#// Tyrion is a kinder character

[littlebird-whitewolf]

rant incoming!

sandor: you’ve changed, little bird. none if it would’ve happened if you’d left king’s landing with me. no little finger, no ramsay, none of it.

sansa: without little finger and ramsay and the rest, i would’ve stayed a little bird all my life.

let’s not forget the hound had just before this brought up her violent rape as if mocking her or rubbing it in her face. with no verbal rebuttal from her about that. it left such a sour taste in my mouth when i watched it

it’s as if he’s mad at her for not having responded to his lust for her with love and trust when she was a CHILD being held hostage by her family’s enemy who had killed her father and brother, and as if he hadn’t been serving said family the whole time

out of the many things i didn't like about how the writers ruined the last season, this one stands out the most- being one that still boggles my mind (including a sansa gif because i need to see my beautiful girl and calm down)

them making sansa casually dismiss her horrific past and basically absolving her abusers by saying that. and it's so tiring because sansa h@ters will always bring up how she was an outsider to the starks because she "betrayed" her family and also "sucks because she's not a tomboy like arya or has dragons like d@nny" BUt the moment you bring up the fact that she was also a literal child, held hostage and abused for years, that all the men in her life were abusers, even the "kinder" ones because they wanted something from her, they first of all dismiss all that by denying that their fav male characters (tyrion, sandor) are not pr3dators and secondly, saying her abuse is in the past and doesn't matter anyway because she said herself that "without ... and all the rest, [she] would have remained a little bird all [her] life"

it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

#sansa stark #got #asoiaf #personal #this keeps me up at night #excuse typos #it's 3am #anti tyrion #anti got #anti sandor

[blog-of-a-multitude-of-fandoms]

Tent- Robb Stark (1)

Pairing: Robb Stark x Lannister!Reader

Characters: Robb Stark

Warnings: N/A

Request: Wattpad- Before Robb Stark made his promise to the twins he capture Jaimie Lannister and Y/N Hill (Tywin Lannister bastard). She was chained up right beside her brother before Robb Command his m’en to unchain her and giver her a proper tent and let her be bath and have food. Robb starts to fall for her and decides to marry her so she can have a stark name and be a queen in the North since she not treated well by her siblings accept Tyrion of cours. Tywin Lannister agréés to it and give back his sisters and Robb give back Jamie to the Lannister

Word Count: 452

Author: Charlotte

It was a sad day when your closest bonding moment with your brother was being locked in a cage together. Both of you were handcuffed and chained by the neck to the support beams of the cage that you were to call home, only getting uncuffed momentarily to eat or to use the toilet- if they remembered that is. The Stark’s had only grabbed you because you were with Jaime, they knew as well as you did that, they weren’t going to get anything from having you as a bargaining chip, but they could get a lot to benefit them in exchange for your brother.

Tywin cared little for you, less than he did for Tyrion, at least he held the Lannister name. You could only thank that he let you somewhat spend time with your siblings growing up but the fact that he plastered the name Hill after Y/N, made it clear to them and everyone else that you were not their equal, barely even their sister, just the bastard. Tywin and Cersei made it clear every chance they got you were not like them, at least your brothers were kinder.

You fidgeted in the dirt patch that had become your home over the last few days, trying to test the chain of the handcuffs against the post, hoping that somehow you could break them. It hadn’t worked the last hundred times you had tried, but maybe it would work now. Even though you had been dressed far more modestly than Jaime, no need to flaunt who you were, but for once you seemed like equals, covered in mud and smelling worse than the horses tied up near the cage.

“You’re not going to break out,” Jaime stated.

“Maybe I could,” you frowned back.

He rolled his eyes at you. “We’ll be let go eventually, we’re too valuable to kill, father will trade anything to get our safe return.”

It was your turn to roll your eyes at him. You didn’t know if he was just stupid or if he really considered that you were equals, but it had never been lost on you that you were as good as the dirt below your boots in comparison to the true Lannister’s.

“There is no ‘we’, Jaime,” you corrected. “You are valuable, I could be killed any moment to send a message. Tywin would send an army to get you back, he likely wouldn’t even read the letter telling him I was captive.”

“He wouldn’t leave you as a prisoner of the north.”

“Wouldn’t he?” You questioned. “I am not a Lannister, I will never be a Lannister.”

Jaime went to argue but was cut short by the cage door being unlocked.

#Tent #Request #Part 1 #Robb Stark #Robb Stark Imagine #Robb Stark One Shot #Game of Thrones #Game of Thrones Imagine #Game of Thrones One Shot #GOT #GOT Imagine #GOT One Shot #Charlotte

[melrosing]

Anon from yesterday 👋. Sorry irl stuff got in the way. I'm not super well versed in your content but so far I do think you talk about her in a way that isn't "Cersei is an evil bitch just because" and i deff said as much in my first ask. I also fully understand the internalized misogyny in a mother not liking her daughters as much as her sons and that's where you were going with for Joanna. What I noticed when i saw your AU was that BOTH Joanna (her thoughts/feelings) and the AU itself (themes etc) are more outwardly negative and less symphatetic towards her than the others.

And IT'S SO HARD FOR ME TO EXPLAIN THIS VIA ASK BOX but i am basically going to reemphasize what I said before and also say that i think there is a bias for imagining AUs that put cersei in a more negative (and less…idk kinder? gentler? considerate?) light than her brothers whether it's one dimensional or complex and I noticed that in your AU as well, as if she was always doomed to have a dark cloud over her head while her brothers got even a tiny bit of shine and light. I can provide examples if you wish to continue the convo. Anyways I don't mean to overstay my welcome so i'll just leave this as a case of us having very similar ideals but different ways of interpreting them. And btw that other anon was dead ass wrong about what they said about me. Like I promise I don't see her as a sweet angel victim and ignore how ugly and fucked up she is (esp the book version). I am genuinely SO sorry this ask got as long as it did.

no worries, I'm happy to discuss! but honestly, I'm kind of at a loss with what choices I made in this particular AU led you to ask whether I even liked Cersei as a character.

the whole thing (at least where concerns Jaime and Cersei) is based on the conjecture of what might happen to the relationships between the twins and their mother if she had gone ahead and shipped Cersei to Dorne - which, had Joanna survived, I think is highly likely to have happened, i.e. it was on the verge of becoming a canon event. and I think it only makes sense to conclude that Joanna and Cersei's relationship would take a semi-catastrophic hit if it did. like, that is a very heavy thing to do to a seven-year-old, and Cersei has always had a keen sense of injustice and sure can harbour a grudge, so I think she'd take it especially hard.

then of course the misogynistic motherhood is just something that I thought made Joanna's relationship with both Jaime and Cersei more interesting, because it means she can't truly see either of them clearly. in my mind it just makes sense for a Lannister, certainly for the wife of Tywin, and what we know of Joanna makes me feel she had some level of reverence of patriarchal structures. so, threw that in.

and also tbh, it's just more interesting to me than the notion that all the dead ladies of asoiaf would've been these girlboss mums teaching their girls to be lovely ladies or feisty villainesses, like it's just.... so boring to me lmao. like one thing with Catelyn (who I do adore) is that I kind of wish GRRM would go harder on her relationship with Arya. sounds like there's some tension there, old man. well, bust it open!!

