saelithnoctis

[m-malyar]

little crows

[istandbydaenerys]

yikes. unfollowing him now. i just liked his sad boy vibe. had no idea he allowed wildlings to cross the wall

[maidensmelancholy]

They say anger is hot, that fury is a fire that burns you hollow, but they have never felt endless compassion. It is obscene, debilitating, relentlessly unreasonable. It is fire dancing on the brain, a miscommunication between heart and mind. A heart heavy with compassion burns just as hot as anger, but is twice as dangerous; it consumes you slowly, and is, more often than not, your ultimate undoing….

[greenfirees]

I’m not avoiding responsibility. I’m letting it mature like a fine wine.

[vazdelart]

AEGON II. The wheelchair is based on the one designed for Philip II of Spain after he developed gout🥸☝🏻from what I could gather, it’s one of the first models of its nature, differentiating from palanquins or modified carts. Or, well, at least one of the first ones with written record.

(Moustache Aegon II is my favorite kind of Aegon II btw. Always a sucker for his closeness in appearance to book Viserys)

[blxckfireposts]

Maybe Caligula was onto something when he planned to make his horse a consul. I would elect a horse over most politicians nowadays.

[ghostofcrowss]

How many boys and men in Westeros have longed to don the white cloak, to take their vows, and stand amongst the seven most elite warriors in the realm? Before his fall, Bran Stark was among those who aspired to join their ranks. After all, they are regarded as the greatest knights in the realm, and yet they are not. The Targaryens’ formation of the Kingsguard, while noble in concept, quietly marked the death of chivalry, or at least began to erode and chip away at it. Seven knights sworn to defend the king and embody knighthood’s purest virtues. They wear white to symbolise purity and honour. Yet the Kingsguard fundamentally shifts the meaning of knighthood. This brotherhood does not elevate chivalry; it institutionalises it. The order crushes personal conscience beneath hierarchy and binds moral choice to obedience.

A true knight is charged to protect the innocent, to defend the weak, to uphold justice, and to act with honour. These are sacred vows sworn before the gods. They are not meant to be hierarchical, and they are certainly meant to be sacred. However, initiation into the Kingsguard brings another set of vows. The knight must protect the king and royal family with his life, obey every command, and keep every secret. His duty to conscience, the helpless, and the innocent now falls beneath his oath to serve an institution. This is what I mean by a hierarchy of oaths. It is not merely that Kingsguard vows can contradict knightly ones; it is that those vows are ranked. Knights are no longer guided by morality but by the command structure of power, where obedience eclipses justice.

Ser Duncan the Tall is perhaps the purest example of what knighthood once meant. As a hedge knight, he lives by conscience and honour. He defends the innocent at great personal cost, striking a prince to protect Tanselle Too-Tall. That moment defines true knighthood: acting for what is right, not for who commands. Yet when Duncan joins the Kingsguard, that same moral strength becomes restrained. He does not lose his goodness, but his ability to act upon it. The institution transforms a knight of conscience into one bound by silence. During his service as Kingsguard and Lord Commander, Duncan witnesses the suffering of Rhaella Targaryen, a child trapped in a miserable marriage and forced into pregnancy at a young age. At what point did Duncan’s courage fade? Surely he and Aegon were close enough for him to speak against it. His death at Summerhall may show that his moral core remained, yet it is tragic that his greatest act of protection comes only through a duty permitted by the same vows that once silenced him.

Jaime Lannister provides the perfect inversion of Duncan’s tragedy. He lives within the same hierarchy but refuses to remain silent. Jaime recognises that his vows betray one another and exposes how the Kingsguard transforms knights into instruments of royal will rather than protectors of justice. When he kills Aerys, he loses his honour in the eyes of the world but reclaims the essence of true knighthood. His rebellion restores the morality that the Kingsguard stripped away. Jaime embodies the decay of chivalry under monarchy, yet unlike his fellow Kingsguard ‘knights’, he breaks free from it. In doing so, he reminds us that the greatest act of loyalty a knight can perform is not obedience to power but fidelity to conscience.

It is so tragic that in seeking to bind honour to the throne and enshrine themselves in protection the Targaryens severed knighthood from its soul.

[ghostofcrowss]

I was talking to someone on discord last night and they pointed out that people still often say and believe George R. R. Martin is a nihilist, but that has never felt right to me. There is too much tenderness in the way he writes ruin. The world he has written aches because there are those within it who still believe that goodness matters, even when it loses. Victory, particularly ‘goodnesses’ victory in GRRM’s world is never clean. Everything is layered with consequence. People die, oaths break, mercy is rarely offered, yet something endures all the same. That something is fragile and human and often unseen, but still undeniably enduring.

I don’t think it helps people look at other fantasy writers and see worlds shaped for light, where goodness prevails because the universe was built to let it. Martin’s world is shaped for choice instead. Hope survives not because the world is kind, but because some people are. Because they try, despite knowing they may fail and that poison often prevails. Hope in GRRM’s world is not grand or eternal. It lives in the small and the stubborn. It is the flicker of a candle in a storm, the hand that reaches back when it does not have to. The kind of hope that still believes in love, even when the story does not and will not promise a happy ending.

