The beast that shouted love at the heart of the world
@thelustybraavosimaid
Your (un)friendly neighbourhood Jonrya. Yinzer Black American mortal. 30. Ace. "Not a dog" salsapeños dni, more of a guac fan tbh. Certified Firmhole™️
Quite fitting that it’s called The Dreadful…I could say the same thing about ST’s acting. 🤣
Both Sophie and Kit were bad in that movie.
Kit sounded like he was trying really hard to not slip into Jon Snow's accent. Sophie's line deliveries were flat and unemotional. And the movie's twist is something I caught like an hour from its reveal lol
Sometimes my curiosity gets the better of me and I click on view post when I see Jonsa on the Arya Stark tag to see in which new way poor Arya is character assassinated...
And damn!! If the actual canonical book versions saw what their fanfic versions were written as they would jump off a cliff 😂😂😂😂
And this is a popular Jonsa fanfic on AO3?
Book Jon would die of shame if his moral code is whatever Sansa says it is. In the books, his moral code is the antithesis of Sansa's. They have opposing worldviews. Jon would treat Sansa's opinions the same way he treated Selyse's. With disdain.
What about Arya?
Notice something interesting? Sansa is about serving HER agenda and her house and her kingdom. Meanwhile Jon and Arya is about FAMILY. That's always been the case with Jonsa shippers where Jon and Arya's characters are reduced to 'family' which is code for them propping up Sansa.
What about Bran?
Poor supervillain Bran with zero morals!! 😭😭😭😭
Then there's the Jonsa shipper complaining about why are Jonsa shippers not writing Arya as beating up Jon Snow in defense of Sansa?!!
So Jon is going to physically or sexually assault Sansa and because she can't 'physically defend' herself, Arya is going to step in and do what? Beat him up? Assassinate him?
What's even going on here? Why are you shipping Sansa with a character who you are writing as physically 'taking advantage' of her? Why not ship her with Sandor if that's the kind of dynamic you want?
And Poor little Arya, the forever bodyguard because Syrio Forel taught her to Water Dance for a couple of months 😭😭😭.
Also I love how they twist this anti feminist nonsense as some kind of forward thinking 'let's not pit women against each other' performative bullshite. Which is never about Sansa supporting Arya and Daenerys but always the other way around.
Yeah, let's ignore Arya's bond with Jon, covered over 5 books, and rewrite it so that Arya can connect with her bully and serve her bully and be her bully's bodyguard because WOMEN!! And let's have Dany come over and recognize how awesome Sansa is and Dany have her dragons eat abuser Jon Snow to protect Sansa because WOMEN!
Do these people think the rest of us are dumb? And these are Jonsa shippers! Why is Jon Snow even there?! Make an OC!
Again, if this were coming from anyone else I would wholeheartedly agree that yes, we need more female friendships over valuing love triangles that pit women against each other. However, Jonsa shippers spewing some of the worst sexist nonsense only care about centering Sansa while sidelining actual main characters like Arya and Dany.
They really think that removing elements of Arya's story and the relationships that are important to Arya and writing her as a Sansa prop is 'pro women'?!
I have said this before and I will stand by it - anyone shipping Jonsa participates in sexism. Undermining the anti-patriarchal, anti status quo female characters at the center of the story - Arya and Daenerys - is at the core of the Jonsa ship.
Finally, as a fandom oldie it's so weird to me when the fanfic version has no similarities at all to the book versions. Usually the characters in AU fanfiction are the same - it's just the setting that's different, or the circumstances. However they have the same personality. That's the most interesting part of fanfiction - to take the same characters and play with them in a different setting or different circumstances or different relationships (in terms of crackships) and see what happens.
If characters have no resemblance to the book versions then why even have them in there - just create an OC and mould them around Sansa, write them as zombies, a slave to Sansa's wishes or as Sansa's forever, perpetual bodyguard instead of using Jon and Arya this way.
“I was told Your Grace had need of me,” Ser Justin said, from one knee. “You will escort the Braavosi banker back to the Wall. Choose six good men and take twelve horses. Oh, and take the Stark girl with you, as well as Alysane Mormont. Lady Arya should have a female companion. Deliver her to Lord Commander Snow on your way to Eastwatch." Stannis tapped the parchment that lay before him.
“A true king pays his debts.”
- Theon I, Twow
"Speak the word, and we will send you to the Black Pearl or the Daughter of the Dusk."
