Jak O' the Shadows

In celebration of the start of winter, and the longest night of the year, we invite all Jon x Arya fans to the 2026 #JonryaSolstice.

On Tumblr and Twitter we will be collecting fanart, edits, meta, and more, and on AO3 fics may be published to the collection Jonrya Solstice 2026. Listed prompts are only a general guideline—please interpret them as broadly and creatively as you please!

Generative AI content is strictly prohibited.

the start of arya no good very bad road trip

Sometimes, time seems to move in a vicious cycle, repeating itself in a painfully astonishing manner, as if mocking humanity's ability to learn from its mistakes. Two images are separated by 79 years, yet they appear as though no time has passed, as if the gap between them is merely a few fleeting moments.

I know exactly how few donations this campaign has been receiving lately, because I am the organiser. I receive an e-mail every time a donation is made. I put them all in a folder, unread, so I can see exactly how many people have donated at any time. Seeing that number go up means my friends are more secure, and their situation is anything but right now.

I have made two transfers to Maryam's family since I started this fundraiser. They were much needed. They still are.

This is a verified fundraiser. Gazavetters #15.

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tagging for reach, please share and aks your friends to share as well, thank you <3 (let me know if you don't want me to tag you anymore, apologies for any multiple tags)

If she is exclusively meant to give texture to Arya's character why she has more chapters than BRAN THE FIRST CHARACTER EVER CREATED STARK? A character that STILL should only and exclusively be Arya's shadow would have so much space.

If she is just a cam why does she has a profecy still to complete that was mentioned in ARYA ONE OF GEORGE FAVE CHARACTER STARK? It is senseless and pure cope.

Mainly because - as GRRM has mentioned several times - Bran is a very difficult character to write and the most magical character compared to characters like Tyrion whom GRRM loves writing for.

Bran has so few chapters because his is the most important POV, is the POV with the important magical/fantasy component that underpins the entire series - the threat from beyond the Wall - and GRRM needs to handle it carefully.

There's Time Travel involved and as any science fiction/fantasy fan will tell you that's one of the hardest concepts to successfully land in a story. There's problems like causal loops and temporal parodoxes like the Grandfather paradox, which GRRM, IMO, was planning to resolve by having Bran's consciousness travel instead of his body.

Keep in mind that we haven't even got to the Hodor scene from the TV show which happened I think in 2015!! And which D&D have said multiple times is from the books.

In other words, it's easier for GRRM to write Sansa Stark organizing feasts in the Vale and describe the food and Brienne wandering the Riverlands looking for a maiden than spend time writing a complicated time travel subplot for Bran Stark.

This is also why the books have barely moved in plot because like a typical procrastinator GRRM spend his time writing the easier traveling monologues while Bran is stagnating beyond the Wall and GRRM is finding it harder and harder to write the fantasy/magical aspect of the story -

GRRM at Oxford, 2024:

"Now it's harder when you're talking about dreams and you're talking about other types of magic, how do you handle it? Well… It's tough. It's not easy. I uh… People have sometimes asked me, which is the easiest character to write in my series, which is the hardest character to write? The easiest for me has always been Tyrion Lannister because, I don't know, he's fun to write. He's a smart ass. He gets into very dramatic situations. The hardest to write is Bran. Uh Bran Stark, who is the character who is MOST involved in the magical side of it. And I have to be… he's also the youngest character, so it's also hard to write from the viewpoint of an 8 year old, because I'm actually a little older than that. You have to think, what he would know, what he would not know, what he would understand, what he would misinterpret. Um. But then there's the magic! And how do you handle the magic? Um. All I can say is it's something that does require a lot of thought."

George R. R. Martin Answers Fan Questions

"I had a very hard time, a struggle, with writing from Bran. Because Bran, of all the characters, was the one who was most involved in magic. And I think magic in fantasy, sorcery, the supernatural, all of these things have to be handled with a great deal of care, or they can overwhelm the story. So, I rewrote some of those Bran chapters over and over again."

GRRM SSM May 2005

Bran will have one or two chapters in ADwD, where otherwise he would have been left out of the what would have been the fourth book entirely. He remains one of the most difficult POVs to write due to his youth, crippled status and the magic.

In the above 2005 SSM he also talks about the 5 year gap and how it affects the children and he keeps talking about Bran and Arya - never Sansa. It's clear that for GRRM it was important for Arya and Bran having a 5 year time jump. Sansa was never even a consideration when GRRM was crafting the story and ran into obstacles.

