ASOIAF & GOT Fan Appreciation @asoiaf-source - Tumblr Blog

A Song of Ice and Fire Series

Character POV and Word Counts for Books 1 ~ 5 (not including early released chapters)

TYRION - 47 Chapters - 234,972 Words JON - 42 Chapters - 204,996 Words DAENERYS - 31 Chapters - 163,007 Words ARYA - 33 Chapters - 152,326 Words CATELYN - 25 Chapters - 118,986 Words SANSA - 24 Chapters - 108,600 Words JAIME - 17 Chapters - 98,120 Words BRAN - 21 Chapters - 91,111 Words CERSEI - 12 Chapters - 77,717 Words THEON - 13 Chapters - 73,081 Words DAVOS - 13 Chapters - 66,773 Words SAMWELL - 10 Chapters - 55,877 Words EDDARD - 15 Chapters - 54,143 Words BRIENNE - 8 Chapters - 53,029 Words ASHA - 4 Chapters - 26,290 Words VICTARION - 4 Chapters - 22,430 Words BARRISTAN - 4 Chapters - 21,779 Words QUENTYN - 4 Chapters - 18,659 Words ARIANNE - 2 Chapters - 13,949 Words HOTAH - 2 Chapters - 13,144 Words AERON - 2 Chapters - 11,599 Words CONNINGTON - 2 Chapters - 11,411 Words

Visual Breakdown

Pie Charts

Stark POV Mentions

she-wolfblood

Dany had no agents, no way of knowing what anyone was doing or thinking across the narrow sea, but she mistrusted Illyrio’s sweet words as she mistrusted everything about Illyrio.

– AGOT, Daenerys I

“… found one bastard,” one said. “The rest will come soon. A day, two days, a fortnight …”

“And when he learns the truth, what will he do?” a second voice asked in the liquid accents of the Free Cities.

– AGOT, Arya III

Arya and Daenerys being the characters from the first book who hint that something strange was happening with Illyrio and Varys. The main girls never fail 🙌

#asoiaf #daenerys targaryen #arya stark

yeniayofnymeria

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Trailer Breakdown #1

Spoiler warning: This video contains scenes/details from the first trailer of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and references to the novellas. Proceed with caution! In this episode, I break down the trailer shot by shot: Dunk the Tall and his squire Egg, the Ashford tourney, the Trial of Seven, Aerion Brightflame, Tanselle’s puppet show, Lyonel Baratheon and the Fossoway cousins… I also share thoughts on the opening sequence/music, episode runtimes, and the release date—my hopes and fears included.

#A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms HBO #asoiaf

she-wolfblood

"It has a name, does it?" Her father sighed. "Ah, Arya. You have a wildness in you, child. 'The wolf blood,' my father used to call it. Lyanna had a touch of it, and my brother Brandon more than a touch. It brought them both to an early grave."

— AGOT, Arya II

"Also, if your sister Arya is returned to us safely, it is agreed that she will marry Lord Walder's youngest son, Elmar, when the two of them come of age."

Robb looked nonplussed. "Arya won't like that one bit."

— AGOT, Catelyn IX

Bran had not wanted the Freys at the high table, but the maester reminded him that they would soon be kin. Robb was to marry one of their aunts, and Arya one of their uncles. "She never will," Bran said, "not Arya," but Maester Luwin was unyielding, so there they were beside Rickon.

— ACOK, Bran III

Sansa, but not Arya. That might mean anything. Arya had always been harder to tame. Perhaps Cersei was reluctant to parade her in open court for fear of what she might say or do.

— ACOK, Catelyn VI

"Lord Ramsay." The girl dipped down before him. That was wrong as well. The real Arya Stark would have spat into his face.

— ADOD, Reek II

Forever a fan of how Arya's family (and those who knew her as a child) recognize Arya's strong personality.

#asoiaf #arya stark

jedimaesteryoda

The Green Fork ran swift and deep here, but the Freys had spanned it many centuries past and grown rich off the coin men paid them to cross . . . when they were done they'd thrown up stout timber keeps on either bank, so no one might cross without their leave. -AGOT, Catelyn IX

The Freys have so far proven to be one of the most faithless houses in the series. They use their position as Lords of the Crossing to secure themselves the best offer, always demanding a toll.

It brings to mind the tale of "The Three Billy Goats Gruff," a troll, always greedy, was willing to forgo one goat for the next if the next one was bigger, meaning he offered a larger meal. Lord Walder himself is a grumpy and greedy figure like the troll, always hungry for the best deal for himself. With things coming in threes, the Freys join their cause to royal candidates and are quick to throw them aside and turn their cloaks if the next candidate is stronger and brings potentially more rewards.

The Freys first allied with Robb Stark, King in the North. He offered them a marriage and fostering two Freys. They then cast him aside after his broken betrothal, and Lord Walder had been wanting to switch sides after the Battle of the Blackwater. They are now allied with the Lannisters the wealthiest house with the alliance with House Tyrell making them the strongest players on the field. They made the Freys de facto lords of the riverlands and offered marriages and prizes like Riverrun. However, we know like with Robb Stark, the Lannisters' success won't last due to Cersei's mismanagement, the desire for vengeance over their past actions and another player coming onto the field from across the Narrow Sea.

"And what if I do not choose to pay this toll?" "Then you had best retreat back to Moat Cailin, deploy to meet Lord Tywin in battle … or grow wings. I see no other choices."

The fairy tale ends when the third goat arrives, the biggest and strongest of the three. The hungry troll sees him as his best meal, but he misses that his size took away the troll's leverage in threatening him as the goat knew it was capable of challenging the troll and rams him into the river to drown. The last candidate that will make them turn their cloaks and offer an alliance to will of course be Daenerys, the strongest of the three candidates.

