Writer - Slave to my imagination

Avid Jaime and Brienne Shipper.  Devout Liliana Vess Stan.  Obsessed with Meh Yewll. My love for misunderstood anti-heroes is eternal and I will defend them with every ounce of breath in my lungs (or power in my laptop).  Aquarian - need I say more? ;)

[valcoutoart]

~Jaime

[teacupinastorm]

game of thrones meme [1/6] relationships ↳ jaime & brienne

[cobaltzosia]

Hi! I was wondering if you could explain Brienne's relationship with knighthood, and how it changes throughout AFFC (maybe starting in ASOS)? I've read a lot of meta about Brienne, but I don't recall too many about this topic in particular. Thanks!

Wow Anon, this is a pretty big ask, but I am very glad you came to me with it. 

You are absolutely right to suggest starting at ASoS because this is really where she starts questioning her own strongly held convictions. (I mean, her faith is shaken a little in ACoK but ASoS is really where the challenge comes).

First though: let’s quickly outline the way Brienne thinks about chivalry/knighthood at the outset of her journey. Of course, she’s incredibly naive, and most of her ideas about knighthood have been picked up fro the songs and tales she has heard as a child, which are much less messy than the reality of knighthood in Westeros. All knights are not gallant, all maids are not beautiful, and the sun is not always shining. She’s also pretty unaware of her class privilege, and her goal re: knighthood is very much based around Renly and his kingship as well as proving herself a worthy/capable knight in the eyes of the society that deems her a freak. Obviously she is a very empathetic person, and she cares a great deal about others (see her insistence on properly burying the tavern girls hanging on the river bank) but she’s pretty unaware of the realities of war and its effect on the common people. She is dedicated to knighthood but she is not yet a True Knight. 

Of course, Jaime is a huge influence on Brienne in ASoS; I hardly need to say how much contempt she holds him in at the beginning, but his saving her from rape by the Bloody Mummers is a really key moment. I think it’s easy to jump straight to the bath scene and the bear pit but this is where she first realises that the world is not black and white. Jaime, a man she knows has broken oaths and attempted to murder a child, also saves her from being raped. It’a also worth noting that this is not only a kind and good thing to do, but it is a brave and knightly thing to do. Jaime puts himself at risk when he speaks up on her behalf, and a vital part of the knight’s code is to protect those who cannot protect themselves, which Brienne cannot at this point. 

Obviously then we have the bath house scene and all that entails, which I think is pretty self explanatory: Brienne learns that sometimes one has to do something they would in another situation consider “unknightly” or dishonorable in the face of a higher purpose. Another important note here is that Jaime chooses the “higher” form of knightly vow here. He chooses to protect the common folk rather than the king, and he chooses to protect the common folk from the king. Once again, he is stopping the abuse of power, and disregarding his vows to his betters in order to keep the vows he made to the realm. 

Then you get into AFFC and Brienne is being used by GRRM to highlight several themes. Of course there is the theme of knighthood and gender but Brienne also takes over Arya’s role (now that Arya is no longer in Westeros) of spending time among the common people and highlighting their suffering while the Tyrells and the Lannisters play at politics in KL. Septon Meribald plays a really crucial part in this when he talks to her about the broken men, and obviously Brienne despises such people but Meribald gives her a new perspective: not everyone gets a choice about whether they go to war. Brienne herself was all too happy to leave Tarth and follow Renly, but the common folk simply have to follow their liege lord into whatever slaughterhouse he tells them to. 

Of course, she has also realised for herself the realities of killing, since she kills her first man early in AFFC. It is a moment of loss of innocence, but it is also a very self-affirming moment for Brienne. She remembers Ser Goodwin telling her that “you have a man’s strength in your arm, but your heart is as soft as any maid’s” and though he does not doubt her skill with a blade, he does doubt whether she could take a life. Here Brienne shows that she can take a life when necessary, and that her soft maiden heart is not an impediment to her knighthood.

So by the time we get to her final confrontation with the Bloody Mummers she’s pretty much at her peak in terms of Righteous Knighthood. When she steps out to protect the children against seven vicious killers she thinks she has “no chance and no choice” (have I mentioned that I fucking love Brienne of Tarth all right. I want this line tattooed over my heart). She has fully stepped in to the role of the True Knight, one who puts stock in her vows but also cares deeply for the common folk and the realm as a whole. 

