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hosts-of-valyria · 3 years

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Northern armies blocked the path of Mance Rayder and the Wildlings at the wall, "Put down your arms or we'll cause a bloodbath! The wildlings can pass the wall, but Mance Rayder will be captured and the free folk won't loot in the north", roared Robb and Rhaenys. Rickard Karstark, Greatjon Umber, and Northern Forces captured Mance Rayder. The wildlings dropped their weapons.

Arianne Martell vs. Ygritte: "Anything is better than Ygritte or Daenerys", thought Sansa and Rhaenys.

Arianne's epic demeanor: Adult behavior. Anything is better than Ygritte or Daenerys

Women who are not related to Jon: Ciri/ Margaery Tyrell/ Myrcella Lannister/Yennefer of Vengerberg or Arianne Martell they see that Ygritte is not clever

Emily Ratajkowski as Arianne Nymeros Martell: The insurmountable power of Doran's first child

Arianne Martell's behavior. Arianne's power to put men and women in their place. Arianne's problem with sex out of boredom

Ygritte looked at Arianne and Jon as they marched towards the wall, "Could it be that you want to suck his cock", shouted Arianne.

"Excuse me, I think you've known him longer than I have. You in the south are only whores", yelled Ygritte.

"Stupidity is unattractive! What do you know about the south? Excuse me, but I think the Wildlings returned this favor to hunt the men of the Night's Watch too! Should I tell you something? I eat stupid whores like you for breakfast! Take your fingers off of him! Jon and I worked hard! This is my friend and fiancé and not yours, bitch! Be careful, Ygritte. Careful bitch! Keep your feet still! He can also take a ship and travel south to warm up! Learn where your place is", Arianne yelled back.

Jon looked at Tormund, "I love Arianne", Tormund nodded. Ygritte snorted.

The uncle of Rhaella and Aerys Targaryen

"My father was Maekar, the first of his name. My brother Aegon reigned after him when I had refused the throne."

Rhaegar Targaryen's wisdom: A promise does not have to be strengthened by an oath, but also kept without an oath: An oath reinforces lies in a world.

Jon already knows things. Arianne stroked Ghost, "Jon knows things", thought Arianne.

Rhaegar Targaryen, Elia and Arianne Martell and Lyanna Stark vs. Jeor Mormont and Aemon Targaryen

Rhaegar Targaryen vs. Aemon Targaryen. An epic clash: Rhaegar Targaryen vs. Alliser Thorne. The power and wisdom of House Targaryen and Martell

House Martell's memories of Nymeria of the Rhoynar. Southern rulers in the far north: Rhaenys, Arianne and Elia looked with big eyes when they saw the wall and the snow. Arianne formed snow in her hands, "Nymeria of the Rhoynar exiled the kings from Dorne to the wall. She had a strong sense of justice."

Arthur Dayne and Gerold Hightower stood on the wall with Jon and Benjen, "this country is just plain inhospitable. Revenants. For some in Westeros, the Army of the Dead would be an improvement."

Men of the Night's Watch and Wildlings hunted each other like animals because there was no danger north of the wall.

"Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the fire that burns against cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night's Watch, for this night and all the nights to come. That is the wording", said Jeor Mormont.

Rhaegar, Elia and Lyanna laughed out loud, "ah yes the oath. The oath of the Night's Watch. The realm. What is the realm, Aemon? The realm is not sacred. Rhaella and Aerys are already wondering when their beloved uncle will visit them."

Aemon frowned, "you burned the Iron Throne and gave independence. You're breaking wheels of power, Rhaegar. You smash the wheel that Aegon the Conqueror built. You put down the rebellion when you gave independence."

Alliser looked wide-eyed, "Rhaegar."

Rhaegar looked at him, "you! Take your hand away, bastard! I don't shake hands with stupid assholes!"

Alliser snorted, "maybe i'm a bastard."

Rhaegar laughed, "you here! Alliser! You went to the wall. What was the name like? Right, Mance Rayder. The king beyond the wall does not kneel. Oh he doesn't have to kneel. But I'm definitely not watching him give orders to loot. Take Mance Rayder prisoner when he comes to the wall. House Stark has to lead the Wildlings through the wall. For me it's not a problem if the Wildlings get land to settle and stay until the undead are defeated, but Mance Rayder has to be locked away for that. If they pillage they must be hanged."

Rhaenys nodded, "I talk to Robb."

Arianne looked wide-eyed and suppressed a laugh, "what's out there? What is there north of the wall? Uncivilized wildlings who can always be civilized? Ah, revenats. The Kingdoms need an undead as evidence."

"I refuse to attack Wildlings. There are undead out there north of the wall. I promise to do anything for the Night's Watch, but I will not swear the oath", said Jon.

Rhaenys and Arianne nodded, "He wants to help. A volunteer's heart beats the hardest. He wants to help the Night's Watch. He wants to bring resources to the wall. He has promised not to interfere in wars but to do anything for the Night's Watch. I give the Night's Watch 200 dornish horses. For the time being I am also in the service of the Night's Watch but I am not taking the oath! Gerold Dayne and Daemon Sand want to help too, they're from Dorne. And more will come when that makes the rounds in Westeros. I also move north of the wall, but then when the Night's Watch is stronger, has better resources and more soldiers. And he and I will take care of that. He signs a contract and brings power and strength to the watch. They say there is still valyrian steel in Valyria and that also helps the Night's Watch."

Lyanna and Elia looked Jon, "honey, Dragonstone is on top of a mountain of Dragonglass, but we can also use valyrian steel and fire. Move north of the wall when there are more resources on the wall. Sansa, Aegon, Rhaella and Aerys know the blacksmith in Volantis. Aerys is on Dragonstone. House Martell gives dornish horses, steel, stone and wood for the Night's Watch. Aerys and Rickard want to see you anyway."

Jon nodded, "Tywin and Kevan want to sail to Valyria too, we can sail together, dad. Jaime and Brienne would be happy to have valyrian swords too."

Rhaegar looked at Jon and nodded, "Tywin wants Brightroar back. The caves on Dragonstone are home to Dragonglass, and there are still treasures in Valyria. We're thinking about an expedition."

#jon stark #arianne and jon #lyanna stark #elia martell #rhaegar targaryen #megan fox #kit harington #freida pinto #emily ratajkowski #jeor mormont #alliser thorne #aemon targaryen #the wall #night's watch #ygritte #rose leslie

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agentrouka-blog · 4 years

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What do you think the wall will fall out? Do you think it would be horn of joramun?

I don’t know. I don’t really care..? My main concern with the Ice Threat is that the point of it will be extremely different from the show. The solution will not be battle or killing. It will be negotiation. And it doesn’t really matter where it takes place or if/when/why the Wall falls, exactly. The Wall is only a bandaid.

The original Long Night was unrelated to any direct cause we know of. It happened after the Pact on the Gods Eye and before the Andal Invasion that saw the South ravaged for the weirdwoods and Children of the Forest. What caused it?

But we know that the rise of the dragonlords in Old Valyria was definitely tied to slavery and dark magic. Dany uses the wrongest means possible (war, conquest, queenship) to recover something personal she longs for: a home. And she haggles with bloodmagic over Drogo’s death and loses big time, and then turns it around into trading lives for something monstrous: her dragons. That’s her magic sword.

Then she haggles again for the Unsullied, a trick trade. One dragon for an army of human quasi-zombies. She “frees” them, but has only one purpose for them: dracarys dracarys, dracarys.

It’s not an accident that the White Walkers and the wights bear some anviliously parallels to the Unsullied.

The Other said something in a language that Will did not know; his voice was like the cracking of ice on a winter lake, and the words were mocking. (AGOT, Prologue)

It mirrors:

"Tell the Westerosi whore to lower her eyes," the slaver Kraznys mo Nakloz complained to the slave girl who spoke for him. "I deal in meat, not metal. The bronze is not for sale. Tell her to look at the soldiers. Even the dim purple eyes of a sunset savage can see how magnificent my creatures are, surely."

Kraznys's High Valyrian was twisted and thickened by the characteristic growl of Ghis, and flavored here and there with words of slaver argot. Dany understood him well enough, but she smiled and looked blankly at the slave girl, as if wondering what he might have said. (ASOS, Daenerys II)

The Others take Craster’s boys, the slavers take young boys. There are significant sons.

"The boy's brothers," said the old woman on the left. "Craster's sons. The white cold's rising out there, crow. I can feel it in my bones. These poor old bones don't lie. They'll be here soon, the sons." (ASOS, Samwell II)

It mirrors:

Dany knew she would take more than a hundred, if she took any at all. "Remind your Good Master of who I am. Remind him that I am Daenerys Stormborn, Mother of Dragons, the Unburnt, trueborn queen of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. My blood is the blood of Aegon the Conqueror, and of old Valyria before him."

