#it’s most likely that jon is still a work in progress and so pragmatism sometimes ties the line of cruelty

[nightswatchdisbandmentera]

“No.” He could hear the defeat in her voice. “Sorry to be of trouble, m’lord. I only … they said the king keeps people safe, and I thought …”

[…]

Jon watched her go, his joy in the morning’s brittle beauty gone. Damn her, he thought resentfully, and damn Sam twice for sending her to me. What did he think I could do for her?

Jon III, ACOK

This is one of my favorite ‘Jon is the king’ passages because it’s less about him being king by birth and more about him displaying one of the core qualities of kingship - that a king’s key role is to protect his people.

Because its adorable that Gilly heard that Jon is a bastard but upon meeting him, immediately bent the knee (as one would to a king) and then entreated him to help her by appealing to the idea that a king protects people. And with a severe lack of kings north of the Wall, Jon Snow is her best shot; yes there’s Mance Rayder but he’s quite far from Gilly.

And how ironic that Gilly appeals to Jon, a mere bastard boy who is sworn to an order that requires him not to hold any lands or wear any crowns. Jon’s closest relation to kingship at that moment is that his brother, Robb Stark, is king (as Gilly is told that he’s a brother to kings). But Gilly doesn’t say, “in the name of your brother who’s the king help me”. She doesnt say, “King Robb should help me”. She asks Jon to help her; she kneels to Jon. She recognizes that he may stand in for her but is probably seeing Jon, the mere boy, as the embodiment of the king’s duty. Really, it’s an interesting study of kingship as a quality outside of any official titles.

But I do think that Sam had something to do with it. Jon went out of his way to protect Sam in AGOT, so Sam probably used personal experience when speaking to Gilly. He understood that Jon is someone who protects people so he went and told Gilly about it; how ironic that Jon questions what Sam was thinking, because did he forget what he did for Sam?

But Gilly upon hearing Sam’s story asked for Jon’s help not in a “please help me like you helped your best buddy” type of way but in a “please help me like a king would” type of way. I wonder what stories Gilly grew up learning of kingship and if she decided that Jon was a king, despite wearing no crown, once she heard Sam’s story. I’m inclined to think that while Sam told her that Jon would help her, she is the one who then connected that promise of protection to kingship.

But there is also a larger theme that kingship isn’t easy, and Jon is just started on his character development here. He may want to help Gilly, but he hasn’t yet began to understand the wildlings as people in the way that he will later on. What Jon fails to do for Gilly here, he does for thousands of wildlings two books later (and will presumably continue to do so into Winds). While he didn’t challenge Night’s Watch tradition to save Gilly and remove her from a terrible situation here, he later challenged this tradition to remove thousands of others from a terrible situation later on; and even paid for it in some way. Thus, he does eventually live up to the ideal that a king protects the people; though how ironic that he protects the wildlings while still being crownless. And there’s also Alys Karstark who will later kneel to Jon and ask him to perform the king’s duty in regards to marriage and inheritance. What a curious display of Varys’ “power resides where the people think it resides”.

#jon snow #jon the king #asoiaf #valyrianscrolls #canonjonsnow #didn’t put in the post but it’s quite interesting how Gilly is connected #to moral choices and moral pragmatism in Jon’s story #there’s this and then there’s also that scene in ADWD where he has to #mentally toughen himself by repeating the ‘kill the boy’ line #so that he can perform a king’s duty and protect someone - mance’s baby #i personally don’t think he was callous or uncaring of gilly’s wellbeing #because we have that one line from sam’s pov where Jon is watching Gilly breastfeed monster #with a sad smile on his face #it’s most likely that jon is still a work in progress and so pragmatism sometimes ties the line of cruelty #however necessary #but I’m confident that he’ll learn to do better later on ☺️ #my stuff

[theculturalvacuum]

A Dance with Fan Fic Ask Round Ups

I have a confession: I was a little terrified that everyone would be mad at me for going to a cliff hanger with the groom storming out to a pretty unrelated chapter involving middle-aged ladies and repression, not least because it took me two months to get it out. But the feedback on this chapter has been so sweet. Thank you.

Now that the next chapter is out, I’ve finally decided to catch up on all of these….

