#bran stark

[jeyneofpoole]

in the asoiaf strip mall ramsay and barbrey work at insert minimum wage fast food restaurant and take turns locking theon in the walk-in for different reasons (barbrey needs something to do and ramsay thinks it’s hot.) nights watch crew run a movie theatre that always smells like bo and burned popcorn with sticky linoleum floors and a communal bong they keep in full view of customers next to the slushy machine. bran and jojen work at a gamestop that hasn’t seen a customer in a calendar year but it’s fine because it’s actually only a front for the psychic mafia to launder money through and the ‘district manager’ bloodraven gives them free shit sometimes so it’s a sweet gig. sansa waxes eyebrows in a salon so poorly ventilated she develops a fainting disorder. arya teaches karate at the hole-in-the-wall dojo that has never had a class size exceed three and one of those three is always noted grown man sandor clegane. dany works part time at her families’ below board exotics shop that doesn’t believe in permits for owning wild animals. robb is unemployed but he likes to spend time in the cornerstore looking at all of the types of gum and chuckling good-naturedly at the wacky flavors.

#more strip mall content. never let it be said i’m not benevolent. #asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #valyrianscrolls #modern asoiaf #theon greyjoy #barbrey dustin #ramsay bolton #jon snow #sansa stark #arya stark #bran stark #jojen reed #daenerys targaryen #robb stark #asoiaf strip mall

[melrosing]

a while back you mentioned bran being a fisher king type of figure if he becomes king. i am so intrigued by that concept. can you tell us more?

so full disclosure, I don't have a great deal of familiarity with Arthurian legend or British/Welsh mythology, which is what the Fisher King really draws upon, so I don't think I can say anything of real substance on this subject! i keep meaning to just sit down and swot up on this stuff but it's. not really something you can do in one sitting lol

HOWEVER i think even to a wiki peruser it's patently clear that GRRM is drawing on the Fisher King concept with Bran (as in, once you know he's doing that, you realise he isn't even trying to hide it). and I do tend to think that GRRM is more likely to stick with the top line of a myth or historical event he means to parallel rather than get lost in the minutiae - e.g. Matilda v Stephen succession crisis inspiring Rhaenyra v Aegon, the Black Dinner of 1440 inspiring the Red Wedding, this is GRRM taking the substance of an event but not the details of how it came to pass.

I'm going to guess that rather than getting into the finer details of the Fisher King mythos, GRRM is going to utilise it much like he's used Shakespeare's Richard III for Tyrion, which is another inspiration that seems painfully obvious from the moment you spot it, but is hardly lifted beat for beat, and I seriously doubt that Tyrion's story ends up anywhere like the end of RIII. but you can see GRRM taking the bits and pieces of RIII he finds interesting and twisting them for Tyrion in ASOIAF.

so with that in mind, I'm just going to quickly list the key points I can personally gather from the Fisher King myth that seem to gesture to Bran, and why I think these are probs interesting to GRRM as a writer (but as I say there are people who know lots about arthurian legend and british/welsh mythology who would probs have a lot more to say here):

the Fisher King is usually depicted as being wounded in the groin/legs/thigh - this is considered synonymous with his inability to have children and so propagate his line. immediately obvious parallel to Bran, and I think through both ASOIAF and F&B, GRRM is trying to show that ruling through dynasties where everything hinges on how the next guy's son turns out, is not a viable way to run a country. Bran will not be succeeded by children of his own blood, but I think much in the way that he himself has succeeded Bloodraven

the Fisher King is one with his land as such: his welfare is the welfare of the land, and when he takes a wound (and becomes infertile), the land too becomes barren. the Fisher King awaits a hero who will heal and restore him and so the land (but I can only imagine GRRM would subvert this - it's clear through GRRM's writing of disability that he doesn't see value in just 'curing' his characters. he wants to actually write them as disabled people). and I think there's a lot in Bran's story about man learning to respect the land he lives upon - the children and the first men's peace pact was agreed upon the grounds that the first men would essentially preserve Westeros and its weirwoods etc, and so I think it's generally agreed ASOIAF could end with a similar kind of pact to end the Long Night (or after the end of TLN)? so again, think this point is about Bran representing a renewed relationship between the lands of Westeros and its peoples - the welfare of all is tied together through him

the Fisher King is guarding the Holy Grail. im way out of my depth on this point, someone with more knowledge re. the Holy Grail needs to weigh in here lol, but I would guessssss that maybe this has something to do with Bran ending the story on the Isle of Faces, protecting the peace from there or SOMETHING idk

then the most obvious point: the Fisher King as he appears in Arthurian legend is thought to draw on the figure of Brân the Blessed, a character of Welsh mythology - which immediately recalls Bran the Broken (something Bran literally calls himself several times). the name 'Bran' also translates to crow or raven in Welsh, so, duh. and Brân the Blessed's story ends with his requesting that his head be buried on the White Hill of London - and as long as it remained there, Britain would be safe from invasion. more about Bran being tied directly to the welfare of the land and its peoples

