#alliser thorne

@ghostinwinterfell YES so alliser very much represents The Old Guard the same way bowen does - out of touch, not even teaching the next generation anything useful, entitled, afraid of change and what he doesn't understand, strict adherence to the old system. he was a stubborn holdout for the targaryens, long past when most people had switched sides during the rebellion.

so my thought here is that like - these two paragons of stubborn clinging to The Old Ways ultimately come to a head because alliser does not approve of the mutiny and cannot see why bowen ever thought he would approve of it. bowen will say it's for the watch, and alliser will not buy it at all. bowen is essentially bucking the status quo by mutinying & imo this would be even worse than anything jon was trying to do. so he just executes bowen for disloyalty, then moves on to hold a new vote for the lord commander, helping settle down the tensions at castle black....only for jon's body to walk off out of nowhere (or however its gonna happen).

because he's a petty bully, and he hated jon, he never wanted that arrogant little snow boy in charge- but at heart, unlike his show depiction, i think he's a loyalist who cares about structures and vows. he never betrayed aerys, he refused to turn on his leader even after nearly everyone else in westeros already had. he's at the wall because traitorous lords sent him there after usurping the throne, he's had well over a decade to ruminate on how his life was ruined by what amounts to a continent-spanning mutiny. and he's become a bitter asshole wasting his energy obsessing over petty grudges with teen boys. hardly a single man at the wall likes him, and he hardly likes a single man at the wall. but now this boy he hates has been betrayed by men who swore to follow him, and he's conflicted over it, because he never wanted him in command, and that petty part of him probably wants to celebrate this, but ultimately he can't, because he still cares about loyalty, and he's just so disgusted by what they've done.

For the Watch.

me trying to remember them all

oberyn. sorry this is not up for debate. that's her DAD. her FATHER. that's the man who RAISED HER. cerelle would not be the golden paladin had it not been for oberyn, she would not have saved robb stark at the wedding, and certainly would not have simply crashed into winterfell just for a chance of saving sansa. so much of what cerelle is, is bc of oberyn.

ellaria. THE MOTHER SHE SHOULD HAVE HAD. took her in when she didn't have to, gave her something to hold onto in this strange new place (the faith), defended her while at court, actively tried to find her a suitor so that she wouldn't be miserable. mother of the year.

jaime. bro tried, and that's worth so much actually. like cersei told him to stay away from cerelle, he knew he should stay away, and yet he could not help being there for cerelle, and to try and protect her from robert. he was the only one able to find her whenever she ran off!! their relationship is ofc not perfect but considering he's her dad + her uncle, sworn to celibacy, they cannot even talk about him being her father without inciting a war... yeah, i think they are doing just alright.

alliser thorne. NOW LISTEN. JUST LISTEN. i know i still need to write that cerelle-arriving-at-castle-black prequel but i can tell you now that my dear boy alliser will get put in a veryy good spotlight. he protected cerelle from the other men, tried to give her work somewhere he could keep watch on her, made sure she had something to eat + a good bed etc. bro also got punched into the dust by her once during a sparring session and didn't get angry - what a man. (yes his affection might be bc 1) he thought cerelle was dornish and therefore pro-targ just like him and 2) he has a daughter that would be around her age right now, but facts are still facts) also he was the reason rast didn't get to graduate with the other recruits (jon, sam etc) bc he observed rast being mean to cerelle and he couldn't have that

tomas. does anyone still remember him? he was that smith that taught cerelle how to wield a sword in book two and was then killed by outlaws, leading to cerelle meeting the brotherhood yadayada. i intentionally fashioned him after oberyn to give cerelle some ~feelings~ but he wasn't around long enough to truly leave more of an impact. still - good guy, love that guy.

cersei. girl don't get on my nerves.

robert. uh. yeah. you know why.

tywin. and yet somehow, it gets worse.

“Aye,” Slynt said. “A blind man with a chain about his neck, who does he think he is?”