Yet her words did not move the plump perfumed slaver, even when rendered in his own ugly tongue. "Old Ghis ruled an empire when the Valyrians were still fucking sheep," he growled at the poor little scribe, "and we are the sons of the harpy." (ASOS, Daenerys II)

The Starks only came into prominence after the Long Night, involved in building the Wall and Winterfell, the latter of which is now in ruins like Old Valyria. Clearly, they mirror the dragonlords in some way, just like Jon mirrors Dany in many ways. Maybe they were the good guys, or maybe they did what Dany did: create an imperfect solution, play a trick, some kind of stalemate that made them expect a return of the Others, made the Wall necessary in the first place.

I think the source of the Others might be someone’s personal wrath, like Dany’s. Because there’s Cersei “re-creating” the Faith Militant, there is Stannis aiming the red god at his enemies, and there is Lady Stoneheart aiming the remnants of the Brotherhood without Banners at those who wronged her.

"The harpy is a craven thing," Daario Naharis said when he saw it. "She has a woman's heart and a chicken's legs. Small wonder her sons hide behind their walls." (ASOS, Daenerys V)

A woman’s heart, her sons behind Walls, and they kill you in the dark if you venture past.

The Sons of the Harpy did their butchery by night, and over each kill they left their mark. (ADWD, Daenerys I)

Butchering by night. Like the wights. Like the nightfires. Like Lady Stoneheart’s “trials”. The importance of memory connects them.

To the boy she said, "Treasure that tokar, for it saved your life. You are only a boy, so we will forget what happened here. You should do the same." But as he left the boy looked back over his shoulder, and when she saw his eyes Dany thought, The Harpy has another Son. (ADWD, Daenerys I)

And..

"She don't speak," said the big man in the yellow cloak. "You bloody bastards cut her throat too deep for that. But she remembers."

(ASOS, Epilogue)

And...

The Nightfort had figured in some of Old Nan's scariest stories. It was here that Night's King had reigned, before his name was wiped from the memory of man. (ASOS, Bran IV)

But not the memory of women, judging by Old Nan.

He never was. He was a Stark, the brother of the man who brought him down." She always pinched Bran on the nose then, he would never forget it. "He was a Stark of Winterfell, and who can say? Mayhaps his name was Brandon. Mayhaps he slept in this very bed in this very room."

(ASOS, Bran IV)

Brandon Stark, name of names. Beloved son.

Reluctantly, she let go of them in her heart. But not Bran. Never Bran. "Yes," she said, "but please, Ned, for the love you bear me, let Bran remain here at Winterfell. He is only seven." (AGOT, Catelyn II)

Never letting go of Bran. Now waging vengeful war for Robb.

But the solution is not killing.

She was the blood of the dragon. She could kill the Sons of the Harpy, and the sons of the sons, and the sons of the sons of the sons. But a dragon could not feed a hungry child nor help a dying woman's pain. And who would ever dare to love a dragon? (ADWD, Daenerys II)

Killing the sons of the sons of the sons is not going to do anything. They rise and rise again.

Dany haggled for the Unsullied. She traded for them. A dragon. For all of them. But she never fixed what was wrong, she just turned them around to kill for her and the slaves became the slavers. They are making new Unsullied of the sons of the slavers. Just like the Others have been making new wights, and are marching south again.

Maybe an undead dragon will destroy the Wall like on the show. (metaphor for Jon?) Or maybe they will end up choosing to blow the Horn of Joramun to make the actual solution possible. “If I look back, I am lost” is the wrong path, so they will need to recover the lost Memory of the Long Night, and fix things.

Whatever Brandon Stark will do, it will involve negotiation, haggling and - if the problem is to be truly fixed, an honorable trade. If he trades a dragon, then Jon is that dragon. But if he trades “the only cow he owns”, it might be something else. Maybe his magical ability, his warging, his “wings”. The way Drogon is Dany’s wings. Because Bran is mourning, too. Bran traded his dreams for great powers, too.

"A knight is what you want. A warg is what you are. You can't change that, Bran, you can't deny it or push it away. You are the winged wolf, but you will never fly." Jojen got up and walked to the window. "Unless you open your eye." He put two fingers together and poked Bran in the forehead, hard. (ACOK, Bran V)

He wanted to be a knight. He loved to climb.

"You will never walk again, Bran," the pale lips promised, "but you will fly." ADWD, Bran II)

But he will fly. The bird mentor says so. But bird mentors are bad news. Littlefinger. Ygritte (egret). Griff. They all want to force their dreams on you, they all will ask you to sacrifice the innocent.

"You will never walk again," the three-eyed crow had promised, "but you will fly." (ADWD, Bran III)

But may he shouldn’t fly. Maybe he should not warg. The animals fight it. The people fight it more. It’s an invasion, an assault. It is only ever a shared experience with their bonded wolves. Perhaps wargs are rightfully viewed with suspicion?

Maybe when he accepts his loss, like Cat will have to, like Dany should have done… something will be worked out. The magic will whither away, the seasons will return to normal. The Stark will be “like other men”. They will need no Wall. Maybe they will need no “Stark in Winterfell”. A castle rebuilt from Snow. And a king in the South.

#asoiaf #brandon stark #daenerys targaryen #the long night #the Others #the Night's King #Old Nan #haggling for harmony #magic is on the way out #warging is assault #the Wall #the Unsullied #asks #my posts #asoiaf speculation

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ladyaryawolf · 4 years

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Why Jonsa does not work in the books.

This post is where starts the conflict. Jonsa thoughs. My toughts.

What makes a lot o people ship Jon x Sansa is because of the show, and I can understand it. Ship what you want. It's your right.

It does not mean that people can lie about what happens in the books, or what is cannon by GrrM himself.

D&D gave part of Arya's history and traits to Sansa in the show. Fact.

Jeyne Poole was using Arya's name. She was the one that was abused by Ramsay Balton. This false Arya was the one that the North went into a War, and the one that made Jon Snow break his vows. It was not Sansa who Jon fought and died for.

Ship what you want. You are free to ship. Making paralelles about Cat and Ned with Jonsa. Okay. I am a Jonrya shipper. I make parallels of Jonrya and Lyanna/Rhaegar and Alyssane/Jaehaerys. We are passionate shippers after all, in a fandom where morality is not a big deal the most part of time. You have a mean to make your point, then use it.

But whatever. GrrM said that the show and the books are like different universes. Words of the author. You can't discuss that.

What I can NOT take is people lying about canonic things, and my mind explodes when I read a lot of lies of the books to justify Jonsa.

Like Sansa is Jon's type. Like Jon remembers of Sansa when he met Ygritte. Like Jon and Sansa were always close. Lies!

He compares Ygritte to Arya, tought he addmit they don't even look alike, he never, never tought about Sansa while with Ygritte. He compares Val to Arya.

"They had always been close. Jon had their father’s face, as she did. They were the only ones. Robb and Sansa and Bran and even little Rickon all took after the Tullys, with easy smiles and fire in their hair. When Arya had been little, she had been afraid that meant that she was a bastard too. It had been Jon she had gone to in her fear, and Jon who had reassured her." (Jon, A Game of Thrones).

"And Arya … he missed her even more than Robb, skinny little thing that she was, all scraped knees and tangled hair and torn clothes, so fierce and willful. Arya never seemed to fit, no more than he had … yet she could always make Jon smile. He would give anything to be with her now, to muss up her hair once more and watch her make a face, to hear her finish a sentence with him." (Jon, A Game of Thrones)

"The memory of her laughter warmed him on the long ride north." (Jon, A Game of Thrones)

"Gods of my fathers, protect these men. And Arya too, my little sister, wherever she might be. I pray you, let Mance find her and bring her safe to me." (Jon, A Dance with Dragons)

"Bring her home, Mance. I saved your son from Melisandre, and now I am about to save four thousand of your free folk. You owe me this one little girl." (Jon, A Dance with Dragons)

“I have no sister.” The words were knives.

