Laminamara

[laminamara]

For all my fellow Spider lovers out there:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/78437171/chapters/205629556

My fic is finally finished. If you would have liked to see an emotional fallout from Jake almost killing Spider, this story is for you. (Or if you just love Spiri. This fic certainly gives them their due. 😉)

After seeing the movie, and crying my eyes out when Jake took Spider into the woods, writing this and giving Spider the attention he deserves was really satisfying. I tried to stick as close to the movies as possible, as I just wanted to continue that particular arc.

[laminamara]

Because 4x06 was so damn cute and emotional at the same time, I had to write a little story about Trevor and "Shelly" the snail:

Trevor couldn’t believe his eyes, this was just un-believable. He had known Thor couldn’t be trusted, the pet-eating Viking that he was. The cute little fella was just sitting there, all alone on the sideboard, and Thor wasn’t even looking at him!

What if he fell off the edge? He had already moved an inch while Trevor had been watching and Thor hadn’t even noticed. Too busy watching River Monsters to care, he thought, shooting his friend a resentful glare.

Well, this wouldn’t do. Thor, mesmerized by the huge Murray Cod that had just been caught, was wholly unaware that Trevor had slowly made his way towards the sideboard. Seizing his chance, he snatched up the escarghost, hid him in his jacket pocket, and made his way to the door.

“Trevor not interested in the fish? Is big fish!”

Trevor turned around and put on the most innocent face that he could muster. “Watching some hill-billy fishing is not really my style, so…”

Thor thumped his thigh. “Jeremy Wade no hill-billy, is English.”

“Yeah, not really the point, alas… I’m off.”

He quickly made his exit, with Thor’s bellow echoing after him: “Trevor got no taste!”

He hurried down the corridor and into the parlour. Now that the escarghost had been rescued, his mission accomplished, he had no idea what to do next. Trevor’s gaze fell to the window and the garden beyond. A small smile tucked at his lips. He fished out the snail and lifted him up to eyelevel. “You want to have a look around the garden? You would like that, wouldn’t you? Let’s get you outside.”

Trevor settled down under the big oak tree at the east end of the property, far enough away from the Mansion that nobody would stumble upon them. He gently put the escarghost down onto the grass. An occasional ray of sunlight peaked through the canopy, reflecting on the snail’s shell as he made his slow way forwards. It made it easy to keep him in sight.

“I shall call you Shelly,” Trevor whispered while he watched, a profound sadness settling over him. Sitting there, surrounded by trees and the song of birds, in the otherwise quiet garden, he remembered with perfect clarity the last time he had taken Bucky to the park, on the day he died.

In the early hours of the morning, the air had been crisp and clear, promising a beautiful autumn day. For once there had been no other people around and Trevor had let Bucky off the leash. The exaltation of his dog jumping around the lawn, his tail wagging as he chased after a squirrel, was joie de vivre in its purest form and it had lifted Trevor’s heart.

Spending time with Bucky, playing fetch and racing him to the next treeline, had been peaceful. An hour without expectations, an hour without the need for any games or posturing in the company of someone of whose love he was sure of, always.

That was what dogs gave you, unconditional love and devotion, and what had he given in return? Trevor leaned back and pushed his head against the rough bark, squeezing his eyes shut. What must Bucky have felt, waiting at the door, hour after hour, for him to come home? Had he felt confused, abandoned, unloved?

The thought ripped Trevor apart inside. Bucky had shown him more loyalty than his living friends ever had, and what had been his reward? Abandonment.

Tears forced their way out from under his lids and down his cheeks. He wiped them resolutely away with his sleeve. What the hell was wrong with him? It had been 25 years, he should be over this by now.

But he didn’t even know what had happened to Bucky. Had his parents taken him in, had Jeremy? What if they had given him to an animal shelter for him to never be adopted, to die alone in old age?

Trevor’s chest constricted and it was hard to breathe. This train of thought was bad, very bad.

His eyes snapped open and he looked around for Shelly, who was almost in the exact same spot he had been in before. “There’s really no need for me to be afraid that you’re running off on me, eh?” The words came out shaky and he swallowed the lump in his throat.

Pushing himself off the ground, he scooped Shelly up and made his way back to the house. The parlour was empty and he was at a loss at where to go. He really didn’t want to be alone, but his first instinct, to look for Hetty, was not one he was prepared to follow up on and he squashed the notion immediately. No, she had shown him exactly how little his feelings were worth to her all those months ago and he would not put himself out there again.

Maybe Jay was in the kitchen and he could catch some good sniffs of whatever food he was cooking up. Trevor started towards the kitchen when he heard Hetty shouting from his room. Beside him, the old grandfather clock struck 4 o’clock.

The hour was over. Trevor glanced down at Shelly, sitting in the middle of his palm. “Time to hide, little guy.” Wait, was Shelly looking back at him? Yes, yes he was sure that his tentacles had become longer, stretching towards him.

A brilliant smile lit up Trevor’s face. “I knew we would be great friends, you and I. Just wait till I show you the Cutting Edge, it is mind-blowing.” A second later Shelly had vanished inside his jacket. “Now, let’s see what all this ruckus is about.”

