•winterfell's child•

astraeus | he/they | asoiaf dickrider | 🏳️‍⚧️

[wittythunderwitch]

[starrystarkling]

“barristan the bystander” doesn’t just apply to the rebellion era btw. he openly admits to dany that he likely would have served joffrey/the lannisters until he died if he hadn’t been dismissed

[starrystarkling]

“core five” i am BEGGING you to take a shower

[atopvisenyashill]

the thing about sansa in the vale theories is that she just fundamentally disappears from the theory after that. she marries harry, the winged knights come to winterfell and then…….shes in the vale forever. her pov no longer exists. okay well it’s SANSA that drives the vale plot, the vale plot does not drive HER.

[melrosing]

whoever it was at harper collins that decided to frame GRRM’s asoiaf proposal letter w the ‘key five’ thing in it needs to atone bc I am so sick of this shit fr

[melrosing]

like im sorry but you can't tell me that you are just this devoted to a proposal letter that some old man wrote in the 1990s - that he's since disowned over and over and over and even directly contradicted in interview - because it gives you the warm fuzzies about the importance of your fave. if you need a source that fucking spurious to reassure you of your fave's importance, then I'd say they weren't that important after all - except it's not about that is it. it's about which 12 year old girl isn't mentioned in the goddamn letter, and your endless obsession w one-upping her and her fans, and trying to provoke them to anger so you can get some applause while doing so. it is not about who is mentioned in that letter, it is about who isn't, and rather than arguing endlessly that 'all POV characters are important' i wish the people who are irritated by this obvious ragebaiting would recognise it as such and let these people obsess over the smallprint of a piece of paper GRRM is actively embarrassed by if that is how they want to spend their time

[ghostinwinterfell]

thank god for asoiaf twt because it’s genuinely the only thing that can distract me from my period cramps when they get unbearable. like I think I’m in the worst pain imaginable but then I start scrolling and find myself reading literal hell discourse about the key five or the ugliest 9 year old or the stupidest abuse victim or whatever tf and it’s so funny and mean-spirited that it instantly takes my mind off of everything else. perfect solution highly recommend.

[goldcrescent]

Iron Islander voice: Theon you [19 syllable dolphin noise slur] I see you came back WOKE and GAY and a WOMAN from us leaving you as a child prisoner to the guy with an 8 foot sword that makes you drag it around to executions in front of his screaming faced tree gods as a daily reminder that he can and will kill you (a child) just like he killed the rest of your family (some of which were also children). Did you have fun polishing his sword? I’ll bet. Did you write this letter yourself? Knowing there’s a one person literacy limit? Should we call you Theon the Reader, you reading fuck? And standing here in a jean jacket you bought yourself, may as well be sucking dick at old navy. You know who’s NOT woke or gay or a woman? Your sister Asha. Why can’t you be less gay and woke and a woman, like Asha? I bet she could run a democratic election because you know what isn’t gay Theon? Democracy

[marwyn]

Some fans get upset if you refer to Jon as anything other than Ned’s son, unqualified (except maybe for “adopted”), but I suspect that Ned himself privately considered Jon his foster son, specifically…the choice of Jon Arryn as a namesake is telling, and the following much more so:

Eddard Stark went to the window and sat brooding. Robert had left him no choice that he could see. He ought to thank him. It would be good to return to Winterfell. He ought never have left. His sons were waiting there.

(AGOT, Eddard VIII)

Compare as well the way that Ned once described his relationship to his own foster brother (deeply ironic, in this context. As an aside) with his initial hopes for Jon and Robb:

Ned shook his head, refusing to believe. “Robert would never harm me or any of mine. We were closer than brothers. […]”

(AGOT, Eddard II)

Lord Eddard seemed much younger this time. His hair was brown, with no hint of grey in it, his head bowed. “… let them grow up close as brothers, with only love between them,” he prayed, “and let my lady wife find it in her heart to forgive …”

(ADWD, Bran III)

[jackoshadows]

It's clear that Ned doesn't think of Jon as a son, like here when he talks to Cersei -

"No less do I love mine." Ned thought, If it came to that, the life of some child I did not know, against Robb and Sansa and Arya and Bran and Rickon, what would I do? Even more so, what would Catelyn do, if it were Jon's life, against the children of her body? He did not know. He prayed he never would. - Eddard, AGoT

He considers what Catelyn would do if Jon's life was in the bargain to save her children but doesn't himself include Jon when he mentions his own children.