so there's my reasoning: I picture Joanna as a deeply flawed mother who, in a moment of both protectiveness and prejudice against her daughter effectively exiles a seven-year-old who won't forgive her for it, and everything else spins from there.

and I guess I just feel like we're splitting hairs a bit here because I don't think I've produced anything that much happier in the AU for Jaime or Tyrion?? like I said of Jaime that he essentially has a distant relationship w his mother for the rest of her life, gets hitched to Lysa in an entirely loveless marriage, and lives probably a quite unfulfilling adulthood. Tyrion in the meantime.... I mean basically all I've given Tyrion is a different kind of abusive relationship with a parent lmao, and a life of isolation and toxic companionship. again, I think it'd be boring to have Joanna purely adore Tyrion or utterly despise him, so why not both.

and idk. I don't think either of the above is me gifting the Lannister boys something I'm refusing Cersei? like sure you could take it that way, but I suppose I'm just surprised that this disparity has struck you so much so that you think I must dislike Cersei to have even written it. you're welcome to provide examples if you like, bc honestly I figured it must be something substantially more than this AU that led you to send me the message - which is why I asked if you had some familiarity with the rest of my Cers posts, I assumed you must've read more than just this AU to make you ask that??

#ask

[agentrouka-blog]

I don't like Val very much, the only interesting part of the character were her interactions with Jon other than that you could replace with carboard box and it would not make a diffrence

That's the sad part. She should be much more interesting and complex, and she utterly could be! All it would take is a few mentions of personal background or how she actually feels about... anything other than child murder. She's the wildling version of Sansa, in terms of circumstances, and she’s been around since early ASOS, how hard can it be? Grief over Dalla and Jarl? Interactions with anyone outside Jon? Details of her imprisonment life outside a stray stabbing? Details of anything about her life before the great migration, outside of who she was sleeping with? Nothing.

It's sort of as if GRRM only ever gave us Sansa through Tyrion's POV. Jon is a much kinder lens, but it’s still superficial as heck, and he projects onto her and - apparently - doesn't have much interest in contemplating any of the actual particulars.  Jon's POV gives us no depth to Val because GRRM didn't make him care about it. The lack of connection is intentional, the opacity is intentional. It’s not about exploring his relationship with Val, it’s about Jon not seeing Val beyond his own projected ideals and fantasies. And then having that shattered when she contradicts these projections. Just like with Ygritte. That’s her purpose in the text. Everything leads toward this line in their final interaction in the books:

This was a Val that Jon had never seen before. (ADWD, Jon XI)

Beyond that, she remains opaque. We don't even get a different angle on her from Mel's POV. A bit of a waste. It’s clear she has much more potential than what GRRM intended to use her for.

Perhaps he will give us a little more depth in the future, when he no longer has to signal that she’s Not A Serious Love Interest. For now. she remains a plot device. A foreshadowing device. 

#anti val #not really but you know #anti jon x val #grrm critical

[esther-dot]

I agree with the anon that one should not disregard or diminish the trauma and abuse of the characters. I wanted to say that fans should also not use trauma and abuse to justify the crimes of their faves. The way Hound, Tyrion and Dany fans used victim card to justify their crimes is gross. Even I have seen that some of darker deeds of Ary@, Jon and Bran are absolved because of their trauma, age or they are heroes. I really liked your response to the anon.

(about this ask)

Thank you! I know our part of the fandom really cares about abuse victims, so I always want to take that kind of concern seriously.

I’m not sure which characters my anon was talking about. I mentioned those three characters (the Hound, Tyrion, Dany) because I’ve talked about them pretty negatively. However, my anon could have been thinking of someone like Theon who we feel horrible for although some of us still criticize. I have made the blanket statement that I think child murder is Martin’s red line, so perhaps that’s the character they wish we’d be more careful in discussing. Or it might be objecting to how often I just call certain characters “villain” rather than antagonist or something kinder. I’ve likely called the Hound pretty nasty things. Not sure, so I hope anon continues the conversation!

There’s a lot of power in sympathy, wisdom too, as someone’s trauma goes a long way in explaining how they function, and therefore, it’s key to helping them, but in a story, the author is talking about specific ideas with his characters, and conveying what he thinks about certain issues, so even if our instinct is to over-identify with a character and defend them at their worst, because we’re consumed by our feelings, doing that can mean neglecting to keep track of Martin’s thoughts on an issue. For example, I’ve seen Hound stans focus so much on his feelings that they refuse to admit that he assaulted Sansa when he held a knife to her throat. That’s not what we’re meant to do. So I agree with you. We shouldn’t downplay the abuse a character suffers just because they’re a villain (I find it upsetting to read about Cersei mistreating infant Tyrion), we shouldn’t ignore how they hurt others either, or deny the wrong heroes do just because we love them. It’s difficult to do that because of our own feelings at times, but I’ve seen Sansa fans criticize how Martin has written Arya because to them, it is too dark, and I’ve also seen fans criticize Jon for crossing a line when he forced Gilly into the baby switch. I’m not sure that any of us have criticized Bran though? He’s pretty beloved!

#ask dot

[waitingforwinterwinds]

A Clash of Kings - 67 TYRION XV (pages 840-849)

Tyrion wakes from a fever dream to discover the aftermath of the battle.

-

From the pyres of the dead rose black columns of smoke and white-hot ashes. My work, thought Tyrion Lannister, they died at my command. At first there was no sound in the world, but after a time he began to hear the voices of the dead, soft and terrible. They wept and they moaned, they begged for an end to pain, they cried for help and wanted their mothers.

I get the feeling that's not the dead, but the dying and wounded he's hearing. I suspect he's in a ward somewhere with the rest of the 'survivors' fading in and out of consciousness, and that's the ward he's hearing, not the dead. Or it could be a fever induced manifestation of his guilt for leading the charge out of the gates and giving commands leading to the excessive amounts of destruction and death that occurred during the Battle of Blackwater.

... yeah, this dream is definitely deep seated issues. Some one get this man some therapy.

My own bed, I am in my own bed, in my own bedchamber.

Hmmm, so did he get moved from a triage ward, or was it only ever his guilt crying?

I am very concerned though, at his mention of lying in his own filth. The nursing staff (if they exist) is either spread very thin, or they just aren't doing proper care. Yes, I know it's the gross part no one wants to talk about when they wax poetic on nursing as a job, but it is still an important part of the job.

The maester inserted a curved copper funnel through the feeding hole over his mouth and poured a slow trickle down his throat.

Fun fact: copper (and its alloys brass and bronze) are antimicrobial. Using brass fitting like light switches and door-handles in hospitals has a recorded history of lowering in hospital transmissions for contact transfers. The down side is the fittings get smelly because of skin cells.

I wonder if the maesters know that, if they understand what's happening, or if they just know there's some kind of correlation... or if GRRM just picked a cheap metal that can be shaped and used without lead-poisoning someone and it's pure coincidence.

