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kallypsowrites · 5 years

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I know we talk a lot about stuff the show screwed up from the book and like, I get it, stuff was bound to get lost in translation in any adaptation. But I wanna talk about a few of my favorite show-only scenes:

1. Cersei and Robert’s conversation in season 1

In this scene we have two non POV characters discussing the state of the kingdom and their marriage. We never get a perspective from Robert in the books and nothing from Cersei until book four. At this point in the books, Cersei is a pretty unsympathetic character. We know her relationship with Robert is pretty bad, of course, but it’s filtered through Ned’s perspective.

Here, Cersei and Robert have a rare moment of truce and we get some of the best dialogue in the series. They’re not fighting. They are...resigned. Cersei puts away her hatred of the Starks to admit that Ned is a good choice for hand and she recognizes that Robert shouldn’t have dismissed him. She asks about Lyanna, something she has avoided for a very long time out of spite, because “what harm can her ghost do to us?” Robert admits that he doesn’t even remember what she looks like, which reveals that his “love” for her was probably just infatuation.

And then my favorite set of lines--

Cersei: Was there ever a chance for us, ever a moment?

Robert: No...does that make you feel better or worse?

Cersei: It doesn’t make me feel anything.

Here, two broken people confront the mess of their lives and wonder if they ever had a chance to have something good. But they didn’t, because Robert has always been his stubborn, prideful self and Cersei is just as proud and stubborn. And Cersei is resigned to it. If it made her feel something once, now that feeling is numbed.

When I first saw this scene, a scene between two characters I didn’t particularly like, I was struck by the humanness of it. Humanness we did not get at this point in the books. And it informed how I saw her afterwards. For every terrible thing she did, I wanted to know more about her.

2. Tywin and Jaime

Our first introduction to Tywin in the books is Tyrion. Understandably, Tyrion and Tywin have a complicated relationship and Tywin is always much more of a dick whenever Tyrion is around. In the show on the other hand? We first see Tywin interacting with Jaime.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Tywin is still an asshole in this scene too. It is an inherent part of his character. But it is one of the most powerful character introductions for him, and one of the first humanizing moments for Jaime.

Tywin is skinning a stag in some wonderful foreshadowing of Robert’s death in that same episode. When Jaime tries his usual quips, which we have seen work well on others, Tywin shuts him down because he sees through them. Jaime is weaker here in the presence of his father because even if he can appear unbothered to the rest of the world. And we see how many expectations Tywin puts on Jaime which he does not want, because he is supposed to be the “golden son”.

More than anything, this is Tywin’s grand entrance. For all of the damage we’ve seen in the three Lannister kids, this is the motherfucker they got it from. So many of these kids insecurities and faults trace back to Tywin being a shit dad with the emotional availability of rock. You see this scene and you’re like...ah...yep...this makes sense. And of course, we see how differently Tywin treats Jaime (someone he has high expectations for) vs how he treats Tyrion (someone he has no expectations for).

3. Robert, Barristan and Jaime

I’m sorry but there’s more than one Jaime scene on this list. Obviously like him. But his season one scenes are great on rewatch partially because of what we learn about him in season three.

So in this scene, Jaime, Barristan and Robert tell war stories, mostly on the drunken king’s request. We see that Jaime is not at all fond of Robert but also some of his admiration for Barristan Selmy as he compliments his battle techniques. He starts to let down his walls a bit during this conversation because its talking about what he’s good at: fighting.

Then Robert asks about his killing the mad king and Jaime’s wall shoots right back up.

Robert: What did the mad king say when you stabbed him in the back?

Jaime: He said the same thing he’d been saying for hours...burn them all.

We don’t know the context of this last line but when you rewatch the scene you can see what Jaime is thinking. That he killed the Mad King and saved king’s Landing, but he has only ever been scorned for it. He’s very bitter. And his bitterness shows in the next scene (which I promise is the last Jaime scene)

4. Jaime and Jory

Jaime has a brief conversation with Jory, who tries to deliever one of Ned’s messages to Robert while he’s whoring. We see how Robert makes Jaime mind the door while he’s insulting Cersei with as many women as possible. But despite the Stark and Lannister animosity, Jory tries to make conversation about when they met during the Greyjoy rebellion. Jaime’s wall starts to drop again because talking about fighting is the one thing that makes him comfortable (which is why losing his hand so shatters his identity later). It seems the two men have come to some sort of understanding.

Then Jory brings up Ned and back comes the bitterness! Jaime resents Ned so much for judging him on that day for killing the Mad King and that bitterness all comes to a head later during the street fight. Again, we don’t know why he’s so bitter yet, but it all comes across so well in this scene.

5. Sansa and Shae

Sansa and Shae have many scenes together and I really like their friendship. The show goes a long way to develop Shae more than George ever did (only to kill her in the same way but...we can’t all get what we want). Her more genuine relationship with Tyrion is okay, but it sours for me with the season four result. But it’s her genuine friendship with Sansa that I love.

Shae becomes protective. She gives her advice. At first Sansa snaps at her because she doesn’t trust her and she is still traumatized but eventually the two become very close. I like so many of their conversations, especially in season two and three. And Shae never blames Sansa for any part of her marriage with Tyrion which thank CHRIST for that.

6. Arya and Tywin

Anyone who has talked to me for two seconds knows how obsessed I am with these scenes. Because they are...basically the only humanizing scenes that Tywin gets at all. The very smallest bit of vulnerability. I think it really shows how much of a people person Arya is, sort of without even trying. And she really holds her own with one of the most powerful men in Westeros. She’s smart and capable and she manages to slip under Tywin’s nose even though he could have used her as a valuable hostage if he figured her out. He was starting to catch onto her toward the end, but fortunately did not. Good scenes. Love them. Very good.

7. Catelyn and Tailisa

In season three, Catleyn tells Tailisa about the time she made a wreath for Jon Snow. Now I’m a very team Catelyn sort of person. I don’t think she abused Jon so much as she just ignored him. But I think this scene is very telling. Because despite Jon not being her son and also being a potential threat to her own son as bastards often were, despite Ned’s betrayal still being fresh, Catelyn fought to keep this child alive. She prayed for him and he lived. And yes, she didn’t treat him as a son afterwards because it was still a very complicated situation. But I think this goes a long way to show that Catelyn is not the evil, Jon abusing woman that a lot of people paint her as.

8. Ramsay’s new introduction

Ramsay has a great intro in the books, but his intro in the show genuinely caught me by surprise. He seems to be completely helpful to Theon and listens to him talk about his regret. He kills the people who are after him and he seems very genuine. But then, it’s all a ruse. This scene so perfectly illustrates how Ramsay uses mind games to toy with people. I thought the number of torture scenes in season three was excessive, but this one I thought was a GREAT intro to Ramsay.

9. Arya and Lady Craine

A lot of Arya’s Bravos stuff in the show is very meh. But I love her stuff with Lady Craine because it shows that Arya is not the ‘emotionless killing machine’ that the show sometimes tries to portray her as. Arya does not kill Lady Craine because she can see that she is innocent and she does not want to kill people who haven’t earned it. Later on, her kindness drives Lady Craine to help her and they share a scene in the woman’s house. It’s really sweet and it’s nice to see Arya smile again. Beneath it all, she’s still a child and a traumatized one a that. One who lost her mother and father in a brutal way. And lady Craine gives her just a bit of maternal energy again, before dying horribly because Arya’s life is a nightmare. Still, liked this character.

10. Varys and Littlefinger sass offs

Gotta love some Varys and Littlefinger and I do love how they dance around each other all throughout seasons 1-3. They’re the kind of enemies who respect each other but still want to see the other choke. And it also because clear that while one of them is a more neutral figure who doesn’t covet the throne, the other is driving toward it with his ladder of chaos. We got a great sense of both of them in these scenes and it was great.

Look, the show has some messy parts and even some straight up bad ones (thanks Dorne arc). But it also did a lot right and even some show original scenes are worth quite a lot in my mind.

#game of thrones #arya stark #jaime lannister #sansa stark #tywin lannister #Cersei lannister #Robert Baratheon #Catelyn Stark #Ramsay Bolton #Shae

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julibf · 5 years

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MY ENDING GAME THEORY.....

Jon Snow and Sansa Stark will be the King and Queen of the 7 Kingdoms;

Jon Snow will father a bastard daughter;

Jon Snow will have half of his face burned down in the final battle and will be blind from one eye;

Jon and Sansa will lie to protect the bastard girl and raise her as their trueborn child;

Sansa is the “Younger and More Beautiful Queen” who will cast down Cersei;

Sansa Stark will be known as THE QUEEN. She will be the one changing the laws of succession, allowing girls to be the heirs in front of their younger brothers;

Jon Snow will be the one killing Cersei, he will be the Valonqar of the prophecy;

The North will never bend the knee to a southern ruler ever again, but it may join the Realm in a new political division.

Arya Stark will call the banners and lead the Northern armies in the new Rebellion;

Arya Stark will be The Queen in the North;

Bran Stark will be the most important player against the Night King, not the dragons;

Daenerys will abandon the fight against the Army of the dead and march south, leaving the North to fight for themselves;

We will have a Second Dance of Dragons between Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen;

Daenerys arrival to Westeros will enter the history books as one of the worst events in the History of the 7 Kingdoms;

Jaime Lannister will be the Hand of the King for Jon Snow; Jaime Lannister will marry Brienne of Tarth and restore House Lannister to their former glory;

Tyrion Lannister will face his third trial, but this time he will be guilty of all his crimes;

Tyrion Lannister will lose his tongue and be sent into exile to Essos;

Daenerys will be the last antagonist of this story and will be remembered as THE QUEEN OF ASHES;

House Targaryen will come to an end;

Theon will be the King of the Iron Islands;

The new capital of the realm will be in HighGarden;

Episode 3 will be the Fight against the Army of the Dead;

Episode 5 will be the Dance of Dragons.

The Starks will rule the kingdom in the end, bringing a Time for Wolves.

________________________________________________________________

JON SNOW AND SANSA STARK MARRIAGE……

Jon Snow and Sansa Stark will be the final King and Queen of the 7 Kingdoms. Their romance has been foreshadow pretty much since book 1 and season 1 and their marriage will bring peace and prosperity to Westeros. The wars of Ice and Fire will destroy the kingdom and they will be the ones rebuilding the realm to its former glory; Jon and Sansa storyline are in a perfect parallel and they have been groomed to be king and queen of Westeros for the whole storyline in the books.

JON SNOW HAS ALWAYS LOVED SANSA STARK;

Jon Snow has always been in love with his cousin Sansa Stark, which is why he decided to go to the wall after Ned Stark accepted Sansa’s engagement to Joffrey Baratheon. Jon was written as a mirror to Jaime Lannister and one of the reasons Jaime decided to join the kingsguard was because he could never marry his sister and lover Cersei. Once the secret of Lyanna and Rheagar is finally out, Jon and Sansa will be free to be together. Their love story is the main romance of the books.

BTW, don’t be surprised if they reveal the romance between Jon and Sansa in the end of the first episode of season 8. The episode will start mirroring the pilot episode, when King Robert arrived at Winterfell with his Lannister family and we all know the episode ended with the reveal of Cersei and Jaime incestual romance.

JON SNOW IS GOING TO BE A STARK;

Jon Snow is going to take Sansa Stark name and pass the Stark name to all his children. He will be finally be a Stark and die as a true son by law of Eddard Stark, just like he always dreamed of in the books. This was foreshadowed in season 6 episode 5, when Sansa cloaked Jon Snow with a Stark Cloak.

JON WILL FATHER A BASTARD

Jon Snow will father a bastard. He will have trueborn sons with his wife Sansa Stark, but he will have a bastard girl with Daenerys. The books have foreshadowed this event to death. Jon and Sansa will pass this bastard girl as their own trueborn child and give her their Stark name. Sansa will raise this child as her own daughter and make her a Stark. That’s why the show wrote that scene with Catelyn Stark and Talissa on season 3 where Catelyn says that she failed to love and care for her husband bastard child, Sansa will do the opposite and love and care for Jon’s bastard daughter.

Jon will do the inverse of his uncle Ned, who lied and raised his trueborn nephew as a bastard. The story of Game of Thrones started with Ned Stark starting a war to prevent a bastard son of Cersei Lannister to sit in the Throne and it will end with a bastard daughter of Jon Snow as the heir of the Throne. History repeat itself and in the end, there wont be much difference between Starks and Lannister, they all lie to protect the ones they love.

“The things we do for love” will still be the theme of the story in the end….

THIS IS A STORY OF FATHER’S DAUGHTERS….

A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE its many tales in one; this is a tale of a Dragon prince madly in love with a Wolf girl; this is also a tale about home and families; about the things we do for love; it’s a story about tyranny and fear; its also a story about slow learners, who make several mistakes, but that eventually do learn, but ALSO, A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, is a story about father’s daughters.

And that’s exactly what Arya, Sansa, Cersei, Daenerys, Brienne all are. These women are their father’s daughters. That’s why the show gave so much importance on those character’s fathers and hardly touched the mothers relevance.

No one thought Sansa and Daenerys had much of their fathers in themselves, those two characters were always associated with their mothers, yet they will prove to all of us that they carry much of Eddar and Aerys inside of them, in the last part of this story.

THE STARK SISTERS WILL GET EVERYTHING THEY EVER WANTED…

Arya: “We both wanted to be the other people when we were younger. You wanted to be a queen and sit next to a handsome, young king on the Iron Throne. I wanted to be a knight, to pick up a sword like father and go off to battle. Neither of us got to be that other person, did we? The world doesnt just let girls decide what they are going to be.”’

(SEASON 7 EPISODE 6)

AND THEY ARE GOING TO BE QUEENS….

Yes, we will have two queens. Game of Thrones started with two queens. Daenerys and Cersei; one a conqueror, the second a consort queen. Two women, whose obsession for the Iron Throne, left a trail of death and destruction on Essos and Westeros. So, we will finish this story with two queens, who will restore the Kingdom and improve the lives of their people. Sansa will be the consort queen of Jon Snow and Arya will be the warrior, the conquering queen that will lead the armies of North, Vale and Riverlands into war in season 8.

SANSA STARK WILL BE “THE QUEEN”;

Queen Sansa Stark will change the Law of Succession allowing girls to be heirs in front of their younger brothers. Sansa it’s the YMBQ of the prophecy and she will be the one casting Cersei Lannister down; Sansa will be very political active queen, changing laws and improving the lives of the people of Westeros and making important changes in the realm; She will be loved by her people and called THE QUEEN.

Sansa was always meant to be the final queen and the one who will rebuild the kingdom after the wars. Sansa entire storyline in the books was about observing the major players of the game make their moves and see the ramifications of those decisions. In Kings Landing, Sansa saw it first hand how ruling can affect the lives of the people in Westeros. She was able to see what to do, when in power, but also, what NOT to do as a king or queen. She learned a lot from Cersei, Margaery, Ollena, the Tyrells, The Lannisters, Littlefinger and will use this education for good use as a queen.

All Sansa’s dreams will come true and she will be a living proof that “life is a song”. She will marry her brave and gentle hero; she will have children and rebuild her family and she will be a very beloved queen, admired for her beauty and kindness.

ARYA WILL BE THE QUEEN IN THE NORTH;

Arys Stark will rule the North as a Regent Queen. Arya storyline in season 8 will be a copy of Papa Ned in the first Rebellion against the Mad King. She will call the banners and lead the North armies into battle in the final war of this story. George RRMartin himself said that she would conquer the world in the final part of this tale.

ARYA WILL BE VERY IMPORTANT IN THE FINAL SEASON !!!!!

Arya is season 8 will be a huge warrior, with the help of Nymeria and their pack of wolves, she is going to lead their armies into battle, defeating Daenerys armies in combat (yes, the Dothraki bitches!!!!!!) They will probably meet in the Riverlands, where Rheagar and Robert had their first and final confrontation. She will be the one who will kill the mountain, avenging the people that he cruelly killed in the Riverlands and the Hound. Just like papa Ned became famous for killing Ser Arthur Dane, Arya will be legendary for killing the Mountain. They will write songs about her for years and years to come……

BRAN STARK WILL BE THE MAGICAL FORCE TO STOP THE ARMY OF THE DEAD…

I know the audience expects Daenerys and her dragons to be the magical force used to stop the Army of the Dead, but, don’t be shocked if she decides to abandon the cause in the middle of the fight and leave the North before the big battle against the Night King. There is a lot of Stannis in Daenerys character arc on season 7 and in the end, Stannis left Jon and the Nights Watch on their own to fight the Night King on Hardhome, and went to march to Winterfell to fight the Boltons. Stannis could never let it go completely of the Iron Throne and I expect Dany to do the same.

Its Bran Stark, who has been preparing himself to face this threat since the beginning of this story. Its Bran Stark who has been foreshadowed by the books and tv show to be the one who will matter the most in the end. Not the dragons. I suspect we will see the ghosts of the Kings of Winter, coming out from the crypts of Winterfell, to fight the final battle against the Army of the Dead.

Bran: What else have you seen it? Jojen: The ONLY think that matters. YOU.

(Season 3 Episode 2)

Also, in the first Long Night, there was no Targaryens; The North was left to fight on its own with the help of the Children of the Forest and George likes to repeat his stories very closely to the original. Defeating the Army of the Dead wont be Bran only job in season 8, he has also been written as a foil to Daenerys, so I believe he will be involved on her final defeat.

DAENERYS WILL BE THE FINAL ANTAGONIST IN SEASON 8 AND WE WILL HAVE A SECOND DANCE OF DRAGONS BETWEEN JON AND DANY……

Jon Snow: “They will see it you for “what you are”.

(SEASON 7 EPISODE 6)

In the beginning of this story we saw Sansa Stark falling madly in love with a beautiful prince, only to have her heart broken in a million of pieces in the end of season 1, when Joffrey shocked her by cutting her father’s head, finally showing how cruel and monstrous he really was. In the beginning of the series, we also had the audience falling madly in love with the beautiful Daenerys Targaryen, believing she was the hero of this story and just like Sansa, the audience will be shocked by Daenerys actions in season 8 and they will have their hearts completely broken in a million of pieces. Daenerys will finally show to the audience the monster that she really is. I expect to see a lot of shades of Joffrey on Daenerys in season 8. Remember, Joffrey believed his whole life he was the true heir of the Iron Throne, until a Stark man showed up in his life, telling him that this was a lie. This is exactely what is going to happen to Daenerys in season 8.

Remember when Sansa Stark fell madly in love with a monster and trusted a beautiful queen blindly when she was warned against it? You are all Sansas, you just don’t know yet.

Daenerys could never be the villain of her own story. That’s why it was always necessary for her to create a lie that painted her as the hero. She invaded Astapor to save the Unsulied from the evil wise masters; she conquered Meereen to pay back the slavers for crucifying the children slaves; she destroyed the sacred temple of Vaes Dothrak and killed all the Khalls, but she did for the Dothraki widows who didnt wish to stay in the Dosh khaleen. Now in Westeros she had no more excuses, there is no slavery or evil masters torturing young boys in the 7 Kingdoms, so she was forced to create a new excuse to defend her invasion of Westeros.

So, she told the audience that she wants to break the wheel of power that crushes the poor and the weak on Westeros. It makes no sense of course. She wants to break the wheel, by building a new wheel, this time, with only her family on top, crushing those under her. This is a phony ridiculous excuse and its supposed to be ridiculous. It’s a silly lie, all Daenerys wants in the Iron Throne, but she cant admit it afraid it will make her look bad, so she created this silly little lie and the audience (just like Sansa fell into Cersei silly lies in season 1) fell right into. What Dany really wants is install an absolute monarchy, with only HER in power.

Daenerys is a false prophet, who invented a sacred mission to convince her people and those who follow her of her good intentions, yet all her actions are motivated from the desire to take The Iron Throne, that’s the one thing who truly matters for Daenerys and now in season 8, when her claim to the Throne will be contested by the bombastic news of Jon Snow stronger claim to the Throne. That’s whe she will finally show to the audience who she really is.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE BLINDLY FOLLOW, GOD AND HEROS;

By writing Daenerys Targaryen, George RRMartin wanted to show us how dictators and cult leaders are created. They started magical and inspiring, making beautiful speeches and promising great things, but in end, most of them are motivated by selfish desires and allow power to corrupt them. Daenerys story is also a warning about following leaders without questioning their motivations or decisions. Daenerys is adored as a goddess by her followers and never has her decision questioned by them. Unlike Jon Snow who is always questioned by Sansa, The North Lords and the Wildlings about his decisions. The Dothraki and the Unsullied just blindly follow Daenerys around, like children following their mothers, never questioning her real motives, or even contemplating if the move to Westeros has actually any benefits for them. And as we are about to see in season 8, following leaders blindly can be a very dangerous thing because it can lead us to our graves. The audience, the Dothraki and the Unsullied never thought that their hero could just simply be lying to them……No matter how much destruction and death she causes, her followers and advisers keep believing in her, defending her decisions, turning a blind eye to her questionable actions, finding excuses to her terrible acts. They know that she can be impulsive and dangerous but believe that in the end she is motivated by great ideals and will always listen to her advisers……..

Daenerys first instinct is always destruction and violence, but most of the time, she is restrained by her advisers………. But the rope that holds her together is about to be ripped apart in season 8.

Daario Naharis: “I pity the Lords of Westeros, they have no idea what is coming for them”

(SEASON 6 EPISODE 10)

Daenerys was always meant to be the final antagonist of the story, her time in Essos was not about learning to be a good queen, she was learning to be a ruthless conqueror, which she learned very well. Don’t be surprised if she marries Euron Greyjoy, they marriage has been foreshadowed on books and tv show. Daenerys its gonna shock the audience, she is going to behave in a way that will surprise a lot of people.

Jon and Daenerys relationship will mirror Rhaenyra and Aegon tragic battle for the Throne; This will be the final battle on episode 5, the fight for the Throne has always been the main focus of the story and this battle its what is going to put an end to this tale. Westeros will finally be united against the common enemy, which is Daenerys and her dragons.

The Army of the Dead and the Night King were always a red herring, its was always Daenerys and her dragons the major threat for Westeros. I believe that more than half of the population of Westeros will perish during the final wars; many who survive the war will latter die during the winter without the food that was destroyed by Daenerys dragons in the Field of Fire 2.0; in her short period in Westeros, Daenerys will cause a lot of deaths and destruction and she will be remembered as the Queen of Ashes.

The stallion that mounts the world was never Rhaego. It was always going to be Daenerys. Essos will also be throw into chaos, without Daenerys dragons to impose order, the masters of Astapor, Meereen and the local cities will raise again and the region will probably be engulfed into a civil war. It will probably take centuries for the world to recover from Daenerys reign of terror.

WINTER WILL COME TO HOUSE TARGARYEN;

Daenerys final battle on episode 5, will turn Kings Landing into ashes, but she wont be destroying just the capital of the realm, she will also put an end to House Targaryen. Their dynasty started with the destruction of Harrenhall and will end with the destruction of the capital that The Targaryens themselves build, closing a cycle of tyranny, fear and terror. Daenerys will be the last dragon.

DRAGONSTONE WILL FAIL;

I believe that Dragonstone will be destroyed in the end. The Castle in the remote island serves no purpose for Westeros. It can not be used for grains production or animal livestock, the only use for Dragonstone in the past centuries was to be used as base for a foreign invasion, the castle will probably be destroyed in the end. Also important, Daenerys spent this entire story threatening to destroy other’s peoples houses and cities. To have her own ancestral House destroyed in the end would be very fitting to the story.

“so comes snow, after fire and even dragons have their ending”

J. R.R TOKIEN

WE WILL HAVE A SECOND REBELLION AND A SECOND DANCE OF THE DRAGONS…

Don't fight in the North. Or the South. Fight every battle, everywhere, always, in your mind. Everyone is your enemy, everyone is your friend... every possible series of events is happening all at once. Live that way and nothing will surprise you, ……..everything that happens will be something that you have seen before.

(Litllefinger SEASON 7 EPISODE 2)

Everything that happened in the past will happen again in season 8. Robert’s Rebelion will happen again. Sansa will be kidnapped at some point, just like aunt Lyanna Stark; Arya will lead the North armies south to save her sister (just like Ned Stark did in Robert’s Rebellion). The Riverlands, the North and the Vale will once again gather forces and go to war.

Stannis: “What are you reading?”