(again there's doubtless a lot more that could be added here by someone who understands the Fisher King myth better than I do, but these seemed like the most obvious points that anyone could draw on)

anyway I absolutely take it as a given that Bran will be King at this point, and whilst it's really hard to imagine what that looks like, I do think it resonates. GRRM likes writing about dynasties but I don't think he believes in them. I'm sure he feels much the same way about feudalism, but I doubt that will be gone by the end of ASOIAF, too, so this is how I picture it??

KL: destroyed. red keep: fucked. some level of politics may continue here post-series, but I think it will no longer be the heart of westeros. the fact that it is in AGOT is I think GRRM trying to show the corruption at the heart of this country - KL is constantly described as a cesspit where the rich play their games and live and eat luxuriously directly atop the shoulders of the poor and downtrodden, divorced from what's happening in the rest of the 7K.

the new heart of Westeros will be the Isle of Faces. this is where I think Bran will end up. we don't know much about it, bc noone is able to sail there, but this was where the pact between the COF and the First Men was created, and it's one of the last places in the south where weirwoods still grow (here, in abundance). and apparently there was once a Green King of the Gods Eye?? if the Green King, of the Rivermen, is in any way the role Bran will soon be occupying, maybe this is where his Tully heritage is somehow relevant. and also like 'god's eye', Bran's whole thing is about learning to see all, so. likely place for him to be. ultimately, I don't think Bran will remain in Winterfell; the story is supposed to be about unity I think, and not northern exceptionalism, so a remaining Stark sibling will take up that seat and as I said before, I tend to think that will be Sansa.

and I guess the most I can imagine beyond this point is Bran living alongside the COF (perhaps in the company of Meera idk?), functioning less as a political entity and more as a figurehead, perhaps an oracle, who lives for the welfare of his people. there will still be politicians to run the country, but they will be guided by Bran in some way, and like Bloodraven, Bran will choose his own successor. what the intricacies of any of this look like i have no idea, but this really does sound to me like the start of GRRM's answer to all his concerns re. dynasties and corruption etc etc

sorry this was all garbled as hell but this is basically what the Fisher King endgame means to me for now. in short, not a whole lot that I can make sense of but I like the feel of it, I think it's consistent with the themes of the text and suggests the start of real change at the end of the story, rather than the start of yet another dynasty.

#ask #bran stark #i would link a better essay here but i've lost track of the one i remember reading.... it was on some old asoiaf forum #and was written before the show too so well done to that person lol #anyway yeah my lit studies were very definitely modern and early modern lit i do not know much about this stuff at all #so where ive got shit wrong or missed something glaring. CALL ME OUT #im p sure jon factors in somewhere here but like i know how #asoiaf

[sofikiii]

Modern! Bran and Rickon Stark!! Part 3/3 of my Stark Kids Modern AU :-)

In this AU, Bran is a Boy Scout, he loves animals and nature in general and is kinda obsessed with dream interpretation (borrows a book from his friend and fellow Boy Scout Jojen about it).

Rickon is an iPad kid and spends most of the time with his babysitter, Osha.

#bran stark #rickon stark #house stark #asoiaf modern au #game of thrones modern au #game of thrones #got #asoiaf fanart #asoiaf art #digital art #illustration #digital illustration #art #artists on tumblr #procreate #asoiaf #got modern au #modern au #fanart #digital fanart #fan art #my art

[kudriaken]

House Stark. New fanart family portrait from ASOIAF. My favorite cute beans.

#artists on tumblr #fantasy art #illustrators on tumblr #illustration #fanart #house stark #asoif/got #asoif fanart #asoiaf #game of thrones #sansa stark #arya stark #john snow #robb stark #bran stark #rickon stark #ned stark #catelyn stark

[reneewalkersknives]

one egregious thing the game of thrones show misses out on is that the stark kids are CONSTANTLY thinking abt each other!! there isn’t like a single POV chapter from any of them where they don’t long for their siblings!! Jon wants to have a son and name him Robb!! Bran wants to be a bird so him and his siblings can live in a nest together!! Sansa prays for her siblings every night and makes the Winterfell castle and then gets upset bc there’s no one to throw snow at!! Needle IS Jon!! Arya’s list is her own prayer for her siblings, she doesn’t care that Joffrey is dead bc Robb is too!! Every single one of them believes that their big brother will come to save them!! there’s sm love and tenderness there and GOT missed out on lots of it bc it tries too hard for the grimdark angle without realising that the center of the stark’s story is their love for each other. anyways.

