sansa and lady in the godswood at winterfell

daemon being the author's chosen epic rogue antihero will never not be funny considering how terrible he comes off as in canon. for my final act of redemption i will groom this fifteen year old before murder suiciding my dark shadow nephew above the castle of doom and death. george you say trust the process and yeah you kinda killed it with jaime and theon. but gimme something i can work with man

harrenhal is:

1. made of blood.

2. made from fire.

3. cursed

4. haunted, not by the past or the future, but by the present which it flattens everything into, all gray and static and frozen in time.

5. a pit

6. an old god, something made from blood which demands still more.

7. feudalism in microcosm (a castle made from peasant blood that eats people whole and stacked high with their, a machine that kills those striving to be lords as well, a neverending cycle of violence where nothing ever changes)

8. Where everything starts, and where everything ends, and where everything keeps coming back to

9. made from blood like the wall is made from blood but the wall is the wound of a border and harrenhal is the wound of feudal violence

10. house that traps and eats targaryens in the narrative

harrenhal is:

1. made of blood.

2. made from fire.

3. cursed

4. haunted, not by the past or the future, but by the present which it flattens everything into, all gray and static and frozen in time.

5. a pit

6. an old god, something made from blood which demands still more.

7. feudalism in microcosm (a castle made from peasant blood that eats people whole and stacked high with their ghosts, a machine that kills those striving to be lords as well, a neverending cycle of violence where nothing ever changes)

8. Where everything starts, and where everything ends, and where everything keeps coming back to

9. made from blood like the wall is made from blood but the wall is the wound of a border and harrenhal is the wound of feudal violence

10. house that traps and eats targaryens in the narrative

George R.R. Martin on the process of creating A Game Of Thrones (1/3)

You hold in your hands the second volume of A Song of Ice and Fire… but not the second volume as originally intended. Although I wrote the opening of A Game of Thrones back in the summer of 1991, as related in my introduction to the Meisha Merlin edition of that volume, it was not until October of 1993 that I drew up a proposal for my agents to take to publishers. There is no mention of any book titled A Clash of Kings in that proposal. In 1993, I was under the impression that I was writing a trilogy.

Trilogies had been the dominant form in epic fantasy ever since J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings had been broken apart by publishers and released in three volumes. And the story that I wanted to tell divided quite naturally into three parts; much more so, in fact, than The Lord of the Rings, which is actually one fairly seamless narrative, and not a trilogy at all. I planned to title the books A Game of Thrones, A Dance with Dragons, and The Winds of Winter. I knew right from the start that they would all be large books. Huge books, even. But there were to be only three of them, and…and none were to be called A Clash of Kings. Sometimes the author is the last to know.

As I write this, I am halfway through the writing of A Feast for Crows, the fourth volume of my ‘trilogy.’ There is no mention of that title in my 1993 proposal either. These days, when pressed, I confidently assert that A Song of Ice and Fire will ultimately run to six books… but behind my back I know my lady Parris is smiling knowingly and holding up seven fingers. She may be right. Though I may dream of six books, plan for six books, work toward six books, the only thing that truly matters is the story. And the story needs to be as long as the story needs to be.

In Hollywood, the suits will tell you how long that is. A television show has to fit within its allotted time slot, of course, and you cannot beg, borrow, or steal an extra minute, no matter how much the story needs it. Running times are somewhat more flexible for films, though not as much as one might think. For the most part, the studios still want movies to run about two hours, so they look for screenplays of 120 pages or less, and demand cuts in any scripts that come in longer. My own screenplays and teleplays were almost always too long and too expensive in first draft, so in my later drafts, along with addressing the inevitable notes from studio, network, and producers, I was constantly trimming. In the end, I would deliver a shooting script that was the right length and under budget, but it was never a happy process… and I often went away feeling that the earlier drafts were the better ones.

The size of A Song of Ice and Fire was in no small part a reaction to ten years of trimming. I wanted to do something epic in scale, something at once grand and sprawling and complex and subtle, with a cast of thousands, huge battles, mighty castles, gorgeous costume, lavish feast, great rivers, towering mountains, vast fields… all the things I could not do in television. In short. I wanted to make a world. And for that you need a bit of room.

