winterblooded-blog

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ph. Colin Dodgson

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Saw your face, Heard your name Gotta get with you Girls like Girls Like boys do Nothing new.

Sansa x Margaery aesthetic for @winterblooded

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followers are dropping like flies, better look like this is an actual rp blog every once in a while...

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♛ THE WOLVES HAVE COME AGAIN

Though not yet a man grown, King Brandon Stark had lived a thousand lives and one. During the Long Night, he had seen and done more than most men ever would through the whole course of their lives. Yet, when he returned to Winterfell after the War for the Dawn, he found that his bannermen and bannerwomen looked upon him as they would a child. Worse, a crippled child. No amount of greendreams, skinchanging, nor any other magic would change that. But efforts to earn their respect and prove his worth would.

The restoration of the North was no easy task. Winter and the Boltons had ravaged the land and the people. But with the snows thawed and the flayed men in their graves, the spring that began Bran’s reign could only bring about better times. The young king formed a council around him representing the vast and varied land he was to govern. He called to him she-bears and mermen, Skagosi and Crannogmen, the moose and the silver fists, men of the mountain clans and even the free folk. This was not often a harmonious council in the early days, but together they could work in the interests of every region.

As a man, Bran shifted his focus from rebuilding the North to enhancing the kingdom beyond the state it was in before the wars. That meant taking Lord Manderly’s advice and building ships to give them strength at sea to guard both their coasts. That meant arranging for a few towns to grown into cities with greenhouses to support the people through the long winters. That meant pushing for the wider acceptance of women in leadership positions, an already common reality in his reign given the loss of so many male lords and heirs  in the wars.

Stories that would become myths and legends would remember him as Brandon the Winged Wolf, Brandon Dragonskin, and Brandon the Bringer of Dawn. The histories would regard him as Brandon the Rebuilder, Brandon the Summer King, and King Brandon, the Forty-Fifth of His Name. Though he would never walk on his own legs again, Bran would never be known as Brandon the Broken.

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|| the princess saves herself in this one ||

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WHAT ARE YOUR MUSE’S AESTHETICS?

BOLD ANY WHICH APPLY TO YOUR MUSE. ITALICIZE WHAT THEY LIKE. REMEMBER TO REPOST & NOT REBLOG. FEEL FREE TO ADD TO THE LIST

fire. ice. water. air. claws. fangs. wings. gold. diamonds. grass. leaves. trees. roses. metal. iron. rust. rain. snow. lace. silk. cotton. sun. moon. stars. blood. dirt. mud. silver. steel. sugar. salt. lavender. glass. wood. paper. wool. fur. smoke. ash. ocean. bruise. scar. wind. spices. light. dark. paint. charcoal. wine. hard liquor. sweat. dust. bare feet. canine. feline. coffee. tea. books. scratches. petals. thorns. hay. glitter. heat. cold. steam. frost. candle. sword.dagger. arrow. hammer. shield. spikes. sand. rocks. roots. feathers. pearls. rubies. sapphires. emeralds. herbs. waves. lightning. sunlight. moonlight. clay. stone. brick. lions. wolves. stags. hunting birds. fish. spear. seashells. earth. curly hair. floral scents. horses. birds. red hair. blonde hair. black hair. brown hair. grey hair. unnaturally colored hair.forest. running.

tagged by: @astormcrow tagging: @nihtwulf

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Season 6, man. What a season. 

Have my favorite Stark as this month’s sticker of the month reward. My, has our Little Bird come a long way.

—————————————–

Available on Redbubble!

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[11:50:34 PM] GAYDE-6.: we gotta do a thread where arya tells sansa about what happened with their mother rip [11:50:34 PM] *** georgia vomits tears *** [11:50:40 PM] georgia: NO THANK YOU SIR. [11:50:48 PM] GAYDE-6.: U KNOW U WANT THE PAIN [11:50:57 PM] georgia: I DO BUT I DONT WTF M8

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I was just reading about the War of the Roses and I noticed a resemblance between Sansa Stark and Elizabeth of York. As well as between Henry Tudor, a guy with a dubious claim to the thrown who married someone with a much better bloodline than his (EoY) and Aegon VI (whether or not he is fake). Do you think that is GRRM endgame?

Thanks for the question, Anon.

I definitely see similarities between Sansa and Elizabeth. Like Sansa, Elizabeth was an oldest daughter, the firstborn of the Yorkist king Edward IV and his wife, Elizabeth Woodville. Like Sansa, Elizabeth was a famed beauty with red-gold hair. Like Sansa, Elizabeth grew up in a fairly stable family environment (notwithstanding the time she spent in sanctuary with her mother and sisters in 1470, when her father was temporarily overthrown and Henry VI restored to the throne). Like Sansa, however, Elizabeth experienced a sudden end to this stability when her father died unexpectedly in 1483. Like Sansa, Elizabeth saw one brother come to throne, and like Sansa, Elizabeth’s two younger brothers mysteriously disappeared and were believed to have been murdered. Like Sansa, Elizabeth was viewed as a potential Yorkist heiress, and there were rumors that Richard III planned to wed his niece after the death of Anne Neville (though never, of course, fulfilled). And while Sansa has falsely adopted a bastard identity, Elizabeth of York was actually declared a bastard by Richard (in the neat legal argument that allowed him to take the throne). 