[laminamara]

Seeing little snippets of Thomas enjoying himself upstairs in the new Downton movie makes me so happy, but I also can't help but laugh (or rather giggle) at the irony of it all.

I mean, there was Thomas, all jealous when Gwen came back to Downton, married and with a better position in life, fully aware that something like that was never in the cards for him. He was also bitter about Tom bettering his social status by marrying Sybil.

And now here he is. Not only has he gone from being alone, and believing that he would always be alone, to having a relationship, but he snagged himself a movie star and is now living the high life, travelling the world.

Putting the marriage aspect / having to keep the relationship secret aside, he has also moved up in the world through romance and that thought is just so funny to me. Who would have thought that that would ever be possible? Certainly not Thomas. :D

Also: I remember how pissed Thomas was (quite understandably so) at Gwen for hiding that she had been a servant and I'm glad to see that he is much more graceful about it (judging by the pictures of him sitting downstairs with the others). Oh, the character growth. 😄

[laminamara]

The Pursuit of Happiness

Sooo, after binge watching the first 4 seasons of Ghosts in the space of one week, I am now completely enthralled with Trevor and Hetty. I was so inspired by them that I wrote a little story for the first time in a very long time. Just a quick look inside Hetty's head while she watches Trevor on his Run of Fun at the end of 4x04.

Here it goes:

“Trevor looks so happy.” Hetty couldn’t take her eyes off of him. His carefree laughter was like music travelling on a soft breeze. Trevor often laughed, he wasn’t prone to low spirits and nothing kept him down for long, but she had never seen him like this. The pure joy radiating from him transformed him and Hetty was captivated. Her eyes followed him as he ran around the garden, totally oblivious to the limits of decency, his bare thighs only just catching the edges of his shirt.

Hetty wished she could join him, jump into the fray and just be. Take Trevor’s hands and bask in his warmth, the total abandon of the moment. For a second, she let herself entertain the idea, then the frantic beating of her heart slowed down as fantasy gave way to reality. Their relationship would not abide such intimacy, nor, if she was honest with herself, had it ever done so. There had always been a barrier, a line they would not cross, which would give each other access to their most intimate thoughts.

She knew, and had been painfully aware for some time, that she herself had enforced this distance between them. That she had always held back whenever he had wanted more. More intimacy, more emotional availability, just… more. With a sudden ache in her chest she realized she missed him.

Trevor had stopped at the treeline to watch his colleagues, a brilliant smile still lighting up his face. “Hetty, you are staring,” Alberta’s voice held traces of amusement and accusation in equal measure.

“What?” Hetty turned to her friend. “I have no idea what you are talking about.” Alberta raised her eyebrows and Hetty was mortified at the high pitch of her own voice. “I was merely observing the ridiculous spectacle of Isaac’s hair flying about.”

She turned on her heel, quite determined to make a graceful exit, her shoulders squared, when she caught Trevor’s eye. He was looking straight at her, his eyes full of buoyant delight, and her breath caught in her throat. There was the ache again, unwelcome and foreign. But Trevor’s smile, as always, was contagious and a similar one started to blossom on her own face. It was just the sun peeking through the clouds that warmed her from tip to toe, she was sure. What else could it be?   

[colferslea-blog]

[inthenameofsephiroth]

1.16 | 6.13

[cutenessradar]

Little Vampire

[tarothy-deactivated20230301]

absolute BABEY

[moonlitgleek]

What did you think of the Dany/Sansa feud in S8? On the one hand, I thought the distrust Sansa still nurtured for Dany after she helped the North win the Long Night was irrational and forced (by the writers). On the other hand, is it wrong of Sansa to want Northern independence and refuse to bend the knee to Dany? It's not like Dany's claim to the throne is morally superior or anything.

No one’s claim is morally superior. It’s a feudal society built on the backs of the peasantry that a bunch of nobles claim the right to rule based on bloodline rights, in dominions that were largely established through war and conquest. Yes, that applies to the Starks too. It’s not like Sansa’s argument that they should strip the Karstarks and the Umbers of their lands for their betrayal of the Starks isn’t based on said bloodline rights. If we go at the issue of feudal claims from a moral standpoint, none of them have the high ground.

But the books have a theme that clearly sets apart the good rulers and from the bad ones even in the context of feudalism. We have a thread running through multiple stories of the importance of the ruler upholding the obligation of protecting and providing for the people as the mark of a true leader which is often presented as an avenue of earning their people’s allegiance. The North harbors a deep sense of loyalty towards the Starks because they have consistently shouldered those duties that the name Stark became synonym with order in the North. Stannis has a story of turning from an unworthy king that we genuinely didn’t want on the throne for how he kept stomping his feet demanding fealty to the king who still cared, who realized that being a king lies in saving the realm instead of waiting till they bend the knee which ultimately wins him the allegiance of the Northmen. Dany outright points out that the role of monarchs is fundamentally about protecting the people. Robb is set apart from Stannis and Renly at the onset of the War of the Five Kings specifically because he is the only one doing anything to protect the people against the Lannisters and it’s his relief of the Riverlands that earns him the allegiance of the Riverlords alongside the Northmen.