... Tysha deserves a kinder world. Most of the characters do tbh. She's a lot more present in the books than I was expecting, just btw. She got like, one mention in Tyrion's tragic backstory speech and then it's like D&D forgot she existed even though she's come up several time in his chapters since. Like, Tysha was a fundamental part of his formative experiences, in making Tyrion who he was. I get that it can be hard to translate those things across to screen, but I get the feeling they didn't even try.

"- When we found you down in that cellar with the dead and dying, your wounds were filthy. -"

Ah, so he was in a ward... "ward." sounds like a dumping ground more than a medical ward.

Cersei must have paid him to see that I never came back from the battle. Why else? I never did Ser Mandon any harm that I know of.

If true, it's the first huge flag that behind her ruthlessness and political savvy, Cersei is a giant idiot. Oh, I'm sure it made some kind of sense to her, at the very least preventing him from being a hero, a martyr is fine, probably, but alive and a hero? He'd continue to have political sway. Plus he knows things, I guess. Still not a super bright move.

... I keep wanting to call this maester Babar, but that's not his name.

...Oh, poor Pod. He had to Team Kill a guy, Mandon totally deserved it for being a Team Killing jerk first! But that battle was probably really hard on Pod. He is such a good boy, and he is doing amazing.

#a clash of kings #a song of ice and fire #tyrion lannister #a chapter a day reading #acok #asoiaf

[jackoshadows]

How come you're more accepting of SanSan than Bra/ime? If Brienne deserves better than Jaime, then Sansa deserves better than Sandor. If Braime is bad because of the age difference, so is Sansan.

I don't care about SanSan because I don't care about either Sansa or Sandor as characters.  I don't ship it, I don't have a problem with people who ship it. I am indifferent to everything Sansa.

SanSan is a canon ship. The author has mentioned playing around with it in the books. Sansa is imagining kissing the Hound and making up kisses - the Unkiss - in her mind. Sansa is attracted to the Hound. They have a beauty and beast theme.

However, I find it ridiculous that SanSan shippers (Sansa is 11/12 when the Hound first meets her) are policing the fandom on how Arya should not be called 'pretty' because apparently that's sexualizing her and we are therefore pedophiles for pointing out that both Ned and Jon called Arya 'pretty' in the books.

And secondly considering that some of the most popular ships in the fandom are SanSan and Braime, it's ridiculously hypocritical for people to single out, mock and bully Rhaegar/Lyanna shippers for age gaps and attack people because their ships have abuse or incest or consent issues and all that when 90% of the ships in this series are problematic.

With respect to Braime, I actually like Brienne as a character. I am invested in Brienne and her journey. I think Brienne deserves a much better person who loves her for who she is. However, just like with SanSan, Braime is a canon ship. While I dislike the ship, I have no issues with the people who ship it. I acknowledge that Jaime is important to Brienne and her character arc. Unless it's in response to an anon ask, I rarely talk about Braime. It's just not my cup of tea.

So that's the difference. I don't care about SanSan because I don't care about either Sansa or Sandor as characters. On the other hand, I like Brienne and as a fan I want to see her character interact with another kinder, handsome chap or a fellow lady who likes the sword.

This comes back to my point about how I can only ship characters I like. I ship Jonrya because I like both Jon and Arya. I ship Jon and Dany because I like both Jon and Dany. I don't ship Braime because I don't like Jaime. I don't ship SanSan because I couldn't care less about Sansa or Sandor.

I don't understand shippers who hate one half of their pairing - like Jonsa for ex. It makes no sense to me. And also Jonsa is just all around terrible. A bunch of toxic shippers who sit around hating every character not named Sansa in order to somehow shove their obnoxious crack ship into the books with badly written fanfiction masquerading as 'Metas' and theories.

I may not like SanSan but it IS canon unlike Jonsa.

I can understand why someone who likes Sansa does not want to ship Sansa with all the characters that GRRM has paired with her - Sandor, Tyrion, Littlefinger, Harry the Heir etc. And hence Jonsa. Unfortunately for these Sansa fans, Jonsa is not the story the author is telling. Sansa has no connection with Jon whatsoever.

I would love to see Brienne and Alysanne Mormont meet in the future (I liked Aly's interaction with Asha in ADwD) and think she would have good chemistry with Brienne.  Brienne fell for Renly because he was kind towards her. Maybe if no Lord learns to appreciate her for who she is, it will be a Lady. Maybe she meets Willas Tyrell who is intelligent and kind. As much as I loathe the show, Brienne/Tormund >>> Braime. Tormund appreciated Brienne for the Goddess she is, even if she didn’t reciprocate. However you don't see me writing metas about how Bri/Aly is going to happen in the books do you? Because Brienne/Alysanne or Brienne/Willas Tyrell or Brienne/Tormund has as much chance of happening in the books as Jonsa.

So Jonsa is never going to be canon and hating on Arya, Dany and any character close to Jon and mutating book Jon into an unrecognizable blob is not going to help and all it is doing is turning the rest of fandom against them.

GRRM is an old white guy writing the popular 90's bodice ripper trope of 'forced seduction' with his couples - yes, even with Jon/Ygritte. Ygritte is older and essentially forces Jon to sleep with her. GRRM thinks Dany/Drogo is consensual seduction. Yes, this is problematic. However many shippers also like this trope and that is why they enjoy SanSan. Does not mean SanSan shippers are endorsing abuse. Fiction is not reality.

The most annoying thing about Braime/SanSan ships is the Sandor and Jaime apologism from some people. Basically, folks who try and twist things to make Jaime/Sandor out to be nice guys and write long posts about why Sandor and Jaime trying to kill children is justified and makes sense and poor, poor bby Jaime was manipulated and used by evil bitch Cersei and it’s not his fault etc.  I would rather folks acknowledge that these characters have done terrible things and GRRM is writing a pretty basic, old fashioned ‘the love of a woman changes them for the better’ romance arc. Nothing new or trope busting about these ships. They have been around since forever in romance novels.

#asks

[reginarubie]

Sansa month 2022, day 24 ~ prayer

The world was made partly that there may be prayer; partly that our prayer might be answered. — C.S. Lewis

Sansa V, ACOK

She sang along with grizzled old serving men and anxious young wives, with serving girls and soldiers, cooks and falconers, knights and knaves, squires and spit boys and nursing mothers. She sang with those inside the castle walls and those without, sang with all the city. She sang for mercy, for the living and the dead alike, for Bran and Rickon and Robb, for her sister Arya and her bastard brother Jon Snow, away off on the Wall. She sang for her mother and her father, for her grandfather Lord Hoster and her uncle Edmure Tully, for her friend Jeyne Poole, for old drunken King Robert, for Septa Mordane and Ser Dontos and Jory Cassel and Maester Luwin, for all the brave knights and soldiers who would die today, and for the children and the wives who would mourn them, and finally, toward the end, she even sang for Tyrion the Imp and for the Hound. He is no true knight but he saved me all the same, she told the Mother. Save him if you can, and gentle the rage inside him.

