#they are just wights with some of the living person's memories

[caithyra]

Cousin in the North?

So, GRRM has said that the characters will end up more or less in the same positions in ASoIaF as they did in GoT. If you’ve seen me in other fandoms you know what that means...

Random Theory Time! (Or: How Sansa ends up ruling most of Westeros in the books, maybe?)

So, when Robb is looking at the chain of inheritance, Catelyn suggests distant cousins in the Vale of Arryn. Anyway, turns out Lord Frey is the biggest FoBzilla there ever was and now Sansa Stark is considered the only legitimate Stark alive (no one in the North believes Jeyne is Arya ffs, they watched these girls grow up! All that’s needed is for the Starks’ bannermen to be called and they take one look at Jeyne, who is the wrong age and presumably not with a long “horse-face” or she wouldn’t have thrown so many stones in that glasshouse, and boom).

Here’s the thing: Sansa Stark is not just the last legitimate Stark. She is also first cousins with the young and sickly Lord of the Vale and the niece of the dethroned Lord of the Riverlands, which is currently going through a famine in a ten-year winter, while the Vale’s granaries and larders are so full they might burst.

Yes, Edmure has a baby, but this is Westeros; if grown women like Minisa, Joanna, Lyarra and rest are dropping like damselflies, I fully expect kids under the age of 3 to drop even faster, and Edmure was probably traumatized over the whole Red Wedding thing and not in the mood to lay with his Frey wife (if the High Septon doesn’t go “weddings are not massacres!” and annuls it for a tidy sum that may or may not have the prints of “small” fingers on it). Alternatively, if Edmure dies and baby dies after him, Sansa would inherit from a cousin in the Riverlands as well.

Things Catelyn says/wants sometimes comes true (see wanting to keep Bran in the North before his fall, and then he even goes further north!). She talks about inheritance, cousins, the North and the Vale.

And the gods, whether they’re the Seven or Old, listen to Sansa’s wishes/curses at times, and Sansa wanted Harry the Heir thrown by his horse (depending on when it happens, that’s a guaranteed trampling, maybe even by several horses, sometimes not very survivable, it could also happen on the side of a mountain on a trail, even, and, well, the Moon Door is a death sentence for a reason).

What if Sansa wont be Queen in the North?

What if she will become the Queen of the Northern Kingdoms? The North, the Vale and the Riverlands?

Heck, we have the “Younger, more beautiful, Queen”-prophecy and Jaime’s quest for honor, so lets thrown in the Westerlands as well by the Western bannermen abandoning Cersei after Tommen/Myrcella’s deaths (maybe she flees King’s Landing for Casterly Rock and opens the gates to Greyjoy in exchange for becoming his wife and instead ends up a saltwife?), and going to swear fealty to Jaime, because by now the world is upside-down enough and they don’t care about some silly Kingsguard vows he already broke in the most spectacular way possible (also, they all seem to like him, so...).

Except, he pledges his sword and shield to Sansa Stark. Basically becoming her bannerman. Which makes his bannermen, her bannermen, too.

Tywin: “Muhahaha! I shall steal the North via Sansa Stark by forcing her to marry my most hated child!”

Sansa: *Yoinks the Westerlands and his favorite child from underneath his most successful child’s feet by playing much fairer than him.*

"Queen you shall be . . . until there comes another, younger and more beautiful, to cast you down and take all that you hold dear."

“Dear” -> Jaime’s loyalty, the adoration and fealty of the kingdoms, queen in her own right without having to marry, is called beautiful the most in the books, would get Casterly Rock through either her marriage to Tyrion or by Jaime’s vow, as well as under the tutelage of Littlefinger becomes the Queen of the Chessboard of the Game of Thrones.

Heck, with Brienne of Tarth and the Baratheons dying out, lets add the Stormlands as well!

Though those are an even longer shot, since it wouldn’t have poetic justice behind it (on the other hand, Joffrey Baratheon abused her and Stannis Baratheon wants to steal her birthright, hm...).

Basically, we don’t know who Brienne’s mother is, but she could be a Baratheon aunt, which would make Brienne next in line! ^_^ How fun! Okay, we’ve got 5/7 kingdoms now...

The Reach will probably devolve into civil war because the War of the Five Kings is pretty much half-exported from the Reach (Hightowers/Tyrells supports Renly and Joffrey and Tommen, while the Florents support Stannis, via their queens, Selyse and Margaery). Depending on how destroyed the Tyrells are, and how busy the Hightowers will be with the Greyjoys, it might end up becoming a three-way within the Reach’s borders alone.

The Iron Islands might end up swearing fealty to Sansa to pay for their transgressions through Theon and Asha, or this will be the conflict that finally gets rid of the cockroaches that should never have survived this long with their stupid culture...

Dorne will probably remain independent.

The Crownlands will burn with wildfire, but from the ashes the shoots of a new spring might grow...

Okay, so Iron Islands and the Crownlands! There, Seven Kingdoms of the North (of the Reach and Dorne). Okay, so those were a reach, but eh! This is Random Theory Time! Strict logic and accuracy need not apply!

And so you have witnessed the birth of The Queen of the Northern Kingdoms Theory. Move over BoltOn, Varys the Little Mermaid, Septa Lemore and the rest! There’s a new Queen in the North! Lol.

[sockich]

since you like ghostbat so much what do you think about ghostmaker/wight witch? since that's actual canon not made up like ghostmaker/batman

Oh, boy. On the one hand, you're clearly a troll and I usually just delete those. On the other hand, and very annoyingly, I do actually have thoughts and feelings about this, and now you've got me thinking about it, so what the hell, I'll play.

First of all, anon, my dude, it’s all made up. Which brings us to second of all, whether a ship is canon or not has literally never mattered to me. I ship what I ship because it's what I like, not because it's canon. Also, this is superhero comics. It's literally one of the most pick-and-choose canons around. And third of all, I am a firm proponent of ship and let ship. Anyone who sincerely ships Ghost-Maker/Wight Witch, more power to you. But also, anyone who sincerely ships Ghost-Maker/Wight Witch? Turn around now, because as far as I'm concerned, everything about it is some kind of nonsense.

Okay, so, for anyone who didn't obsessively read every one of Khoa's appearances, Wight Witch aka Rhea Sinha is a former soldier who met and, for a time, trained with Bruce and Khoa during their globe-trotting days. After she was killed, she was repeatedly cloned by Simon Saint, who used her as a mind-controlled living weapon, while she desperately tried to rebuild the person she was from the few fragments of memories remaining to her. Now, to be clear, everything about that? Exactly and completely my shit. I LOVE this.

I do not love this:

I'm sorry, but nothing will convince me that a total stranger showing up and Bruce immediately introducing not only himself but also Khoa with their real names is anything but completely absurd. I'd call it the most absurd thing ever, except we also have this:

The Khoa/Rhea canon romance.

Seriously, who is this guy capable of maintaining a long-term romantic relationship, and willing to do so? Emotionally stuttering her name when he sees her again? I have no idea who the hell Ram V was writing here, but it sure as hell wasn't the clinically diagnosed psychopath who refuses to so much as admit he might have had personal reasons for going after the woman whose family menaced his parents. It's not like Ghost-Maker's been around all that long and has a lot of different characterizations across different writers! If you're gonna ignore the few things we do know about him, why on earth even use him?

And speaking of… okay, this is strictly a personal preference and I'm sure plenty of people will disagree, but. While I'm all for bi characters in opposite sex relationships, the fact of the matter is that you can give a tragic het romance backstory to any one of the countless straight superhero comics characters. So to pick one of the few queer characters, and give him the cliche tragic het romance backstory? Yeah, sorry, but to me that is just a complete failure of imagination.

So, uh, yeah. Those are my thoughts and feelings on Ghost-Maker/Wight Witch. Like I said, ship and let ship, but I am fully committed to ignoring it if it ever shows up again, and even more fully committed to having as much fun as possible with my made up GhostBat ship. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(From Batman: Urban Legends #11-13.)

[janiedean]

Book!Theon is Azor!Ahai, not Jon. It makes no sense narratively for Jon to be AA, and it’s the most stereotypical thing ever, and he’s already stereotypical, he’s the red flag for the audience. Theon’s chapters are full of hints, he has the perfect salt/smoke/stars/dragons thing at the end of ACOK, when he “dies”. His story is about destroying death, his entire narrative, with things that come from mythology and ancient literature, points to that. The show is trash, but don’t you think that it’s a little weird that Theon is there at the end and then Arya comes out of nowhere and becomes AA? And what ending does she get? Exploring the unknown SEA with SHIPS? Being free and on her own? Maybe it doesn’t make sense for her because it’s not for her. D&D already took everything else from Theon, they took this too. And even if he’s not AA, he’s still clearly connected to magic and all of that, he didn’t go though so much for nothing, he didn’t take his name back for the first time in his life, his name that literally means “godly”, for nothing. He has something big to do, and it’s about himself, not Robb and the Starks. And he’s also so clearly connected to the politics of the north and of the iron islands, a villain was literally created for him, so I don’t understand how can you say he’s not really important and all he’s got left to do is retire in a house and be sad. Of course he has a lot of trauma and that’s important, but I don’t like how people reduce him to that and act like just because those things happened, he can’t do anything else

anon with no ill will and I swear I don't want to sound pedantic or anything but I, uh, never came to the conclusion you say I came from - that said let's go in order even if I think I already went through all the reasons why it makes literally no sense if it's anyone but jon, but let's start with one thing:

It makes no sense narratively for Jon to be AA, and it’s the most stereotypical thing ever, and he’s already stereotypical, he’s the red flag for the audience.

it's stereotypical.... to us maybe, but it is not to westeros. like, you're looking at it through audience-lens because it has been years and the show confirmed r+l=j and we all figured that shit out, but to westeros, the idea that the prince that was promised is a bastard guy serving on the wall aka a state-sponsored prison where people go to not die and is filled to non-desirables to society is... the least likely option in existence? no really, but again:

first thing that should quiet all doubts, when melisandre asks r'hollor to see azor ahai bc she wants to see stannis, r'hollor shows her jon snow and instead of going like 'uh wait why am I seeing another dude' she's like 'I want to see stannis but r'hollor shows me jon snow there must be some disturbance on the line', like she doesn't even consider for a second that it might be jon;

no one else has brought WITHIN THE NARRATIVE jon up as a likely candidate - they said stannis, they said dany, they said whoever but no one ever said hey jon snow might be AA, because again no one even suspects that it might be jon;

other matter that you're overlooking here: if theon is azor ahai.... it means that the rebellion basically was for nothing? because like the entire shtick with rhaegar targaryen's bad life choices™ is that he was apparently a swell dude, then he read a book where somehow it was exactly explained how the apocalypse was gonna happen, he deduced that he was the guy who had to father AA/the prince that was promised and in order - first he doesn't care about fighting but suddenly after that he starts getting learned; - he immediately worries over having THREE children from which we can deduce from the narrative that as far as he knows in order to fight when the wights come he has to have three kids for three dragons and one of them is azor ahai; - the moment his wife can't have more than two even if he's sure that he already had the right one (aegon) he still runs off with lyanna to make sure he has the third because it's that important that HE rhaegar targaryen fathers the three heads of the dragon... to the point of starting a civil war and most likely giving arthur orders to make sure that the kid lives at all costs even if he thinks lyanna's kid is NOT AA; - let's remember that the entire schtick is also that 'he is the ptwp and his is the song of ice and fire' which means that this kid of rhaegar's is the person these books are titled after.

now, let's look again at tyrion's infamous quote which I always bring up in these cases but let's refresh our memory here Prophecy is like a half-trained mule. It looks as though it might be useful, but the moment you trust in it, it kicks you in the head now: given this, we can absolutely assume that no single prophecy in this book goes the way the person at the end of it interprets it... which means that rhaegar was wrong on a lot of accounts, but guess what, the thing is that one out of three of his kids is dead (if we count aegon as trueborn, if he's not then two on three but I think he's trueborn) and the one who hatched the eggs/has the dragon is DANY so he already was wrong on head of the dragon #1, and he can absolutely be wrong on aegon being tptwp which would mean mistake #2 and we should know about the prophecy, but one of his children being AA and his being the song of ice and fire looks a bit too much of a stretch to be incorrect and have AA being someone else's son also would be.... but if AA is jon ie the one he had for last that he was sure was not AA and who doesn't even have the targ name (nor the stark one) and no one suspects having that kinda ancestry then yes it fits exactly all the parameters and it still allows for rhaegar to have partially misinterpreted the entire thing even in large chunks but not enough to make it look like he was completely making shit up, which... I mean the long night is coming I don't doubt he had very good reasons to want to stop it; also, anon not to beat the dead horse, but: - jon's death fits all the prophecy parameters already there's the bleeding star, the smoking wound and the salt of the tears which btw is not obvious nor something you'd immediately do 2+2 about... which fits perfectly with the above - jon died and came back to life in the godforsaken show like he's literally the only idiot who resurrected in it and we're supposed to handwave it the way dnd did? - jon has a valyrian steel sword that he can handle while theon atm really doesn't - we could argue that ygritte could be a possible nissa-nissa contender though I mean maybe it could also be that he and val get hot and bothered and it turns out it's her or someone else and that hasn't happened yet but surely there's more evidence for that with jon than with theon - theon has like... povs in two books for a total amount of less than fifteen chapters, jon has at least ten chapters per book or so on, which just mathematically makes jon a main fiver character while theon is not and like I understand deconstruction and all but you don't make your ace in the hole mystical prince hero character someone who has had fifteen chapters total at most unless I remember wrong the amount he had in acok in comparison to someone who was a main throughout the entire thing - like guys I say it as someone whose third-fave char is theon, theon is not a main fiver™ character and that's okay that's not the point, and with that I don't mean he's not important, I mean that he's not one of the five main ones that have most of the plot stuff on their shoulders and he's not THE main character, because if theon is AA then these books are named a song of theon greyjoy and considering that the main five are jon tyrion arya dany and bran I think it's highly not probable that at the end of it theon is the one character to rule them all

and that was for how jon fit the criteria, but theon doesn't fit them because again he doesn't have a number of chapters/povs that justifies such a plot twist, balon is certainly not rhaegar and I don't see how rhaegar reads a prophecy wrt balon and thinks it's about him, the heads of the dragon should be three and theon had three siblings two of which are dead and asha has no tie to the dragon storyline, this means that theon should be able to ride/command a dragon and we know that in theory just targs can and there's already three of them around - dany jon and aegon - and if anyone who's not a targ has a narrative reason to ride a dragon is tyrion not theon... and tyrion is a main fiver too, also there's the nissa-nissa/burning sword angle and as it is theon could absolutely use a bow again but a longsword with his hands maimed like that and no muscle mass would be a bit implausible, in order for the reborn prophecy to actually make sense it means his last adwd chapter should have smoke, salt and the bleeding star which it doesn't but jon's has so there's that

now, re what you said wrt theon:

Theon’s chapters are full of hints

not really? he doesn't have a tie to the magical storyline beyond his connection to bran. they have hints for a lot of things but that he's AA? idt so

he has the perfect salt/smoke/stars/dragons thing at the end of ACOK, when he “dies”

okay but then I could use the same argument for saying that AA could be davos when he survives blackwater because he says he woke up in wreckage of smoke in salty water, and then stannis has equally valid arguments bc he has the shiny sword and he's in dragonstone etc and we all know it's not stannis, also an AA death at the ending of acok when the topic has barely been introduced in dany's vision is entirely too early for me to drop that bomb

his story is about destroying death, his entire narrative, with things that come from mythology and ancient literature, points to that.

his story is about overcoming trauma and abuse and not dying in the process (which is why I think the show was trash) and okay but everyone in these books has something that comes from a mythology or ancient literature, like jaime brienne and c. all have arthuriana roots same as bran, doesn't make any of them a viable AA candidate

The show is trash, but don’t you think that it’s a little weird that Theon is there at the end and then Arya comes out of nowhere and becomes AA?And what ending does she get? Exploring the unknown SEA with SHIPS? Being free and on her own? Maybe it doesn’t make sense for her because it���s not for her.

considering that maisie williams was shocked that arya was AA and she also thought it made no sense and that dnd never thought theon had his own storyline while I can agree on the fact that it fits more for him as an ending than for arya, I don't think that means it makes him AA, same as I think that they gave sansa his storyline and possibly his confrontation with ramsay and I'm not 100% convinced on the last part anyway but that just means they didn't realize theon doesn't exist for the starks' storyline, also like.. in the show everyone but c. was in WF and theon was already dead when arya did her thing and honestly idt the battle of the long night will ever go like that anyway so idt even partially show truthing is bringing us anywhere

and even if he’s not AA, he’s still clearly connected to magic and all of that, he didn’t go though so much for nothing, he didn’t take his name back for the first time in his life, his name that literally means “godly”, for nothing

I never said it was for nothing which I'll elaborate in a second and ofc he's connected to the magic storyline... because he's connected with bran's storyline and his last round of atonement has to happen through bran in the sense that since he was the one basically forcing bran out of wf now he most likely has to facilitate bringing him back or smth (surely not dying for him), but like whatever magical stuff he has going on it has to do with bran dot, not with AA which I still think he doesn't have a stricter text connection to than davos has for that matter and idt davos is AA as I think I made clear

He has something big to do, and it’s about himself, not Robb and the Starks.

never said he didn't, and I also said that I wasn't going to speculate in detail about what theon has to do because I don't think there are enough text elements to say it now but there will be when wow comes out for sure, but like again I don't want to make predictions when I don't have the elements and wrt theon's themes/possible canon ending etc I always said that he most likely isn't going to inherit the islands but that he'll do something huge before the books are done which is gonna be tied to the northern storyline and possibly to bran because he has to go specular to acok - acok is his downfall, adwd is 'I'll find myself again', wow+ados have to be what would theon do if he decides his own thing while being his own person, or recycling my old THEON HAS HEGELIAN THEMES IN HIS STORYLINE acok = thesis, adwd = antithesis, wow+ados = synthesis so obviously he has something huge in the plans.... I just don't think it means he's AA

And he’s also so clearly connected to the politics of the north and of the iron islands, a villain was literally created for him, so I don’t understand how can you say he’s not really important and all he’s got left to do is retire in a house and be sad

aaand here we get to the point which is that... I never said that? I honestly never said that? I said he has to overcome his trauma and live and thrive and be happy after that. if he retires in a house at the end of ados after he does whatever he has to do in the main plot it's going to be because it's what he wants to do and most likely he and jeyne are going to be adorbs while doing it together or smth or if he goes back to the islands and advises asha then he's going to be happy doing that too, but like... the entire point of theon's sl is that he overcomes that horrendous abuse while not being a perfect good victim™ throughout and still be happy after and gain his redemption? that's what I always said. I never said that now he can just retire and be sad. trauma recovery is becoming happy after getting over your trauma. not being sad. and like.... sometimes not getting amazing mythological things but just being happy by yourself is actually a goal? again, grrm is a lapsed catholic. if I know that breed and I do, he doesn't think redemption and happiness are in shortage at the supermarket. and in order for theon to have narrative importance/weight/relevance he doesn't have to do magical mythological IMPORTANT™ things (even if I think he does have something cooked up as I said above), but like the entire point of his sl is the trauma recovery. he's there for that. that's literally his point in the plot and the fact that grrm created a villain for him means that he thinks it's an important thing to explore.

also I personally think that theon's arc is the best written thing in those books so like I don't want to undermine its importance, I just don't think that in order to be important™ then theon has to be dragged kicking and screaming into main fiver territory because there isn't the need.

