Tumgik
#asoiaf thoughts
hieronymph · 10 months
Text
Had to see another post in Elia Martell tag about how Elia is a silent victim and how we don't know if she was really angry or upset with Rhaegar's infidelity.
A woman who was a Princess of a progressive kingdom which values women for being more than child incubators
Had to move to a racist court to marry a man who was delusional and who forced her to become a broodmare and got her pregnant in quick succession even after she was bedridden
Had to deal with said husband being a deadbeat father who didn't protect her and their daughter from his racist father and stayed silent
Was kept as a hostage by her racist FIL so he can blackmail and extort from her brother to send her kingdom's men to fight and die in a war that wasn't theirs
This definitely sounds like something a woman from a progressive nation, who is ridiculed and treated with distrust for her race, would be ok with. Right?
There are so many blanks in the books about so many things yet we all come up with detailed and nuanced theories to
fill those blanks.
Yet, some of yall can't fill the very simple gaps left about Elia's response to her husband's infidelity, disrespect and forced impregnation.
You operate under this belief that GRRM didn't mention that she wasn't upset so of course, she wasn't angry at Rhaegar or his actions.
Sure that is exactly the way to digest whatever content GRRM writes.
Are yall deliberately this obtuse?
Please get out of Elia Martell tags with such shit takes.
426 notes · View notes
serjaimelannister · 2 months
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media
A Storm of Swords, Jaime IV || A Feast for Crows, Brienne VII
75 notes · View notes
lagosbratzdoll · 6 months
Text
On Daenerys, Colonisation and Race Discourse within the ASOIAF Fandom
This has been on my mind for a good long while and honestly, as much as I would like to leave discourse in the pits, it has been bugging me intermittently over the past few weeks.
Far too many of you get on here and call people who like the fictional dragon-riding family, neo-Nazis and that sentiment is so prevalent, that white people feel comfortable telling me a black woman that I am a neo-Nazi for rooting for Daenerys Targaryen. I am upholding neo-Nazi power fantasies for wanting to see a little girl live at the end of a story. I am a neo-Nazi for wanting to see the rape survivor have the family she aches for and children with the man (or men) she loves.
Then, those same people go on spiels about how the systemic erasure of those who sing the song of the earth and other old races is not colonialism. That their removal from their home is not displacement but an agreement between two equal parties. The fact that the only place where those who sing the song of the earth exist in the present timeline is north of the wall, surrounded by the bones of their dead, is not a travesty. That the expulsion of the old races from their home isn't that bad and should not be condemned. 
Instead, people argue, completely seriously, that the harm that the First Men and Andals have caused is centuries in the past, so essentially the slate has been wiped clean. The logical leaps that are required to arrive at such a boneheaded conclusion are truly mind-boggling, and those who make such arguments are not good people. 
I am unsure how one could read those books and come away with the impression that the old races do not mourn the loss of their home. I am unsure how one could read The Last of the Giants[1] and Ygritte’s reaction to both the song and Jon’s dismissal of the ethnic cleansing of the giants then believe that the old races and the free folk have moved past their displacement. 
In Westeros, from the Wall to the broken arm of Dorne, they all speak one language despite the fact they are all different ethnicities and they all landed on the shores at different times. That is not the case in Essos, we have been introduced to at least six languages and in A Dance with Dragons, Tyrion notes that the Valyrian spoken in the Free Cities has evolved into nine distinct dialects, and they are well on their way to becoming different languages.
How would a continent as large and diverse as Westeros maintain its hegemony over the people if not for forced assimilation, discriminatory practices and violence? The brutal repression required to keep one house in power for thousands of years is nothing to sniff at. The suppression required to keep the vast majority of Westeros worshipping one (or seven) gods. The systems in place ensure that language does not grow or evolve amongst the highborns at least.