The show gutted that theme though. The Northmen randomly abandoned the Starks when they were trying to take back Winterfell. Robb got dismissed as a naive idiot who made stupid decisions. Dany was triggered by bells and decided that breaking the wheel and breaking chains means killing civilian populations. Stannis burned his daughter for better weather and was abandoned by most of his men as a result. So I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised when the entire plot of Dany’s dynamics with the Starks sent a message that it ultimately does not matter if you do your duty to the realm and prioritize people’s survival over your political ambitions. It does matter if you prove your mettle as a leader and a queen and refuse to abandon the North to its fate as Cersei did. You’re still going to be met with blatant hostility and zero appreciation because you’re a foreigner and people are agonizing over Northern independence. Your very presence is gonna be treated as an unwanted burden even though you’re there to save lives. Who cares about the army of the dead that’s knocking on the door, Northern independence is what we’re all should be focused on.

It’s genuinely fundamentally broken for the writers to have Sansa use the argument that thousands of Northmen have died to protect all of Westeros as a selling pitch for Northern independence when she is the same person who actively tried to undermine Dany at every turn - you know, Dany who brought her entire army to protect the North and all of Westeros, who earned Jon’s fealty by pledging herself, her dragons and her men to the cause before Jon bent the knee, whose army took the burnt of the attack of the dead from the first charge of the Dothraki to the shield wall the Unsullied formed to protect the retreat of the Northmen. Dany who Sansa was openly hostile towards from the very start and even in the middle of the attack when Dany’s army was the main reason Winterfell wasn’t overrun in minutes. And the show really expects me to be on Sansa’s side and be happy that the North got its independence? All I have to say is, way to miss the point. Which is also this season’s theme apparently.

Because if the point, as it is in the books, that a proper ruler puts the realm first and ahead of their personal power, Dany has proven herself to be a deserving ruler. If the point, as Jon has been preaching for three seasons and as the books and GRRM himself have argued, is that the threat of the Others is so grand and encompassing that the only way to encounter it is for everyone to put aside their egos, their grudges and their power plays because it doesn’t matter who is in charge if they are all dead, if the point is that everyone needs to unite for the greater good, I have to say that Dany passed that test with flying colors while Sansa failed miserably. Sansa tried her level best to undermine Dany from the start, alienated her in public and framed her much needed help as a burden because of food. That wasn’t just viable concern that was worth addressing within the confines of a war council, it was a public dig at Dany’s presence. She was salty about Dany at the same moment that Dany’s forces were in the field protecting Sansa’s own people. And that’s before she betrayed Jon’s trust and revealed his parentage specifically to mess with Dany. Meanwhile Dany, despite never forgetting her political ambitions and quest for the throne, prioritized her duty to the realm and the greater good….. and what did it get her? “She is not one of us”.

I’m not sure if the writers didn’t notice or didn’t care about how this looks, or perhaps they thought it would be moot anyway in light of Dany’s subsequent actions in King’s Landing, but that arc paints the Starks in a terrible light. They were more than fine using Dany’s forces in the War for the Dawn but they couldn’t even fathom being half way decent to the only person who bothered to show up to protect the North. They didn’t even reject her for her policies since they didn’t know her policies, they didn’t like her because she was not one of them, of the super special club that is the Starks. And I know that the North has a bias against the south in the books but this goes so far beyond it I’m honestly wondering how the writers ever expected us to go out of this arc on the side of the Starks.

When you have your main protagonists spout up sentiments that sound painfully similar to what your villains said in early seasons, you have officially lost the plot. This is the reason why an ending like Sansa’s coronation that I’d have been more than happy with in the books (if also sad for what it says about the fates of Bran and Rickon) turned to ash in my eyes. Because the show validated and rewarded Sansa’s unreasonable hostility and manipulation, Arya’s unapologetic xenophobia and Bran’s indifference (or arguably complicity since it is implied that Bran knew what Dany was going to do and kept silent). The show retrospectively validated all that the Starks did, as well as Cersei’s open racism last season, by having Dany turn ~mad~. The way it ended makes it as if Dany’s rejection of the independence of the North was part of her tyranny and power hunger, that she was unreasonable but the elected good king Bran clearly knows better. Well, if Dany was a tyrant or mentally unstable or power hungry for refusing the North its independence, I’d genuinely like to know what Sansa’s reaction would be like if one of the Northern houses didn’t want to submit to her authority.

That’s part of the reason that makes the whole thing feel hollow and forced, which isn’t made any better by the inexplicable willingness of all the other kingdoms to remain united under a Stark king who had just granted his own sister independence for reasons. Even such regions that have a long history of fighting for their independence like Dorne or that has already had a ruler claim the queenship like the Iron Islands (hey, remember that time Yara went to Mereen and called herself queen and Tyrion argued that this will make everyone demand their independence but Dany said Yara was asking and everyone else was welcome to ask? Yeah, neither do Yara or Tyrion. Or the writers).