Anonymous said:

I don't think your buying into stereotypes with your dornish women, they aren't all identikit, they're all just reflective of a place which expects women to be a bit more involved in everything. From outside of Dorne you've got Sarra who was assertive in her own way by telling eliott how to behave with his new wife, it was a gentle type of assertiveness but she took control and had that conversation no matter how awkward. Lady Darklyn too certainly seems not lacking in confidence.

Well, good. I sometimes worry about women who are less assertive and how they cope in this society. With Sarra, what I was more going for was more encouraging her son to be gently assertive about his marital rape license.

Anonymous said:

Elliot, you are my sonion, and I understand that you're upset, but you're acting like an asshole. Stop being an asshole.

I’ll pass this on, but I’m not sure El will be able to hear me over the sound of his raging hangover right now.

Anonymous said:

Your fic is so much fun, I find myself going yeah oh poor Eliott's he's going to marry a whore, and then im like, wait what the fuck corret man. I get so into each chapter that by the end of it im agreeing with these twits. that's when I know im hooked and your good at your thang.

Thank you? POV bias is a bitch, though.

Corret has a very logical brain, and he’s very normative. He just doesn’t question the assumptions of his society. And he didn’t say Loree was a “whore”! He said she was “little better” than one. Big difference, dude!

Anonymous said:

A few ask rounds ups ago, someone mentioned Dylan having high hopes that Ellaria Uller will get a prominent job in KL, oh my god I need this. I need Corret to just have no clue what going on and why is buddy would want such a thing when he has a second son to put those hopes onto. Maybe Dylan thinks Ellaria is his cleverest kid or something and he's excited of her progress report from the water gardens/tutors at Hellholt or something, and Corret is just so uncomprehending.

Lil’ Ellaria aces all the math tests.

I can’t think of any reason why Dylan would stop hanging out with his old buddy Corret or why he wouldn’t be one of the famous Dornish Proud Papas.

Anonymous said:

Hey my Jeyne Swann love is perfectly reasonable and normal!!! Sorta. I just feel bad for her she went to a place where she could have done anything (within reason) and shiteros had screwed up her view of herself and marriage and life so much that she was never able to take even one second of advantage of it then she got a disgusting growth in her body and died. I feel much better now and zen knowing that she as some fond times with her girls to give her happy memories as she wasted away.

I’m sure she thought she was the luckiest woman in the world.

Anonymous said:

I kind of feel sorry for eliott and how unprepared he is for the world he's walked into. I mean there are limits to my sympathy given his attitude and his opinion on stuff, but if someone (ADWIN!!!!) had just given him a few more facts from the start or they'd journeyed through Blackmont and he'd been able to see Meria and Simon and have a little chat with him, it wouldn't have fixed everything but he'd have at least been more like a good little scout and been (a bit) prepared.

I mean, Adwin threw a pile of books at him. Was that not enough?

Eliott’s problem is sometimes connecting theoretical knowledge to the real world. He can know things about Dornish culture, or even that some historical Princess So-and-So had half a dozen paramours in her life or something, and still not have it occur to him that it would apply in this situation.

Anonymous said:

Something I sort of noticed as the Rowan caravan was journeying was they never stayed anywhere where there was a marriage like Eliott was about to enter into. Manwoody, Fowler and Vaith there is no spouse in residence, Allyrion the dude is the Lord, so everywhere they went of the big houses he's not getting the chance to really see the role he'd have which probably keeps the shackles on for even longer.

I suppose that’s true, I didn’t plan it or anything. But the most important thing keep the shackles on is Eliott and his Brain Virgin. I’m not sure if swinging by Sandstone would have helped him much except maybe that he would think that Allin ain’t a real man or something.

Anonymous said:

Given everything that happened between AWiS and the present, would it be fair to say that Edgar Yronwood was right, or at least had a point when he said that the Martells trying to win the favour of the Northerners wouldn't yield the result they wanted? A bit rich coming from the man who backed the Blackfyres, but still...

Well… ask Elia how it all worked out. Though, to be fair, the amount of autonomy they seemed to have under Robert is a little ridiculous.

Anonymous said:

I'm excited and sad for the upcoming Alysanne chapter. Excited because she's a brilliantly written character; sad because she's spent her whole life getting shit on and thanks to patriarchy brain, thinks it's all her fault. Which makes me sad.

