.

Honestly, I would like to hear you rant about Brienne's s5 storyline and her killing Stannis. It felt weird to me that in the book there's this whole thing with Lady Stoneheart wanting revenge and using Brienne as a tool to to try and get it tho she probably won't get it, and then in the show it's Brienne still seeking revenge for Renly and actually getting it. Like there's a "revenge isn't actually a good thing" theme that got lost along the way.

... lmao.

well okay this is not for renly fans so just so you know, you’re warned.

now.

I don’t have.... like, anything specific against renly nor I think he’s a Bad Person which is why in modern aus I just let him be his best version, but.. canon renly Is An Asshole when it concerns his brother, his niece and brienne and that’s A Thing because like sorry but skipping succession ‘because no one likes you but they like me’ is not a good reason to do anything, ‘my niece is so ugly ew grayscale’ is just bottom level of being... let’s just say vapid, and it’s canon that the reason he keeps brienne around is not that he cares about her, it’s because he knows she’s good at what she does and doesn’t want nothing in return and actually would die for him, which........

considering that brienne would have died for renly because he was nice to her once and danced with her which is like bare minimum for decent human being, sorry if I side-eye this narrative that renly believed in her etc because sorry guys renly in asoiaf canon didn’t give a single fuck about that;

specifically, when it comes to brienne renly is that one crush you get at some point that you’re in love with the idea of, not with the person they actually are, and as someone wise said on some post once, brienne thought she would die for him and didn’t and didn’t know she could die for jaime but she immediately knew when she had the choice, so I think that just seals it, but ahead with that...

affc is also about brienne getting over renly because she was in love with the idea of renly, not with renly himself, never mind that renly wasn’t in love with her anyway and could have never been. like, all of her affc povs are about that. she thinks about him less and less, she superimposes jaime on him like ffs when she’s naked in the bath she has to MAKE HERSELF THINK ABOUT RENLY, at some point she dreams of renly’s death except it’s jaime in his place, then jaime puts renly’s cloak on her shoulders and at the end of it when she has that dream which is sort of very similar to jaime’s in asos where he sees people he thinks he disappointed and she sees renly and cat.... well. it’s because she thinks she disappointed them, or that she failed them, but she’s plain not in love with him (or his idea of) anymore;

now, she also swore to cat she’d kill stannis in revenge for him... and she’s never so much as thought about it. ffs there is ONE single instance of brienne thinking about stannis in affc. THIS ONE:He shrugged. "Sometimes. At tourneys, from afar. Once at Baelor's Sept. The gold cloaks shoved us aside so he could pass. Another time I was playing near the Mud Gate when he come back from a hunt. He was so drunk he almost rode me down. A big fat sot, he was, but a better king than these sons of his."They are not his sons. Stannis told it true, that day he met with Renly. Joffrey and Tommen were never Robert's sons. This boy, though . . . "Listen to me," Brienne began. Then she heard Dog barking, loud and frantic. "Someone is coming."IT’S WHEN SHE RECOGNIZES THAT GENDRY IS ROBERT’S SON AND THAT STANNIS WAS RIGHT WHEN HE SAID TOMMEN AND MYRCELLA WEREN’T HIS. that’s it. that’s all brienne has to think about stannis in affc. she doesn’t think about killing him once.guess why? because meanwhile she’s found better things to think about and she doesn’t feel the need to avenge renly as much as she feels the need to fulfill her vow to catelyn and jaime and she’s fucking over renly and she has realizes at least subconsciously that guess what she didn’t want to die for him;

the entire point was that she is over her crush on a guy who might have been decent to her though it was the bare minimum anyone should have shown her but who didn’t give two shits about her personally and that she thought she could and would die for, and sorry if being willing to die for someone because he danced with you isn’t healthy as much as people don’t want to accept the fact that brienne has Issues with the capital I;

