#theswordofglass

[joannalannister]

Helllo :) After your last posts on Dany and Tyrion I was wondering If he will fall for her in the books too... And if so, how do you think it affects the relationship between the three dragonriders, assuming Jon and Dany get together? Thanks :D

@theladyoftheblog asked:

So in the show Tyrion is in love with Dany. Two questions: do you think that’s going to happen in the books as well? And do you think, either in the show or the books, that Dany will ever reciprocate? I like that Tyrion is in love again, that in itself can be good for him, but the idea that it’ll be one-sided is a little upsetting to me.

Maybe? Possibly. idk. I reblogged those posts because I like the look in Peter Dinklage’s soulful eyes whenever he looks at Dany. The way I imagine TWOW and ADOS playing out doesn’t bear much resemblance to that show. I wanna emphasize that: I don’t imagine Jon, Dany, and Tyrion’s stories in the books looking much like that show.

What might their relationship look like in the books? Something vaguely like Dying of the Light, in GRRM’s alien, Lovecraftian city, hunted by the Others and on the run for their lives, cold, hungry, tired, afraid, and, above all, lonely. I think Jon/Dany is the main romance GRRM is setting up, but I could see Tyrion full of longing, like Dirk. I’ve seen people suggest that GRRM is going to replace the planned Jon/Arya/Tyrion love triangle with a Jon/Dany/Tyrion love triangle, and maybe he will do that. idk ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Dany/Tyrion is mostly an AU of the books to me, but it’s one of the very rare AU ideas that I like. I don’t like AUs. But I like the idea of a Dany/Tyrion AU because I actually like the exploration of Tyrion’s character as someone who loves and wants to be loved. Tyrion is very sexual, he’s a rape and abuse survivor like Dany, he feels a lot of anger and resentment and despair, he has a complicated relationship with his family/family history, like Dany does. (Like, ~you killed your mother~ // ~if only you had been born earlier, you would have married Rhaegar and none of this awful stuff would be happening to me~). And Dany in the books is such a powerful character, someone who I think would be a great match for Tyrion in terms of strength and will and charisma, someone who could temper a few of Tyrion’s more ruthless, tywin-esque impluses, like I think they could really balance each other out and be a great couple. I think there are a lot of interesting parallels between the two characters, far too many for me to go into here. Just imagine them bonding over their horrible fathers. So I think it would be fun to throw Tyrion and Dany together, the way it’s fun to throw [X HP Character] together with [Y HP Character]. (I’m not touchin’ any HP wank, so insert your own HP non-canon ship there.)

And because I have been on this website for far too long … before anybody says to me, “But Tyrion is a misogynist,” yes, I know that, I know that Tyrion is a misogynist. Every man in Westeros is a misogynist to some degree. Tyrion has raped and murdered. He’s complicated and messy and morally grey and he has a lot of issues to work out, but if all the complicated, messy, morally grey (able-bodied) men in ASOIAF and every other fandom can be shipped with the female protagonist while working out their own issues, then idk why I can’t enjoy an AU of Dany/Tyrion. 

I think Jon/Dany is my main Dany ship, but I find the idea of Tyrion/Dany in the books to be enjoyable. I don’t wanna think about the show version, I would rather pretend it doesn’t exist, and for some reason my tv just … totally randomly showed me Peter Dinklage looking heartbroken last weekend, and then I fancasted him as book!Tyrion in my head. 

#theladyoftheblog #theswordofglass #replies #dany x tyrion #tyrion x dany #au #tyrion lannister #rape tw #Multishipping is fun!

[dknc3]

Can I suggest a fic idea? Modern Ned/Cat AU in which Cat is dating Brandon, but told through Lyarra Stark's POV

You asked for it, and here it is. Lyarra Stark watches the relationship of her firstborn son and Catelyn Tully develop over several years, hoping for the best for them, and eventually realizing something that takes her by surprise.

Under a cut because I wrote it--meaning it’s a wee bit longer than a standard tumblr ficlet (but honestly!! SHORT for me!!)

Lyarra Stark sipped her wine and watched the sun set through the big picture window in the dining room. It was much too cold to sit outside in the evenings now. Even for her.

“What did you think of her? Hoster’s girl?”

Lyarra turned to see her husband walking toward her from the hallway.

“Have they gone?” she asked.

“Yes, but what did you think, Lyarra? I found her charming. Prettier and certainly with more class than Rodrik’s loud daughter. But I suppose that’s to be expected with her breeding.”

“She isn’t a horse, Rickard!” Lyarra laughed, shaking her head. “And Barbrey Ryswell’s no louder than our own daughter. And certainly no wilder.”

“Lyanna’s a child,” Rickard said dismissively. “And don’t pretend you aren’t happy that Brandon never got more serious about Barbrey. You never thought she was right for him, I know.”

“I never thought he cared enough about her to settle down,” she sighed. “And he does need to settle down some time. At least a bit.”