"I sold three cockles to a courtesan." "Which one was this, now? The Queen o' Cockles, was it?" "The Black Pearl. She said 'I'll take three cockles,' and 'Do you have some hot sauce, little one?" "And what did you say?" "I said, 'No, my lady,' and, 'Don't call me little one. My name is Cat.'
"Look, the Sealord's box. That must be the Westerosi envoy. Have you ever seen such clothes on an old man? And look, he's brought the Black Pearl!" She was so lovely that the lamps seemed to burn brighter when she passed.
- Arya, Affc, Adwd, Twow
He is a man of the Night's Watch, she thought, as he sang about some stupid lady throwing herself off some stupid tower because her stupid prince was dead. The lady should go kill the ones who killed her prince.
Theory: In the Winds of Winter, Arya will encounter Jeyne Poole in the course of an apprenticeship with the Black Pearl, who moves in Braavos' high society. The meeting will drive Arya to reclaim her identity.
One popular opinion - almost stated as fact - that I come across frequently is that Jon Snow is a good person, a hero, a protagonist because he feels guilty/ashamed for even thinking of taking Winterfell and the implication is he would never be Lord of Winterfell as long as his siblings are around.
More recently, this train of thinking made me pause... Wait, why is Jon Snow a good person for being ashamed of wanting something he has as much claim to as his siblings? Is Jon's feelings of shame and guilt natural or the product of years of childhood trauma?
In my many discussion on here I have noticed how Jon Snow, and all bastards tbh, are in a catch 22 situation with respect to inheriting anything from their parents.
Specifically with respect to Jon Snow and the Starks – with everything being equal in terms of class, gender, disability etc. – and if only one Stark can be Lord/Lady of Winterfell, then based on age, knowledge and the experience to actually lead the North, Jon Snow would be the best candidate.
He is Ned Stark’s son and Winterfell was his home – where he grew up. He had the same teachers as Robb Stark and time and again we see Jon Snow use Ned Stark’s wisdom and political knowledge in how he helps Stannis Baratheon navigate the North.
Alys Karstark rode all the way to the Wall in the harshest of Winter because a son of Ned Stark was there. The Mountain clan chiefs accept Jon's word on the Freefolk because he is Ned Stark's son. Robb Stark names Jon Snow his heir, Lord of Winterfell and KITN because he is Ned Stark's son.
However, if Jon Snow did get Winterfell, then he would be called an usurper and that he is playing into how bastards are stereotyped as treacherous and untrustworthy. There would be folks saying that if Jon Snow accepted being Lord of Winterfell, then he would prove Catelyn’s prejudice right.
That’s the thing isn’t it. There is nothing at all wrong in bastards wanting everything that their siblings get. However, bigoted Westerosi society has deemed it that bastards should get nothing and if they demand or fight for equal rights, then they are ‘treacherous’.
The system is set up in such a way that it’s an unwinnable situation for Jon Snow as a bastard. Either Jon has to go along with the bigotry and respect the feudal patriarchal rules and take himself out of contention, letting one of his younger siblings rule the North.
Or he follows his ambitions and what he wants and becomes Lord of Winterfell, which means that he is an usurper, does not love his siblings and should feel ashamed. He turns into a bad guy. The villain who steals his sibling's birthright proving Catelyn's fears right.
And the reason often stated for why Jon Snow would give way to his siblings is this:
When Jon had been very young, too young to understand what it meant to be a bastard, he used to dream that one day Winterfell might be his. Later, when he was older, he had been ashamed of those dreams. Winterfell would go to Robb and then his sons, or to Bran or Rickon should Robb die childless. And after them came Sansa and Arya. Even to dream otherwise seemed disloyal, as if he were betraying them in his heart, wishing for their deaths. I never wanted this, he thought as he stood before the blue-eyed king and the red woman. I loved Robb, loved all of them … I never wanted any harm to come to any of them, but it did. And now there’s only me. – Jon, ASoS, XI
This is interesting because what Jon is feeling here is the effect of indoctrination and ingrained trauma from the discrimination he experienced all through out his childhood.