therefore, the moment the show dragged her north FOR RENLY and OMG I HAVE TO KILL STANNIS FOR RENLY before getting her stuck watching a tower for a season for that crap joke of a winterfell storyline and don’t get me started on how they made brienne’s sl secondary to sansa for three seasons when surely her point in her narrative is not that ita) ignored that brienne had a character arc that included getting over renlyb) elevated renly to sainthood (forget saint tyrion) because it implied that yes he was that nice dancing with her so yes he deserves her avenging his death when sorry but what the fucking fuck he just paid her the bare minimum it didn’t mean she should have joined his army for it or that she should avenge him for having being a decent person oncec) made it look like renly actually gave a shit about her for real when lmao nod) trashed lady stoneheart when as you said they lost the REVENGE IS A BAD IDEA theme and all that she brought with bc stoneheart is fundamental for both jaime and brienne as characters but hey let’s just stick brienne serving other people without a personal storyline and let’s not let jaime have his arc because what the fuck amritee) missed all of the themes in her affc arc because where was meribald? where was the anti-war message? where was the fact that brienne is a vulnerable person with doubts? we saw none of that shit except oMG SHE KILLED STANNIS BADASSSSS. yeah, no. character assassination my old friend here we are;

now, specifically re stannis: what angers me on a molecular level in that choice, not counting the fact that never in my life I ever want to see character #1 I relate to in a series (and period) kill character #2 I relate to in that same series without any goddamned reason to do that but that’s personal is that....... since brienne doesn’t give a fuck about avenging renly anymore in the book it’s very likely that if she and stannis meet again they might actually like talk about things and now I’mma give you the other hot take of the year....

... which is that I would like it if people saw that actually if brienne were to get along with one baratheon brother, she and stannis would have a lot more chances to hit off than she and renly ever could have because sorry but:a) they’re both introverts with huge issues communicating with others who also have been treated like shit for their entire lives based on people judging them before they opened their mouthb) as much as brienne isn’t THAT hard on it she has a sense of justice that he’d definitely appreciatec) if we assume that a guy with a daughter with grayscale whom renly also referred to as ‘that ugly daughter of his’ who is considered disfigured by everyone who still treats her like his only heir and doesn’t gaf about her looks would give two shits about brienne’s looks and not about her skills instead then we assume wrong nvm that stannis has a hand who used to be an illiterate commoner and melisandre used to be a slave like.... come on he’d definitely treat her with respect and not just because he needs herd) reverse, if she saw how he is with his daughter thaaat might remind her of her father not having forced her to marry eventually and agreeing to let her join renly/learn swordfighting instead I mean... come one) never mind that as stated before both of them are way more similar when it comes to take your vows seriously than notlike........... okay but with these premises if they meet when they need all the men they can spare to fight the white walkers I’d presume they will actually talk about renly’s death and get an understanding, not that she’ll take out a sword and impale him there especially if it’s post lady stoneheart which is the point in her sl where she 100% understands you can’t follow all of your vows and you will have to choose at some point (btw she chose jaime already over stoneheart and we all know it bye)...

which means that having her kill him in the show after a thing they made happen from 0 to 180 just to make him look irredeemable, for renly when brienne doesn’t gaf in the books anymore and reinforcing this - excuse me - bullshit narrative of saint renly who was the ideal king and never did anything wrong except trying to pass over stannis who was ahead of him in the line and further creating drama in that damned war because his brother didn’t happen to be immediately likable (nvm that I have issues with the fact that renly doesn’t even seem to remember having been at storm’s end during the siege which means that stannis made sure he actually had to eat while everyone else was starting to consider cannibalism but hey who cares that my brother almost died and never let me starve with the entirety of the castle I’ll now go and stab him in the back because NAAAH WHY SHOULD I SUPPORT HIM? sorry but what the fucking fuck) while stannis was an asshole who eventually got what he deserved because he wasn’t fun amrite will never not irk me to a molecular level because that wasn’t brienne’s storyline anymore and it hasn’t been since asos, the renly vs stannis situation is way more complicated than renly was nice and stannis was an asshole, stannis is nowhere near the piece of cardboard dnd think he is and the fact that both characters didn’t move on from their renly-related trauma but that it went down in the cheapest most ooc way ever should have woken people up about how dnd couldn’t be trusted for shit with these books if the WF adaptation of the adwd storyline hadn’t showed that already.

tldr: it was ooc and an insult to both characters and also can we stop with the saint renly narrative, thanks.

