#second sons

[irispurpurea]

hello? is anyone else fixated on tom renley coming home to his wife and husbands? can anyone hear me?

[corner-collects-rocks]

elaborating time bc one person asked and that was enough :)

so this started bc i was thinking abt how Nathan and Riko died in very similar fashions. Shot by ex-brothers, ones which were most likely never considered as family(Nathan by his brother in law, who was only married into the family for to strengthen connections in the states. Riko by a brother once removed, who maybe in another world could’ve loved him like a brother but not in this one.)

then i started thinking about other ways that riko and nathan paralleled each other and over all it boiled down to: they are both monsters you have to look over your shoulder for. yet they gain a lot of their power from attempting(or succeeding) to seem like they are the top of the food chain and that they can get away with whatever they want. they will also go to extreme lengths to ensure your compliance and or suffering(torture, “hunting” neil ((riko back tracing his finger print, nathan actually chasing him)) willing to wait to get what they want because in their minds they will get it (this ones a little bit of a stretch but for Riko he was sure Neil would become a raven. Nathan and his countdown) so on and so forth. they had pretty similar playbooks when it came to getting neil to do what they wanted (threaten the foxes or andrew) and im sure theres more stuff i had in my head that im not thinking of now.

now why would Nathan want Riko as a son (hypothetically) I dont think Nathan would necessarily want the exact form of Riko we get in the books but i think if Riko had been raised by Nathan instead of Tetsuji or if Riko had apprenticed under Nathan I feel like it would’ve been a deadly combo. this is largely due to riko’s Intricate and Endless Daddy Issues™️. in my mind Riko would take every command and order Nathan would give him and he’d do it with pride. now at the end of the day this still probably would’ve ended up with Riko in the nest, but i think if Riko had bern groomed by Nathan to take over the Butcher’s business and made being a second son a staple of pride and a way to still be involved/help out the family while still being subservient to the first son i think he could’ve been a real menace and maybe even an asset to the main family.

idk this really comes down to is i think riko is very much a product of his environment (and his lack of ability to cope with the fact that not matter what he did he’d never be enough and he has to live with it) but i think had he been given a chance like this to prove himself useful? well he probably still would’ve gotten over eager and fucked it for himself but i think for a solid little bit he would’ve been the perfect butcher prodigy

(i think thats everything i wanted to say, i just came home from work so apologies if this doesnt make sense or isnt exactly what i wanted to say but i am tired and i aint rereading allat.)

[prclnivrstl]

a game of thrones, eddard i

"but the starks will endure. we always have."

ned isn't terribly introspective, but he is very dutiful and it very much affects his friendship with robert. ned is robert's friend; robert is ned's king. and robert idealizes lyanna just as much as viserys does westeros but they're both blinded by rose-tinted glasses and old memories.

the first part of ned's chapter is him musing on how horrendously robert has aged in the past several years since he'd seen him. this is not the young man he grew up with and he looks like trash garbo. he is at first touched that robert immediately wants to pay respects to lyanna, and then they speak more and it becomes apparent that robert is kind of crazy. firstly because it's clear he never really understood who lyanna was as a person and remembers her as an idealized fantasy, and then because he's still obsessed with getting revenge upon rhaegar despite the fact that he already did.

there is a short memory of lyanna's death and it's interesting to note that while the room did smell of blood, lyanna died of fever. it's generally assumed that she died in childbirth with jon, but i'm not so sure. i think perhaps the reason the room smelled of blood was because ned had just fought his way into the tower and would have been covered in it.

ned generally prefers to bury his head in the sand rather than face certain unpleasant truths. the primary motivation behind his actions is duty, which he shows in multiple instances in just this one chapter. this chapter also shows us that ned is not comfortable being honest with robert, and his way of voicing dissent is fairly passive when he does do so. having said that, there is one point where he mentions robert owing jon for his service, which displeases robert who notes that jon's service was owed to him as a duty to his liege lord. i think ned meant more along the lines of "jon raised us together like a father and kicked off a revolution rather than giving us over to a king who would have us executed like he did my family", but robert doesn't take it that way and ned doesn't press the issue.

