#slayer of slavers

[oveliagirlhaditright]

Reading the "Chosen" novelization has also made me realize just how funny Chao-Ahn is (though for somewhat sad reasons? She's a complete fish out of water, as no one speaks her language to be able to understand her at all [nor can she really speak English]. I also don't even know if she knew she was a Potential before being brought to Buffy's home? Or if she did, she was very new to it all, ala Rona. But everyone always think she's saying and feeling the opposite of what she is). I don't know how I missed that before. And she kind of slays with her roasts about everyone and everything, that no one knows that she's saying. LOL

#buffy the vampire slayer #i'm glad that she. you know. lives to actually be fully activated as a slaver and survives the battle with the first alongside rona vi #kennedy and some background potentials that we never knew the names of

[moon-sang]

ᴛʜᴇ ɢɪʀʟ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴏɪɴ

Din Djarin x Teen!Reader

SUMMARY: When meeting up with a slaver who had information on where Gideon may have taken Grogu, Din comes across a peculiar little slave. 

WARNINGS: Slave!reader, Fem!Reader, Teen!reader, soft!Mando, angst (A LOT), fluff, cuteness!!!, mature language, typical violence, dad!Din, trauma and all the bad things that come with slavery @.@

~ There is ONE 鬼滅 の 刃 (Demon Slayer) reference in this.

WORDCOUNT: 1.5K

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Big, shiny armour was all you could see as you opened the door.

You silently gasp at how tall your new visitor is, taking a few careful steps back. The strange man in the helmet tilts his head to the side, taking recognition of your much, much smaller form. 

After a moment’s silence he nods his head once, before carefully stepping around, in such a gentle manner it has you dumbstruck. If it had been any other one of your master’s friends they would have pushed you into the wall laughing as they stumbled in. 

Weird...

“Aaah! Mando!” Exclaims your master. Maker, you could just gag at his sickly voice.

“Dru,” Mando greets. 

Your Jablogian master hobbles over to this Mando guy, his thick double chin bobbing up and down as he stumbled across the hall. 

“Have you brought the money?” Dru seethes, freckles of saliva spraying from his mouth as he spoke. 

The Mando nods his head and places a pouch of what you could only assume were creds, into his rough hand. 

“Aaah, very good, very good, now come, let us eat and talk about your little green womprat” He suggests, clapping his hands twice. Your breath hitches momentarily as you rush to your masters side. “Get us something to eat.” He snarls, shoving you into the kitchen. 

You stumble in and fall with an oomph. Quickly you force yourself up. Master did NOT like to wait. Grabbing a cutting board and knife you begin slicing a few fruits into small shapes, Just the way master liked it. You slide the fruits off of the wooden cutting board and into a rather big bowl, sprinkling some orange and lemon juice on top of it, for extra flavour. To finish off you pour two glasses of red wine before walking out. 

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You gently place the tray of food and wine on the small table before your master and ‘The Mando’ The Mando quickly thanks you in a timid voice, but does not make a move to grab anything to eat. 

Weird...

“Took you long enough!” Dru practically yells, snatching a piece of fruit and shoving it in his mouth. 

The Mando menacingly cocks his head to the side, staring at Dru in such confidence it was almost scary. 

Dru chuckles nervously and pushes the bowl across the table, encouraging The Mando to take a piece. 

He still makes no indication of wanting to have any. 

The man in the silver helmet pushes the bowl back to Dru, refusing his tempting offer. 

“Thank you for your communication.” The Mando offers, before stepping out of their small booth and making way for the exit. 

“Wait!” Dru yells in desperation. 

You knew that voice, he was hungry for more of his credits. 

“Please, mr. Mandalorian-”

Mr. Mandalorian?

“I will come along with you and save your green son, if you can pay me for my service.” He tries.

“No, thank you.” 

Mr. Mandalorian gives you a quick glance from behind him, and stutters in his confident strides to the door. However, with a quick shake of his head, he leaves the mansion.

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“YOU IDIOT!” Screams Dru. 

“It’s your fault he didn’t stay!”

You quickly duck as another spice tray is thrown at your head. 

“You weren't doing things right! You-you were standing wrong! You....you chose the wrong wine! IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT!” He screams, slapping you hard enough on the cheek to send you to the stone floor. 

You whimper, but allow no tears to pass.

“I’m sorry, master.” You barely say above a whisper. 

Dru scoffs incredulously, eyeing you in disgust. 

“Sorry won’t cut it. I think it’s time I sold you off to someone else, and get me a more useful slave. What do you think...Y/l/n?”

You’re about to answer when a powerful punch is delivered to your stomach. Once again you crumble to the cool floor, willing the pain everywhere to go away.

Of course..it does not.

A forceful kick is swung and landed to the side of your head, and that was the last grip of reality you had before you mind swam into unconsciousness. 

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“Get.....need....bandages......quickly...” 

You could distinctly hear someone speaking, but the sound of your breaths and your heartbeat were too loud to decipher what they were saying. You strained your ears even harder to try and make out some of what the person was saying, wanting to gain some sense of your surroundings.

“I need some bandages, and get some bacta too!”

Hey...that kind of sounds like....The Mando? 

You force your eyes open, instantly regretting it as a sharp hot white pain shot through your skull. 

You whimper and let your head lull against someones arms. 

“Shhh, it’s ok, you’re ok.” 

An arm moves across your waist and pulls you a bit to closer to-

wait

was someone holding you?......

Was that the smell of smoke??

Your head was spinning and The Mando must have noticed because his thumbs begin to gently rub at your temples, avoiding the wound left by master-

Where was master Dru?

“Where...master....” You groan. 

“He’s gone, you don’t have to worry, ok, just try to open your eyes, take it easy though.” 

You do as you’re told and slowly blink your eyes open, this time the pain is dull as you do so.  

You’re greeted with a familiar tilt of a silver helmet, and a few unidentified people behind him. 

“Good, now keep your eyes open, can you do that?” 

You don't respond, only keeping your eyes open for him. 

“Good.” 

“I’m going to check for a concussion now. I need you to answer my questions as honestly as you can.” 

You do nothing in response. 

“Ok.”

“How many fingers am I holding up?” He ask, holding up 2 fingers. 

You copy his fingers and hold out 2 of your own. 

“Ok, good.”

“Do you know your name?” He asks, voice gruff. 

You don’t say anything, just staring blankly at the void of his visor. 

“Can you tell me your name?” He repeats, giving your bruised arm a gentle squeeze.

~~

Din watches the slave with intent. 

He was starting to believe she really did have a concussion, until she reached for her pocket. 

She fished out a small coin and positioned it in between her index finger and thumb, then she tossed it in the air and caught it with direct precision. 

Tails...it landed on tails. 

“I’m Y/n.” She admits. 

Maker it felt so long since she had said that name to anyone. 

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5 days later...

“Is she still using that coin?” Cara asks, as Y/n played in the fields with Grogu. 

“Yes.” Din admits, head hung low. 

“That is so strange.” The ex-shock trooper chuckles. 

“What do you think it means?” She questions. 

“I have no idea, she uses it at least three or four times a rotation.”

“Let’s find out, shall we?” Fennec says with a smirk. 

“Y/n! c’mere.” The assassin calls.  

Cara and Din exchange glances of confusion, but nonetheless play along. 

“So..” She starts.

“Tonight, I am going out to eat dinner, because Boba is a horrible cook. I’m thinking of wearing normal attire, but there’s this really pretty dress. Which do you think I should go with?” She asks, a gentle smile playing on her mouth. 

Same as always, Y/n pulls out her small coin and tosses it in the air.

She catches it and flips it onto her palm. 

Heads. 

“The pretty dress.” She murmurs.

Fennec smiles once more. “Thank you, you can go now.” She whispers. And off she went, back into the meadows. 

“The coin is her decision maker.” Cara gasps.  

“Obviously.” Fennec scoffs. 

“She was a slave...she doesn’t know how to make decisions for herself.” Din ponders, putting the puzzle together. 

══════════════*.·:·.☽✧    ✦    ✧☾.·:·.*═══════════════

Later that day...

“Y/n.. Can I talk to you, please.” Din asks, gently, as not to startle her. 

She brings her lucky coin to her hands and flicks it up, however, Din catches it in midair. 

“Let’s make a bet.” He offers, leaving no room for the teenager to say otherwise. 

“If the coin lands on heads, you make your own decisions from now on, and have the freedom to act as you feel is right. And you throw the coin into the nearest ocean as far as you can.”

Din could see the internal struggle through her eyes, the desperation of her wanting to grab the coin out of his hand and hide away from the rest of the cruel world. 

“Hey, it’s ok, I’m going to help you, adi’ka.”

“D-Do I really h-h-have to throw i-it in the o-cean? I-it’s the only thing I-I-I-I have left of my f-f-amily.” She stutters as tears well in her eyes for the first time Din had ever seen. 

“Oh, no, no, no, no, no, adi’ka [little one], don’t cry, no i’kaad [baby], you can keep it...we’ll just...put it in a locked cupboard and whenever you want to hold it, you can, ok?” He whispers, holding her in a gentle embrace.

“Ok.” She sniffles. 

And although hard at first, she learnt she had a choice, because her buir never gave up on her. 

#Din Djarin x reader #Din x reader #Mando x reader #The Mandalorian x reader #Din Djarin x teen!reader #Slave reader #Din Djarin x you #Mando x you #Mando angst #Dad!Din #Dad!Mando #Dadalorian #Dad!Din x reader

[this-acuteneurosis]

I kind of want to get you started on mind tricks. cause like weak minded to strong minded dynamic and the blur away, but also the sith back in the day were for SURE a Caste system of force sensitive rulers and non force sensitives, and the jedi were their ENEMY off and on for thousands of years, cultural bleed through and dynamics of their own power systems but Ben we are not the droids you are looking for go away so I dont have to kill you, versus Qui hey I want this thing trade it for me.

Alright, Oct anon, it's been a while, but I have not forgotten you definitely forgot this ask in my drafts for who even knows how many months but it's found again, whoo!

It's taken me a while to get this together partly to try and arrange my thoughts in a logical order but also...

Guys, I really, really care about the use of agency in stories. Like, I've ranted about it in relation to droids, I've explained some of my problems with it in the context of the thematic changes between the OT and the PT, I stew over it constantly in my brain, it's a central theme of many of my own stories (including DLB).

I really don't like mind control, and not just in Star Wars.

Now, just because I don't like a thing doesn't mean it doesn't have a place in story telling. As a device, mind control/manipulation can be useful or important to a plot. To a theme. Overcoming it can be powerful or cool (Ella Enchanted-I prefer the novel personally, Tanjiro in Demon Slayer: Mugen Train), watching someone succumb to it can be agonizing (Frodo in Return of the King, anyone? Princess Euphemia in Code Geass?).

So, what is the point of Mind Tricks (and that naming choice, "trick," making it sound almost...harmless) in the Star Wars story, and maybe in the universe?

I feel like in its initial reveal, the mind trick was supposed to a) convey how "magical" Jedi were and b) get the plot from point A to B. Obi-Wan waves his hand, someone believes something hideously untrue, move along move along, don't think about it too hard.

Like, literally, audience, please. Don't.

Luke uses it in RotJ for pretty much the same reason. To convery a) Luke is well on his way to being a "magical" Jedi now (oh but wait, there's more character growth he needs!), and b) Luke needs to get into Jabba's palace and why would they let him in? Because he says so, so we will take him to Jabba now. Move along, move along.

I don't like the implications of this power existing, and as an adult who has been in situation where I have to report to higher powers, the disregard of the consequences of these things are a bit darker if I look too closely, but like...move along, I guess. It's fine as long as we're only using these powers on space nazis and slavers. Right?

Except then we get more movies. And cartoons. It's fine if Obi-Wan mind controls a person into not smoking, right? Smoking is Bad and Obi-Wan is Good.

Only.

Only...

Who taught Obi-Wan to use mind tricks?

Ah yes, my old nemesis.

To all you Qui-Gon fans out there, you may wanna leave. This analysis is probably not for you.

