Anonymous asked: So do you believe that Bran will return to Winterfell and rule it as the King in the North? (given the political disintegration has overtaken Westeros and is simply too far gone to be repaired).

intheairwewilllookmonstrous:

ladysmallwood-deactivated201605:

I believe that Bran will return to Winterfell, as for King in the North, that all depends on the political climate at the end of the series. Will it be the 7 kingdoms, with one monarch? Will it be 7 different kingdoms? Yes, IF they become seven separate kingdoms, then I do believe that Bran will be King in the North.

Technically, Bran *is* King in the North. He is the eldest trueborn Stark male and he is Robb’s heir. Moreover, he has been the lord of Winterfell since the end of AGoT, with more experience in ruling Winterfell than any of his siblings (aside from Robb). There is the issue of Robb’s will, in which we can assume he legitimized Jon with his expressed desire to name Jon his heir, but that will has not yet surfaced in the series. So as of now, Bran Stark is Robb’s true heir and with Robb’s death, he is the King in the North. 

Even if Bran isn’t king in the end, I am of the opinion that he will be the Lord of Winterfell; he will be -at least- one of the Starks in Winterfell. 

Bran and Winterfell

Bran has been intrinsically linked to Winterfell since his very first chapter.  He has an incredibly special and unique connection with it, more so than anyone else in the series. It is both a physical connection to its structure, a sentimental connection to the memories it holds for him, and an emotional connection to its people:

Most of all, he liked going places that no one else could go, and seeing the grey sprawl of Winterfell in a way that no one else ever saw it. It made the whole castle Bran’s secret place.

-Bran, AGoT

Bran could perch for hours among the shapeless, rain-worn gargoyles that brooded over the First Keep, watching it all: the men drilling with wood and steel in the yard, the cooks tending their vegetables in the glass garden, restless dogs running back and forth in the kennels, the silence of the godswood, the girls gossiping beside the washing well. It made him feel like he was lord of the castle, in a way even Robb would never know… It taught him Winterfell’s secrets too.

-Bran, AGoT

he sent sweets to Old Nan and Hodor for no other reason but he loved them

-Bran, ACoK

He saw Old Nan, her toothless mouth opening and closing. Hayhead was carried in between two of the other guards, a bloodstained bandage wrapped about his bare chest. Poxy Tym wept inconsolably, and Beth Cassel cried with fear

[…] 

People were still being driven into the Great Hall, prodded along with shouts and the butts of the spears. Gage and Osha arrived from the kitchens, spotted with flour from making the morning bread. Mikken they dragged in cursing. Farlen entered limping, struggling to support Palla. Her dress had been ripped in two; she held it up with a clenched fist and walked as if every step were agony. Septon Chayle rushed to lend a hand, but one of the ironmen knocked him to the floor.

-Bran, ACoK

“Bran,” he said sullenly. Bran the Broken. “Brandon Stark.” The cripple boy. “The Prince of Winterfell.” Of Winterfell burned and tumbled, its people scattered and slain. The glass gardens were smashed, and hot water gushed from the cracked walls to steam beneath the sun. How can you be the prince of someplace you might never see again?”

-Bran, ASoS

“It had a bitter taste, though not so bitter as acorn paste. The first spoonful was the hardest to get down. He almost retched it right back up. The second tasted better. The third was almost sweet. The rest he spooned up eagerly. Why had he thought that it was bitter? It tasted of honey, of new-fallen snow, of pepper and cinnamon and the last kiss his mother ever gave him.“ 

-Bran, ADWD

There are many more quotes, this is just a teaser, that illustrate Bran’s connection to his home and his people. Of all the Starks, Bran has spent the most time in Winterfell. Literally 14 of the 21 chapters he has are in Winterfell, there is a reason that it’s been highlighted over and over again just how significant Winterfell is for Bran. Of course, it is significant for his siblings as well, it is their home, and they wish for it and miss it just as badly as Bran. But that’s all we get from them, their thoughts and desires of home, it’s different for Bran because there is a sense that his destiny is tied to Winterfell in much the same vein as it’s tied to Bloodraven/the old Gods/children of the forest. 

