#rlj

[agentrouka-blog]

Yeah, Jon's plain looks and overall countenance (bless him, I do love it) is why they're so desperate that Jon comes back a completely changed, violent, possessive man with white hair and red eyes, because it's the only way Dany will be interested in him. This came up in the new Jon video by Alt Shift X btw. I find it so incredibly silly.

I do think Jon will be changed in personality, and that's where Sansa figures in as significant-- it would be ironic if the sister he was the least close to is what makes him human again!-- but... losing Lyanna in his face? Isn't there the perfect set-up for him realising that his mother has been staring back at him in the mirror this whole time?

They really think his Stark side is just a sort of parking space where GRRM put him until he could (finally) upgrade to Targaryen, don't they?

The idea that Lyanna, who parallels Jon not just in her suffering (sexually coerced by a captor, freed by a wolf and bleeding out, dying at 16) but also in her heroics (facing off against three opponents to defend a weaker person, going 'undercover') is the less important parent compared to the prophecy-obsessed deadbeat? Ridiculous.

GRRM isn't playing "spot the hint!" with their shared looks in order to take them away before they were ever relevant. He didn't create Lyanna in order to make her a passively enthusiastic vessel for Rhaegar's prophecy boy. Lyanna is the point.

Jon is who he is because of Lyanna. The girl who begged for the life of a child she had no choice in having. He looks like her, acts like her, lives because she was a wolf and her brother loved her and the pack survives. His Targaryen side is not a fulfillment of purpose. I still predict GRRM will not make Jon a magical key to anything, specifically to defy Rhaegar's egocentric logic. Jon is no destined hero. He's a human person muddling through and making hard choices with personal integrity. Negotiating. Planning. And counting the damn beets so people can eat.

His Targaryen father is a(nother) challenge to Jon's sense of identity, a dark and painful one, that can only be overcome through love - for Lyanna the person, for his pack and by his pack for him. (And a special treat enabled only by not being Ned's son...)

It's like you said, she (and in consequence his own self-worth) has been staring at him in the mirror all this time. No shame, but love in spite of it all.

[circero]

Something small as I try to figure out my next drawing: a headshot of Rainbow Laughing Jack and casual Cake/Cade! 🌈🧁

[dofidid]

joy makers

[updownlately]

the jokester has been signed...made my day to see that :)

[doloreseddt]

🎶I don't trust nobody and nobody trusts me🎶

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Jon Snow dressed in black above a pile of wights. He doesn't give a damn about his bad reputation. The T is for Targaryen.

[superdaddylovessarahlove]

Personal thoughts and opinions about a publicly traded company. Do your own due diligence.

[fmarkets]

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[nightswatchdisbandmentera]

That Ned’s ghost and bones are in a constant state of restlessness after his death is so interesting to me. We haven’t heard much of Ned’s bones after Lady Catelyn sent Hallis Mollen north with them, but then Barbrey Dustin in ADWD says that she intends to block them from reaching Winterfell, and the reason for doing so is tied around her husband dying at the Tower of Joy and not returning home.

But what is more revealing is immediately after his death, Ned’s ghost gets to the crypts and wanders about restlessly, which is felt by the three Stark boys who have the power of prophetic dreams: Jon who constantly looks for his father in this “underworld” is pulled into searching for Ned before his execution, Rickon is called to the crypts and has a mysterious conversation with Ned where he promises to come back (but how will he be back if he’s dead?), and then there’s Bran who gets to have a more substantial conversation with his dead father’s ghost as he speaks sadly about Jon.

We know that even before death, Ned was surrounded by a sense of guilt and shame because of Jon, and he even expressed a deep desire to speak with the boy. Accounting for all these, it starts to look like Ned’s restlessness, dead or alive, is deeply rooted in the secret of Jon’s parentage and can only be alleviated once he confronts Jon about this truth. That might explain why Jon is constantly looking for Ned in the crypts and why he’s afraid of what he might find down there (and not who). So perhaps Ned’s bones can only be laid to rest once his ghost sets things right with Jon.

[visenyaism]

the thing to understand about r+l=j is that it is singularly important to ned’s storyline and arc. to jon snow this will simply be like the eighth bael the bard reference he’s heard this year

[bugeyedfreaks]

I am SO BUMMED because I just saw this online and would love to go see all four of these amazing badasses at once, but my odds of attending are very slim. 😭 But if you’re near Chicago and can go to C2E2, the gang’s gonna be there! It’s in late April!

