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#[ lord edmure tully
man am i over people who've never actually read asoiaf shitting on it lmao
#i had two different posts willfully misinterpreting grrm cross my dash the last couple days#the aragorn tax policy quote isn't shitting on lotr or intended to be taken as a literal 'you must write about kings' tax policies' mandate#it's about how grrm is interested in different themes to tolkein#like the quote goes on to ask if aragorn commits genocide against the orcs after rotk or like what happens there how isthat tension resolve#in lotr it doesn't matter what happens to the orcs after aragorn is crowned because the story is about frodo's journey and not aragorn#and grrm KNOWS that & is literally making the point HIMSELF that asoiaf is more about the politics than lotr is#we see those tensions explored in plots like the wall with jon having to satisfy stannis the watch and the wildlings all at once#it's not an insult - it's just a fucking comparison & explanation. marketing speech more than anything close to anti-lotr hatred. like cmon#and then the second post was talking about how edmure tully is called weak for letting his smallfolk into his castle#and how that proves that george is an idiot who hates kindness and doesn't understand the medieval era#as if the other characters calling edmure weak for that wasn't kind of the entire point of the riverlands destruction arc#and it's not a purposeful contrast between edmure and other lords (specifically robb in his kingly campaign)#anyway it'd be nice if people read and used their brains to think some thoughts about what they read before talking shit.#asoiaf
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asoiafreadthru · 1 month
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A Game of Thrones, Catelyn IV
“…But, my lady, the moment we go ashore we are at risk. And there are those at court who will know you on sight.”
Catelyn’s mouth grew tight. “Littlefinger,” she murmured.
His face swam up before her; a boy’s face, though he was a boy no longer.
His father had died several years before, so he was Lord Baelish now, yet still they called him Littlefinger. Her brother Edmure had given him that name, long ago at Riverrun. His family’s modest holdings were on the smallest of the Fingers, and Petyr had been slight and short for his age.
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west1rosi · 9 months
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LORD EDMURE TULLY : LORD OF RIVERRUN, CAPTIVE OF THE RED WEDDING AND LORD PARAMOUNT OF THE TRIDEN.
Ser Edmure Tully is a knight from House Tully of Riverrun, the liege lords of the riverlands. He is the heir of Hoster Tully, the Lord Paramount of the Trident, and Lady Minisa Whent, and the younger brother of Catelyn Stark and Lysa Arryn.
Edmure is fond of smiling and pretty girls, but is sulky and sullen when angered. According to Catelyn, Edmure dislikes singers because one once slept with a girl fancied by Edmure. Edmure is friends with Lymond Goodbrook, Patrek Mallister, Marq Piper, and young Vances.
Hoster refused an offer by Lord Walder Frey to wed Edmure to one of his daughters.Princess Arianne Martell wanted to accept Hoster's offer for her to meet Edmure at Riverrun, but Doran Martell, Prince of Dorne, declined because of a secret marriage pact.
During the war council held at Riverrun, the northern and river lords proclaim Robb to be King in the North. When emissaries from House Frey arrive at Riverrun to negotiate Walder Frey's terms of reconciliation with Robb, Edmure is pressured by Robb, Brynden and Catelyn to take Robb's place in his previously arranged marriage to one of Lord Frey's daughters; the emissaries inform that he must marry Roslin.
At the ceremony, Walder lifts Roslin's veil, revealing her to be a beauty, much to Edmure's relief. At the wedding feast, Edmure enjoys himself immensely and, when Walder and Robb call for the bedding ceremony, eagerly allows himself to be led away by the other Frey girls. It is only after his departure that the Red Wedding begins.
Edmure is taken prisoner and remains a hostage of Lord Frey, who remarks to Lord Roose Bolton that Edmure spent his wedding night in a dungeon. Eventually, Edmure is released and his lordship bestowed back to him. He would be reunited with Roslin and a child conceived on their wedding night.
do not reblog/like/comment unless mutuals!
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atopvisenyashill · 4 months
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not to keep harping on but definitely the complaint i see that really sticks in my craw is that the only reason or the main reason robb planned to banish catelyn to seaguard was because of their argument over jon. it’s certainly a factor but they have spent the entire war arguing over every decision robb makes! ned tells robb “keep your mother in your council” but robb really does not! he has her there, yes, he lets her speak, yes, but oftentimes he will disregard her advice without any appeasement, misstep badly, and be worse off politically in the exact way she warned him of. she’s not the only person he blows off - he’s not exactly nice to edmure either, for example - but cat is right when she suspects there’s an element of “kings are not supposed to have mothers” and “wedded to his war" and she clocks this long before the argument over jon! robb tries to get rid of her at the beginning of a clash of kings when all cat has done is urge him to continue peaceful negotiations with the lannisters!
