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hawkeyescoffee · 2 years

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Restless Night

Ship: Dickon Tarley & Gilly

Prompt: Restless

Daily Randomized Prompts: 10/?

Summary: Dickon watched the woman Sam had told them to keep.

Word Count: 684

Warning: none

Note: Gilly is pragnant bc I can and I found it very interesting to write those two interacting.

Requests are open! Sent me a asoiaf/got ship and prompt!

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Dickon Tarly beheld the disheveled young woman with the fussing baby in her arms. She had kind eyes, he thought quietly as she was caressing her pregnant belly.

This was the woman his brother loved.

The child he had taken in as his.

And the unborn babe that was his.

His brother, Samwell a deserter, an oath breaker, a stealer of maidens and father of bastards…

Granted Dickon hadn’t seen Sam in quiet some time, since he had been a little boy himself, but the existence of that woman contradicted everything he knew about his older brother, everything his father had preached about useless Sam, that Dickon couldn’t really do anything but stare really.

Gilly. Her name was Gilly like the flower. Gilly was pretty, not breathtakingly beautiful like a heroine of songs, but soft and sweet and gentle. Just like Dickon remembered Sam to be.

Sam who had stood before their gates this afternoon, still clad in the black of the Nights watch and had asked shelter for the pregnant girl while he went on to Old Town…

Dickon could just stare at his brother, the brother who would have been in his place if their father would have seen worth in him. Dickon himself had never really wasted a thought on Samwell since he believed to never see him again anyway. What was a Reach Lords business so far North anyway?

His silence was mistaken for disapproval he feared since his sweet mother bagged him to aid Sam. Even Talla suddenly remembered a love for Samwell she had not voiced when he had been disinherited.

Dickon would have liked to ask Randel what to do. Not because he couldn’t imagine the answer but hearing it from his father made it seem right to him.

But Lord Tarly was with the Tyrells, so it was Dickon’s call. And maybe he was still a little boy with fancy in his head, but this was still his Sam above all the other things. So, he let the woman and the babe stay.

Maybe he should have hugged Samwell?

Maybe he should have said more to him?

Maybe it was the last time he would see him?

Now, hours later he watched the woman with the small child, listen to the foreign melody she sung quietly to the boy and watched the moon light reflect in those soft brown eyes.

She reminded him of a doe, he realized.

“I am sorry, my Lord.”, the woman spoke to Dickon maybe the first time since she had arrived at his home.

“My father is the Lord.”, he answered promptly.

She gave him a sigh he could not place. “But right now, you act as Lord for him, right? You call me Lady too, even though I am far from one and honestly can’t stand it.”

“What is his name?”, Dickon asked after giving her an aloof shrug. She wasn’t entirely wrong. Maybe he was closer to being a Lord than she was a Lady.

“He doesn’t have one, not a real one at least not yet. It’s strange to me that you folk just give children their real names without knowing if they die or not… Feels like challenging the gods to me but we call him Monster for now…”

Dickon didn’t know what he should answer her. He did not completely get what she meant by you folk, but he knew that enough children died during infancy even up here were it was warm and lush…

“Do you call him Monster because he never sleeps?”

“Val called him Monster because of his father.”

But Dickon didn’t ask who the father was or were exactly her people where from or who this Val person was, she spoke of… It just cemented in his mind that Sam wasn’t the father, not in blood anyway, but he might be the only father this poor little worm ever knows… He could not imagine anyone calling his weak and soft brother a monster.

“What are you doing out here at this time anyway, my Lord?”

“I guess I am just restless too.”

#dickon tarly #gilly asoiaf #samwell tarly #asoiaf #asoiaf fanfic

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mkstrigidae · 11 days

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APWH preview snippet!

Since I'm actively trying to work on getting the next few chapters out, I thought I'd share a little future scene with some hints of Jonsa with all you lovely people! This bit is from like, a few chapters in the future bc it's the in-between that's giving me fits right now :) (Fair warning: this is unedited and subject to change! That being said, it's such a fun scene that I can't imagine ever nixing it :D)

“Does he even know that they have to avoid the press?”

“For the last time-“ Sam sighed, sounding completely exasperated, “Dickon knows what they can and can’t do- he’s got enough practice not being photographed from when our dad was the secretary. Not to mention spending time around you when that exposé on your crazy grandfather came out two years ago.”

“I just-“ Jon sighed, blowing a stray curl out of his face. “You didn’t see how freaked out she was when the press caught us at that performance in White Harbor. I thought she was going to have a full-blown panic attack.”

He was immediately derailed by Gilly plopping little Sam down in his lap and shoving a bottle into his hands.

“What’s this all about?” he raised a brow, adjusting the baby on his lap, allowing him to latch onto the cuff of his flannel shirt and start gnawing at the fabric. “You going somewhere?”

Gilly shot him a withering look, but he saw the amusement in her eyes.

“I-“ she gestured, imperiously, “Have not had time by myself to shower all week-“

“Sorry, love.” Sam winced, looking up from his pile of paperwork. “I can take a break from these-“

“Not your fault, Sam.” she waved him off. “You warned me about this conference at the beginning of the summer.” a grin played at the corners of her mouth. “Besides, it works out well- Jon needs a distraction right now from the fact that Sansa’s on a date with your extremely hot and conventionally attractive brother.”

“Hey!” Sam looked wounded, and Gilly rolled her eyes, pressing a kiss to his forehead.

“You know you’re my favorite Tarly.” she wrinkled her nose. “How long have you been working on this presentation? You smell like the baby spit up on you.”