. Of course he has a lot of trauma and that’s important, but I don’t like how people reduce him to that and act like just because those things happened, he can’t do anything else

I don't like that either esp. when coming from dnd who didn't even let him have it fully, but: and when did I ever do it? I never said that theon is only his trauma. my standing opinion wrt theon is that he's grrm's best written/constructed character (along with jaime) and his most innovative one (jaime following but theon wins it) because theon deconstructs the backstabber trope which I already went on about but:

again usually ppl who backstab the good protagonist™ get caught and punished and you never hear their pov

theon has all the povs

he's the main char in that storyline not robb

he has entirely understandable reasons that ppl decided aren't sympathetic just bc they don't want to admit that in his position they'd have done the same thing

the audience hates him for having contributed to robb's downfall but then he gets a comeuppance that's completely not what anyone would deserve for that and he gets the spotlight/the sympathy again

he gets narrative redemption saving jeyne so you can see he's not an asshole at all

has to get through horrific abuse for his entire life not just with ramsay, he's not a good victim™ but he's still written in a way that makes you want to root for him and at the end he actually comes through so you want him to keep on succeeding

which is smth that with the backstabber trope never happens

now the thing is that theon's there bc a) identity issues b) trauma recovery storylines that then get tied to bran's main one but like idg why just having the recovery storyline would make him lesser - saying he's not a main fiver doesn't mean he's not important, it means he's not a MAIN™ character... which in asoiaf doesn't matter bc even ppl without povs are important to the narration and are there to drive a point (see sandor and stannis), and I don't see why saying that the most important part of his sl/the one grrm wants to stick with the readers is the survivor part of it rather than whichever heavy magic related plot thing he has to play in the future means undermining his importance. and while I think he has that role, idt it's the most important one he has bc being a survivor is what sells his storyline/the entire arc of his character.

then if come wow I'm wrong I'll be like okay I fucked up, but: honestly, imvho there is no way that azor ahai is not jon snow, the fact that collectively as a fandom we think it's obvious doesn't mean people in westeros do, each single point of evidence is at jon and if occam's razor is a thing then it's jon and that's okay because as deconstructed chosen one as he is, jon is still the protagonist of these books and regarding the prophecy above, it makes a lot more sense that this series is titled a song of jon snow and not a song of theon greyjoy and I say this as someone who vastly prefers theon as a character. also, if smth is well-written, readers should see it coming, so the fact that jon is AA isn't predictable if it's true, it's grrm.... knowing how to write a book and plant his hints because if everyone guessed right then if he makes it suddenly someone else bc jon is too predictable then it's dnd making it arya bc SURPRISE WE NEEDED YOU TO GO LIKE WTF HAS JUST HAPPENED INSTEAD OF FOLLOWING THE NARRATION TO ITS NATURAL CONCLUSION, not 'it's too predictable' or the audience red herring the way jaime being the valonqar is an audience red herring. jon being AA should be absolutely obvious for the reader who paid attention and a total surprise for the other characters in the narration, the audience red herring is more dany than anyone else imvho and I'm dying on that hill for now, thanks for coming to my ted talk but like I don't see how it's anyone but jon personally X°D

[teabooksandsweets]

All Creatures Great and Small

Facts, trivia and corrections of common misconceptions

As you probably know, I love James Herriot’s books and the BBC series All Creatures Great and Small. But reading posts online, from random comments on social media to actual newspaper articles, made me realise that not everything said about the books and especially the series is exactly correct, or at least not complete. And then of course, there’s also the usual questions askwed and answered (not always correctly) over and over again. So this post will address some of these things, simply because I care about it all.

James and Helen, Chris and Carol

The most common untruth spread about the series is that Christopher Timothy, who played James Herriot in the BBC series, left his first wife for an affair with Carol Drinkwater, who played Helen in the first three seasons, and that she was fired from the show because of it.

It was actually quite different. First of all: Carol was never fired! The show was cancelled after three seasons, as the books had finished at that time, and Carol returned for two following feature-lenght specials. It was only when, due to the books’ and the show’s popularity, Alf Wight (the real Herriot) decided to write new stories that the show was revived, and Carol, unhappy with a role that she liked but thought to limited, chose not to return.

As for the affair, that was different as well. There was a lot of bad press, especially for Carol, but Chris Timothy never left his wife for her. In fact, they didn’t even like each other at first: Carol had a mild crush on Robert Hardy, which she never pursued because he was married at the time, and didn’t get along with Christopher Timothy at all. Then, near the end of the first run of the show, they had to wait together in a car for a scene to begin filming, and they started to talk. His married had just ended at that time and he was very distraught, though he was not yet formally divorced, and she had just gone through a painful break up herself. They bonded over that, and got together. Chris was still married at that time, but seperated, and she was never the reason for his divorce. The press painted a different picture, one that is still spread nearly fourty years later, but it’s not true at all.

The Yorkshire farmers

Were all actors. People like to claim otherwise, but it is not true. Many people like to say that the farmers look too authentic to be played by actors, but that isn’t true. The actors were just very good at playing farmers, and not so famous as to be instantly recognised. Many were regional actors, from little theatres and comedy troupes, others were rather familiar, but not too well-known faces from television shows. They were not real farmers, they just did their work and did it well.

What about the vets?

The big question of the arms inside the cows. Did the actors really do the dirty work? Long story short: Yes.

But they didn’t do things on their own! No, no. The BBC hired to veterinarians, one for pets and studio scenes, one for farm animals and outdoor filming. The real vets trained the actors, helped them, and sometimes traded places with them for close ups on their hands. They even found sick animals to be treated for the filming, either by the actors under their guidance, or by themselves, depending on how difficult or serious the respective procedure and ailment were.

Some things, such as stitching wounds and helping with the calfing and lambing (the latter being rather normal for “country bumpkin” Robert Hardy, who was used to a lot of the work he had to do on screen) were done by the actors, including the (in)famous arms in the cows’ backsides. But never anything that could harm the animal! In fact, many animals were saved by the show, as the BBC paid for all treatments on set, which caused the real evts to take the pets of poor clients to the tv sets, even if they were never used for filming, and made the BBC pay the bills.

Fun fact, though: There’s a scene in which Peter Davison literally screams with his arm in a cow’s backside. That’s because his arm was tightly squeezed inside and he was in real pain. But don't worry, he got out alright, and the cow was okay too.

Science and progress

The illnesses and treatments were very accurate. People also like to claim otherwise, but that isn’t true. Many things, of course, are outdated now (and, ironically, many things that were seen outdated back then have become rather common again!) but the medical treatments are absolutely accurate for their time, and so is the portrayal of the scientific progress from the 30s to the 50s.

There are, of course, very individual cases, and unconventional treatments, but that happens if you base things on real life and memory, rather than textbooks. Those special cases are either things that really happened and worked a bit different than usual, or things that are very similar to real happenings (like real cases “blended” to make one fictional one, etc.) and not, in fact, pure invention. The books are, after all, written by a real vet, based on his own memory, and the show adopted all these cases very accurately.

Fact and fiction

Alf Wight still chose to make things up for his stories. Many details are changed from real life, such as changing Helen’s background very much from Joan’s and putting aquaintances from different decades into one setting. He also kept things from his perspective—things he didn’t know about his friends, were things he didn’t know, at least at that time, and that is how things stay.

Now the writers and actors of the show dug a bit deeper, and talked to Joan (Helen), the Sinclairs (the Farnons) and other people who play necessary parts. They added details that could give more depths to the stories, but also respected specific wishes for privacy, especially coming from Donald Sinclair.

Which brings me to:

What happened to Caroline?

Siegfried marries Caroline in the first Christmas special, but she is only mentioned (and sometimes briefly seen) in later episodes. Many people wonder if that means that their marriage ended or wasn’t good, but it’s very much different.

Caroline is based on Donald Sinclair’s real wife Audrey, whom he loved incredibly much. They had two children, which are also sometimes mentioned but never shown in the series. That is because Donald valued his privacy very much and wanted to protect his family from public attention.

Alf Wight first met Donald Sinclair as a young “bachelor” (actually widower, but he also kept that to himself) with many flings with pretty young women, and that’s how Siegfried was portrayed at first. But it couldn’t be kept like that always—it would have been silly for a middle-aged Robert Hardy to always invent visits to his mother to cover up various dates, and a character based on Donald, whose world revolved around his wife, could only be a bachelor in the very first few years of his acquaintance with Herriot. Donald Sinclair was unhappy with being shown dating various women, which he did before he married Audrey, even after three seasons, and he also didn’t want Audrey to be used for the show.

So it was decided that Siegfried were to have a wife, and children, and be very happily married in the later (initially unplanned) seasons, and that there were not to appear in television storylines. They lived off-screen, in their own big mansion, while Siegfried was working in Skeldale House. A woman-who-could-be-Caroline was sometimes seen when a partner was needed, and that’s it.

Donald’s first wife was never mentioned, also out of respect to his privacy, but Siegfried was portrayed to have a severe fear of loss and separation, and to cling very strongly to all his loved ones, as well as to have strong depressive and maniac episodes, which is said to be accurate to Donald Sinclair’s personality. This portrayal was, however, done very subtly.

Character and actor

Alf Wight said to Christopher Timothy that he was the Herriot that he wrote about. They got along very well, and Chris Timothy was considered the perfect actor for the part by him.

Donald Sinclair was, true to Siegfried’s character, always unhappy with the way he was portrayed, and the better and more accurate the portrayal got, the more dissatisfied got he. Robert Hardy was, according to people who knew Donald, absolutely perfect at playing him, and Donald himself was of a very different opinion. But he liked Robert very much, they became very close friends, and Robert actually worked as assistant in his surgery and sometimes their families lived together for filming and holiday periods. Both Alf Wight and Robert Hardy insisted that they “toned him down” while writing/playing him, even people who didn’t know him thought him “too much”.

Brian Sinclair was very happy about the way he was portrayed, and about the books and the show in general, and very relaxed about it all. He also really liked Peter Davison.

Joan was very critical of Carol Drinkwater at first, and thought she made her look like a tart, but warmed up to her later and talked well of her performance in retrospect.

The second girl to play Rosie Herriot, Alison Lewis, was friends with Rosie’s real-life daughter Emma. Rosie didn’t expect her to play the part, and was very surprised to see herself played by her daughter’s friend on tv!

Marjorie Warner, the inspiration for Mrs Pumphrey, was one of the first people to recognise herself on the page while reading the books, and was very happy about the way she was portrayed. It is, as far as I am informed, unknown whether she liked the tv series, but she was still alive when the first seasons were made.

As for the actors

It was Robert Hardy who made much of it all possible. His fame allowed the BBC to cast the relatively unknown Christopher Timothy in the lead role, which they first wanted to cast a famous actor for, and it was him who insisted on making Tristan a larger character, because he greatly enjoyed Peter Davison and set his mind on making the young man a star. He also threatened to leave the show if it were filmed anywhere but Yorkshire, and he also forced the BBC to treat the actors and animals better, and insisted on the necessary safety around the animals. After Chris Timothy’s accident, he insisted that he shouldn’t be re-cast and took up some of the work he couldn’t to, and made Peter and Carol do the same. That aside, he edited, revised and changed some of the scripts, and wrote some of his own scenes. When some younger writers messed up Siegfried in the later episodes, he largely took over himself.

Robert Hardy and Peter Davison actually grew extremely fond of each other. Robert insisted that Peter looked exactly like one of his brothers at that age, and he loved the way Peter tried to impersonate his mannerisms to make them feel more like a family.

Christie the whippet was Robert Hardy’s real dog, the other dogs belonged to producers and other crew members. Some sources claim that all dogs were his, but that isn’t true. SIegfried’s horses were usually actor-horses but he sometimes rode his own on screen.

Mary Hignett was the balancing force between the actors. Everyone loved and admired her, and whenever there was a bad mood between the others, she quickly got them all calm again, just as Mrs Hall used to do. Her sudden death shortly after the (original) end of the show was a great shock to all of them, and Mrs Hall died with her. She was greatly loved by everyone.

Margaretta Scott was also very respected and beloved. She always insisted on carrying the various dogs who played Tricki-Woo on set, and she would only have her make up done by the chief make up artist.

Robert Hardy’s was usually called Tim, as his real first name was Timothy, which he was also occassionally called, and which caused some confusion on the set.

Christopher Timothy had a car crash at the end of the filming of the first season, in which he broke his legs, which is the reason he walked on a stick and had a very stiff walk for some time.

Robert Hardy’s daughter Emma has a very serious riding accident before the filming of the first season, in which she was badly injured, and which made her father rather sensitive to the horse-related safety on set, and insist that everything must be done right and no risks taken. She fully recovered, and actually played the small part of Rosemary Brocklehurst in the series, thirteen years later.

Lynda Bellingham was pregnant during the filming of season five, which is the reason for the slipped disc storyline. Andrea Gibb, who played Deirdre, was also pregnant at that time, but her part was smaller and was simply away for some episodes, and wore some covering clothes.

[desertsquiet]

I was tagged by @bowiepop to answer some questions!

what is the first song you remember hearing?

Not sure about the first song in general, but I have a very specific memory of the first time I heard a song in English. It was The Happiest Days of Our Lives/Another Brick in the Wall part 2 and I had no idea what they were talking about but I was very impressed with that helicopter sound at the beginning!

what is the first band you got into?

Queen. I used to be a massive fan, still really like them and have a lot of affection for their music but I don’t listen to it nearly as often as I did.

do you collect any physical music?

Yes, always have! I’m more of a vinyl kind of person even though I do own some CDs as well.

what is your favorite piece of music memorabilia?

Don’t think anything I own would really count as “memorabilia”…

what's your favourite concert you've ever been to?

The Who in 2016. That was a pretty good year since I also got to see Neil Young, but nothing can really beat seeing my all time favorite band live. Well, half of it at least. Hearing Pete Townshend joke around and speak Italian was like an out of body experience.

if you could see one artist who is no longer alive in concert, who would it be?

I mean there are so many to choose from, obviously. I know I am surprising no one here, but I don’t really care. It would be Gram Parsons. I want to watch him sing obscure George Jones songs nobody cares about and make everybody in the audience (me included) cry.

have you meet any musicians?

I’ve met a singer/songwriter who’s quite famous in my country (shook his hand) but that’s about it.

what is your to go album when you're feeling sad?

Lately Pet Sounds. To be honest I’ve listened to it so many times in the last few months I think it’s my go to whatever the mood.

what is your to go album when you're feeling happy?

Help! or Abbey Road. It’s the Beatles, I don’t need to elaborate.

what is one music documentary you love?

I’ll go with Don’t Look Back and The Kids Are Alright.

what is one dvd concert you love?

The Who - Isle of Wight 1969, The Last Waltz, Stop Making Sense.

do you prefer listening to playlists or albums?

Albums, but playlist are cool if you just want to have fun.

do you prefer listening to albums in order or on shuffle?

What kind of question is that?? Are there seriously people who shuffle albums?!

what is your favorite deep cut song by your favourite artist?

Oh this one is very easy. A track called Sunrise from The Who Sell Out. I’m pretty sure I’d call it my favorite Who song period, if it didn’t feel like a Pete solo effort more than anything. Just him and his acoustic guitar, doesn’t get much better for me.

what is your favorite cd/cassete/vinyl you own in terms of packing?

Probably the Quadrophenia vinyl. I love the paper packaging and it’s got this wonderful booklet with lyrics and beautiful black and white photos illustrating what’s going on in the story.