Shireen: "The Dance of Dragons."

Stannis: “What's it about? It's the story of the fight between Rhaenyra Targaryen and her half-brother Aegon for control over the Seven Kingdoms. Both of them thought they belonged on the Iron Throne. When people started declaring for one of them or the other, their fight divided the kingdoms in two. Brothers fought brothers, dragons fought dragons. By the time it was over, thousands were dead. And it was a disaster for the Targaryens as well. They never truly recovered.

(GAME OF THRONES SEASON 5 EPISODE 9)

We will have a second Dance of Dragons, with the kingdom divided between Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen. The Lannisters will be divided too by this war. Tyrion (the flop) will choose Daenerys side and Jaime will choose Jon Snow and the Starks. This will be the decision that will change Jaime Lannister legacy forever.

Millions will die, but in the end Jon Snow and his armies will defeat Daenerys and her dragons. This war will not only destroy the realm but finally bring an end to the Targaryen dynasty. This battle will probably happens on episode 5.

SANSA’S PLANS TO CAST DOWN CERSEI…

Sansa will be kidnapped in season 8, probably by Cersei, but don’t be surprised if this kidnapping has a twist. In season 1, in the scene where Cersei and the small council is forcing Sansa to write down a letter to Rob Stark demanding him to bend the knee to King Joffrey., we have Maester Pycelle warning Cersei that Sansa may be so sweet and innocent now, but once she is older, she may hatch some treasons!!!!

“she (Sansa) may be a sweet thing now Your Grace, but in 10 YEARS, who knows what treasons she may hatch!!!!”

(SEASON 1 EPISODE 8)

Now, we know that Sansa did learn a lot from Cersei and maybe now she is finally ready to outsmart her former teacher… This was the first foreshadowing of Sansa’s plans to cast down Cersei.

And in season 6, we have another foreshadowing of how Sansa will plot against Cersei in the end, When Arya is in Braavos, she watches a Bravossi Theather play telling the events that happened in Westeros. In that storyline, the actress that plays Sansa hires a faceless man to kill the actress who plays Cersei, Lady Crane. I believe this was another foreshadowing of the events that will happen in season 8. Its Sansa who is taking Cersei down. The little dove will prove to the queen that she learned all her lessons. But I believe Jon Snow will be the one killing Cersei.

EPISODE 5 WILL BE THE DANCE OF DRAGONS;

He was no dragon, Dany thought, curiously calm. Fire cannot kill a dragon.

(A Game of Thrones - Daenerys V)

Well I believe thats exactly whats its gonna happen. In order to defeat Daenerys you have to kill her last dragon, Drogon, which we know will be flying over Kings Landing in the end of this story. Thats how the wildfire comes in. I actually think Jon and the Lannisters may set a trap for Dany and use the wildfire to kill the dragon and Daenery’s remain armies. Maybe Bran was behind King Aerys decision to cover KL with wildfire, already preparing to use against Daenerys in the finall battle for the Throne. if we rewatch season 5 episode 7 we had a little hint about this idea.

DAARIO: On the day of the Great Games, gather all the great masters, and wise masters, and worthy masters you can find, and slaughter them all.

DAENERYS: I am a queen. Not a butcher.

DAARIO: All rulers are either butchers or meat.

Remember that Bran’s first chapter he is forced to watch his father doing the Kings’s justice and Ned explains to him that “the man who passes the sentence, must swing the sword”. This is one of the most important themes in the story.

Also, in season 4 episode 2, we have Bran having a vision of the events that will happen for the first time. This is THE vision where he sees the dragon flying over KL. After the vision he tells Jojen and Meera: “I know where we have to go”. The show then cuts to a scene in Kings Landing.

So, I do believe Bran will be involved with the explosion of Kings Landing and using the wildfire as a last weapon to defeat Daenerys and her last dragon. Thats the only way Westeros will ever be free of the Targaryens.

BTW, gathering all your enemies in a closed space and destroying them with fire has been used by both mad queens, Cersei and Daenerys, so maybe now we will see the Starks using this idea to finally get rid of Daenerys, her armies and her dragon.

THE FUTURE OF HOUSE LANNISTER

No, House Lannister will not fall into nothing like the Targaryens. The House will be saved by Jaime Lannister, who will marry Brienne of Tarth and restore his family and legacy.

JAIME LANNISTER ITS GOING TO BE THE FINAL HAND AND ITS GOING TO END THIS STORY AS A GREAT HERO;

Jaime Lannister will choose Jon Snow, this will be the turning point for Jaime and the choice that will change his legacy. There is some very good foreshadowing in the books that hint to us that Jaime will side with Jon Snow in the final battle and help him to defeat Daenerys and her dragons.

I believe it will be Jaime who will kill Daenerys last dragon, Drogon, and becoming famous as a DRAGONSLAYER; Jaime Lannister will have a big role in the final part of this story, not only helping defeat the ARMY OF THE DEAD, but also defeating Daenerys Targaryen and saving the Kingdom once again from a tyrannical Targaryen; only this time he will finally receive the thank you, from the people of Westeros;

Jaime will be greeted as a hero and will end this story beloved and admired by the people. I believe at some point in season 8 Jaime will die and will be brought back to life, his character was written as a mirror to Jon Snow and Jon died on season 5, so this storyline may be possible.

Jaime will be the Hand of the King for Jon Snow (there is a lot of foreshadowing for this, in both books and tv show) and he will be able to finish his history in the white book as a hero. He will go down in history as one of the greatest Hands in the history of the 7 kingdoms. Jaime will be the last Lannister left on Westeros.

TYRION WILL BE SENT INTO EXILE;

Tyrion will have to face a trial for a third time and this time he will be guilty of his crimes. Yeah, that is not a prediction, it’s a spoiler, but I already expected that. George loves his 3. Tyrion its one of the characters that will have a very tragic ending. He was the fool who brought Daenerys to Westeros believing he could control her, the same mistake his sister Cersei tried to do with Joffrey. He invited Jon Snow under false premises to Dragonstone without mentioning to Jon about Daenerys demands to bend the knee.

He made a deal with Cersei that was never disclosed to the audience and I believe he may be behind Sansa’s kidnapping story in season 8. He keeps making one mistake after the other, always believing to be smarter than the people around him, always under estimating the players of the game.

But I don’t believe he will die. In the House videos released for season 8, they had the Lannisters brothers, Jaime and Tyrion, saying goodbye to each other and I believe we will see them say good bye one last time. I think Tyrion will be sent into exile to Essos, and banned from returning to Westeros.

CERSEI WILL DIE;

There has been a lot of foreshadowing about Cersei death and its one of the events many believe it happen for sure. The show made sure to write us a scene when her ending is predicted.

“I will hurt you for this. A day will come when you think you’re safe and happy and your joy will turn to ashes in your mouth. And you will know the debt is paid.”

(Tyrion - SEASON 2 EPISODE 8)

This episode was written by George RRMartin himself, so, I always assumed this was Cersei Lannister ending… Then in season 7, we had Jon Snow threatening to kill Littlefinger is he ever touched Sansa. In that scene we have Jon Snow choking Baelish with his cold hands and I believe this scene could be a foreshadow of Jon finally killing Cersei, for trying to hurt Sansa in season 8. The prophecy says that Cersei will be killed by the “little brother” and Jon Snow fits that role as the younger son of Rheagar Targaryen.

_______________________________________________________________

THEON WILL BE KING OF THE IRON ISLANDS;

He lifted his head to look at her. "Catelyn," he said. His voice was distant and formal. "Where are the children?"

A Game of Thrones - Catelyn I

I believe the children of Wintefell were always meant to be the heroes of this story. That’s why George made sure to have a Greyjoy, a Targaryen be raised close to the Stark children. Those children now are gonna be the rulers of Westeros and they will be the ones passing Ned Stark legacy forward, building a new and better world.

Thast why I believe Theon will kill Euron Greyjoy and be the king of the Iron Islands; Theon probably has a bastard child with the captain’s daughter he met in season 2 on his journey to Pike, he will recognize the child and raise them as his heir;

A TIME FOR WOLVES;

It will be a Time for Wolves; a new period for Westeros. Jon will rule surrounded by Starks, carrying the Stark name with Sansa and Bran by his side; The capital will probably be transferred to HighGarden, not only the castle it is still intact but its also located in the most fertile area of Westeros. It seems like a very interesting political decision. Again, I found a lot of foreshadowing for this in the books.

Jon Snow will rule over a graveyard, as he predicted in season 7. But the ending will be very sweet, with kids playing around in gardens and celebrating. We will see Jon, the Stark kids, Jaime and Brienne, Sam and Guilly, Theon….. ect all enjoying spring and celebrating their happy ending.

THE VERY LAST SCENE OF THE STORY…..

Daniel Abraham is the man responsible for converting the Game of Thrones book into a comic, mentioned that there is a particular line of dialog in the game of thrones book, which is very important for the last scene of "A Dream of Spring".

Have you collaborated at all with George R.R. Martin in the process of adapting the novel to comics? If so, what’s the creative process there?

Daniel: "I’ve spoken to George a lot in the process. The biggest issues we have are continuity questions. There are things about this story that only he knows, and they aren’t all obvious. There was one scene I had to rework because there’s a particular line of dialog – and you wouldn’t know it to look at – that’s important in the last scene of “A Dream of Spring.”- Daniel Abraham

On episode 1, when King Robert goes to visit Winterfell, he and Ned go down in the crypts to pay their respects to Lyanna Stark, the wolf girl he lost to Rheagar Targeryen. In that scene, the dialogue is different from what we have in the books.

ROBERT: Did you have to bury her in a place like this? She should be on a hill somewhere with the sun and the clouds above her.

NED: She was my sister. This is where she belongs.

In the books, this conversation is different:

"Ah, damn it, Ned, did you have to bury her in a place like this?" His voice was hoarse with remembered grief. "She deserved more than darkness …"

"She was a Stark of Winterfell," Ned said quietly. "This is her place."

A Game of Thrones - Eddard I

I think this is the scene. I believe we will end this story with King Jon visiting his late wife Sansa Stark in the crypts of Winterfell and someone will ask him why did he buried her there, why not building a monument for her, so that she could be on display and that’s how he will reply:

She was a Stark of Winterfell, this is where she belongs….

What made me believe this, were two momments of the story: First of all, Lady’s death. After Sansa direwolf is killed on her way to the south, Ned Stark makes sure to send a group of men back to the North and Winterfell, so that she can be buried in Northerner soil. Lady represented a little bit of Sansa, who died on that day and I dont think it was a silly detail George rrmartin make sure that her direwolf body was buried on Winterfell, I think that this scene, was much more important than most people think about it.

When it was over, he said, “Choose four men and have them take the body north. Bury her at Winterfell.”

“All that way?” Jory said, astonished.“All that way,” Ned affirmed. “The Lannister woman shall never have this skin.”

A Game of Thrones - Eddard III

Another momment in the story was Ygritte death. In both books and show, Jon Snow takes her body and goes to bury her up North, where she belonged.

Tormund: Did you love her? She loved you.

Jon: She told you?

Tormund: No. All she ever talked about was killing you. That’s how I know. She belongs in the North. The real North. You understand me?

Look at the excuse Tormund gives Jon to why Ygritte needs to be buried North of the Wall, its the same Ned Stark used to explain to King Robert why Lyanna had to be buried in the Crypts of Winterfell. Because thats where she belongs…….

I also believe this ending could bring the story to a full circle, because there is also the theme of the audience never really thinking as Sansa as a TRUE STARK. There is still the notion that Sansa is not really a Stark like Jon or Arya.

Sansa Starkiness was always a topic of contention among fans of the books and series. Many like to refer to Sansa as Lady Lannister or Lady Bolton, so to have Sansa finally resting in the Winterfell crypts, by the end of this story, as a Stark, would be a very satisfying ending. Her hair maybe red and some of her manners may be more southern like, but Sansa IS A STARK.

And in fact, she is the Stark who took back the North and Winterfell, she is the Stark who made possible for the family to reunite and be safe; she is the Stark who stood by Jon side when he was made King in the North and supported his claim; she was the Stark who prepared the North for the wars and the winter and she will be the Stark who will rule the 7 Kingdoms together with her husband.

Both Jon and Sansa are foreshadowed to live very long lives and I expect their ruling period to last decades. They will be the ones restoring and rebuilding the kingdom after the wars of Ice and Fire. But I do believe Jon will live longer based on a quote from the books.

Tyrion shared around his skin of wine until even Yoren grew mellow. One by one the company drifted off to their shelters and to sleep, all but Jon Snow, who had drawn the night’s first watch. Tyrion was the last to retire, as always. As he stepped into the shelter his men had built for him, he paused and looked back at Jon Snow. The boy stood near the fire, his face still and hard, looking deep into the flames. Tyrion Lannister smiled sadly and went to bed. - AGOT Tyrion II

And because of this line, I believe Jon Snow ill be the last one to die, he will live a very long life and will be forced to see all the ones he loved pass away, one by one.

THE END OF GAME OF THRONES…

#jon snow #sansa stark #arya stark #jonsa #actually jonsa #game of thrones

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where-theres-smoak-2 · 5 years

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GOT EP 4 REVIEW/ THOUGHTS

So unpopular opinion here but I really liked this episode. I know alot of people had issues with it but I didn’t really see anything wrong with this episode. Ok scratch that there were a couple of things wrong with the ep, which I will get to but nothing major. So if you want to know why I enjoyed an episode most people seemed to hate then feel free to read on. I do need to say that these are just my own opinions and feelings on things. I have no issue with anyone who disagrees with me or feels differently, or read something different from a particular scene. Everyone is entitled to their own thoughts and feelings I completely respect that and hope others do too. Also fair warning this got a heck of alot longer than I thought it would so its pretty much an essay, guess I have alot of feelings lol. Anyway Spoilers ahead...duh.

Sansa

There was only one moment in this episode that had me full on crying to the point where I had to get a tissue and it was that moment Sansa put the Stark pin on Theon. It was just such a poignant moment and so sweet. Like Theon was a Stark, deep down in his heart he was a Stark and I’m glad that they recognised that in this moment. In fact that whole funeral scene was the perfect send off for all those characters. From the individual goodbyes to Jon’s speech and that shot of all the pyres burning. I can’t fault it.

But on to the big Sansa moment in this episode. The one everyone was talking about which is when she tells Tyrion about Jon. Like I get why people were upset by this and why alot of people saw it as her ‘betraying’ Jon. I even saw some posts saying that she was trying to undermine Dany in this moment and was manipulating Tyrion to get Jon on the Throne. Which on the surface I can see why it comes across that way. I mean she swore to Jon that she wouldn’t tell anyone and she hasn’t been Dany’s biggest fan at all this season. I even had a bit of a oh Sansa moment myself, I definitely felt conflicted about it. But I think there’s more to it than just that. It’s not so black and white. If we take a moment to think about what kind of frame of mind Sansa is in when Tyrion comes to speak to her. She’s just found out that the man she has believed to be her brother all her life, the brother she loves and cares for isn’t her brother at all. Which means her father a man who she always believed to be the most honourable man ever lied to the whole family. Which in itself would cause enough emotional turmoil but then factor in recent events, the Battle of Winterfell must have traumatised everyone who was there and Sansa lost another one of her brothers, because although he wasn’t related by blood Theon was still her brother. All that pain and grief is really fresh right now and is most likely tearing her apart inside.

Now that we now what kind of emotional state she is in we need to talk about the other factors that led Sansa to tell Tyrion, The first thing she says to him is ‘Why her?’ Some have suggested she was jealous in this moment or being petty but actually I think she’s just trying to understand. Whatever Jon and Tyrion sees in Dany she just doesn’t so she wants him to explain it to her, she wants to understand, and I think she wants to be reassured. But instead what she learns is that Tyrion is afraid of Dany. Which I think was the turning point or deciding factor I spose, for Sansa. This is a man she trusts who has always been honest with her. And he’s afraid. Which naturally does nothing to reassure Sansa and so her own fear only grows. What’s she afraid of? Well she already told us she doesn’t want Jon to go south. The men in her family don’t fair well when they do. I mean think about it. Her uncle Brandon went south and was brutally killed by the mad king. Dany’s father. Her grandfather went south and was brutally killed by the mad king. Her father went south and was brutally killed by another king. Then her oldest brother went south and was killed too for all she knows at the orders of a king. Now Jon is going South and you’ve got Dany with him proclaiming herself a Queen and she just happens to be the Daughter of the man who murdered two of the men in her family. And yes Dany isn’t her Father but Sansa doesn’t know that. She doesn’t know Dany. And lets be honest here as much as people say Sansa hasn’t made any effort to get to know Dany, well Dany hasn’t really made any efforts either. She’s done nothing to prove to Sansa that she can trust her. So you can argue that they are both equally to blame for the rift that exists between them.

Ok so far we’ve got 1) She’s just had some shocking, life altering news and she’s also dealing with the death of someone she loved so she’s not in the best of emotional states. 2) She doesn’t trust Dany and she’s just realised Tyrion the man she does trust is afraid of her. 3) Jon is going south and she is afraid he’ll meet the same fate as all the other men in her family. All of which as it is might justify her telling Tyrion about Jon. But here’s the main reason why I think she does and all the other things feed into it. We didn’t see the actual reactions of Arya and Sansa finding out because they cut the scene short (which I will rant about later lol) but we can assume that as Jon is an honest guy he told them the whole the truth. So Sansa knows that Dany is aware of Jon’s parentage and claim to the throne. As said before Sansa doesn’t trust Dany and what she’s seen of Dany so far has shown her that Dany is determined to get the throne at any cost. This was proven in Sansa’s eyes by Dany being unwilling to let the army rest before marching. I suspect Sansa’s biggest fear is that Dany will kill Jon to ensure that she gets the throne. So Sansa probably feels a bit useless and like how can she protect her brother. So she decides the best way to keep her brother safe is by getting him as much support as possible, Sansa is a lady she would have been taught Targaryen history so she knows they have a history of becoming unstable. I think she’s just preparing for the possibilty that if Dany turns on Jon there will be more people willing to support Jon than Dany making his chances of survival higher. We have to remember that Sansa was mentored and heavily influenced by Littlefinger, she was taught by him to look at all eventualities, every possible outcome and plan accordingly. Sansa is the kind of person who will go to any lengths to protect her family. That’s what she’s doing here. So what I’m saying is she’s not betraying her brother in that moment she’s protecting him.

Gendry/ Gendrya

Next I want to talk about Gendry and by extension Gendrya. So first off his legitimisation. Anyone else feel like Dany might have just created a bigger problem for herself here? I mean I am happy for Gendry but I don’t feel like it was the smartest move on Dany’s part because she just created another person who now has a claim to the throne. You could even argue that out of the three he has the strongest claim. The last legal, legitimate King was Robert, He won that throne fairly and legally by defeating a tyrant. I appreciate that Dany probably doesn’t see it that way. But the point is she just made Gendry the trueborn son of Robert meaning by rights he should be the next person to sit on the throne as the heir of the last true King. Which means there are now two people who have stronger claims to the throne than she does. It just did not seem like the wisest move to me. There’s also the issue of how the f*ck she knew Gendry was Robert’s son. I’ve seen some comments that Jon told her because he looked guilty but I have another possibilty for you all. I went back and watched the scene a few times over because I just didn’t see it that way at all. The look people are talking about is this one

(Sorry for the poor quality.) Which happens right after Dany says you’re Robert’s son. But if you look closely you see Jon actually looks to Davos first then Davos brings his eyes to meet Jon’s. Now me personally if I shared a secret like that with a group of people and I was the one who snitched and told someone else, when that came out I would be desperately trying to avoid meeting their gaze. Also if I knew it wasn’t me who had told the first thing I would do was look to the other person who knew and see if they look guilty. This is what I think Jon is doing when he looks to Davos. In this moment they have a conversation of did you tell? no, me either. So I disagree I don’t think this is a look of guilt. Jon has no problem meeting Davos’ eyes and when he looks away its towards Gendry. I actually think this is a look of confusion mixed with tension. They’re both trying to figure out how she knows but are also worried about what she’s going to do next. Now if we compare that to this shot of Tyrion.

This to me is more a look of guilt. He blinks, looks down at the table and then over to Vary’s. Now I’d like to call you back to the first time Tyrion met Gendry. Gendry was decked out in the Baratheon colours, carrying a war hammer and said hammer was embossed with a stag. Davos also tells him that his name is Gendry. So Tyrion may or not have known the names of the bastards that were killed but its possible he could’ve recognised the name but even without that it’s not hard to put the rest together and come up with he’s a Baratheon. I also think the look to Varys is very telling because we do know that Varys knows who Gendry is. Way back in season one there was a scene where he was talking to Illyrio about how Ned had found one of the bastards already. We know the first bastard he found was Gendry so yeah I suspect that when Varys saw Gendry he instantly knew who he was. I also read Tyrion’s sharp look to Varys as a ‘told you we shouldn’t have told her’ kinda look. It makes me wonder if there was some kind of conversation between them both that we didn’t see where they discussed whether they should tell Dany or not with Varys believing they should and Tyrion not being so sure. The other thing I noticed is if you go watch the scene again, everyone’s eyes are fixed on Dany and Gendry during this scene. Everyone’s. I mean Jon has such as intense look on his face as his eyes flick between her and Gendry. But Tyrion spends the entire time staring at the table. Now to me that screams guilt. Especially as at that point no one knew what Dany was going to do to him and I feel like if Gendry were harmed because they told her then Tyrion is the type to feel guilty. So yh I think it’s much more likely that it was Tyrion and Varys who told her than Jon telling her. But that’s my opinion and everyone is welcome to draw their own conclusions because lets be honest I doubt the writers will ever explain it.

Now on to the more important part. That proposal. Ok guys I didn’t hate it. In fact I might even say I loved it. So come on lets get some positivity back up in here. Guys we got an I LOVE YOU! And how adorable was Gendry I mean that whole speech about how she was beautiful and he loved her and none of it meant anything without her. It was just soo beautiful. And I knew he meant every word of it, all of his emotions were right there on his face and in his eyes he wasn’t holding anything back. He really was wearing his heart on his sleeve. It was one of the sweetest proposals I had ever scene... And one of the stupider lol. Yeah our poor Gendry kind of set himself up there. We all know that Arya doesn’t see herself as a lady. She has always had a negative response to the title Lady so it probably wasn’t best to use that title in his proposal. Now does this mean that Gendry doesn’t know our girl. Of course he does. He knows our girl better than anyone. He just got over excited and he is also probably a bit tipsy, I mean everyone at that feast was getting rather merry lol. He got a bit ahead of himself. This isn’t the end for Gendrya. I mean you just have to look at Arya’s expressions when Gendry is confessing his love and proposing to know that she is head over heels for him too. I mean the way she came down to his level when he was on one knee and how softly she kissed him. But Arya has to finish her list, she has to find justice for her father, mother and brothers. I don’t think she can really move on with her life if she doesn’t. I won’t be at all surprised if once she has finished the list she goes to find Gendry. I still believe they are endgame. One thing I will say though is I do not want Gendry to give up his title for Arya. Gendry has struggled his whole life with not knowing who his father is. Then he finds out it’s Robert Baratheon but he still has no identity because he’s a bastard and so he is a no one and he belongs to no one because that’s what society says. So I actually think being able to have his father name, for people to look at him and go that’s Robert’s son means a lot to Gendry. And you know what he’s earned it and he deserves it and I just don’t think it would be fair for him to have to give that up for her. He should be able to have both. I also don’t see him giving it up as romantic more like tragic lol. But again that’s just my opinion on the matter. I do think in the end though Arya and Gendry will find their way back to each other. Also I do think the way we keep getting Arya saying I’m not a lady all the time is a parallel to Jon constantly saying I’m not a king all the time. And well we all know that Jon is a king whether he wants to be or not lol. It’s how most people see him as a king so I suspect in the end a Lady is exactly what Arya will end up being but naturally she won’t be the conventional kind of lady.

The last thing I want to talk about regarding Gendry is this theory about how he is actually Cersei and Robert’s son that she talks about in season 1 to Caitlyn. When I first read the theory I will admit I was intrigued by it but ultimately I dismissed it. However did anyone else notice that look Jaime got. It was interesting that they focused on his reaction as well because up until this point Jaime has had nothing to do with Gendry like at all. The three reactions they zoomed in on when it was announced that he was Robert’s son were Davos, Jon and Jaime. Now Jon and Davos make sense because they were keeping the secret but why focus on Jaime. It does make me wonder if there could be some truth to the theory. We know that Cersei didn’t want to have Robert’s child, she used to drink moon tea to stop herself getting pregnant. It’s possible that maybe Jaime feared Cersei would harm the child so removed them from her and gave him to a commoner before telling Robert and Cersei the child died of fever. But who knows I guess we’ll see.