Bran the Heir

In every single book that Bran has a POV, we are reminded at least once that he is Winterfell’s heir. Bran is alive, he is a trueborn son of Ned and Catelyn, he is the eldest -legitimate- Stark male, and more than all of this, every northern lord knows that Bran is heir. He has spent time with them, he has talked to them, advised them, listened to the state of their lands, they addressed Bran as “my lord” when they met with him. When news reaches that the true heir of Winterfell is alive, they’ll swear him fealty without a second thought. This is especially significant as Bran has personally met and spent time with Wyman Manderly, a man currently in the midst of a plot to bring back Rickon Stark and install him as lord of Winterfell. If/when lord Manderly finds that Bran is alive, he will do all he can to see him safely returned home. 

“You are the lord in Winterfell now,” Robb told him […] "You must take my place, as I took Father’s, until we come home.“ 

-Robb to Bran, AGoT

you are your brother’s heir and the stark in winterfell

-Ser Rodrik to Bran, ACoK

He was the Stark in Winterfell, his father’s son and his brother’s heir, and almost a man grown 

-Bran, ACoK

you are our prince as well, or lord’s son, and our king’s true heir

-Meera Reed to Bran, ASoS

What was he now? Only Bran the broken boy, Brandon of House Stark, prince of a lost kingdom, lord of a burned castle, heir to ruins. 

-Bran, ADWD

Bran the lord of Winterfell

I’ve already written a post about Bran’s training and subsequent position as lord of Winterfell, here.  Bran has been learning the ways of lordship since his first chapter, where he must witness his father execute the NW’s deserter. This first chapter is when he learns his very first lesson in ruling from his father:

“One day, Bran, you will be Robb’s bannerman, holding a keep of your own for your brother and your king, and justice will fall to you. When that day comes, you must take no pleasure in the task, but neither must you look away. A ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is.”

-Bran, AGoT

Bran learns an incredible amount about ruling, from Ned Stark, from Robb Stark, from Ser Rodrik, and Maester Luwin.  It is important to note that Bran didn’t rule Winterfell alone, he had a great amount of guidance and teaching from Maester Luwin and Ser Rodrik, his regents. This will hold true for when he returns, whether it is Lord Manderly or another loyal Northern lord (maybe Howland Reed) Bran will need an experienced -adult- regent to help him in much the same manner as Maester Luwin and Ser Rodrik. That is the purpose of a regent, after all. Someone who is old enough, seasoned enough, experienced enough to train the young leader. 

A brief summary of Bran’s training:

The technical aspects of ruling:

• harvests
• defenses
• land rights and negotiations 
• marriage contracts 

Social expectations:

• speaking with the northern lords  
• how to properly present himself
• addressing his bannermen with proper courtesies
• how to conduct himself as lord during the harvest feast 

The wise and intangible lessons:

A lord must protect his smallfolk. Cruel places breed cruel peoples, Bran, remember that…

-Maester Luwin to Bran

the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword. If you would take a man’s life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words.

-Ned to Bran, AGoT

Bran spent 11 chapters of his 21 chapters learning to rule Winterfell and then actually becoming the lord of Winterfell, bearing all the responsibilities that role has. That’s literally half of his story spent in such a capacity. It is not some insignificant interlude that should be overlooked, if you ignore the important implications of his role and training as lord, then you’re completely ignoring half of his arc. 

Bran and Kings

It’s really interesting, Bran has quite a few connections to both mythical kings in our world, and the kings in the north of his world.

Bran/Bran the Blessed parallels

Bran/the significance of Bran’s name/Bran the builder

Bran and the fisher king:

The fisher king is a king of celtic and arthurian legend who suffered a wound to his legs and became paralyzed. He must bear the consequences of his kingdom’s destruction as he suffers from his wound. I’m actually planning to write a meta on this, so I won’t go into much detail. The similarity, aside from the loss of their legs, is that the kingdom suffers as the king suffers, and that’s definitely a theme seen with Bran.

• Bran’s fall coincides with Winterfell and the north losing their lord to the South.
• His rise to lord of Winterfell coincides with the war of the 5 kings, and Winterfell losing it’s lord yet again.
• Theon overtaking Winterfell, many of its people dying, the north fighting ironborn invasion, lady Hornwood’s gruesome death and the subsequent conflicts over her land, and finally Ramsay taking Winterfell for himself and destroying it, all coincide with Bran’s forced escape from his rightful seat, his long and dangerous journey to the true north, his current unwitting role as Bloodraven’s protege; the kingdom suffers as the king suffers. 