“Guess I’m next in line for showers.” Sam said, mournfully. “Unless-“

“Nope- I need my own time right now, Samwell. Did you even hear what I said about why Jon’s bent out of shape?”

Jon had known Gilly since Sam and she had met up north while the two of them were in college. Sometimes, it was hard to reconcile the timid, scared girl she had been with the woman who was currently devoting all of her remaining energy to busting his balls.

“Don’t tell me you’re worried about Sansa with my brother.” Sam snorted, shotgunning another cup of coffee next to him the way Jon was used to seeing undergrads do with jaeger shots. “I mean, this is Dickon we’re talking about. Used to bring wounded animals home to take care of them Dickon? The same guy who cried when we had movie night and Gilly and Rhae wanted to go see ‘Love, Simon’?” He shook his head. “Look, as far as guys she could be out on a date with right now go, Dickon’s kind of the best case scenario. She’ll have a nice time, and he’ll be a perfect gentleman.”

Jon blinked at him, silently turning to look up at Gilly, who rolled her eyes and sighed.

“You’re hopeless, sweetie.” she kissed him on the forehead again, wrinkling her nose. “He’s not worried that things will go wrong- he’s worried they’ll go a little too well.”

“You’ve been spending way too much time around my sister.” Jon muttered, narrowly avoiding little Sam’s grasping reach for his glasses, managing to get the baby to latch onto the bottle before he destroyed any more of Jon’s eyewear. “You even sounded like her just then.”

Sam blinked for a second, his head whipping between Jon and Gilly.“You’re jealous?” He asked, incredulously. “Of Dickon? Wait- you like Sansa?”

“Got there in the end.” Gilly sighed, affectionately patting him on the shoulder before going to shower, leaving Jon and Sam behind with four cups of coffee, one baby, and approximately five brain cells total between the two of them.

“You like her.” Sam repeated, like it was a giant revelation.

“What are we- in middle school?” Jon hissed, immediately turning his head down to smile and make faces at little Sam while he fed him, before glaring up at big Sam again. “I don’t- I mean-“

Sam was just shaking his head.“Of course you do.” he laughed. “Should have guessed- red hair and a damsel in distress? You were doomed from the outset.”

“Shut up.” Jon muttered, flushing. “It’s not like that.”

“Then why are you worrying about Dickon for fu-“ Sam glanced nervously at the baby, “-god’s sake? When Gill was meeting my family for the first time, I remember you told her not to worry- that my brother was ‘one of the best guys you know’ and ‘practically a golden retriever’.”

Jon could tell that Sam, who could not raise one eyebrow without the other, was desperately trying to do just that.

“I don’t know.” He muttered, moving little Sam to his shoulder to start burping him. “Look- I’m attracted to her, alright? It’s a fu- er, a giant disaster that I’m gonna ignore for the rest of my life.”

“Seriously?”

“Stop trying to do that with your eyebrows.” Jon complained. “It’s giving me motion sickness. And yes, seriously. I’m not even going to consider that- it’s just a stupid crush. Besides,” he sighed, rubbing little Sam’s back comfortingly, “Robb’s already dealing with enough right now with this whole Sansa situation- can’t imagine telling him I think his sister’s attractive while he’s being forced to suddenly confront all of his guilt and self loathing every time he looks at her.”

“That whole bro code thing of never dating your friend’s sisters never really made sense to me.” Sam shook his head, gulping down more coffee. “I mean, I’d be thrilled if you decided to date Talla, because I know you’d be good to her.”

“Yeah, don't think she'd quite go for that, mate.” Jon snorted, standing to bounce little Sam around gently. He was just grateful Sam hadn’t said anything else about Robb.

“Eh, wouldn’t count you out completely.” Sam shrugged, smirking. “With that hair, you’re pretty enough to be a girl- maybe that’d be enough for her.”

“You are so lucky i’m holding the baby.” Jon muttered, still bouncing little Sam, who picked that moment to spit up spectacularly down Jon’s back.

“Well, that’s three of us who’re gonna need showers now.” Sam grinned, looking thrilled as all get out that it hadn’t been him. “Wow- his aim is getting better.”

“I’m going to remind him of this when he’s a sulky teenager.” Jon grumbled, wiping spit-up off his shoulder as best he could. “Look- no gossiping with Rhae about this, please. She thinks she’s such a good clandestine agent that she doesn’t always realize that Robb is better at sniffing out her plots than she thinks.”

“Alright-“ Sam sighed, looking back down at the massive stack of paperwork in front of him. “I make no promises for Gill, though.”

“Gilly could give some of my Uncle’s colleagues at the WIA a run for their money when it comes to withstanding interrogation.” Jon snorted.

“Probably true.”

“Where did your brother take Sansa?” Still holding onto a now much happier baby with one hand, he reached down the other to take a gulp of his own coffee.

“He said something about going out towards the Tyrell Estate.” Sam shrugged. “They probably drove out there to see the gardens- he’s said it’s a good road to take his bike out on.”

Jon promptly spat out his entire sip of coffee, staining the front of his shirt as well as the back, and frightening little Sam enough that he started to cry.

“He took her on his motorcycle?”

Gilly picked that moment to reappear, completely clean and with wet hair, blinking at the scene in front of her.

Sam, who couldn’t seem to stop laughing, was desperately trying to calm down the baby, who had started wailing, while Jon’s entire front was covered in coffee and his entire back was covered in baby vomit. Not that he seemed to notice, as his face was white and he was making a series of angry looking hand gestures at her husband.