[agentrouka-blog]

I often see this sentiment that Ned should have told Cat the truth about Jon and it would have solved all their problems. I disagree with this? I don't think Ned was being an idiot for not telling Cat. I think there were a multitude of reasons of why he didn't tell her, and all of them held weight in his decision.

1) he didn't know or trust her when they got married

2) a secret stops being one if you tell even one person about it. He promised Lyanna he wouldn't tell anyone and that included everyone, except obviously the people already present at the tower (Howland and the wet nurse I presume)

3) there is a possibility that Cat's behavior towards Jon would have changed knowing he was not a result of Ned's affair, but her resentment towards him also provided a cover. If she treated him, say cordially, then it would have been very suspicious considering Ned was already fostering him at his own home.

4) after he came to know Cat, he would have realized that she was fiercely protective of her family, she wouldn't have thought twice before giving up Jon for her children if it came to that. A choice no sane person, including Ned, can fault her for. By not telling her, he removed that option for her, saved Jon and also saved her from the guilt that would have haunted her.

5) he was committing treason that would have endangered Cat and his children. In case it ever got out there was plausible deniability for his family that they didn't know and it might have saved them.

His actions hurt both Catelyn and Jon but it was a very complicated situation overall so I understand him too. I don't know what would have been the alternative because I don't think telling Catelyn would have solved anything. What is your opinion on this?

I don't think people generally claim it would have magically fixed "everything", but many also misunderstand how Ned is mishandling the situation. He isn't actually handling it well by himself, he isn't handling it the way he would have if Jon was actually his bastard. His inability to be "normal" about it and come up with a convincing lie created most of the avoidable problems we see, which is Catelyn's eternal insecurity about Ned's feelings for Jon (and his mother) which feeds her anxiety about her own children being usurped, plus Jon's complete trauma over knowing absolutely nothing about his mother. Both are left hanging for no logical reason from their POV, and that's an absolutely insane path for Ned to go down.

True, and then he chose to go the worst way about it and never fixed it later.

Howland knows. The Daynes know. Wylla probably knows. Benjen probably knows. Come on. And we don't know what she made him promise and it's more likely to be along the lines of protecting her son than specifically never telling anyone who could have helped him handle this better.

Catelyn being "nice" to Jon isn't even half of it. She could have advised Ned on how to handle the situation in a realistic way with the least harm done. Which is likely to foster Jon somewhere, make plans for his future instead of leaving him aimless, create a believable lie about his mother that doesn't shame him, have a harmoniously accepted situation instead of making his kids grow up with this unresolved conflict warping their emotional well-being.

What situation could realistically arise where Cat could "sell out" Jon to "save" her children that specifically depends on her knowing this and also wouldn't mean they are all already in deep trouble? It's nonsense. Also, Catelyn "Family Duty Honor" Tully would not fault Ned for wanting to save his sister's child. It's a perfectly decent choice on his part and a dilemma she could easily understand. Come on!

How is this (thin glaze) of plausible deniability not equally achieved by simply lying (and lying better than Ned can, especially)?

It's just that Ned left both Cat and Jon deeply anxious and traumatized, respectively, because his decision was to lie very badly and then refuse to answer all reasonable questions. It has repercussions for all of them. From Cat to Sansa to Jon to Robb.

Plus: Ned may have actually had an opportunity to heal from his horrific trauma if he had talked to literally anyone about it. He may have been less likely to cling to Robert as a vestige of his lost youth, blinding himself to the man's monstrous faults and sticking around to his own doom.

It would not have "fixed everything" but you can't convince me it wouldn't have fixed some things.

[sherlokiness]

I am a bastard too now just like him.

This is another RLJ clue if we think about it. Sansa is "just like" the bastard Jon Snow which is to say not at all. They are legitimate children who were given a bastard identity by their "father" to protect them from harm. She is a Stark while he's a Targaryen.

[dofidid]

Rainbow Jack? Yes? Yes. Hi i love him, welcome to my sanctuary

[eruherdiriel]

Once you see it, it is so hard to talk about RLJ without mentioning the Jon x Sansa implications. Jon is left with only despair about the information if there is no redeeming quality. The story feels unfinished.

[ca-dmv-bot]

Customer: FRIENDS INITIALS NUMBER 13 DMV: 13-GANG Verdict: DENIED

[jack-owo-valentine]

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