[disclaimer; please note that i’m not telling anyone what to do with their fanfic etc. their relationship is still very much in progress, and i’m a big fan of elaborate headcanons besides. but i want to solely talk about what i see in canon]
okay, so, all throughout fiction you can find tons of manipulative chessmasters and the wide-eyed ingenues that love them. what i appreciate about the sansa and petyr dynamic is that it thoroughly deconstructs that dynamic, and, in its place, shows a thoroughly unglamorous relationship.
furthermore, i also feel that petyr has no genuine affection or caring for sansa, nor is he invested in the idea of her learning from him and gaining power. he gives her praise- crumbs, really- to let her think he’s better than the lannisters, but mostly he wants to keep her as a docile pawn. sansa, meanwhile, is not particularly impressed by petyr, and is largely repulsed by him. she might have moments of appreciation for his accomplishments, but otherwise she is thoroughly aware of how dangerous he is.
[cw for: emotional abuse, sexual abuse, human trafficking]
I wanted to make a strong mother character. The portrayal women in epic fantasy have been problematical for a long time. These books are largely written by men but women also read them in great, great numbers. And the women in fantasy tend to be very atypical women… They tend to be the woman warrior or the spunky princess who wouldn’t accept what her father lays down, and I have those archetypes in my books as well.
However, with Catelyn there is something reset for the Eleanor of Aquitaine, the figure of the woman who accepted her role and functions with a narrow society and, nonetheless, achieves considerable influence and power and authority despite accepting the risks and limitations of this society.
She is also a mother… Then, a tendency you can see in a lot of other fantasies is to kill the mother or to get her off the stage. She’s usually dead before the story opens… Nobody wants to hear about King Arthur’s mother and what she thought or what she was doing, so they get her off the stage and I wanted it too. And that’s Catelyn.
When we were little, Jaime and I were so much alike that even our lord father could not tell us apart. Sometimes as a lark we would dress in each other’s clothes and spend a whole day each as the other.
In chapter 60 of A Clash of Kings, Cersei notes that when she was little Jaime used to dress up in her clothes and pass as her, and she him. At least as a child, Jaime experienced what it was like to be treated like a woman.
We know explicitly how the impact of this experience and other misogynistic experiences has affected Cersei, but not so much how it has affected Jaime. Did this experience give him a deeper understanding of how Cersei was treated for being a girl? Has it subconsciously helped him relate to Brienne in any way?
And then I find myself circling back to my dead horse, about how the show depicted Jaime as so repulsed at the idea of being called a woman. There has been a lot of conversation about how Brienne from the books (or the show!) would never say that and less focus on how Jaime would never respond to that.
I don’t think Jaime would/should have responded to that.
And I find it fascinating that this one throwaway line actually tells us a lot about Cersei and Jaime’s childhood experiences with gender expectations.
-M
(via fatpinkcast)
Ned Stark uses Punnett Squares to determine Joffrey’s birth.
Because I taught a lesson on Punnett Squares the other day, and then watched Game of Thrones that evening, and it amused me that Ned was also learning genetics.
“Black of hair… Black of hair…. Black of Hair…”
(Source: 0tterp0p)
(Source: darkhuntress137)
a sansa + petyr analysis: “Had she escaped the Lannisters to tumble into worse?”
basically people are offended that dany is freeing slaves
they’re slaves. she freed them.
and y’all are upset with that
w hat
I think the worst thing i’ve seen is people dismiss slavery as “just part of the culture of Essos and stupid dumb white bitch Dany is trying to “free them” from something she just doesn’t understand.
Hey u know what other cultures thrived under the systematic oppression and enslavement of human beings? The United States of America. Let’s not just chalk up slavery to “culture” that is misunderstood by outside parties. Slavery is disgusting. Slavery should be stamped out.
Dany’s decision was rash and destabilized both the slave and the free cities to varying degrees, but the sentiment behind her actions was not wrong, and it wasn’t simply a case of a lack of cultural understanding.
Honestly I have really mixed thoughts about all of Dany’s political endeavors; because on one hand, shit got fucked up. But maybe shit needs to get fucked up in order to instigate social change and eradicate institutional slavery from a region. You usually don’t get change of that magnitude by asking nicely. Oppressors, particularly people who are oppressing people to the point of dehumanization aren’t going to magically see the error of their ways. That’s not how it works.
But Dany is a really great character to me because her decisions do have consequences no matter how initially agreeable they are, which is why she’s a fantastic white savior deconstruction. Not just in Essos, but in terms of Westeros as well. Her whole story amounts to her conquering/aiming to conquer lands that she is culturally ignorant of. Saying she will kill any high lord in Westeros that doesn’t accept her as queen. Her rash decisions in Meereen. These are things that have/will end up biting her in the butt; because in real life, you can’t just ride in on a white horse and a big heart and change entire regions and make everybody love and listen to you.
But the sentiment behind a lot of Dany’s goals are genuine, and some of the meta posts about her being racist or whatever for not being cool with slavery are a little disturbing.
(god imagine sansa at like, nine, trying to pick her baby sister up i bet sometimes arya would just go with it because sansa would’ve been so careful)
In which Bronte sends me stuff that makes me upset and I draw it to spite her
Game of Thrones Meme ✖ 7/8 RELATIONSHIPS ✖ BRIENNE & CATELYN
“I could serve you. If you would have me.”
Catelyn was startled. “Why me? I am no battle commander.”
“But you have courage. Not battle courage perhaps…A kind of woman’s courage.” The tall girl knelt awkwardly, unsheathed Renly’s longsword and laid it at her feet. “I am yours, my lady. I will shield your back and give my life for yours, if need be. I swear it by the old gods and the new.”
As she clasped the other woman’s hands in her own, Catelyn could not help but smile. “And I pledge to ask no service of you that might bring you dishonor.”