Tagging whoever feels like doing this, since it might take a while! 😂

[shemakesmusic-uk]

Alt-pop newcomer LVRA (pronounced loo-rah, real name Rachel Lu) has shared her first new track of 2021, ‘DEAD’. Following up on 2020’s debut EP LVCID, she explains: “There’s a unique power you gain when you stop caring about what people think of you. It’s an ongoing battle, though, and ‘DEAD’ is about the conflict between the fantasy of not caring and how you feel in reality. The video captures that, with a version of myself who has her shit together and another that is fighting to survive.The use of red represents fear in the human condition, but in Chinese culture it also symbolises happiness. One rarely comes without the other.” The track – a cultural mix that matches LVRA’s heritage with bleeding edge ultra HD pop – is the first taster of a second EP, which is set to follow later this summer. You can check out an Oscar McNab (Lacuna Common, Oscar Lang). directed video above. [via Dork]

Los Angeles artist Wallice follows debut single 'Punching Bag' with new coming of age anthem, '23'. Wallice finds herself caught between two places on fresh cut, '23'. “Too old to be a runaway”, but also too young to consider herself as grown up, the 22-year old yearns for a past that still has not happened yet. Working with producer David Marinelli since her return to California, Wallice has crafted a sound that is unique without taking itself too seriously. An angst-driven remonstration at the powerlessness of her age, '23' is also the clearest stamp of her musical identity to date. The expression of this purgatory is a cathartic garage-rock headbanger complemented beautifully by Wallice’s playful lyrics. “I just can't wait to be / all grown up and 23,” she admits in the song’s irresistible chorus. “Tell me what is wrong with me / I miss my Ohio fake ID”. In artfully portraying the limbo state of the age, Wallice describes the events in her life that have led to her own disaffection. “It’s hard not to compare your own professional success to that of your similarly aged peers. I dropped out of university in New York after studying Jazz Voice for a year, and my dad was VERY disappointed, to say the least, so it was hard not to feel like a loser in that sense. “The specific age 23 doesn’t have any milestones associated with it, but it’s more the idea of just looking forward to the future,” Wallice continues on the meaning of the track. "Much like how people ‘reset’ every new year, it’s comparable to be ‘older and wiser’ with each birthday, but instead of constantly looking to the future, it is important to be happy with where you are”. [via Line Of Best Fit]

Coach Party have shared their new single 'Everybody Hates Me'. The Isle of Wight group are gearing up to release their incoming EP, with After Party pitting their potent indie pop influences against bittersweet lyricism. Out shortly, the EP is teased by new thumper 'Everybody Hates Me', with Coach Party adding a neat gloss to their guitar pop sound. Out now, 'Everybody Hates Me' comes equipped with a neat video steered by Daniel Broadley. Vocalist Jess Eastwood comments: “‘Everybody Hates Me’ isn’t a metaphor for anything; it’s literally about those times when you convince yourself that everyone, including your best friends don’t actually like you, and your self-confidence is so low that you don’t even blame them. Disguise that sentiment in an up-beat singalong, and there you have the third single from our new record. The video is a direct extension of the song. It swings between the insecurities of feeling like you’re not good enough amongst your friends, and the sense of unity you get from those same people when you finally wake up from your rut. Everyone feels that way from time to time, but you gotta remember that sometimes your irrational self is going to take over. And when it does, try to remember that you’re awesome, and your friends really are your friends.” [via Clash]

Pussy Riot have gone hyperpop on their latest song 'Toxic'. The Dorian Electra collaboration features glitched out production by Dylan Brady of 100 gecs and tackles a relationship gone bad. Written, directed, and edited by Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova, the music video features jarring, bloody imagery matching Brady’s production. “Care about yourself, cherish your mental health, and stay away from relationships that poison you!” Tolokonnikova writes in the YouTube description. “Amen.” In the song’s lyrics, Tolokonnikova tells off an ex. “You are my daily poison so annoying,” she sings. “You’re even more toxic than my employer.” The hook continues the theme. “This combo is deadly — ’cause we used to be friendly,” Electra laments. “And now my heart is a weapon / You made me… toxic.” [via Consequence of Sound]

Baby Queen has dropped a brand new track, ‘These Drugs’. Bella Latham’s second new track of the year – following up on the anthemic ‘Raw Thoughts’ – she explains in an Instagram post: “This is a story I really needed to tell you and I didn’t know how to for a long time. When I first wrote this song, I honestly didn’t think I was going to be allowed to release it or that releasing it would be a particularly good idea. It just felt really important and that’s all I’ve ever wanted music to be; so I knew I had to share it with you.I was in a very bad place at the time… very depressed and convinced I wasn’t a good person and didn’t deserve good things. Life is different now. I’m happy. I’ve learnt that the antidote to my misery is gratitude and caring about myself even when I don’t want to, until it becomes a habit. It’s natural to look for escapism but there’s more freedom in working to build a life you like… and by that I literally just mean learning to love yourself. You, with all your scars and all your regrets, are home to an actual life! You’ve been through so much and you’ve come out the other side stronger because of it – it’s remarkable really. You’ve got to invite the sad parts of yourself in to have a tea party with you. Don’t ignore them and cover them up. If you don’t look at them, they’ll make themselves seen! You are so worthy of love and I hope that if you don’t see that yet, you will learn to in time. Anyways guys,” she finishes, “this is all very intense. I love you very much and I hope you can understand and relate in some way.” [via Dork]

Greentea Peng has shared her new single 'Nah It Ain’t The Same'. The UK neo-soul voice is an outstanding talent, someone who pushes herself further into that hip-hop / jazz nexus with each release. Produced by Earbuds, new single 'Nah It Ain't The Same' is out now, one that reflects the chemistry she has with her live band The Seng Seng Family. Dipping into drum 'n' bass, her vocals have a calming, beatific feel, with 'Nah It Ain't The Same' tugging at matters personal. She comments: “Deliberations of a (hu) MAN, subject to the pendulum's swing, I give you ‘Nah It Aint The Same’ off my album MAN MADE. An expression and exploration of my utter confusion and inner conflicts amidst shifting paradigms.” Greentea Peng stars in the new video, with Machine Operated sculpting the video. [via Clash]

renforshort has debuted a brand new single, ‘virtual reality’. The first taster of a forthcoming second EP, the track sees her “connect” with Kellen Pomeranz (Pom Pom), Jesse Fink and Beabadoobee collaborator Pete Robertson. “’virtual reality’ is a song that tackles many topics. But at its core, it really is about anxiety, routine, boredom, isolation, loneliness, and fear,” she explains. “I think a lot of people have a very unhealthy relationship with technology because it’s never really been restricted enough to consider mental health and overall health, and that has fucked so many people up, now more than ever. Ever since I was young, social media has played a major role in my mental wellbeing, and I became so accustomed to it, it became a part of my routine and it came before everything else. The moment I wake up, almost instinctively, I check my phone. Depending on what I see in the morning, basically determines how I’m gonna feel for the rest of the day. I hate it. But I can’t stop. And what’s most ironic about this all is you’re likely going to read this on social media or listen to the song on some sort of electronic device…” [via Dork]

Flock of Dimes has shared the second single from her forthcoming album Head of Roses, out April 2 via Sub Pop. Following recent single, 'Two', 'Price of Blue' is another standout from Wasner’s second solo LP, an album that showcases her ability to embrace new levels of vulnerability, honesty and openness, combined with the self-assuredness that comes with a decade-plus career as a songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and prolific collaborator. It comes accompanied by an unearthly new video filmed in black and white, co-directed by Wasner with Graham Tolbert. Wasner says: “This song is about trying, and failing, to connect. It’s about the ways in which, despite our best efforts, we misunderstand each other, and become so attached to stories that we’re unable to see the truth that’s right in front of us. And it’s about the invisible mark that another person can leave on your body, heart and mind long after their absence. It can be difficult to make sense of the memory of your experience when the reality on the surface is always shifting—when the story you’re telling, or the story you’ve been told, unravels, leaving you with a handful of pieces and no idea how they used to fit together.”

Berlin-based indie-soul five-piece, People Club, announce their new EP Take Me Home, which is due May 7 and the band are sharing the title-track and new video. The title track 'Take Me Home' is a song about the realisation of mortality in old age and the cynicism that often plights the elderly after losing their loved ones and being left alone with their regrets. It is accompanied by a music video shot by long standing collaborator, Felix Spitta. Speaking of the process the band say, “Once again we worked with our very talented friend, Felix Spitta, who also shot the video for our last single Francine.  We basically spent a day fooling around at his house with a smoke machine and an old tape TV camera with a red filter.  The result is hazy and disorientating, just like this year has been so far.”

Introducing MARY., the dreamy alter-ego of musician and songwriter Stef T. The self-produced debut track, ‘Day to Day’, interlaces elements of electro-pop and R&B with a voice that enchants, along with an official video filmed, edited and directed by David Risdon and Charlie Rose Creative. Reading like a page in a diary, ‘Day to Day’ offers a candid and emotionally raw glance at being overlooked as a woman in a man’s world. She is put together, glamorous and poised on the outside, but on the inside she is simmering like a pot ready to boil over, fed-up and on the brink of snapping. Speaking of the track, Stef T explains, “’Day to Day’ is a reflection on what it is to be a woman in a role where you are always unseen; constantly giving yet never receiving. As woman, we are often undervalued for our day to day work in all aspects - as mothers, in relationships, in our careers; having to push extra hard to get the basic recognition and thanks that we are entitled to. This song is a commentary of a large part of my life where I settled, sacrificed and worked, only to be used and taken for granted. It is about learning to survive a toxic relationship, discover your own individual worth again and reclaim the power that you gave away to someone else. Producing this song myself is the only thing that made sense in context with the intention of MARY. as a project. She is an entirely self made, independent woman, who does it all and doesn't need a man to confirm that she's doing a good job. This is something I have personally struggled with, so I created the MARY. persona to feel more empowered in my storytelling as an artist, in an industry without a large visible number of female-identifying producers.”

Los Angeles based dream pop trio Tashaki Miyaki have just released a single and video of the title song from their forthcoming second album, Castaway, which will be released on April 23 via Metropolis Records. Singer, drummer and producer Paige Stark states that the song “is about the challenges of romantic love and how we are all bad at it in one way or another. The idea of a castaway in all this is that no one understands the relationship except the people in it, so you really are stuck on an island alone together there. Maybe you make it back to the mainland, or maybe you stay on the island.” Stark also shot the Sofia Coppola-inspired video on film, adding: "I wanted to tap into all the feelings that can come up in love relationships: anger, sadness, loneliness, vulnerability, stillness, joy, romance, longing. The actress in it has a beautifully expressive face and I've known her for a long time. I knew we would be able to create those moments together. I wanted it to feel like the camera was her lover, capturing her in various private moments, moods and feelings.”

With her Vanilla Shell EP celebrating its one-year anniversary last month, Danish-Chilean composer Molina is back with another abbreviated record in the form of the new single 'Cold,' featuring vocalist Jonas Bjerre, arriving with a pair of B-sides. The brief collection of songs continues her simultaneous journey inward toward the roots of Chilean music and outward into her own unique vision of the future. The project lands with a video for the A-side, which dreams up bizarre fantasy iconography in the tradition of Grimes and Björk to complement her subdued take on these artists’ out-there recordings. Blending ambiguous electronic sounds with the familiar drone of cello and Bjerre’s backing vocals, the track’s distinct persona may have more in common with the experimental soundscapes of artists like Jenny Hval or Julia Holter. [via Flood]

Maisie Peters has debuted her brand new single, ‘John Hughes Movie’. Described as the first single from her soon to be announced debut album, it’s a song about unrequited love, inspired by the legendary film producer and his classic coming-of-age teen comedies like The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles. The track comes alongside a video co-written by Maisie and director Louis Bhose (Loyle Carner, Arlo Parks, Lewis Capaldi). Maisie explains: “I wrote ‘John Hughes Movie’ when I was 17 about a house party that I had gone to. It’s a really honest depiction of being a hopeless, melodramatic teenager, being awkward and drunk and getting your heart broken by people you don’t even remember anymore. John Hughes films encapsulate that foolish romantic energy of high school and everything that I, a small town English wannabe Molly Ringwald wanted to be, but was not.” [via Dork]

Chloe x Halle have shared the music video for their song 'Ungodly Hour.' The video was debuted on Wedneday night's episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and shows the Bailey sisters going underwater for a sci-fi-style visual filled with choreography and elaborate adventures at the bottom of the ocean. Watch the Alfred Marroquín-directed video above. [via The FADER]

South London's Josie Man has returned with sentimental new single 'Cuts & Bruise', marking her first release of 2021. 'Cuts & Bruises' follows October 2020's 'Grow' single, and is accompanied by a Andrea Mae-directed video that shows couples enjoying tender moments, including Josie Man and her boyfriend. [via Line Of Best Fit]

Jessie Ware has shared a new short film for her song 'Remember Where You Are'. Her album What's Your Pleasure? arrived last year, a disco-fuelled missile that presented some much-needed good vibes amid lockdown. The songwriter returns to the record for her song 'Remember Where You Are', a soulful and uplifting slice of UK songwriting. There's now a full video for the song and it's steered by BAFTA winning director Dominic Savage. Starring British actress Gemma Arterton, it opens on Valentine's Day and finds the star wandering through deserted London streets. A glimpse of hope and renewal, it taps into the growing feeling that this time, lockdown might be coming to a permanent end. "It was a real pleasure to collaborate with Jessie and Gemma on this short film that is inspired by Jessie Ware’s beautiful music. It was also inspired by the real feeling that was felt when we filmed in the deserted streets of eerily strange lockdown London on a Saturday night/Sunday morning,” Dominic said. “The feelings and emotions in the film are a true reflection of what that felt like, and what this time invokes. Sadness, nostalgia, pain and defiance. But when we climbed Primrose Hill and the sun started to rise above the city, there was real hope and joy for a future that will surely be ours. Listening to Jessie’s music. There is no doubt of that." Jessie adds... "This song has always meant a lot to me and I was determined for other people to hear it and for it to be single. I am so touched by how many people have embraced this song, particularly when it's one of your favourite actresses and an acclaimed film director. Working with Gemma, Dominic and their team has been an absolute joy. To have them realise my song with a beautiful ode to London and the longing for human touch and interaction couldn't be more of a compliment. It's a truly cherished piece of work." [via Clash]

Jaguar Jonze has shared her new single and video 'CURLED IN' ahead of the release of her second EP ANTIHERO on April 16, both via Nettwerk Records. 'CURLED IN' presents all her best qualities at its outset. From the track’s rip-roaring, slicing guitar to her perfectly forceful, omnipresent vocals, 'CURLED IN' is a pure cathartic release. "Tear me apart, just tear me apart," she all but demands: "I've never seen wrong be done right." She's fulfilling her simplest needs, and it's freeing. "It's a bit of a twist for me to be a masochist." As a survivor of abuse, these words' unafraid power is all too apparent and an engaging statement to hear expressed.

Following the release of eclectic and impressive debut singles 'ASOS,' 'Right Time,' and 'Papercut,' rising left-of-center pop singer and songwriter Dava returns with a fresh and bold new single 'New Ceilings' available now via Sony Music's Disruptor Records. The moody anti-pop record was co-written by Dava and Mike Adubato (Del Water Gap, Grace VanderWaal) who also produced the track, and is the latest off the Los Angeles-based musician's forthcoming debut EP, Sticky, due out later this year. On the inspiration behind her new single, Dava shares, "This song was written about survival and staying true to yourself. I was having a hard time financially after moving to LA and my phone was shut off while on my way to this session. I was upset with myself for prioritizing music when I really needed the money from driving Uber to stay afloat." She continues, "The day I wrote 'New Ceilings' I was angry and I wanted a song that felt empowering and validated all the work I had put in up to that point. I ended up choosing different songs for my project but when I revisited this one year later, I felt it needed to be heard because of how authentically it embodies my struggle."

London-based Fifi Rong, a multi-talented avant-pop songstress, has shared the video for her stunning single, ‘Another Me’. Directed by Rok Pat, the video for ‘Another Me’ is stylistically simplistic, as Fifi Rong uses her own body as a medium of art, painting herself and inviting the simple imagery of waterside reeds and plants. A tranquil mysticism embraces the single as Fifi Rong acts as a gentle siren, luring the unsuspecting in yet known the inevitable outcome of the relationship. Speaking of the concept behind the single and video, Fifi Rong tells us: “In any doomed romance, timing is always mysteriously wrong. This is my first full CGI music video and it visually portrays the elusive nature of the character surrounding the key message: 'you won't find another me'. The undertone of the song displays a sense of pride and confidence in the character’s melancholy. Dressed in nothing but petals, I wanted my character to symbolise purity, nature, truthfulness, vulnerability and the divine feminine form. Acting as a rotating statue, I wanted to mark the passing of time and seasons as if a unique and lonely piece of art on display.”

[agentrouka-blog]

What do you think the wall will fall out? Do you think it would be horn of joramun?

I don’t know. I don’t really care..? My main concern with the Ice Threat is that the point of it will be extremely different from the show. The solution will not be battle or killing. It will be negotiation. And it doesn’t really matter where it takes place or if/when/why the Wall falls, exactly. The Wall is only a bandaid.

The original Long Night was unrelated to any direct cause we know of. It happened after the Pact on the Gods Eye and before the Andal Invasion that saw the South ravaged for the weirdwoods and Children of the Forest. What caused it?

But we know that the rise of the dragonlords in Old Valyria was definitely tied to slavery and dark magic. Dany uses the wrongest means possible (war, conquest, queenship) to recover something personal she longs for: a home. And she haggles with bloodmagic over Drogo’s death and loses big time, and then turns it around into trading lives for something monstrous: her dragons. That’s her magic sword. 

Then she haggles again for the Unsullied, a trick trade. One dragon for an army of human quasi-zombies. She “frees” them, but has only one purpose for them: dracarys dracarys, dracarys. 

It’s not an accident that the White Walkers and the wights bear some anviliously parallels to the Unsullied. 

The Other said something in a language that Will did not know; his voice was like the cracking of ice on a winter lake, and the words were mocking.  (AGOT, Prologue)

It mirrors:

"Tell the Westerosi whore to lower her eyes," the slaver Kraznys mo Nakloz complained to the slave girl who spoke for him. "I deal in meat, not metal. The bronze is not for sale. Tell her to look at the soldiers. Even the dim purple eyes of a sunset savage can see how magnificent my creatures are, surely."

Kraznys's High Valyrian was twisted and thickened by the characteristic growl of Ghis, and flavored here and there with words of slaver argot. Dany understood him well enough, but she smiled and looked blankly at the slave girl, as if wondering what he might have said. (ASOS, Daenerys II)

The Others take Craster’s boys, the slavers take young boys. There are significant sons.