If she is just a cam why does she has a profecy still to complete that was mentioned in ARYA ONE OF GEORGE FAVE CHARACTER STARK? It is senseless and pure cope.

Prophecy? Everything that the Ghost of High Heart talks about happens in or before ASoS.

“The old gods stir and will not let me sleep. I dreamt I saw a shadow with a burning heart butchering a golden stag, aye.” - Renly (Happens in ACoK)

I dreamt of a man without a face, waiting on a bridge that swayed and swung. On his shoulder perched a drowned crow with seaweed hanging from his wings - Euron (Happens in ASoS)

I dreamt of a roaring river and a woman that was a fish. Dead she drifted, with red tears on her cheeks, but when her eyes did open - Lady Stoneheart (Happens in ASoS)

I dreamt a wolf howling in the rain, but no one heard his grief. I dreamt such a clangor I thought my head might burst, drums and horns and pipes and screams but the saddest sound was the little bells. - Red Wedding (Happens in ASoS)

I dreamt of a maid at a feast with purple serpents in her hair, venom dripping from their fangs - Sansa/Purple Wedding (happens in ASoS)

And later I dreamt that maid again, slaying a savage giant in a castle built of snow - Sansa tearing apart SweetRobin's doll in the snow model of Winterfell (happens in ASoS)

So basically EVERYTHING the Ghost of High Heart mentioned has ALREADY happened. Renly's death is old news by the time she has her vision. It's not exactly prophecy but some visions that the Ghost has.

Sansa's so called 'prophecy' is complete. The giant is SweetRobin's doll in a castle 'built of snow' - it could not be any more clear that this is the castle of snow that Sansa was building.

"if she was important GRRM wouldn't even think about kill her" honey, GRRM killed Ned in the book in which he was so central that most people thought he would be THE MAIN CHARACTER.

I would say that Sansa has become important now because she is dealing with Littlefinger - one of the most important human antagonists of the series, responsible for the downfall of the Starks. If Sansa manages to play a role in his downfall that's a big deal indeed.

However, I would also say she is one step below the tier one - central 5 key characters - in the series and yes, any character can die as GRRM mentioned in his OG outline to his editor -

Old characters will die, and new ones will be introduced. Some of the fatalities will include sympathetic viewpoint characters. I want the reader to feel that no one is ever completely safe, not even the characters who seem to be the heroes. The suspense always ratchets up a notch when you know that any character can die at any time. Five central characters will make it through all three volumes, however, growing from children to adults and changing the world and themselves in the process. In a sense, my trilogy is almost a generational saga, telling the life stories of these five characters, three men and two women. The five key players are Tyrion Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen, and three of the children of Winterfell, Arya, Bran, and the bastard Jon Snow. All of them are introduced at some length in the chapters you have to hand.

My post is not implying or supporting that she is more important tha Bran because she has more chapters, but that Grrm introduced many characters - even just for one chapter if needed - to let us know what we need to know, so why focusing so much on her?.

The fact that he write her so often surely is due to the fact that Sansa - and almost every other character - is easier to write for him than Bran but it also mean that he want to built something with her.

Sansa has really a huge amount of pov that would be a waist to write if he did not aim to get somewhere important with her, expecially because some chapters were obectively just for let us know how she interact with others more than give us important informations.

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Here - very respectully - I disagree, i am sorry : it make no sense to me use the second line to describe a doll for the simple fact that its just a doll and we already know that its about Sansa. All the other part of the prophecy are about important character inside the books and about their journey, to make the last part about a doll not only seems to reduce the pathos created by the prophecy itself but we could only justify it with "Martin wanted to confirm that it was indeed Sansa the one the line immediately before was talking about". The problem is that every word inside a prophecy has a meaning yet we really do NOT need a confirmation for anyone else, why would we need it for Sansa when it was obvious that it was about her and the purple wedding?

It make more sense that the first and last part of the prophecy would "match" being the only ones "outside of ASOS" and being about Sansa being involved AGAIN in someone's death.

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"If Sansa manages to play a role in his downfall that's a big deal indeed. However, I would also say she is one step below the tier one."

That is the very point that i am trying to make in my broken english.

There is a huge difference between not being in the top 5 and not being in the top 10: she has so many chapters and she is the only one that is around Littlefinger - with a whole plot in Vale that is not just about food but about her identity and inherence (her whole dynimic with Littlefinger is about that) - for a reason, she does mean something to the story.