Rickard tapped his own wine glass against hers. “He does. And this girl seems just right for that. Hoster said we’d like her, and I’ve got to say I do.” He looked at her. “You still haven’t answered me, though. What do you think of the Tully girl?”

Lyarra sighed. “She’s lovely, Rickard. And polite and charming. Seems to be intelligent. And more importantly, I think Brandon likes her. Where’s he taking her tonight, do you know?”

“Out dancing somewhere. Apparently, she enjoys dancing. Did you know they’ve been going out for nearly a month already? I can’t believe he didn’t bring her over for dinner before now!”

“Maybe he realized that you’d call Hoster Tully the moment you found out his new girlfriend’s name, Rickard,” Lyarra said, wagging her finger at him. “Which you did.”

“Well, I’ve known Hoster for years! Man’s a bit stuffy and hung up on manners--the way southerners are, you know. But he’s a good man. And he runs a hell of a company.”

“Stuffy? Did you seriously just refer to Hoster Tully as stuffy when you’re the one remarking on his daughter’s breeding?

He made a sound somewhere between a harrumph and a snort and put an arm around her. As they stood there shoulder to shoulder and watched the sun sink below the horizon in silence, Lyarra thought about her firstborn son. He did seem more taken with Catelyn Tully than he’d ever been with Barbrey, but then he did have an eye for beautiful women, and the the young lady from Riverrun was undoubtedly beautiful. She certainly seemed smitten with Brandon as well. Her eyes had lit up every time he’d laughed at something she said or reached over to touch her hand during dinner. Lyarra only wished Brandon hadn’t monopolized so much of the conversation. She’d gotten the distinct impression that Catelyn, unlike so many of Brandon’s dates, had a quick mind behind her pretty face. She’d have liked to hear more from the girl. Unlike Barbrey, however--who had certainly been sharper than most of Brandon’s other girlfriends, in mind and tongue--Catelyn hadn’t become visibly angry about Brandon’s penchant for keeping everyone’s attention on himself. Lyarra wasn’t certain if that was good or bad. Hopefully, the young woman had simply been too polite to embarrass her date in front of his parents and would speak to him about it later in private. No doubt, Brandon would become defensive, but Lyarra Stark knew very well that no woman would ever tame her wild wolf pup unless she had some backbone.

_____________________________________________________

“Mom!” Brandon’s voice rang out through the house. “Mom!”

“Up here, Bran! In Lya’s room.” Her daughter had called from California where she’d decided to attend college much to Rickard’s dismay, asking her to send out several clothing items she’d forgotten to pack.

The sound of her son taking the steps at least three at at time rapidly followed her words. When he appeared in the doorway of Lyanna’s bedroom, his flushed face was split by a wide grin. “Mom, I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna ask Cat to marry me!” he exclaimed breathlessly.

“Oh, Brandon!” she exclaimed, coming to hug him tightly. “Are you sure, baby?”

“I’m sure. I . . . I can’t let her walk away again, Mom. I can’t. I need her to know I’m in this forever.”

She smiled up at her handsome boy who towered over her by a good bit more than either her husband or second son did. Ben still had an outside shot at catching him, but she doubted it. “Forever is a long time, Bran. Catelyn is a wonderful girl, but are you certain you’re ready for forever?”

His smile instantly became a scowl. “God, Mom! You sound like Ned! Yes, I’m sure. I fucked up before. I know I did. But Cat forgave me. Why can’t the rest of you just let it go?”

Lyarra pressed her lips tightly together. No doubt Ned had given his brother an earful if he’d already informed him of his intent to propose marriage. Her second son was not one to sugarcoat uncomfortable facts, and the fact is that Brandon and Catelyn had only been back together for two months after their third and longest break-up, and Catelyn had told him this was his final chance. Over three years ago, Lyarra had once wondered if Catelyn Tully had enough backbone to hold her own with Brandon, and the young woman had certainly proven that she did. She didn’t tolerate Brandon’s wandering eye, had broken things off with him three times, and had steadfastly refused to move in with him. However, she also loved him deeply, and if Brandon could simply see what an incredible gift that was, she knew Catelyn would make her son happy for the rest of his life.

“Brandon,” she said very carefully. “It isn’t our place to hold on or let go. That’s yours and Catelyn’s. She loves you, son. If you love her the same . . .”

“I do love her, Mom! I swear I’m miserable without her. You know that!”

“I do,” Lyarra assured him. “I’ve never known you to care so much about any other girl. But what I was trying to say, Bran, is that if you love her the same way she loves you, you won’t even want to be with anyone else. Oh, you won’t be oblivious to beautiful women unless you’re suddenly stricken blind, but you won’t truly want to be with them.”

Brandon looked at her for a long moment, the thoughtful expression on his face causing him to look far more like his brother Eddard than he usually did. “I’m not going to cheat on her, Mom. I swear I’m done with that. I can’t lose her again. But . . . I do love her. And those other girls . . . it had nothing to do with loving her. I just . . . It was just . . . Jesus, you’re the last person I ever thought I’d try to explain this to.”