What’s making me really upset is that I do believe the North will end up independent and that the Starks are going to be a main part of the rebuilding effort post-war. But it’s not gonna happen only for the North because the Starks are special snowflakes, it’s gonna happen everywhere because that symbolism of the Iron Throne melting isn’t as pointless as it was in the show. Gosh, the show even undermined the theme of having better people in charge after the war across the board as part of the dream of spring. We know nothing about the new unnamed Prince of Dorne, they turned Sansa into someone who thinks employing Littlefinger’s techniques is all the rage, they have Bronn as a part of the government, they even made fun of Edmure who has a lot of vices but who has always been a prime candidate for post-war Westeros because he understands that it’s all about the people under his care. The show ended on a rehash of the game of thrones and next to no change. No progress. No development. No point to most of the character arcs. We’re just supposed to cheer because the North is independent and there is a Stark king on the throne for some reason. Well, I can’t cheer and I say that as someone whose favorites are the Starks. The writers have twisted most of the characters so much to fit the plot that they are unrecognizable. The conflicts were not organic but pressed into being petty and prejudiced. The characterization took a dive off the nearest cliff. And the very heart of the series, the overarching themes running through five whole books, were no where to be found. An ending isn’t inherently bittersweet because characters survived. A lot of my favorites survived but I can’t find this ending to be anything but the bitterest of bitter.

So. tl;dr, I hate the feud. I hate what they did to Sansa. I hate what they did to Dany. And Arya…. and Jon….. and Bran. And most others too. I hate Benioff and Weiss and hope they choke at the Emmys :)

[nyarnamaitar]

You’re so fucking valid. Thank you.

[croneofwinterhell]

In The Worst Possible Way

If I had to choose the most powerful moment in this entire series, it’s the still above: Queen Sansa Stark. Ruler of the free and independent North from this day until her last. It’s no secret that Sansa is my favorite so I’m pleased with that however, it’s still not the ending I had hoped for. Of all the characters in the show, she’s arguably the one who had the best character arcs. The same can’t be said about the others, which should’ve been expected. These are three dimensional, almost human, creatures that aren’t even the protagonists. Think Brienne, Samwell, Gilly. The vast expanse of George’s world was always difficult to capture and the showrunners’ decision to whittle it down towards the end was a mistake. 

I actually liked the first half of the episode. It had the well paced moment that 8x02 did. Then things started rolling out of control and making less sense. Warning: this’ll be long and fraught with emotions.

Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things

One of the story’s through-lines towards the end is the idea of cripples, bastards, and broken things: underdogs. The Tyrions, Brans, Danys, and Jons of this world. The hope was that maybe these people were could, could’ve been better than the big bullies. The idea is as old as time itself but on Thrones, I can’t see a clear message. I frankly don’t know. I’ll discuss the three big ones together: Tyrion, Jon, and Dany

Tyrion Lannister was a dead man at the end of the previous episode. He’d committed treason and awaited the fate that Varys had except he didn’t actually die, he got a promotion. His last real moment of humanity, the one where the former Tyrion shined was when he found Jaime and Cersei’s corpses. This man is all sorts of terrible things: kinslayer, whoremonger, lover-killer, drunkard, but his saving grace was his love for his family. It was a hard buy that Tyrion would want the better good in the first place, Varys had to convince him. He thought Dany would be different but when it conflicted with his family, things went south in every direction because he chose love for his family. At the end, he still does and it’s incredibly touching.

He pushes Jon to choose his allegiance once and for all, Tyrant or Whatever is the alternative, which is baffling especially given that Arya and Sansa’s safety is the eventual lynchpin. Not that they and Sansa especially have been openly hostile to Daenerys since the first episode and never missed a beat. Oh, wait… This conversation is Tyrion as the audience, questioning Jon’s motives for the first time where we get definitive answers because the show intended it to be at the very last. We had none when Sansa asked him in 8x02, none when Starks warned him in 8x04, none when Varys tried to talk to him in 8x05. To finally have that conversation in the end with both equally culpable and complicit men in Daenerys’ war crimes, is not the ideal storytelling decision. 

He then survives as a prisoner and in the negotiation scene with the lords and ladies of Westeros becomes a… *checks notes* kingmaker to Bran the Broken? Utterly baffling. It makes very little sense that all of them would even listen to Tyrion who let the destruction happen in the first place. He, who betrayed Varys, to keep faith in a ruler whose current state was devolving in his eyes? Him? Bran postures Tyrion’s position as Hand as punishment for his crimes. Sure, it’s tough work and he literally has no one left alive that truly loves him but it’s still also a promotion and another chance, which I don’t think he deserves. It becomes increasingly frustrating that he still wields a lot, if not total, power at the end and that undercuts the punishment doled by Bran because Tyrion enjoys proximity to power. Breaking Tyrion down to the fine point that he is an Imp, marginalized, but smart and therefore deserving of redemption for the many many cruelties he made is just wild. He might even get that death he always wanted anyway; ripe old age of 80, belly full of wine, a girl’s mouth around his cock but no one, not even himself, would be happy about it.

