#roddytheruin

[volimte11]

Tommy, aka Roddy the Ruin, just after getting to the film set or just before heading out with his Wolves

[volimte11]

Wait... did he actually growl a little when he got up at the beginning? 🫠🫠 And that voice of him...

[dknc3]

Is there any chance of Among the Lions being continued? I really loved the premise to that story. Also, what are your thoughts on Robert Baratheon? You characterized him so well in that story I feel.

Working on it now actually, my friend. I’ve had a very bad year for fic writing for a variety of reasons, but the stories are all in my head, and I’m committed to getting them on the page--even if it takes so long no one remembers to read them anymore!

Now, I wrote quite a bit about Robert Baratheon, so that’s under a cut:

I can’t say I like him very much as he’s given to us in A Game of Thrones. His complete disregard for Ned’s wishes and advice and his absolute refusal to assert any type of authority to protect Ned’s children from Cersei’s wrath at the Trident in spite of Ned supposedly being his favorite person in the world--the brother he chose and all that--really made me lose any respect for him. Then his physical abuse of Cersei (regardless of how awful she is, there is no justification for physical abuse!) made me dislike him further.

BUT, Ned loves him. Which means at SOME POINT, Robert must have had at least some positive qualities that appealed to Ned. And he got thousands of men to follow him in committing TREASON because that’s what the Rebellion was in simple legal terms. So he must have been a man that could inspire confidence in others. So, I try to look at him as a whole person. What happened to him between Robert’s Rebellion and A Game of Thrones to make him so different from the man Ned remembers? Could he have been a good king in other circumstances? Could he have been a better man? Or was he always awful, and Ned was just blinded by youthful hero worship for the bigger, stronger, more confident, more handsome young man who always seemed to get what he wanted and got everyone’s respect and admiration?

My personal thoughts on these questions are that Robert was always self-centered, and somewhat superficial in most of his relationships except with a very few people--Ned, for instance. Robert truly believes Ned is a better man than he is although his swaggering pride would never let him say it out loud. And since Ned HAD known real friendship from Robert, he was somewhat oblivious to his friend’s inability to form strong relationships easily. Young, naive Ned believed that as long as Robert loved Lyanna, he would stop whoring around and be the husband she deserved. Older Ned, of course, realizes that was never going to be the case. I believe Robert would have been a better husband to Lyanna than he was to Cersei because he did care for her, inasmuch as he could care for a woman, but he would have been possessive, and he would have been unfaithful because he wouldn’t have seen either of those things as bad. A man is supposed to be possessive of his wife, and if a man sees a pretty girl he’d like to bed for the sheer pleasure of it, that has nothing to do with his wife--even one he professes to love. And Lyanna would have become increasingly bitter and unhappy with her situation, and Robert would have undoubtedly become a worse husband over time in response to that.

I don’t think there is any universe in which Robert would have made a good king. He doesn’t have the temperament to actually rule the kingdom and honestly hasn’t the slightest interest in doing it. He’s a warrior and a good one. I do think he could have been a better man had he never become king and had he been surrounded by people who actually supported him and even cared about him all his life. His marriage to Cersei, dependence on the Lannisters, and the toxic bunch of schemers on his Small Council really served to speed the erosion of what strength of character he did have over the years--pushing him further into alcoholism and self-destructive behavior. His being king, which means no one could really refuse him anything, made his self-centeredness much worse over the years. Basically, every bad character trait Robert had was exacerbated by his years on the Iron Throne.

He does have his good traits. He’s actually pretty honest. He speaks his mind. Honor does matter to him even if his concept of it has become warped over the years. He’s brave. He absolutely will fight and die for a cause he believes in. Had the Rebellion never occurred and Robert remained the Lord of Storm’s End all his life, ended up wed to a woman who was content to be the Lady of his castle and tolerant of the occasional infidelity (NOT Lyanna Stark, in other words), given the opportunity to lead men in battle from time to time, and had good advisors like Maester Cressen who were infallibly loyal to his House to help him with the boring (to Robert!) administrative duties of lordship, I think he likely could have been a much happier and, yes, better man. Still no one I’d want to be my ruler or certainly not my husband, LOL, but a decent, if overly self-centered man who still respected himself enough to earn the respect of others.  

That’s more or less how I see Robert in the canon universe. In modern AU’s I can see him with more paths open to either eventually succeeding as a human being or failing even more miserably because more life options are available to people in modern society (especially people with money) than the rigid roles set up for the aristocracy of medieval society. Alcoholics Anonymous also exists! :-D Robert could definitely have benefited from that!! 

[qqueenofhades]

Can we agree how beautiful it is that even when under the shattered sight curse, where they're supposed to act like their worst selves and turn against one another, Snow and Charming BOTH reacted in defense, as a team, when Regina threatened bbNeal? They both shouted for her to stop and wanted to protect their child, because even in the darkest parts of their souls, they're still awesome parents.

yes i loved that part! i just loved regina and snow and charming this episode in general and kristoff sassing charming and charming sassing kristoff and anna being totally out of her element trying to deal with them

it was just perfect

[rumaan]

roddytheruin replied to your post “Okay, so the favourite four fic meme and the need for a North and...”

Can anyone get in on this?

Sorry meant to reply to this and forgot! Yes, anyone can jump in on this! Got a favourite pairing from another show/book/history etc, think it would be amazing to remix it as a Jon x Sansa fic? Then prompt the couple and jump aboard the fest! 

Also, even if you don't have a fic idea/don't write fic, but have a pairing from somewhere else that you think would make an awesome Jon x Sansa fic, then you can also prompt and hope someone agrees and picks that prompt.

Obviously this is all in the future atm, I need to work out where/when to host etc first.

[qqueenofhades]

What happened to Sam at the end of TNR? I know he went back to the Citadel, but did he become a maester? An Archmaester? Did he ever see Gilly again? Jon? His mother, brother, sisters? His -ugh- father? Any of the former NIght's Watchmen he'd fought alongside?

As noted in the epilogue, Sam does become the new Archmaester of the rebuilt Citadel, and writes a seminal treatise on the properties of magic in new, post-Long Night Westeros. He did see Gilly and little Aemon again, and made sure they were well provisioned for the rest of their days at Horn Hill. As his father died in Aegon's return to King's Landing with dragons, no, Sam did not see him again. He did sometimes converse with Jon through the weirwood in the Citadel, and they kept in fairly regular contact that way, although they never met face to face again.