#rouka queue

[agentrouka-blog]

How come only jonsas saw this romantic chemistry or acting chemistry and nobody else though?

I mean, for some show-only fans, that's kind of how many became Jonsas in the first place. Because they saw it.

And there were a number of reviewers who also noticed the weird chemistry and filming choices.

I will freely admit that I didn't read it as romantic at first glance, because the idea had never crossed my mind before, but even I saw that the creators really really cared about their emotional connection. From this basis that they built in season six, they could have easily developed them as a romantric couple if they had so chosen, because everything they did works for that purpose and specifically doesn't contradict it. It was designed to be subtle and make sense in retrospect. Only they didn't continue to build on it.

But that doesn't change that in retrospect they used a lot of absurdly romantic-coded techniques and tropes to build their relationship.

Set a novice in front of a television with the sound off and ask them to judge the relationship between the redhaired woman and the dark-haired man and I am willing to bet money that a lot of them would not have "siblings" as their first guess.

#rouka queue #jonsa #anti game of thrones

[agentrouka-blog]

what do you think are some double standards regarding sansa in the fandom? (Non shipping) Thanks x

It's hard to narrow it down to individual instances because it's so prevalent across the books. Generally, Sansa tends to be ascribed the worst possible intentions, even where they make no sense, and she is denied the complexity that other characters are granted by readers.

I have seen chapter reviews of her wedding to Tyrion that spent more time on what Tyrion was feeling than on Sansa, the actual POV character. With little to no mention of her traumatic experience of facing marital rape that is only averted (grudgingly!) at the last possible moment, because they are too focused on how poor Tyrion was humiliated by her not kneeling for him, how this must be bringing up bad memories of his own sexual trauma - while he is busy traumatizing Sansa. Speculating how this reveals a villainous side to Sansa. It's dehumanizing how her valid perspective is unacknowledged or erased, and people don't even realize it because they are so used to discounting the validity of the female perspective as conditional. Sure, it's not great being forced into marriage and groped by an unattractive man twice your age but surely it being Tyrion - who is so nice and who saved her that one time - should be enough to convince Sansa to make an effort to accept it and stop making him feel bad about it? Can we turn the focus on the man's feelings again, please?

Sansa is a lithmus test for internalized misogyny for a reason.

#rouka queue #sansa stark #anti tyrion lannister #anti asoiaf fandom

[agentrouka-blog]

That mini survivalist arc idea is very Snow White and Belle-coded and I AM ALL FOR IT/

She doesn’t need to master the dangerous forest, only get through it. I remember fedonciadale comparing and theorizing about Jonsa and Beauty and the Beast, including the interesting fact that Belle and the Beast are actually first cousins.

I encourage anyone to forage in the late (but unfadingly great) fedon's Meta Masterlist for her analysis on jonsa (show and book) and various historical and literary influences, as well as Dark!Dany, and a ton of other subjects. She really has so much to offer!

The reference I mostly know regarding the cousin relationship between Beauty and Beast is by @kellyvela / @butterflies-dragons , such as here.

There's also a great meta series by @princess-in-a-tower on the subject of Beauty and the Beast in the series.

#rouka queue #jonsa #beauty and the beast in asoiaf

[agentrouka-blog]

What do you think will happen to Roslin? I do feel bad for her, but there’s something I really don’t like about walder basically infiltrating house Tully and their descendants with his bloodline

Roslin's branch of this large family is among the kinder ones. Her brother Olyvar was loyal to Robb and likely kept away from the events of the Red Wedding for exactly that reason. They knew he would oppose this move with everything he had. There's potential for good and for redemption in House Frey, and I think we are far more likely to see that addressed than a full-on destruction of the House based on the crimes of many of its members.

Walder is a monster, but Roslin is not. More importantly, Edmure Tully recognizes the marriage as valid and cares for both his wife and their unborn child. The threat of Jaime murdering said infant is what breaks his resistance to ordering the surrender of Riverrun. If Edmure Tully doesn't think that Roslin is the product of a poisonous bloodline that must never soil the family tree of House Tully, then neither need we.