Bran’s training with Bloodraven is just as important as his training for lord of Winterfell. I absolutely believe that his ever growing powers of sight, skinchanging, and warging will be utilized in the fight against the others. However, it is not ludicrous to think that Bran will eventually return home, rebuild his home, and become its lord. There is a reason that half of his story was spent in Winterfell, there is a reason that Bloodraven lived a long life, first as Brynden Rivers, then as lord commander of the Night’s watch, and then became the entity we know him as in ADWD. Bran isn’t going to stay in that cave forever, and I’m not saying that everything will end up perfect and happy for him; that he’ll be this all powerful magical being all the while ruling winterfell. Sacrifices, pain, death of loved ones, they will come, and he will suffer. But ultimately, Bran’s connection to Winterfell is too deep, too important, too powerful to say that he’ll never go home again. 

Which is why Bran as “King of Westeros” made no sense whatsoever (aside from depersonalising Bran down to a soulless machine who wouldn’t care for his or anyone’s people).

His connection is with Winterfell and the North. His foreshadowing is for Winterfell and the North. Nothing else would make more sense.

myriah-martell:

duckduckwho:

You do know nobody actually hates the “key five” right? They hate one maybe, two at most. Normal for fandoms. Not everyone will like every character. 

It’s not some grand conspiracy to usurp the protagonists’ roles. People turn their focus to the extended cast because they’re getting bored, and because the fandom around Underutilized Side Character #7 is smaller and as a result generally less toxic. This isn’t something you can fix by making the discourse around “key five” characters more annoying.

You’ve posted this in the ASOIAF tag, so I’ll bite.

We understand that not everyone is going to like every character, even the main ones, we know that. And in regards to your tags, many Dany fans would love to talk more about her but it’s ultimately demonized and taken to exaggerated extremes—they’ve recently being demonizing her for being infertile and (despite her being a SA survivor/sold child bride and the mass trauma behind it) her response to her dead husband/assaulter after a devastating traumatic event that is again demonizing Dany. We would love to talk about them more in a space that doesn’t constantly latch onto them being evil, psychotic, speaks lesser of them for a crackship or go to a ableist place, or disregards their trauma and complexity of it and boil it down to nothing or seen more as their fault. Honestly, we would love to but we can’t because so many examples listed above and more, tell us that even the tiniest quotes are taken wildly out of context.

Without a doubt and on multiple occasions people have tried to urusp many of their roles. Arya consistently has her arc, quotes and important themes taken for the sake of a crackship, they’ve quite literally taken the “what do you know of my heart priestess” quote and said it’s about Sansa that Jon is talking about while completely ignoring that he says Arya straight after and so much more. With Dany, we’ve dealt with fans of a minor character like Rhaenys who died before the main series and Daenerys birth accuse Dany of stealing Rhaenys arc or give Dany’s arc outright to Sansa. We’ve dealt with anti Dany and Targaryen people despise them and then take everything Targaryen and give it to Sansa or the Martell’s. We’ve dealt with Jon’s arc being twisted to become a lapdog for the crackship agenda, we’ve had them take characters like Arya, Sam, Val, Ygritte and Satin and call them stand-ins/foils for Sansa to make them feel better about a crackship in Jon’ arc. We’ve dealt with Bran’s trauma being squashed because Jaime is maybe getting a redemption arc despite him doing not a ounce of anything redemption worthy for Bran and got horrible anons about that because we’re told we aren’t allowed to talk about that. We’ve dealt with some much junk and utter crap about our characters and you and along with many asoiaf people here miss those posts and seem to think our posts about these come out of nowhere.

You say that it’s less drama to enjoy minor characters but it isn’t. We’ve dealt with minor character fans shitting on our favourites, we’ve dealt with them stealing from main characters, pushing their importance to insane levels that make no sense and so much more. We’ve dealt with Elia fans making horrible comments about Lyanna for what happened to Elia. They’ve commented about locking Lyanna and Jon up in a tower as punishment. They’ve talked about having Lyanna beaten by the Martell’s as punishment and so much more vile things. We understand that minor characters do have interesting stories behind them, are enjoyable and genuinely do not mind them or hate them. It’s the fans that make it all utterly horrible and ruin it.

Every post you see about ours that ends up having thousands of vague posts and nasty stuff said about us, ignores the constant crap we’ve been pushing back about these characters. We’re frustrated that they never get called out or talked about for their crap but us pushing back is always looked down up and we’re sick of it. We makes these blogs and they still steal from us, reblog from us and send the most nastiest anons and harass us to extremes.

bookhousestark:

DAY 20: Arya, a more politically charged arc than most ASOIAF ‘political plotlines’

I have seen numerous posts in defence of Arya’s relevance in the political side of the story that focus on things such as the coup at Harrenhal, her noted value as a political prisoner or bride, and her name being a motivator/weapon for various politically charged actions, on either the Lannister or Stark side of factions, and they are all very relevant: they regard Arya being either a physical or phantom presence among the ‘power players’ of Westeros, and how that influences the course of history. 