robb is angry because he’s in over his head and he knows it, and it's got very little to do with jon! robb is losing this war and his best friend was the son of a man who crowned himself and lost the war!! robb knows exactly what’s going to happen to the north if he loses and despite everything, he cannot seem to win despite being a near prodigy in battle tactics. and here his mother has been this whole time, fighting him on every front - just like the lords but he cant punish them for disagreeing can he? - and being so frustratingly right about more things than his lords, and now they’re picking at this wound in their family that has never been allowed to heal and a lot of resentment that both robb and catelyn are feeling at their general situation gets focused in on each other. this is such a tully thing too (pls remember these are canonically unpleasant people!) because look at lysa projecting years of resentment onto sansa, look at the entire cat, hoster, edmure situation, or even hoster & blackfish’s relationship. family is so important to them but in times of stress, “doing everything for family” becomes an anchor pulling them down, until the only thing left is to lash out at each other.
most of the lords are happy to let this nonsense play out! catelyn does not even have the privilege maege & dacey mormont do at being head of their own house - she’s just a wife, just a mother, just a first born daughter. when she disagrees, they don’t see an equal arguing with them, they see a woman sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong. they do not give a single solitary shit about like, ~the plight of bastards~ they just believe, like robb, that sansa is currently “tainted” by her marriage to a lannister and can’t be allowed to inherit, that arya is dead, that the boys are dead, that jeyne is not yet pregnant, and a bastard boy castle raised who looks like ned is better than no boy at all (see edric storm, addam of hull, and larence snow). these men have not spent the last fourteen years cooking in their resentment over this situation the way catelyn and robb have!
jon is a reason. but so is rickard karstark, jaime lannister, willem lannister, tion frey, renly baratheon, walder frey, and theon greyjoy. ned is a reason as well, and bran, sansa, rickon, arya, hoster, edmure, perhaps even lysa and sweetrobin. jon is the final straw but robb isn’t (only) sending catelyn away because of some righteous fury on his brother’s behalf! he’s sending her away because she is an easy, socially acceptable target for all his frustrations and failures and fears that he can project on, and punish, in a way he cannot punish his enemies, his lords, or himself.
and catelyn is as always very aware of the deeper motivations in her son’s mind, and resentful that she doesn’t have the power to push back; she’s just a mother, after all.
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racefortheironthrone · 3 months
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Do you agree with the opinion that Edmure Tully was one of the better lords in Westeros in terms of being a good ruler and commander?
As a ruler, I think he's one of the better ones.
"Catelyn: Who are all these folk? Edmure: My people. They were afraid."
As a commander, no he's pretty mediocre. Which makes it all the funnier that he beat Tywin straight-up.
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raventreehall · 8 months
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no one wants to talk about the theon and littlefinger parallels fine I'LL TALK ABOUT THEM. they're both social inferiors in a foster family that they desperately wanted to join but are prevented from doing so which leads to all sorts of complexes!!!
littlefinger didn't really do anything wrong in seeking out catelyn's hand and dueling brandon, he only misread his importance to the tullys and tried to functionally be part of the family that he had been raised in. but that was not allowed to him because of his low birth, just as theon was always relegated to an outsider role within the stark household because he was a hostage. (also note theon's boyhood dream of marrying sansa and ned accepting him as his son; littlefinger's obsession with catelyn seems to actually have catelyn at its core rather than just being a projection of a desire to be accepted within house tully, but who knows, his obsession with cat could actually be the product of an obsession with house tully and his general ambitions to increase his social status). they both had such intense 'i hate you'/'i want to be you' emotions knocking around in their heads as a result of this that they ended up killing—or trying to convince people that they killed—their foster siblings! (i know there's a lot more complexity with the littlefinger and lysa situation, but i think this parallel is really interesting)
littlefinger also had to work for years in gulltown/king's landing to rise through the ranks, to in a way 'regain his standing' to what it was when he was a ward of hoster tully's. throughout his childhood he was constantly around lysa, catelyn, and edmure—all of whom were destined to become lords and ladies of great houses—and was raised like their brother, but after he is banished he struggles to hold even half the status that his foster siblings enjoy naturally. theon goes through a little bit of a similar rude awakening when he arrives back at pyke expecting his father to hail him as his heir returned only to find out balon could not care less about him and likes asha way more, and he takes winterfell to try to prove to balon and the rest of the ironborn that he should be respected. interestingly, we have seen both theon and littlefinger's homecomings on page and they both come across as complete outsiders in the places were they were born, acting above their station because of the circumstances they got used to during their fostering—while this leads to theon trying to reject the starks and gain acceptance from his birth family in acok, in asos when littlefinger goes home to the fingers he wants to get to the eyrie (and to one of the tullys) as quickly as possible
they share some behaviors/character traits, too. littlefinger is noted to dress well, he pays a lot for clothes made of fine fabrics, while we know that theon likes to do the same. littlefinger certainly does this to prove that he is rich and powerful and has made it, showing that he can pay for the same things that any great lord can, which is probably born from more than a little resentment towards hoster for taking him out of the luxury of riverrun and sending him back home to the fingers. similarly, theon dresses elaborately to set himself apart in winterfell, to impress people, and to make himself known, and again this is born from resentment and insecurity (seen best when he goes back to pyke and stresses about what to wear in front of balon). they're also both arrogant and flippant, with a tendency to smile/make jokes too much, perhaps to try to further resist and disparage the social order they feel restricted by
finally there's catelyn: theon looks to her as a quasi-mother figure while he's in winterfell and littlefinger looks to catelyn as a lover, but both of these are impossible and end up being rejected. there's no evidence that catelyn was, like, especially mean to theon, they seem to get on fine in agot, but he was her husband's hostage and we know that she does mistrust him. this attitude is obviously a result of her not trusting the greyjoys because they're reavers/rose against the crown in open rebellion, but it is also no doubt informed by her previous experiences with petyr! it would make sense for her to be wary of a foster son getting close to her children after what happened to her as a kid
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sansansource · 8 months
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Sansa knew most of the hymns, and followed along on those she did not know as best she could. 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.