"The girl smiled in a way that reminded Jon so much of his little sister that it almost broke his heart." (Jon, A Dance with Dragon)

"What do you know of my heart, priestess? What do you know of my sister? "(Jon, A Dance with Dragons)

The Ygritte comparation:

“Jon could see fear and fire in her eyes. Blood ran down her white throat from where the point of his dirk had pricked her. One thrust and it’s done, he told himself. He was so close he could smell onion on her breath. She is no older than I am. Something about her made him think of Arya, though they looked nothing at all alike. “Will you yield?” he asked, giving the dirk a half turn. And if she doesn’t?” - Jon VI, ACoK

“Ygritte watched and said nothing. She was older than he’d thought at first, Jon realized; maybe as old as twenty, but short for her age, bandy-legged, with a round face, small hands, and a pug nose. Her shaggy mop of red hair stuck out in all directions. She looked plump as she crouched there, but most of that was layers of fur and wool and leather. Underneath all that she could be as skinny as Arya.” - Jon VI, ACoK

“Ygritte trotted beside Jon as he slowed his garron to a walk. She claimed to be three years older than him, though she stood half a foot shorter; however old she might be, the girl was a tough little thing. Stonesnake had called her a “spearwife” when they’d captured her in the Skirling Pass. She wasn’t wed and her weapon of choice was a short curved bow of horn and weirwood, but “spearwife” fit her all the same. She reminded him a little of his sister Arya, though Arya was younger and probably skinnier. It was hard to tell how plump or thin Ygritte might be, with all the furs and skins she wore.” - Jon II, ASoS

“If you kill a man, and never mean t’, he’s just as dead,” Ygritte said stubbornly. Jon had never met anyone so stubborn, except maybe for his little sister Arya. Is she still my sister? he wondered. Was she ever?” - Jon III, ASoS

When he received the letter of Ramsay

"Jon saw no reason not to tell him. “Moat Cailin is taken. The flayed corpses of the ironmen have been nailed to posts along the kingsroad. Roose Bolton summons all leal lords to Barrowton, to affirm their loyalty to the Iron Throne and celebrate his son’s wedding to…” His heart seemed to stop for a moment. No, that is not possible. She died in King’s Landing, with Father."

"Jon could almost see her in that moment, long-faced and gawky, all knobby knees and sharp elbows, with her dirty face and tangled hair. They would wash the one and comb the other, he did not doubt, but he could not imagine Arya in a wedding gown, nor Ramsay Bolton’s bed. No matter how afraid she is, she will not show it. If he tries to lay a hand on her, she’ll fight him."

"His fingers closed around the parchment. Would that they could crush Ramsay Bolton’s throat as easily." (Jon, a Dance with Dragons).

"Jon felt as stiff as a man of sixty years. Dark dreams, he thought, and guilt. His thoughts kept returning to Arya. There is no way I can help her. I put all kin aside when I said my words. If one of my men told me his sister was in peril, I would tell him that was no concern of his. Once a man had said the words his blood was black. Black as a bastard’s heart. He’d had Mikken make a sword for Arya once, a bravo’s blade, made small to fit her hand. Needle. He wondered if she still had it. Stick them with the pointy end, he’d told her, but if she tried to stick the Bastard, it could mean her life." (Jon, A Dance with Dragons).

• In books the quote “Love is the death of duty” by Maester Aemon is used when Jon decidesld break his vows from nights watch to save “Arya”. Arya is the character Jon loves the most and he thinks on her in every moment.

He dies thinking about Arya:

"Jon fell to his knees. He found the dagger’s hilt and wrenched it free. In the cold night air the wound was smoking. “Ghost,” he whitspered. Pain washed over him. Stick them with the pointy end. When the third dagger took him between the shoulder blades, he gave a grunt and fell face-first into the snow. He never felt the fourth knife. Only the cold…" (Jon, A Dance with Dragons).

George's Interviews:

“At some points, when [Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss] and I had discussions about what way we should go in, I would always favor sticking with the books, while they would favor making changes,” he said. “I think one of the biggest ones would probably be when they made the decision not to bring Catelyn Stark back as Lady Stoneheart. That was probably the first major diversion of the show from the books and, you know, I argued against that, and David and Dan made that decision.” - Time Magazine, 2017

“You have to remember that I started writing this story in 1991 and I first met David and Dan in 2007. I was living with these characters and this world for 16 years before we even started working on the show. They’re pretty fixed in my mind and I’m not going to change anything because of the show, or reaction to the show, or what fans think. I’m just still writing the story that I set out to write in the early 1990s.” - Time Magazine, 2017

My conclusion:

Like I said before. You are free to ship everyone, but not lie about Canon things written by George RR Mantin himself. This is the canonic verse. Jon and Samsa rarely think of each other. Sansa was always distant from him, she regreats it later, but still is a fact. I am not an anti-Sansa. She is not my favorite, i addmit, but anti, for me, is somente idiot that says stupid arguements with insults just to put another character in glory, only because they dislike another, and even refuse to aguement as adults. In another words, those antis are childsh.

There is a lot of people saying that Jon would be good for Sansa and take him out of her is something cruel, as everything that is good for her is fanservice. We agree in disagree. There is no way we could try taking Jon from Sansa, if he was not hers in first place. Like I said, they rarely think of each other, she bullied him when they lived together, she kept distance following Cat's personal opinion. Sansa's fault? No. She was a child seeing her mother's opinions, and following it. It does not change what she have done. Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that Jon hates her, but the memories he shares with Sansa during his childhood are not the best. It doesn't mean they won't get along. They will! Of course they will, by all they could know, they would be the lasts of the Starks alive. Sansa might go to Winterfell in TWoW before Arya. Would they get closer? Probably. Will they share the same bond showned on TV show? No. This is bad for her? No. She would be home, with her family. This is bad to you? Sounds terrible? Does it sounds harsh?

Like, other thing that I hate about Jonsa-stans (just a part of them) justifies that she needs someone to make her happy. With all respect, if you think this way about Sansa, you do not like her. Not really. Sansa is much more complex of a character to say that only a romantic relationship with a man could make her happy. She does not need someone else in a romantic way to make her happy. She passed through a hell in King's Landing, and Petyr actions with her can be described only as disgusting. To say the only good thing that could happen to her is a man, you are reducing her character to a simple one. Everything she wants it's to go home. She is smart, kind and clever. Sansa is making Petyr Baelish play in her hands. I don't want Sansa to end up alone. She deserves a lot. She is really strong, in so many ways. Her strengh is not like Arya, Ygritte or Val. It's subtle and delicate, like Margaery in someway. Sansa deserves a man who respects her, a man who loves her with all his heart, a man that carries for her the same way Jon carries for Arya. Uconditionally.

Other thing that I hear is that Jonsa stans always says that, we, Arya-stans, look to Jonsa as threat to Arya, and we all get mad about it. I can't talk in the name of the others. For me, fuck the show. I don't care. I don't even look at the show as part of GrrM work anymore. But what gets me mad as an Arya stan, and a Jonrya shipper is not Jonsa itself. They had chemistry on screen, but in the books they don't have any of it. This is what gets me mad.

It's trying to stole something that belongs to Jon and Arya alone that gets me mad. One of the strongest and purest bonds I have ever seen in books or screen. It doesn't belong to Sansa all this devotion. It's not canon in the books, and annoys me to see tons of people lying and self inserting Sansa in Jon's heart just because they want the books to happen the same way in the show. Forget it. It's not going to happen. A lot of other characters and relationships have been destroyed by D&D, not only Jon & Arya. Write and read fanfics. Ship whatever the hell you want, but don't lie about cononic things. If Jon and Arya get along as a romantic couple or not, does not change that this bond is theirs. Sansa has her own history in the books. Her own importance. She wil be part to take Winterfell back, not the same way she did on the show, but she will be a big part of it. And she is a Stark! The end! Sansa is a southern lady in many ways, but she is Sansa Stark and a princess by her own right, dammit! She says it herself that her strengh comes from the walls within Winterfell!

Thank you to read. I have to be greatful to another posts that helped me to write it. I have to say sorry about my grammar. English is not my first language, but I hope what I wrote was clear to understand. See you soon.

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ladyalice101 · 5 years

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someone still loves you

so firstly what the fuck. whhat thE fuuCk.

secondly I'm dying

thirdly please have this drivel

fourthly d&d can suck my cock

and FIFTHLY their endings were ambiguous enough that i will always believe that some version of this happened

and finally, if you have some fic requests following this shit pls sent me an ask! i’m more than happy to fulfil our dreams (and what should have been)

(ps even tho they killed pol!jon and i tried to keep this canon compliant i ... couldn’t help myself lmao)

read on ao3

There are two things that Sansa remembers most about the Wall and Castle Black.

She remembers Jon. She remembers exactly how it had felt when he’d embraced her when she’d first arrived, she remembers sitting by the fire and eating soup and drinking ale with him, she remembers lying in his bed while he sat by the fire or stood watch, and she remembers feeling the safest and most loved that she had since she’d first left Winterfell. She remembers Jon.

The other thing she remembers is the view from the top of the Wall. The True North, Jon had called it, when he’d taken her up there on her second day at Castle Black. She remembers thinking it was beautiful. The jagged mountains, the sparkling snow. She remembers thinking it would be peaceful, up there, free of expectations and politics.