Honestly, I think GRRM is rooting for them and giving them a happy ending. Edmure "My people. They were afraid." Tully isn't getting his heart ripped out by another tragedy. The one feudal lord we see actually doing his job for the good of his smallfolk.

#edmure tully #the best tully #roslin frey #house frey #rouka queue

[agentrouka-blog]

I think Ned and Cat both are different when they handle Stark sisters. For Cat, Arya is wild child who needs some grooming and refinement. With Sansa she adores Sansa romanticism and proud of her. That doesn't mean she loved Arya less. Ned too think Arya has wolf blood and needs refinement but he indulges her. He seems to having hard time to understand Sansa and think her Septa will handle her.

The kindest explanation I can come up with for Ned's (lack of) interaction with Sansa is that he views her dutiful obedience as a default setting that doesn't require maintainence, mainly because that's how he sees himself. He recognizes is own submission to duty and doesn't question it. He hurts himself the same way, by not listening to his own instincts, by outsourcing his decisions to the needs of those he feels compelled to serve.

He's the same way with Jon.

"Oh, you're prostrating yourself in front of my household, calling yourself a bastard who is not a proper Stark, so my children can all have a fluffy direwolf puppy and Bran doesn't get sad, while you get absolutely nothing out of it? Okay, seems reasonable."

Arya and Bran get more attention because they are more prone to acting out, and he is infinitely patient with them because they are more foreign to his own nature. More like the family he lost. Brandon, Lyanna, Starks who made their own needs and desires visible.

Ned making his own desires matter is not okay to him, and he is less prone to tolerating it from the children who are usually like him in that respect.

(Catelyn "I have always done my duty" Tully is NOT any better, mind.)

There is something self-destructive in there. They don't learn how to healthily engage with their own needs. Sansa tried to reframe reality in order to cope with her duty to marry Joffrey, Jon never gets any answers about his mother and struggles to detangle the concept of duty and honor from the concept of what is ethical and right. Robb swings from harsh denial to devastating indulgence.

Bran and Arya are pressed by circumstances to really consider the world in terms of what they need and what it can offer them, and they struggle in their own ways between right and wrong, but they are less mentally caged than any of the others. I like all of their individual journeys.

And then there's Rickon. Ahem.

#rouka queue #house stark #eddard stark #sansa stark #starklings #duty #parenting

[agentrouka-blog]

Sometimes I see cersei antis mention that cersei never loved jaime because jaime always had sex with cersei but she had sex with a bunch of people just because. But that isn't really the case...right? If I remember correctly it was because she wanted something from them and sex was her weapon.

I don't doubt that Cersei at least partially slept with, say, Lancel, out of the sheer desire for personal distraction, the same way she does with Taena Merryweather. With Osney Kettleblack, on the other hand, it is a pure transactional (and non-consentual) event. Sex with Jaime is, though, the only kind she truly enjoyed, by her own words.

But if we question "love", then we also need to look beyond sexual fidelity. The relationship between Jaime and Cersei is deeply flawed and codependent (even beyond the incest) - and crucially it is mutually so. It's not like Jaime has been truly making Cersei's well-being his priority in any way. He either ignores or isn't even aware of how deeply traumatized she is by Robert's abuse of her. He doesn't respect her relationship with her children. He pressures her into sex in incredibly high risk situations, even next to the corpse of her son. Her pain is non-existent or at least inconvenient to him. His hypocritical knightly vows are allowed to matter to him, but her grief and anger are things he disregards with ease. He is using her, obsessing over her, feeling entitled to her, blind to her, in the exact same way she is to him. If she was physically unfaithful, he has been abandoning her in other ways that are no less important.

Their relationship is deeply flawed. They hurt each other. But it's central to both of them. They are flawed brother and sister, flawed lovers, deeply deeply flawed people.

This isn't going to end with one of them going down and the other one walking away "redeemed". Jaime is a massive hypocrite at this point, walking out on Cersei because she "cheated" on him and washing his hands off the relationship as the poor victim, as if that's the only factor that matters. There's a metric ton of unfinished business, and some people like to ignore that because they prefer the idea of a poor misled hunk finally seeing the light. That's not Jaime.

That's not the story GRRM is telling.

#rouka queue #cersei lannister #jaime lannister #jaime x cersei