“I really can’t leave you three alone for five minutes, can I?” she sighed. “Do I even want to know?”

#my writing #my wips #writing wips #just APWH things #jonsa #fanfiction wip #God bless Gilly like for real #YES Sansa is on a date with someone else here #muscleman golden retriever McAttractiveness #Aka dickon tarly #unsurprisingly jon is not having a great time about it!#in fairness to sansa the plotline directly preceding this and kicking off her doing some traveling was pretty rough on her #so our poor girl really deserves a giant muscley golden retriever with a motorcycle #and to just have a good time with someone who isn't wrapped up in all the stark drama/disaster/mess etc.#jon can deal with it rn bc it's really a 'you snooze you lose' kind of situation #sam's usually quicker on the draw but he's very sleep deprived here #and working on some stuff for a pathology conference #not at all going to be relevant nope no sir #writing sam and jon interacting vs jon and robb is so fascinating #they're both jon's besties but there's a very different dynamic to the two relationships #in fairness Robb has like SO much complex childhood trauma and is kind of seriously going through it right now #but his scenes with jon always have this sort of darker edge to them #like an 'i've known you my entire life and know everything about you for better or worse' type deal- deeper but darker #it's more akin to a sibling relationship? but also not? they are both going thru it #my headcanon is that anytime jon starts getting too gloomy and angsty gilly just straight up shoves the baby at him #and then waits like twenty minutes #Gilly: 'it's free babysitting!'#generally it works pretty well #jon's like '404 error does not compute' as soon as sam says the word 'motorcycle'#also when sam says 'the secretary' he means randyll tarly was the secretary of defense

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sihtriggyr · 3 months

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Second Sons of The Realm: Daemon Targaryen • Otto Hightower • Aemond Targaryen • Lucerys Velaryon • Viserys II Targaryen • Larys Strong • Tyland Lannister • Eddard Stark • Tyrion Lannister • Brandon Stark • Jon Snow • Viserys III Targaryen • Oberyn Martell • Stannis Baratheon • Tommen Baratheon • Euron III Greyjoy • Sandor Clegane • Brynden Tully • Dickon Tarly • Kevan Lannister • Trystane Martell.

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maskedhatter · 11 months

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Honorable mention goes to Dickon Tarly (Dicksa) mostly cause that ship name is hilarious.

Remember; no right or wrong answers here, just go with your gut.

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goodqueenaly · 1 year

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Do you think willas tyrell will be exactly like how he is spoken about? As this lovely, we’ll-read and respectful man. Or will he have a Tyrion edge to him like how Tyrion is portrayed but his pov shows differently. How do you think his personality and archetype will be?

I would certainly like to think that Willas Tyrell will be an overall positive character in the story. Every time Willas has come up in the story, he is the subject of admiration, approval, and/or affection: he is the big brother of Margaery’s memory who “used to read to [her] when [she] was a little girl, and draw [her] pictures of the stars”; he is the familial protector of Garlan’s childhood, who dubbed him “Garlan the Gallant” to protect him from crueler, body-shaming monikers; he is the “mild and courtly young man, fond of reading books and looking at the stars” whom Tywin identifies as his preferred new husband for Cersei (and note that Tywin says that “all reports” verify this description of Willas). While it might be easy to dismiss the consistent praise of Willas as merely the product of pro-Tyrell bias, I find it difficult to agree entirely with such an assessment. Oberyn Martell, certainly, had no incentive to praise Willas to Tyrion, even if he, Oberyn, wanted to deflect Tyrion’s barbed observation that the prince of Dorne had “trampled” the heir to Highgarden; likewise, Tywin hardly spared his (private) contempt of Robert Baratheon, for example, even though he actively sought to marry Cersei to Robert in the aftermath of Robert’s Rebellion.

Indeed, I do not think it at all coincidental that these descriptions remind me most strongly of Samwell Tarly. Just as Randyll Tarly had set out to forcibly mold Sam into (his conception of) the perfect warrior, so Mace Tyrell had forced Willas into a tournament when he, Willas, was “still a green squire” (according to Mace’s WOIAF app entry) and when he “had no business riding in such company” because Mace “wanted another Leo Longthorn”. In turn, just as Randyll’s years of physical and psychological abuse toward Sam caused Sam deep and lasting trauma (so much so that he still fears Randyll’s brutal disapproval toward a career as a maester, despite owing no further obligation to Randyll now that he is a brother of the Night’s Watch), so Mace’s decision to urge Willas into Westerosi (peacetime) martial glory resulted in permanent physical disability inflicted on his son (and, relatedly, the consistent identification of Willas as a “cripple”, a shameful state in the eyes of largely ableist Westeros). However, where Randyll vigorously and horribly attempted to crush Sam’s non-martial interests, Willas seems to have been allowed, maybe even encouraged to pursue the same. Where Randyll treated with contempt Sam’s gentle bonding with his siblings - singing a lullaby to help baby Dickon sleep and sharing a bed in childhood with his sisters - Willas clearly showed himself the caring older brother to Margaery and Garlan; where Sam was chained by the neck for three days in a dungeon for merely suggesting that he become a maester, Willas has seemingly eagerly pursued his interest in books and learning. Importantly, where Randyll refused to show further interest in training Sam as his heir once he had Dickon, Mace has never done the same with Willas: Garlan and (especially) Loras may be the sort of talented young knights celebrated in Westerosi culture, but Mace has nevertheless deputized Willas as his representative in Highgarden (even praising Willas as such when he rejects Cersei’s suggestion that he, Mace, “is needed in the Reach”). Willas, perhaps, offers something of a glimpse into what Sam might have become, had Randyll Tarly not been such a violently hateful misogynist and male chauvinist - that is, an intelligent and capable heir without performing the expected (read: battlefield) roles of Westerosi male aristocrats.