— Sansa V, ACOK

Gentle Mother, font of mercy, Save our sons from war, we pray. Stay the swords and stay the arrows, Let them know a better day. Gentle Mother, strength of women, Help our daughters through this fray. Soothe the wrath and tame the fury, Teach us all a kinder way. — the hymn of the Mother

Sansa is — at a first look — connected to the Maiden, yet the prayer she says for sure, the one deeply connected with her — the hymn to which is given relevance — is that of the Mother (which she sings to the Hound to gentle his wrath and save her own life “sing for your little life”) and in that same chapter we see Sansa's prayers, for all of her family, for the living and the dead, for the soldiers who might die and those they will leave behind if they do — like a mother she prays.

In the sept they sing for the Mother's mercy but on the walls it's the Warrior they pray to, and all in silence. She remembered how Septa Mordane used to tell them that the Warrior and the Mother were only two faces of the same great god. — Sansa V, ACOK

And the hymn of the Mother asks to protect the sons from war and teach the girls a gentler way, to soothe the fury of mothers and their wrath. Sansa's prayers are usually positive — she prays for mercy and for victory, for peace — but at times they are vengeful and when they are delivered she is aghast and wonders if the Gods have heard her vengeful prayer.

Prayer is deeply connected with Sansa, she's the only one of the main characters who is showed praying and so often. She prays even when she thinks the Gods are silent. She prays of safety and for a saviour, but as septa Mordane said the Mother and the Warrior are but one face of the same God and she's learning to be her own saviour — in the same way as she ignored Tyrion's attempt at manipulating her in Sansa III, ACOK, when he tells her that as soon as Robb bends the knee he'll send her home, and she still engineers her own escape from KL. Prayer is soothing for her. Prayer is belief. And belief makes thing happen.

for Sansamonth 2022, day 24 ~ prayer

#sansamonth2022 #sansaappreciationfest2022 #day 24 #prayer #sansa prays to the Mother #Sansa embodying the Mother and learning to embody the Warrior

[joanna-lannister]

you may have answered this already but, what do you think would have changed for the lannister family if joanna had lived? i know she tried to separate JC but do you think she would have been kind to tyrion? do you think she could have found a way for Cersei to marry Rhaegar? and if so would Cersei have been happier (certainly more than with robert i think but ???)

would love your thoughts

Yes, I have already replied to similar questions, but I can't find them anymore.

I do think she would have been kinder to Tyrion than Tywin was, and she would have noticed how smart he was. Also, I think Tywin would not resent him as much as he did because Joanna did live. A lot of Tywin's resentment boils down to the fact Joanna died after all. He might be ashamed of having a son that is a dwarf, but Joanna, the woman he loves, would be alive.

As for Cersei marrying Rhaegar, I don't think that would have happened because Aerys was against the match. But IF it would have happened, I don't think Cersei would have been happier with Rhaegar. I know I replied to an ask similar not so long ago, but Rhaegar's character, his melancholy and his obsession for the prophecy, would have bored Cersei to death. Also, he would have forced pregnancy over pregnancy upon her, and I don't think Cersei would have liked this lack of agency.

On the other hand, Joanna would have taught Cersei how to scheme and not resenting as much the fact she is a woman in patriarcal world, I believe.

Also, I do think Joanna being alive wouldn't have prevented Jaime and Cersei's relationship to happen. They had already started it when she was alive, and the way she tried to separate them wouldn't have been efficient in my opinion. 😬

Thank you for the ask ❤️✨

#anon #answered

[winterfell-fantasy]

how you meet - got preference

my first work on this new blog! if you don’t know, I also own @twilightt-fantasy​ but I wanted a blog for game of thrones as well! requests for game of thrones is open on this blog, so feel free to send in as many as you want! check the rules before!

if you don’t see a (male) character you like, feel free to message me and I can add them!

characters in this preference: jon snow, robb stark, edmure tully, theon greyjoy, ramsay bolton, joffrey baratheon, sandor clegane, bronn, tyrion lannister, jaime lannister, tywin lannister, jorah mormont, mance rayder, tormund giantsbane.

gifs not mine

| Jon Snow

You and Jon Snow met when he went ranging north of the wall. You were a Wildling and had accidentally stumbled upon Jon and his group of Crows. The men you were with were ready to attack before you stepped in, demanding to know what they were doing. Jon was taken back by your dominance between the men, and he caught himself watching you throughout the entire encounter. 

| Robb Stark

You and Robb Stark met when you traveled to Winterfell for the first time. You were Robert Baratheon and Cersei Lannister’s child and had accompanied them after Jon Arryn’s death. Instead of Sansa and Joffrey uniting the two houses, it was decided that you and Robb would marry instead. He was sweet and kind to you, despite the circumstances and you found yourself falling for his charms and good looks. 

| Edmure Tully

You and Edmure Tully met when you accompanied Robb Stark and his armies to the Riverlands. He was taken with you immediately and the attention was returned by you. The two of you were very shy around each other and Edmure had to endure teasing from Catelyn after you had left the room. 

| Theon Greyjoy

You and Theon Greyjoy met when Ramsay first captured him. You were horrified to see what Ramsay was doing to the poor man and took pity on him instantly. When Ramsay was gone from the room, you rushed to Theon’s aid, allowing him to drink and clean himself before Ramsay came back for another round of torture. 

| Ramsay Bolton

You and Ramsay Bolton met when you come to Winterfell with Sansa and Petyr. He was supposed to marry Sansa, but you caught his eye as soon as he saw you. He tried to talk to his father about marrying you instead, but you wouldn’t secure the north like Sansa would. He unnerved you when he spoke to you and he knew it. He made sure people knew he was more interested in you. 

| Joffrey Baratheon

You and Joffrey Baratheon met when your families arrange a marriage between the two of you. You weren’t excited in the slightest way - you had heard of Joffrey and his actions as king and Sansa Stark’s warnings didn’t diminish your fears. While he was charming for your first encounter, you remained wary and guarded around him. 

| Sandor Clegane

You and Sandor Clegane met when you were riding along the mountains. You had nearly had a heart when you saw the large man laying on his back, caked in mud and blood. You rushed back to your family home to get help for him and brought him back to your house, nursing him back to health. 

| Bronn

You and Bronn met when he and Tyrion returned to Kings Landing. He was awestruck the moment you greeted the pair, though he was used to beautiful people by that point. It was your wit and humor that had him paying more attention to you, and he continuously asked Tyrion why he hadn’t met you earlier. 

| Tyrion Lannister

You and Tyrion Lannister met when he met Daenerys. You were a good friend of hers, often times with a kinder heart. You convinced her to listen to Tyrion and give the man a chance as her advisor. Tyrion was grateful to you, taking time out his busy days to spend time and learn more about you. 

| Jaime Lannister

You and Jaime Lannister met when he was taken prisoner by Catelyn Stark. He was very cocky around you at first and you couldn’t stand him most of the time. However, he grew on you throughout the days you were there, leaving you with a new perspective every time you spoke to him. You tried not to be disappointed when Catelyn set him free, though you couldn’t help missing the man. 

| Tywin Lannister

You and Tywin Lannister met when the Tyrells came to Kings Landing. Cersei had refused to marry Ser Loras, insisting there was another way to unite the houses besides Joffrey and Margaery. Tywin had had his eyes on you anyway, and promised Cersei he would speak with Olenna about him marrying you instead. 

| Jorah Mormont

You and Jorah Mormont met when he first began to serve Daenerys. You were her older sister and just as pretty as Daenerys was. He was always shy in your presence but you noticed how his eyes lingered on you if you were in a larger environment with more threats. Though he was there to serve Dany, you felt as if he were more concerned over your safety as some points. 

| Mance Rayder

You and Mance Rayder met when your Wildling group joined his army. He was amused by your personality, at the fire that coursed through your veins. You were a great fighter and were passionate about the members of your group. The two of you became close very quickly, always making sure you had one another’s backs. 

| Tormund Giantsbane

You and Tormund Giantsbane met after the death of Mance. You, like Gilly, were under the protection of Jon and Sam Tarly. He was very cocky when he met you, asking too personal questions and sometimes too close in your personal space. You warmed up to him eventually, liking his cheerful, joking nature. 