"The boy's brothers," said the old woman on the left. "Craster's sons. The white cold's rising out there, crow. I can feel it in my bones. These poor old bones don't lie. They'll be here soon, the sons." (ASOS, Samwell II)

It mirrors:

Dany knew she would take more than a hundred, if she took any at all. "Remind your Good Master of who I am. Remind him that I am Daenerys Stormborn, Mother of Dragons, the Unburnt, trueborn queen of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. My blood is the blood of Aegon the Conqueror, and of old Valyria before him."

Yet her words did not move the plump perfumed slaver, even when rendered in his own ugly tongue. "Old Ghis ruled an empire when the Valyrians were still fucking sheep," he growled at the poor little scribe, "and we are the sons of the harpy." (ASOS, Daenerys II)

The Starks only came into prominence after the Long Night, involved in building the Wall and Winterfell, the latter of which is now in ruins like Old Valyria. Clearly, they mirror the dragonlords in some way, just like Jon mirrors Dany in many ways. Maybe they were the good guys, or maybe they did what Dany did: create an imperfect solution, play a trick, some kind of stalemate that made them expect a return of the Others, made the Wall necessary in the first place.

I think the source of the Others might be someone’s personal wrath, like Dany’s. Because there’s Cersei “re-creating” the Faith Militant, there is Stannis aiming the red god at his enemies, and there is Lady Stoneheart aiming the remnants of the Brotherhood without Banners at those who wronged her.

"The harpy is a craven thing," Daario Naharis said when he saw it. "She has a woman's heart and a chicken's legs. Small wonder her sons hide behind their walls." (ASOS, Daenerys V)

A woman’s heart, her sons behind Walls, and they kill you in the dark if you venture past.

The Sons of the Harpy did their butchery by night, and over each kill they left their mark. (ADWD, Daenerys I)

Butchering by night. Like the wights. Like the nightfires. Like Lady Stoneheart’s “trials”. The importance of memory connects them.

To the boy she said, "Treasure that tokar, for it saved your life. You are only a boy, so we will forget what happened here. You should do the same." But as he left the boy looked back over his shoulder, and when she saw his eyes Dany thought, The Harpy has another Son. (ADWD, Daenerys I)

And..

"She don't speak," said the big man in the yellow cloak. "You bloody bastards cut her throat too deep for that. But she remembers." 

(ASOS, Epilogue)

And...

The Nightfort had figured in some of Old Nan's scariest stories. It was here that Night's King had reigned, before his name was wiped from the memory of man. (ASOS, Bran IV)

But not the memory of women, judging by Old Nan.

He never was. He was a Stark, the brother of the man who brought him down." She always pinched Bran on the nose then, he would never forget it. "He was a Stark of Winterfell, and who can say? Mayhaps his name was Brandon. Mayhaps he slept in this very bed in this very room."

(ASOS, Bran IV)

Brandon Stark, name of names. Beloved son.

Reluctantly, she let go of them in her heart. But not Bran. Never Bran. "Yes," she said, "but please, Ned, for the love you bear me, let Bran remain here at Winterfell. He is only seven." (AGOT, Catelyn II)

Never letting go of Bran. Now waging vengeful war for Robb. 

But the solution is not killing.

She was the blood of the dragon. She could kill the Sons of the Harpy, and the sons of the sons, and the sons of the sons of the sons. But a dragon could not feed a hungry child nor help a dying woman's pain. And who would ever dare to love a dragon? (ADWD, Daenerys II)

Killing the sons of the sons of the sons is not going to do anything. They rise and rise again.

Dany haggled for the Unsullied. She traded for them. A dragon. For all of them. But she never fixed what was wrong, she just turned them around to kill for her and the slaves became the slavers. They are making new Unsullied of the sons of the slavers. Just like the Others have been making new wights, and are marching south again.

Maybe an undead dragon will destroy the Wall like on the show. (metaphor for Jon?) Or maybe they will end up choosing to blow the Horn of Joramun to make the actual solution possible. “If I look back, I am lost” is the wrong path, so they will need to recover the lost Memory of the Long Night, and fix things.

Whatever Brandon Stark will do, it will involve negotiation, haggling and - if the problem is to be truly fixed, an honorable trade. If he trades a dragon, then Jon is that dragon. But if he trades “the only cow he owns”, it might be something else. Maybe his magical ability, his warging, his “wings”. The way Drogon is Dany’s wings. Because Bran is mourning, too. Bran traded his dreams for great powers, too.

"A knight is what you want. A warg is what you are. You can't change that, Bran, you can't deny it or push it away. You are the winged wolf, but you will never fly." Jojen got up and walked to the window. "Unless you open your eye." He put two fingers together and poked Bran in the forehead, hard. (ACOK, Bran V)

He wanted to be a knight. He loved to climb.

"You will never walk again, Bran," the pale lips promised, "but you will fly." ADWD, Bran II)

But he will fly. The bird mentor says so. But bird mentors are bad news. Littlefinger. Ygritte (egret). Griff. They all want to force their dreams on you, they all will ask you to sacrifice the innocent.

"You will never walk again," the three-eyed crow had promised, "but you will fly." (ADWD, Bran III)

But may he shouldn’t fly. Maybe he should not warg. The animals fight it. The people fight it more. It’s an invasion, an assault. It is only ever a shared experience with their bonded wolves. Perhaps wargs are rightfully viewed with suspicion?

Maybe when he accepts his loss, like Cat will have to, like Dany should have done… something will be worked out. The magic will whither away, the seasons will return to normal. The Stark will be “like other men”. They will need no Wall. Maybe they will need no “Stark in Winterfell”. A castle rebuilt from Snow. And a king in the South.

[queenaryastark]

Why do think Jon can't or won't have any romances if he died and is resurrected? Like uh... erh you think he physically won't be able to uh get it up again so he'll never have a sexual relationship again or do u mean that you think he won't be able to emotionally form romantic attachments or...? I deff think Jon is going to be darker after and all that but i think him inhabiting Ghost might result in him being slighty different than Beric and Stoneheart. Idk what is ur speculation on it? Thanks!

I agree that if Jon is dead, his experience will be slightly different from Beric and Stoneheart since his consciousness has probably already transferred into ghost. But even there, the mind of the human starts to fade. That’s the beauty of GRRM’s work. There are always consequences, even with magic involved. Or especially when magic is involved. We don’t know how long he will remain in Ghost or what shape his body will be in when he returns to it. So while Jon might not lose as much of his personality as his predecessors, he will still be a fire wight. Though, tbh, with Jon being the third fire wight, it doesn’t seem like GRRM’s style to have him be in better shape than the other two. If anything, just as Stoneheart is worse than Beric, it seems like Jon would be even worse. Here are GRRM’s words on this element of his series:

GRRM: “Part of it was also, it’s the dialogue that I was talking about. And here I’ve got to get back to Tolkien again. And I’m going to seem like I’m criticizing him, which I guess I am. It’s always bothered me that Gandalf comes back from the dead. The Red Wedding for me in Lord of the Rings is the mines of Moria, and when Gandalf falls — it’s a devastating moment! I didn’t see it coming at 13 years old, it just totally took me by surprise. Gandalf can’t die! He’s the guy that knows all of the things that are happening! He’s one of the main heroes here! Oh god, what are they going to do without Gandalf? Now it’s just the hobbits?! And Boromir, and Aragorn? Well, maybe Aragorn will do, but it’s just a huge moment. A huge emotional investment.

And then in the next book, he shows up again, and it was six months between the American publications of those books, which seemed like a million years to me. So all that time I thought Gandalf was dead, and now he’s back and now he’s Gandalf the White. And, ehh, he’s more or less the same as always, except he’s more powerful. It always felt a little bit like a cheat to me. And as I got older and considered it more, it also seemed to me that death doesn’t make you more powerful. That’s, in some ways, me talking to Tolkien in the dialogue, saying, “Yeah, if someone comes back from being dead, especially if they suffer a violent, traumatic death, they’re not going to come back as nice as ever.” That’s what I was trying to do, and am still trying to do, with the Lady Stoneheart character.”

Interviewer: “And Jon Snow, too, is drained by the experience of coming back from the dead on the show.”

GRRM: “Right. And poor Beric Dondarrion, who was set up as the foreshadowing of all this, every time he’s a little less Beric. His memories are fading, he’s got all these scars, he’s becoming more and more physically hideous, because he’s not a living human being anymore. His heart isn’t beating, his blood isn’t flowing in his veins, he’s a wight, but a wight animated by fire instead of by ice, now we’re getting back to the whole fire and ice thing.” -- Time

So based on GRRM’s words, we can rule out Jon having an experience anything close to show!Jon where his death was only a benefit. He essentially used it as a “Get out of the Night’s Watch Free” card, even though that line of reasoning makes no sense. Him dying and being reanimated as a zombie would not result in him being physically and mentally the same, nor would it lead to everyone being fine with what he is. He would either be killed as a deserter or burned as a wight.

So as for Jon not having a chance for romance in my opinion, I would rule it out both emotionally and physically. 

As an animated corpse who has lost a degree of consciousness, I have my doubts about him being able to form new meaningful relationships. Beric and Catelyn have become hyper focused on the last goals they had before dying. Since Beric’s goal didn’t include his fiance, he barely remembers that he has a fiance, let alone anything about her. Nor does he remember where his home is. All he is about is carrying out his last orders which were to enforce justice on the Mountain and stop the Lannister’s terrorist acts on the common people of the Riverlands. So that’s it for him. Catelyn seems to be in a similar situation where her last act was to kill a Frey while also thinking of her lost children. So she is looking for Arya while murdering every Frey she can find and extending that vengeance to Jaime since Roose delivered his regards as he stabbed Robb. Stoneheart has lost a great deal of who she was to the point that she can’t hear reason, not even with Brienne. 

Jon’s situation has to be similar. His dying thoughts were of Arya and planning to meet Ramsay Bolton in battle. It stands to reason that his diminished mind would center on that, unless his time in Ghost allows him to focus on something or someone else. 

As far as physically goes, based on Beric and Stoneheart, Jon’s heart wouldn’t be beating so no blood flow would be going through his body, he wouldn’t need food since his digestive system wouldn’t be working, and he wouldn’t even need to sleep. Essentially, he is not alive and has no normal bodily functions. Unless he dies with a permanent terminal erection, a part of physical intimacy is out. He could probably still give oral if he’s able to keep hydrated for that purpose. Sorry, TMI. In short, in my opinion, if Jon is dead emotional and physical romance are out. But JMO.

That’s one of the reasons I’m still open to the possibility that Jon isn’t dead. Before the show killed and resurrected the show version as Gandolf the White 2.0, his status was up for debate. There were many who steadfastly believed he was alive. GRRM even said in an interview that whether Jon was dead or alive was up for debate until the next installment. Since he essentially brushed off the interviewer’s attempt in the quote above to redirect the discussion to undead!Jon and went on to discuss Beric, that suggests that canon Jon’s status is still undetermined. And there are a lot more possibilities for him if he’s alive. 

[bestworstcase]

A while back you mentioned how Cathay is revered as a protector of the dead, could you give us any more details about how the notion of an afterlife is approached within the various Bitter Snow religions? (especially curious on how understandings about death/afterlife within the Saporian Ternary intersects with the ritualistic necromancy aspect of Cathay's cult)

so in the… functional sense, i think the way death and afterlifes work in the bitter snow universe is that the souls of the dead pass into the care of whatever deity has the strongest claim on them, and what happens after that is dependent on the tenets of contracts or decisions made by the deity in question. so in a sense, your beliefs while you’re alive shape what happens to you after you die. (and i figure souls that are unaffiliated / unclaimed tend to just kinda. decay, disperse, and get recycled in a manner similar to the physical cycle of decomposition and renewal; ghosts occur when a soul is anchored in the physical plane somehow, whether by religious practices or simply having a strong enough will to endure without the vessel of a physical body, ie the “unfinished business” case.)

anyway.

within the ternary, things get a bit complicated because you have three different patrons all of whom technically have an afterlife option; and the one thing you absolutely want to avoid is having multiple deities squabbling over custody of your soul once you die. i think there are probably layers and layers of rules and religious traditions that at their core exist to prevent divine custody battles. especially between zhan tiri and cathay, who (a) hate each other and (b) have domains that overlap because cathay’s dominion is over the dead while part of zhan tiri’s sphere is death.

so.

actually wait let me zoom out a little and say first: broadly speaking, what unites the faiths of the ternary into a single religion is pursuit of a philosophical concept called choimghē, which is… mingling of the profane/mundane and sublime/divine. the word itself literally means “cusp” or “threshold,” and the philosophical idea here is that there is this irreconcilable tension between the profane and the sublime; both exist in a perpetual state of fascination/repulsion with each other; to achieve choimghē is to achieve balance between the two, resolving the fascinated/repulsed tension into peaceful coexistence. the three cults of the ternary are all founded upon this concept, but they pursue it in different ways: cathay’s cult through a repudiation of things anchoring a person to the profane in order to make room for the sublime, char malách’s through creation and spirituality that seeks to bring the profane closer to the sublime, and zhan tiri’s through this almost symbiotic relationship between the profane and the sublime where the end goal is to converge the two into a new blended whole. and of course, since the average religious saporian keeps the tenets of all three cults to some degree, you get blended versions of this philosophy also.

& the point of that digression is to say that the way the cults, and the ternary overall, conceptualize death is as the moment when true choimghē becomes possible. your soul is freed from its profane/mortal/physical body and can now achieve full communion or harmony with the sublime/divine. and as i said, there are three options for this:

cathay. in… a sense, cathay is the dead. she is said to rule over the realm of the dead, but this is also typically understood to be metaphorical rather than literal: there is no “realm” where the dead live after death, there is just cathay, and when she claims your soul after you die you become a part of cathay too; your individual existence is the final tether anchoring you to the profane and in the moment of death you shed that and find perfect union with the sublime, in the form of cathay. this overlaps with her role as a protector of the dead; she gives them peace, and rest, and solace from whatever suffering they may have endured in life, while also preserving them for eternity, and she does that by making them a part of herself.

the ritualistic necromancy practiced by her cult is actually quite removed from this, because a clear dividing line is drawn between “the dead” and “the bodies the dead leave behind.” there’s no… real cultural concept in saporia of desecrating a corpse, except insofar as the corpse may be regarded as a shrine to a god. (by a similar token i think saporians find burial practices that focus on the body as a representation of the dead person rather distasteful: why are you using this slab of meat and bones as an icon of the deceased.) so the use of animated bodies by cathay’s cult is for the edification of cathay herself (…and by extension all the dead who joined her…) and is seen as having nothing whatsoever to do with the person to whom that body once belonged. they have vacated the premises. the body isn’t them.

anyway, second option: char malách. i think of the gods of the ternary his “afterlife” is the most nebulous, because he isn’t especially interesting in collecting souls or incorporating them into his being but he does respect the arrangements between himself and his disciples so he’ll accept them if they’re offered; and i think what he would tend to do with them is weave them into something new. it isn’t reincarnation per se, it’s more… as if the souls of the dead are clay he shapes into new forms that please him; into metal ores or stars or fires or gemstones or whatever strikes his fancy. you get woven into the fabric of the universe. there is some overlap here with the cathay option where you’re shedding your individuality to become part of a collective, but the key difference is that rather than becoming part of the sublime/divine you are instead contributing to the lifting of the profane into the level of the sublime. i think in general this is the rarest path for people to take, because the uncertainty of precisely what will happen to you is frightening, and for close adherents of char malách there isn’t really a downside to going to cathay when you die, because one of the key tenets of the cult is that the destruction and disaster she embodies are just as cherished and valuable a facet of the cosmos as any other.

and third option: zhan tiri. i think hers is unique in that it is available only to those who dedicate themselves to her above the rest of the ternary; casual adherents of her cult who also participate in the practices of the other two tend to go to cathay, or occasionally to char malách, because zhan tiri simply is not interested in keeping you around if you don’t put her first. and it’s also a little unique in that her form of afterlife features a continual cycle of reincarnation, into trees or her huge assortment of sacred animals or on occasion when she feels like it into a human again. or for her hand-picked favorites there is also the scion option, which is like… soul-grafting; her scions are basically human souls anchored into new physical vessels formed from her. anything she can do, they can do on a smaller scale. it’s considered an immense honor for her to even offer.

and there is some tension between cathay’s cult and zhan tiri’s on the matter of burial practices, because zhan tiri’s cult has a set of traditions that involve the preparation and burial of corpses in places sacred to zhan tiri—again, for the edification of zhan tiri rather than for the dead, who are memorialized in other ways—and so there’s this long-standing grudge based on the “bodies should be interred in barrows and available for necromancy to pay respects to cathay” vs “bodies should be buried in forests or bogs so they can decompose and rejuvenate the soil to pay respects to zhan tiri” argument. also, when zhan tiri is feeling especially petty, she is absolutely not above poaching cathay’s wights and filling them with plants and letting them rot until they fall apart. church-sanctioned graverobbing.

ANYWAY.

coronans find all of this to be exceptionally disturbing. almost every form of traditional saporian burial or death ritual involves what coronans perceive as arbitrary mutilation of the corpse, and the concept of choimghē that underlies all saporian beliefs about death and the afterlife flies directly in the face of the coronan cultural view that magic (ie what saporians refer to as the sublime) and humanity (is the profane) are not ever meant to touch and that pursuit of magic or consorting with magical beings is never desirable.

i think coronans, esp religious ones, tend to conceptualize an afterlife that is a real, physical place beyond the western horizon, in the sun, or among the stars. the funeral barge tradition of sailing pyres into the sunset is a symbolic sending off of the dead to that physical realm, and i think there are also probably various legends/folktales about living people traveling to the afterlife for various reasons. (i have some vague ideas about a common variation on the sundrop myth that involves The First Healer traveling into the realm of the dead and bringing back a magical flower that taught him the secrets of medicine, though that’s vanishingly unlikely to ever show up in the story itself.)

[7deadlycinderellas]

If the summer of our lives could just come again, ch33

AO3 link

 Dragonstone

Tyrion knows it was wise for him to stay on Dragonstone with Varys when Danaerys flew north. That didn’t stop him from feeling like he was twiddling his thumbs the whole time.