Jon

Now Jon didn’t do much this episode but there were a couple of things I want to talk about. First is I really do think Jon is so broken. I think he has been since he was murdered and brought back. Which is understandable. I mean he’s not having the easiest of times right now. But more than anything I think he’s feeling lost. His sole mission has been stop the Night king and his army and now that’s done. On top of that he’s been told this huge truth about his parentage and I think it could not have come at a worse time. If you look back at Jon’s journey he very much struggled with being a bastard in the beginning but he eventually came to terms with that. Then he became a man of the Nights Watch but that was also blurred for him when he infiltrated the free folk, once again he was struggling with who he was and his identity but again he seemed to get over that and find himself. Then he is murderded and leaves the Night’s watch ans is once again unsure of where he belongs which he again overcomes and he becomes King in the North and embraces his Stark side. Then what happens he’s thrown for another loop when he finds out he’s also a Targaryen. So Jon has always had this struggle with identity and who am I, Where do I belong. There was that one shot of him where he’s alone in his room right before Dany comes to see him. And he just looks so tired. You can really see how much he is struggling in that moment. Speaking of that scene it’s obvious that Jon is now struggling with intimacy between himself and Dany now that he knows she’s his Aunt. I do think it’s over between them two. I just don’t think he’ll ever be comfortable with it now he knows.

The scene where he’s in the war council, I was a bit annoyed when he sided with Dany because we all know that Sansa’s right, the men and the dragons need time to recover. Jon know’s this too so it just seemed really stupid to go along with Dany when he knows it could have serious reprecussions. However I do wonder if some of the reason he goes along with it is out of concern and fear for Sansa if they defy Dany. It could be a case of him protecting his sister. He was looking at her pretty intensely in that moment. Which obviously leads to that scene in the Godswood. I can not tell you how mad I am that we didn’t get to see Sansa and Arya’s actual reactions. Like really?! I think the only thing that will make that even a little ok is if there was some other discussion that happened like some kind of plan that’s going to come up later in a twist of some kind and that’s why they couldn’t show it to us. But yeah I thought we needed to see that scene. In regards to whether I think Jon should have told them my answer is absolutely yes. They are his family he can’t be keeping a secret like that from them.

Ok so I have a new theory for what I think might happen for Jon’s endgame. If he lives which as he’s my fav character he better lol I actually think he might go and join Tormund and the others on the other side of the wall. They had that exchange where Jon said Ghost will be happy on the otherside of the wall and Tormund says ‘so would you.’ Also when Jon says so this farewell Tormund’s reply is you never know. This to me makes it seem like it’s possible that Jon will end up meeting Tormund again. I’ll be honest I wouldn’t be mad about this. As much as I’d love to see Jon as a King and as much as I think he would make an amazing King I also want him to be happy. Thinking back the only time other than that 1st episode at Winterfell that we saw him truly happy was when he was living amongst the Free folk. You could argue that alot of if had to do with Ygritte and the fact that he was in love, which yes I think that played a huge part of it but I also think it ran deeper than that. As I said before Jon’s story has very much been about him struggling to know or accept who he is, Identity has been an ongoing arc of his. When he was amongst the Free folk he wasn’t Ned Stark’s Bastard or a man of the Night’s Watch, or Lord Snow he was just Jon. He could be whoever he wanted, the free folk judge you on your own merits not on who your father was or what you do for a living, Out there Jon was free and that made him happy so yeah I would be ok with that ending for him.

The one thing that does worry me though is that his scene with Sam and Gilly did seem like a goodbye scene. Unfortunately I’m not sure they’ll see each other again. On the brighter side though. They’re having a baby and if it’s a boy they want to call him Jon, like aahhh guys my heart might explode with happiness and all the adorableness. That was just such a touching scene and Sam with his you’re the best friend I’ve ever had and seeing Jon tear up, I just, I can’t even put into words how much that scene got to me.

Braime

Jaime and Brienne sitting in a tree. Can’t believe they are canon, like that actually happened. Loved that they got those moments together but then the branch snapped and it all came tumbling down. Poor Brienne and poor Jaime too. But here’s the thing I do think there’s more to it than it seems. It looks like Jaime is going back to Cersei. Except he’s not. He’s going to kill Cersei. I’m sure of it. It’s no coincidence that the thing that triggers Jaime leaving is Sansa’s comment about I wished I’d be there when they execute your sister it seems now I won’t get the chance. It could be read like Cersei is not long for this world, especially as Brienne said you don’t need to save her, but actually considering this comment follows the news that Cersei has killed a dragon, destroyed a load of ships and captured the Dragon Queen’s bestie, it’s much more likely Sansa is suggesting that Cersei might win. Jaime’s reaction to this is then I have to stop her. Now if someone said to you I’m off to murder my sister who happens to be a woman I love (loved?) and who is carrying my unborn child you would probably say that person was pretty hateful. I think this is what he means with the whole she’s hateful but I’m hateful too. I mean this is a horrible thing to think about and I haven’t really seen many people talking about it but Cersei is pregnant. I think we’ve all been so focused on Cersei is evil she has to die this season that we’re forgetting that there is an innocent life, a baby, growing inside her and it’s survival is dependant on hers. Yet if Cersei is left to live she will kill thousands and it’s this impossible situation where you have to weigh up which is the worst of the two evils, killing an unborn child or letting thousands perish. That is the choice Jaime is facing and yes it’s a hateful one but he knows it has to be him. Unfortunately though I still don’t think its going to end well for Braime. Pretty much from season 3 I figured out what show I was watching and from that moment I knew, I just knew that Jaime was not making it out of this alive. His story will end in tragedy and that tragedy will be that after getting out from under Cersei (yeah pun was kinda intended there) moving on and finding love with someone else Cersei will still be his undoing. He will die in Kings Landing most likely with Cersei. I will be very surprised if he lives. His death will naturally leave Brienne alone and heartbroken. It’s ok though Brienne if you go with Jon up North beyond the wall I think Tormund is still free. No seriously though all joking aside, It’s going to break my heart because although I do ship Tormund and Brienne its a fun thing to like, I also love and ship Braime, I think they’ve got such a deep connection and it’s going to be devasting seeing Brienne’s heartbreak. What’s worse is I suspect her ending will be that she becomes Kings/Queens guard to whoever ends up on the throne. Which isn’t a completely bad thing, it’ll mean she’ll get the recognition she deserves. But I also think she’ll do it because of the vows and because she doesn’t want to risk falling in love again so she instead decides to dedicate her life to the Guard instead. Which as I said she’ll be the noblest of them all but she’ll be alone and well as George RR Martin said that would be bittersweet.

Dany

Ok I know this is getting ridiculously long now so I’m going to put in my thoughts about Dany and then wrap it up. So don’t get me wrong I love Dany’s character but I am afraid that Dany fans need to brace themselves for some Dany criticism here. I mean damn girl what are you doing?! There’s just so much lately that is grating on me. Her whole speech to Jon about how he shouldn’t tell anyone because it’ll take on a life of its own and they’ll pressure him into taking what’s hers. I’m just sitting here like hunni I love you but it’s not yours, its never been yours. Like even if the Targaryen’s hadn’t have been defeated they would have had to have gone through Rhaegar, his three children and Viserys before they would have got to Dany. Then there’s the fact that both Jon and Gendry have stronger claims. Now I do understand Dany’s struggle here because she has spent 7 seasons believing that the Iron Throne should be hers but its still frustrating to see her acting so selfish. I think the thing that is paining me the most is Dany used to be such a sweet and caring person. But that moment in episode 2 when she found out that Jon is a Targaryen the only thing she was worried about was what about the throne. I mean supposedly this is the man you love and yet she doesn’t stop to ask if he’s ok. The poor man just had his whole world turned upside down and your worried about a throne. It goes to show just how much Dany has changed and I do think its showing her slide into madness. Now I know there’s been some discussion saying its wrong to say Dany is a Mad Queen just because she’s ruthless in taking down Cersei or that she’s just doing what she has to. I’ve seen some comments about how they didn’t call Aegon the Conqueror Mad or evil even though he burned thousands. True but here’s the cold hard truth. Aegon won, and history is written by the victors my friends. Aegon was a terrible person. He decided he wanted the Seven Kingdoms, he knew that with his dragons they’d be unstoppable and so he burned thousands of people to death, he destroyed people’s lands and homes and brought destruction wherever he went while conquering the lands. But he won and so he got to choose how the world would remember him which obviously was as a fierce warrior king who brought peace and properity to the newly united kingdoms. In comparison Aery’s Dany’s father, The Mad King, he lost. Robert won so Robert got to choose how the world would remember Aery’s which was as a monsterous tyrant who was known for his cruelty and was completely off his rocker. The thing is I suspect Dany will also lose. And so others will decide how she will be remembered and unfortunately your enemies will never paint you in a good light. If you kill someone you swore allegiance to against your oath then you better have a damn good excuse and she was a mad queen who was killing loads of people is a reasonable reason for killing someone you swore to protect and serve.

I know some people feel like Dany’s descent into madness is too sudden and badly written but on this occasion I’m going to have to disagree. I actually think it’s been very well written. Subtly written as well. This isn’t the first sign we’ve seen, the entire series is littered with moments that show Dany’s potential of going mad. The thing that was most clever was the hints of her going mad were all moments that we cheered on. Her burning Mirri Maz Duur all the way back in season 1. I mean we all thought she deserved it but you can’t deny it was a bit messed up. Then there was locking her maidservant and Xaro in the vault again they may have deserved it but it still showed her ruthless side abit there, Killing all the masters, burning all the Khal’s. These were all things that could indicate that she had a little bit of that Targaryen Madness in her but because they were bad people that we didn’t like we turned a blind eye and just shrugged and said they deserved it. But the thing that makes the writers really clever is that after years of us rooting for her and cheering at all these badass yes burn them all baby moments, they throw in one that makes people question it. Like Dickon Tarly. I mean no one really cared about the dad dying lets be honest but Sam’s brother didn’t need to die. I think this is probably the first time you’re hoping Dany will show mercy and let Dickon live. I think it’s also important to note that alot of the issue is the way she kills them isn’t considered humane. We all saw the look of horror on Tyrion’s face when he realised that Dany was going to burn them. I think the other thing to remember is that if you look at from the family’s point of view. It’s one thing if your son/ husband/ brother/ father is executed but at least if they are beheaded there are remains to bury. By burning them as she did she denied the family a chance to have funeral and say goodbye as is their custom.

Other signs of her madness is the obsession with the throne and with people bending the knee. Particularly this season. I think as we continue we will see Dany start to threaten more of the characters that we love and we’ve started seeing the beginnings of paranoia set in, we saw it when she questioned Tyrion’s loyalty at Jaime’s trail and in her tumultuous relationship with Sansa we’ve even started to see it a bit with Jon. Again another subtle shift is seeing the way others are behaving around her, I noticed it more in this episode but they’re every cautious like tiptoing around a sleeping dragon. They are nervous about how she’ll react and they’ve become more fearful of her. I’ve actually really enjoyed watching Dany’s descent into madness, it makes her character interesting. I do think its going to become more rapid now I think the events of this episode are going to be what finally makes her mind snap. Cersei poked the sleeping dragon and I’ve got a feeling she’s going to regret waking this Dragon.

The other controversial issue that seems to have come up is whether it’s sexist that Varys and Tyrion seem to be siding with Jon over Dany. Well yes and no. The show isn’t being sexist, but the characters are. Some of you might be thinking huh? So let me explain. As much as this is a fantasy tv show we have to remember it is set in a medieval kind of era. Back then men were considered more capable than women. So when faced with a choice between a male heir or a female, the lords will side with the male just because that is how things were done. So yes the characters are being shortsighted and sexist because as Varys said the Lords will support Jon because he’s male. But the show writers aren’t being sexist they’re being realistic and historically accurate. Yes this is a fantasy show but they still have to stay true to the rules of the era, especially as it is based on our own history and laws, George RR Martin didn’t just pull it all out of thin air alot of the events in the books and therefore the show are based on true historical events that actually happened. So if they just throw it all out and go yeah we’re putting a woman on the throne over this male and no one at all had a problem with it, well that just wouldn’t be at all believable. A good indication that the show isn’t being sexist in itself is the fact that they have that line where Tyrion questions it by saying well Joffrey was a male and look how that turned out. That’s no indication of whether they’ll be a good ruler. But then Varys was correct in his come back of the lords won’t support a woman over a man and in that respect yes having a cock is important I’m afraid. Both these characters know its not right but they are also aware of the world they live in and you do need the support to be succesful.

I’m also of the opinon that Varys and Tyrion are right. Jon is the better ruler. Dany she’s the better conqueror. But Jon is the better ruler for the very reasons Varys gives he is temperate and measured. Dany not so much and that was really shown in this episode. Her decision to legitimise Gendry I’ve already talked about. I do think it was a bad choice on her behalf. I get the I’ll have a Storm Lord on my side and in my debt but Gendry if given the choice of supporting her or Jon and the Starks will choose Jon. Storms End means far little to him than his family. And Arya and Jon and therefore by extension the rest of the Starks are his family. But the other impulsive decision was not waiting before heading to Kings Landing. She should have listened to Sansa. She also made a bad choice in not having a scout searching ahead. That’s how she lost Rhaegal and Missandei. This also along with the whole legitimisation shows her arrogance. The reason why she didn’t send a scout ahead is because she was arrogant enough to believe that no one would dare attack her dragons. How many times throughout the series have we seen someone warn her of a threat and her come back with I’ve got dragons? Which I don’t entirely blame her for being arrogant/ confident about that, her dragons are powerful war machines and yes it would be foolish to go up against them unless you’ve been armed with a weapon specially designed to take down dragons of course. Which unfortunately Euron did. As a side note I do think it was necessary for her dragon to be killed. Before that I was just sitting here thinking well Cersei is screwed, like even with the Battle of Winterfell reducing their numbers they were still a pretty deadly force with the combined forces and the two dragons. I just didn’t see how Cersei could win against that. Now however the odds are a lot more even, I’d even go so far as to say that Cersei has the upperhand now which makes the stakes much higher and therefore the show more exciting. But going back to the previous line of thought I think with Gendry the reason why she doesn’t think ‘hmm maybe I’m giving Gendry too much power here’ is because she doesn’t for one second think he would betray her now that she’s given him that power. Dany loves power which again is understandable because she spent alot of her life with no power and she suffered for it. But that love for power means she thinks everyone feels the same. It’s why she is so paranoid about Sansa and Jon. And its why she thinks she now had Gendry in her pocket. Unfortunately these character traits, the arrogance, the power thirst, the impulsiveness are what makes here unsuitable as a ruler. All fantastic traits for a conqueror but not for a ruler. It’s true of the Targaryen’s that they weren’t good rulers. Their entire dynasty was littered with wars, mostly against each other. Yes there were a few good ones but on the whole not so much. You could even argue that the first time the kingdoms knew an extended period of peace was under Robert’s reign.

But as critical of Dany as I’m being there was one moment in this where my heart just ached for her. When she was at the feast and you see her watching Jon being praised by Tormund and there are people gathered around him and he’s laughing with them. Then she sees Jaime, Tyrion and Brienne. All around her there are people celebrating together and she is sitting there utterly alone. She’s in a room with probably well over a hundred people but she looked and must have felt more alone than ever. It really pulled at my heart strings because as much as I’ve been ragging on her in this review I do love her and her character so seeing my girl like that was hard to watch.

Speaking of things that were hard to watch my poor poor Missandei. Poor Grey Worm too. I mean I think the part that was the hardest for me was seeing this brave beautiful woman who had been taken from her home and sold into slavery, spent years being opressed and most likely abused by the masters who was then freed by Dany and rose to become a close friend of a Queen and who had found love, die in chains. Now I’m not critising the show for having her in chains (I guess), I mean of course she was in chains she was a prisoner, Cersei would have been stupid to not have her in chains. Also other characters have died in chains, Ned did and Ellaria Sand’s daughter, I’m sure there were others too. But there was something about seeing a former slave die in chains that just made it soo much harder to watch, so much more heart wrenching. Also Grey Worm’s reaction I just it was awful I just wanted to reach into the tv and hug him. But I did love how strong Missandei was in that moment and her last words, not even just what they were but the way she said them. She had so much strength and power in her voice. Those were the words that Dany freed her with. It could also indicate what is to come with Dany buring them all.

Finishing Up

So I said there were a couple of things that I thought could have used improvement in the episode so I figured I’d list them at the end here. I’ve already mentioned the fact that we should have seen Sansa and Arya’s reactions to Jon’s reveal but here are some more.

1) The Starbucks of Winterfell. I’ll be honest I didn’t notice it until someone else on tumblr pointed it out. As careless as this was I can forgive them for it. From what I understand they have now fixed it and the versions on HBO now don’t have the coffee cup, They had also just come off a 55 nights or something like that shoot and were exhausted not to mention stuff like this happens all the time in tv and movies. But to be honest the main reason why I can forgive them for it is because I thought it was hilarious haha.

2) Ghost got ghosted by Jon. I mean come on they couldn’t even let him pet him. I am peeved that they didn’t untilise the direwolves more. I mean I like the dragons and all but I would’ve liked to see more of the wolves they were criminally under used. So it sucks that they have sent Ghost away. That being said at least we know he won’t be killed horribly like the other dire wolves. But for me the worst part of it is that they didn’t even give him and Jon a proper goodbye. Ghost looked so sad and Jon just nodded at him and was like see ya later. I am hoping that they will be reunited though. Fingers crossed.

3) A boy does not know his own name. This is the most unforgivable of them all. I’m not Gendry Rivers anymore, No hunni pie you’re not because you never were. Maybe I’m being petty but this one was not that hard to get right. Like you didn’t even need to read the books just google search it, Hell go on tumblr in the gendry tab. It’s Waters! Gendry Waters! Ok I can’t talk about it anymore I’ll only make myself angry again.

Overall I’m happy with where this season is going. I like that I’m struggling to figure out what will happen next and we’re still getting those shocks and twists. I’m both nervous and excited to see what will happen next. Anyway I apologise for the literal essay this got a lot longer than I originally planned lol so a very big thank you to anyone who actual read to the end.

#got 8x04 #got spoilers #gendrya #sansa stark #daenerys targaryen #braime #jon snow

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castaliareed · 5 years

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Not-so bold predictions: Starklings FTW

This week, I tweeted a ‘Bold prediction’ that tbh wasn’t much of a bold prediction. The basic premise was the Starks come out on top. The tweet read like this: Bold prediction that I will at some point write a tumblr meta about. Bran gets the NK, Arya kills Daenerys, Sansa takes out Tyrion, and Jon valonqars the sh*t out of Cersei. Just like that all their enemies are gone. #Starks4theWin #Starklings

Bran v’s Night King

This is the point I am the least sure about. But in the end, I do think Bran will play a pivotal role in taking out the Night King and the White Walkers. Jon will come in with the huge assist along with Arya. I fully expect them to have some big kills.

Arya v’s Daenerys

A few other people in the fandom have mentioned this or talked about it. Arya has long been about killing Cersei, the Queen. Except for last season when Lannister soldiers asked her where she was going she said ‘To kill the Queen.’ A great twist to this would be that she eventually kills or plays a huge role in taking out Daenerys. She may come to a place where her skills are better used to protect her family. I could also see Daenerys being substituted in for Drogon in this case. I would love an Eowyn like moment where Arya takes off whatever face she is wearing and slays the beast. The show even gave us misdirects with the recent Arya staring in awe at dragons footage.

Sansa v’s Tyrion

This is the point I am most confident about. Sansa really needs to get Tyrion out of the way if she wants to live her life. The show made a bit of a mess of this. However, in the books, she is still very much married to Tyrion. She very much didn’t want to be married to him and still doesn’t. A higher authority could give her an annulment. Except for Jon just made the lovely decision to pledge to Daenerys. And Daenerys would have no interest in annulling a marriage between Tyrion and Sansa. What would better tie the North and the Westerlands to her cause then maintaining this marriage. See when Jon gave up his crown (sorta...he never actually got down on his knee…) he gave up his authority in the North outside of commanding the armies. Sansa has the real power in Winterfell, now. The check on that. The check on Northern independence is Tyrion re-asserting their marriage. So yea Sansa really has to get out of it. This whole scenario may not play out in the show, we may get hints of it instead. Since the show has to end the same as the books, Sansa still has to take out Tyrion, the reasoning just might shift a bit.

**Also, I fully believe Tyrion is the real ‘giant’ Sansa slays in the castle made of snow. Again in the show, she may do it somewhere else. Tyrion is the only character referred to as a giant among men etc. etc. Littlefinger is a red herring for this prophecy imo.

Jon v’s Cersei

As I said in my tweet, I believe Jon will valonqar the shit out of Cersei. I’ve written about this is here and here and here. The basic argument goes a bit like this, the use of the term hints at someone with valyrian ancestry. Or someone who would become known by that term which means people might attribute valyrian ancestry to them. The term also means little sibling or brother. This makes it an ideal term to refer to Jon after the parent reveal because he is the younger of Rhaegar’s children. He is the younger Aegon. The added bonus is he is the younger King in the North, too. This makes more sense in the books where (f)Aegon, Rhaegar’s older son and the older Aegon because Jon will be named Aegon in the books, plays a big role. I mean seriously guys can’t you just see it...Jon will become know as Aegon the Valonqar.

Another point in this theories favor is that Jon is the only character we see get in close and lose his sh*t on people. He punched Ramsey repeatedly and uncontrollably. He choked out Littlefinger. In the books, he is constantly clutching and unclutching his sword hand to the point that it is a nervous habit. He’s just waiting to wrap his hands around someone’s neck.

And what sets him off like this? People who have harmed or mention Sansa. It’s pretty safe to say that Sansa is on the very short list of two of being the younger more beautiful queen. If Cersei threatens her in any way...well...Jon is very likely to lose his mind. This is becoming even more likely because there are serious rumors out there that Cersei kidnaps Sansa. Yes, this theory relates to Jonsa and a possible Jonsa ending but it is not limited to that.

Generally, the ‘pack’ kills together. They will all help each other take out the various other parties. We’ve already seen this with Jon and Sansa in the BoTB and later when Sansa, Arya, and Bran execute Littlefinger. But each Starkling takes the lead on one of these end game deaths. There are other noteworthy deaths that our Starks may have a hand in (The Mountain, Euron, etc). But the ones mentioned here are the big ones. The Starks are the center of this story. They are our erstwhile heroes. This story is about them coming into their own. About them perhaps starting a new dynasty. To do that they are going to have to take a few people out first.

#sansa stark #arya stark #jon snow #bran stark #jonsa meta #jonsa #jon is the valonqar #starklings meta #starklings #house stark #starks ftw #asoiaf meta #got meta #game of throne season 8 predictions #game of thrones season 8

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thebluelemontree · 5 years

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Hi, this is lyastark (i changed blogs), you responded to my ask here: /post/175700394682/. i wanted to say that i loved your meta! i was thinking more of their relationship in the purpose of the story. for me, no one knowing about this interaction has to serve some plot purpose. b/c of this, i think that sandor is going to be the one to tell her about LF shitty behavior towards her. her relationship with him is the ONLY one that LF doesn't know about. we know he doesn't b/c he NEVER mentions (1)

sandor to sansa. he was quick to dismiss tyrion, loras, wilas, margaery, etc but he said nothing about sandor. i also believe that sansa has gotten to the point where there’s no one “new” she has met that she would 100% trust with something this big. sandor is someone she explicitly trusts not to lie to her, and is someone she associates with safety and her old life. he’s her hidden dagger, if you will

Hey, glad you liked it.

Yeah, I’m in agreement that Sandor will be crucial to Sansa reclaiming her identity in a few ways, and it will pay off that their relationship has flown under the radar for all this time. While Jeyne Poole is also an alternate possibility or an addition to that, I think Jeyne is on course to meet with (perhaps travel with) Arya first. It may take all of TWOW, maybe to the beginning to ADOS, for Arya and Sansa to reconnect. One thing I’m reasonably sure of is that things will start happening pretty quickly in TWOW for wrapping up Sansa’s training arc. With only two books left, it’s time to start moving all the remaining characters into the final act.