A Clash of Kings — Sansa V
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swordsandarms · 10 months
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Seeing this whole "people skipping storylines like Arya's" talk it got me thinking... is this why people whose Stark characters they enjoy (and prefer to read) are Sansa, Catelyn or Ned (or Robb without a POV but present in Catelyn's) more often than not also the ones whitewashing House Stark and the North?
Because Arya's chapters are the only ones in which a Stark falls through the cracks of a limited, sheltered world of the powerful and rich in which they are the exclusively root-worthy and well meaning tragical protagonists and heroes, and you get to look at them from the vermin beneath their pedestal.
In Arya's chapters (in spite of there still being romanticising of the family because she is also subjective to a - increasingly lower - degree for obvious reasons), we see Starks (and Tullys and the armies of Northern and Riverlanders that they lead) are not hero armies whose wars and good and just and for the better good and needed and wanted. Northerners and Riverlanders are murderers, rapists, pillagers and burners of homes. Starks and Tullys lead out their man to hurt innocent bystanders to settle their personal grievances on the back of the smallfolk just like Tywin Lannister, because that's how you wage war.
It even allows you to see the cracks in the other Stark POVs. If you just read "protagonist Stark" Catelyn showing off woman power in response to her "silly brother" accepting "his people who are scared" as tactically poor, then maybe you'd leave it at that. But we've heard the smallfolk overheard by Arya being no fools and having strong opinions about these Lords and Ladies and their actions, and it kind of makes you uncomfortable. What is a passerby soldier who is just background noise to highborns of Catelyn and Edmure's level thinking of this Lady's audicious entitlement (from where he's standing)? He's called to leave his own family to die for and protect them because she's grieving for her own husband, and his potential family are to be left outside without protection, and considered "useless mouths to feed" with the grains said family would have broken their backs to harvest for these Lords and Ladies. What of his potential sons too young still sons that need to go to this war, too? What of even younger ones who cannot support their mothers in his stead, and they have no servants and food served to them? What of such mothers losing their husbands and eldest sons, too, and having no wealth to support their livelihoods, and no armies to protect them?
It's no longer glamorous, romantic, tragic and good heroes if you see that perspective. It might make people uncomfortable to think of it. It perhaps doesn't align with this whole "escapism of fiction" thing.
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queenaryastark · 11 months
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Arya killing the Bolton guard at the end of ACOK is an act of self-defense. It's also in the defense of Gendry and Hot Pie. They needed to escape Harrenhall. Arya knew she would be left behind by Roose (who was already dangerous) and would be left to Vargo, who was even more vicious with an established history of physically mutilating people. Had she tried to walk by the guard or asked his permission to leave, she would have been stopped and punished, likely in a gruesome way. Escaping Harrenhall was the only way for her and her pack to reach a level of safety and the only way to get out was to kill this guard. So she killed him.
Is it righteous or good? No. This death is probably Arya's most grey decision. The law is behind her with Daeron, the insurance salesman is hurting widows and orphans, and the rest were attacking her and/or criminals. But this Bolton guard is doing his job, which happened to include preventing Arya's escape. It was her life and the lives of Gendry and Hot Pie, or the life of this guard. She chose herself and her friends.
This is intended to be a morally grey choice, but far from a damning one. Most characters who die in this series are killed because they're on the opposite side of a conflict. Most characters who commit these murders aren't condemned for it by fandom. For instance, Robb terrorized the Westerlands and hoped to continue doing so before Edmure and the Battle of Blackwater ruined his plans. The common people he and his army would have killed and the guards doing their jobs when he and his forces came down on them are never addressed. It's the same with the Wildling Jon murders while ranging, Orell. Jon is the invader who came into the land of Orell's people and murdered him. That's never held against Jon, despite that man just doing his job on his own people's land. And don't get me started on how Hoster Tully murdered his own common people because their lords stayed loyal to the Targaryens during the Rebellion.
Makes you wonder if this Bolton guard would even be an issue if Arya was male like her brothers. Women are meant to be passive victims. Anything less than submitting to torture and death makes them evil in the eyes of misogynists.
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Game of Thrones Fic List
🖤= tw:dark content
🍑= smut
📚= series/multi-part
💌= requested
For Whom the Bell Tolls (Margaery Tyrell x Baratheon!Reader)
A glance and a sassy comment. The more time you two spent alone together, the less of a sister you became to one another. It wasn’t your intention to fall in love with the wife of your brother. You had never really felt bad about it when Maragery was married to Joffrey, but now that she was wed to your sweet Tommen. . . You couldn’t do that to your sweet lion.
Between Saints and Sinners (Sandor Clegane x Reader)
It had been years since you last saw Sandor Clegane. Years since you had last been in employment at Lord Baelish’s brothel.
