#really i hope this makes sense! i've tried to distill my mess of feelings into coherency so fingers crossed...!

[nossbean]

Please, do share your feelings about Jaime and Myrcella.

So first things first: thank you so much for this ask!! I do indeed have many feelings about Jaime and Myrcella, and appreciate the question a lot! I’ve also been sitting on it for a small eternity as I’ve tried to gather my thoughts into something approaching coherency as opposed to just the rainbow-heart-shaped-bubbles with birdsong accompaniment that tend to fill my brain when I think about the possibilities, and I’m sorry for the long delay! I also apologise because i’m not sure the long delay actually resulted in a particularly satisfying (uh, or coherent!) answer 😬🤦🏻‍♀️ perhaps in part because this is something I think I might be better at exploring in fic -- part of the reason Myrcella is not fridged in possess is so I can explore some of this down the line, for instance! But giving it my best shot here, I’d say that I am intrigued and taken first with Jaime’s feelings about parenthood, and in conjunction, with the focus of those parental feelings being centred on Myrcella. A few reasons for that, which I ramble about in a sec, but one of the first things that just constantly lingers in my mind is that description of Myrcella as sweet, unlike her mother. It always struck me because of course: it isn’t a mystery where the sweetness comes from, she is indeed unlike her mother, and yet certainly much like her father. At least in that regard. (I’d argue there’s reason to think her similarly clever and observant -- that latter perhaps also a result of abuse though -- and brave, again all very much like Jaime.) That Jaime and Myrcella don’t know this is heart-wrenching. The possibility they might come to learn it though... 🥺

I also just really love and appreciate good portrayals of fathers-with-daughters. So much media centres on sons (and indeed, currently Jaime’s arc in ASOIAF is going that way, with Jaime’s reflections on/plans for Tommen; with Myrcella being returned to KL though, I guess we’ll see...?) that it’s a breath of fresh air when there is a healthy portrayal of a father-daughter relationship, ie when it doesn’t centre on that trope of, “Dad is deeply, reprehensibly paternalistic via supposedly protective measures about his daughter, particularly as pertains to her interest in boys (if she has one).” I tend to think Jaime would have protective impulses, but also his feelings about women’s rights (I’ll call them, though ofc in canon this term... doesn’t apply) would stand to counter them: also perhaps particularly his sense that if given guardianship over Myrcella, he’d not want to replicate the way Cersei was treated by their father, never mind how his perspectives will have changed with Brienne in his life. I don’t think it’s a stretch that Jaime’s protective impulses would be turned outward, as opposed to directed at Myrcella’s behaviour, for instance.

In the book canon world where Myrcella knows he is her father in the same way show!Myrcella did, I’d be really interested in how that would play out as well, and whether book!Myrcella would be similarly happy about it. Undoubtedly Jaime is... I mean, the degree to which he’s better than Robert needs no comment. But that doesn’t mean she’d be thrilled, given the rest of the context, and I think getting to see how she feels about it, messy situation and all, and how they work together to have a relationship would be... well, I want to see it...! I also wonder how much her injury and the loss of Arys Oakheart might impact how quickly she might cleave again to her uncle/father, given the chance of that safe harbour. I personally think AFFC demonstrated that many vulnerable folx recognize Jaime for the protector he is, and I guess the potential complexity of that dynamic, knowing how much love is possible there but how uphill a road it is, gets me.

I’d be lying if I didn’t also say that I’d love to read Myrcella being taken in by Pia, though I reckon that is purely the purview of fanfic. And OF COURSE, whatever relationship Myrcella might have with Brienne is something I’d fucking love to see.

I guess the last thought I have about why I have many feelings about these two kind of carries on from that last, which is the sense that in the book!canon world, they could possibly help one another heal and recover. The Lannister family legacy is trauma, and here is one of a handful of opportunities in Jaime’s arc, and perhaps the only opportunity in Myrcella’s, to break that pattern and forge something new, and better, and with actual love at the centre of it. <3

[joyandthephantoms]

💜, 💍, anddd ⭐️ !!

💜- top 3 favorite lines

But the dread is there, and Luke hates it, the way it feels sticky and too heavy to break through, like he threw the whole feeling to the ground in hopes of getting some release, only it bounced instead of shattering. (from stuck within this maze encompassing my brain)

"You know that pretending your feelings don’t mean anything doesn’t make you a hero, right? It just makes you a different kind of asshole.” (from please don't hint that you're capable of lies)

...and Luke keeps following him around like someone just informed him ghosts are supposed to haunt people and he’s making up for lost time. (from we were built to fall apart (and fall back together))

💍- your most underrated story

okay. I really really tried to answer this question and genuinely could not come up with a jatp fic of mine that feels underrated to me because like. even on the ones with fewer hits or kudos people are always incredibly kind to me and this is the most support I've had for my writing Literally Ever and I cry about it regularly so. legit just don't have an answer

if we branch out from jatp fics and just go to like, all of my writing (which I usually don't because, y'know, we're on my jatp blog but I wanna give a somewhat real answer so) I'd say that darlin' don't you join in, you're supposed to drag me away from it is my least popular fic for the bright sessions but I think it's my personal favorite because it feels cohesive? in a way that my writing doesn't always, and I'm really proud of how Sam's internal monologue sounds there, and I like how it lands at the end

⭐️- how do you get your inspiration?

a whole lot of it is projection, which I don't say to undercut or downplay what I write--projection is good!! we are Meant to see ourselves in characters and stories and if someone compliments your writing that's "just projection" it means that you were able to effectively distill and communicate an experience you had in a way that resonates with other people and that's very impressive in itself and ANYWAY

rant aside, yeah a lot of what I write comes from things that I feel so the process ends up looking kinda like

I have an experience or emotion or something I want to express -> I find a character it makes sense for -> I think through what makes it different for them than it is for me -> I figure out the context/framing that most easily lets me get the point across -> I write like 900 words

so like, I think I might've talked through this one before but "please don't hint that you're capable of lies" started with me messaging G "sometimes I wanna date my friends just so they won't be dating assholes anymore and this has Bobby energy somehow," I knew pretty quickly that I wanted that to be a lukebobby thing, and then I had to mess around with the fact that Bobby as I write him is a lot more afraid of vulnerability and a lot less afraid of confrontation than I am so that changes the way he experiences that particular mood, and then find the point in that story that would let me communicate a lot of background and emotion very quickly (fights are great for that lmao, 10/10 would recommend)

and then almost everything I write that doesn't come straight from me just Experiencing An Emotion can be credited to a conversation with either @sunsetcurvecuddles or @chickwiththepurpleguitar

it's different vibes with both of them though which is super fun because like. G is magical and simply makes me 800% smarter whenever I talk to her and it's because she's just that brilliant and insightful herself and says so many smart and devastating things constantly and most of the G-inspired things I've written/am writing come from just rambling about character dynamics and getting Very Attached

vs Lilly being INCREDIBLE at expanding existing universes, so like, a whole lot of the conversations I have with her start with one of us going "okay I'm thinking about the implications of this thing you wrote" and running from there, so I get to hear extra background about all the brilliant things she writes and she's really really good at helping me flesh things out and asking questions I hadn't thought much about so I keep coming away from conversations with 3 sequel ideas to things I haven't even written yet and it's fantastic

thank you for letting me ramble this much B!! you're great and I appreciate you and this was fun