In my original proposal, I estimated that each volume of the trilogy might run as long as 800 pages in manuscript. The novels that I had written during the 70's and 80's, before Hollywood, had generally come in at 400 or 500 pages or thereabouts, so an 800 pages book seemed very lengthy indeed. The three books of the trilogy would be structured around the long, slow seasons of Westeros. A Game of Thrones would be summer’s book, A Dance with Dragons would take us through autumn, and The Winds of Winter… well, the title says it all. Even in the Seven Kingdoms, where a season can last for years, 800 pages ought to give me enough room to reach the end of summer and conclude the part of my tale, I reasoned.

‘Twas a lovely plan of battle… but no plan of battle ever survives contact with the enemy, it has been said. Writers know the truth of that as well as any general, though our wars are fought on blank white sheets of paper and empty computer screens. For the map is not the territory, the blueprint is not the house, the recipe is not the dinner… and the outline is never ever the book.

- George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings Limited Edition Introduction (2002)

Larys Strong and Alicent Hightower

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON | 1.06

“Little Bird” and “Haunted Lands” by Dana Guerrieri.

FOLLOW KICKSTARTER FOR MORE ART: http://kck.st/1EVMKCK

Dana is a freelance illustrator and concept artist, a veritable cat lady, and possibly a mermaid.

Tyrion looked pointedly at his right hand. “Why, I have steel in my hand, Ser Alliser, although it appears to be a crab fork. Shall we duel?” He hopped up on his chair and began poking at Thorne’s chest with the tiny fork. Roars of laughter filled the tower room. Bits of crab flew from the Lord Commander’s mouth as he began to gasp and choke. Even his raven joined in, cawing loudly from above the window. “Duel! Duel! Duel!”

Game of Thrones - Chapter 21

This one was had a few false steps, and it took me a while to fit everybody in the scene while still being able to focus on Tyrion’s clowning. The other hard part about it was Mr. Martin never says what “The Room” is. I can only assume it’s either’s Mormont’s quarters or the Night’s Watch’s equivalent of an officer’s mess… or just the one nice room in Castle Black reserved for entertaining important guests.

It still was fun putting in all of the details. If anyone doesn’t catch it, the tapestry behind Maester Aemon tells the story of the Night’s King.

sorry but i'm soo obsessed with robert keeping the dragon skulls in the dungeons after he wins. it's a sign of triumph, and a sign of continuity. what's left of the targaryens is bones. we will build our house atop the dead things that once made you gods

Wonderful commission for the @/targtowers on Twitter (X)💙

alicent voice ser criston i think theres something wrong with aegon fundamentally i can’t get through to him god i’m his mother. criston voice do you want me to (runs through resulting dialogue from ‘kill him’ in his head and decides this isn’t the time. realises that the only acceptable thing to say is ‘talk to him’ which he doesn’t want to do. lapses into silence)

they're my roman empire...

Lann the Clever

“Lann was the fellow who winkled the Casterlys out of Casterly Rock with no weapon but his wits, and stole gold from the sun to brighten his curly hair.”

“The Queenmaker” Arianne Martell

“She burned as bright as any man, and so shall I. You will not rob me of my birthright.”

(for @made7820 , winner of my art giveaway on twitter)

The wind was howling, and he and the girl were trapped.

The crossbow snapped. A bolt passed within a foot of him, shattering the crust of frozen snow that had plugged the closest crenel. Of Abel, Rowan, Squirrel, and the others there was no sign. He and the girl were alone. If they take us alive, they will deliver us to Ramsay. 

Theon grabbed Jeyne about the waist and jumped. 

A L Y S   K A R S T A R K   &   S I G O R N   O F   T H E N N

In the book, Jon seems to believe that it’s a bit of good old fashioned drunkenness that inspires Sigorn to dance… But I like to think that Alys won him over, all by herself.

A gift for the very talented @cosmiart - I hope you like it! (Love, Oakenshield!)