When she looks over it now, as Queen in the North, there is no less beauty, but there is more pain.

Her heart aches.

It aches, and aches, and aches, and even though she knows she might be seeing him soon, she so desperately wishes that this weren’t the way that it had turned out.

Sansa doesn’t have to wait long. Before long, she spots riders coming from the trees. There’s a group of them, though from this high up she can’t make out how many.

She turns to her guard, Allister. He is young, but he had served the Lady Mormont faithfully until her death, and when he’d asked to stay in Winterfell by his Queen’s side, Sansa had accepted.

She misses Brienne, frightfully so, but Sansa misses everybody.

“Take me down.”

Allister leads her to the elevator, and they descend quietly.

“How long has it been since you saw him?” Allister asks.

Sansa had been irritated with his impertinence, at first, at his soft questions and his thoughtful opinions, but over time she has grown to cherish it. She has so little left to her now.

“Years.”

“And if he’s not here?”

Sansa can’t reply.

Allister doesn’t say anything more. He’s known, more than most, how much she’s struggled since the Wars. Oh, she’d become Queen to an independent North, continuing on the tradition that her beloved Robb had set, and she is proud to serve her people.

But she longs for something more.

When the elevator creaks to a stop, the men at the bottom bow gracefully to her. They’re her own men. No matter that the King and his Hand had reinstated the Night’s Watch, it doesn’t exist, not truly. Castle Black is abandoned. Any man still in the Watch truly lives further North.

She’s not brought too many people with her. She’s here under the guise of work, of course, but she’s only ever been party to these meetings once before. The first time they’d happened.

He hadn’t come.

And so she hadn’t come after that, either.

The trading between the Free Folk and North is a prosperous affair, the North giving silks and spices and oils in return for furs and knowledge and hardy meat. This is one of Sansa’s easier alliances, and while it’s also the easiest to attend, it brings her the most heartache. Petty squabbling and demands she can deal with, even if they bring headaches.

This particular alliance reminds her of all she has lost.

When the gates creak open, Sansa stands tall and proud and berates herself for hoping that this one time she’s come, he might be coming, too.

She spots Tormund first.

His face is gleeful, and he almost bounds to her with his joy.

“The girl kissed by fire!” he crows.

He doesn’t embrace her, because he knows better, but she almost wishes he would. She wants that connection to her past.

Instead, he puts a meaty paw on her shoulder. “I’m surprised you’ve come after all this time,” he says. “He’s always unbearable after these meetings, what with you not being here and all. Oh, thank fuck I won’t have to deal with his pouting this time!”

“Tormund,” she whispers, fiercely, harshly, because she can’t believe what he’s saying. That way only sadness lies. “Who?”

He blinks at her, confused, lip twitched up as if to say what the fuck. “Jon, of course.”

Tormund moves out of her line of sight, and suddenly she can’t breathe.

Jon.

She’s stuck where she’s stood. After all this time, all her longing, now that he’s here, he’s really here, she can’t move.

It’s no matter, in the end.

He can.

He sweeps her into his arms, knocking the breath from her as he does. Her words die in her throat, her lips parted in shock as he grasps at her, a choked, “Oh, Sansa,” ripping from his throat.

He pulls back from her after a moment, when she does little more than stand limp against him, but as soon as his warmth has left her the damn breaks and she cries out and reaches back for him.

She doesn’t know if she’s crying, though she suspects that she must be. She can feel him shuddering against her.

When they finally pull from each other, Jon runs a hand down the back of her head.

“You look well,” he speaks, voice gruff and deep and oh how she’s missed his northern brogue.

“So do you.”

And he does. He looks sad, as sad as he had that day he’d left King’s Landing, and he looks old, too, but his cheeks are full and his hair is clean and even under all these furs she can still feel the hard planes of his muscles.

Sansa turns to her guard. “Allister, I’m going to go talk with Jon. Stay here with the party, alright? We’ll trade and negotiate tomorrow.”

She takes Jon by the hand, and leads him to the Lord Commander’s chambers.

He kneels by the hearth to start the fire, while Sansa watches him. The room is dusty, completely unused. She doesn’t know what this means. He’s obviously never spent any time here whatsoever, but why? Because he’s traumatized by what happened to him here? Because he genuinely wants to be beyond the Wall?

“Jon.”

He stops adding wood to the hearth, back bowing lower into the ground.

“Do you want to come home?”

He whimpers, fingers clenching around the log.

“Yes.”

Sansa lets her eyes flutter closed. She’ll make it happen. There are thousand things she can say; the North is independent and the Watch is under her jurisdiction, Jon is a Stark and his fate is up to her, Bran will release him from his vows in any case she’s sure, and who’s to stop her, really, the Unsullied gone –

The floor creaks.

She opens her eyes, and Jon is standing in front of her.

“But not yet.”

“Not yet?” she snaps, suddenly exhausted and furious and it feels like her heart is breaking all over again.

“Aye,” he says softly. “Not yet. I don’t deserve to come home yet.”

“What penance do you think you’re paying?” she demands. “I don’t care what anyone says, killing her was the right thing –“

He winces.

She bites her tongue fiercely, letting the sharp flare anchor her.

She takes a deep breath.

“I know that you didn’t see what she did coming,” Sansa says, softer, quieter, with more understanding. “I didn’t either, truthfully. But that doesn’t mean you made the wrong choice.”

His chest rumbles.

“I know you loved her.”

He’s shaking his head before she can finish. “I didn’t,” he admits on a whisper. “I didn’t, not really, but I saw what she could do for us, and then I just got so confused –“

He becomes frantic quickly, eyes going wild and shoulders heaving.

She hushes him, taking him back into her arms. She can’t help the relief that has unfurled in her chest, how it’s made her heart beat fast and quick as has made her stomach roil, but she will come back to it in a moment. For now, he’s unraveling before her.

“Alright, Jon,” she sooths. “Not yet.”

The first time Jon comes to Winterfell, Sansa wasn’t expecting him.

They meet at the Wall every two moon turns, an unnecessarily frequent amount to be trading and meeting with the Free Folk, but it as long as she can go without seeing him. Now that she’s had a taste for having him back in her arms, she can’t make herself let it go.

It seems that he can’t, either.

She’s still a fortnight from riding out to Castle Black, and she’s been preparing for it carefully. They’ve settled into a nice routine over the past year, but she wants more, now. She’d been going to ask for more.

(What that more was she hadn’t quite decided. It depended on how brave she felt. Would it be to ask him to come home? Would it be to see him more often? Would it be for her to ask him to press a sweet kiss against her skin? Or maybe she could be braver – maybe she could kiss him first, maybe fall into bed with him?)

She knows the Lord’s mutter about her and her wildling lover, and they perhaps even suspect the truth of his identity, but he’s not her lover, not really. She just wants him to be.

And then he comes to her. The horns blare and it sets her on edge, but when she arrives at the courtyard to see him and a small wildling party atop their horses, she almost trips over her feet in her rush to greet him.

“You’re here,” she whispers into his neck.

“I don’t want to cause any trouble,” he says back, “I’ll leave if this puts you in too much danger. I just – I wanted to see you.”

“No, don’t go,” she pleads, before she can help herself. She clings tighter to him.

“I won’t,” he promises.

When she leads him to her chamber, she knows that this time is different. They won’t just be sharing pretty words by the fire; they won’t just be working on forgiveness; they won’t just be mourning a future that was taken from them.

They’re writing their own stories tonight.

“I helped her conquer Westeros,” Jon says to her as the evening passes. “I defended her, even after she burnt the city.”

“You did,” Sansa says, because these are the crimes she has so much trouble forgiving. “But you passed the sentence and you swung the sword.”

“That doesn’t mean I’m worthy of getting to come home,” he says. “That doesn’t mean I’m worthy of loving you.”

She wishes his declaration of love didn’t have to be surrounded by so much sadness, but she knows why it does. She knows that this is the reason he hasn’t come home in so long.

Besides, they can have many more years where their love is sweet, where she can let it slip from her mouth without a care, freely, when they lay beside each other after a coupling or when they take their meals together or even just when she looks at him and is overcome.

“You’re trying to be,” she tells him instead of all of that. “But punishing yourself does not equate to repentance.”

“How would you let me find absolution?” he asks.

“Let you?” she repeats. “Absolution is something you must find yourself. I can’t tell you how to find it anymore than I can tell you that nothing bad will ever happen again. What I can tell you, Jon, is that you won’t find it by carving yourself from the North, from our family. From me.”

“And you could forgive me?” he asks, voice wavering, eyes watering. “For what I did to the Kingdoms? What I did to you?”