A Stark Bride (Aegon Targaryen i x Stark!Reader)
Aegon Targaryen reduced your father, Torrhen Stark, to a mere lord. The Targaryen conqueror had taken the title of king for himself. You wanted to depise them, those beautiful Targaryens with their lavender eyes and silver tresses. But they were beautiful. Terrifying and beautiful just like their dragons.
Promises (Oberyn Martell x Reader) 🖤
Having witnessed the brutal murder of your family, your uncle Oberyn is the only one to fend off your nightmares and the only one you could ever feel an attachment to.
Shedding Skin (Arthur Dayne x Targaryen!Reader) 
You wouldn't let your brother Rhaegar humiliate you. No. Faking your own death, you travel to Dorne and there shed your dragon skin to become a new person. A happier person.
A Touch of Gold (Margaery Tyrell x Stark!Reader)
If Renly was to have a lover, then Margaery wanted one as well. And she decided that it just had to be the visiting (y/n) Stark.
Gold and Red (Jaime Lannister x Reader) 🍑
How could you bring yourself to have sex with your child husband? Jaime, however, was a full grown man.
Stupid, Pretty Little Things 🖤
She was the only gift Joffrey wanted for his name day. And Joffrey would be damned if anyone forbade him to what was his.
Targaryen Daughters 
After so long staying safely hidden in the privacy of a Sept, you discover your younger sister Daenerys is very well alive. Alive and with three dragons.
A Good, Mean Dog (Sandor Clegane x Baratheon!Reader) 📚
The Princess and the Hound. What a story that would be
Horns That Hold A Crown (Rhaegar Targaryen x Baratheon!Reader)
The only daughter of Steffon Baratheon, and to Aerys you were th eonly suitable bride for his son Rhaegar. Your previokus engagement to Ned Stark was broken. Now you found yourself the bride of a dragon instead that of a wolf.
Ruined Hallelujah (Margaery Tyrell x Baratheon!Reader)
You had expected such a move from Robert, maybe even Stannis, but never from your brother Renly. He was well aware of your affair with Margaery, even supported it. Yet he had married you off to Robb Stark, King in the North.
Misfit (Daenerys Targaryen x Greyjoy!Reader) 🖤
Nightmares, your nightmares were filled with the blazing symbol of a kraken. As you travel with your siblings to Meereen you hope Queen Daenerys would be willing to help you in defeating Euron.
One True Queen (Rhaegar Targaryen x Targaryen!Reader)📚
What he had done was the greatest insult to you. One that you thought he would never do. You knew he loved you with all his heart, that was certain. You were his sister and his wife. However, that all changed when he took Lyanna Stark as his second wife.
Knight in Blue and Red (Rhaegar Targaryen x Tully!Reader)
You wanted to be in charge of Riverrun when your father died, but because you were the third and youngest daughter of Hoster Tully that was highly impossible. You would show him. Show him that you would be a better successor than your brother Edmure.
Belladonna  (Young Robert Baratheon x Reader)
With the death of his father, Robert Baratheon found himself the young lord of Storm's End. A new lordship requires a wife.
Dragon (Daenerys Targaryen x Reader)📚
She had trusted her Unsullied with her life. That was why when one attacked her with a knife she doesn't have him killed. Instead Daenerys wants to get down to the problem. Only when she removes the Unsullied's helmet she is met with the face of a young girl.
A Lion’s Vow (Jaime Lannister x Stark!Reader)💌
This game the both of you played was your only real entertainment in the mess that was the Red Keep. Knowing it’s true nature, your father attempted to keep you close to his side. Reminding you not to trust anyone easily, especially those that belonged to the House of the Lion. 
A Mouse in a Lion’s Den (Rhaegar Targaryen x Lannister!Reader)📚
A little mouse surrounded by ferocious lions? It didn't look to be a good situation, even if those lions happened to be your family.
Exiled (Arthur Dayne x Reader)💌
You run into Ser Arthur Dayne in Essos. Along with a dark haired, gray eyed child.
Glow (Daenerys Targaryen x Reader)
Why she had taken a liking to you among all the others she had freed, you would never know. You had been a personal whore for one of the masters and had gotten pregnant. There were many others like you. Your story was nothing special, but Dany had found you worthy enough to be her close companion. There were even times when you thought that maybe you could be more than her companion.
The Doe That Chases the Hound (Sandor Clegane x Baratheon!Reader)
Normally in a hunt it was a hound’s duty to chase down deer. You went against the natural order of things. This time it was the doe who sought after the hound.
Crimson Lady (Ramsay Bolton x Bolton!Reader, Sansa Stark x Bolton!Reader) 🖤
Sansa should have known better. Of course she'd be every part of a Bolton as her brother Ramsay was.
Loveless (Rhaegar Targaryen x Targaryen!Reader) 🖤💌
There was nothing Rhaegar could do about your sudden engagement. Try as he might, he couldn’t persuade Aerys to marry you to him. It didn’t matter that he proclaim his undying love for you. Didn’t matter how you got on your knees in front of the iron throne and begged him to reconsider. Instead of mercy, the Mad King simply laughed at you.