Indeed, I have been a fan for some time now that Sansa will be wed to Aegon. Varys (and Illyrio, but mostly Varys on the Westerosi side) is no fool; he knows that Aegon has to be accepted as the rightful Lord of the Seven Kingdoms by most, if not all, of the Seven Kingdoms if he hopes to reign. Dorne (at least the Martells, but I think a good chunk of their bannermen as well) will unquestionably go to Aegon; he is, after all, half-Martell himself, and with much of Dorne spoiling for war, the conquering young dragon may very well appeal to them. The Golden Company claims to have allies in the Reach, and while I don’t think the Tyrells will jump ship - Aegon will not give Mace more than what the Baratheon-Lannister regime already has (a daughter as queen, reacher lords prominent in the small council, Handship for himself and possibly the regency) - Mathis Rowan and Randyll Tarly certainly seem possible, if not indeed probable, allies even beyond the “friends” so established. Aegon himself has landed in the stormlands and is conquering and rallying the populace to his cause; his capture of the impregnable Storm’s End will be the greatest coup of all. In the west, I believe Varys plans to install Tyrek Lannister, his hostage since the riot in the capital, as a pro-Aegon puppet Lord of Casterly Rock; the west may well rally to a male Lannister claimant unconnected to the scandals in the capital (and I have a feeling Varys will quickly “take care of” Kevan’s poor children). That leaves the North, Riverlands, and Vale - at best neutral, at worst still openly hostile. Sansa is heiress to Winterfell (until and unless Rickon can be produced), heiress to Riverrun (until the birth of her uncle Edmure’s child with Roslin), and currently supported by the Vale lords with her betrothal to Harry Hardyng. If something unfortunate were to happen to Ser Harry, Sansa would be a very attractive candidate for Aegon to wed.  She lends, as Elizabeth of York did, invaluable legitimacy to his claim: her marriage to him would symbolize that the North and Riverlands, and likely Vale as well, considered Aegon a true Targaryen and the rightful heir to the Iron Throne (especially helpful to undermining any Northern-Riverlands support Stannis is amassing).

The Queen Regent (NFriel)

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look okay all I want is a plotted ship with an aegon, pretty please?

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I know I haven’t addressed Sansa’s characterisation in particular - but that’s because I am gutted. I love book!Sansa to pieces. This week, show!Sansa was the latest casualty of the showrunners’ glorification of violence.

You know, I haven’t seen many people say this in so many words, but I find book!Sansa empowering. This character, this female character, who’s in a medieval fantasy setting yet has no serious interest in weapons or in violence, who doesn’t have much of a stomach for violence when confronted with the reality - she’s still portrayed as brave and strong and clever. Gender matters, here, since so many non-violent female characters are depicted as soft and shallow and silly, or else are sexual manipulators (almost always evil sexual manipulators, because the sexuality cannot be separated from the evil when it comes to women), rather than as potential heroes with a different methodology. As a girl with a low tolerance for violence, I really felt the lack in popular media, growing up. As a grown woman with a low tolerance for violence, reading Sansa’s storyline really meant a lot to me.

And please, nobody take my angst over losing book!Sansa’s specific characterisation as a general “no female character should be violent ever” sort of thing. It isn’t. Can’t help it though: book!Sansa speaks to me personally in large part because she’s got very little serious interest in physically hurting other people, and still fights for justice and tries to save people.

Brienne’s no chance, and no choice is one of the most badass, righteous, hell yeah moments in the entire series, but this

“A cask from the cellars! I’ll see him drowned in it!’

Sansa heard herself gasp. “No, you can’t.”

and this

Joffrey looked for a moment as if he meant to ride [the woman holding her child’s corpse] down, but Sansa Stark leaned over and said something to him. The king fumbled in his purse, and flung the woman a silver stag.

are just as brave, and GRRM means for us to see those acts as brave. No violence on Sansa’s part, just words and courage. I am so disappointed that the showrunners didn’t think she was “strong enough” without the rape-revenge arc of the past two seasons. (Again, I cannot emphasise this enough, I don’t have any problems with people fighting back against their abusers and don’t wish to imply otherwise. What we saw last episode wasn’t any sort of self-defence. It was cold-blooded murder for revenge.) I’m so disappointed with the presentation of aforementioned cold-blooded murder as strength and justice that I can’t even get angry. I’m disappointed that the showrunners thought that what would really improve the arc of one of my favourite generally non-violent characters was more violence. Variety, please. We can’t all be Arya, but that doesn’t make all non-Arya people weak.

