#hardhome

[racefortheironthrone]

any thoughts on hardhome's destruction? Could it have been a volcanic eruption? valyrians?

I think a volcanic eruption. No, I don't think Valyrians were involved.

#asoiaf #asoiaf meta #hardhome

[goodqueenaly]

@nobodysuspectsthebutterfly wrote about this a few years ago, but I love the idea so much that I just wanted to write my own take on it - that is, the idea of Daenerys freeing the women and children of Hardhome forcibly captured by Lyseni slavers.

For context, here’s Arya’s description of the situation from AFFC:

"I know where the slaves came from. They were wildlings from Westeros, from a place called Hardhome. An old ruined place, accursed." Old Nan had told her tales of Hardhome, back at Winterfell when she had still been Arya Stark. "After the big battle where the King-Beyond-the-Wall was killed, the wildlings ran away, and this woods witch said that if they went to Hardhome, ships would come and carry them away to someplace warm. But no ships came, except these two Lyseni pirates, Goodheart and Elephant, that had been driven north by a storm. They dropped anchor off Hardhome to make repairs, and saw the wildlings, but there were thousands and they didn't have room for all of them, so they said they'd just take the women and the children. The wildlings had nothing to eat, so the men sent out their wives and daughters, but as soon as the ships were out to sea, the Lyseni drove them below and roped them up. They meant to sell them all in Lys. Only then they ran into another storm and the ships were parted. The Goodheart was so damaged her captain had no choice but to put in here, but the Elephant may have made it back to Lys.[”]

Now, while Arya says it is possible the Elephant returned to Lys with its enslaved cargo, I have my doubts. Any ship sailing from Hardhome (or, indeed, virtually any Westerosi port on its east coast) to Lys has to pass through the Stepstones - a chancy prospect in normal times, given the islands’ usual designation as the favorite hideout of pirates and corsairs, preying on that same trade route, but made even more dangerous in late AFFC/ADWD. One new player has joined the game in the Stepstones - Aurane Waters, formerly grand admiral under Cersei, now the self-styled “Lord of the Waters” in command of the dromonds Cersei had ordered built. With 10 professionally built warships under his command, Aurane could very easily establish himself as the dominant local power in the Stepstones, one which would not think twice about swallowing such a prize as a Lyesene slaver galley. (It’s also worth noting, of course, that Salladhor Saan may be in the area practicing piracy as well, although we’ve heard basically nothing of him since he dropped off Davos at Sweetsister, which makes speculating on his possible Stepstones activity far more difficult.)

In any event, Aurane’s fleet is dwarfed by a far larger navy currently to the east - that is, the Iron Fleet. Even battered by its long journey from the Shields to Meereen, the Iron Fleet remains a formidable naval presence. If Daenerys takes over this fleet to have her forces brought west as she begins the journey back to Westeros (and I don’t think that’s a far-fetched idea), then she and this fleet will have to go through those same Stepstones to get north to King’s Landing. Maybe Aurane voluntarily turns over the Elephant and its enslaved people to Daenerys, to curry favor in return for being named the new Lord of Driftmark (since he’s had quite a bit of practice trying to advance via well-placed women), or maybe Daenerys demands these women and children be freed; either way, I certainly don’t think Daenerys is simply going to ignore enslaved Westerosi women and children and not instead free them (again, presuming she comes across them).

I love this idea for the way that it combines Daenerys’ identities, both present and future. Daenerys has long been the Breaker of Chains, the liberator of enslaved people and stalwart enemy of slavery. I’ve believed for a long time, and continue to believe, that Daenerys’ fight against the chattel slavery of Slavers’ Bay and Essos more generally is not only important on its own (although it is) but also key as a prefigurement of her ultimate destiny - that is, to save Westeros from the Others, eldritch slavers bent on destroying and/or enslaving anything and everything we call life. Indeed, I very much believe that Daenerys will have to realize (I think in the aftermath of the jade holocaust of King’s Landing) that her fight is not only in the North, but one where she has to be both Breaker of Chains and Mother of Dragons, wielding her dragons to stop the Others.