Centuries before Aegon's Landing the maesters were the definitive educational authority and even now centuries after, nothing has changed. The grey rats still decide who learns what and when they learn it. There's one in every highborn home, all correspondence passes through them, they are the healers and the councillors.
The circular logic gets even more blockheaded when you factor in the fact that Daenerys is far from the only white character in the books. She is not the only character who wishes for home. She is not the only character who draws strength from her ancestors, her bloodline and her magical creatures. 
Cersei draws strength from her family’s iconography, and the Stark children (Jon included) all draw strength from their direwolves, their home and their blood. Sansa, Arya and Bran wish to return home and their home was built on the indiscriminate murder and displacement of the indigenous peoples. Their home is built on centuries of rape, murder, exclusionary practices and sexual slavery. 
However, if we give the nonsensical argument that time erases crimes air; the Starks, Lannisters and Tullys are warring to settle personal grievances in the present timeline. As a consequence of that war, thousands (a modest guesstimate) of small folk, minor nobles and even some major ones have been raped, tortured, maimed and killed.
Despite all this, no one writes meta after meta about how Sansa and her siblings must surely die for justice to be had for those who sing the song of the earth, the free folk, the giants and all the old races that fled beyond the wall.  
People write meta about Cersei and how she must die, but those are typically more misogynistic nature. They typically argue that she must die not for the “crime” of being Lannister, but for the “crime” of being Cersei and “ruining” Jamie. 
I would not mind criticisms of Dany and her peace-focused approach to ending slavery because the approach is naïve and she gives the slavers far too much ground. However, she is learning, growing and self-critiquing. At the end of A Dance with Dragons, she has decided to embrace fire and blood, her knight is breaking the false peace which is a necessary step forward.
What I find offensive is people saying that she should have planned better before she abolished slavery. And that the death, violence, and sickness that arises from her quest to eradicate slavery is somehow worse than the death, violence, and sickness that already existed in Slaver’s Bay. 
This argument often downplays the horrific conditions and suffering that exist(ed) under the slave system in Slaver's Bay. Such arguments are often in poor taste and prioritise the lives and comforts of the slavers more than the people they have enslaved.
I would not mind criticisms of Dany if people applied that same critique even-handedly. The same people who believe that Jon and Bran have done much to rectify the evil that their ancestors perpetuated believe that Dany has not done anything to right the wrongs of her ethnic kin. They praise them for the non-existent steps that they have taken, but in the same breath, they condemn Dany for not being able to immediately end the plague that is slavery. 
It is perfectly alright to not like fictional characters, no law requires you to like certain fictional characters over others. However, what is not right is making broad accusations about those who do, it is beyond the pale. It is disgusting, and annoying, and trivialises real-world issues to score cheap points against fictional characters.
Equating the survival of a teenage survivor to the restoration of a fascist house or neo-Nazi power fantasy when such designations do not exist in the world of ice and fire is strange behaviour. Saying that the teenage survivor will eventually be manipulated and raped (again) before ending up dead on her manipulator's blade is also strange behaviour. 
Dismissing the horrors of colonialism, especially when the text shows you that the involved parties are still affected by it, is not normal and often veers into real-world imperialism apologia. While criticism and analysis of characters and their actions are valid and even encouraged, it is essential that we do not resort to sweeping generalisations about other people and that we keep criticisms of characters grounded in the text. 
[1]  
Ooooooh, I am the last of the giants, my people are gone from the earth.
The last of the great mountain giants, who ruled all the world at my birth
Oh, the smallfolk have stolen my forests, they’ve stolen my rivers and hills.
And they’ve built a great wall through my valleys, and fished all the fish from my rills
In stone halls they burn their great fires, in stone halls they forge their sharp spears.
Whilst I walk alone in the mountains, with no true companion but tears.
They hunt me with dogs in the daylight, they hunt me with torches by night.
For these men who are small can never stand tall, whilst giants still walk in the light.
Oooooooh, I am the LAST of the giants, so learn well the words of my song.
