#well neither did Bran

[daenerysstormreborn]

I’ve seen a post recently that dismisses Lyanna’s age as GRRM being bad with picking the ages of women, basically saying nooooo it’s fine she was 15/16 and Rhaegar was in his early 20s it’s just George not thinking it through enough but I really disagree. George wrote “It was her fourteenth nameday” on purpose he knew what he was doing with that I think we are supposed to be critical of Rhaegar and Lyanna. Rhaegar is boring if you’re not critical of him. Most characters are boring if you’re not critical of them. I could theoretically come up with arguments defending many the actions of my favs as perfectly just but that is so boring. Like. Yes the protagonists are Always In The Right don’t you get bored of that? Isn’t that tiring? Isn’t it better to have a protagonist who makes mistakes? Some of you are like “we do acknowledge xyz character’s faults we do!! we only get mad about the unfair criticisms!!” and then I never see any discussion of said faults. I get that people can have a knee jerk reaction because some criticism of certain characters I see IS unfair and sexist so it’s hard not to develop a knee jerk response to it but I prommy it’s more interesting to say “well what if this wasn’t a writing oversight and the character was actually in the wrong?” Because we are all in the wrong sometimes and acting like a character has never done anything wrong makes them unrelatable and boring.

Except for Samwell Tarly I think he actually never did anything wrong.

[ladystoneboobs]

[Cat, to Brienne:]"And Arya, well . . . Ned's visitors would oft mistake her for a stableboy if they rode into the yard unannounced. [...]" -Catelyn VII, aCoK

ok, this is another thing that makes me feel like i'm taking crazy pills bc i never see it talked about with all the implications behind it. so if anyone is more versed in androgynous medievalish clothing, feel free to correct me here, but my thinking is if unannounced visitors mistook arya for a stableboy, would that not mean she was wearing boyish riding garb, trousers and all? bc if she was running around with messy hair and a dirty gown, wouldn't she more likely be seen as a female servant? if my reading is not wildly offbase that does not jibe with the idea of arya being terrorized all day by both septa mordane and her mother to be more ladylike. rather, this limited freedom to be mistaken for a servant could suggest that pragmatic catelyn was picking her battles with arya too, not forcing her to always appear prim and proper on days when they were not expecting any guests to see her. catelyn "despaired of ever making a lady of" arya, though neither she nor ned could abandon the goal, which could mean a more measured approach, not exhausting herself by going after arya for every unladylike move she made, especially when she was still a prepubescent child. the quote above starts a paragraph which ends with catelyn feeling "as though a giant hand were squeezing her chest" after saying she thought arya was dead like bran and rickon, after no word of her since ned's arrest. in that context of grief, i think all her words about arya should be read as coming with bittersweet fondness, just being honest about their problems, not sugarcoating any of it.

but let's compare catelyn's trials with arya, including her often running around looking like a stableboy, to arya's interactions with lady smallwood, somehow seen as an even better mother-figure than her own mother, whom arya found easier to comply with bc of her kinder manner. first of all, lady smallwood's efforts to make arya ladylike included two baths and two dresses in one day after arya and gendry ruined the first dress, before finally giving her boy's riding clothes to leave in. i would argue a full second bath was unneeded when they could have just washed the dirt off her face and hands, and, furthermore, that both the dresses were an impractical waste when she knew arya would be riding back out with the outlaws and could not look a highborn lady when doing so. idt pragmatic catelyn would have gone to all that trouble just to make arya look ladylike for a few hours when there were no other ladies around. as for the claim that arya found it easier to comply with her? no, that's just flat-out demonstrably false. the text says she was "forced" into a tub and "they insisted" she wear girl's clothes. what room did she have to refuse as a hostage in a stranger's castle? she certainly felt no compunction about fighting gendry in the acorn dress she'd been forced into, and only felt bad about it afterward when lady smallwood talked about her dead son.

now, let's move on to the only canon quotes we have from cat to/about arya in arya's pov.

"Sansa's work is as pretty as she is," Septa Mordane told their lady mother once. "She has such fine, delicate hands." When Lady Catelyn had asked about Arya, the septa had sniffed. "Arya has the hands of a blacksmith." -Arya I, aGoT Her father had hunted boar in the wolfswood with Robb and Jon. Once he even took Bran, but never Arya, even though she was older. Septa Mordane said boar hunting was not for ladies, and Mother only promised that when she was older she might have her own hawk. -Arya V, aCoK Her mother used to say she could be pretty if she would just wash and brush her hair and take more care with her dress, the way her sister did. -The Blind Girl(/Arya I), aDwD

in the first quote we don't know catelyn's reaction to septa mordane's rude disapproval of arya, certainly not if she agreed with it. what we do know is she was not interested in only hearing endless praise of sansa and wanted to hear if arya had made any progress. although admittedly that was a vain hope, which ignored arya's true strengths and the possibility that she could never master and enjoy needlework the way catelyn did.

the second quote better shows the difference between arya's mother and her septa. catelyn does not criticize arya for wanting to hunt boar nor dismiss her interest. instead she tries to mollify arya and accomodate her desire with the promise of a future hunting hawk. that this was a promise, not just an idle thought, suggests this would have happened in due time and could have been a bonding activity for them if the plot hadn't intervened.

the third quote is definitely a backhanded compliment and doubly unhelpful in comparison to sansa, but at least it shows catelyn did not think one of her own daughters was ugly. she thought both were pretty even tho sansa was the more admired as traditionally beautiful, and she thought arya's looks were held back by her messy hair and clothes. (useful to remember for those fans who like to keep track of how many characters called arya pretty vs. how many call her ugly.)

yes, it is a bad sign that arya genuinely wondered if her mother would want her back, dirtier than ever in her disguise as a peasant boy. their relationship definitely had faults which the adult parent must bear responsibility for. but we must remember that arya also worried if robb would pay a ransom for her, and was most ashamed about the people she'd killed, and couldn't bear the thought of ned knowing all she'd done. and we must keep in mind that even ned never openly gainsaid septa mordane on-page either, and that arya desperately wanted to renunite with her mother and felt confident gendry could stay with her if she vouched for him with her mother. that confidence would seem completely unwarranted if their mother/daughter relationship was as utterly bad as some fans make out.

[melrosing]

Do you think Jaime sincerely regrets what he does to Bran despite only thinking of it once?

ya of course. I think something that maybe needs to be said more often (particularly regarding Jaime’s POV but also broadly applies to others) is that you are not always going to see a character doing the workings that lead them from point A to point B. you have to fill in some of the gaps yourself and surmise the changes in thinking that have taken place offscreen.

The Jaime and Bran thing is a good example of this. we can gather from the scene in which the push takes place that this isn’t something Jaime wanted to do, but felt compelled to: he helps Bran up when he initially falls, and when he asks Bran his age etc a reader can gather when rereading the scene that this is Jaime trying to make time as he deliberates what he’s going to do next. then ‘the things I do for love’ is said with ‘loathing’. already we have plenty to determine that Jaime was not happy w this line of action, but felt he needed to take it.

then we get the AGOT-early ASOS scenes where Jaime comes across as a cut and dry villain and does nothing to help himself, half-jesting to Bran’s own mother about what he did and demonstrating no remorse whatsoever. shocking on first read but a rereader should be able to go back based on what they learn of Jaime later on and realise that he talks differently to what he feels, and maintains this darkly careless front specifically to avoid digging up his true feelings on difficult subjects. this is made apparent over and over again.

then there’s a big gap where Bran is neither mentioned nor thought about by Jaime, when suddenly right towards the end of the book he declares himself ashamed of what he did. so now the reader realises that Jaime has been thinking about what he did, even whilst we haven’t read those thoughts. and then looking at how the act was performed in the first place, we can realise he’s always been ashamed of what he did, has just been telling himself and others differently for his own complex reasons.