I feel guilt about how long it took me to get this round-up out. Like, that was two chapters ago… I hope it lived up to your expectations.

Anonymous said:

On your favourite subject of Jeyne Swann, whats the age gap between her two girls? did Allyster try and get two kids on her relatively quick so they'd be able to stop making appointments? Must have been a bit weird for her not to have anyone pushing for the her to birth the prodigal penis, even with huge amounts of pb that must have been kinda nice, even if she did probably think she'd failed or some crazy shit like that.

The gap between them is maybe five years or so, and Jeyne (the younger) didn’t marry as early as Rebanna did, so her kids are quite a bit younger than Maron. There may have been some infant mortality between them, or even after as well. I’m not sure, I don’t want to pile on. Allyster stopped making appointments because he could tell how not into it she was, and that got weird after ten years.

Anonymous said:

why is alyse ladybright not tagged for your fic? she appears plenty and yet the poor Lady doesn't get a tag.

Ha. I think I only tagged people who already had tags.

Anonymous said:

Is Lewyn's paramour someone we've already met in a AWiS? Jennelyn Sand mayhaps?

No and no.

Anonymous said:

If Casson had married Loreza would that mean that Ellaria would have been Lady Vaith one day?

I suppose so. Unless it prompted Vanella to bite the bullet and get hitched.

Anonymous said:

Speaking of trophy consort, I always thought he'd be younger but not young enough to be her son. More in the vain in your fic verse of Emerik Qorgyle or Trebor Jordayne if he wasn't heir. that way he's very much a man grown when they marry and has plenty of life experience so he has something to offer as a ocassional advisor. But he's still a younger hottie too.

Okay.

Anonymous said:

I like owain a lot. He seems like a real good guy. Plus he's got Tully links too which makes him dynastically well linked along with his Reacher and married Martell links. Alyse is going to be all over that, but I imagine there might be a queue.

Owain is the pragmatic one. Marq is a mini-Corret with all his ISTJ-ness. Lymen is the racist one. Jon the Green is also there. Maybe he’s the funny one.

Yeah, Eliott’s peeps aren’t as cool as Loree’s.

Anonymous said:

I have sympathy for Jeyne Swann lover anon because I'm actually drawn to your background characters more than your POV's. I like all your POV choices and they're a nice spread but its the unknown with the background characters that interests me. I like Deria, Deneza is someone I really wish for more of, Adwin's a professor in another life, Owain is just perfect, Sarra/Aelora are just the cutest, I need more Dylan, Simon Leygood's life intrigues me even if he's only a name, Alyse is a dream.

Alyse has dreams.

Anonymous said:

How do Rebanna and Allyster feel about the fact that Maron is almost 30 and not married? I get that the Dornish don't push marriage as hard as some, but they still do succession through bloodlines. Would the fact that he hasn't married make them question if he's responsible enough to rule Wyl?

Well, he had his heart broken once.

They’re probably in Wyl right now talking about how they’ll totally bring it up as soon as he hits thirty. Also, keep reading.

Anonymous said:

Does Lenelle have ladies-in-waiting, or is that a right reserved for Martells proper? Similarly, does Jenny have ladies, or is her status low enough, and scandal that she caused great enough, that no knight or lord wants his daughters to serve her?

Lenelle does have ladies of her own, I just haven’t really thought about who they might be or had cause to mention them. Emelyn was one, once upon a time.

I have no clue about Jenny. She would probably ditch them if she did have them.

Anonymous said:

This is a bit of a random comment but I loved your response to my asking about where the Fossoways were. It just highlights how different peoples minds work. once I read who the groom was on the Dramatis personae my first thought was who were his cousins on the other side of his family and thought they must be young or female for him not to have any of them as his little group of companions. When I saw none were there I just immediately jumped to conspiracy theories like a normal person...

I mean, we can weave a tale about how Sarra doesn’t get on with her family ever since they found out that she doesn’t like apple pie, or something.

Anonymous said:

Besides GRRM, who would you say the biggest influences on your writing are?

Jane Austen is kind of obvious. Especially in the dialogue, probably.

Actually, Martin doesn’t influence my style nearly as much as I would like him to. My descriptive passage are always very, like, functional.