For when I am gone the singing will fade, and the silence shall last long and long.
128 notes · View notes
sad-endings-suck · 11 months
Text
Varys: Ah, now that Young Griff is old enough, I can finally enact my 956 step plan that took me 20 years to concoct to place him on the iron thro— wtf is that?
The literal mother of dragons and Rhaegar Targaryen’s surprise secret bastard: A smoothie.
250 notes · View notes
starogeorgina · 8 days
Text
My top 10 favourite houses in ASOIAF
10 House Strong
9 House Dayne
8 House Tyrell
7 House Velaryon LOYAL
6 House Baratheon (shout out to Orys Baratheon)
5 House Blackwood
4 House Lannister (I fully believe Tywin Lannister is one evil man, but there is no denying that he is one of the most intriguing characters from GOT time frame for me)
3 House Stark
2 House Targaryen
1 House Martell - 𝐔𝐧𝐛𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐝, 𝐔𝐧𝐛𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐔𝐧𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐧
“You may burn us, my lady, but you will not bend us, break us or make us bow. This is Dorne, you are not wanted here. Return at your peril!” Meria Martell to Rhaenys Targaryen
22 notes · View notes
mneiai · 1 year
Text
People going "both sides were equally bad" with Cat and Jon are so disturbing because one was literally an adult and the other was literally a child. One was an adult who made a child terrified of her and who basically told him she wished he was dead and the other was a child who did his best to stay out of the adult's way and to never antagonize her, and who was being blamed for something he had no part in.
102 notes · View notes
fandom-puff · 3 months
Note
Sandors thighs, send tweet
Omg they’re so BIG and MUSCLY and I can just visualise these tree trunks fuckin flexing as he fucks reader 🤤🤤🤤 and the TWITCH when he’s about to cum/cumming fuuuuckkkkk
Send ​smutty thoughts about fictional men x
31 notes · View notes
wildfirefruitjars · 1 year
Text
How the fuck does Gregor Clegane not kill horses with the sheer weight of his giant, armored arse?!
So, Gregor is said to weigh 190 kg. (420 lb.)
A quick Google search tells me plate armor weighs around 30-35 kg. (66-77 lb.)
Gregor's armor is said to be the thickest and heaviest armor in the Seven Kingdoms, and that no ordinary man would be able to move in it! Therefore Gregor's armor must weigh a lot more than the average armor! Lets just be lazy say his armor weighs double that! (He's a big, strong boy, after all)
We will then end up with 60 kg. (132 lb.) worth of armor.
An armour Gregor would then be 250 kg! (551 lb!)
Playing around with a horse carry-weight calculator, I got to the results that a horse weighing 1270 kg. (2800 lb.) would be able to handle a rider weighing 254 kg. (559 lb.)
Another quick Google search says that the biggest horse, the shire horse (an absolutely gorgeous boi) in average weight between 816-1086 kg. (1800-2400 lb.) That would make their carry weigh to be between 162-216 kg. (358-477 lb.)
In conclusion, Gregor can indeed ride a shire horse Lady Godiva style (okay, he can probably wear clothes too), but even if we say his armor just weighs 30 kg. (66 lb.) He'd still be a just a little too heavy for the poor creature... though I doubt he cares. We do hear descriptions of how silly he looks mounted, as his horse looks like a pony under him!
But Gregor should value his horses more, for it can't be easy finding one strong enough for him! Though of course he lives in fantasy universe, so maybe it's not actually that difficult.
89 notes · View notes
Text
One thing that I liked about last night’s episode of “House of the Dragon” was that the show is doing a good job in its portrayal of Aegon II. It would’ve been easy to portray him as the “rival”, but the show really honed in on what makes Aegon II a tragic character; he’s just a spoiled dumbass who wants to have fun and had no interest in the Iron Throne. It was Alicent who pushed him into the conflict.