He passes the time listening for gossip. He hears of the tragic fall of the house of Arryn, now headed by a weak-willed lordling. He hears of his brother’s disappearance from King’s Landing, and with each day his hope is dashed that that meant he would come to follow him, He hears of his nephew, the increasingly unstable king.

He, of course, has his part in what the maesters have discussed calling “the great visions” and he hears the smallfolk whispers of “winter madness”.

He almost dares not believe his vision. He dares not believe the image of himself, with a heavy beard, but the burden of many of his vices lifted. He almost dares not believe the pride in his chest, the memory of being trusted, and respected.

And the memory of Sansa’s face, trusting and open. He had seen that face before, and he knew it to be real.

The haze his mind is in in the days following is interrupted by the arrival of a single ship from the north.

It should bring more panic, the sign of the Baratheon banners, returning home to their appropriated castle. But the handful of men just seem ecstatic to see other human beings.

After a rushed conversation that tells that they have all been seized by these strange visions, the captain quickly asks to be lead to the castle.

“It’s the Lady Baratheon.  Since we were all overcome by this madness, she has twice attempted to take her own life. We need to keep her under constant supervision.”

Tyrion watches as the sailors off board, surrounding the thin, wane form of Selyse Baratheon. He would have barely recognized her as a person beforehand. He wonders what she saw.

Over the next weeks, at loss for anything else to do, Tyrion sits with her, reading. She wakes, and seems to recognize him, but will usually just roll over and return to her fitful slumber.

One morning, for some reason, when she rouses, she turns to him and speaks.

“What did you see?”

Tyrion chuckles. Those may be the words spoken to nearly the whole of Westeros over the coming years.

“A vision of a man others have told me I am but I can scarcely believe.”

Selyse chuckles mirthlessly, before rolling onto her back.

“I saw something that if asked before, I would have said it was a good thing,” Tyrion notes that she still does not say what it is, “But seeing it horrified me to the bone, and feeling that made me realize how incredibly wrong I had been about so very many things.”

Selyse returns to silence. When it breaks again, her words are gravelly. She’s not telling him exactly what she saw that day, but she is still saying so much.

“I haven’t seen my daughter in so long. I wonder if I would even recognize her.”

Tyrion thinks.

“Last I heard she was when your husband went north to aid the Night’s Watch. She was under Lord Stark’s protection, her sworn shield by her side.”

There’s a decent chance Shireen could be fine, he thinks.

Selyse rolls away from his gaze.

“Alive and well,” she whispers, “No thanks to me.”

Tyrion lets her stay with her thoughts after that.

 The Kingsroad

The guilt Jamie felt over leading his men north now befuddled him. They were soldiers after all, they should know that death is a possibility.

If any of them were as taken by the visions as him, they should know what they might be facing.

North of Moat Cailin, the ground is solid and wide. That’s where they are when the dead lunge for the men at the head of the company.

As Jamie realizes they have no weapons effective against the dead, no Valyrian steel, no dragonglass, despair begins to set in. They build fires, but he doubts it will be enough. The ground is open on all sides, they could attack from any direction. And there are not enough of them to be sure none get past and go further south.

He doesn’t know how many days they’ve been fighting. Long enough that no one paid attention when the sky opened up.

Everyone paid attention when the dragon swooped down from the heavens and burned a line along the countryside.

Jamie can barely hear his own voice over the wind and screaming when calls out to the rider.

“Our weapons won’t work on them!”

“Drive them into piles and ditches,” her voice calls out, “I’ll burn as many as I can!”

Jamie nods, and amidst the chaos, he lifts his sword and fights.

 Winterfell

Ned trusts Maester Luwin’s opinion, but he still can’t wrap his mind around the words.

“Are you sure?”

The older man nods solemnly.

“The bits of the broken sword are still inside your chest. As you continue to move, they will too, and I believe from the position, that they will eventually cause bleeding inside or damage to your lungs, and there will be nothing that can be done.”

“You can’t remove them?”

“Attempting to do that risks both the same things.”

Ned sighs, resting his head in his hands. Things have finally begun to slow. The sun has returned, the wounded are beginning to heal, the hungry to be fed. And this.

“How long?”

Maester Luwin shakes his head.

“No way to tell. It could be two days, or two moons, or two years. You don’t seem to be in pain now, which is encouraging.”

Ned’s eyes make their way over the rest of the Great Hall, the injured. It’s night now, and most are sleeping, or trying to.

Robb has finally regained enough strength to leave and join the others in trying to plan strategy to take out the rest of the wights. He had been privy to part of the conversation between him and Val when he had finally come out of the haze.

Robb had stared vacantly at the space where his arm had been for a good long while before breaking the silence.

“You cut off my arm,” he tells her, voice disbelieving.

“If you had preferred I just slit your throat, let me know, I can still do it.”

“No,” Robb had told her softly, and his eyes were serene. The next time Val had come, she had motioned for him to stand and pushed an axe into his remaining hand.

Arya and Gendry had spent too many nights sleeping in here, trying to outrun the wounds they both refused to acknowledge. Luwin had had to take two of Gendry’s toes which had become frostbitten. Regaining his balance had taken time that the lad did not have patience for, eager to regain the others outside.

As for Arya, she had woken fitfully the first several nights, complaining of the buzzing. Luwin had said the explosion had ruptured one of her eardrums, and that while the buzzing might fade, he doubted she would ever regain full hearing in that ear.

But after several days, she had seemed to be able to fight through it, to force herself to ignore it. There were fewer archers needed, but more fires to put out, bodies to burn, debris to clear, rebuilding to begin.

Even Ygritte had ended up down here, loathe to admit that ever since she had taken the arrow, she hadn’t been able to feel two of her fingers. Luwin had bowed his head when he told her it was likely permanent. She had rolled her eyes and muttered something about how at least it was only her bow arm and not her drawing arm.

Ned watches one by one as his children leave the Great Hall and he remains. Ned had not seen any sign of Rickon.

Rickon was outside when Arya and Gendry woke and stepped outside the Great Hall. He doesn’t say a word, merely nods. He’s covered in blood, in varying stages of drying, but doesn’t move like any of it’s his.

The two of them eventually find Jon and Brienne, still holding their heads high.

“The first scouting parties are going out tomorrow morning. It shouldn’t be too intense, since it seems like we’re just cleaning up.”

Arya nods, forcing herself to ignore the buzzing.

“Will the two of you be with us?” Brienne asks.

Arya and Gendry exchange a gaze.

“What time are we riding?” Gendry asks.

“First light,” Jon replies.

They exchange another look.

“We’ll see.”

They stagger off, still leaning on each other. Eventually they find solitude in what used to be a stable. The horses still in Winterfell all have riders, or else stand about waiting for a new one, thin and wane.

If pushed, both of them would say a pile of straw and a horse blanket are marginally better than a pile of grain sacks.

They’re scarred and filthy and somehow still exhausted, but somehow their hands still reach for one another. Gendry rests his weight on his arms and loves her with what little strength he can find, not letting himself go until her sighs and groans rise to a peak twice, writhing underneath him and her hands grasping at his shoulders.

Afterwards, he still clings to her.

“Helping save the world has made you greedy,” Arya whispers idly, playing with his hair, grown out long now.

He squeezes her tighter.

“I can’t help it, It’s been...gods, months, since I’ve touched you.”

Arya hums softly in response, and he continues.

“I remember how I felt last time, when I found you after in the springs. We thought it was all over, Davos said something about Danaerys meaning to give me my father’s name...I wanted to get down on one knee right there, ask you to be my lady-”

“Thank you for not, I would have run and screamed if you’d phrased it like that.”

“Didn’t get a chance now did I?” Gendry rubs his cheek against her shoulder.

Arya shifts underneath him,

“Months since we’ve bathed too,” she starts, remembering the last months of only buckets of wet snow, “Want to go and find one of the hot springs?”

Gendry shrugs, and they stand.

Walking through Winterfell is like walking through a corpse. Walls stand broken down, pathways littered with debris, the ever present smell of fire and rotted flesh. She’s grateful when they follow a staircase down and the hot springs under the Great Keep appear the same as always, as immovable as the mountains.

It takes longer than before to wash the muck from their bodies, and Arya is grateful too that the water seems to be no different for it. The warmth is making her sleepy, but she forces her eyes to open. She swims over, and presser her chin against Gendry’s back, wrapping her arms around him.

“Will we be at the gates tomorrow?” she asks.

There’s a pause.

“Ask me in the morning, once we sleep.”

 Bear Island

The sky was clear as it hadn’t been in ages. One could see straight through the water to the bottom on a day as clear as this.

Which is why Osha has no words when she stares out over the sea at the lumbering bodies that walk straight into the sea and keep going.

Panic rises in her throat, but she finds no words. Confused, Gilly walks up beside her. When she looks out, Osha can see her stiffen.

“Start a bonfire,” she tells Osha with an unusual amount of authority, “The biggest you can. I’ll go and get the others. Lyra and Lyanna are good enough with their weapons.”

Osha can barely move for the fear, the wood begins to pile. It looks pitifully small until the large stable boy comes up near her holding an armful that looks like it could warm a whole castle in itself.

He turns towards Osha and meets her eyes.

“Hodor,” he says, softly, and Osha feels her eyes prickle with tears, much in the way she had in that day of the strange dreams.

“I’ll try, sweet giant.”

By the time they are ready to light the fire, Gilly returns to the beach with the rest of the ladies in the keep.

Hodor lifts two of the smallest children under each arm, and another climbs on his back. The children are silent, staring.

Lyra puts her hand to her brow to stare across the sea. Osha can hear crying and whimpering from the group behind her and tries to steel herself.

Lyanna’s voice rings out.

“Light more fires, at least enough to line the beach. If they think they will find us an easy fight, they have something else coming.”

 Greywater Watch

The debate over names had gone back and forth a thousand times.

The debate was still going one morning when a group of them were going out scouting to see if there was enough thaw to the bogs for Greywater Watch to move safely. It had been in one place unusually long. Near everyone in the keep were being packed into rowboats to go on ahead and signal the new destination, lightening the load and making the crannog's movement easier.

Bran was sitting in a canoe, waiting for the others, and holding his daughter. He touches her forehead for a moment.

“Arra,” he says, turning his head to look at Meera, who’s climbed into the canoe with him. She sits gingerly, despite having exclaimed happily three days ago that she finally seemed to have stopped oozing blood, and she was starting to feel like herself again, “What do you think?”

Arra was a Stark name, the first wife of Cregan Stark, the old man of the north. And very close to another.

“Well it will definitely get your sister off our backs when we see her again.”

There’s another of those words that catches between them, “when”. With a cough, Bran turns their words back.

“Maybe she’ll be blessed to be like her then. Brave, fierce.”

“Willing and able to fight us every step,” Meera adds with a smirk. She picks up an oar.

“Do you want the baby or the oars?”

Considering it, Bran nods. He’ll keep Arra.

After several minutes of rowing, Meera replies.

“Arra works for me. We could only hope her to be as fierce as her aunt.”

She would need to be that fierce, if the world continues on the way it is. She remains silent as Bran holds her, watching the scenery of the swamps go by. It’s still winter cold, but the sun has shined brightly for nearly a whole moon’s turn, the fog only lingering in the very early mornings. The fishermen and trappers seem almost confused at being able to see so far out in front of their noses.

Everything feels alive here, he thinks. Everything moving and drifting, as if the whole world, plants, animals and people alike, were just a single organism, moving autonomously, but parts of a larger whole.

They pass a patch of water marked with a flag with a black “x” upon it. In one of the other boats, one packed with more people, Bran can hear Jojen whispering to Shireen. He’d heard it before too, that patches of the swamp would have so many piles of dead and decaying things in spots that gas would build up. Swimmers would get choked or intoxicated by it, so they marked them when they were found.

“Also, that’s where we try to dump waste,” Jojen adds, “So you definitely want a warning not to swim, or fish, or drink in areas marked with black flags.”

After three-quarters of an hour or so of rowing, they pause. They’re further out towards the sea, the water is deeper and hardly any is frozen. Meera speaks to several of the other men in the boats, and then nods.

“This is a good spot, send word back.”

The process of moving Greywater Watch is still so alien to watch, to see the whole keep float along the water as if it weighed nothing. Even the process of it being anchored still feels almost magical. But Bran watches it done, trying to acclimate himself, trying to remember that he will come to call this place home.

When everyone’s getting out of the canoes, and tying them back, another one that hadn’t been with them approaches the keep. Howland and Jyana are inside fixing the anchor, so Meera approaches to speak to the men in the boats.

Jojen is just whispering to Shireen about how the crannogmen can always find Greywater Watch, wherever it is, when Meera whirls around violently, and raises her voice.

“Everyone! Get any weapons you can and get to higher ground!”

In Bran’s arms, Arra begins to cry hearing her mother yell. When the others around him begin rushing, Bran rushes to meet her.

“What’s happened?”

“The dead are coming south. And it appears they can now cross water.”

Bran’s chest tightens. Meera reaches and takes Arra, who is still wailing.

“Get my mother and father and get to the top of the keep. I’ll find my bow and meet you.”

When Bran tries to rush after her words, he hears her telling the men in the boats to spread the word, but to use the trees if they can, since the waterways won’t be safe.

“And tell them to use fire.”

It’s a mess, trying to gather the weapons, flint, anything that might possibly be flammable. By the time Bran follows Howland and Jyana up the steps, his bad leg is aching and throbbing, about to give out.

When he finally lets out a breath, Sansa roughly grabs his hand and drags him to a crate so he can sit.

Sansa’s clutching her bow, the one Meera and Arya made for her all those years ago.

“Aren’t you glad you brought it anyway?” Bran asks her.

Sansa nods, her face pale. Her lips move silently, and Bran realizes she’s praying.

Everyone spreads out so that all directions are covered, just in case. Bran feels his throat tighten, at all the people they led down here to keep them safe from the wights, and now they were here anyway. Greywater Watch doesn’t have much of a household, but there are enough bows running around each side. Spears won’t be of much use here.

Bran takes his place next to Meera, who has her bow in one hand and Arra on her back, in the sling Sansa had helped her sew out of fishnets while she was healing so the babe could be carried with her hands free.

Arra’s fussing, but not crying openly. Bran moves to kiss her head, and run his fingers over the strands of her thin reddish hair. Tully red, he realizes grimly. Meera meets his eye, and he can see the fear that she will never speak.

Jojen finds them, and hands Bran his own bow, still a bit dusty from where it’s sat with years of disuse..

“We don’t have enough pitch and oil to waste this on myself, I’m such a sorry shot.”

They are as ready as they can be, and all they can do is wait.

The first one appears before sundown, lurching through the waters and rushes. When the mud does what it can to stick it, someone takes the first shot, and the body burns.

And they keep waiting. Another comes, two more.

Night falls. Bran has persuaded Meera to sit down by his crate and try and sleep after feeding Arra. She has claimed waking every few hours to feed a crying infant is nothing compared to running through the snow being pursued by dead men, but her eyes betray her. Bran has tired to share her burden when he can, and he’s spent much of these weeks more tired than he can remember.

But Bran can’t sleep, his eyes are still peeled on the horizon.

At some point, pacing and weapon-less, Shireen passes behind him. There have been no signs of wights since the sun has left the sky.

Tired, she mutters.

“Maybe now that the sun has come out, they can see there’s solid ground underneath the water.”

Bran can’t even make himself consider that, and he hopes Shireen doesn’t think on it too hard.

After a few hours, Arra wakes again, and once she’s fed, Meera tugs on Bran’s hand until he’s seated beside her, and idly rubs the back of his neck until he feels himself drifting.

“It’s been quiet,” she murmurs, half gone, “Sleep.”

The sun comes again, and they wake to a shout and another shot taken.

Later that day, when the food is being passed around haphazardly, Sansa quietly mentions.

“I think Shireen’s right. None came at night.”

With the sky tilting towards night again, Bran has an epiphany.

He steps a bit to the side and nudges Sansa.

“We left the wolves near Moat Cailin right?”

Sansa nods softly, thinking.

“That was the last we saw them, since they don’t much care for marshes. “

“If we can warg them, we could use them to drive the wights closer, so we can get them more easily, and they won’t attack places that aren’t armed.”

Sansa’s face is uncertain.

“I don’t know if I can warg Lady from this far away.”

“Sansa,” he implores, “Try. Try it with me.”

Sansa inhales roughly, before nodding. Bran grips her hand before shutting his eyes tightly.

Summer’s mind is easy to recognize, even now. He begins in the dry areas close to Moat Cailin and then runs south.

The swamp he begins to run through smells of a thousand things at once, wet and green and rotted. His own scent isn’t remaining, and Bran doesn’t think a trail would be easy for Summer to follow.

The dead are easy to find though. They don’t smell right. Not alive, not rotting. Cold, even in the sun.

They move aimlessly, no longer having a leader commanding them. They do seem to be avoiding Bran’s howls and barks, his plan is working. He pushes them together. It’s only Bran’s vague knowledge of where Greywater Watch is that tells him Summer’s herding them in the right direction.

The smell shifts suddenly, becoming reminiscent of bad eggs, overly rich and vile. Summer whines at it, and the sudden heat.

When Bran pulls himself off, he stares off through the horizon, at the black flags along the water.

He pats Sansa’s shoulder again.

“Any luck?”

“Some”.

He points.

“Guide them to the bits there. Once night comes, they’ll stick.”

Sansa nods, still unsure, but her eyes turn white like his. Staggering a bit, stiff in his own skin, Bran stands to go and tell his plan to the others.

Dusk comes, and with a gasp, Bran returns to his skin. There’s two dozen creeping, that’s all they could find, with the wolves and the ravens searching as well as they can.

He picks up his bow, and joins his spot in line between Sansa and Meera.

There’s twelve of them here armed. Twelve bows, with cloth wrapped arrows dipped in pitch, lit.

Twelve arrows sail through the sky at twilight, into the clearing filled with swamp gas, already smothering several underground fires.

