and Personality

Bran has his mother's coloring, with the thick auburn hair and deep blue eyes associated with House Tully.

Bran is a pleasant young boy, regarded fondly by the people of Winterfell. Before the incident of his fall, Bran was an extremely curious and adventurous boy. He was noted by his mother, and by his brother Robb, to have done a great amount of climbing around the walls of Winterfell and having never fallen, showing a considerable amount of bravery on his part. His curiosity was in large part what led to his fall in the first place, since he was drawn into the encounter between Jaime and Cersei out of sheer curiosity as to what was happening. After his fall, Bran's rapidly worsening situation forced him to become far more solemn and apprehensive than the cheerful child he had once been. After words Bran had it in him to be a good lord in his own right, as proven by his brief tenure as acting Lord of Winterfell when Robb left to fight Tywin Lannister.

Upon meeting Jojen Reed, Bran proved capable of accepting the powers that he possessed, showing an open mind on his part, even if such a thing set him apart from companions like Osha. He became almost unbreakably determined to meet the Three-Eyed Raven that kept coming to him in his dreams, even if it meant separating from his brother Rickon and, later on, from Jon Snow. When Bran finally reached the Three-Eyed Raven, one of the first things he pressed the Three-Eyed Raven about is whether or not Bran could walk again, and is briefly disappointed when told that he will never walk again.

After growing up under the tutelage of the Three-Eyed Raven, Bran maintains his curious nature, especially when he and the Raven visit Winterfell; his curiosity piques when he sees his long-dead aunt Lyanna. Bran is disappointed by the prospect of returning to the real world. Later on, Bran expresses confusion when witnessing the duel at the Tower of Joy, especially when his young father started losing the duel - this confusion turned to horror when he realized that Arthur Dayne lost only because Howland Reed blindsided him, having been told all his life that Ned ultimately killed the man in an honorable duel. This horror resurfaced when he realized that the Children of the Forest were responsible for the creation of the White Walkers, only to be silenced when Leaf cited the havoc caused by men to be the main reason for this course of action. He also shows incredulity at what his own powers can accomplish, as shown when he realizes how he is responsible for breaking Hodor's mind in the first place.

Upon returning from Beyond the Wall, Bran's personality has changed significantly, as a result of the expansion his powers have taken since the battle at the Cave of the Three-Eyed Raven. He has become extremely calm to a fault, to the point of being almost detached from everyone else around him. Having become the new Three-Eyed Raven, Bran has been given access to many more events, which he explains several times, so much that Bran becomes aware of almost anything, for example the wedding between his sister Sansa and Ramsay Bolton, and even the conversation between Littlefinger and Varys. He also shows a rather dangerous and threatening side, as evidenced by his deadpan recital of Chaos is a ladder to Petyr Baelish, outright showing that he knows how treacherous Petyr is and what he has done against House Stark in the past, but also suggesting that Petyr is unable to manipulate him. Also, Bran shows himself to have become almost wiser than he was before, ultimately not accepting the Valyrian steel dagger that Littlefinger gives him, citing that it would be useless for a cripple, but at the same time obviously not trusting the gifts that the man gives him. However, Bran is not truly omniscient, as he still needs to witness events in order to find out about them, as shown by his surprise when he heard that Rhaegar and Lyanna were secretly married.

Skills

Bran Stark is one of a few characters known to possess magical abilities.

Greensight - also called simply "The Sight", is the ability to receive prophetic visions, starting off in the form of dreams. Bran's powers extend far beyond simply viewing events unfold; he is capable of influencing past events, though he cannot change what was predestined to occur already. Warg - Bran is a warg, a human who can send his consciousness into the mind of an animal, to see through its eyes and control its body as if it were his own. Jojen Reed states that this is a different, though related, ability to the Sight. Though he still needs training, Bran is inherently a very powerful warg, even able to enter the mind of another human, something the wargs among the wildlings are unable and unwilling to do. Bran has already become skilled at entering the mind of his direwolf Summer, in which he is a dangerous fighter, capable of dispatching several wildlings or wights, and uses Hodor to perform more complicated tasks or to supplement Summer's fighting capacity.