Sure, Aegon II isn’t the most likable character. He’s weird, kinda annoying, and he bullies his younger brother. But that’s fine for the character because he’s a dumbass teenager, he’s going to do dumbass teenager things. He’s not thinking about stuff like royal politics or succession. You even see him get along with his cousins who he’s supposed to hate. Honestly, it makes you feel bad for him, even knowing what he ends up doing later on in the story.
396 notes · View notes
alicentsgf · 1 year
Text
the targaryens were built to burn themselves down and thats why i truly believe if Dany does take the throne in the end of asoiaf it should be without her dragons. the targaryens are conquerors. their house words are 'fire and blood'. those are not the words of a peaceful ruling house.
'we light the way' 'winter is coming' 'unbowed. unbent. unbroken.' these house words speak to longevity, not war. its why i'll never be a fan of the idea of a targaryen on the throne, no matter who it is. the most intelligent thing viserys probably ever said was 'dragons are a power men should never have trifled with'. you cannot rule peacefully if you're constantly threatening your people with fire from above.
83 notes · View notes
queenlorea · 8 months
Text
going insane over the realisation that the Chinese character for dragon ( lóng 龙 in Simplified; 龍 in Traditional) is the “root”/“base” (own words idk what the linguistics terms would be) word for the Chinese character for cage (lóng 笼/籠).* The only difference is the 竹字头 (heading) which is a Chinese radical that translates to “bamboo.”**
thinking about dragons in chinese myth— creatures of the sea and sky, their cries the thunder that shakes rain loose from from the heavens and sends it crashing to the earth below. all the rivers and seas and lakes are their domain.
and Chinese monarchs associated dragons with power and sovereignty and the mandate of heaven,,, the Emperor is the dragon god emperor on earth who would question his will? what is mightier than a dragon
but take a dragon and put a bamboo crown (grown from the ground) on it and now the dragon is locked up confined,, trapped,, the trappings of power,,, dragons are of the sea and sky but what becomes of them when bound to this earth?
*that the two words are pronounced in exactly the same tone and the same pinyin blows my mind. who did this will the og Chinese writer philosopher please stand up
** edited because i got grass and bamboo radicals mixed Up
22 notes · View notes
laufire · 11 months
Text
I know there HAS to be amazing ASOIAF/GOT fic out there, long and plotty and flowery, centered in the female characters and preferably the (either canon or speculated) dynamics between them with little to none het romance. I’m just too lazy and too wary of the shit I might encounter in the way to go look for myself LOL.
26 notes · View notes
serjaimelannister · 1 month
Text
them: asoiaf is grimdark
me, an intellectual:
Tumblr media
7 notes · View notes
starlightinthewild · 11 months
Text
So some thoughts I have noticed in the ASOIAF/Game of Thrones fandom after a little bit of adjusting to it. I noticed a trend in fan fiction and fan speculation to assign Arya "rebellious bad kid traits" such as 1.) Poor social understanding/inability to read social cues. 2.) Difficulties regulating and understanding emotions. 3.) Irritability and volatility. 4.) Difficulties sitting still, being quite, or focusing on uninteresting tasks. 5.) discomfort in tight clothes/silk fabric/skirts (some fic depict this as painful though don't illustrate why) 6.) Disliking baths/poor hygiene and self maintenance. 7.) Recklessness and risk taking. 8.) Tendencies towards obsession. 9.) Black and White thinking. And if you read that and thought “these sound a lot like ADHD/Autism criteria", then yeah you are thinking what I am thinking. I don't always see all of them together but these are all traits I have seen written in fic featuring Arya, and things people have told me about her in their speculation. Now, I don't think any of these really apply to her canon self in the books, or even to her in the show. But it's interesting that people seem to sorta read her this way? However, I feel like in context of fan works I have read, I have only seen these things used to show how “rebellious” she is or that this is why she's a “bad, rude kid”. I remember a fic having a sibling scold her for “never controlling her emotions, never sitting