And at twilight, twelve wights are violently ignited.

[misspensandscribbles]

The Prodigal Stark

“You came back,” Sansa tells him softly, almost hesitantly.

He cracks a thin smile, all the cockiness from his youth now replaced with gentle timidity. “I did.”

“I was afraid you wouldn’t.” Her head is bowed, eyes lingering on the soup she’s been stirring for long minutes now. He wants to tell her to look at him with those piercing blue eyes of hers; those eyes that brought him back his soul. The last time he saw them, they had been terrifyingly dull and so achingly sad. Now that there’s life in them again, he wants so badly to gaze into them for as long as he can.

If she were any other person, he might have been tempted to reach out and tilt her chin up to face him. But she is Sansa – Sansa – and the last thing he would ever do is give her unwanted, uninitiated touches. And yet he yearns for nothing more.

He can still feel the embrace she gave him hours ago. Never did he feel so much warmth and peace in all his life, so much so that, unlike their last goodbye, he hadn’t stopped his arms from reaching up and holding her tighter to him. With her in his arms, it had been so painfully easy to finally admit to himself that she’s been his north star all along. Everything he’s done since parting from her in now what feels like a lifetime ago has been to return to her with a purpose, with something to show for.

“When Jon told me he saw you at Dragonstone and when you didn’t come back with him…” Her brows pull together in her effort to decide how to continue. In the end, she heaves a sigh and shakes her head. “I wouldn’t blame you for not coming back, you know.”

She says it with false nonchalance that he could easily read right through. He was with her when she’d been young and blissfully ignorant of the dirty and cruel world they lived in. And he was with her at her lowest and her worst when she’d been with a monster he knows far too well, a monster that he himself was tormented by. In both cases, she’d never had to pretend with him – with the first, there’d been no need to when she didn’t know any better; with the second, well, surviving Ramsay had been the only thing they cared about.

There is no use lying to her. Sitting at the courtyard now, they both know it is near impossible to look around them and not be reminded of horrors past. The only thing that makes it possible is the one sitting across from him, the only person who knows exactly what he’s gone through. For him, at least, she is more than enough to keep his nightmares at bay. Looking at her now, he would never assume that he could do the same for her. With or without him, she is strong.

And so he does the only thing he can when faced with such overwhelming strength. He tells the truth.

“This is where I want to be.”

The smile she gives him shatters the weariness in his bones.

He bolts upright, sweating and gasping for air. It takes him awhile before realizing that, no, there are no hounds barking off in the distance. Nor does he hear arrows being nocked toward his direction or knives being sharpened somewhere nearby. There is only the sound of the ground rumbling with the footsteps of thousands upon thousands of men and of swords and steel being forged. He doesn’t need anyone to tell him that the time for battle is near. Having felt it countless of times before, he knows there is no mistaking it now – the foreboding of death in the air.

And yet it isn’t the wights or the Night King that tormented him in his sleep, though what did is just as dead. The shadow of Ramsay Bolton lurks within Winterfell’s walls. Of all the horrid and unspeakable things that monster did, he would always hate him most for this, for turning his home into a haunted keep. With a muttered curse, he pushes himself off his cot and heads outside, away from the darkness and what harasses him.

Sansa finds him at the courtyard once more, at the very same spot they both occupied mere hours ago.

“Couldn’t sleep?” she asks him even though she already knows the answer.

When, earlier that evening, he wanted nothing more than to look into her eyes, now he turns away from them. “How do you do it?” he says in a pained whisper. “I… I see him everywhere.”

For a moment, she is silent. He hears only the sound of her boot as she takes a step closer to him.

“Come with me.”

His shame for showing such weakness isn’t enough to keep him from meeting her eyes now at her words. It is quite obvious that she is appealing to him even though he cannot understand why – he would do anything and everything she asks of him. And he means to show her that as he stands on shaky knees and follows her without question.

It is only after they pass the armory that he realizes where she’s heading and, when he does, he stops dead in his tracks, his breaths coming in shorter as his heart seems to stop beating entirely. Mere minutes ago, he’d been so sure of his devotion to her, and now it seems like she is putting it to the test.

It seems, too, that she can sense the panic swelling within him because she stops only a foot away and looks back at him.

“Please,” is all she says.

And it’s all she needs to say, for he releases a shaky breath, expelling the paralyzing fear that has frozen him into place, and slowly makes his way beside her until they stand shoulder to shoulder. If she can face it, so must he. He allows himself only a second’s hesitation before he nods at her, and they both move again.

It isn’t long before they are standing at the entrance of the kennels. To think that he left his bed in order to escape his nightmares only to face the very source of them all, he could almost laugh at the irony if it weren’t for the fact that he is being choked by the images of his torture and suffering.

He glances at Sansa, who’s staring impassively straight ahead into the empty darkness, and, not for the first time, he thinks that perhaps she actually does hate him. How could she not after all he has done? He can accept it, knows he deserves it. Still, he wants to ask her, to beg her for whatever else he can do, not to make amends, but perhaps to make her hate him less.

Her voice pulls him out of his insecurities.

“This is where he ceased to exist,” she says in a low voice, eyes still trained ahead at an unmarked spot in the middle of the corridor.

Her words stir something in him that he cannot name. He knows very well who she’s referring to, has a good idea of what it is she’s implying, and yet his mind can’t seem to process them. Painful and frightening images still playing in his head, it’s as though he is being pulled back and forth between the terrors of the past and the unnerving words uttered by Sansa.

“Ramsay. I fed him to his dogs. And then I had them slaughtered and burned.” She turns to face him now, eyes shining with tears that he knows she will not shed. “There is no trace of him left, Theon. He can’t hurt us now.”

He returns to his cot not long after that. He had stood at that entrance, Sansa wordlessly remaining by his side, until he felt Ramsay’s ghost seep out of him. It was only after he unknowingly released a heavy sigh of relief that Sansa had turned to him with eyes full of sympathy and understanding and said, “Get some rest.”

Now, as his eyes slowly drift shut, he knows for the first time ever and with utmost certainty that when sleep comes over him, there will only be rest. And it is because Sansa has decreed it so. His last conscious thought – she has saved him again.

He tries to pay attention to the battle plans being discussed to no avail. He already knows the part he will play; he had volunteered for it knowing that he wasn’t going to accept anything else. But now that he’s gotten what he wanted, he is even less inclined to listen to Jon and all the rest of them talk about the war. He is tired and his bones are weary. Truthfully, all he wants is to get out of the room and… and breathe.

Breathe in Winterfell while it still stands in all the glory that is left of her. Breathe in the North while it is still the land of the living.

He casts a glance at Sansa. Breathe in her before he can breathe no longer.

He isn’t a fool anymore. Whatever clever plans and brilliant strategies they come up with, he knows how this will end for him. And he is at peace with it.

He feels her presence before he sees her. Such is the way of things with her, it seems. He’s heard some of Daenerys’ people claim how she is as cold and frigid as winter, and it makes him scoff. When she is near, all he feels is warmth. That they cannot feel the same gives him the smallest measure of pride his blackened conscience will allow him.

“I knew you’d be here,” she tells him now, placing both her hands on the stone edge a few inches away from him.

It makes him smile. Her confidence in her words can only mean that she herself has done the exact same thing before. And that can mean, he dearly hopes, that she’s thought of him at least once.

He nods his head. “Do you always come up here?”

They are at the battlements, standing at the very spot they jumped off of from years ago. The wind is harsh and freezing, yet there is a sense of comfort circling between them that perhaps they would not be able to find elsewhere.

“Aye, when I can’t sleep,” she says. “It… it soothes me, I suppose. When… when I am plagued by worry, when I am afraid, coming here helps me to…“ she breaks off, unable to find the words.

“To remind yourself that you’ve already put the worst behind you,” he finishes for her because he is sure that no one understands her better than he can.

She bites her bottom lip, a sign of both acquiescence and reluctance. “What do you do?”

He looks at her, really looks for he knows that time is running out. Selfishly, he takes in his fill of her. Though he has memorized every feature of her face, he studies it once more, committing to memory every little detail, especially her vivid sapphire eyes that remind him of the sea, and the sky, and home. Because, after all they have been through, that is what she is to him now.

And so again, he does the only thing he can when faced with such overwhelming beauty. He tells the truth.

“I think of you.” I always think of you.

Earlier, with Sansa’s arrival at his side, he thought that he couldn’t feel any warmer. She proves him wrong when she slides her hand to his and laces their fingers together. She saves him yet again.

The horns have blasted minutes ago, and now the whole keep has come alive with the sounds of war and an almost methodical kind of panic. Soldiers are shouting as swords are being sheathed. Babes are wailing while their mothers rush to the crypts. He catches glimpses of men saying goodbye to their women, of longing looks and hurried kisses exchanged.

He doesn’t let his eyes linger on any of them as he leads his men toward the godswood lest he dwells on how he wasn’t able to say his own farewell to the person dearest to him. Though he’d been with her up at the battlements when the horns sounded, Arya whisked her away before he could say goodbye.

It’s for the best, he thinks now. He doesn’t know what he’d say to her if he had the chance. He walks by yet another couple in a passionate kiss, and he averts his eyes. That is not the kind of goodbye he wants. He shakes his head in an effort to clear his mind of blue eyes, red hair, and pale white skin, and to concentrate on keeping Bran alive and safe.

Redemption is beyond his reach, he knows, but maybe he can make a difference now. He thinks of Ned who was like a father to him, of Robb who loved him like he loved all his brothers and whom he loved more than even his own flesh and blood, of Jon who gave him the courage to do what needed to be done, of Bran who looks at him without judgment, even of Arya who not once spoke out against him defending her brother. And then, before he can even think of her, he hears footsteps hurriedly approaching him and then a hand circles around his wrist.

“Theon.”

She is breathless, chest rising and falling fast from rushing over to him. Her eyes are shining with tears, and it isn’t long before they start cascading across her cheeks.

She cries for me, he thinks now. His heart breaks at the sight of fear so clearly etched on her face. She fears for me.

She grabs him by the shoulders in a bruising grip that anchors him to the here and now. “Theon,” she says his name again. “Please.”

It’s the pleading in her voice that tells him that she knows. She isn’t a fool either. She knows how this will end, and yet – and this is what shatters and mends his heart at the same time – she allows herself to hope that it won’t, begs him to not let it come to pass.

And he loves her.

What he feels for her isn’t romantic or familial or that of friends. He’s never felt anything like this before, not until he stood with her on the ramparts of Winterfell, knowing they could die yet still wanting to do so with her.

He would die for her. He lived for her.

He’s never known love so pure and selfless, free of conditions, expectations, lust and all manner of vices. He loves her without needing her to love him in return. He loves her in the absolute. And the freedom he feels from finally acknowledging that overwhelms him to the point of bursting.

Slowly, tenderly, he cups her face with both hands, his thumbs wiping away the tears she sheds for him. He wants, needs, to take her in his arms and feel her embrace one last time, but if he holds her, he might never let go.

Standing in front of her now, he finds that there are so many things he wishes to say – that she can show affection and warmth after all the things Ramsay did to her speaks of a strength that is unlike any other, that she has made him want to become a better man shows how her heart instills devotion in others, that he is certain Robb would be beaming at her with pride and joy right now for all that she’s done. She has told her siblings that he saved her from Ramsay, that she wouldn’t have survived if it weren’t for him. They are lies, all of it. The truth is that she saved him. He would’ve died as Reek if not for her. And it cuts him to the core that she had to suffer Ramsay for him to become Theon again – it is his greatest crime. All these things, he wants to tell her, and yet he knows that he can’t if he wants to protect Bran. And so he settles for the most important thing he needs her to know.

“Sansa,” he whispers, voice hoarse and desperate, before pressing a kiss on her forehead. “You must live.”

She nods and shakes her head in equal vigor as more tears start to fall, agreeing to his demand but also denying what is left unsaid – that he will not.

Just then, Drogon and Rhaegal screech above them as they fly over the castle with Daenerys and Jon on their back. The sight sends him plummeting back to reality. At the end of the day, he is only a man, and while he does not fear death, he still fears suffering. He prays for a quick death, the idea of dying slow, of being cut and sliced and stabbed again, makes dread seize his heart.

But before panic can start creeping in, she is there once again. Her hands shake and her lips tremble as she cradles his face, mimicking him. His eyes close at her touch, and he allows the calm it brings to wash over him. Once more, for the last time, she saves him.

“Sansa,” he breathes her name at last before opening his eyes. “You brought me back. Thank you.”

And then he releases her and walks away. He does not look back.  It’s his turn to save her, to save them all.

Jon stands a few feet past the entrance of the godswood, for once feeling like he does not belong there. The ground is covered with blood-drenched snow with arrows scattered about. They’d removed all the bodies and put them in the funeral pyres that have been set up outside the walls of Winterfell.

All save one.

It has been hours since the Night King and his army were defeated and yet Theon’s body remains exactly where it had been when they found him. He hasn’t the heart to move him… not while she is still there.

She sits on the dirt and snow, knees bent and shoulders drooped. There is mud and blood in her skirts, and there are cuts in her arms that he desperately wants to be seen to. He can see from where he stands that she is shivering, that her lips have paled enough to alarm him, that the gloveless hands that hold Theon’s lifeless one are now practically white.

He wants to carry her back to the castle, not to the great hall where all the survivors too weak to move huddle around the fire for comfort, but to her chamber where she can grieve and heal in peace. He wants to gather her in his arms and hold her to his chest so that he can feel that she still lives because he hasn’t been able to do so, unlike with Arya and Bran. He wants to kneel beside her and shake her out of her hollowed trance.

He does none of these things, however. Instead, he just stands vigil, and he waits for her. Anytime now, the horns will be blown once more, this time signaling to the people to gather outside the gates of the keep to pay their final respects to the men, women and children who have fallen. Theon will not be one of them. When Brienne had knelt by his body and spoken so softly to her lady that they ought to lay him on the pyres with the others, she’d pulled his hand closer to her chest.

No, she’d whispered.

Looking at her now, it dawns on him that he has never seen her like this before. She wears no mask, no armor. She is not the Lady of Winterfell now. She is a girl who is lost and vulnerable and lonely, a far cry from the Sansa he’s seen since reuniting with her at Castle Black.

He does not know what it is she feels exactly for Theon, but seeing her mourn for him the way she is doing so now brings him back to when Ygritte died in his arms. And loathe as he is to admit it, he wonders if she loves him in the manner that he loved Ygritte. It is a selfish thought, one that only a man who is guilty of having survived again and again can have.

In the distance, he hears the crunching of footsteps and turns back to see who it is. Brienne has returned, wearing an expression more anxious than the last one she wore not an hour ago. It can only mean one thing. He has delayed long enough. While he is not the King in the North any longer, Sansa is still the Lady of Winterfell. And as such, she is needed elsewhere.

He heaves a weary breath before he makes his way to them. With each step he takes, he is acutely aware of how the sorrow that had wrapped around his chest so tightly is now loosening up as righteous fury takes its place. He is angry at the gods for allowing so much death. He is angry at Daenerys for her relentless and pressing demand for that fucking throne, because perhaps they would all be able to grieve properly otherwise.

But most of all, he is angry at himself for having to do this to her now.

He kneels beside Sansa and casts a long, solemn look to the man who saved her. And then slowly, he lays a hand on her shoulder and gives a gentle squeeze.

“Sansa,” he rasps, his voice rough from the battle. “Sansa, it is time.”

She nods her head absentmindedly but otherwise keeps her eyes trained on Theon. He waits for her to stand or to sob or to do anything, yet she remains as she is. He looks up and sees that Jaime Lannister now stands beside Brienne, his face mirroring the worry that is so clearly on the latter. Dreading the possibility that the next one to show up would not bother with taking care for her grief, he opens his mouth to speak once again when Sansa suddenly breaks the silence.

“We will bury him in the crypts,” she murmurs. When he does not respond immediately, she looks to him, and he sees the tear tracks on the slope of her cheeks and the pleading in her eyes. “Please, Jon. I don’t care what anyone else says. This is his home… he belongs here.”

You don’t have to choose, he had told him not too long ago. You’re a Greyjoy and you’re a Stark.

He nods his head.

[ladydwarfbadari]

Zyta of the Stout-Axe Clan: Character Profile

History: 

Zyta was born in Barad-Dur to a dwarrowdam of the Stout Axe Clan. She has few memories of her mother, who died when she was still a small child, likely at the hands of their orc overseers, who were short-tempered on a good day. Zyta does not know who her father was and suspects he similarly must have died when she was young.

Zyta was brought up by the rest of the clan with a few other children of similar age. They were expected to work from the time they were strong enough to do so, and that is the bulk of her childhood memories - working alongside the rest of her clan and doing her best to avoid attracting the attention of the other inhabitants of Barad Dur. Vaski and Lethi were closest in age to her, and became her closest friends.

She managed to escape Barad Dur during an upheaval a few years before the War of the Ring, due to the aid and sacrifice of her friends Vaski and Lethi. She feels a deep guilt at leaving them behind that never entirely fades. Part of her hopes they might have survived, but, realistically, she does not think it likely.

The first year of her freedom was spent running in a generally westward direction, spending little time in any one place. Subconsciously, she always felt as though some orc or dark man was on her heels, ready to drag her back into Mordor the moment she let her guard down. Realistically, she also did not think it likely that Sauron would send any of his servants after something as worthless and lowly to him as one of his nameless dwarven slaves, but she never quite shook the feeling.

Despite lacking any formal education, Zyta was a quick learner with a knack for languages, and picked up Westron fairly quickly (although she never quite learned to mask her accent) while passing through Ithilien and Rohan before reaching Eriador. She learned a smattering of Sindarin vocabularly and a bit of Dunlending as well before finally reaching Ered Luin and stopping, feeling like she’d managed, at last, to put enough distance between herself and Mordor to breath freely.