Knowing she will need to face King Stannis, they'll demanded large rewards from her. Like possibly amongst other things, to be made liege lords of the riverlands or even Riverrun and Winterfell given Walda was supposed to be Lady of the North. I also wouldn't put it past Black Walder to offer Daenerys marriage. Of course, in doing so, they overplay their hands.

They missed as each royal house they made their offer to got stronger, that meant while they demanded more rewards it also meant their leverage was weaker. They had the most leverage with Robb who absolutely needed them to get from the North to Riverrun and vice versa. Their leverage lessened with the Lannisters as they knew the Freys had nowhere else to go if they pulled the Red Wedding, and did not need the Crossing as much, being able to send men from King's Landing to the North or riverlands via the kingsroad. With Daenerys, she will have learned of their history of treachery, having proven themselves untrustworthy allies, having made themselves pariahs and lost much of their military strength in the North and reprisals over the Red Wedding, offering her little. Along with having a large army, she will have dragons, something none of the other candidates ever possessed, that allow her to fly over the Twins.

Daenerys's reply to their offers of alliance will likely be met with "Dracarys." The Twins will likely be burned in dragonflame, and the castle collapsing into the river.

The Freys always demanded a toll, but failed to see that there would be a toll to their treachery and faithlessness.

#asoiaf #asoiaf speculations #daenerys targaryen #walder frey #robb stark #jaime lannister

georgescitadel

1st year of George's Citadel - a compilation of quotes from George R.R. Martin

House Targaryen

On the construction of Daenerys and the decision to include dragons in ASOIAF

On Daenerys’ thought process in Lhazarene

On Daenerys’ struggle with rule (1)

On future revelations about the house with the red door

On what led to Robert’s rebellion

On the difference between Daenerys and Aegon’s (I) approach to the throne

On Daenerys subverting gender roles

On the information provided about Rhaegar and Lyanna in ASOIAF

On the “White Saviour” complaints over Daenerys’ storyline

On Daenerys’ future return to Westeros

On Daenerys’ struggle with rule (2)

House Stark

On Sansa’s manipulation at the hands of the Small Council

On Arya and Sansa’s desire to save Ned

On what led Sandor to seek out Sansa during the Battle of Blackwater

On his regret over not further developing Sansa and Arya’s relationships with Catelyn

On what character he’d want to be like

On Ned's inadequacy in King's Landing

House Lannister

On Jaime, Tyrion and loss

On Jaime’s decision to kill Bran

On feeling conflicted over the writing of Tyrion in A Dance With Dragons

On Robert being unsuspicious of the paternity of Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen

On the key event that led Roose to align with the Lannisters

On his intention writing the Lannister POV’s

On similarities between Tywin Lannister and Walter White

House Greyjoy

On the character of Reek

Game Of Thrones

On GOT’s decision to kill off Silver

On GOT’s decision to pair Arya and Tywin up

Miscellaneous

On writing outcasts

On nihilism in ASOIAF

On unfairly hated characters

On the title of A Game Of Thrones

On Epic Fantasy

On his favourite characters in ASOIAF

On the greyest characters in ASOIAF

On unlikable protagonists

On the historical figures that inspired the women of ASOIAF

On father issues in ASOIAF

On the religions in ASOIAF

On creating foils

#asoiaf #grrm interview

ser-shitpost-lannister

I just wanna say that Tyrion's presence in the Battle of the Blackwater was the only reason it was a Lannister/Tyrell victory.

First, the chain and the wildfire. Obvious contributions, been there, we all know how that went.

Ser Jacelyn Bywater, Tyrion's appointed man. One of the better City Watch commanders, and the authority he commanded over the gold cloaks was half the reason they didn't immediately hand the city over to the Lord of Light. We even see an example of him rallying deserting watchmen, until he takes an arrow through the neck.

The clansmen of the mountains, who Tyrion sent to harass Stannis' flanks. We don't hear much from them, but (probably) the Blackwater runs through the Kingswood. Fighting on familiar ground (Tyrion specifically said they would be useless on the walls), they probably wreaked havoc on Stannis' attempts to circle the city. Undoubtedly they were also instrumental in keeping the Kingsroad clear for Lord Tywin's reinforcements.

Commanding Joffrey's Kingsguard to keep him in the action. Seeing their leader retreating was the main reason the gold cloaks broke. Tyrion knew that seeing a ruler in the field of battle, even a safe part, was extremely inspiring (cough, Zelenskiy, cough).

The skirmish at the Mud Gate, personally led by Tyrion. Shaming the soldiers into fighting by insinuating that they were more cowardly than a dwarf? Leading a cavalry charge, where most commanders stayed in the rear or center? Riding his horse across a heaving pontoon bridge to cut down advancing Stormlanders? And to top it off, identifying with the population by shouting for King's Landing instead of Casterly Rock.

So, just some confirmation that Tyrion is a better tactician than Cersei and Jaime put together. If only he'd been around to discipline his nephew earlier, we might've kept Ned Stark's head on his shoulders.

#asoiaf #tyrion lannister

fromtheseventhhell

I love how people are only ever interested in defending Arya's right to be weird-looking. It's never defending her intelligence from people who claim she's incapable of thinking for herself, highlighting her importance to the plot and refusing to see her as just a prop, acknowledging how much of her story gets stolen and given to other characters, talking about her trauma or how often it gets erased and overlooked, seeing her as more than just an attack dog/bodyguard, etc. Nope. It's just a "why can't people let Arya be ugly/unconventional looking? :(" post every other week because people are, for whatever reason, obsessed with how Arya is visually perceived. One of the most misinterpreted characters yet the issue is only ever with her being portrayed as "too pretty" or the wrong "type" of pretty. This fandom will entirely rewrite a character's motivations, values, and role in the story to the point that they consider references to canon "hate" but! The true injustice to canon is we acknowledge that she is described as pretty several times. Arya simply existing as her pretty, important, and non-conforming self is too complex and confusing for people to comprehend 😔.