So how fitting for Daenerys if the first Westerosi (beyond her small and largely individual advisers) she encounters would be northern women and children with intimate, harrowing experience of the Others, trying to escape this supernatural slavery only to be forced into chattel slavery. These people, politically and culturally exiled for millennia on the far side of the Wall, present Daenerys with her ultimate mission; as she already has united formerly enslaved people and advisers of many backgrounds under her banner (and will have probably united Dothraki under her leadership as the prophesied stallion who mounts the world), so her final role, I think, is to defend all Westerosi against the Others, recognizing the free folk as equally worth of rescue as the subjects of the Iron Throne. Even if Daenerys doesn’t quite accept this mission immediately - and I do think she’ll be more focused on her political goal for the moment, until that jade holocaust - she would have now before her the very embodiment of her destiny, not only continuing her fight against chattel slavery but now understanding (or at least beginning to understand) the supernatural slavery she must eventually defeat.

Too, such a plot point might also help Daenerys find even more common ground with the Starks, and particularly Jon. After all, Jon himself actively sought to save the people of Hardhome from the Others; if his first mission ended in failure and his second mission was doomed to an even greater failure (had it been carried out, of course), his desire to do so was no less admirable and rooted in both empathy and practical understanding of the Others. What better way for Daenerys to present herself to Jon than to point to her own role in saving people from Hardhome, and her own knowledge gained from them of the Others. If both Jon and Daenerys are fated to fight and destroy the Others - and I very much think they are - then having this meeting of the minds before the final showdown might help set up their intertwined destinies as major heroes of the apocalyptic crisis; both independently understand (or at least have reason to understand) that the war is one between all the living against the Others, with all other socio-politico-cultural distinctions set aside.

What makes this idea particularly intriguing now is a possible - emphasis on “possible”, that is far from guaranteed - hint in Fire and Blood Volume 1. Toward the end of F&B, Gyldayn details the Daughters’ War, a large-scale conflict in the Narrow Sea following the collapse of the Triarchy. As part of that conflict, Alyn Velaryon led an attack (against the orders of the Iron Throne) with his Velaryon fleet against the Braavosi naval forces in the Stepstones. Alyn achieved a major victory in the subsequent attack, losing only three ships to sink more than 30 and capture 17 more. More to the point, as part of his spoilers, Alyn captured “an elephant meant for the Sealord’s menagerie”, and this elephant becomes a particular point of pride for the now-styled Oakenfist: while Unwin Peake (justifiably, in Gyldayn’s opinion) complained that “’[y]ou have given us a war’” with the “richest and most powerful of the Nine Free Cities”, Alyn “insolently” replied, “‘And an elephant ... do not forget the elephant, my lord’”. 

I’m not saying it’s guaranteed that GRRM had Alyn Velaryon underline the “elephant” he captured as a reference to the ship of the same name in the main novels. However ... we have now not just another member of the Velaryon family, but another bastard Velaryon angling for glory and power for himself (indeed, given that Alyn was Lord Velaryon and presumably an ancestor of the modern House Velaryon, it’s very possible if not probable that Aurane is his direct descendant). Here again is a bastard Velaryon with an eagerness to command his own navy, even against the will of the Iron Throne: Lord Alyn deliberately disobeyed the Hand of the King and his chosen naval commander, Gedmund Peake, in order to attack the Braavosi forces in the Stepstones with his own ships, while Aurane of course took the ships he as lord admiral specifically recommended Cersei had the government commission to create a pirate kingdom for himself in the same area. Now with the focus given to the “elephant” captured by the historical Velaryon bastard in the Stepstones ... well, it just seems too coincidental to have our current Velaryon bastard in the Stepstones and the Elephant sailing through those same islands without some sort of parallel explored. If the historical, living elephant was eventually returned to the Sealord, perhaps this Elephant, with its Westerosi, will instead be returned to a Braavosi-raised queen claiming the right to rule Westeros and with as implacable a hatred of slavery as Braavos.