The Last Targaryens

In the aforementioned conversation between Tyrion and Jon, there’s this interesting discussion about identity and house words. Tyrion said Dany embodied Fire and Blood then Jon threw a tantrum because these prissy lords seem to reduce themselves to their house words about the weather, debts, and other things. Sounds like the naive Jon in Winterfell who could never use the Stark words for himself because he was denied it. He posited that perhaps people were more than that, and that if Dany was Fire and Blood then he should be too? But he isn’t. See, this is a bad take from Jon because Dany chose to live by those words. She decided that she would rule with Fire and Blood time and time again. She saw ruthlessness as necessary consequences to build something great like Aegon the Conqueror’s semi-united realm. 

And Jon was willing to stand by her, to keep his vow, to look away, until the very last minute. Not when his family mistrusted him, not when Sam aired his grievances. Discord had been sown from the start. Jon was a prisoner of Dany’s, tilted power dynamic. He literally seduced her for help against the Others and perhaps the odd chance that he loved her in a sickening type of Stockholm syndrome along the way. It certainly felt that way when we saw Jon’s emotions. He knew it was right but he wasn’t willing to do it until Tyrion convinced him because Dany had her eyes set on… *checks notes* world domination? Huh.

Let’s discuss Dany first. I think the show’s rug-pulling effect and shaming on her fans is disingenuous. A lot of it hinges on Dany becoming the villain as the third oh shit moment but the biggest glaring problem is that they did it too late and too fast. With a build up that flip-flopped between good and evil.

I’m very critical of Dany as a character. There’s no offshoot here: she’s a villain and a tragic character at the same time but the execution is subpar. She always wielded power to benefit herself first and foremost but her leap from claiming the seven kingdoms to world domination is harder to swallow. Maybe we shouldn’t take her word for it? It was a rousing speech to her followers but… oh, wait… didn’t she make the raping, pillaging speech, killing men in iron suits, burning stone houses, speech before, like… twice. And she made good on it? So we should take her literally then. This is where it loses me. Her goal was always the Iron Throne. When it didn’t fill the gaping hole in her heart she apparently wanted to dominate more? No self reflection at all? No attempt at ruling like Meereen, which ended as a clusterfuck anyway. Okay? Fine. 

And equally baffling is her final plea to Jon Snow, who actually romantically rejected her in the last episode. Their final conversation, again, feels like justification for the audience, why Jon had to kill her. Point blank and unnecessary given all the shades they gave it earlier. They didn’t trust their own writing. But as Shakespeare said, these violent delights have violent ends. Daenerys dies in Jon’s arms and its tragic. Jon weeps for his apparent beloved, not that he didn’t reject her in the previous episode, but still does. The Iron Throne is destroyed by Drogon as he seemingly doesn’t sense the murder, just the betrayal and the powerful symbolism of the moment, and flies off with Daenerys’ corpse.

One of the worst injustices, this show has done is to House Stark, and specifically Jon Snow. Who cared what Jon thought about being a legitimate child of actual royalty? Who cared that Ned’s children learned that he lied to everyone including them to protect Jon, because he loved Jon? Who cared that Jon didn’t even consider taking up his claim as a Targaryen? Everyone did. RLJ was used as a plot device in Dany’s story, more than its character implications to Jon. It was easy to forgive in the earlier half of the season because the plot was rolling pretty fast but it’s over and still, it had no other use than spiral down Daenerys but it became unforgivable in the end because the earth-shaking truth apparently meant nothing to Jon.

I agree with most takes that Jon’s point of view was blocked but at the times he wasn’t, he was a war criminal who loved a woman who was touting literally the murder of his family. Maybe Jon never really felt like a Stark, that’s why he danced with the dragon but it was a very hard, sell when his family, which I mean only as Arya and Sansa, repeatedly affirmed his place in their pack. It was compelling: the heart in conflict with itself except we really don’t see that. The heart conflict with Jon that we do see is him murdering Dany. I feel misled by the show and it’s not unfair. In s6, we have Jon and Sansa banding together to protect what’s left of their family. In s7, Arya and Sansa band together though we were also misled but the choice was always clear: Starks choose to protect their own and Jon is a Stark whether he likes it or not. To not see Jon grapple with this conflict between his love for Dany and his love for the Starks and instead have to witness the conflict between a lover and the right choice/love vs duty is a mistake. Why?

He was never clearly portrayed as a lover of Daenerys. Kit’s performance was not a man head over heels in love and a lot of people doubted it. Their relationship lacked chemistry that publications picked up on it. Some even took to the idea that Jon was using her. And now we understand why. Jon had a purpose to serve in Dany’s arc. He became a mouthpiece for the audience, to buy into this set up of Jon and Dany as divine heroes only to undercut it for both of them. 

Lean into the theme of love is the death of duty and vice versa for a moment. Jon chose duty, saving the realm, over love, daenerys. Actually, tyrion forced him to choose because he’d been unwilling since day one, removing another layer from jon’s agency. whether you bought into the too good to be true romance between jon and dany or not, the resolution is underwhelming. 