Skinchanging with a Heart tree, a Weirwood with a face carved in it by the Children of the Forest, allows Bran to have vivid visions of past, present, and future events, including those far away from himself. While in the visions, Bran is once again capable of walking.

[nymini]

A list of lines & other things in ASOIAF that break my heart

…because I just finished adwd and I’m trying to cope

“And afterward, we'll ride north to see the Wall. We won't even tell Jon we're coming, we'll just be there one day, you and me. It will be an adventure." "An adventure," Bran repeated wistfully. He heard his brother sob. The room was so dark he could not see the tears on Robb's face, so he reached out and found his hand. Their fingers twined together.

Distressed baby Rickon not quite knowing where his family is and what’s going on. (“You leave him. You leave him be. He’s coming home now, like he promised. He’s coming home.”)

“The common people pray for rain, healthy children, and a summer that never ends," Ser Jorah told her. "It is no matter to them if the high lords play their game of thrones, so long as they are left in peace." He gave a shrug. "They never are.”

Promise me, Ned.

 “How then did you save me? I saw my god's house burn, where I had healed good men beyond counting. My home they burned as well, and in the street I saw piles of heads. I saw the head of a baker who made my bread. I saw the head of a boy I had saved from deadeye fever, only three moons past. I heard children crying as the riders drove them off with their whips. Tell me again what you saved." “Your life." Mirri Maz Duur laughed cruelly. “Look to your khal and see what life is worth, when all the rest is gone."

“Dimly, as if from far away, she heard a … a noise … a soft sighing sound, as if a million people had let out their breath at once.”

The tragedy that is the story of Jeyne Poole

PROUDWING

The Starklings remembering Robb with snow melting in his hair.

"Rhaenys was a child too. Prince Rhaegar's daughter. A precious little thing, younger than your girls. She had a small black kitten she called Balerion, did you know? I always wondered what happened to him. Rhaenys liked to pretend he was the true Balerion, the Black Dread of old, but I imagine the Lannisters taught her the difference between a kitten and a dragon quick enough, the day they broke down her door."

Mycah & Lady’s deaths

Barra & her mother

Alayaya

Arya held her breath and kissed the mud on the floor of the tunnel and cried. For who, she could not say.

Run Weasel, run as far as you can, run and hide and never come back.

“It’s always summer in the songs. In the songs all knights are gallant, all maids are beautiful, and the sun is always shining.”

The fate of the people in the Riverlands, Hardhome, Astapor & Saltpans.

When they took his head off, they killed me too.

But if we are winning, why am I so afraid?

Davos pretty much having to watch half of his children die at the Blackwater

Sansa singing the mother’s song to Sandor before he leaves King’s Landing

It was not dead, just broken. Like me, he thought. I’m not dead either.

“When the sun has set, no candle can replace it.”

Sansa pitied them. Sansa envied them.

“Gods be good, why would any man ever want to be king?”

But the wolf’s dead and the young one’s gone south to play the game of thrones, and all that’s left us is the ghosts.

“She was,” said Meera, “but that’s a sadder story.”

We look up at the same stars and see such different things.

“I have won every battle, yet somehow I’m losing the war.”

“The singers make much of kings who die valiantly in battle, but your life is worth more than a song. To me at least, who gave it to you.”

Jaime, he thought, my name is Jaime.

The training of the Unsullied

“Could you bring back a man without a head? Just the once, not six times. Could you?”

“And if we die, we die. All men must die, Jon Snow. But first we’ll live.”

In this light, she could almost be a beauty. In this light she could almost be a knight.

“We’re all just songs in the end. If we are lucky.”

“No, don’t, don’t cut my hair, Ned loves my hair.”

Let him grow taller, she asked the gods. Let him know sixteen, and twenty, and fifty. Let him grow as tall as his father, and hold his own son in his arms. Please, please, please.

“D’you remember that cave? We should have stayed in that cave.”

Back in Winterfell, Sansa told him, that the demons of the dark couldn’t touch him if he hid beneath his blanket.

