A little list of OC questions based on the seven types of love identified in Ancient Greek thought. Obviously this is a highly simplified presentation of some quite complex philosophical concepts from Classical History, intended more for the purposes of entertainment than education. I also left out Mania, which is arguably an eighth type of love (Obsessive), because I'm keeping it mostly positive in these tricky times!
Eros – Romantic, Passionate Love.
Is your OC romantic in the traditional sense? Do they enjoy giving or receiving gifts of flowers or confectionary? Or are there other courtship traditions from their culture of origin that are important to them?
How important is sex to them in a relationship? Do they see it as something essential to their happiness? Would they be able to remain in a monogamous relationship with someone they loved without sex?
How do they feel about public displays of romantic affection? Does it make them uncomfortable? How do they feel if a romantic partner kisses them in public?
Do they believe in love at first sight? Have they ever developed a crush or romantic (or erotic) fixation upon a stranger based on their appearance alone?
How closely is their opinion of their own beauty (or lack thereof) linked to their confidence? Do they see themselves as more or less worthy of love or sex based on how attractive they feel?
Philia – Affectionate, Platonic Love.
Does your OC have a Best Friend? If they do then how long have they known each other and how did they meet? If they don't then do they have a close group of friends they love equally? Or are they more of a loner?
Does your OC find it easy to make friends? Or are there barriers to them doing so? If so then are these due to issues of inclination, communication, or something else entirely?
What qualities does your OC most value in a friend? Loyalty? Shared sense of humour? Or something else?
Is your OC able to build close friendships with people very different from themselves? Perhaps in terms of culture, age or personality?
What is their most fervent wish for their best friend(s)? How far would they go to make it happen?
Storge – Unconditional, Familial Love.
Did your OC's parents love them unconditionally? If so then has this helped them feel confident as an adult? If not then how has this affected them? What were the conditions their family attached to their relationship?
Does your OC have children? If so then how fiercely do they love them? If they have more than one then do they love them all equally? If they do not have children then is this part of their future plans?
How far does parental approval (imagined or expressed) impact upon their current sense of self-worth? What might they sacrifice or attempt to achieve in order to ensure the approval of their parents?
Does your OC have any siblings? If so then did their parents have a favourite growing up? Has their relationship with their sibling changed in adulthood? If they don't have any siblings then do they perhaps feel they have missed out on an important relationship? Do they have any especially close friends who go some way towards filling that role?
Is your OC able to love without necessarily needing or expecting reciprocation or reward? Or are all their relationships to some extent transactional? Have they ever loved another person unconditionally, whether a child or another adult?
Agape – Selfless, Universal Love.
Does your OC wish to make the world a better place? How far do they see that as being their responsibility? What lengths would they go to in order to help achieve this?
Does your OC feel a spiritual connection to the world around them? Do they have a particular love for nature or living things?
To what extent does your OC believe in the value (or even existence) of true altruism? Do they see an unselfish concern for the welfare of others as being naïve or foolish? Or as a moral quality to which people should aspire?
Does your OC have a religious faith which emphasises the importance of a love for all people? If so then do they try to follow these teachings authentically? Or do they just pay lip-service to them? If not then do they follow a more martial or mercantile faith? Or none at all?
Does your OC find it easy to empathise with their enemies? Or do they see it as important to dehumanise them in order to combat them with sufficient determination?
Ludus – Playful, Flirtatious Love.
Does your OC have any particular favourite chat up lines? If not for themselves then perhaps ones they have suggested to a friend? How effective do these tend to be?
Is your OC particularly skilled at flirting? Have they had to practice this or does it just happen naturally?
How does your OC feel about one night stands? Have they ever enjoyed a night of passionate romance with a stranger? Is this something they are quite keen on recreationally? Or only something they might engage in under specific circumstances (such as the eve of a battle or after a difficult breakup)?
Who was your OC's first crush? How do they feel about it now?
What seduction techniques are most likely to be effective when it comes to your OC? Are there some things guaranteed to get them going? Or are they immune to such things?
Pragma – Committed, Long-Lasting Love.
Is your OC in a committed long-term relationship (or relationships)? If so then what has contributed to this relationship lasting so well? If they are not in such a relationship, then is this something that saddens them or which they regret?
What is the biggest challenge that your OC has had to overcome in a long-term relationship or friendship? What helped them get through this?
Are your OC's parents still together? To what degree do they look to their own parents as a model for their own ideal relationship?
After the initial fires of passion cool to some degree, what would keep your OC engaged in a relationship? Shared goals? Similar values? Or contented companionship?
What importance or value does your OC attach to marriage? Do they believe that it is important to make a public statement of commitment to another person (or persons)? Or are they more concerned about inheritance rights and security for their family? Or do they not see marriage as a necessary signifier of commitment and loyalty?
Philautia – Self Love.
Does your OC have a healthy sense of their own worth and value? Or do they see themselves as failing to live up to their original potential? Perhaps they are convinced of their own sinful or inadequate nature?
Does your OC believe that it is important to love themselves in the first instance? Perhaps in order to be able to give and receive love authentically? Or because they believe first and foremost in "looking after number one"?
Does your OC judge themselves by the same standards as they apply to others? Or are they sometimes hypocritical in condemning others for faults they also possess? Or perhaps they find it easier to forgive others for things that they cannot abide in themselves?