A. Had Jon been portrayed as an undercover lover and manipulator, it would be easier to swallow because it would make sense: Jon did what he ultimately stood against, live out a lie for the second time in his life to survive and for his family to survive the coming wars, and it would’ve made him an antihero. The circumstances of the world he exists in would’ve played because you win or you die. No middle ground.

B. Trouble in Paradise where Jon is in love and still wants to believe in Dany and keep his oath bc reasons. Not only is this reducing Jon to an honorable fool, it undercuts the fact that he even loved his family in the first place. With the way he treated them, perhaps he never really did. Worse, we saw his relationship with Dany slowly deteriorate when he told her RLJ and it is long overdue that Jon lost these lover goggles. It really took mass murder and tyrion’s advice for him to see it? 

They played the doomed lovers trope strong and hard to nonsense. He struggles with the decision and eventually accept the fate that fell on him, exile to the wall. Jon was posited as the hero and ended up as an anti-hero, killing his queen in cold blood, which isn’t a bad idea in itself. But the way it was done was a terrible mistake. 

What irks me most is that Jon never really transcended his conflicts or we never see him do that if he did. Overcoming character conflicts end two ways: resistance, more often leads to death in this show, or acceptance, the bittersweet ending. Instead of Jon choosing exile, of him renouncing his claim to all the lords and ladies of the realm, he’s forced into passivity the all-knowing king. Sending him to the wall denounces his claim but that is severely undercut with two gaping plot holes: GreyWorm politicking to no sensible end and is there even a night’s watch?

The show deliberately wanted an open-ended ending. Ripe with interpretation without damning one or its opposite. Was Daenerys a villain or a tragic antihero? Was Jon really a hero or not? And I can’t say it leans more one way or the other because it was too ambiguous. In a game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground. The ending for Jon above all, seems like a middle ground. Maybe, he never should’ve been resurrected in the first place. Staying dead would be the only real happiness that I can conceive for Jon.

Cripples, bastards, and broken things are outcasts. It is an absolutely human to crave for validation or affirmation the way these three do, ie more than others because they were deprived. There’s nothing wrong with wanting intimacy, with love be it familial or romantic. And absolutely none of them was ever given love in the end. Tyrion who lost his family, his alleged reason for being, is paying for his crimes by gaining power. Dany couldn’t fill the gaping hole in her heart so she jumps to dominate the world. Jon could’ve had them but he didn’t because an overwhelming sense of grief over killing his lover/not lover. In the end, all they had was isolation again.

The White Book

Mayhaps, the real winners of the game of thrones are the ones who died before it ended. Cersei Lannister emerged as the final queen to sit on the Iron Throne. More so, she had warned the populace of Daenerys’ ruthlessness and ended up right. She died with Jaime in her arms and not by anyone’s doing. Tangentially, the same can be argued for Jaime, whose legacy was protected by his scorned former lover Brienne. I found Jaime and Cersei’s ending to be good relative to everything in the show. It made sense, maybe it was rushed, but I’d take it. 

This is one of the better scenes because not only is Brienne a real knight, she’s in the highest order of knights. And it’s actually very touching until its undercut by some plot holes like Brienne being Sansa’s sworn sword. A brief scene between them and her release of vows would’ve done it but instead we have arguments over brothels and ships in the Terrible Council for laughs. 

Also as an aside, the minor characters seem to have unambiguously better endings than all of the main characters. It’s a long jarring laundry list.

Long May They Reign

The Stark family is the heart of the story but at s8 it feels much less than that. They were sidelined for Dany’s final arc and tangentially Tyrion as well. All of their actions were in service or in reference to Daenerys. The only interaction that doesn’t is Jon-Bran, Jon-Arya reunion sort of. It’s strange then because we saw how this family was ripped apart in the first season and how they tried to come back, to rebuild, and was denied over and over again for four seasons until the time was right. And the biggest disappointment is that we never see that love manifested. Even at the end, they all went their separate ways.

I’m reluctant to discuss Bran because Meera Reed was right. He died in that cave and what emerged is something else. If the intention was to put the once good natured crippled boy as the king who will rule justly and wisely, then it was poorly done because we don’t actually know Bran, not anymore. There’s no precedent in the show for Bran to be King aside from, he’s the three eyed raven and he knew it was going to happen and he doesn’t have human conflicts. Honest to God, who cares about this thing without human conflicts? As a fan of the show, this hurt because it felt like a deliberate slap to the face for caring for the characters with human conflicts and believing they could rise above it somehow.

And who would ever think that a government run by an emotionless omniscient robot is the best idea? Or an election of king even…Have they not heard of the not Holy not Roman not Empire? A supernatural solution to a human political problem reads wrong on many levels but primarily because it’s lazy. It came out of nowhere with the worst build up (ie Tyrion making the speech because why not maximize Dinklage’s talent). If the books end similarly, then I’m sure that King Bran would be altogether different. I suspect its this want to break the wheel I’m not sure how its broken.