So now of course, what Brienne has learned is really being put to the test. It’s a popular theory that Brienne will kill Lady Stoneheart to echo Jaime’s killing of Aerys, and I think that is actually very likely. Brienne is going to have to choose one form of knighthood over another, and considering what she has learned along her journey, it seems backwards to think she would not choose to forsake a now-corrupt mistress in order to save Jaime and continue her quest for Sansa. 

And because I can’t write Brienne meta without complaining about show!Brienne and D&D’s portrayal of her, should Brienne ever meet with Stannis in the course of her narrative, it is incredibly unlikely that she would choose to kill him. Because despite her vow to avenge Renly, killing Stannis does nothing useful, and would be detrimental to the realm, since (in my opinion at least) he is the best candidate for the Iron Throne. Brienne can kill if necessary but whether she could kill Stannis out of pure vengeance is debatable, especially now that she has had experience of the “real world” so to speak. Her view of chivalry is no longer what she imagined it as when she was a girl in Renly’s camp. I think that were she to see it now, she would recognise the emptiness of Renly’s chivalry. 

Essentially, what Brienne realises over the course of the three novels is that knighthood is a much harder code to maintain than she had originally imagined. She swears her oaths with as much conviction as ever, but she knows now that some oaths are more important than others. She also knows that everything is not black and white, and she is not as quick to judge as she is in ASoS (though she is more wary). BUT what needs to be remembered is that although she becomes more jaded, she does not lose her faith in knighthood and chivalry as a concept. She knows now that knighthood is messy and difficult but still she strives to uphold her moral code to the best of her ability. What I find amazing about Brienne is her ability to see the horror and the reality of Westeros and not give up the fight. She is learning with astonishing speed how far to bend her own rules and when they need to be broken, rather than throwing the rule book out of the window, as Sandor and Jaime do. She loses her naivety but not her innocence and that is what makes her a True Knight. 

[shylo-vitari-apologist]

Gets sadder with every reread

[frankenweenie11]

ASOIAF tarot: strength (Brianne of Tarth)

[thelannisteroftarth]

I will pretend that: “Ser Jaime has chosen to remain here as a guest of the Lady of Winterfell” is still true. They are still somewhere out there in the North, but together. THE END. FINITO. KONIEC 

I still love my Brienne and my Jaime. They will always have a place in my heart 

[him-e]

Was the bathtub scene really when Jaime and Brienne solidified their bond? I do wonder at times how their dynamic will play out, since Jaime still has to get back to Cersei and bring to fruition the Valonqar prophecy. I get torn on what happens to Jaime, since it seems fitting that he dies with Cersei, and if he doesn't, well, what does he do??

1) Yes, it’s a crucial moment. It’s when Jaime drops all pretense and reveals the most guarded part of himself, and Brienne finally sees the man behind the Kingslayer in his true colors (she saw some glimpses before, but now she’s fully confronted with the truth of his ~villain origin story~, the reason behind the act that, in her mind as in those of the rest of the realm, sealed Jaime’s reputation as a “monster”)… and her whole image of him shatters and realigns. They share some real physical intimacy, which they will remember later in their povs (note that as he faints Jaime notices the texture of Brienne’s skin, while Brienne temporarily forgets that she’s naked as her nameday to assist him; she scrubs him, trims his beard and helps him dress). The scene is also rife with symbolism: their mutual nudity meaning they’re fully “exposed” to each other without filters; the water—the quintessential spiritual conduit, symbolizing cleansing, healing and femininity (we can argue they both get in touch with their feminine side in this scene) and of course Brienne catching Jaime before he falls, wow ok GRRM.

2) I feel your struggle wrt Jaime’s future storyline. 

Keep reading

[nastygot]

#257

[theaisyapping]

[murphcooper]

“Goodbye, Brienne.”

[vitaminkenjoyer]

brienne + blushing

[humblemagic]

[theaisyapping]

Bri and Arya (and Nymeria)

Quick sketch of this cute scene that popped in my head

[gotfanaticc-blog]

A tribute to J/B bath at Harrenhal.