we do get a little hint that jon arryn's death was rather odd, though, so there's that.

on the topic of the lannister infestation, it's interesting to note that perhaps ned's attitude towards cersei comes from robert himself, as robert clearly doesn't fucking like his wife. also, ned doesn't have any direct thoughts on jaime or tyrion when he sees them, but he has a whole bunch of thoughts about tywin when he is mentioned by robert. he seems greatly concerned at the hold the lannisters appear to have on the running of the country itself and how entrenched in them robert has become.

another thing that stands out and is interesting to note is that at the battle of the trident, as soon as rhaegar had been slain, men on both sides dropped their cause altogether in order to scramble about in the river for the rubies that had been cleaved off of rhaegar's breastplate. a major running theme throughout the series is that while the high lords play their political games, everyone else is just struggling to survive and doesn't really give a fuck who is in charge as long as they are left to live peaceful lives.

the main impression of ned i'm left with after this chapter is that being a second son really affected him. he notes that brandon had been the true heir, born to rule. if brandon was born to rule, ned was born to serve. they're actually rather like robert and stannis in that way, so it's very interesting that robert so loves ned but can't fucking stand stannis. ned and stannis are both extremely dutiful and very stoic, serious people. robert even say something about teaching ned to laugh (again), which is an echo of his father's letter saying they were bringing patchface home to teach stannis how to laugh.

[mejcinta]

Parallels Between Daemon and Aemond (narrative foils).

1. Both believe they would make better kings, even dismissing the existence of their brothers' heirs ahead of them in the line of succession e.g Daemon with baby Baelon, Aemond with Jaehaerys.

Episode 1 Daemon: "Until your mother (Aemma) brings forth a son, you are cursed with me."

Episode 9 Aemond: "I'm next in line to the throne. Should they come looking for me, I intend to be found."

2. Both men, however, are loyal, respectful and defensive towards their brothers' positions as kings, even though they actively oppose their brothers' decisions and challenge their suitability to the role of king.

Daemon to Viserys in ep 1: "The blood of the dragon runs thick...he (Otto) doesn't protect you, I would."

Aemond to Lucerys at Storm's End, about Aegon: "Did you really think that you could just fly about the realm trying to steal my brother's throne at no cost?"

The duo also notably pursued their ambitions after their brothers were officially out of the picture, with Viserys dead and Aegon severely injured and incapacitated after the battle of Rook's Rest.

3. Both Daemon and Aemond have escaped marriages of duty, more or less. Daemon's marriage with Rhea Royce ended when he killed her. Aemond's betrothal to Floris Baratheon was dissolved or put on hold indefinitely after he killed Lucerys.

4. Both men have been romantically entangled with lowborn women, who they tried to legitimise to no avail.

Daemon took Mysaria as his lady when he captured Dragonstone for himself, demanding that she be recognized as his wife. He also later consorts with Nettles, a young dragonseed, who he is forced to leave in order to preserve her from Rhaenyra's wrath.

Aemond was besotted with Alys Rivers, a bastard woman in Harrenhal that was believed to be a woods witch skilled with potions and gifted with visions. He's assumed to have married her (as she was referred to as his widow) and she fights for their son's claim after Aemond's death.

Aemond and Daemon are foils, different as they are similar. Second sons burdened with the demands of duty and loyalty, cursed with dreams of greatness never quite fully realized; yet ending it all fighting for the cause they believe in and for the people they love.

[hug-kiss-marry-kill]

What should we do with Aegor Rivers/Bittersteel (A Song of Ice and Fire)?

Hug

Kiss

Marry

Kill

Voting ended onMay 2, 2025

[ctarchangel542]

My guilt pleasure ship

[simply-ellas-stuff]

Where did Second Sons by @/AvengingAngel go? it was on ao3 not that long ago??

and I can't seem to find their tumblr anymore??