Arya’s season long conflict with revenge, avenging her dead family, came to its best conclusion, choosing life and love over hatred and spite. If anyone embodies the monomyth at the very end, its Arya Stark: The Hero with literally a Thousand Faces. She was given the transcendence from trauma and violence into something peaceful. It’s a wonderful thing to see her be her own person and explore the world on her own terms, not as arry or no one. It reads true to who Arya is but it doesn’t mean that her ending is happy. She’s divorced from the connections that made life worth living: Sansa and Bran, Jon, even Gendry.

Sansa had it similarly. The chained little bird who sang mournful songs escaped and was reborn. Porcelain. Ivory. Steel. No words have rung truer for Sansa Stark. Her strength of character is very internal and difficult to see without introspection but it really shined towards the end. She knew what she wanted, her own agency and by extension, the North’s agency, and she fought for it to the bitter end. Jon may have been crowned before her but she never spited him for it. Instead, she tried to win him back to the cause because she trusted and believed in him. Her coronation is magnificent as her gown and direwolf crown but there’s a bitterness to it that runs across all the characters: isolation, the lack of love.

She never needed someone else’s validation to become the queen in the North but to completely remove everyone from her life is cruel. Thus, her coronation rang hollow. What is a crown to Sansa but duty? I’m sure she does it out of love because that’s who Sansa is. However, that doesn’t make her any less deserving of a love that reciprocates, that would overwhelm her with hope for spring. Sansa used to dream about a handsome prince to whisk her away until she realized that princes were monsters in disguise. The decision to have her ruling the North alone reads correctly based on what happened but it feels hollow. Instead of proving Sansa wrong about her conception of the world as cruel and unloving, it affirms her. Her conclusion echoes Jenny of Oldstones more than anyone.

“Love is the bane of honor, the death of duty. What is honor compared to a woman’s love? What is duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms … or the memory of a brother’s smile? Wind and words. Wind and words. We are only human, and the gods have fashioned us for love. That is our great glory, and our great tragedy.”

Isolation is true across the board for everyone who made it to the end. No glory, only tragedy. If you ask me, the ones who won are the ones who died in the process because they don’t have to live out this empty life. And that is an incredibly nihilistic message. Ultimately, this is the downfall of the final season. 

Final Words on Game of Thrones

What an incredible eight years it has been. I, like Sophie and Maisie, grew up with this characters through my adolescence and although I didn’t live in them like they did, I learned to love them as much. This isn’t the ending I hoped for, truthfully, but neither would I sign a petition to change that. Hah. Whatever the books hold if they ever are published, I’d be glad to read them. For now, my own bookend.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka hasn’t deceived you. So wise you have become, of such experience, that already you’ll have understood what these Ithakas mean.

- “Ithaka”, Cavafy 

[frecklef0x]

Just so we all know how I feel about that.

[spellofwinter-deactivated202605]

7.22 // 11.12

[greyjoyss-deactivated20260710]

7.04 // 11.12

[halekingsourwolf]

Why are you pleased with Lydia going back into the arms of her abuser? Do you forget that he emotionally and verbally and possibly physically abuse her? He belittled her. Didn't let her be strong. Or smart. And she grew. She has had so much character development because of what Jackson did to her. And you're "glad" she's going to let it all down.

Ok, please move to another inbox if you want someone to lament with you about how evil Jackson abused poor, innocent Lydia. This is absolutely not what happened in canon and it’s completely inaccurate to either of their characters.

They were a toxic relationship. Let me put that out there straight away. I also want to say at the start of this that I genuinely quite like Lydia. That said: yes, initially, they were incredibly toxic and if I imagined them continuing on the way they were at the start then I’d absolutely not be shipping them. But that’s not because of poor Lydia and how “Jackson was abusive.”

I mean… please. Please go rewatch s1. Lydia was every bit as bad as Jackson: emotionally manipulating him, making him feel worthless and replaceable with very pointed and specific threats to leave him if he didn’t constantly perform, constantly win, constantly outpace every other person on the team. She pushed him to take drugs despite his doctor’s suggestions, because she “doesn’t date losers” and needed him to win a lacrosse match injured. Hell, she went and made out with Scott just because he performed particularly well in lacrosse one day (you can blame the full moon for Scott’s actions there; you can’t blame anything for Lydia’s. And if caring about Jackson doesn’t move you, remember that Allison, her best friend, wasn’t even a consideration to her there).

She is honestly a large part of the reason Jackson was so hostile toward Scott and why he sought out becoming a werewolf in the first place –– because in his eyes, in Lydia’s eyes, he was totally replaceable if he wasn’t the best; he wasn’t good enough if he even tied for first.

Does this excuse Jackson’s behavior? No, he was a dick. But I hate when people try to make him out like this abusive villain, when Lydia was there Lady Macbeth-ing Jackson’s rivalry with Scott, getting him to overmedicate and play sports injured for the sake of her image… and don’t tell me Lydia wasn’t consciously playing on all of Jackson’s insecurities. Don’t insult Lydia’s intelligence like that. We know that Jackson didn’t feel connected to his parents, know that Lydia was his anchor and literally the person who confirmed his entire sense of identity at the end of s2. Her opinion mattered to him, and the thought of being left by her would have been shattering to him, and Lydia absolutely knew that and played Jackson’s strings to make sure he stayed as “presentable” as she needed him to be.