#asoiaf meta #speculation #daenerys targaryen #the stepstones #hardhome #twow #aurane waters

[agentrouka-blog]

hiii do u have/know of more metas about the ice and fire threat and how it's possible that the cotf creating the others caused the dragons to be born? or anything similar to that it's so interesting and i could spend a whole day reading them 🥹

Hi! Sorry for only replying now.

I think I already saw you reblog most of what @fedonciadale has written on the subject, so my big recommendation there is already out. :(

If anyone has any recommendations on meta about this magical relationship, I would be most grateful!

#ice threat #fire threat #blood magic #old valyria #children of the forest #dragons #hardhome #summerhall #long night #the others (asoiaf) #asoiaf history #asoiaf speculation

[westeroswisdom]

Winter was severe but very short during Jon’s exile.

#game of thrones #jon snow #kit harington #hardhome #gra o tron #trône de fer #kampen om jerntronen #taht oyunları #cluiche na corónach #trò chơi của ngai #jogo dos tronos #juego de tronos #trono di spade #pemainan takhta #igra prestolov #valtaistuinpeli #hra o trůny #гра престолів #ゲームの玉座 #权力的游戏 #왕좌의 게임 #صراع العروش #تخت کے کھیل #गेम ऑफ़ थ्रोन्स #গেম অব থ্রোনস #ಗೇಮ್ ಆಫ್ ಥ್ರೋನ್ಸ್ #משחקי הכס #παιχνίδι των θρόνων #игра престолов #гульня тронаў

[asoiafandotherbooks]

How Patchface's Character Foreshadows Shireen's Burning and Stannis's Fu...

#asoiaf #game of thrones #patchface #shireen baratheon #stannis baratheon #selyse baratheon #melisandre #purple wedding #hardhome #red wedding #euron greyjoy #bran stark #Youtube

[xxlittle0birdxx]

Jaime’s heavy eyelids drifted shut and his head fell forward until his chin nearly rested on his chest. His dreams filled with the images of dead things cascading over a cliff in a waterfall of bones and putrid flesh and a sound that made the hair on the back of his neck rise, even as he slept. The dead kept coming in an endless stream, dragging him down until he smothered under their weight.

#brienne of tarth #jaime lannister #jaime x brienne #the wall #hardhome #castle black #nightmares #braime #braime fanfic #game of thrones (tv) #braime fanfiction #game of thrones (tv) au #canon divergent #had no idea it has been more than a year since I updated #it’s been busy around here

[gendrie]

@lesbiansintheimpala left these great tags on one of my posts a couple days ago:

i hope you dont mind that im about to hijack your theory a lil bit! but i havent been able to stop thinking about it. as im rereading braavos material im noticing the power of the braavos fleet which i think has got to play a role in twow. and once i considered that a lot of other pieces also started to fall into place 

when arya arrives in braavos one of the very first things she learns is that the city has an impressive power at sea:

The shadow lifted, the pine-clad ridges fell away to either side, the winds dwindled, and they found themselves moving through a great lagoon. Ahead rose another sea mont, a knob of rock that pushed up from the water like a spiked fist, its stony battlements bristling with scorpions, spitfires, and trebuchets. "The Arsenal of Braavos," Denyo named it, as proud as if he'd built it. "They can build a war galley there in a day." Arya could see dozens of galleys tied up at quays and perched on launching slips. The painted prows of others poked from innumerable wooden sheds along the stony shores, like hounds in a kennel, lean and mean and hungry, waiting for a hunter's horn to call them forth. She tried to count them, but there were too many, and more docks and sheds and quays where the shoreline curved away. (Arya, AFFC) 

which twoiaf supports so its not just a cabin boys boasting:

The youngest of the Nine Free Cities, Braavos is also the wealthiest, and in all likelihood the most powerful. Originally founded by escaped slaves, its humble beginnings were rooted in nothing more than a desire to be free. For a great part of its early history, its secret status made it of little consequence in the wider world. But in time it grew, eventually emerging as a power almost without rival.

