Because nothing is more important than Brienne

I'm Sam. I made this blog for my first read-through of ASoIaF. I love Brienne a lot 22 | she/her pronouns | gay | white

[nanlawson]

Oath keeper.

[bibrienne]

I saw Nikolaj Coster-Waldau last night? I didn’t say anything since he was just being a normal person but I had a terrible awkward little moment where I saw him and then had to look back because oh.

[sittingoverheredreaming]

Man I clicked to see the S6 GoT promo pics just to moon over Gwen!Brienne but now I’m dying laughing because Balon Greyjoy

[thefourofhearts]

On mobile so forgive errors but: It kills me when people get all worked up about how terrible things are for the people of Westeros, like ??????? That’s the point?????

A Song of Ice and Fire is literally the result of GRRM going “you want to read a medieval fantasy? I’ll give you a medieval fantasy.” Boom: enforced patriarchy, absolute monarchy, rigid social stratification, power-scrabbling lesser lords, ends-justify-the-means, and religion present in every aspect of life.

“You want a beautiful princess?”: Sansa Stark, a lovely young Princess In The Tower Trope who starts out naive in the ways of politics, which actually leads to her utter helplessness in the place that was supposed to be the safest for a young lady, so that readers can follow her journey to saving herself rather than waiting to be saved. (She’s a bratty thirteen year old but she’s SMART and QUICK and canonically a better writer in the common tongue and high valyrian than any of her siblings, and she might not become queen, but she, not her father and not her husband, will likely decide her own end, which is THE POINT.)

“You want a fiesty girl?” Arya Stark, the Tomboy With A Sword trope who actually ends up horribly traumatized and homesick and taking a nickname of her feminine mother. (Yes, she’s strong, but death and mayhem works a toll on young girls, which is THE POINT.)

“You want a young, poor hero?” Jon Snow, your Secret Prince Trope who actually has mother/abandonment issues and a weird mix of both an inferiority and superiority complex which leads him to shun help and support from his friends. (Yes, he knows nothing. Yes, he’s learning ~who he is.~ But it may be that nuture, and not nature, is where Jon’s “true identity” lies. Not sure if that’s GRRM’S point but I think his status as Ned’s son is gonna mean more than his status as Rhaegar’s, ultimately.)

“You want a young king?” Robb Stark, your Young King Arthur trope, with kingship foisted upon a young man and who actually shows that youth and virility are not the only prerequisites to winning a war. (People so often hate on/make fun of/blame Robb but like, the failure of the young king trope is GRRM’s ENTIRE POINT.)

“You want an evil queen?” Cersei Lannister, who is yes, evil, but also plagued by paranoia and fear and a desire for power in her own right because she’s been denied it her whole life only because she was born a female instead of a male. (Yes, internalized misogyny, yes, regicide, yes, incest but – say it with me – that’s the whole poiiiiiint.)

“You want dragons?” Here, have three. They fly and breathe fire and also eat children and destroy herds of cattle and you’ll have to chain them up so your people don’t start a revolt. (Not quite sure what GRRM’S point here will finally be but they probably are not going to make it through the series alive and will likely ultimately be weapons of war, not cherished members of the family.)

ASOIAF: Literally Not Your Typical White Boy Fantasy (Except When It Is, Because GRRM Is Still A White Boy And Not Perfect).

[onionjulius]

I wish there was a memory in ASOIAF of the Stark girls hawking with their mummy.

Hawking was a thing that women totes did, and Catelyn once told Arya she could have a bird for hawking purposes.

So. It’s a thing I want but shall never have. Because I fought the fandom and the fandom won.

[sabotensan]

Sorry to hijack your post but this is the cutest and Stark ladies memories (especially family times with Cat and the girls!) are super important 

so

hawking 101 with Stark Mama

[eluas-cinnamon]

[virgin-who-cannot-drive]

Brienne of Tarth by Helen Sloan

[cobaltzosia]

LET ME TELL U HOW ABOUT THIS IMAGE I AM. Let me tell you. All through the show’s publicity, Brienne has been portrayed in fighting stances, glaring, grimacing, generally looking ready to fight someone, but this. This is the Brienne I have been longing to see. Look at that gorgeous soft expression on Gwen’s face, look how young she seems, look at that lighting drawing attention to those beautiful eyes. 

And the sword: displayed prominently but not ready to wield, not looking to kill. She’s powerful here but not aggressive, she’s a protector, a nurturer, everything that GRRM’s Brienne of Tarth is and D&D’s Brienne should be.  

I’m very emotional about this picture, guys. 

[theculturalvacuum]

Wasted potential is sad…

[kidcataldo]

Your fave is problematic: brienne of tarth

just kidding! lol could you imagine??

[naomimisoras]

me @ twow: come at once. help me. save me. i need you as i have never needed you before. i love you, i love you, i love you. come at once.

