#people want to know how Jon gets across essos

[buildoblivionthenwewilltalk]

officially reached the au!brainrot stage where I’m drawing scenes that don’t exist yet so have a jon Hal Rivers and aegon Young Griff

#dragons cradle au #people want to know how Jon gets across essos #and I mean same lol 😅 #but who knows who he might meet on the way 👀👀👀 #I don’t like the line work on this but look at Jon!!! #his little face!!! #also this could just be an au where they were raised together #idk Jon and griff/aegon make me feel things #I hope the get to meet eventually #Jon snow #young griff #aegon vi #canonjonsnow #minsart #my art #asoiaf #a song of ice and fire

[daenystheedreamer]

daenystheedreamer my friend . i have unending curiosity about your occasionally mentioned asoiaf ocs . Please …….. illuminate me i beg of thee

MWAH okay so the thing with my ocs is they mostly live in a big extended universe called omaegorverse and its less of an original character as it is an ensemble cast of original characters i like to play with. ill put those under the cut but i have a couple who arent:

jeyne whent, lady companion to danelle lothston :) helps orchestrate the capture and execution of danelle by snitching to her family. marries her something-or-other cousin who spearheaded the operation and got the lordship. matriarch of house whent of harrenhal /|\ ^._.^ /|\ she and danelle have an inadvisable relationship w each other ^_^ her kids are born with red hair and high cheekbones and look rather like dead lady danelle.......

aelyx son of jon. failed at being a maester fired as the town crier now spends his days drinking at the IATC ranting about how the targaryens are sexually deviant lizard people and the maesters are lying to us. keeps getting arrested but his dad pays them off with his dentistry apothecary money. his sworn sword is outlaw knight ser rogar stone. has a bulletin on the local notice board called wisdomwars. maesters are rats to him and he only listens to local crackpot eddard grouper-tongue. other associates include robb of dewton, lyanne of dewton, teddard son of anders, daven knight (who isnt a knight) and local crazy nobles lord ronnel and ser randyll of house paul. gets into melees with jordayne and danwell across the river. this is a paragraph to be understood by MAYBE two of my followers. Hi guys ^_^

okay omaegorverse characters. God. here are some of my faves theyre all the gorls + viserys:

VISERYS TARGARYEN: canonical character, brother of rhaena, jaehaerys, alysanne. visenya tyanna and maegor use valyrian blood magic to turn him mpreggable and maegor takes him to wife. yeah i know. also in this universe the targs start being born with various physical abnormalities called the dragon trait ^_^ probably thanks to the valyrian blood magic

VISERRA TARGARYEN: daughter of maegor and viserys. really really REALLY wanted to marry her older brother so she could be queen but got thwarted (brother was engaged to aerea daughter of rhaena, and a hightower). she was born with a forked tongue that the maesters sewed up but later in life she cuts it back open. has seven husbands like that booktok character<3 flies into the sun and dies. rider of vhagar

DAENYS TARGARYEN: daughter of maegor and viserys. born with stubby tail and wings which were removed and she was left with scars. phantom pain :) she is haunted and a lesbian. marries a stark after a stark rebellion and he sucks. ends up killing maegor with viserys<3

MARIS HIGHTOWER: wife of the son of maegor+viserys, jaehaerys. betrothed to appease ceryse and the hightowers over the mpreg thing. she is also a lesbian sorryyyyy i cant help it. has six children all of whom she outlives. somewhat neglectful to her younger three children due to the elder three being kind of crazy.

HELAENA TARGARYEN: eldest daughter of maris and jaehaerys, called the beauty literally all her life since birth. her elder brothers, twins aegon and aerion vie for her affection. aerion murders the high septon at like 14 after he finds out the guy was abusing helaena, and refuses to confess in order to protect helaena's dignity and he gets exiled to essos for it. later on after aegon is crowned, aerion does a paris and helen and kidnaps helaena. blah blah blah both die in battle against each other and helaena retires and later marries a nice hightower man. has one son with aegon and two with aerion. her daughter aerea later weds aegon's son jaehaerys. rider of dreamfyre

DAENERYS TARGARYEN: second daughter of maris and jaehaerys. one of the younger three who are a little neglected. after aerion was exiled, maris left with aegon helaena and her younger daughter maegelle to the hightower, leaving daenerys and her younger brother viserys alone at the red keep. daenerys later marries lord velaryon. after both her brothers die on the throne, she swoops in as queen regent for her great-nephew and rules for a decade. reconciles with her mother :)

DAENAERA VELARYON: wife of maris and jae's son aegon, maegor made polygamy legal for targs with the exception that they can marry one valyrian bride in the valyrian tradition and one westerosi bride in the Faithful tradition. she's the valyrian bride. has three sons, monterys lucerys and jacaerys. after her husband is killed she steals them away to dragonstone and besieges the island, refusing to leave or let her sons leave (her son monterys is the heir). various tragedies happen to her sons :)

JOCASTA LANNISTER: wife of maris and jae's son aegon in the faithful tradition. she is the daughter of viserra targaryen by her second lannister husband. super mad about being a sister-wife and especially mad cos since she's half targ she's more related to/more valyrian than daenaera, who is half baratheon and half lesser velaryon. has five children with aegon: rhaena laena jaehaerys helaena and viserion. after aegon dies, she remarries to a baratheon cos she wants to garner support for her son over daenaera's. she does win! her son does end up on the throne but only after aegon's brother viserys, daenerys, and daenaera's grandson daeron. boymom to the nth degree

ALYSANNE 'ANYA' TULLY: wife of jocasta's son jaehaerys, betrothed to garner the support of the riverlands. jae's wife-in-the-faith, opposite the wife-in-the-blood aerea daughter of helaena. she's very headstrong and has crazy-eyes. great-granddaughter of aenys targaryen through his daughter vaella targaryen (who survives in this au). bullies her second sister alyssa targ and her husband's later mistresses: jeyne storm of tarth, jeyne pryor, and alysanne hawthorne. she probably had the two jeynes killed.

ALYSANNE 'ALYSSA' TARGARYEN: second valyrian wife of jaehaerys. she's a targ through her grandfather viserys-son-of-maris even though viserys was gay (his wife alyssa arryn was mega nutso, did some turkey baster pregnancies and got in with r'hllor dont worry about it). last of her family branch so she's a little haunted. gets bullied by anya tully a lot but they sorta team up against the mistresses. alyssa has a lot of latent anger which she will never release of course and will only die with regret.

ALYSANNE 'RED ALY HAWBERRY' HAWTHORNE: young minor noblewoman who is kidnapped by the ironborn during a huge rebellion-raid thing thats quickly crushed. all the girls who got kidnapped were taken to the red keep to be treated (propaganda). the king takes a liking to her (shes 16, hes 34 🤢). she's naive and kind and sweet and loving and despised by her lover's wives. she's called the hawberry as a cute nickname but its morphs into everyone clearly saying it as whoreberry..... ends up unknowingly surviving several assassination attempts by the alysannes marrying the king! when he dies the illusions are fully shattered and she runs away with her two bastard daughters. she has strawberry blonde hair and wears pink flower crowns and loves everybody in the world (she's getting fidel castro'd so hard right now)

anyway thats wayyyyyyy too many jesus christ my bad my bad. thank you so so so much for your love and interest in my silly thoughts mwah mwah. i hope this is a fun read! im gonna finally release my long awaited much derided omaegorverse family tree soon :) KISSES

#ask #sshireens #au:omaegorverse

[aegonbeingfakeisracist]

If you were writing ASOIAF, what would you change about Aegon's story, both in its content and direction?

I find this an interesting question because we've really seen so little of him so far. So I'm going to ramble for a bit about his story and see if I come up with a conclusion.

One of the things I really enjoy about his story as it is right now is that his Rhoynish heritage is so present. They pass Nymeria's palace. He's on a boat with exiles of various forms. Everyone around him knows that they need Dorne. The surface is all the Targaryen side - he looks like Rhaegar, it's Rhaegar's friend that's been raising and guiding him, the original goal was for him to get to Dany, he's pursuing a claim through his father - but underneath that, his story is tied to his mother. All the references to Nymeria and the Rhoyne, the way he's ultimately going to meet with Arianne. So even though there's been so little of him so far, we get the impression of these layers to his identity.

In addition to this, Aegon is a cool character in his own right! He's friendly and likable and a compelling speaker. He gets along well with other people; he can convince people to follow his lead; he refuses to let harm befall Tyrion after Tyrion saves his life; he insists that he values Duck more than any knight of great renown and points out that Jaime Lannister had been that knight of renown. He's also prickly and argumentative and imperfect - he argues with people trying to keep him safe; he lashes out at Tyrion in response to needling; he freezes up because he's never seen battle; he's got a chip on his shoulder and comes across as a man that feels he has something to prove.

Now, keeping all that in mind...Aegon is, like, weirdly well adjusted. We're talking about a guy whose mother and older sister were murdered that has never known a single member of his family, despite his mother's siblings and their children being alive and well, despite his paternal aunt and uncle famously alive and in Essos. He's been raised with the idea of going back and reclaiming a throne. His father figure undoubtedly cares for him, but he is obsessive and controlling and not someone who's guiding him with clear eyes. And yet, he's just...living life, wandering around on a boat, trusting easily and seemingly not dwelling on the past.

To some degree, that makes sense - relatively speaking, he's been in a psychologically safer environment than other characters. It's not like he was in, say, Dany's shoes with a volatile and violent older brother pushing her into situations. But overall, I think it's a wasted opportunity, because psychologically safe is not synonymous with devoid of complexity. With so many other characters, we see the impacts of the past on them. Jon, despite having never known his mother, is heavily influenced by that absence. So Aegon, who has never known his mother or sister as people, but knows about their brutal murders, should be so influenced by that. Since we have no insight into his own thoughts, we don't know if he is or isn't, though.

So I think really what I would change is the amount of emphasis on why he's doing what he's doing. Why does he want the throne? What does the prospect of meeting Arianne mean to him? How does it affect him that people don't believe his story? What are his thoughts on the Mountain, on Tywin Lannister, on all these people that knew or could have known his family? I brought up his line about how "the Kingslayer was a warrior of great renown, and the son of a great lord as well" earlier, but I think it's worth reiterating: that is an insane line to leave at just that.

It would be one thing if that were, say, to have come up as a point of contention between Catelyn and Robb. In that case, it's just this famous event that sparked Jaime's notoriety. But it's Aegon that says it. Aegon, the grandson of the king referenced in the Kingslayer nickname. Aegon, whose mother and sister were being murdered while Jaime was sitting on the throne. Aegon values loyalty above all else because of this action - it's personal to him in a way it's not to anyone else. So how does he feel about not just Jaime, but everyone else involved? Why, in this world where entire families are held to account for the actions of one member, does he not have negative feelings towards Tyrion?

We haven't seen enough of him for me to know what I'd want to change, but I think this is what I'd want to see: what is actually driving him to make the decisions he does. Thanks for asking!

#A Song of Ice and Fire #Aegon VI Targaryen #starbright91 #replies

[fir3-and-bl00d]

fanfic writer questions

(answered 01/21/24)

How many works do you have on AO3?

My page says 16, but 2 of those got combined into 1 fic, so it's really 14.

What's your total AO3 word count?

1,382,274

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

In order from most to least it's: The Night We Met, A Marriage of Convenience, A Little Help From Your Family, Dragons Across The Sea, & A Song For Dragons

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try my best to because I think it's important to interact with my readers and to explain the writing choices I make. I've gotten really bad at responding lately, but I promise I read every single comment. Getting a really detailed comment saying why/what you liked about a certain chapter always makes my day ❤️

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

None because I only write happy endings for jonerys and also all of my long-term fics are still ongoing!

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

I mean The Chamber of the Painted Table had a happy ending in that jonerys ends up engaged lol. But like I said above, all my fics will have happy endings for Jon & Dany and all their targlings.

Do you write crossovers? If so, what's the craziest one you've ever written?

I don't write crossovers! Only GoT/HoTD/TWOIAF for me!

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Unfortunately, yes on both Dragons Across The Sea and A Little Help From Your Family. Most of the time it's people bashing a specific character (usually Jon or Dany).

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

When I first started writing fanfic, no. But now ... definitely lol. Is it even one of my fics if we don't have some dominant Jon, the Targaryen breeding kink, and an aunt/nephew kink?

As for the kind, M/F with a focus on dirty talk since I think that's hot. I'm not the biggest fan of reading smut that's just big long blocks of description with no dialogue, so I try to avoid that.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I don't think so. I'm open to it as long as I'm credited as the author!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

NO but that should change (hopefully) sometime later this year! Robbaery & Jonerys nation keep an eye out ... 👀

What's your all time favorite ship?

JON SNOW/DAENERYS TARGARYEN and they have no other competition in my mind.

What's a WIP you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

Hmm, that's a good one. I think Dragons Across The Sea simply because of where the story is right now. (jon and dany are still very far away in Essos - Yunkai to be exact - and with everything I have planned for that story, it's going to take a longggggg time to write all of it)

What are your writing strengths?

I personally think dialogue and inner monologue come easily to me, specifically with Jon and Dany. It's also very easy for me to write romantic scenes for my ships, I love writing my babies being in love!

What are you writing weaknesses?

Definitely describing clothing and locations. Also battle scenes make me want to throw my laptop out a window. I have such respect for the authors out there that can really write a good battle sequence without losing the audience's interest. Same with people who can describe clothing so well that I can picture it in my mind.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Well if y'all have read my stuff, you know the only other language I use is Valyrian. I think it's natural for characters like Dany, Rhaenyra, Daemon, Maester Aemon, Aemon the Dragonknight, Naerys, etc to speak it since they grew up learning it. I especially adore taking terms of endearment in English and translating them into Valyrian. Examples include ñuha jorrāelagon (my love) and ñuha prūmia (my heart).