He looked distressed and turned to walk away from her and look out the window toward the front yard.

“I never said that men who cheat don’t love their girlfriends or their wives, Brandon,” she said quietly to his back. “Or women who cheat, for that matter. I don’t doubt that you love Catelyn. But the way she loves you leaves no room in her heart . . . or her bed . . . for anyone else. Do you really understand that? I’m certain she hasn’t been with anyone since you two first started dating, even when you were broken up. She can’t be with anyone who isn’t you because of the way she loves you. But, Bran, she wants to be loved the same way. She wants someone for whom she truly is enough.”

“I will never cheat on Cat again, Mom,” he said to the front yard. Then he turned around to face her. “I swear it.”

He meant it. She could see the determination on his face. But she couldn’t help but wonder if he’d understood what she’d said to him at all. She hoped so. For him and Catelyn both, she hoped he really understood. And that he could love the young woman the way she deserved to be loved. The two of them could withstand anything if he could.

____________________________________

The unmistakable sounds of crying caused Lyarra to pause in the hallway and attempt to both recognize and locate the person in distress.

“She’s lying, Cat,” came a deep male voice. “Please don’t cry.”

Cat?  So Catelyn was the person crying. But that wasn’t Brandon’s voice. Lyarra sighed. The wedding was only three months away now. Brandon and Catelyn had been engaged for nearly a year, much to Brandon’s disappointment. He’d wanted to get married immediately after Catelyn accepted his proposal, but she’d told him she wanted to be engaged at least a year. Everyone in the family knew why, and that bothered Brandon a great deal. He’d been diligent about keeping his word about fidelity, though, and Lyarra had almost let go all her worries until she began noticing subtle changes in the way the two of them interacted. They’d been so deliriously happy for the first six months or so of the engagement that at first she’d thought she must be imagining things. But gradually it became apparent that while Brandon still seemed to want to spend time with Catelyn, he was shorter with her. They began to have more petty arguments than they had in the past. And he began going out with his friends more. That had worried Lyarra and Rickard both, although Rickard was more preoccupied with Lyanna’s escapades out on the west coast. He’d threatened more than once to stop paying her tuition, but Lyanna always managed to convince him otherwise. Lyarra focused more on Brandon’s troubles because whatever was going on with him and Catelyn was occurring right here in front of them.

Catelyn had initially been devastated when Brandon started regularly doing his “boys’ night outs” again. She’d even recruited Ned as sort of a combination chaperone and informant, which Lyarra thought was very unfair to both Ned and Brandon, but Ned had told her to just stay out of it. He said that Brandon wasn’t doing anything but drinking and goofing off and maybe a little flirting, but he’d not touched another girl except to dance once or twice.

His jaw had gotten awfully tight as he’d said that, however--the way Rickard’s did when he was very angry about something. Lyarra had tried to tell him that whatever Brandon was doing or not doing was between him and Catelyn, and that he should stay out of it just as she and Rickard should. He’d simply shaken his head and spoken in a low, determined voice, “She deserves better from him. I won’t let him hurt her again,” and walked away. 

After awhile, Catelyn had seemed less devastated, and Lyarra had hoped that meant Ned’s reports of Brandon’s good behavior had reassured her. But then she noticed Ned didn’t even accompany Brandon on his boys’ nights very often anymore. He was just as likely to take Ben and his friends to the movies and ask Catelyn to come along if she didn’t have plans with her sister or friends. At dinners with the entire family, when Brandon seemed sullen or irritable, instead of doing her best to draw him out as she once had, Catelyn would simply spend the meal talking with Ned instead.

Lyarra had expressed her concerns to Rickard, but he’d laughed at her, exclaiming there was no way in hell Ned would ever go after his brother’s girl. Lyarra agreed with that, but it didn’t keep her from worrying about what was going on in both of her older boys’ hearts.

And now Catelyn Tully was crying in Ned’s bedroom. Feeling a bit guilty, she walked to the closed door, but only stood there quietly instead of knocking.

“You can’t know that, Ned,” Catelyn said, sniffling. “You weren’t there!”

“I do know it, though,” her son said softly, speaking like someone trying to soothe a wounded animal. “Ashara called me and . . .”

“Ashara!” Catelyn’s voice was shrill, and Lyarra nearly jumped. Both of her older sons had some sort of history with the Dayne girl, but she’d decided long ago she didn’t want the details. “Ashara Dayne? You’re telling me he couldn’t have slept with Barbrey because he was with Ashara Dayne?”

Oh dear God, Lyarra thought wearily. Brandon, what have you done?

“No,” Ned said firmly. “He wasn’t with Ashara, either, Cat. Well . . . she was there, but not with Brandon really, and she told me Barbrey wasn’t anywhere around Brandon last night. She wasn’t even at the club.”

“But she told me . . .”