That similarity in character I think will result in a meeting of the minds, so to speak, in TWOW. When (and not if, I believe) Euron Greyjoy attempts to take over Oldtown as its apocalyptic god-king, I think Sam will make his way out of the city and toward Highgarden (as the political heart of the Reach and the closest major seat of protection, especially to a Reach-raised aristocrat like Sam). This is where good-natured, empathetic Willas Tyrell may work far better for the story than a more cynical or caustic take on the character: where Sam has been throughout his life mocked and derided for his lack of martial interest and his bookishness, Willas is exactly the sort of person to empathize with Sam and be keenly interested in what he has to say (especially given that Willas himself had warned Leyton Hightower of the ironborn’s coming). It is Willas who may appreciate Sam’s diligent study into ancient texts, especially into the supernatural, and so Willas who may be willing to listen to whatever advice Sam can provide, or even help himself with such research (in whatever archives Highgarden may have) in the quest to defeat Euron. (Incidentally, if Alleras-who-is-really-Sarella makes it out of Oldtown with Sam - and I certainly want to think she does - then Willas’ amiable relationship with her late father and demonstrated interest in learning may appeal to not only Oberyn’s proud daughter, but the one who had “wanted to know everything there was to know” on her dad’s field trip to the ruin of Shandystone.)

So this is all a very longwinded way of saying that yes, I think Willas will be a Pretty Cool Dude when he gets introduced (so far as anyone in Westeros can be, anyway, and certainly anyone in a feudal aristocratic system). I don’t think it makes a lot of sense for GRRM to build him up consistently as such a positive figure and then say “actually just kidding, he’s a big old jerk” (though we’ll leave Jaehaerys I out of this discussion …). Rather, I think it works much better for the story if Sam finds one much like himself, but with the political power he never had - a true ally, kind, empathetic, and willing to listen to what he has to say when few others have. I firmly place Willas on the side of the good (along with Sam and, so I hope, Sarella) in the fight against the evil that is Euron and his attempted apocalyptic takeover.

#asoiaf meta #willas tyrell #samwell tarly

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tweedstoat · 6 months

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Was thinking about the Maegor/Aenys relationship yesterday and the general Targaryen Weirdness and Feudal Society weirdness about second sons and I think it it's so wild because personality wise and visually Aenys is the consummate second son but he's the one with all the power of the eldest. Meanwhile Maegor is (theoretically) everything an eldest son should be but is continually constrained by being cast as Aenys' supporter with his eldest son nature posing a threat to the actual eldest son.

The two of them are an excellent illustration of what if the birth order was incorrect (eg Sam and Dickon Tarly) but also what is a second son but a wife gone wrong (Viserys and Daemon). Perfect little microcosm of everything fucked up with having an heir and a spare.

#also this might just be me postulating but also an illustration of how the Targs just dont really get feudal patriarchy and gender roles yet #visenya thinks this is old valyria nah its an entirely seperate thing you need to deal with #maegor targaryen #aenys targaryen #also also maaaybe this is me being very weird but maegor being impotent = symbolically a woman since he cant father children?#he was supposed to be a wife!

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turtle-paced · 1 year

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Was Randly’s treatment of Sam extreme even for Westeros standards? I mean, it can't be that bad to have a less “masculine” son as head of the house, as long as he keeps the house rich and has enough of a military training to stand in the battle if necessary, especially in times of peace? Sure, society wouldn’t place Sam as the ideal hair but it’s not the disgrace Randly seems to think he is right?

Yes, it was. Remember:

Three men-at-arms had escorted [Sam] into a wood near Horn Hill, where his father was skinning a deer. "You are almost a man grown now, and my heir," Lord Randyll Tarly had told his eldest son, his long knife laying bare the carcass as he spoke. "You have given me no cause to disown you, but neither will I allow you to inherit the land and title that should be Dickon's. Heartsbane must go to a man strong enough to wield her, and you are not worthy to touch her hilt. So I have decided that you shall this day announce that you wish to take the black. You will forsake all claim to your brother's inheritance and start north before evenfall.

"If you do not, then on the morrow we shall have a hunt, and somewhere in these woods your horse will stumble, and you will be thrown from the saddle to die … or so I will tell your mother. She has a woman's heart and finds it in her to cherish even you, and I have no wish to cause her pain. Please do not imagine that it will truly be that easy, should you think to defy me. Nothing would please me more than to hunt you down like the pig you are." His arms were red to the elbow as he laid the skinning knife aside. "So. There is your choice. The Night's Watch"—he reached inside the deer, ripped out its heart, and held it in his fist, red and dripping—"or this."

Jon IV, AGoT

Randyll threatened to murder his own son. He laid out in detail how he planned to do it. That is not typical, not even for Westeros, where the political and social system creates all sorts of fucked up family dynamics.

In the alternative to cold-blooded murder he sent his son to the Watch, also a very unusual thing in the time the series is set.

Randyll might have found Sam embarrassing. But even most Westerosi don't go from "my son is not up to scratch" to "I must kill him horribly!"