So like, Qui-Gon Jinn. Qui-Gon "I'm friends with the current Chancellor and thus an obvious, notable representative of the Jedi Order but I don't get along with my higher ups" Jinn. The thing you have to understand about my opinion of him is that, as a young, first time watcher of TPM, I liked him. He was funny, irreverent, direct. He was wise, or at least seemed to know things no one else did. He was a maverick, ready to go against all orders and advice for what he knew was right. And everyone around him was just stuffy and uninformed.

And to be fair, he wasn't wrong about everything. He's set up to be sympathetic. He's trying to treat with the gungans and they won't listen? Well he and Obi-Wan are right, the Trade Federation does go for the gungans. The Order says there are no Sith? Oops, wrong on that one. The Council makes the ambiguous assertion Anakin is "too old" to train. We've seen the OT. We know "too old" is nonsense.

But like, what does Qui-Gon do when he's thwarted?

He takes away people's agency.

Oh, you don't want to help us, Boss Nass, political leader? Cool, well I'm gonna undermine you in front of your entire court and you're gonna give us a whole ship (that we won't return) to help us defend a people you've been in an active war with for centuries. Oh, my currency doesn't work on this planet? I think it will mister small time junk dealer with a gambling problem (jokes on you for that one, sir).

This to me is a huge red flag in a story that is about literal slaves. I know people will defend the above examples. It was necessary. There were lives at stake.

You wanna know who would have suffered if Qui-Gon had been able to con Watto out of that part?

Anakin and Shmi.

Worthless (or event mostly worthless) currency on a planet where you have to buy water is literal death under the right circumstances. And who do you think Watto's going to reduce rations on. He's got cash flow problems? What's the quickest way for him to make back what he just lost? I'll give you a hint, he gambles on them later in the exact same movie.

So like, well before we get to "weak minded" or anything dubious like that, there's this awkward question of, "Why are the good guys always using powers to make people do things? And not worried about the consequences?"

And like, if we go back to simple story narratives, and trying to move things from point A to point B, that's fine I guess. I enjoy the OT. I'll move along.

But if you ask me to stop and think about it.

Well...

#my soapbox meta #agency #this is without even touching on things like #Anakin accidentally-on purpose?-mind tricking Padmé theories #or like #dubious racial/class implications #teaching this skill to ~~~children~~~ #so many other things

[yvain]

What big teeth you have! She saw how his jaw began to slaver and the room was full of the clamour of the forest's Liebestod but the wise child never flinched, even when he answered: All the better to eat you with. The girl burst out laughing; she knew she was nobody's meat.

Angela Carter, "The Company of Wolves"

Red Riding Hood in Horror

True Blood 5.01 • Trick ‘r Treat (2007) • Red Riding Hood (2011) • Buffy the Vampire Slayer 4.04 • The Company of Wolves (1984)

#true blood #buffy the vampire slayer #the company of wolves #horror #fairy tales #trick ‘r treat #red riding hood #comparatives #halloween #kind of galaxy brain of trick ‘r treat to have a werewolf dress up as red riding hood #*

[dailycharacteroption]

Prestige Class Spotlight 13: Bellflower Tiller

(art by Warriorseyes on DeviantArt)

Our special on prestige classes continues, and this time, we’re looking at something we’ve covered before… Well, not exactly. We ended up covering the 2nd Edition archetype version of this prestige class before we tackled the original! (Oops), but now we’re tackling the original, so let’s go ahead and give an overview of what we’re dealing with here.

The Bellflower Network is a collective of halfling emancipators that work wherever slavery is found in the Inner Sea Region, particularly Cheliax, and act as a constant thorn in the side of slaveowners and those that support tyranny and control such as many orders of Hellknights.

While the members of the network come in many different roles, it is the tillers, those that actively lead slaves to freedom over the border, that prove to be the workhorses of the organization. Their name, much like other members such as the harvesters (spies) and irrigators (assassins) comes from the tendency of network members to speak in code about their world, using farming terminology to refer to their crop (group of escorted slaves), their barns (safehouses), and rows (pathways used to escape).

The use of farming terms is a nice touch, as it calls back to real-world emancipation networks, while also being the perfect cover for their activities. Nobles and slaveowners usually have very little interest in the menial labor that they cannot be bothered to do themselves, after all.

As we’ll soon see, these emancipators offer a different application of the skills of sneaky classes, which I hope you’ll find interesting.

This prestige class requires knowledge of the local area and of surviving off the land in addition to stealth and deception skills, as you might imagine. Additionally, one must know a handful of teamwork feats as well as either the sneak attack class feature or at least two vigilante talents, which limits this prestige class to having at least levels in rogue, slayer, or vigilante, or any archetype for a class that grants sneak attack. However, what is notable is that the hero need not be a halfling, though only the most trusted non-halflings are afforded this training in the lore of the Lost Omens setting.

The basic training of this path teaches them to designate others as their “crop”, a priority charge that they watch over and can give instructions to in order to aid them in either escape or combat.

As emancipators, it is important to be able to move fast, and so they train to be swift runners, and can encourage their crop to match their pace.

They are also adept as aiding their crop in various tasks or actions they need to do, and can take this a step further if they are also trained as a bellflower harvester.

Acting like a metaphorical scarecrow, tillers are especially accurate and lethal when striking against those that threaten their crop.

They also learn a selection of extra teamwork feats to use alongside a trusted companion, and if they have levels in a class or archetype that allows them to use the teamwork feats without allies (such as inquisitor), or the ability to grant teamwork feats to others (such as cavalier or the bellflower harvester vigilante archetype), they can even use them with their crop.

An underhanded blow at the right moment can put down a slave hunter, and so they learn or improve upon their sneak attack arts.

Nothing is better for hiding people than a community that is on your side, and so the tillers ingratiate themselves to a community of their choice, making it an open secret of their job and goals that most suspect but none would willingly tell. With such a community bond, even those outside the Network will offer their aid, making things that much easier within the community while hiding from slavers, and providing concealed lodgings and medical care therein. As they master their art, they can bond with multiple communities to expand their network.

While this prestige class absolutely requires either the rogue, slayer, or vigilante as a base class with few exceptions, they also recommend levels in ranger or inquisitor, depending on the character’s style, such as nature-savvy guides or divine servants of a deity of freedom. Generally speaking, though, this prestige class works well with builds that mix underhanded tricks with ally support, whether you’re leading a group of former slaves or applying the benefits of your crop to more capable allies. This can be achieved with spells from certain classes, or there are plenty of rogue talents that reward team play.

Given the nature of some of their abilities, this prestige class can’t really be separated from their abolitionist origins, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use it outside of the Lost Omens setting. After all, slavery can and often is a problem in certain parts of many settings, and where it is, there are those with the courage to stand against it, fighting from the shadows.

Alkazzar’s School for the Psychically Gifted seems like a delightful concept on paper, but anyone who’s actually been there can sense that there is something very wrong. Indeed, a cerebric cyst founded the school through it’s puppets to feast upon the psychically gifted that congregate there. However, a covert team seeks to free the children and escape out of reach of the hungry ooze’s clutches, but they’ll need help.

Coveted for their fragments of genie power, geniekin planetouched are prized slaves in the land of Shakkah. However, a network of freedom fighters works to free these slaves, led by an ifrit woman known only by her byname: Brushfire.

A new horror has arisen in the seas near Coldcliff Bay. Formed from the crew of the Red Blade, a bone ship has been patrolling the waters, hunting chain-breakers in particular, for the Red Blade was a slaver ship in life, eager to refill it’s hold with the souls of those unfortunate to cross it’s path.

#pathfinder #prestige class #bellflower tiller #cerebric cyst #ifrit #bone ship #Adventurer's Guide #Paths to Prestige

[sexhaver]

[MAJOR BG3 ACT 2/DARK URGE SPOILERS]

i just had Shadowheart kill the Nightsong to become a Dark Justiciar, which simultaneously killed Isobel (along with everyone else at Last Light) so Sceleritas could gift me the Slayer Form. so the morning after he gives it to me i go talk to Shadowheart. if i brag about my new gift she says "we must have very different ideas of what counts as a 'gift'" with a massive scowl on her face, and if i remark on how great it is that everyone at Last Light died, she says "well im happy it happened because it was Shar's will, but you seem too excited about slavering over corpses". like. girl. firstable all those people at Last Light are dead because of you, that was literally your fault, you did that, and secondly... oh, im sorry, i didn't realize that killing innocent people because some deity figure promised you power in exchange was suddenly a bad thing now, thanks for telling me that, Dark Justiciar Shadowheart. like come on girl. read the room.

#astarion says he doesn't mind as long as you keep your claws away from his throat which is a cute callback to his first camp cutscene #bg3 spoilers

[baleriontheblackkitten]

A Game of Thrones - Bran I

Oh the innocence of summer days …

The morning had dawned clear and cold, with a crispness that hinted at the end of summer. They set forth at daybreak to see a man beheaded, twenty in all, and Bran rode among them, nervous with excitement. This was the first time he had been deemed old enough to go with his lord father and his brothers to see the king’s justice done. It was the ninth year of summer, and the seventh of Bran’s life.

Immediately we are given some key information: summer is ending, and Bran is too young to have experienced anything but summer. Out of metaphor, he is a child, innocent to the dangers and evils of his world. But his innocence won't last long yet - he's been deemed old enough to see a man being beheaded. He's about to learn about the evil that waits outside of the happy bubble of Winterfell.

The fact that the first thing we see Ned Stark do it to behead a man in the name of the king's justice, obviously stands in simmetry to the last thing that happens to him. It is incredibly meaningful that he's bringing Bran along with his oldest sons to witness the beheading: Bran is younger than his sisters Sansa and Arya, but the girls are not taught in the matters of politics and leadership, and left carefully away from matters of death and blood. And yet, the very two Stark children who are not present to Gareth's beheading are the two who will be there to witness Ned's beheading. The girls are going to learn about politics and violence on their own skin - and, incidentally, Ned's insistence they stay away from these matters is going to hurt everyone.

(Interestingly, Catelyn was raised like a boy in this sense, as his brother was born late and his father was not really counting on having a male heir anymore, so he taught Catelyn about politics and leadership. Sadly her political savvyness does not save her, but not due to a failing on her part, but because her opponents stop acting on the level of politics and start acting on a whole different level. On the level of politics, eating the Freys' bread and salt would keep them safe. What Tywin and the Freys do is a betrayal of the rules of politics. But I'm sooo digressing.)

Another note about this first paragraph: the king's justice. It is the solemn name for the administration of justice carried in the name of the king of the realm, but it's also a little hint of what the king's justice is. We, the readers, know that Gareth does not deserve to die. What the Starks' party believes to be justice is not. Little foreshadowing of Ned learning the truth about Robert beyond the idealized image he has of his friend, and about the vipers' nest that the court is.

Robb thought he was a wildling, his sword sworn to Mance Rayder, the King-beyond-the-Wall. It made Bran’s skin prickle to think of it. He remembered the hearth tales Old Nan told them. The wildlings were cruel men, she said, slavers and slayers and thieves. They consorted with giants and ghouls, stole girl children in the dead of night, and drank blood from polished horns. And their women lay with the Others in the Long Night to sire terrible half-human children.

This, of course, sounds clearly like a pile of stereotypes (bits of truth twisted and blown out of proportion mixed with falsehoods) about the "others" in the sense of the "people who are not Us and are Bad", but that also intertwine with stories about the Others with a capital O. People in the North of Westeros have confused stories and warnings about the Others with the humans living beyond the Wall, which makes them identify the wrong target as the enemy.

Then again, I am sure that the tales Old Nan tells about the wildlings are true in the sense that some wildlings must have done those things in some form. "Slavers" is not really that uncommon in their world; "slayers" is a very generic word; "thieves" really depend on your concept of property. "Consorting with giants and ghouls" - not sure about ghouls but giants are just creatures who live up there and have relations with the humans. Stealing children . . . while it's boys and not girls, the Others do that with Craster's male babies. As for girls, well, "stealing" someone can mean different things, and there are rituals around "stealing" a girl to get with her. Drinking blood from horns sounds like a ritual ancient populations would do - we know that ancient humans practiced cannibalism, most likely for ritual reasons. Drinking blood as a religious-y ritual doesn't seem that far-fetched and does not mean that a population is "evil", just with rituals that are different from yours. And. Well. Cannibalism is. Uh. A bit of a theme around here.