still” or how she doesn't understand social cues and this is so difficult to deal with (Distinctly remember a comment on Reddit saying it would be funny if she dated Gendry because they are both “Socially Ignorant”). And the ever present "she has these issues because she's psychologically broken, a sociopath, doomed to die!" None of that is in the books (so far, on book three in the audio book) but these really common neurodivergent traits wound up in how readers perceive her, and almost exclusively these are seen as negatives, flaws, or things she has to grow out of. So I don't think the majority of this is Neurodivergent people vibing with a character and going "welp, you're one of us now” (although we could... as a treat). So I speculate these are just thing people subconsciously associate with "Weird, troubled, rebel kids” and since they see Arya that way... these things just get grafted on to her. But only because they need to show these as quirks and childhood rebellion, and then when a fic wants her to be 16 and romantic... they just go away. So it's not that “This character is of a different neurotype" it's just a way of shorthanded her being different, othered, and these are just flaws she has to work really hard to get rid of. This is not necessarily a critique, or an accusatory post, and it would require more in depth analysis to have a firm grasp on why this is. And it's not universal, as always fan fiction in any fandom is diverse and varied and changes with trends and I have read fic that does not characterize her this way (mostly if it's trying really hard to be in character to the book). But it's an observation I've found fairly consistent in both old fic and new. I would love if these are things that maybe aren't flaws, she never outgrows them etc.
19 notes · View notes
sad-endings-suck · 11 months
Text
I feel like people fundamentally misunderstand many of Catelyn and her “stupid choices”. Cat often does the right thing, but as a woman in Westerosi society, she simply does not have the power needed to back up those actions in a way that matters. Therefore, her plans don’t work.
If Catelyn had men of her own and the benefit of the doubt as a Lord when she apprehended Tyrion, she would have likely been able to question him before running off to Vale and as such Tyrion wouldn’t have been at the mercy of Lysa’s whims. Even if he was, as a Lord instead of a Lady, he would have been seen as Cat’s prisoner, not Lysa’s.
Her decision to release Jaime and trade him for Sansa and Arya would have worked if as a man and Lord she could override Robb’s word, and have men of her own escort Jaime south.
Catelyn was of course right not to allow Theon to go back home and parley (he is a hostage during war time) and again, if she were a Lord and not a Lady she could overrule Robb’s choice to let him go.
She likely would not have allowed Edmure to run off to battle, and as such Tywin likely would have fallen into Robb’s trap.
She wouldn’t have allowed Robb to forsake his vow to marry a Frey, just to marry Jeyne Westerling instead. Thus avoiding the Red Wedding.
If Catelyn were a Lord, and consequently had more power and control, a lot of her “bad decisions” wouldn’t end up being bad decisions at all, but “cautious strategic thinking”.
156 notes · View notes
starogeorgina · 10 days
Text
I'm currently re-reading Game of Thrones and have just started to rewatch season one of the TV show and I feel I've got a lot more opinions on the ASOIAF universe that I wish to share, so I've been making lists of my top 10 moments, characters, etc while killing time between hospital apps.
My top 10 favourite moments/scenes from House of the Dragon
10. Rhaenyra having Rhaena and Baela join her at the painted table
9. Ser Harrold Westerling remaining loyal to the crown and forgoes his title as Lord Commander of the Kingsguard
8. Ser Harwin beating up Ser Criston in the training yard
7. Aemond claiming Vhagar
6. Daemons at Rhaenyra and Laenor’s wedding (the smug look on his face when he walks in, remaining seated when Alicent enters, the way he holds Rhaenyra’s face, and giving zero fucks when Gerald Royce accuses him of killing Rhea.)
5. Rhaenyra coming back to the camp after seeing the white stag, covered in blood
4. Rhaenyra vs. Alicent: an eye for an eye
3. The battle at the Step Stones
2. Viserys entering the throne room to defend Rhaenyra and her children
1. Rhaenyra’s coronation
18 notes · View notes