Just For You (Ramsay Bolton x Reader) 🍑💌
The cruel Ramsay Bolton has an unknown side to him. Not just for anyone though. Only for the maid whom he loves to taunt. 
From the Ashes (Rhaegar Targaryen x Lannister!Reader)📚
A year has passed since (y/n) and her brother Jaime fled from King's Landing to the vast and foreign world of Essos.
Mine First, Mine Last, Mine Even in the Grave (Ramsay Bolton x Reader) 🍑
Even at such a young age, Ramsay was proving a difficult and willful child. He was somewhat twisted in nature that sometimes disturbed his mother. However once he laid eyes on the little baby, he immediately grew attached to her.
Birth of Dragons (Aegon i Targaryen x Targaryen!Reader) 📚
It wasn’t fair of him to choose a favorite between his sisters. Fearless Visenya, playful Rhaenys and loving (y/n). Above them all he secretly placed (y/n) close to his heart.
The Most Impossible Battle (Robert Baratheon x Targaryen!Reader) 🍑
Robert hated all Targaryens. Wise words from those close to him though make Robert Baratheon give in to the idea of taking (y/n) Targaryen as his bride.
Wrap Around (Oberyn Martell x Martell!Reader) 📚🖤
Oberyn was beside himself at the return of his baby sister (y/n). For a year she had been off in Essos, experiencing the rest of the world outside of the safety of Sunspear. Now she was returning to Dorne. Returning to Oberyn.
By Any Other Name (Margaery Tyrell x Reader)
Another Life (Rhaegar Targaryen x Stark!Reader)
Lyanna watches Jon from atop of the courtyard's parapet, her eyes crinkling with pride as she watches Jon best Theon Greyjoy at the dance of swords. Every victory Jon made resulted in him outgrowing the label of bastard. He was so much more than a bastard of Winterfell. Not even Catelyn saw him as such. Many were so shocked when the news came that Ned had brought back his bastard one day. In fact Cat had shown up at Winterfell by his side as he held the infant in his arms, for she was one of three that knew the truth about Jon Snow. 
What We Sow (Theon Greyjoy x Greyjoy!Reader) 🍑🖤💌
This was his home, a place where the salt of the sea and the cries of seagulls were a constant presence and where you were. Waiting so patiently as always. His queen, his sister, his wife. He'd been dreaming of the moment when he'd be reunited with you after so long. 
Omission (Theon Greyjoy x Stark!Reader)💌🍑
Robb wasn't being dramatic when he claimed your change toward Theon. From innocent children to teenagers, everything happened so fast that you weren't really able to comprehend what was going on with your own head. When Theon first arrived to your family, you were a small child. You and Robb grew attached to him immediately. For so long you saw him as a brother. Then it just stopped the moment you bled.
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agentrouka-blog · 9 months
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What do you think will happen to Roslin? I do feel bad for her, but there’s something I really don’t like about walder basically infiltrating house Tully and their descendants with his bloodline
Roslin's branch of this large family is among the kinder ones. Her brother Olyvar was loyal to Robb and likely kept away from the events of the Red Wedding for exactly that reason. They knew he would oppose this move with everything he had. There's potential for good and for redemption in House Frey, and I think we are far more likely to see that addressed than a full-on destruction of the House based on the crimes of many of its members.
Walder is a monster, but Roslin is not. More importantly, Edmure Tully recognizes the marriage as valid and cares for both his wife and their unborn child. The threat of Jaime murdering said infant is what breaks his resistance to ordering the surrender of Riverrun. If Edmure Tully doesn't think that Roslin is the product of a poisonous bloodline that must never soil the family tree of House Tully, then neither need we.
Honestly, I think GRRM is rooting for them and giving them a happy ending. Edmure "My people. They were afraid." Tully isn't getting his heart ripped out by another tragedy. The one feudal lord we see actually doing his job for the good of his smallfolk.
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goodqueenaly · 27 days
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Do you think that (if Robb was willing) Tywin was ready tomake peace with Robb? Was there a point where he decided that a negotiated surrender wasn’t an option and that only Robb’s death would do?
The closest Tywin came to conceding to a settlement with Robb was a post facto admission he gave Tyrion following the Battle of the Camps:
Lord Tywin seated himself. "You have the right of it about Stark. Alive, we might have used Lord Eddard to forge a peace with Winterfell and Riverrun, a peace that would have given us the time we need to deal with Robert's brothers. Dead … [sic]" His hand curled into a fist. "Madness. Rank madness."
Now again, this was an admission Tywin was only giving after the fact, when such a settlement was obviously already impossible. As Tyrion had so dramatically demonstrated to Ser Harys Swyft, the feasibility of peace with the Stark-Tully faction following the execution of Eddard Stark was as broken as his shattered cup. Even before the Greatjon cut through the political Gordian knot with his acclamation of Robb, the Stark-Tully faction had no reason to settle with Tywin and the Baratheon-Lannister regime, and even less so once Ned had been killed. (For the record, I don't think Ned taking the black as had been the original agreement would necessarily have prevented war between the Stark-Tully faction and the Baratheon-Lannister regime anyway, but that's a different story.)