Neither prince nor king commands in Braavos, where the rule belongs to the Sealord, chosen by the city's magisters and keyholders from amongst the citizenry by a process as convoluted as it is arcane. From his vast waterside palace, the Sealord commands a fleet of warships second to none and a mercantile fleet whose purple hulls and purple sails have become a common sight throughout the known world. (TWOIAF) 

braavos is an all around powerful city. the iron bank and the faceless men are involved in numerous plots both political and magical throughout the series. theres also the sealord who ‘commands a fleet of warships second to none’! so its probably not a coincidence that the sealord election is emerging as a very important plot for arya. ive always been curious as to why? because it seems kinda random, but it might, ultimately, connect back to braavos’ fleet if thats where the sealords strength lies.

Look with your eyes, he had said. She saw: the knight in his pale armor head to foot, legs, throat, and hands sheathed in metal, eyes hidden behind his high white helm, and in his hand cruel steel. Against that: Syrio, in a leather vest, with a wooden sword in his hand. "Syrio, run," she screamed. "The first sword of Braavos does not run," he sang as Ser Meryn slashed at him. (Arya, AGOT) 

since agot, arya has had a connection to the sealord (and braavos in general) via syrio. he died saving arya’s life. this could be her very powerful escort back to westeros, home, bringing syrio’s sacrifice full circle. theres a precedent for the sealord bestowing “grand” gifts too. and it might be that arya is in the company of her fellow northerners? 

"I know why the Sealord seized the Goodheart. She was carrying slaves. Hundreds of slaves, women and children, roped together in her hold." Braavos had been founded by escaped slaves, and the slave trade was forbidden here. "I know where the slaves came from. They were wildlings from Westeros, from a place called Hardhome. An old ruined place, accursed." Old Nan had told her tales of Hardhome, back at Winterfell when she had still been Arya Stark. (Arya, ADWD) 

because its also worth noting that the sealord seized a ship full of hardhome refugees, women and children, who were enslaved. arya has experienced a similar situation when she was taken captive in the riverlands. hardhome and harrenhal both have grim, haunted reputations. the wildlings are now seemingly stranded in essos - far from their home and the rest of their community in the north. again, not unlike arya. when relaying this information arya relates it directly to her past as arya stark. 

"The Night's Watch will make for Hardhome. I ride to Winterfell alone, unless …" Jon paused. "… is there any man here who will come stand with me?" (Jon, ADWD) 

the crisis at hardhome becomes a major issue for jon as lord commander too. jon planned to send the night’s watch to aid the stranded refugees while he marched on winterfell to rescue “arya” who is.....ironically, in braavos gathering intel on the hardhome crisis lol. among other things. this wouldnt be the first time arya got involved in night’s watch business either. arya herself traveled with yoren’s group posing as a recruit and took it upon herself to execute dareon for desertion. the wall was always the place arya wanted to reach the most. 

Nymeria nipped eagerly at her hand as Arya untied her. She had yellow eyes. When they caught the sunlight, they gleamed like two golden coins. Arya had named her after the warrior queen of the Rhoyne, who had led her people across the narrow sea. (Arya, AGOT)

"Just so. Your father was oarmaster on a galley. When your mother died, he took you off to sea with him. Then he died as well, and his captain had no use for you, so he put you off the ship in Braavos. And what was the name of the ship?" "Nymeria," she said at once. (Arya, AFFC)

Higher on the Rhoyne, in Ny Sar, Princess Nymeria soon received the news of Garin's shattering defeat and the enslavement of the people of Chroyane and Sar Mell. The same fate awaited her own city, she saw. Accordingly, she gathered every ship that remained upon the Rhoyne, large or small, and filled them full of as many women and children as they could carry (for almost all the men of fighting age had marched with Garin, and died). (TWOIAF)

theres another big connection here and thats nymeria ny sar. the legendary warrior queen arya named her direwolf after. she commanded a fleet of ships to travel from essos to westeros with refugees fleeing the threat slavery before she settled in dorne and ruled for nearly 3 decades. arya's story has been driven by a desire to protect others, social connections, and a safe place to call home. her direwolf reflects this by amassing a giant pack in the riverlands too. 

i really do not think grrm put the hardhome refugees in arya’s path for no reason. the fandom has a tendency to write braavos off as a meaningless side quest for arya to simply train (and then go kill some character), but the pieces are already set up for arya to become the heroine she’s always admired. all she has to do is go for it. 