“She lied, Cat! I told you that.” Ned sighed. “Look. Barbrey’s not a bad person, not really. But she’s got this thing with Brandon. He was her first, you know? When they were both still kids, really. She couldn’t have been more than fifteen.”

Lyarra really didn’t want to know that.

“And she’s imagined the two of them are meant to be ever since,” Ned continued. “She never really cared that he dated other people because he’d always come back around. Even when they weren’t dating, sometimes they’d just . . . you know. Until you.”

“Until me,” Catelyn said bitterly. “Because he’s never cheated on me.” Lyarra had never heard such bitter sarcasm in the young woman’s voice. Not even during the worst of her breakups with Brandon.

“He hasn’t since you . . .”

“Since we’ve been engaged. I know! He tells me often enough.” She sighed. “So Barbrey just said those things today because she wants to break us up?”

There was a brief silence and Lyarra could picture Ned nodding solemnly.

“Unless he met up with her after he left the club. Ashara Dayne couldn’t . . .”

“She took him home, Cat.”

“What?”

Ned’s sigh was easily audible in the hallway. “She took him home. He was drunk, and all the guys he was with seemed to be hooking up with people, and Brandon couldn’t even stand well enough to dance by then so she drove him to his place and put him to bed.” Another silence. “To sleep, Cat! She left him there. Come on. Ashara’s a good person. I don’t care what your sister or anybody else says about Dornish girls. She’s a friend. And even if she was interested in Brandon, she knows he’s engaged. She wouldn’t do that. Even if he’d been capable--which I doubt, from her description. She called me just so somebody would know he was home safe.”

Unexpectedly, the next sound was Catelyn’s laughter. It went on until the girl sounded almost hysterical. Ned must have thought so, too because he very hesitantly spoke her name. “Cat?”

“What am I doing, Ned?”

“What do you mean?”

“For almost five years of my life, I’ve loved your brother with all my heart. Do you know that?”

“I know that,” Ned said softly.

“And it’s exhausting. It’s exhausting to love someone with everything you are and know that you’ll never be enough for them. To know that you can’t possibly give them anymore no matter how much you want to, because you’ve already given them everything you have. And it isn’t enough. It can never be enough. You can never be enough.”

“Cat, don’t say that. You are enough. More than enough. He loves you. He loves you so much.”

Lyarra wondered if Catelyn could hear Ned’s words, really hear Ned’s words, as easily as she could. She put her hand over her mouth as the emotion so clearly evident in her son’s normally cool, controlled voice nearly made her cry out.

“Really, Ned? What makes you think so? Because he’s not stuck his dick anywhere else for a whole year?” The borderline hysteria was back in her voice. “He’s been faithful! Well, good for him! And it’s been so hard, so awful for him, that he has to get blackout drunk in order to deal with it!” She’d nearly shouted that last part. “He could come to me, Ned,” she almost whispered. “But he doesn’t. He barely touches me anymore.”

“Cat, you don’t have to . . .”

“How do you think that makes me feel, Ned?  I’m the reason he can’t have whatever girl he wants, but now he doesn’t want me either? So why doesn’t he let me go? Why does he tell me he loves me and wants to marry me? Why, Ned? If he loves me, why aren’t I enough?”

She began crying in earnest again, and Lyarra noticed the sound become muffled as Ned obviously pulled her against his chest. 

“You are everything. And my brother is goddamn fool.”

Lyarra walked away, her heart breaking for two of her sons and for the young woman who’d loved one of them so long and now was loved by the other.

_____________________________________________

“Isn’t that the Tully girl?” Rickard asked, pointing across the restaurant.

Lyarra smacked his hand down. “Don’t be rude,” she hissed. “And yes, that is Catelyn Tully, a young woman who was nearly family for over four years, so kindly refrain from calling her ‘the Tully girl.’”

Rickard frowned. “Well I haven’t seen her in over a year. Not since she practically left Brandon at the altar.”

“Rickard Stark! That is not what happened and you know it! They broke of the engagement nearly two months before the wedding. I think Hoster even got most of his deposits back.”

The hostess came up to lead them to the table, thankfully one not close to Catelyn Tully’s, who Lyarra noted was sitting by herself. She quickly took the seat facing that direction lest Rickard spend the entire meal glaring at that poor young woman. He’d been bitterly disappointed when the wedding was called off. 

Brandon, to his credit, had taken the blame, although Lyarra knew it had been Catelyn who officially called off the engagement. She’d never told Brandon or her husband what she’d heard through a closed door two weeks before that, but Brandon had drunkenly told her she’d been right about everything one evening when he was still in his “drowning his sorrows” phase. He was in Essos now, running the eastern division of Stark Enterprises for his father and seemingly having a ball. It had taken about three months for him to decide that he could, in fact, live without Catelyn Tully, and he actually sounded happier than he’d been in a long time whenever he called or Face Timed now. 

“What did we do wrong, Lyarra?”

