•winterfell's child•

the thing about sansa in the vale theories is that she just fundamentally disappears from the theory after that. she marries harry, the winged knights come to winterfell and then…….shes in the vale forever. her pov no longer exists. okay well it’s SANSA that drives the vale plot, the vale plot does not drive HER.

whoever it was at harper collins that decided to frame GRRM’s asoiaf proposal letter w the ‘key five’ thing in it needs to atone bc I am so sick of this shit fr

like im sorry but you can't tell me that you are just this devoted to a proposal letter that some old man wrote in the 1990s - that he's since disowned over and over and over and even directly contradicted in interview - because it gives you the warm fuzzies about the importance of your fave. if you need a source that fucking spurious to reassure you of your fave's importance, then I'd say they weren't that important after all - except it's not about that is it. it's about which 12 year old girl isn't mentioned in the goddamn letter, and your endless obsession w one-upping her and her fans, and trying to provoke them to anger so you can get some applause while doing so. it is not about who is mentioned in that letter, it is about who isn't, and rather than arguing endlessly that 'all POV characters are important' i wish the people who are irritated by this obvious ragebaiting would recognise it as such and let these people obsess over the smallprint of a piece of paper GRRM is actively embarrassed by if that is how they want to spend their time

thank god for asoiaf twt because it’s genuinely the only thing that can distract me from my period cramps when they get unbearable. like I think I’m in the worst pain imaginable but then I start scrolling and find myself reading literal hell discourse about the key five or the ugliest 9 year old or the stupidest abuse victim or whatever tf and it’s so funny and mean-spirited that it instantly takes my mind off of everything else. perfect solution highly recommend.

Iron Islander voice: Theon you [19 syllable dolphin noise slur] I see you came back WOKE and GAY and a WOMAN from us leaving you as a child prisoner to the guy with an 8 foot sword that makes you drag it around to executions in front of his screaming faced tree gods as a daily reminder that he can and will kill you (a child) just like he killed the rest of your family (some of which were also children). Did you have fun polishing his sword? I’ll bet. Did you write this letter yourself? Knowing there’s a one person literacy limit? Should we call you Theon the Reader, you reading fuck? And standing here in a jean jacket you bought yourself, may as well be sucking dick at old navy. You know who’s NOT woke or gay or a woman? Your sister Asha. Why can’t you be less gay and woke and a woman, like Asha? I bet she could run a democratic election because you know what isn’t gay Theon? Democracy

I would add that Ned did tell Robert that Wylla is Jon’s mother, but well…Robert was Ned’s king by this point, whereas Ned was Catelyn and Jon’s patriarch and thus he had far more power to withhold from them (“That was the only time in all their years that Ned had ever frightened her. ‘Never ask me about Jon,’ he said, cold as ice”). So it’s probably true that when possible he didn’t want to replace Lyanna with someone else

yes great point! ned couldn’t really avoid giving robert an answer without raising suspicion from the one person he can’t afford to raise suspicion in. but he still could have named wylla as jon’s mother for both jon and catelyn’s sakes (some closure for jon + some reassurance for cat that ned never loved another woman). I talked about it in this post but leaving jon and cat without any answer at all is probably one of the more selfish things that ned does (despite it being out of love for lyanna), it’s really one of the only things that he ever does purely for his sake.

the whole point of the Kingsguard is that they’re unbelievably fucking washed like zero heroic deeds on the board just morning noon night overtime fraud aura farming. Complicit in every act of patriarchal violence of the monarchy. Not even that good at fighting. Hypothetical victories only. Like “noooo Arthur Dayne would’ve—” except Arthur Dayne lay down his life to stop a pregnant 15 year-old dying in childbirth from seeing her big brother on her deathbed and then got fucking hosed by teenage Ned Stark and his gay best friend who does not hit 5 foot two. “Ohhhhhh aemon the dragonknight” kept his sister in that damn cage for decades and then died in the service of his brother which is dickrider behavior. Bystanderan Selmy? Washed.

the genre of asoiaf fans that are like. ew who wants to read about Tyrion/Theon/insert other complex well crafted we’ve spent multiple books following. IM obsessed with some random Targaryen who appears for two pages in fire and blood and is characterized as being brave outgoing and generally likable before dying tragically young. Girl who cares about Prince Visaegerion…

thing is that ppl seemingly forget that loving someone doesnt necessarily mean ur Good to them. davos loves marya so deeply that each thought he has of her is drenched in unyielding fondness yet has admitted to cheating on her. ned loves sansa that hes willing to forgo the truth and his honor for her life when it comes down to it yet shes also the child hes the Least connected to. shes the child he misunderstands the most despite being the most similar to her. shes the child he made no effort to let in on his plan to escape kings landing and this show of distrust in their alr tense relationship was what made sansa search for comfort in cersei. hoster loved lysa and that very love was what lead to him making her abort her bastard baby with petyr indirectly leading to her fertility issues later on. like those ideas can and do coexist quite well

currently rereading agot and I’m so sick at how often sansa begs for mercy by promising “I’ll be good, I’ll be a good girl, I’ll behave”, it literally happens in every single chapter. meanwhile she lives in constant terror of doing something wrong, she’s repeatedly reprimanded by septa mordane for questioning ned because god forbid she turns out like her “bad” sister arya. and then people turn around and mock/punish her for being naive about ned’s plan, even though she keeps ASKING why he’s doing what he’s doing and everyone just tells her to shut up instead of sitting her down and explaining to her why she needs to have her guard up. SHE is the one who was betrothed to joffrey, surely ned can take five minutes of his time to explain to her why he doesn’t trust joffrey or the lannisters. but somehow sansa telling cersei about ned’s plan makes her stupid and naive and traitorous. lord please take sansa’s pain and give it to gregor clegane.