House With The Lemon Tree

Hi! I’m Violet. She/her pronouns please. My main blog is @floral-alchemist :)

[cainhurstundead]

Tyrion's sexual abuse is often viewed as something that only happened in the past when it's actually something he still experienced as an adult. Tywin is constantly trying to have control over his sexuality from his relationships to who he has sex with this is why he has to keep Shae a secret and why he goes to extreme measures to keep her hidden. He forces Tyrion to marry Sansa then tries to pressure him into consummating it when he clearly doesn't want to. He has Shae talk about her and Tyrion's sex life in front of everyone at his trial. All of this is sexually abusive and it's not acknowledged anywhere near enough

[greenbloods]

real important to note that agot jon snow’s entire arc is about love vs duty, his allegiance to the night’s watch battling with his worry for bran, for ned, for robb, pulling him south. and by the end of the book, he fails—in a manner. he chooses love, deserts the watch, and runs for robb, condemning himself to be “motherless, friendless, and damned” even if robb beheads him for being a deserter. but his friends bring him back.

now consider adwd jon, who spends the entire book stuck between love and duty, pulled between the night’s watch and the war against the Others and the politics of the North—stannis’s campaign, ramsay bolton, and above everything else, arya. again jon is given an impossible choice, and again he chooses to desert the watch in a manner and go south—only this time not sneaking away, and not alone, calling upon the freefolk to march with him upon Winterfell. only this time his friends can’t save him because he sent them away, or isolated himself from them. so again he chooses love, and again he fails. daggers in the dark. a pool of blood draining into the snow. jon’s whole arc is about choosing love over duty, just like ned, even when it hurts him, even when it leads to failure

[forget-me-foramoment]

Sansa x Mya stone

@i-clandestine

[letterful]

[turtle-paced]

If Bran makes it back to Winterfell and survives the series, do you think the Northern lords would accept him as the Lord of Winterfell and/or King in the North? I personally think that would be an interesting direction for Bran as a character, but Westeros has pretty awful treatment of disabled characters and I'm wondering if some factions could claim that Bran's disability was a reason to pass him over for one of the other Starklings - e.g. Jon (explicitly named in Robb's will as his heir, already of-age by Westerosi standards and able to provide immediate leadership), Rickon (much younger and easier to control), even Sansa or Arya (on the expectation that they marry and produce male heirs).

Yes, I think Bran will be acceptable, despite his disability! He's Ned's oldest surviving legitimate son. We know that the rules are flexible, but they're also pretty clear about what's supposed to happen when there's a legitimate son around to inherit.

More practically, I think Bran's likely to return to Winterfell last. When the disputes about whether Jon (oldest surviving son) or Sansa (oldest surviving legitimate child) should inherit are in full swing or ramping up considerably. Bran then arrives as a candidate both of these factions can support without losing face. With those parties having supported Bran despite the fact he had a disability at the time, it's way harder five years down the track to go "I just realised! Bran's paraplegic! We can't have that!"

Also important is the fact that ableism isn't a universal constant but can manifest in very different ways depending on what the disability is and how someone came to have that disability. People who acquire disability in later childhood or adulthood may be treated differently from people who were born with them or acquired them very early in life. With Bran, there may eventually be questions about his ability to father children, questions about how he handles more martial endeavours, and I would put money on any such questions being either motivated by ableism or expressed in ableist ways, but there are plenty of people who can attest to Bran not being a "twisted monkey demon" like Tyrion or "feeble-minded" like Hodor, but a bright, active kid who had a bad accident.* Still pitiable on some level, but not, y'know, stupid disabled or evil disabled.

If this promotion ends up happening, Bran might be well served by big impressive chairs, big impressive horses, and a FDR-esque routine of not allowing many people to see the mechanics required to get him into a position where he looks physically imposing. Pay no attention to the carers behind the curtain. Which is just what happens when society is Like That about ableism and masculinity.

*accident may not have been accidental.

[greenbloods]

asoiaf dashboard simulator all timers. to me.