[ghostinwinterfell]

oh absolutely, actually the only times that ned ever refers to jon as his “son” is when he’s in public:

Beyond a doubt," his lord father said. “Come, let us see what mischief my sons have rooted out now.” He sent his horse into a trot. Jory and Bran and the rest came after.

(AGOT, Bran I)

He did more than that. The Starks were not like other men. Ned brought his bastard home with him, and called him "son" for all the north to see. When the wars were over at last, and Catelyn rode to Winterfell, Jon and his wet nurse had already taken up residence.

(AGOT, Catelyn II)

no matter how much ned loves jon, I think it would be difficult for him to ever see him as anything but lyanna’s baby. there’s too much grief and trauma tied to jon for ned to ever be able to group him with his other kids, jon will always be associated with lyanna (I also don’t think that ned would ever want to take her “place” as jon’s parent out of respect for her, it’s the same reason why he refuses to name a random woman as jon’s mother to cover his own lie). and like op points out, ned places a lot of value on foster family, so it’s not necessarily a bad thing. it’s just that jon occupies a very specific place in ned’s mind that’s inseparable from lyanna.

[marwyn]

I would add that Ned did tell Robert that Wylla is Jon’s mother, but well…Robert was Ned’s king by this point, whereas Ned was Catelyn and Jon’s patriarch and thus he had far more power to withhold from them (“That was the only time in all their years that Ned had ever frightened her. ‘Never ask me about Jon,’ he said, cold as ice”). So it’s probably true that when possible he didn’t want to replace Lyanna with someone else

[ghostinwinterfell]

yes great point! ned couldn’t really avoid giving robert an answer without raising suspicion from the one person he can’t afford to raise suspicion in. but he still could have named wylla as jon’s mother for both jon and catelyn’s sakes (some closure for jon + some reassurance for cat that ned never loved another woman). I talked about it in this post but leaving jon and cat without any answer at all is probably one of the more selfish things that ned does (despite it being out of love for lyanna), it’s really one of the only things that he ever does purely for his sake.

[starrystarkling]

yeah jaime came out holding my leg in his hand. that same hand slew the mad king. that hand pushed a child out the window. that hand got cut off by an arakh and replaced with a massive chunk of gold. he can no longer wield a sword, but he can knock all the teeth out of a man with a single slap. he daydreams of being called goldenhand the just. he burned my letters asking him to save me. anyways i want 2 build a new city away from the shithole that is KL. wildfire is so beautiful it’s so green just like my gorgeous emerald eyes. hopefully someone finds tyrion soon can’t let the valonquar get me

[visenyaism]

the whole point of the Kingsguard is that they’re unbelievably fucking washed like zero heroic deeds on the board just morning noon night overtime fraud aura farming. Complicit in every act of patriarchal violence of the monarchy. Not even that good at fighting. Hypothetical victories only. Like “noooo Arthur Dayne would’ve—” except Arthur Dayne lay down his life to stop a pregnant 15 year-old dying in childbirth from seeing her big brother on her deathbed and then got fucking hosed by teenage Ned Stark and his gay best friend who does not hit 5 foot two. “Ohhhhhh aemon the dragonknight” kept his sister in that damn cage for decades and then died in the service of his brother which is dickrider behavior. Bystanderan Selmy? Washed.

[gotheyjoy]

sansa

[cordycepti0n]

those haunting purple eyes

[alliluyevas]

the genre of asoiaf fans that are like. ew who wants to read about Tyrion/Theon/insert other complex well crafted we’ve spent multiple books following. IM obsessed with some random Targaryen who appears for two pages in fire and blood and is characterized as being brave outgoing and generally likable before dying tragically young. Girl who cares about Prince Visaegerion…

[knightofthelemontree]

How many times does Sansa need to be punished for calling her sister a name? For failing to change monarchy and save Mycah?