I think there are a lot of people who can’t accept that character work sometimes takes place off the page as well as on it, and a character won’t always declare every step they take in a new direction, but sometimes a certain line here or there will tell you that that work has been taking place. if executed well, this is just good writing: it’s boring having the writer spell everything out for you, good books should feel like you’re working with the writer to build the full story.

a lot of people do want it spelt out though lol, you see that a lot with discussions re Jaime, because I’d say he’s maybe the most ‘show don’t tell’ character in the series. and like I always say this isn’t fuckin Paradise Lost or whatever you do not need a degree to crack it but idk like. reading is a skill?? spend any amount of time in asoiaf fandom and truly u will realise that some people just. well they haven’t honed that skill yet lol

[siravalondulac]

my favourite headcanon that i've come up for my fic with that i will now integrate into my general belief system about asoiaf is that jon knows how to dance.

so basically, when the stark kids were younger, catelyn wanted sansa and arya to take dance lessons, but arya only would do it if jon joined as well. he didn't want to, and neither did catelyn, but it was the only way for arya to take the lessons. robb made fun of jon when he first learned of that, but catelyn instantly made him join as well, thinking as a future lord he would benefit. bran didn't want to be left out and joined as well. theon thought himself above that and mocked all of them, but somehow ended up joining as well (no one truly knows how that happened).

[forgottenbrigit]

Malconaire Imbolc Traditions

It is said that Phaedra, the goddess of spring, is often granted this one day by Xerxes, the god of winter, to allow the everyone to gather enough firewood to last them the rest of the winter. If the weather on Imbolc is fair, then the mornings are spent harvesting firewood in preparation for the rest of the winter to come. If, however, the weather is fowl, it is taken as a sign that winter is to come to an end soon, and instead everyone spends their mornings around the fire with warm drinks in hand celebrating that warmer days are ahead.

The evergreen trees are often decorated for Imbolc and the great tree that grows through Malconaire has always been decorated by the children of the current Lord the night before

It has always been a tradition for the four girls to stay up late into the night placing garlands and ornaments upon its branches.

In the afternoon, the unmarried girls partake in a parade where they all wear white with their hair unbound as a symbol of purity and youth

They go from house to house in the village and receive food that shall be offered to the guardians that evening

It is said that Imbolc is the coldest night of the year and that it is the one night that the god Xerxes is allowed a warm haven from the cold winter nights

It is said that, if he is not invited in, that he shall cover the land in a great blizzard and his wrath shall know no mercy until the first day of spring comes

In each house, a bed is made up for Xerxes

A family member is then chosen to represent Xerxes (at Malconaire it is often Brigit given that this was her nameday)

Wearing a crown of ivy and snowdrops, they circle the house three times before knocking thrice upon the door and asking to be let in. On the third time, they are welcomed.

There is then a great feast in the evening to mark the last night of winter. Food and drink are set aside for the guardians.

After the festivities, they light candles and visit the graves of their loved ones -- decorating them with garlands of holly and ivy -- and saying silent prayers

Before going to bed, clothing is left out for the guardians to bless, with the hope that they shall give their wearer both healing and protection

The day following the festival, the entire village undergoes a "spring cleaning" as they look forward to the next season (brigit hated this part ngl)

They also rake the ashes smooth from the fire in the great hall to see if there are any signs that Xerxes had, indeed, visited

If there was nothing, it would be believed that bad fortune was coming to them during the next winter unless they made enough offerings to the guardians

Brigit's Birthday Traditions

Since Imbolc is actually Saint Brigid's day, I'm headcannoning that Brigit was actually born on Imbolc!

Her mother was not due for many weeks yet and when she suddenly went into labor during the celebration and festivities, it all came to a halt

It did not look well and they were concerned that neither she nor Brigit would survive

In the chaos, a bed was never made for Xerxes and a terrible storm blew through Malconaire which prevented the doctor from being sent for

When Sorcha realized what had happened, she stood from her own bed and opened the window, whispering out to Xerxes that her bed was his own, if he would spare her child

Despite Bran's insistence, Sorcha would not get back into her bed

A few moments before midnight, Brigit was born and as soon as she came into the world the wind and the snow stopped

When the doctor did arrive, he was stunned to see both mother and child were in such good health

In the morning, when the fire had burned out and the ashes were made smooth, there was a small rock found beneath them that Sorcha swore resembled a horse

She said that they should all take it as a sign that Xerxes has been there, after all, and it was he who saved them. She also said that she feared that this would mean that her Brigit would be as untameable and fierce as a wild horse (she was right)

Brigit's mother used to tell her this story whenever Brigit felt like she was out of place

When she was little, she believed it wholeheartedly, but as she grew older, she started to think her mother just told her this to make her feel better

It wasn't until she started to see the guardians for herself that she started to wonder if, perhaps, it was all true after all

She still has the rock that was found in the ashes

Brigit's present on her 18th birthday was the bow that belonged to her grandfather, Commander Lorcan

His sword and armour, of course, stayed with Lorcan and are in Padraig's possession but both her cousin and her father determined that Brigit ought to have his bow <3

@forgottenaoife & @forgottenroisin : I'm not sure if this has been established anywhere before, but I was wondering what the Malconaire's parents stance was on religion? Writing this, I feel like Sorcha was rather religious but Bran was more just in it for tradition? Thoughts on this???

[fromtheboundlesssea]

Listening to A Game of Thrones again. I only just finished Jon I and I just had a thought that I have no wish to expand upon at this moments, but maybe I will later or someone else could if they wish.

Starks and Targaryens

Lyanna / Ned / Catelyn -> Aemma / Viserys / Alicent

Lyanna and Aemma die giving birth to a child wanted by the father only for their only living child to be the gender the father of the child did not want. Both women haunt the story even though they are relegated to very brief mentions in their “historical” records. Both die due to a Targaryen man’s irrational belief in prophecy.

Ned and Viserys attempts to keep the peace between the two halves of their family, however, their first “child” causes tensions with his wife and other children and there is a divide between them. Both treat their first children above the typically accepted position their birth would have entitled them to.

Catelyn and Alicent are married to men and constantly feel compared to a woman who is dead or gone and feels threatened by the protective nature of their husband towards their first child. Both have a child who is disabled, only for their husbands to not care. No one was punished, even lightly, for the blinding of Aemond, and Viserys brushed the incident away. Ned left Catelyn alone with Bran, who could have very well died while he was away and chose his duty to Jon Arryn, someone dead, above his son. Both women die with vengeance for their dead children on their lips.

Jon / Robb -> Rhaenyra / Aegon II

Jon and Rhaenyra are their father’s eldest child and is raised above the station many children in their positions are given (Jon as a bastard and Rhaenyra as a girl). Their position within the family puts their stepmothers on edge and their positions also serve as a vague threat to their half-siblings. They both leave their homes and “set up court” elsewhere, Jon at Castle Black and Rhaenyra in Dragonstone, and stay away from the main fight of the series. Both were born the opposite gender their fathers wanted.

Robb and Aegon II both picked up their crowns after the urging of familial figures that discussed the danger their siblings are threatened with. Both lost control of their anger once their siblings began dying. Neither man seemed insistent on a crown and do not think of their other sibling as a danger to themselves despite the warnings of their mother. Both are betrayed by allies.

Benjen -> Daemon

These are more foils. Benjen is everything that Daemon is not and vice versa. Benjen sends himself into exile and remains there and serves the King and his brother with honor. He also tries to look out for his nephew and help raise him to be a proper man for the time he is with him. Daemon is constantly exiled for his actions but always comes back and leads his niece astray.

Jon / Sansa -> Aegon III / Jaehaera

Both Jon and Aegon III are made heir by the will of the previous king so that a woman won’t be given the throne (albeit for different reasons). Both have a complicated relationship with symbol of their house. They are traumatized by the death of a woman who had great influence over them (Ygritte and Rhaenyra). Both were never meant to be put in royal positions of authority, Jon being both a bastard and a second son, and Aegon with three older brothers and the son of the losing side.

Sansa and Jaehaera are both girls deeply traumatized by witnessing the death of beloved male relatives who are wrongly beheaded right in front of them. The two girls serve as keys to their houses and inheritance and are used for that inheritance despite being willed away from such an inheritance. While incited to violence, both are reluctant to such murder and do not enact it. They serve as a representative to sides of a war that are not well liked in the current ruling dynasty.

Ironically, if Jonsa were to happen it would be a true reconciliation of two sides of the similar conflicts that originated with the questions of inheritance.

Lannisters and Strongs

Tywin -> Lyonel

Both men are considered to be great politicians. However, their children undermined their political influence and reveal that both men are not actually as great as they are initially believed to be. Tywin does not think about the long term. Lyonel allows his son to put them all in danger by even allowing such rumors to swirl. If Lyonel were smart, he would have nipped those rumors in the bud not only to protect his son, but to not add shaky foundations for Rhaenyra’s reputation.

