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#stannis is still alive only thanks to mel i said what i said
fortunatelylori · 5 years
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I looooove your Wolves fic!. On another subject, do you think it means something that Melissandre is right in between Jon and Sansa in the cloak scene? I read a fic that traumatized me: M figures out S is J’s true love and burns her at the stake to fulfill the AA prophecy. That’s how Jon’s sword lights up to kill the NK. I don’t think that will happen but M and D trying to burn Sansa, maybe...
Hello, nonnie!
Thank you! Glad you’re enjoying it and sorry I haven’t updated it in so long. I’ll probably have ch 8 done by the end of the week. 
It’s an interesting question. I actually do think the blocking of that scene means something.
We know from Melissandre’s earlier relationship with Stannis that she has a way of bulldozing into people’s lives and completely twist them to achieve her ends. Her intentions are good but her results are disastrous. And, for better or worse, Jon’s resurrection is the only action she’s been involved in that actually led to something positive, for a change. 
We know that Mel will be returning in season 8 but we are still unclear on what she is hoping to achieve, aside from Carice saying that Mel “has a plan”. I think we can all agree that sounds ominous as hell because Mel’s plans usually involve someone being burned alive. 
I have on occasion seen people speculate that Sansa is Nissa Nissa and as such she will be burned alive in order for Jon to get access to the sword that will put an end to the White Walker war. 
The problem with that speculation is that Jon is currently in possession of a sword that can kill White Walkers and it’s name is Long Claw. In addition to that, we already have a burning sword that is being wielded by Beric Dondarrion and which he is able to light with his own blood, no fiery death necessary. 
So what exactly would this extra super-duper special sword be able to do that those two other swords can’t? 
Also the theory doesn’t take into account Bran’s arc and what aid he can provide in stopping the Night King, a task he’s been training for since season 1, after all. Bran’s story is also linked to the story of the Last Hero who is said to have ended the first long night, sans burning swords or human sacrifices. 
So right of the bat, it doesn’t seem to me to be any need to be sacrificing people for magical swords when those are already available. 
And that’s without taking into account that Jon is horrified by the idea of burning someone alive and he would probably kill anyone who would even suggest they had the intention of harming Sansa or any of his family members. More so if she’s his true love. 
But let’s say that Mel pushes for this burning to occur, let’s say Jon is unable to stop her. Since we’ve already established that the sword is superfluous, Mel’s human sacrifice can only be a botched attempt that will result in failure. Which is poignant but we’ve already had that. Shireen was a botched human sacrifice which resulted in utter and complete failure. Why would they repeat the same plot point for it to lead to the same result? 
Doesn’t make much sense to me, to be honest. 
I think in season 8 Mel will find herself more and more drawn to D*ny, particularly since I doubt Jon will welcome her back with open arms after banishing her and threatening to hang her for murder if she ever returned. 
And Mel being Mel, and also getting closer to someone whose preferred method of execution is burning people alive, an option D*ny is increasingly more willing to use, she’s bound to cause havoc for the Starks and, in Jonsa’s case, act as a disrupting influence. Mel is bound to believe that the joining of fire and ice is imperative for something or other so I don’t think she’ll agree with Jon choosing Sansa over D*ny.  
More importantly since Targareyen madness is brought up frequently on this show and D*ny already has very strong parallels to her father, the Mad King, I think Mel will act as the element that will finally push D*ny over the edge and into the “Burn them all” territory. 
Thanks for the ask! 
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gotgifsandmusings · 7 years
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GoT 7x06 Musings
My initial reaction to “Beyond the Wall”
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Apparently this is the episode that is pulling the wool off of everyone’s eyes. Not the one where Sansa married Ramsay for revenge and got raped. Not the one where Shireen was burned alive because of flurries preventing Stannis from marching 20 feet. Not the one where Marg was arrested for perjury and threatened to be paraded naked except that was a fake-out and the king (unbeknownst to the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard) had formed an alliance with the Faith that didn’t already totally exist and therefore the largest army in the land was rendered useless or unwilling to free the heir of Highgarden…
You know I can keep going. I’ll take it, and yes, the teleportation was its most egregious because we KNOW how much time passed in-verse while the raven and dragons were traveling. But still, this isn’t a new level of bad, no more than Barbaro and Jessica Henwick teleporting onto a ship to murder their cousin—for justice!
