#elvisglasses

Here you go! 

I think their different ages have a lot to do with that too. Gwen's perfect for the role, but they can't realistically have a late-20s (or older) Brienne carry the same innocence about her that 18-19yo book Brienne does. What do you think? I love Brienne meta. : )

Absolutely. I am super glad you brought this up. I actually was thinking about that angle on my drive to work (running late since I got distracted writing meta) and wishing I’d mentioned it in the original post.

The show “age up” impacts every character (”except Maester Aemon” my husband points out, since he’s old as dirt already).   

For the “kids” (Dany, Ned’s kids, Margaery [who is 15 in A Clash of Kings], etc.) it makes it acceptable for us to see the horrible things inflicted on them, but it also makes them more feel accountable for their actions.  I fully understand why the show felt they needed to age these characters (especially Dany and Sansa) up the 2-5 years they chose to.

Their motivation for aging the “adults” up something like 15 years, is something I have less sympathy for. It takes away from the poignancy of how young they were during Robert’s Rebellion but also just how much life they have left to gain/lose To take characters in their 30s and put them into their 40s and 50s is changes the feeling from one of coming into their full power to one of midlife crisis.

Brienne (along with Renly who is specifically named as being 20 when we meet him in the first book) falls into a different change in status, from just transitioning into adulthood to fully settled as such.    

At 18-19, I know I put up with a lot more from people.  I was unsure of my place in the world.  Not letting people see that they got to me was my basic defense.  So it fits that Book!Brienne is like that, while Show!Brienne refuses to be trod on that way, standing up to people and being ready with a quip of her own.   That’s very much something I developed in my late 20s to early 30s.   So age-wise it makes sense.   Show!Brienne has outgrown many of the responses that Book!Brienne still has not.  

But it’s more than that.  At Book!Brienne’s age, I was idealistic even in my way of embracing what I thought was choosing the opposite of that.  Book!Brienne feels the pain of thinking that no one will ever love/want/accept her, but she can’t stop hoping anyway.  She hasn’t lost her dreams; because, who really has at that age, no matter how battered it may be? There’s a romantic nature to the way you see yourself as a martyr when suffering at that age. But Show!Brienne has endured another decade of rejection, humiliation, and loneliness.  She’s sublimated her hopeless dreams more thoroughly, developed a more fully formed alternative set of goals.   Her wounds have scarred over a lot more.  She’s created a different new identity from the one she had to give up on and had time to settle into it and have it feel genuine and solid.

11. “I almost lost you” kiss

Brienne stretched languidly in his arms, the sunlight filtering in through the window gently and illuminating the golden strands in her husband’s hair.  It was rare she woke before he did and she took the opportunity to feast her eyes upon him: tan skin, crinkles at the corners of his eyes and mouth, soft pink lips, thick eyelashes.

Untangling her hand from the covers, she reached out and traced a finger over the bridge of his nose, sweeping up over his eyebrows. The war in the North had cost them all dearly: lives, broken families, tested loyalties.

She remembered the way he had fallen on the field; the way her heart had fallen to the pit of her stomach as she ran to him, shielded his injured body with her own and kept him from Death’s claws. 

And now they were here: married, together, peaceful and healing. 

*cough* okay so we’re on my #1 Theory About The Topic Of Jaime’s Sexual Preferences. tldr: jaime lannister Is Absolutely Not A Top, brienne of tarth is Absolutely Not a Bottom, and to my other favorite topic, How Jaime And Brienne Would End Up Fucking After They Fess Up.

LONG VERSION: I joked about it on that quote because like I mean he was under brienne who was kicking his ass and he was 100% enjoying it and he joked about chastising his wife when she was the one chastising him pretty much which says all, but:

now, going on the obvious thing for which ‘jaime and cersei are actually not the same person and actually the exact contrary’, which is canon anyway; cersei is a very dominant person and he is not - no, really, he’s actively trying to avoid being in any position of power, doesn’t enjoy exerting domination on anyone and he doesn’t tend to *lead* at least in book canon, and when he has to he doesn’t relish it. on the other side, have you read cersei’s chapters? yeah, all the contrary, even if he’s actually competent at what he does and she’s not;

also, things that we’ve seen re cersei’s sexual preferences in canon: if you look at her and taena, she was obviously leading it, and I’m 90% sure that back when I read the books the first time I had read something that heavily implied that she topped with jaime as well but WHATEVER even with that, let’s take this and the above into account;