Jaime / Cersei -> Harwin / Rhaenyra

Both men have affairs with royal women and sire children that look like them. Both men have three bastards destined to die due to the greed of the women they love who can and will never acknowledge them as the fathers of their children.

Cersei and Rhaenyra do not wish to have children with their husbands, for different reasons, and often put their own sexual pleasure above their positions at court and their own allies. Both women are threatened by younger women who could usurp their place and often belittle them for the sake of their own vanity. Both greatly fear their younger brothers and what hand they might take in their deaths.

Tyrion / Larys

Both men are the “lesser” sons of their fathers and are disfigured—earning nicknames for said disfigurement. Both men are very resentful towards their siblings and either enact or wish for the destruction of their houses.

[swordsandarms]

I think the obvious problem in discussing whether there is a "right" way to deal with Joffrey in order to minimise damage (like Sansa did with Ser Dontos) and applying to how the girls behaved around him at the Trident is no one from Winterfell had yet knowledge that Joffrey was a cruel boy that required finding "special ways to maneuver the damage he wants to inflict".

The Trident is a big reveal moment for the characters coming down from Winterfell of what the current Lannisters are and to be wary of the future. (For the readers, it's already made clear with Bran, but no one in-world knows yet about what actually happened to Bran).

There is no "working" way for the occasion and people involved in which either of the girls react, when faced with what was happening in the moment. They both react in instinctual ways to the situation. Arya tries to fight against it (which is after the fact seen as well meaning but ineffectual); Sansa is more of less just taken aback, doing neither effectual or ineffectual of either acting or talking, just a sideline voice who says something for the sake of it but would not dare act. Given the chance to eventually speak she is also ineffectual in "restricting damage" by trying to put matters in a "acting like no one present did damage and all who did aren't relevant anymore so let's move on" way (Nymeria or Mycah - not that Mycah did something, obviously, but he's a convenient scapegoat for "pacification" for Sansa because she cannot harm him any further by it, one supposes).

Furthermore, the problem is Joffrey, and the questionable situation he puts the girls in for them to have to react - it's not like if Arya wouldn't have been Joffrey's focus, him hearing as much as Sansa inputting "stop" and "you're spoiling it" would have gotten a nice reaction from him also. Imagine only - post no-longer-having-the-limitations-of-being-ONLY-a-Prince Joffrey being told to "stop" because he's making someone else uncomfortable/ruining their day! If we are to judge by what damage the girls' behaviour "causes", be sure Sansa herself would be in line for a lot of "damage" coming her way without her being out of focus.

Both Arya and Sansa learn hard lessons about how to move carefully around dangerous men with power over them from here on, but for both it is a matter of "punished for doing/saying the wrong thing in the past already and getting hit" whether literally or metaphorically before, not of some inane talent to be applauded for. Yes, Sansa can do the "Dontos episode".... After A LONG TIME of tiptoeing around Joffrey acting under his true nature and getting punished when she gets it wrong. Likewise, she can generally hide her true emotions from many others as a result of that lesson (and others).

But heck, so does Arya, particularly after she's under Gregor Clegane no less! Roose Bolton, too! FFS, she is at the stage of lying (or at least concealing the truth through careful choices of words) to the Kindly Man, a literal teacher of reading lies!

[atopvisenyashill]

🇵🇸 🇵🇸 🇵🇸 🇵🇸 🇵🇸 🇵🇸 🇵🇸 🇵🇸 🇵🇸 🇵🇸 🇵🇸 🇵🇸 🇵🇸 🇵🇷🐢🏝️ i got tired of complaining constantly on my main blog (@thewingedwolf is me!) about how sansa and rhaenyra did nothing wrong and also i needed a way to organize my theories and stuff. yes i have read all the books. yes i have (unfortunately) seen the whole show. yes i have seen all of hotd as well. so here we go. my stances are this, so you have an idea what to expect:

i am a catelyn, sansa, brienne, elia, lyanna and rhaenyra stan FIRST and a person SECOND

i would die for Gaemon Palehair, Lady Essie, and Sylvenna Sand, those are my canon OCs, and that’s why they’re my header.

Sansa and Bran are my favorites! I am a Sansa will be Queen in the North truther and a Bran will be the King in Harrenhal conspiracy theorist, It Is Heavily Foreshadowed In The Text and I stand on that!!

I'm well aware Rhaenyra has plenty of faults, I am saying that the greens (as in, the characters) do not like her because of her gender, and not for stuff she does that’s actually wrong, also, idc that she did all of that i simply think she’s fun.

Helaena really IS the one who did nothing wrong tho.

i am a Dark Daenerys believer. no, i don’t hate her - in fact, i really love her, although i do hate her show counterpart - I just think her arc is heading towards a dark path and being a villain protagonist is the more interesting route for her character.

House Martell will rise or I will piss in old man germ’s cornflakes.

I Will talk about the racism Dorne faces in the text and outside of it and neither your favorite house nor my favorite house is exempt from this. If you have a problem with that, keep it to yourself bc i do not care 🙏🏽

i multiship!! just bc i ship it doesn’t mean i think it’s gonna happen in the series, i just like the dynamic!!

i am in fact the annoying book jonsa truther they warned you about. i will Stay bitter about this. argue with the wall.

with that said, i also like theonsa, throbb, daemyra, laenyra, rhaewin, nedcat, braime, briensa, and a million other ones. faves listed here. several of them are dead dove-esque; what can i say, that's just george's style.

you decide whether it’s romantic or platonic when it’s an incest one, my opinion changes by the hour & im gonna fight grrm for making me think this much about incest.

i don’t like jonerys!!!!!! i'm sansan & sanrion ambivalent and i simply do not care about littlefucker like that. i would say i’ve thought positively about basically every other ship.

i’m in the middle of a reread, as of this moment (april 2024) i’ve kinda stalled on the beginning of a dance with dragons but i Have started a rewatch of the tv series as a form of torture.

i first read this series when i was 16 in like 2012-2013. i love to bitch about the takes i’ve seen. i sometimes reblog really old ass graphics bc they deserve new life even tho the creators are long since deactivated. i sometimes make graphics that look like they’re from 2014 bc we should bring that style back dammit i hate the typography movement going on rn.

big on tagging triggers so lmk (i’ll tag for all characters & major triggers but i’m fine with adding a specific one if asked and don't worry about it being a "weird" trigger - if sean bean's face or knives or wolves or whatever trigger you, i'm happy to tag for that!). my spoiler policy is that i’ll tag everything from this season as “hotd spoilers” and any of the Big Events with “episode title spoilers” but i can’t guarantee I can be consistent longer than like 2 days though i will try!! i Will be talking about any book canon events tho, the books have been out for years either you know how to avoid them or you know everything, i’m not tagging that.

i have a tag page that is more organized than the slapdash nonsense on this post, feel free to check it out here.

i may sound angry but i promise i am genuinely just here for a laugh. i just have resting bitch voice and no feel for tone and use the word fuck too much. it’s fine and unserious.

[hacked-wtsdz]

We all hate season 8 of got because of Daenerys and Jon’s destroyed characters, but I’ve been rewatching it with my brother, and the battle of Westeros bothers me more and more. The point of the prophecy that plays quite a big role in the books is that a Targaryen shall conquer the death that comes from the north with fire and blood. And yet, neither Jon, nor Dany did. They were both there, fighting, yes, but the conqueror was Arya. Which threw the entire prophecy arc (that served as a motivator to generations of Targaryens) out of the window. Asoiaf was about Targaryens as well as the Starks and the Lannisters, perhaps a bit more about the Targaryens, since Jon and Dany are both major characters and both are Targs, but got just made it all about the Starks in the end. The Starks sitting on the iron throne, the Starks winning against the Night King, the Starks getting their family home back. While Dany just got killed off so that Sansa and Bran could get an end to their stories that the show runners surely thought to be satisfying (spoiler: it isn’t).