The part about women lying with the Others and giving birth to half-human children sounds like GRRM dropping a line that anticipates something that will be very important later.

I love how Bran sees his older brothers and his father, solemn and tall while he's tiny and does his best not to look out of place.

Bran’s father sat solemnly on his horse, long brown hair stirring in the wind. His closely trimmed beard was shot with white, making him look older than his thirty-five years. He had a grim cast to his grey eyes this day, and he seemed not at all the man who would sit before the fire in the evening and talk softly of the age of heroes and the children of the forest. He had taken off Father’s face, Bran thought, and donned the face of Lord Stark of Winterfell.

And I cry. Ned's arc in the book is struggling between acting as father and as Lord Stark, just like Cat will be struggling with juggling her role as mother and Lady Tully-Stark, and it's not a struggle that any of them can win. Just like Robb and Jon cannot win the struggle between their role as a brother and their respective roles as king and brother of the Night's Watch.

(Btw, thirty-five is a reasonable age to start getting white in your beard, Bran. It also usually makes men look hotter rather than older. I can tell you're 7.)

We are also introduced to a detail about Ned that is not really discussed much but I find so interesting: literally the first depiction we have of him is how he tells his children stories about the past of their land. It's usually the women who are portrayed as the keepers and tellers of the stories, but Ned is mentioned to do the same. It frames him in a "feminine" light, painting him as caring towards his children in a way Westerosi society tends to expect from women, especially with the adverb "softly" associated to him.

He's a good father by the fire of Winterfell. He's going to be disastrous at it outside of his home, and knowing that's not his nature makes it even more tragic.

To be fair, there is a divide in the kind of stories that Bran associates to Old Nan and the kind of stories he associates to his father: Old Nan is said to tell him about the horrors that lie beyond the Wall, stories of cruel men and monsters and blood; Ned is said to tell him stories of the ancient heroes and the children of the forest. This is a divide that says something about gender, but maybe also says something about how Bran perceives Old Nan and his father respectively. And also something about how their culture perceives their past … The man will tell the children about an edulcorated, "inspiring" version of the past; the elderly woman will focus on the gritty details to frighten the children a little (be a good child and obey your parents or the Evil Things will get you - classic old lady babysitting children move!).

(This reminds me of my dad telling me tales like Odysseus' adventures or the stories of the Scarlet Pimpernel when I was little. Forgive me the personal anedocte but my dad has passed away between my first read of the books and now - I wonder if I'll read the books differently because of it.)

Anyway. Ned' stories and Old Nan's stories - what is the truth? Probably somewhere in the middle - there are no heroes, but no inherently evil men either. Humans are just humans, their noble ancestors and the wildlings alike. (The Others, on the other hand …)

“Ice,” that sword was called. It was as wide across as a man’s hand, and taller even than Robb. The blade was Valyrian steel, spell-forged and dark as smoke.

That's a big ass sword. No wonder they decided to just make two normal swords out of it. But also I believe that Robb is not really that tall, Bran just thinks he's tall because Robb is his big brother, so "taller even that Robb" is not actually the amazing description Bran thinks it is. I am fond of my mental image of Robb as a short guy, okay? He's described as muscular while Jon is slender, so I imagine Jon as tall and Robb as stocky. He is forced by circumstances to act like a big important grownup but is just a kid trying his best :')

Anyway - first connection between the Starks and the Others. The Other that kills Waymar Royce has a longsword that is described more like ice than metal:

In its hand was a longsword like none that Will had ever seen. No human metal had gone into the forging of that blade. It was alive with moonlight, translucent, a shard of crystal so thin that it seemed almost to vanish when seen edge-on. There was a faint blue shimmer to the thing, a ghost-light that played around its edges, and somehow Will knew it was sharper than any razor.

And the Starks have a longsword called Ice. It is Valyrian steel, imbued with magic that can kill the Others, but its name recalls the Others, who bring freezing cold with them. Who are the Kings of Winter, really? The sword's name is a statement from House Stark - our weapon is ice. In fact, next to this detail, "winter is coming" sounds like something that used to be meant as a threat before shifting to more of a warning. Our strength is the cold, and the cold is getting stronger. It's no wonder there are so many theories about the Others being originally made by the Starks or even ancient Starks themselves! One thing it's for sure - whatever the Others are and however they came to be, the Starks are not alien to it.

The head bounced off a thick root and rolled. It came up near Greyjoy’s feet. Theon was a lean, dark youth of nineteen who found everything amusing. He laughed, put his boot on the head, and kicked it away.

Oh Theon. How much is he an asshole and how much is he performing the asshole he's expected to be? Later, when he explicitly performs being what people expect Theon Greyjoy to be, he acts in a similar manner. Was it always a performance? Either way, Theon is so acutely aware of how he's perceived …

[Robb] was big and broad and growing every day - nobody say anything, this is Bran seeing Robb as big because Bran is tiny. "Growing every day" simply means he hit puberty really late and only now experiencing some growth spurt! This is also confirmed by the fact he's barely starting to grow a beard at all. He is short because I say so. *It is law Obama gif*

Robb and Jon are described so well as an age where they're almost grown but also still kids. They talk about the executed man like grownups but then race on their horses as a game like they must have done a million times since they were little … and I cry.

The conversation between Ned and Bran is so important and beautiful. It tells a lot about Ned, foreshadows Bran holding responsability as a leader and dispenser of justice one day (yes, I do believe he's going to become some sort of leader figure for the Seven Kingdoms, no I don't believe he's going to become Thee King of the Seven Kingdoms, as that won't be a thing anymore). A ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is - I'm chewing glass. Ned's whole fall starts from standing up to Robert about sending assassins after an exiled kid and ends with a boy king who orders others to commit acts of violence.

“We hold to the belief that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man’s life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die. “One day, Bran, you will be Robb’s bannerman, holding a keep of your own for your brother and your king, and justice will fall to you. When that day comes, you must take no pleasure in the task, but neither must you look away.”

I'm thinking of Sansa and Arya, both - in very different ways - sentencing people to die by proxy while physically and symbolically away from Winterfell. Arya in Harrenhall with the names she gives Jaqen, Sansa in King's Landing speaking her truth about Joffrey to the Tyrells, which she later realizes was an unintentional death sentence. But later Arya starts committing her killings in person, and especially the sentence of the Night's Watch deserter reconnect her to the Stark way, as that's the very kind of sentence Ned is doing in his first appearance here. So I expect that Sansa, too, whenever she will need to sentence someone to death … maybe she won't swing the sword herself, as that's not exactly her thing, but she will look at the man in the eyes and hear his last words. I do think Sansa deserves to spill a little blood, though, as a treat. (This is kind of a joke, Sansa doesn't need to spill blood, but as a reader I find both options valid.)

“That was when Jon reappeared on the crest of the hill before them. He waved and shouted down at them. “Father, Bran, come quickly, see what Robb has found!” Then he was gone again. Jory rode up beside them. “Trouble, my lord?” “Beyond a doubt,” his lord father said. “Come, let us see what mischief my sons have rooted out now.”

I cry. That's such a cute moment, Jon acting like an excited kid like he's supposed to be! Ned amused by his sons being mischievous boys! Robb and Jon talk in excited voices, Theon is laughing and joking. Chewing glass again.

The way the adults are disquieted by the presence of direwolves south of the Wall and want to kill them, while the kids are enamored by the pups and insist on keeping them … magical bond or not, it paints them as the kids they are, eager to keep puppies that the adults would rather not, considering them too much of a responsibility/burden.

Except the Stark kids won't just adopt any puppy, nope. I love the mental image of the Stark kids as absolutely crazy for everyone else's standards. Imagine being Catelyn Tully, normal ass person from some normal ass place. "Darling, the kids found some puppies, I told them they can keep them if they take care of them themselves" - you're like mmm well okay I guess, and then find out the puppies are monstrous mega-wolves.

“You have five trueborn children,” Jon said. “Three sons, two daughters. The direwolf is the sigil of your House. Your children were meant to have these pups, my lord.” Bran saw his father’s face change, saw the other men exchange glances. He loved Jon with all his heart at that moment. Even at seven, Bran understood what his brother had done. The count had come right only because Jon had omitted himself. He had included the girls, included even Rickon, the baby, but not the bastard who bore the surname Snow, the name that custom decreed be given to all those in the north unlucky enough to be born with no name of their own. Their father understood as well. “You want no pup for yourself, Jon?” he asked softly. “The direwolf graces the banners of House Stark,” Jon pointed out. “I am no Stark, Father.”

And yet later Jon notices the sixth pup, which confirms him as a real Stark too, despite his name. (His name is also not his real name, anyway.)*

*I find it super funny when people making up "Lyanna lives" AUs keep the baby's name as Jon. Like. Lyanna had no reason to name her baby Jon. Telling everyone the baby's name is Jon is Ned's way to announce "yoo here's my bastard baby, which I named after my father figure Jon Arryn, definitely my own baby, see, no one else's, this is not suspicious at all".

This is probably too early in my re-read for spec about Jon's future, but hey. I struggle so much as picturing Jon ever becoming associated with a dragon, I'm probably the only person in the fandom, but hey.

The only way I could see it is if Ghost dies, leaving Jon without a direwolf, like Sansa. In that case I could see it as more believable.

Then again, Theon commenting that the albino puppy will be the first to die suggests to me that Ghost isn't dying any time soon. So, really, I can't picture Jon becoming a dragonrider! But again, we're just at the second chapter of the series. Speculation about the future books can wait.

(I did delete a wholeass paragraph here where I super digressed lol.)

Bran thought it curious that this pup alone would have opened his eyes while the others were still blind.

SIGHT THEME MY BELOVED. Red eyes, open and seeing, like a weirdwood tree's, like Bloodraven's.

Speaking of eyes! I never noticed the detail from this very chapter, "Jon’s eyes were a grey so dark they seemed almost black". I had always pictured Jon with light grey eyes - not Bolton light, but not dark, either. Dark grey makes me think of Valyrian steel, described as the color of smoke.

Also. Speaking of the sight/eyes theme:

Bran’s bastard brother Jon Snow moved closer. “Keep the pony well in hand,” he whispered. “And don’t look away. Father will know if you do.” Bran kept his pony well in hand, and did not look away. […] Bran could not take his eyes off the blood. The snows around the stump drank it eagerly, reddening as he watched.

“The deserter died bravely,” Robb said. […] “He had courage, at the least.” “No,” Jon Snow said quietly. “It was not courage. This one was dead of fear. You could see it in his eyes, Stark.” Jon’s eyes were a grey so dark they seemed almost black, but there was little they did not see. He was of an age with Robb, but they did not look alike. […] Robb was not impressed. “The Others take his eyes,” he swore.

“If you would take a man’s life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die. “One day, Bran, you will be Robb’s bannerman, holding a keep of your own for your brother and your king, and justice will fall to you. When that day comes, you must take no pleasure in the task, but neither must you look away.”

Bran glimpsed blind eyes crawling with maggots [of the mother direwolf]

“Theon Greyjoy said, “There’s not been a direwolf sighted south of the Wall in two hundred years.” “I see one now,” Jon replied. Bran tore his eyes away from the monster. That was when he noticed the bundle in Robb’s arms.

Mmm. There's a thing here.

As I was saying in the previous chapter, there's a whole theme around sight, blindness, and eye color. If an unnatural, unhuman blue is the color of the Other's eyes, blood red is the color of the opposite side. I don't think that, at the end of the day, it's dragons the definitive key to defeating the Others. Not Jon's Targaryen side, but Jon's Stark side. The direwolf. Sure, fire helps, but everyone assumes too easily, imo, that fire is the solution (Melisandre and the other followers of the Lord of Light, Maester Aemon when he supposedly realizes that the prophecy would be about Dany, her dragons being proof of it).

I know the series is called A song of ice and fire. But the Targaryens have very little to do with the North! Even in this very chapter, Ned highlights how the culture of the Stark differs from the Targeryens':

“[…] The question was not why the man had to die, but why I must do it.” Bran had no answer for that. “King Robert has a headsman,” he said, uncertainly. “He does,” his father admitted. “As did the Targaryen kings before him. Yet our way is the older way. The blood of the First Men still flows in the veins of the Starks […]”

Bran is also the first character who flies, while in his coma from falling. No need for dragons, is there?