“What are you talking about, Rickard?” she asked him. Although she knew.

“Our children! Why couldn’t Brandon just marry that girl? She’d have made him a fine wife. You liked her! I know you did.”

“I do like her. But she and Brandon simply weren’t meant to be, I suppose.”

“Meant to be,” he snorted. “At some point, these kids have to grow up and become responsible.”

“Brandon’s doing a fine job in Essos. You said so, yourself. And Ned’s . . .”

“Ned doesn’t even look at girls! I used to wonder if he was gay and just didn’t want to tell us.”

“Rickard!”

“What? It happens. But he doesn’t look at men either, so far as I can tell. Maybe he’s just . . .”

“Ned likes women, Rickard. I can assure you of that.”

“Well, he’s awful damn slow about picking one out to actually hold on to. And Lyanna! Sleeping with a married professor! I still can’t believe you didn’t make her come home when you went out there!”

Lyarra looked down at her plate, guilt creeping up her spine. She’d kept very few secrets from her husband over the course of their long marriage, but this secret was Lyanna’s, and her daughter had not given her permission to share it. She’d tell her father when she was ready. And she’d come home when she was ready. At least she was now far away from that man. “She’s not ready to come home, Rickard. She knows she made a terrible mistake, but she wants to recover from it on her own. She wants to stand on her own two feet.”

“Idiotic,” he muttered. “There are times when your family is precisely what you need to get you back on your feet.”

Truthfully, she agreed with him, but she couldn’t risk saying anything without her voice betraying her, and she’d promised her daughter her silence for now.

“I suppose we could start introducing young women to Ned,” Rickard said after they’d ordered. “Hoster Tully isn’t the only business associate of mine with a daughter.”

Lyarra’s breath caught as she saw the subject of Rickard’s matchmaking speculations enter the restaurant. Ned couldn’t be looking for them. He hadn’t known they were coming here today. 

“Lyarra? Are you all right?”

“Fine,” she managed to gasp out as she watched her son scan the restaurant, fortunately spotting the auburn haired young woman before his eyes had a chance to find them. He smiled widely and walked toward her table. Ned didn’t often smile like that. He wasn’t an unhappy person, just not one given to exuberant expressions of joy. Yet, joy was the only word for the expression on his face just now.

“Lyarra?”

“Sorry.” She forced a small cough. “Just got a little water down the wrong pipe.”

He made a vaguely sympathetic noise. “Maybe we’ll just have to wait until we can marry Ben off,” he said, and she knew he was trying to make her laugh now.

“Benjen’s not even an adult yet.”

“Ah, but he’s close! And he still listens to us. Sometimes. Maybe that’s where we went wrong with the others. We get him fixed up with someone we like before he’s old enough to get crazy ideas of his own!”

Ned had taken hold of Catelyn Tully’s hand across the table. She was smiling at him now, and Lyarra could feel the genuine warmth between the two of them from where she sat. She wondered when this had started. Not too soon after the broken engagement, certainly. Ned had already been in love with Catelyn. She knew that. She also knew her son well enough to know he’d never take advantage of someone whose heart was broken. And Catelyn had been brokenhearted. Even if she’d been the one ultimately to end the relationship, losing Brandon had hurt her. Yes,this had to be fairly new. Ned hated secrets and lies as well. However complicated this might become, he wouldn’t sneak around behind their backs for long. She didn’t think Catelyn would do that either.

“Lyarra, are you listening to me? What the devil are you staring at?”

“Nothing!” she exclaimed, reaching out to take his hand as he started to look over his shoulder searching for what had distracted her. “I’m sorry. It’s just that talking about marrying off all our children makes me a little sad.”

“Because we’re so bad at it?”

“No!” She let go of his hand to smack it. “Because they aren’t children anymore.”

“They haven’t been for a long time, Lyarra. Hell. Even Ben’s taller than I am. Only poor Ned never quite caught me. Maybe we’ll have to find him a short woman.”

Lyarra made a face at him. “He isn’t short, Rickard. He’s six feet tall. The rest of you just happen to be over six feet!” She smiled. “Besides, I happen to know he likes taller women. About 5′7′-5′8″, I think.”

Rickard laughed. “Oh, you know that, huh? Pretty specific. Can you give me hair and eye color, too? Maybe I can find him just the one he wants.”

“You won’t have to,” she said. “Things don’t always work out the way you plan, Rickard, and I know that drives you crazy.” Thinking of Lyanna’s situation, she added. “Sometimes it drives me crazy, too.” She stole a quick look over at the table where the two young people still held hands across the table and heard the stunning, auburn haired, blue eyed girl laugh as her normally taciturn son talked animatedly. “But, my darling husband, I can’t help but believe that sometimes, things work out for the best.” 

