moon-ruled-rising

She/Her | Game of Thrones | Star Wars | Day dreaming about being hard at work on the next chapter

[moon-ruled-rising]

begged and borrowed time, chapter xvii

Fic Status: Ongoing

Chapters: 17/?

Total Words: 84,824

Summary: Daenerys Targaryen didn't plan to disappear it just happened. As easily as spilling your coffee or dropping your keys, she is transported to a place she never expected. Her journey home is complicated by dragons, direwolves, nobles desperate to win the game of thrones, and, of course... romance.

Read it here!

[moon-ruled-rising]

End of 2026 Fic Outlook

July 31— final begged and borrowed time update until 2027, barring special circumstances

September 25— final sad beautiful tragic update until 2027, barring special circumstances

October — The Directory: A Fic Masterpost

December 18— as the rain hides the stars, Chapter 35 (Finale)

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begged and borrowed time, Chapter 17 — July 31

Next in Rotation:

Surprise!— August 14

as the rain hides the stars— August 28

sad beautiful tragic— September 25

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thank god I've got a healthy chunk of this next begged and borrowed time chapter typed out because my partner brought home a plague that has turned me into a brain dead mouth breather for the forseeable future 🤧

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I did manage to squeeze a few words out of this addled brain but sinus pressure has joined the chat and holy cow 😵‍💫

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Final head cold update: it is migrating to my ears. I have kept it at bay with the Quil and hope to be free of this sickness by tomorrow, if not the day after. Warmest regards.

[moon-ruled-rising]

thank god I've got a healthy chunk of this next begged and borrowed time chapter typed out because my partner brought home a plague that has turned me into a brain dead mouth breather for the forseeable future 🤧

[moon-ruled-rising]

I did manage to squeeze a few words out of this addled brain but sinus pressure has joined the chat and holy cow 😵‍💫

[moon-ruled-rising]

thank god I've got a healthy chunk of this next begged and borrowed time chapter typed out because my partner brought home a plague that has turned me into a brain dead mouth breather for the forseeable future 🤧

[moon-ruled-rising]

sad beautiful tragic | Act III, Scene 2

Chapter: 8/12

Fic Status: Ongoing

Total Words: 39,159

Summary: Daenerys Targaryen was an up-and-coming actress before her sudden wedding to fellow newcomer and director, Quentyn Martell brought it all to a screeching halt.

When Jon Snow auditions for Quentyn's passion project that is sure to be an awards season hit, passions collide and Daenerys finds herself desperate to reclaim the love and life she lost.

Read it here!

[moon-ruled-rising]

sad beautiful tragic, Act III, Scene 2 — June 26, 2026

Next in the queue:

begged and borrowed time, Chapter 17 — July 31, 2026

Surprise Oneshot! — August 14, 2026

as the rain hides the stars, Chapter 33 (Dany XVI) — August 28, 2026

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inshallah I have the chapter finished by then 🙃

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sad beautiful tragic, Act III, Scene 2 — June 26, 2026

Next in the queue:

begged and borrowed time, Chapter 17 — July 31, 2026

Surprise Oneshot! — August 14, 2026

as the rain hides the stars, Chapter 33 (Dany XVI) — August 28, 2026

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i CANNOT start another WIP but an Into the Woods AU calls to me like a siren on the rocks

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... yet another drabble has ballooned into something much bigger

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as the rain hides the stars | Jon XVI

Fic Status: Ongoing

Words: 114,247

Summary: After an embarrassing photo is plastered on newsstands from Dorne to Qarth, Daenerys Targaryen's reputation is in tatters. As Princess Royal of the United Kingdoms of Westeros, she risks disgracing the legacy her brother works hard to protect.

Meanwhile, in the Sovereign North, the worst winter in modern history is on it's way. The country's crippled economy leaves the people vulnerable and desperate for aid. Crowned Prince and legitimized bastard, Jon Stark, faces a delicate situation as both savior and disgrace of his proud nation.

To save his country and her reputation, a marriage is arranged between them. But a princess labeled as damaged goods and a prince who walks a very fine line don't mix. And politics and rumors don't make it easier.

Read it here!

[moon-ruled-rising]

as the rain hides the stars, Chapter 32 (Jon XVI) — May 29, 2026

Next in the Queue:

sad beautiful tragic, Act III, Scene 2 — June 26, 2026

begged and borrowed time, Chapter 17 — July 31, 2026

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update tomorrow! hehehehe

[moon-ruled-rising]

as the rain hides the stars, Chapter 32 (Jon XVI) — May 29, 2026

Next in the Queue:

sad beautiful tragic, Act III, Scene 2 — June 26, 2026

begged and borrowed time, Chapter 17 — July 31, 2026

[moon-ruled-rising]

GoT Re-Watch S1:E1 Thoughts

As I've been doing an ASoIaF read through, I've been getting the itch to rewatch the show and see if it holds up to the first (and only) time I watched it. I legitmately haven't touched the series since the finale in 2019 and as TikTok reminded me yesterday... it's been SEVEN years since then.