#asoiaf #arya stark #asoiaf fandom critical

inwinterhell

As a female athlete myself, I just want to quickly appreciate how George R.R Martin writes his women who fight. It’s never, “she wanted to be a warrior so she worked harder than everyone and eventually she could beat all the boys.” He actually gives his characters strengths and weaknesses—as well as cultural ties to fighting— and he makes these traits enhance the already existing plot lines these characters follow. The mental game is also always just as important, if not more, than the physical game, which I’ve found is true in sports and probably much more true in actual life-threatening situations.

Arya is a small child. She’s nine, she’s skinny; she would probably never excel at being a knight, so instead she learns a different type of fighting. She’ll never overpower anyone, but she can be quick and sneaky and use her left hand which most people don’t know how to fight against. Also, I would argue that Syrio’s teachings about “looking with your eyes” were far more important to her than the physical part of water dancing. Most of the time she isn’t using her skills to directly fight people, but to run away, to spy on people, to catch food and survive. Syrio is her friend, Needle is Jon Snow’s smile, etc. Arya learning how to use her stature to her advantage is part of a greater connection to her identity and the people who helped her.

Brienne is stronger than most men, but she faces constant misogyny because of that (which is all too realistic). She constantly faces internal battles with her own self-image and harassment wherever she goes. She gets taught to use men’s pride and anger to her advantage:

“Old Ser Goodwin was long in his grave, yet she could hear him whispering in her ear. Men will always underestimate you, he said, and their pride will make them want to vanquish you quickly, lest it be said that a woman tried them sorely. Let them spend their strength in furious attacks, whilst you conserve your own. Wait and watch, girl, wait and watch (AFFC Brienne 7)”

Finally, “no chance, and no choice” is her most memorable line for a reason. It’s not her martial prowess that makes her a great character; it’s her bravery and honor.

Cultural ties are also so important to the reasons many women in the series fight. Asha is Balon’s last remaining child when all her brothers are dead and gone. Of course she knows how to fight and sail. Her tension with Theon is less about her showing off and more about her proving how much she actually knows her people while he doesn’t (of course that isn’t Theon’s fault but that’s a whole other post). The Mormont women learned to fight because they historically had to fight off invaders; the Sand snakes’ skills show their connection to Oberyn, etc.

Anyway I just love how George uses fighting to enhance his characters’ personalities and not define them. None of them are physically or mentally infallible, and none are exempt from misogyny. They just learned to do something that empowers and protects them despite society’s expectations. George’s writing of women is definitely not perfect, but this is something I really appreciate.

unserenedreaming

I freaking LOVE this post! I love Arya with the force of a thousand suns but she is TINY. She's not gonna be a frontline fighter or a fighting machine; her strength lies in, as OP said, her observation skills, being sneaky, and being fast. All these traits are being honed with the FM. She's not learning how to fight with a bow staff while blind, she's learning how to use her stature to her advantage to get to her target and complete her mission.

I loved how OP talks about Brienne's self-image, as I do think it's both a source of strength and weakness. Despite her imposing, un-stereotypical stature men still underestimate her simply because she's a woman (like Jaime), who all to quickly learn how wrong they were (also Jaime). And despite her imposing stature, Brienne is one of the kindness characters in ASOIAF (fight me on this and you will lose), which I think is one of her strengths as well. Though it's not necessarily a battle skill (not yet at least), it's still an incredibly important aspect to her character.

All the other points made here were excellent, 11/10 post but I love Arya and Brienne the most so I wanted to share my specific thoughts about them. Wars are not won with only one type of fighter. My hope (my belief) is that George is giving us all these amazing women as payoff during the war for the dawn.

#asoiaf #arya stark #brienne of tarth

inwinterhell

Finally, “no chance, and no choice” is her most memorable line for a reason. It’s not her martial prowess that makes her a great character; it’s her bravery and honor.

chica-sinmiedo

If I may add a little reflection to this reading, since I read this next passage that I will write below, it has always seemed to me a great interaction between Catelyn and Brienne (specifically in Clash of kings, Chapter 45, Catelyn VI):

“Fighting is better than this waiting,” Brienne said. “You don’t feel so helpless when you fight. You have a sword and a horse, sometimes an axe. When you’re armored it’s hard for anyone to hurt you.”

“Knights die in battle,” Catelyn reminded her.

Brienne looked at her with those blue and beautiful eyes. “As ladies die in childbed. No one sings songs about them.”

“Children are a battle of a different sort.” Catelyn started across the yard. “A battle without banners or warhorns, but no less fierce. Carrying a child, bringing it into the world...

Remember that Brienne is a woman who chose to be a knight and serve with honor and oath to protect the underprivileged, as traditionally dictated by laws in the tales of the walking knights.

On the other hand, Catelyn follows the traditional role of woman, in which her duty is to serve her house and family; however, she proves on many occasions to be more sensible and prudent when not to underestimate her enemies, such as Tywin Lannister, unlike many men around her, apparently experienced in countless battles, who don't take her advice into account by considering her, and I quote, "the weaker sex".

The interesting thing here is that GRRM doesn't indicate or point out which philosophy is right, but gives voice to both characters and gives them the opportunity to express their perspective. Brienne wants to go to the front to feel useful, the way she sees the character do her duty and maintain her honor, but also criticizes and gives visibility to the struggle of women who are mothers and sacrifice themselves for the sake of their children, even if the rest of society ignores or doesn't bother to pay attention to their devotion and great courage.

Both are true warriors in their own way. And that’s great.