I’m just going to put the rest under the cut. This isn’t so much a coherent meta, but me just riffing because I have a lot of feelings about this topic XD

Littlefinger was only a mask he had to wear. Only sometimes Sansa found it hard to tell where the man ended and the mask began. Littlefinger and Lord Petyr looked so very much alike. She would have fled them both, perhaps, but there was nowhere for her to go. Winterfell was burned and desolate, Bran and Rickon dead and cold. Robb had been betrayed and murdered at the Twins, along with their lady mother. Tyrion had been put to death for killing Joffrey, and if she ever returned to King’s Landing the queen would have her head as well. The aunt she’d hoped would keep her safe had tried to murder her instead. Her uncle Edmure was a captive of the Freys, while her great-uncle the Blackfish was under siege at Riverrun. I have no place but here, Sansa thought miserably, and no true friend but Petyr. – Sansa I, AFFC.

“She would have fled them both…” if she had another option available to her. If she had another friend nearby, but in her mind, she doesn’t.

For Sansa’s training arc to end, her sense of isolation and dependence on Littlefinger have to be overpowered. It is a psychological obstacle as much as it is a physical one. Sansa has seen Littlefinger literally get away with murder and come out in a stronger position than he was before. He seems to always be a step ahead of his enemies. He has already bribed and extorted his way to power among the Vale lords. He’s iced Yohn Royce out of political influence. He’s planted seeds of doubt in Sansa toward Myranda Royce before she even met her. (On a side note, Myranda does know Sansa’s real identity, but has never confronted her about it and nor has she used that information against her). So LF’s locked down all the potential allies or troublemakers that he can see. But we know there are things he can’t see, like the possibility of Sansa winning Lothor Brune’s loyalty from him. Nor does he seem to be aware of Lyn Corbray’s seething resentment over being ousted as his brother’s heir thanks to Littlefinger’s marriage brokering. Not to mention he’s hired a bunch of hedge knights for his household guard not suspecting for a moment that they are there to steal Sansa from him. Littlefinger’s hubris has made him blind to things that are right in his own backyard.

While I’m 95% sure Sandor will be at the center of Sansa reclaiming her identity, I definitely don’t think he will be her only trusted ally or source of support before it’s over. That comes from Sansa herself in doing what she does best: being kind and empathetic to win people over. I see her cultivating her own little band of helpers to escape rather than (as some speculations suggest) Sansa simply name-dropping at the tourney and all the Vale lords instantly pledging their swords to her as their new regent/leader/whatever. That makes for a dramatic turn of events but is also pretty unrealistic as I see it. I think she will eventually be in a position to receive Yohn Royce’s military support, but I strongly disagree that it’s going to be as easy as name-dropping. Littlefinger has too much backing of his leadership right now. The Vale lords at the tourney are already on board that gravy train of gifts, gold, and glory. He has custody of Robert Arryn. No one really gives a shit about Lysa’s murder and everyone is looking toward the future with the more robust young falcon, Harrold Hardyng. IMO, Sansa needs to get with Yohn Royce before the rest of the Vale falls in line. He’s against the ropes right now (and being kept far from the tourney for a good reason I think), but he is the one that is most likely to wrest back political power from Littlefinger once Sansa is no longer his pawn. Then she would have powerful backing of her own. The trick is getting her to Yohn Royce and for that, she needs a persuasive reason and the confidence to flee from LF.

Where Sansa is in the story right now, I think she already possesses most of the individual puzzle pieces to what Littlefinger has done. She just hasn’t been able to bring herself to put all those pieces together into one complete, horrifying picture. There’s a lot of trauma and suppression of painful thoughts wrapped up in the things she’s seen and experienced. Things part of being Sansa Stark that will shatter the tenuous safety she finds in being Alayne Stone. She knows on one level that Littlefinger did something with Jeyne. She’s buried that memory and thinks about Jeyne only in more innocent times. She hasn’t dared to ask probably for fear of the answer and for fear of the repercussions from asking. And there’s the fact that she’s trapped with her abuser, who has muddled help and safety with exploitation and pushing her moral boundaries. She’s under a lot of pressure to marry HtH, which has been framed as her best and only chance to go home, even if it comes at Robert Arryn’s expense. All she has to do is let go of her empathy and see people as objects she can use to further her interests, and then she can not only feel safe but powerful and untouchable as well. No one will ever hurt her again. Littlefinger’s philosophy is terrifying, but there are parts of it that are very seductive to someone who has been made to feel powerless, stupid, and vulnerable. In a way, Sansa is being tempted with adopting a cynical worldview similar to what the Hound was for Sandor. Narratively speaking, what better person to bring her back from the edge of losing her humanity than by the person she inspired to reclaim his own? Sandor and Sansa have been saving each other all throughout their story. The first moment they met was defined by Sansa looking Ilyn Payne, the persona of death, in the face and falling backward into Sandor’s hands (ugh, my heart!). Many times he just seems to appear out of nowhere to catch her. So yeah, Sandor as a “hidden dagger” works really well not only for literally saving her life, but saving Sansa Stark’s identity and her core values. But that also comes with unpacking a lot of unpleasant things.

The missing piece of the puzzle and the one thing that will be the final straw should be learning that her father’s arrest and execution was orchestrated by Littlefinger. Sandor was a present for all that. He’s the best person to tell her, and yes, she would believe him. That forces Sansa to start looking at all puzzle pieces she has avoided putting together. Turning against LF will not just be a triumphant moment, but it’s probably going to be ugly and painful. Sansa has a lot of suppressed guilt and shame over what LF has made her complicit in. While she was never a willing participant and shifting responsibility on to her was a key feature of LF’s abuse strategy, Sansa has played a role to some degree in the cover-ups of LF’s crimes. Some people think the unkiss is a symptom of PTSD. Nope. This situation right here puts Sansa at risk for PTSD. It will be shattering to know she ever called Petyr a friend, trusted him, and sometimes helped him while he did awful things. There’s your dark night of the soul that a few people reasonably predict for each of our major POVs in TWOW, especially if an innocent like Robert Arryn dies (I’m 50/50 on that). She’ll need someone who can relate (think of Sandor’s dying anguished confessions of his sins), someone who won’t judge, and someone that can help guide her back to being Sansa Stark because right now, that identity comes with a lot of traumatic baggage. Just as being Sandor Clegane did. (UGH, MY HEART!)

I could go on about how similar both Petyr and Sandor’s backgrounds and origins are, how cynism plays into their world views, and the divergent paths they took. They don’t have to speak of each other or share a scene together, but they have always been opposing philosophical forces with Sansa between them. One embodying sweet lies and the other blunt honesty. But I think the most telling passage about these three is in Eddard VII:

Sansa said, "I knew the Hound would win."

Littlefinger overheard. "If you know who's going to win the second match, speak up now before Lord Renly plucks me clean," he called to her. Ned smiled.

Littlefinger bet against Sandor and lost. Daddy approved.

#ianxmickey #sansan meta #sansa stark #sandor clegane #littlefinger #petyr baelish #bluelemons speculates #twow speculation #sorta meta?#does emotional vomiting count as meta?

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sydneysageivashkov · 5 years

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Everything We’ve Done (Is There On Our Faces) 2/?

It started, once upon a time, with Ned Stark finding a litter of orphaned dire wolf cubs, with Robert Baratheon riding for Winterfell, with Ned becoming Hand of the King in the viper’s pit that was King’s Landing.

It restarts like this:

Arya and Sansa wake up as children again, a message ringing in their ears. The Old Gods need Westeros to be strong and united to defend the Wall, and the Old Gods don’t forget oaths easily.

(Time travel AU. Eventual Sansa/Theon, Arya/Gendry, Jaime/Brienne.)

AO3 | FF.net

When Arya was little, she hadn’t spent a lot of time in her father’s solar. She had spent time with him at meals in the Great Hall, watching the boys train, sometimes even him telling her and Sansa stories to lull them to sleep. Ned’s solar had seemed the domain of Lord Stark, rather than her father.

She had spent a lot of time in it when it was Sansa’s solar, arguing over Littlefinger or deciding a course of action for when Jon came home with a new queen or helping to draw up battle plans against the oncoming army of the dead. It still hadn’t been a place to relax.

Still, shuffling into the solar behind Sansa and Theon, her father leading the way and Robb and Catelyn taking up the read guard was a new experience. Her stomach had sunk the moment she had stood up to find Ned hovering over her, and hadn’t risen from its pit since. She had wanted to tell her parents about what was coming, to warn them of every enemy facing their family, but she hadn’t wanted them to know. Know who she’d become. Not really.

Why had she been so quick to threaten Theon? She could have waited. She could have cornered him when no one else was looking. Arya was capable of being patient, she was. It had taken her weeks to infiltrate the Twins deeply enough to for her to get undisturbed access to the eldest Frey sons and the oven.

It was Theon, though. He might have helped Sansa, once, but he had still attacked Winterfell and almost murdered Bran and Rickon. Seeing Sansa embrace him, like he had never done anything to hurt them…

It was too much. Somebody needed to remind Theon how thin the ice under his feet was.

Arya slid into a free chair across the desk from Ned. Sansa sat primly in the chair next to her, and Theon stood behind Sansa, who still hadn’t let go of his hand. Catelyn seated herself next to Ned and behind them stood Robb, glowering at Theon and Sansa’s joined hands.

Ned leant forwards, resting his hands on the table in front of him. “Girls,” he said. “Theon. I don’t know what caused that conversation in the Great Hall, but we will be needing an explanation.”

“We’re from the future,” Arya blurted out before Sansa or Theon had a chance to formulate a response.

Ned sat back, staring between the three of them in confusion and disbelief.

Catelyn narrowed her eyes at Arya. “I’m not sure what has gotten into you today -”

“In the Eyrie, the wind howls like a wolf, large as mountains,” said Sansa suddenly. She was staring directly at Ned. “It howls so long and so wild that it feels like it will pierce your soul, and when someone falls from the Moon Door, it feels like their screams will last for a thousand years. But that’s still better than the Red Keep. There, all you can smell is piss and shit and the perfumes that the courtiers were to cover it up burn your nose. It’s so crowded in King’s Landing you can hardly breathe and every person there is more venomous than a viper.”

Ned was staring back at Sansa, entranced by her words. Even Arya could not help but watch her sister as she painted images in the air.

“When you ride for Castle Black, though, you almost miss them both. I thought it was so cold in Castle Black, cold enough that I thought I wouldn’t be able to breathe again, until I saw Jon. With him, the Wall was bearable, but until then all I could think of was how cold it was, the way it ate its way into my bones. I was never warm again, not truly, not even when we were home and safe in Winterfell again.

“Winter came, Father. Winter came like you always promised it would and the dead came with it,” said Sansa. The room was utterly silent besides Sansa’s voice. Arya squeezed her eyes shut, feeling ghost hands grabbing at her legs again, ready to drag her down and devour her. “We had half of the Seven Kingdoms, the Free Folk and the Unsullied and Dothraki from Essos to defend us at Winterfell, but there was no stopping the Night King. It was too late for us, so the Old Gods brought us back to now, to build up the North’s defences against the oncoming storm.”

“Sansa,” whispered Catelyn, her face white.

“It’s true, Lady Stark,” said Theon. “I saw the Night King. I was all that was left between him and Bran, and he killed me for it. He was… He was ice made flesh, my lady.”

“I almost died a hundred times over in the Long Night,” said Arya. “But there was no escaping the dead, not forever. They might be dumb as a brick, but they’re patient, and their numbers are endless.”

“Old Nan’s tales,” said Robb, his voice quiet. “They’re true? All of them?”

“All the ones about the White Walkers are,” said Arya. “They never died out; they were just waiting, all this time. Waiting for us to tear ourselves apart.”

“And didn’t we do that well,” murmured Sansa, quietly enough that it had to have been to herself.

“Girls, Robb, Theon, I need some time to speak with my lady wife,” said Ned.

“But -” protested Arya, but Sansa grabbed her by the shoulder as she stood up and dragged her out of the room. As they stepped out into the hallway, Arya hissed, “We haven’t convinced them yet!”

“We need to give them time to process everything,” said Sansa. “We just told them the apocalypse is coming. Their whole world has just collapsed around them. They need time to process what we’ve told them or we won’t get anything done.”

Robb leant against the stone wall, face pale. “How is this possible?” he wondered aloud. “They’re meant to be stories, or long gone at least.”

Sansa turned to Robb and said, “If there’s one thing I’ve learnt, Robb, it’s that very little in life is like a song, no matter how hard we try. The White Walkers are coming for us all, and though they might sing about us in the great halls one day, it’ll be of little comfort when the white winds begin to blow.”

“But when the white winds blow, the pack can survive,” said Arya. “The lone wolf dies, but not the pack.”

“We were all lone wolves, last time,” said Sansa. “Jon was on the Wall, Bran beyond it, you in the Riverlands or Braavos and me in King’s Landing then the Eyrie. Maybe if we can stay together this time, we’ll be better prepared for what’s to come.”

“Wait – Bran went beyond the Wall? When the White Walkers were on the march?” demanded Robb.

Arya couldn’t help but glance at Theon, who had shrunk back at Robb’s exclamation. Sansa squeezed his hand. “Winterfell was sacked by the Boltons,” said Sansa. “Bran and Rickon fled north, and Bran ended up beyond the Wall. We’ll explain more later.”

Arya’s head whipped round to stare at Sansa. The Boltons? Theon had gotten there first. Bran and Rickon had fled Theon, not the Boltons.

Theon was staring at Sansa too, and he had opened his mouth to say something when Robb cut him off.

“The Boltons?” asked Robb, aghast.

“Roose and Ramsay Bolton cannot be trusted,” said Sansa. “Roose will do whatever it takes to usurp us as rulers of the North, and Ramsay…” She faltered.

“He’s a monster,” said Theon, almost inaudibly.

“The butcher of the Dreadfort,” agreed Sansa.

“You said that you fed him to his own dogs,” said Robb, looking at Sansa.

Sansa crossed her arms and lifted her chin. “Perhaps if he hadn’t starved them for weeks so he could feed Jon and Rickon to them, they wouldn’t have been so quick to feast on him.”

Robb glanced helplessly to Arya and Theon. “He deserved every bit of it and more,” said Arya, moving slightly closer to her sister so that their shoulders brushed against each other. “I only wish I could have seen it.”

Robb looked between the three of him and whispered, “What happened to you all?”

“You died, Robb, and so did Mother and Father, so we did what we had to do to survive,” said Sansa. “I am still Sansa. I am still your sister. I just don’t believe in songs anymore.”

“Do you believe them?” asked Catelyn as Ned finished herding the children out into the hall and closed the door behind them.

Ned turned back to her, fighting back a sigh. Every part of him felt weighed down, Sansa’s words pressing down on his shoulders and making it hard to even speak.

“Yes,” he said honestly. “The way she described the Eyrie… If she had only read about the castle in books, she would have talked about the layout of the castle, but she didn’t.” Catelyn pursed her lips but Ned forged onwards. “And her description of King’s Landing – did that sound like our Sansa?”

Catelyn bit her lip and admitted, “No.”

“The way she and Arya and Theon have been behaving – it wasn’t them, or not the Sansa and Arya and Theon we knew yesterday,” said Ned. “When they came to our bed last night, Arya and Sansa were wondering if someone was really capable of ‘something’. Maybe this was it.”

“They were talking about Bran, though,” pointed out Catelyn. “This morning, they’re talking about the Old Gods. Bran’s only a boy; a human boy.”

“I know,” sighed Ned. “I don’t understand it either.”

Catelyn stood up and turned away from him. “If it’s true,” she said, her voice wavering, “what have our girls been through? What happened to them, Ned, for Arya to threaten Theon with murder so calmly and Sansa to feed someone to their own dogs?”

Ned wrapped his arms around her from behind, and she reached up to rest her trembling hand over his clasped ones. Ned rested his face in her hair. “I don’t know,” he murmured. The apocalypse was one thing, but for Sansa and Arya to speak so comfortably of murdering another person – not a wight or an Other, but a person –

Ned couldn’t even begin to comprehend what could have happened to his girls; what happened to Sansa, a lady at three who had made her brothers play the knights rescuing her from a lonely tower, or to Arya, who picked him flowers and ruined Sansa’s games by insisting on playing the monster. Not even Lyanna, at the end, had been so…

Promise me, Ned.

How had he failed his daughters so entirely that they had been forced to murder and violence?

Promise me…

“If all of this is true, where do we go now?” asked Catelyn. “If the end is truly coming, I almost wish to close up Winterfell – to spend our last years alone here with our children and each other. I know Sansa said they had been sent back to give us a second chance, but what can we do, truly, against an enemy that can raise our own dead against us?”

“The White Walkers have been defeated once before,” he reminded her. “It was the first of the Starks who withstood them and built the Wall as the world finally dawned again.”

“Brandon the Builder,” said Catelyn, turning around in his arms. “I remember.”

“Right now, we have two options,” he said. “Our girls and Theon have gone mad and are sharing the exact same delusion, or they are telling the truth and the world is about to fall apart around us.”

Catelyn squeezed her eyes shut. At last, she said, “They don’t seem mad.”

“No, they don’t,” agreed Ned. “I’ll send a raven to Lord Commander Mormont to keep a closer eye on what’s happening north of the Wall. We might have confirmation soon enough.”

“And until then?” asked Catelyn. “Do we start preparations now and look mad to our bannermen and to the south, or do we sit and wait?”

“I don’t know,” said Ned. The future stretched out before his eyes, the road endless and shadowed to his eyes. “Even if we wait for Mormont to confirm the Others have returned, there will still be men who insist we are mad, and will keep insisting it until the dead rise in their own keeps.”

Catelyn frowned, her eyebrows crinkling together. “Last night, Sansa said that she – and Arya – were told that they needed Westeros to be united to withstand the Others.”

“The realm is united under King Robert,” said Ned.

“Will is stay that way?” asked Catelyn. “It sounds as if the Seven Kingdoms descended into turmoil and weren’t able to put up a defence. Sansa said that only half the kingdoms mounted a defence against the Others, and the Dothraki and Unsullied.”

“From Essos,” said Ned. “Why were there Essosi armies in the North?”

Catelyn’s eyes widened. “The Targaryen children.”

Ned resisted cursing under his breath. He had hoped that the Targaryen children would live out their days in Essos – in peace, far from Robert’s vengeful grasp.

“We should bring the children back in,” said Catelyn. “We need to know more about what will happen. We can’t make plans with so little information.”

Ned hesitated. “Are you ready to hear what they have to say?”

Catelyn looked down. “We have to hear it,” she said, her voice barely audible.

Ned pulled her closer, and she rested her head against his shoulder, her hands against his chest. They stood unmoving for several moments. Ned breathed in the smell of her hair, trying to fill his lungs with it.

“We’ll do better,” he promised her quietly.

“We have to,” she hissed in response.

“We have to,” he agreed.

There were dried tears on her mother’s cheeks. Arya hated them, hated that there was nothing she could do to wipe them away, and hated that it was only going to get worse from here.

“We have discussed it, and we have decided that we believe you,” said Catelyn, her voice brittle. “If war is brewing, in the south or the north, we need to be prepared.”

“You implied there was turmoil coming,” said Ned to Sansa, his voice gentle.

Sansa nodded jerkily. She was sitting across from Arya and had finally released Theon’s hand. “First there was the War of the Five Kings -”

“Five?” cut in Catelyn.

“Joffrey Baratheon, Renly Baratheon, Stannis Baratheon, Balon Greyjoy,” said Sansa. He eyes slid across to Robb. “And Robb Stark, the first King in the North in three hundred years.”

Catelyn and Ned both turned to look at Robb, who was as surprised as they were. “I seceded from the Seven Kingdoms?”

“The Greatjon started it, if that helps,” offered Theon. Sansa glanced at him, giving him a minute smile.

“Renly and Stannis both rebelled against Robert’s son?” asked Ned.

Sansa shook her head. “Joffrey’s a bastard. Stannis knew, and Renly did too. I don’t know why Renly didn’t support Stannis, besides his own ambitions.”

“Jon knew Stannis,” said Arya. “He helped rout the Wildlings when they attacked the Wall.”

“He came south from there to attack Winterfell,” said Sansa. “He lost, but Theon and I used the confusion to escape. We still wouldn’t have gotten far, if not for Brienne.”

Arya shifted in her seat, surprised at how much she missed Brienne. She felt less secure without their sworn sword at their backs. She couldn’t imagine how Sansa felt, who had known Brienne so much longer and had none of Arya’s training.

“Why did you have to escape Winterfell?” asked Catelyn.

Sansa’s jaw worked for a long moment, and Theon seemed frozen in place.

“Why don’t we start at the beginning?” asked Arya. They could come to Ramsay later.

Sansa shot Arya a grateful look. “There was a Night’s Watch deserter,” she said. “Before anything else, there was a Night’s Watch deserter who said he saw the Others. You executed him and we didn’t think about him twice until they came.”

Ned noted this down and asked, “Do you remember his name?”

“No,” said Sansa, and glanced at Theon and Arya, who both shook their heads.

“I can still tell Mormont to keep a close eye on his rangers,” said Ned. “How long was it between the deserter being caught and the Others getting through the Wall?”

“Seven years,” said Arya. Ned nodded and noted this down.

“What year is it?” asked Theon. Catelyn, Ned and Robb all turned to look at him, and he explained, “If we know that, we can give you a better timeframe.”

“297 After Conquest,” said Ned, nodding in approval. “Late 297.”

“Eight years, then,” said Theon. “We have almost eight years.”

Robb swore under his breath, and Ned took Catelyn’s hand, who squeezed it. After a moment, she asked, “What happened after the deserter was executed?”

“Maybe a few days later, we received word that Jon Arryn had died,” said Sansa. “The King rode north to make you his Hand and have me betrothed to Joffrey. While he was here, Bran was pushed from the Broken Tower and never walked again.”

Catelyn made a low, keening sound in the back of her throat. Ned set his quill down and squeezed his eyes shut painfully.

“Who pushed him?” demanded Robb.

Sansa hesitated.

“Jaime Lannister,” said Arya. “The Kingslayer himself, because Bran saw him fucking his own sister.”

“That’s quite the accusation,” said Catelyn, her voice cautious.

“It’s true,” said Sansa. “Look at Joffrey, Tommen and Myrcella when the king rides north. There’s not a drop of Baratheon in them.”

“Everybody knew it, from the reavers in Pyke to whores in Volantis,” said Theon.

“They knew about Bran?” asked Catelyn, aghast. “They were so brazen that they got away with trying to kill a boy?”

“Not about Bran,” said Sansa. “At least, I didn’t until he arrived in Winterfell to fight against the dead alongside us. But about Jaime and Cersei, yes. Stannis made sure everyone knew of it.”

“How did Robert react?” asked Ned.

“Robert was already dead,” said Sansa. “The Lannisters claimed that it was just propaganda so that Stannis could usurp the throne.” Ned nodded; he looked pained, rubbing his forehead.

“Father, Sansa and I rode south not long after,” said Arya. “You were Hand. Robert died in a hunting accident, and you had already worked out Joffrey was not Robert’s son, so they arrested you for treason and executed you.”

Catelyn gasped, clinging to Ned’s hand. Robb staggered under the weight of her words.

“It gets worse,” said Sansa, grimly.

“I managed to get out of the city. There was a recruiter for the Night’s Watch who recognised me – he cut my hair and told the others I was a boy named Arry. Sansa…” Arya looked across at Sansa. She was digging her hands into the chair so hard that her knuckles were almost white.

“I was caught in the Red Keep when Robb raised the banners and was declared King in the North,” said Sansa, her voice taut. “I was still Joffrey’s betrothed, for a time, until the Tyrrells aligned with the Lannisters and I was replaced by Margaery. They married me off to Tyrion so they still controlled my claim to the North when Robb fell.”

Arya couldn’t help glancing at Theon at that. His jaw was tight and he stood stiffly, unable to look at Robb.

“Renly’s army fell apart early on,” said Sansa. “Stannis attacked King’s Landing but lost when Tywin and the Tyrrells arrived to reinforce the city. From there he went North, I think, to reinforce the Wall. The Wildlings were trying to escape south of the Wall. Jon eventually let them through, when he became Lord Commander, but first there was a war.”