#Lyarra Stark #Rickard Stark #Catelyn Stark #Brandon Stark #Ned Stark #Brandon x Cat #Ned x Cat #DKNC answers questions #or writes fic #something like that #theswordofglass

[figsandnewtons]

The news of Trump's policies for climate change are quite disheartening. As someone who is quite passionate about the subject, I mourn all the years of action we will lose. Do you know anyway to help? Are you a part of any iniciative? I was thinking about starting a transition group in my city, but I'm afraid I'm to shy to take a leadership role in it..

It is in municipalities and the private sector that we need to look. Cities are taking charge of this in a lot of ways, so...show up to town events and forums? I know that sounds so amorphous and shit, but no. Actually do it, because guess what? No one does! So then your voice is important, especially if you can make yourself annoying (you’re shy, so get friends who also don’t want to see the end of the world to come with you). Troll your mayor’s twitter with requests about this stuff.

The private sector is more difficult. You can vote with your dollars, sure, but that doesn’t really tap into all the businesses it needs to, and sometimes research or finding alternatives aren’t feasible. With this, you’d want to look for NGOs and nonprofits fighting the good fight. GRI, Climate Action Network, 350.org, WWF, WRI, Climate Institute...these guys are all moving the needle, they really are. Global companies are pushing for better supply chains, and there’s a trickle down. Volunteer, donate, research what events are being held.

If you don’t already frequent triplepundit.com. Stay informed, stay proactive, and don’t be afraid of incremental change. We need to be realistic and we won’t shift to a clean energy economy over night.

Also if you can...work in this field. If your company offers sustainability incentives for anything, participate. 

#climate change #theswordofglass #asks

[zaldrizer-sovesi]

What kind of father would Rhaegar have been to Rhaenys, Aegon and Jon?

Complicated guy, Rhaegar. I don’t have any doubt that he loved his children as best he could. How well that would have been, though….Rhaegar didn’t have a whole lot of experience with dependable family relationships. All of his relationships are based on that arm’s-length charisma that characterizes him in the minds of everyone who knew him. He would have valued them highly, because of prophecy and because he’s trying to rebuild a whole royal House out of the ashes of Summerhall, but valuing isn’t the same as parenting. Jon, especially, is going to end up with some of the same emotional insecurities that he develops in being raised by Ned, trying to earn that affection which isn’t going to come for reasons that aren’t really about him.

#theswordofglass #what ifs #rhaegar targaryen #jon snow

[asoiafuniversity]

Will there be a new spoiler policy after season 6?

asoiafuniversity is a book blog first and foremost. Many of us aren’t watching the show anymore. 

As of the middle of season 5, we stopped accepting submissions of show-only material. Since that time, we have been focusing on ASOIAF posts. We’ve also reblogged posts that compare and contrast the show and the books, because we believe such comparisons can provide valuable insights into currently published material.

Season 6 of the show is expected to include Bran’s currently published ADWD storyline, as well as material from the TWOW Mercy chapter published online in 2014. Other parts of the text that have already been published may also be a part of season 6. Tumblr will likely discuss this material, and asoiafuniversity will (probably) reblog such posts, as long as they relate back to the text, with sufficient textual analysis. These posts will be appropriately tagged for blacklisting purposes, just as they have been in the past. 

We don’t anticipate reblogging content that has not yet been touched upon in the books … but a television adaptation overtaking its source material is unprecedented. We don’t know how this is going to change the nature of ASOIAF fandom. Again, we don’t anticipate reblogging non-book content, but we’re going to cross this bridge when we come to it.

Whatever happens, everything will be appropriately tagged with multiple spoiler tags and content warnings for blacklisting purposes. 

#theswordofglass #replies #mod note #uuu decision

[joannalannister]

Can you elaborate on Aegon/Arianne as foils to Jon/Dany?

@doublehex​ said: 

How do you think they are foils to each other? OKay, I could see F!Aegon as the “false dragon” to Dany being the “true dragon”, but how Arianne a counter to Jon? Besides one being legitimate and the other not.

@nobodysuspectsthebutterfly​ said:

I don’t know about JL but I see it more as Arianne as a foil to Dany – Dany raised knowing her brother is the heir but having to step up when he proves unworthy/dies, dealing with men who underestimate her because of her sex but not using her sexuality to do so;

vs Arianne, afraid her brother will supplant her as heir, believing her father finds her unworthy, now acting as a true politician for the first time but still wondering how to best use her sexuality to influence others

Butterfly pretty much covered the things I was thinking about and discussing at Con of Thrones for Arianne vs. Dany in the notes of this post. I also hope that Arianne will survive the series, while I feel very strongly that Dany will die fighting the Others. And for Aegon vs. Jon… In Aegon, you have a boy raised to believe he was Rhaegar’s son and the Iron Throne is his birthright, when he is actually a Blackfyre pretender, while Jon is actually Rhaegar’s son. 

And when Aegon and Arianne hookup, I think they’ll still be very focused on the political plot, at a time when the narrative is bringing the magical plot to the forefront with Jon and Dany. I consider the relationships themselves also to be foils, because I think we’ll have a political match in AegonxArianne, versus a relationship built from companionship/friendship/love in JonxDany, with both relationships serving a very different purpose. 