But I think I've written enough for this chapter! I'll stop here or I'll run out of things to say for other chapters.

So, what are your thoughts? (I'm speaking into the void as no one is reading these yet, but hey. Fake it til you make it.)

#marghe re reads asoiaf #asoiaf meta #my asoiaf thoughts #agot #agot bran i #asoiaf

[thelustybraavosimaid]

Definitely abso-surely a stupid question incoming...

Can the Others have children? Do they need a human partner for them to reproduce, like Old Nan suggests...

He remembered the hearth tales Old Nan told them. The wildlings were cruel men, she said, slavers and slayers and thieves. They consorted with giants and ghouls, stole girl children in the dead of night, and drank blood from polished horns. And their women lay with the Others in the Long Night to sire terrible half-human children. (Bran I, AGoT)

...or is the idea of them "having children" only "possible" through Craster sacrificing his sons?

It was her child Gilly feared for; she was frightened that it might be a boy. Craster raised up his daughters to be his wives, but there were neither men nor boys to be seen about his compound. Gilly had told Jon that Craster gave his sons to the gods. (Samwell II, ASoS)

#not tagging this because it's stupid ya know #but it's something i think about sometimes lol

[swedebeast]

So

I have decided to run a campaign of Chock - the Swedish horror TTRPG.

And I am combining elements from the foundational legends of Norway, the mythical land of Kvenland and its disappearance, Christian missionaries in Scandinavia, the Biblical tale of Jericho’s walls, pagan blood sacrifices, the Babylonian god of death and disease Nergal, and the mythical norwegian troll-king and personification of frost Thorri - while stealing the plot of Evil Dead. For a setting that is more or less Buffy the Vampire slayer and Hellboy without Slavers and Hellboy - a world of magic and evil beings that need to be understood or combated by secretive organizations.

All set in 1939′s Sweden.

I will call this campaign Nordanatten.

The Northern Night.

#Chock #chock campaign #nordanatten campaign

[branwendaughterofllyr]

Branwen reads ASOIAF (again) - AGOT Bran I

or as I like to call it, baby’s first beheading! 

The chapter opens with a friendly reminder that it is still summer, and even summer in the North can get pretty fucking cold. Perfect. When can I move? Bran had to wake up extra early for his first execution. I don’t remember my field trips being this hardcore. I imagine that Cat packed a special lunchbox for Bran. 

Bran is pretty pumped for his first execution. Robb thinks the man might be a wildling, sworn to the king-beyond-the wall Mance Raydar and Bran has never seen a wildling before! But he does know all of Old Nan’s stories.

The wildlings were cruel men, she said, slavers and slayers and thieves. They consorted with giants and ghouls, stole girl children in the dead of night, and drank blood from polished horns. And their women lay with the Others in the Long Night to sire terrible half-human children.

I think that this paragraph is just fascinating taste of the way stories and tales are handled by the narrative. Right, so Bran as a child believes these stories, and many other people in world do as well. We the readers are more likely to skeptical, and what we see later discounts a lot of it. The wildlings, or rather the free folk, are just people, and aren’t any worse than those south of the Wall. BUT, there’s a kernel of truth in pretty much all of this. They really do keep company with giants, possibly even mating with them, since the idea of giant’s blood in men seems pretty accepted. And wife stealing is very much a thing. There's even some cannibal tribes running around. The most interesting bit is probably that they lay with the Others, which there doesn’t seem to be evidence of among the wildlings (aside from what ever the fuck Craster is up to, which seems to be mainly human sacrifice), but does show up in the story of the Nightfort, where the 13th commander of the NW took an Other woman to wife and had to be defeated by the Stark in Winterfell. This lord commander was likely a Stark as well, especially since his name was purposely removed from the records. But I guess my point is, that there are layers of truth to all of these stories, if you dig hard enough you’ll usually find something, though often in a more ironic way. 

But its more pertinent that Bran is very into scary stories, and he’s a little disappointed that the man is just, well, a man. Hi, Gared. See you managed to get out alive. Not for much longer though. 

Bran is doing his best to seem older and braver- he is only seven. We also get the first description of the arms of House Stark, a grey direwolf racing on a background of ice-white. 

Ahead of Bran and his brothers Robb and Jon, is their father Eddard Stark, Lord of Winterfell. I am again reminded that Eddard, and most of his contemporaries are only in their thirties, which feels kinda weird. War really does age you, and Lord Stark has the salt and pepper beard to show for it. 

And then there’s this part, which I always find kind of interesting.

He had taken off Father’s face, Bran thought, and donned the face of Lord Stark of Winterfell.

This actually comes up a lot in regards to Ned, that he has a bit of a separate persona between his family life and his lordly duties. Which makes perfect sense- being a lord in Westeros can be a tough business and requires a certain amount of stoicism. The reason I bring this up, is there’s a certain amount of emphasis on the difference between being a lord, and the office of lordship, that being the lord of whatever is just a much a representation of that place and people, as it is about the person. I think this comes up mainly with the Starks- Bran and Jon specifically, but I want to keep an eye on it, since there’s probably something in there about the ideal ruler in medieval world? Idk, I’ll have more to say about this in moment, when we get to the Starks’ old way. 

Unfortunately, Bran doesn’t really pay attention to what Gared says, since he’s freezing his little butt off and trying to look serious. I’m going to assume it wasn't anything too important about the Others, since Ned never brings it up. But wouldn't it be funny if Gared had told the whole thing, and everyone just ignored him because they were too busy thinking about drinking hot cocoa back at WF? Probably not, lol.

Ned finally gets on with it, and has Theon bring out Ice, which is a comically big fuck-off sword 

 It was as wide across as a man’s hand, and taller even than Robb. The blade was Valyrian steel, spell-forged and dark as smoke. Nothing held an edge like Valyrian steel.

How has anyone ever used this sword for anything?????? For reference, this fucking massive claymore in the national museum of Scotland, which is taller than me,

was pretty much only used for ceremonial purposes, and I’m not even sure it's as big as Ice is supposed to be. Or maybe George doesn’t understand how heights work, which very well could be the case.  Or maybe I don’t understand how height work, which is also probably the case. 

Ned hands off his gloves to his one true BFF, Jory Cassel, and sentences the deserter to death in the name of King Robert. 

“In the name of Robert of the House Baratheon, the First of his Name, King of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm, by the word of Eddard of the House Stark, Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North, I do sentence you to die.”

Only a couple things to note here: Westeros is mentioned here as being made up of three main peoples, the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men. We’ll get more of an explanation for this latter, but I think it establishes early on that the seven kingdoms are pretty complicated in their own right. Also “the protector of the realm” thing, which George is really interested in, for a lot of good reasons in my opinion. There’s a real world use of this title by the Plantagenets, who ruled England from roughly the 12th century to the 15th century, and also have embarrassed me many times with my inability to pronounce their name. Warden also has a real world equivalent as well, in the wardens of the Welsh marches, I think? There’s a lot going on here.

The man’s head is cut off, and the best bit of descriptive writing award for this chapter goes to:

Blood sprayed out across the snow, as red as summerwine. One of the horses reared and had to be restrained to keep from bolting. Bran could not take his eyes off the blood. The snows around the stump drank it eagerly, reddening as he watched.

Bonus points for the implications of bloodthirsty trees!

Theon tries to invent soccer in the most asshole-ish way possible, by kicking the dead man’s head. RIP, Gared. You deserved better than Theon desecrating your body. 

Bran gets a “good job” from his bastard brother Jon, who's already fourteen and “an old hand at justice.” BABIES, mere children I say!

It’s time to get back on the road, and Robb and Jon discuss the man’s death. Robb thinks the man died bravely, but Jon disagrees. There was fear in the man’s eyes. 

There’s this set up of Jon and Robb as opposites and parallels (and dare I say foils?????) from literally the beginning, and it’s underlined by first this discussion and then their physical differences, and I like how it’s presented together.  I already mentioned the physical description of Jon last chapter, with it’s similarities to Waymar Royce, but let’s do it again just for fun!

Jon’s eyes were a grey so dark they seemed almost black, but there was little they did not see. He was of an age with Robb, but they did not look alike. Jon was slender where Robb was muscular, dark where Robb was fair, graceful and quick where his half brother was strong and fast.

I’m sure that Jon looking like Waymar will have no future implications! Nothing to see here! (I’ll talk about how the same words are used to describe Ser Loras, another Sansa crush, when we get there)

I’d also like to point out that one of the first things we get told about Jon is that he notices shit. Not necessarily consistently, lol, but enough that it's an important character trait. (Yes, this is me complaining about the show making Jon dumber and boring, deal with it. I will die on this hill.)

I am also contractually obligated by @starkmaiden​ to bring up the semi-crack theory that Jon’s eyes are actually a dark shade of violet-grey that only looks purple in certain light, so that his true parentage was literally staring everyone in the face the whole time, lol. 

No word from Bran on how handsome Jon is. I’ll guess we’ll have to wait for Sansa to report back to us in TWOW. 

Robb and Jon run off to have a race home in a moment of happiness we will soon never see the licks of again, while Ned has a one-on-one heart to heart with Bran (He seems to do this with every child BUT Sansa. No, I'm not bitter about Ned’s parenting at all, why do you ask?) Bran brings up what Robb and Jon were talking about, leading us to probably the best advice Ned ever gives, and possibly just the best piece of wisdom in the whole series stop. 

“Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid?” “That is the only time a man can be brave,”

Do I tear up little every time I read this line? Maybe, but that’s my business. 

And it’s a great insight into human nature, that will come up pretty much none stop in the series. @agentrouka-blog​ brought up in the tags of my last post, that George has a way of creating a flawed character, and then having them rise to the occasion, and I think that this exchange is kind of the thesis of that idea. 

Ned is now going to give Bran, and us, a breakdown of how Northern justice functions, and we have to talk about it. Ned explains to Bran that the man was not a wildling, but a deserter of the NW, who had to die for breaking his vows. But that’s not the real question Ned was asking. Why did Ned have to do it himself, when the king and other lords all have headsmen? 

Yet our way is the older way. The blood of the First Men still flows in the veins of the Starks, and we hold to the belief that the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man’s life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die.

So, I think there’s a lot to unpack here. The first thing that stands out, is the assertion that the Starks are the descendants of the First Men, and still hold to the customs (and religion) of their ancestors. In many ways, they *still are* the First Men, despite the Andal invasions and the Targaryen Conquest. The Starks have ruled the North for eons, and the same houses they fought at the beginning and defeated are still in the North, ruling where they have ruled for thousands of years. How much difference there actually is between the ways of the First Men and the Andals is up for debate, with my main critique being that the religion of the old gods isn’t much a religion, but I digress. 

The second thing, is that the old way means that “the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword.” Why? If you can’t bear to do it yourself, maybe the man shouldn’t die. Ned further elaborates. 

 A ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is.

An interesting idea- that the ruler should be aware of what it is he actually does when he sentences someone to death, and how vulnerable and close he is to it himself. 

Race for the Iron Throne makes an interesting point about this as well, that there’s not a real world equivalent of this custom, and it could be a re-assertion of the human element into a ruling system dominated by the idea of “the divine rights of kings.” This ties back into the division between “the Lord” and the person who’s actually doing things. There's a difference between “The Lord” sentencing someone to death, and the lord actually doing the deed himself. And I think it’s interesting that this element occurs in the story of the Starks, who are both the protagonists of ASOIAF, and part of a culture that’s built on getting through harsh conditions. The Starks became the Kings in the North because they were able to subjugate the rest of the North, including the notoriously ruthless and cruel Boltons, as well as the Marsh King of the crannogman, which much have been really hard to do considering the Neck is a giant swamp, and pretty much every other house (with some exceptions, looking at you, House Manderly). It makes sense that their customs would demand a lord/king be able to handle the messy aspects of ruling, and not flinch at ruthless parts. 