#asoiaf #valyrianscrolls #cw: abuse #cw: violence #randyll tarly #sam tarly

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mostfandomimagines · 1 year

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Imagine: Being Cersei’s daughter and she announces a betrol between you and Dickon Tarly in front of everone

#Dickon Tarly #house tarly #cersei lannister #house lannister #house baratheon #game of thrones #got #game of thrones imagine #dickon tarly imagines #not MY gif

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jozor-johai · 5 months

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Revisiting the Rat Cook, Part 2: Prince-and-Bacon Pie, and Pork Crackling

This is the second part of a series where I'm examining the symbols and themes present in the "Rat Cook" story, as relayed by Bran in ASOS Bran IV, and search reappearances of those elements throughout the rest of ASOIAF.

This is the first part, as well as the long version of my introduction.

"Revisiting the Rat Cook" is predicated on the understanding that GRRM's use of metadiegetic legends provide a "road map" of symbols and meaning, used in their abstract form, which we, as readers, can use to better understand the relationships between symbols, motifs, and themes as they reoccur throughout ASOAIF as a whole.

Among other things, the Rat Cook story is about a rat which eats rats, or a cook who serves kings; The Rat Cook story is about fathers and sons, about cannibalism, about trust, about vengeance, and about damning one's legacy.

This is likely going to be a 9-part series, but ideally almost all of these parts will be able to stand on their own. Each post will inform the next as I build my analysis, but hopefully each individual post is also interesting in its own right.

"Prince-and-Bacon Pie"

Last time, we talked about Wyman Manderly's wedding pies, and his favorite, lamprey pies.

In the original Rat Cook story, though, the Andal King is allegedly served a bacon pie. “Prince-and-bacon pie”, Bran calls it, and he repeats later that a “rasher of bacon” was cooked into the prince pie. The idea of pork served alongside human flesh is given repeat attention in regard to the pie, but it extends elsewhere into the story as well:

When the Rat Cook is punished, in turn, and becomes a cannibal rat eating his own kind, he is transformed into an insatiable rat “as huge as a sow”. Unusually large for a rat, but he is certainly no longer a man, although perhaps close enough, if you trust the moniker “long pork”.

This connection remains true for Lord Manderly’s Frey pies. When they are served in ADWD The Prince of Winterfell, they are introduced as being pork pies:

“…three great wedding pies, as wide across as wagon wheels, their flaky crusts stuffed to bursting with carrots, onions, turnips, parsnips, mushrooms, and chunks of seasoned pork swimming in a savory brown gravy.

Manderly’s pie is nearly identical to the one served by the Rat Cook, with carrots, onions, mushrooms, and, most importantly, down to pork as the main meat—which is to be expected, as Manderly has all but admitted to his influences.

In fact, though, the association of cannibalism, pork, and even pies comes as early as AGOT Jon IV, when the readers are introduced to the notion offhand while the Night’s Watch recruits mock Samwell Tarly:

“I saw him eat a pork pie," Toad said, smirking. "Do you think it was a brother?"

Three-Finger Hobb is certainly not serving Dickon to Samwell, but it contains all the same connections that the Rat Cook story relies on: between cannibalism and one’s own family, children baked into pork pies. The phrase “rasher of bacon” from the Rat Cook story appears in this same interaction about Sam, doubling down on the associations:

"You girls do as you please," Rast said, "but if Thorne sends me against Lady Piggy, I'm going to slice me off a rasher of bacon."

Again, this early instance of bullying, which might instead be framed as the brutal hierarchy of interpersonal domination—or we might say, brothers turning against brothers—is depicted using the same motifs as literal cannibalism. Is it Sam’s blood brother who is a pork pie, or is it Sam, called pork by the men who would become his black brothers? These are brothers turning against their own, and it is the imagined transformation of a man into a pig.

The recruits are joking here, but the comparison between slicing up a human and slicing up pork was brought up with a much darker tone only three chapters earlier, in AGOT Arya II:

Jeyne Poole had told Arya that he'd cut him up in so many pieces that they'd given him back to the butcher in a bag, and at first the poor man had thought it was a pig they'd slaughtered.

It’s dark irony for Micah, the butcher’s boy, to be returned to his father butchered like a pig. It also evokes our Rat Cook story again, with a dead son delivered to his father; like the Andal king, Micah’s father thinks—for a moment—that he’s being given pork. Also present again is the nature of transformation that this death creates: the prince becomes a pork pie, and the Rat Cook becomes as big as a “sow”, just as much as Micah becomes a slaughtered pig.

When the Night’s Watch arrives at Craster’s Keep in ACOK Jon III, Jon finds the similarity again, noting that a pig about to be slaughtered sounds eerily human:

Nearby, a small girl pulled carrots from a garden, naked in the rain, while two women tied a pig for slaughter. The animal's squeals were high and horrible, almost human in their distress.

Immediately later in the same chapter, Dolorous Edd makes a wry joke about cannibalism:

Best leave the wolf outside, he looks hungry enough to eat one of Craster's children. Well, truth be told, I'm hungry enough to eat one of Craster's children, so long as he was served hot.

Just like with the Night’s Watch recruits, this is a joke, but Edd’s line about eating one of Craster’s children transforms the earlier scene into a more chilling image: we were presented with the human-sounding tied pig appearing side-by-side in the same sentence with one of Craster’s small, naked children. With the addition of Edd’s words, both motifs appear alongside a story of eating children—just as in the Rat Cook story, where the Andal king eats his child-as-pork, and the Rat Cook-as-sow eats his own children as well.