Her experience in Ered Luin began with the Dourhands, but she learned quickly that they were foolish and untrustworthy, and quickly moved to Thorin’s Hall and offered her service to Lord Dwalin in a bid to earn her daily bread in peace. Dwalin himself proved fairly generous, giving her tasks on a regular basis and treating her fairly, if not precisely with great warmth. The other Longbeards of the community regarded her with varying levels of distrust and skepticism but she managed to carve out a place for herself. In her spare time between errands, she discovered a disused greenhouse just outside the main halls and began experimenting with various crops and plants, fascinated with the lives of the green and growing things of the world, which she had scarcely ever encountered in her youth in Mordor (the stunted shrubbery around Orodruin and the twisted growth of Agarnaith, where she and her compatriots were occasionally sent on errands, scarcely counted).

The Dourhands would reappear to cause her trouble again soon enough, and her days in Ered Luin came to an end as their wight-king, Skorgrim, rose from his grave and sent her down a road in precisely the direction she had never wished to travel again - East, to Mordor.

At least, she would eventually encounter other travellers upon this road, and would not have to walk it alone this time.

Personality/Orientations/Relationships:

Zyta is fundamentally introverted and generally keeps to herself. Life in Barad-Dur was a tenuous and furtive sort of existence and relationships were often broken by circumstances beyond their control. Dwarves were not as low on the pecking-order as the pale-folk or Nurnhoth, but were hardly treated with kindness. The orcs, dark Numenoreans, and other more valued servants of Sauron were happy to put them to any low task or drudgery they were disinclined to take upon themselves, and particularly were keen to use them for dangerous errands due to their general toughness and perceived dispensibility. Zyta learned at a young age to keep her mouth shut and to look after her own survival.

She, Vaski, and Lethi kept as close to one another as they could, but were often split up and sent on solo errands where they could not watch one another’s backs, but otherwise they stayed as close as possible, trying to survive as best they could.

Her relationship with other Stout-Axes was less trusting. Some were decent, and others were not. Some she could depend on to an extent and others she knew would sell her out in an instant if they thought it would curry favor with their masters. She learned to be cautious about who she trusted.

Beyond Mordor, her general reservation with others never faded. She encountered kind people and unkind people among all the races of free peoples. The coldness of elves in particular surprised her. She’d never encountered an elf in Mordor, for obvious reasons, and was thus unaware of the general prejudices between dwarves and elves in the wider world. She would soon learn that she’d have to work hard to earn the favor of many people, elves and otherwise.

Suffice it to say, Zyta is basically rather cynical. She is not cold-hearted or selfish, but it takes time for her to open up to others. It did not take her long to discover that her origin in Mordor would be met with disbelief from most, and began keeping that little bit of trivia to herself unless pressed about it. Among those who accepted her tales, she also learned that her suffering was sometimes seen as a subject of titillation and a kind of gawking curiosity that offended her deeply, given the rawness she still felt about Vaski, Lethi, and others of her kind who did not escape their bondage, and soon gave up trying to seek understanding from others.

To the world, she soon presented a kind of reserved quietness. She learned archery in Rohan, trading her labor for lessons from a few willing guardsmen there, before moving further west, and found she had a natural talent for hunting and tracking in wilderness. This skill kept her fed and clothed, at least.

Her later time with Rhygeir and his companions would challenge many of her perceptions about the world and its peoples.

In terms of romance and sexuality, Zyta is deeply private and reserved about her own body, and does not have much, if any, experience in this regard. She never had any desire for children in Mordor, feeling a deep horror at the notion of deliberately bringing another soul into a world where she could see only suffering and deprivation. Furthermore, the constant threat of separation from those around her, through death or other means, also discouraged her from pursuing any sort of relationship of that depth of intimacy. Vaski & Lethi were as close to her as brothers, Vaski especially, but their relationship never ventured into the physical beyond a kind of basic affection. Should Zyta ever grow comfortable enough to explore that side of herself with another, she might change her mind about some things.

Colors: Brown, dark greens, greys, dark blues

Song:

[teabooksandsweets]

Note to film makers

If you want to make movie or tv series of a semi-autobiographical novel, be careful how you use your own background research. It is, after all, still a novel, and theauthor has made the deliberate choice where to write fiction and where to include events and experiences and people from their own life.

I see a trend in more recent adaptations, for instance the newest adaptations of Little Women and All Creatures Great and Small, but also many others, to blend in historical facts that don’t actually fit in with the author’s own blend of fact and fiction, and thus loses its actual impact.

If you want Jo March, whose personality is based on Louisa May Alcott herself, to be Louisa, she will be an alien to the world she created, because Little Women is still a novel, and because all other characters still exist in their fictionalised form. Just because she Ms Alcott made the decision to weave in her own happy and unspeakably unhappy memories into her stories, does not mean that you can equate her with a fictional character. Just because Jo is very much like Louisa, she is still Jo, as written by Louisa.

If you want to express that Siegfried Farnon, like Donald Sinclair, was already a widower in the beginning of the story, a fact Alf Wight (James Herriot) and the writers of other adaptations left out out of discretion, then you can do it, but if you cast him as a man in his 50s (which is actually a very good thing, because he felt and appeared so much older than he was) and make him a widower of four years, for everyone to know, then the fact that he lost his wife at the age of 24, and began an entirely new life afterwards, will get lost, and with it the whole inclusion will lose its “point” beyond “look, we dug up some angsty trivia!”

You wouldn’t make Amy March marry a younger man in her late 30s, rather than Laurie. And you wouldn’t make Helen Alderson a town-bred secretary which James’ parents didn’t approve of. Because authors know what they include from their real lives, and what they make up.

Or take the 1999 Mansfield Park. If you want to adapt a novel, and find its heroine to be a bore, you might rather choose a different novel, rather than turn her into Jane Austen. Even though Jane Austen drew on some personal experiences, it does not mean that Fanny is Jane, or that Fanny is so unsuitable a protagonist that she has to be made Jane.

Because a semi-autobiographical novel (or a fictionalised memoir) is not an autobiography.

(Note, please: I do not mean that these films are bad because of this, or anything of that sort. They are just good examples of what I mean, and whether I like them or not or whether they are otherwise good or bad is in no relation to this. And the first two are also very recent, and a good example of that current trend. The third, however, shows a different way of doing this, which is also not a good idea.)

And there are many, many other examples, but I think you see my point. If an author includes things from their life, then they know why and what and how, and it is only up to them. Especially if the finished work is, after all, a work of fiction.

Learning about some more background is lovely, being really invested in such a work is a brilliant thing, but if you want to include that knowledge in an adaptation you must be really, really careful.

You might include some allusions, or some sort of little nod to this or that. Some detail that those who know will recognise and appreciate. That sort of thing is lovely. And there’s a lot of possibilities there, one can hide a good deal of easter eggs in a movie, as long as one stays subtle and respectful, without trying to re-invent the original work. A little comment here, a design choice there, and people can really enjoy it.

But crude infodumping, random blurts of this and that to cause angst or drama, pseudo-intellectual blends of fact and fiction that subvert the authors’ intention, or the inclusion of intimate details that the author (or other involved persons) never wanted to be included to begin with, do not improve your adaptation. It’s just insensitive, pretentious, and in many cases off the mark.

[hamliet]

I always hate how some people try to push real life politics in fiction that it doesnt fit or try to act like if some villain is representative of a real lfie politician they dont like or spout bs like if you are right wing and like stories with anti racism or xenophobia message you dont know what they are fighting for which is false its nothing more than an attempt to equate right/conservative to racist or xenophobia it reminds of of a phrase that conservatives see liberals as idiots 1/2

I never got the second part to this ask, but I think you’re discussing two different things. When I say not to equate I’m discussing specifically, say, equating Dany’s actions in King’s Landing to Hiroshima, calling everything abuse when it’s contextually not, etc. (Sigh, antis.) A trigger isn’t equivalent to portraying the memory triggered, either.

I’ve personally yet to see a flavor of conservatism that isn’t racist and xenophobic, sexist and restrictive for LGBT+ groups too, and I say this as someone who grew up in a highly highly conservative cult and who has seen conservative radicals come to power in now multiple countries while I lived in them. When Dr*mpf won in 2016 it was deja vu for me, because M*di in India isn’t any better (he’s kinda worse with a genocide already under his belt). I am not saying every conservative harbors personal hatred towards people of other races/origins, women, LGBT+ folks. What I am saying that supporting a movement that does restrict their rights, that doesn’t listen to them, is… well, apathetic at best, and if it feels like racism/sexism/homophobia, then what would you call it? I think people think of racists, for example, as like skinheads setting out to destroy. That’s not all it is. It’s not always malicious in intent, but in consequences it is. Racism isn’t always about intent.

While I certainly believe that the far left has major issues too (oh, trust me, I think cancel culture is no different in functionality from purity culture, and ideals don’t always translate well practically speaking, plus communism in practice has seldom led to anything but death and censorship), they at least have a heart. The far right seems to be motivated by an attitude of, quite honestly, “f*ck you, got mine” and an unwillingness to see society progress when it’s been progressing for thousands of years. When it comes to me and myself or the people society doesn’t value, I want choose the people society doesn’t value. That’s my ideal. That’s what I believe is right. In practice, yes, things get complicated and hard, but that doesn’t make it less right.

I am a bleeding heart liberal and fairly socialist. I don’t care if people think I’m an idiot (I know I’m not). I love many conservatives as people (like almost my entire family is extremely conservative fundamentalist), but I also am disgusted by their support for people who pass policies that directly harm people like me and people I love, and it’s not often a “keep the peace” situation. I’m a fairly opinionated person and I don’t want to coddle those society already protects when they’re discussing making uncomfortable the ones society already makes uncomfortable.

I’m not going to try to argue with you or convince you. All the conservative arguments I had washed into my brain in middle school, and I know them front and back, parroted many of them in high school. They didn’t hold up when I met people from other walks of life.

I think every single human being deserves the best chance at life. As might surprise people to know since I’m also talking about being very liberal, I’m also quite religious, and it’s in large part thanks to my religious beliefs (prioritizing the people society scorns is like a very Jesus Thing) that I support policies that give everyone healthcare, food, the ability to move around as they please, hold people accountable for racism and sexism and homophobia, etc. It’s also thanks to just this amazing thing called being human, and experiencing humanity in various cultures and stories. Humans are capable of a lot of evil, but also so much good and so much beauty, and I want to see everyone get a chance. I’ve never met a human I thought didn’t deserve every opportunity.

Fiction isn’t removed from politics. Fiction isn’t reality, but it isn’t separated from reality either. Politics do influecne fiction. George Lucas’s Star Wars was very much influenced by the Vietnam War and other politics of the 70s. To Kill a Mockingbird addressed a real social issue. It’s a thing. ASOIAF literally has the zombies named the “wights” and they aim to kill and erase all culture. Not saying there are no problematic elements in these, but politics do influence fiction. It’s not wrong to see a political reality reflected in fiction; many times it’s intentional.

[fullcfterrors]

SEASON EIGHT, EPISODE SIX  ––  CANON DIVERGENCE.

** this blog will not be following any of the events post episode five, unless plotted otherwise. for the general arch of daenerys in my portrayal however, her storyline was incredibly different. this does not mean to say that i would be opposed to following any storylines where jon attempts to murder her, or where she does go mad queen but i will not be explicitly portraying that theme throughout my writing in general plots and threads. this is my canon divergence, the original post which is mostly a rant written after watching the series can be found HERE but for the sake of my new blog, i thought i would type it more clearly !!! this is likely to be an incredibly long post as i have it in my head that daenerys deserved far better so thank you for sticking through and reading this. its hugely important to me. ** in my head, i truly believe that daenerys was not mad. they did not write her to be mad and her storyline was NEVER her turning mad queen. she was simply doing what she thought was right and best for the people of westeros in a way where she got her justice and unfortunately, she did lose her way and became wrapped up in what she believed her ideal world to be. we completely saw in her final scene with kit beside the throne that she was so human and not insane. she was genuinely a human being, asking him to create a better world with her and ... my girl. i would also like to put it out there that i am very happy with the ending. i know there were a few loose ends that could have been tied with more time but i think everybody is where they are mean to be. and there was no better person to rule the six kingdoms than bran stark. jon’s ending was also beautiful but i won’t clog this post !!! give that like button a  ♡  if you do read this  ––  just so i know for future plotting !!!

◈     obviously, daenerys doesn’t die and although it is an incredibly hard decision to make, she asks jon to be with her and to rule with her whilst stood in an intact throne room which is not burnt to ashes. this would happen in the scene where he comes to kill her, only that does not happen. how this unfolds is dependent on the writer who portrays jon if it is being explored in a thread but otherwise, i would imagine it going smoothly.

◈     tyrion urges that she invites the great lords and ladies of westeros to the dragon pit so that they do not feel uncomfortable or on edge with seeing her on the iron throne. the idea of bringing them to a place where her dragons were once held as prisoners is a metaphor for the freedom that she wants to instil upon the seven kingdoms. now that the war has been won, they discuss the nights watch and other worldly issues –– including northern independence, because of jon. 

◈     the main reason that she grants the north their independence is because she knows how much eddard stark meant to him and how the north has been a staple of his childhood and his narrative and she also respects that. she respects everything that he has lost much like her and i think it is important to note that daenerys respects and understands where sansa is coming from. she wanted to take her rightful throne and in the process of obtaining her families kingdom, she wants to give the stark’s what is rightfully theirs too. 

◈     in episode four, she urges jon not to tell his siblings about his parentage. in this divergence, daenerys would still be incredibly concerned about him telling people, not because she believes he would ever dethrone her but more so, because she loves him and is worried that it will ruin things between them. there is something within her that worries for the throne too, which is okay. daenerys is allowed to have that burning dream in the back of her mind because it is all she has ever known. she does not want his family or men to judge him for being in a relationship with his aunt as she had always expected to be married to viserys anyway. 

◈     “because of everything she has been through, because of everything they have done to her.” this is something that she says to jon. daenerys does not feel threatened or anger towards sansa. instead, she actually feels disheartened. she acknowledges that sansa is not being stubborn for no reason, she absolutely understands that sansa has a vision ( similar to her own ) where she wants to best for her people. eventually, i would like a friendship and alliance formed there because daenerys is not here to be sansa’s enemy. she loves her brother and wants peace for all of the seven kingdoms, whether the north is hers or not. they share hardships and more importantly, how they have both blossomed into two leading women of the world. on this blog, we support strong ass, female characters who deserved better. 

◈     daenerys’ small council will have been heavily planned with tyrion by her side. in my canon, i very much imagine jorah and and missandei as having lost their lives but dependent on the thread and plot –– if it aids the other person that i am writing with, we can have them alive. in threads with people who write these characters, just know that daenerys loves you both very much. sharna just likes to live in a world of angst, hurt and upset. if these characters are still alive, it is important to note that jorah would be lord commander of the queens guard and whilst there would be no offical title for missandei, she would always remain her closest advisor and friend. more details about the small council can be found below. 

◈     as the queen of the six kingdoms, daenerys would absolutely appoint master of war to jon snow. in her eyes, there is not a single person more deserving of the role given every battle he has faced. she would not expect him to take it because canonically, targaryen or not, she would like to marry him. if they were to keep his parentage a secret, then it would also serve as an alliance between the northern kingdom and the rest of westeros. 

◈     bronn would remain her master of coin at tyrion’s suggestion, though at first daenerys would be sceptical due to him being part of the sack on highgarden. she does not feel comfortable with the idea that bronn was a part of the sack, murdering her allies and then claiming the castle for himself. but in this ‘new world’ she is trying to build of forgiveness and second chances, it only seems right that bronn is given the opportunity to prove himself worthy. in any verses with margaery writers where she is still alive, she is very clearly the heir to highgarden.

◈     lord commander of the queens guard is greyworm. he was the unsullied who stepped forward to lead the rest, ensuring her that it would be a pleasure to serve her for the rest of his time. one quote that stands out to me is where he tells daenerys he would like to keep his derogatory name because it gives him honour, in being the name he had when daenerys freed him. i believe that appointing him as the queens guard, somebody who is sworn to protect the realm, it is justice for missandei too. 

◈     davos the onion knight, the pirate is the master of ships. i would like to think that daenerys had formed a bond with him, due to him being the one to bring jon to dragonstone. she admired his humour for what it was and more than anything, she admired his bravery as she knew that he had never fought in many fights. i would like to think that they shared memories of dragonstone and seeing as she does not know the castle very well, he would have offered to give her the grand tour of her own home ... telling her stories that shireen had taught him about the night she was born and her families history here. master of ships would also be a way to commemorate his son, in his death through the battle for blackwater bay. 

◈     master of whispers. in this divergence, varys did not die or betray her because she ‘went off the rails’. varys may have lost faith in her but daenerys’ kind nature and desire to give second chances was what gave him the opportunity to see something else in her –– a fire. he could see that daenerys knows what she needs to do in order to make this world far better than she found it and he believes in her to do so. master of whispers was always something that he was good at doing and seemed to enjoy doing. and seeing as he brought tyrion to her ( or attempted to ), it makes sense for him to stick by her side and be part of her small council as the queen. 

◈     master of law is something that i have not yet thought of and whilst tyrion would likely be perfect for the role, he is her hand. i am going to leave this one open as a plotting device to other people so if anybody would like to do a thread surrounding that role, then be my guest. this is also open to OC characters –– including females as we need some more woman on this bloody small council. lyanna mormont would have been perfect for the role had she not died an epic death fighting a giant wight. imagine her rolling up to the small council meetings and putting everybody in their place, sigh. it’s canon now. 

[thelawyerthatwaspromised]

Tinfoil - Jon's Two Huge Lies

This is tinfoil and it’s not really something I can prove but I have a little bit of a wild theory that pushes political!Jon farther but, I think, makes a lot of stuff make sense.

Quick summary: I don’t think Jon went to Dragonstone with a plan to manipulate Daenerys. I don’t think he and Sansa worked out anything nefarious. I do think Jon believes that it’s a dangerous decision but something he must do. In his eyes, the only way to save the realm is getting Dany and her dragons up North.

The first encounter was terrible for Jon. 