There’s also something in here about how a king/lord had to be a war leader as much as an administrator, especially in this pseudo-medieval world. I’ve been reading Marjorie Chibnell’s biography of Empress Matilda, and the fact that as a woman, she couldn’t lead her armies was a major problem for her and the women of the 12th century who wanted power. (Don’t worry, I’ll talk about the gendered nature of power in medieval Europe and Westeros later) I think that part of the old ways, as we see more of Stark governance in the future, has to do with how personally capable a ruler has to be in the North/Westeros, even as power in Westeros in the current timeline is as much more dependent on bloodlines as personal capability. We’ll probably revisit this with Renly and Stannis in ACOK, and with Robb before the end of AGOT.

But anyway, we’ll definitely talk about this part of the old way again, since Robb and Jon deal with it head on (ha!) later. I didn’t even talk about this is relevant to character development, lol. That was one long digression. 

I think I’m mainly trying to justify to myself that the Starks being blood of the First Men is more than set dressing and a way to explain the magic lol. 

Moving on to one of my favorite things: foreshadowing! Double points for Bran as king foreshadowing. 

“One day, Bran, you will be Robb’s bannerman, holding a keep of your own for your brother and your king, and justice will fall to you.

Okay, first of all, this makes it sound like Bran’s brother and king will be one and the same, and that something will put his king out of commission and leave ruling to fall to Bran. Maybe a bit of stretch, but I think the wording indicating Robb will be Bran’s king is pretty solid, and the idea that justice will fall to Bran might be indicative of his tenure as prince of WF before Theon rolls in, as much as a future King Bran hint. But I’m going to go with possible King Bran foreshadowing. 

But just as we finish this important conversation, Jon comes riding back, shouting that Robb found something. PUPPIES!

ALright, I know I just wrote way too many words vaguely speculating about the old way, but we have to talk about the dire wolves. 

Jory Cassel and Theon get to Robb first, and the first thing both of the them do is draw their swords, and tell Robb get away, because he’s standing by a giant prehistoric monster, and kidnapping her babies. But it’s not a kidnapping, its a rescue, since the mama direwolf is dead. 

We’ll take a moment to mention the waist high snow drift in SUMMER, as Bran wades through it to Robb and the little bundles of fuzz. Bran (and me) are in love immediately. 

The Stark men are, rightfully, low-key freaking out over the direwolves. 

“Direwolves loose in the realm, after so many years,” muttered Hullen, the master of horse. “I like it not.” “It is a sign,” Jory said. Father frowned. “This is only a dead animal, Jory,” he said. Yet he seemed troubled.

Oh Ned, and your refusal to believe in the omens in a world where magic is real. Never change. 

Robb, interestingly, is the one who finds the reason for the direwolf’s death: an antler in the throat. Talk about an omen, lol. Robb is also part of the “I’d give anything for Ned Stark to be proud of me” club, which has many members, some of whom are more happy to be there than others. 

Everyone is even more freaked out by the death by stag, even if Bran doesn’t get it. One guy lightens the mood by saying ““Born with the dead,” ... “Worse luck.”. Fantastic! 

Theon jumps on the “let's put the puppies out of their misery” bandwagon, and tries to take the puppy away from Bran (is this foreshadowing for Theon taking WF away from Bran??? Probably not, lol, but I do think it is indicative of his character and I think it’s about as reasonable as half the theories on reddit anyway.)

Robb and Bran are not having it, but they have to get them by their dad. Ned is the dad that didn’t want a cat, but ends up loving the cat. Jon jumps in, and says that there are five wolves, three male and two female, so they were clearly meant for his true born Stark children. 

Bran saw his father’s face change, saw the other men exchange glances. He loved Jon with all his heart at that moment. Even at seven, Bran understood what his brother had done.

Their father understood as well. “You want no pup for yourself, Jon?” he asked softly. “The direwolf graces the banners of House Stark,” Jon pointed out. “I am no Stark, Father.”

My boy. The divide between him and the other starklings, and his Stark issues, literally starts from chapter one. 

With Ned finally convinced, because how could he say no after what Jon did, and after giving them a stern lecture about walking the dog, and training the prehistoric killing machine, it’s time for them to finally go back to WF.

But wait! Jon hears something. Is this Jon having a psychic connection to Ghost already, or being more observant of the surroundings than the others, you decide! He finds a sixth pup, out in the snow.

“He must have crawled away from the others,” Jon said. “Or been driven away,” their father said,

Ominous, Ned, very ominous and more than little sad. I’m assuming this is foreshadowing for Jon being booted off to the NW in a couple chapters. And also, general angst about not being a Stark. 

Also, Ghost is the only wolf to already have opened his eyes. Another point in the observant Jon column. 

Theon is a dick, but Jon Snark appears for the closing line. 

“An albino,” Theon Greyjoy said with wry amusement. “This one will die even faster than the others.” Jon Snow gave his father’s ward a long, chilling look. “I think not, Greyjoy,” he said. “This one belongs to me.”

Nice.

George has said that the inspiration for the rest of ASOIAF came out of the scene of the dead direwolf in the snow, and I think that we can add to that to “the Starks are the heart of the story” pile, along with the fact that they have the bulk of the pov chapters in AGOT. 

But anyway, Bran is baby, keep an eye out for more King Bran foreshadowing. 

(I don’t even want to know the word count for this)

#AGOT #Bran #branwen reads asoiaf again

[blackjackkent]

In the final trial, they are greeted by a beast.

Caden feels his blood run cold.

It looks very much like the Slayer form that he himself takes when Bhaal's power manages to overwhelm him - but much larger, bristling with spines and claws and teeth. It stares at him with a slavering jaw and brutish gaze and he feels the malice roll off it in waves.

As it surges forward to attack, they can see in the dimness the shape of scores of mutilated bodies spread out along the ground. Blood lies thick across the steaming rock floor. The beast charges, claws lashing outwards, and Caden gives a shout of alarm as he moves to protect his friends.

It is a brutal fight. Not only does the beast attack with claw and fang but also with magic; around it, a wall of swirling blades of glimmering steel rises and begins to circle, homing in on the combatants with deadly accuracy. With each swing, they take a blow in return, their blood joining that pooling on the floor.

And as it falls...he feels something shift. Something tethering him to this little corner of hell disappears.

And surprisingly...he is almost sad to feel it fade. For better or for worse, this has been their only place of safety since the Five first appeared. It has been populated only by himself and his friends, his past and his present and his future. It has been, in an awful and twisted sort of way, a home.

But that is coming to an end now.

"We must rest now," he says hoarsely, sheathing his sword and looking down at the broken body of the creature they've killed. "When we leave here, there will be no coming back."

The others have not felt the shift, but they can tell from the seriousness of his voice that something fundamental has changed. Rasaad puts a hand on his shoulder and nods firmly. "We will be ready, my friend."

Imoen lounges back on her heels and spins a dagger in one hand. "I think we're all ready for this t' be over...for better 'r worse."

"Over in victory!" proclaims Minsc firmly, lifting Boo high on one fist in an expression of confidence. "Caden shall lead the way and we shall see the evil one's butt rightfully kicked."

Jaheira chuckles softly, but her eyes are sober as she looks from Caden to Aerie. "And then we will find somewhere safe for you both. I know you would not leave Caden's side now, Aerie, but... I ask you to consider--"

"No!" Aerie flares with sudden fury, gripping Caden's arm tightly and straightening to her full height; he can almost picture her missing wings bursting from her back like an eagle standing its ground. "I will not leave Caden's side, and there is no need, and anyway, how do you know--"

Jaheira smiles ruefully. "It is no secret, girl," she says, gently but pointedly. "We are not blind."

"Oh." Aerie's bravado sinks a little, and she ducks her head, looking away. "Well, I still won't--"

"I know." Jaheira shakes her head, and for a moment her expression grows distant, and Caden knows exactly where her thoughts have gone. "Nor would I, in your place. So we will finish this. We will destroy the one that would destroy us. And then... one way or another... we will be free."

#bjk plays baldur's gate 2 #caden of candlekeep #bjk writes her own party banter #indulging myself here because lbr there is NO way they kept it a secret this whole time :P

[butterflydm]

wot reread: towers of midnight (chap 39-49)

spoilers for towers of midnight

Aviendha! We haven't seen her since she went off without saying goodbye to Rand in TGS. Anyway, she has arrived in the Three-Fold Land and she's pondering ideas about home and softness. She thinks about how she's come to enjoy the baths and fine dresses that Elayne shared with her in the wetlands, despite wanting to believe she only wants the life that she grew up with.

2. As she makes camp for the night, she thinks about how the Aiel (and herself) will need to come back to the Three-Fold Land after the Last Battle, that the wetlands are too soft for them. As she drifts to sleep, there is an older woman there, at her campsite. She says that her name is Nakomi and she asks to share Aviendha's campsite. Nakomi asks if Aviendha is one of those who went west in search of the Car'a'carn and asks about him and about the wetlands. When Aviendha bursts out that the wetlands make them weak, Nakomi is startled. She points out that the Three-Fold Land was meant to punish them, test them, and shape them -- so whatever they are currently facing in the wetlands seems to be what they were being shaped for. So why does Aviendha insist that they must return to the Three-Fold Land after the Last Battle, since the 3FL has accomplished its purpose? They would be punishing themselves for no reason, because they will have met their toh.

3. I do actually enjoy this scene a lot but it really feels like Aviendha questioning all this should have happened earlier in the series, lol. She bound herself into a relationship with three wetlanders (well, Elayne and Rand; she still barely knows Min, because they just spent a month avoiding each other while living in the same place), all the while planning to leave the wetlands after the Last Battle? How exactly was that going to work? Narratively, I feel like this emotional crisis should have happened earlier.

4. Thinking over his grief over Hopper's final death and his failure with Slayer in his head, Perrin forges a hammer and Neald & some of the Wise Ones, working together, turn it into a Power-wrought weapon while Perrin makes it. He also finally embraces the idea of being a leader because 'someone else might do it wrong', essentially, lol. Like using an army to pursue a personal vendetta, you mean? Like allying with invaders and slavers and choosing to sell women into slavery, you mean? Like planning to disband said army after your personal goals have been achieved but before the world has been saved, you mean?

Anyway, Perrin has finally decided that he will lead these people to the Last Battle (like they want) instead of sending them away so... I guess that's nice. Finally caught up to every other one of the main protagonists, lol. It really is so weird how Perrin is the one who gets called the responsible one and he acknowledged his responsibilities back in TSR but then, after that, he ran from his responsibilities so much longer and harder than either Rand or Mat.

He also seems to have finally gotten over his petty jealousy of Wil al'Seen? So that's nice. Poor Wil has been NOTHING but loyal and supportive for as long as he's marched under Perrin's banner, yet Perrin has thought such mean-spirited things about him.

5. Berelain also assumes here that Rand is planning to marry Elayne, though she thinks of it more in tactical political terms than how Perrin was talking about it. So, again, there's a general "yeah Rand and Elayne are probably getting married" vibe going around Perrin's camp so I am going to be Very Doubtful that Tam knows nothing of Elayne when he first meets Min in Tear back in TGS.

6. Perrin finally thinks here that he failed Aram -- not by letting him pick up a sword in the first place, but by scooping him up in his wake and then shoving him away and ignoring him. Took him long enough to realize that it wasn't the sword's fault. He also knows that he can't go back and fix what he screwed up with Aram, but he can try to do better going forward.

...no thoughts from him on how to 'make good' with what he did with selling two hundred women into slavery, though. Maybe he feels like Rand making an alliance with the Seanchan will 'let him off the hook' for that.

7. Once again, the Whitecloaks and Perrin's army are on the brink of attacking each other. But this time it's because Perrin suspects that they're all about to get attacked by Shadowspawn and they do, and they fight together instead of against each other, etc. Battle scene. (where did the Shadowspawn come from? A Waygate, maybe? They can't go through Gateways -- Perrin thinks maybe a Portal Stone). When Byar compares this to what Perrin did in the Two Rivers, Bornhald realizes the contradiction in the logic of what he'd believed about the Two Rivers' battle: if Perrin has the command of this many Shadowspawn already, it's nonsensical for him to kill them off in order to trick the Whitecloaks (with their similar or lesser numbers) into joining him. After the battle is over, Galad names his sentencing of Perrin -- pay 500 crowns to the families of the two Whitecloaks that he killed, and fight in the Last Battle. When Byar realizes that Perrin is 'getting away' with all the crimes he's imagined up for him, he tries to kill Perrin and is killed by Bornhald before he can strike the blow.

