Honestly, if Theon ends up dying I will just be dead inside because he’s had the BIGGEST character development throughout the seasons and I know it will be a beautiful parallel to have him die for the family that he realized he loves so much, but it will be such a huge blow. He’s become my favorite character as I witnessed the mistakes, damage, change, and growth and my heart will seriously break over the beauty of him dying for his family but also from the pain. I’ve loved this character for so many seasons and I became so invested. It says a lot about character development and especially an actor when you unconditionally love them despite all of the wrong they’ve done.
Yet another Sansa stan being an Alicent Stan lmao you guys need to stop being so predictable. I don't even hate her show version but the way you peeps love to latch on to a passive redheaded character who accepts her suffering in a feminine woke submissive way is getting comical at this point xD. Stan whoever you want, just keep your same old 'too-powerful-for-their-own-good' Targ takes to yourself thank you
The way you people finds ways to shame and denigrate female characters for how they handle and process patriarchal violence and abuse is absolutely astounding, and imply that there's good victims and bad victims is absolutely ridiculous. None of these characters ''accept'' their suffering. That's such an incredibly disgusting thing to say. They are young girls that live in a society that restricts and limits them, and preys upon them and these are victims to men in power that use that power to use and abuse them as they see fit. That's why (alongside a plethora of other reasons, of course) you're not going to see me shame Rhaenyra for getting groomed by her grown male uncle, or Cersei for getting abused by Robert or Daenerys for being abused by her brother for years and sold to and SAed by a grown man.
All of these characters were stripped of any real choice and power and were forced into submissiveness and passivity by their violently patriarchal society for years and years, and the most meaningful part is seeing them break out of it. Stop making weird connotations to people emotionally connecting to victims of abuse who were regulated and constrained by people that have power over them, and had to survive by enduring and pretending. Like of course this is a narrative that I would be emotionally engaged with considering how much I personally relate to a lot of aspects to it in regards to my own life and experiences, and so many other people see differing aspects of these characters and their hardships, how they endured, who they became and how they broke away from all of the limitations, and it means something to them in regards to their own lives, and that's an absolutely beautiful thing.
Sansa, for example, attempted to kill herself, attempted to push Joffrey off the tower, constantly made digs at him when she could, bolted away and refused to kneel when she was forced into marriage and continuously aimed to get out at the right time. She never ''accepted'' her suffering. She did what she had to do to survive, but there was always steel underneath even as she was only eleven/twelve. There was a lot of power to that, and there was also a lot of power in all of the moments of her faking and enduring these horrors and continuing on pretending regardless. Also, Alicent strode in, interrupted and boldly declared war at her current enemies' wedding. All of these women are forced into horrible positions, had to endure, and break away from it or take control of their lives in their own time. Even if they hadn't endure, or didn't break away from it at the end, they definitely wouldn't be ''worse victims'' for it like you seem to imply. My other issue with the other side of the HoTD fandom is how you all try to dictate who people are and are not allowed to like and what takes people are and are not allowed to have based on your own personal narratives. Also, the ''too powerful for their own good'' isn't just my Targ take, it's the whole conundrum that GRRM explicitly stated he wanted to explore with that family. Like wow I'm talking about what this man wanted his readers to talk about. Big problem. Anyways, if you don't want to see my takes, don't go to my account. Block me instead of immediately checking my account and sending hate in my inbox whenever I make a new post.
It’s interesting looking at the series’ original outline and then comparing it to what the series eventually morphed into. There’s a huge difference between how Arya in book one is written versus how someone like Sansa, Daeneryes, Jamie, or Tyrion are written in later books. Arya in GOT initially comes across as the stereotypical girl-dresses-as-boy/girl-wishes-she-was-boy trope that we see waaaay too often in fiction, especially fantasy fiction (it was everywhere in the 80′s and 90′s to the point where anything feminine in fantasy was seen as unfemminist somehow). I’m so glad the series matured and the characters with it so that we got the complex and rich story that we have with complex and well rounded characters, the types you don’t always see in fantasy.