“That’s the first thing you need to do,” broke in Arya. “Bring the Wildlings south. It’ll cut the Night King off from building an army.”

Ned looked up from the parchment he had been noting the story down on. “The other lords won’t like that,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter what they want,” said Arya. “If they’re going to survive the Long Night, the Wildlings need to be settled south of the Wall.”

“We’ll discuss this later,” said Sansa. “Father can treat with Lord Commander Mormont and the King Beyond the Wall -”

“Mance Rayder,” supplied Theon.

“ – later,” finished Sansa. “After Stannis went North, there was only the Ironborn raiding the coast and the North to worry about for the Lannisters, and the Ironborn were mainly focused on the North, anyway.”

Theon bowed his head. “I -”

“Tywin Lannister treated with the Freys and with the Boltons,” said Sansa, loudly, cutting off Theon. Arya cocked her head, staring at her sister. What was Sansa playing at? This was the second time she had dismissed or lied about Theon.

Theon, to his credit, looked as startled as Arya did.

“They betrayed the North at Uncle Edmure’s wedding,” continued Sansa. “They massacred the Northern army and Mother and Robb, all under guest right, so that the Freys could be made Lords Paramount of the Riverlands and the Boltons the Warden of the North.”

Ned, Robb and Catelyn sat in mute horror, staring at Sansa with pale faces.

I killed them, Arya wanted to say. I killed the Freys for you and Sansa and Jon killed Ramsay. We avenged you, we reclaimed our home, we never forgot you. But her mouth couldn’t open, and the words stuck in her chest. Her heart hammered in her chest as she looked at Catelyn, tears stinging at her eyes. Would her mother understand? Would any of them?

“I should have died with you,” said Theon, staring at Robb. Desperation and grief was written stark across his face. “I should have, I should have been there, I should have…”

Sansa touched his hand gently. “You saved me, and Yara, and you died for Bran,” she reminded him softly. “You couldn’t have helped any of us if you’d died at the Twins.”

Theon tore his gaze away from Robb to look at Sansa. He looked wild in his grief, a cornered animal before the crossbow. “If I had died with Robb, maybe Bran wouldn’t have needed anyone to die for him.”

Sansa turned to look back at the others. “Joffrey was poisoned not long after the Red Wedding. I was able to flee King’s Landing when he died, and I sought shelter with Aunt Lysa in the Vale.”

Catelyn closed her eyes, letting out a deep breath. Her look of relief dug painfully at Arya’s heart.

“She married me to Ramsay Bolton,” said Sansa, flatly. Arya whipped her head around to stare at Sansa again. Arya could understand Sansa protecting Theon, no matter how much she hated it – Sansa clearly still adored him. But Littlefinger?

We’re going to have words after this, Arya thought grimly. She would give Sansa the benefit of the doubt for now, but if she didn’t have a decent explanation, Arya would go straight to their parents and explain everything Sansa had left out.

“I found Theon here, at Winterfell,” went on Sansa. “Ramsay had held him hostage for years. We escaped, eventually. We were found by Brienne of Tarth and her squire, Podrick. Brienne and Podrick escorted me the rest of the way to the Wall – to Jon – and Theon went to Pyke.”

“My father was dead by then,” said Theon. “I supported my sister in the Kingsmoot, but my uncle, Euron, won and was crowned king. Yara and I fled east with her other supporters.”

“I found Jon at the Wall,” said Sansa. “He… I don’t know how to explain it, Father, but he didn’t desert when he came with me to retake Winterfell. He had fulfilled all of his vows. We gathered the Wildlings and the Northern Houses still loyal to us, and we retook Winterfell from the Boltons.” Her eyes shifted to Catelyn, and she spoke the next words like a challenge. “We named him the new King in the North.”

Catelyn’s jaw worked. “That bastard stole your birthright?” she demanded.

Arya jutted her chin up. “We both supported him as king!” she exclaimed. “We both supported him, Rickon was dead, and Bran didn’t want it. Sansa was still Lady of Winterfell, but we supported him as our king.”

“I knelt to Jon, because he was good and he protected me,” said Sansa. “He was a good king, Mother. I said that he would be my king until my last day, and he was. I have no regrets.”

Catelyn pursed her lips, pressing them together so hard they went almost white.

“Enough,” said Ned. “Whatever happened in Sansa and Arya’s past, it is unlikely to come again.”

“Jon went south to treat with the Dragon Queen,” said Sansa. “Daenerys Targaryen, the Mother of Dragons and the Breaker of Chains. He bent the knee in return for her aid in the war against the Others.”

“We aren’t just being poetic when we call her the Dragon Queen,” said Arya. “She hatched three dragons from stone. They were almost fully grown by the time they reached us, by all accounts.”

“Dragons,” whispered Robb.

“Dragons,” confirmed Arya. “Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion.”

“I’ll need to tell Robert,” said Ned, staring down at his notes.

“No!” exclaimed Sansa, Arya and Theon all at once. “No,” continued Arya. “We have no weapon against the wights like the dragons. Robert will have her killed and you know it, Father.”

“I have no wish to live under a Targaryen ruler, but we need her dragons,” said Sansa.

We have no wish to live under any ruler, lion or stag or dragon, thought Arya. Only the wolf. Only us. But that wasn’t an option right now. Bran had said it: Westeros needed to be united when the Others ventured south of the Wall. It was going to be difficult enough, managing that with Daenerys Stormborn building her armies and raising her dragons across the Narrow Sea, without seriously pursuing Northern independence before the Others arrived.

If we survive this, we’ll be independent, Arya promised herself. Father will be the first King in the North this time round, and Robb after him.

“What about you?” Robb asked Arya. “You’ve been quiet.”

“I hid with Yoren until I couldn’t anymore,” said Arya. “After the Red Wedding, I sailed to Essos. It was only after I had heard that Jon and Sansa had retaken Winterfell that I felt safe enough to come home.” The lie flowed off her lips, more easily than she thought it would. Neither of her parents called her on the lie. Now she was like Sansa; now she was lying to them. But how could she explain the list of names to her parents and Robb? That didn’t know; they wouldn’t understand it, not like Sansa did.

“What happened after Jon went to treat with Daenerys?” pressed Ned.

“Daenerys agreed to help after the Night King killed one of her dragons and raised him again as a wight,” said Arya, relieved for the change in topic. “It was only days after they arrived back at Winterfell that the Army of the Dead attacked, and we all woke up here, eight years earlier.”

“A second chance,” said Sansa. “For all of us.”

Jon had slept in one morning and he has missed everything.

Rumours had been flying around Winterfell all morning. The first that he had heard was that Arya had attacked Theon in the Great Hall with naught but a butter knife, and that had been one of the milder stories he had heard going around. Jon doubted Arya had gone so far as to attack Theon with a butter knife, but the one consistency in all the stories he had heard so far was conflict between Arya and Theon, and Sansa trying to get in between them.

Lord Stark was clearly taking whatever happened seriously; him, the three of them, Lady Stark and Robb had been locked away in his solar all morning. Left without his training partners, Jon had spent the morning helping Ser Rodrik put Bran through his paces.

“Were you there?” asked Jon as they took a short break.

Bran shook his head. “I sneaked out to climb the Broken Tower.”

Jon couldn’t help but smile, ruffling Bran’s hair with fond exasperation. Bran ducked away from him, laughing. “Of course you did.”

“D’you really think Arya went at Theon with a butter knife?” asked Bran.

It wasn’t that Jon didn’t think Arya was capable of attacking someone with a butter knife, given enough provocation. It was more that he just didn’t see how Theon was capable of riling her up that much in such a short space of time. It was Theon; when he was being a brat, you called him a dick and you ignored him.

Jon shook his head. “Theon would be a waste of energy.” Bran snorted as Rodrik called them back over. “Remember to keep your shield up,” warned Jon, “or I’ll ring your head like a bell.”

After Jon and Bran finished with Ser Rodrik, Jon found himself wandering towards the Godswood. He didn’t want to go back into the castle, not yet, when Robb and Arya were probably both still cloistered away in Ned’s solar. The Godswood was peaceful, and quiet.

Or at least, it should have been.

“What if Mother doesn’t believe us?” hissed Sansa, standing next to Arya under the heart tree. “What if she thinks I’ve got it wrong, that I misunderstood somehow and he’s still just innocent Petyr?”

“She won’t,” insisted Arya. “She loves you; she trusts you. She hasn’t seen Littlefinger since before Robert’s Rebellion, probably. She’ll trust you more than him.”

“Can we risk it?” asked Sansa. “Can we risk her writing to him or to Aunt Lysa, and him being tipped off?”

Through the trees, Jon saw Arya cross her arms across her chest, staring at Sansa defiantly. He moved through the trees, ready to let them know he was there, when Arya spoke again, “Fine. I understand Littlefinger. I don’t agree with you, but I understand. But why are you protecting Theon?”

Jon stopped in his tracks. There had been poison in Arya’s voice, a level of hatred he hadn’t ever heard from her before – a level of hatred he hadn’t even realised she was capable of.

“He saved me from Ramsay,” said Sansa. “You don’t understand what happened to him, Arya. It changed him forever.”

“He tried to kill Bran and Rickon!” exclaimed Arya, her voice ringing through the Godswood.

“He did,” said Sansa, and that was all the confirmation Jon needed to turn on his heels and sprint back towards the castle.

Behind him, he heard Sansa and Arya, shouting out for him to wait, but he ran on, flying out of the Godswood and into the rest of the castle, searching the buildings until he found Theon, with Robb in the Library Tower.

Robb looked up, startled at his sudden arrival. “Jon, you -”

Jon stalked over to Theon. Theon had time to meet his eyes apprehensively before Jon slammed his fist into Theon’s face.

“Jon!” shouted Robb, crouching down beside a collapsed Theon.

“Tell him what you did,” snarled Jon.

“Jon, what are you talking about?” asked Robb.

“I heard Arya and Sansa,” growled Jon. “Tell Robb what you did to Bran and Rickon!”

Theon shrank back in on himself. “It wasn’t the Boltons,” he whispered. “They came later. It was me.”

“You?” echoed Robb, before slow realisation washed over him. “You were the one who sacked Winterfell. You’re why Bran and Rickon went North!”

“Wait, what?” said Jon, confusion mixing with his fury. Robb and Theon both ignored him, too caught up in each other.

“You sent me to treat with my father,” said Theon. “I didn’t have his respect anymore, so I…”

“So you betrayed me, attacked my home and tried to murder my brothers,” said Robb shortly when Theon trailed off.

Theon nodded, curling himself into a ball. “Reek,” he murmured. “Reek, reek…”

“Theon!” Sansa’s voice sounded from the door. She hurried inside and kneeled beside Theon and shot Jon a glare. “What did you do to him?” she demanded, touching Theon’s reddened jaw gently.

“Sansa, get away from him,” said Robb, grabbing at her arm, but she tore her arm away from him with a glare.

“Your name is Theon Greyjoy,” she told Theon firmly. “Brother of Yara, ward of House Stark. Ramsay isn’t here. You’re safe with me, with Sansa.”

Arya stalked into the room and came to stand by Jon. She crossed her arms as she looked down at Theon with disgust in her eyes.

“He tried to kill Bran and Rickon!” exclaimed Robb. Theon cringed away from the anger in Robb’s voice.

“Stay with me, Theon,” murmured Sansa, before looking back up at Robb. “He tried to kill Bran and Rickon, but he saved me from Ramsay Bolton while you never even tried to save me from the Lannisters.”

Her cold words hit with pin-point precision. Robb wheeled back as if she had slapped him.

“Sansa,” said Arya, softly.

“Bran and Rickon are fine,” said Sansa. “He hasn’t hurt them this time around, and he never will.”

“He deserves to be punished,” said Jon.

“Perhaps,” said Sansa. “He didn’t get a just sentence, though. He got Ramsay. That’s more than punishment enough, and you can trust me on that.” She turned her head back to Theon, murmuring quiet words to him that Jon couldn’t hear.

“Ramsay?” he asked Arya and Robb. Instead of answering, Robb turned around and stalked out of the room, fury radiating from every inch of him.

“Come on,” said Arya. “We need to be there in case Robb tries to do something stupid.”

“I can’t,” he told her. “What if Theon tries to hurt Sansa?”

Arya pointedly looked down at Theon, his face buried in Sansa’s shoulder as the two sat together in silence. “She’ll be fine.” Jon hesitated, and Arya rolled her eyes. “I hate Theon as much as anyone else, but he won’t hurt Sansa.” Arya spun on her heels and ran out of the room in pursuit of Robb, and with one last look at Sansa and Theon, Jon followed.

He and Arya found Robb back in the training grounds. Robb was taking his anger out on a training dummy, and despite the wooden sword he was using, tufts of straw still flew out of it with each strike.

“Robb!” called Arya.

Robb didn’t answer, redoubling his efforts on the dummy.

“Robb,” said Jon, more calmly. “Robb.”

Robb threw the wooden sword to the ground and turned to face them, his eyes glittering with tears. “How could this have all happened?” he asked Arya. “Theon, Father, Mother, Sansa going from one monster to another… How did I abandon her, Arya? How could I have left her to that?”

Arya stepped closer. “They married her to the Imp,” she replied. “She was a political liability. Sansa understands why you did it. Truly, she does.” Her voice was comforting, but even without context, Jon could hear what Arya was leaving unsaid: but that didn’t mean it hadn’t hurt.

“Liability,” muttered Robb, disgust layering his voice. “Was there anyone? Anyone who actually helped you both, I mean, who didn’t almost destroy our family.” There was a hint of a snarl in his voice at the reference to Theon.

“There was,” said Arya. “For me, there was Gendry and Hot Pie and an actress in Braavos called Lady Crane. Gendry and Hot Pie travelled with me when I was hidden with Yoren. For Sansa – her name was Brienne. She was every bit the kind of knight that we all thought knights should be. She swore to Mother that she would find Sansa and I and protect us, and she did. She saved Sansa from the Boltons. And…” Arya glanced over at Jon. “There was Jon.”

“Me?” asked Jon.

Arya ignored him. “Brienne took Sansa all the way to Jon on the Wall, and he helped her to rally the North and retake Winterfell. She was always so distant with him when we were children, but when I came back to Winterfell you would almost think that he’d hung the stars, the way she talked about him. They argued about anything and everything political, but she adored him for saving her.”

Robb looked to Jon, his eyes heavy with tears, and caught him up in a hug. “Thank you for doing what I didn’t,” he said into Jon’s ears. Jon raised his eyebrows at Arya, hoping for some kind of explanation, but she just smiled indulgently at him like she knew something he didn’t – which, apparently, she did.

“Alright,” said Jon, when Robb at last let go. “Is someone going to explain what’s going on now?”

#got #sansa stark #arya stark #jon snow #game of thrones #fic

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99vernon · 5 years

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GOT - SEASON 8 EXPECTATIONS

Since there are only 6 episodes left, I don’t think there will be time for any major storyline developments. S8 will be about seeing and telling the TRUTH. It will be filled with flashbacks and will be the season of multiple parentage reveals.

So, what is the “Bittersweet” ending and for whom? The Starks.

I’ve been saying this for awhile the values, honor and teachings Ned Stark passed on to his family will be the reason the Starks survive the long night. “When the cold winds blow the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives”. The Starks will stick together by trusting and loving each other; however, sacrifices will have to be made. (‘Beware Possible Spoilers”)

1) Jon’s Parentage is publicly revealed to the North. I believe both Jon and Sansa already know about Jon’s parentage. Sansa found out from reading Maester Luwin’s past raven scrolls. That’s why she was anxious for Jon to come back soon – she is free to love him romantically.

2) Political Jon is true. Jon Stark knows a lot. Did Jon already know that Dany could be his Aunt before the boatsex? Yes. (BTW - I don’t believe Dany is Jon’s Aunt.) I believe before Jon was resurrected, he was told Dany was going to be the key to winning the war with the WW.

3) Sansa will be heartbroken about Dany and Jon’s relationship. However, Sansa hides her hurt and SUPPORTS Jon’s decision to bring Dany to Winterfell. Dany will get sick and Sansa will help nurse Dany back to health. This will contrast with Catelyn Stark’s negative behavior when Ned brought Jon Snow back to Winterfell. (Please no Dany pregnancy)

4) My favorite….it will be revealed that Sansa has special powers. The audience already is surprised that Sansa survived to s8, Jaime even said it in s6 ep 8“I just assumed Sansa was dead. In my experience, girls like her do not live very long.” Sansa special powers are tied to Winterfell and the clothes she makes. Personal Note - Sansa survived a lot throughout the season – family separation, beaten by men, forced into an unwanted marriage, raped, deaths of her mother, brothers and father, losing Lady, etc - horrific experiences that would have probably made us give up on life. It’s just sad that my fellow viewers of the show do not show more empathy for Sansa’s character. Sansa deserves a special happy ending!

5) JONSA is the Big Reveal – Jon and Sansa will find out what happened between them before they left Winterfell. Something beautiful – JONSA. (Sadly, I believe Catelyn Stark may have destroyed their relationship. However, if Jon saves the kingdom, Catelyn’s actions will be looked upon as a good deed) We will see that Jon by becoming the last hero and taking the Black, did it to save Sansa’s life. Don’t know if Jon or Sansa will make the first move. My guess Sansa. I just know when they realize what has develop between them it will be filled with passion and beauty. (It should have happened after they won the Battle of the Bastards.)

6) In episode 1 - Dany sees Jon is not happy. He refuses to have sex with her at Winterfell. Dany tells Jon she loves him. Jon breaks it off with Dany before the parent reveal. He tells her that he is in love with someone else. He does not name Sansa. Dany leaves. We will now see full blown Dark Dany.

7) Important observation – Jaime and Jon mirror each other too much for it to be a coincidence. There must be a reason for it. Both Jon and Jaime are talented swordsman. Jon joined the Night’s Watch which requires that he forfeited having a family of his own; Jaime served as Kings guard which also required that he forfeited having a family of his own.(What were they running from?) Jaime was captured and held prisoner by the Starks and Jon captured and held prisoner by the Wildings. Jon eventually became ally’s with the wildings. Jaime will eventually become ally's with the Starks. Both Jaime and Jon’s fighting hand was damaged. There are 3 notable differences so far….. a) Jaime killed his cousin… will Jon have to do the same? (My biggest fear is like Stannis - Jon may have to kill a child. Character assassination. Don’t do it!) b)Jon has a parentage reveal….Will Jaime have a parentage reveal too? 3) If JONSA happens, they both would have found true love?– however, I don’t think Cersei is Jaime’s true love.

8) Jon is the Last hero and he will defeat the Night King by following Sansa’s advice. “Just don’t do what he expects you to.”

9) We will find out the real reason Sansa had Littlefinger killed.

10) Sansa and the real Arya will reunite.

11) Arya and Gendry get married.

12) Arya dies.

13) We find the identity of the 3 eyed raven.

14) With Jaime’s help, the real Bran comes back to life after the war ends and is able to walk again.

15) Bran becomes ruler in Dorne and marries Meera Reed.

16) Jon and Sansa will rule together throughout the long night.

17) Dany’s Dragon Rhaegal keeps Winterfell warm throughout the long night.

18) Winterfell withstands the war.

Bittersweet Ending – Jaime is revealed as the Prince that was Promised. Jorah is Dany’s treason for love. Dany kills Jorah. Dany’s child is alive and living in the North. Jaime kills Dany and Jaime dies a hero. Cersei becomes queen of the ashes. Jon chokes Cersei to death as a mercy death.

Years later, Jon and Sansa have 4 children together. Sansa and Jon watch from the Winterfell battlement as the sun finally rise. (teardrops)

Who wins the throne? Jon, Sansa, Dany and Jaime will be key to decide who sits on the throne. Prediction - Jon and Sansa stay in the North. Their children take the Iron Throne. Eventually, one of Jon and Sansa’s children will marry Dany’s child and they will rule together. Bold prediction: Jaime becomes the new Night King.

#JONSA

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him-e · 6 years

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In the interview in wich grrm talks about the unkiss , he says it is to prepare the stage for a more important memory gap what was he refering to ?

The relevant quotes:

“Well, not every inconsistency is a mistake, actually. Some are quite intentional. File this one under “unreliable narrator” and feel free to ponder its meaning…” (The Citadel, So Spake Martin, Sansa’s memory)

“The Lion’s Paw / Lion’s Tooth business, on the other hand, is intentional. A small touch of the unreliable narrator. I was trying to establish that the memories of my viewpoint characters are not infallible. Sansa is simply remembering it wrong. A very minor thing (you are the only one to catch it to date), but it was meant to set the stage for a much more important lapse in memory. 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. (The Citadel, So Spake Martin, SF, Targaryens, Valyria, Sansa, Martells, and more)

Note that George has Sansa mixed up with Arya in the second quote, because it’s Arya, and not Sansa, who misemembers the name of Joffrey’s sword. So George, too, is an unreliable narrator!

All joking aside, it’s clear that with the Unkiss and with other instances (such as Sansa not remembering correctly the events of the Trident), Martin is trying to establish Sansa as a particularly unreliable narrator: her mind tends to rewrite reality to make it fit into familiar patterns, the ones she learned from the songs, where knights steal kisses from their ladies rather than threatening them with a dagger, pretty princes generally tend to be good and villains are always easy to identify. And if there’s something that deeply unsettles her, and that she isn’t ready to deal with yet, it gets swept under the rug… until either she is ready, or reality hits her like a ton of bricks (which happened with Joffrey and Cersei).

This rewriting/erasure is not a conscious choice on Sansa’s part—in other words, she isn’t aware at all that her brain does this. The Unkiss is the most evident example of this mechanism: there’s no real reason for Sansa to fabricate (not just fantasize about) a false memory of a kiss that never happened, other than the fact that she has no idea how to cope with Sandor’s simultaneously assaulting her and pleading to let him rescue her AND she can’t deal with her own feelings for him, so she rewrites the whole incident into something in which the implied (Sandor’s fixation on her, his instinct to both scare and protect her) becomes explicit, but normalized into a more chaste narrative (a “romantic” kiss).

Now, the big blind spot in Sansa’s narrative—the one that could potentially have huge repercussions on the overall plot—is Littlefinger. Sansa, VERY deep inside, knows something really important about him:

“Tears, tears, tears,” she sobbed hysterically. “No need for tears… but that’s not what you said in King’s Landing. You told me to put the tears in Jon’s wine, and I did. For Robert, and for us! And I wrote Catelyn and told her the Lannisters had killed my lord husband, just as you said. That was so clever… you were always clever, I told Father that, I said Petyr’s so clever, he’ll rise high, he will, he will, and he’s sweet and gentle and I have his little baby in my belly… Why did you kiss her? Why? We’re together now, we’re together after so long, so very long, why would you want to kiss herrrrrr?”

Sansa’s heard Lysa’s last words which revealed Littlefinger as the mastermind behind Jon Arryn’s murder and the Stark/Lannister conflict… yet, her pov shows no traces that she’s aware of this. It’s like she never registered what she heard, and imo the problem isn’t that she didn’t “understand”—I think Sansa is very intelligent and perfectly capable of putting 2 and 2 together and realize what kind of “tears” Lysa put in Jon’s wine and why did LF ask Lysa to lie to Catelyn—but that that information was too overwhelming for her in that specific moment, so she put it aside; and now that she’s completely reliant on Littlefinger, that knowledge is like the skeleton in the closet that her brain is too terrified to revisit. So she just ignores it and keeps going. It’s the only way she knows how to function. And this isn’t the first time that Sansa acquires and immediately shelves away vital information about Littlefinger:

Queen Cersei looked at each of the councillors in turn. “I won’t have Sansa fretting needlessly. What shall we do with this little friend of hers, my lords?” Lord Petyr leaned forward. “I’ll find a place for her.” “Not in the city,” said the queen. “Do you take me for a fool?” The queen ignored that. “Ser Boros, escort this girl to Lord Petyr’s apartments and instruct his people to keep her there until he comes for her. Tell her that Littlefinger will be taking her to see her father, that ought to calm her down. I want her gone before Sansa returns to her chamber.”