That is not nihilism. It is faith made fragile and rawly human.

The best way I can think to simplify it is by saying asoiaf is not a story about goodness nor is it a story that underlines the end of goodness. It is a story that demonstrates that goodness survives through choice. It stands out against these other fantasy worlds where goodness is portrayed as a light that cannot and does not fade, while in Westeros and Essos that light is kept burning DESPITE the world around it.

[archmaesterofevenfall]

Welcome to 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬, an eighteen plus community dedicated to A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones, and House of the Dragon.

This is a space for fans to share theories, analysis, and discussion of George R. R. Martin’s books and the HBO shows. Whether you are for the Lannisters or the Starks, the Black Queen or the Green King, wherever your allegiance lies, you have a place here.

The Free Cities is not a role-play server, but a community hub for conversation, edits, memes, and art. To keep things safe and enjoyable, we operate with a light application process. Nothing too serious, simply a way to minimise bots and trolls.

If you are over eighteen and looking for a community of fellow fans, the harbour gates of the Free Cities are open.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐬:

⎈ A friendly community where adult A Song of Ice and Fire fans can gather, share ideas and content, and make friends.

⎈ An experienced and approachable moderation and admin team.

⎈ Fun and unique crack roles to express your alignments within the fandom.

⎈ Regular polls and discussion prompts.

⎈ Trial by Vote — our “This or That” community events.

⎈ A variety of fun stickers and emojis.

⎈ Fandom news, updates, and a space to discuss upcoming HBO series.

⎈ Opportunities to share your edits, art, and writing.

Check out the 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 community on Discord – hang out with 46 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.

[quiddling]

dunk the hunk

[saelithnoctis]

DUNK THE HUNK

[archmaesterofevenfall]

Check out the 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 community on Discord – hang out with 18 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.

Attention ASOIAF Fans!:

Are you looking for a community to share thoughts, opinions, and make connections in?

Welcome to 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬, an eighteen plus community dedicated to A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones, and House of the Dragon.

This is a space for fans to share theories, analysis, and discussion of George R. R. Martin’s books and the HBO shows. Whether you are for the Lannisters or the Starks, the Black Queen or the Green King, wherever your allegiance lies, you have a place here.

The Free Cities is not a role-play server, but a community hub for conversation, edits, memes, and art. To keep things safe and enjoyable, we operate with a light application process. Nothing too serious, simply a way to minimise bots and trolls.

If you are over eighteen and looking for a community of fellow fans, the harbour gates of the Free Cities are open.

[salialenart]

the vampire Daenerys

“…this child is a monster. They say that she is bloodthirsty,…They say she is a sorceress who feeds her dragons on the flesh of newborn babes” this quote makes me laugh>

[saelithnoctis]

The Lion Does Concern Itself: Tywin Lannister.

I have always thought Tywin’s famous line, “A lion doesn’t concern itself with the opinion of sheep,” is one of his greatest contradictions. The irony is that Tywin spends his entire life utterly consumed by what others think of him. Everything he does, the destruction of Castamere, his obsession with legacy, the way he humiliates and attempts to distance Tyrion, even his fixation on marrying Cersei into the royal family, is driven by reputation and fear of ridicule. The man’s identity depends on maintaining control over how House Lannister is perceived.

What truly underlines his concern is when you consider the source. That is that this obsession is rooted in shame. The memory of his father Tytos being mocked for weakness shapes Tywin more than anything else. His entire philosophy is an overcorrection, an endless attempt to erase laughter and weakness through terror and ‘order’. But that only reveals how deeply he does care about the opinion of others or ‘sheep’. Tywin’s cruelty, his discipline, his lion’s pride are all armour against humiliation.

So when Tywin says a lion does not concern itself with the opinion of sheep, it feels like self deception. The lion does care. Every roar, every act of domination, is just him making sure the sheep never laugh again.

[archmaesterofevenfall]

Complexity is not contradiction. A person can be both victim and villain within the same story.

For those in the back, you do not have to pick between labelling a character as ‘abused’ or as an ‘abuser.’ The same case goes for the ‘wronged’ and the ‘wrong-doer.’ ASOIAF (Westeros & Essos) rarely gives anyone the luxury of being only one.

[gotheyjoy]

Sansa Week Day 6: Magic

Bird warg Sansa

[archmaesterofevenfall]

Check out the 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 community on Discord – hang out with 18 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.

Attention ASOIAF Fans!:

Are you looking for a community to share thoughts, opinions, and make connections in?

Welcome to 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬, an eighteen plus community dedicated to A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones, and House of the Dragon.

This is a space for fans to share theories, analysis, and discussion of George R. R. Martin’s books and the HBO shows. Whether you are for the Lannisters or the Starks, the Black Queen or the Green King, wherever your allegiance lies, you have a place here.

The Free Cities is not a role-play server, but a community hub for conversation, edits, memes, and art. To keep things safe and enjoyable, we operate with a light application process. Nothing too serious, simply a way to minimise bots and trolls.

If you are over eighteen and looking for a community of fellow fans, the harbour gates of the Free Cities are open.

[ceruleanheaven]

the lion concerns himself with everything

[thelittlecrannogmen]

jaime lannister