#game of thrones #game of thrones imagines #game of thrones imagine #game of thrones preference #preferences #jon snow imagine #robb stark imagine #mance rayder #jorah mormont imagine #tormund giantsbane imagine #ramsay bolton imagine #sandor clegane imagine #tyrion lannister imagine #jaime lannister imagine #tywin lannister imagine

[megsironthrone]

Meg's Game of Tales: Tale 6

*Familiar characters are NEVER mine! The original "Beauty and the Beast" is the work of Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve.*

Warnings: Beauty and the Beast AU. Angst. A little fluff??

Pairings: Varys x reader

Varys considered himself a man of intelligence. He was always one step ahead of most people (Tyrion excluded). So how had he ended up banished to an almost forgotten little village on the outskirts of a looming and foreboding castle that no one else seemed to notice or rather didn't want to talk about? It made no sense to him, but that little village would end up changing his life in ways in never would have expected.

Curiosity was one of Varys' more troublesome traits. He was always curious about what people would say or do in certain situations. So, when no one could tell him anything about the castle or its inhabitants, Varys took it upon himself to find out. Before he'd had a network of spies to do that for him. In this new place, he was on his own. With that in mind, he set out toward the castle on the other side of the forest.

As he traveled deeper into the dank woods, the atmosphere shifted. The air felt stifled and heavy. The light was nearly gone despite the fact that it had been early morning when Varys set out. There was something dark in that place and Varys found himself spooked for the first time in a long time. He was half tempted to turn back, but once again, his curiosity got the better of him. He had a need to know everything about everyone wherever he went. This was no different. So he pressed on.

It felt like he'd been traveling for hours when he finally made it to the castle. The air was even denser and the sky even darker. The castle itself was also dark and looked to be falling into disrepair. Stones were cracked. Walls were covered in ivy. Snow crunched under Varys' feet which surprised him. There was no snow anywhere else along his journey or in the village. That was when he truly knew why no one wanted to talk about the castle. There was almost certainly a curse upon the place.

A low growl caught Varys' attention. He turned to see a pack of wolves circling around the gate of the castle. These wolves were hunting and Varys was not about to attempt a return to the village in the middle of a hunting pack. He was sure they wouldn't attack, but wild animals were unpredictable. That left only one option that didn't lead to him freezing to death. He had to enter the castle.

To his surprise, the door opened easily. "Hello?" he called as he entered the castle. It was cold and dark except for the light coming from one room. A fire. Varys slowly walked toward the room only to nearly trip on an old clock. He bent down to pick it up.

"Will you please put me down?!" Varys nearly dropped the antique. A talking clock?! "You need to set me down and leave. Immediately! Before the master finds you here!" Varys brows furrowed. "Honestly, can't you see he's chilled to the bone?"another voice asked, "We can't just throw him out!" Varys glanced down to see a candelabra and a teapot looking up at him.

"It seems I was correct. This place is cursed," he muttered, but the household objects heard him anyway. They all looked crestfallen. "Yes…a sorcerer cursed our master, the castle, and all of us. As well as the people of the nearby village. It will take a special person to break the curse…so far, no one has been successful and it has been ten years already."

"And how is the curse to be broken?" Varys asked. There was a small part of his brain that was calling himself stupid for talking to a candlestick. "We cannot say. The curse forbids it." Varys sighed. Damn his curiosity. "Come, let us take you to the fire to warm up and I'll fix you a nice spot of tea," the teapot offered. Varys thought about declining, but he didn't want to face the snow and wolves outside. So he reluctantly agreed.

He was hardly in his seat when he heard what sounded like another growl. "Who are you?!" Varys jumped in his seat and turned around. Whatever he had been expecting, this wasn't it. Honestly he was expecting a beast. A monster of some sort. What stood before him was a person. Albeit, this person was scarred and their face was twisted into an expression of pure rage. "You are not welcome here!"

"Master, please. This poor man has lost his way. The wolves…" Your face hardened further. "So, you decided to trespass? Come to look at the monster? Well, take a good look!" Varys didn't see what you meant, but looked at you for a long time. After a while, he spoke again, "I was simply looking for a place to wait out the wolves." Once more, your expression grew fierce. Clearly the wolves were a tender subject for you. "Oh, I'll give you a place to stay. The tower."

*time skip and YOUR POV*

You found yourself sighing as you tried to read again. Your prisoner, Varys, had been in the castle for months now. Actually, he wasn't a bad person. You were simply angry. You were angry with the sorcerer who'd cursed your home, your friends, and yourself. You were angry every time you looked at the scars littering your face and arms. And you were angry with yourself. It was your fault you'd been cursed. You truly were a monster. But Varys didn't seem to see that.

After your initial anger, you let him out of the tower and offered him a room. You weren't going to let him go. You didn't want the villagers crashing down your door once he told them, as he was likely to do. He was angry at first, but you soon found yourself enjoying his company. In fact, you could say you were falling for him. But it wasn't enough. Not enough to lift the curse upon your house. He needed to love you in return. And no one could love you. That was all you thought.

Still, as time passed, you began feeling something you hadn't before. Hope. Varys didn't look at you in disgust. He didn't look at you in fear. Even in the beginning. He seemed to like spending time with you until your temper got the best of you. And after his sixth month with you, you decided that you were definitely falling for him. Because of that, you could finally explain your curse.

"The wolves out there weren't always vicious. The sorcerer made them that way. He took away my biggest vice. My vanity. My pride. He used the wolves that used to protect us. He turned my people into objects that grow less human every day that passes. My castle has fallen to ruin because I cannot break the curse myself. I gave up caring. People began avoiding the castle. Avoiding me. And after a few years, they forgot all about us. Because of my selfishness and pride, I'm disfigured and angry. I'm unlovable. A beast."

For a few moments, Varys said nothing. Then, he cleared his throat, his eyes meeting yours. "What happened to you does not make you a beast. While your temper does not help, you are changing already. Since I have been here, you've become kinder. More conscious of your actions and words. I am happy to say I can call you a friend…one of the few I have. And I will help you break the curse. If I can. I hope I can."