Which of your OC's qualities makes them the most proud? Do they think more people should be like them in this regard? Or do they quite like being rare in possessing it?
Has your OC always had the same opinion of themselves or has this changed over time? Have they learned to love themselves - perhaps with the help of others - as their journey progressed? Or have the consequences of their actions only served to erode their sense of self-worth?
yes this is filler but it needs to be said idgaf. warning emotional incest with this girl as always. #freecatheryne. and i started using capital letters shock horror
⋆. 208 — THE DRY SPELL
The courtship of Catheryne Tyrell and Lyonel Baratheon was made a lengthy process— a period Catheryne miserably referred to as The Dry Spell in her letters to him. Catheryne’s hefty dowry would not be paid for moons, promised her father. It was not as though he could stop the couple now, lest Highgarden’s relationship with Storms End, and the Stormlands as a whole, be fractured beyond repair, but he could certainly stall it. Some viewed the prolonging of their marriage as an insult to Lord Baratheon, others, merely the concern of a doting father.
Highgarden began to feel more and more like a gilded cage every day. Leo had ceased from inviting her into his office; perhaps embarrassed of his behaviour— or unwilling to look at her all together. The feast had changed their relationship in a way that could not be mended. Silence could not longer be comfortable. Meals could not be shared without the breads and meats tasting rotten.
The nine moons between Catheryne’s betrothal, and her marriage, felt as though she were standing on the precipice of something great. She paced her rooms nightly, and bit her nails until blood gathered at the quick. Her father was distant, but his presence had never felt more looming, as though he were watching her sit at her desk or lay in her bed through the walls somehow.
Her brother had begun to receive the attention he’d been lacking his entire life from their father. Unlike the affection Catheryne received, however, he, instead, was struck by a firm hand. Catheryne would watch them train together. Edmund was gentle, a sensitive kind of soul, and he cried when their father beat him into the ground and called it teaching. That, of course, would only make Leo angrier, make him swing harder. Catheryne would comfort him as best she could, taking him into his arms and letting him sniffle into her shoulder. He’d never known their mother. She was all he had, no?
Catheryne fell into her books, as she often did when riddled with anxiety. She’d spend hours in the library at Highgarden, falling asleep with her head in tomes. She’d write Lyonel there, too.
She did not like keeping correspondence, she told him in her first letter. It was a tedious endeavour she usually wished to avoid at all costs. But she found herself drawn to her quill despite herself. Meeting him was like biting into something sweet, fresh, and letting the juice of it drip down your chin. Perhaps she was starved of adventure.
She knew he had brothers, and learnt of his nieces he doted on. She read of his fondness for sailing, even if it made him sick, and the memories he had of almost falling off the cliffs of Storms End while messing around with his companions as a boy. His father was harsh, but fair, and his mother was cold one moment, hot the other. He preferred ale to wine, and liked best when it rained on hunts— it made it more enjoyable, apparently, when his hair grew wet and the dirt beneath his boots turned to mud.
Catheryne, in turn, told him of her little brother, and the golden gardens she had grown up playing in, and recounted what little she could of her own mother. It was like writing to a friend, rather than a betrothed.
It was in this period, the first signs of Leo Tyrell’s waning health began to show. One morning as he supped, he began to complain of pains in his stomach in between bites of his porridge, and within hours, he was bedridden. His legs had swollen up like fat plums, Catheryne had observed when she visited him. The sheets had been pulled from his body when he lamented the heat. Catheryne sat diligently at his bedside, squeezing his sweat-slick hand as Maester Peremore poured milk of the poppy down his throat every few hours. It was odd to see her imposing father so weakened, like Catheryne had forgotten he could bleed.
They could not name his ailment. People spoke of Edmund becoming Lord of Highgarden, and Catheryne serving as regent until he came of age. Talk of it unsettled her. What would her room become without father watching through the walls? It seemed to frighten Edmund, too, who thought himself unready for such responsibility.
Lord Tyrell, much to the shock of the Reach, made a steady recovery. Within a moon, he was back in the training yard, though softened around the edges. He would still fight in tourneys, however, and was keen to prove his prowess once more after the series of humiliations he had endured.
One afternoon, he called her into his chambers and told her they would be journeying to Storms End in the coming weeks, regret etched in the lines of his face— which he seemed to have more of, these days.
Catheryne kissed his cheek with a murmured thank you, and squealed into her pillow upon returning to her chambers. The cage had opened.
— S01E09: And yet you toil still in service to men. Your father, your husband, your son. You desire not to be free, but to make a window in the wall of your prison.
— S02E08: I thought, for the first time, what I would choose… if not for the duty I put before all else. Shall you cast your son down and rule alone? No, I do not wish to rule, I wish to live. To be free of all this endless plotting and striving. The crown will pursue war and victory at any cost.
lady macbeth / cersei lannister / tony soprano / shiv roy / alicent hightower, fire and blood / catherine of aragon / otto hightower / phillipa of hainault
tagging @lovesonglilies @floweroflis @cerennabaratheonism @siravalondulac and whoever else wants to do it idgaf! <3
thank you @cerennabaratheonism @siravalondulac @slumberingbeauty for the tag!!! rules are to post ten GIFs of your ten favorite movies (no giving away the title) and tag ten people. except i'm a grown up and can tag as many people as i want <3
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