Today’s Bird(s) Are This Lovely Family Of Sandhill Cranes!! The Babies Hatched Just A Little While

So glad Doctor Who saw the "death of the filler" thing most series have going on and said "actually, fuck this, let's do an ep about aliens cosplaying bridgerton".

robert’s rebellion series but in keeping with GRRM’s “no king pov policy” we watch robert’s rise through jon arryn’s eyes a parallel to catelyn’s horror in watching her son’s royal rise and fall but this time robert rises and rises while jon gradually realizes they picked the wrong man for the crown

no rhaegar or lyanna pov either. we’re stuck between whatever they see fit to tell elia, arthur and benjen. all contrasting in what they think they know or how much they believe what they were told. the readers are as confused as the realm.

when I was younger I didn’t understand why “may you live in interesting times” was considered a curse in ancient greece.

I get it now.

I just find so much of the whole Lyanna Rhaegar thing so interesting. And its something I've explored more in my fanfics (that I've not really posted). But it's really weird to me that so many people's take away was that they were starcrossed lovers when... Rhaegar was like 23 (idk, an adult), married with a kid and Lyanna was a 15 yo. regardless of many factors, Rhaegar was still in the wrong in kidnapping her (no matter how willing of a victim she was). I totally buy that they thought their love story was that of starcrossed lovers.

also I love Ned having a complicated relationship with Brandon. I'm a sucker for Ned/Cat, and it's always strange to think that had things gone right she would've married Brandon. Like, it must be weird to look at the family you love and know you wouldn't have any of it if your brother (and to some extent sister) hadn't died.

Anyways, love the ending of season 1! I've found the whole thing super fun!

Yeah, I talked a bit about how I see Rhaegar and Lyanna here - like I'm sure they felt like star-crossed lovers, and GRRM the Shakespeare fanatic has certainly incorporated a handful of Romeo & Juliet tropes into their story. But they're also a lot more complicated than that. I can't disregard Lyanna's age, I can't disregard Rhaegar's obsession with prophecy and how that may have played a part in his pursuit of Lyanna (and his pursuit of a child from her body), and I can't disregard how he treats Elia and their children.

And people do minimise the affront to Elia which is really irritating to me, like as you can see per my sparknotes thing I don't believe that Elia ever came to love Rhaegar - I think at best she may have thought in the early days she was lucky to have such a worthy match, but that there's otherwise no suggestion they were close or even had any especial rapport. So, fine - it was a political match and not a love match - so if either of them privately committed adultery, that would be one thing.

But humiliating Elia in front of virtually all of Westeros by making a show of disregarding her, when she is either pregnant with his child or has just given birth to his child... and then later leaving her and their two young children in the charge of a teenager and a pyromaniac??? like sorry no i'm just not having it babes. it's not on

And yeah I definitely like the idea of Brandon and Ned having a kind of spiky relationship! I think Ned loved his brother but I can imagine there were things he disliked about him. And that Brandon could be quite callous towards Ned, treating him a bit like a doormat, condescending to him etc, and not even realising he's doing it because Ned's feelings hardly register with him.

It would kind of make Ned's close friendship with Robert more interesting, because I think Brandon was probably a lot like Robert - but here's a version of his brother who has time for him and jokes with him and confides in him etc etc. So it was easier to look past Robert's foibles and failings.

But then obviously Ned would feel a lot of guilt for having resented his brother once Brandon is gone (and Brandon dies proving how much he truly values his family), and for having inherited everything he was meant to have. It makes me think again of Jon as like a twisted outlet of penance for Ned. like he would always have cared for and protected Jon for Lyanna, yet part of him thinks he deserves Catelyn's resentment and the judgement of society that comes with Jon, but for own private guilt.

anyway thanks so much for reading they're really fun to write! working on plotting out the next bunch tonight....

Shoutout to aromantic, transgender, intersex, and polyamorous people. Gotta be the some of the most underrepresented queer identities I've ever seen.

living in the olympic village has to be WILD. you wake up from your cardboard bed, overwhelmed with the idea that you're at the Fucking Olympics at 22. you walk around and notice the girl thats sponsered by parmachan cheese. you get breakfast and think of the guy who loves those chocolate muffins. you wish he left one for you. you go to your morning workout hoping to see simone biles. you go to see your team, and they're pitching tik tok ideas. it gets 5 million views. snoop dog is in the background.

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