#asoiaf nonsense #arya stark #another shoutout to lesbiansintheimpala! #for the inspo #theres been a couple theory posts about arya and the hardhome refugees #but not since the old days of like 2014 #that ive seen #and they never gained much traction #but ive been puzzled by the sealord election in a big way #so when i read those tags and then her braavos chaps #it felt like things were clicking #anyway half baked idea but im excited and wanna know what others think

[mummer]

what was mance’s actual plan in a scenario where he can take castle black and let all the free folk through the wall (i.e. if jon died before warning them). let them disperse into the gift and just. fend for themselves i guess? would his kingship have ended there? was there ever a plan more complex than “dont get turned into ice zombies” or was he just riffing the whole time. was he imagining some kind of treaty? maybe his plans relied on there still being a reasonable stark in winterfell lol. but it’s not like he can negotiate with the boltons or stannis… and the wildlings are so fractured they would IMMEDIATELY split off. like what would he have DONE if he won? was he doomed from the start??? someone please spitball with me

#ive been trying to crowdsource ideas about this for insane fanficky reasons but it’s like #cause the wildlings are not like. centralized he cant just keep them at castle black forever there are 100000 of them #he also would have. zero information about current northern politics #at castle black he’s in an ok position esp if he also takes the shadow tower but he still has stannis + some dregs at eastwatch #he could.. maybe.. take empty winterfell before the boltons ever got there but would it even help? there wouldnt be any food there #and the bolton coalition might even actually be bolstered if they had a common enemy lol #however: no one would go to hardhome. So at least theres that #i guess it would devolve into a chaotic mass migration scenario but mance is like. Clever and wily i cant imagine he didnt have a PLAN!!! #the smart move would be to take moat cailin before roose can come up but. To accomplish what exactly #i mean if everyone chilled repopulating the gift would anyone even care. you’re gonna massacre a hundred thousand civilian wildlings? #But stannis is the issue there he would not allow that he would want to reinstate the watch. hmmmm

[mummersblade]

I wonder if Sansa never mentioning/thinking of Old Nan across all the books goes in hand with her inability to comprehend things for their ugly reality, reverting to pretty songs and the ignorance they signify instead.

Meanwhile the other Stark POVs are all thinking of Old Nan's stories as recent as ADwD. Arya recounts her stories about Hardhome when apprenticing with the HOBAW and providing information about the wildlings, Jon thinks about the ice dragons from Old Nan's tales, and Bran likens her stories with the ones shared by Bloodraven.

Old Nan contextualizes their settings. Arya thinks of her stories about Harrenhal when she is imprisoned there, and Jon thinks of her stories when he tells Ygritte about Queenscrown being named from Queen Alysanne on her visit to the Wall, and the same place for Bran and the Reeds. What more, Old Nan prepares them for monsters and magic.

Old Nan's stories (as remembered by Bran, Arya, and Jon) are brutal and terrifying. They are of frightful and oft forgotten things. They memorialize that which others may wish to forget. Juxtapose this to Sansa, who does not once think of Old Nan or recall any of her stories, despite her obvious love for 'the songs.' Clearly Sansa only cares about the romantic, happy songs, or at least the ones that make tragedy pretty. The naive ones that never confront the ugly side of things; not the Others, not the North far beyond the Wall, not the magic of the First Men, all of which the other Starks are connected to one way or another by ADwD. Sansa, who represses and revises and romanticizes (see: the unkiss, Arya as the sole source of blame for Lady's death, poisoning Robin), cannot fathom the horrors that are due to arrive in all their apocalyptic doom, which is another reason why she is entirely unqualified to have any leadership role in the face of this enemy. It's in the same vein as Arya's crypt story with Jon scaring the young kids; Sansa's instinct is to run from the supernatural.