A young, innocent Jon Snow who did not understand why he was being treated differently, wants the same things as Robb Stark without shame or guilt – “When Jon had been very young, too young to understand what it meant to be a bastard, he used to dream that one day Winterfell might be his”
We see this in the other Stark children, when baby Rickon does not understand why Jon is not sitting with them at the feast –
It had been the night of the welcoming feast, when King Robert had brought his court to Winterfell. Summer still reigned then. His parents had shared the dais with Robert and his queen, with her brothers beside her. Uncle Benjen had been there too, all in black. Bran and his brothers and sisters sat with the king's children, Joffrey and Tommen and Princess Myrcella, who'd spent the whole meal gazing at Robb with adoring eyes. Arya made faces across the table when no one was looking; Sansa listened raptly while the king's high harper sang songs of chivalry, and Rickon kept asking why Jon wasn't with them. "Because he's a bastard," Bran finally had to whisper to him. – Bran, ACoK, III
Or Sansa treating Jon differently after learning what he was –
He missed the girls too, even Sansa, who never called him anything but "my half brother" since she was old enough to understand what bastard meant. – Jon, AGoT, III
An older Jon – still a child – who has been mentally beaten down and forced to live as less than his father’s other children is now made to feel ashamed if he wants the same things as his brother Robb. He is made to feel disloyal, a traitor, a betrayer if he even dreams of wanting the same things as Robb or his other siblings. Just his thoughts alone - not even action - make him feel like he's done something wrong.
We see this trauma right there in his thoughts when he considers accepting Stannis’ offer of Winterfell –
He sat on the bench and buried his head in his hands. Why am I so angry? he asked himself, but it was a stupid question. Lord of Winterfell. I could be the Lord of Winterfell. My father's heir.
It was not Lord Eddard's face he saw floating before him, though; it was Lady Catelyn's. With her deep blue eyes and hard cold mouth, she looked a bit like Stannis. Iron, he thought, but brittle. She was looking at him the way she used to look at him at Winterfell, whenever he had bested Robb at swords or sums or most anything. Who are you? that look had always seemed to say. This is not your place. Why are you here? – Jon, ASoS, XII
This is why it’s fascinating when fandom cosigns this trauma and cheers for Jon Snow feeling ashamed and guilty about being Lord of Winterfell and makes it about him being a good person when it's more about the effect of years of bigotry and the acceptance of societal prejudice.
Then there are the Stark stans who weirdly have a lot of intense loathing for tertiary side character Rhaegar Targaryen and project this onto Jon Snow.
Entire essays on how Jon would hate that Rhaegar is his biological father, that Jon would feel guilty for Rhaegar’s actions, that Jon would agree with Robert Baratheon (Who would have murdered Jon in his cradle!), that Jon would reject the Targaryens, that the ONLY family Jon belongs to are the Starks, that Jon is a Stark and only a Stark, that Jon is only Ned Stark’s son and no one else’s and so on…
However, when it comes time to which Stark gets Winterfell, suddenly Jon transforms from a Stark to a Snow for the same group!! Suddenly he has to step aside and make way for the real Starks! Suddenly he now becomes Rhaegar’s son, not Ned Stark’s.
It’s almost like Jon Snow is just there as a vehicle to prop up other Starks instead of it being about Jon Snow's character journey and growth, self love and internal acceptance and overcoming the trauma from growing up living with bigotry.
The same as little Arya asking Ned if she can become a king's councillor and build castles and being told no, she has to a wife, and Arya then having to learn self confidence and self love and accepting herself, overcoming the low self esteem from the conditioning where little girls are taught that there is only one right way to perform femininity and be a woman. Or Daenerys breaking boundaries as a female ruler or disabled Bran and Tyrion as future leaders.
GRRM literally lays it out for us in his original outline!
"Five central characters will make it through all three volumes, however, growing from children to adults and changing the world and themselves in the process. In a sense, my trilogy is almost a generational saga, telling the life stories of these five characters, three men and two women. The five key players are Tyrion Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, and three of the children of Winterfell, Arya, Bran, and the bastard Jon Snow."
As readers we are supposed to cheer for characters like Jon if he wants to reach up and grab as high as he can and aim for what he was denied as a bastard. Instead, popular fandom talking points are often about how Jon would only prove Catelyn right and Jon should rightfully step aside for his younger siblings, and Jon is a good guy and therefore he would never usurp his siblings etc.
Honestly, I am more interested to read how his siblings react if and when Jon does become Lord of Winterfell/KITN in the next book and that will be the real testament to their varied relationships with him.
I think that's what draws me to Jonrya. The unmitigated devotion the two of them share; ADwD is a testament to that. Their relationship is so beautiful and compelling—separation absolutely does not impact their bond, and it's fascinating because the distance seems to be strengthening it instead. This is in direct opposition with Jaime and Cersei, who were joined at the hip for most of their lives yet their bond became fraught the more they stayed away from each other.