#asoiaf #arya stark #brienne of tarth #catelyn stark

littleandless

i think jon’s “true” identity being more stark-like than targaryen-like is established (foreshadowed?) in the first book, when jon makes a remark about joffrey treating his mother’s house as if it’s on equal footing with his father’s and arya says “no fuck that. mothers matter too.”

obviously he doesn’t know his true parentage, but he likely will later on. and i think it will be an important decision for him to make—blood of the dragon, or the blood of winterfell? and of course his post-resurrection self will be a bit different than his former self, so it’s unclear which he might choose. maybe he’ll embrace both!

so it’s not just my distaste for patriarchal family structure that makes me boo and hiss at the implication of jon being a “true targaryen,” i think it’s also clearly refuted by the narrative.

#asoiaf #jon snow

brideoffires-deactivated2023042

thinking about how arya cycles through animal names/identities like horse, mouse, lamb, weasel, squirrel, and cat, all animals that can be killed or eaten or hunted by wolves, especially direwolves. and yet she’s also identified as a direwolf, and has reclaimed her wolf identity. thinking about how this is because arya has been both a hunter and the hunted, that arya understands what it’s like to be in both positions (powerful, ruthless, strong, a determined leader vs. scared, hungry, fearful, nervous, trembling). thinking about the huntr(ess) knowing how the hunted feels confers upon her empathy and an intimate understanding of what the people go through, particularly the smallfolk, whom she noted had to act like lambs when enslaved at harrenhal, because they had no other option for their survival.

thinking about how arya becomes a hunter to protect the hunted - giving water as a gift of mercy to prisoners, taking care of weasel, staying with gendry and hot pie throughout the riverlands, binding sandor’s wounds herself, befriending everyone, versus demanding a trial for sandor, killing raff the sweetling to avenge lommy and the innkeep’s daughter, killing chiswyck to avenge the innkeep’s daughter, executing dareon to enact northern justice.

how arya’s experience as being hunted leads her to becoming the hunter, but unlike the other hunters and killers of the series, her prey are the ones who kill the hunted.

#asoiaf #arya stark

queenjonrya

“Arya felt as though the lake were calling her. She wanted to leap into those placid blue waters, to feel clean again, to swim and splash and bask in the sun.”

“The green water was warm as tears, but there was no salt in it. It tasted of summer and mud and growing things. Arya plunged her face down into it”

Arya Stark is a character with a lot of water and water bird imagery surrounding her, from her water dancing, to the fact that she will reach womanhood in a Braavos, a city full of canals and harbours. She also has a lot of bird imagery, in particular swan imagery. Her story mirrors the ‘ugly duckling’ tale. Of Ned and Cat’s children Arya is the odd one out, she had darker hair while her siblings have auburn hair, and she is also singled out for not reflecting the ‘southern beauty’ her sister and brother’s exude. She is most likely going to be sent to the courtesans of braves, who a renown graceful ‘swans’ and have songs written about their beauty. Here I think Arya will flower and finish the transition from ‘ugly duckling’ to graceful swan.

Swans are of course water birds and Arya often wishes she could dance on water, something which swan ballet dancer’s do. In fact water dancing itself shares a lot of similarities to ballet, from the standing on toes, to the fact that it is characterised by soft graceful twirling around ones opponents.

She calls herself ‘Squab’ which is a baby dove, meaning at some point Area self-identified as a bird. She also wishes to have wings, lamenting that “for a girl with feet insert of wings, the way was longer” when thinking of her proximity to the gate of crows.

Swans also come in two colours, black and white. Area is an acolyte in the House of Black and White. Furthermore, in Acorn Hall Lady Ravella Smallwood dresses Area up and compliments her appearance, Arya ruins one of the dresses given to her by Lady Smallwood and apologises for it later. She acts ladylike towards the Lady who then gives her a new dress made of white lace. Lady Ravella is of House Swann and her sigil is a white swan facing a black swan.

And to top it all off swans despite being beautiful and graceful are very dangerous animals, they have very strong wings, and their necks give them longer reach than other birds, they’re quick tempered, and have no qualms about attacking any animal that they feel threatens no matter how much bigger the other animal is. Black Swans in particular are more aggressive towards humans than any other species of swans. Some people suggest killing some black swans and regulating their population because its almost impossible for other swans to compete with them when it comes to survival.

Historically they were also kept around for ornamental reasons but unlike white swans black swans often escaped into the wild and lived freely from their owners. They’re also nomadic birds with no migration patterns, similarly Arya after her father’s death has been running around the Westeros trying to get home but being thwarted at every opportunity, much like black swans she has no stable easy to track migration pattern. The go where the weather takes them, and Arya has gone to Braavos not because she wants to but because it’s her only option.

All in all black swans are rare beautiful birds, with mean tempers, serpentine necks, better at surviving than other aquatic birds, who have no problems picking fights with bigger animals when threatened, and have connections to royalty. Much like a missing Northern Princess.

So here are my slight disoriented off the cuff unedited thoughts on Arya and Black Swans.

#asoiaf #asoiaf symbolism #Arya Stark

yennefers-geralt

Arya + Survival and Adaptability

Since making this post which illustrates how Arya has gone through a great deal, much of which is very similar to what Sansa survived, I’ve gotten a lot of responses both positive and negative. The negative ones criticize the post for comparing the sisters and then follow it up with comparing the sisters but in a way that props one up while bashing Arya.