Even more can be made of Edd’s jape, if we notice another minute detail: it’s also loaded that Edd uses “he” here to refer to Craster’s child… when Craster only keeps his daughters. Because Edd evokes sons here, Edd’s joke about eating a child calls special attention to the conspicuously missing sons from the scene. Might we expect, in the context of all this imagery, that these sons have been 'eaten' as well, even if not literally? We learn that these missing sons were sacrificed to the old gods later in the same chapter:

But the wildlings serve crueler gods than you or I. These boys are Craster's offerings. His prayers, if you will.

This is the clear meaning of the earlier association between the vulnerable child and the “almost human” pig, which is about to be slaughtered—or sacrificed—so that the keep could live, by way of eating it. It’s the same thing with Craster’s children, who are also, from his perspective, sacrificed so that his keep can live on, untroubled by the old gods.

Note here how all these motifs occur in tandem with each other: pigs as sacrifice to become food, eating children, sacrificed sons, deference (or lack thereof) to the old gods (and, importantly, their laws). The Rat Cook, in retribution, is forced to eat his children, for he forced the Andal King to do the same.

In both scenarios, the gods seemingly ‘demand’ that a father sacrifice his children; the fact that these are sons for Craster deepens the symbolic meaning, as it did with Walder Frey and the Freys in the last part: it is the death of one’s legacy by way of one’s lineage. Only sons bear the family name.

This is the paradox, the 'doom' that Craster, like the doomed characters in "The Rat Cook", is living out. From his perspective, he sacrifices his sons for the same reason he slaughters the pigs: to ensure his keep's survival. They need to eat, and they need to be untroubled by curses. But that sacrifice is Craster's curse, for even as he ensures his short-term survival, he damns his legacy. Craster may have children, but his keep has no future. Every one of his daughters, rather than become their own generation, perversely returns to reenact the role of their mother’s generation as Craster weds her; his keep, as its own patriarchal entity, is stagnant, and will die with him.

"Pork Crackling"

Regarding the equivalence of eating one’s family as an extension of eating one’s legacy, agency, or even one’s self, bear with me into an interesting digression about Victarion:

In ADWD The Iron Suitor, Victarion understands that his role as captain is both inextricably tied to his physical person, and yet is also an idea, separate from him as a mortal man. Referring to his rotting hand, he thinks to himself:

This was not something that his crew could see. They were half a world away from home, too far to let them see that their iron captain had begun to rust.

His mortality—the mortification of his injured hand—would ruin the effect of his role as captain, a higher status which the Ironborn consider to be a “king aboard his own ship”. Victarion may not be socially permitted to be so incapacitated while captain, but he also understands that if he keeps his captain identity separate from his mortal form—that is, if he can lie about the severity of his injury, keeping the state of his body hidden while playing the role of captain—he can maintain his identity as “the iron captain”.

The role of 'captain', and even more so, the arm that is required to be a warrior, is so intricately tied to Victarion’s warrior identity, and therefore to his sense of self, that Victarion refurses to allow the maester to cut off his arm to save the rest of his body. Again, his identity is greater than his mortality.

Yet, when Moqorro suddenly arrives, and Victarion is faced with an alternative, he is willing to sacrifice all else: to stray from the Drowned God towards R'hllor, to put his body into the hands of a “sorcerer” that he just met—all to pursue the ideal of his legacy as captain, divested from his person. And so Victarion, by beginning to sacrificing so much cultural baggage which he believed was part of himself, gets to keep his arm and his captainhood—and what does this arm look like?

Victarion offers this sickening description in ADWD Victarion I:

The arm the priest had healed was hideous to look upon, pork crackling from elbow to fingertips.

It’s a rare case where someone is able to look at their own body and make the gruesome comparison between their own flesh and pork as food, and this moment is Victarion’s reward. Like the Rat Cook who became a rat "huge as a sow", like Micah the butcher's boy who became a butchered pig, Victarion's arm—which was so much his legacy, his identity, that he would not let the maester remove it, so much a symbol of his personhood and his power that he would stray from the Drowned God to get it back—has become pork crackling.

- - -

Speaking of pork crackling, and returning to Craster's Keep...

When they burn the body of a fallen Night’s Watchman in ASOS Samwell II, Sam finds that it smells so much like pork that he is involuntarily hungry:

The worst thing was the smell, though. If it had been a foul unpleasant smell he might have stood it, but his burning brother smelled so much like roast pork that Sam's mouth began to water, and that was so horrible that as soon as the bird squawked "Ended" he ran behind the hall to throw up in the ditch.

Yet again, Dolorous Edd appears immediately afterward to bring the cannibalistic overtones to the forefront. Again, Edd makes the comparison between eating pork and eating human flesh, like in the Rat Cook story, and with eating one’s family, as with his own jape a book earlier, as with Rast mocking Sam in AGOT, as with the Freys eating their kin in ADWD. They may not be tied by blood, but Edd jokes about eating his brothers all the same:

"Never knew Bannen could smell so good." Edd's tone was as morose as ever. "I had half a mind to carve a slice off him. If we had some applesauce, I might have done it. Pork's always best with applesauce, I find." … "You best not die, Sam, or I fear I might succumb. There's bound to be more crackling on you than Bannen ever had, and I never could resist a bit of crackling.”

If Sam were to die, Edd suggests, he too would become pork crackling. I wonder if that says anything about Victarion's own fate... but I'm talking about Sam for now.

