thealisflore

[thealisflore]

[thealisflore]

I agree with your recent post so much, it’s extremely odd the way people talk about Brienne and Jaime getting together.. like can they not comprehend that someone conveniently attractive like Jaime would be into someone like Brienne who is conveniently unattractive? It’s so important that Bri is “ugly”.. literally misses a theme of the series too 😭 GRRM has so much love for the misfits and those ignored by society.

right like, this is exactly the type of romance GRRM would write. lifelong beauty and the beast fan who loves romantics and misfits.... there's a reason this is the most developed romance plot in the story, and that's bc this is GRRM writing for GRRM!! it is so well written and v much in-keeping with the themes of the story, and yet so many readers would rather argue against logic than accept that this romance is an intentional part of the story. u don't have to like it! you can be squicked by the age gap or ship him with Cersei or just not be attracted to Brienne, whatever your reason is (those are the usual ones) but it is just bizarre to go on about platonic boners and platonic beauty and the beast and platonic sexual attraction LIKE!!! just stop talking about it if you aren't keen!! just leave it!!

#Platonic with capital P..P

[thealisflore]

lol a jaime essay i started in december 2022 started getting notes again and just now i was like why didn't i finish that again?? then found the google doc and realised the next part was basically done already id just been procrastinating on the last tweaks so guess im posting it tonight lmao

[thealisflore]

Brienne spending most of asos w Jaime sobbing on the back of the horse shaved bald and covered in shit and next book she’s imagining their wedding. ppl like ‘she could do better’ she doesn’t want better she wants That

#Don't mind me #I'm just giggling right now #twirling my hair #squealing #Kicking my feet

[thealisflore]

Brienne spending most of asos w Jaime sobbing on the back of the horse shaved bald and covered in shit and next book she’s imagining their wedding. ppl like ‘she could do better’ she doesn’t want better she wants That

[thealisflore]

Something something vampires walking on walls

[thealisflore]

Had this sitting in the folder for months and it’s time to post it so I can start on some new projects! Haven’t been drawing lately because I’ve been busy with work and playing over 200 hours of bg3 but I’ve got loads of ideas I’m excited to start on!!

#astarion ancunin #karlach #bg3 #gorgeous

[thealisflore]

"There was a time that I would have given my right hand to wield a sword like that. Now it appears I have, so the blade is wasted on me. Take it.” Before she could think to refuse, he went on. “A sword so fine must bear a name. It would please me if you would call this one Oathkeeper." - Jaime IX, ASoS

[thealisflore]

📷!

[thealisflore]

arya stark and her introvert boys

#theyre so cute #asoiaf fanart #Arya Stark #jon snow #gendry #edric dayne #pretty

[thealisflore]

ASoIaF: Arya’s change of clothes

AGOT 

Arya III: His claws raked at the front of her leather jerkin. (...) Arya whirled, felt leather catch and tear as a huge fang nipped at her jerkin, and then she was running.

Arya V: Some of them stared at her boots or her cloak (heavy woolen cloak) (...) The silver bracelet she'd hoped to sell had been stolen her first night out of the castle, along with her bundle of good clothes (a velvet skirt, a silk tunic, some smallclothes, a dress her mother had embroidered for her,  a satin gown) , snatched while she slept in a burnt-out house off Pig Alley. All they left her was the cloak she had been huddled in, the leathers on her back, her wooden practice sword … and Needle.

ACOK 

Arya VI: "That hair is a fright and a nest for lice as well. We'll have it off, and then you're for the kitchens." (...) Goodwife Harra slapped her so hard that her swollen lip broke open all over again (...) They gave her a shift of grey roughspun wool and a pair of ill-fitting shoes, and sent her off. (...) On the road Arya had felt like a sheep, but Harrenhal turned her into a mouse. She was grey as a mouse in her scratchy wool shift,

Arya X: They required dressing like a page and washing more than she liked. (...) In her cell, she stripped to the skin and dressed herself carefully, in two layers of smallclothes, warm stockings, and her cleanest tunic. It was Lord Bolton's livery. On the breast was sewn his sigil, the flayed man of the Dreadfort. She tied her shoes, threw a wool cloak over her skinny shoulders, and knotted it under her throat. 

ASOS

Arya I: She was still dressed in her page's garb, and on the breast over her heart was sewn Lord Bolton's sigil, the flayed man of the Dreadfort. (...) "Who dressed the poor child in those Bolton rags?" 

Arya IV: They insisted she dress herself in girl's things, brown woolen stockings and a light linen shift, and over that a light green gown with acorns embroidered all over the bodice in brown thread, and more acorns bordering the hem. (...) Lady Smallwood said as the women laced the gown up Arya's back. (...) one sleeve was torn on her stupid acorn dress. 

Arya IV: The dress she put her in this time was sort of lilac-colored, and decorated with little baby pearls. The only good thing about it was that it was so delicate that no one could expect her to ride in it. 

Arya IV: So the next morning as they broke their fast, Lady Smallwood gave her breeches, belt, and tunic to wear, and a brown doeskin jerkin dotted with iron studs. "They were my son's things".

Arya V: Then they stole all the clothes that Lady Smallwood had given her and dressed her up like one of Sansa's dolls in linen and lace. 