This all proves that the insistence that Arya couldn’t survive in her sister’s place, despite going through the exact same thing but without the protection of being a valuable hostage who can’t be killed on a whim, is rooted in Arya hate. Many blame the show for this, but in this case D&D are only parroting certain corners of the fandom. If people aren’t insisting that Arya is too stupid or too focused on violence to survive, they’re saying things like this:

@ladyandtheghost said:

First off, everyone can have their own opinion on this. Personally, I think Sansa is right and that Arya would not have survived King’s Landing. But NOT because she is weaker or stupid (or whatever people want to interpret into Sansa’s words here) but because Arya is IMPULSIVE. That doesn’t have anything to do with stupidity, only with her direct and impulsive personality. She has a quick temper and doesn’t give a shit that she gets in trouble for it. How can people deny this when it’s one of the traits people usually love about her? Did no one pay attention to how she had to learn to control her impulsive nature in order to become an assassin in Braavos? It’s not just about blind sword fighting and wearing masks. It’s about self-control. And Arya had very little self-control when it came to Joffrey and his bullshit. And if Cersei could not prevent Joffrey from killing Ned, no one could have prevented Joffrey from killing Arya. And that’s what Sansa is referring to. Joffrey remained No 1 on Aryas death list and she would have gotten herself killed trying to kill him sooner or later if she had stayed in KL at the court like Sansa. I mean, could you imagine Arya just quietly suffering all the abuse she got from Joffrey and Cersei? Seriously? It doesn’t negate Arya’s own suffering, she had a totally different arc (which both sisters discussed ffs down in the crypts when thei reunited) but Sansa is right here in saying that the shit she had to put up with were not the kind of situation Arya would have voluntarily suffered through. The fact that she cannot understand Sansa’s point at all confirms that she would have acted very differently in KL and it would have been her death.

Secondly, I don’t get how people feel they need to compare and weigh one sister’s suffering against the other. Thank you, D&D for ruining each and every part of the fandom and for having fans that used to be halfway decent to one another now feel they need to aggressively bash the other.

Anyone who has read the novels, Arya’s chapters in particular, would be able to shoot enough holes through this to sink a ship. Usually I just suggest that people read the novels when I see such canonically incorrect character bashing or I direct them to this post on my old blog where I thoroughly discussed the issue. But it seems that parts of it need to be reposted here:

It’s true that Arya has a temper and can be impulsive, especially early on in the series. But even in AGOT, she shows that she does have self-control and isn’t guided purely by impulse. For example:

“It was the scariest thing she’d ever done. She wanted to run and hide, but she made herself walk across the yard, slowly, putting one foot in front of the other as if she had all the time in the world and no reason to be afraid of anyone. She thought she could feel their eyes, like bugs crawling on her skin under her clothes. Arya never looked up. If she saw them watching, all her courage would desert her, she knew, and she would drop the bundle of clothes and run and cry like a baby, and then they would have her. She kept her gaze on the ground.”

“It was all Arya could do not to bolt and run, but she knew that if she did, they would be after her at once. She made herself walk closer.”

In both of these situations, Arya is able to fight her natural impulses, force herself to stay calm, and thinks through the situations rationally. If she had no self-control or if she was half as wild as some claim she is, she wouldn’t have made it out of the Red Keep to begin with.

There are far more examples of Arya controlling her behavior and showing that she has self-control. I chose early examples specifically because even those who concede that Arya is able to learn to control herself usually follow it up with some variation of, “She didn’t have any self-control at all at the beginning, so she would have been killed off before she had a chance to learn!” But, as you can see, this is something she is capable of early on.

Self-control is a quality in Arya that grows through necessity during her journey. It would be the same if she were somehow taken prisoner by the Lannisters.

Common criticism: Arya doesn’t know how to keep her mouth shut!

A few early examples of Arya keeping her mouth shut:

“Hot Pie took her silence to mean she was scared, or stupid, or deaf.” – ACOK

“She did not answer. It seemed safer not to talk to anyone.” – ACOK

“It mattered to her, but she chewed her lip and kept quiet, listening.” – ACOK

“By the time they marched, Arya knew she was no water dancer. Syrio Forel would never have let them knock him down and take his sword away, nor stood by when they killed Lommy Greenhands. Syrio would never have sat silent in that storehouse nor shuffled along meekly among the other captives.” – ACOK

“A broken lip taught Arya to hold her tongue.” – ACOK

“Arya dropped her gaze and said nothing.” – ACOK

This is by far not a complete list. It’s just a handful of early examples.

I’m not saying that Arya never speaks out of turn. She does. Multiple times. But she isn’t incapable of being quiet and she does learn when to hold her tongue more and more through her experiences. Sansa also shows that not staying quiet doesn’t result in immediate death. She talks back to Joffrey on a number of occasions and is still alive as of the current canon. He often had her beaten afterward. She survived and Arya has survived beatings as well.

Joffrey remained No 1 on Aryas death list and she would have gotten herself killed trying to kill him sooner or later if she had stayed in KL at the court like Sansa.

People have this image of Arya as this impulsive, blood thirsty killer. But remember that had the Lannister’s taken her prisoner, the only person she may or may not have killed at that point (depending on when they took her captive) would have been the stable boy whose death was more of an accident. Arya learns kill on the road during the battle of the holdfast, when Jaqen brings her along when they free the Northmen, and then when she kills the guard to leave Harrenhall.

None of this would happen in an AU where she was in King’s Landing. She would be disarmed if she ever got a weapon, though she knows to hide her weapons, per canon, and is often too frightened to act during much of her captivity. If Wheeze scares Arya to the point where she doesn’t dare misbehave or try to escape when she sees her chance or even look at him the wrong way, wouldn’t her abusers in King’s Landing garner the same response, if not a worse one? She’s seen them murder her father and would undoubtedly be forced to look at his severed head. She would hate herself for not taking action, just as she hates herself in the novels, but she would know enough to control her behavior.

But anyway, the Lannisters wouldn’t kill her regardless of behavior. With Robb rebelling against the crown and holding Jaime prisoner, it was important for the Lannisters to hold onto their own hostages for bargaining and for ensuring Jaime’s safety. That is why Tyrion is disappointed when he finds out that Arya is missing. That’s why he tries so hard to have her found. The importance of finding Arya and keeping their current hostage alive is mentioned repeatedly.

“And if the gods are good, Bywater will find Arya alive, before Robb learns she’s gone missing.” – Tyrion, ACOK

“Why must I suffer accusations every time some Stark stubs his toe? This was Greyjoy’s work, I had nothing to do with it.”