[miasarchive-deactivated20191230]

i can’t believe every single character is dying on game of thrones except for balon greyjoy

[artofthrones]

Mother’s Mercy by ertacaltinoz

[z-enobias]

fanfic idea: sansa stark has a good day

[bibrienne]

what she says: i'm fine

what she means: stannis letting melisandre sacrifice shireen to the lord of light was not only a hideous representation of d+d's misogyny, but grossly out of character for stannis who burned a man for treason for even suggesting shireen marry a bastard and told one of his men that, in the event of stannis's death, he should have his army avenge his death and seat shireen on the throne

[thrumbolt]

Also I still don’t understand how having Brienne camp out at a hotel and doing nothing for most of the season is supposed to be more entertaining than the LS storyline. 

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

starks-and-rec replied to your post:

Why do you think Brienne will survive TWOW and possibly the endgame?

For one, because I have yet to see a good reason why she won’t.

Yes, she’s in a bad situation now, caught between a rock and a hard place, between her vows to Jaime and to Catelyn, between her feelings for Jaime and her need to save the innocent Podrick – which is why she shouted “sword” and is almost certainly bringing Jaime into a trap set by the Brotherhood and Lady Stoneheart. But despite the possibility that she may have to fight Jaime as the center point of this trap, I am very certain they both will get out of that situation. I don’t know how yet, but I’m sure they will escape.

Now, I have seen some people speculating that Jaime will be forced to kill Brienne (or she’ll sacrifice herself for him), which will motivate him with grief so that he then returns to Cersei and kills her. Now, this is a terrible interpretation of Jaime’s arc (it has some clue but really misses so much of the point), but it totally misunderstands Brienne’s. Yes, Jaime and Brienne are important to each other, given, but their fates and story arcs are not tied at the hip. These people really think that Brienne’s character arc of honor and duty and love and knighthood, of service to Renly and then the Starks, of being the truest knight-who-is-not-a-knight in Westeros, is just going to end when she’s fridged to motivate a man to murder his sister-lover? Really? Really? The lack of understanding here boggles me, honestly.

Also, Brienne has Oathkeeper, a Valyrian steel sword, half of what was Ned Stark’s Ice. That sword will be far more relevant to endgame, to the defeat of the Others and to the future of House Stark, than just appearing so that LS could name it “Oathbreaker”. If Brienne does not go north (and confront Stannis and/or Melisandre) and fight on the front lines against the Others there, then she will be very important in whatever fight may happen in the Riverlands (possibly tied in with Sansa and/or eventually Arya’s arc, possibly not). Either way, she’s going to be important.

Also this is a bit wildly speculative but nevertheless – Brienne is almost certainly Dunk’s great-grandaughter, and definitely the most like him of all his possible descendants. Dunk died in his late 60s, after a lifetime of adventures and honor and service, saving the family he swore to protect one last time. I think it would be totally fitting for Brienne’s and GRRM’s themes if she were to follow his path (after providing a heir for House Tarth, however she may do so). (Note also there’s some oddness in TWOIAF about House Targaryen being connected to House Tarth somehow, but I’m not going to speculate about that affecting Brienne’s future until we get more evidence about that connection being something other than Dunk.)

So, in my opinion, the main odds against Brienne’s survival are the same bad odds that most people (who don’t have prophecies or really unpleasant foreshadowing working against them) have – the cold of winter, the chance of being infected in a greyscale epidemic, the threat of the Others and their wights, and the dangers of war and dragons. But her character themes and story arc tell me she’s going to come through it all with flying colors. It’s going to be a hard journey, and there’s certainly going to be trouble and grief on the way (definitely more than there already has been). But I’m sure that Brienne (le chevalier sans peur et sans reproche) will be the one, “scorned and covered with scars, who still tried with her last ounce of courage, to reach the unreachable star.”

[maisiewilliams]

Sophie Turner actually said she liked that terrible scene. She said: "When I read that scene, I kinda loved it. I love the way Ramsay had Theon watching. It was all so messed up. It’s also so daunting for me to do it. I’ve been making [producer Bryan Cogman] feel so bad for writing that scene: 'I can’t believe you’re doing this to me!' But I secretly loved it." ; Ugh.

Yeah, I read about this, and some people have sent me messages about how I’m cherry picking Sophie quotes. But let’s look at this logically. Sophie has, in more than one interview, made it clear that she was uncomfortable with the scene. Now, after it has come out, they release an article saying that she enjoyed the scene. I mean, who’s surprised? Is anyone surprised? 

Game of Thrones is Sophie’s job. It’s not like she can stand up and say, hey, this was kind of fucked up? She needs air time to stay on the show and to make money, so I can’t blame her for accepting the script that they give her. They didn’t ask for her opinion, not to mention she was 18 at the time and that’s pretty young to have a full grasp on rape culture and the effect of sexual violence in Game of Thrones. Let’s not be naive. She’s doing her job, and part of her job is supporting the decisions of her show runners. 

[always-a-sad-girl]

all those articles quoting sophie turner about the rape scene as her saying she “secretly loved it” are fucking ridiculous

the character roz was killed off in the most sexist violent way after the actress said in an interview that she would like more clothed scenes

we cant expect a teen to say “oh the violence against women in this show is as shallow manipulative and abusive as the boltons. renew my contract and continue to make me a main character.”

using the quote “i secretly loved it” removes her words from context and perpetuates rape culture, not to mention it puts too much weight on a teen girl in a difficult position