rv

Martells in the books: "Vengeance, Justice, Fire and Blood." Hold Tywin and Robert culpable for the murders of Elia and her children (the actual child murderers) and have been trying to restore Rhaegar's brother and sister to the throne.

asoiaf fandom: The North deserves independence! No matter what, they should never kneel!

In the books:

Ned: Put the previous king on the throne, plotting to put Stannis on throne when he's killed

Robb: Was about to back Stannis until Greatjon proclaims him King

Greatjon: "It was the dragons we married and the dragons are dead, why shouldn't we rule ourselves?"

Jon: Happily supplying battleplans to Stannis and mentally supporting him

Sansa & Arya & Bran: never once think of northern independence, are forming/formed close connections with people from the south

House of Undying: Shows Robb's fight for independence as one another thing tearing westeros apart, no more morally good than the others

asoiaf fandom: Everyone must hate Rhaegar for being the worst person ever!

In the books:

Ned: Would Rhaegar have gone to brothels like Robert? I don't think so

Oberyn: *doesn't speak a single bad word against Rhaegar, goes to sign a pact agreeing to marry his niece to Rhaegar's brother*

#Northman 1 Jorah: You saved those women from being raped, Khaleesi? You are just like your brother Rhaegar

#Northman 2 Manderly speaking on Rhaegar Frey (derogatory): That smirking worm that wears a dragon's name!

Cersei & Jon Con & Ser Barristan & Jaime in chorus: We love Rhaegar. The wrong man came back from the Trident.

asoiaf fandom: Lyanna was an innocent victim preyed on and assaulted. Even if she loved Rhaegar in the beginning, she'd grown to hate him by the end!

In the books:

Ned: Lyanna had wolfblood, it led her to an early grave

Ned: Lyanna had clutched the blue rose petals until the very last moment until she died

Le Jon being conceived half a year upwards after Brandon and Rickard's deaths (he looks similar in age to Robb and Robb was conceived after their deaths, Ned going to north getting banners raised, then going down to riverrun)

asoiaf fandom: No matter what the truth is, Jon will always be Ned's son, he will always be a Stark! He will reject his Targ identity and only be Ned's son!

In the books:

Ned: If it came to that, the life of some child I did not know, against Robb and Sansa and Arya and Bran and Rickon, what would I do? *crickets on Jon*

Also Ned in KL: Ohh look at that, that tall lad looks about Robb's age, Loras Tyrell looks Robb's age, I wish I could be back in Winterfell hearing Bran's laugh, going hawking with Robb, watch Rickon play (again crickets on Jon except for shameful guilty thoughts)

Sansa & Arya & Bran: Jon is our brother but he isn't one of us, he isn't a Stark

Summer on Ghost: There were five of us and one other (meaning Ghost)

Stark Kings in Winterfell crypts yelling at Jon: Go away! You have no place here, you are not a Stark!!

asoiaf fandom: Jon is going to hate Targaryens, he is nothing like the Targs, all his qualities solely come from Ned and the Starks!

In the books:

Jon: My hero has always been Daeron the young dragon!

Maester Aemon to Jon *stroking his cheek*: You remind me of my brother, Aegon V

Jon: loves maester aemon dearly as his own grandpa, Bloodraven sidequesting as a raven to watch over his great-nephew Jon, Daenerys on her way to come give Jon a dragon and be his big damned love

Moqorro: I see dragons, true and false (Jon and Aegon)

Ser Barristan on Rhaegar: "Able, that above all. Determined, deliberate, dutiful, single-minded." (if this doesn't exactly describe ADWD!Jon I don't know what does. Especially single-minded, oh boy is he)

asoiaf fandom: Nobody wants Dany in Westeros or Essos! She should stay away!

In the books:

Sam & Maester Aemon & Maester Marwyn: We need to bring Dany to Westeros asap

Other Maesters of Citadel: We need to send a Maester to Dany asap!

Ironborn: We need to bring Dany here asap

Martells: We need to bring Dany here asap

Tyrion: We need to bring Dany to Westeros asap

Melisandre, Stannis and his whole group: Wish we had the power to wake dragons out of stone! If only there was someone who could do just that

Slaves of Old Volantis: Tell the dragon queen to come soon, tell her we are waiting

Jon Snow discovers Ghost, by Magali Villeneuve for A Game of Thrones collectible card game

Sansa knew all about the sorts of people Arya liked to talk to: squires and grooms and serving girls, old men and naked children, rough-spoken free riders of uncertain birth. Arya would make friends with anybody.

This Mycah was the worst; a butcher’s boy, thirteen and wild, he slept in the meat wagon and smelled of the slaughtering block. Just the sight of him was enough to make Sansa feel sick, but Arya seemed to prefer his company to hers.