When she opened the door to the garden, it was so lovely that she held her breath, unwilling to disturb such perfect beauty. The snow drifted down and down, all in ghostly silence, and lay thick and unbroken on the ground. All color had fled the world outside. It was a place of whites and blacks and greys. White towers and white snow and white statues, black shadows and black trees, the dark grey sky above. A pure world, Sansa thought. I do not belong here. Yet she stepped out all the same.
Its honestly sad that antis can’t understand that this line is Sansa’s character. They spend so much time debating the specifics of how spoiled, bratty, bitchy, selfish, and treasonous she is, when the reality of her character is so completely different.
She’s a young girl who, even after all these tragedies have happened to her, can look out upon a garden and be taken away by how completely beautiful it is. Despite how profoundly depressing her life has been for years at this point, despite seeing her family murdered in front of her, she instantly jumps to see how the snow has made a wonderland outside her door.
And then she thinks I do not belong here
She sees all of this beauty around her, and doesn’t think she belongs; she doesn’t think she deserves something so perfect. A far cry from the narcissistic and power hungry bitch that her antis paint her to be, she can’t even include herself in the good she sees outside.
Yet she stepped out all the same
That line says everything you need to know about Sansa. She thinks she doesn’t belong with beautiful things anymore; that she is too damaged, traumatized, or wrong to fit in with a world of whites and greys and blacks. But she steps out all the same. She so desperately wants to be a part of this world, to be a part of the beauty she sees in it. Her snow castle is her part of making something beautiful, of just being a part of the wonder she sees.
It’s just amazing to me that you could read this chapter and miss so much of Sansa’s nature. The raw innocence in which she approaches the failed Godswood is so indicative of her character, and its a shame antis can’t see it.
Going forward the writers don’t need to stray from history, only consolidate characters and events. The truth is already insane!
Things get so crazy!
They better include Catherine’s best frenemy Jeanne de Albert (Antoine’s wife) next season. Watching the two queens of sass and sarcasm try to take a bite out of each other will be glorious!
as much as i enjoyed "the serpent queen" i feel like the second part of the season was a bit... meh? i much preferred it when they kept much closer to the actual history, and while i understand the need for changes for plot clarity (charles V and henri II dying at francis' wedding instead of elizabeth of valois and philippe II of spain's wedding) i wish some parts had kept the actual facts? i think it would have been more interesting to have henri dying while wearing diane's colours, and then catherine doing everything so that diane never saw henri until he died. i also would have preferred it if they kept francois II's cause of death instead of giving him consumption (what is it going to be when charles IX actually dies from it? lol) and also the whole nonsense plot of mary stuart being made regent when she has zero (0) claim to that throne (and antoinette de guise saying 'respect the sanctity of rules' yeah that's what's being done by naming anyone but mary regent actually) like the show can't both be like "if catherine doesn't have children she'll be packed home" and at the same time, when mary is also childless, pretends she has a reasonable claim to the throne? mary was pawn for the de guise as long as she was married to françois, but once dead, she didn't serve them anymore (rightly so) and that's why she was sent back to scotland.
anyway i fucking loved the bourbons though
It’s like a bunch of annoying teenage girls are telling us this story... Damn you Reign - lazy historical writing strikes again!
What level of Evul™ TV Henry VIIIs are you on a scale of Damian Lewis getting drunk and talking about his sex life in Wolf Hall to Mark Stanley growling “YOU PROMISED ME SUNNNSSSS” like an actual demon in the new Anne Boleyn trailer
And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.
My Favorite Evelina Quotes + Marie Antoinette Screencaps
Even though we didn’t get to see Sansa and Arya’s reactions to Jon’s parentage reveal, their next scenes subtly show how they process this information.
Arya, who previously worked so hard to return to her family and went out of her way to call Jon her brother (not her half-brother), now wants to go to Kings Landing to finish her hit list.
Inconsistent character development? You might say that, but I have another theory. Arya only came home because she heard Jon had helped retake Winterfell, but when she arrives home he’s not there, Sansa and Bran are two very different people, and the loving family reunion she expected from Jon is ruined by the arrival of his new girlfriend and the impending war against the Night King.