This is shortly after Ned’s arrest (AGOT, Sansa IV). Under Sansa’s eyes, Cersei tasks Littlefinger with disposing of Jeyne Poole, Sansa’s best friend. Who we know was put in LF’s brothel where she was raped and abused horrifically only to be sold to the Boltons as Ramsay’s token “Stark” wife. Yet it never occurs to Sansa to investigate on this, and she doesn’t even seem to remember the fact that Littlefinger is probably the person to ask in the first place (we learn later that Sansa did not know what had happened to Jeyne, who had disappeared from her rooms afterward, never to be mentioned again). Another buried/rewritten memory waiting to resurface?

Oh yeah and there’s also this:

As he led her below, he said, “Tell me of the feast. The queen took such pains. The singers, the jugglers, the dancing bear… did your little lord husband enjoy my jousting dwarfs?” “Yours?” “I had to send to Braavos for them and hide them away in a brothel until the wedding. The expense was exceeded only by the bother. It is surprisingly difficult to hide a dwarf, and Joffrey… you can lead a king to water, but with Joff one had to splash it about before he realized he could drink it. When I told him about my little surprise, His Grace said, ‘Why would I want some ugly dwarfs at my feast? I hate dwarfs.’ I had to take him by the shoulder and whisper, ‘Not as much as your uncle will.’ ” The deck rocked beneath her feet, and Sansa felt as if the world itself had grown unsteady. “They think Tyrion poisoned Joffrey. Ser Dontos said they seized him.” Littlefinger smiled. “Widowhood will become you, Sansa.”

The above (ASOS, Sansa V) proves that Littlefinger manipulated both Joffrey and Tyrion—he brought jousting dwarves so that Joffrey could publicly humiliate Tyrion, and give him a “reason” to “murder” him that everyone could see, so to seal Tyrion’s culpability in Joffrey’s assassination. If Sansa considered this through, she’d probably realize that it wasn’t the first time Littlefinger manipulated Joffrey… that maybe he also whispered in the little king’s ear to convince him to behead Ned. But she doesn’t. Yet.

And of course, there is her inability to see/acknowledge/admit that Littlefinger is slowly poisoning Sweetrobin to death. Though she doesn’t have enough knowledge of poisons to understand that a slightly higher dose of sweetsleep can be fatal, she saw Maester Colemon’s anxiety and reluctance to give it to Sweetrobin too often, but, again, she doesn’t seem to register it as a red flag.

It’s possible that Sweetrobin’s death (or finding out what happened to Jeyne) is the eye opener, the triggering event that unlocks Sansa’s ability to remember correctly what she’s always known, connect the dots between the hairnet, Sweetrobin’s poisoning, Littlefinger’s behind the scenes manipulation of the Purple wedding and Jon Arryn’s death via Lysa’s “tears”, and finally see the bigger picture in Littlefinger’s modus operandi and uncover his role in causing the war of the five kings and her own house’s downfall. (yes, I totally think that Sansa will be LF’s undoing in the books like she was in the show, and that she will ~finish what her father started~ and I mean her REAL father, who died investigating on Jon Arryn’s murder, but could never get as physically close to the truth as Sansa eventually got).

The other instance in which I can see Sansa’s altered memories come into play in a big way is her recollection of the events leading to Ned’s arrest and death, specifically the fact that she mindlessly revealed critical information to Cersei which resulted in her father eventually losing his head. It’s interesting that Sansa rarely ruminates about this in her pov. I think this is one of the memories that cause her the most excruciating pain, so her brain keeps it on a leash, and might have rewritten the entire sequence of events to make her subconscious guilt less unbearable. It’s possible that at some point in her future narrative someone (likely Arya, sort of like what happened in the show) discovers what she did and questions her about that, causing a major crisis in Sansa’s psychological balance (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing).

There might be something even bigger than that coming up (and it’s also possible that Sansa’s memory lapses are preparing the reader for another character’s memory lapse, even), but these are my top guesses at the moment.

#anon #asks #got asks #sansa**#asoiaf spec #the unkiss #sansan for ts #sansa and lf for ts #sansa's memory #grrm #quotes #rape tw #jeyne poole #sweetrobin #unreliable narrators

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nyangibun · 7 years

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GoT S07E01 Thoughts

I don’t know if this will be a regular occurrence, but for the first episode, I’m going to be laying out my thoughts about the premiere in what will probably be a lengthy post that’s half gibberish and half maybe something substantial. Undoubtedly, not eloquent. These are just thoughts and nothing more that I’ve jotted down while watching and am now about to elaborate on.

Let’s begin with what has to be one of the most epic intros in Game of Thrones ever. No, I don’t want to hear your counter. You will not sway me on this. I don’t care, mate, because this scene was bloody awesome. The minute Filch Walder Frey’s face popped up, I knew it was Arya and I knew shit was about to go down. Now nobler humans might be like ‘Oh, Arya is going down a dark path; this is bad’ but her gathering all of the Freys in one room was poetic justice. What they did at the Red Wedding warranted retaliation and this has been a long time coming.

It was beautiful the way it happened too – a dark sadistic glee washed over you as you watch a room full of men choke on their drinks as Arya stands there telling them they should’ve killed all the Starks, and “leave one wolf alive and the sheep are never safe.”

Look, people really hated that line prior to the premiere, but in context, it was wonderful, it was justified, it was so unbelievably satisfying. Then when Arya goes, “tell them the North remembers; tell them Winter came for House Frey”, you bet I got goosebumps. Like I’ve said time and time again, ‘Winter is Coming’ is not just a warning, but it’s a battle cry for the Starks. This is their season. When the world dies, the lands become barren and the knights of Summer struggle to survive, the North prevails, and the Starks are at the helm of this changing tide. It’s their time now, and beginning it with Arya avenging the loss of her family is a truly poignant way to set the tone for the rest of the season. Yes, we’ll see Cersei and Dany duking it out, but at the end of the day, this is about the Starks.

The next thing I jotted down was ‘zombie giants’, which is just to say that: holy shit, there are zombie giants! Seeing the sheer number of White Walkers, it makes you realise how utterly inconsequential Cersei and Dany’s fight for the Iron Throne is. There won’t be a kingdom to govern when those icy bastards get past the Wall, and believe you me, they will eventually. No matter what anyone says, that Wall is coming down probably at the end of this season.

Seeing Dolorous Edd as Lord Commander gave me goosebumps as well. I adore him; I love him, and I swear to god if he dies, I will kick someone’s ass, so he’s probably going to die. But him meeting Bran and Meera made my heart race. They are so close to Winterfell and we’re so close to another Stark reunion. Also, hey Bran, I know the world is ending but cheer up, pal.

Now we get to the highly talked about scene with Jon and the Northern houses. First of all, I felt so euphoric when Jon told the North that they would need every man and woman, boy and girl fighting in this battle. Even more so when Lyanna spoke up and basically told the men in the room to shut up about it. Her “I don’t need your permission to defend the North!” speech was seriously my top five favourite moments of the episode. The look of pride on Brienne’s face as well. I wonder, however, if this means Sansa might learn how to fight? I don’t see it. She’s a diplomat, a politician, but she should know some self-defence. Jon should teach her. Late at night. Alone. Some flirty teaching.... I’m getting sidetracked.

Speaking of Jon and Sansa though, can I just say to that redditor who apparently saw the first episode: ‘Hey buddy, you were wrong! And if you interpreted that scene as Jon putting Sansa in her place then you really are a sexist creep.’ Because while yes, Sansa does argue with Jon in public and Jon does tell her his word is final, he in no way puts her in her place. And there is no moment where the other Houses laugh at her. In fact, going by the murmurs of agreement, quite a large amount of lords and ladies wanted Jon to give Umber and Karstark lands to the houses who didn’t fight for Ramsay.

I also want to clarify something here before anti’s get all up in arms about this scene (not that I think any of them follow me or stalk my blog but if you do: hi, how are ya?). While I do agree with Jon’s decision, in the end, I also understand Sansa’s opinion on the matter. If I had gone through what she had under the ministrations of Ramsay and knew that these Houses who have sworn up and down in the past to fight for the Starks sided with him, I’d be furious. There wouldn’t be a damn thing anyone could say to me to get me to forgive their indifference and compliance in the trauma I went through. Sansa has every right to want to strip the Umbers and Karstarks of their land. I can even understand being angry with Jon for not understanding this, but here’s the thing, she wasn’t.

Immediately after this extremely public argument, it cuts to a scene of Jon and Sansa talking about it. They didn’t fight, let the emotions fester and build up resentment. No, Jon and Sansa talked it out. He told her not to undermine him in public and she told him a king needed to be questioned lest he ends up like Joffrey. Then when he asks her if she thinks he’s like Joffrey, her eyes lose that fight and there’s fondness in it, as she tells him firmly that he is the furthest man from Joffrey she had ever known. Although they’re arguing and disagreeing on important political decisions, there’s fondness and trust and respect in the way they talk to each other.

What I find interesting is that after Jon and Sansa’s scene, they cut straight away to Jaime and Cersei. Two pair of (sort of) siblings and yet two vastly different relationships. The placement of these two scenes is no coincidence. The two relationships act as literary foils for one another. Both are fighting and arguing, but in contrast, Jaime and Cersei are clearly on very different paths from one another. There’s wariness, disbelief, and disappointment in the way Jaime looks at Cersei; and she is so consumed with her grief, anger, power, she can’t see that he is questioning her very right to be on the throne. They are shot as two opposing figures circling each other with lots of space in between them. On the other hand, Jon and Sansa were shot close together, always within inches from another, with dimmer lighting, and more physicality (ie. Sansa touching his arm to assure him and let him know she may argue but she is on his side).

Don’t dismiss the sequence of these scenes. Nothing in this show is a coincidence.

Moving on, I love Sam and I am so excited to see him again, but dear lord, that was the most disgusting series of shots ever. I felt physically ill. Please never again. But I wonder if he discovers the dragon glass at Dragonstone this early in the season, what else will he uncover in the Citadel? There’s definitely more in store for Sam’s storyline and I wonder if it might be something to do with R+L=J. People have theorised about Sam confirming it somehow. We’ll see, I guess.

Nothing really of substance to say about the Brienne, Podrick and Tormund scene, but it made me laugh out loud. Tormund is the physical embodiment of the heart eyes emoji. And his “you’re a lucky man” to Podrick when he gets knocked down by Brienne was such great comedic timing and brilliantly hilarious.

I wish I could play this next scene on a loop. Sansa telling Littlefinger off has to be the greatest ‘screw you’ to all the people clambering for StarkBowl just because they don’t like Sansa. I love when she says to him, and I’m paraphrasing here, “you don’t have to get the last word. I’m sure it’s probably something clever” and just dismisses him like he’s nothing, which he is. It was so queenly, so regal and so cutting. It was exactly like Sansa. She may not have a sword, but her tongue is sharp enough to wound.

The biggest surprise of the episode was seeing bloody Ed Sheeran. When we heard the singing, I said that whoever that was had a great voice, and low and behold, it’s bloody Ed. I knew there was a huge musical guest star but this totally surprised me. I love this scene though. Arya’s always been on a very rigid path for vengeance. Those who serve the Lannisters are in the wrong and there’s no grey area about it, but you can see her sitting there listening to these men caught in someone else’s war longing to be home with their fathers, wives, daughters, etc. and realise that they are victims of this war just like everyone else. I wonder how that’ll change (if it does at all) Arya’s journey towards vengeance because truth be told, I am worried about her this season. Next on her list is Cersei, but we all know Cersei will either die by the hand of Jaime or by Tyrion (probably Jaime), so where will that leave Arya? Will she give up her quest and head home to Winterfell? Or will she die trying?

You know what? I do like the Hound. I like his redemption arc. And although I don’t believe it makes up for all the bad shit he did prior to it, I am intrigued to see where he goes from here. Also, this line is hilarious: “it’s my luck I'd end up with a band of fire lovers.”

Now, what I’m about to say people might nitpick with me being an anti-Dany person, but honestly, I’m not. I just thought the whole Dragonstone sequence was incredibly boring. It was exciting the first thirty seconds, but it dragged on for so long. Then when she stands at the table and says, “shall we begin?” it was just so anticlimactic. It was the dullest part of the episode and I’m hoping it gets more interesting for her soon. Actually, no doubt it will be considering this is her make or break moment, but let’s be honest, that sequence was way too long.

Anyway, I’m done. Those are my thoughts. Let me know what you guys think!

#jonsa #jon x sansa #game of thrones #got s07e01 #got s7 thoughts #arya stark #jaime lannister #cersei lannister #jon snow #sansa stark #long post

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moonlight-spectacles · 7 years

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LAP: Why Gendry x Sansa is practically perfect

For a while, I’ve only wanted Sansa to be happy. Even now, I don’t really care if she gets with anyone in the end, To me, if she ends up ruling as Lady of Winterfell and that makes her perfectly happy alone, I’d be perfectly okay with it.

However, I’ve been re-watching Game of Thrones, and I’ve also been looking at theories on it, and now that I have been looking back, I’m thinking that Gendry and Sansa could really make a near perfect match, and that in essence, it might even have been lowkey foreshadowed.

I wasn’t actually sure about this pairing at first, because they’ve never actually met and I lowkey thought Gendry x Arya might be a thing eventually, but now that I’ve gone back again, I’ve changed my mind drastically.

Here’s what I’ve got as my reasons to support why at the very least, if they got together I’d be really down for it:

1. Gendry is technically a Baratheon. Now, while this doesn’t mean anything in and out of itself, I recall the late King Robert Baratheon’s words when he spoke to Ned Stark about joining their houses.

King Robert: If your sister had lived, we’d be bound by blood. Well it’s not too late. I have a son, you have a daughter. We'll join our houses.

And yes, while Arya is also a girl, season one’s conversation with her father Ned showed us that Arya does not intend for marriage and babies to be her life.

Ned: But someday, he’ll be Lord of a holdfast, he’ll sit on a King’s Council, might raise Castles, like Brandon The Builder.

Arya: Can I be Lord of a Holdfast?

Ned: You, will marry a high Lord, and rule his castle. And your sons, shall be Knights and Princes and Lords.

Arya: No...That’s not me.

Meanwhile, Sansa always wished to someday marry and have children and rule a castle.

Sansa: Do you think Joffrey will like me? What if he thinks I’m ugly? [...] He’s so handsome. When will we be married, soon or do we have to wait? You left your home to come here, and I’d be Queen someday. Please make father say yes. Please, please. It’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted.

2. Gendry and Arya got along well when they were in each others presence, as do Jon and Gendry, and when he was alive, Ned showed that he approved of Gendry, and was even willing to help him train if he wanted to pick up a sword at any point.

Ned Stark on Gendry: If the day ever comes where that boy would rather wield a sword than forge one, you send him to me.

Arya Stark to Gendry: “I can be your family.”

Now, I know some fans bring up Gendry referring to Arya not being his family but His Lady. And to me, this only shows me that Gendry knew he wouldn’t be treated as someone who is family to Arya, but someone below her.

Not to mention, the conversation was about Gendry referring to the men being brothers, family. Arya said she’d be his family. She cares about Gendry, but from what I saw, it was not supposed to be seen as romantic.

On an interesting note, the episode Arya says this, is an episode called “Kissed By Fire.” As you’ll probably remember, Tormund once commented about gingers with this phrase: “Gingers are beautiful. We are Kissed By Fire.” Guess who is a beautiful redhead? Sansa Stark.

I think that family approval is pretty important, especially in those days. So to me, it makes sense that the man Sansa intends to marry, would have a good rep in her families eyes. Arya once said that she'd be Gendry’s family if he wanted, and poor Gendry’s never had one before. Overall, clearly, Gendry is already favorable in the eyes of the Stark siblings.

Not to mention, both Gendry and Jon seem to believe in telling the truth, and that lies will get you nowhere. Gendry opted to tell Jon the truth about his name upfront (Gendry, Robert Baratheon’s son, Bastard Son), despite Sir Davos telling him not to, and to call himself Clovis. Both Gendry and Jon also know what it’s like to live as a Bastard in their world, so he can already connect to Jon on that as well.

Gendry: Our fathers trusted each other, why shouldn’t we?

Jon: I saw your father once at Winterfell.

Gendry: I met yours. In my shop.

Jon: You’re a lot leaner.

Gendry: You’re a lot shorter.

Already, Gendry and Jon got along, joking around with one another. Again, making good, meaningful connections to the Starks is a good point in his favor.

3. Ned Starks words to Sansa in season one:

Ned Stark to Sansa: “When you're old enough, I'll make you a match with someone whose worth of you. Someone whose brave and gentle and strong."

When Sansa was still young, she only thought about what she wanted, not what she had or what could really be good for her. She didn't want the things her father said, and it bit her in the butt. Given the shit hands she’d been dealt when it came to men so far, I have no doubt in my mind that she'd take a man like her father once proposed to find for her, at the drop of a hat at this point. The reason why Ned’s words resonate to Gendry with me, is because Gendry does seem to fit this criteria very well.

Gendry: Brave, Gentle and Strong.

Sansa is older now, and thus at an older age where she can likely be married to someone like Gendry.

Gendry has shown himself to be brave. He knew what Jon wanted to do and he was ready to follow and help him, despite only just meeting him, he believed in his cause and he trusted him the way Ned and Robert trusted each other. He also readily defends Arya from boys picking on her, before he even knew she was a girl.

Gendry is noted to be gentle. He’s pretty level headed considering he spoke to Arya kindly and was willing to answer all her questions. He also figured out she was a girl, and didn’t need to be prodded not to tell anyone. He just kept her secret like that. Gendry is also self-conscious when it comes to High Borns. As soon as he finds out Arya is highborn, he immediately apologizes for using the word “cock” in her presence, and the fact that he’s been using the bathroom in front of her unnerves him, and he says he should be calling her “M’Lady.”

Gendry is also quite strong, just like his father Robert was, based on how well he weilds a hammer and can take out an enemy, like he did with the Gold Cloaks who were giving Sirs Davos and Tyrion trouble.

Gendry in essence, is the exact opposite of Joffrey, and is in essence, just the kind of man Ned Stark spoke to her about.

4. Both Gendry and Sansa know what it’s like to go through immense turmoil.

These are Gendry’s words in Kissed By Fire to Arya:

Gendry to Arya: “What, serve him? I’ve served men my entire life. I served Master Mot at Kings Landing, and he sold me to the watch. I served Lord Tywin at Herinall wondering everyday, if I’d get tortured or killed. I’m done serving.

Like Gendry, Sansa also suffered at the hands of others. Like Gendry with Master Mot, he was sold to the Watch. Sansa Stark, was sold by Littlefinger to the Boltons.

Littefinger: I was protecting you.

Sansa to Littlefinger: Protecting me? By selling me to the Boltons?”

Sansa lived in fear in Kings Landing from Joffrey Lannister, Lord Tywin’s Grandson, and also suffered torture at the hands of Ramsay Bolton.

Sansa Stark: Since my father was executed, I have been a hostage in King's Landing. A plaything for Joffrey to torture or Queen Cersei to torment. They beat me, they humiliated me, they married me to the Imp.

Gendry feared for his life and being tortured at the hands of Tywin Lannister. Sansa feared for her safety and was tortured by Ramsay Bolton and Joffrey Baratheon.

Sansa about Ramsay: Theon...help me... [...] He already hurts me every night. All day I’m locked in this room and every night he comes. It can’t be any worse...”

So overall what do I say?

Gendry is the kind of man Ned Stark would approve of. Brave, Gentle and Strong, the kind of man he wanted Sansa to marry.

Gendry is already on great terms with her siblings, Jon Snow and Arya, both who treated him kindly and Gendry is often referred to in the context of family when it comes to the Starks. Arya said she’d be his family, and Jon and Gendry commented about Ned and Robert being close friends (and Robert wished for the Starks and Baratheon’s to join houses).

Gendry and Sansa know what it’s like to live through torture and torment, and who have had it tough and deserve happiness. Gendry deserves to be served for once, rather than doing all the serving. Sansa deserves a good man who will be by her side, and one she does not have to fear. Gendry deserves a family, and Sansa can give him that family, and her family now will welcome him with open arms.

Gendry and Sansa haven’t met, but their is still time, and I do believe that Gendry is essentially the perfect match for Sansa Stark.

#Sandry #Gendry x Sansa #Sansa Stark #Gendry x Arya brotp

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mscurious88 · 7 years

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My spoiler commentary

Will Jon return home on a horse or on Rhaegal? If he’s still far away when word comes Winterfell is in danger, it’d make a heck of a dramatic entrance for him to return home on a Dragon. It would complicate matters if Jon looks to have completely surrendered to his Targaryen side to Sansa, Bran & Arya even if he still acts like Starks are his priority. Probably won’t happen, but I’d like this as his 1st ride. It’d parallel D@ny’s impetuous ride north to save Jorah & Jon, but it’d also show again Jon’s strong feelings for the Starks.

I also think about Sansa as the "other, younger and more beautiful Queen to cast Cersei down and take all that she holds dear" in S8.

There are only 3 women whose outer beauty is regularly commented upon by characters: Sansa, Cersei & D@ny. Yes, D@ny could be this Queen, but in a way, Sansa has already indirectly caused Cersei to lose Joffrey, Tywin, Myrcella & Tommen when she dropped her facade and bravely trusted Olenna & Margaery with the truth about Joffrey being a monster. Sansa risked a lot to warn the Tyrells & this warning caused Olenna to kill Joffrey at the wedding so Margaery would be in line to wed Tommen. It set up the false murder accusation of Tyrion which lead to Oberyn’s death & Ellaria’s revenge killing of Myrcella and Tyrion’s murder of Tywin. Olenna’s successful marriage of Margaery to Tommen led to Cersei’s crazy rivalry to control her son & eventually to his suicide. Sansa is also the reason Brienne knows Jaime and also the person who has set up their meetings at Riverrun & KL which will likely factor into his leaving Cersei finally. In a way, Sansa’s kindness caused all this destruction to Cersei’s life, the same way Littlefingers malice caused all the harm to the Starks. Yes, other actors played parts in it, but they’re the ppl whose acts got the ball rolling. But if Sansa is the prophecy Queen, how does she become Queen? If it is thru marriage, why is it only she who casts Cersei down? Where is her husband?

D@ny had no part in Joffrey, Tywin, Myrcella & Tommen’s deaths & they were so much of what Cersei has lost, I think it’d undervalue them if they weren’t included in “all she holds dear.” Ditto Brienne as an option, despite her far greater inner beauty

For those shippers freaking out about Jon/D@ny sex, I’m not excited about it and I am REALLY not happy about Cersei/Jaime pregnancy, but the writers are delaying happiness. That’s what writers do. Triangles bring drama. Cersei/Jaime/Brienne and Sansa/Jon/D@ny are there to give the characters someplace to go, something to learn and it’s not the end yet.

I do not doubt Brienne & Jaime are going to get together. The writers have set it up too well, but sure, I get impatient. Brienne and Jaime didn’t even see each other 1 season & he is still sleeping with Cersei. But, he leaves her finally so I’m ready for Brienne/Jaime payoff in S8.

In S8, aside from battles, Jon will be likely be torn politically btw his 2 sides: Stark & Targaryen. Sansa & D@ny personify this struggle. It’s Sansa’s kissed by fire hair vs. D@ny’s ice white hair. Home vs. a foreigner. But, who is home & who is the foreigner?

IMO, Jonsa is a cool ship bc it totally snuck up on me and it isn’t that often that a writer surprises me if they play fair and don’t hold back vital info. But, even knowing Jon was likely Targaryen for whom incest is normal, I didn’t see the Jonsa potential bc Sansa seemed so much younger than Jon, but time passed, and suddenly when they met S6, I could finally see all the setup.

Jon’s opposite sex parent issues sets up a potentially strong psychological/sexual attraction to Sansa. And Sansa’s love of her father sets up a bias for a mate who’d be strong, brave and kind in the same fashion as Ned. Their shared upbringing/ethics system gives them a common ground. The history of Jon’s family incest not only overcomes the normal bias ag. such close marriage, it flips it to be an expectation. If D@ny didn’t exist, the only impediment would be Sansa’s awkwardness in seeing Jon romantically, but the Joffrey/Ramsay mess likely changed her priorities in spouse selection with trust becoming paramount and since Sansa trusts so few ppl, pragmatically it limits the pool. Imo, it is down to Tyrion or Jon and I see merits for both. Jon’s big advantage is how handsome and good hearted he is. Tyrion’s advantage is his wisdom, but Sansa is shown to have an aptitude for learning quickly from those around her so she doesn’t absolutely need wisdom in her mate. And the writers have spent so much time showing Jon and Sansa learning to work together as a team. I can’t see why they’d do that if they didn’t need it.