. . .

Sansa could never understand how two sisters, born only two years apart, could be so different. It would have been easier if Arya had been a bastard, like their half brother Jon . . . And Jon’s mother had been common, or so people whispered.

. . .

. . . and when they grew hungry, Joffrey found a holdfast by its smoke and told them to fetch food and wine for their prince and his lady.

(AGOT, Sansa I)

and this all culminates in joffrey toying with/hurting mycah just because he’s bored and drunk and he can, while mycah is forced to stand there “trembling” because he’s expected to put up with every violent whim of a prince (even as sansa notes that joffrey’s “commanding tone [] took no notice of the fact that the other was a year his senior”).

contrast that with how arya puts her ENTIRE body into defending mycah, this skinny little girl mustering all of her strength to protect her friend with nothing but a stick against a steel sword. it’s a passionate act in defense of a fellow human being, an act that most of the other characters would only ever reserve for a fellow highborn:

Arya went for him.

Sansa slid off her mare, but she was too slow. Arya swung with both hands. There was a loud crack as the wood split against the back of the prince’s head, and then everything happened at once before Sansa’s horrified eyes.

. . .

She picked up Lion’s Tooth where it had fallen, and stood over him, holding the sword with both hands.

. . .

Arya whirled and heaved the sword into the air, putting her whole body into the throw. The blue steel flashed in the sun as the sword spun out over the river. It hit the water and vanished with a splash. Joffrey moaned. Arya ran off to her horse, Nymeria loping at her heels.

(AGOT, Sansa I)

it’s also a nice little throwback to arya’s very first chapter when jon says, “I doubt you could even lift a longsword, little sister, never mind swing one” (AGOT, Arya I). now of course longtooth is lighter than a regular longsword because it’s “adroitly shrunken to suit a boy of twelve”, but arya is still a skinny nine-year-old girl who not only lifts but THROWS it into the river. plus the whole reason that arya is out there practicing swordplay with a partner in the first place is because of jon’s advice, and he would have been so proud to see that she CAN in fact lift a longsword…and that she does so in defense of her friend mycah.

(AGOT, Arya II)

AFFC!Cersei is a true unreliable narrator because her perceptions are wildly divergent from the reality of King's Landing. She believes herself to be creating a cohesive, sustainable political arena wherein Tommen's rule is safe. The reality is she's surrounded by sycophants, Tommen is estranged from potential allies, and the entreaties she dismisses as cowardly or misogynistic are often sound ones.

She also does a classic lil unreliable narrator number by slowly leaking us information about Maggy the Frog's prophecy, leaving the reader with incomplete information while providing alternative reasons for her actions (Margaery is insolent, responsible for Joffrey's death, plotting against her VS Margaery is one of the heralds of Cersei's doom).

Sansa has also been named an unreliable narrator in the case of misremembering a kiss from the Hound. Is she an unreliable narrator generally? In AGOT absolutely, but it's done so over the top + contrasted with POVs like Ned and Arya's such that nobody is convinced besides herself. The reader doesn't rely on her POV in ACOK/most of ASOS, however in AFFC she's the only POV in a espionage-heavy Vale (this is also where Sandor's kiss comes up) so if there's a twist, it's forthcoming.

There are other characters who I don't think deserve the title of unreliable narrator despite this disconnect existing. ACOK!Theon POVs are generally convoluted and littered with half-truths that bleed into full ones. But his thought process isn't concealing; it's convincing. He's compartmentalizing in real time - there's a fever dream quality to him, as though even Theon isn't sure what's real and what's not, which lines up well. Everything haunts him and everything is happening simultaneously as a result. Theon is unreliable, untrustworthy to the people around him more than he is to the reader.

Strangely enough I at times see arguments that Daenerys is an unreliable narrator. Perhaps that is a result of the show adaptation, but to apply in the the book context is an egregious reading, because actually she is committing the opposite sin: that of intense self-doubt. Her chapters are full of her weighing options and lingering on past choices. There are of course things she doesn't know (ex. the identity of the Harpy in specific) but that's not a token of unreliability. The easiest way to ascertain unreliability is to focus on the reactions of those around her, who are generally loyal to her cause after spending time with her. This holds from two so different knights in Jorah and Barristan, to the Dothraki characters, to those formerly enslaved such as Missandei that she has met along her journey. If Dany's not who she thinks she is, then that should show in the reactions of other's to her. Her abrupt departure from Meereen on Drogon's back should result in second-guessing from those left behind (Quentyn & Barristan have POVs following), yet that isn't the case.

Affected by male-pattern baldness?

I'm gonna be honest