8. Being bonded to Egwene is letting Gawyn inside the strong facade that she puts up in front of everyone else, and it's bringing him a lot of comfort to feel how emotional she still can be, under the serene mask. And Egwene and Gawyn have a frank conversation, all the more frank because they can sense the true emotions under each other's words. When Egwene suggests that a bed be brought for him in her antechamber for him to sleep in, he counters with suggesting that they can married. Gawyn also agrees with Egwene, very strongly, that something needs to be done about the Seanchan -- he's seen the assassins they sent after the Aes Sedai, witnessed the attack on the White Tower, and met some of the victims who have been freed from their cruelty. Then, just in case he needs them later, Gawyn takes the three ter'angreal rings that gave the Bloodknives their power.

9. Lan can feel the difference in the distant mind connected to his and wonders if Nynaeve has taken his bond from Myrelle. He always did his best to ignore Myrelle's feelings, but the connection feels different now, with a familiar "passion and kindness". As he passes through a fortress, he is recognized by a grandson of the queen of Kandor, who mentions that Nynaeve had said Lan might try to pass unnoticed. And here, at last, Lan gives up the notion of 'riding alone' and tells him that he will raise the banner, and any who want to join him in the ride to the Blight may come.

10. Galad here notes that it's kinda silly to have Aes Sedai as your allies and then refuse to let them heal you. Yes. Yes, that would be extremely foolish. Galad is another character who feels like a foil to Mat -- they both fell in with groups that are extremely hostile to Aes Sedai, despite having family that would get hurt by those groups (Morgase and Elayne vs Bode). So Galad thinking this here (and allowing himself to be healed) feels like a very direct contrast against something that is coming up in the near future, where Mat is going to decide to be extremely foolish.

But Galad realizes here (or begins to realize) how spending time with a group hostile to Aes Sedai HAS poisoned his mind against them, even though that was not his intention in joining them -- he thinks about how the idea of being healed wouldn't have made him uneasy when he was younger. And that's just what we saw with Mat too -- even if his intention with Tuon is to try to convince her that channeling isn't evil, spending time around her and listening to her spew her poisonous thoughts affects him even when he's trying to avoid it. It's just like the corruption of Mashadar/Shadar Logoth (which was always a metaphor for extreme paranoia and hate). Aridhol - the Children of the Light - the Seanchan... all these groups are working out of the same playbook of stoking paranoia and fear and then using that to gain control of people who are emotionally vulnerable. And it's something that's pretty common IRL too.

But combining Gawyn and Galad's realizations in TGS/ToM does feel kinda like the books have provided a road map of how Mat can emotionally pull himself away from the Seanchan and his toxic relationship with ~Fortuona~ once he wakes up enough to realize that she's not willing to ever grow as a person -- you have to realize that you DO need to make a choice that your morals can live with (can't straddle a fence forever) and realize that spending time around people who are constantly attacking and demeaning your loved ones can potentially screw with your head a lot. Child Byar is the obvious analogue for Tuon in this specific example of Galad vs Mat, and I've talked about Elaida and Tuon's similarities in earlier posts. Byar, Elaida, and Fortuona are all ~true believers~ in their individual terrible philosophies and do have a genuine 'sincerity' and 'conviction' in their zealotry for what they believe in plus share a willingness to turn to violence when they are challenged. I'm not sure if Perrin ever gets a whiff of Fortuona (don't recall), but I wonder if she would smell rabid to him, the way that most of the Whitecloaks do.

11. After they heal up from the battle, they all Travel to Andor, near Whitebridge. Morgase regrets that Faile has taken the reveal of her identity so hard and now Morgase is in a strange half-place where she is no longer a servant but not a queen either. *sigh* It's frustrating that her marrying Tallanvor is still basically forced along by Lini. Let her relax into a relationship first, sheesh. Anyway. Morgase's plan is to offer to be Elayne's advisor.

12. The chapter ends with Perrin getting to have a private reunion with Mat. lol, Perrin and Mat have barely interacted on page in the book series (especially compared to Rand and Mat) and yet Sanderson goes out of his way to let the two of THEM get a private reunion. This is genuinely the first time when Perrin has felt like an author's pet, at least for me (though I do think that Jordan would have spent considerably less page time on Perrin than Sanderson did, this is the first time when that extra Perrin time has felt like it came out of nowhere and was put in just so that Perrin could have a special treat, in this case, the treat of getting Fun Times With Mat for a couple of pages ... though actually, now that I think about, Perrin getting to be the Special One who gets to witness Rand's epiphany on Dragonmount first-hand feels like it falls into this category as well, of Perrin getting Special Treats because he's Sanderson's Particular Favorite and he wants Perrin to experience All The Cool Moments).

Why is Mat here in Whitebridge? Didn't he promise to stay in Caemlyn for a month? Has it already been a month? How did Mat even know that Perrin would be in Whitebridge? An off-screen strategic use of the color swirls, in a way that Mat has never used them before? It's just so random that he's here rather than him and Perrin meeting up for the first time once Perrin arrives in Caemlyn.

Interestingly (to me), Mat has continued to regress emotionally -- he's pulled a childish prank and wants Perrin to join him in it. Also interesting: Mat's hat is completely unfamiliar to Perrin, which speaks again to how quickly and thoroughly Perrin was able to suppress the color swirls compared to Mat and Rand. Anyway, Mat quickly hugs Perrin, arranges to meet him later, and 'borrows' one of the Asha'man to help him hop around (Neald).

Also, we know from Gawyn's chapter that there are ex-damane and ex-sul'dam wandering around the Royal Palace and yet... I don't think we ever get a scene where Mat runs across them the way that Gawyn did. Again, it feels like the narrative is sheltering Mat from seeing the full truth about the Empire that he is tying himself to, making it easier for him to play pretend that he can reason Tuon into being a decent person.

13. Elayne enjoys the warmth of her bond with Rand, after having learned the good news from Egwene that Mesaana was taken care of. It's been a week since Auldra's test (which means no more bed rest, so it was literally just a SINGLE CHAPTER where she was carried around in a bed; being carried around in a bed is the new "Elayne takes too many baths" where fandom exaggerates how much something actually happened) and Elayne has pressed every bellfounder in Andor into making more 'dragons'. Elayne deals with some politics re: the claiming of the Sun Throne. When Birgitte brings someone in unannounced, Elayne assumes that it's Mat (so Mat has permission to come into Elayne's private chambers without being formally announced). But it is Galad instead, and she is very startled to see him. And then even MORE startled to see her mother, alive and well. Morgase lets her know that she has formally renounced the throne, so no worries there, and Elayne and Galad share some information about how Galad became Lord Commander of the Whitecloaks and how the Succession went for Elayne. She invites them to a private dinner later.

14. When Elayne is alone in the room with Morgase (and Birgitte), she tells Morgase about her pregnancy and that Rand is the father. A frustrating way about how this story was set up by Jordan (and @markantonys and I have talked a lot about how this bothers us!) is because Min ~conveniently~ got black-out drunk and so was able to tell all of Caemlyn about Elayne's pregnancy but conveniently 'unable' to tell Rand, is that the pregnancy has been completely isolated to Elayne's storyline and hasn't had any impact on Rand. Which really makes it feel more like Elayne was made pregnant ~for the Dragon's Legacy~ than anything else, especially because of how Jordan immediately started having the people around Elayne treat her as a vessel for her future children rather than a person who was pregnant (even though they didn't know the kids were ~legacy babies~). Again, something that Jordan started but that Sanderson has unfortunately continued. I'm hopeful that (if the show should get that far) the show would do things differently with this storyline, because Rand has already been allowed to have "I could be a dad" related feelings in the show.

15. At night in the Three-Fold Land, Aviendha studies Rhuidean and thinks of the three ways that Rand 'broke' the city. He took away the shrouding mists surrounding it. He brought water to it (the lake is named Tears of the Dragon, Tsodrelle'Aman). And the final way is that he made the cultural impact of the city profoundly different by sharing the truth of the Aiel's past with all the Aiel, so it is no longer something that is a test for Wise Ones and clan chiefs. And so she thinks about how there is a strength in accepting change, and not clinging to tradition for tradition's sake alone. She realizes that her plan of retreating back into the Three-Fold Land never meshed with the other desires of her heart -- she wants Rand to survive the Last Battle but if he does, he will live in the wetlands. And Elayne is her first-sister who she loves and does not want to abandon, and plans to be sister-wives with, and Elayne would also live in the wetlands. She was thinking of how she became a Maiden in part because of her search to be strong but "strength was not strength if it had no purpose or direction".

(she does not think about Min because why would she? Min has never bothered trying to build a relationship with her and, in direct contrast to Elayne, has shown many times that she isn't interested in learning any more about the Aiel or their ways.)

16. The Black Tower plotline should belong to Nynaeve . That is my only comment on chapter 46, lol. I don't hate Androl like some people do but... the Black Tower plotline should have been Nynaeve's (and Logain's too tbh, and would have been a good source for his 'glory' viewing from Min). This also would have given Nynaeve a strong late-series antagonist in Taim, after she's defeated Moghedien earlier in the series.

17. Actually, I am going to talk a bit about how frustrating it is that Jordan kept avoiding this plotline. It is a festering wound in Rand's storyline for months/books and Rand just keeps avoiding it and avoiding it. We get these tiny little hints into what might be happening at the Black Tower, but mostly it's just a self-inflicted wound on Rand's part that never really get resolved on his end, because Rand never goes back there. He creates it and then lets it be Someone Else's Problem, and it kinda feels like it's tied to how Jordan kept having Rand avoid Caemlyn in general. It feels like it's an element of the story that Jordan just... didn't know how to solve, so he kept punting it forward to the future and hoping he would figure it out eventually (kinda like the Seanchan, I guess). But, yeah, I feel like having Nynaeve literally stop by the Black Tower for Lan's bond and then immediately leaving really feels like a missed opportunity on Sanderson's part.

18. Faile, Perrin & co Travel to Caemlyn and Faile is startled by how there is a ring of clear sky around the city, breaking the cloud cover and allowing the sunlight to shine through. That's Rand's love for Elayne. <3

Faile notes here that Elayne is a younger version of her mother (she doesn't think here about how she missed the resemblance before, though now that she brings it up -- she also met Elayne in Tear, just like Perrin did, lol) and notes her pregnancy as well. Yet more people who found out before Rand did. Though Faile does not know for sure that Rand is the dad -- though he is an option that she speculates on.

19. Anyway, obviously Elayne does not execute Perrin. They make an agreement that Perrin will be a ~high lord~ in charge of the Two Rivers but underneath Elayne. It's kinda hilarious to me that Perrin flatly turns down the whole "super early betrothal" idea between his potential kid and Elayne's because of Rand and Egwene's evolving backstory throughout the first five books in the series, one version of which WAS them being ~all but promised~ since childhood, so it kinda IS a Two Rivers thing.

The political mechanism of this is going to be them having it styled as a request from RAND aka the Dragon Reborn, so it doesn't look like Elayne is giving in to the demands of rebels from the crown but is instead honoring the debt the world owes the Two Rivers for raising Rand and "the man I love", so Elayne is thinking at the point that she does intend to go public with her relationship with Rand, it seems, otherwise I don't see how that part of the plan can work. Though this may be Elayne assuming/hoping that Rand will survive the Last Battle and then they will be able to go public.

Hmmm, given that Elayne was kinda ~eh~ on whether or not she agreed with Egwene on needing to 'stop Rand' re: breaking the seals, it's interesting that she frames things that way with Perrin, as if she agrees with Egwene 100%. This conversation is all very political from Elayne's side of things, so I wonder if this part of it is as well. Or maybe Elayne has decided that Egwene is right after thinking things over.

20. ~Fortuona's~ skirt is so heavy and long that it requires five slaves to carry the train of it as she wanders around 'her' palace in Ebou Dar. Let's see what this scene is about, especially given my recent thoughts about how the little empress is a foil for Elayne, who just engaged in some clever political justifications in order to help the Two Rivers maintain autonomy.