Anonymous said:

Whether or not it occurs in on page, I'd imagine that, at some point during the events of AWiS, some Reach Bros got drunk and decided to loudly sing The Dornishman's Wife. They couldn't understand why their Dornish hosts didn't find the song amusing.

I think their Dornish hosts just find it dumb. And it will be quite the wedding feast, I’m sure. Literal wine fountains.

Anonymous said:

Will AWiS feature anything like Martin's weirder, trippier passages? Either a character having a fever dream or ingesting a hallucinogen of some sort?

I’m not sure if I’m up for that. I did once write a dream for Eglies, though.

I’m not sure which pov character is most likely to eat a magic mushroom. Probably Ormond.

Anonymous said:

Aside from Loreza being dornish and set to be ruling Princess of Dorne, I can't help but feel like anther problem Eliott may encounter with her is she's very much a grown woman. Whereas there seems to be so many really young brides elsewhere, some criminally young but even 19 year olds like Olenna haven't really lived, they're in a lot of ways children in women's bodies due to the way they get infantilized. Loreza isn't any of that and that is a new experience even before the political stuff.

I think that’s quite insightful. And Loree has this confidence about her sexuality that I don’t think Eliott will know what to do with.

Anonymous said:

Love Deria, she sounds like she has a bed warmer and wants to find someone for her new friend, lol.

Deria’s a classy lady. She doesn’t kiss and tell.

Anonymous said:

I volunteer to kill Tybutthole, it would be my pleasure, I'd even pay you for the honour. As realistic it is, I hope there can be something positive to come out of this even if it only sadly Marigold getting out.

I suppose that all depends on how you define “positive outcome”. As I believe I’ve said before, this society is tailor made for men like Tybutt, but I think Alysanne is starting to realize that that may be problematic, so I would say not all hope is lost.

Anonymous said:

Princess Trystana and Lord Gargalen totally seem like marriage goals for the setting. they've found a way to function as a couple, communicate and raise their kids together with respect and support.

I mean, maybe they seem like that now. You should have seen them in the old days.

Anonymous said:

Daenella seems kind of Targ to me, like she inherit all the privilege like a Martell has but without any of the dutiful nature that goes with it, which seems Targ-ey. By the time she was born her dad was gone/or almost, so her mother had to help Rhodryn in his new role, and child bearing problems and grieve and adapt so Daenella probably just got to have all the fun of being born into such great position but without any of the lessons in duty.

All the best royal families have that “only two kinds” thing and in the Martells’ case it the whole “hot and cold” thing I made up for The Princess and the Septa. It was kind of, like, institutionalizing the contrast between Doran and Oberyn, (a contrast so obvious that even GoT noticed it...) And Daenella is kind of this generation’s Oberyn. Though, so is Arion, so…

But, of course, the sharp contrast is also an oversimplification. Like, which one is Lewyn, for example?

Anonymous said:

Linette!!! nice to hear about her a bit. I wonder if a tiny bit of Duran's appeal to Alysanne, as she gets to know him better, if his obvious pride in his daughters, and the fact he's ''satisfied'' with them.

Tiny bit?

Linette’s a pro. She has charts.

Anonymous said:

Daenella and Trystana seem like they just don't understand each other at all. they try in their own ways to connect but they're so different that the other just doesn't see these overtures as being meant to be kind or loving. Little Trystana might momentarily unite them when she's probably likely to be born at the most inopportune time. They're sisters, they clearly care for one another they just have no clue how to communicate with each other.

Anonymous said:

The princess of the breeze seems to bring the worst out of her sister. I think Trystana just has no idea how to relate to her, and as she's so used to being in control and knowing what she's doing she can't quite function as she wants to around her sister and they just end up having this escalating back and forth, that Trystana seems to know if ridiculous but can't quite break the cycle.

Deanella always has the best intentions for things, but she just gets overwhelmed by her emotions and can’t focus on things enough to actually follow through. She wants to be a good mother and a good sister but… omg, that dog has a fluffy tail! No one sane would trust her with any actual responsibilities.

And Trystana is very dutiful, but she also wants to make sure everyone knows how dutiful she is. Specifically that she’s more dutiful than Daenella. That being said, she would drop everything to help her sister in a crisis, even after the twentieth time.