[lemonhemlock]

i don't understand got fans like how is tywin a genius strategist when the only thing the red wedding accomplishes in the long run is north independence with the starks on top of it probably forever 😭

there are a lot of things happening here, some driven by fandom discourse (reactions and counter-reactions) and some conflations of realpolitk with fantasy elements and book writing norms. enough ink has been spilled in every direction, as tywin has both detractors and fanboys, the latter of whom sometimes lean perilously in the redpill direction (you know the type). i have a divergent take from them but i'm not truly interested in the debate either, as it has been overdone to death by now.

the following is a little bit of a tumblr hive mind mentality, wherein people with a (justifiable) anti-patriarchal discourse want to discredit a character that so strongly symbolizes patriarchy to the point that they refuse to assign him any positive traits. so, if tywin is a bad father and a bad person, it must naturally follow that he is bad at everything - he is a shit general, he doesn't know a thing about politics or diplomacy or wealth management or any of the activities that fall within the purview of nobility.

which i just think is not authorial intention at all and neither did the execution truly suggest that to me. correct me if i'm wrong, but, so far, at least, all of the westerland POVs we have had on tywin have been positive (bar his children ofc). sure, we haven't had a whole lot, but the author also threw stannis in there for good measure, who is not an easily impressionable fellow. robert, as well, may not like tywin, but he sees him as a person he can do business with and tries not to step on his tail too much.

all of this to say that textual evidence points to the fact that tywin is a good administrator and a fearsome adversary. i don't think grrm is even interested in presenting us with a character that is devoid of savy and proficiency at this level, nor do i think that his expertise is unwarranted, as unlikeable as his personality is. even euron, who is arguably the most despicable character in the books, has his own specific skill set. at the end of book 3, the tyrell-lannister alliance is enough to secure the rule of joffrey/tommen and the north is under bolton rule.

now, of course that tywin doesn't plan for the white walkers, for jon's secret parentage reveal or for the existence of bloodraven luring bran. but who would? you can only plan according to the information you have at hand and, at the point in the books tywin operates, magic is a faraway dream to entertain children. as far as he knows, he just wiped out the stark line, bar sansa, who is married to his son. yes, she later escapes, which can become a problem. but my point is that, when people attempt to appraise tywin's efficiency, they bring the magical element into discussion, in that he is presiding over the calm before the storm and that there are many destabilizing factors at play against his status-quo, of which he is blissfully ignorant. but, the thing is that you can be otto von bismarck reborn, but your political ideology is not going to hold water against an alien invasion or fantasy beasts or weirwood CCTV. you can only plan and scheme according to the pre-established rules of your world, and if those rules change overnight, then of course your plans are going to prove "faulty" and you're going to have to adapt. but is this really a gotcha that directly targets your cunning or strategic thinking?

my final observation is on the norm-breaking red wedding. this is not the say that norm-violation doesn't carry consequences (there are already essays on this topic so i won't insist), but i'll interject that whether these consequences manifest always or only sometimes is still debated in the literature, as is the nature of those consequences. scholars remain divided, if you will. realists will tell you norm-adherence is subordinated to a state's cost-benefit analysis and the power they dispose of to achieve their goal. liberals (IR) will tell you that cooperation between actors is mutually-beneficial and thus respecting shared norms is the rational choice. in any case, in order for neoliberal institutionalism to function, you first need to have institutions - department in which westeros is sorely lacking. i'll remind you that westeros does not even have a parliamentary body.

coming back to the text, tywin pulled off this little tactic before - to great success as well. he eradicated the reynes and the tarbecks and, so far, we haven't heard one dissenting voice from the westerlands criticising his decision. you can argue that that's a worldbuilding flaw or an absence brought about by lack of space, but i think it's also fair to say he was allowed by divine providence (i.e. grrm) to have this victory without any visible consequences. and i will go as far as to say that, after the red wedding, tywin is not killed by a stark or a martell loyalist or a westerlands rebel, but by his own son, for reasons that have nothing to do with the reynes of castamere, the red wedding or elia martell. it's a common plotwriting technique - tywin is obviously punished for his deeds by the narrative in the metatextual sense, but it doesn't come as the result of his military enterprises or his political decisions. it's more of a crime of passion, driven by unfulfilled parental love.

this does not mean that the author is not trying to denounce tywin's style of ruling at the same time. that tywin is a deconstruction of machiavelli's prince is not a new or original remark. but if grrm agreed with tywin's ideology, then he would have lived out to "win" the so-called game of thrones. grrm is looking for a different type of kinghood and showing us a lot of different variants in the process. but i don't think he disqualifies tywin's version because it is not effective or because tywin was really actually secretly incompetent. are brutal tactics really not effective in the real world? i ask you: is that really an honest observation of the world around us?

no, i think grrm disqualifies brutality because it takes away one's humanity. because you shouldn't resort to it anyway, even if you can, even if it's so easy and tempting and effective. even if it means that, in its absence, you lose or die. because what kind of life is one impinged by cruelty and lived in the service of our base impulses?

[ladystoneboobs]

[Bran, to Theon:]“But you’re Father’s ward.” [Theon, to Bran:]“And now you and your brother are my wards. [...] You’ll tell them how you’ve yielded Winterfell to me, and command them to serve and obey their new lord as they did the old.” -Bran VI, aCoK “He[Ramsay] is a great hunter,” said Wyman Manderly, “and women are his favorite prey. He strips them naked and sets them loose in the woods. They have a half day’s start before he sets out after them with hounds and horns. From time to time some wench escapes and lives to tell the tale. Most are less fortunate. When Ramsay catches them he rapes them, flays them, feeds their corpses to his dogs, and brings their skins back to the Dreadfort as trophies. If they have given him good sport, he slits their throats before he skins them. Elsewise, t’other way around.” -Davos IV, aDwD [Roose, to Theon, about Ramsay's mother:]"[...]I was hunting a fox along the Weeping Water when I chanced upon a mill and saw a young woman washing clothes in the stream. The old miller had gotten himself a new young wife, a girl not half his age. She was a tall, willowy creature, very healthy-looking. Long legs and small firm breasts, like two ripe plums. Pretty, in a common sort of way. The moment that I set eyes on her I wanted her. Such was my due. [...] This miller’s marriage had been performed without my leave or knowledge. The man had cheated me. So I had him hanged, and claimed my rights beneath the tree where he was swaying. If truth be told, the wench was hardly worth the rope. The fox escaped as well, and on our way back to the Dreadfort my favorite courser came up lame, so all in all it was a dismal day." -Reek(/Theon) III, aDwD

something something the way theon tries to rectify his childhood trauma by taking his captor's place as lord of wf and taking ned's younger sons as his "wards"/hostages, while ramsay repeatedly reenacts different versions of his own conception by hunting and raping peasant women. except theon fails in his role reversal when (unlike him in his own captivity at wf) bran and rickon escape custody. and ramsay enhances roose's "dismal day" by killing all the women he catches to prevent any more bolton bastards and further punishing those of them who fail to give him "good sport" (which his mother apparently did not give roose) while those who do satisfy him are "honored" with a quick death (and a canine namesake). and then the consequences of theon's failure to replace his captor/cold noerthern father figure include losing wf to house bolton and becoming the new "reek"/another of ramsay's dogs. (meaning he made himself ramsay's prey but gave him "good sport" in the experience)

ramsay starts out as deceptive dark trickster figure/evil adviser/devil on theon's shoulder in clash but he's also a dark mirror of theon, and a more successful one at that, not just better suited to villainy but more able to get away with his crimes. neither will ever be truly accepted by their fathers but ramsay is made heir once he's the only son while theon is rejected as such despite his better birth. ramsay profits from the alleged kinslaying of his actual brother by blood, while theon is more openly condemned (and seen as still not punished enough) for (falsely) killing stark boys who were never his actual kin. it's almost as if ramsay is an evil force who came into being to find theon and was drawn to him upon his return to the north. we first learn of the bastard of bolton's existence after theon returns to pyke and learns of his father's invasion plans, then his last hunt with the original reek just shortly precedes the ironborn attacks, all so that he's captured and waiting in wf right in time for theon's real plan to go into action, and we don't actually meet (disguised) ramsay in-person through dialogue with rodrik cassell or any other northerner but only when theon arrives as the new lord to free him from the dungeon. as the first reek may have corrupted ramsay, ramsay-as-reek corrupts theon. reek belongs to ramsay and ramsay belongs to reek.