#I should make a compilation of old nan's stories cause going through the searches for this brought up a lot of good ones #arya knowing about hardhome from her but also the titan of braavos eating highborn girls #arya knowing that in winters old men go off to die alone from their family to give food to the younger generations #jon thinking of the ice dragon speaks for itself lol #Bran and his experiences with the magic of the distant north related to Old nan's stories #canonbran #canonarya #canonjonsnow #asoiaf meta #rambles #asoiaf #I'm losing my mind over this now tho like Old Nan has been preparing them for their magic and their fight against the Others #because they LISTENED

[sunny12th]

i am so fucking tired today HOYL SHIT. anyways when the unsullied/freedmen, the dothraki, and the wildlings all meet and it's this giant fucking mess of cultures clashing and different fighting styles meshing. and maybe under other circumstances they would all hate each other but they can't because they have to work together to stop the literal end of the world. and their respective godkings are working together and possible fucking? so they really gotta make this work now. the wildlings teaching the dothraki and dany's freedman how to survive the cold and fight in the north. the unsullied and the wildings sharing different spear techniques because maintaining distance from the wights is the best way to fight them, besides just setting them on fire. the dothraki showing the wildlings how to make better long range bows. everyone from essos despairing at the food they're forced to eat in westeros. everyone in westeros being like 'yall were starving too stfu.'

#i am sleep deprived and this is how i cope #thinking about dany escorting the wildlings that were being taken as slaves from hardhome back north #sigh #also i recently started reading fanfic again and can fanfic writers please start including the dothraki and the unsullied #like every dany fic just pretends they dont exist. be better than the show please. be better than the source material too #mine #asoiaf

[teen-spirited-away]

I finished a Dance With Dragons.....

Mood: feeling empty inside

Thoughs: and prayers. Why did I do this to myself?

#will have to read f&b to fill the void #RIP credits: #jon “yeah you should have seen this coming” snow #quentyn “should have just gone back to dorne” martell #crunch and pretty pig- I will carry you in my memory #that maester they killed on victarion's ship- i will kill you victarion #MVP uncle kevan-decent guy but still a lannister #all those ppl at hardhome #that one old guy on asha's team that died of his wounds #the rangers that got their heads chopped off #groleo #asoiaf #adwd

[glorianas]

if westeros is that states does that mean beyond the wall is canada?

#fist of the first men is toronto #hardhome is quebec

[atopvisenyashill]

jon x val

they are fine.

idk like, val doesn’t really exist as a character outside of jon’s romanticized perception of her, she exists mostly as a way of ~foreshadowing~ jon’s interactions with other characters and to give us a name to care about amongst the wildlings, but she’s not as deep or interesting as basically every other wildling, nor is her dynamic (imo) touching in a way that other super minor character/main pov character relationships are. she’s just kinda. there. like, ygritte, she believed in things, fiercely. tormund, the thenn, varamyr, osha, these are all characters who we can see really FEEL some stuff in a scene or two, we get a single real glimpse of val with jon & it’s over shireen, where he’s actively upset with val. just not enough there to get invested in & what’s there to me kinda spells disaster.

#the mom character in the show was more interesting but they wasted her on that dumb hardhome plot #asks #i like her relationship with monster but idt that’s gonna be a factor going forward

[glennethph]

Chekhov’s Mushroom

#the last of us hbo #the last of us spoilers #the last of us #chekhov's gun #endure and survive #hardhome-esque

[falllpoutboy]

skipping season 5 today because i love myself too much to go through that

#i might tune in for hardhome but thats it

[jonsource]

Kit Harington as Jon Snow in GOT S05 E08 Hardhome

#jon snow #gotjonsnow #jonsnowedit #gameofthronesdaily #thenorthsource #asoiafsnet #gotasoiafsource #iheartgot #gotedit #cinematv #house stark #game of thrones #*ours