Davos additionally looks unhappy. He gives his own “c’mon...we’re here at YOUR invitation...stop treating us like this” but still, it goes awful.

Imagine Jon makes it to this point and learns that not only is Dany here to conquer, she’s also volatile.

He warns her against using her dragons. I’m sure antis still like to argue this point - but Jon doesn’t tell her anything affirmative when she DEMANDS his advice, he tells her not to use her huge weapons on people. He wants them to breathe fire on wights - not on the living. Argue that if you want but...

He’s not pleased with her and her look confirms this. 

So...why did I bother quickly re-capping up to this point? Because this is the scene where I believe Jon realized that he’s going to have to bend the knee but that he’s really uninterested in following through with helping Dany take King’s Landing.

Boy, not only am I saying that Jon is manipulating Dany’s personal feelings, but now I’m taking it a step farther and saying he’s actively lying to her about his political intentions? That’s a bridge too far. This is Jon Snow we’re talking about...the man incapable of lying.

“I don’t have a king...”

Let’s  get over it. Jon Snow lies. Maybe you think he’s not lying here, but his impeccable truth-telling record does not exist.

Anyway, why do I think Jon Snow is lying to Daenerys?

Fairly simple premise: Jon Snow wants Dany’s help in the North and he doesn’t want to fight another war in King’s Landing. But he can’t do both. If he refuses to pledge his people to fight for Dany - she won’t help defeat the NK, dooming everyone to extinction. 

If you were in a position like that, what might you do? If it were me, I’d maybe check to see if I could get the more immediate issue resolved and leave the second half of the equation for later. 

So Jon bent the knee.

But it’s not quite as simple as that. Jon’s timing had to be right (if he pledged to her immediately, she’d immediately call his banners and demand he march south to finish Cersei quickly). Each time Jon tried to reason with Dany about marching North and forgetting her campaign against Cersei, Dany was reluctant about it. Jon realized that he could not make her forget about Cersei.

He was there to get Dany as an ally. He was ready to leave when he received word that Bran and Arya had returned to Winterfell. Again, he was ready to leave. He had given up on the idea that he could convince Dany to help. Then Tyrion came up with the wight hunt. It was stupid writing, but this was the mechanic that gave Jon reason to believe he could truly get Dany’s attention focused towards the Wall and not on the Iron Throne.

Jon decides to go on the wight hunt. 

The premise of the wight hunt is that it’s an avenue to get a truce with Cersei. Something Jon has never expressed any interest in before this point. Has Jon changed his mind on the conflict? I’m not sure...the last time he talked about anything that had to do with the Dany v. Cersei throw down, Dany had just won a major victory and she surmised that Jon didn’t know how he felt about that to which Jon said...

This doesn’t appear to be someone who is enthusiastic about the prospect of fighting a war for Dany.

But did Jon say anything on the wight hunt that indicates he’s super pumped about serving a new Queen?

At this very point, Jon still has no interest in bending the knee, he reiterates that he serves the North, and he tell Tormund that it’s both Dany AND Cersei that he needs to convince to help them. 

Circle that with a red marker. Right on your computer monitor. It’ll be fine.

The wight hunt goes about as well as expected. People needlessly die. The NK gets a dragon. Poor Thoros dies a pretty unmemorable death. Benjen dies getting Jon back to the Wall. Over what? 

A truce with Cersei.

A truce with Cersei that is already going to be betrayed before it ever happens. 

A truce with Cersei that is already going to be betrayed before it ever happens in a war that Jon doesn’t care about.

Step into Jon’s shoes for a moment. You’ve told people how many times that you don’t consider the war important in the south. You think Dany ought to go North without a truce with Cersei. Why would Jon agree to go on the wight hunt if he just thinks Dany could go North without a truce?

Because it’s about getting Dany to go North - and Jon is convinced that he can’t get Dany to go North unless he can get her to shake her focus off of Cersei. 

“Fine, I’ll do this if that’s what it takes to get you to forget about Cersei for a few seconds” I imagine Jon thinking to himself.

Again, it’s important to remember that the wight hunt wasn’t about actually fighting the Night King but about getting only a truce for a whole separate political conflict that Jon otherwise has no intention of involving himself.

Not only that, but the truce wasn’t even about “uniting” the realm. They never asked Cersei to come along. They never asked her to band together with them to fight a common enemy. They asked her to hit the pause button so Dany didn’t lose territory in the south. 

If you disagree with this, find me a quote ANYWHERE that indicates that Jon or Dany believe that Cersei will attack them from the rear at any point if they don’t get the truce. I’ll wait.

Ok, I’m done waiting.

Jon is injured horribly. He’s unconscious on the boat. He’s lost his uncle Benjen. He’s been plunged into freezing water. And Dany is looming over him.

Jon should be comforted in this moment. He almost died. He lost his uncle, whom he loved dearly. They got the damn wight. Instead, Jon is apologizing and babysitting Dany’s feelings. There’s no reciprocation of comfort and sympathy. 

But that’s beside the point of this post. The important part of this scene for Jon is the recognition of Dany’s emotional state. She’s vulnerable. She’s lost her third favorite dragon, after all. 

In her anger and with tears in her eyes, she finally says what Jon has wanted to hear, “we’ll destroy Night King and his army...and we’ll do it together.” 

Wa-bam! That’s the timing. That’s the moment. Because he’s still convinced that....

“But she jurrrrrrrst prerrrrmised him she’d fight with himmmmmmm....this proofs that John haz got know raison to think Dany won’t keep her porpoises!” ~ some anti just thought this

Jon immediately seizes this moment to bend the knee.  

My theory is that Jon picked this moment for this exact set of reasons: 1) He believes he needs her dragons and army to have a chance to beat the NK 2) he believes she won’t actually fight with him unless he bends the knee 3) he needed her to commit to the fight first because his mission is still his number one priority and the most tinfoil-y part; 4) this order of events gives Jon the best chance to use Dany’s resources and avoid sacrificing northerners in a southern war.

Why am I fairly sure of this tinfoil? A number of reasons. The knee bending scene on the boat falls into place when put into this context. Most specifically - THIS portion of the scene makes the most sense if we’re operating under the assumption that Jon is essentially lying his ass off about being willing to fight with Dany in the south:

The more I’ve thought it, the less likely I would believe that Jon is agonizing as much as he is at the end of the scene for something like “I feel bad for manipulating this woman” - I fully believe he’s agonizing over first feeling like he may have betrayed Ned’s memory (I’ll get to this in a bit) and that he’s lying his ass off. To be clear, I fully acknowledge this makes Jon’s actions in S7 even more extreme than “Jon manipulates Dany’s feelings to get her to go North” and puts it into “Jon manipulates her feelings AND lies about a pretty huge material fact.”

As things move on, I think it falls even more into place. If you were Jon and you had zero clue why Dany is so tunnel-visiony about the Iron Throne and being in King’s Landing, you might imagine him saying something like:

Like, ok, small town boy Jon has never seen a big city! How dim and inexperienced! Maybe Jon earnestly just thought this to himself - or maybe he still has absolutely no idea why Dany wants this so badly. Something prompted this thought. Jon expressing mild dismay that he has to even step foot in King’s Landing for this would seem pretty well connected to the idea that he just went on a ridiculously stupid mission just so they could go to this city- and get the truce for the war he doesn’t care about.

Then Jon is faced with the Cersei question - after things seem to have been going well.

Poor Jon really doesn’t wanna lie. 

So he doesn’t...sort of.

(antis getting angry because they think Jon telling the truth to Cersei is proof that he’s not lying so this is all stupid)

But hold on a second. 

I’ve already argued that Jon doesn’t care about the war in the south.

He doesn’t care about whether Dany or Cersei sit on the Iron Throne.

He certainly has shown he’s willing to do anything to try to save the North....

....except....supposedly...lying to Cersei? That’s where we think Jon Snow draws the line? He’ll risk his life for a truce only to torpedo that same truce at the first opportunity? Really?

I’ve already written about how Jon’s POV is obscured in S7 and the method to cover that up was to have other characters saying they know exactly what Jon Snow is thinking.

As you can see, this decision by Jon was revealed as a complete surprise to everyone at the Dragonpit which means that the decision was meant to confuse the audience. Varys, Davos, Tyrion, even Missandei are completely shocked about this turn of events. All Jon had to do was say “ok, on my honor as the honorable son of the honorably honorable Ned Stark, I pledge to be honorable and stay honorable by sitting out the war when we beat the NK.”

That’s it. That’s all.

Was Jon just stupid for not doing so? NO. Listen, if Jon was just stupid - there’s no reason to root for him and the entire message of the show about the good guy being wise enough to avoid being killed by the bad guy is utterly meaningless. Jon will not deserve to rule anything if he just flat couldn’t lie to Cersei.

What’s the alternative? Oddly enough - that he DID lie to Cersei.

Because if Jon tells the truth, that he wants to stay in the North, he gives Dany total reason to doubt his intentions. This entire trip, Jon has been the Northern fool. He’s been Ned Stark’s honorably honorable son. It’s been a well-crafted image. 

And yet - in that moment in the Dragonpit Jon had to lie - because he ALREADY LIED and the only way to truly make sure that his first lie didn’t get out was by lying a second time. So what was the first lie?

And again you remember how happy Jon was to assert his love for Dany and give her the Stark ancestral home that he doesn’t even feel comfortable enough to take the Lord’s chambers?

Remember how Jon looked when he told Dany the first time he pledged to her? It ends with him staring up at the ceiling clearly feeling uncomfortable.

How does he look the second time?

Jon doesn’t intend on following Dany. He didn’t tell anyone he had “pledged” to her because he didn’t want to be put in the position of affirming that stance. But Cersei went ahead and cornered him. If Jon went back on what he told her in her moment of vulnerability, Jon very easily could lose her confidence. 

Just to remind the class, what does Jon think he needs for Dany to fight with him?

This might get repetitive with the gifs but it’s to show how this entire theory of Jon’s character is layered at multiple times with a unifying theme that explains entirely how Jon behaved in S7.

What little extra bit of tinfoil do I have as well?

Jon suggests that “I did this, I should go talk to Cersei.”

Oh that noble fool. What a foolish fool. This dumb fool, who CAN’T be smart.

Look, even Tyrion gives him quizzical looks. Because Jon Snow is just so dumb.

I think Jon fully intended to talk to Cersei and tell her that his pledge to Dany is a ruse. Yes, I think that’s what happened. I don’t think it’s a plot point that can be proven or disproven - but everything about what I’ve said above led me to this.

Jon just refused to say that he wouldn’t fight and try to kill Cersei after the war in the North - and I’m also supposed to believe that he then really thought he could go reason with her? No, no. I think there’s a much more plausible explanation.

Jon really really wanted to tell Cersei the truth.

That his pledge to Dany meant nothing. That he desperately needs her to beat the Night King. That all of this is foolish and petty and a waste of time. 

Why would he tell Cersei the truth? Because it’s COMPLETELY in both of their interest for Dany to come North and for Cersei to agree to a truce. I am totally confident that this scenario could have convinced Cersei. 

Let me go over it. Assume I’m right. Assume Jon wants to bring Dany North and he also has no intention of honoring his pledge. You can see how this could work out splendidly.

Jon gets what he wants in Dany coming North and an understanding with Cersei that he will not follow through with his pledge. This would totally appeal to Cersei and be a huge incentive for her to cooperate. We know Cersei was fine with the truce. She wanted it, actually.  She said so before the summit. A pause button was fine. She tried to get extra benefits by getting Jon to also promise he’d stay out of the conflict. But to be clear - Jon’s lie/non-lie meant nothing because Cersei wanted the truce and she also intends on breaking the truce. 

But in this scenario - she’s getting exactly what she wants and Jon gets exactly what he wants. If Cersei spills the beans, Dany is re-focused on killing her Westerosi enemies, Dany won’t allow Cersei the breathing room she wanted, and she risks a quick resolution by the burning of the city. 

So Cersei would almost definitely keep quiet....and why might Jon ever try to talk Cersei into a truce if he doesn’t care about the war, wanted Dany to come North, and generally hates Cersei and the Lannisters? 

Because: (back to my earlier conclusion) Jon realized he absolutely cannot get Dany to come North if she’s still at “war” with Cersei. She won’t make that sacrifice. He needs Dany North. The ONLY way to get that to happen is by getting a truce with Cersei - but in the moment when Cersei cornered him, she unknowingly forced him into a decision that put the truce at risk. In this situation, it absolutely makes sense that Jon would lie during the summit then want to go talk to Cersei and tell her the truth.

Because Jon just lied. And it almost killed any chance of getting Dany up North.

The thing Jon says next is so fascinating under this scope:

“But when enough people make false promises, words stop meaning anything. Then there are no more answers, only better and better lies. And lies won’t help us in this fight.”

“And lies won’t help us in this fight.”

Look - maybe Jon’s life motto has always been “tell the truth...always” but this is on the heels of Jon TRYING to tell the truth to Dany over and over and over again over the course of the season and being refuse each time.

Maybe Jon Snow lied on that boat. Really for the first time with Dany, he lied. And he felt shitty about it. And then because of that ONE LIE - he was forced to lie again in public to support his first lie. 

“Only better and better lies.”

Do you see how this could totally fit the dialogue? He’s speaking from experience! But he can’t just say “I did lie! Ok! I don’t give a shit about going ever again after this!”

Jon already lied once and it put him in a position to have to lie again and the second lie DIDN’T HELP HIM GET DANY NORTH. It was a completely unintended consequence for Jon. And his deep shame for lying the first time was only magnified when he was forced to lie again and torpedo the summit.

And he’s suffering for it. He hates this. He needed to be smarter than Robb and Ned, so he was. And now he’s wrapped up in this game. And he hates the game.

This completely echoes Stannis’ moral dilemma in his pursuit of the crown.

Do you ever wonder why Jon looks so freaking depressed especially in these last couple episodes? Because he hates this....but it’s what must be done.  

This boy is dying to speak his mind but he can’t. He just can’t. Everything he’s done since arriving at Dragonstone is building to getting Dany to come North.

He’s done EVERYTHING he can.

And it his shame is that he failed to get Dany to forget about Cersei - in large part because he LIED HIS WAY INTO THAT HAPPENING.

What does this do to the way you watch the Theon scene? DAAAAMMMMNNNN.

“You risked everything to tell an enemy the truth.”

Wow. He risked everything to tell an enemy a LIE.

Jon pauses for a beat to consider his words. Like there’s something he wants to say. That he’s wanted to say for quite awhile...yet he can’t.

“We went down there to make peace.” - then why did you torpedo that truce? Was peace with Cersei the reason you told her that you were NOT going to make peace with her after the war?

“...and it seems to me, we need to be honest with each other if we’re going to fight beside each other.”

Jon’s bent the knee. He’s supposedly fallen in love with Dany. He’s secured the truce. Why does he think everything is so tenuous? His “truth” would have just put that all at risk. Everyone on team!Dany wanted Jon to lie because he ruined their chance at peace. He should be proud that it worked out anyway.

Flip his damn lines. He’s living a lie. A lie he hates.

“...always the right step.”

“It’s not. It may seem that way from the outside but...I promise you, it’s not true.”

I mean....damn. Jon’s mini confession. He is not always taking the right step. He lied to Dany. He lied again when cornered to support the first lie. It almost ruined everything. He got himself murdered by his own brothers. He went south to Dragonstone and now he’s suffering the consequences.

Someone hug Jon Snow.

Now to add one last layer. It was shown that Sansa was playing Littlefinger in this scene. She was also already confronted with the plot of a forced-scroll pledging support for a false monarch.

She JUST HAD THIS SITUATION BEFORE. She did what she had to do to survive. Arya even SAYS:

Which Sansa knows doesn’t mean she wrote the scroll believing Joffrey to be King and Robb to be a traitor. We as an audience know this. And yet Sansa is supposedly upset that Jon bent the knee like this. 

While never saying anything negative to Littlefinger about Jon after Jon had left, suddenly Sansa is so angry. 

“He’s bent the knee.” 

“He’s never listened to me.”

“This is what he always does.”

What if. Sansa knows. At least somewhat.

Sansa sees this for what it is. Jon’s been forced to write to her supporting Dany. It even says Cersei is coming along. Big red flag for Sansa. She also knows what LF wants. She knows that he wants her to feel vulnerable and isolated. She knows he’s tried to wedge her and Jon already. So imagine she uses that.

Littlefinger takes the bait. “Great! She feels betrayed by Jon. She’s scared of Arya. I will push her to seize the crown and to kill Arya.”

THEN SANSA DECIDES THIS IS THE MOMENT TO KILL LITTLEFINGER.

He showed his true cards. His last mistake was falling for Sansa’s play that she was feeling betrayed by Jon because of his scroll when she JUST HAD THE SAME SITUATION HERSELF.

My tinfoil conclusion:

Honorably honorable Jon Snow lied to Dany on the boat. Then he had to lie again at the Dragonpit - he already hated lying but then the second lie almost ruined everything he worked towards. He wanted to talk to Cersei personally. To tell her the truth: that he never wanted to bend the knee and that she needs to agree to the truce and he’ll give her what she wanted in return: staying neutral. He couldn’t do it any other way because he needed Dany to believe that he’d bent the knee and would fight for her. Sansa recognized at the very least that Jon was under pressure. He wrote the weirdest scroll ever. She also recognized that Littlefinger would be more of a threat than ever. Either he would convince the northern lords to uncrown Jon, or he would find out that Jon’s loyalty to Dany is a facade and would scheme against Jon through Dany. Sansa allowed LF to be comfortable in thinking she was upset with Jon. He floated the idea of usurping Jon’s crown and having Arya killed. That’s all she needed to decide that the time had come for Littlefinger to face justice.

I don’t believe it either, Littlefinger.

You have no idea how right you might be.

“A cloth dragon swayed on poles amidst a cheering crowd. From a smoking tower, a great stone beast took wing, breathing shadow fire. . . . mother of dragons, slayer of lies . . .” ~Dany IV, ACOK