[ladystoneshart]

just found out catelyn was the cover for the agot advance reading copy... oh cat you are so loved 🥺

[ladystoneshart]

the winds of winter tomorrow

[visenyaism]

Melisandre: Jon i know you just woke up fifteen minutes ago but I think you’re literally the messiah you literally just came back from the dead

Marge Mormont and Gelbert Glover: Jon you’re the king in the north according to your half-brother Robb’s will

Tycho Nestoris: Jon can I have $20,000 in gold dragons

Howland Reed: no Jon you’re the one true Targaryen king of Westeros

Mance Rayder: no no Jon you’re the king in the north

Jeor Mormont’s Raven and the corn in the cellar:

[greenbloods]

crazy how asoiaf is one of the most well fed mainstream fandoms while being starved of the one thing it wants most. currently we are in the middle of season 3 of hotd with each episode being an hour long movie length production, season 2 of akotksk is confirmed underway, and the new four hour mad king prequel play just dropped. it has been fifteen years since the last book in the main series was published. winds of winter is still not on the horizon.

[lopata-four]

Members of House Harlaw 🖤

[greenbloods]

The Long Shadow of Ned's Beheading of Gared

Ned beheads Gared the deserter

Ned beheads Lady the direwolf

Ned beheaded by Ilyn Payne

Theon threatens to hang Beth Cassel

Theon beheads Jory Cassel (botched execution, takes three strokes)

Robb beheads Rickard Karstark (botched execution, takes three strokes)

Jon fails to behead Ygritte

Jon fails to behead the old man

Jon beheads Janos Slynt

Arya kills Dareon the deserter

[ladystoneshart]

it's actually crazy that catelyn straight up kills a dude in the first book and it's never brought up ever again

thre is a passage in ACOK where she's talking to brienne and says something like "ned always got really somber when he had to kill someone but I don't think I would mind it 😊" which is already an INSANE thing to say holy shit

but like girl you literally slit a guy's throat 3 months ago what the fuck are you talking about

[turtle-paced]

A common criticism of Ned's actions in AGOT is that he could and should have replaced the entire Small Council. But who was he supposed to replace them with? Ned's been out of touch with southron politics for almost 15 years. How does he know who's trustworthy? And if he packed the council with northerners, was the business of the realm supposed to just stop for weeks while they made their way to KL? I don't understand what Ned's ideal course of action is supposed to be.

Ned doesn't know who's trustworthy - but he should have replaced people anyway, because he knew several incumbents to be untrustworthy.

Northerners are the best bet for Stark-friendly replacements. What happens there for the few weeks it would take the new appointment to arrive is the same thing that happens if the incumbent gets fatally struck by lightning: the next person in the hierarchy runs most things for the next few weeks, and yes, some things do pause. It's an absolutely routine aspect of public service. It happens in the real world, every year, every nation with even a halfway functioning bureaucracy. In an actually functioning bureaucracy people outside it never even notice. Westeros is big enough and modern enough to have some bureaucracy, however informal, however ill-defined its powers are, but there would be people in more powerful positions than others capable of informally taking over for a few months. Failing that, there would be people in those positions willing to take over informally for a few months.

If Ned's worried about this process, then what he should do is stagger dismissals - sack Littlefinger, formally announce Wyman Manderly's taking over, micromanage the temporary replacement a bit until Manderly arrives, sack Varys, repeat.

The other thing Ned can do is repurpose people. If he thinks Renly's not malicious, just a dumbass? Congratulations, he's now ambassador to [insert appropriate location here]. He needs wider experience! If Ned thinks he's a dumbass who might grow up? Maybe he gets Master of Ships or something, because he needs wider experience (and just moving Renly at all is politically disruptive to an extent).

It's important to note that there is no ideal course of action for Ned. Everything has its own drawbacks. Ned could end up with an entirely useless Small Council. The idea is that he doesn't end up with an actively malicious Small Council. Ned could go down to the stables and appoint a horse Master of Coin, and it would be an improvement over Littlefinger. He can replace the horse once he's in better touch with King's Landing politics.

[housewiththelemontree]

There were tears on Ygritte's cheeks when the song ended.

"Why are you weeping?" Jon asked. "It was only a song. There are hundreds of giants, I've just seen them."

- A Storm of Swords, Jon II. Art by me

[arte072]

arya & nymeria 👑🐺✨

[remusjohnslupin]

asoiaf sigils → the riverlands (part 1/2) | Stretching from the Neck to the banks of the Blackwater, and east to the borders of the Vale, the riverlands are the beating heart of Westeros. No other land in the Seven Kingdoms has seen so many battles, nor so many petty kings and royal houses rising and falling.