I have a hole where my heart should be, she thought, and nowhere else to go.

The story of the dying archer Sandor and Arya come across after the RW.

"You remember where the heart is?"

Arya took the doll away from her, ripped it open, and pulled the rag stuffing out of its belly with a finger. “Now he really looks like a soldier!”

The boy had wanted to be Ser Arthur Dayne, but someplace along the way he had become the Smiling Knight instead.

“I’d win in the end, yes, but you’d bleed me, and my people have bled enough.”

Joffrey was dead, but if Robb was dead too, what did it matter?

I thought my song was beginning that day, but it was almost done.

A pure world, Sansa thought. I do not belong here.

What do I want with snowballs? She looked at her sad little arsenal. There’s no one here to throw them at. She let the one she was making drop from her hand.

“I was a man grown when they were playing in these pools. Yet here I sit, and they are gone.”

“And pull your hood up. The snowflakes are melting in your hair.”

Arya never seemed to find the places she set out to reach.

“I’m his squire,” he repeated, as the rain ran down his face, “but he left me.”

“I prefer my history dead. Dead history is writ in ink, the living sort in blood.”

“My sister Elia had a little girl as well. Her name was Rhaenys. She was a princess too.”

The knights of summer. And now it was autumn and they were falling like leaves…

It was not the scorn of the many that left her confused and vulnerable, but the kindness of the few.

“Egg? Egg, I dreamed that I was old.”

Gilly having to leave her baby behind

“We are sworn to protect her as well,” Jaime had finally been driven to say. “We are,” Darry allowed, “but not from him.”

“I’m sorry I never trusted you. I don’t know how to do that anymore.”

“It’s just a sword,” she said, aloud this time… but it wasn’t. […] the Many-Faced God can have the rest, she thought, but he can’t have this.

“I used to have a dog when I was little. I called him Hero.” “Was he?” “Was he what?” “A hero.” “No. He was a good dog, though. He died.” (oh Podrick…)

The Broken Men speech

Jaime’s dream about Joanna

“The war of the Ninepenny Kings?” asked Hyle Hunt. “So they called it, though I never saw a king, nor earned a penny. It was a war though. That it was.”

“Egg? It’s dark. Why is it so dark?”

“I am the only child the gods let him keep. The freakish one, not fit to be a son or daughter.”

“Death should hold no fear for a man as old as me, but it does. Isn’t that silly?”

“[…] I was never afraid, when he was throwing me. I knew he would always be there to catch me. Then one day he wasn’t.”

“It were the black one,” the man said, in a Ghiscari growl, “the winged shadow. He come down from the sky and… and…”

Jon remembered Ygritte, crying. I am the last of the giants.

Pia being genuinely confused when Jaime has her rapist executed. Those poor people are seriously not used to actually getting some justice.

Penny and her brother

“He taught me how to climb a tree when we were little. He could catch fish with his hands. Once I found him sleeping in our garden with a hundred butterflies crawling over him. He looked so beautiful that morning, this one… I mean, I loved him.”

Her name had been Hazzea. She was four years old.

One day when the war is done and King Stannis sits the Iron Throne and has no more need of onion knights. I'll take Devan with me. Steff and Stanny too if they're old enough. We'll see these dragons and all the wonders of the world.

“I’m no slave.” “Every man ever taken by slavers sings that same sad song.”

“Should you reach your queen, give her a message from the slaves of Old Volantis. Tell her we are waiting. Tell her to come soon.”

I am so sorry Marya, I have loved you. Please forgive the wrongs I did you.

“Who is Eroeh?” “A girl I thought I’d saved from rape and torment. All I did was make it worse for her in the end. And all I did in Astapor was make ten thousand Eroehs.”

The story of the Mountain and the Hound

What if I don’t want to remain when you are gone? he almost asked, but he swallowed the words unspoken.

“That was in the dawn of days, when our sun was rising. Now it sinks, and this is our long dwindling. The giants are almost gone as well, they who were our bane and our brothers. The great lions of the western hills have been slain, the unicorns are all but gone, the mammoths down to a few hundred. The direwolves will outlast us all, but their time will come as well. In the world that men have made, there is no room for them, or us…“

I was going to be a knight, Bran remembered. I used to run and climb and fight. It seemed a thousand years ago. What was he now?