You'll usually see me writing Jon picking up on Valyrian since Dany uses it with him. I just think it's super adorable for jonerys to call each other pet names in both the Common Tongue and Valyrian (the language of their ancestors). And of course, there's times where I write them speaking it in nsfw situations hehe.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Game of Thrones/ASOIAF and it's the only fandom I've written for so far.

What's your favorite fic you've written?

I'll say my favorite fic I've written/currently writing is The Night We Met. The progression of jonerys' relationship in that fic is everything to me, and I got super emotional when I wrote their wedding on Dragonstone. There's so many moments in that fic where I show how devoted they are to each other <3

here's my AO3!

#myfics #ao3 writer #this was longer than i thought it would be

[the-king-andthe-lionheart]

You know something I would love to see? Arya and Dany having a beautiful sister relationship. Sure they’ll likely be cautious and skeptical at first meeting but then as they get to know each other, they find out how much they have in common. How they are feminist non conformists. How they love the common people. And they both have an affinity for wearing practical clothes and also being barefoot. If Dany does become Queen (all I need is for her and Arya and Jon to survive) I would headcanon Dany and Arya making it an annual event where they both go around the Kingdoms (and even to Essos) and they go and play with the children and mingle with the smallfolk. PS: To spite Stansas I would love to see Sansa whining about Arya choosing some “Targaryen” something (I don’t know what insult Sansa would use) over her own sister. Arya grabs Dany’s hand and says “Dany is my sister”. I truly feel like Arya would find in Dany the sister she never had with Sansa. I’m not saying Arya doesn’t care about Sansa… but their relationship is a pretty bad one. And she would have a real sister relationship with Dany.

Hello @whitedragonwolf4961 !

Yeah, there is no denying that Arya loves Sansa and that Sansa loves Arya, because they are family, but it seems quite obvious that while they love each other, they don't actually like each other. And honestly they have a lot of issues to get through before their relationship could even begin to become repaired, especially if it's revealed that it was Sansa who snitched to Cersei about them leaving. Truthfully, I don't think their relationship can even begin to be repaired until Sansa feels contrite for the things she has said and done to Arya, and take responsibility for her actions, and actively want to make things better. People in this fandom love trying to make it seem as if Arya is the only one to blame and that she needs to apologize, but Arya has already felt bad and apologized to Sansa, felt guilty for her behavior, and tried to make things better. So it really comes down to Sansa on if their relationship can be repaired or not. But considering Sansa's lack of development so far, I feel doubtful it will happen, and that's honestly okay. It's perfectly realistic for people not to get along with some members of their family and not be close to them. So while it would be nice if they repaired their relationship, it's not out of the realm of possibility that GRRM won't do that and will instead have Sansa retain her narcissistic tendencies.

I do feel like Arya and Dany will get along once they get past their initial distrust/wariness, as they really are so similar, but if Dany and Sansa meet I have doubts that they would become close at this stage in Sansa's development. Sansa does have misogynystic prejudice against girls and women who don't conform perfectly after all, and I think it's safe to say that Dany probably wouldn't like Sansa's classism at the very least. I think they'll try to get along, if they meet, but I don't think they'll be friends, which could in the end cause some negative feelings on Sansa's end, especially if she sees Arya and Dany getting along too well for her liking. But of course this is all predicated on Sansa's current development, which could change by the time they meet, most likely in ADOS. For all we know, Sansa could get as much positive character development in TWOW, as Dany did in AGOT. It just depends on what GRRM has in store. :)

Honestly, if Dany and Jon do get together in the future and marry, I could totally see Arya calling Dany her goodsister, regardless of how Arya's relationship with Sansa is going.

Dany and Jon being King and Queen of the 7K, would be the ideal ending with Arya residing on their council, and married to Gendry. And considering the dragons, it seems likely that they would have frequent progresses across the kingdoms. I really hope Arya is able to get a ride on one of the dragons with a dragonrider before the series ends. Of course, I'm not confident that this will be the ending, considering Bran's part to play in the end, but at this point I'm not at all convinced that any of the Key Five will die by the end, because then what exactly was the point of all that development? Especially with the characters learning things we know would be more useful to the endgame, than to the Long Night or the Battle for the Dawn? To me it just doesn't make sense, and I think GRRM is too smart to think that the only way an ending could be bittersweet, with tragic elements thrown in (after all he loves tragic romances), is by killing characters, especially with no real goal than to cause misery for the other characters. I've spoken with you before how GRRM could employ these elements in more imaginative ways while still maintaining the sweet and the bitter in a bittersweet ending. I'm also not convinced that Bran won't turn out to be more of a King of King's figure than the actual only king of the 7K. He could be a Pope-like figure, or a Emperor instead, especially in the scenario that several kingdoms may become independent again, or that the land beyond the Wall will become part of the 7K with the immersion of the Free Folk culture coming south. Of course this is all just speculation, and as soon as TWOW comes out and I read it, all my theories could shift completely. Hopefully GRRM delivers us with a copy of TWOW by the end of 2024. :D

#arya stark

[jackoshadows]

Came across this quote today

“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

and it really embodies how characters in Westeros are put into certain boxes   with certain expectations by family and society, and then seen as less than when they don’t live up to those expectations.

Like Arya, who often questions her mother’s love because she is expected to be like Sansa in all ways and no matter how hard she tries, she cannot be like Sansa.  And then there is Sam, who just wants to read his books in peace and is instead forced to hunt and learn to fight. And because Sam is not good at fighting, even when taught by a dozen men at arms, he believes that he is an useless coward.

And then there is Jon Snow who believes that he is as qualified as Robb Stark to lead and that he is as deserving of Winterfell as Robb. Maybe, it’s this self-confidence in himself that helps Jon cut through all the superficial BS and see people for who they really are.

Like understanding that Arya is perfectly fine as is and having a sword made in the Winterfell forge for her because she wants to learn how to fight and that could be what she’s really good at.

Or just being happy that Bran is alive instead of being sad that he’s a cripple.

“He woke up,” he said. “The gods gave him back.”

“Crippled,” Mormont said. “I’m sorry, boy. Read the rest of the letter.”

He looked at the words, but they didn’t matter. Nothing mattered. Bran was going to live. “My brother is going to live,” he told Mormont. - Jon, AGoT

Or how he treated Tyrion differently to the rest of Westeros once he came to know him.  Asking him to carry messages to Bran and Rickon and requesting that they be friends.

Or how he basically told his stewards and builders to eff off when they complained about Satin being a whore .

What he was in Oldtown is none of our concern. He’s quick to learn and very clever. The other recruits started out despising him, but he won them over and made friends of them all. He’s fearless in a fight and can even read and write after a fashion. He should be capable of fetching me my meals and saddling my horse, don’t you think?” - Jon, ADwD

Or how he sees the spearwives as warriors instead of women and entrusts the defense of an entire castle to them,  against opposition from the men of the NW who now call Long Barrow as Whore’s Barrow.

Or seeing the value in Samwell Tarly despite people like Chett wanting to teach a fish to climb a tree, no matter if it even kills the fish in the attempt.

 “Leave him where he is,” Chett said. “The Wall is no place for the weak. Let him train until he is ready, no matter how many years that takes. Ser Alliser shall make a man of him or kill him, as the gods will.” - Jon, AGoT

And Jon explaining how every person has their own value.

 “A maester forges his chain with study, he told me. The different metals are each a different kind of learning, gold for the study of money and accounts, silver for healing, iron for warcraft. And he said there were other meanings as well. The collar is supposed to remind a maester of the realm he serves, isn’t that so? Lords are gold and knights steel, but two links can’t make a chain. You also need silver and iron and lead, tin and copper and bronze and all the rest, and those are farmers and smiths and merchants and the like. A chain needs all sorts of metals, and a land needs all sorts of people. The Night’s Watch needs all sorts too. Why else have rangers and stewards and builders? Lord Randyll couldn’t make Sam a warrior, and Ser Alliser won’t either. You can’t hammer tin into iron, no matter how hard you beat it, but that doesn’t mean tin is useless. Why shouldn’t Sam be a steward?”

Maester Aemon closed his eyes, and for a brief moment Jon was afraid that he had gone to sleep. Finally he said, “Maester Luwin taught you well, Jon Snow. Your mind is as deft as your blade, it would seem.” - Jon, AGoT

This is a character who has forged an uneasy truce to an 8000 year old feud and that’s no easy task. Of course, sometimes raw hate and bigotry often trumps common sense as we see in real life and while characters like Marsh and Yarwyck understand that the ice zombies are the real threat and know that the Freefolk will provide for an army of the dead, they are still unwilling to let past hatreds be bygones. They are still grumbling about the Freefolk eating their food unwilling to listen to reason, despite Jon explaining the situation to them - namely that they need men to rebuild, garrison and defend the nineteen castles spread out over 300 miles and currently only 3 castles are being used! And no one else in Westeros is ready to help the NW or offer more men. Jon is even demanding men from Alys Karstark at her wedding party! That’s how desperate he is.

So considering how hard it was to get the NW to back his calls for unity, I can imagine that doing the same for the whole of Westeros is going to be a hundred fold harder.

And that’s why this book quote embodies Jon as a character who can reach across cultural divides because he understands and is open to different perspectives, doesn’t judge a book by it’s cover and acknowledges that he ultimately does not know everything. 

So many stars, he thought as he trudged up the slope through pines and firs and ash. Maester Luwin had taught him his stars as a boy in Winterfell; he had learned the names of the twelve houses of heaven and the rulers of each; he could find the seven wanderers sacred to the Faith; he was old friends with the Ice Dragon, the Shadowcat, the Moonmaid, and the Sword of the Morning. All those he shared with Ygritte, but not some of the others. We look up at the same stars, and see such different things. The King’s Crown was the Cradle, to hear her tell it; the Stallion was the Horned Lord; the red wanderer that septons preached was sacred to their Smith up here was called the Thief. - Jon, ASoS

Which is why when Dany lands in Westeros with the ‘Mad Queen’ propaganda following her, Jon is going to base his opinions of her on his interaction with her, rather than on what Westeros or Essos judges her to be. 

#Jon Snow #Samwell Tarly #arya stark #Satin Flowers #Tyrion Lannister #Night's Watch #asoiaf

[a-libra-writes]

The GoT Characters Reacting To You Being an Artist

this was a request, send eons ago, back in ye olden days. probably?

In this preference, you'll be drawing with: Ned Stark, Robb Stark, Sansa Stark, Jon Snow, Benjen Stark, Jory Cassel, Dolorous Edd, Mance Rayder, Tormund Giantsbane, Yara Greyjoy, Daenerys Targaryen, Jorah Mormont, Missandei, Grey Worm, Tywin Lannister, Tyrion Lannister, Jaime Lannister, Sandor Clegane, Bronn, Podrick Payne, Petyr Baelish, Stannis Baratheon, Davos Seaworth, Margaery Tyrell, Brynden Tully, Edmure Tully, Brienne of Tarth, Ramsay Bolton, Roose Bolton, Oberyn Martell, Beric Dondarrion

NED STARK

He’s the sort to be charmed by something like this, he’s never had a talent for creative pursuits so he appreciates it when he sees it. He likes the devotion you have to it, and the discipline, it’s just another reason to admire you. Ned encourages the hobby, and when he has time he likes to watch your painting or sketching. if you allow it. Ned enjoys your pictures of animals the most, even if they aren’t very good… He thinks they’re cute. If you ever made portraits of the family, he’d absolutely hang them around his office and the sitting rooms at your request.

ROBB STARK

When you were children, Robb used to be terribly impatient, waiting for you to finish sketching and doodling so you both could finally play. You’d make him pose funny so you could have a reference. As he got older, he began to be in awe of your skill as it improved. He still remembers the cute little scribbles you’d make. Now whenever you ask him to sit so you can practice portraits, he blushes under your concentrating stare. He would love to have a portrait of you to take with him on his campaigns, but he’d be too shy to ask directly, so he’d suggest it in the most roundabout ways.

SANSA STARK

She adores watching you work, and the finished product. Sansa enjoys creative pursuits, and although she’s more of a seamstress and embroiderer, you can share experiences and tips with each other. Sometimes she’ll ask you to lightly sketch on fabric so she can embroider over it. As much as she loves your drawings, she blushes whenever you want to draw her, and she can’t imagine being painted. Sitting and being stared at by you is so romantic to her young mind, she can’t focus at all, daydreaming about what it’ll look like when it’s finished. It’s a memory she cherishes for a long time.

JON SNOW

Jon was wondering where you had gone off to at the end of your duties, not that he kept track of that often, it was Ghost that would lead him to wherever you were hiding. He thought it was kind of silly to hide something like this, but then again, you took great pains to get supplies from Mole’s Town. He’s so relaxed when he watches your process, how you so effortlessly transfer things around you to paper. When Jon can, he tries to get charcoal for you to use.

BENJEN STARK

He loves listening to the sound of the charcoal scratching against your sketchbook. He usually hears it when he finds you after his overnight shifts, wanting to see you before he left to sleep. He’ll rest against you and idly watch the picture appear on the paper. Sometimes the sound of that and your breathing is so peaceful, he falls asleep. He likes it when you draw maps for the ranger’s reference because you sketch out the different animals and wildling camps instead of just marking them. It’s cute as hell, and he won’t let anyone insult you for it.

JORY CASSEL

Jory loves your talent as well, he heard people around Winterfell talking about your “charming” paintings and wanted to see for himself. When he was crushing on you and later trying to court you in his own way, he’d bring you art supplies you needed. The fact he paid attention to what you were running low on was flattering. Jory enjoys watching you work, but he’s too embarrassed to sit and pose for anything; he’s relieved if you paint landscapes or animals instead.

