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fortunatelylori · 5 years

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Crypts of Winterfell teaser

The 3 headed wolf

So ... this thing dropped sometime this morning while I was still asleep ...

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First thing’s first ... We finally have an official release date, guys! I kept wondering if the show would start at the beginning of April or the end of April but as it turns out, HBO really wanted to be contrary so it’s the middle of April ... the 14th, to be exact. :)))

One of the disadvantages of living in Europe as a GOT fan is that by the time you see the new teasers, a whole host of other people have already analyzed it so you can’t really bring that much at the table. But I’ll give it a shot anyway. :)

The feather makes a come-back!

No one really paid much attention to that feather, mostly because the last time the motif was revisited, it involved Sansa and we know how unimportant she is so why bother? Jonsa fans however have analyzed the symbolism behind it time and time again and what do you know? Here it is again, signaling the parentage reveal. Also, notice how the WW mist freezes the feather which in my mind can only mean that Jon will be in some kind of danger.

The immediate interpretation is, of course, related to the fight with the WW that will take place at Winterfell so the feather in this context is a visual way of showing that conflict.

It’s interesting that they chose the crypts for this teaser and involved the WW threat into it. A while back, I watched a video regarding how the crypts of Winterfell and the old kings of Winter might come into play in the story and considering this teaser, I think it’s worth revisiting this theory:

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Regardless of what secrets the crypts might hold in relation to the Starks relationship with the WW, the Winterfell crypts do pose a big problem for the humans fighting this war. If the NK can resurrect the dead, what is to say that he won’t raise the old kings from their crypts when he finally arrives at Winterfell? Imagine people taking refuge in the crypts during the final battle only for the dead to haunt them through the labyrinth. That would make for quite the sequence.

But the feather symbolism can’t be related only to the WW because why would the WWs care who Jon’s parents are? The freezing of that feather must also relate to another hidden danger Jon will face.

It’s interesting that they included Lyanna’s VO here:

Lyanna: You have to protect him.

Because this is where the feather and the VO come into play. Lyanna is asking Ned to protect Jon from Robert Baratheon. In that scene, if you remember, Lyanna says that if Robert were to find out who Jon is, he will kill him which leads Ned to keep the parentage of Jon a secret for almost 20 years. But let’s also remember where that feather came from ... it was Robert who placed that feather in the hand of Statue Lyanna.

So that feather is a visual reminder that Robert would have killed Jon had he found out who he is. In addition to being the son of the man Robert hated, Jon posed a threat to Robert’s kingship. As Rhaegar’s son, Jon had a claim to the throne Robert had taken for himself.

But ... Robert is dead. He poses absolutely no danger to Jon now. But the threat is still highlighted here and the idea that Jon is in need of protection is brought up again. So against whom will Jon need protecting? Is there another person in this story that might feel threatened by Jon’s claim? A person who has a huge army and at least one dragon and also a volatile temper? I would say that would be the person Jon would need protecting from. And as always with Jon, it seems that the people that will offer him protection will be named Stark.

The wolf must have three heads

(source: @undeadmanbun)

Perhaps we can now finally put to rest the theory of Jon, Tyrion and D*ny as the three heads of the dragon since this teaser strongly parallels Jon, Arya and Sansa to the original Ageon, Visenya and Rhaenys. Of course there are difference between the reiterations but if we were to look back at Aegon and his sisters, there are clues there that 3-way relationship was more in tune with Jon/Sansa/Arya then we might imagine.

Yes, Aegon was married to both his sisters but his romantic preference for Rhaenys is blatant. I’d go as far as to say that the only reason why he ended up married to both his sisters was because Rhaenys was the youngest. I doubt he would have married Visenya, had things been reversed. Visenya, though, is Aegon’s equal in terms of military matters, his most direct partner when it comes to waging warfare. They have a pretty contentious relationship, with Visenya going so far as to physically harm Aegon in order to prove a point about him needed better protection. She’s the one that comes up with the idea of the King’s Guard.

Speaking of which, let’s remember what Arya told Sansa in season 7.

Sansa: You shouldn’t have run from them. (the guards)

Arya: I didn’t run. You need better guards.

I can see Arya being the Visenya to Jon’s Aegon, without the sexual aspect. Pushing him, consulting with him on military matters, fighting with him when she believes he’s wrong while they work to achieve their common goal. I’ve said for a while that their relationship might be more strained than people imagine and I hold to that. I also think that no matter how many strains there are, they’ll always come together as a unit because of the incredibly deep bond they share.