Anonymous said:

Whilst I'm enjoying the little romance Alysanne has going on, I'm particularly enjoying her simple joy at having people notice her and making a few new friendships and how she just seems to spill to these people because she's probably never had anyone to really talk to for years aside from her daughter, and you can't tell you child any of this sort of stuff. I could see her and Deria becoming great friends, and Trystana too if Alysanne's world continues to open up.

Female friendships are important for women.

Anonymous said:

Someone needs to engineer ''accidents'' for certain assholes so that Daisy and Marigold can be left the fuck alone.

Anonymous said:

LMAO, Alysanne thought she was in for an earful and instead she was being set up with her dreamboat again. Honestly when this is all over however it goes or doesn't go she's going to need a good neck massage from all the whiplash she's getting trying to get her head around all these dornish ways.

Those mysterious Dornish ways of, like, consent and stuff.

Anonymous said:

On a scale of 1-10, how concerned should we be for Alysanne's safety? Tybutt doesn't seem the type to take his wife showing agency lying down.

If Tybutt gets on Trystana’s wrong side you should be more concerned for his safety.

Anonymous said:

Trystana girl, you looked in the mirror lately, Daenerys is wilful? lol. Maybe their wilfulness comes out in different ways but they've both got bucket loads of it. I did enjoy her chat with Alysanne in general though, she likes her husband and wants him to have some happiness and joy. the fact the lady he likes is the biggest sweetheart that ever sweethearted is a big bonus though.

How dare you! Dany is nothing at all like Trystana!

#aWiS #A Wedding in Sunspear #aWiS asks

[thisdaynews]

Bennet faces steep hurdles in long-shot campaign

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/bennet-faces-steep-hurdles-in-long-shot-campaign/

Bennet faces steep hurdles in long-shot campaign

Michael Bennet acknowledges the steep odds of qualifying for the first Democratic debates over the next month, but has vowed to stay in the race until the Iowa and New Hampshire contests next year. | M. Scott Mahaskey/Politico

2020 elections

The Colorado senator is struggling to make the stage of the first debate.

Michael Bennet has every reason not to run for president.

The low-key Colorado Democratic senator has a relatively centrist record that may be out of step with some primary voters, a recent cancer diagnosis and no real national profile. He’s not a cable news staple and shies away from the press in the Capitol.

Story Continued Below

And Bennet’s already facing crunch time. He’s the Democratic senatormostin danger of missing the first debate in June, which would mark a major setback to Bennet’s already narrow path toward breaking out in a field of 22 other prominent White House hopefuls.

In a 30-minute interview with POLITICO ahead of a swing to New Hampshire, Bennet acknowledged the steep odds of getting 65,000 donors and cracking 1 percent in the polls one more time over the next month in order to qualify for the debate stage. He wouldn’t disclose how close he is to hitting the donor threshold and declined to guarantee he could make it happen.

“It’s not trivial,” Bennet, who jumped into the race only three weeks ago, said of the challenges he faces. “A lot of people in America don’t know me and that’s something I have to overcome … I may not be able to overcome that between now and the first debate.”

And if he doesn’t make it?

“I don’t think that’s fatal but we’re going to keep going,” Bennet said. He vowed to stay in until the Iowa and New Hampshire contests next year.

Those closest to Bennet wondered whether he would even go through with a presidential run after his cancer diagnosis, which he disclosed April 3. Bennet had initially planned to announce that month. The delay made an already difficult campaign that much tougher.

But for the second-term senator, the diagnosis of prostate cancer was a “clarifying” moment. Now cancer-free, Bennet conceded that the diagnosis was the “best excuse” to back out, but instead he’s using it to fuel his message. Like many Democrats, he decries Republican rule. But he also defends his private insurance, tries to gird against further exercises of partisan warfare and bluntly criticizes his own party.

Now, Bennet says the race is “more open today” than it’s been in a year. But his colleagues say the former Denver superintendent of schools with the baritone voice doesn’t view his own chances without skepticism.

But there are some centrist Democrats who are eager for someone to carry a message of realism and pragmatism. Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who has hinted he will endorse a candidate soon, said he’s been “harassing” Bennet for three years to run.