EDDISON TOLLETT

He thought it was the oddest thing he’d ever seen, you huddled up in your coat and scarf but no gloves so you could draw the horses or some trees. Well, Sam had his books, and Jon would go off to train, so this was just something you did to keep your sanity on the wall. He liked sitting next to you and observing, making wry comments now and again. Many times he’s joked about you drawing the wall, but a specific section of the wall, because “that’s the prettiest part”. If he can find some charcoal or things to draw on, he’ll keep it without thinking, then remember it weeks later and give it to you with some shyness.

MANCE RAYDER

Mance loves your artistic nature. He’s a musician himself, so he understands the urge to create something, to just let your mind wander and escape in it. You’re sort of an odd inspiration to him; when you both are relaxing in his tent late in the evening, and you’re just sketching something, he feels the urge to get his lute and start experimenting with a new song.

TORMUND GIANTSBANE

He doesn’t really get the “point” of it, but he’s still fascinated watching you paint something across a thin, pale piece of leather you made yourself. Tormund will just be right there next to you, up in your business and wanting to see how you do it. He’s more patient in the evening, content to sit across the fire and just watch your hands move. He wonders how you just know how to move them. Sometimes he’ll trace things in the snow with a stick, trying to mimic your shapes and movements, but falling totally short. It just makes him more in awe of you.

YARA GREYJOY

She doesn’t think much of artistic pursuits, it’s just not in the Ironborn culture to care about things like art and prose. Still, she knows skill when she sees it, and she can admit it’s interesting to watch you sketch something, then she comes back an hour later and you’ve made the drawing almost lifelike. She won’t ever want to be drawn, but there’s a look of pride on her face when you show her scenes of her ship and the men working on it. She might even keep one of them.

DAENERYS TARGARYEN

Dany thought you were writing in that old journal for the longest time, and she realized you were drawing when you were next to Drogon, capturing a rare moment of the dragon calmly sitting. That’s when she playfully demanded to see it, wanting to see what else you drew of her dragons. Instead she found a sketchbook full of scenery, people, horses, flowers, whatever interested you at the time. When she passed over portraits of herself, she wanted to linger and stare, smiling at how shy you’d get. Once in Meereen, Daenerys sets up a studio for you, hoping you can escape to it when you’re stressed. She ends up visiting it just as often, admiring your half-finished paintings as she tries to calm down.

JORAH MORMONT

Jorah finds it to be a darling hobby, something that fits you perfectly, but he’s still surprised by your skill level. In Essos, that sort of talent is coveted by rich merchants and politicians, but you only do it for yourself. When the khalasar stops to camp for the evening, he’ll make his way to you, hoping you don’t mind him sitting and quietly watching. Whenever you mention drawing Jorah, he’s flattered but shy at the idea. He doesn’t think he’d make a very interesting subject in armor or not, so he directs you to the horses or landscape. Whenever he passes by a market, he looks for paints you might like.

MISSANDEI

She’s highly appreciative of your talent, as she has something of an artistic interest. Missandei isn’t much of one herself, but she appreciates art immensely. She can’t hide her curiosity when she notices you painting and sketching, and she’ll want to wait for you to tell her it’s okay to look. Once you two are closer, she’ll ask about your process, about why you chose this color or that subject, what the art makes you feel. You noticed she prefers your more abstract pieces over the simple still-life or portraits.

GREY WORM

Grey Worm has seen all sorts of grand portraits and sculptures in the houses he was sent to guard over the years. He never had a thought about how they were actually made, even after being freed. It was so new and foreign to him. When he watched you work, he loved seeing how it’d go from a sketch to a painting. You’d show him the different paintings and brush strokes to make it happen, but it was still like magic. When you drew him, it unsettled him at first, seeing a non-moving reflection stare back at him. Eventually Grey Worm shyly asked for a small portrait of yourself that he could carry around. It’s his good luck charm.

TYWIN LANNISTER

Well, there are less than savory hobbies young ladies can have, and painting was certainly an accomplishment to be proud of. He admired your skill from afar, you were clearly talented, and he’s a man who appreciates a craft that’s honed and excelled in. This continued in Casterly Rock, and Tywin had to admit he was proud of the landscapes you did of the keep and the ocean surrounding it. He’d have several of your paintings in fancy frames in his office.

TYRION LANNISTER

During your first meeting, Tyrion noticed the odd markings and colors on your dominant hand, and sometimes they were on your sleeves, too. When he spotted you drawing in a secluded corner days later, it made sense. Tyrion was interested in you so he used art as a way to talk with you, and he was pleasantly surprised when you’d respond, letting him see your sketches and later, some of your paintings. It was like he was invited into a private world, and it made him like you all the more. When you’re a couple, he’s always finding interesting paints from Essos or fine brushes made of ivory and sable hair, and he proudly keeps your paintings in his office.

JAIME LANNISTER

Sometimes he lingered in your chambers after you two were intimate, and inevitably you’d start sketching something. He thought it was amusing, some funny quirk, and always had to joke if you were drawing him. When you’d fall asleep he’d look through the sketchbook, admiring your drawings, trying to deny how much of yourself he could see in them, and how they deepened his feelings for you. It was too risky to carry a portrait, but he ended up stealing one of your drawings before he had to leave for his father’s war. He chose a simple detailed sketch of your favorite flowers; you used them in your perfume and you always had them in your room.

SANDOR CLEGANE

The gruff man dismisses it as “some women’s nonsense”, although he couldn’t recall any women in court who had their noses stuck in sketchbooks as often as you did. He’d see you in the gardens almost every day, drawing something in a book. He didn’t think about it until you two were close, and he was able to sit next to you and see the drawings. Sometimes you drew what was around you, and that made sense, but sometimes you drew things from your head, and he wondered how difficult that was. Sandor would absolutely not want anything drawn of him; it makes him uncomfortable and gives him feelings he’s not ready for when he sees pictures you made of him or Stranger.

BRONN OF BLACKWATER

Bronn doesn’t think much of it. He’s a mercenary, what did you expect? He didn’t tease you, but he did like to be a distraction when you were trying to draw something, curling his arms around your waist and kissing up your neck to get your attention. Often when you knew he was stopping by, you’d engross yourself in a project, just to grin at his frustration as he tried to pull you from it. He’s had some curiosity and looked in your sketchbook before, but that’s it. He’s willing to pose for something, but only if you promise him a reward, since he gets antsy sitting so still, having to look at you but not getting to touch.

PODRICK PAYNE

He really admires your skill, it was something he was always interested in as a boy, but he never had the talent for it. When you’re sketching, Pod wants to look over your shoulder, but that’d be rude, so he just waits, a bundle of nervous energy that Tyrion eventually dismisses. He can’t hide his excitement when you offer to show him the sketchbook, and later your studio, which he enters with such reverence, you’re a little embarrassed. Once Podrick is more comfortable with you, he’ll ask about your process and inspiration.

PETYR BAELISH

He admires your talent like he admires the rest of you, it’s just one more reason to adore you. He found out where your secret drawing spot was, where you’d hide away from the court and spend all morning on your sketchbook. This is where Petyr would “chance” upon you, and your art was a way for him to get you to open up. He was well versed in art himself, so he could discuss techniques and artists with you, and later send you nice gifts like rare paints and fine brushes. If he knew you’d accept, he’d offer to give you a tour of some of the fine paintings and ancient statues that were sadly gathering dust in the Red Keep, paying more attention to your reactions than what you were looking at.

STANNIS BARATHEON

Stannis really has no like or dislike for art, it’s not something he cares to think about. Even with that lack of opinion, he can tell you’re talented and you work hard at what you do. Since you clearly enjoy it so much, eventually he’ll shyly offer you a room in Dragonstone to use as a studio. He may not be the best at describing why he likes your work, or what about it is good (please don’t ask his opinion on a piece), but he’ll make sure you have whatever supplies you desire. He’ll be beyond embarrassed if you ask to draw him, but you can quietly sit in his study and sketch, he’ll be none the wiser.

DAVOS SEAWORTH

Davos finds your skill to be charming, and something worthy of praise, he’s not shy about complimenting you when he notices you painting. He’d never overstep his bounds and ask to see the sketchbook you’re always buried in, but even just listening to your charcoal scratch at the paper is soothing. Several afternoons he’s sat whittling something while you draw something else, both of you exchanging a few words, then sitting in a peaceful silence. He’s always encouraging of your art, even if he doesn’t know any technical terms or what’s considered “great” vs “good”. It looks nice to him, so he enjoys it.

MARGAERY TYRELL

This is just one of many things Margaery appreciates about you; really, there’s nothing more attractive than someone with many talents. Her favorite thing is to watch you paint, specifically, when you’re mixing paints and deciding which color to use. They all look similar to her, and you’re only using a few strokes of some of them! She likes to sit and chat with you while you work, not even minding when you just respond with a “mm” and “oh”. She has a hand mirror that has a small portrait of you in it; she insisted you paint one she could carry around.

BRYNDEN TULLY

He enjoys sitting next to you when he has a chance, watching you work on your sketchbook while you both chat or just enjoy the silence. It’s what drew him to you initially, a pretty girl with her nose tucked in a sketchbook, totally oblivious to the lords trying to get her attention. Unlike those courtiers, he doesn’t pretend to know a damn thing about art. He just loves to see your graceful hands move across the page and how you furrow your brow in concentration. Brynden outright laughs if you want to draw him, insisting there are far prettier subjects around. His younger, more wistful side wishes someone could capture the express you have when you draw, so he could have that picture in his pocket.

EDMURE TULLY

He likes the hobby, it’s just another amazing thing about you, although admittedly he can get impatient when you’re spending a long time on a painting. He gets a funny, flustered feeling when you paint landscapes of Riverrun, or portraits of your children, once you have them. He’ll hang them up proudly in the Great Hall - or his office, if you’d rather have them there, he’s just so proud! Though, he’s a bit shy about sitting for a portrait. Something about your gaze makes him squirm, and he’d much rather have a picture of you or the kids.

BRIENNE OF TARTH

When Brienne watches you sketch something and later paint over it, it almost seems like magic, although she understands the hard work behind it, and your artistic process. She understands it better than most, considering how hard she worked at her swordsmanship. Brienne is so embarrassed if you want her to sit for a portrait, she just can’t do it. However, if she’s fully armored and you’re sketching her training or on her horse… It gives her a pleasant kind of embarrassment. Your portrait looks amazing, a gallant knight in movement, and she’s so happy you see her that way.

RAMSAY SNOW

Oh, he gets so impatient when you’re sketching or painting and he wants you for something… or just wants you. You’ll see him sigh and fidget in your peripheral vision, if he doesn’t just sit in front of you and call your name. You don’t expect him to understand the point of it, although unbeknownst to you, he has some morbid ideas of art. Best not go to that place. You’re surprised by how much he likes drawings of his hounds, he’ll actually sit next to you and watch you work with interest. Granted, it won’t last more than fifteen or twenty minutes, but there’s a strange… comfort in the warmth of him as he leans in, resting his chin on your shoulder.

ROOSE BOLTON

He doesn’t mind how you spend your freetime, although this pursuit is an interesting one. To keep you pleased, he’d learn the different supplies and paints you used and order new ones whenever you needed them. If you liked quiet while you worked, or being outside, or having someone to talk to, he’d arrange that. You’d probably even have a room for a studio in the Dreadfort, many servants agree it’s a cheerful, welcome addition to the place. Once you two had children, Roose would keep a small portrait you painted of them in his office. It’s an oddly sentimental thing for the man to do, but no one would dare comment on it. 

OBERYN MARTELL

This is one of many things on his list of reasons to love you. He’s a man who loves art and creativity, especially when the paintings are full of life and color. When he notices you’re sketching or painting, he actually approaches quietly, not wanting to interrupt your concentration (and wanting to see what you’re working on). He’s delighted by portraits you make of him, but personally he loves your landscapes of Dorne. You capture his feelings of his country so well, it makes him a little emotional. He’ll absolutely ask you to draw a small portrait of yourself - as scandalous as you can manage! - so he can always have you with him. He keeps it in a small pocket mirror with the glass taken out.

BERIC DONDARRION

The former knight is very charmed by this, in fact, you might think he’s … attracted to it. He tries not to make it obvious, but you notice how he wistfully gazes at you while you draw. It’s never any big or fancy pieces, just what’s around as you travel with the Brotherhood. When you’re together, he makes no secret about it, looking totally lovesick as he watches how you brush your hair aside and focus on the drawing in front of you. What a silly man. He also likes to cuddle behind you while you work, sometimes resting his head on your back and falling into a doze.

#game of thrones imagine #game of thrones preference #got imagine #got preferences #game of thrones x reader

[chaos-of-the-abyss]

@undercat-overdog: For the character ask: Young Griff/Faegon? Or Dany, if you want to talk about her instead!

Why not both? I don’t actually have very strong feelings about Young Griff in general, though >.<

Dany

How I feel about this character

Lol, everyone here already knows how I feel about Daenerys Targaryen. Short answer: I LOVE HER. 

Long answer: Okay, it’s just hard for me to break down why I love Dany so much. I think it boils down to how seamlessly the different aspects of her personality blend together, and what kind of person they create. Dany doesn’t have one side that’s cheerful and protective and another side that can be hot-tempered and stern, they go together. The “Mhysa” aspect of her, the one that protects and nurtures, is not in opposition with her “Mother of Dragons” title, the one that can be fierce and impulsive - she’s the Mother of Dragons because she’s Mhysa! If she turns to violence it always comes from a desire to protect. I’ve seen lots of characters where their “violent” side is played up as a contrast to their “sweet” side, to emphasize how jarringly different these two facades of them are, but that’s not at all the case with Dany. They go together.