Though on the other hand, there was almost nothing I could see as even being objectively enjoyable about this episode, other than one moment of some decent CGI. The battle itself was surprisingly short, and so obviously contrived that we couldn’t pretend it was a “stunning war theater” like we could last year, even if last year the context also made no goddamn sense.
Alright, time to stop delaying and actually talk about this, though of course I’ll point you to Jess’s fabulous review first if you haven’t already read it.
Winterhell
Jess breaks down the horror of Arya’s stupid Ned-slow-clapping-at-her-landing-a-bullseye story better than I can. Arya didn’t do what was required of girls growing up, and that was a source of frustration
But no, here she’s some third-wave feminist who realizes how bad the system is.
Speaking of that bad system, way to sew you dumb asshole, Sansa. What, do you think people need CLOTHES or something?
No seriously, I can’t take the toxically masculine assumptions about empowerment anymore. This entire thing is such a sexist premise, Arya shaming Sansa for navigating in a socially acceptable way
WHICH IS THE WHOLE POINT OF SANSA’S ARC. SHE FIGURES OUT HOW TO WEAPONIZE THE SYSTEM TO HER BENEFIT AND DOES IT WITHOUT AROUSING THE SLIGHTEST SUSPICION
The letter thing is ridiculous too. Not even mentioning how Winterhell burned down so that’d probably be destroyed, this should not be that much of a conflict, nor should it have the potential to undo Sansa.
As Jess pointed out, Ned played along with the Lannisters too, because THAT’S WHAT YOU DO. Is he a traitor?
Then Sansa runs to Littlefinger even though we know she doesn’t trust him.
This is where the “they’re playing LF” honeypot stems from I think, but there’s no indication that Arya and Sansa aren’t reacting to each other alone, earnestly. Do they think Littlefinger planted some kind of audio bug on Sansa or something?
LF then brings up Brienne, which is followed by the scene of Sansa ordering Brienne to Cheryl’s Landing on her behalf for the already-scheduled meeting (even though Operation Bag-A-Wight is still going on), and being an asshole about it
The only sense I can make of this is that LF wants Brienne dead, or Arya dead, and is trying to urge a fight between them since we know they enjoy that? Which I guess would just help narrow down the field of non-LF allies to Sansa
Then *maybe* Sansa is sending Brienne away for her own protection, a la through rocks in Nymeria’s face??
Except there’s NO INDICATION OF THIS. Sansa’s rationale for why she’s sending a proxy to Cheryl’s Landing checks out, especially given Jon being MIA for the North (lol)
To cap off the game of “let’s hate each other to fuck with LF in private” Sansa then finds Arya’s messenger bag of Halloween masks
and no, sorry, Sansa’s terror is played as genuine, and thank the gods she gets yet another abuser, this time a member of her family! Yay!!
SPOILER (if anyone cares) I’m starting to wonder if Sansa orders Arya to execute LF next week just to buy herself a little trust from her horrible sister, and not because they actually figure anything out
Just all around bad bad bad. Fuck sisterly affection. They were different and hated each other growing up, so therefore they’ll be antagonistic towards each other after reuniting, trauma and shared grief be damned
That said, I feel like Sansa listens to UBS. Yes! She is the reason they have the North! She shouldn’t march her face into Cheryl’s Landing! She should have her interests represented! Correct!
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Bo had the above take. This killed me. I want the Bunny Hood next week.
Dragonstone
They’re playing a weird game of having to deal with all of Tyrion’s plans turning to shit, and yet also having to keep him the golden boy. It’s not really working
Is Deadpan supposed to be getting paranoid like Aerys now? But then she’s later portrayed as a straight-up Good Guy Hero later, so I have confusion
This conversation goes literally nowhere, and frankly…yeah, why bother dealing with the line of succession now? She holds Dragonstone and no one even wanted it. And Daario’s probably doing fine in Meereen
This could have been a good exploration into her sorrow over being the last Targ…sorta? Like, her just not wanting to deal with it. But the show has never dealt with it before, so it doesn’t really come across as anything rooted in characterization
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Me too, Deadpan.
