#winter friends

[pollie-pockets]

Winter friends transparents

[joezy27]

HAWKEYE - Clint & Kate, Steve & Lil, Lilly & Steve

Hawkeye (2014) #17 by Matt Fraction & Chris Eliopoulos

[post-it-lunchnotes]

For 4. I made the background blue because my white sharpie was getting tired. Winter friends wish!

[howlandreads]

Winter Friends

“Summer friends will melt away like summer snows, but winter friends are friends forever."

- Jon Snow XIII, A Dance With Dragons

I think this quote from one of Jon’s ADWD chapters could end up being unintentional foreshadowing for a Jonsa relationship.  

First, I want to preface this post by saying that I know when GRRM wrote this line he most likely wasn’t thinking of Jonsa, and probably didn’t intend it to be seen as Jonsa foreshadowing.  But that also doesn’t mean that it can’t be used to examine what GRRM views as a healthy relationship, and how Jonsa might fit that mold.

Clearly this quote means that friends who stay with you in the hardest times are your truest friends, while friends that only stay with you when things are good weren’t really your friends to begin with.  No one fits the definition of friends who have stayed together through their hardest times better than Jon and Sansa.  Though we don’t know the circumstances of their reunion in the books yet, when they reunite in the show both of them are at their lowest points of the entire series.  Sansa has just escaped Ramsay’s torture after at least 9 months of abuse, and Jon has just been murdered and betrayed by his brothers at the Wall.  Despite all the misery they’ve just been through, they immediately trust each other.  I can’t overstate just how important it is that they trust each other without a second thought.  Sansa has been a political prisoner of the Lannisters for years, and just when she thought she was safe, her aunt tried to murder her, and she was sold to the Boltons.  She’s trusted Cersei, Lysa, and Littlefinger, only to be betrayed by all of them.  Jon, also, has no reason to trust anyone after being killed and betrayed by the Night’s Watch.  Despite all the reasons they both have to distrust each other, Sansa still leaps into Jon’s arms, and they trust each other immediately:

“Where will we go?”

- Sansa Stark, 6x04

Jon continues to be there for Sansa, agreeing to help her retake Winterfell, and Sansa continues to be there for Jon, saving him at the Battle of the Bastards.  They continue to be unfailingly there for each other after the battle when Sansa stops Jon from losing himself in killing Ramsay, and Jon gives Sansa the chance to handle Ramsay herself.  I’ve written about the significance of that scene here.

Even when Jon is making decisions Sansa disapproves of, she still stands up for him, defending him to the Northern Lords.

Sansa and Jon’s devotion to one another clearly fits the definition of Winter Friends.  Ever since they reunited, they’ve been constantly there for each other.  All this combined with the fact that they grew up in the winter climate of the North, their house words are “Winter Is Coming”, and they grew up in Winterfell, really seems to solidify that Jon and Sansa are a perfect example of winter friends.

It’s also interesting that GRRM chose to use winter as the metaphor for hard times.  I know it’s a fairly cliche metaphor, but I still think GRRM could’ve meant it to connect to the North.  It would fit with the whole “The North Remembers” theme of Northerners being loyal and honorable people, who are still fighting for the Starks even after everything that’s happened.  Since Jon and Sansa were both raised in the North, they were taught to value honor and loyalty above all else, and it really shows in their relationship with each other.

All these examples of Jon and Sansa’s commitment to each other come in direct contrast to a certain other ASOIAF ship.  Throughout S7, D*ny refuses to help Jon, demanding he bend the knee and surrender the North to her, despite her lack of knowledge of the land and complete inability to rule.  Even when the lives of thousands of people are at stake she refuses to do a thing.  The only time she ever does anything for Jon is when she rides north of the wall, but he was only in danger because of her in the first place.  Plus, that immediately backfired, considering she’s the only reason the Night King has a dragon and was able to destroy the Wall.  Her finally offering her help after Jon returns from North of the Wall hardly counts as commitment to him, since she’s only helping to avenge Viserion.  D*ny only ever acts when she will personally benefit or when she’s become personally invested.  She’s never selfless, and doesn’t begin to share a bond with Jon strong enough to truly earn the title of “winter friends”.  

D*ny’s abandonment of Slaver’s Bay is another example of her inability to stay through hard times.  This ADWD quote also illustrates D*ny’s lack of long term planning:

“Dragons plant no trees.”

- D*enerys X, A Dance With Dragons

Jon and Sansa are truly winter friends, while D*ny is merely a summer friend that will melt away like summer snows.

[nerdwingarts]

Happy Winter Friends, Everyone!

[pictochinia]

[pebbles64thoughts]

girls feeding birds

[pebbles64thoughts]

friends