“Will you give me a chance to try?”

It’s been five years since the Great Wars, and Sansa is sure of herself and her power. She knows that if she were to deem it so, she could make what she wanted happened.

She is too scared, however, to even chance angering the Six Kingdoms. The Unsullied are gone, and the Wall is her territory, but if some of the lords were to get word that she’d not only pardoned Jon but taken him as a husband and is bearing his children – well. She’d not quite so sure they could let that happen just yet, and she won’t punish her Kingdom for her own desires.

So doesn’t, not yet. Sansa goes to him at Castle Black, or his settlement beyond the Wall, and he comes to Winterfell and she sees him so frequently that sometimes its like they’re hardly apart at all.

He always greets her with a fierce kiss, and if the whispers of the Queen in the North’s wilding lover were bad before, they’re insufferable now.

She won’t marry him now. Maybe she won’t be able to ever. But when her stomach starts to swell with her first child, she doesn’t mind that they’ll be a bastard. Not when she finds out, not when Jon arrives for the first time since she confirmed the pregnancy and his faces lights up with so much love and joy that all sadness disappears, and not when her daughter is born and she holds little Lyanna in her arms and tells her she is loved, so, so much.

Because she knows that her daughter is loved.

Sansa knows that she is loved, too.

#jonsa #jon x sansa #actually jonsa #jonsa fic

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thatfictionalgal · 6 years

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The Mad King/Queen Mistake

So, in episode 2 of season 7, Jon goes to Dragonstone to appeal to Daenerys in the war against the white walkers. During this exchance, Jon states that she is the Mad King’s daughter and has no reason to trust her. That’s where we get this:

Daenerys asking Jon not to judge her on the basis of her father and his actions. Now, that whole scene is riddled with hipocrasy and ego at it’s finest for Dany. Other people have covered that and broken it down beautifully.

What we’re going to cover is how Dany makes the exact same crucial mistake that Mad King Aerys does.

Seem familiar? It should.

This is when King Aerys strung up Brandon and Rickard Stark when they attempted to get Lyanna back from the Targaryans. They tried to enact trial by combat and King Aerys used “dragon fire” as his champion. He burned the father and let the inheriting son strangle himself to death trying to rescue his father.

Before anyone states that one was necessary and the other not: BOTH ACTIONS WERE INCREDIBLY CRUEL AND UNNECESSARY. There were alternative options laid out (imprisonment) that would have avoided a lot of war and bloodshed.

What do these two points have in common:

1. Two great respected houses

The Starks are a well known beloved house of the North. The Tarly’s are a great house in Highgarden territory of Westeros and despite Randyll’s obvious power grab, the Tarly’s would be in a much better position socially in Westeros than the Tyrells who just sided with a foreign invader.

2. Head of house and primary heirs are wiped out

This is fairly explanatory. Brandon Stark was set to inherit Winterfell being the eldest son and Dickon Tarly was the heir apparent to the Tarly house. Their deaths with their fathers send their houses into turmoil. Ned Stark of course became the head of Winterfell AND head of the Stark family, two things I’m sure he never considered happening until it did. Samwell Tarly was more or less threatened out of his position in the family by his father and would now find himself the head of the Tarly line being the only male heir.

(Sidenote: this would be socially/politically be a problem for Sam and Gilly for Sam to suddenly become a great lord. They are not married, making Sam an eligible and sought after bachelor. Gilly is a wildling with a baby born out of incest, which would be thrown into her face again and again not just by lords but by smallfolk who have been taught to be hateful towards Wildlings. The only way they could circumvent that is to play up a fake lineage for Gilly, immediately marry, and never disclose the baby’s origins even if the kid never looks like Sam. Or ensure that the baby never stands to inherit Horn Hill by making him a Thorn)

3. They were killed as a display of power

Daenerys didn’t consider sparing the Tarly’s because they wouldn’t bend the knee when she openly stated that it was “bend the knee or die”. She could have made good on her threat just by killing Randyll but spared Dickon as he was young/foolish and needed to ensure High Garden remained an ally. Daenerys could have accomplished everything she wanted to by being firm with Randyll but diplomatic and lenient with Dickon.

King Aerys killed the Starks out of “treason”. Now Brandon Stark pulled a stupid move by going to Kings Landing to demand Lyanna back and the death of Rhaegar - it was youthful impulsiveness. Arrested under treason, Brandon was ransomed back to his father and when Rickard went to pick him up, was also arrested for treason. Keep in mind that the Starks were well within their rights to demand some form of compensation for the Lyanna abduction and they were still within their rights for a trial by combat. Nothing they did was actually considered treasonous.

If the King were somewhat sane or listened to his advisors, this could have been avoided by simple diplomacy. Lyanna would be returned and possibly married off to a prominent lord in King’s Landing since she was “compromised” in exchange for no harm tor trial by combat for Rhaegar. Or at least honoring their secret wedding and declaring Lyanna a princess consort to Rhaegar. It would be a slight against the Starks, sure, but it would resolve the situation nicely. Hell, the King could even insist one of the Stark men be sent to the Wall since by enacting their rights put the Prince in danger. INSTEAD, the King pulled a power play to ensure that no one would ever think to challenge house Targaryan again - even if everyone was well in their rights to.

CONSEQUENCES:

It’s easy enough to remember what happened when the Mad King roasted the Starks: the entire country went into rebellion. It was the final straw for Westeros and it lost the Targaryans loyalty not just from the North/Winterfell/Starks but Riverrun, Storm’s End, and the Eyrie. Even Casterly Rock joined in towards the end. The Targaryans really only had political ties with Highgarden and Dorne at that point to call on, and even they had problems with the King.

Dany just lost whatever hold she may have had left in Westeros. Keep in mind she neglected her alliances with Dorne and the Iron Islands once their leaders were captured. Highgarden was the last alliance she had in Westeros and even with Olenna dead, Dany could have salvaged the situation by appealing to Highgarden’s bannermen or just keeping Dickon captive.

Dickon Tarly was worth more to Daenerys alive than dead.

1. By killing Dickon, Daenery’s ensures that Cersei can round up the rest of Highgarden by simply touting the “cruel foreign invader” rhetoric and rallying the rest of the Highgarden Bannermen to the Lannisters.

2. Alive, Daenerys can lean on the bannermen to ensure at least a standstill in the hopes of keeping Dickon safe. He is their de facto leader since there is a power vacuum in Highgarden.

3. It would give Daenerys time to woo Dickon onto her side. Yes, she killed his father but it would be Hizdahar zo Loraq all over again and she knows how beneficial marrying Hizdahar was in keeping peace. Or at least bringing Hizdahar into the fold.

4. Most importantly, by keeping Dickon alive, she ensures that no house or territory seeks vengeance against her.

Casterly Rock/Kings Landing: currently Dany is at war with the Lannisters but by killing their Tarly allies, she ensures it would be that much harder brokering peace with them.

Highgarden: already explained but again, the Tarlys are the current strongest house in Highgarden. Olenna’s alliance with Dany was seen by a betrayal to the bannermen, which resulted in a fraction of the territory and now a power vacuum. It is completely unlikely that Dany can salvage the situation since she has killed the two heads of the Tarly household. She might be able to hold the territory through force with the Unsullied or the Khaleesar but that is DEFINTELY not going to win any favors.

The North: Jon Snow, King of the North, is best friends with Samwell Tarly, the current head of the Tarly family. Sam has the backing of the King of the North and once Jon draws parallels between the Tarly’s and the Stark Execution, it won’t take long for Jon to openly rebel against Daenerys. With him, through Sansa’s political maneuverings, ensures the Eyrie and Riverrun are against Daenerys as well.

Let’s say that Jon has no political power at that point because his heritage is revealed and he is ousted from his KoTN position. Cannonically the North, the Eyrie, and Riverrun threw in their support for Sansa to be Queen before she turned the support back to Jon. It would be a safe bet that she could be declared Queen simply because she is head of the Stark house and Lady of Winterfell. Now, she may not have ties to Samwell Tarly outside of Jon, it still wouldn’t take much for the North to oppose Daenerys. There’s no love for Targaryans there and it wouldn’t take much for them to draw parallels to the Tarly’s as well. It would be proof that Dany is indeed the Mad King’s daughter and they would have every reason to fight her, even if they never side with the Lannisters. The tricky part would be to ensure Jon Snow’s safety - which should be a meta for another time *writes a note*.

Dorne:

1. Dany didn’t do anything in regards to alliances with Dorne. She abandoned Ellaria, the defacto leader of Dorne, to the Lannisters and did nothing in terms of diplomacy towards Dorne’s bannermen to ensure their alliance with Ellaria gone. (Hell, it would have been simple. Dorne hates the Lannisters, the Lannisters have Ellaria, let’s kick their asses.) Those ties are completely weak now.

