#valerina81

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

@valerina81 reblogged your post “Re: the tag [ #god that boy and his symbolism sigh ] from this post...”

This just gave me a terrible thought…could Rhaegar have expected Elia and or Lyanna to die as part of the prophecy/forging of Lightbringer?

I... highly doubt it? For one, nothing Rhaegar ever said about the Prince That Was Promised mentions Lightbringer. The connection between Azor Ahai and the PTWP has only been made by Melisandre; they’re probably cultural variations of the same prophesied hero(es), but it’s not certain if the Valyrian scrolls Rhaegar found mention all the same things as the Asshai scrolls that speak of Azor Ahai Reborn and how he draws Lightbringer from the fire.

For another, major point, Rhaegar seemed to be disappointed that Elia couldn’t have a third child, thus his “there must be one more... the dragon has three heads”. As I said in the post I linked in the post you replied to, when someone asked me about this theory before, all three of his children, these three heads of the dragon, were important to Rhaegar, not just the last one. Aegon was the one Rhaegar thought was the Prince, and he was second born, the second “forging” so to speak.

Furthermore, if Rhaegar thought there must be three sacrifices to birth this human “Lightbringer”, then wouldn’t he have gone for three women, not two? Or at the very least impregnated Elia a third time even though, especially because, the maesters said that would kill her? Which would be soooo goddamn cold and sociopathic, and I don’t think even too-obsessed-with-prophecy-for-his-own-damn-good (and everyone else’s) Rhaegar was that godawful. Further futhermore, I don’t know if you’re referring to that crack theory or not, but the idea that non-Targaryen women can’t survive Targaryen births is entirely baseless.

So no, I don’t think your “terrible thought” that Elia and Lyanna were Rhaegar’s intended sacrifices makes much sense at all. Sorry.

However... it is still possible that GRRM is drawing a connection between the three heads of the dragon and the Nissa Nissa sacrifice. The fact that Dany, Jon, and Tyrion’s mothers all died in childbirth has often been remarked upon. Often it’s mentioned by fans in criticism of false historicity (things were not “just like that back then”) or with the Dead Ladies Club of undeveloped female historical characters. (Both of which are extremely important to criticize!) But it’s possible that the deaths of Rhaella Targaryen, Lyanna Stark, and Joanna Lannister were a deliberate thing to bring the three heads of the dragon into the world. Not deliberate by the fathers of these children mind you -- Aerys was crazed by his fire fetish, and I doubt Tywin even knew the prophecy existed, nor would he care about it if he did, nor would he ever want his wife to die. But deliberate by the author, deliberate within the story, because “only death can pay for life”.

Which is cruel, damn cruel, both within the story and without it. But if so, it should at least put an end to the theory that another Nissa Nissa sacrifice is needed to make a new Lightbringer (which it isn’t anyway, Azor Ahai Reborn draws the burning sword from the fire, not Nissa Nissa), because the sacrifice has already happened.

[joannalannister]

I asked you a wheel of time question but do you stick exclusively to asoiaf?

Hi, no, I’m happy to talk to anybody about anything really! 

But my life exploded in September and I’m still trying to pick up the pieces. Still trying to recover emotionally. And way back in July, I made the mistake of accepting a contract for a double workload this semester so I’ve been in hell. It’s only in the past week that I’ve been even slightly ok, like, the situation has only recently been downgraded from DEFCON 1 to DEFCON 2. 

So what that means is that I haven’t had time for anything lately, including tumblr. I’ve barely had the energy to keep up with some tracked tags to keep my sideblogs going, or else I’ve been looking at this hellsite very briefly on my phone during my long commute, and the mobile version of this hellsite just isn’t functional, I hate it. 

Soooooo a lot (a lot) of people’s questions, including yours, are in my inbox somewhere, I have them, and I am hoping to have more time in the coming weeks to go through it all and answer them. I’m really sorry for the delay, and if you (or anybody else) would like to resend your question so that it’s on top and we make sure that tumblr hasn’t eaten it, you’re welcome to do so! 

I am really sorry that I haven’t been able to answer everyone’s questions lately, I feel really bad, and I hope that I haven’t hurt anyone’s feelings, I’m so sorry if I have. I’m just doing my best day by day rn and hopefully things will be more like normal in the coming weeks. 

Honestly I feel like I haven’t been able to maintain any communication with anyone on this website over the past several months and now everyone is mad at me or I’ve disappointed everyone or everyone hates me now so yay for anxiety I guess, I’m just so sorry everyone, this year just makes me want to put my head in my hands, I’m so tired, I’m sorry, I’m trying

[bitchfromtheseventhhell]

I'm not so sure about the Bran and nights king connection...i think the theory is that Bran tries to warg the guy when the CotF are making him and he gets stuck somehow. The major evidence is that they are dressed in similar garb and the army of the dead is shaped like a direwolf. Now, this is bs because of course Bran isn't the freaking Nights King but can't you see GoT do this? Their propensity for "shocking twists"? How do you plead, Nights King...I mean BRAN! DUN DUN DUN!

i think part of my issue is the ableism that would mean.  like that’s not to say that the show--and martin--aren’t capable of great ableism, but i’m worried about it in conjunction w/the trickiness of tyrion being in a love triangle next season--not to mention the fact that the fact of hold the door is hella fucking ableist too (which again i lay at martin’s doorstep bc that’s his idea apparently).

so yeah just like...i don’t like it.

it also doesn’t strike me as set up in anyway.  like i think the arya-is-the-waif has more setup, and i don’t think that one’s real either.