You gave him a smile. For the first time since your curse began, you felt that your heart was full. You took a chance and reached over to set your hand on his. "I hope so, too." Your eyes met his and the feeling in your chest bloomed into something you'd never felt before. You only hoped that one day, Varys would come to love you the way you were beginning to love him.

(a/n: I apologize for the wait for this one, lovelies! It has not been a good writing week, but I wanted to get this out for you today!)

#meg's game of tales #game of thrones #fairytale au #beauty and the beast au #varys #varys x reader

[bighound-littlebird]

do you think sansa will ever become herself again? or do you think shes gonna be so sunk into “alayne” she will misremember who she is permanently like she does with the unkiss

These are two very common ideas passed around in certain corners of fandom that simply have no evidence in canon:  

that Sansa is so immersed in Alayne that she no longer thinks independently of her alter ego, and

that her misremembering the Unkiss is a result of trauma.

But in reality, there's ample evidence that Sansa is actively detaching herself from Alayne rather than disappearing into her alter ego.

In the Alayne I chapter in The Winds of Winter, GRRM provides twelve instances of Sansa adjusting her thoughts, responses and actions in order to be consistent with a bastard born girl. She relies on her memories of her life as Sansa to identify and navigate the intrigues going on before the tourney at the Eyrie. She takes offense that "some upjumped squire" Harry would dare speak down to her.

And Sansa/Alayne doesn't merely separate the two in her thoughts: when she is alone with Petyr, she repeatedly reminds him that she's actually highborn and not his bastard daughter.

Alayne I

No man can wed me so long as my dwarf husband still lives somewhere in this world. Queen Cersei had collected the head of a dozen dwarfs, Petyr claimed, but none were Tyrion’s.

Once your lady mother intended that very thing, but I was trueborn then, and noble.

Outside the window she could hear the laughter of the washerwomen at the well, the din of steel on steel from the ward where the knights were at their drills. Good sounds.

Alayne loved it here. She felt alive again, for the first since her father… since Lord Eddard Stark had died.

" I am from Gulltown.”  And I am not, though Alayne was born there.

For just a little while, as she ran, she forget who she was, and where, and found herself remembering bright cold days at Winterfell, when she would race through Winterfell with her friend Jeyne Poole, with Arya running after them trying to keep up.

Joffrey was comely too, though, she reminded herself.  A comely monster, that’s what he was.  Little Lord Tyrion was kinder, twisted though he was.

Robb would be his age, if he were still alive, she could not help but think, but Robb died a king, and this is just a boy.

 A lady’s armor is her courtesy. Alayne could feel the blood rushing to her face.

"...he believes that you’re beneath him.” “Well, I’m not.  He may think he’s some great knight, but Ser Lothor says he’s just some upjumped squire.”

“Yes,” she said, “but he thinks that I’m a bastard.”

...lemon cake in the shape of the Giant’s Lance, twelve feet tall and adorned with an Eyrie made of sugar. For me, Alayne thought, as they wheeled it out.

The theory that the Unkiss is rooted in Sansa's trauma from Sandor Clegane's mistreatment is also not supported by canon. When a person suffers from PTSD - which is what the sansan hating sofa psychiatrists have diagnosed - they physically and mentally relive the trauma, they don't just have memory of it happening and coming out of it, they are left sick and exhausted both mentally and physically. They relive how they felt during the traumatic event to the exclusion of everything taking place around them. That's specifically what distinguishes PTSD from other disorders. And GRRM provides examples of Sansa experiencing it after the Bread Riots.

But is that what Sansa does when she thinks of Sandor Clegane? No, just the opposite. She wishes he was still with her.

I wish the Hound were here. The night of the battle, Sandor Clegane had come to her chambers to take her from the city, but Sansa had refused. Sometimes she lay awake at night, wondering if she’d been wise. She had his stained white cloak hidden in a cedar chest beneath her summer silks. She could not say why she'd kept it. The Hound had turned craven, she heard it said; at the height of the battle, he got so drunk the Imp had to take his men. But Sansa understood. She knew the secret of his burned face. It was only the fire he feared. That night, the wildfire had set the river itself ablaze, and filled the very air with green flame. Even in the castle, Sansa had been afraid. Outside ... she could scarcely imagine it.

Sansa wondered what Megga would think about kissing the Hound, as she had. He’d come to her the night of the battle stinking of wine and blood. He kissed me and threatened to kill me, and made me sing him a song.–A Storm of Swords, Sansa II

As the boy's lips touched her own she found herself thinking of another kiss. She could still remember how it felt, when his cruel mouth pressed down on her own. He had come to Sansa in the darkness as green fire filled the sky. He took a song and a kiss, and left me nothing but a bloody cloak. A Feast for Crows, Alayne II

She thought of Tyrion, and of the Hound and how he’d kissed her, and gave a nod. A Feast for Crows, Alayne II

Sansa routinely connects Sandor Clegane to her other kissing experiences; twice as Alayne. She experiences no ill effects from remembering him either, nor what happened the night of the Blackwater battle; instead she saves his cloak and willingly uses it to comfort herself.

GRRM has commented on the likelihood of Sansa reuniting with Sandor after his time on the Quiet Isle.

Question: Will Sandor and Sansa meet?

GRRM: Why? The Hound is dead, and Sansa may be dead as well. There's only Alayne. - So Spake Martin

But is Sandor Clegane still the Hound? No, his helm was stolen and used by Rorge, and he's currently in the asoiaf version of rehab. Both the Elder Brother and Thoros of Myr differentiates between the two when speaking to Brienne.

It is true, then," she said dully. "Sandor Clegane is dead." "He is at rest." The Elder Brother paused. - A Feast for Crows, Brienne VII

"There is nothing good about that helm, nor the men who wore it," said the red priest. "Sandor Clegane was a man in torment, and Rorge a beast in human skin." A Feast for Crows, Brienne VIII

As readers, we know that the Hound is dead, Sandor Clegane is the Gravedigger. We also know Sansa remains within Alayne, waiting for the right time to reveal herself. So GRRM comparing the outcomes of both characters is telling. He's also indicated that Sansa's memories of the Unkiss has a larger significance in Asoiaf.

You will see, in A STORM OF SWORDS and later volumes, that Sansa remembers the Hound kissing her the night he came to her bedroom... but if you look at the scene, he never does. That will eventually mean something, but just now it's a subtle touch, something most of the readers may not even pick up on. - So Spake Martin

If GRRM meant for Sansa's remembering of the Unkiss to only be a symptom of trauma/PTSD, I doubt he would have expanded on it as he does in the above statement. In canon, Sansa's prayers and thoughts have repeatedly had a positively uncanny tendency to come true, which is also something to keep an eye on.

To sum up, we can be confident that Sansa will stay Sansa in her heart, she won't become absorbed by Alayne, and GRRM will eventually reveal the true significance behind the Unkiss.

#sansan #sansa x sandor #sansa stark #sandor clegane #asoiaf meta #meta #snvffstarlet

[lokiarsene]

Hey, I wanted to ask if you'd be willing to say more about Akiren's grey morality with darker shades! I love it and your analysis of the game is always amazing!