AFFC 

Arya III: In the black of night she rose again, donned the clothes she'd worn from Westeros, and buckled on her swordbelt. Needle hung from one hip, her dagger from the other. With her floppy (woolen hat patched with leather) hat on her head, her fingerless gloves tucked into her belt, and her silver fork in one hand, she went stealing up the steps. (...) She emptied her pouch into her palm; five silver stags, nine copper stars, some pennies and halfpennies and groats. She scattered them across the water. Next her boots. They made the loudest splashes. Her dagger followed, the one she'd gotten off the archer who had begged the Hound for mercy. Her swordbelt went into the canal. Her cloak, tunic, breeches, smallclothes, all of it. All but Needle.

ADWD 

The Blind Girl: The blind girl tied a strip of rag around her head to hide her useless eyes (...) The waif had shaved her head for her when they took her eyes; a mummer's cut (...)  she gave her pox scars and a mummer's mole on one cheek with a dark hair growing from it.  (...) The clothes she wore were rags, faded and fraying, but warm clean rags for all that. Under them she hid three knives—one in a boot, one up a sleeve, one sheathed at the small of her back. (...) A cracked wooden begging bowl and belt of hempen rope completed her garb.

The Ugly Little Girl: An ugly girl should dress in ugly clothing, she decided, so she chose a stained brown cloak fraying at the hem, a musty green tunic smelling of fish, and a pair of heavy boots. Last of all she palmed her finger knife.

The Ugly Little Girl: They brought a robe for her as well, the soft thick robe of an acolyte, black upon one side and white upon the other. 

TWOW

Mercy: She shaved, donned her smallclothes, and slipped a shapeless brown wool dress down over her head. One of her stockings needed mending, she saw as she pulled it up. (...) Her boots were lumps of old brown leather mottled with saltstains and cracked from long wear, her belt a length of hempen rope dyed blue. She knotted it about her waist, and hung a knife on her right hip and a coin pouch on her left. Last of all she threw her cloak across her shoulders. It was a real mummer's cloak, purple wool lined in red silk, with a hood to keep the rain off, and three secret pockets too. She'd hid some coins in one of those, an iron key in another, a blade in the last. A real blade, not a fruit knife like the one on her hip, but it did not belong to Mercy, no more than her other treasures did. 

[thealisflore]

What has always been true is that the Arya/Lyanna parallels work both ways. It’s extremely meaningful to Lyanna to be paralleled with Arya in order to shed light on Lyanna’s inner world, in preparation for the reveal of a long held secret.

How it works is like this: because Arya defends Mycah against Joffrey, we can understand Lyanna’s defense of Howland. Because Arya never once strays from wanting justice for her brutally murdered friend, we can imagine what drove Lyanna to masquerade as the Knight of the Laughing Tree. And because Arya doesn’t think twice about any of this, we can understand Lyanna's convictions.

Because Arya loves exploring and discovering new plants she’s never seen before, because she brings flowers to Ned out of love, we can understand Lyanna being "fond of flowers" as part of a curious and affectionate nature.

Because Arya is never impressed with Joffrey, we can understand Lyanna's immediate assessment of Robert. Because her siblings react to news of Arya's betrothals to unsuitable partners with "Arya won't like that one bit" & "she never will, not Arya" & "[i]f he tries to lay a hand on her, she'll fight him," we can understand the gulf that opened between Lyanna and her family after her betrothal. Because amiable Elmar Frey looked down on Nan the serving girl and Arya resented him for it, we can see Lyanna judging Robert based on how he treats Mya/Mya's mother.

Because Bran thinks Arya "wasn't scared to get dirty, and she could run and fight and throw as good as a boy," because he first assumes Lyanna & Benjen fighting are him & Arya, we can imagine Lyanna & Benjen's relationship.

Because Arya is wolf-blooded and we see that written out, we can understand Lyanna as well.

That isn't to say it isn't meaningful to Arya, having Lyanna scattered through her story. Arya's complex relationship with mentor figures is a post to itself, but in brief: legacies are passed down by people, to people, who then use them as a starting/turning point. Daenerys Targaryen understands the duality of her family's legacy through the fragments of Viserys as her brother, king, and abuser; when he dies, she is the last, and she births dragons. Jon Snow is groomed for command in the Night's Watch just like his uncle and ancestors before him, charged with protecting his homeland in the shadow of an eight thousand year old Stark dynasty. Tyrion is Tywin writ small. The last greenseer waited generations just to haunt Brandon Stark's dreams.

Arya doesn't have that. She has a direwolf, she's a warg, and she has the North in her face. Wolf child, blood child; scattered yet meaningful pieces of a puzzle. By connecting her to Lyanna who came before her, it's a lineage. It's no longer an accident. Arya isn't Lyanna any more than Daenerys is Aegon the Conqueror, or Jon Snow is any of his predecessors, or Tyrion is Tywin, or Bran is Bloodraven, or Edric Dayne is Arthur, or Arianne is Nymeria. These parallels to (pre-series) characters represent a benchmark to be surpassed, whether or not the characters realize it themselves, and in Arya's case is no less.

Intentional parallels like this ask us: what if you were part of something - maybe even the culmination of something - that's been brewing for a very long while now? What if who & what you are is so important, so necessary, that time would fold in on itself for you?

[thealisflore]

gendryacore

[thealisflore]

/ Aniela Sobieski, Birds Eye, 2020

[thealisflore]

Great eared nightjar

[thealisflore]

He doesn’t like Ned.

Day 15: Romantic interests - Gendry and Edric

#gendry #arya stark #edric dayne #asoiaf art

[thealisflore]

A beauty.

#brienne of tarth #asoiaf art #asoiaf fanart #a song of ice and fire #Sun and moon #I like how the sun is associated with masculine energy and the moon with feminine energy. It's very fitting for her character.