So by ACOK, Tywin had instead fully committed himself to a war against Robb, though this campaign could hardly have been called a glorious triumph for Tywin. While it might be amusing to consider what Tywin would have done if Robb's plan to lure Tywin west had been completed, Edmure's defeat-in-victory at the Fords made this scenario a moot point. Tywin was going to defeat Robb - in the field, and then when he could not do so, through the use of carefully cultivated treacherous allies and a shocking betrayal of guest right.
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esther-dot · 7 months
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Cat was supposed to marry Brandon only for him to die brutally by the hands of king. Shortly after she married to Ned only for him to leave for war against the king. How much terrified she would have been especially when she became pregnant? One thing after is happening and it's like she didn't get the time to process.
Absolutely. Having an heir was important, the books press on that issue a lot, so on the one hand, it had to be a relief to potentially be having the Stark heir, but it was right in the middle of so much chaos and trauma. Cat's entire life is marked by being forced into difficult situations without ever having a choice in the matter. There's a lot of pain in this passage,
When the last of Edmure's foot had shuffled under the portcullis, Brienne asked, "What shall we do now, my lady?" "Our duty." Catelyn's face was drawn as she started across the yard. I have always done my duty, she thought. Perhaps that was why her lord father had always cherished her best of all his children. Her two older brothers had both died in infancy, so she had been son as well as daughter to Lord Hoster until Edmure was born. Then her mother had died and her father had told her that she must be the lady of Riverrun now, and she had done that too. And when Lord Hoster promised her to Brandon Stark, she had thanked him for making her such a splendid match. I gave Brandon my favor to wear, and never comforted Petyr once after he was wounded, nor bid him farewell when Father sent him off. And when Brandon was murdered and Father told me I must wed his brother, I did so gladly, though I never saw Ned's face until our wedding day. I gave my maidenhood to this solemn stranger and sent him off to his war and his king and the woman who bore him his bastard, because I always did my duty. (ACOK, Catelyn VI
And then after losing her fiance, marrying a stranger who might be on the losing side of the war --terrifying prospect--and who might die, she has his child, goes home to a place in a region that's unknown to her, only to find he's installed his bastard there before his true born son, the son she bore him,
He did more than that. The Starks were not like other men. Ned brought his bastard home with him, and called him "son" for all the north to see. When the wars were over at last, and Catelyn rode to Winterfell, Jon and his wet nurse had already taken up residence. (AGOT, Catelyn II)
Trauma, terror, trauma, terror. The things she could have thought that implied! I totally agree she didn't have the opportunity to process any of this. I don't think Ned processed his trauma either. I was really struck by Brandon's presence in their marriage all these years later. Even though they've come to love each other, Ned can't seem to move past his insecurity and guilt, he's living a life that was never meant to be his:
Brandon had been twenty when he died, strangled by order of the Mad King Aerys Targaryen only a few short days before he was to wed Catelyn Tully of Riverrun. His father had been forced to watch him die. He was the true heir, the eldest, born to rule. (AGOT, Eddard I)
She finished for him. "… crown prince, and heir to the Iron Throne. And I was only twelve when my father promised me to your brother Brandon." That brought a bitter twist to Ned's mouth. "Brandon. Yes. Brandon would know what to do. He always did. It was all meant for Brandon. You, Winterfell, everything. He was born to be a King's Hand and a father to queens. I never asked for this cup to pass to me." "Perhaps not," Catelyn said, "but Brandon is dead, and the cup has passed, and you must drink from it, like it or not." Ned turned away from her, back to the night. He stood staring out in the darkness, watching the moon and the stars perhaps, or perhaps the sentries on the wall. Catelyn softened then, to see his pain. Eddard Stark had married her in Brandon's place, as custom decreed, but the shadow of his dead brother still lay between them, as did the other, the shadow of the woman he would not name, the woman who had borne him his bastard son. (AGOT, Catelyn II)
Neither was able to fully process and move past the trauma their marriage was created by and in. That tragic context for their relationship makes what it became so much more beautiful though, and this passage, all the more touching:
And was it really such a terrible thing, to want a pretty wife? She remembered her own childish disappointment, the first time she had laid eyes on Eddard Stark. She had pictured him as a younger version of his brother Brandon, but that was wrong. Ned was shorter and plainer of face, and so somber. He spoke courteously enough, but beneath the words she sensed a coolness that was all at odds with Brandon, whose mirths had been as wild as his rages. Even when he took her maidenhood, their love had more of duty to it than of passion. We made Robb that night, though; we made a king together. And after the war, at Winterfell, I had love enough for any woman, once I found the good sweet heart beneath Ned's solemn face. (ASOS, Catelyn V)
Not merely a good heart, a sweet heart. Not merely a survivable marriage, but love.