“Let us hope Lady Catelyn believes that.”

Her eyes widened. “She wouldn’t-”

“-kill Jaime? Why not? What would you do if Joffrey and Tommen were murdered?”

“I still hold Sansa!” the queen declared.

“We still hold Sansa,” he corrected her, “and we had best take good care of her.” – Cersei and Tyrion, ACOK

“Tyrion glanced round the yard. “Where’s the Stark girl?”

For a moment no one answered. Finally Joffrey said, “She was riding by me. I don’t know where she went.”

Tyrion pressed blunt fingers into his throbbing temples. If Sansa Stark had come to harm, Jaime was as good as dead.” – Tyrion and Joffrey, ACOK

“One parting request. Kindly make certain no harm comes to Sansa Stark. it would not do to lose both the daughters.” – Tyrion, ACOK

The Lannisters have a vested interest in keeping Sansa alive and finding Arya. It is something even Joffrey seems to understand.

“Frowning, he lowered the crossbow. “I’d shoot you too, but if I do Mother says they’d kill my uncle Jaime.” – Joffrey, ACOK

They would have felt the same about Arya if they had found her. They would have done what they could to keep her alive. They definitely wouldn’t have killed her. Even Joff understands that they can’t kill a Stark girl in this political climate.

Before anyone tries to point out that Ned was murdered, remember that he was not a hostage. Robb hadn’t beaten the Lannisters and he hadn’t taken Jaime prisoner at that point. Besides, the books make it clear that Joff’s decision to kill him was a plot arranged beforehand, likely with Littlefinger pulling the strings. He would have no reason to arrange that sort of plot with Arya.

If you have any further “rebuttals” I suggest you read the novels and/or this post where the scenario is discussed at length.

Now, I would like to “thank” D&D for inciting this wank. It’s been wild. I don’t know why some want to bash them and then agree with them in the next breath, but here we are.

#asoiaf #arya stark #arya stark meta

jackoshadows

I love how this post is tagged as anti-Jonerys and anti-Jonrya - Jon’s canonical connections in the books. As in they think there is no way that Jon can get a loving family and domestic life with Arya and Dany 😂😂😂

Even more ridiculous that these fans grasp hold of that one Jon Snow paragraph where he is considering Stannis’ offer and ponders on starting a family in Winterfell - with Val!! Who he thinks is hot because she shanked a guy in the throat with a knife - ‘ Lonely and lovely and lethal, Jon Snow reflected, and I might have had her.’ And he thinks he might have started a family with Ygritte if she had lived. And yet Dany and Arya are somehow exempt from domestic bliss when they too want family and home - same as every other main character in the books!!

“All that Daenerys wanted back was the big house with the red door, the lemon tree outside her window, the childhood she had never known.”

Needle was Winterfell’s grey walls, and the laughter of its people. Needle was the summer snows, Old Nan’s stories, the heart tree with its red leaves and scary face, the warm earthy smell of the glass gardens, the sound of the north wind rattling the shutters of her room. Needle was Jon Snow’s smile.

The sexism just jumps out of the page in these kinds of posts and the sad thing is the way this fandom embraces farcical misogynistic nonsense like this.

naetaesarya

Related to this very topic are some screencaps of a recent Jonsa post which talks about this very thing and oh boy the sexism.

So I’m going to go ahead and say there’s a big difference between being a bastard son who is dreaming of the ancestral home his trueborn siblings have rights to vs. being attracted to conventionally feminine women. Jon loves his trueborn siblings deeply. Jon doesn’t want to contribute any credence toward the bastard stigma which says bastards seek to usurp their trueborn siblings and take their place. Jon wants to prove that bastard stigma wrong. This is why Jon suppresses all and any desires for Winterfell. Um, what in Westerosi culture (or Jon’s head) says being attracted to conventionally feminine women is wrong? That’s the norm…. That’s what’s accepted. Conversely, being attracted to unconventional women is outside of the norm. Also, how exactly does raising children/bathing = conventional femininity? Is this something only girly humans do? Where is Jon continuing to dream about giving flowers to a girl? He was learning about the different courting customs and why it was so important for women to learn how to defend themselves. For crying out loud. What exactly would be the narrative purpose of Jon going from being into unconventional women and standing up for outcasts to being into women who represent the standard and status quo in every way? The very status quo that shut him out? When somebody is thinking about what they want, maybe consider… that’s actually what they want.

raangmanch

Here’s the thing. Ygritte wanted Jon. Ygritte wanted Jon to steal her and be with her and had Jon truly deserted like Mance did once, they perhaps would have been family. If circumstances permitted they would have had children in the future. When Arya says “no that’s sansa” it is the rejection of her identity being reduced to her womb. She doesn’t want to be a mom to a great maester or politician…she specifically asks Ned if she can be one. Her. Not her son ( son being the core word as if this continues no daughter of hers can be architects or maesters either). The way they talk of fictional character having families seems like they want a baby making machine. Like raising a family seems not a partnership but a task and all the members are to defer to the patriarch.

Also like lol and at a baser level you can’t tell me lonely, lovely, lethal and “I might have had her” isn’t indicative of Jon being attracted to Val. Like we know what gets him going. Come on.

the-king-andthe-lionheart

I will forever be floored everytime I come across someone insinuating that women who aren’t perfectly conventionally feminine can’t have/don’t want romance, marriage or children someday. My mom quite literally is butch, yet she’s been married twice and has two daughters. Shocking, I know. *rolls eyes* It’s just completely baffling to me when I grew up with this as my norm. I don’t know what book series they are reading, but it’s not ASOIAF. I mean pretty much almost all of GRRM’s main romances include unconventional women, and we see plenty of unconventional women having children. Hell, I’m 99% sure Asha will be revealed to be pregnant in TWOW, and I’m sure Jaime and Brienne will also get together also. Also GRRM isn’t writing a fairytale. What is this bullshit?

