weirwould

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always thinking of that “i couldn’t stop wasting time” quote

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ive been thinking about this a bit and i feel like i have some very different feelings towards certain things and strongly disagree with the implications present in the ways i see them discussed. i do not like to simplify these themes to “vengeance/punishment bad wahh”, because it does not at all feel complete enough to convey my true feelings, or the themes of the text itself for that matter imo, but like… ofc i personally cant read things like cersei’s walk of shame, where she is punished, humiliated, and dehumanized through the one thing she was unfairly condemned for her entire life— jaime’s brutal maiming and torture where he is humiliated, fed things like horse piss which he forces down because he is so thirsty before vomiting it back up, gets repeatedly beaten unconscious, and is nearly driven to passive suicide— theon’s excessive physical and mental torment that would take too long to list that breaks him entirely— and even a man as deeply evil as vargo hoat (who is not at all three dimensional) having his hands and feet and arms and legs cut off, be cannibalized, and even be forced to eat parts of himself, causing the pov character that swore to enact brutal vengeance on him to feel ill and repulsed once he finds out— and experience much, if any, catharsis, personal feelings about these characters aside. asoiaf is a series where the author pretty often deliberately places us inside the heads of bad people that have done terrible things, who some readers may feel a certain hatred for, as they are put through torment. not to make the reader feel good and satisfied about it, but to present it as something that should not really be a thing that we revel in, and encourage us to be critical about what is even gained through what they are going through. even a morally dark antagonist without a pov like joffrey and his death was meant to have elements of tragedy. during, tyrion notes that he is a young boy with fear in his eyes that he had never seen in the eyes of his father. whether you feel a certain way about it (and i am not arguing that you are morally flawed for not sympathizing with a fictional character, this isn’t real life, i am just discussing themes that i am identifying), the goal was not really to provide us with a feel-good “justice at last!” emotion through the brutally violent death of a 13 year old boy. it makes me genuinely wonder how some ppl come away with the idea that this series is intended to be a celebration and glorification of punitive justice. i am not saying justice in general is not a huge theme, and some catharsis, especially for victims, over the death/defeat of their abusers & tormenters is present in the text as well, understandably so, because it can mean safety. take pia smiling through broken teeth when jaime has her rapist executed and presents his head to her while setting a precedent with gregor’s men. some people need to die, and deserve it, but what does that look like? who decides it? why? by contrast, the instance of jaime actually feeling good when he hangs a bunch of random outlaws reads as something more tied to his current relationship to the self and certain selfish desires at this point in his story than real justice, and it is further elaborated upon and taken apart in the book. anyway, all these questions are present and the answers are not near as simple as i often see them made out to be.

it doesn’t feel like to me that most things that can be interpreted as enactments of punitive justice or moments of karma are these epic events that should just make the reader blindly cheer and applaud, or even feel good about. there is a reason that some things go awry (like with oberyn), and it isn’t cynicism. there is nuance, and not in a way where victims are condemned for fighting back, or a pacifist ideology is idealized. there just really isn’t a glorification of brutal punishment, ‘eye for an eye’ vengeance, and the needless causing of suffering. same with a blind upholding of duty and law based around flawed feudalistic constructs. and all these things should not even be conflated. not to mention that punitive justice exists also in a way where it is connected to institutions. take the faith and organized religion for example. the whole process is interrogated: what is sin? what sins are being punished? how? why? and what are the actual effects? be it jaime’s and brienne’s conversations/interactions with a bunch of different tertiary characters in affc, or cersei’s punishment in adwd. at the end of the day, she is punished for her body, for being a woman. she does not suffer “consequences” for her actual wrongs and the suffering she causes. she doesn’t really learn anything, and it will all just make her spiral more. the whole concept of punitive justice gets focused on especially with theon’s entire identity being withered away through torture. he experiences so much torment that there comes a point where he is robbed of his mind and agency. what does the “criminal” learn? how can a person change in these circumstances? what is the point, and why should we feel good about this? he is not even really “punished” for his crimes, and certainly not by people with any moral high ground over him, he is just being brutalized. same is the case with jaime in asos: it is a bad person being brutalized by men even more vile than he is, and they are not doing it because they want to deliver any justice to his victims. also, though the maiming does kickstart crisis with him specifically, it is not the determining factor when it comes to his reformation. this story is not actually saying that people can be, and should be, tortured into becoming better people, and if they can’t the solution is to just axe them. there is nuance, sure, mercy is not something everyone is entitled to in all circumstances. sometimes “mercy” towards certain evil people will lead to the enablement of the suffering of others, even entire populations. there are certainly circumstances where compromise isn’t an option. but, again, i dont think george is ever holding back on actually interrogating the moral quandaries when it comes to identifying cycles and ending them, and he is for sure not treating every single aspect of these conflicts as black and white. even tyrion murdering his father, who purposefully does have a very ironic and humiliating death scene, which is important thematically, doesn’t end in easy and feel-good catharsis, especially for tyrion, which doesn’t equal “oh, tywin should be forgiven and spared”.

all of this is also why i do not really see how events like the fall of house lannister (first of all, we know it is gonna include the likely very brutal deaths of two innocent small children), red wedding 2.0, valonqar etc would be these grand and glorious moments of justice and pay-off, treated as just the good guys finally getting an epic W. they will very likely be filled with tragedy, so i am genuinely curious about where these expectations for this kind of catharsis come from

[weirwould]

lady stoneheart/brie and stoneheart confrontation in 63 down by the river?

sword or noose.