Beyond the Wall
My brain was unable to focus on half these conversations, so I’m going to go back and rewatch before podcasting. Like. It was all walking and talking.
Not even in the good way. In the fic-ask-prompt kind of way. “Jon and Beric in a coffee shop, go!”
To highlight I guess
Jon & Jorah: Jon offers Jorah Longclaw because being an exiled slaver was hard on him. Glad this never came up with Lyanna, the actual heir of the house
Tormond makes a bawdy joke about raping Gendry because sex is a good way to keep warm. Male victimization is a hoot
Gendry gets mad at the Brotherhood without Banners for literally selling him and almost killing him, but Sandor tells him to stop “winging” because his complaints about being sexually assaulted by Mel “could be worse”
The Hound & Tormond chat about nicknames for penises before Tormond #nohomos and talks about how hot Brienne is
Jon & Beric have both been dead, what’s up with that? Also Jon quotes his Night’s Watch vows that he broke to gain inspiration from then, and Beric says he doesn’t look like Ned. Uh…
Jorah thinks Thoros was AWESOME for the Pyke battle
Then a bear attacks and I’m put out of my misery. A wight bear. Whatever
Who the fuck are these red shirts?
Thoros almost dies, but doesn’t die, but then he dies overnight, so…okay.
The wights walk in an orderly single file.
We learn a new contrivance: wights all fall if the white walker that personally res’d them is killed. There’s so many ways this doesn’t work with what we’ve seen, not the least of which that there was ONE WIGHT who was still squirming around
A whole lot of effort for convincing Cheryl, btw, who has essentially no army at this point
Then the other wights hear this wight’s struggle? And Jon tells Gendry who has never seen snow before that he’s the fastest runner (how does he know this) and has to go send a bird to Deadpan to help them out
this is baldly ridiculous. Their only shot is if they all try to book it
Then they run across cracking ice to a little rock, and then are shielded from wights because of…cracked ice
DEAD THINGS IN THE WATER
Also, dead things go through the water later in the episode
In-verse time: Gendry runs towards Eastwatch as the sun is setting and gets there around dusk. Jon & Co. wait out one night and the attack begins when the sun is still shining. I’m putting this at about 22 hours passing. A low-ball could be 14.
Raven gets to Dragonstone, Dany flies beyond the Wall and bails them out
The battle itself was underwhelming, I thought. Just smashing random skeletons who now die with any weapon (what about FIRE like we learned in Season 1?)
Viserion’s death looked cool, and the sinking into the puddle reminded me of King Dodongo. Dunno if that’s a good thing or not, but there you have it.
However, why did Shogun aim for the far away flying dragon and not Drogon who was RIGHT THERE and full of the people trying to get away?
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He literally had his buddy ready his javelin for him
Jon falling into a puddle was…what? Why did this happen? Was this for closure for Uncle Benjen? Was this so we could have a dramatic moment of Deadpan thinking he died? Was this just to have a reason for a shirtless Jon on the boat so she could see his stab wounds? What did this add??
Then the res’d Viserion was kind of cooler in concept than seeing it happen. Oh wow, let’s focus on his eye I WONDER WHAT WILL HAPPEN
Lol at the metal working wights with their big ass chains. Can they make mini-Needle necklaces for everyone too?
Also very not reading into any of this being from the books. I could see this happening in a way, I guess? But this context, especially with a javelin-throwing Night’s King can’t be the case.
I don’t even… At least the critical reviews are pouring in. This deserved it. So did the past three years’ worth of episodes, but still.
Top 3 Nitpicks (not glaring, gaping errors)
The invitation to a meeting in KL that couldn’t have been arranged yet
The clothing! No one was wearing a hood? Deadpan was traveling faster than a jet without ear warmers?
Jon not being dead of hypothermia (or his managing to climb out at all with his sodden furs and heavy boots)
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