My partner also expressed interest in watching it with me (his first time ever interacting with GoT despite hearing me rant about it endlessly) so we're doing an episode/week watch through. He's interested in getting a tried and true, non-ASoIaF fan experience so I wrote down my thoughts as we were watching so I wouldn't exposit too much at him. I'm sharing them below the cut!

I sarcastically love that their idea of showing Waymar Royce is someone important is to give him a nicer fur mantle than the other Night's Watch men. The fashion in ASoIaF serves the same purpose as the lavish descriptions of food, it's a character as well, and the show's lack of fashion (at least for the North), seems to remove the visual elements of class. We see this later in Winterfell as well where everyone has a layer of grime on them and it's hard to visually distinguish the characters from their literal surroundings.

Their decision to give us these sweeping attempts at cinematography to establish the world beyond the world— which isn't important until S2 irks me a little. Throughout the whole first episode, the show tries really hard to tell the viewer "Look at how BIG everything is! This is a FANTASY SHOW!" When the scope of the world in the books purposefully stays small and in Winterfell for the first half of the book to keep us focused on the characters. I understand wanting to appeal to an audience that is used to the mundane grandiosity of Marvel movies but I think the smarter storytelling choice would have been to drop us right into the world. D&D have this strange thing where they don't trust their audience with things like setting but don't introduce the Starks until 30 minutes into the episode.

And what the hell were the body parts even for? They're not in the book and they're only used three times int he show. Thinking about it now, were they supposed to be like... summoning or creating the White Walkers? But we don't see the third one until S7 or 8 and there are already three WWs. Will report back.

The White Walker design in this cold open is so interesting considering what they later finalized. It's almost like a neanderthal or primitive person, which is a very cool angle to take, but it looks very silly at the first glance. His design does remind me of the Goya painting Saturn Devouring His Son... which, again, would be a very cool choice if they had actually explored it.

I really do wish they had just done a shot for shot of the prologue from the books. Since the rest of S1 follows the book pretty closely.

This establishing sequence in Winterfell feels a little strange. These could be absolute randos. I get that they're trying to establish the relationships between these characters and where/how they exist in the world but it's a little... disorganized? I'm 98% sure it wasn't supposed to be in there because we cut immediately to the beheading and we have much stronger visuals. We can see the power dynamics in the way the Starks are lined up on the right side of the screen as the desert is brought forward. Jon, the bastard, has to stand last in line. When he goes to address Bran, he has to step forward to speak to him. He has to literally step out of line to talk to the lord's son. This idea is presented in the Winterfell montage but it's unclear why it's such a big deal and it weakens the intent behind Jon doing it later. The montage also attempts to make Jon and Bran seem a lot closer and, while they certainly do have a strong relationship, Bran has a stronger relationship with Robb.

we also don't get confirmation about who's who until 30 MINUTES INTO THE EPISODE??? We've heard names tossed about but we never put name to face until 30 MINUTES INTO A 60 MINUTE EPISODE.

Why oh why did they decide to introduce the Arryn conspiracy so early?!? And with the Lannisters no less! Yadda yadda establishing villains yadda yadda but in order to emphasize how confusing the court intrigues are to a man like Ned and understand why he makes the choices he makes, we should only know as much as the POV characters and neither Jaime or Cersei are POVs yet. Again, I wish they had kept the scope small and not shown us the capital at all until the Starks get there. I think that would have wowed the audience more and it makes it more interesting that there are places we have to wait to see. We get to be amazed with Sansa and Arya and wonder about Ned's apprehension of seeing the city again.

The nudity was and still is egregious. There was no reason for it outside of plot specific reasons. Point blank. Period. The prostitutes could be wearing loose garments that show the shape of the body but aren't necessarily revealing, depending on the establishment these women could have had nice clothes and if nothing else, a shift and plain gown. The Dothraki women deserved to be respectfully dressed. In Dany II, she mentions that men and women wear painted vests and horsehair pants at her wedding feast. Why are the women in a facsimile of bondage wear?

Speaking of nudity, Jaime indulging Tyrion by bringing more prostitutes to him is a great way to show their dynamic and relationship. Jaime being the only family member who understands Tyrion and it also feels like a very tongue in cheek reference to Tysha.