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ryan condal stabbing me in the heart (no nettles) to forge the flaming sword of heroes (everything else being pitch perfect beyond fucking belief)

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the reason im so impressed by hotd is that every other Version of this show would be the worst fucking thing i can imagine. like seriously they have dodged 200 million bullets neo style just try to think about how stupid any other adaptations of the dance would be. They would condense it soooooo much they would cut HALF the characters because fundamentally f&b is a work of lore that was never supposed to be structured as a fiction narrative it has terrible pacing it’s a nightmare of randomly introduced one off characters on a thirty year timeline they had to thread soooo many needles. television is hard to make guys idk if you knew this

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why do you like alicent 😭

Why do I like the complicated deeply wounded religious fanatic lesbian character who hates her children as much as she loves them and white-knuckle clings to her delusion that everything will be alright if she can only somehow go back to her codependent homoerotic friendship and it will fix everything but the only way to get there is follow all of the societal rules that drove them apart in the first place? Come on

[weirwould]

you know what I'm glad cersei ignored every warning she ever got about daenerys. for her own mental health

IMAGINE if she found out that this stupid targaryen teenager people keep trying to tell her about was a young queen hailed as the most beautiful girl in the world who frequently walks around wearing a dead lion over her head. her brain would MELT

[weirwould]

so sad that cersei lannister never found out robb stark married a descendant of maggy the frog when he was the king in the north because i would have LOVED to see how her beautiful mind would’ve processed that piece of information

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you know those posts that are like 'oh we should cut horror movie protagonists some slack, they don't know that they're in a horror movie'? catelyn tully stark knows that she's in a horror movie. she's the first to recognize the dead direwolf as an omen to ned, telling him not to go south. she's the one who recognizes the fire of winterfell library as a distraction for the catspaw to kill bran. she's the only one of in the hall of lords declaring robb as King in the North to feel the sense of doom as it happens. she tells robb to keep his direwolf close, and to eat of walder frey's bread and salt immediately. she's the first to recognize the Rains of Castamere playing during the feast. she was canonically the Final Girl of the red wedding. and she died anyway.

[weirwould]

I truly can’t get enough of how quietly but fiercely protective Taissa is of Natalie. I would go as far as to say that Tai shows the most genuine, untainted care and empathy for Nat out of any other character on the show. Tai gives Natalie a lot of shit, but it always feels a lot more like the exasperated concern you would hear from an older sister.

Tai is the only character so far to recognize the impact of Nat’s home life before the crash (“Her dad, at home…Horror show”). She consistently pulls Nat back on her feet after her relapses and toxic stints with Travis and pays for Nat’s rehab on multiple occasions. Taissa is the first person Nat thinks of to call when she gets arrested. In Nat’s time as leader in the wilderness, Taissa appears to be her right hand man, the primary person she entrusted to offer her guidance and direction (“Don’t forget what happened to Jackie”). Even Tai’s opposition to Nat’s leadership feels more like concern that Nat can’t handle the burden that has been placed on her than actual hostility. Tai has a uniquely deep understanding of Nat. She sees Natalie’s full picture, not just her addiction and self-destruction, but the damage underneath, the why behind everything she does.

It means so much to me that Tai starts tearing up during her interrogation of Nat in the Coach Ben trial. These aren’t just tears of anger, they’re tears of disappointment and betrayal. They come from a place of deep care and admiration for Nat. Tai is genuinely hurt by the realization that Nat has been lying to her and, in her eyes, endangering the group’s safety. This whole interaction between the two of them, both with angry tears in their eyes, really feels like an argument between siblings. This is about a personal breach of trust, and Tai feeling let down by Nat.

In the aftermath of Coach Ben’s death, when Nat stumbles out bloodied, Tai’s first instinct is to check if she’s hurt.

When Shauna threatens to kill Nat, Tai is the first one to step in to protect her. She steps right in front of where Nat is kneeling on the ground, blocking Shauna’s path to her with no hesitation. Even though she doesn’t agree with Nat’s decision to kill Coach, she is ready to go head-to-head with Shauna to defend her.

There’s a solid constancy in the way Tai shows up for Nat that’s rare in her other dynamics. It’s not loud or showy, but it’s steady, and it’s real. There is something so familial about the way these two interact. Underneath all of Tai’s logic and control is someone who loves Natalie like family, and who can’t help but try, again and again, to keep her safe.

[weirwould]

you're your mother, sweetling; you sunk your teeth, ragged and sharp into my mother, she let you suck her dry. now you sink your teeth into me, and I'll let you suck me dry.

inspired by this post by @15step

Mine / A Storm of Swords – George R. R. Martin / House of the Dragon / A Game of Thrones – George R. R. Martin / A Feast for Crows – George R. R. Martin / A World of Ice and Fire – George R. R. Martin / Fire and Blood – George R. R. Martin

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our spiritually elevated rejection of canon vs their intellectually dishonest refusal to engage with the text

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I think helly r has the dark urge

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You have no idea the sacrifices that were made to put you on that throne.

Will you shrink from what you set out to do? Or will you see it through and make your sacrifice?

Listen to me, Aegon. Your grandfather, the Hand, will try to impress on you that Rhaenyra should be put to the sword. You must reject this counsel. We must not rule with cruelty and callousness. For all her faults, she is your sister, your father's daughter—Do you love me?

alicent poisoning aegon…yeah…

[weirwould]

art will save you, being unreasonably passionate about something niche will save you, letting past sources of joy show you the way back to yourself will save you, earnestness over composure will save you, the natural world will save you, caring for something bigger than yourself will save you, daring to be seen will save you, kindness not as a whim but a principle will save you, appreciation as a practice will save you, daring to try something new will save you, grounding will save you, love will save you, one good nights sleep will save you