[lives4lovesworld]

How Dany's inability to recall Hazzea name and her reaction to Viserys’s death are shamelessly twisted for a narrative of her as a heartless monster, another "seed" to her descend into madness by others, and how it's incredibly hypocritical of them:

Firstly, it should be empathized that most characters/rulers do NOT even bother to care about any common born casualties in the first place, let alone learn their names and remember them over a large period of time as Daenerys (and Arya) do. So, even IF her name will one day truly fade from Daenerys's memory, i) it still makes her a morally better person and ruler than everbody else ii) it (/memory loss) will never be an indication of a descend into madness.

Such a " critique" is especially hypocritical coming from Sansa and Baratheon stans to do so, given that Sansa Stark herself couldn't even show remorse or sorrow for her sister's friend and innocent child, let alone learn his name. In fact she tried to spin a narrative where his brutal, unnecessary murder was justified and simultaneously gashlighted her devasted sister. Only one time, after her rose colored glasses were ripped off did she even mentioned Mycah's fate to the Tyrells, referring to him only as "butcher's boy" yet again. Otherwise he remains utterly absent in her head space. And given that both Stannis Baratheon and Robert Baratheon’s small council argue for killing innocent children if it’s profitable for them (x, x, x, x ,x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x). Common born casualties in wars are simply of no concern for most characters on a personal level.

While Daenerys is condemn for her lack of visible devastation at witnessing her abusive brother being killed after threatening her, Sansa's first action concerning Jory's murder, a leal man of her father, she had known her entire life, can be emphasizing Joffrey's lack of blame for this innocent man's brutal, unnecessary murder. With her second action being feeling proud that a more handsome man is filling out Jory's place, as well as witnessing Clegane killing a youth in tournament, and yet feel nothing nor cry and forget about his name as soon as she heard it without being used as "proof" for her mental decline.

A person not in need of twisting the narrative to unfairly condemn one to prop up another, would see that Daenerys and Sansa's respective reasoning behind their lack of tears in these two incidents are even similar: Both girls were emotionally utterly spent after their recent traumatic events (x, x). Yet, if extreme depravity, a miscarriage and the constant danger of hostile strangers and wild predators in the open, after the ordeal in the fighting pit are not sufficient as explanation for Daenerys's currently emotionally spent state and lack of tears for a girl Drogon killed than neither is Lady's death and Bran's fall for Sansa's utterly lack of reaction when witnessing a man dieing for the first time.

And, unlike Dany, Sansa was enjoying a tournament held in honor for her betrothed as a daughter of the King's Hand surrounded by her family's household in the pompous capital city. Unlike Sansa, Dany never actually witnessed with her own eyes the death.

It's maddening how there has been spun a narrative in which Daenerys is somehow responsible for Hazzea's death (some saying the same for Quentyn Martell's death) or doesn't care about her fate by sansa stans to villainize her. When that's just deliberately twisting the actual text and considering that their own fav is currently poisoning Robert Arryn, an innocent child and HER COUSIN (her last relative for what she knows) for her political ambitions. For which the most demeaning excuses are being conjuncted (such as Sansa simply being too stupid and "naive" to understand the danger of overdosing a child, despite Maester Colemon explain it), yet Daenerys gets vilified for lack of tears due to shock of seeing her abusive brother get murdered after he had threatened her unborn child.

sansa stans should truly be the last ones to prester anyone with their respective character's "lack of empathy" and bad memory nor proclaim a character is a "unreliable POV", especially when sansa has been be singled out BY THE AUTHOR to actually be one. (x, x) Same goes for Baratheon stans when it comes to other character's dismissal of innocent lifes and a mental decline linked to telling oneself everything is justified for the "Great Good".  

[butterflydm]

wot on prime rewatch: 1x01 leavetaking

spoilers for all of season one of the show; I’m going to do a reblog of this post to include book-related thoughts that go past The Eye of the World.

1. There are several things that I really love about Moiraine’s intro scene: it sets up the two items that she uses at the EotW (the sa’angreal and the knife) and she is wearing PANTS thus immediately already trimming away one of Jordan’s super-weird continent-wide gender quirks where It Is a Weird Thing for women to wear pants. Moiraine’s traveling outfit gives me life. But, frankly, the pants were the first thing that made me believe that we would be getting a genuinely UPDATED version of the story, without all the super-weird stuff about how men and women are so impossibly different that they can’t ever understand each other (even when, ex. the woman in question is behaving remarkably similar to your male friend that you have no issue understanding, and vice versa) and that was so exciting to me. And I’m still excited about it! Another thing that I love is Moiraine talking about how arrogant the ~men~ were to believe they could cage darkness in one big pre-emptive strike and then that’s basically exactly what she takes Rand off to do at the end of S1.

2. In S1E5, we find out that what Liandrin and her Red Ajah sisters do here is extremely illegal! They are not supposed to be hunting down male channelers and gentling them on the spot, they are supposed to take them back to Tar Valon for trial (...when they will get gentled, so for the actual men, it’s something of a distinction without a difference). This is also our first look at the ‘madness’ that afflicts male channelers due to the corruption and I’m really curious about how this will continue to be portrayed as we get more men channeling in the future.

3. The first appearance of Moiraine’s wishful thinking appears in this scene (arguably, the first appearance of her wishtful thinking is in the intro scene when she says that the Dragon might be reborn as a girl; that would definitely make things easier for her!), when she insists that the man that Liandrin just gentled CANNOT be the Dragon Reborn. She happens to be right in this case, but this attitude works less well for her when we get to the end of the season.

4. And then we get the super-awesome shot of the tall ‘moss-covered mountains’ that are actually abandoned skyscrapers. Perfect match for the Age of Legends scene that we get at the end of the season. Continue to love how they wove in the post-apocalypse threads. Subtle but once you know, you can see it in lots of place.

5. I really like how this opening scene with Egwene is all very metaphorical for how embracing saidar is described in the books. And getting our first glimpses of Egwene and Nynaeve is great, but I also like how it’s in the context of this woman-only group in their community because that’s a huge part of their story that they will need to navigate in the future (we know they’re both planning to head to the White Tower as of the end of S1). I do think it’s very interesting how the ‘Women’s Circle’ is not a governing body here but rather the community that all women join when they’re old enough for a braid. I don’t think we get any mentions of the Village Council or Bran as the Mayor either. The Two Rivers seems purely people chilling without a leader and just being a small community together.

6. The locations are so pretty. So, we get introduced to Moiraine & Lan, then Liandrin, then Egwene & Nynaeve, and now we have Rand and Tam. Tam is remembering the old days. Aw, this intro with Rand and Tam is cute, plus it does set up: wolves acting strangely, that Rand’s mom is out of the picture (implied dead), and him and Egwene as childhood sweethearts.

7. I think the show did a good job of marrying together the different backstories that Rand and Egwene’s romance have in the series. In the show, they’re first loves, currently in a relationship but inexplicably not married for reasons that perhaps neither of them could put a finger on if you asked them directly. Before Egwene gets the Wisdom apprentice invite, I imagine they would both vaguely say, “oh you know. we’ll get married some day” and then just keep not doing it.

8. This set of scenes in the Winespring does a good job setting up the friendship between the three boys. We see Rand and Perrin worrying over Mat losing money; and then Perrin also comes over to talk to Rand when he notices him brooding off by the wall. And Mat, in his more teasing way, is trying to make sure that the three of them stay connected as a friendship unit, even if Perrin is married and Rand is with Egwene and off in the mountains most of the year besides. And Perrin and Mat are both introduced in context of their friendship with Rand. This scene is also used to show how insular the Two Rivers is, hearing news of the world only second or third-hand.

9. Lan and Moiraine are such drama llamas, I swear. So Dramatic at all times. Nynaeve gets positioned as the village Protector even here in this introduction -- she’s the one that challenges Lan and tells him to name himself. Nynaeve and Rand are the two characters set up to be the most distrusting of Moiraine, but we see a lot of whispering between villagers in the background.

10. It’s an interesting set of shots that they set up here, actually, given some of what happens later. The people that Moiraine looks at: first, it’s Mat with the girl that we find out later that he stole from; then Nynaeve with Lan in the foreground; and finally Egwene with a shot that racks focus to include Rand and Perrin behind her (who will have a brief love trangle-ish moment later on in the season). But I like this shot of Moiraine looking around and clocking all the potential people who might be the correct age to be the Dragon Reborn.