Ah, we are being reminded that she gets off on torturing helpless women aka ~teaching lessons~ to stubborn damane. "You did not destroy a beast because it was slow to learn; you punished it until it learned." She's so repulsive in her internal narration. Also, that once again reminds me of how she treated Mat during the circus arc. Another point for 'she was slave-breaking him'. #MatDeservedBetter #PutMatInThePolycule #Yikes

She finds it soothing to watch women be tortured into whimpering and unwilling submission. How is she better than Semirhage, exactly? This is the exact same mindset that Semirhage had.

21. lol forever, the Seanchan are the biggest try-hards in the world. Her gown is covered with writings talking about how "The Empress IS Seanchan. The Empress WILL live forever. The Empress MUST be obeyed" (emphasis in the text). Someone is really really insecure, isn't she, despite her massive ego? Also, that is a straight-forward repudiation of Mat's belief that he can fight her empire without fighting her. She IS the Empire. If he openly turns against the Empire and against slavery, she will take it as a personal assault against her as a person. Speaking of Mat, she thinks here that one of the lessons she learned from her time with him was that not every noble on this side of the ocean would be plotting to assassinate her, as they might in Seanchan. That's the main lesson that she decided to take from her time with Mat. Nothing else important happened in your time with the circus? (also, I don't get how in the world she learned that from the circus journey? lol the only other Seanchan noble on that trip besides her was Egeanin, who was a. Low Blood and b. defected from the Seanchan over to the Westlanders; Fortuona is literally just making things up and creating baseless fictions in her head)

22. Ah, we are also here to show that Elaida is in the process of being broken. I had to skim over all the grossness here. I do think that a part of the reason it's Elaida here and not any other Aes Sedai is likely an attempt at softening the horror of what ~Fortuona~ is doing for the reader but, yeah, that bs does not work on me. I'm with Egwene. No one deserves to be treated like this. It's genuinely so unbelievable that the narrative wants to convince me that Mat would be willing to kiss (let alone do anything else with) a woman like this. Another character more devoid of morals and with a lack of empathy, sure. But Mat? Complete bullshit. (which is why Mat was replaced with a pod!person version of himself in CoT & KoD -- Mat's characterization change really remains the most obvious indicator that Tuon's original plot was likely quite different than what we ended up with, because Mat in WH is clearly set up to morally challenge Tuon and then in CoT & KoD, we abruptly swap to enabling & coddling her instead)

Because sure, Mat cares about people over abstract principles, but he is aware that marath'damane are people too. He barely knew Teslyn and he reworked his entire escape plan to save her. He didn't know the Windfinders at all and, again, risked his entire escape plan to help free them. Mat throwing aside the ~little people trampled under her feet~ in favor of the elite noble lady is just... not in character. It really does suck that Jordan decided to deal with punting off the issue of the Seanchan by destroying Mat rather than... any other option.

23. Anyway, the Seanchan officially now have Traveling, which I'm guessing is the other big reason we have this scene, not just as a contrast against Elayne. But we see here ~Fortuona~ wondering if she will have "unwavering loyalty" from 'Matrim' and an "impossible marriage" out of a fantasy where she will actually be able to trust the Prince of Ravens. tbh this feels like another illustration of Fortuona Just Making Up Fictions In Her Head -- Mat has explicitly told her that her empire is his enemy, and she views herself AS the empire so... no. Mat has no current plans to pledge his ~unwavering loyalty~ to her. But Fortuona has probably blocked out that part of the conversation because she didn't like it, lol.

She then immediately begins plotting her next strike against the White Tower, with this new weapon of being able to Travel directly to the enemy stronghold.

Mat, get a better wife. This one sucks.

24. Hmm, we go directly from seeing ~Fortuona~ being a terrible person, to Mat telling Perrin about being married to 'the Daughter of the Nine Moons', which he maintains is different than being married to 'the Empress of the Seanchan', so even in outside PoVs, Mat is trying to maintain that wall of pretense that Tuon isn't actually a major part of the Seanchan Empire. Interestingly, it sounds like Perrin told his own story first, so Mat & Thom (also here) are aware that Perrin is buddy-buddy with slavers (I doubt he went into detail about selling women into slavery, but he would have needed to mention allying with the Seanchan to explain how he freed Faile & Co from the Shaido). I wonder if that shaped any of their own responses to him.

And I will say, Perrin treating Mat being married to the Empress of the Slavers like the ‘of the Slavers’ part is meaningless: Ugh. I mean, it follows from his horrendous Actually Slavers Are Great People Sometimes ‘epiphany’ of KoD but it still sucks. He literally just goes "lol married man Mat" here, and has zero opinions about the quality of Mat's bride. And this is in Perrin's PoV, so if he were grossed out by Mat marrying a slaver, we would know. He is amused that Mat is married, grins a lot, and is content with just hanging out with someone who is married to a slaver. My respect for Perrin has plummeted once again.

25. Now, Thom is in this scene, so I'm going to examine his behavior closely, as promised. Very intriguing! He is the one who mentioned the marriage when he told the story (and Mat openly wishes that he hadn't) AND Mat grouses that he didn't make Mat sound heroic. Which is to say... Perrin has gotten pretty much precisely the opposite story to the one that Elayne got -- Elayne heard the version that DID make Mat sound heroic and that stopped before there was a marriage or having a slaver enforcer sent back to her empire to do more horrible things. And Thom is the one who told both of those very different stories. Hmm.

Putting this scene so soon after ~Fortuona~ thinking about how much she enjoys torturing people is, um, interesting. We have: Good Queen Elayne figuring out a bargain that will work for everyone; Torturer and Invader Tuon already planning to attack a stronghold of Team Light once again; and then Mat, who wishes people would stop bringing up his marriage.

26. lol, Thom's only comment on Tuon as a person (someone who he spent at least one whole month with, and it might have been two months idk the circus arc felt like it went on forever): "She's something interesting." lol, wow. That's the best he's willing to say about his ~good buddy Mat's wife~, huh? That's one of the best illustrations of 'damning with faint praise' that I've ever seen.

Mat himself does not offer up anything more positive about her at this time, just echoing Thom's comment.

Ugh, so grossed out by Perrin talking about how Mat's wife will expect him to know table manners. She's a slaver, Perrin. She enjoys watching people writhe in pain in front of her. Have some fucking perspective, will you?

...also, Perrin really has no room to talk about table manners. He canonically eats like a wolf.

27. Once again, Perrin confirms that Mat is now a fey creature who obeys oaths to the letter while breaking the spirit of them, apparently. Mat shows him the letter from Verin and Perrin smells it.

Aww, Mat does worry here about Verin. Well, she's dead, Mat. Read the letter instead of ignoring it.

lol, in contrast to Perrin hating when men smile, Mat notes that he wishes Grady would smile more. Don't say things like that around Perrin! He might take offense!

28. "This is why I left my wife in another kingdom". Ah, the very familiar sound of a man who is miserably married but doesn't know he's allowed to NOT be married. You will see this type of comment around the internet and it used to be pretty common on tv (especially sitcoms), though I think that's died down a bit in recent years (or I've just managed to successfully avoid the shows where it still happens). But the "please take my wife" school of 'jokes'. Happily married Grady finds the joke unpleasant. Because he actually likes his wife, I'm guessing.

Mat also notes that he feels like the world has been laughing at him recently. Then he tells Perrin that Moiraine is alive and that he plans to rescue her.

...yeah, I'm now leaning towards Thom believing that Mat is playing Tuon, because Mat's unhappiness about his marriage has not been particularly subtle, and it doesn't make sense for Thom to assume that Mat tumbled in love with her, because he's not acting like he wants to spend any time with her -- he's basically acting like he's ashamed to be married to her, given how much he openly regrets it whenever someone new learns about his marriage (even if he's the one who told them). Since Thom doesn't know about the prophecy, spy!Mat is the most logical conclusion for him to make.

I am also 100% not surprised that Perrin would fail to pick up on any subtext in Mat's feelings about ~his wife~ -- not picking up on people hiding their complex intentions and feelings behind false words has been a subplot throughout Perrin's plotline in the books (I talk, of course, of Berelain; who compared herself to Mat back in TSR and didn't chase him because she believed they were too much alike). Perrin is often baffled by why a person would say one thing and then do another contradictory thing (especially if they are feeling a third contradictory thing at the same time). Which is probably why Mat and Rand are closer friends over the course of the book series, tbh, because Rand was a lot better at picking up on that subtext from Mat just as Mat was better at figuring out what Rand's behavior meant than Perrin was.

29. Aviendha enters the forest of glass columns, expecting to see something similar to what Rand (and every Wise One and clan chief) saw. And she does. On the plus side, Avendesora has fully recovered from being burned during Rand's fight with Asmodean, which was less than a year ago. Yay, tree! We're reminded here of all the ter'angreal that Moiraine took out of Rhuidean, boxed up on caravans meant for the White Tower, but are now just... chilling in Cairhien somewhere. All that's left here is the tree, the glass forest, and the silver rings that the Wise Ones use.

30. She continues to think on whether or not tradition for its own sake is worth holding onto. And then, she actually thinks of trying to use the Talent that she discovered during her time with Elayne to find out more information on the glass columns! But she finds that this ter'angreal is much more powerful than any of the others that she had examined and she feels almost as if it is looking at her. When she turns away to leave, she finds herself drawn into a series of visions, but different ones than the ones she's already seen and came to expect.

31. Instead of the past, Aviendha sees a glimpse of a future. I use 'a' instead of 'the' because that's really the way that Wise Ones generally interface with future prophecies -- they have the silver rings and they have prophetic dreams, and BOTH of those are explicitly subject to change, both of them show possibility rather than certainty. So it makes sense that Aviendha treats this as a 'may happen' rather than 'will happen' (as Min treats her viewings). The Wise Ones always have a degree of malleability and uncertainty when it comes to their prophecies. So even though Aviendha thinks here that this vision feels more real than that of the silver rings, I do think it's partly the lessons of the rings that makes her decide not to just lie down and let the future happen to her, as so many other characters have done.

So it makes sense that the overall lesson that Aviendha takes from the glass columns is "okay, let's prevent this future".

32. The first new vision that Aviendha gets -- of a Aiel who thinks of herself as one of 'the Folk' and who lives a scrabbling life as scavengers in the desert, startles her. She wonders if interacting with the columns in the way that she did changed them. So she decides to turn around and go back into the columns, to see if there is a new lesson here.

33. The progression of lives (for part of this journey, Aviendha thinks she's viewing a distant past):

Malidra - scavenger who dies at 18 (end of Aviendha's line?)

Norlesh - we learn that the reason that the Aiel cannot trade with the 'wetlands' is due to the Raven Empress, who forbids trade with the Aiel. We learn that the reason they don't have settlements anymore is because they are attacked if they gather in large numbers, and they are not allowed back over the mountains into the wetlands.

Tava - greatmother (grandmother) to Norlesh. At fourteen, her hold was attacked and they were driven out to wander the desert. The attack was done via raken & to'raken, sounds like. We learn that this is far from the first time that a hold has been attacked -- few Aiel still hold to societies and sept/clan, because they have been forced to scattered and then regroup with new people so many times. This specific hold was deep in the waste, so they had believed it to be safe. We learn that "being known as Aiel meant death". This is when Aviendha realizes that this is not the past -- she recognizes the raken and the Seanchan uniform.

Ladalin - Wise One of the Taardad Aiel, who cannot channel and wishes that she could, so that she could help her people and remained young for longer to lead her clan. We learn that the Seanchan have done a successful job of hunting Aiel channelers, both male and female (so they may be actively using those copies of the black a'dam that Semirhage made). Ladalin is an old woman now and her entire life has been spent in battle against the Seanchan. We learn that the White Tower has just fallen and only five clans remain. The remaining Aiel decide to retreat back over the mountains and leave the wetlands to the Seanchan, hoping that their children can regroup and continue the fight in future generations. Aviendha finds Ladalin's PoV almost more confusing than the others because it is similar in some ways to Aiel culture thinking but with specific important pieces lost.