But those many posts exist, yet less so regarding the other aspect of Arya’s political identity, or at least that indentity not being looked at from that perspective.

Keep reading

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dany x, adwd chapter is truly a testament to her personal strength. despite the odds stacked against her, she perseveres. dany survives the changing of seasons in the dothraki sea and the disadvantages it pushes upon her. barefoot and dressed in a ragged linen tunic, she lives through many cold nights with no warmth and many blistering hot days that make her head pound and worsen her fever—but finds comfort in the days as they offer warmth unlike the nights. struggling with proper sleep, only to awaken every morning weaker, stiff, sore and aching, but nonetheless continues on. dany enduring against severe dehydration and what water she does find only makes her sickness worse, but she understands it’s better than nothing at all. starved to the point of extreme weight loss while living off drogon’s scraps, minimal wild vegetables and fish. covered in ant bites and blisters from head to toe. dany, whose body is constantly taken through the ringer with another miscarriage that leaves her shivering violently, frightened and in a further weakened state of pain. dany, who despite being bonded to dragon, seeks safety and shelter from the wildlife that would eat her. dany, who battles the loom of death she feels over her and pushes forward.

dany’s personal strength is truly something to witness and admire throughout her final adwd chapter.

vivacissimx:

Reflecting lately on the degree to which Cersei’s brothers treated her as complicit in her abusive marriage, the specific ways in which she was expected to manage their emotions. Robert was obviously not her choice of husband (that brute you made me marry), she was the foremost recipient of Robert’s violence & callousness. Yet we see early in their marriage, when Cersei sends Jaime to confirm Robert’s infidelity, that Jaime returns and asks if Cersei wants him dead. As if Cersei… has a choice. To condemn Robert to death at the cost of Jaime’s life no doubt.

That’s not isolated: Cersei later hides bruises from Jaime because his first instinct would have been violence towards Robert, putting her in further danger from her abusive husband should Jaime do anything short of murdering him and whisking her/the children far away.

Jaime goes on to be upset during the royal trip to Winterfell, upset because Robert might force himself on Cersei any given night, and it’s left to Cersei to manage that hurt by urging him to go hunting. Jaime throws Bran out a window for witnessing their ill-advised liaison and the next morning Tyrion finds him “with a lazy smile” while Cersei freaks. Jaime’s coping mechanisms of repression are well-documented at this point yet from Cersei’s POV her husband is in the room with the kid who could bust the whole case wide open should he wake, and she’s alone in displaying concern.

Even later, when Jaime expresses that it should have been him who killed Robert instead of Cersei, that implies that either he considers his hate of Robert more righteous than hers or that he values his protective instinct towards the woman he loves over hers towards herself. Regardless of which, it diminishes who Robert’s victim was - Cersei. When Jaime expresses blame towards Cersei for their children not knowing him as their father (“Tommen is no son of mine, no more than Joffrey was." His voice was hard. "You made them Robert's too.”), when he compares her to Robert while she acts out her trauma despite having gone through a similar experience himself (someplace along the way he had become the Smiling Knight) therefore being in a position to offer empathy.

And these were all highly gendered expectations! Jaime rarely seems to consider Cersei’s lack of mobility or ability to defend herself, centering himself in this dynamic as the savior, her as the perfect victim (a role she fails). Cersei for her part views Jaime in a similar manner, rarely considering his desires or internal struggles above her own conception of him, yet she is aware of the gendered ways in which they’re separated.

Cersei’s treatment of Tyrion was mocking & abusive so the schadenfreude he feels towards her isn’t shocking (Tyrion had rather liked Robert Baratheon, great blustering oaf that he was… doubtless in part because his sister loathed him so). That said for Cersei, who perceived Tyrion as the actor who would one day feed on her joy, Tyrion’s muted approval of her misery likely fed into her fear & hatred of him. For him to take little issue with the relationship despite being at some level aware of the violence within it was all that she would have registered. That Tyrion was otherwise affectionate towards her children in ways Jaime wasn’t, that he largely left her alone, was likely lost on her in exchange for becoming even more hostile towards him.