Arya Stark’s Death & Nissa Nissa Theory

!!DON’T WORRY, THIS ISN’T A SPOILER FOR S8!!! (Probably.) But this is however, a potential (maybe) spoiler for the books and A Dream of Spring. 

Ahhhhh, it’s that time of year again where I post my GOT/ASOIAF theories So let’s get right on it. Because the show doesn’t really touch base on these things and if you’re a show-only fan, I’ll just do a quick recap. (You’d be surprised as to how many show fans don’t know these stuff.) Pretty sure the show has never mentioned Nissa Nissa before.  

So I’m sure we all know who Azor Ahai is. The Prince Who Was Promised. Same thing. Today, we’re going to talk about his wife. Nissa Nissa. So if you don’t know who Nissa Nissa is, she was Azor Ahai’s wife. Who from based off legend, died when AA thrusted his sword through her heart to forge the legendary sword, Lightbringer. AA worked thirty days and nights to forge the hero’s sword. But when he tempered it in water, the sword broke. So he worked fifty days and nights to forge another sword and tempered it in a lion’s heart. But the sword broke again. Until he worked one hundred days and nights, and eventually, he finished and drove the sword through NN heart. And with her cry of anguish, ecstasy, and courage, the sword forged into Lightbringer Her blood and soul went into the sword to beat the Others. (White Walkers.) Some people think that NN could be Daenerys. She definitely has the traits to be NN. And some people think NN was Lyanna. Rhaegar thrusting his “sword” into her to bring forth Lightbringer, (Jon.) Some even think it’s Sansa? So here, I wanna talk about Arya, and how she could potentially be NN, at least in the books. BOOK SPOILERS DOWN BELOW. 

As obvious, this is a Jonrya post because I’m basing AA off Jon. In the books at least, this is a theory I’ve had in mind for the longest time. In the show, it might just be Dany, but in the books it could be said otherwise.

We know for a fact that before GRRM wrote AGOT his intended goal was to have Jon and Arya fall in love with each other, and have some sort of “star crossed” lovers arc because of Jon’s vows and Arya thinking that they were siblings. And while the Jon/Arya romance storyline isn’t drafted in the books now, you can tell that some of GRRM’s original ideas about Jon/Arya still made it onto the page. He clearly has Jon and Arya set up for something VERY, VERY, IMPORTANT for the endgame of ASOIAF. And I for one, think that Arya will be Jon’s NN. 

Jon’s whole storyline in ADWD is basically about Arya. Most of his thoughts and motivations are about her, and in the end, he DIES for her. I kind of like to think of this as a nice parallel IF Arya were to become NN. Bc Arya is always associated with DEATH. That’s her whole arc. It’s murder, killing, revenge. But she’s also broken, and she struggles with losing some of her identity bc of death. We can speculate from some of TWOW chapters that Arya might learn of Jon’s death at the wall. And to me, I think that might become a breaking point for Arya. It could be the driving force for her to finally leave Braavos and go on a whole murder rampage or something to avenge her favorite brother’s death. She’ll go home because of Jon. Obviously we know that Jon’s going to come back, but he probably won’t be the same. 

We know that they’re going to reunite in the books, bc that was confirmed by GRRM. The Starks would reunite. And we know that GRRM has been setting up some sort of big clash with Jon and the Others. So maybe after his resurrection, Arya comes back and they reunite he’ll focus more on fighting the Others and leave the Watch. Since he’s died and all that. Obviously he’ll probably have to avenge his death first or something. But in the actual endgame, if he is set up to become AA, his NN will be Arya. I know people might suspect that it’s Dany, bc from the looks of it on the text, there’s enough evidence to support that. But I think that like the N+A=J theory, Dany being NN is a RED HERRING. (Don’t get offended if you believe in N+A=J 😂😂) 

Jon falling in love with Dany is plausible. And by taking a look at the evidence, Jon and Dany can be the tragic lovers tale. Though I think Dany’s story will end in another way, that doesn’t involve her getting stabbed in the heart with Lightbringer. We know from the text that Dany is suppose to get betrayed 3 times. One for love, one for blood, and one for gold. 