Dany! Finally! My precious baby. Oh, Em looks so young. Speaking of non-plot specified nudity, that moment happens OVER her tunic. Also, that's another detail they scrubbed. Dany dresses simply and doesn't really think of herself as a princess. I think, had they shown that, maybe added a couple of cuts to her watching people going about their lives freely outside the manse, it would have added immediate depth to a character we don't get to spend a lot of time with in this episode. My partner pointed out that it doesn't feel like she has much agency— which, yes— but I even thought she lacked some depth. They did, however, do a great job setting up the visual imagery of Dany walking into heat/flames with the bath. I will add that, knowing what I do about D&D and some of the antics they tried to pull specifically with Emilia, a lot of her nudity and sex scenes make me physically ill. I don't want to infantalize Emilia but the power dynamic between actor and directors/writers/execs is always sticky and I don't believe an IC was used in S1 (if at all). She was a young actress who really wanted to prove herself and be good at her job and D&D saw that and definitely took advantage.

I don't think we ever see Illyrio again... will report back if we do.

Sophie Turner serving Book!Sansa realness. Boots!

The Jon Snow/Benjen feast scene being totally different. Book!Jon is a CRIER! I HATE that they turned his expression of his strong emotions into physical violence instead of a true expression of emotions. He's literally a BOY. They milk toasted my boy! Tyrion comforts him by telling him that what he sees as a flaw can be his greatest strength and thus forming their "friendship"/truce. In the show, he just picks up the sword and starts swinging again. Making his outbursts physical instead of emotion says really shitty things about Jon as a character and the writers that did that. Ugh. D&D I'm outside your house.

Taking all the intrigue out of Lysa's letter. Part of what makes Cat believe her ruse that it was the Lannisters who killed Arryn is because she took such careful lengths to disguise her letter. That's how serious it is. AGoT at it's core, is a mystery novel and D&D zapped the camp right out of it.

Ned has scars why?? Just curious.

The way the Dothraki drums quiet down and that mystical flute starts up the second the dragon eggs are revealed. Ramin, come get your flowers. It was the first time I had noticed that. And I'm so glad he introduced that theme when he did. And it gets to spend the whole season growing alongside Dany until the end of the series. It's the track titled Fire and Blood on the GoT S1 Soundtrack and it's so mysterious and beautiful. The Finale track follows that, which is what underscores the reveal of Dany and her dragons.

The portrayal of the Dothraki is RACIST. Fullstop. Even George's writing in the books is toeing a line and the show jumps over the line with glee. My partner pointed out that the framing of the Dothraki wedding makes it seem like we're supposed to feel bad for Dany because she's just a little white girl in a sea of people of color and not because she's marrying into a culture she's unfamiliar with. They made the food look disgusting and barbaric when in the books, it's described like regular food. "There is no Dothraki word for thank you"... um, wtf. The fanfic writing starts early I see. Not including Dany partaking in the first ride of her silver, or even explaining the tradition of the Khaleesi getting the best horse in the Khals hoard, and just having her sit there petrified is NUTS. No agency, no bravery, what did they leave my girl?

I've seen a lot of people justify the changing of her wedding night with Drogo because the show "Couldn't make the audience understand how the dynamic changes later". I argue that they could have made it work. Men lure women in with gentleness all the damn time only to flip the switch once they have them trapped in a relationship. I would even argue they could have cut the scene all together and just done a nice fade out on Dany's terrified face and spare us the damn trouble.

Because they already had the Lannisters talking about the Arryn conspiracy at the top of the show, they omit it when Bran discovers them and it makes it seem like Jaime pushes Bran out the window because he saw them having sex and NOT because Bran overheard sensitive information that could implicate the Lannisters in the killing of Jon Arryn. It's not a writing sin by any means I just have personal problems with flattening the moment a little.

Overall, it feels like they flattened a lot of stuff that could have easily been accommodated by the already existing plot episode by episode.

The fight choreo is...

Finally, my partners thoughts: His favorite characters are Bran because he has no personality and makes no choices which means he has a better personality and and makes better choices than 95% of the other characters and Arya because he loves the spunky little girl trope . He thinks he'll like Dany more as her story progresses. He also has face blindness so enjoy these comparisons. Waymar Royce: Matt Damon. Lena Heady as Cersei: Emily Blunt. Mark Addy as Robert Baratheon: Kurt Russell if he had a really full face. Viserys Targaryen: Matt Smith (as a joke because of the wig. He's seen HotD clips before).

[moon-ruled-rising]

begged and borrowed time, chapter xvi

Fic Status: Ongoing

Chapters: 16/?

Total Words: 76,977

Summary: Daenerys Targaryen didn't plan to disappear it just happened. As easily as spilling your coffee or dropping your keys, she is transported to a place she never expected. Her journey home is complicated by dragons, direwolves, nobles desperate to win the game of thrones, and, of course... romance.

Read it here!

[moon-ruled-rising]

No Context Spoilers for begged and borrowed time, Chapter xvii