Oncala - Maiden of the Spear. Rhuidean has been besieged by the Seanchan. Oncala thinks about how the Aiel respected that the palace in Ebou Dar was the Seanchan's seat and did not attack it (until Rhuidean was attacked), yet the Seanchan attacked their place of peace. Oncala is visiting the royal palace in Caemlyn to speak with Queen Talana and is somewhat resentful that the Andoran royal family thinks themselves the equal of her own family, because they both have the blood of the Dragon. Because they know that they cannot fight the Seanchan alone, she and her family have papers that they took from the palace in Ebou Dar that show plans to attack the various places in the wetlands, thus bringing Andor into the war. However, they left out a document stating that this was a contingency plan and not an active assault being planned.

Padra - Aviendha's daughter, a Maiden of the Spear. She and her siblings have been able to channel since they were children, and she holds the Power constantly, even when she sleeps. We learn that the Seanchan have refused to let any of their enslaved channelers be released, even when the Aiel have offered to pay or trade for them. lol forever at ~the old Seanchan empress~ being considered a ~woman of honor~. Dude, I've met Fortuona. She's got no honor. Pride by the barrel, but no honor. But I guess it's easy to turn the dead into saints (actually the narration here implies that Fortuona dies relatively soon after the Last Battle, which I find interesting - "The old empress, the one who had ruled during the days of the Last Battle" does not sound like she was ruling for very long past that time period. "Many years had passed since her rule". Hmm). Anyway, this is the meeting, essentially, where the Aiel clans decide to go to active war with the Seanchan, thus kicking off the rest of the chain of events. Rhuarc's son talks to Padra after the decision has been made, about how his father felt that Rand was never truly part of the Aiel and didn't know what to do with them, leaving them at loose ends.

34. Anyway, I do think we have a couple of different motivations at work here for Sanderson: a. he needs Aviendha to decide to embrace her chosen future and not just allow the future to happen to her and b. making nice with the Seanchan is a fundamental part of the ending as Jordan had it set up in the epilogue, so he needs to make it so that the Aiel will play along with that.

However... there are some pretty big 'missing character' gaps in the vision that Aviendha has been shown. It's definitely less than a hundred years into the future in the first vision (we meet Rhuarc's son and there's no implication in the vision that he can channel) so... where is Aviendha? She can channel, and channel strongly. Same with Elayne. You'd think they might have some opinions and/or impact on the world. I kinda feel like the push-off into war probably should have taken place further into the future. Maybe have this vision have Rhuarc's grandson instead of his son, and not have any memory of seeing Rand. In a world where channelers can live hundreds of years... Amys or Melaine should still be around too, I would think. I have other questions as well. So despite Aviendha's own thoughts on it, the way that the viewings actually play out feels more like an intentional warning than a true future.

But you know, I did get a good laugh when Fortuona was called honorable, so we'll always have that.

The next reread post will probably be the last one for ToM and I'm going to save any commentary for HOW Aviendha goes about approaching changing the future for when she lays out her thoughts about it, since she hasn't said yet what her plans are, and I don't know if I've remembered them correctly. I think maybe we don't find out until AMoL. We'll see!

#wot #wheel of time #wot reread #towers of midnight #wot book spoilers #wot spoilers #aviendha #perrin aybara #elayne trakand #mat cauthon

[booklindworm]

Amatakka word list, part 3

chinaa - chinaa seeds - they taste like cardamom (a Tatooine word) (not gendered) [fialleril, January 02, 2017]

chinaka - sweet porridge (not gendered) [fialleril, January 02, 2017]

chin - right, right hand, right lek; from Ryl tchin (not gendered) [BLW] tchin is adapted from Zach Lee's Project Twilex

chi - sweet (not gendered) [conjecture re: chinaka, chinaa]

chukata lav - good luck! but also congratulation! mazel tov! literally: "make a place for luck!" [fialleril, November 22, 2017 //literal translation and conjectures by BLW]

chukata - place for luck, from the idiom "make a place for good luck so it'll stay if it visits" (not gendered) [BLW]

chuki - chokie, a fruit that is typically set out to dry in the Dune Sea for three days after harvesting; fresh dried chokie was a popular food product [TPM video game //translation by BLW]

chuku - good luck, fortune (not gendered) [BLW]

chun - left, left hand, left lek; from Ryl tchun (not gendered) [BLW] tchun is adapted from Zach Lee's Project Twilex

dakkalu - strength now, a prayer or wish (not gendered) [DAV 12 The Only Verdict]

dakka - strength (not gendered) [conjecture re: dakkalu]

dal - dal root - it tastes like sarsaparilla (a Tatooine word) (not gendered) [fialleril, January 02, 2017]

dama - 1 a beautiful stone, rock, gem (not gendered) [BLW]

dama - 2 name of a member of the Whitesun family on Tatooine, Dama Whitesun, younger sister of Beru Whitesun and wife of (f) [ANH]

danta-sihru - needle-rat, a predatory mammal with the ability to turn into a ball and charge at enemies using its needled fur (found on Tatooine) (n) [Super Star Wars // translation by BLW]

dantu - needle, pin or spine (not gendered) [BLW]

dantu-qishhu - bristlemelon, a sweet fruit grown in Cliegg Lars' hydroponic garden; the spines had to be burnt off before eating (not gendered) [SW Galaxies // translation by BLW]

dara, daru - dance, dancing (not gendered) [conjecture re: nimdara]

darra - be taken, invaded, overwhelmed (enemy victory) (from the Rakatan word for victory, darr) (not gendered) [BLW]

de-aka, deak - 1 cool wind, refreshing breeze (not gendered) [BLW]

de- - cool, cold (not gendered) [BLW]

deak - 2 name of a childhood friend of Luke Skywalker who lived in Anchorhead, Deak Dunedancer (De-aka Rilldaro) (m) [ANH]

dekka - one-hundred (not gendered) [probably fialleril, not sure]

dep - chain, fetter, leash, the root word of depur, master (or more literally, "the one who binds in chains") [fialleril, November 28, 2016]

depuan - chained, on a leash, fettered (not gendered) [conjecture re: kol-depuan]

depukrekta - freed slave who enslaves others, literally chain-healer (n) [fialleril, 23 Dec 2016]

depu- - regarding slavery or chains [fialleril, November 28, 2016]

depur - tyrant, slaver, slave-master, literally "chainer" (n) [DAV 1 Shapechanger]

depuskalta - slave who killed their owner, literally chain-slayer (n) [fialleril, May 20, 2016]

depuvellta - chain-gilder, someone who 'frees' a slave to keep them (as spouse, employee, apprentice), from the saying gilding the chains and calling them jewelry (n) [idea from fialleril //translation by BLW]

dera - 1 friend, ally, a nice person (n) [BLW]

dera - 2 name of a member of the Darklighter family on Tatooine, Dera Yanome (f), Biggs' step-sister [ANH novelization]

deran - friendship (not gendered) [BLW]

dia - ice, cold (from Ryl) (not gendered) [BLW] from Ryl as described in the Star Wars Roleplaying Game Galactic Campaign Guide

dimas - weep, cry, lament (not gendered) [BLW]

dirigum - funnel flower, a plant with a cone of large petals that pulls hot air down into the earth and hoards condensation (not gendered) [A New Hope //translation by BLW]

dol - food, nourishment (not gendered) [BLW]

dol halbanthu - milk bread baked with what herbs and desert seeds could be foraged [Ben Naasade: Zodiac]

dopami - traitor, probably from Huttese dopa meekie, double-crossing (n) [BLW]

duka - junk, from Jawaese dooka (not gendered) [BLW]

dukkra ba dukkra - death or freedom (not gendered) [DAV 4 - The Slave Who Makes Free]

dukkra - death (not gendered), frequently used idiomatically (and just as frequently literally) to mean freedom (in death or otherwise) [DAV 4 - The Slave Who Makes Free]

-du - purposefully, on purpose (not gendered) [conjecture re: keekta-du]

duizan - dweezel, a type of fruit that could be found on the desert planet of Tatooine, and notably on the Mos Espa Market [TPM // translation by BLW]

-e- - and, additionally (not gendered) [conjecture re: efin-e-tsi]

ebra - 1 laughter, merriment, mirth (not gendered) [fialleril, august 16, 2016]

ebra - 2 name of Ebra the prophet, the one to whom Ar-Amu first gave the secret of tzai (n) [fialleril, August 16, 2016]

echuni - 1 little secret (not gendered) [DAV 9 Trickster Steals the Moon]

echuni - 2 name of the smallest of Tatooine's three moons, called Chenini by the Hutts (n) [DAV 9 Trickster Steals the Moon]

echun - secret (not gendered) [conjecture re: echuni]

echun-ta depuru - “a place secret from depur.” (not gendered) [fialleril, November 23, 2016]

efin-e-tsi - fifty-one (not gendered) [fialleril, I think]

efin - fifty (not gendered) [fialleril, I think]

eka - sky, firmament (not gendered) [conjecture re: ekkreth]

ek - I/me, first person singular (not gendered) [DAV 4 - The Slave Who Makes Free]

ekkreth - Ekkreth, the shape-changer, trickster and folk-hero, the one who walks the sky (literally skywalker) (n)[DAV 1 Shapechanger]

ek masa Amavikka - I am Amavikka [DAV 4 - The Slave Who Makes Free]

ek masa - I am, I have, I stand for, I represent [DAV 4 - The Slave Who Makes Free]

ek masa nu - I am called, my name is [DAV 4 - The Slave Who Makes Free]

see also fialleril's post about introductions and fia's post on ingredients

#amatakka #conlang #wordlist #star wars #my headcanons #Double Agent Vader #Ben Naasade Saga

[asoiafreadthru]

A Game of Thrones, Bran I

The man had been taken outside a small holdfast in the hills.

Robb thought he was a wildling, his sword sworn to Mance Rayder, the King-beyond-the-Wall. It made Bran’s skin prickle to think of it.

He remembered the hearth tales Old Nan told them. The wildlings were cruel men, she said, slavers and slayers and thieves. They consorted with giants and ghouls, stole girl children in the dead of night, and drank blood from polished horns.

And their women lay with the Others in the Long Night to sire terrible half-human children.

But the man they found bound hand and foot to the holdfast wall awaiting the king’s justice was old and scrawny, not much taller than Robb.

He had lost both ears and a finger to frostbite, and he dressed all in black, the same as a brother of the Night’s Watch, except that his furs were ragged and greasy.

#a game of thrones #bran i #asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #gared #the north #bran stark #robb stark #wildlings #mance rayder #king beyond the wall #old nan #giants #the others #the long night #night's watch

[dewythicket]

Inktober days 19 & 20: PONYTAIL and BLUFF

In the ancient Chinese text, Classic of Mountains and Seas (山海经), it’s written that on one remote northeastern mountain, there lives a beast that has the face of a human, with a body resembling a large yellow swine, swinging a long reddish tail…and this beasts’ human face can cry like a human baby, luring into its slavering jaws unwitting victims concerned about some lost child.

And this creeped the living daylights outta me when I first read it, so of course I had to draw something about it 😂 go slay the beast, bluffing ponytailed monster-slayer!

#inktober #inktober2022 #art #illustration #drawing #inkart #inkdrawing #lineart #traditionalart #blackandwhiteart #sketchbookart #sketching #shanhaijing #山海經 #山海经

[kharrneth]

@mecha-marksman​

Perhaps it was I’ll luck that the Blood God’s eye be drawn to one of the Horned Rat’s children, for a god’s attention was fickle. Lingering on places and people for only the briefest of instances before moving on.

However, the slaughter of one of his Bloodletters by a mere ratmen had stalled Kharneth’s shifting gaze. He even entertained that he might not have seen that correctly, but as he sought out the banished soul and further sought answers, it became apparent that his eyes had not lied.

This ratmen, ‘Rex’ the Bloodletter ( that he absorbed for the disgrace, of course) had whimpered, had slain five of his naked slayers. The Hound was furious, his great dog-like head turning in the direction of Tzeentch’s realm. Surely, this had to be some trick of the changer. Well, he would have the lack laugh and crush the Raven God’s newest toy.

And so it was, the next time Rex came above ground, A groaning beast of Brass would be staring him down. Even more hateful was it’s rider, a Bloodreaper of Khorne and there was no need to guess there reasons for being. Pointing his slavering hellblade at the Skaven, the Herald growled.

“ Blood God wants your skull!”

#mechamarksman #warhammer fantasy #warhammer rp #//lemme know if this is ok or not!