Hello! Wow, thank you very much… And I can try, I suppose. I’m not sure what you’re interested in hearing specifically!

His Awakening is pretty dire in tone. All the PT have very grim, violent Awakenings, but Akiren’s is specifically about brutal rage, heresy, defiance, even if it means blasphemy itself. This is foreshadowing of his future destruction of a god (and him fusing Satanael, the rebel angel of heaven), and I think it also sets him apart as a Trickster Wild Card, and as a rebel among the other PT.

Yaldigor is constantly reminding Akiren that he has to use his Confidants and the deals he makes to (1) stop oncoming ruin, and (2) redeem himself through rehabilitation. This frames Akiren as an anti-hero, which is an interestingly judgmental take for a Velvet Room master and attendant(s) to have. We already know that VR’s take a form based on the Wild Card’s heart, so Akiren already feels bound to the idea of imprisonment (both literally and figuratively). Adding in the threat of avoiding ruin and serving time in some interstitial reality that grants him power is… a lot to put on a teenage boy’s conscience.

Basically, Yaldigor does not grant Akiren any reprieve from his anger at being wrongfully accused and convicted; if anything, he feeds into the prejudice and this fuels Akiren’s spite. He isn’t the hero to be praised and welcomed. He’s the Trickster. (Trickster gods and figures are heroic in their own way, but that’s another post for another time.)

Akiren’s behavior as Joker versus his behavior in reality is starkly different. Joker is cocky, confident, suave. He fights and moves with ease. He’s commanding and fearless with the taunts and shouts he directs at his enemies. He takes risks, delights in the risks, and can’t help but showing off a little bit. This is all a boy reveling in his status as a trouble-making thief and supernatural vigilante. Vigilantes seek justice, sure, but Akiren never struck me as purely justice-focused. What little personality we can glean from his dialogue choices (and his in canon choices that we can’t control) frame him less as a goody two-shoes, hardline black and white thinker the way some of the PT can be, and more someone who is not afraid to take risks, play a long con, and even go behind his friends’ backs to indulge in some questionable behavior (see also: his Confidant with Goro).

Akiren’s Confidants are all framed as beneficial to his work as a Phantom Thief, no matter how they begin (except for Goro; that one is all personal). That’s not to say that Akiren isn’t emotionally connected to these people–he is, clearly; he can gain significant social skill increases from bonding with them–but they all also have a root, core benefit of being useful to Akiren. The impact he has on their lives are personal, yes, but the fact that they all start with the concept of making a deal with each other is an indication of how Akiren views his current goal as a Trickster and how he sees himself. He’s viewed and treated as a criminal. He is on probation, an outcast in society. Therefore, any bond he makes with someone has to have a reason to be made besides the sheer pleasure of it.

That isn’t necessarily gray morality, of course. But it does paint him in a darker light than some of the other Persona protagonists have been (at least, not since Tatsuya).

I spoke in the other post about how eagerly he agrees to Mona’s deal, and how he left it up to Ann whether or not Kamoshida was going to die (something he didn’t really bat an eye about, unlike Ryuji). It’s his word that usually pushes the PT into their Awakening, words of rebellion, words coming from righteous anger. This is a kinder way of ripping the mask off the PT’s hearts, the same way he does to the Shadows (”Show me your true form!”).

Now why do I call Akiren an antihero? Because he doesn’t really have standard hero traits. He’s brave, yes. He has a moral code, sure. But he’s not out to be the savior of humanity, or saving the country for the saving’s sake. He’s doing it to punish, to snatch back society and tear it free. He’s also the Trickster, the one who stands out, defies, condemns, and ultimately controls the group of outcasts of which he’s a part.

Other antiheroes in fiction are: Hamlet, Geralt, Lucifer, Macbeth, Jaime and Tyrion Lannister, Maleficent, The Punisher, Han Solo, and John Wick. What all these characters have in common are convictions that center around personal moral codes and personal goals no matter how it sets them apart from society, no matter if it defies common law or codes of justice, no matter what consequences it brings down on them. They are scheming, clever, and occasionally violent people who also have a code of honor and loyalty. They are all darker shades of the idea of a heroic character, complex and commendable.

Perhaps no better example of Akiren’s gray morality is seen than in the third semester when you can take Maruki’s deal and damn your friends to the false reality all because he doesn’t want to give up Goro. He doesn’t hesitate to drag his friends from their dreams to bring them along to the Palace infiltration, and while he does reflect on whether or not it was the right/kind thing to do, he never has the option of not doing it (presumably because the devs didn’t want you not to have your whole cast–so I’m not sure I’d put much weight on this idea I pitched).

Regardless, even after he went through the trouble of waking them all up, he can put them all back in that lie when given the chance. This is his most antihero trait of all: when asked and given a chance, he will choose what he thinks is the right thing to do (keep Goro close, taking the short road to fulfilling their promise) over what is the fair thing to do (upholding his principles of rejecting manipulation and control). Incidentally, he’s still acting as a Trickster here. Tricksters can and do act in their own self-interests (see: Loki going to a dinner party with the other gods and telling them all how much they suck just to start some shit; Loki killing Baldr for a lark). So this isn’t even out of character for Akiren. It’s merely one of the darker ways he can turn.

The final glimpse of his Joker form in the train window makes me think that there’s always going to be a part of Akiren that is the Trickster, that will always be able to tap into this awakened “darkness” (or rather, gray complexity) that wasn’t present when he first arrived in Tokyo. All the other PT went their ways to a brighter future, taking control of their lives and reclaiming the goals and happiness that were taken from them, and what does Akiren do? Besides go home with his new cat (yay!), he catches an inkling hint of his rival’s presence, and sees his alternate self: the cocky, debonair, ruthlessly charming Trickster that lurks in his heart. That is his “future.” That is what he’s “claimed” during his probationary period in Tokyo: the will and spirit of a god-defying Trickster, an essential element of society that exists to shake it up, tear it down, challenge it, and refuse to bow to it.

Akiren wasn’t rehabilitated to be a good boy, redeemed and now on his best behavior. He is a law-defying young man who was exonerated of his wrongful conviction and revealed that Japan’s “justice” system was more of a legal system, both of them corrupt, both of them bested by him.

Not sure I talked much about gray morality here. I’ll have to pay closer attention to stuff when I do my NG+ run.

#p5r spoilers #meta #akira kurusu #ren amamiya #nadejdaro #this is the ask tag

[alicenttully]

I see people saying stuff like “Sansa isn’t very intelligent, and she certainly will never be clever enough to outsmart Littlefinger.”

And all I can think is that LF at the age of... what, 15? challenged the older, taller and a much more skilled fighter Brandon Stark to a duel and almost died.

Yeah, true. Teenage boys can be quite... impulsive sometimes. Which is a kinder word for stupid in Petyr's situation, challenging Brandon - someone who has actually been trained, and I'm willing to bet is capable of killing someone, given that Cat gets Brandon to spare him. (A mistake in hindsight. How much of history might have been different if Petyr died instead?)