Bran did not want to be married to a tree… but who else would wed a broken boy like him?

Bless me, Dany thought bitterly. Your city is gone to ash and bone, your people are dying all around you. I have no shelter for you, no medicine, no hope. Only stale bread and wormy meat, hard cheese, a little milk. Bless me, bless me.

“I saw your father die. Here is his killer. Can I take a skull to bed with me, to give me comfort in the night? Will it make me laugh, write me songs, care for me when I am old and sick?”

It is an easy thing for a prince to call the spears, but in the end the children pay the price.

“Thousands of enemies. Thousands of wildlings.” Thousands of people, Jon thought.

An honest kiss, a little kindness, everyone deserves that much, however big, or small.

It was my home, though. Not a true home, but the best I ever knew.

“Naath. Butterflies and brothers. Tell me of the things that make you happy, the things that make you giggle, all your sweetest memories. Remind me that there is still good in the world.”

Where was I? I should have died with him.

Perhaps I cannot make my people good, she told herself, but I should at least try to make them a little less bad.

Her song is sad and pretty. What happened to her wasn’t.

Men’s lives have meaning, not their deaths.

I rose too high, loved too hard, dared too much. I tried to grasp a star, overreached, and fell.

“Sister. See. This time I knew you.”

“Theon,” he repeated. “My name is Theon. You have to know your name.”

A thousand years ago, she had known a girl who loved lemon cakes.

Quentyn did not want to die at all.

"I want to go back to Yronwood and kiss both of your sisters, marry Gwyneth Yronwood, watch her flower into beauty, have a child by her. I want to ride in tourneys, hawk and hunt, visit my mother in Norvos, read some of those books my father sends me. I want Cletus and Will and Maester Kedry to be alive again..."

They know nothing, Ygritte. And worse, they will not learn.

Stick them with the pointy end.

“Drogon killed a little girl. Her name was… her name was…” Dany could not recall the child’s name. That made her so sad that she would have cried if all her tears had not been burned away.

“I was tired, Jorah. I was weary of war. I wanted to rest, to laugh, to plant trees and see them grow. I am only a young girl.”

Feel free to add.

[samwpmarleau]

Hey I'm not trying to be ignorant, but I don't understand why people are so upset about Rhaegar leaving Elia? Like it was totally a shitty thing to do, and I don't condone it, but I feel like I'm missing something...?

Well, it’s a combination of a lot of things. I’m putting this under a cut since it got long:

The Queen of Love and Beauty crown is heavily coded in romance and its very description is for it to be given to the most beautiful woman in attendance. Rhaegar passing over his wife — his pregnant wife — for 14-year-old Lyanna Stark, who was herself betrothed to a Lord Paramount, thus essentially saying he wanted to take her as his mistress, was … tactless. Even if you believe, as I do, that he only gave it to her because he wanted to recognize her gallantry as the Knight of the Laughing Tree and the crown was the only award a woman could receive, crowning her in front of half the realm, especially at Elia’s expense, and offending the Martells, Starks, and Baratheons in one fell swoop was a horrible move.

Elia nearly dies giving birth to Aegon, and within the span of a month, Rhaegar not only tells her there has to be a third child (right after they learned she would die if she had one), but then abandons her, the year-old Rhaenys, and newborn Aegon and takes off with Lyanna to parts unknown. Bringing Arthur Dayne, a Dornishman, with him was yet more salt in the wound.

He doesn’t tell anyone where they are. Not a soul. For more than a year, they just … disappear. No letters, no messengers, no nothing. They just vanished without a word. He doesn’t even bother letting people know that he didn’t kidnap and rape her (if, in fact, he didn’t), he let them go on believing he did, and left his family to take the fall.