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astolat · 1 year
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A Man of Honor (Robb/Jaime, 36K)
Thanks to archive downtime and writhing over title I didn't quite get this posted in time for More Joy Day but here it is belatedly but in spirit! <3
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A Man of Honor (36460 words) by astolat Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Game of Thrones (TV) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Jaime Lannister/Robb Stark, Jaime Lannister & Tyrion Lannister Characters: Jaime Lannister, Robb Stark, Tyrion Lannister, Tywin Lannister, Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, Bran Stark, Rickon Stark, Catelyn Tully Stark Additional Tags: Regency Romance, More Joy Day Fest, Fictional Slave Trade, marriage mart, Gambling, Horse Fair, Dueling, Battle, Politics, Speeches, Scheming Series: Part 19 of Game of Thrones works Summary: “Yes, Lord Stark has come to town to help his mother bring out his eldest sister,” Tyrion said, pouring Jaime a glass of wine. “I understand he also plans to take his seat in the House of the Law. His uncle Edmure has been gathering time for him to give his maiden speech.” “Yes, yes,” Jaime said irritably. “That’s not what matters and you know it. Well?” Tyrion sighed. “He's nineteen, well-favored, and as far as I know, neither demented nor stupid. And not a hint of a betrothal. Sorry.”
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atopvisenyashill · 3 months
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is it okay that this lady is in the dead ladies club?
i simply wanted the excuse to talk about the moms. i'm not including ashara, elia, or lyanna in this, because the last two are plot relevant deaths and ashara's is left purposefully mysterious I think because we are going to get some sort of answer there (not even implying "lemore is ashara" here, i think the fact that we have conflicting info on her does mean something about her baby being relevant to the tower of joy, which means howland or bran/the weirwood hivemind are going to reveal that to us. will it be a huge reveal that shakes the earth? i mean, probably not, but i do think it will be relevant).
let’s gooo-
joanna lannister is a dead mom with some narrative weight to her. all three lannisters think about how different their lives might have been, define themselves by the gaping absence of her in their life, and the fact that jaime commits more violence in the riverlands, convinces himself it’s a job well done, and of all people it’s his MOTHER who comes to him in a dream just to be like “this is your conscious speaking, you’re a fucking idiot get your life together dude,” you really feel that this is a family that was wrecked by the loss of their mother at a young age. it Is noticeable that we don’t get much of an idea of her personality compared to the men tho.
can she stay in the dead ladies club? yes, i think this is a well thought out dead mom, i simply wish she had slightly more characterization than “loving mom & wife.”
minisa whent gets less characterization, i think bc we only have cat as insight into her, so i can sort of forgive that, esp since i do think it’s noticeable that for all cat is really fuckijg busy most of the time, she does think about her mother and wonder if she would have been happier with her mother around. lysa & edmure only get to be Like That because they really had no adult taking care of them except cat who was still all but a child herself, so you can feel minisa’s absence in the characterization of her children and the damage her death did to the tully siblings.
can she stay in the dead ladies club? yes, i think this is a well thought out dead mom, although once again i wish we had the opportunity to get information on the type of person she was outside of "loving mother." i do think that minisa and joanna are meant to mirror each other in this way though - they died so young that they are forever frozen in the minds of their children as these paragons of goodness, as a reminder of where their lives went wrong, and what might have happened if things had been a little less sad for them.
what’s interesting about loreza nymeros martell is that we don’t even know what her actual name IS or her age or when she died AND YET despite how little time we spend with characters that knew her, Doran names her as an influence on him and quotes her, and this scene - “this is your kingdom” in the water gardens - is usually pointed to as one of those scenes that are The Point Of The Series. the writing around her is certainly clunky but at least you can tell there was thought put into the kind of person doran’s mother was and how she might have influenced doran's life. i also think it's notable here that we know she was up to things besides giving birth - she was a lady at court, she was friendly with joanna and rhaella, she was attempting to engage her kids to non dornish lords so she was clearly very pro-Dorne Being Involved as opposed to having an isolationist bent. we know a decent amount about her personality, and we don't even know who she marries, which is honestly kind of funny - so many of these characters only think about their fathers yet doran only thinks of his mother.
can she stay in the dead ladies club? yes, but we are deducting points for not having arianne think about her at all and also still not knowing her name.
cassana eastermont is a question mark but to be fair,,,,,so is steffon and that is kind of the point of both of them. cassana and steffon were at court, and then died, so like the other siblings of this era, the baratheon boys grew up Without An Adult In The Room except for Maester Cressen. the tragedy of Cressen being helpless to keep his boys together, and dying in a vain attempt to save what’s left of stannis and renly’s souls, it doesn’t really work if any of them have a lot of fond memories that they dwell over of cassana or steffon. and no one has any real idea how aware steffon was of the whisperings of rebellion against aerys because they’re so absent from the narrative, it’s funny that their son then became the face of that rebellion despite steffon’s targaryen mother. BUT. yeah it does objectively suck that we don’t know what cassana was up to before she had her first baby and then she dies, bc at least we know steffon was alive and doing shit, we’re just fuzzy on what. cassana begins and ends as a wife and mother, that really sucks and i wish we had gotten a single person throwaway commenting about her.
can she stay in the dead ladies club? yes, but i think if we had some throwaway lines about her, as an example, fostering at Storm's End so Rhaelle had some female company (since she had no daughters, and only the one son) and her and Steffon met and married that way, so that we know she existed before becoming a mother.