When we first see Arya this season she is standing with the commoners outside Winterfell watching Jon and Daenerys arrive. She smiles when she sees Jon, only to be disappointed when he rides right by her without recognizing her. This could be why she isn’t there when Jon walks into Winterfell--she’s sulking. Her reunion with Jon doesn’t go as planned because she has to defend Sansa and remind him that he needs to keep his family’s interests in mind.
She reawakens her humanity (and dormant sexuality) with Gendry. After sleeping with him she looks...calm, disappointed? Maybe the experience wasn’t what she expected. Maybe she expected having sex would make her feel powerful and whole, maybe she thought it’d make her feel fully connected with someone for the first time in many years. Instead she stares off into space, probably thinking of the upcoming battle.
Then in 8x03 she saves the day by killing the Night King...only to not show up at the feast a few days later, where she SHOULD be the guest of honor, but is instead only thanked by Daenerys once in a toast which she doesn’t even see. Instead of joining her family and the other survivors, she training by herself all alone in the dark until Gendry arrives.
Gendry proposes, but she declines because “that’s not me.” She doesn’t know how to do anything but fight. Revenge and hate have become a part of her, more than anyone else in her family, even Sansa. She doesn’t know the first thing about being a “lady” or a wife or anything but a nameless, faceless girl that used to be Arya Stark.
She finally learns about Jon’s true parents off screen after calling Daenerys out and reminding Jon about the importance of family and protecting his own. The next time we see her she’s on her way to King’s Landing, back on the path to revenge. Why not stay home and let the others take care of Cersei? She previously said that she doesn’t trust Daenerys and now that she knows Jon isn’t completely a Stark, maybe she feels she can’t fully trust Jon either? Sure he’s still the man she grew up with and called brother, but Jon isn’t Jon anymore in the larger scheme of things. Arya might even think Jon going south and siding with a Targaryen (and maybe one day accepting that he is one too) is a betrayal of his Stark heritage and his Stark family.
Arya doesn’t expect to come back from her final mission. She doesn’t know how to live in her old home anymore. She doesn’t know how to be the Arya Stark she used to be and the Arya Stark everyone else wants her to be. She thinks she has no place in Westeros after Cersei’s death. But I hope the next two episodes prove her wrong.
We are approaching the end of Game of Thrones, so at this point in any good story all of the major characters must feel a sense of hopelessness and darkness before the light at the end of the tunnel. Daenerys is loosing all of her allies, Jon suddenly realizes he’s not who he thought he was, and, likewise, Arya is questioning her identity and her own place in the world.
I think she’ll find it, one way or another, by the time the show ends.
You should have seen me on set that day. I was a bloody mess. [Laughs.] It was a very important moment for me, for obvious reasons. I wrote the “wedding night” episode in season five, which was a huge turning point for Sansa and for Theon. They are the only two people in this world that know know what the other endured, because they both were the victims of this abuser — sexual victims, psychological victims, pretty much every way you can be victimized, he inflicted upon them. They both survived it. They’ve both come through it. They both have a very long way to go, but they know that they have each other. I actually worked for a while on a dialogue scene between them where they talk all about it. I never even turned it in — it didn’t even make my first draft — and no one ever has read it but me. It felt like recapping something everyone had already seen. The audience knows what they endured. Those characters know what they endured. Having them talk about it felt forced, it felt contrived, it felt like I was writing a scene to answer my critics, which is not the reason you should write a scene. And when you have actors like Sophie [Turner] and Alfie [Allen] and a director like David [Nutter], you don’t need that stuff. So a scene that I never got right became distilled to what’s there: “I’ve come to fight for Winterfell if you’ll have me,” and then that shot in the middle of the song where they’re sharing a meal together. They’re drawing strength from each other even now. Having them share that meal on what could be their last night in the world spoke volumes.
Bryan Cogman about the scene where Sansa and Theon reunite and embrace (via sophietisthebest)