2. Dorne and Highgarden go waaaaayyyy back. Their are many intermarriages and alliances between them. Dany just screwed with the power structure in Highgarden and while Dorne may be experiencing their own power vacuum at the moment, Dany has now ensured that Dorne won’t align with her. The Iron Islands: There’s two parts to this as well

1. The Iron islands are split between Yara and Euron, with the strongest faction being Euron. As everyone knows, Euron is currently sided with the Lannisters on the promise of a marriage alliance.

2. Just like with Dorne, Dany has done nothing about Yara’s capture and that’s a problem for Theon, who is Yara’s main bannerman. She hasn’t even tried to be diplomatic about Yara’s capture when it would have been easy to do so at the Queen’s/King’s meet. (”I will agree to this standstill in exchange for the release of my allies.” - a simple statement which may not go anywhere but it shows loyalty.)

The trouble too is Theon. He has no ties to Dany now that Yara is gone and he basically got permission from Jon to go rogue in order to save Yara. While Yara and Theon may no longer have political power in their own home territory, they may align with the North either to overthrow Euron in favor of Yara or for protection. Theon did betray Robb - a fact no one forgot - and killed a beloved Maester of Winterfell. However, he didn’t kill the Stark boys and he helped Sansa escape. Jon has already used this as an excuse not to kill Theon outright and it may garner a favor or two from Sansa. At the very least, this would keep the Greyjoys protected in the massive war that’s going on and the Starks might put a Greyjoy on the Salt Throne to keep the islands from getting uppity again once Euron is dealt with.

Anyway, point being the Islands are no longer a viable alliance for Dany, even with Theon in tow.

Storm’s End:

This one is tricky because this territory has been in a power vacuum since season 5 when Brienne finished off Stannis (supposidly). Let’s say for a moment that Gendry is legitimized, he already friends with Arya and Jon. Storm’s End also has a friendly history with the North, they may just fall in line with them.

At the current moment though, this territory is unknown. Stannis was in open conflict with the Lannisters over legitimacy and Cersei was considered a Baratheon by marriage, as well as the mother of the Baratheon line. So the alliance could be with the Lannisters or it’s currently at a standstill. Either way, they’re not for the Targaryans.

*** ALSO IMPORTANT ***

Aerys stopped listening to his advisors and after the deaths of the Starks, ensured they would move against him. Tywin was Hand at the time and Jaime was a Kingsguard. Varys was also part of the court and it wouldn’t be surprising if he was making political moves as well to ensure Aery’s death. Even if the rest of the advisors did nothing for the rebellion, they also did nothing to help Aerys. People were abandoning ship.

Now after the deaths of the Tarly’s, Tyrion and Varys are also contemplating their positions in Dany’s court. They’re beginning to realize they’ve made a mistake and yes, they are talking about making her listen but it’s not working. We may very well start to see Tyrion and Varys either working against Daenerys or stop helping her completely.

TLDR:

By killing Rickard and Brandon Stark, Mad King Aerys lost his alliances and lost his hold on Westeros. It was ultimately the decision that ended in rebellion and the Targaryan line. It was, in essence, political suicide.

By killing Randyll and Dickon Tarly, Daenerys commits the same mistake her father (Mad King Aerys) makes and cements her reputation as the Mad King’s Daughter. It makes her a pariah and kills any kind of alliance she could have made to ensure her throne diplomatically. It was, in essence, political suicide.

History doesn’t repeat but it sings the same tune.

(If you read all this, thank you.)

#anti-daenerys #anti-dany #anti-ageony #anti targaryen #anti-targaryen #westeros politics #got politics #got discourse #got meta #got analysis #house tarly #long reads #long meta #I apologize for how long this is #westeros #Dany is fucked

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moonlitgleek · 6 years

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Would it be possible to politically get rid of unworthy heirs in favor their younger brothers? Tarly does it with Sam by threatening to murder him if he doesn't take the black but wouldn't the Faith/Citadel work as well? Could Viserys have do that to Aegon in favor of Aemon? Or Daeron/Baelor do it to Aerys/Rhaegal in favor of Maekar?

The legality of disinheriting an heir is somewhat unclear in the text, which isn’t at all made better by the cases where an heir is simply passed over or has another named ahead of them without a legal disinheritance. To give a few examples, Randyll Tarly mentions that he has “no cause to disown” Sam but since he also wouldn’t allow him to have Horn Hill, he terrorizes him into renouncing his rights and joining the Night’s Watch instead. Tywin Lannister, whose hatred of Tyrion is infamous and who makes it very clear that Tyrion will never get Casterly Rock, also does not drop him from the succession until after Joffrey’s assassination and Tyrion’s conviction. Similarly, neither Aegon the Unworthy nor Aerys II did deliver on their threats of disinheriting Daeron II and Rhaegar respectively even though they blatantly favored Daemon and Viserys and hated their eldest sons. Of course it’s worth mentioning that Aerys did eventually disinherit baby Aegon after the Trident but that does not tell us much considering the unique circumstances of that from Aerys’ uncaring view of law as something to abide by, to the rebellion that rejected the Targaryens as a whole so who cared about their succession. To return to a more current case, we have Robb’s will in which he might have disinherited Sansa, but he might have also only named Jon ahead of her in the line of succession rather than disinheriting her completely.

So, I’d argue that it’s fairly hard to disinherit an heir - specifically a male one - otherwise we’d have seen a number of disinheritances in the text. The level of acceptability seems to depend on legal or political causes. To go back to Randyll’s words, it appears that a lord needs legal cause to disinherit his heir - if the heir committed a crime for example, like in the case of Tyrion being condemned for kinslaying and kingslaying. It might happen if there’s enough political support for it, like in the case of Aegon V giving Prince Duncan a choice between the throne and Jenny of Oldstones (though Duncan ultimately abdicated), or if Robb did disinherit Sansa to prevent Winterfell from going to the Lannisters. The heir can also abdicate voluntarily like Prince Duncan the Small, or “voluntarily” like Sam.

That said, this does not exclude possible ways to get ride of an heir through some extreme measures. I mean, a lord can always have an unwanted heir killed or force them to join the Night’s Watch like Randyll Tarly did with Sam but not only would that require a person willing to do that but it can invite war since a male heir, especially a prince, is likely to have supporters who would fight for his rights. In the case of a royal heir, it becomes harder to force an abdication, whether via the Night’s Watch or not, without a legal cause to justify it. After all, if the king can just send his own heir to the Wall for no crime, his lords might have cause to fear him doing it to any noble who displeases him. Now, technically a Great Council can be employed towards getting a consensus to set a prince’s claim aside, but I don’t imagine the prince in question would just wait politely for that to happen, and the lords probably wouldn’t agree to setting aside the claim of an adult male male-line heir without a compelling reason. A king can also simply name a younger son as heir ahead of his older brother in defiance of succession laws, but considering that the last time a king used royal prerogative to name his heir led to the Dance of the Dragons, his lords aren’t likely to accept that. Too, leaving the line of succession to be decided arbitrarily by the king can lead to heirs being disinherited for any numbers of reasons that do not necessarily have anything to do with being unfit to rule. Imagine how Aegon the Unworthy would have loved the opportunity to actually disinherit Daeron.

Moreover, to address your specific examples, keep in mind that Aegon’s unworthiness wasn’t yet clear to the lords of Westeros during his father’s reign. He was still young and handsome and charming, a veteran of the conquest of Dorne, and the complete opposite of the aging financier Viserysand the scholarly physically unimpressive Daeron (who would be the one Viserys replaced Aegon with, not Aemon. The Dragonknight was a Kingsguard sworn to hold no lands or titles). While Aegon’s hedonistic nature was apparent, Westeros isn’t a society that condemns men for sleeping around and most of Aegon’s dubious relationships happened with women the average Westerosi lord doesn’t care about. So with his tyranny yet to emerge and his charming and generous personality gaining him popularity, Viserys would have a devil of a time getting his lords to accept his decision to pass over Aegon, and Aegon’s faction would start a war over the succession. As for Aerys and Rhaegel, the two princes only came that close to the throne in the wake of thee unexpected deaths of Daeron’s three immediate heirs. Even after Baelor Breakspear died at Ashford, there was no reason to think that Valarr and Matarys wouldn’t sire heirs and no one could have predicted the Great Spring Sickness.

As for why Randyll Tarly chose the Night’s Watch rather than the Citadel or the Faith for his eldest son, Sam has the answer for that.