Besides that, I just love her as a person? Even after all she’s been through, she’s so lively and sweet and loving! But at the same time she’s a queen and a conqueror and a very competent ruler despite having no formal training, and that dichotomy just gets me. This delicate, friendly girl is the mother of dragons, is working to overturn an entire system of dehumanization and oppression, and is a revolutionary leader with the loyalty, love, and faith of so many people. And I like how there are no “easy” fixes in her arc - she’s doing the best she can, she makes mistakes, she learns from them, but she’s also clearly doing really good? She meets with her people, hears and tries to fix their concerns, she works on irrigation, crops, and trade relations, all while concerning herself with the threat of the Sons of the Harpy, too.

On an out-of-universe level, I’ve honestly never come across a female character quite like her. She has power in her own right, as the heir of the Targaryen dynasty, instead of her ties with a man. She’s a revolutionary leader. She’s the chosen hero of many prophecies. She has a goal of reclaiming her birthright as a ruler. All of those things, in modern fantasy, are typically given to male heroes most of the time. She’s pretty much a female power fantasy. 

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Jon! I used to not really care for Jonerys, and Dany is still my favorite by far, but I’ve grown to like Jon a lot too. I love how their arcs parallel each other, I love how both of them are, like, trying desperately to convince the people around them about basic human rights amidst throngs of protest and upheaval, and that they both defy social norms. They’re the same age, they’re both stubborn, they’re both very intelligent and politically astute, they both have a strong sense of justice.

And pssst I also have a Jon/Dany/Tyrion ot3 bias... Jon and Tyrion are already pretty friendly and I enjoyed their interactions, and I’m absolutely in love with that speech about Dany that Tyrion gave to Faegon, the “I know that she spent her childhood in exile[...]” one. Plus, I was very amused when Tyrion was scoffing about how Dany will bake everyone lemon pies and kiss their wounds all better... and meanwhile there’s Dany, literally out among the sick, taking care of them with her own hands, shaming all the grown men in her entourage into helping her. 

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Honestly, I love all of Dany’s interactions with Team Targaryen, but I have a particular soft spot for Dany and Missandei. That interaction between Dany and Missandei, when Dany tells Missandei she’s always welcome to go back to Naath if she wants, and Missandei says she feels safe with Dany... that always gets me. And Dany calls her “my sweet”!

My unpopular opinion about this character

Not sure if this is unpopular? But... I don’t think Dany’s going to be angry or threatened when she finds out about Faegon. I think she’ll be happy that she has family left! Dany struggles with the burden of being the last Targaryen, as far as she knows, and I think it’s pretty out of character for her to be “threatened by a potential rival”, rather than glad that she may have someone to share the weight with. Dany wants to be queen because she believes it’s her duty to her family. Not because she wants to be a leader, or because she wants power, or anything that would warrant her feeling threatened if she finds out that (supposedly) her brother’s son, whom she believed was brutally murdered as an infant, is still alive. 

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

This isn’t necessarily something I wish would happen, but I’d be totally satisfied if Dany went back to Essos after defeating the Others, rather than take up Westeros’ throne. (That said, I’d be totally satisfied if she became ruling queen of Westeros, too.) I for one find Essos much more interesting than Westeros, and I love the thought of Dany continuing her crusade against slavery and working to dismantle it even further. While I do think she’s going to do something to resolve the situation in the coming books (ha, assuming they even come out), I just can’t imagine that it’s possible to deal with something as deep-rooted as slavery in one fell swoop. Even after Dany becomes queen of Meereen and works to abolish it, we can see that the problems and the prejudices remain. I’d love for her to continue having a part in getting rid of that. 

Faegon

How I feel about this character

Hmmm. I’m not very invested in Faegon as a character by himself, so, like I said above, I don’t have strong opinions on him. That said, I don’t think he’s all that bad - clearly spoiled and immature, but he’s just doing what people tell him to do. 

I’m more interested in how he’s very much a foil to Dany. While his training was meant to give him, essentially, a common person’s mindset, so that he could be a good ruler who takes care of his people, he hasn’t actually had the character building that was intended for him during that training, because, at the end of the day, he was fine - there were people who’d come in and protect him if something happened. That contrasts Dany, who’s actually experienced terror, poverty, and helplessness, and has never had anyone to defend her during those times. Faegon hasn’t built the same empathy and compassion as Dany because he hasn’t genuinely experienced the hardships of common people. And I love how GRRM makes that clear in their personalities, even though Dany and Faegon have never actually met. 

All the people I ship romantically with this character

I guess... no one? I do have a slight fondness for the idea of a reverse Targaryen (or at least Valyrian) conqueror trio, where Dany is Aegon and Jon and Faegon are her husbands. But for Dany ot3′s I’d much rather go for Jon/Dany/Tyrion, so...

My non-romantic OTP for this character

I mean... I guess it’s sad how Jon Connington is determined to protect Rhaegar’s son even though he believed he failed Rhaegar himself. Of course, though... Faegon not being actually Aegon... 

My unpopular opinion about this character

Err, nothing really. 

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

Hm. I think it would be interesting if Dany and Faegon actually reach a genuine alliance. Of course, given their positions, this is very unlikely if not outright impossible - no way that the people backing Faegon will let that happen. But they’re both some of the few remaining Valyrians in Westeros, so something in me finds the idea appealing. 

#ask meme #asks #daenerys targaryen #aegon 'young griff' targaryen #asoiaf rambling #a song of ice and fire

[ksmetrp]

SANSA STARK

portrayal notes:

- played to canon. book and show canon. 

- potential triggers in my portrayal include canon typical violence, mentioned rape and sexual abuse.

plot ideas:

- sansa x tywin. sansa is married to tywin instead of tyrion. sansa getting the opportunity to show off how smart she can be when she’s completely protected by the lannister name. tywin taking further steps to teach her how to play the game.

- sansa x jaime. either an arranged marriage with jaime taking the place of tyrion or something that happens with sansa as queen in the north, jaime as a loyal knight (heck, or her kingsguard if you want the poetic irony of him falling for another queen he’s not supposed to)

- queen in the north sansa x queen in the south margaery. an unofficial alliance of sorts, so there is no war between their countries. sansa as queen regent for rickon, marg as queen regent to a son by joff or tommen. yearning type relationship since they have to be apart for so long, maybe a letter exchange type thread? eventually stepping down as queens so their respective brother or son can take the throne, and settling together somewhere. 

- hades sansa x persephone margaery. i mean, come on, that one writes itself.

- hades petyr x persephone sansa. i mean, come on, this one also writes itself.

- sansa x sandor, escape together during the blackwater, make a life in essos. or queen in the north sansa marrying the one man she knows she can trust. 

- sansa x jon. i see the potential in an arranged marriage idea or something like sansa wanting to marry him just because he’s the one man she knows she can trust (in show verse, and she knows she needs an heir eventually.) with, of couse, love blossoming over time.

- sansa x stannis. queen in the north sansa becomes queen of the seven kingdoms when stannis proposes an alliance to fight the lannisters. that, or ned manages to get the girls out of king’s landing before everything goes down and sends them to dragonstone, leading to an eventual betrothal between sansa and stannis.

- sansa as rickon’s regent. sibling bonding times! sansa trying to be forced to civilize rickon. could end with her successfully managing it, or rickon abdicating to let her become queen in the north so he can run more free.

- sansa x smalljon umber. sansa is horrified to be engaged to a giant beast of a man who’s further north when all she ever wanted was to go south. smalljon must win her over, but he isn’t exactly pleased about being betrothed to a prissy, wannabe southerner either.

- tbh, sansa is just the easiest character ever for me to ship with, since she is surrounded by people or able to be betrothed to many eligible bachelors across the realm. so she’s kind of my ship pony lol.

- open to plotting.

#sansa stark rp #got rp #asoiaf rp #asoiaf 1x1 #got 1x1

[wishingupontheskyandstars]

The Possibility Of You And Me 🎄 Chp. 1

Fic Summary: Arya is in her mid-twenties and is in a place where she never thought she would be. With friendship and courage she's ready to start a new chapter, back to her love of acting--Meeting new people,,,But she never expected to see the one person she thought she would never see again... ;)

Chapter 1 AO3 Link

Side Note: Okay, so this is a different story that I wanted to write. Be prepared, Gendry and even Arya might sound OC during a few flashback scenes, maybe not actually-- BUT this is HEA, so remember that :) This first chapter, I hope, will get you interested to read more so here you go :)

Chapter 1

It was Christmas morning, and all Arya Stark could do was groan. She rubbed her sleepy eyes before she briefly looked at her window, watching the snowfall endlessly. She sighed, turning on her side and closed her eyes, wanting sleep to take her again and back to that dream—

Just then, her bedroom door opened, and two young voices screamed, "Aunt Arya! Aunty Arryya!"

Arya opened her eyes again, rolled them playfully, and scoffed, getting up before her three-year-old niece, Jaena, and five-year-old nephew, Ned, jumped on her bed. "Happy Christmas, you little elves," she said, watching her niece and nephew continue to jump on her bed.

Jaena giggled. "I'm not a elv—I'm a woof!"

Arya nodded, knowing what she meant to say. "Yes, you are a red wolf," she said, finally getting up from bed and stretching her arms and legs. She then walked toward her bathroom to brush her teeth. She looked at herself in the mirror while brushing her teeth. After, she quickly brushed her hair. After putting her brushes away, she looked at herself in her long-sleeved gray knit blouse and matching pajama bottoms. She shrugged and thought she looked presentable enough.

"Grannyy told us to get you!" Ned yelled as he finally sat down on the bed.

"We can't open the prezz-ents until ev'ry one is downsairs, Aunty Arryya," Jaena yelled as she continued to jump.

"Mmm...I figured," Arya murmured as she opened her closet and wrapped a warm purple scarf around her neck. She slipped on her Ugg slippers. "Okay, you two, let's go open presents." She grinned at them.

"I wanna jump," Jaena said. Ned jumped to the ground and started running toward the hallway, raising his hands and screaming, "Happy Christmas! Happy Christmas!"

Arya chuckled. She looked at her jumpy niece and smiled. "Okay, you wolf, it's time to go." She quickly grabbed Jaena mid-jump and carried her tiny body as she started to walk out of her bedroom. She looked at her niece's red hair and playfully messed it up, making the girl giggle. Arya smiled and then said, "Let's first get some cookies."

"Yay!" Jaena screamed as she held on to her Aunty.

As classical holiday music played in the background, friends and family of the Stark's were around the heavily decorated Christmas tree. The tree had grey, blue, and purple colored ornaments and colorful lights not just wrapped around the tall tree but all around the family room and the house.

Arya drank some coffee before placing the mug on the end table beside her. She sat in an oversized armchair, farthest away from the Christmas tree and everyone. She snuggled with her new knitted blanket that Sansa made for her.

Minutes later, Arya looked up from her phone and saw Robb and Talisa sitting on the floor, closest to the tree. Their kids wrapped tinsel around them. Young Ned went to sit on his mother's lap while Jaena placed a sticky bow on Robb's head.

Arya chuckled as she saw her parents sitting next to each other on the couch, holding hands, and whispering to each other. Sansa and her boyfriend of many years, Arya lost count, Theon Greyjoy, sat on the other side of the tree. With Sansa's help, he was trying on the turtleneck sweater made by her.

Arya sighed, taking another sip of coffee, observing her cousin, Jon, making sure his pregnant wife for the fourth time was all right laying on the chaise lounge, and hearing Ygritte saying for the fifth time, "I'm fine! Argh!" Arya was distracted that she didn't listen to her best friend, Daenerys Targaryen, sit beside her.

"Oh, wow! Did Sansa make this? It looks beautiful and feels so warm," she said, taking some of the blanket from Arya's lap.

Arya half-smiled with her brow raised. "Mmm... Sure, you can take some of it."

Daenerys smiled, placing the blanket over her lap. "Even though the heater is on, I forget how cold it can still be up here!"

Arya leaned into her friend, "I missed you."

Daenerys leaned into her in a half hug before releasing her. "Same here," she smiled before looking at everyone in front of them. "I was wondering why you were way over here and not with everybody else."

"Just a habit, I guess." Arya shrugged her shoulders.

Daenerys shivered in her silk pajamas before raising the blanket to her waist. She then put her hair behind her ears and said, "Thank you for these earrings; they are my favorite present so far."

Arya nodded. She saw the silver dragon earrings shimmer beautifully with her fair hair. She reached over to the end table and grabbed a slim box, opening and revealing theater tickets. "I can't believe you were able to get these tickets."

"I know you're a fan of the director, so voila!" She grinned, hoping to see more response from Arya. She then gave her a sympathetic look. "I'm worried about you, Arya."

Arya looked startled as she said, "What—Why?"

"Since you came back to Winterfell four years ago, all you do is work, come here, eat then sleep, then start again. When was your last audition?"

Arya sighed, not wanting to talk about this. "You perfectly well know, Dany. Four years ago." She leaned back into the chair. "I gave up acting long ago."

"You should have never listened to that jerk from Essos. After that, you lost a part of yourself. I want to help you get back to what I know you love."

"That part of my life is over," Arya said solemnly, then shrugged, looking ahead.

"You're just going to do an endless stream of jobs, including giving lessons on how to ride a horse for the rest of your life?"

Arya crossed her arms. "Maybe...Look, can we drop this, please?!"

Daenerys sighed, then shook her head. "Fine." She loved Arya like the sister she never had and remembered what it was like to see her on stage and dazzle in front of everyone. "Arya?"