now, what does jaime think the first time he fights brienne? that she’s stronger than he is, and he does entirely not have a problem with it, but okay admittedly that was about her fighting skills -

except that the subsequent swordfight scene has been interpreted by a bunch of people before me as having sexual undertones (the swords kissed, brienne’s leg bleeds, he thinks fighting is the only thing as good as fucking and so on) and how does it end? with him on his back and brienne above him;

now, never mind the whole *the things I do for love* philosophy which pretty much states that love is what moves this guy for bad and for good, given how much he suffers at finding out cersei didn’t *love* him and how much worth he places on the few *love*-driven relationships he has (cersei - as far as he’s concerned, his brother) and how he actually is a very loving person who will go to any length for it… it’s kind of also obvious that he wants it back and the thing is that he thought he got it from cersei but he obviously realized he didn’t. ops. but like, he has emotional needs that I’m 99% sure haven’t really been fulfilled lately and if you’re telling me he wouldn’t enjoy laying back and have someone topping the shit out of him very lovingly then I’m disagreeing;

and if we go into a, uh, slightly less vanilla dynamic I’m going to throw out, he would enjoy lovingly submitting to someone who wouldn’t abuse that trust if you get what I mean;

that was about jaime though so let’s touch the other topic, ie, brienne;

now okay since she’s as of now not sexually experienced I can see why in most jb porn I read there’s a normal dynamic where he’s on top and driving the show, but think about it for a moment;

brienne is someone who has acted for most of her life out of wanting recognition for her skills and upholding her vows because she knows what she’s good at and she’s found a reason to live and be herself/be good at something in knightly oaths, but she’s also not a very passive personality even if she’s quietly so. what I mean is, she doesn’t make much a fuss about anything but she goes at what she wants effectively and she doesn’t let anything get in her way, and she has no issues bossing people around when she’s sure of what she’s doing/in her element. like, she’s…. quietly dominant? not in an overt or obvious way nor in a way that makes her want to have everything around her under control or to overpower other people, just the kind of person who’s actually good at leading and good and getting shit done;

also, she does have a streak to take care of other people - the show likes to make her look like the female hulk 90% of the time but I mean she’s actually… very much like that with pod for one, she does look after jaime when she doesn’t even like him during the trip towards harrenhaal and she swore herself into a line of work that basically says protect others which she takes 100% seriously. and like, she’s very self-conscious about sex and the way she looks because everyone else convinced her that no one could ever want her for everything she is and what she’s been told about it is that it’s good if men get over it quickly and it’s not painful, but the moment she has sex with someone who’s actually into her (ie jaime obviously) I’m pretty sure that she would get over the self-consciousness;

specifically, I’m not too fond of brienne being completely naive about sex especially because being a knight she’s been around men long enough and like honest she’s been around jaime and she’s survived until now, I’m of the opinion that the moment she gets comfortable with it and with enjoying it and doing it… 

given the above and that we have just established (according to my reasoning anyway) that she has a quietly nicely dominant streak in her personality and he tends to prefer someone else leading and has a not so quietly submissive streak in his never mind that he could totally do with someone, like, attending to his sexual and emotional needs properly instead of seeing him as an extension of themselves, my point is that she is a top, he is most definitely not, and they’re absolutely compatible in that sense;

which also makes sense anyway with the fact that both of them (never mind the beauty and the beast parallel) are alternatively cast as the knight and the damsel in distress throughout their whole storyline but most of the time she is the one in the knight role and he is the one in the damsel/princess role, given how usually roles are coded when it comes to having sex, and like if they switch in their actual canon storyline I don’t see why they can’t switch in bed as well (especially when you already have jon and ygritte where it was kind of coded the same way and she certainly wasn’t the bottom in that equation so I mean it has already happened and j/y is also coded with him taking the female role and she takes the male role) especially when imo they would totally enjoy it better like that the moment they figured it out;

tldr: #letbriennetop2k18 and #letjaimebottom2k18 #possiblywitheachother

thank you I’ve said my piece

. . . . . Go on.

Tee-hee - I will... but it is not exactly what you think it is... yet!

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

lab partner: jeremiah I suppose

elevator: mr fizzles bc if no one’s making him talk he’d shut up and I’d have ten hours in peace