“Three fires must you light… One for life and one for death and one to love… Three mounts must you ride… One to bed and one to dread and one to love… Three treasons will you know… Once for blood and once for gold and once for love…”

If we interpret the text, the one that hasn’t happened yet, is the betrayal for love. And I think it’s going to be Jon. However, while people assume that the betrayal will be something like he kills her to stop the Others or he betrays her for the throne, I don’t interpret it like that. I interpret it as Jon will LEAVE her FOR love. His love for his sister. (This is HUGE speculation tho.) Mirri Maz Duur for blood, Jorah maybe for gold, (as in to return home), and Jon for love. Maybe that’s her 3rd betrayal. Jon leaving Daenerys for Arya. Exactly how he’s going to betray her for Arya, i’m not sure yet. 

But more on the text, one firm reason why I also believe Arya is NN, is because of this passage in her first chapter in AGOT: 

“You had best run back to your room, little sister. Septa Mordane will surely be lurking. The longer you hide, the sterner the penance. You’ll be sewing all through winter. When the spring thaw comes, they will find your body with a needle still locked tight between your frozen fingers.” 

I find it interesting that this quote comes from Jon himself. It almost feels like this quote is an omen to her death. The “longer she hides, the harder the punishment will be.” In the coming books, I see it as Arya will have to make a CHOICE. What that choice could be idk. But I suspect it might have something to do with the Others and with Jon. Because in the next line it says that she’ll be “sewing through WINTER.” Maybe her choice will be something like abandoning her anger and revenge in favor of duty and saving the realm. The longer she takes to choose between those two things, will cost her. The punishment being the realm destructs, and everyone she loves dies, etc. Maybe she will have to choose between avenging her family, or becoming this some sort of deity to save the people and the world. And that last line in the passage, “When winter is over and spring comes, they will find her with a “needle” still in her, with her hands wrapped around it.” To me, I interpret this as the sort of “aftermath” of Winter. If she were to choose to save the realm, this is meant to mean that the people will “remember” her and remember what she’s done in order to save them all. When they “find her body with a needle still in her,” it means the people will acknowledge her sacrifice. Songs will be sung and stories will be written about her. And of course the “needle” could mean the flaming sword Lightbringer that has been stabbed in her, and frozen between her fingers. That was the sword that saved the realm all through winter, the one that killed her in order to make the ultimate sacrifice. It’s all so deeply metaphorical in a way. 

But ultimately, the reason why I think Arya is NN and Jon is AA, is because of how well it fits their respective story arcs. It’s no doubt that Jon and Arya love each other. Whether it’s romantic or sibling love, that’s up to you to interpret. But Arya and Jon would die for each other. At least in the books. Jon throughout the series constantly thinks of Arya. Knowing that he might see her again is what pushes him to strive and continue living. And in Dance, Jon is so conflicted between “love and duty” because of Arya. And in the end, Jon chooses love over duty. And because of it, he dies. He gets killed because of his love for Arya. ”What do you know of my heart priestess? What do you know of my sister?” And in the books, it’s mostly Jon that helps Arya to strive to continue living. So she’ll be able to see him again. Jon helps her regain a little of her humanity. Sure Arya loves her family, but throughout her journey, it’s JON who she always tries to go back to. To the wall where Jon is. Because of Jon, she strives to never forget that she is a STARK. Arya’s arc is constantly attributed with death. She can be a sort of champion for death. And Jon’s arc is all about life. He fights for life. How fitting and tragic would it be, if by the end of ASOIAF, it’s Arya that will die FOR Jon. Like how he died for her. She will choose to sacrifice her life to save the people like how Jon chose to sacrifice his life to “save” her. Arya will choose to do her duty to save everyone she loves, and Jon will do the same. Yes love is the death of duty. But this time around, love will be the source of duty. It will be the bringer of life. (It’s all so biblical and full of ironies. Something that GRRM loves.) 

Anyways I went off. Congrats if you made it to the end of this. 😂😂 It all feels like weird fan fic lmao. Please feel free to counter-argue me, I wanna know your guy’s stance too. :) 

Also this post was originally a comment I made on a reddit post regarding Arya being Nissa Nissa. I wanted to share it here too. You can find my comment and the forum here: https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/bhot1g/spoilers_published_theory_arya_is_nissa_nissa/ under the username chikchikachikadee. Which is also the username of my main blog here on tumblr.