When we get the next book, I hope to expand on these ideas. 

#doublehex #nobodysuspectsthebutterfly #theswordofglass #replies #asoiaf speculation #arianne x aegon #aegon x arianne #jon x dany #dany x jon #jdmeta

[joannalannister]

How do you think the Wheel of Time series deals with feminism? On the one hand, we have many female friendships, female rulers, Rands love interests are more than love interests... On the other hand, there are situations in which menare abused by women, and it's treated as something funny (Mat's rape by Tylin comes to mind). And I hate that "man becomes a badass by accessing a power usually reserved to women" trope

Hi! There’s a lot to unpack here. I guess I would start off by saying that Wheel of Time isn’t perfect. For me, the things RJ did right outweigh the imperfections, and that’s why I enjoy it, but I definitely understand that that’s not the case for everyone. 

It’s definitely true that in WoT, men are abused by women. In my opinion, RJ wanted to explore what it meant to have a matriarchal society, where you get a lot of women in positions of power, but you also get some women abusing those positions of power. 

If you’ll let me turn this around for a minute, we could say something very similar about ASOIAF. There are (many) situations in which women are abused by men in ASOIAF, and sometimes, such as Drogo raping Dany, it’s not even critically examined by the text at all. Does that undermine the feminism of ASOIAF as a whole? Opinions vary on that topic. Most people argue that it’s not the presence of abuse in fiction that’s a problem, but how that abuse is depicted. 

I don’t necessarily have a problem with authors who write abuse into their texts. For me, the issue is how an author depicts things like rape or abuse. Note that RJ wrote about rape and abuse happening to both men and women. For example, Morgause was raped repeatedly and it’s treated as something horrific. Rand’s horrible treatment by Aes Sedai is also treated very seriously by the text. 

But like you mention, people like Elayne initially think Mat’s rape is something funny, and RJ could have written that better. However, before Mat and Elayne part ways in Ebou Dar, Elayne realizes she was wrong to think of it as funny, and she apologizes to Mat, and she even draws the analogy back to our own world for the reader, saying something like “Hey, if this was an old widower king doing this to a young girl, this wouldn’t be funny at all” and when I first read that in the late 90s, it made me think more about male victims of sexual violence, and how it’s not really funny. And RJ did this while still keeping it all PG-13 (tbh I think I might have read the Ebou Dar part when I was 12), so it isn’t something that I view as utterly terrible, even though I think that yes, it could have been better. However, I understand that not everyone feels this way about Mat’s rape, and I totally understand if that’s something that turns people off the series.

(I read AGOT maybe a year or two later, and Dany’s rape (which, like I said, isn’t critically examined in the text at all) only made me upset. It didn’t inspire any critical thought on the subject at all. So if you wanted me to rank them, I’d say ASOIAF is worse, given everything that it is and tries to be.) 

I hate that “man becomes a badass by accessing a power usually reserved to women” trope

I’m not sure if I understand what you’re referring to here, but if you’re referring to the One Power, I’ve never viewed it this way. Saidin was always something that belonged to men, and in their hubris and unwillingness to work with the women, they lost this power. Over the course of the series, men redeem themselves and realize how they can’t go it alone and how important it is to work together, and they win it back. If we view the One Power as, like, the essence of life, how is that reserved for women? Isn’t that, like, our common humanity, and everyone should have access to it, and it was a great tragedy on the part of the men that they tainted it, and a great victory when they got it back clean? I guess I don’t understand the criticism here.

How do you think the Wheel of Time series deals with feminism?

When it comes to evaluating a piece of media, I don’t go into it with a feminist checklist, like, 1) Does this pass the Bechdel Test? 2) Does this pass the Mako Mori Test? 3) How many rapes are depicted, and to whom, and how? and so on and so forth.** 

Instead, I ask myself, how does this piece of media make me feel? What does it make me think about? What impact or relevance does it have on my life? Art is a very personal, emotional experience, and that’s ultimately a major part of how I evaluate it. 

Some time in the late 90s, maybe 1998 or 1999, I dressed up as Moiraine Damodred for Halloween. I got a fringed shawl embroidered with flowers, and a necklace from Claire’s that I pinned into my hair, and I raided my mother’s closet and found a blue and green long plaid taffeta skirt that tied with a big bow. I probably looked a mess, but I felt like I could do anything. 

Characters like Moiraine and Nynaeve and Egwene and Elayne and Aviendha were amazing to me. They could be main POV characters in a fantasy story instead of sidekicks or minor characters. They got POVs. (Oooooh gosh, when the little girl I was first got to the Moiraine POV in book two, that was amazing.) Unlike characters like Daenerys Targaryen, Moiraine didn’t even have to be abused first!!!! Moiraine and Nynaeve could literally work to save the world!!!!! And they didn’t even need to be raped first to do it!!! 