It’s probably too much to wish for but I REALLY need them to share another bath in season 8. Winterfell should have some bathtubs shouldn’t it? And if no, I believe there are plenty of hot streams on the way if they meet up on the road ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[balladedutempsjadis]

So I just read your JB = Beauty and the Beast meta again because of reasons. Since you're a brilliant writer and have a great eye for symbolism and such, I was wondering if you are able to find significance on the use of the rose in the original tale of Beauty and the Beast vs. how it's used in Brienne's story? There's a focus on how Brienne hates roses, and how it was a rose thrown at her feet.

Aww, thanks so much for the lovely compliment!! And oh, boy, what a wonderful ask - sorry it’s taken me a while to respond but as you will see, I’m trying to be quite thorough about this.

So first of all, the symbolism of the rose in the Beauty and the Beast fable - Beauty, of course, asks her father for a single rose (as opposed to her sisters who ask for lavish gifts); the merchant plucks one of the Beast’s enchanted roses which then leads the Beast to demand his life for taking his most precious possession. The Beast agrees to spare the merchant only if he gives him Beauty in return, which is how she ends up with the Beast in the first place. (In some versions of the tale, when Beauty returns to her family and the Beast almost dies, he gives her a rose that withers as he fades.)

In another, very ancient version of “Beauty and the Beast”, Apuleius’s The Golden Ass, the narrator, who’s been turned into a beast (a donkey in this case) through magic is cured when he eats a bunch of roses (and roses were one of the major symbols of Aphrodite, the goddess of love). (Interestingly, embedded in the narrative of The Golden Ass, is yet another Beauty & Beast tale, that of Eros and Psyche - an allegory of the soul’s search for love -  in which Psyche even travels to the Underworld on her mission to find Eros. Which happens to remind me of Brienne’s brushes with death during her time with Stoneheart, but y’know … :P) (Also, though, roses were a symbol of secrecy - sub rosa means on the QT!)

And then there is all the sexual symbolism of roses, specifically RED roses - the way their petals curl as a reminder of female sexual organs (think Georgia O’Keeffe :P); red as a symbol of menstruation; the thorns protecting chastity, yadda yadda yadda. George R. R. Martin uses the flower/rose symbolism quite a lot, so when girls are sexually mature, they’re described as having “flowered.” And most significantly, during Jaime’s duel with Brienne, when he cuts her on the thigh, it’s described as “a red flower blossomed.” (So he kind of gives her a rose too, right? Except it’s a thorny one that cuts her - and there is obviously the symbolism of the blood many women shed when they lose their virginity, and Jaime’s own conflation of fighting and fucking and even his thought that Vargo Hoat’s men have caught them and it looks like they were fucking.) So the flower imagery with Jaime and Brienne is already strong before we ever get to the notorious incident in A Feast for Crows of Brienne remembering the flashback of Ronnet Connington bringing her a rose.

Unlike Beauty, who asks her father for a rose, Brienne doesn’t want Red Ronnet’s rose and in fact his presentation of it, her crippling shyness and inability to say anything, actually traumatize her well beyond the actual incident. It is something she thinks about again and again, and has a horrible dream about, which I’ll discuss further below, but I want to also talk about the OTHER roses in Brienne’s story, which are, of course, the Tyrells, whose family symbol is the rose - Margaery Tyrell is described constantly as “the little rose”, while her grandmother is the “queen of thorns” (although sometimes I feel like they’re more Venus Flytraps :P). Little Rose Margaery “takes away” the man Brienne loves so much she’s willing to dedicate her life to him (even though unbeknownst to poor Brienne, it’s actually the OTHER rose, Loras, whom Renly loves.) So Brienne got some MORE bad associations with roses during her dealings with the Tyrells.

On the other hand, in Westeros as in medieval Europe, roses are also symbols of love and passion specifically associated with the trappings of knightly chivalry - Lyanna Stark gets the crown of blue roses from Rhaegar Targaryen at the Harrenhal tournament; Loras Tyrell gives Sansa Stark a rose at the Hand’s Tourney as a smokescreen for his actual desire for Renly, and so on. And Brienne, who knows those songs so well, is hardly unaffected by THAT symbolism. 