"Yeah?" She said, staring ahead.

"I'm moving back to Westeros."

Arya turned her head quickly to look at Dany. "Really?" Skype, text messages, and e-mails were not enough forms of communication to talk with her best friend. She barely saw her in person in the last four years.

Daenerys nodded with a smile. "I applied for a few positions at magazines and publishers over here and got hired in King's Landing."

"Congratulations. You're a great writer-- I'm so happy for you." Arya squeezed Daenerys' hand.

Daenerys squeezed back and said, "I've found a condo and plan to move in after the New Year, and I need a roommate."

"Okay..."

"Will you be my roommate?" Daenerys asked with a hopeful expression.

"What?!" Arya's eyes enlarged.

Daenerys nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! It'll be great, and you can find a job in the world you love!"

"Wait—I...Oh Gods," Arya muttered. She felt all of a sudden everything was happening so fast. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath then let it out. She did this a couple of times before opening her eyes. "I don't know..." she said with honesty.

"Look, Arya—I'm sorry that I just sprung this on you, but I think it's a great opportunity for you."

"What if I don't find a job in the industry?"

Daenerys scoffed and said, "Always thinking negatively."

Arya raised her hands in surrender. "I'm thinking realistically."

"There are so many opportunities in King's Landing. I know you'll find something." She assured Arya, bumping her shoulder gently with hers.

Arya nodded. "I'll think about it. That's the best I can do right now."

Daenerys smiled. "Okay."

Arya wanting to change the subject quickly, said, "Hey, do you want to see a video I took last night of young Ned and Jaena sneaking up on Jon in the kitchen, and he screamed like—" She showed Dany her phone when suddenly Jon's very high pitched scream was heard, making both laugh out loud.

"What are you two laughing at?" Sansa asked, putting on a kid's version of reindeer antlers on Jaena.

Arya raised her brow. "Oh, you want to know?" She pressed buttons on her cell, and a second later, various chimes were heard around the room.

"That's me!" Young Ned said, still sitting in his mother's lap as Talisa and he looked at her cell phone.

Robb laughed and said, "Oh, this is wonderful."

Ygritte laughed, looking at her phone, "This is going to be my ringtone."

"Arya!" Jon screamed from across the room.

Arya chuckled and looked innocently across the room at Jon. "What?" she asked.

"You sent it to everyone!" Jon yelled, shaking his head. The video was being played over again, even making Arya's parents laugh.

"Oops," Arya said with a shrug.

Days later, before the sunset, Arya rode her favorite horse, Nymeria, toward the edge of the woods. She stopped and looked out at the town of Winterfell below. It looked like a lively town with snow and lights clustered all over.

"There you are," her father, Ned Stark, said as he approached with his horse.

Arya turned around and saw her father dressed in one of his bulky coats. She smiled.

"Have you made your decision?" Ned asked. He got off his horse, and Arya followed suit.

She walked around her horse to stand next to her father, looking over the town. She felt her eyes were getting glassy. It was a mixed emotion of missing her family but strangely excited to find what comes next. She looked up at her father's face, and in a shaky voice, she said, "Yes." She made the decision days ago.

Ned nodded and formed a small smile. "Good." He wrapped his arm around his daughter. "We're going to miss you," he added. She wrapped her arm around him and leaned into him, knowing she would miss her father the most.

A week later, Arya found herself in front of a modern designed condominium building.

"It's so big." Arya looked up. "Which level are we on, again?"

"We're on the eighth floor," Daenerys said as she grabbed a box from Arya's hybrid vehicle then closed the door with her hip.

On the other side, Arya grabbed her luggage or instead just her bag, realizing all her clothes were scattered on the ground in the back seat. She sighed, realizing her niece and nephew probably did this; This made her chuckle.

Daenerys smiled. "What's so funny?"

"I think in retaliation to moving away, Ned and Jaena took all my clothes from my luggage and scattered them on the ground."

Daenerys laughed. "Lovely—Do you want me to help?"

Arya shook her head. "I got it. I'll see you up in our condo."

She nodded and said, "Okay—I'll order take out."

"Yes! I'm starving." Arya smiled before looking at the mess of clothes in front of her. "Those little—" She laughed again before she started to fling her clothes in the luggage piece.

Holding luggage pieces in each hand, Arya walked inside the lobby. With her left knuckle, she pressed the button for the elevator. A minute later, the door opened, revealing someone she had not seen in years except in her dreams.

She spoke without thinking. "Gendry?"

He first looked at her in confusion before recognition set in a second later. He gave her a half-smile. His eyes met hers with gentleness. "Arya," he said calmly.

She didn't expect the way he said her name to take her breath away. She gulped, unable to speak. She stepped into the elevator with her luggage.

They were less than a meter away from each other as they continued to stare at each other. Arya didn't see Gendry move away. He continued to stand where he was. Her eyes didn't leave his, even as the elevator doors closed behind them.

End Note: I know, there was just a little Gendry at the end, but of course MORE is to come!! <3

#gendrya #arya x gendry #arya stark #gendry baratheon #modern westeros #ao3 #fanfic #multi chapter fic #my fanfic

[hellsbellschime]

your commentary on dany's characterization is really interesting that i started watching other youtube videos about her inevitable fall and i came across this vid youtube(.)com/watch?v=C6iw3-ILqdA and i was wondering what your thoughts on it were. because from every meta i've watched/your interpretation i don't know if i agree that she is a tragic hero, but i do see their points on why her decent into madness had no pay off from what we were given thru the series.

Yeah I’ve actually seen this video before, and I agree with most of her assessment here but I don’t consider Dany to be a tragic hero either, and I think that GoT really screwed the pooch because they tried to portray Dany’s decisions as a “descent into madness”. I absolutely do not think that Dany is insane, I think she’s a traumatized person who was mistreated for half of her life and then told she was a literal god on earth for the other half, and it unsurprisingly made her into an extremely violent narcissist. 

But I don’t see her as a tragic hero, and I don’t think that burning King’s Landing is going to be accidental in the books either. LOL I mean like, a huge issue for her is that in Essos she is the only super special snowflake around, and then she arrives in Westeros and there are a whole bunch of other super special snowflakes who not only do amazing miraculous shit, but who don’t defer to her or even seem to like her all that much, or in a few cases actively want to kill her. So if you live in a world where you think you’re the only god and then all of a sudden your incredible accomplishments aren’t quite as impressive or universally dominating then your godly ass is going to be pretty annoyed about it. 

And the way that Dany sees herself has always been really off base from the way that a lot of people see her, but in the cases of places that she didn’t want for herself she could just leave anyone who didn’t worship her behind and basically build herself an entire world full of people who think that she is the greatest thing in the world. But she actually does want Westeros, so she has to get the people there to like her and she’s absolutely flabbergasted when they don’t. She sees herself as the savior of the world and the most benevolent person alive, so when anyone in Westeros sees her as an invading conqueror it fucks with her self image. But that’s also why her burning King’s Landing won’t be an accident. Because she still wants to build a world around herself where everyone worships her, and since she actually wants Westeros for herself completely she is just finding another way of getting rid of everyone who doesn’t adore her. 

As poorly as the show executed it, in that sense her whole relationship with Jon actually does make sense. Because she doesn’t care about him as a person or even know him at all, he’s just someone that she sees as special and as a hero like her, so she automatically expects him to fall at her feet just like everyone else. When he doesn’t she basically threatens everything in his life that matters in order to bring him to heel, but she also wants his approval and she wants him to reinforce that she is the hero she thinks she is. When he doesn’t do that she starts to flip her shit, not because she loves him or again, even understands who he is as a person, but because no matter how hard he tries to submit to her he can’t fawn over her in the way that she wants and that’s putting a mirror up to her face in a way that she really doesn’t like. And her typical reaction to seeing anything that forces her to confront things that she doesn’t like about herself is to utterly destroy them. 

The show did fail her character in many ways, but I actually don’t think that they failed to portray her as what she really was, which was ultimately a villain. As GRRM has said repeatedly, every villain is the hero of their own story, and given that we see Dany’s world from her own eyes, we see her story as heroic until we finally see her through the eyes of other characters who see her as the villain. And for me her great tragedy is not that she wanted to be the hero of the world and failed, but that she saw herself as a god and she was just a person.

#anti daenerys targaryen #anti daenerys targaryen meta #Anonymous

[tatticstudio55]

Jon and Dany – both beyond the Wall at the end?

DAY SEVEN (Sunday, August 2nd) Leadership  |  Free Choice  |  DoS: Royal Retirement / Passing the Torch

This is less meta-ish and borders more on the speculative side, but I’d like to discuss a Jon and Dany (potential) ending I’ve never seen anyone talk about before: them ending both beyond the Wall, living with the free folks/as free folks. So, basically, the ending Jon got on the show, but with Dany by his side. I would even go as far as to say that the showrunners might have considered it.

This is not by any means “my ideal” Jonerys ending. That would be Jon and Dany settling on Dragonstone with a bunch of targlings and wild dragons. I do not, alas, think this is where the story is going. I do not expect either (or both) of them on the IT either. On the other hand, an ending with them both beyond the Wall seems to me like it could work with the overall story. There is already some book evidence/foreshadowing pointing to Jon’s endgame there, notably in ASOS when he (forgive my French) “finds himself” beyond the Wall:

“On the edge of the haunted forest, where the tents had been, Jon found an oakwood stump and sat.

Ygritte wanted me to be a wildling. Stannis wants me to be the Lord of Winterfell. But what do I want? The sun crept down the sky to dip behind the Wall where it curved through the western hills. Jon watched as that towering expanse of ice took on the reds and pinks of sunset.

[…]

He wanted it, Jon knew then. He wanted it as much as he had ever wanted anything. I have always wanted it, he thought, guiltily. May the gods forgive me. It was a hunger inside him, sharp as a dragonglass blade. A hunger . . . he could feel it. It was food he needed, prey, a red deer that stank of fear or a great elk proud and defiant. He needed to kill and fill his belly with fresh meat and hot dark blood. His mouth began to water with the thought.

It was a long moment before he understood what was happening. When he did, he bolted to his feet. "Ghost?" He turned toward the wood, and there he came, padding silently out of the green dusk, the breath coming warm and white from his open jaws. "Ghost!" he shouted, and the direwolf broke into a run.

[…]

He had his answer then.” Jon XII, ASOS

Dany is more of a wild card, but even the show gave us SOME reasons to believe that D&D played with the idea at some point: the pregnancy bait, Dany’s comment in 7x07 about King’s Landing and how “constrictive” the Dragonpit felt, Dany’s “we could stay here a thousand years. No one would find us” line in 8x01. Most importantly, back when I was watching season 7, this is the impression I was getting (from the showrunners):

Dany is a good person at heart, but she would not make a good queen nor would she like being queen.

I do not wholly agree with this, especially if we are talking about bookDany, who would make – and is – a much better queen than she is given credit for, but it looked to me like this is where the show was going with her. Or, at least, this is the message they were trying to communicate. They were not trying to “hide” Dany’s dark turn from the audience by making her or trying to make her bad-good-bad-good-bad-good, they simply had another endgame in mind for the character. I do not want to make this about the show but had to get this out of the way.

Now onto bookDany:

A while ago, I posted a meta where I discussed a pattern in Daenerys’s story: twice she succeeded at something magical, highly dangerous and related to dragons, and twice after she ended up in a desertic environment, thirsting, starving and nearly dying from exposition. Following the rule of 3 (which is especially predominant in her arc), it will probably happen again and – since there is no Great Grass Sea in Westeros – the “desertic environment” swallowing her afterward will be the frozen lands beyond the Wall. It could mean that she will die there, but it could also mean that she will simply disappear there. Her fate could also be revealed to the reader while remaining unknown to most characters. This would fit with Dany’s current representation in the story so far: she is an enigma, a rumor; nobody really knows her whereabouts, who she is, what she is, what she wants, what she has, if she is even real.

There are numerous parallels to be drawn between Daenerys and Mance Rayder, which I covered here. I would love the irony of Dany coming to Westeros thinking she is reclaiming her family’s lands, only to settle in the only part that was never conquered by the Targaryen. There is the (disputable, ok, but) fact that the only region in all of the continent where dragons could turn up useful for tree planting would be beyond the Wall (so frozen soil can be thawed and warmed up for plants to grow there again). Martin hung a pretty riffle on the metaphorical Wall when Silverwing refused to fly across in Fire and Blood. There is this pattern of wildling women making up Jon’s romantic prospects; first a wildling “commoner” (Ygritte), then a wildling “princess” (Val), then a wildling “queen” (Dany, eventually, if this theory proves to be correct). So of course, you will ask –

If this is Martin’s intended ending, why couldn’t the d’s just go with it?

Well, because the d’s never gave Dany any incentive to go beyond the Wall, apart from a brief rescue mission back in season 7. If Dany must end up there, something has got to bring her there and the show scrapped or discarded all of it : no Lands of Always Winter, no curtain of light, no this, no that, no nothing. And once she gets there in the books, because I am quite sure she will, she will not come back. The North is Dany’s ultimate destination. No yoyoing back and forth North and South like what the show did. That was just dumb. Travel time and distances should mean something, even if you have dragons (plus, Dany’s armies would have to travel on foot, horseback or by boat, like everybody else). The closest of yoyoing we have ever gotten in asoiaf was probably with Catelyn, it spanned three books, and she never made it back North anyway.

Did the d’s consider going with that ending? They might just. The clues were certainly there (see above…) but at some point, they must have realized that it would not work with the hole they had dug themselves in.