So if Jon and Arya represent the warrior aspect of the 3 headed dragon/wolf, by extension, Sansa must represent the political aspect of it. Otherwise why include her in this teaser? Both Jon and Arya are more fight oriented to begin with. You need a political mind to balance everything out and this is where Sansa comes in. In addition to that, Sansa shares a lot of similiarties with Rhaenys due to their common love of music and stories, as well as being prone to flights of fancy. This might foreshadow a Sansa that begins to drop her barriers this season and gets back in touch with her softer side once again.

As people have already pointed out, Jon is placed next to Sansa and not in the middle between the two sisters as Aegon is usually depicted, making him visually closer to Sansa and thus stocking the Jonsa fires. Personally I would have preferred for Sansa to be at Jon’s left to make things even clearer but you can’t have everything in life.

Also placing Jon in the middle wouldn’t have been a wise blocking choice because of the differences in height.

(source: @iheartgot)

By placing Jon in the middle, you’d have what we call in my country a “donkey’s stair which is always a big no-no visually.

EDIT: Color me stupid but it’s been pointed out in the comments that in fact Sansa is on Jon’s left side if we look at the statues themselves. She’s also on his left side when he turns. So there is actually no other way to set the 3 of them up if you want to have that effect. Well ... this is even better!

Parallels to the House of Black and White promo

One thing that struck me the most about this teaser is the similarities to the promo for season 6.

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We are, once again, treated to effigies of both dead characters as well as live ones. Looking at it superficially this seems to spell doom for Jon, Arya and Sansa but I don’t think that’s the interpretation we should take from it.

After all, season 6 not only brought back Jon from the dead, it also marked the resurrection of House Stark from the ashes, culminating with Jon and Sansa taking back Winterfell and ending the season in control of the North, with Jon proclaimed King in the North.

Also, look at the VOs they used in that promo and how they related to the actual plot.

Ned: The man who passes the sentence, should swing the sword.

Jon ends up passing the sentence on the NW brothers who assassinated him and swinging the sword at their execution.

Robb: I’ve won every battle but I’m losing this war.

Robb might have lost his war and Jon came close to losing the Battle of the Bastards but Sansa’s Kinghts of the Vale intervention and Wun Wun sacrifice got them back Winterfell and the North, readdressing the vaccum left by Robb’s murder.

Catelyn: Show them how it feels to lose what they love

I think this can be linked to Arya’s revenge on the Freys. She’s the most obvious representative of the eye for an eye type of revenge Catelyn is talking about in that quote.

Jofferey: Everyone is mine to torment.

Joff has been dead for a long time so his inclusion in this trailer feels odd but ... I don’t think this is related to him. This is about Ramsay, who is a more extreme version of Joffrey. Of course, the season ends with him being eaten by his own dogs, a sentence orchestrated by Sansa, the woman he tormented, proving that when you’re a monster who enjoys hurting people eventually you will have that come back to haunt you in the most extreme way possible.

Jon: The Long Night is coming and the dead come with it.

This not only foreshadows Jon spearheading the fight against the WW but also the fact that he is one of the dead that comes with the Long Night, hence his resurrection.

So, going by that parallel, what speculation can we draw from the season 8 teaser? Let’s look at the VOs:

Lyanna: You have to protect him.

I’ve already discussed this in the first section but aside from foreshadowing Jon coming under threat because of the parentage reveal, this also links back to the importance of who Jon’s mother is and the role she played, plays and will play in Jon’s life.

All his life Jon tried to model himself after Ned Stark, the man he believed was his father and that gave him the legitimacy of being included in the Stark family, a position he’s always wanted to maintain, even when being a Stark brought derision and insults (Allister Throne calling him the son of a traitor, for example). Part of the reason for this, I feel, is because Jon doesn’t know anything about his mother and more importantly fears that his mother doesn’t care about him and that she abandoned him (as per Jon’s last conversation with Ned). The parentage reveal will connect Jon to his mother and also erase those fears. Because Lyanna loved Jon. Her last words were concerning him and his well being. Also, Lyanna will replace Ned as the link between Jon and his Stark heritage.

Catelyn: All this horror that’s come to my family ... It’s all because I couldn’t love a motherless child.

This is probably the most controversial of the VOs quotes because some people feel that this is being used to attack Catelyn. I don’t see it that way. For one, I think it brings back into the conversation the idea of Jon being legitimized as a Stark since in that monologue, the true source of shame for Cat is that she made a vow to help legitimize Jon but didn’t follow through. The fact that this is placed in tandem with Sansa walking past her mother’s statue, seems to indicate that the way Jon will be legitimized as a Stark is through Sansa.