She was beaten by grown men wearing armor and threatened with rape daily for over a year.

She was nearly raped again by a singer and then preyed on by the man posing as her father. She was almost killed by her aunt BECAUSE of the sexual assault.

Seriously: what else needs to happen to the 12 year old because she was snotty at age 10?

I want a legitimate answer. How much more abuse does she need to take in order to pay for using the words "horse face" and "half brother"? How many more rape attempts cancel out being terrified of a power hungry and violent king, queen, and prince? How many more grown men need to put on a 15 pound metal glove to punch her repeatedly to punish her for trusting the wrong person?

No arguments, just answers. Tell me.

[ogorodami]

Apparently Sansa didn’t even use that name? People tried finding any references to “horseface” in her chapters and they found none. She could’ve used it after Ned murdered Lady and basically rewarded Arya with the “dance lessons” but she didn’t.

The only person who definitely called Arya that is Jeyne and she likely only did when she was younger, before she realised the class difference. And guess what, people gloat about her suffering too!

I’m gonna have to remind everyone that kids not getting along is not a fucking crime. Arya will never be westerosi Carrie White no matter how hard some of you project your own woe is me bullshit on her. That “vicious bullying” she’s endured from Sansa and Jeyne according to you will always be fanon. Unlike Arya actually beating Sansa in front of the royal family (which is some fucked up foreshadowing if you think about it), but you don’t see us writing the “Arya abused Sansa and deserves to suffer” metas, do you?

[fayevalentinesgamblingchip]

thing is that ppl seemingly forget that loving someone doesnt necessarily mean ur Good to them. davos loves marya so deeply that each thought he has of her is drenched in unyielding fondness yet has admitted to cheating on her. ned loves sansa that hes willing to forgo the truth and his honor for her life when it comes down to it yet shes also the child hes the Least connected to. shes the child he misunderstands the most despite being the most similar to her. shes the child he made no effort to let in on his plan to escape kings landing and this show of distrust in their alr tense relationship was what made sansa search for comfort in cersei. hoster loved lysa and that very love was what lead to him making her abort her bastard baby with petyr indirectly leading to her fertility issues later on. like those ideas can and do coexist quite well

[ghostinwinterfell]

asoiaf fans: jon is a stark. jon is a targaryen. jon is a dayne. jon is a secret prince. jon is a blackfyre. jon will be legitimized.

the actual books: never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. I scream that I'm not a stark, that this isn't my place, but it's no good, I have to go anyway, so I start down, feeling the walls as I descend, with no torch to light the way. tyrion lannister had claimed that most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it, but jon was done with denials. he was who he was; jon snow, bastard and oathbreaker, motherless, friendless, and damned. was ever a name more ill-omened? we look up at the same stars, and see such different things. and if it did trouble me, what might I do, bastard as I am? you should look behind you, lord snow. the moon has kissed you and etched your shadow upon the ice twenty feet tall. I offered you a name. I have a name, your grace. “snow,” the bird kept screaming. “snow, snow, snow.”

[ghostinwinterfell]

currently rereading agot and I’m so sick at how often sansa begs for mercy by promising “I’ll be good, I’ll be a good girl, I’ll behave”, it literally happens in every single chapter. meanwhile she lives in constant terror of doing something wrong, she’s repeatedly reprimanded by septa mordane for questioning ned because god forbid she turns out like her “bad” sister arya. and then people turn around and mock/punish her for being naive about ned’s plan, even though she keeps ASKING why he’s doing what he’s doing and everyone just tells her to shut up instead of sitting her down and explaining to her why she needs to have her guard up. SHE is the one who was betrothed to joffrey, surely ned can take five minutes of his time to explain to her why he doesn’t trust joffrey or the lannisters. but somehow sansa telling cersei about ned’s plan makes her stupid and naive and traitorous. lord please take sansa’s pain and give it to gregor clegane.