Now about the elephant in the room

I know some people will think that Dany ending beyond the Wall does not make much sense for her story, which technically (so far) does not have much to do with the lands beyond the Wall. In a way, I agree. Some people would also find such an ending anticlimactic to her arc and a waste after everything she has learned about leadership and politics in Meereen. I also agree. On a watsonian level, an ending with, say, Dany as a queen in Westeros – I think it works. Of course, I do. Where it does not work is on a doyalist level. Dany already had her arc of becoming queen. She achieved that by the end of book 3. Then she had to learn all the nit and gritty and dirty work of ruling over the rubble of a corrupt system while trying to make the lives better for everyone. If Dany becomes queen in Westeros, the same thing will happen again. Different setting, different people, same story. Some people have criticized the underlying message of Dany’s fight against slavery as “only a preparation” for what comes next in Westeros, saying it would undermine the real value of Dany’s work in Essos. I agree. However, the same problem applies if Dany becomes queen in Westeros: then her time in Essos is reduced to a prop up, a preparation, as if ruling Essos were somewhat less important than ruling Westeros. Furthermore, I cannot imagine an ending where Dany, still in possession of significant military forces – significant enough to secure her a crown, anyway – could choose to settle in Westeros without being plagued with guilt over leaving Essos’s slaves behind. I am sorry, I just cannot.

This is also, I think, where part of the “Dany is not a peace time queen” mentality comes from. Dany will never be a peace time queen, not because she prefers war, or because she does not want peace, but because what she is trying to achieve, in these times and places, means a lifetime of war. You cannot undo and rebuild an entire system that is rotten at its core in a single lifetime (heck, even show!Tyrion said this to her, for what the show is worth now…), much less in a few years. Dany is not a peace time queen because she is not a queen that is interested in maintaining the statue quo. At least that is how her time in Meereen revealed her. Arya would not be a peace time queen either. Jon would not be a peace time king. They could never be, less they abandoned their ideals and their ethics for a more comfortable life.

Then you might say that an ending where Dany goes back to Essos works too. It does – once again, on a watsonian level. What is the problem with this on a doyalist level? It turns Dany into a deus ex machina, coming to Westeros just in time to save it, then leaving it right after, as if neither the Others, nor her had ever been there.

The two remaining options are: either she dies a queen in Westeros, most likely during the Great War, or… the queen, Daenerys Targaryen, dies, while Dany lives.

That means that all reasonable possibilities, or choices, to keep on fighting as a queen are taken from her. Maybe her forces were severely depleted during the Great War. Maybe her dragons died. Maybe both. Maybe her function, not as an individual, but as a character in a specific story called A song of ice and fire, was to destroy an old system (AND to inspire others to follow in her footsteps, ensure that her efforts were not in vain, that the first steps will not go wasted, that the work she started will be taken up by other peoples, and others after them, and others after), not to rebuild the new one. There is nothing inherently wrong with that. Frodo Baggins’ role in The Lord of the Rings was to destroy something evil. His gardener Sam was the one who planted the trees and went on to become a mayor afterward. One was a destroyer and the other was a builder, but in the end, they were both heroes.

Not to mention that Frodo did not die at the end. You could say that he went on to live beyond the Wall too.

#ADOS speculation #jonerysweek2020 #jonerysweek #jon snow #daenerys targaryen #asoiaf #jonerys #bookjonerys

[gondorosi]

The gradual separation of show!Jon from book!Jon - Part II

Magic

The showrunners deciding that magic is an unimportant part of the saga and to be relegated to the background is utter horseshit. There’s a bloody REASON direwolves and dragons reappeared in the world when they did, more or less at the same time. There’s a fucking reason why in Martin’s version Dany’s fireproof nature was a one-time thing, the dormant magic in her reawakening as needed BECAUSE dragons needed to be brought back into the world. Dany, Jon and Bran are the three most magic-sensitive characters in the whole story - and only one of them have anything to do with it in a significant manner (though significant might be stretching it). With Dany, her magical nature is only sporadically referred to (the dragons are the be all and end all) and Jon has nothing.

Show!Jon is a mortal man on every level, without a drop of magic in him. Book!Jon is no Bran, but there are three fundamental factors which show how deeply he is connected to the land.

Ghost: Removing Ghost's importance to Jon is akin to removing part of his soul. He isn't just 'big, white fluffy doggo'. Ghost is part of him, his familiar. Ghost is the physical personification of the magic running in Jon's blood, the proof of the Old Gods awareness running through Stark children's veins. Direwolves have a deeper, subtler and less apparent magic than dragons, but no less potent, and no less essential to Jon than her dragons are to Dany. Out of all the Stark siblings, Jon’s connection with Ghost and Bran’s connection with Summer seem to be the most symbiotic. All the siblings have strong bonds with their direwolves, molded to their own personality - Arya’s connection with Nymeria persists even across the sea in Essos, all legends of Robb in battle are accompanied by legends of Grey Wind and poor Rickon becomes so enmeshed in Shaggydog’s mind that there’s little to distinguish between boy and beast. However, perhaps due to the nature of their POVs and story arcs, none of the Starks save Bran and Jon have their journeys so closely aligned to their wolves. Which is why it’s nigh impossible to even consider Jon’s story moving forward without Ghost, especially post resurrection. The show omitted the obvious implication that Jon warged into Ghost before he died, had no role for him in the BoB, completely erased him in S7 and relegated him to a damn stray in S8. On the other hand, the show AMPED up the Dragon Queen part of Dany to the detriment of all other aspects of her character.

Warging: In a universe where Martin has tried his best to weave in strong magic with actual medieval politics, concentrating all Northern magic into one single character (whose surface they barely scratched) is utterly lazy storytelling. Jon's warging abilities are mighty and second perhaps only to Bran, though I hold the belief Arya is as powerful a warg. But unlike both of them, Jon seems to actively resist exploring his warging possibilities. Some of the resistance may be explained by his environment - with both the NW and the Freefolk considering warging to be something of a ‘black’ art or dark magic. Sure, the Free Folk are more open about it, with Varamyr envying Jon’s gift with Ghost in his thoughts:

“He had known what Snow was the moment he saw that great white direwolf stalking silent at his side. One skinchanger can always sense another. Mance should have let me take the direwolf. There would be a second life worthy of a king. He could have done it, he did not doubt. The gift was strong in Snow, but the youth was untaught, still fighting his nature when he should have gloried in it.”

The show makes NO mention of it. Jon being considered a warg is a major reason behind half the NW hating and fearing him. I don’t remember the show ever bringing up the fact that Jon was feared - they seemed to make Thorne and Slynt’s animosity out of sheer spite and disgust at his bastardy. 

The Lord Commander's Raven: This is a favourite obsession of mine. Old Mormont’s raven pops out at Jon at seemingly random moments, but for the reader bursting with conspiracy theories, the raven is just another nod to the fact that Jon has a far greater role to play in the story than is visible to the eye. There's a popular theory that Bloodraven wargs him from time to time, since Jon is the secondary piece on his chessboard. The raven has come to Jon’s aid atleast twice that I can remember:

When Mormont is attacked by the wight:

Jon tried to shout, but his voice was gone. Staggering to his feet, he kicked the arm away and snatched the lamp from the Old Bear's fingers. The flame flickered and almost died. "Burn!" the raven cawed. "Burn, burn, burn!"

Spinning, Jon saw the drapes he'd ripped from the window. He flung the lamp into the puddled cloth with both hands.

During the election for Lord Commander when Mormont’s raven flying to his shoulder is used as a sign by Sam to argue for Mormont’s approval of Jon as the choice.

Bastardy

Jon's entire sense of self is centered around two things:

Ned Stark is his father

He's a bastard

His entire character arc is trying live up to one of those and distance himself from the connotations of the other. His bastardy is the formative lodestone of his character and moral compass but in the EXACT opposite of how Catelyn and Westerosi society as a whole expect it to be.

However, there's a twist to that. Jon's inner desire is EXACTLY what Catelyn feared. He DOES want to be Lord of Winterfell. He DOES harbour resentment that Robb (seemingly) has everything handed to him while the best Jon can hope for is to die at his post, unknown and unsung. He DOES want glory and power and to exact some kind of revenge on a society which deemed him vile and detestable for no fault of his. All the elements for him to become the Starks' own Daemon Blackfyre is already present.

But there's one difference - Ned Stark is no Aegon the Unworthy. Even more than all of the above heart's desires, Jon wants to be like his father. He wants to do what is right. He wants his father to be proud of him. He wants to be nothing like the greedy, vengeful and lusty creature he's always been told he is. He wants to help people and stand up for the weak because that's who he is. At the very heart of it, he just wants to be loved by Ned as much as his trueborn sons. And thus he takes Tyrion's words to heart and wears his bastardy like impenetrable armour.

In show!Jon, ALL of this inner struggle is lost. Jon's bastardy is rarely affixed other than as a side. Show!Jon is a 'good' man. Yes, undoubtedly. But what makes book!Jon a great man is that he masters his baser desires to focus on what's more important. THAT'S what Jeor, Mance and Stannis all saw in him. That's why the Free Folk follow him. That's why half the NW will die for him (yes I know the other half will kill him).

When you have spent most of the show without anywhere referencing how vital the armour of bastardy, and being Ned Stark’s son is to Jon's psyche and sense of self, even the best directors will not be able to depict WHY the news of his parentage will have ripped out the ground from under him. Dany's quest for the throne is out there glaring at us thus atleast on paper making sense that having her undeniable right threatened will rattle her (I personally hate hate HATE the creative decision that Dany's immediate reaction to find out Jon's a Targaryen will be paranoia and concern for HER throne but I digress).

Intelligence, ability and cunning

Up until S4 and most of S5, show!Jon and book!Jon exhibited similar levels of intelligence and cunning. One of my favourite scenes is Sam trying to stop Jon from marching into Mance's camp to try and assassinate him. Jon gets in his face with his frustration and despair boiling and asks if he has any better ideas. At this point he's done a superb job commanding the defence of Castle Black but has also just lost Ygritte, Pyp and Grenn all in one night, a significant portion of the meagre Castle Black forces and is fully aware that they cannot survive another charge. He's beyond desperate and aware that his efforts are likely suicidal but he can't just retreat, lick his wounds and do nothing. 

The show labours under the popular delusion that truly good guys can't be really smart, as being smart means preserving yourself and truly good guys will always jump into danger first to protect other people. Politics is bad so if you're a good strategist then you can't be a good person. 

Both book and show characterizations of Jon have been criticized for being examples of the ‘Chosen One’ the ‘reluctant hero’ who turns out to be the right man for the job, and for painting ambition and the quest for power as negative pursuits. In the book however, Jon’s ambitions never really had a chance to form. He’s prideful enough in his abilities to believe he would be an immediate select into the elite Ranger ranks and is devastated when that doesn’t work out. By the time he’s come to terms with the fact that being Mormont’s steward means being groomed for command, the truth of the White Walkers is in front of him and that becomes his sole consideration.

To many readers, Jon’s election to Lord Commander was ‘contrived’ though I do believe Sam played the long political game as he believed his friend being in a position of power would lead to an easier path for him. However, Jon doesn’t crumple under the weight of the responsibility - his actions as Lord Commander are revolutionary enough to completely destabilize his support. The show entirely omits all the strategic parts of his negotiations with both Stannis and the Freefolk. Unlike show!Jon, book!Jon does not allow the Freefolk through the Wall only on the account of goodwill and the fear of a common enemy. He takes their children hostage to ensure compliance. He negotiates with the Iron Bank for a loan to stave off starvation come winter. He repopulates the Gift with Free Folk. He shelters, counsels and aids Stannis. He addresses almost every logistical and material issue he can think except for the most fundamental - his people. 

On the other hand, there’s no strategic and political angle to Show!Jon in S6 and S7, instead being posited only as warrior extraordinaire.

'The greatest swordsman in the North' - but too naive to not keep the sister who tricked him almost to his death at arm's length. Brave, loyal and courageous beyond belief - but completely befuddled by politicking. Immediately trusting a sister he’s never been close to and who has been Littlefinger’s pupil for a considerable time. 

Book!Jon's abilities as a leader are sorely underappreciated, especially considering that his tenure as Lord Commander saw the status quo of almost every aspect of NW life upended. The previous LC is killed in a mutiny. The Wildling army launch an attack. The Others finally rise. A King/King Claimant FINALLY takes the NW's warnings seriously. The Wildlings are brought south of the Wall.

Despite being a new beginning for all recruits, the Night's Watch is the one order in Westeros whose traditions and rules have not changed in millennia. Understaffed, under-resourced and facing a threat the likes of which people would struggle to comprehend, Jon does the best he can. His major mistake is one most young leaders make, and that is assume all of those under automatically understand his reasons for doing what he does. 

Relationships

Brother:

If there's one role Jon takes more seriously than 'Ned Stark's son, it's that of brother. Book!Jon is pretty much the pinnacle of brotherly love - Robb's right hand, Arya's champion and dutiful protector to both Bran and Rickon. There's a subtle tragedy in this too - despite how much his siblings love him, all of them, including Arya, have othered him. He's brother, but only half. Snow, not a Stark. The last in the list. 'The last brother left to me' - as felt by both Robb and Sansa.

Book!Jon and Show!Jon are both shown to be loving, dutiful brothers but once again the show is incapable of portraying more than one character at a time in a certain way. Thus all of Jon's brotherly love is concentrated on Sansa, the sibling he was least close to. Show!Jon never mentions Robb after his death mentions Arya not at all when book!Jon never stops thinking about the two of them.

Maybe, maybe if the show had bothered to flesh out Jon Snow's emotional attachment to his home and siblings, his dilemma between his family and Dany wouldn't have been so shoddy.