Even if one argues that Rhaegar didn’t know his father would murder Rickard and Brandon Stark (plus Brandon’s companions and their fathers), which is debatable since Aerys was already buckets of crazy, after that happens why did he stay gone? What he should have done was return and immediately denounce his father’s actions, or at the very least sent a goddamn raven. But he didn’t. He didn’t do a single thing to let the realm know that killing a Lord Paramount and his heir is wrong.

Aerys rightfully predicts that the Dornish wouldn’t exactly be raring to support the crown after the insult Rhaegar paid their princess, and so he takes Elia and the children hostage; Lewyn is also essentially a hostage, considering he’s a Kingsguard. Dorne is extorted into not rebelling, lest Aerys murder those four too. Yet does Rhaegar return when this happens? Nope! Still not a peep.

Meanwhile, he takes Lyanna to Dorne of all places, to an abandoned tower in the middle of the Prince’s Pass where there’s no one around but two (later three) Kingsguard and Rhaegar himself, no one she knows, no one she can ask for help, no one who is her ally. She is all alone. And when Rhaegar finds out about Rickard and Brandon, he either a) tells Lyanna, who would understandably want to get as far away from him as possible, in which case he locks her up, or b) he doesn’t tell her at all, which is in many ways worse.

Then he gets her pregnant. Her, a 15-year-old girl, despite the fact that his own mother suffered horrific amounts of reproductive problems due in large part to the fact that she gave birth at 13. Rhaegar more than anyone should have known the dangers, he more than anyone should have been incredibly overcautious, and yet what does he do? He leaves her to give birth in this isolated tower with not even a maester.

When he finally does return sometime after the Battle of the Bells, he doesn’t try to sue for peace with the rebels, he doesn’t send Elia and the children to Dorne for their safety, or anything else. What he does is fight for the loyalists, implicitly stating that he approved of his father’s actions. He is so certain that he’s going to win on the Trident, he couldn’t even fathom losing, that he leaves one single Kingsguard — the 17-year-old Jaime who was himself essentially a hostage — to guard them all.

Instead of allowing the Kingsguard Arthur Dayne, Gerold Hightower, and Oswell Whent to fight for the crown or guard the royal family, he commands them to stay at the Tower of Joy and not let a single person inside. Three of the greatest warriors in history became glorified babysitters instead of going out in glory.

It’s also very coded in racism. I doubt Rhaegar intended anything, but the fact remains that he chose the young, white, ostensibly healthy Lyanna over his mid-twenties, brown, delicate wife. Elia already suffered racism (as did Rhaenys) and ableism from the court and Aerys, and here Rhaegar was, displaying to the public exactly the same thing. Again, particularly considering he originally thought Elia would mother all three children, I don’t think Rhaegar was bigoted towards her, but the realm at large was.

Two words: Daemon Blackfyre. The last time a Martell married a Targaryen, a royal bastard caused five generations of war, the last of which — the War of the Ninepenny Kings — occurred right on Elia’s doorstep and was likely the one in which her uncle cut his teeth. Catelyn brings up Daemon specifically when expressing concern about Robb legitimizing Jon for that same reason. A royal bastard is a HUGE threat to trueborn children. Couple that in and of itself with the fact that in Lyanna’s corner you’ve got the Starks, Tullys, Arryns, and maybe Baratheons, and that’s a ridiculously powerful bloc, compared to Elia’s corner which has … the Martells. Maybe Lyanna wouldn’t push her son’s claim, but as Catelyn says: “I know you trust Jon. But can you trust his sons? Or their sons? The Blackfyre pretenders troubled the Targaryens for five generations, until Barristan the Bold slew the last of them on the Stepstones. If you make Jon legitimate, there is no way to turn him bastard again. Should he wed and breed, any sons you may have by Jeyne will never be safe.” Every day that Jon exists is another day that Elia has to fear for her children’s lives and claims.

Rhaegar didn’t just leave Elia. He leveled egregious insult at her several times, the worst of which was after she nearly died, he left her and their children at the mercy of his homicidal, pyromaniac father, he caused not only their deaths but Lyanna’s as well, and his actions threatened to set off a whole new string of Blackfyre Rebellions that would tear apart the continent generation after generation.