The even more important part of Sam’s experience here is Sam's knowledge that it is wrong, sickening, to eat human flesh—or, perhaps, to turn against his family, even his adopted family, as the two issues are conflated in these instances. Edd jokes about how delicious Bannen smells to make light of a dark, cruel truth: in these starving conditions, that might be true. Despite that suspicion, it is still firmly the wrong thing to do. Sam vomits even considering the thought.

When it comes to the Rat Cook story, though, that knowledge does not spare the Andal King any more than the Rat Cook; both, ultimately, are forced into the position of cannibalism, which makes it all the more tragic: to know the difference between right and wrong, but perhaps not to know which you are choosing. Did Victarion make the right choice turning his arm to pork to stay the "Iron Captain" he wanted to be? Did Craster make the right choice leaving his sons to die so that he could live untroubled? Do they even know?

As for the Andal King, he didn't even understand the choice in front of him; he was placed into that position by the Rat Cook—because of the violation of guest right, that significant law of the Old Gods.

Guest right is a social contract, the type that is necessary to maintain social stability. To keep interpersonal relationships, to build a community—or a kingdom—a person must be able to trust their neighbor. Practically, a guest must be able to trust that they will not be poisoned with food, in the same way that a host must be able to trust that their guest will not turn their cloak and slaughter them under their own roof. In other words, both parties must be able to trust that the social conditions of peace will be upheld.

The fact that this story of the Rat Cook concerns a power dynamic as well—between the lowly cook and the Andal King—expands the metaphor into one that describes feudalism as a whole… but I’ll expand that idea in the subsequent parts to come.

For now, consider this: that the Andal King, like Sam with Bannen’s delicious-smelling corpse, might have known the difference between right and wrong, but it may have made no difference as to what he actually did: he still ate his own son.

But what of the Andal King's own crime? Who started it? The Rat Cook broke the ancient social contract of trust called “guest right” to punish the King… but for the Rat Cook to be deserving of vengeance, the Andal King must have broken a social contract as well, perhaps a social contract regarding the position of power that a King has over a cook. The King must have broken that contract first, even before the story of "The Rat Cook" picks up.

But that will be further discussed in parts to come. Next part we’ll talk more about trust in particular, finally taking look at Coldhands attempting to feed Bran a “sow”, visiting Arya in the House of Black and White, and looking at Quentyn making a deal Meereen.

#a song of ice and fire #asoiaf analysis #rat cook #craster #victarion greyjoy #asoiaf #RtRC

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what-do-1000-swords-look-like · 1 year

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Can we just talk about one of the most telling signs that had Jon not had the Great War to fight and had he not discovered Dany was family to him that he would have never accepted Dany as a ruler or even as a possible love interest?

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Sam's father wasn't kind to him but we still see Sam have a slight reaction when he realizes Dany executed him. But it's when Dany mentions that she also executed Dickon, that we get a full reaction from Sam. He loved his brother and his brother was kinder to him than his father had been. Dickon was clearly Randyll's favorite while he saw Sam as a disappointment. And you could make the argument that Dickon was Sam's favorite out of the two men of his family.

After this, we see what Sam really thinks of Dany after learning this information, when he talks to Jon.

And then you have Jon:

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Here he talks about Robb after finding out about his death, to Sam funnily enough. He loved his brother and Robb loved him.

The contrast is that Ned loved Jon as well and Jon loved him. It was Catelyn who couldn't stand him. Whereas Sam's mother loved him as did his sister.

But Jon and Sam both knew what it was to have conflicting feelings for their brothers (Dickon vs Robb I mean). So it makes sense that Jon is the person that Sam tells this information to and lets him see how upset he is. (he had only begun to get upset in Dany's presence when he asked her leave and bounced right out of there)

And we see Jon's reaction to the news. He knows very well who the last person was that executed a father and son: Aerys. The very same king that he mentioned to Dany when meeting her in 7x03 and Sansa mentioned to Jon in 7x02 in relation to their grandfather and uncle.

There is absolutely no way Jon would have seen Dany as a potential romantic partner, no matter how beautiful she may have been or how powerful, after learning this information.

Bonus:

Notice how Dany has absolutely zero empathy here when seeing how upset Sam was becoming. They showed Jorah's reactions for contrast while Dany was in her it-was-necessary mode with no sympathy or empathy whatsoever.

And we see Jon's reaction as the contrast:

No way that these two people (Dany and Jon) have anything in commonality other than their family line and all that it entails (meaning the dragons). They were two very different people with different intentions and motivations, two completely different rulers, and they didn't complement one another or fill in each other's gaps in a way that would have made them a powerful ruling team.

#anti jonerys #anti jonerys meta #antijonerysposts #got #game of thrones #gotposts #got 8x01 #got rewatch #metaposts

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asongofstarkandtargaryen · 11 months

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Any friendships you're hoping for besides obvious ones like dany + any stark

Bran developing a friendship with Devan seaworth would be cool if Davos sticks with the Starks after Stannis and Shireen's death, also maybe edric storm, rollam westerling and dickon tarly

Arya with one of the mormonts also Meera given the similarities

Sansa with Wylla

Edmure and Willas

Brynden Tully and Wyman Manderly

I'm hoping that Dany will form a bond with every girl who had a tough time and is around her age. Aside from Arya & Sansa, I'd like to see her interact with Brienne, Asha, Jeyne Poole, Meera etc. Please Martin give us all the positive female relationship you haven't shown us so far. And ofc I really want to see her meeting and teaming up with Tyrion.