Friend:

Book!Jon, despite his aloof demeanour attracts fast friends. His staunchest supporters in the NW are those who he befriended when he first stepped within the gates. He's the only one to ever have stood up for many of them. And it's his NW friends who do become truly brothers, as they see and stand beside him during his rise to leadership.

Show!Jon is no different - he's got his loyal friends but there was no apparent discord after him being elected LC. Which is surprising considering that this is the moment that Jon effectively decides to ‘Kill the boy.’ The Gilly baby switch storyline is completely done away with, probably because it is the one decision that very clearly paints Jon as grey. The book Sam struggles to understand this decision - in his mind his best friend would never have done that. Maester Aemon is the one who sets him straight - Jon is no longer just a brother of the Watch, he’s the Lord Commander now. He can no longer be taking decisions just as Sam’s friend.

The show never really dwelt on the chasm Jon’s position as a leader would have created with his brothers who till them were his equals. Book!Jon knowingly starts distancing himself and this is a flaw that comes back to stab him in the chest - again a misstep in one raised to leadership at a young age.

Lover:

This part will be a bit of a cop-out since at this point the only common love interest between the books and the show is Ygritte. The show axed Val, who’s one of my favourite secondary characters and my main preference for a Jon pairing pre-Dany. And of course, there’s far too much plot to cover before Jon and Dany even meet in the book (if they’re ever finished).

There are factions of the fandom who don’t think the Jon and Dany romance in S7 was set up convincingly. Admittedly that’s going to be hard for me to judge fairly as I’ve been in the Jonerys camp ever since ADWD made it clear how Jon was growing as a leader and as a magical touchstone in direct parallels to Dany. It definitely helped that Kit’s portrayal of Jon had FINALLY started to appeal to me once The Watchers of the Wall aired. I’d been one of the many fans who had been waiting for these two to meet on the show - and though I personally found the Jon-Dany relationship progression to be one of the few good things about S7, I can perhaps get why many neutral fans (i.e not commited to any rival ships for either Jon or Dany) think its out of character for them to be so involved so soon.

There are plenty of popular assumptions perpetuated by the show which have no backup in the original material - one of them is ‘dumb, lovable idiot’ Jon paired with the ‘awkward and oblivious as fuck with women’ Jon. Now, I’ll not deny that the latter portrayal works QUITE well with show!Jon (Kit’s face is the perfect cast for this characterization) but I just don’t see it working with book!Jon. The boy isn’t seeking out women but its not like he’s not around them. Alys Karstark was quite obviously taken with him, and I doubt Jon missed it, but there were far greater things of import to consider for both of them - I saw no awkwardness in the text. Jon dislikes Selyse and manages to be both cordial and deferential as required. Melisandre makes no secret of her fascination with him - there’s no bumbling awkwardness there either. And Val - he’s quite smitten and there’s some awkwardness there, sure but its hardly the bumbling variety.

As for Dany - considering that at this point the 7 seasons of the show is all we will ever have, I somehow think the softer show!Jon makes a much better pairing with the more hardened show!Dany. Its as if certain aspects of their personalities were flipped in the show - book!Dany is definitely much softer and gentle without her power and strength being diminished, whereas book!Jon is far more calculated and ruthless without compromising on his honour and integrity. 

#jon snow #book!jon #show!jon #ASoIaF #game of thrones #nights watch #asoiaf val #jonerys

[argsoiaf]

(Spoilers Main) All Men Have a Role to Play: Master of Whisperers Part 1

First of all, I would like to thank Max L, @LuchiBelle, and Will Perpetuo Busch (here is a link to his webpage: https://scriptoriumm.com/). They have helped me modify an old (unreadable) essay into a much better one, gave me valuable input on the topic, help improve the grammar (I am not a native English speaker) and even edit some parts. If you like this go check their (much better) stuff.

Introduction:

The position of Master of Whisperers is one of the strangest on the King’s Small Council, with regard to the amount of time it has existed, The array of westerosi (and essosi) who have held it, and its institutional organization. Unlike other Small Council positions, it wasn’t created by Aegon “The Conqueror” to help him rule the realm and council him, but by his second son Maegor “The Cruel”. It had its unofficial founding when the people of the Red Keep and King’s Landing started to call Tyanna of the Tower the “Mistress of Whisperers'' (which has a double meaning; Mistress being simultaneously the feminine for Master and a synonym for lover, which Tyanna was before getting married to the King). It always maintained a semi-unofficial nature with many de facto holders of the position refusing to take the official title. But despite all these peculiarities, we can still see certain constants in the position.

The Masters of Whisperers, unlike other “Masters”, has no default bureaucracy; all their power comes from the webs of agents they build and is entirely personal. This is also made possible by the lack of supervision from the Hand or the King; having a lot of freedom to conspire against the crown if they want. Being in the Small Council appointed by the King they seem to be legally capable of whatever they want unless it goes against a direct order of the King, or it is treason. In other words, they can do whatever they want to do even if it is illegal with no reprisal from the King, at least until it is known when the King would have plausible deniability (this question was a source of debate in the Learned Hands Podcast in a great episode featuring u/JoeMagician)

The Holders of the Title and their Nature

“The King's Justice must be fearsome, the master of coin must be frugal, the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard must be valiant ... and the master of whisperers must be sly and obsequious and without scruple. A courageous informer would be as useless as a cowardly knight.”

-A Game of Throne, Eddard XV

Before starting to talk about the different Masters of Whisperers and considering most of them belong to the backstory of the series, I will leave you a link to another reddit post where I make a summary of all Master of Whisperers. If you already know the gallery of Varys’ predecessors, or simply aren’t interested in the specifics, I will recommend you skip that part.

The Masters of Whisperers are the smallest number of all of the King's councilors across the years since Aegon’s conquest (even counting unofficial ones), and the Masters of Whisperers also held their title for the shortest overall span of time compared to other positions. Counting only when they use the title it sums up to 47 years, and if you add Rego Draz alongside Bloodraven’s period as Hand it increases to 80 years.

In any case, it is an amazingly small number if we compare it to the 300 years that the Small Council has existed. This is probably because the Lords and Kings of Westeros consider espionage as unhonourable and cowardly, with the title being held most of the time by women, bastards, and foreigners with one great exception being Larys Strong (but due to his disability he is unfit to fulfill the traditional knightley roles of a Westerosi noble). Another reason might be that most Masters of Whisperers were very unpopular, so Kings might want to avoid the bad image having one would have given their predecessors. For example, Jahaerys no doubt wanted to distance himself from the rule of his uncle, while both Aegon V and Jahaerys II tried to avoid the appearance of being controlled by their Master of Whisperers like Aerys I. Most Masters of Whisperers served in moments of war or crisis (Rego Draz, for example, started to act like a spymaster after Elisa Farman stole the dragon eggs) and during reigns of especially paranoid Kings.

All of this shows how Larys Strong and Varys holding the title in relatively peaceful times with lazy Kings was exceptionally rare and unique. One major possible explanation for Varys remaining at his position for so much time is that he finds ways to remain useful. We know he pretended to be Cersei’s friend and he probably gave Jon Arryn useful information. Possibly the early Baratheon regime had not enough people to replace all positions, so they decided to keep him.

In Larys' case I think he was not named by King Viserys I himself, but by his Hand Ser Otto Hightower. Larys had probably started building a web of spies during his father's Handship, and Otto wanted to add him as an ally to his cause. We should also consider that the court was divided among different factions, and a civil war seemed imminent after the King's death. Adding him to the Small Council meant adding a great asset for Otto’s grandson's future struggle for the throne.

So, if the position is so unpopular, dangerous and rare, why have it in the first place? Why not simply use external spymasters that do not sit in the Small Council, as Kevan did with Qyburn and Rhaenyra with Lady Mysaria? But the advantages overshadow the inconvenience: it puts fear in your enemies and prevents plots against you (for example, Doran Martell being so afraid of Varys that he drives his daughter to rebel against him) and it also gives the Westerosi Lords a false sense of security. We can see how Cersei believes when she appoints Qyburn, who gains a lot of Varys’ former contacts, that the spies come with the position. It has been suggested that, like most things Cersei believes, this thought is BS, since Varys' little birds remained loyal to him.

Span of their Influence, Webs and Power

“How many eyes does Lord Bloodraven have? the riddle ran. A thousand eyes, and one.”

-The Mystery Knight.

Like I mentioned earlier this position is unique compared to every other one on the council, due to the lack of a formal bureaucracy behind it. It appears that the size of the Master’s webs and the amount of power they are able to accumulate are entirely dependent on their own personal ability.

This contrasts greatly with another position of the Small Council, the Master of Laws. Theoretically, the Master of Laws has such a vast number of responsibilities he should be third in the realm, only to the Hand and the King, but the truth is that most of them are unremarkable nobles with very little influence across the vast history of the continent. Meanwhile, we see how many Masters of Whisperers turn into very important figures in their respective regimes. Tyanna and Qyburn are good examples of those Masters who became the right hands of their monarchs. The same phenomenon also occurs with other members of the Small Council, like Littlefinger, who has a great web of spies. There may be even more cases, but as I mentioned earlier The Master of Whisperers is perceived as dishonourable, and most of them will prefer to keep the extent of their power and influence secret.

Regarding the size of their webs, they seem to remain pretty localized to King’s Landing and the Crownlands during most of recorded history. Tyanna was only able to extinguish the grand scale conspiracy of Aegon the Uncrowned rising against his Uncle King Maegor because she intercepted messages that had been sent to Alyssa Velaryon at the capital. Rego Draz does extend his web mainly into Essos because of the type of mission he is assigned with.

The first one to extend the web to a continental level is Brynden Rivers. He expanded the position using magic and his important status at court to gain information of distant regions. Maybe the scale of the web was overblown by the people fearful of his “eyes”, but this is equally useful because like I mentioned earlier creating this fear already made people less willing to plot against him.

It goes without saying that Bloodraven was the first Master of Whisperers to expand his influence in the regime and turn into the Hand of the King. He did not follow the usual image I mentioned earlier about the Masters of Whisperers. Being born at “the wrong side of the sheets” he is admittedly seen as lesser by the Westerosi Noblemen, similar to Larys Strong. But he is also very capable in some of the fields traditionally held by the nobility and not by the usual Masters of Whisperers, being a great fighter and commander. This combination of different abilities made him a capable Hand for years. His victory in the Second Blackfyre Rebellion before it even properly started is a great example of this.

There is also a lot of overlap between Master of Whisperers and torturers. For example, Tyanna oversaw the torture of Prince Viserys and Alys Harroway and Larys was also the Lord Confessor. He is the only other recorded case of a Master of Whisperers expanding to other positions while remaining officially at the original position, even if it is similar to the original one. He is also the first person to be named officially Master of Whisperers. Rego Draz would not count as occupying another position, because he made the opposite transition, he started as a very successful Master of Coin and only later did he use his contacts in Essos to do some information gathering.

Qyburn might have a similar process to the one Bloodraven had, with the only difference that he will achieve such power by being Cersei’s bootlicker. He has already absorbed many functions related to the Grand Maester and some seemingly opposite ones, like the royal torturer. This contrast between Grand Maester and Master of Whisperers can be seen in the attempt at a rivalry Pycelle wishes to have with Varys, with “The Spider” not even noticing him. The opposing duality of the two positions can be seen in how most Small Council meetings start with the Grand Maester bringing the official information brought by the ravens, while the Master of Whisperers brings the unofficial one brought by his “little birds”. Qyburn is just this phenomenon being brought forward in a more obvious way, with him using a Maester-like robe, but instead of being grey, it is white.

We can see that the influence of the Masters of Whisperers has varied over the years, but we can also notice how it has increased in recent times. With their webs being bigger and bigger and having more important roles at court.

Conclusion

Here ends the first part of this Essay. We have discussed the nature of the position and the span of its influence. There is an inherent contradiction in a position that exists in the center of westerosi nobility, but where outsiders can take control. A position for bastards, cripples, women, and foreigners, in which they can extend their webs of spies and influence to control history. Even though it is the most informal of all of the council members, or maybe because it is, many of the holders of the title have risen in their respective regimes to be highly influential political figures.

In the next part, I will be analyzing the loyalties of the Masters to each of their individual Kings and the Throne, and their overall use of magic. Both relevant topics to the ideas previously discussed.

#asoiaf #game of thrones #Fire and blood

[the-king-andthe-lionheart]

So this is definitely in response to that certain dark section of our fandom (you know exactly who you are) who are throwing a fit about the Arya and Daenerys fandoms enjoying the possibility of a canon Daenarya friendship in the future.  So let’s look at all the quotes that possibly foreshadow a future Arya and Dany friendship and put it into context.

It was very dark right now, she realized. She hugged her bare knees tight against her chest and shivered. She would wait quietly and count to ten thousand. By then it would be safe for her to come creeping back out and find her way home.

By the time she had reached eighty-seven, the room had begun to lighten as her eyes adjusted to the blackness. Slowly the shapes around her took on form. Huge empty eyes stared at her hungrily through the gloom, and dimly she saw the jagged shadows of long teeth. She had lost the count. She closed her eyes and bit her lip and sent the fear away. When she looked again, the monsters would be gone. Would never have been. She pretended that Syrio was beside her in the dark, whispering in her ear. Calm as still water, she told herself. Strong as a bear. Fierce as a wolverine. She opened her eyes again.

The monsters were still there, but the fear was gone.

Arya got to her feet, moving warily. The heads were all around her. She touched one, curious, wondering if it was real. Her fingertips brushed a massive jaw. It felt real enough. The bone was smooth beneath her hand, cold and hard to the touch. She ran her fingers down a tooth, black and sharp, a dagger made of darkness. It made her shiver.