#a song of ice and fire #asoiaf #game of thrones #anti game of thrones #starklings #robb stark #jon snow #sansa stark #arya stark #bran stark #sorry Robb and rickon Ik ur love ur siblings too but I only did ones with POV chapters😭 #stark family

[emprcaesar]

im a jory cassel girl to my last breath!

HE LOVED THE STARK KIDS!!!

#jory cassel #asoiaf #asoiaf books #game of thrones #house stark #sansa stark #arya stark #bran stark #ned stark #eddard stark #book quotes #winterfell #northern houses #starklings

[laurellerual]

I'm in a redesign mood lately, so here some Stark crests!

Here the old ones: Eddard, Catelyn, Jon, Robb, Sansa, Arya, Bran, Rickon.

#asoiaf #house stark #asoiaf fanart #arya stark #jon snow #sansa stark #bran stark #robb stark #rickon stark #eddard stark #catelyn stark #Which one do you prefer? #Maybe I should do stikers of them

[nedseii]

📷!

#asoiaf #sansa stark #theon greyjoy #arya stark #bran stark #myart #I guess I'll tag this as: #modern au

[wraithwen]

starklings (sans rickon)

finally started reading the books after a long time of being a wiki lurker :")

#as a northerner (sakha) i had to project my culture onto them hehe #also this is circa early agot #art #asoiaf #valyrianscrolls #jon snow #robb stark #sansa stark #arya stark #bran stark

[sansaisms]

Arya never seemed to fit, no more than he had … yet she could always make Jon smile. He would give anything to be with her now, to muss up her hair once more and watch her make a face, to hear her finish a sentence with him. — Jon Snow III, A Game of Thrones.

#jon snow #asoiafedit #book jon snow #valyrianscrolls #arya stark #sansa stark #rickon stark #robb stark #bran stark #house stark #bookhousestark #thenorthsource #valyriansource #rachel hurd wood #asoiafcanonjonsnow #jonsource #one day i'll remake this gifset. today is not the day lol ☠️ #asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #*mine

[kaellecappuccino]

#asoiaf #catelyn stark #lysa tully #renly baratheon #stannis baratheon #sandor clegane #gregor clegane #arya stark #sansa stark #jaime lannister #cersei lannister #tyrion lannister #jon snow #robb stark #theon greyjoy #asha greyjoy #bran stark #daenerys targaryen #rhaegar targaryen

[melrosing]

starks + theon DONE

more here

#catelyn stark #eddard stark #rickon stark #theon greyjoy #robb stark #jon snow #sansa stark #bran stark #arya stark #asoiaf #the ones I definitely want to do are the Lannisters + Dany and if I’m not bored by then I’ll do more #but not gonna turn it into a video until I feel done lol #anyway this was fun lol idk why im making it my mission to revive 2008 cringe in 2024 asoiaf fandom tho #melrosing art #asoiaf caramelldansen thing

[sofikiii]

And the whole Stark Kids Modern AU Line Up!!! Robb, Jon, Sansa, Arya and Rickon :-)

(notes about them under the cut!!)

Robb (18) is a senior in high school, ready to attend the same college his dad went to. He's on the football team (alongside Theon, of course) and he's going to run for class president or some sort of thing like that (or Prom King? Is that a thing? Do you campaign for that?)

Jon (17) follows his uncle’s steps, and he joins the local hockey team, the Crows. And discovers his homosexuality in the men's locker room.

Sansa (15) is always on the (vintage and terribly outdated) phone with her BFF Margaery, probably in a lot of clubs in school (I can also see her playing tennis!), and currently dating Joffrey Baratheon but he’s the classic high school toxic boyfriend, everyone can tell she’s way too good for him but she just loves being in a relationship.

Arya (14) wants to be like her big brothers and play hockey and football but none of her parents approve of that. Obviously, that doesn't stop her, and sneaks out whenever she can to play with either Robb or Jon. She's in her rebel phase, she skips school and gets into fights constantly.

Bran (12) is a Boy Scout, he loves animals and nature in general and is kinda obsessed with dream interpretation (borrows a book from his friend and fellow Boy Scout Jojen about it).

Rickon (8) is an iPad kid and spends most of the time with his babysitter, Osha.