11. Again, on a rewatch, Perrin’s secret crush on Egwene (and Nynaeve’s knowledge of it) is actually made pretty clear.

12. We get introduced next to Mat’s change in backstory which I’ve personally thought was a brilliant choice from the beginning. Mat’s background feels fairly disconnected from his characterization in the books and this new backstory grounds him as a character, gives him some strong motivations and some strong personal fears. It does add a slightly darker/seedier side to the Two Rivers, in that the Cauthons have clearly fallen through the cracks, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing either.

13. But the set-up here really is heartbreaking for Mat -- a father that is constantly breaking his mother’s heart, a mother who is so consumed by her husband’s betrayal that she’s barely a mother to her children, and Mat left to essentially parent his little sisters. And it sets up Mat as someone who has both strong reasons to want to be far away from the Two Rivers (to escape his family and the reputation his family would have in the village) and to return to the Two Rivers (to take care of his sisters). And he’s also set up as someone who only has his ‘true self’ seen by a handful of people -- his sisters, Rand, and... potentially Perrin, though Perrin doesn’t get as much screentime about it, and potentially Nynaeve as well -- and everyone else sees this surface gloss of who he is, including Moiraine, Egwene, and his own parents.

14. I do actually wonder if part of the reason that they cast the sisters so young was because filming just takes a long time, longer than the books are set in, so they may just be planning to have the events of the books take place over a longer time frame.

15. We do see here than Egwene and Rand’s relationship is definitely favored by both his father and her parents. Tam and Rand stay behind after everyone else has left to help the al’Vere’s clean up the inn, essentially acting as in-laws already. The scene between them alone is really good, too, and you can feel the tension of Egwene having something to tell Rand and being uncertain about it, and Rand is clearly aware that something is Going On but isn’t sure he wants to know, and so they ended up sleeping together first and then dealing with their actual issues afterwards.

16. I also really really love the platonic bath scene with Moiraine and Lan. Nonsexual and nonromantic intimacy between people who are essentially platonic life-partners at this point. It’s a great look under the ~dramatic~ surface that they were portraying to the villagers earlier. And it’s nice that our first bit of nudity is a guy’s butt. And I love the implication that, over the years, Moiraine has embraced some of the customs from Lan’s homeland.

17. Rand does essentially take this as something of a break-up while Egwene seems more torn on whether it is or isn’t. But then part of the issue that they end up running into later on in this episode and at the end of the season, is that Rand likes to process things alone in his head and Egwene wants to talk it all out as it’s currently happening, so they have some communication incompatibilities but it isn’t chalked up to Women are just Like This and Men are just Like That, the way that things like that tend to be spun as in the books.

18. And the intro to Padan Fain, where we find out that he acts essentially as Mat’s fence for items stolen from people in the Two Rivers works really well and it just... it does make me sad about how the show had to get adjusted post-Covid, and was not able to have Mat end out the season facing off against Fain, as I’m sure he was originally supposed to do. Fain’s whole speech about how he hated going to the Two Rivers every year would have hit harder if he’d been saying it to Mat.

19. We do see here, in a more subtle way, how most of the villagers are eyeing Moiraine and Lan suspiciously.

20. The sort of semi-post-relationship conversation with Egwene and Rand on the mountainside is very good as well. That she knows where to look for him when he’s in a thoughtful/brooding mood and the actual content of the talk as well. Honestly, I feel so puzzled by a lot of the complaints from some people about Rand’s behavior towards Egwene that I saw? It all makes perfect sense to me? She breaks up with him but then, next episode, she wants him to be instantly over any heartbreak and, at the same time, offer her boyfriend-type cuddles at night. And I get it from Egwene’s PoV too -- it’s a very stressful situation and she’s used to looking to Rand for comfort in stressful situations, so she’s going back to her instincts/old habits. But it’s just weird how I saw people call him clingy when she is the one who literally tries to physically snuggle up with him after she breaks up with him? How is he supposed to ‘just get over her already’ when she’s doing stuff like that? idk some people don’t seem to expect men to have human emotions and it’s weird to me. She’s allowed to be nostalgic about him to Aram but he’s not allowed to be nostalgic about her.

21. Rand had a whole Vision about his future (not the magic kind) and he needs some time to adjust to that vision changing. And, like... that’s fair and completely a normal human reaction to being broken up with and I do not understand why I saw so many people being weird about it when this set of episodes aired. It’s not like Rand had a made-up fantasy about Egwene -- they were literally in a romantic and sexual relationship! That ended extremely abruptly! And then they all got traumatized by having their village attacked! Even without the additional trauma that Rand was operating under, his behavior made sense.

22. Nynaeve and Moiraine do get off on such a hilariously bad footing here. Moiraine takes such a terrible approach to trying to feel Nynaeve out on her parentage, etc. Though I can see how the sort of overwhelming presence that she’s trying to use here would work against a lot of people, but it just majorly puts Nynaeve’s back up. I’ve thought a lot about how Rand might react to learning that Moiraine sent the Red Ajah after Mat, but Nynaeve would also have an extremely explosive reaction, especially because she shows a lot of sympathy and understanding for Mat in Primeverse.

23. Aaah, Nynaeve firmly establishing herself as The Protector of the Two Rivers Folk and she is, she so very much is. Zoë Robins is just so perfect as Nynaeve and I love her in the role so much. The casting is so on-point.

24. We get another establishing friendship scene with our three boys. And Mat just instantly can tell something’s wrong with Rand, even as Perrin is just like ??? about it. He susses out that it’s about Egwene and that it was Really Bad in terms of their relationship. Then a little later, we also get the bit where Rand and Perrin give some money to Mat so that he can buy lanterns for the girls. There really is kinda a vibe where Mat is extremely emotionally aware of both Rand and Perrin, and while Rand and Perrin are both emotionally aware of Mat, they are not particularly aware of each other. Which tracks with Perrin having a secret crush on Egwene and that making himself distance himself from Rand (slightly). Rand and Perrin still care about each other but don’t ever really get the one-on-one scenes that Rand and Mat, and Mat and Perrin get. But they did a really good job setting up these three as a close friend group.

25. And we do see that Egwene is also sad over the ending of her relationship with Rand (she’s crying on the bridge) and Nynaeve comes to listen to the wind with her. I do think it’s interesting that they set up both Nynaeve and Egwene as each having strong bonds to two of the boys but somewhat-to-mildly disapproving of the third one -- Nynaeve is very compassionate with Rand and Mat later on, but tells Perrin to go home to his wife; Egwene was in a romance with Rand and trauma-bonds with Perrin, but has a more antagonistic view of Mat. It makes things feel more complex than they were in the books, imo.

26. Oh, hey, that’s a beeswax candle! Nice. I love what they did with the candle ceremony. The show did such an interesting thing where it made the whole Wheel and the reincarnation feels a lot more like a vibrant cultural aspect than it does in the books. It influences the Two Rivers beliefs here and it influences the Tuatha'an people’s beliefs when Perrin talks to them in later episodes. It just really grounds the people’s behavior when it’s attached to these spiritual rituals (and I am saying this as an atheist who does not personally perform any spiritual or religious rituals -- I don’t do it, but it is a very common part of the human experience and it makes sense that it would have this kind of impact on people who live in this world). And the whole idea that the candles light the way for souls to come back and then you have a celebration to remind them of what’s worth coming back for.

27. The little touch of Nynaeve setting out the candle on the other side of the river and wiping away her tears immediately and walking away, because she feels like she needs to be strong for the village and not let them see her show her pain. And then her not dancing at Bel Tine. Those little touches showing how she has to set herself slightly apart from all of them.

28. The horror of the Trolloc attack in the middle of the dancing works really well, imo. We don’t see any of this in the book because we’re entirely in Rand’s PoV but this whole section does set up a lot: we see Mat going back into danger to act as a protector, we set up Perrin having an understandable trauma centered around the violence of the axe, we get Nynaeve trying to protect the villagers and Egwene by her side ready to fight with her, we see the initial panic of the villagers and then them rallying together, we have Padan Fain sneaking off in the middle of the attack, and we get Rand and Tam dealing with that same horror in isolation up mountain. And we get to see how well Aes Sedai and Warders work as a team, which was very cool and useful. They did a good job with the choreo there, because it really does feel like they can anticipate each other’s moves. And Egwene and Nynaeve both get a close look at what Aes Sedai are capable of accomplishing.