"It's dead," she said aloud. "It's just a skull, it can't hurt me." Yet somehow the monster seemed to know she was there. She could feel its empty eyes watching her through the gloom, and there was something in that dim, cavernous room that did not love her. She edged away from the skull and backed into a second, larger than the first. For an instant she could feel its teeth digging into her shoulder, as if it wanted a bite of her flesh. Arya whirled, felt leather catch and tear as a huge fang nipped at her jerkin, and then she was running. Another skull loomed ahead, the biggest monster of all, but Arya did not even slow. She leapt over a ridge of black teeth as tall as swords, dashed through hungry jaws, and threw herself against the door. - Arya III AGOT

Here is the initial passage that has to do with dragons in Arya’s story.  She comes across the dragon skulls in the dark and feels afraid of them.  She feels as if the eyes of the skulls were watching her and did not like her. She also doesn’t recognize them for what they are.  She initially refers to them as monsters, but later she comes to realize they are dragons: 

This time the monsters did not frighten her. They seemed almost old friends. Arya held the candle over her head. With each step she took, the shadows moved against the walls, as if they were turning to watch her pass. "Dragons," she whispered. She slid Needle out from under her cloak. The slender blade seemed very small and the dragons very big, yet somehow Arya felt better with steel in her hand. - Arya IV AGOT

Now admittedly the first quote does sound like the foreshadowing could suggest antagonism between Arya and Dany, but the second quote doesn’t suggest this.  Arya thinks of them as if they are old friends.  That is the most notable sentence of the paragraph, not the fact that she slid Needle out.  But when you actually look at this paragraph you actually see a duality here.  The monsters did not frighten her.  They seemed almost old friends.  Yet she slides her blade out and feels better?  So for me this quote just seems to foreshadow that Dany will be Arya’s friend, yet Arya will remain wary of her dragons like anyone naturally would be.

So putting these two quotes into context, it tells us that if Arya and Dany will meet they will initially be antagonistic and wary of each other (most Daenarya fans I’ve seen acknowledge this will likely be the case).  However it also suggests that this wariness will eventually fade and they will become friends.  Arya doesn’t need to think she is wholly safe from the dragons to have a friendship with Dany.  EVERYONE is wary about the dragons, just like most people would be unsure and most likely afraid if they were in the same room as a large cat or a bear. 

But this isn’t Arya’s only dragon connections in the narrative.  Arya’s closest relationship is with Jon, who is half Targaryen.  In Braavos Arya is fascinated by the courtesans and the Black Pearl in particular:

"The Black Pearl," she told them. Merry claimed the Black Pearl was the most famous courtesan of all. "She's descended from the dragons, that one," the woman had told Cat. "The first Black Pearl was a pirate queen. A Westerosi prince took her for a lover and got a daughter on her, who grew up to be a courtesan. Her own daughter followed her, and her daughter after her, until you get to this one [...] - Cat of the Canals AFFC

The woman with him could not have been more than a third his age. She was so lovely that the lamps seemed to burn brighter when she passed. She had dressed in a low-cut gown of pale yellow silk, startling against the light brown of her skin. Her black hair was bound up in a net of spun gold, and a jet-and-gold necklace brushed against the top of her full breasts. As they watched, she leaned close to the envoy and whispered something in his ear that made him laugh. "They should call her the Brown Pearl," Mercy said to Daena. "She's more brown than black."

"The first Black Pearl was black as a pot of ink," said Daena. "She was a pirate queen, fathered by a Sealord's son on a princess from the Summer Isles. A dragon king from Westeros took her for his lover."

"I would like to see a dragon," Mercy said wistfully. - Mercy TWOW

There is even foreshadowing that Arya will form a closer relationship with the Black Pearl in the future by becoming an apprentice for her so Arya can refine her highborn manners so it’s easier for the FM to place her into highborn society to do their work, because why not utilize a highborn girl in this way?

But also notice that Arya/Mercy is friends with a girl named “Daena” which is ridiculously close to the name Daenerys.  And in the same conversation with Daena (Daenerys) Arya/Mercy also said she wished to see a dragon.  And no this isn’t “Mercy’s” wish, this is Arya’s wish:

As Arya crossed the yard to the bathhouse, she spied a raven circling down toward the rookery, and wondered where it had come from and what message it carried. Might be it's from Robb, come to say it wasn't true about Bran and Rickon. She chewed on her lip, hoping. If I had wings I could fly back to Winterfell and see for myself. And if it was true, I'd just fly away, fly up past the moon and the shining stars, and see all the things in Old Nan's stories, dragons and sea monsters and the Titan of Braavos, and maybe I wouldn't ever fly back unless I wanted to. - Arya X ACOK

Doesn’t really sound like Arya hates dragons or have any issues regarding them.  She wants to see them irregardless of any fear they may inspire within her that everyone would naturally have upon seeing a dragon.

Arya also expresses a wish to fly throughout her narrative and she also has wing symbolism in her arc:

If I was a crow I could fly down and peck off his stupid fat pouty lips. - Arya X ACOK

If I had wings I could fly back to Winterfell and see for myself.  And if it was true, I'd just fly away, fly up past the moon and the shining stars, and see all the things in Old Nan's stories, dragons and sea monsters and the Titan of Braavos, and maybe I wouldn't ever fly back unless I wanted to. - Arya X ACOK

I wish I could change into a wolf and grow wings and fly away. - Arya XIII ASOS

She might be bald and skinny, but Mercy had a pretty smile, and a certain grace. Even Izembaro agreed that she was graceful. She was not far from the Gate as the crows flies, but for girls with feet instead of wings the way was longer. - Mercy TWOW

Also lets not forget how similar Arya and Dany are to each other and how many parallels they share.  They are both lost princesses exiled and sent to Essos, specifically Braavos, after their father's deaths at the hands of Lannister's.  They each know what it's like to be bought and sold and to be enslaved – Dany as a child bride and Arya as a child soldier.  And they both have pretenders trying to take their claims.  Both have been forced into becoming smallfolk, living in poverty and starved.  And they both know what it's like to be hunted and scared.  They adapt exceedingly well into other environments and cultures, and their morality and sense of justice are very attuned, as they seek to protect those that can not protect themselves.  Very protective, they are both empathetic and maternal and care for the sick, ailing, and dying.  Both of them are survivors and have both suffered abuse and sexual assault (more so for Dany, but it's still there).  They are both clever and know how to manipulate people.  They are both polyglots and both of their deepest desires are for home and family/pack.  They both try to live up to the image of their older siblings (ie Sansa and Rhaegar).  Arya is said to look and act like Lyanna and Daenerys is compared to Rhaegar by the people that knew him.   They are both very close to their house sigils and even dream about them and the mystical beasts they both own.  They both love horseback riding and they both have encountered mystical prophets.  Wanted/considered becoming sailors and they both have fantastic people skills.  Not to mention that it was Arya who said that the slaves should have killed the masters, while Dany is leading a slave uprising to overthrow and yes, execute the masters.

Dany is also not some “mad queen” and she does listen to the people who knew her father and Rhaegar.  She is learning the truth about the monster her father was and learning to accept that.  So there is no reason why Dany should continue to feel antagonistic towards the next generation of Stark’s for something they didn’t do.  

I’ve also seen comments about how the fire devastation that is within Arya’s story must clearly mean “Dark Dany” and that Arya and Dany will be antagonistic towards each other in canon when they meet.  I’m assuming these people are referring to the burning barn scene:

"You take her!" she yelled. "You get her out! You do it!" The fire beat at her back with hot red wings as she fled the burning barn. It felt blessedly cool outside, but men were dying all around her. She saw Koss throw down his blade to yield, and she saw them kill him where he stood. Smoke was everywhere. There was no sign of Yoren, but the axe was where Gendry had left it, by the woodpile outside the haven. As she wrenched it free, a mailed hand grabbed her arm. Spinning, Arya drove the head of the axe hard between his legs. She never saw his face, only the dark blood seeping between the links of his hauberk. Going back into that barn was the hardest thing she ever did. Smoke was pouring out the open door like a writhing black snake, and she could hear the screams of the poor animals inside, donkeys and horses and men. She chewed her lip, and darted through the doors, crouched low where the smoke wasn't quite so thick.

A donkey was caught in a ring of fire, shrieking in terror and pain. She could smell the stench of burning hair. The roof was gone up too, and things were falling down, pieces of flaming wood and bits of straw and hay. Arya put a hand over her mouth and nose. She couldn't see the wagon for the smoke, but she could still hear Biter screaming. She crawled toward the sound. - Arya IV ACOK

Arya rolled headfirst into the tunnel and dropped five feet. She got dirt in her mouth but she didn't care, the taste was fine, the taste was mud and water and worms and life. Under the earth the air was cool and dark. Above was nothing but blood and roaring red and choking smoke and the screams of dying horses. She moved her belt around so Needle would not be in her way, and began to crawl. A dozen feet down the tunnel she heard the sound, like the roar of some monstrous beast, and a cloud of hot smoke and black dust came billowing up behind her, smelling of hell. Arya held her breath and kissed the mud on the floor of the tunnel and cried. For whom, she could not say. - Arya IV ACOK

This chapter does not mean that Dany is going to go “evil” or “mad” and start burning stuff to the ground.  You guys do remember that Dany has three dragons right?  And that Dany is only the dragonrider to Drogon?  That leaves two other possible dragons that could be stolen from Dany.  We have Euron/Victarion who has the dragon binder horn and then we have Aegon who may or may not be able to claim one of those dragons for himself.  There is also the possibility that Euron dies or Aegon dies and someone else will take their places as dragonriders via Targaryen blood or use of that horn.  So besides Dany we have Aegon, Jon, Euron, and Tyrion who may all ride dragons within the story as they all have the proper set-up and foreshadowing for it to be a possibility.  So why is it the automatic assumption that it will be Dany burning shit down?   

Not to mention, wildfire has the same types of language used as the two quotes above:

And then some vast beast had let out a roar, and green flames were all around them: wildfire, pyromancer's piss, the jade demon [...] From bank to bank there was nothing but burning ships and wildfire. The sight of it seemed to stop his heart for a moment, and he could still remember the sound of it, the crackle of flames, the hiss of steam, the shrieks of dying men, and the beat of that terrible heat against his face as the current swept him down toward hell. - Davos I ASOS

So considering there not only is there a ton of foreshadowing that it will be Cersei who destroys King’s Landing with wildfire, but also there is foreshadowing that Jon Connington will do something incredibly drastic to win and keep the Iron Throne for Aegon.  And may I remind the audience that the fires Arya went through and experienced in the Riverlands had zero to do with Dany.  They were the direct result of the Lannisters.

So if Arya IV ACOK is foreshadowing a future fire she is stuck in, there is no evidence that the fire will be caused by Dany nor that the fire is dragonfire.  And if you are going to point out the show as evidence, let me tell you something, go to the youtuber The Dragon Demands and watch his videos dissecting everything about the scene of Dany burning King’s Landing by using the script, listening to BtS content, looking at the storyboards, actually noting that a scene of Cersei looking out the window, depicting her watching people put barrels of wildfire on the battlements, etc.  Because the compilation he makes proves that Dany burning KL the way that she did in 8x05 was a last minute change.  It was supposed to be an accidental wildfire explosion before they changed it so they could justify Jon killing her.  But I’m sure even with the evidence you’ll still cling to the idea of Dark!Dany because you are incredibly insecure about your fictitious ship and your blatant mischaracterization of your favorite “pure as the driven snow /s” character, because there is literally nothing in the books that foreshadows Dany going “mad” or “dark”.  So why don’t you take your jealousies about Daenerys and Arya and the very possible Daenarya friendship somewhere else.

#arya stark #daenerys targaryen #asoiaf

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

The thing that bothers me with the food issue is the complete lack of logic in the set-up of it. If Dany hadn't brought any food with her, how did they travel to WF from KL without not starving for at least a month (in winter the road should take longer but the show brushes away those things usually)? Did they plunder their way across Westeros? If they had had food, as any army on the march should have, how did it magically disappear when they arrive at WF? In S7 when Lannisters took the Highgarden, Daenerys gets upset and says that they took all the food now her army was going to starve. So how could she have food with her anyway? It's not like Cersei gave them as a sign of truce or anything lol. For once, the show wanted to stay true to realistic logistic issues but they fucked it up. The food will probably be a big issue in the books, it already is in Essos, how will she travel from there to Westeros without taking all the resources of Meereen will be a big question, will she have enough to feed her army on a months long journey, will Westeros have enough to sustain hundreds of thousands of soldiers she's bringing, they probably tried to make it an issue as a reference to that on the show but they failed miserably.

Regarding the first question, Daenerys could probably make the journey very quickly if she was riding on Drogon’s back, but that doesn’t explain how her armies would manage. I think this is where the “We failed geography” memes really come through. King’s Landing is at least a month away from Winterfell as directly stated by Cersei, and it used to take at least a full episode just to make the journey. Then by S8E4 you have characters constantly fast-traveling there since they already unlocked it, I guess. I don’t mind when Dany is able to do this because she has her Drogon cheat code, but the other characters? Meh...

The question of food was kind of brushed aside after the initial conversation between Sansa and Dany. I can’t remember, was it talked about when they planned to lay siege on King’s Landing? Because in theory, that would only make the population starve even faster, so it’s not any less “violent.” You know, this is only making me wish even more that she had just ignored Tyrion and Jon’s advice and taken the Iron Throne in Season 7. Gotten that out of the way. “My enemies are in the Red Keep.” Like sure, people would have feared her at first, but then she could have gone on to prove herself as a Leader by actually giving a damn about her people, not to mention stopping the Night King.

#Daenerys Targaryen #Game of Thrones