And why in the world are you saying that Jackson didn’t let Lydia be strong or smart? It’s not like Jackson knew how brilliant she was and told her to hide it. These were Lydia’s personal choices because at the beginning of the show she was policing herself and her own image just as much as Jackson’s, and thought that she needed to be the dumb pretty girl while he was the jock, king of the school. Lydia grew up and became more confident in herself and realized what really mattered throughout the seasons, but her playing dumb early on isn’t in any way because Jackson made her.

In short? They were both manipulative, insecure, selfish jerks in the early seasons. You say that Lydia’s grown since then and I absolutely agree. But I also absolutely believe that Jackson’s grown since then. Do you think he went through the kanima experience and didn’t grow, humble, settle into himself, and generally become a more secure (and therefore better –– since really most of his dickish behavior was based on insecurity) person?

I’m not in any way saying people have to ship them. And I’m not in any way dismissing how toxic they were early on. I ship these two because of their potential, and how well I can see them both working once they did a lot of growing up and rediscovering themselves, and each other. And if you don’t, that’s fine.

But please don’t reduce early Lydia to a victim or Jackson to her abuser. That’s just… insulting to both of them, honestly.

[gotham]

the humour of thor ragnarok has had some contention so i want to talk about why i personally think it works. i dont want to get into spoilers so i’ll just talk about a clip that has been released, the get help scene.

the scene starts with a serious, character driven moment; thor and loki discuss their complicated relationship. It cuts to the core of it, Thor is being frank in a way that both characters are rarely seen to be with each other. They are emotionally vulnerable, making a hard decision that furthers not only their relationship, but also the plot. Its somber, bitter sweet for everyone who has been invested in these characters along the years. 

And then it is followed seamlessly by some banter. It’s quick, it flows easy, it cuts through the tension. It’s just the two brothers talking like they must have a thousand times before, and it’s in character. The tone is light but it doesn’t undercut what has just been said.

Then there’s the cold cut- going from “we are not doing ‘get help’” to doing ‘get help’. This is when we move back into full comedy. it’s a great bit of slapstick, fun in a way even the casual viewer can enjoy a once fearsome villain thrown around like a rag doll, but it’s not only that. its also loaded with history and characterisation. 

Firstly it sets up that thor and loki have been doing adventures like this for a very long time. it speaks of the sheer history between them that they do this enough to have silly code names for plans they come up with together. And the act itself is telling; “its humiliating” “well not for me it’s not”. this was always one of loki’s main gripes; he hated being mocked, being seen as lesser than thor, in anyway not his equal. what thor would have seen as a harmless joke, or a game (of course he would be the one to throw the other, he was the strongest after all), would have been devastating for loki. things like this would eat away at him. he would harbour it, add to the list of slights against him, with all the little moments piling up until he erupted in the events of the first thor film.

Moments and jokes like this run throughout the film, jokes that stray true to character, that add to a serious scene instead of diminishing it. Everyone can judge the film as they want but i think the humour that had a lot of us worried is used artfully here.

[distressednoise]

I really like the fact that thor constantly reminds loki of things in the pre-first-film past, and does it with a light tone (and all the subtly of a broken hammer). It’s a thor that’s looked at how he handled The Loki Situation in tdw, realised how much that really didn’t work, and is now trying a different tack, and I just. Love it so much???? Their relationship in this film had such a sense of time to it, I really believed that they had a rich history together and a real ease with their respective gifts and how to work together (there is so much casual usage of powers in this film and I live for it). The previous films were really good at telling us they had that, but it’s really present and palpable in this one to an extent I don’t think I’ve seen before

[thorvaenn]

(this is a very spoilery, detailed post, nothing like the vague short stuff i’ve been posting so far. you’ve been warned)

So. The thing about Thor and Loki in Ragnarok.

Weiterlesen

[thorvaenn]

(this is a very spoilery, detailed post, nothing like the vague short stuff i’ve been posting so far. you’ve been warned)

So. The thing about Thor and Loki in Ragnarok.

Weiterlesen

[thorkizilla]

THIS WAS SUCH A PERFECTLY EXECUTED RUNNING STORY THREAD. Loki’s use of illusion magic is shown throughout the film, it’s used to trick or betray or keep his distance, it shows his vulnerability when Valkyrie caught him, and then finally to show that he’s really there on the ship. That final moment has all the greater impact because we’ve seen it used throughout the movie and because we realize that it’s tied to showing where Loki’s at. Is he in a manipulative place? A desperate place? A selfish place?  A vulnerable place? We see all of those, demonstrated through whether he’s present or just a magic spell. And then we see him really there and we understand that he’s not just really there physically, he’s really there emotionally, too.  He’s ready to be something more, to move on from the past, to try being a little more actually present in this life and this family he wants. The culmination of the use of his illusion magic is used beautifully in this movie, that moment shows everything about how Loki has grown after all the shit they’ve all been through.  And we get it because we’ve seen that he’s a wily sort, he’ll absolutely use that tool to keep his distance when he wants to. So if he’s really there, then he really chose to be there, in person and for real.