Also, if I think how Sansa, D@ny, along with Cersei, Jon & Jaime, receive such different treatment than the other characters. GoT has many extraordinarily attractive actors, but the writers have characters repeatedly talk about how extraordinarily good-looking only these characters are. The writers have made them into trophies. I see Jaime as Brienne’s reward & I see Sansa & Jon as rewards for each other. I see Cersei & D@ny meeting sad, tragic endings. Tryrion is my wildcard. I don’t know what to imagine for him. But, if I’m wrong, it’ll be ok. I just don’t think this elaborate Jonsa setup is an accident. That makes ZERO sense to me.

#jon x sansa #jonsa #spoilers #got spoilers

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immortalpramheda · 7 years

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Game of Thrones ‘The Dragon and the Wolf’

This is going to be a very long post, but there is just so much to process.

We have come to the end of another season. Wow that went by fast. I loved the episode! I thought it was a fantastic way to end the season! There were so many great moments between characters. So many satisfying scenes. And the ending was epic and terrifying!

We finally see Grey Worm again. Last we saw of him and the Unsullied they had just taken Casterly Rock, when Euron’s ships came and attacked them. Well, they made it to King’s Landing and are standing out front, when the Dothraki come riding through. Jaime and Bronn look on, but they’re safe behind the castle walls, for now.

The rest of them arrive at King’s Landing. Jon has never been before, and he’s surprised that more people live in the city than live in all of the North. This is all so new to him. All he’s ever known is the North. The Hound checks on their dead prisoner. Yep, he’s still very much alive (dead alive?).

Cersei gets the Dragonpit ready for their guests, and tells The Mountain to kill all of them if anything goes wrong.

The crew all walk to the gates and are met by Bronn and some others to escort them. Brienne and Podrick are there too. There were all these mini reunions, which was great! Tyrion and Podrick! Bronn mentions something about Pod’s magic cock, which reminded me that we still don’t know what happened to those girls in the brothel way back in S3. Good to see they haven’t forgotten about that!

The Hound and Brienne. They haven't seen each other since their brutal fight, and Brienne thought he was dead. She tells him that Arya is alive. He’s happy to hear that she’s safe, and that she can take care of herself. All both of them were trying to do was protect her. He seems genuinely happy to hear that about her, and doesn’t plan on getting in her way. I need them to reunite!!

We get a proper reunion between Tyrion and Bronn! He tries to get Bronn to switch alliances, but he refuses. He’s convinced that Cersei is going to pay him for bringing her traitors. Honestly, I’d love for him to ally with Daenerys, but Cersei probably does have more gold than Dany. I guess he’ll just ally with whoever will pay him more.

The Dragonpit is incredible! It’s basically a ruin now, and unused. But it’s where the Targaryen’s used to house their dragons. Incredible! Such a cool set, and a part of King’s Landing we’ve never seen before.

Bronn takes Pod off to get a drink, leaving the others alone in the Dragonpit. They’re confused as to what is going on. And Dany wasn’t there either, because we all know she’ll wait for the perfect time to arrive.

Cersei and co finally arrive. Lots of looks and stares. Tyrion and Cersei, Euron and Theon, Jaime and Brienne, The Hound and The Mountain. All these characters together who have history, and that was just perfect! The Hound goes over to his brother and tells him how ugly he is, and that he’s eventually going to kill him. (Cleganebowl hype!!) Unfortunately, that didn’t happen this episode, but I’m still holding out hope that it will happen.

They’re not happy that Daenerys isn’t there yet. She’s late. But then she flies in on Drogon, in complete epic style! She had Rhaegal with her too, which was stupid because now they’ll know she’s lost one dragon. Drogon intimidates them. She’s showing how powerful she is, and telling them not to cross her. That was epic!

Jon tells them why they’re meeting, which is the threat of the army of the dead. Cersei just rolls her eyes and doesn’t believe them. She thinks it’s all a joke. But then comes the proof. In comes The Hound single handedly carrying the crate. He opens it up and they're all watching. For a second I was worried that it was dead. I mean, dead dead. If that’s even possible? But it wasn’t. It was still undead and it runs out at Cersei.

I wasn’t sure how Cersei was going to take it. I didn’t think she’d be convinced. But when the wight ran at her, she genuinely looked scared. For the first time ever, she looked terrified. I’ve never seen her look like that before.

The Hound chops it in half and it still keeps moving, proving to them that they’re not easily killed. Qyburn picks up it’s hand and is fascinated by it. He’s intrigued with how it’s possible. This is his type of thing.

Jon shows them the ways to kill them. By burning them, and with dragonglass. It was like he was giving a presentation. How to kill wights 101 or something like that. But he did a really great job! Jaime seems to believe it, and thinks that they need to help. Euron, on the other hand, decides to run off back to the Iron Islands. The army of the dead can’t swim, so he'll be safe there. He is such a coward. Or is he?

Cersei accepts the truce, and agrees to help fight. Which was surprisingly easy, and I didn’t buy it. It wasn’t that easy, she wants Jon to stay in the North and not take sides. She believes in the word of Ned Stark’s son. Just like his father, he is honourable and keeps his word. Ned was stupid and made stupid decisions, and Cersei decides to take advantage of that.

Jon should have just agreed, but he’s Jon Snow so of course he doesn’t. He tells her that he has pledged his allegiance to Dany. You idiot Jon! They came all the way here to call a truce, and Jon ruins it by telling the truth. Cersei retracts her offer. The North will be attacked first after all, which is not her concern.

Brienne tries to get Jaime to see reason. To get Cersei to fight for them, but he says he can’t because of loyalty. Well, Brienne tell shim to fuck loyalty. This is about life and death.

“We’re fucked.”

It's obvious that Dany was grateful for Jon pledging his allegiance to him, but he was so fucking stupid for saying it to Cersei. They’re frustrated that he can't just learn how to lie. But Jon, being the honourable person he is, says he can’t swear an oath he can’t keep. He can’t pledge his allegiance to two queens. He can't lie. It's not who he is. Yeah, and telling the truth is what got Ned killed. Please don’t make the same mistakes that he did. I know that your heart is pure and you’re one of the most honest people in the world, but you could you not be sometimes? Please.

Tyrion decides to go talk to his sister. Jaime says his goodbyes, because he knows that she will probably kill him. But the meeting actually goes reasonably well actually. Well, Cersei does tell him that he killed her children. It’s true that because he killed their father, they ended up getting killed. If Tywin were still alive, none of it would have happened. But he loved Myrcella and Tommen. Cersei knows he did. Tyrion tells her that he doesn’t hate their family, and that he advised Dany against attacking King’s Landing. But still Cersei hates him, and she almost gives the Mountain the order to kill him, but she can’t do it.

She softens. Possibly the first time we’ve ever seen her so vulnerable. She says that when the wight was charging at her, all she cared about was protecting her family. Tryion figures out she’s pregnant. Maybe Tryion got though to her, or maybe it's the pregnancy hormones (if she even is really pregnant because I'm not completely convinced).

“You’re not like everyone else.”

Jon and Dany have a conversation about how the dragons used to be locked in the Dragonpit and wouldn’t grow because of being confined in a small space. There is this tiny dragon skull on the ground. They didn't grow very much at all, which saddens Dany. She can’t imagine locking her children up like that. Because of being confined, the dragons eventually all wasted away and the Targaryen’s became like everyone else. But Jon tells her she’s different.

Then once again, Dany brings up that she can’t have children. Jon asks her who told her that. And she says, “The witch who murdered my husband.” And then Jon asks her if she's sure they were telling the truth. Very smooth pick up line Jon. He was basically asking her to try to get pregnant. With him.

Tyrion returns and it appears that him talking to Cersei changed her mind. She comes and says that she will fight alongside them. She will send her armies north to help fight. That seemed…. surprisingly easy. Did she really agree to to it that easily? Has being pregnant made her change that much? Well, not quite.

Meanwhile in Winterfell, Littlefinger is still trying to manipulate Sansa. She’s annoyed that Jon pledged his allegiance to Daenerys without telling her. And Littlefinger suspects that he wants to marry her. Well, he’s not wrong. They would be incredibly powerful together. He suggests that Jon could be unnamed King, and Sansa seems to consider it. But she says that Arya would probably try to kill her if she did that. Jon was always her favourite sibling. And she’s a Faceless Man now.

He then goes on to tell her that he plays a little game when trying to figure out someone. He assumes the worst of everyone. He tells her to apply that to Arya. The worst that she could do is murder Sansa and become Lady of Winterfell. There is no fucking way that Sansa was buying that. Arya has said countless times that she is not, nor does she ever want to be, a lady. But Sansa looks freaked out, and Littlefinger thinks he’s won. Oh boy, he has no idea whats coming. From that conversation it was obvious that Sansa was up to something.

Sansa asks for her sister to be bought to the Great Hall. Sansa and Bran sit at the table, while the other Lords watch as Arya is brought in. Littlefinger has a smirk on his face, This is exactly what he wanted. And just when I thought the Stark sisters were possibly going to destroy each other, Sansa said the greatest thing possible.

“You stand accused of murder. You stand accused of treason. How do you answer these charges... Lord Baelish.”

And she glances over at him. YES!!!! It was all their plan! The fighting, the pretending to be against each other. It was all a ploy. They wanted Littlefinger to think that his plan had worked. That he had turned them against each other! But the Stark's know what they’re doing. He is so fucking shocked! His face! Sansa accuses him of murdering their Aunt Lysa, and get getting their father murdered. He tries to deny it, saying they have no porrof. But nope, Bran sees everything. He saw what Littlefinger did. That's all the proof they need. So, I guess Bran told Sansa and Arya everything off screen and they came up with this plan?

Littlefinger then gets on his knees and begs Sansa. That is a sight I never thought I’d see. Petyr Baelish on his knees begging. Begging for his life. He speaks directly to Sansa, and says he loved her mother, and he loves her. But Sansa retorts and says he turned their mother and Lysa against each other, and tried to do the same thing to Sansa and Arya.

Then Arya comes and slashes his throat, with the Valyrian steel dagger. FUCK YES!!! Littlefinger is finally dead!! That scene was so satisfying!!! Yes!! I am so happy that Sansa came to her senses. It seemed like she was continually being manipulated by him and didn’t realise. But fuck yes! That Valyrian steel dagger is what started a whole lot of events back in S1. It was the dagger that almost killed Bran. It’s the reason that Catelyn captured Tyrion. And it was Littlefinger’s all along. What a poetic and satisfying end for his character. Littlefinger always used words to manipulate people, and even when his throat had been slit, he was still trying to talk his way out of fit.

The Arya/Sansa dynamic has been annoying me a bit the last few episodes, but this pay off was definitely worth it! I am so happy with the way they worked together to end Littlefinger.

Jon, Dany and co arrived back at Draonstone. I’m not that mad about the travel times, because Dragonstone is actually quite close to King’s Landing. It wouldn’t take too long to get back there. They discuss a strategy, and Dany agrees that it would be best for her to travel with Jon to Winterfell. Yeah, or she just wants to be close to Jon on a boat…

“You’re a Greyjoy, and you’re a Stark.”

We got a great scene between Jon and Theon. They grew up together. They both grew up as Stark’s, even though neither of them were. Ned was a father to both of them. And Theon betrayed them. It’s no secret that Jon doesn’t like him. But Theon basically bares his soul and apologises for all the things he’s done. He regrets so much. It pains me to see him like this. Yes, he’s done horrible things, but everybody makes mistakes. And he’s been through so much torture and so much pain. Jon forgives him for what he can, and tells him he will always be a Stark and a Greyjoy. His words give Theon the push he needs to go save his sister.

Those words could also be applied to Jon. Although he doesn’t know yet, he is both a Stark and a Targaryen.

Theon approaches the Greyjoy men, the ones who survived Euron’s attack, which isn’t many. He gives a speech, asking them to come help him save Yara. But they call him a coward for leaving her behind. They blame him for her getting captured. The main guy proceeds to beat him up. Theon isn’t very strong. After all the shit he’s been through, he’s become so weak. But he tries to fight back. Oh he tries. And then the guy kicks him between his legs, and he feels nothing. That was hilarious!! That's usually a mans weakness, but not for a eunuch. That gives him the upper hand and he beats the guy to death and rallies the rest of his men to go save his sister. Now it seems that Reek is completely dead, and Theon has been reborn. Finally!

Back in King’s Landing, Jaime has started calling their soldiers and sending them North. Cersei comes and accuses him of treason. Jaime is confused. She says he is stupid for believing she’d send their armies to fight for their enemies. I knew that her agreeing was too easy. But fuck this?? She’s not not even telling her brother these things now. Jaime knows that that’s the stupidest idea ever because they are betraying so many people. He is so fucking done with her. I can tell.

Oh, and she sent Euron to the Iron Bank. She's purchased the Golden Company, a huge army of sellswords. So Euron didn’t just run, he was in on Cersei’s plan.

Jaime does not agree with her at all. Cersei accuses him of treason again. Then she gives The Mountain the order to kill him. For a second I was so scared that Jaime was going to die. I legit thought he would. The finale hadn’t had much death yet and I legit thought Jaime was going to die.

“No one walks away from me.”

But Jaime doesn’t believe her. He calls her bluff and walks away. Cersei now has no one. Except for unborn child, who I’m guessing won’t ever be born. She’s just lost the last piece of family she had left.

Jaime rides away. He’s leaving King’s Landing. He’s leaving Cersei. He’s finally going to be free of her! I am so happy for him! He’s been wanting to get away from her for a while now, and I'm so happy he now finally is!

Then it starts snowing in King’s Landing. It never snows this far south, so this is huge. Winter has come. Daenerys’ vision in S2 is starting to come true.

Back in Winterfell, Sam shows up! He says he came to help Jon fight the White Walkers and army of the dead. But of course, Jon is still not back. And I’m guessing he still probably doesn’t know what happened to his father and brother. It’s going to be a bit awkward when he meets Daenerys, considering she burnt them alive.

He went to see Bran. He members when Sam let him through the Wall. Bran seemed a little more like himself in that scene. Maybe as he gets better control of his powers, he becomes more like his old self. He gives the speech about how he’s the Three Eyed Raven and Sam just nods and acts like he understands. Bran tells him that Jon is coming home soon, with Daenerys. And Sam asks, “Did you see that in a vision?” And Bran holds up a scroll. Lol.

Then Bran reveals to Sam that Jon’s parents are Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, and he was born in Dorne, meaning his name should be Jon Sand. And then Sam suddenly does remember what Gilly told him a few episodes ago. That prince ‘Ragger’ had his marriage annulled and married someone else in Dorne. Bran, who supposedly knows everything, had no idea. I guess that maybe he has all the information in his head, but he just can’t access it all at the same time. So he needs some sort of key words or something and can then conjure up a flashback maybe?

He sees a flashback of Rhaegar and Lyanna getting married. The first time we’ve seen Rhaegar (who legit looks exactly like Viserys) on the show. I actually had chills during this scene. It was so short, but so beautiful and so satisfying to actually get confirmation of all this. Bran pieces it all together. He remembers that Lyanna told Ned that Jon’s real name is Aegon Targaryen!! Aegon (eighth of his name I believe) is Jon’s real name!

“Robert’s Rebellion was built on a lie.”

Rhaegar didn’t kidnap or rape Lyanna, he loved her and she loved him. Lyanna’s supposed kidnapping is what started all the events that led up to Robert’s Rebellion. Jon was never a bastard. He is the rightful heir to the Iron Throne. I was bawling my eyes out that this point. the Tower of Joy last season was so satisfying and this just added onto that. The truth its out there now. Jon just needs to know.

While Bran was piecing this all together, it flashed to the boat. Jon goes to Dany’s cabin, closes the door, and they have sex. Which was hot, don’t get me wrong. But Tyrion was listening, which was a little creepy. (And was Jorah on the boat too?? That’s a bit rude if he was. #friendzoned) And it was happening as Bran was narrating the truth about Jon. While he was telling us that they are definitely related, they were having sex, which was a bit of a turn off. But, Kit Harington’s butt right? And with all the talk about Dany not being able to get pregnant, I’m guessing that next season she will be pregnant with Jon’s baby.

“The lone wolf dies but the pack survives.”

Back at Winterfell Arya and Sansa have a nice chat, bonding over taking Littlefinger down. And they talk about their father. They were really getting along. Plus there was some sisterly teasing. That scene made me smile. I was worried that they really were turning against each other. But they’re on good terms now. That was a great way for them to end the season. Now we just need Jon to come back and reunite with Arya (which will be the most emotional reunion) and all the Stark’s will be back together!

Then the final scene of the season. Bran is warging into some ravens, as he does. We see Eastwatch. Tormund and Beric are there, and they see some White Walkers and army of the dead show up. And then along comes the Night King riding on an undead Viserion, and he breathes out blue fire (or ice-fire? not sure exactly how that works?). AND HE DESTROYS THE WALL!! Well, part of it. Eastwatch is basically destroyed. But, we didn’t see Tormund die, so I believe he’s still alive. He still needs to make babies with Brienne. He can’t die before he’s achieved that.

That ending was epic! I guessed it, because I knew that would be an incredible way to end penultimate season. The visuals, and just the scope of the ending scene were incredible. The last shot of the army of the dead heading south led by the Night King on a dragon was breathtaking and terrifying.

Amazing end to the season! Personally, I loved the whole season. Sure, it was very fast paced and the travelling times didn’t really make sense. But I’d prefer this than episodes of characters just travelling. And this is a fantasy show, of course it’s not going to be entirely realistic. So much happened on each episode, and it was overall an incredible season. I can’t believe there are only 6 episodes left, and we might have to wait 2 years to see it. I’m on such a high from this seson. So damn much happened, and honestly I probably need a year (or two) to process it all anyway. And I can always rewatch the show, and hope the next book comes out before then. This season has been a wild ride.

So, I have a few questions. Where was Gendry? He wasn't in King’s Landing, and we didn’t see him at Eastwatch. He only just came back so he better not be dead.

I wonder how Edd is going at Castle Black? Only the Wall at Eastwatch seemed to be destroyed, so hopefully Edd has everything under control at his end.

Where is Ghost? We haven’t seen him all season. I know it’s mainly because of budget reasons, but it still would have been nice to see him at least once. Or even get a mention of him. It seems that Jon just completely forgot about him.

Jon’s real name is Aegon, but Rhaegar had a son with Elia named Aegon. It seems a bit odd to have two sons with the same name. But, I guess Jon was born after Rhaegar, Elia and their kids were killed. So maybe Lyanna wanted to pass on the name?? I’m not sure. Or, I guess because Young Griff (fake Aegon Targaryen) in the books is not in the TV show they wanted to include the name somehow.

I’m still a bit conflicted about Jon and Dany’s relationship. They have undeniable chemistry, and that boat sex was hot. But I wish would see more of them getting closer. So far they’ve just been staring longingly at each other, and only talk about alliances and war. I want to see them actually talk and get to know each other. I think that’s why it’s lacking a bit for me. They have so much that they could talk about.

They are both actually quite similar. They both started with nothing, and look where they are now. Jon grew up as a bastard and is now the King in the North. Daenerys was sold off to the Dothraki by her brother, and now she has three dragons and a huge army. They both lost their first loves in tragic ways. Jon lost Ygritte, and hasn’t been with anyone else since. Dany lost Drogo, and hasn’t loved anyone else since. There was Daario, but we all know she never loved him. He was just a comfort for her. Someone who took a liking to her. I wish they would talk to each other about their first loves.

Jon didn’t want to open his heart to anyone after Ygritte died, but now he has allowed himself to fall in love again. That is huge for him. I know Jon is not one to talk about his feelings, but I wish he would feel comfortable enough to. And, Ygritte was kissed by fire because of her red hair, and Dany literally has fire within her.

Same with Dany. After Drogo, her sun and stars, died, she’s been reluctant to open her heart to anyone else. But now she has to Jon.

My point being, they’ve both only ever been in love once, and now the second time they truly fall in love is with each other.

Dany is definitely going to get pregnant. There have been so many hints that she will. The witch told her only death can pay for life. Now that one of her dragons has died, maybe she can have a baby. How are they going to act when they find out they’re related? It’ll be a bit awkward. I don’t think Dany will have much of a problem with it, considering she is a product of incest herself. But Jon might be a bit grossed out.

Some predictions for next season:

Now that the White Walkers and army of the dead can get through the Wall, they are first going to attack the north. With the way time has been going, they’re going to arrive at Winterfell fairly soon, I hope they’re ready to fight. They were training everyone right? Lyanna Mormont is going to be a hero I bet.

Theon is going to save Yara, and hopefully kill Euron.

Jon will ride Rhaegal.

Cleganebowl will happen. It’s got to happen right? They were just teasing us this episode.

Jaime will kill Cersei. Or, one of my favourite theories, Arya will kill Cersei wearing Jaime’s face. Either way, Cersei will die.

The Iron Throne will be destroyed, and there will no one on the throne. I think the show will end with a whole new democracy. Kings, Queens, succession, highborn, lowborn etc. None of that will matter. It will be a whole new and better world. That’s how I think the show will end.

This whole mess could have been prevented if Rhaegar and Lyanna just told people that they were in love. Robert’s Rebellion never would have happened if they'd just told everyone the truth. The war started because of Rhaegar and Lyanna. Jon, their son, and Daenerys, Rhaegar’s sister, are going to end it. Which will be poetic end.

What an episode and what a season! Now for the dreaded long hiatus.

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therevolutionhasbegun · 7 years

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'The Queen's Justice' Reaction Post

Okay so this is way, way, WAY late, but I just did not have any inspiration for writing last week, at all. Now I'm sitting here, bored, at work, and the motivation to type this up has finally hit me. So, why not? XD

I'm sure everyone who wanted to see this episode has already seen it by now, but I'm still gonna put the bulk of this post under the cut anyways cause it will be long, I'm sure.

1. Davos/Missandei/Naath Davos, Missandei was born in Naath, but never actually lived there because of being sold into slavery *rolls eyes at his lack of tact*

2. Tyrion thinks of Sansa I thought it was really sweet how Tyrion still cares about Sansa enough to inquire about her well-being and to admire her intelligence and inner strength

3. I Wonder if the Dragons Recognized Jon This sounds kind of silly, but I am genuinely curious if Daenerys's dragons will recognize the Targaryen blood in him

4. Varys/Melisandre I really didn't understand their exchange at all, and after watching this episode about three more times, I still don't. What was up with Varys's animosity towards Melisandre? He barely knows her, right? Unless his birds are still whispering things to him. I hope we find out eventually what that side conversation was all about, because it sure went over my head, completely.

5. Jon/Daenerys I was very, very impressed with the interactions between Jon and Daenerys. It panned out exactly how I expected it to be: Neither exactly trusting one another yet willing to work together somewhat amicably to resolve their individual problems. I was hoping that they wouldn't be best buds right away, but not clawing at each other's throats either. D&D did a good job with this one, and of course the actors as well. Now I'm just a little irritated with Jon for not bending the knee--Dany very willingly and generously worked with him to mine the dragon glass. Why can't he compromise and give her what she wants in return? I'm sure she has already proven to him that she is not going to be an evil, crazy dictator like Cersei is. Yes, she wants the North to be within her power too, but I think that is only reasonable...meanwhile I am sure she would still allow Jon and the other northerners a reasonable amount of free reign on what they do and how they live.

6. Theon I'm relieved Theon is alive. I was wondering where he was going to end up. Of course, I now know after seeing the most recent episode, so there is really no point in typing out my original theories.

7. Cersei/Ellaria/Tyene I had been waiting with sick anticipation to see what exactly Cersei was going to do with Ellaria and Tyene. I was suspecting some type of torture/death/imprisonment, and I was not disappointed. I would have never guess that Cersei would ultimately kill Tyene the way Ellaria killed Myrcella, but I thought it was ingeniously clever. Of course my heart goes out to both of the Sands --- especially Ellaria --- but I still admire Cersei's scheming in a dark and twisted way. I kept hearing that Euron was going to be comparable to Ramsay this season, but so far, I ultimately think Cersei has been worse than Euron, and I am loving every single minute of it.