29. We don’t get to see Rand and Tam’s conversation in the woods here, but since this is a rewatch, we all know that it happened and will impact Rand’s behavior going forward. He just found out that his dad picked up a kid in the aftermath of a battle and took him home, so he’s got an identity crisis going on in the background of every scene that he’s in from this point forward.

30. I’m just gonna feel bad for Egwene for a moment, because she went through the rough journey of believing that Nynaeve was dead from here until they’re reunited in E6, and then post-E8, she is potentially going to be told/implied to that Rand is dead as well. Anyway, like I mentioned above, I totally understand why Egwene seeks Rand’s comfort in E2 because this is a very traumatic experience.

31. Moiraine and the Winespring collapsing together is such a cool shot. I really love it. Epic. And Lan covering her to shield her from the debris. What an amazingly visual illustration of what a Warder does.

32. Rand arriving back to the absolute ruin of the town. Heartbreaking. Ah, and Egwene telling Rand that Nynaeve ‘is gone’. Just this whole section of people counting up their losses is heartbreaking. And the little moments of connection in the tragedies, like Egwene and Rand hugging each other or Mat putting his hand on Perrin’s shoulder. Interestingly, the hand motions that Moiraine does here to heal Tam are similar from what I remember of how she draws Shadar Logoth’s corruption from Mat, both scenes that Rand witnesses.

33. Rand immediately challenges Moiraine which was another thing that viewers held against him despite it... making sense? He talks about the same sort of logic later on re: Thom as well -- that it’s possible that the convenient stranger who showed up right before the trouble conveniently helped them in order to win their trust. Rand doesn’t know that Moiraine is getting Protagonist Hero Shots.

34. The things that Moiraine tells them (notably: she tells them because Rand challenged her): that an Aes Sedai saw glimpses of the future twenty years ago, that the Dark One is waking, that his whispers are in the backs of their minds, and that the Dragon (the one person who can stand against the Dark One) has been reborn and is one of the four of them. And that they need to leave, because the Trollocs are chasing them, specifically, and if they stay then the town will be destroyed.

35. I’m also intrigued by the implication that maybe the entire village just learned that one of their four kiddos is the Dragon Reborn? Since Moiraine isn’t leaving in secret the way that they did in The Eye of the World. It’s difficult to say, because everyone else is busy working on the town and we don’t get reaction shots. But everyone does know that their four kiddos are very publicly leaving with the Aes Sedai and it’s clear that there were goodbyes, if short ones, so even if they don’t know that the Dragon is involved, they do know more than the Two Rivers knew in the book.

36. Love getting that iconic ‘a wind rose’ line. <3

[aegor-bamfsteel]

How do you think those of the Free Folk who devoutly follow the Old Gods would feel about High Heart, as well as the site’s main occupant, if they were somehow able to visit the area?

Osha talks about how her suspicions of the weirwood-less South:

"Who do you think sends the wind, if not the gods? They see you, boy. They hear you talking. That rustling, that's them talking back."

"What are they saying?"

"They're sad. Your lord brother will get no help from them, not where he's going. The old gods have no power in the south. The weirwoods there were all cut down, thousands of years ago. How can they watch your brother when they have no eyes?" —AGOT Bran

It seems Osha isn’t aware of the Isle of Faces, or thinks they were all cut down. She views the weirwood faces as the old gods watching over their followers to protect them.

Meanwhile, the destruction of High Heart is a particularly bloody (though muddled) destruction of a First Man sacred space:

The great hill called High Heart was especially holy to the First Men, as it had been to the children of the forest before them. Crowned by a grove of giant weirwoods, ancient as any that had been seen in the Seven Kingdoms, High Heart was still the abode of the children and their greenseers. When the Andal king Erreg the Kinslayer surrounded the hill, the children emerged to defend it, calling down clouds of ravens and armies of wolves...or so the legend tells us. Yet neither tooth nor talon was a match for the steel axes of the Andals, who slaughtered the greenseers, the beasts, and the First Men alike, and raised beside the High Heart a hill of corpses half again as high...or so the singers would have us believe. True History suggests otherwise, insisting that the children had abandoned the riverlands long before the Andals crossed the narrow sea. But however it happened, the grove was destroyed. Today only stumps remain where once the weirwoods stood. —TWOIAF

Whether or not the COTF had abandoned High Heart, it’s still the religiously-motivated destruction of a particularly special site. Osha’s worry over how there’s no living weirwoods down south (not even true) would mean if she were to visit High Heart, she’d not be surprised at the destruction (though probably sad), but would definitely feel like ghosts were watching her.

Speaking of, the Ghost of High Heart would probably be treated with awe and fear. Woods witches are respected community leaders (Morna White Mask, Mother Mole) for their medical knowledge and even prophetic dreams. Even if she did serve the “kneeler kings” for a time (which may make the less pious mistrust her), they’d understand she is a powerful witch akin to the skinchangers (due to her greenseer coloring)/their own wisewomen.

[talvin-muircastle]

Wise Men Fear

Another story from my November Habit, this from 2013. Not entirely satisfied with it, but it works.

“They are a mile away now!”

“Alright! Take your sisters and get to the top of the cliff. And do NOT stick your head out to watch, you hear me?”

“Yes, ma’am!”  

Amara cinched the straps tight on her armor and sheathed her short sword. She slung her quiver and picked up her bow. She took one last look at the house that she and her late husband had built together, the house where she had conceived and borne three children. “Ashes soon enough. I’ll save what matters.” She walked out.

In the distance she could see the marching troops. About a hundred of them, a company’s worth. She picked up a torch, tossing it into the thatch where she had earlier spread some oil. The others had taken all the supplies they could carry, and she would leave nothing for the invaders. She turned her back on the blaze and sternly reminded herself to weep later, if there was time.

The farmstead lay up against a tall cliff, with no natural passage to the top for many miles on either side. She and Bran had chosen this spot because a stairway had been crafted by some ancient hands—dwarves, perhaps, by the workmanship. It cut into the cliffside and wound slowly up to the top, turning generally clockwise to favor defenders retreating up the stairs. Landings gave places for defenders to group together and slaughter those who sought the top; the first was just past the first turn, so neither arrow nor spell could reach it. Spells she did not fear: mages traveled with Kings and Dukes, not with Captains.  

Time to begin.  

She had placed her arrows in the ground at the bottom of the stairs. Steady and sure, she nocked, drew, aimed, released, nocked, drew, aimed, released. Again and again until her small store of arrows was gone. As the first arrows found their marks, she cut the bowstring, broke the limbs with her sword, and turned for the stairs. She had other business to tend: the arrows would find flesh, or they would not.  

“The Captain is dead, sir.” “Dammit!” The Lieutenant glared at the burning cottage and the crack in the cliffside ahead. “Sergeant, these people are born holding a bow in their hands, I swear! We must take those stairs, it will shorten our march by a week!”  

The Lieutenant was a small man—in more than one sense of the word, reflected the Sergeant. The Sergeant was the opposite: over six-and-a-half feet tall, he towered over every other man in the company, and he was the veteran of more battles than the Lieutenant had years. If only that arrow had been a foot to the right, he thought. Aloud he said, “The Captain said we were to take it if it was undefended. We have two dead and have not even seen the foe, sir: clearly, it is defended.”

“Farmers! MY company is not going to run from mere farmers! Get the men moving, Sergeant!”  

Your company? Well it was now, gods preserve us. And those farmers were born with bows in their hands, and spears up their arses to stiffen their spines. But the Sergeant did not say these things. Instead, he ordered the least of his troops into the gap. Let’s see what these farmers are made of, shall we?

Amara waited at the first landing. Her eldest had placed a fresh shield and a spear and some other things at each landing: unlike in the tales of the bards, in real life a warrior’s tools were used up in battle. She braced with the shield and hefted the spear, listening to the men racing like fools up the stairs. The first appeared.