Anyway my first thought is that the people saying this are reacting to the show. Because yeah, the showrunners who consistently made Sansa call herself stupid or took a well-accomplished character in the books with a variety of interests (music, dancing, poetry, needlework, knowledge of history & lover of literature) and adapted a scene where she didn't know the proper word for shit or something. Maybe it was their way of showing how sheltered Sansa was and yes that was certainly true of Sansa- she wasn't sheltered in that way. Sansa VII ASOS proves it - I'm pretty sure I remember her cursing (although the text never says the offending word) What they should have done is have her say that she avoids using the proper word, because its not ladylike. That is something book Sansa would have done, but then again book Sansa wouldn't be having this conversation in the first place with Tyrion. Sansa was polite, but remained closed off towards him - because she knew if she let her guard down, he could discover her plans for escape. But yeah the showrunners who did all this, would then have Sansa be the one responsible for taking down Littlefinger. Right. Never mind the actual foreshadowing we have for it in the books. Nah doesn't mean anything. /s

#sansa stark #asoiaf #game of thrones #got #sansa #asks

[esther-dot]

Hi Esther, different anon discussing the topic of the Unkiss. What a great point made by anon and loved your response to it. I know with the Unkiss, to us, we obviously view it through the lens that Sansa is burying what she's experienced (and as you point out, through a 'kinder' way of what she expected - only a kiss - and not the reality of what could have happened...) - as opposed to it being a romantic interaction representing her maturing sexuality. (To me, it is the affirmation of Sansa's ideals).

GRRM has set up the Unkiss to structurally foreshadow another type of memory rewriting. Some Sansxn fans think it foreshadows a future romance between the characters. So moving beyond it burying her trauma, what could the Unkiss specifically foreshadow for her arc through our perspective?

I was wondering if we might literally get true love's kiss in Sansa's story. I know that some Sansa fans want Sansa's story to not centre romance too heavily, but to me, the setup of the Unkiss followed by a real kiss, a fairy tale type of kiss recontextualised in ASOIAF, makes a terrible amount of sense.

It obviously won't come with the same degree of magic that it might in another story, and may be completely bittersweet (since that's the Jonsa brand), but if it answers the Unkiss in a way that's reciprocal and beautiful, that would do a lot for me.

Another point in the fairy tale Jonsa column.

(about this ask)

I find how Martin wrote about it and talked about it a little confusing, so I really don’t have anything helpful to say, other than to point to this quote to encourage people to stop romanticizing (denying) what the Hound was trying to do, and fully acknowledge how deeply Sansa was traumatized by it:

Jojen stood. "I felt you. I felt you fall. Is that what scares you, the falling?"

The falling, Bran thought, and the golden man, the queen's brother, he scares me too, but mostly the falling. He did not say it, though. How could he? He had not been able to tell Ser Rodrik or Maester Luwin, and he could not tell the Reeds either. If he didn't talk about it, maybe he would forget. He had never wanted to remember. It might not even be a true remembering. (ACOK, Bran IV)

Martin has the characters plagued by things, but here we are shown that someone might choose to not remember something, even attempt to gaslight themselves into thinking a memory isn’t real, because it is simply too terrible to accept. That’s the most important takeaway to me. The quote from Martin asks us to make all sorts of conjectures, but the one thing we know is that Sansa is so traumatized, she has lied to herself about what happened as the alternative is too horrible.

But yeah, we all wanna know what the resolution to all this is!

I wrote over here about how Sansa keeps getting assaulted on beds and how fans fixate on whether or not she should have had sex with Tyrion, when there are other mentions in the story that if we situated the wedding night in, we'd understand that not sleeping with him is a political stance, a stance that saves Winterfell, saves the North. So, the Hound's assault has significance to things other than potential relationships. It’s also about the bigger idea of how the kingsguard are dishonorable regardless of their white cloaks, it talks about the Hound and how he hates them and stands in judgment of them only to be as awful as they are in the end. It feeds into Sansa's long line of protectors failing her, of misplaced trust...so many angles to look at this from, but if we focus on that last bit, if men keep failing her and each time she has some trust for someone it is followed by a great betrayal, if we situate it in her disillusionment, well, that train of thought needs an answer, an endpoint, the positive in response to all that negative.

So yes, it may very well be what you suggest!

Martin references fairy tales a lot, and Sansa as a character is Martin's discussion of the prototypical princess, so her getting that moment -- a true love’s kiss as it would be called in a fairytale -- would make sense. I thought I had written about the frog prince quote before, but I’m wondering if that’s lost in my drafts somewhere, but it really caught my attention:

"They call him frog," she said, "and we have just learned why. In the Seven Kingdoms there are children's tales of frogs who turn into enchanted princes when kissed by their true love." Smiling at the Dornish knights, she switched back to the Common Tongue. "Tell me, Prince Quentyn, are you enchanted?"      

"No, Your Grace." (ADWD, Dany VII)

Because we have a prince that is hidden (enchanted) and we’ve been waiting the whole series for the revelation of who he truly is which is part of why I thought of Jon here. And, because of some parallels between him and Snow White, I even wrote a little fic where Sansa kisses him and brings him “back to life” (link) which I don’t think will happen simply because I don’t know that the timelines match up, but at the same time, a kiss seems imminent for both of them, doesn’t it? As a reference to fairytales, as a part of Sansa moving past her trauma around men’s sexual interest in her which, to this point, has only led to molestation and assault.

Many fans would be happy for her to not have a romance due to her age, but I think the suffering is setting the stage for her to have a consensual, mutually desired, moment with someone in the future. I still don’t really get what Martin means about the unkiss in relation to another memory rewriting, but sometimes his quotes are mangled and/or we just misinterpret what he says. looking at the books tho, there will be more references to fairytales, he does have something planned for Sansa regarding romance/a kiss, and I think since every instance thus far has been foisted on her, it’s time for the pendulum to swing. I’m very hopeful, anon!

#dot chat #< tag to filter

[nutellaninja0001]

It’s 2020 and fans STILL give Sansa, a 12 year old child at the time shit and call her shallow and oh so horrible for not loving Tyrion or “giving their marriage a chance” one she was forced into as a child bride. Let’s pretend for a moment that Sansa didn’t want to be with Tyrion solely because of his looks. Would that even be so bad? There’s nothing wrong with her wanting a husband she is attracted to. There’s nothing wrong with her not finding him attractive. She is far more kinder to Tyrion than a majority of the characters in the story are. Why should she be forced to accept his looks? When Tyrion is incredibly shallow about the thought of marrying women he isn’t attracted to. Yet I don’t see people giving him shit or even mentioning it about his character.

Furthermore, and it’s crazy the fandom STILL does not understand Sansa’s feelings towards being forced as a child to marry a man twice her age is more about his looks. It feels like the fans who believe that either ignored her chapters or hold on to the parts where she thinks Tyrion is ugly. They neglect to remember she thinks not only of his looks, but the fact he is a Lannister. A family she HATES. A family that is currently fighting against her own. A family that were responsible for the death of her father and holding her a prisoner. She didn’t want to marry a single Lannister. Not even Lancel. It didn’t matter if Tyrion was handsome to her, it was far deeper than that and fans really need to stop bashing Sansa for it.

#Sansa Stark #sansa stark defense squad