This interpretation is due to an anonymous ask I got last week. I’m going to link it here. Nonnie was the first to my recollection to point to this scene and it’s possible foreshadowing elements so huge kudos to them!

Ned: You are a Stark. You might not have my name but you have my blood.

This foreshadows, I think, the struggle that Jon will face once the parentage reveal hits. He’s going to feel lost, hurt and deprived of the Stark connection that has informed his entire life and all of his choices. But as Ned put it, he is a Stark and that’s what he will always be.

On another note, one of the most glaring absences in this teaser is Bran. You’d expect him to be in this teaser. For one, he’s the one that will reveal Jon’s parentage. He is also part of the pack, not to mention that he’s the key to defeating the WW. His absence does raise questions.

But I think that just like the Hall of Faces promo, the Crypts promo is deceiving. The Hall of the Faces promo leads one to believe that season 6 will be very focused on the House of Black and White and also that it will signal more loss for House Stark, in particular. But neither one of those things actually occurs in the actual season. The House of Black and White is a secondary plot line at best and as I’ve said season 6 is the season House Stark gets back on top.

So, I’m going to speculate that the Crypts promo isn’t really about the WW conflict as the ending might suggest, which would explain Bran’s exclusion. I think that taking all of the context into consideration, this teaser is really about the Dance of Dragons 2.0 and the three headed wolf replacing the three headed dragon.

Miscellaneous thoughts

The torch

I can’t say for sure why they decided to give Jon a torch, other than that it makes him look even more badass. However, the fact that it’s extinguished not only severs all connection between him and his dragon father but also serves as a reminder that fire is actually ineffectual against the WW. I don’t know how many other clues people need at this point that the dragons will be of no actual use in defeating the NK.

Sansa’s expression

(source: @bethnoel)

I was struck by Sansa’s expression here. We haven’t seen Sansa look so emotional since season 6. It kind of brings to mind Sophie’s quote about this season being about an emotional fight for Sansa.

Jonsa is coming!

#got s8 #got s8 speculation #got s8 trailer #jonsa #jon snow #arya stark #sansa stark #house stark

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haught0pocket · 6 years

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Ficwritersweek Day 5

Day 5: Verbatim - Share some of your favorite quotes from the fics you’ve read or written.

So, I’m going to attempt to get some peeps in here that I haven’t mentioned yet.

Once again, it’s going to be quite long. So, once again, just chopping it off right here.

First up is from Knowing, by BaggerHeda (not sure if they have a tumblr!)

Waverly had started tracing light sweeping lines over the bones of Nicole’s body, drawing circles around her joints with gentle hands. Her mind wandered, deep and easy, with Nicole the centerpoint of all the far-flung details passing through her thoughts. She was visualizing half-remembered pages of an old anatomy text, skeletal structures, ghosts of annotated diagrams floating under her fingertips, imagination projected onto flawless pale skin. Learning the complex layers of her lover. “Lie on your side,” she said. “Hold still.”

“Bossy,” smiled Nicole, rolling up.

Waverly continued her journey over the body, her lips moving as she traveled, silently naming each part as she arrived, each bone, each muscle. Nicole watched her, fascination shining plain on her face, asking, “What are you doing?”

“Looking at you,” she replied. So much pleasure in the knowing. The knowing of the names of things, the knowing of how Nicole responded to the touch.

Ohhh, this is so godamn romantic and real and beautiful! Waverly - just examining and admiring Nicole, all of her, is such an incredible idea. And written by BaggerHeda, it’s a work of art. It’s the Sistine Chapel on a page. It’s what artists of old mused over when they sculpted stunning figures out of marble.

It’s just ... it’s art.

Next is a piece by @tigerlo , who destroys me and puts me back together again with every word she writes. This one comes from inside, an echo:

Her eyes are soft and concerned, but she’s smiling at the sight of Waverly, too, and Waverly can’t help but smile back like her chest is full of stars.

It’s strange, their interaction this time. It feels different .

Something has changed .

Because Waverly often feels shy around Nicole, but this is something else, and Waverly thinks she knows why.

Because there’s something between them now and they both know it. Even if Nicole doesn’t know things with Champ are over for sure, although Waverly thinks she can feel it, especially now.

Things feel different.

Neither one has actually said anything, but Waverly knows that’s just a matter of time now, once she can work up the courage. It’s just a matter of time before something happens.

Because the wool blanket around her shoulders is keeping the chill off, but it’s Nicole’s smile across the freezing distance between them that’s keeping her warm.

She half draws Chrissy inside, but she glances back up at Nicole, blushing when she catches her watching still, and she gives Nicole a little wave. It’s hesitant and almost cripplingly shy, but it means more than the others have.