“He is realistic about the big field,” said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a close friend who worked on health care legislation with Bennet. “The way he looks at it: … with a field so big it’s not like anybody is a prohibitive favorite.”

He’s also facing plenty of competition even among pragmatists. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, Senate colleague Amy Klobuchar and former Vice President Joe Biden, who is leading the polls and the chase for endorsements, all are of similar ideology.

“I don’t think he is the right candidate for our country at this moment but I think he has a lot to offer the Senate and this country,” said Sen. Chris Coons. (D-Del.), who went to law school with Bennet and praised him but supports Biden.

In past presidential cycles, Bennet’s political bio would be formidable: He’s fended off a liberal primary challenge and was twice elected in a swing state. He has donor connections from chairing the Democratic Senate campaign arm. But what’s set him apart thus far is his emotional approach to politics, sometimes translating into sheer exasperation.

In a field filled with liberals and bold ideas like “Medicare for All,” Bennet has emerged as a teller of unpopular truths. And he signaled his entry into the race this winter by angrily lashing Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on the Senate floor, part of a still-simmering personal feud with one of liberals’ archenemies.

Bennet spoke to former President Barack Obama before launching his run, but his message isn’t exactly “hope or change” or “yes we can.” Instead, he says in so many words, that Republicans are thrashing Democrats.

Bennet’s had multiple “disagreements” with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the architect of the party’s strategy to filibuster Neil Gorsuch’s Supreme Court nomination. And he grows most animated when discussing his party’s “terrible failure” on Supreme Court justices and judicial nominations, which have dominated the Senate during the presidency of Donald Trump.

“I’m sick and tired of losing to those guys,” Bennet said. “We lost to [Mitch] McConnell on judges … And then what we say is that, ‘Well, our solution to that is we’re going to pack the court,’ with no predicate being set with the American people for that as our agenda. What we create is the opportunity for Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell to set themselves up as the saviors of our institutions. And we shouldn’t do that.”

Bennet has been notably tangling with Demand Justice, a progressive group advocating for hard-line opposition to Trump’s nominees.

“When it comes to fighting Trump’s judges, Michael Bennet is the George McClellan of the Senate Democrats,” said Brian Fallon, who heads Demand Justice, a reference to a flailing civil war general. “The only difference is, McClellan actually did go on to win the Democratic Party nomination for president.”

Yet as liberals seek to make structural changes to the American political system, Bennet finds himself defending it. He opposes getting rid of the legislative filibuster, has recanted his support for gutting the filibuster on nominees and argued against trying to block Gorsuch.

Bennet says that by filibustering Gorsuch, who did not change the high court’s ideological leaning, Democrats gave McConnell “a gift.” The filibuster prompted McConnell to go “nuclear” and change the voting threshold for Supreme Court nominees from 60 to a simple majority.

None of that is exactly electricity to jolt his party’s outside liberal wing. But Bennet experienced his first real national energy when he clashed with Cruz, accusing the Texas Republican of crying “crocodile tears” for the government shutdown in 2019 after leading the GOP into one in 2013. The clip of their exchange became the most viewed C-SPAN video on Twitter.

The spat hasn’t been forgotten.Asked about Bennet’s campaign, Cruz responded: “As far as I can tell that [speech] is the only basis for his run.”

As his 2020 colleagues discuss killing the filibuster or Medicare for All, Bennet prefers to focus on what he sees as more politically defensible. He says Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All bill would make private insurance “illegal” and prefers creating a public option. He wants to get rid of the influence of money in politics and ban ex-members of Congress from lobbying. Many of the ideas he has — and even his run for president — are shaped by a book he’s set to soon publish about restoring the state of American politics. The first chapter: “The accidental senator.”

But whether his ideas get widespread attention may depend on whether he can make the debates next month. And even if he does qualify for the debate, he still could be cut based on his polling numbers.

While Bennet says he can win,he knows he faces a brutal mix of challenges, from polling to fundraising to a late start.

“I think we’re going to get there on polling and we’re working hard to try to get to the 65,000. It’s not easy,” he said. “It’s a challenge … I haven’t spent the last 10 years of my life running for president and I haven’t spent the last 10 years on cable television.”

Zach Montellaro contributed to this report.

Read More

#campaign #Foreign #long-shot #Politics