“My lord, my f-f-f-father, Lord Randyll, he, he, he, he, he … the life of a maester is a life of servitude. No son of House Tarly will ever wear a chain. The men of Horn Hill do not bow and scrape to petty lords”

While the Night’s Watchmen also take a vow of service, it is still a military order that is built on the performative masculinity that Randyll favors and understands. They are the black knights of the wall, to hear Sansa tell it though Randyll certainly wouldn’t go that far. Still, a military order that has anointed knights and exists for warring reasons, in the far North where Sam would be out of sight and out of mind and bound by vows that forfeit his life if he thinks to desert, is exactly the place Randyll would choose for his disappointing eldest.

#asoiaf #asoiaf meta #samwell tarly #randyll tarly #tywin lannister #tyrion lannister #duncan targaryen #aegon v targaryen #aegon iv targaryen #viserys tagrayen #robb stark #sansa stark #westeros laws and customs #inheritance issues #ask box #Anon asks

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awolfhowled · 7 years

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A TOUCH FOR SILENCE

Series: Part 1 of To Freeze or To Thaw Rating: M Pairing: Jon Snow/Daenerys Targaryen

CH. 03: THE MYTHS AND PEOPLE

Summary: Jon discovers a thing or two about Daenerys Targaryen, the woman behind the legends.

Word Count: 3,583

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JON II

He had no desire to start making hollow assumptions, which was why he had not attempted to decipher her story and identity by himself. A small part of him was still gullible enough to give people the benefit of the doubt and the belief that they may be truthful. It was difficult for anyone to blame him. Northerners in particular were raised by an old code of morality and, in that regard, Jon had learned from the best: Eddard Stark. There were many who whispered that it was this honor code that had brought about his damnation, painting him out as a fool. But in reality, the differences between the North and the South were too grand. The Starks believed there was honor in an honest death and shame in a life led by deceit.

Curiosity and restraint battled it out inside him, the former gripping him intensely with each moment she would keep the hood tucked around her face, clearly with a definite purpose. Her sighing broke the pregnant silence that had made their exchange dormant.

“I told you people called me Dany but it is only partially true,” she said, her gaze traveling from the ground to meet his. It was still too dark, the hood continuing to sew a mosaic of shadows through her features. Even like this, half cloaked in obscurity, Jon could see he had rightfully assessed her youth. He elected to not say anything, simply observing her in anticipation, a cue she seemed to have picked up quickly. “Once that was all that I was called, but I was just a foreign orphan in Essos then. I was nothing special to the people there. They did not care about my family name or the power my father once possessed, none of that mattered to them.”

His curiosity was besting him.

“Your family name,” Jon repeated, a flurry of possibilities unleashing in his head. “Let us cease with such vagueness, my Lady. Candidness is all I ask of you for now.”

“Yes,” she quickly responded. “Let us.” Her gloved, dainty fingers traveled to pull down the blue hood with the fur lining, a certain lack of hesitance etched through her motions. Her silver-gold hair was bound in a simple braid that fell across her shoulder as the hood was removed and her violet eyes were staring at him intently. “My name is Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen. Some call me the Breaker of Chains, some Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, some Queen of Meereen, some the rightful ruler of the Seven Kingdoms, some the Unburnt, and some the Mother of Dragons. Sometimes they call me all of it. I have many names and titles, Jon Snow. I have given you the only name still sacred to me, the only name none of the rumors and stories mention.”

Jon remembered Maester Luwin’s lessons when he was a child. Because of how close in age they had been, he had often learned at the same time as Robb. Things about the Great Houses, the history of Westeros, the myths of the North, the world across the Narrow Sea.

Of course, he’d learned about House Targaryen – the “greatest dynasty of Westeros” as many had called them. But his knowledge pertaining to Daenerys Stormborn was much more limited. Everyone heard of the rumors about her three dragons and her likelihood to return to reclaim the throne Robert Baratheon had “stolen” from the Mad King. But if there was anything beyond that, which her myriad of titles did suggest, then the Night’s Watch was the place where those rumors had stopped traveling. Queen of Meereen, Breaker of Chains, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea. All so foreign and undoubtedly with stories of their own.

The only stories Jon knew were the stories told by Maester Aemon. He thought of the old maester and felt a bitter pang in the pit of his stomach. Had Daenerys Targaryen arrived a few months earlier, he would have been able to meet the only person left who shared his blood. Now, he rested on board of the Cinnamon Wind, and Jon had trouble shaking off the feelings of guilt creeping up his spine.

His reaction failed to arrive, its wording trapped somewhere between the slight daze of seeing the rumors of her grand beauty turned to reality and the ghost of the less than pleasant history backing her family up.

“Were we not meant to cease with such vagueness, Lord Commander?” said Daenerys. “I would surely deem your silence as sufficiently vague.”

“You must forgive me,” he sighed. “Runaway women are one matter. Runaway Targaryen queens are another.”

“You are not certain what your feelings on the matter are.”

I am not, he thought. Jon Snow had plenty of reasons to feed into grudges and suspicions. But they did not belong to this moment here. He was only the Lord Commander.

“No,” he admitted. “But perhaps you could enlighten me. What interest does Daenerys Targeryen hold for the Night’s Watch?”

“My dragons have been stolen,” she said, bitterly. Jon’s heart leaped in his chest. Gods be good, the dragons truly did exist? “My kingdom has been taken and my people slaughtered.”

“What kingdom would that be?”

“Meereen. Yunkai. Astapor. All that I have built by the sweat of my palms.”

“And journeying across a whole continent ought to somehow help you?”

For a brief moment, Jon detected some sort of frustration in her features. Perhaps he was asking too many questions for her liking.

“There is nowhere in the entire world where I am safe,” she said, flatly. “I cannot save anyone when they are too worried about my safety, there is no peace to think and plan when on the run.” There was a pause, during which Jon allowed himself a moment to think. But the moment ended soon enough, banished by the sound of her voice. “Euron Greyjoy has gained mental control over my dragons.”

Jon froze, bewilderment clear in his tone.

“Euron Greyjoy?”

“He possesses some magical horn which gives him the power to bind their will. I fear he will completely be able to control them soon.” Jon was still too taken aback by having this knowledge dumped on him all so suddenly, without having requested them to begin with. “What do you think a man crazier than my own father would do with such a power? How long before the entirety of the Seven Kingdoms stands aflame with no hope among the people? That is why I am here, Jon Snow. My children have been taken from me, they have been bound in mind and soul. My people are suffering. I am here to find a way to put an end to all of it, no matter the cost I must pay, but I need peace and safety to do so.” It was blatantly obvious that exasperation had pushed Daenerys into playing her game to the best of her ability. But it was not despair at the root of her display. There was only fire. “So, tell me, do you think certain death and destruction brought to you soon by a mad man with magical control over three full-grown dragons is a good enough reason for you to harbor a woman?”

Dragons, magical horns, a kraken to allegedly soon swallow them whole… Even for Jon Snow, it was all particularly overwhelming.

How much more certain mass destruction could the Seven Kingdoms handle? It was his first initial thought and it veiled his features in a cloak of grimness. After a brief moment of silence, he turned heel, walked back behind the desk, and collapsed into the chair with a soundly thud. He prompted his elbow against the surface and pinched at the bridge of his nose. If he thought everything over too much, he would only gain a massive headache, which was why he decided to shed off all attempts at piecing together a strategy in his head beforehand.

“A good enough reason?” he finally responded, leaning against the backrest and gazing toward Daenerys with a gaze molded on the unreadable, icy Stark features. “Strange as it may be, by the rules of the Watch, it technically isn’t.” Just how lying with a woman was equally forbidden and theoretically unbreakable. “In reality, it does not sound like something I can turn my back on. We are the sword in the darkness, the shield that guards the realms of men. The threat may not come from Beyond the Wall, but it is a threat nonetheless.” If she sought peace and quiet to form her plans, however, the Night’s Watch wasn’t the place to be at. While she’d be preparing for her own war, the Long Night could befall them at any given moment and the Wall was the first place it would strike.

He observed Daenerys as she followed toward the desk, gracefully reclaiming her own seat. Ever since she had removed the shielding of her hood, she had not lowered her gaze once, Jon noted. Even then, her eyes of lilac stared at him intently, with unwavering boldness and conviction.

“You believe me?” she questioned.

“I can believe a great number of things,” he said, making no attempts at containing the weariness of his voice. He would be no different from all the stubborn Southern lords that refused to see the threat of the Others if he elected to dismiss her sayings simply because of how unlikely they seemed.

“What is your answer then?”

His fingers drummed briefly against the armrest and he skewed his head as he stared her down inquisitively.

