#halfagod

Thanks for the asks, @halfagod!

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

I could mention time travelling foetus Tyrion or immortal vampire Roose, but those are just gloriously silly. The genuinely worst take I've ever seen are the people who think Hyle is Brienne's endgame. I remember reading this big long discussion (amongst people who shall remain nameless) about all the "respect" Hyle has for Brienne, and how it is clearly an enemies to lovers story where Brienne will learn that there is someone out there who can look past her looks and love her for her (never mind Jaime is off going absolutely feral about her looks exactly how they are). They then started laughing about how the "braimes" seem totally oblivious that Hyle is Brienne's love story, and that Hyle is so much better than Jaime anyway, so "braimes" were clearly ignoring the text and just projecting, and were terrified by what Hyle represented. This conversation then devolved into my favourite bad tags I've ever seen in any post ever, that I screenshotted for posterity.

I don't think I will ever recover from the hilarity of these tags. Ever.

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

There seems to be this prevailing opinion in fandom (particularly in reddit fandom) that Jaime is only into beautiful women. They take his love for Cersei and are like "Cersei is his type and therefore he's only into pretty gals, and will have to overlook Brienne's appearance in order to love her".

Actually, I think Cersei is very much not his type. "Pretty" doesn't really do much for Jaime - as we see from his memories of "pretty" Lysa Tully and how he was not that into her despite her prettiness - and his attraction to "Pretty" Pia is lukewarm at best. The women who really seem to get him going are Hildy and Brienne, unconventional looking women who have a bit of fire in their bellies. I firmly believe that if Cersei wasn't Jaime's sister and that they didn't have this long complicated history born of family trauma that pushed them together, if Jaime saw her in the street he'd be "meh" about her looks, just like he is about Lysa's and Pia's.

Meanwhile, he's like

almost instantly over Brienne and Hildy.

HEY thank you so much for the ask! 💗

1. book you’ve reread the most times?

oh that'll have to be one of my favorite books from childhood, when I used to reread the most. It's probably either a Harry Potter one (I used to love the Order of the Phoenix) or a classic from here, Marcos Ramírez by Carlos Luis Fallas. Or maybe the one I'm citing below.

8. what is the first book you remember reading yourself?

that's an edition in Spanish of White Fang by Jack London! I've always liked animals, and as a child I was obsessed with wolves and this was the first book I got to choose and read by myself. I'm still surprised by how it changes protagonists half way, and it gave me a love for stories that observe their protagonists with care and attention. This is the book by the way!

it also came with illustrations, which I really liked becauase they felt realistic

alksjdfasldjf 

YOU ASK ME THIS

HAVE YOU SEEN MY BLOG 

DO YOU KNOW ME WOMAN JAIME/ARTHUR?

JAITHUR?

It’s 10/10, second only to JB as far as I’m concerned

it’s canon it’s important. That man was baby Jam’s bi awakening and I shan’t forget it

homeboy literally took Jaime’s metaphorical virginity and he means so much to Jaime. I don’t think it HAPPENED of course but I think Jaime WANTED it to happen even if he didn’t understand that truly, cause he’s so repressed 

And he’s right to want it cause with Jaithur there’s so much, there’s honor kinks there’s hero worship there’s bi repression there’s gay mourning and gay guilt there’s everything 

I spewed all of the reasons why this ship slaps in more detail (slightly less frantic but more unsolicited for sure) in a whole ass meta explaining why Jaime is a repressed bisexual and has canon mlm crushes

Anyway Jaithur is the bee’s knees and metaphorically speaking I see it as a prequel to JB, they both have a lot in common and I think JB is like, the finalized, improved version of Jaithur y’know. In a lot of ways it’s like Brienne has taken the place of teen!Jaime, the young knight being disillusioned and learning about the world and the fragility of vows, and Jaime, now an adult, is closer to being Arthur in that he’s more experienced, except UNLIKE Arthur, Jaime won’t fail Brienne and isn’t misleading her about what it means to be a knight (cause Arthur did let Jaime down y’know, one way or another, as much as I think he meant well, he didn’t prepare Jaime for knighthood as much as he should’ve. Jaime’s not making that mistake with Brienne)

This is a relatively random assortment just the scenes I’m feeling at midnight on a Saturday but:

1. BEAR👏 PIT 👏 RESCUE👏 like I’m gonna try and limit myself to one JB scene here but that one is fully everything I love about asoiaf rolled into one

2. All of Bran III where he dreams of falling and the crow teaches him to fly. This chapter is so good and I’d fully forgotten it till I reread over christmas?? anyway love it

3. Arya reuniting with Harwin in ASOS fucking GETS TO ME ugh she is a childdddd

4. Brienne opening up to the Elder Brother... once again you find me weeping. The show really just left this scene out huh. Just left it out didn’t they. Really just LEFT THIS SCENE OUT -

5. This is a weird one but I think a lot about Cersei’s visit to the lions beneath Casterly Rock, which is just a memory of hers mentioned in ADWD... gets me thinking about Lanns and legacy etc etc it’s just a lot of Cersei feelings. What is this doing in a top 6 idk

@halfagod I am your twin sword for the @alittleislandoflight exchange! I really hope you enjoy this little fic!

And to make it worse, all this pain, all this shame... is for nothing.

Thanks @halfagod!

Oh god, okay, here goes.

Brienne has very real self confidence issues, and I feel these often get ignored. I know we all want her to be fully self-confident and whatever, but I often think in saying "oh, Brienne is confident in her morals and fighting abilities, she is a confident person". This totally misses how self-esteem works, as all people can be confident in certain aspects of themselves and not in others. In Brienne's case, it is that she thinks she is entirely deficient as a social animal, and therefore cannot hope to truly connect with other people. This is something that actually happens in her POV:

She was prepared for coldness, for mockery, for hostility. She had supped upon such meat before. It was not the scorn of the many that left her confused and vulnerable, but the kindness of the few. (AFFC, Brienne III).

She feels confused and vulnerable when people are kind to her. That is a BIG deal, and tells you all you need to know about the deep, deep trauma she has suffered, that has led to her thinking she is not worthy when other people are kind to her.

She struggles with touching Catelyn because she thinks her comfort won't be welcome. She sits quietly in the corner of rooms because Roelle beat it into her that she was dumb and ugly, and had nothing to offer anyone. She only opens up to people she knows a little, but even then it is only one side of herself she lets them see (Catelyn, Hyle, Renly). The only person she has probably EVER had a close, reciprocal adult relationship with in her life is Jaime (Pod doesn't count, because he's a child), and ironically it is her searing hatred of him that initially allows her to speak her mind because she doesn't give a shit what he thinks of her. It is only when she starts to respect him that she nervously clams up again (see the Oathkeeper scene).