Bran Stark and Devan Seaworth could be introduced and become friends since both are sweet kids. Can we also throw Lyanna Mormont here? In her letter she showed respect and loyalty towards the Starks so I'm sure she would be thrilled to be friends with future head of House Stark. Also, I hope sweet Robin survives and meets his youngest cousins ( Bran and Rickon) because poor kid seems in need of some friends.

Sansa and Arya need to meet the Manderly sisters and their sister of law, Jeyne, as well.

For Sansa, I'd be interested to see her interacting with her uncle Edmure and his wife Roslyn.

As for Arya, she needs to meet Meera, Alys and the Sand Snakes. And while I know that Ironborn don't get along with Northerners, I need Arya and Asha to interact. She should also meet her uncle Brynden Tully and let him be the one to train her in order to be ready for the The last Battle. That would be an ideal mentorship, imo.

As for Jon, he should meet JonCon and Young Griff ( unlikely to happen but still) because I want to see those three interact. Bonus points if that happens before the Jon's lineage revelation. Also, Jon should meet Meera and Brienne because they are exactly the type of girls he admires. Both have different love interests but still they deserve to meet a nice young man who would admire them for those reasons westerosi society looks down on them.

#asoiaf ask #asoiaf headcanons #valyrianscolls #daenerys targaryen #bran Stark #sansa stark #Arya stark #jon snow

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agentrouka-blog · 1 year

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Lord Samwell Tarly aka Savage Sam wielded Heartsbane to fight in Vulture Hunt. He slewed many Dornishmen with it which made the sword appeared red with blood. Sam was allowed to hold Heartsbane by husband father Randyl when he was young but Sam was scared because he didn't wanted to hurt his sisters with it. Sam believe that this sword will pass on to Dickon. How do you think Heartsbane will involved in Sam story in future? Will he yield the sword as Savage Sam or he is going to reject it?

I don't think Sam is going to emulate either of his bold namesakes, be that Savage Sam or Lady Sam.

His thoughts on the sword are given to us in AGOT, Jon VIII, in the context of Jon receiving Longclaw from Lord Commander Mormont.

"Sam." Jon stood. "What is it? Do you want to see the sword?" If the others had known, no doubt Sam did too. The fat boy shook his head. "I was heir to my father's blade once," he said mournfully. "Heartsbane. Lord Randyll let me hold it a few times, but it always scared me. It was Valyrian steel, beautiful but so sharp I was afraid I'd hurt one of my sisters. Dickon will have it now." He wiped sweaty hands on his cloak.

Sam has no desire for this dangerous sword, no more than he has ever shown a desire to be able to fight at all. He is not mourning his lost inheritance, either. It's his father's cruelty that traumatized him.

This is a marked contrast to Jon's relationship with blades and inheritance.

When Jon had been Bran's age, he had dreamed of doing great deeds, as boys always did. The details of his feats changed with every dreaming, but quite often he imagined saving his father's life. Afterward Lord Eddard would declare that Jon had proved himself a true Stark, and place Ice in his hand. Even then he had known it was only a child's folly; no bastard could ever hope to wield a father's sword. Even the memory shamed him. What kind of man stole his own brother's birthright? I have no right to this, he thought, no more than to Ice. He twitched his burned fingers, feeling a throb of pain deep under the skin. "My lord, you honor me, but—" [....] "Yes, my lord." The soft leather gave beneath Jon's fingers, as if the sword were molding itself to his grip already. He knew he should be honored, and he was, and yet …

He is not my father. The thought leapt unbidden to Jon's mind. Lord Eddard Stark is my father. I will not forget him, no matter how many swords they give me. Yet he could scarcely tell Lord Mormont that it was another man's sword he dreamt of …

Which picks up a thread introduced even earlier:

"A wolf with a fish in its mouth?" It made her laugh. "That would look silly. Besides, if a girl can't fight, why should she have a coat of arms?" Jon shrugged. "Girls get the arms but not the swords. Bastards get the swords but not the arms. I did not make the rules, little sister." (AGOT, Arya I)

He gets a sword and the arms in one from Mormont, but it is not The Sword he truly wants. The sword that marks his father's heritage, his legitimacy.

Given the cruel deeds attached to Heartsbane, Samwell seems wise to reject the sword in his heart. It's not his father or his sword that represents home to him, it is his mother and his sisters.

I have a suspicion that Jon will emulate Sam there, and have no desire to wield his "true" father's ancestral family weapon, either, should he have the chance to bond with a dragon. He may not be Ned's son, but he is the man who raised him, and it is his mother who is his tie to his home.

He already has the true symbol of legitimacy:

Ghost was curled up asleep beside the door, but he lifted his head at the sound of Jon's boots. The direwolf's red eyes were darker than garnets and wiser than men. Jon knelt, scratched his ear, and showed him the pommel of the sword. "Look. It's you." Ghost sniffed at his carved stone likeness and tried a lick. Jon smiled. "You're the one deserves an honor," he told the wolf … and suddenly he found himself remembering how he'd found him, that day in the late summer snow.

Samwell doesn't need the validation of Heartsbane, and I don't think the text will seek to validate the sword itself, either. Samwell has plenty of heart on his own, and since GRRM has Ice put through the blender, I don't think he's out there looking to glorify these swords so much as asking us to question the purpose and worth of carrying weapons. Ancestral vanity blades (no matter the high quality) mean little. Brienne has made better use of Oathkeeper in the short time it has existed. I wouldn't bet on Heartsbane surviving.

#rouka queue #samwell tarly #jon snow #parallels #sword imagery #heartsbane (sword)#longclaw #legitimacy #inheritance #ghost the direwolf

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