As for book!Sansa’s future in TWoW and ADoS, while I don’t expect Sansa to take down Littlefinger without violence full stop (my personal theory is that Littlefinger is executed fairly for a crime he truly committed, a counterpoint to what he did to Ned), I do expect the meat of her victory over him to be accomplished with words. What will make her victory a victory will be in what she says, and not in the fact that Littlefinger dies.

Show!Sansa’s murder of Ramsay also came in an episode that showed off just how badly Jon Snow was botched in adaptation, and in a similar way. The Jon Snow of the books got a big lecture on playing the action hero all the way back in book one:

“Your brother is in the field with all the power of the north behind him. Any one of his lords bannermen commands more swords than you’ll find in all the Night’s Watch. Why do you imagine that they need your help? Are you such a mighty warrior, or do you carry a grumkin in your pocket to magic up your sword?”

Commander Mormont’s sarcastic words clearly fell flat for the showrunners, because in the show Jon is such a mighty warrior. How many Bolton soldiers did he kill last episode? How many wights at Hardhome? And the White Walker, don’t forget the White Walker.

In the books, Jon accomplishes important things by talking and negotiating, things show!Jon has notably failed at, when he’s even tried. The change to Jon provides additional evidence that the showrunners genuinely believe that violence is a necessary component of real strength, and that violent conflict resolution is better than non-violent.

(There are discussions to be had about the show’s depiction of Davos and the Tyrells, particularly Margaery. Davos gets his non-violent heroic story beats - but they accomplish nothing. Margaery is a non-violent character who’s depicted positively - but the focus on her political machinations is sexual, and recently it’s not clear how effective she’s been either. This doesn’t invalidate any benevolent goals, nor the positivity of her depiction, it just falls into an uncomfortable cliche in many ways. Show!Margaery is nowhere near the sort of character book!Sansa is.)

GRRM isn’t anti-war and anti-violence across the board. He’s got a solid appreciation for when violence is a moral necessity. But one of the things that I love so much about this series is that violence isn’t treated narratively as the only, default, or best option, and the characters who prefer to and excel in finding and implementing non-violent or minimally violent methods of resolving conflicts get as much (or more, depending) authorial respect as the out-and-out warriors. 

The showrunners, on the other hand, they choose violence. 

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m o m, a title just above q u e e n. (catelyn and sansa stark)

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character aesthetics: the modern princess

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Every time George R.R. Martin talks about the books on the Game of Thrones commentary: Supercut

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marlowe.

                     Every part of him yearned to scream yes.  Of course he would be staying.  Where else could he possibly go?  Marlowe wished to give her that sense of comfort in knowing that he would always be there for her.  Come rain or shine.  He would ALWAYS be a constant in her life.  However, promising such a thing would be foolish.  In his experience, there would always be something to come along and threaten all sense of home.  Whether it come in the form of a threatening band of hunters or something far more trivial in the grand scheme of things.  Fate had dug her claws into him and promised to tear him asunder.

There’s a faltering smile that struggles against all odds.  Words fall silent as he watches her, an explanation just dancing at the tip of his tongue.  There was simply no lying to her - even if it meant preserving any semblance of normalcy.  Hunters had come in search of a werewolf, intent on shooting before asking any questions.  He had caught their scent long before she would and left before the morning came.  What played out after that was a dangerous mixture of blood and violence.

             ❛ Of course,❜  he responds, against better judgement.  A promise made in the heat of the moment.  One that he would hope to keep.      ❛ Hunters came in the dead of night. I feared they would harm you, so I led them on a wild goose chase.  The situation soon became far too complicated for my liking.  I needed to know that they would NEVER come back here.  I needed to know that they would NEVER find you. ❜

        She didn’t need these newly acquired heightened senses to understand that his commitment to staying might not have been the strongest. The half-hearted smile, the extended pause for an answer-- for a moment or so, his eyes struggled to meet her own. Those lovely blue eyes, as enchanting and dangerous as the sea-- how she had MISSED them, even if they filled with worry and no longer the admiration she had yearned for. Sansa put her book away, right between Da Vinci and Durer, and quietly hoped her little pleased smile was not too broad, too OBVIOUS.

        “Hunters?” There was a moment or two when her happiness was cut short, swiftly turned to confusion. To Sansa, hunters meant little more than farmers with rifles, those awful people who took JOY out of death. The concept of being hunted for what she was, for what they were, was a sensation akin to being thrown in ice water. Here she had been so furious with him for leaving her high and dry, alone in the wild with no one to turn to-- and all he had done was PROTECT her. She hadn’t asked him to, and frankly he had no obligation to her either. All reservations were forgotten as she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him, a sob stifled against his chest. “Marlowe!”