“Now which character can Jon meet that embodies the princess in the tower and the damsel in distress archetypes? None other than Sansa Stark.”

This ain’t Disney and Sansa is not the only princess who was locked in a tower. Arya was locked in Harrenhal, with multiple towers. She slept in the cellar of one of them. And quite frankly, Sansa needs to get her act together and save her goddamn self and stop being a damsel.

I really wish these idiots would fucking leave this fandom. They are really expecting some YA fairytale romance and happily ever after ending aren’t they? It’s absolutely laughable and they should just stick with SJM if all they want is a romance.

#asoiaf #jon snow

aboveallarescuer-deactivated202

Dany and Jorah’s relationship

This is a list of all the passages from the books featuring key moments in Dany and Jorah’s relationship.

Thanks to that show, a lot of people misunderstand Jorah’s character and the nature of his relationship with Dany.

In the books, he is a predator trying to groom a teenager who is three times younger than he is. In order to do so, he undermines her authority, tries to make her distrust other men and violates her boundaries several times (e.g. forcing a kiss on her, looking at her breasts, etc).

In the books, he’s a Good Guy who we are meant to empathize with; as Benioff describes, “part of Jorah’s tragedy is that he was in love with a woman who couldn’t love him back”.

That change is pretty disgusting, and look how it shaped the general audience’s opinion:

I think Dany is ultimately selfish and unfeeling. I’m not sure she actually ever loved Jon at all, and her affection for Ser Jorah Mormont strikes me as more utilitarian than compassionate. Dany is concerned with herself and her dragons and little more. If she doesn’t back Jon despite his superior claim to the Iron Throne, that’s all the proof I need that she is rotten to the core. (x)

What would Jorah (Iain Glen) think of Dany’s turn? Would he love her still? Would he have been able to do the deed? In a sense, I wish it had been him instead of Jon. Jorah has loved her for so much longer. But he died defending his queen, and perhaps he would have forgiven her even this atrocity. (x)

Her charm, beauty and overall skill in luring people to her cause, whether genuine or not, has always been about creating a facade, someone you wouldn’t mind seeing win even if they lose the plot and go crazy. And everyone Dany’s recruited along the way has been nothing more than a pawn.

Just look at how she sent away her lover, Daario Naharis, for fear he’d stunt her march on the throne, or exiled Jorah for being a spy. (x)

28 Reasons Jorah Mormont Was The Best Man In Westeros (x)

Thankfully, for all his faults, I think GRRM is framing the story the way it should be:

“Will Jorah ever get out of the friendzone?” (side-eyeing the person who asked this). GRRM: “I would not bet on it.” (x)

I really want to get a tattoo of this response, lol.

Keep reading

semperty

I apologize to @sharisfootly for hijacking his post and for whoever is about to read this profanity-laden post. I have been in this albatross of a fandom for three years so I’m used to seeing insanity laced drivel posted about Dany. However, that Forbes article seriously pissed me off.

This jackass is seriously advocating for Jorah to survive just so he can be the one to kill Dany. Because that’s what this is really all about, right? The men. Why didn’t we just have Tyrion, Jorah, and Jon all sit around and express their undying love for Dany and we can measure who gets the honor of killing her based on how much mainpain they can provide. Fuck off. The author is gleefully flaunting his sexism in our faces. It’s all about the man and his great pain and suffering from killing the woman he loves.

Also, why is it Dany’s fault that men fall for her? Even if we ignore that Dany is literally 13 in the books; it’s not her fault that men lust after her. How about we hold men accountable for their gross behavior for once? With Daario it is palatable (though GRRM’s sexualizing of Dany’s pubescent body is still gross) because she has agency. It’s less so when Jorah is sexually assaulting her while being a whole ass pervert.

Once again the sexism is off the charts. Men aren’t held accountable for their actions. It’s the big bad woman who shoulders the blame for unrequited feelings. Doesn’t Dany know that it’s all about the men and what they desire? Because the only type of relationship a woman can have with a man is sexual, and if she doesn’t give in to his wishes then her feelings are superficial and she is uncaring.

It never ceases to amaze me that these freaks and their arguments damn near parallel the arguments GRRM is literally mocking by having slavers espouse these beliefs. The author might as well have said that Dany is a sexual harlot who uses men for her pleasures and then kills them once she is done with them.

#asoiaf #daenerys targaryen #jorah mormont

aboveallarescuer-deactivated202

How Dany assesses the counsel she receives and makes her own choices - Attempting to save the Lhazareen victims

I want to devote the beginning of this series of posts specifically for May 19 2020, which marks the one-year anniversary of the death of the queen who inspired so many of us. Even if I don’t engage exclusively with the show and its discourse, as a Dany fan, I was also very emotionally affected by what happened. I felt the need to write something for this day, even if not show-related. This meta is a love letter to our brave, compassionate and intelligent queen; it shows the kind of leader she is, the kind of leader the show decided to destroy and the kind of leader that will leave an unfillable void if she also dies in the books. #istandbydaenerys

This will be a series of posts meant to show that Dany is open to receiving advice and criticism, but that she doesn’t act solely based on what other people tell her to do. On the opposite, GRRM makes great effort to write a Dany who most often merges different viewpoints and/or finds her own solutions to the problems she’s facing. I won’t include every single decision she ever made (e.g. her decisions at court are often made without counsel and her execution of the ritual to hatch the dragon eggs was already exhaustively and deftly analyzed by other people), but there will be plenty of instances in this series that will prove my point nonetheless. The metas will always have four items: in which chapters the events mentioned take place; what advice she receives and from whom; what were her actions; the verdict (whether she followed other people’s advice, ignored/rejected them or did both at the same time).