#robb stark #jon snow #sansa stark #arya stark #bran stark #rickon stark #house stark #asoiaf modern au #game of thrones modern au #game of thrones #got #asoiaf fanart #asoiaf art #digital art #illustration #digital illustration #art #artists on tumblr #procreate #asoiaf #got modern au #modern au #fanart #digital fanart #fan art #my art

[tell-them-the-north-remembers]

If there is one line I like to over-analyze in the ASoIAF books it is a rather famous thought that goes inside Cat's head before her death. As the steel is close to her throat Cat thinks "No, don’t, don’t cut my hair, Ned loves my hair." And this line and her entire inner monologue is absolutely heart-breaking but one thing I fixate on is the actual sentence itself.

"Ned loves my hair."

Anyone who has read the books knows that Cat holds contempt for the fact that except for Arya, she has failed to give Ned children who look like him. It is also one of the reasons she dislikes Jon so much, because the mother of Jon (who she assumes to be Ned's bastard son) has managed to give Ned a child that looks just like him while she, his lawfully wedded wife gave birth to five of his children only for four of them to come out looking exactly like her. Red hair, blue eyes. Unlike Jon (and Arya) who share Ned's dark hair and dark eyes.

And knowing that it is so interesting to me that Cat's last thought about Ned (and her last thought ever) was that Ned loves her hair.

Because Ned loved her, he loved her hair, he loved her the way she was. And every time he looked at Robb, Sansa, Bran and Rickon he saw the reflection of the woman he loved, while Cat was so upset that they weren't all reflections of the man she loved.

Every time Ned ran his fingers through their hair, he ran his fingers through the hair of the woman he loved. He never resented Cat for the fact that four of his children didn't look like him, he loved that they looked like their mother, again, the woman he loved so much. He loved that they had the same hair he loved on Cat, and judging by it being her last thought Cat also knew that Ned loved her hair (and the way she looked), whether she ever came to the realization that Ned was perfectly happy with the way their children looked at all, or if she realized after he was dead and it was too late, it is unclear. But all those years she beat herself up over nothing.

Ned loved her the way she was, Ned loved his children the way they were, when they looked like him and when they didn't. Because when they didn't look like him, they looked like the love of his life, his darling wife.

And if the books decide to go with R+L=J it also adds another layer to Cat and Ned's relationship. Because Jon's mother was always a woman she didn't know but was still competing with in her mind for Ned's love for all these years. Turns out she didn't even exist. Turns out she didn't need to feel inferior to the woman Ned loved enough to not even talk about with her, no need to feel bad about the fact that she was able to give Ned a child that looked like him while Cat "failed".

At the end of the day, all the voices in her head making her feel insecure in her marriage never needed to be there, because everything she thought of as a problem with her were not problems at all for Ned. He was perfectly happy with her and their children.

#asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #asoiaf meta #got #game of thrones #eddard stark #ned stark #catelyn stark #cat stark #catelyn tully #jon snow #robb stark #sansa stark #arya stark #bran stark #rickon stark #nedcat

[themoonofblueside]

Even without the shitty last seasons and character developments, asoiaf books take the W for the simple fact that the obvious young hero of the first book is like. 15. Like even in the pjo or hp series where there are fated young heroes haunted with tragedy something about robb stark just makes me want to sob.

He's 15 and his beard is just starting to grow, one day he's playing with his siblings and friends and the next day he learns that his father will leave for king's landing, and then his little brother falls from a tower and he is crippled. his father leaves his home and his men to his mother and him, but his mother does not leave his brother's side, doesn't eat, doesn't sleep. the whole castle and the region depends on him to function, he listens to everyone but it's not enough and he begs his mother for help, then he begs his mother so that she rests a little. His mother gets better but still leaves him, and now he functions fully as the heir of winterfell. he dislikes killing even the wildlings, but he recognizes the duty but he still sighs in relief when he's advised not to kill. He takes care of everyone and then he cries with his brother at night, his voice shakes when he defends his brother but his sword doesn't, even the ones he trusts the most does not run for his brother like he does. He's scared all the time but he keeps going and he keeps listening and he keeps caring and it's just not enough.

His father dies. he's the lord of winterfell now, and then king of the north. he's fifteen. no matter what he does, he's fifteen.

#robb stark #asoiaf #catelyn stark #ned stark #agot #bran stark #no one served the tragic chosen one like he did tbh #i still can't shake that catelyn chapter where he begged catelyn to help him.

[emprcaesar]

#RAAAHHHH #LETSSS GOOO #asoiaf #asoiaf books #game of thrones #house stark #robb stark #jon snow #sansa stark #arya stark #bran stark #rickon stark #ned stark #catelyn stark #a time for wolves #winter is coming #valyrianscrolls #web weaving #book quotes #the avett brothers