“I do have to make sure that you’re well-informed on what you’re getting into. Some of the men here won’t be intimidated by the presence of your guards. And if they attack a brother of the Night’s Watch, I will have no choice but to send them away. I hope you understand that.”

“I understand,” she said and Jon could detect tired resignation in her voice. “I promise my guards will do nothing more than protecting me. They will not start up any trouble with your men and if they have to stop someone, they will not harm them but simply deter them away from me.”

Jon nodded slowly.

“That would be most appreciated.”

“Fret not,” Daenerys shifted in her chair, leaning into it, “this is not the first time I have been surrounded by men. I have managed well enough until now to stay out of, shall we say, undesired situations.” This was the biggest concern she should have had on her mind. Jon was grateful that she was fully aware of it, sparing him the tedious task of having to spell the risks out.

It struck him now that, in his intention to possibly ensure her wellbeing, he might have come across as somewhat… say, incompetent. What would anyone think if the Lord Commander essentially said he couldn’t keep his men under control well enough to avoid any unpleasant occurrences? That wasn’t really the case, Jon knew that. As long as he was around, he felt confident enough that he could keep everything under control without having it spiral negatively. But when he wasn’t present, there was nothing he could do. It would probably take one beheading after another to keep some of the men in check, but even this fear, it would only last for a while. It wouldn’t take long before it developed into anger and a full-blown warfare would blast from within the heart of the Night’s Watch. During a time so severely delicate, it was the last thing they needed.

He was still struggling to appease the group of brothers who had cast their votes for Alliser Thorne during the election. Some, Jon had won over, but none of them were the people he knew cunning and with enough hatred for him to motivate them beyond doubt. Still, he felt no need to explain himself. Some may have seen his stance as a weakness, but there were many things he had to discard in order to maintain an already-frail peace. She offered her own reassurances that no violence would come from her men’s part and that was all that mattered.

He was already starting to think of the proper way to explain their presence at the Wall to the rest of the Watch and of a way to enforce their prohibitions. If push came to shove, he’d have to reason with Thorne. The man was narrow-sighted, bitter, and hateful, but he didn’t strike Jon as the type to encourage needless violence. There were better chances the men that followed Thorne would listen to him instead. For now, at least.

Jon gave a short nod, a spark of dim gratitude flashing in his eyes as they fell down to the desk. He briefly wondered what kind of circumstances had placed her in the company of men who could be comparable to the infamous rapists, thieves, and murderers that composed most of the Night’s Watch. She’d spent a good portion of her life in Essos, a place Jon had scarcely heard stories about. Those stories, though, reflected that it was a land with a certain rawness to it and with very few rules to dictate social behavior.

There were still so many questions and so many unclear things, but he figured it would be impossible to find answers in that moment and in that place.

“You have my permission for a stay of a moon’s worth for now,” he said, at last. “Your men can help with physical labor.” It was a risky call to make, especially given his sensitive predicament. But it would be an even greater risk to possibly send away the one person who could the key to their survival in the great wars to come. Within the next month, there would be plenty of time to test just how genuine Daenerys Targaryen had been in her claims.

A small twitch tugged at the corners of her lips. Jon would not blame her if she were tempted to give into the feeling of relief.

“Only my men?” she asked, surprise clear in her features.

“I figure you already have a lot on your mind, so you needn’t partake in any chores. It would probably be for the best. Us highborn are not shaped for kitchen duties. And I mean no disrespect, but I would rather not see our numbers grow even thinner because of meal fatalities.”

His words had rolled off his tongue as a second thought, a casualty of his mental exhaustion, hence his surprise when the comment sparked laughter in her reaction. The sound of it was bright and clear, quite a contrast to how she had been presenting herself before, though he presumed he could attribute it to the positive news she had received. Life at the Wall was so incredibly morose that no one found anything funny anymore, not unless drunk. Crystal-clear laughs and genuine smiles were very rare, with all the people rounding up Castle Black being mostly as icy and lifeless as the giant structure visible from outside of his window.

“We all have our strengths,” she said, her voice light. “Cooking is indeed not the usual strength of a highborn and I am definitely not the exception.” She shook her head lightly, but still with a smile gracing her lips.

Ultimately, he responded with a faint rise of his lips, one that came without a second thought and which bubbled naturally to his face. Across it, a veil had been lifted, and he was temporarily left with shoulders without the usual boulders weighing on top of them.

“Good,” Jon replied. “It’s best to not let these tasks distract you from your goal.”

“Thank you, Jon,” said Daenerys, knocking him off-balance with how seamlessly and nonchalantly his name fell from her lips. Likely realizing the effects, she continued, “I hope it is alright I call you that. After all, I gave you permission to use my nickname. I think it is only fair I address you with your real name when in private.” With this clarification, it became obvious she was only seeking out an even ground, equality. Truthfully, he had not intended to continue using the name she had presented him with in the beginning, but there was something liberating in this alternative that made it difficult to resist.

The only people who still referred to him merely as Jon were his closest friends, though he could count them on the fingers of one hand. He had only been the Bastard of Winterfell once. Now he was Lord Commander, Lord Snow, King Crow, a traitor, a turncloak, an oathbreaker. It made him wonder how he could have been so shallow as to complain that he had to sit at the back of the dining hall in Winterfell. Oh, he would give so much just to be able to return there, but he didn’t want to dwell on hypothetical scenarios. That was the surest way for any black brother, isolated from everything they love, to slowly lose their marbles.

“Permission granted,” he spoke after a moment, drawing his lips in a tight line, sheepishly. “The title draws on for far too long, anyway. I have no idea how people can stand speaking it without falling into deep slumber midway through.”

“It is quite the title, indeed, but long titles usually command respect. They sound more important, the longer they are.” Was that why she carried so many with her? He caught her eye, noticing there was something intent in her stare. “You were a part of House Stark before you joined the brotherhood, correct?” Jon had wondered whether his name had reached her as well.

Swallowing down on a bitter boulder, the hand he rested on the table started to bawl into a loose fist.

“I was never part of House Stark,” he retorted, a hollow look in his eyes dictating that he’d accepted the fact so strongly it stopped affecting him altogether. “My father was. There’s only some Stark blood running through my veins.”

“Maybe not, but they were still your family,” spoke Daenerys, the soft conviction in her voice pulling his gaze to meet her eyes inquisitively. “You do not have to share their house to be family. A family is not just blood or the ones you share a name with, it is those you love and care for.”

“Aye,” he spoke, eager to slip away from the binds of this particular topic. “I would not dare to call them anything but my family.”

After a moment’s silence, Daenerys uttered, “A friend told me your father was an honorable man.”

“He was,” Jon said, his gaze aimlessly scouting the desk as he fiddled with his fingers. There was no one Jon admired more than Ned Stark, even from beyond the grave.

“He told me Lord Stark was against the brutal murders of my sister-in-law and her children. The deaths of your family are equally as unjust.”

There was a battle both inside of his head and outside, bursting through his irises. He didn’t know whether it was confusion or a feeling of ease winning the strife. On one hand, he found the sudden change in topics somewhat unsettling. It struck too close to his home, and to his heart, and his feelings of helplessness. Fury and sorrow toward the tragedy befallen on his family had been known only to Jon and the stars, whenever he’d lie awake with thorns prickling at his chest. On the other hand, sympathy was something that had become foreign to him. Those that had sent their condolences in the past had only managed to get a rush of anger out of him, but he supposed he’d moved on beyond that. It didn’t sound as if she was speaking for the sake of formality, but rather out of genuineness. Which, truth be told, was even more difficult for him to deal with. Too few people still cared about others and their feelings.

“Thank you,” he breathed out, not unkindly. “He was a man who sought justice. Always. But he sought justness and honor in a place that knows neither. So did my brother.” Surprisingly, there was only a subtle hint of frustration in his voice. It was more of a statement than anything, especially since he wasn’t aware of how much she knew of King’s Landing. Jon didn’t know that much either, in all frankness. But if Maester Aemon’s stories and Janos Slynt had been anything to go by, it was as much of a snake nest as he’d heard it was. He had to let go, to the best of his ability, of the grudges against the Lannisters for the sake of his own sanity. It would’ve driven him to a corner to map out revenge plans he knew he could never carry out.

Instinctively, he felt the need to respond with a kind word or two regarding her family, though the fact that they had been murdered before she was even born wouldn’t help not make it look like an obvious formality meant to pull attention off his own family. Luckily, there was something he could say with genuineness.

His eyes rose and met hers, briefly wondering whether his words would have any effect.

“There’s someone… It would have brought him great joy to finally meet you. Our previous maester, Aemon of House Targaryen.”

#jonerys #jon x daenerys #jonerys fanfic #jonerys fic #tfott #atfs: 03

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