Chapter (s):

AGOT Daenerys VII

The advice Dany receives:

Quaro, Irri and Jhogo tell Dany that “the riders do [the lamb girl] honor”; the latter goes as far as to propose to cut her tongue if her cries bother Dany.

Jorah tries to normalize what’s happening by saying that it’s how it’s always been and that the khal’s men claim their reward for fighting for him. He praises Dany’s actions at first by saying that she is Rhaegar’s sister, but soon afterwards reinforces that she can’t save everyone.

Dany’s actions:

Dany’s hand clenched hard around the reins, and she turned the silver’s head. “Make them stop,” she commanded Ser Jorah.

“I will not have her harmed,” Dany said.

As we can see in these passages, Dany uses the limited authority she has to stop the sexual violence she’s witnessing. To make sure that she’s successful, she consciously changes her manners to convince him:

Dany told him what she had done, in his own tongue so the khal would understand her better, her words simple and direct.

“It pleases me to hold them safe,” Dany said, wondering if she had dared too much. “If your warriors would mount these women, let them take them gently and keep them for wives. Give them places in the khalasar and let them bear you sons.”

There are multiple factors to consider as to why Dany proposed for the Dothraki men to marry the Lhazareen women they were raping:

She was told by Jorah that Drogo’s men feel entitled to rape the Lhazareen women as a reward for fighting for him, so she is aware that she is breaking their social contract, even if righteously so.

She doesn’t understand what marital rape is because she still absorbs some of her society’s patriarchal values uncritically. Also, she still doesn’t realize that this is a systemic issue and that she can’t pass these women around from one master to another. This sets up her eventual rebellion against Kraznys’s deal and her freeing of the Unsullied. Her failure to protect Eroeh still looms large in her thoughts and is part of Dany’s reflections on why should she be a queen in the first place.

She considers Drogo “the shield that kept her safe” even though her marriage was forced, so she might expect that things work out as “well” for the other women as well. This is understandable for a 14-year-old who, despite being mature in many ways, is still naive in others.

Perhaps most importantly, her decision to help the women could have been easily overruled by Drogo. She had to think of a solution that would conciliate her husband’s desires and these women’s best interests simultaneously.

On the other hand, while Dany needs to act tactfully with Drogo, she doesn’t do the same with the other people around her:

“Khaleesi?” The knight sounded perplexed. 

“You heard my words,” she said. “Stop them.” She spoke to her khas in the harsh accents of Dothraki. “Jhogo, Quaro, you will aid Ser Jorah. I want no rape.”

“I claim her. Do as I command you, or Khal Drogo will know the reason why.”

“I am khaleesi, heir to the Seven Kingdoms, the blood of the dragon,” Dany reminded him. “It is not for you to tell me what I cannot do.”

Qotho was ever the cruelest of the bloodriders. It was he who laughed. “Does the horse breed with the sheep?”

Something in his tone reminded her of Viserys. Dany turned on him angrily. “The dragon feeds on horse and sheep alike.”

Now that she is both khaleesi and the last known Targaryen, Dany knows that she needs to have people’s respect if she wants them to obey her and see her as an authority. She knows she has to be firm at times, and that’s what she does.

The last quote is particularly noteworthy because of Viserys’s mention. His influence on Dany contextualizes the development of her political skills in key ways.

We know right from her first chapter that Dany had to grow up and mature more quickly than a normal child/teenager: she lived with someone with whom she had to carefully consider her words (“she knew better than to question her brother”), even when she disagreed with him (“she mistrusted Illyrio’s sweet words as she mistrusted everything about Illyrio”) or was critical of him (“His fingers toyed with the hilt of his borrowed blade, though Dany knew he had never used a sword in earnest”). Because of Viserys, she had to learn to be conciliatory.

It is also because of Viserys (and the Dothraki, who gave Dany the support she needed to stand up to him) that Dany had to learn to be assertive. Although her brother was “stupid and vicious” and “cruel”, he could also be strong-minded and resolute, and that’s what Dany held on to. The moments where she declares her titles to express her authority (among other usages) are not only contextualized by the pseudofeudal system that she’s part of, but also by Viserys’s influence on her (which Dany doesn’t accept blindly, she learns the best he could’ve taught her), hence why you see her using phrases that he used as well. (The difference is that she recontextualizes them - “blood of the dragon” is used to give herself strength in moments of fear and remind herself that she needs to control her emotions to be perceived as an authority; “wake the dragon” is used in moments of great distress, such as when she’s furious at Robert’s attempt to kill her and Rhaego or when she became impatient with Jorah for constantly trying to isolate her from other men; and so on.)

Dany’s handling of her interpersonal relationships with Drogo and Viserys need to be analyzed and contextualized to fully grasp not only this particular moment, but also Dany’s entire character development and the politically savvy queen she will become in ASOS and ADWD. Some argue that it was “unrealistic” to see her getting to that point, but I would argue it wasn’t at all: her entire life, with all its setbacks and hardships, shaped her to be conciliatory, assertive and resilient and develop the political skills that she did. She wouldn’t have survived if she hadn’t developed them.

(Just to be clear, none of this is to say that these men were responsible for making who Dany is or that their emotional and sexual abuse of Dany was justified in any way. Indeed, neither Viserys nor Drogo ever had the intention of guiding Dany - her development is hers and only hers. Because of her extraordinary courage and strong moral values, she was able to separate the good from the bad in their influences and be resilient and adaptable all the way through.)

People tend to see this moment solely as a failure on Dany’s part because her efforts to help these women didn’t pay off. However, to look at these scenes only from that perspective means missing out how they serve as a prelude to Dany’s rise as a political leader.

Verdict:

Dany’s decisions were all hers here and she took them despite everyone else’s advice (though she also took Jorah’s into consideration when she spoke to Drogo).

#asoiaf #asoiaf meta #daenerys targaryen #daenerys targaryen meta

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

ASOIAF & GOT Fan Appreciation