So, yeah. If anyone wants to know what the healthy version of Jaime and Cersei is, it's Jon and Arya.
you wouldn’t necessarily clock this from just looking at one, but all species of badger are basically just little fucked-up biological TANKS with hearts full of murder.
adorable murder.
to start with, badger skin is so tough that it can resist most attempts by other predators to bite through it, and is also very loose so that even if it’s grabbed by a larger creature, the badger can still turn around and bring its own claws and teeth into the situation!
which is very bad.
and on top of this, badgers are STUPID strong and ridiculously hardy- badgers can shrug off just about any injury that doesn’t kill them outright and will immediately seek retribution by attempting to open you up with those big ol claws like a can of beans being fed into an industrial shredder.
badgers can even 1v1 fucking BEARS and walk off without a scratch, they’re that op.
no, I was not kidding.
the coyote, a fragile creature built for speed and maneuverability, would stand NO chance if it tried to start shit with the badger, and they both know it.
I’m not done, actually, because they in the weaselle family and I can’t not.
Badgers are in the weasel family right along with otters, mink, ermine, stoats, and honey badgers (tho, interestingly, the honey badger is not in fact a badger).
So firstly, to address the q in the op directly, let’s look at what happens when a coyote decides to tackle the much smaller cousin of the badger, a mink (skip to 30 seconds in)
okay, so, that mink idk which species it is off the top of my head but it weighs pretty close to two pounds. Three and a half pounds if it’s huge for a mink. An american badger averages 20 lbs. So imagine how the above would have gone if the mink was ten times larger. And twice as mean (and mink are already vicious).
I have seen footage of TWO large coyotes making a try for an american badger, and they even get him in their mouths from either end and try to tug-a-war him, but they can’t actually injure him much because his hide is too thick and loose. One coyote takes a strong hit and gives up and the other thinks about it for 20 seconds and in that time (i swear to all gods it only took literally 20 seconds on the video) that badger dug himself some damn fortifications: a tunnel in the icy dirt that he could retreat out of reach into, or threaten with his teeth from the entrance while the rest of him was under cover. He stuck his head out and let the coyote realize his new position, then he came slowly out and stalked toward the coyote until the coyote’s nerve broke and it ran, and that badger scored one final bite on its ass.
Altho it is worth noting, in case anyone reading this was unaware, american badgers and coyotes have been observed in cooperative hunting, as in teaming up to hunt together, which I assume was the context of the implied exchange in the op.
I keep saying american badger because that’s what is pictured, and that is what is likely to interact with a coyote.
European badgers are like the very polite cousin of the american badger. The european badger lives in communal burrows where they dig a separate bathroom to use, and they eat a lot of earthworms and tubers and some lizards or whatever. Civilized.
American badgers live alone in burrows they’ve taken over by murdering and eating the previous occupant, and they eat literally anything they can bite enough times to kill. They will bury an entire cow carcass to save it for later.
Like, please do not mess with a european badger, they are still weasels and not to be trifled with, but oh my goodness what a demon the american badger is.
And whatever ancient weasel evolved into the american badger also went up north and became the wolverine.
And if you want to know what a wolverine is like, you should know three things.
One: this is the live trap biologists use to tag and study wolverines. Only you don’t really trap a wolverine with this, more like inconvenience it; once set, biologists have to check it often. That’s because when a wolverine digs it digs in frozen earth and when it eats a goat or an elk, it eats all the bones, hooves and horns — their claws and teeth will just saw right through that wood.
Two: They can dig into the frozen earth like I can dig in sand. They can climb a tree as fast as I can run. And they’re much better swimmers than I am. Btw I love climbing trees and I was on the competitive swim team in school. Oh, and while they can’t fly, they have been known to hunt and eat eagles. Nowhere is safe.
Three:
though it is extremely rare, wolverines have been observed killing both grizzly bears and adult moose.
they hunt alone or sometimes in pairs and are this size
which is terrifyingly large for a weasel, but SO small compared to moose and brown bears. And yet they can and will murder those animals. r.
wolverine
american badger
I bring up the wolverine because, a case can be made that an american badger is to a wolverine what a coyote is to a grey wolf. And wolverines have been known to kill and eat wolves.
So yeah, badgers and coyotes actually make great hunting partners and sometimes cooperate, and otherwise tend to leave each other alone, but if it came down to a 1v1 coyote vs badger… either the coyote runs away or the badger takes it out.
Oh and, one very last important point
this is my dog, whose name is Badger, and who is the same general size and shape as a coyote