8. Jaime/Cersei It was nice to see, in the middle of a dramatic and emotional episode, a moment of intimacy, even if it was that of incest. We don't often get to see tenderness between the siblings anymore, and it was a nice change of pace.

9. Sansa/Littlefinger In general, I am pissed off whenever Littlefinger tries to talk to Sansa, because I know he is trying to manipulate her. So far, she has shut him down every single time, which makes me feel extremely relieved. However, the advice that he gave Sansa this episode actually makes a shred of sense and isn't sinister or ulterior-motive-like in any way. It is incredibly smart to view every situation from all possible perspectives and angles and plan accordingly. It's called keeping an open mind. There is a fine line though --- don't become so paranoid that you are a detriment to yourself. But so far, Sansa has proven to be extremely level-headed and logical. I'm both pleased and proud. :)

10. Sansa/Bran Bran was infuriating in this episode. I was so happy to see him back at Winterfell and reunited with Sansa (although I was hoping for Arya instead), but he was so emotionless that it was really disappointing. Of course, we now know why he is the way he is. But there was still no excusing him from bringing up Sansa's horrifying rape --- of all nights he could have mentioned, he landed on that one. My heart went out to Sansa in that scene.

11. Olenna Tyrell Saving the best moment of the episode for last, of course. Although I'm sad to see such a valuable and well-liked character leave, her exit scene was amazing. Olenna always made sure she had the last word, and her death was no different. I certainly felt bad for Jaime -- I feel like his character has become more and more emotionally fragile as the series has progressed, and Joffrey's crimes were not his fault. But Olenna showing the Lannisters up, particularly Cersei, was a beautiful moment, and definitely stole the show.

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i-just-like-commenting · 7 years

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Yes, the books were adaptable, part 2: Season 4 rewrite

Ideally, season 3 would have been 15 episodes long, to let them cover the remainder of A Storm of Swords, and season 4 another 15 episodes – but budgets and contracts being what they are, I can see using the Red Wedding as a finale.

What then becomes a problem is the scarcity of plot left in the book. My solution? Work as much of book 4 into this seasons as possible, from full plotlines to introducing characters ahead of time. This season will still, though, be more focused on character interactions because there is less plot, but that will be a breather before the plot-heavy next season (wherein we will cover most of books 4 and 5). I’m going to try to integrate this with the tone/prior changes of the show as much as possible, as well as reducing characters when it works. Spoilers for books 4 and 5 (and also lots of words) are under the jump:

Our first addition is incorporating the early stages of the Iron Islands arc. In the first episode, Yara makes her way down the coast; she passes a mysterious ship headed in the other direction. Back on the Iron Islands, Balon is fuming that his “rightful heir” is off on a fool’s errand (you might need some setup references to his two lousy brothers added to season 3). He gets killed by a reappearing Jaqen, and that mysterious ship roles into Pyke. It turns out it is Euron, who declares himself king. Younger brother Victarion protests on the basis of his “godlessness” (merging bits of Aeron into him to consolidate characters) and it looks as though the islands are heading to civil war. Yara gets the news and, frustrated, abandons her quest for Theon and returns to the islands. She calls for a kingsmoot to settle the dispute, and Victarion agrees. The arc ends the season with the kingsmoot, where Euron is declared king, Victarion joins him, and Yara flees to the North to find her brother.

Speaking of the Theon, Ramsay is playing hunting games with Reek until Roose shows up and puts a stop to all of this nonsense. Clearly Ramsay is not pleased about having his power taken away, but there isn’t anything he can do about it. Roose sends for “Arya” from King’s Landing to legitimate their power. We introduce a Jeyne character, who isn’t Jeyne from the book but can keep her name, as Tywin picks out a prostitute (excuse for a brothel scene!) to train to pretend to be her. As we see scenes of Roose and Ramsay trying to placate upset lords in the North, with some scenes of Theon’s abuse, we grow increasingly terrified for her, as she has no idea what she is getting into and thinks this is her chance to leave sex work and be “a real lady.”

Elsewhere in King’s Landing, Oberyn and Ellaria arrive…with Arianne, introducing her ahead of time to get our “in.” We add a romance with her and Bronn to give us more sexy times (and yes, he will be replacing Arys since the show already seems to not care about his actual story, and it was kinda problematic anyway). The Purple Wedding happens. Sansa escapes in the aftermath, and she and Tyrion are accused of conspiracy to murder.

Jaime and Brienne show up, at the right point in the story this time. Brienne is immediately arrested. Her arc will be extended by having Loras be on her side (since he didn’t believe she did it) and they can bond over memories of Renly, to give back story and character development. Jaime and Loras can also start their friendship over helping Brienne. Yes, this renders her somewhat passive for a season, but she’ll get more to do in season 5 than sitting around watching for a candle as a result.

Jaime and Cersei’s sept scene should be…disturbing and ambiguous enough in terms of consent to make audiences uncomfortable, but not violent rape. Jaime and Cersei’s relationship is strained both by his desire to reveal their relationship and by him helping Brienne. Jaime later rejecting leaving the kingsguard to get her out of being sent back to Casterly Rock, and siding and visiting with Tyrion doesn’t help Cersei’s mistrust either.

Oh, and we can include the scenes mentioned in the book of her offering a threesome and a marriage to Oberyn to get him to throw the trial. Instead Tyrion, helped by Bronn and Arianne, convinces him to be his champion. Shae is shown being threatened by Cersei and Tywin; once she sees the trial and realizes Tyrion is doomed no matter what she does, she asks for the protections he promised in exchange for betraying him.

As for Oberyn and Ellaria’s sexualities...sure, have a scene where someone is poking fun at Loras and Oberyn is all “I dunno, I’d tap that” to shut them up, or show them visiting a brothel to find their threesome but emphasize that (1) they’re a happy couple looking to spice up their sex life and (2) are also doing this as part of information hunting, hinting at Oberyn’s role as a spy. A cool sexy spy - but not screwing everything that moves.

Mountain vs the Viper should take place in episode 8. In the next episode, Shae refuses to sell out Sansa to Cersei, and her protections are revoked. She goes over Cersei’s head to Tywin. Jaime gets Brienne released, then visits Tyrion and lets him out; we keep the Tysha reveal and Tyrion’s response of telling Jaime about Cersei’s affair with Lancel. Tyrion kills Shae and Tywin, and this time the viewer knows Shae always loved him, only did this under duress, and we are so angry at Tyrion for killing her unjustly.

In the final episode, the twins find Tywin’s body. Jaime feels guilty, and he runs into Lancel, setting up hints of his jealousy. Cersei puts out price on Tyrion’s head, and foreshadows her prophecy, saying something like “I always knew he would betray me…I won’t let you take Tommen.” The full flashback can be next season.

Oh, it would also be good to hint heavily that Varys is Up To Something this season, getting and sending mysterious letters, to set up the reveal of Griff in the next season.

Sansa, after fleeing, is off to the Eyrie, where Littlefinger tries to turn her on Tyrion, and she recalls out loud the people who were good to her in King’s Landing: Tyrion, the Hound, and the Tyrells – not Littlefinger. “But who is helping you now?” he replies. Can she trust him or not? Tension!

He marries Lysa and they go the Eyrie. There, Sansa ably poses as Littlefinger’s daughter. She meets Robin and sees him have an epileptic fit, as well as his mother’s poor parenting. The snow castle scene and the kiss happen, and Lysa turning on her before being murdered. This arc ends with Sansa testifying that Lysa committed suicide and Robin saying she’s his mother now. (The show was actually pretty close on all of this, tbh.)

On Dragonstone, Stannis gets word of Balon and Joffrey’s deaths. Melisandre blames Davos for sending off Edric too early and tries to have him executed as a traitor. Stannis waffles, until Davos gets word from the Wall…

Up at the Wall, Sam is uncomfortable with Gilly telling stories of his defeat of the White Walker, but Jon is using the knowledge about dragonglass. Ygritte’s party attacks the Wall, she dies and it is sad. Jon has a wolf dream (see below) and it freaks him out. Gilly gets to exposit wildling knowledge on skinchangers, including the Second Life. Meanwhile there’s also rumblings in the Watch against the incestuous origin of her baby (”It’s cursed; maybe we should just let it die?”) The siege begins; Janos Slynt finally arrives from King’s Landing and Jon is betrayed and sent to the wildlings. Stannis shows up in episode 8 or 9 (depending on how full these episodes are). This arc ends with Jon being appointed Lord Commander by Sam’s political maneuvering.

Beyond the Wall, we’ll take the show’s idea of Bran running into the deserters at Craster’s Keep, but it will be Coldhands (who can be Benjen to save an actor, fine, whatever) and supernatural forces that slay them, not Jon. Bran will have a wolf dream where he reaches out to Jon and awakens his powers. Ends with Bran and the group battling the wights and making it into the caverns where they meet the Three-Eyed Raven.

Over in Slaver’s Bay, Dany will start moving towards Meereen. Backstory about Aerys and Rhaegar get provided by Barristan (which will reinforce Oberyn’s revenge motive). She eventually reaches Meereen. We can include the champion combat from the book as her initial idea, with Grey Worm filling in for Strong Belwas, only the Meereenese back down after he wins. Yeah, it’s padding, but we need it, there’s not much plot left. Dany gets a message from inside that the slaves are ready to revolt if she attacks in such-and-such a way, and she does, and Meereen falls.

In all of this, Jorah is being super jealous of Daario and it is grating; his pure good guy status slowly erodes as his love becomes obsession. Inside Meereen, a red priestess gives Dany the biggest points of her prophecies from Quaithe and the House of the Undying (betrayed three times, mummer’s dragon, must go back to go forward). When she pieces together from Barristan’s story about an informant that Jorah betrayed her, she concludes he’s betrayal #2 and sends him away. Dany decides to stay and rule Meereen.

In the Riverlands, we have two plotlines. The first is Arya and the Hound. In the book, they head towards the Eyrie and stop at a village on the way. Here we will condense that into the Quiet Isle, to introduce them early and give some foreshadowing. They will be hosting refugees, letting us see more of the devastation from the war. The sparrows will make an early appearance visiting the Isle and declaring that they intend to take the complaints of the commoners to the capital. One of them recognizes the Hound, so he and Arya skedaddle.

Meanwhile Gendry is still hanging out with the Brotherhood, with more scenes of war devastation. In the very first episode, Beric and Thoros find an unidentified body by the river, and Beric gives up his life, freaking out Thoros. Said resurrected figure, the mysterious Lady Stoneheart, remains hidden in a cloak most of the season. Walder Frey sends out men, including some sellswords based on the Bloody Mummers, and Locke, to take out the Brotherhood, and sends Edmure as a hostage to try to retake Riverrun. Sandor gets injured when they get caught up in a fight with said Freys (featuring an audience-teasing almost-meet between Arya and Gendry), then Arya leaves the Hound for dead and heads off to Braavos. The final scene will be Locke apprehended by the Brotherhood and sentenced to die…and the final shot of the season reveals the identity of Lady Stoneheart - Catelyn Stark.

This may get talky in some places, but I think with enough good dialog you could get ten episodes’ worth of material. Keeping the Brotherhood can give you extra battle sequences as they fight Frey mooks; Craster’s Keep gives us supernatural action; and of course we get big twists and shockers for our final episodes the way the show likes.

#asoiaf meta #a song of ice and fire #game of thrones #the books were adaptable

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castaliareed · 6 years

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Traitor’s Seed: Revelations in Sansa IV and Jon VII of A Game of Thrones

I’ve never seen this particular foreshadowing/paralleling discussed before. Of course, that doesn't mean it hasn’t been written about. If you know of other posts that talk about these two chapters link me! Would love to read other thoughts.

Here it goes...

Over the past few months, I’ve been re-reading very slowly A Game of Thrones. My first thought is that yes the book does hold up on re-read. There are beautiful moments that the book reveals on the second read. There are secrets and foreshadowing as well. And then there are the surprises. One of those surprises was Sansa IV and Jon VII. One of the strongest instances of Jonsa foreshadowing, I’ve seen so early in the books. The similarities are mindblowing.

These chapters follow each other. They are bookended by Arya IV and Bran VI. All four of these chapters follow Ned XIV, the chapter where Ned is betrayed in the throne room. To review the order of chapters when reading them is Ned XIV, Arya IV, Sansa IV, Jon VII, and Bran VI.

There is a story being told in how the story is told. The order of the POV chapters, the structure of them and how they relate to the ones before can tell us much about the author’s intentions. The order of events as we read them is Ned is betrayed, Arya escapes and Syrio dies, Sansa meets with Cersei and writes the letters, Jon brings back the dead men, hears of Ned’s imprisonment, and kills a wright, Bran watches as Robb prepares to leave Winterfell and talks with Osha in the Godswood.

The story moves along chronologically for the most part until the last two books. However, it is not exact. For reference, this Reddit user made a great Timeline. This really helps when trying to understand how the last two books relate.

The Reddit timeline tells us that Sansa IV and Jon VII happen about a week and half between each other. In between Sansa IV and Jon VII the earlier events of Jon V and Jon VI happen. Plus, an event that is mentioned in Bran VI happens before Jon VII. Both, Jon V and VI are placed before we read about Ned’s betrayal. This tells us that the order Ned, Arya, Sansa, Jon, Bran is much more important than exact chronology.

Essentially, these chapters show us Ned’s children dealing with the repercussions of his imprisonment for treason. Each chapter foreshadows the future path of the children. Arya is on the run and also will find herself in Braavos where Syrio was from. Sansa will be tied to Littlefinger who is in this chapter. She will also learn to play the political game that Cersei plays with her. Jon will be both on the political side and part of the fight against the dead. Bran finds himself at a weirwood with Osha and Hodor.

What stood out and pushed me to investigate further were the similarities between Sansa IV and Jon VII. I really recommend going back and reading these two chapters together at the minimum. On the surface, they seem very different. Sansa is locked in her room in King’s Landing. Then taken to see Cersei and forced to write letters begging her family to bend the knee. Jon helps bring back the dead brothers Ghost found on the other side of the Wall. When he returns, a letter from King’s Landing arrived with news of Ned’s imprisonment, later he destroys the wight that tries to attack Lord Mormont. Nothing similar on the surface. No, the similarities are in the details. Once you see them….well you won’t really be the same...

All quotes come from either Sansa IV or Jon VII in the first book of ASOIAF, A Game of Thrones. Sansa’s quotes are listed first, Jon’s come second. The order of the quotes as they appear in each chapter is not exact from beginning to end. The order and flow of the two chapters are very similar. However, a few themes appear repeatedly and I tried to pull the best quotes for each theme.

Dead Bodies

First, they both are seeing or dealing with dead bodies at the beginning of the chapter.

“When Sansa peered down, she saw a body impaled on the huge iron spikes below. She averted her eyes quickly, afraid to ask, afraid to look too long, afraid he might be someone she knew.”

“‘Othor," announced Ser Jaremy Rykker, "beyond a doubt. And this one was Jafer Flowers." He turned the corpse over with his foot, and the dead white face stared up at the overcast sky with blue, blue eyes. "They were Ben Stark's men, both of them."

My uncle's men, Jon thought numbly. He remembered how he'd pleaded to ride with them. Gods, I was such a green boy. If he had taken me, it might be me lying here …”

Take a Seat

They are both told to sit down by the people telling them what has happened. Cersei tells Sansa and Lord Mormont tells Jon. Their reactions to hearing that their father is a traitor

"No," Sansa blurted. "He wouldn't do that. He wouldn't!"

"No," Jon said at once. "That couldn't be. My father would never betray the king!"

Of course ,they would say the same thing. They are Ned’s children through and through. We could assume this was the reaction Arya and Bran would have as well. They both go on to insist that the King was Ned’s friend, to say their must be a mistake or a lie.

Traitor’s Seed

They are both referred to as the child of a traitor by other’s. This is told to their faces.

‘"A child born of traitor's seed will find that betrayal comes naturally to her," said Grand Maester Pycelle. "She is a sweet thing now, but in ten years, who can say what treasons she may hatch?"’ -

“And then he heard the laughter, sharp and cruel as a whip, and the voice of Ser Alliser Thorne. "Not only a bastard, but a traitor's bastard," he was telling the men around him.”

**Bonus foreshadowing in the above Sansa quote. In ten years, she will be hatching all kinds of political schemes. Had GRRM included the orginially planned 5 year time hop between book 3 and 4, we would get Sansa hatching plans in perhaps 8-10 years time of this quote. While, we don’t know in the books what kind of political schemes she’ll get up to, we can assume that they aren’t so different from the show.**

Doubts and Confusion

Sansa displays confusion. She wants to speak to her father and she is still a young girl dreaming of marrying a Prince.

“"Please, Your Grace, there's been a mistake." Sudden panic made her dizzy and faint. "Please, send for my father, he'll tell you, he would never write such a letter, the king was his friend."”

A two paragraphs later.

“"But I love him," Sansa wailed, confused and frightened. What did they mean to do to her? What had they done to her father? It was not supposed to happen this way. She had to wed Joffrey, they were betrothed, he was promised to her, she had even dreamed about it. It wasn't fair to take him away from her on account of whatever her father might have done.”

Jon has less confusion and more doubt.

"But it's a lie," Jon insisted. How could they think his father was a traitor, had they all gone mad? Lord Eddard Stark would never dishonor himself … would he?

He fathered a bastard, a small voice whispered inside him. Where was the honor in that? And your mother, what of her? He will not even speak her name.”

Letters

Everyone, thanks to season 7, remembers that Sansa had to write letters asking her mother and Robb to bend the knee to Joffrey. How many remember that Jon too was asked to help write a letter following Ned’s imprisonment?

“"I'll … I'll write the letters," Sansa told them.”

Often what is missed in the Sansa chapter, is how she believes that she can help her father. She thinks he might even be exiled and later she could persuade Joffrey to bring him back. Oh, innocent Sansa.

Jon too is concerned about what will happen to Ned. He knows there is a precedent for men accused of treason redeeming themselves at the Wall.

While it would save Ned’s life. Lord Mormont sees an opportunity to have a High Lord at the Wall.

“"As to that, I cannot say, lad. I mean to send a letter. I knew some of the king's councillors in my youth. Old Pycelle, Lord Stannis, Ser Barristan … Whatever your father has done, or hasn't done, he is a great lord. He must be allowed to take the black and join us here. Gods knows, we need men of Lord Eddard's ability."?

Then a few paragraphs later….

"Your duty is here now," the Lord Commander reminded him. "Your old life ended when you took the black." His bird made a raucous echo. "Black." Mormont took no notice. "Whatever they do in King's Landing is none of our concern." When Jon did not answer, the old man finished his wine and said, "You're free to go. I'll have no further need of you today. On the morrow you can help me write that letter."

Writing these letters are both framed to Jon and Sansa as ways to save Ned’s life. Which they both want to do. Except what they are really doing is being used to suite others agendas.

Conflicting Loyalties and new families

Cersei tells Sansa she loves her like a daughter. She tells her that Joffrey loves her.

The queen smiled. "I think of you almost as my own daughter. And I know the love you bear for Joffrey." She gave a weary shake of her head.

Jon is comforted by Sam and thinks that his Night’s Watches brothers are as much his brothers as Robb, Bran and Rickon.

“The weirwoods were beyond the Wall, yet he knew Sam meant what he said. They are my brothers, he thought. As much as Robb and Bran and Rickon …”

Sansa’s conflicted loyalty is much clearer to the average fan. And seen by fans as much more problematic. The Lannister’s are the direct enemies of the Starks. Jon’s view that the Night’s Watch is his family will eventually be just as problematic for Jon. Because the Night’s Watch is not in conflict with the Starks there is not the same tension. Though, Jon is just as prevented from joining Robb as Sansa is.

Confinement

Sansa was confined first with Jeyne Poole then by herself. She is kept in a room at the high tower of Maegar’s Holdfast.

“So she went to the queen instead, and poured out her heart, and Cersei had listened and thanked her sweetly … only then Ser Arys had escorted her to the high room in Maegor's Holdfast and posted guards, and a few hours later, the fighting had begun outside.“

Jon acts out after Alister Thorne calls him a traitor’s bastard and tries to pull a dagger on Thorne. This gets him punished and confined to his cell in the Lord Commander’s Tower

“They took his knife and his sword and told him he was not to leave his cell until the high officers met to decide what was to be done with him. And then they placed a guard outside his door to make certain he obeyed. His friends were not allowed to see him, but the Old Bear did relent and permit him Ghost, so he was not utterly alone.”

Stories and Heroes, Fires and the Dead

Sansa’s chapter ends with her back in the room in the high tower of Maegor’s Holdfast. Jeyne Poole is no longer in the room. Sansa is both relieved to be alone and feels colder. She builds a fire pulls down her story books and reads about Florian and Jonquil, Lady Shella and the Rainbow Knight, and of course of Prince Aemon.

“Yet somehow it seemed colder with Jeyne gone, even after she'd built a fire.She pulled a chair close to the hearth, took down one of her favorite books, and lost herself in the stories of Florian and Jonquil, of Lady Shella and the Rainbow Knight, of valiant Prince Aemon and his doomed love for his brother's queen.”

Now that could be the last line of the chapter. However, not to be too obvious we get a bit of information that relates to the previous Arya chapter. Sansa remembers that she did not ask about Arya.

As we are left to feel conflicted about Sansa retreating into her stories and forgetting about her sister. We get Jon’s POV. By the end of his POV, the politics are over. One of the dead men they brought back at the beginning of the chapter comes back to live or is undead and tries to attack Lord Mormont. He kills the guard at Jon’s door leaving Jon free to go and save Lord Mormont. He destroys the wight by tossing burning drapes on them.

First Jon wakes and is cold.

“Yet he was trembling, violently. When had it gotten so cold?”

Then when he goes to investigate and finds the wight he uses the fire.

Spinning, Jon saw the drapes he'd ripped from the window. He flung the lamp into the puddled cloth with both hands. Metal crunched, glass shattered, oil spewed, and the hangings went up in a great whoosh of flame. The heat of it on his face was sweeter than any kiss Jon had ever known. "Ghost!" he shouted.”

Sansa sits by a fire to read her stories one of them being Prince Aemon who loved his sister Queen Nerys. In the next chapter, Jon literally becomes one of those heroes and uses fire to kill a monster.

Bonus thought: ‘sweeter than any kiss Jon had ever known.’ who’s been kissing Jon? That’s a very romantic way to view a near-death experience, Jon Snow.

Much has been talked about Sansa in later books wishing for a hero and believing they are no heroes. Then unbeknownst to her, Jon does something that would make him her hero (e.g. Kill Janos Slynt). Most of their mirroring and parallels are believed to come to the forefront in later books. This is the first time, I realized that it happened so early. Sansa reads her stories and in the next chapter, Jon is killing a monster as if it were right out of Sansa’s stories!!!! It’s an amazing touch.

These two chapters together could be viewed as highlighting their familial connection. They are bookended by Arya’s and Bran’s chapters which are... well... different. The same things just don’t happen to them. While, I think all four chapters relate and flow beautifully together from Sansa remembering she did not ask about Arya, to Jon thinking about both girls and his brothers, Jon’s first run-in with a wight to Bran watching Robb march out and Osha telling him they are marching the wrong way. That they need to be going North to fight the dead.

The Jon and Sansa chapters stick out beyond the familial. They are just so so very similar with the exception of Jon fighting the wright. Even that difference relates back to Sansa’s chapter and her stories. Not only that, these chapters are placed in the middle of the four, grounding the family. Suggesting they will be central to the future of this family. What does this mean? Is it one of the earliest examples of Jonsa foreshadowing? Sure we have “Sansa was radiant” and Sansa’s comment about Jon being jealous. While those are hints and when paired with later foreshadowing make the case for Jonsa. Those small comments looked at individually could be explained away. You can’t explain away two whole chapters structured like this. There is a belief amongst some fans that JonSa did not start to really develop until the end of the second or beginning of the third book. That GRRM planted most of the foreshadowing seeds later. That in the first book perhaps he was still unsure of whether or not Jon and Sansa would be anything more than distant siblings. These two chapters suggest that is not the case. That the seeds were being planted from the beginning. That no matter the many leagues between, no matter the lack of interaction on the page, strip away all that, these two Starklings are sharing the same story.

#jonsa meta #jonxsansa meta #jonxsansa #this meta took longer than i thought #jon snow #sansa stark #a game of thrones #a game of thrones meta #asoiaf meta #jon vii agot #sansa iv agot

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