I liked reading about all of these characters. They were my friends. I liked reading about women who were leaders in their communities, who overcame obstacles, who grew up and performed miracles. 

Is The Wheel of Time perfect? Fuck no. Rereading it as an adult, some parts of it feel very juvenile and simplistic to me. But hey, RJ was trying to keep it PG-13, whereas someone like GRRM is definitely not. I loved Wheel of Time when I was a kid, and I hated ASOIAF at that age. (Some books have to come along at the right time in your life.)  Wheel of Time doesn’t stimulate my mind as much as it did when I was a little kid. It doesn’t always do well with a lot of issues that are very important to tumblr, because RJ was an old southern baby-boomer. 

But Wheel of Time made me feel good about myself as a 13yo girl, and it gave me some great female role models that I still admire to this day. That’s enough for me. 

*

*

***One of my all-time favorite movies, The Shawshank Redemption, passes none of these criteria. I’m probably forgetting somebody, but the only women I can remember are the pinups on the prison cell wall. It’s probably not feminist at all. But I don’t care. I like the emotions it inspires in me. I like how it makes me feel at the end. That’s all I want. 

ASOIAF is probably more feminist than The Shawshank Redemption, idk. What I do know is that I don’t like how ASOIAF makes me feel sometimes. After reading about so many rapes, and so many dead mothers, and so many women being abused, ASOIAF makes me feel tired sometimes. ASOIAF makes me feel like the fantasy genre is unfair sometimes. 

And sure, sure, we could talk about how ASOIAF is more realistic than Wheel of Time, we could talk about how ASOIAF has more complex female characters, whose problems more closely align with what real women relate to, and yada yada yada. 

But ASOIAF makes me angry and sad and frustrated. Why doesn’t the Unnamed Princess of Dorne have a name, and how can I talk about her politics when I don’t even know her name? Why did so many women die in childbirth in GRRM’s world, when I did the calculations and it’s statistically unlikely for there to be that many? Why isn’t Dany’s rape examined more critically in the text? Where are the female friendships depicted on the page? Why aren’t there more lesbians, and I’m not talking about Dany’s situational homosexuality or Cersei raping Taena or the passing mention of Essie and Sylvenna Sand, and for that matter, why do Dornish women have to be depicted as exoticized and hyper-sexualized???? I’m angry and not in the “patriarchy in Westeros is dehumanizing and you should be angry about it” way that GRRM intended. I’m angry and sad at GRRM’s writing and his omissions and sloppy depictions, and how he could imagine what I consider to be the richest fantasy world I’ve encountered, but he couldn’t imagine things like the Princess of Dorne’s name!!!

Wheel of Time, for what it is, never made me feel that way.

#theswordofglass #replies #wheel of time #wot meta #wheel of time meta #rape tw #abuse tw #about me #personal #lannister thoughts

[zaldrizer-sovesi]

Another question (because I love your answers :D): if Stannis could choose his family members, who would he choose?

Well, thank you!

I think Stannis would prefer to have the love of his own brothers than to create any other family. Given his refusal to lift a finger to avert Robert’s death or punish Renly’s - at best - he doesn’t seem to have any more regard for them than they did for him, but I think he feels the lack of affection from them very keenly.

IDK, I think he feels too burned by that to want a family, or any other type of relationship of equals. “Kings have no friends, only subjects and enemies” is much more telling of his own mindset than it is an observation about the realities of power. (Not sustainable power, anyway - it’s slightly cooler wording, but still the Tywin/Cersei "bow to me or be crushed" mindset which has turned their dynasty into a gigantic train wreck.) He cares about Davos and likes Jon, but those dynamics are predicated on the unquestionably top-down power dynamics there.

The thing is, Stannis has so far been failing an active obligation to choose at least one family member, right? He needs a future son-in-law. He needs a strong ally ready to take up Shireen’s cause if he dies in battle, which is a very real possibility. And he doesn’t seem to have given that any more thought than any other aspect of preparing his only heir for power.

Or do you mean what noble house would he be a member of, if not the Baratheons? I think he is very well suited to the North and would have been much happier if he was born a Stark instead.

#stannis baratheon #house baratheon #theswordofglass

[zaldrizer-sovesi]

Ok, so this question is totally cliche, but I'm still interesses in knowing your opinion on the matter :D If Robert found out about RLJ, would his friendship with Ned end? Like, forever? Would they (uncomfortably) talk about the matter, or does Robert call for their heads straight away? How soes Ned react?

I'm having a really hard time coming up with a scenario where Robert actually accepts it. Look how oblivious he was to Cersei’s infidelity and her children’s parentage - and this would be something Robert actively wouldn’t want to believe, for a lot of reasons. If Robert heard rumors, he would dismiss them, and if he did confront Ned with them, Ned would stonewall him and Robert would buy it.

#what ifs #robert baratheon #ned stark #r plus l equals j #theswordofglass