rhaella targaryen is an interesting example because we not only have several characters who remark on her and knew her, we actually get a significant amount of characterization for her. she was clearly romantic enough to entertain fantasies of running off with bonifer hasty and yet pragmatic enough to not pull a stunt like that. "mindful of her duty" as it's put, but also rebelling against her brother-husband in ways by being openly kind to rhaegar and embracing rhaenys and elia. stubborn enough to crown viserys on dragonstone. a loving mother whose loss broke viserys' mind. but...like did she have to die in childbirth? did daenerys have to have no memories of her whatsoever? would it not have been perfectly within the plot george wanted if rhaella and ser willem darry were with her, and died of a fever at the same time?
can she stay in the dead ladies club? no, i think it's really annoying and dumb that rhaella dies on dragonstone giving birth to dany. i dont think it changes the plot in any way if rhaella had stayed alive for four or five years after dany's birth, and if dany thought about her mother from time to time. it is honestly one of the my Main quibbles with this series, that dany never thinks about the women in her family when she thinks of leaders and rulers, only the men.
lyarra stark is in my opinion the most egregious example of a woman in the dead ladies club. no personality, no in canon mentions of her, no idea when she dies, george didn't even think about her until twoiaf. there were theories and mystery surrounding her and the answer was "george did not think she was relevant" and it sure is fun and intersting to look at which dead characters are irrelevant and which ones get characterization (see comments about steffon vs cassana). i get wanting most of the grandparents to be dead by the end of robert's rebellion - a lot of the point is that the sets of siblings from the rebellion era are very isolated from their childhoods, signified by the losses of their parents and especially their mothers (as motherhood and childhood are kind of intrinsically linked together). but why did she have to die before the rebellion? why does ned never once think about her? why must it always be the mother who is inconsequential while the father makes history? to throw george's own words at him, the woman is important too!
can she stay in the dead ladies club? no, there's just no reason why she couldn't have lived to the rebellion, been the Stark in Winterfell alongside Benjen, and died during the war, either of grief, shock, or potentially even after an attempt at finding lyanna herself goes awry.
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racefortheironthrone · 7 months
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In a world where Robb Stark wins his war and manages to consolidate his realm, with the 7K being no more, lets assume he also annexes the northern crownlands too, what kind of council or burocracy would he establish to govern and how much of your economic development plans could he reasonably carry out in his lifetime and how could he unify his 2 realms economy into a cohesive unit?
In a Stark victory scenario, I think annexing the northern Crownlands would be an overstretch and something of a distraction from more important tasks (like bringing the Iron Islands and the Vale into his sphere of influence so that he can govern a geographically, economically, and politically coherent kingdom/coalition of northern Westeros).
To quote King Robb:
"Duskendale, on the narrow sea? Why would they go to Duskendale?" He'd shook his head, bewildered. "A third of my foot, lost for Duskendale?"
What matters in a brand-new Kingdom of the North is things like whether Gulltown accepts silver coins minted in White Harbor with Robb's face on them as valid payment for debts and taxes, or whether the Ironborn agree to keep their reaving south of Ironman's Bay, or whether the Stark navy can keep the Trident open all the way to the Bay of Crabs so that the Riverlands can keep trading directly with Braavos.
I did some back-reading through various economic development posts to see what I'd said in the past about the tricky scenario of how one balances the interests of multiple kingdoms in pursuing economic development. One of the things I'm noticing is that there are some reforms where there is real issues with competition/duplication of efforts (a Kingdom of the North can probably only support one Bank, one canal scheme, one sub-treasury system, one purchasing/marketing cooperative, etc.), some reforms where individual kingdoms can pursue their own goals but where there would be an issue about how the king balances the rewards he's doling out between the kingdoms (do you put your marginal dragon into winter schools and greenhouses for the North or church schools for the Riverlands or roads for the Vale?), and some where every kingdom can pitch in in a common effort (if there's going to be one sub-treasury plan, you're going to need a network of granaries along waterways from the Last River down to the Trident, the same information about how to improve agricultural productivity can be shared between the North, the Riverlands, and the Vale basically for free, etc).
That being said, one of the major political challenges of the Kingdom of the North was always going to be how you balance the interests of the component kingdoms and make everyone feel like the central government is giving them a fair deal and being attentive to their interests - and as you say, forging them into a cohesive economy would go a long way into doing that. So for example, one priority should be in working out reciprocity in trade between the newly-chartered cities. It certainly helps that a bunch of them (White Harbor, Gulltown, Maidenpool, Lord Harroway's Town, Saltpans) are along the same coast of the Narrow Sea or just upriver from the Narrow Sea, which makes close trade links more likely. However, you're going to want to make formal legal arrangements that, when it comes to port fees and staple fees and warehousing fees and the like, all of the North's cities agree to set them as low as possible for other Northern cities (if not an outright zollverein), and that burgher rights are transferrable between cities and that city ordinances will be honored by other cities, and so on.
In terms of "council or burocracy would he establish to govern," Robb was already taking a decent first step to bolster Lord Paramount Edmure Tully by appointing Brynden the Blackfish as Warden of the Southern Marches.
As I've written before, issuing city charters would be a crucial element of governing the Riverlands effectively. Giving Maidenpool, Lord Harroway's Town, Stoney Sept, Fairmarket, and Seagard a combination of economic and political self-governance would paradoxically allow King Robb to project royal authority more effectively - especially when it comes to generating revenue and manpower and enforcement of economic regulations.
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