Thrust with the spear. Push with the shield. A swift kick to send him into the man behind him. Thrust. Thrust. Thrust. Don’t overextend, just sink the blade in a bit and pull it back, move to the next target. They could only come at her one at a time, let them tangle up in one another and stab into the mess. The dead slid down the stairs in their own blood, and the wounded screamed and dragged themselves away from the stabbing bitch if they could. She wasted no time on those: let them make the going harder on those to follow. She stepped back and grabbed a swig of water from the mug on a small shelf. They’d be back.

The Lieutenant heaped curses on the wounded men as they stumbled out of the stairway. “How many? How many defend the stairs!”

“Just one! A woman! A woman out of Hell!” 

The officer stared at the wounded man dumbly. Then he kicked the man where he lay on the ground clutching a wound in his side. “Idiots! Incompetents! Gods forfend I should tell this lot to storm a whorehouse, the whole lot doesn’t know what to do with a single woman! SERGEANT! Get some real men up those stairs!”

The Sergeant smiled grimly. Farmers. He had seen the things the fleeing farmers had dropped in their haste, and he knew his foe. This was going to be bloody. “You six! Up the stairs!”

Amara had moved up to the next landing, scattering caltrops in her wake. A bag of them had been set at each landing by her middle child. She watched as the first two men found the caltrops with their feet and jumped backward, tangling with those behind. The next man swept the steps with his blade and advanced, and she left her first spear in his belly. She grabbed for the ready spear and it was busy work for a few moments. Another man died, the next one cut her right arm in exchange for a serious wound to his shoulder, and the last one helped him away. She grabbed the caltrop bag and retreated again, sowing the steps as she went.  

At the next landing she held them twice, the second time breaking a spear and resorting to chopping with her sword until they backed off again. She hurled her hacked-apart shield after the last one, grabbed the next board and backed slowly up the stairs. No caltrops this time, they were getting bolder.

“Sergeant, what is wrong with these men? I know the way is narrow, but she is only a woman!”

“Yes, sir. A woman. And we all fear her.”  

The Lieutenant scoffed. “You go up there, Sergeant! You fear nothing!”

“I fear that woman, sir. I am no fool.”

“I have watched you wrestle feathered drakes in the water! I have seen you kill bears! I have seen you fight champions! You fear a WOMAN?”

“Lieutenant, I have done all of these things. But did you see me challenge a she-drake on her nest? Have you ever watched me tangle with a bear sow protecting her cubs? I tell you, sir: I am no fool. Up those stairs is a Mother, and her children are behind her. We, for our sins, are in front of her. Gods preserve us.”

“Ridiculous! Sergeant, you will personally go up those stairs and kill that woman or I will have you broken on the wheel for cowardice!” The Sergeant looked down at the small man in front of him.  

“Of course, sir, if you so order. But a good officer sets an example. A good officer leads his men into battle.”

Amara had had a few minutes to catch her breath and drink from the mug waiting for her. They were probably organizing a massed charge. They should have done that from the beginning, not given her a rest. Maybe this time they would get through. She heard some manner of angry screaming from down the stairs. She had not bothered with battle cries. A waste of breath needed for other things. The cries came closer, sounded almost frantic. She braced her shield and raised her spear. Work to be done.

Around the corner stepped a giant of a man, hiding behind a towering shield. Strapped to the front of that shield was a small man, his armor stripped from him, his sword tied into his hand and then strapped to his leg. The "battle cries" must have been him screaming. A booming voice from behind the shield, “There she is, sir! Lead us into battle! Show us how a real man faces down a mother defending her children! We’re right behind you, Lieutenant!” Amara stood stunned for only a moment. Then she smiled.

Thrust. Thrust. Thrust.  

The farmers were dug in too well. A detachment of the wounded was left to watch the bottom of the stairs to ensure no enemy force sought their rear by that route. The Lieutenant himself had sought to achieve the top, and he had died with his sword in his hand. The price was too high.  

The Company marched on, the Sergeant in the lead.

[rise-my-angel]

Its interesting to me how many people still put the blame on Robb for the red wedding, when the reality is that never should have happened. Regardless if Robb broke an oath or not, the betrayal at the red wedding was so heinous because in one fell swoop, Tywin Lannister and Walder Frey broke an ancient agreement.

Guest Rights in Westeros is incredibly important. Meaning that no matter the times, if you offer hospitality and break bread with a guest, guest rights is invoked and you cannot harm neither the guest nor host while you are under their roof. It's why it takes only when the doors shut and the Rains of Castamere start playing does Catelyn realize something is terribly wrong. Not a single person in Robbs camp had any reason to suspect danget that night beacuse to do otherwise would be an incredibly horrific offense.

Remember Walder Frey did not organize this. Walder Frey did not come up with this war ending plan. Tywin Lannister did. Twyin was the one who secured Walder Freys involvement by offering protection under the crown and the rule over Riverrun. But the plan was Tywins. It's why theres a discussion after that even Tyrion, who orchestrated the massacre with the wildfire explosion at Blackwater, considers his a henious act.

It's why Westeros breaks after the red wedding. Not only does it grant the power over Westeros to the Lannisters because by this point Stannis begins moving his army to the fight at Castle Black but now no one is safe. Guest Rights in Westeros allowed the strict safety of hospitality even between enemies, and by Tywin breaking it in a massive and horrric manner it means that there will never be an expectation of protection anywhere. It means no one can trust anyone that isn't their own people and destorys fair negotiations as well.

Westeros is in a desolate state after Robb dies, because he was winning the war. For all their numbers, Tywin Lannister could not defeat Robb in battle and EVEN with incidents like with the Karstarks, Robbs army was incredibly loyal and dedicated and the north was unified in a way Lannister forces never were. Tywin had no plan to beat Robb in the battlefield, because he wrongfully assumed that his youth and inexperience would mean he was rash and over eager. He underestimated that even with dissention in his ranks, Robb Stark held his kingdom together and his own prowess in battle was invaluable. Tywin could not beat him on fair terms because he was failing at every fair turn.

The Red Wedding broke Guest Rights and thats why he lost. Walder Frey is not a man who upholds his own oaths, and Robb breaking his isn't so egregious that the response is murder. Walder was simply an easy hire for Tywin because he is greedy and lacks a moral compass. Walder did not do the Red Wedding because of Robb he did it because Tywin assured him both no punishment and control of riverrun. Robb did the right thing by going to him to make amends and the entire breaking of oath was forgiven once they were offered safety and food by the Freys. Thats when it was forgiven.

Guest rights are an ancient tradtion in Westeros, especially in the North (hence why Robb who knows the Lannisters tried to kill Bran under the Starks own roof, refuses Tyrion hospitality). And by Tywin breaking Guest Rights he destorys any semblance of peaceful meeting or negotiation by murdering a monarch and his people all under the hospitality of anothers roof. Its why when Davos hears of whats happened, he considers House Frey to be cursed because they so openly broke guest rights.

Robb Stark didn't lose the war. Robb make a choice to break one oath to protect the more vulnerable honour of an innocent woman which was forgiven directly by Walder Frey when they made peace before the wedding.

Walder Frey never would have touched a hair on Robb Stark's head if Tywin didn't come to him with an offer first.

Robb didn't lose the war, Tywin won the war through breaking ancient traditions which leaves many character afterwards in fear of the Lannisters because now they know they will not let a single thing get in his way.

By blaming Robb for losing a war he was activley winning up to the time he died, is to buy into the very propaganda that Tywin Lannister would prefer you believe in order to keep the blame off of himself.

Robb made mistakes, but he made far less and far less severe ones than others in the same war that we don't scrutinize as much.

Robb didn't lose the war through actions of his own, Robb lost the war because he was winning against Tywin Lannister on every playing field except the ones that broke a sacred valued tradition.

The show doesn't expand on it, but in the books ancient traditions and customs are extremely important in Westeros and breaking those so dishonorably has always left stains on those who commit them. Tywin breaks guest right and it leaves the kingdoms in subjugated fear, Jaime commits regicide and hes forever named Kingslayer, Tyrion commits kinslaying/patricide and he is left in mind altering disgust of himself that causes him to lose part of his mind at times. I know the show tries blaming Robb but the show writers by that point don't even grasp that kinslaying is even a thing in Westeros so I don't expect Benioff and Weiss to even know what Guest Rights are.

Breaking sacred values and tradtions in Westeros is seen as a high form of dishonour and the blame for the Red Wedding is not on Robb. You should be putting it on Tywin.