Nicole smiles back and Waverly looks down and she means to turn inside, but she can’t help looking for Nicole once more, like she needs one more breath of air before a descent underwater.

She looks up and that rope pulls and Nicole is watching her in a way that Waverly’s never seen before, but she thinks she knows what it means regardless, and it stops her heart.

Because she looks like she could be falling in love.

I know, that’s a really long quote. But if we’re being honest, I could copy and paste every. single. line. from tiger’s works. I am not exaggerating.

The special thing about this one is that it really enhances the canon wayhaught relationship. It adds so much to what we see on screen. That’s the beautiful thing about tiger - her works add to the canon world, so very much.

Last, but certainly not least, is a piece by @tinyvariations called missing time:

The noise is delicate, more suggestion than reality, like an apparition, a ghost that flits in and out of the periphery, lacking shape and substance and all manner of things. The kind of sound that makes one question whether or not they heard anything at all.

Except for Waverly Earp, that is.

It’s a testament to the human body, to the survival mechanisms inherent in the human brain that one can attune oneself, so to speak, to the environmental stimuli that matter, to turn the volume up or down, to fiddle with the world’s contrast or dim the brightness as needed.

Mothers - or sisters, as the case may be - who wake in the dead of night from a deep slumber, bolting upright in bed and holding their breaths until they hear it again, the sound of the baby girl down the hall crying softly in her bed, another nightmare taking its toll.

A girl living alone in a one-room apartment over the town’s watering hole, the railroad tracks visible through the dirt-streaked windows along the wall. Day after day, night after night the train click clacks its way through the deserted streets of Purgatory, its bellowing horn shattering the somnolent stillness, rattling the windows in their frames on its journey. But she sleeps on, her ears dismissing the familiar sound as neutral. As unimportant, unworthy of attention.

Or a father with the uncanny ability to suss out alcohol in the world around him, to hear the crack of a can or the plink of a bottle cap being removed at a mile away. And the weakness to chase after it every time.

And so it is that when her phone trills, the sprightly glissando signalling receipt of a new text message muffled and distorted under a veritable mountain of clothes, Waverly still hears it clearly, and her heartstrings echo, an instantaneous slide up the scale.

The noise repeats itself, and her heart jolts another octave.

Nicole.

Okay. OKAY. Listen. I really tried to choose something shorter. But. DID YOU READ THAT?!??? HOLY. SHIT.

Every time I read something from tinyvariations, I am blown. away. with the Shakespearean like knowledge of the English language and just how to use those words so effectively. It’s prose, all of it, every damn word. The descriptions always make me stop and go “this is what words were made for.”

I know... you want one more. I know it. So here it is. This is from valley; low by wrackwonder (who I don’t believe is on tumblr...)

“You went scuba diving?” All thoughts of the sky disappeared. The closest Waverly had been to scuba diving was a worn-out VHS copy of The Little Mermaid she had found in Willa’s closet. Nicole had seen and done so much. Waverly had barely left the front porch. “Yeah, saw sharks and turtles, it was incredible.”

Waverly was about to ask for more details when the last candle flickered out, casting the room in sudden, inky darkness. She gasped, surprised, and that’s when Nicole scooted forward, her side coming into contact with Waverly’s side. In the blackness, Waverly could just make out the shape of Nicole, her silhouette, the only light coming from the occasional flashes of lightening outside. For all she knew, she could be in bed with a stranger. For all she knew, she could be in bed with the love of her life. Her heart thumped loudly.

“At first it can be so scary,” Nicole’s breath brushed past Waverly’s shoulder, across her chest, and her skin erupted into gooseflesh.

“People really aren’t supposed to be underwater, we’re not made for it, so it takes a few seconds for the body to get used to the shock.”

There were fingers tracing patterns across Waverly’s ribcage, electric touches that went right to Waverly’s core.

“The first thing is your ears, because the water fills up everything, every crevice.” With her index finger, Nicole made a line across Waverly’s abdomen, from one hip to the other. Waverly’s fingers balled into the sheets.

Give me a minute. I’ll expand. Just hold on.

.....

Okay. WW pairs the imagery of scuba diving with the action of Nicole and Waverly making love, and it is so. powerful. Everything means more. Every word has a depth to it that it wouldn’t have without this incredible picture of being submerged in water. It’s magical, really. It’s just magic...

Writer

Not even doing it. There’s enough. If you really like something I wrote, and you feel compelled to let me know - awesome! But, I’m stopping (... for now ......)

#ficwritersweek #day 5 #verbatim #well this is a bit long #I'm just super passionate #about the fics I love #wayhaught fic recs

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