The giant over the snow castle would make way more sense if it was inedeed about Sansa and Littlefinger, which would explain why their relationiship seems to be a reversion of Persephone and Hades's myth:

Petyr cut a pomegranate in two with his dagger, offering half to Sansa. "You should try and eat, my lady." "Thank you, my lord." Pomegranate seeds were so messy; Sansa chose a pear instead, and took a small delicate bite. It was very ripe. The juice ran down her chin. Lord Petyr loosened a seed with the point of his dagger. (A Storm of Swords - Sansa VI)

He brought the seed to his mouth with the knife. "In King's Landing, there are two sorts of people. The players and the pieces." "And I was a piece?" She dreaded the answer. "Yes, but don't let that trouble you. You're still half a child. Every man's a piece to start with, and every maid as well. Even some who think they are players." (A Storm of Swords - Sansa VI)

Lord Petyr dismissed him with a wave, and returned to the pomegranate again as Oswell shuffled down the steps. "Tell me, Alayne—which is more dangerous, the dagger brandished by an enemy, or the hidden one pressed to your back by someone you never even see?" "The hidden dagger." (A Storm of Swords - Sansa VI)

"Remember that, Sansa, when you come to play the game." "What...what game?" "The only game. The game of thrones." (A Storm of Swords - Sansa V)

Now, i see no way in which Littlefinger could be killed by anyone else since he is not equally releted to anyone else story as to Sansa's one . For Jon or Arya to kill Littlefinger would surely be a revenge or even an act of justice - Littlefinger hurted many people not only the Starks - but it would never be as satisfying as seem him perish for the actions of the girl that look like the woman that "triggered" his horrible actions.

Lord Littlefinger kissed her cheek. “With my wits and Cat’s beauty, the world will be yours, sweetling.” (A Feast for Crows - Sansa I)

“Sansa was a lady at three, always so courteous and eager to please. She loved nothing so well as tales of knightly valor. Men would say she had my look, but she will grow into a woman far more beautiful than I ever was, you can see that.  (A Clash of Kings - Catelyn VII)

"You are Eddard Stark’s daughter, and Cat’s. But I think you might be even more beautiful than your mother was, when she was your age.” (A Storm of Swords - Sansa VII)

You will be the most beautiful woman in the hall tonight, as lovely as your lady mother at your age. (The Winds of Winter - Alayne I)

Also we cant forget that GRRM himself said that Littlefinger is obsessed with Sansa and this objectively make her look like Petyr's only weakness. If not her who else ?

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also she is meant to be the anti Petyr, in my honest opinion, showing pity to those that wronged her, and having some positive instinct to SweetRobin, so again make sense for her to be Petyr's doom:

"Help him," Sansa commanded two of the serving men. One just looked at her and ran, flagon and all. Other servants were leaving the hall as well, but she could not help that. Together, Sansa and the serving man got the wounded knight back on his feet. "Take him to Maester Frenken." Lancel was one of them, yet somehow she still could not bring herself to wish him dead. I am soft and weak and stupid, just as Joffrey says. I should be killing him, not helping him. (A Clash of Kings - Sansa VII)

"Sweetrobin? You can stay, but try not to squirm around. Just close your eyes and sleep, little one." "I will." He cuddled close and laid his head between her breasts. "Alayne? Are you my mother now?" "I suppose I am," she said. (A Feast for Crows - Sansa I)

She has the same number of published chapters so far as Catelyn Stark. If we ever get TWoW, then she will cross Catelyn but for now, she and Catelyn are on par. Take from that what you will.

I only addressed your post because you seem to correlate Bran's chapters with GRRM's intentions in creating the character of Sansa, which he has explicitly talked about in interviews.

My point is that the number of chapters don't directly co-relate to character importance. Rather it currently co-relates to ease of writing for a procrastinator like GRRM who seems to now hate his story, hates writing asoiaf and finds it be a burdern. Even for the key 5 look at the disparity -

Tyrion (49), Jon (42), and Arya (34) Daenerys (31)

Dany should actually be up there and should have reached Westeros by now but GRRM is caught up in the infamous 'Meereenese Knot' which he has STILL NOT unraveled while the man LOVES writing for Tyrion.

Bran is lagging behind for the reasons I mentioned and I have always maintained that TWoW needs to be Bran heavy for there to be any plot progress and for the story to move forward. And maybe that's why we are never getting another book because the author finds it very difficult to write the character.

to let us know what we need to know, so why focusing so much on her?.

I can give you an answer, but you are clearly not going to like it and we are going to have to agree to disagree on this point.

Lord Crow