In Brienne’s terrible fever dream about the rose, she thinks about how it’s a sword she wants, not a rose, but I think she … kind of wants both. So, Jaime has given her the sword for her quest. I very much see echoes of the hugely influential medieval Roman de la Rose in which a young man is on a quest for a “rose” - love - enclosed in a high-walled garden, as Sansa is enclosed in the walls of the Eyrie, though Brienne doesn’t actually know where she is. But again, it’s not just Sansa that is the goal of Brienne’s quest, it is Jaime’s honor, and it has an equal place in her thoughts because in fact, Brienne’s oath to find Sansa is made to Jaime, not to Catelyn. Her oath to Catelyn is pretty general:

I am yours, my lady. Your liege man, or … whatever you would have me be. I will shield your back and keep your counsel and give my life for yours, if need be. I swear it by the old gods and the new.

But in her oath to Jaime, Brienne swears she will find Sansa Stark after he tells her that the girl is his last chance for honor:

I will find the girl and keep her safe. For her lady mother’s sake. And for yours.

So it makes perfect sense that in Brienne’s fever dream, finding Sansa equals finding Jaime’s honor:  I have to find the girl. I have to find his honor.

But, as I said above, this is more than a dream about honor, or Jaime as honor - this is a dream also about love and the symbolism of the rose again comes into play here: in her dream, while she waits for the rose from Ronnet, Brienne bites out her tongue and when she opens her mouth there is a gush of blood. Partly this is foreshadowing of Brienne’s refusal to speak the word that will lead her to seek Jaime’s death, partly it’s maybe some symbolism about losing her virginity (and fear thereof?) because that rose comes with a price in blood. She’s afraid of rejection (and who wouldn’t be after Ronnet called her a sow? I’m so glad Jaime smacked him in the face - I bet that golden fist didn’t improve HIS looks any!) And then significantly, after the dream dude tosses the rose in her face (rejecting her sexually), he turns into Jaime - so Brienne has subconsciously turned her suitor into Jaime (because she loves him) but she is also sure he could never reciprocate her feelings, to the point, perhaps where, in her dream, she bites out her tongue, rendering herself mute, rather than tell him what she feels because she is so certain of his rejection. Poor Brienne!

So … I think Brienne wants both those things from Jaime: the rose AND the sword. She already has the sword and I think all the recent commentary about how this is a tale of Beauty and the Beast (which, ahem, some of us have been talking about for YEARS, because hey, it’s not symbolic at all that Catelyn thinks of Jaime as a “great golden beast” JUST BEFORE HE MEETS BRIENNE, who is ironically known as “the Beauty) is pretty much a guarantee that she will have the rose from him as well, only this time it will be given with love and not contempt. It may well all end in tears, but let’s face it, Beauty and the Beast isn’t a tale of platonic friendship and camaraderie - the bottom line is that the Beast loves Beauty (and nearly dies before Beauty realizes that she loves him back. If the roles are really reversed here, well, Brienne has known - as have we - that she loves Jaime all through A Feast for Crows until that same love condemns her to death at the hands of Lady Stoneheart because she couldn’t stop calling for Jaime when she was in her fevered trance.) And eventually Beauty recognizes that she loves the Beast, even though it takes his near death to realize that (so, Jaime, the ball’s in your court now, ok?) 

Sometimes I’m fandom’s Grumpy Cat/Eeyore, but I really am convinced by the fairly obvious and blatant symbolism in the books that J/B is an actual thing that will eventually at the very least result in mutual knowledge of love (and possibly consummation.) Again, they may both die, or either one of them may die, or one may kill the other, but whatever it is, they won’t end the story as “just friends.”

Phew! And there is my long response about roses and beasts and so on :D

[brienneferguson]

Gwendoline Christie as Brienne Of Tarth in Game Of Thrones (S2E03, 2012)

If you'll follow me, my lady.

[michellewemegah]

Brienne of Tarth and Jamie Lannister. My favourite couple from the series. Still grieving them, man 😔