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

@valerina81 reblogged your post “Do you think that Jon Snow will…”

You think he might sleep with Mel or Val? Any other thoughts on that?

I think there is some potential foreshadowing, combined with Jon’s acknowledged attraction to them, combined with his probable personality changes after his resurrection, that lead to a possibility that he could sleep with Mel and/or Val. I don’t put it as a high probability, but acknowledge that the possibility is there and I wouldn’t be surprised if GRRM goes there. I also wouldn’t think any relationship would last very long. Nevertheless, I think Jon is going to be notably different after he comes back from the dead, and this may be part of it.

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

I can't tell you how many times I've been reading someone's meta or the comments after when you pop up with your asoiaf encyclopedia brain and correct whatever mistakes they've made with obscure, yet always well-cited corrections. How do you do it? I can't remember anything and I'm hoping you have some tips and it's not just magic. Thanks Butterfly!! 🦋

Thanks so much! (BTW FTR I’m not trying to correct to “catch” people, but to fill in for other people, just in case it’s needed.) How do I do it? Um, because I have a weird brain that doesn’t forget things I’ve read. Especially if I’ve reread them a lot, which after 6 years meta-ing is almost all of ASOIAF a dozen times over, lol. I’m also very good with search engines – I have keyword and context search for the Wiki of Ice and Fire and Search of Ice and Fire, so if I need to check a character/thing to be sure or if I can only remember half a phrase, those are godsends. (Before the Search site was around, I had my ebook copies of the books to search, but the website is a billion times faster.)

So yeah, if you don’t have a weird brain, I recommend:

re-reading the books,

the wiki,

the search.

If you don’t want to re-read all of the books (though believe me they get even better and you catch more cool things when you do), you can use the wiki or the search to find particular chapters for particular things or characters you might be interested in. Remember that the wiki is fan-edited, though, and there have been uncaught errors in the past (typos, fanon) and probably there are still errors on it now. So the books are always the way to go to be absolutely sure. Hope that helps! :)

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

Hi Butterfly! Just read the post about reblogging art. Why do some people ask that you don't reblog their art? I've always wondered but never actually asked. Thank you and love love love your stuff!

Hey, thanks! And you’ve probably misread that, sorry – what artists are asking is that people don’t repost their art. (Like this artwork I recently reblogged.) Reposting is when someone downloads the image and posts it as a new tumblr post, often without credit, often messing up quality or formatting. It’s a form of art theft, as well as a douchey thing to do. Reblogging, which only takes one click of a tumblr button, retains artist credit, and is what artists want. Reblogging shares the artwork to a greater audience, while letting the audience know who made the work, as well as letting the artist know how much their work is loved.

(Art that was posted elsewhere originally – like deviantart or instagram or pixiv or other art sites – is a slightly trickier situation. If the artist has a tumblr blog as well, I prefer to reblog from them if possible. If not, I always make sure that the tumblr post with the art credits the artist – in the post caption, not just the source url that might be overlooked (though it’s better than nothing) – because credit is important. Without credit, people won’t know who made the artwork, and won’t be able to find the artist’s site and tell them “I saw your work on tumblr, I love it.” Always credit the artist, please.)

BTW, art theft and reposting applies to graphics/photoedits as well. They’re a form of artwork too, and Tumblr’s terms of service covers them also. (Yes, even edits of media belonging to other companies – it’s transformative, it’s art.) FTR there’s a blog active at the moment, @gaofthrfanpage, which has been stealing and reposting a lot of edits, I’ve seen at least one I recognized (and let the creator know), but anyone who posts work in the #gotedit or #asoiafedit tags probably ought to check it out and report stolen posts to tumblr. (Unfortunately only the original poster of the edit can report.)

Anyway, hope that helps! And remember, always reblog, don’t repost. :)

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

That was really great info on the reblogging art post and the reposting vs reblogging ask. I've been reading a lot of asoiaf stuff on Tumblr for a while but I'm not well versed on the ins and outs of the rest of it. Any other info you think might be enlightening for other Tumblr newbies? Asoiaf specific or anything else that you think would be helpful? Thank you again!!

You’re quite welcome, happy to help! And let me see -- anything useful tumblr-wise, I usually tag psa or guides. Posts about about tumblr get the tumblr tag of course -- but note that’s often about amusing/frustrating tumblr culture as well as good advice. I also have all kinds of useful information under the tag useful references.

And @asoiafuniversity has tons of info for ASOIAF fandom and tumblr under the resources tag. I particularly recommend the recent post on how to best use tumblr’s tags and search, and if you keep going in the resources tag you’ll find links to the TWOW preview chapters and many more helpful things.

If you need any other help, just let me know -- I’ve been around the block in this fandom (and other fandoms) and on tumblr, I write Stylish scripts and Adblock filters for when tumblr’s messing up again, and anything I don’t know I can usually find out soon enough. :)