Asoiaf Meme: [2 /3] Legends || Alyssas Tears Alyssa Arryn Had Seen Her Husband, Her Brothers, And All

asoiaf meme: [2 /3] legends || Alyssa’s Tears Alyssa Arryn had seen her husband, her brothers, and all her children slain, and yet in life she had never shed a tear. So in death, the gods had decreed that she would know no rest until her weeping watered the black earth of the Vale, where the men she had loved were buried. Alyssa had been dead six thousand years now, and still no drop of the torrent had ever reached the valley floor far below.

THE RUIN OF ELIA MARTELL IN GOT AND WHY YOU SHOULD CARE - PART II

Judging Elia:  versus Lyanna.       We have the eternal war between Lyanna x Elia. A war that wasn’t even started from both of them, or their families, but from the fandom.                 Let’s remember that when Eddard Stark found out about Elia and her children’s bodies he was the only one, between Starks, Baratheons and Arryns, to find that disgusting and even he cut ties for a time with Robert.   When we know that Oberyn wanted to champion Viserys’ cause, and emerge a war against Robert, he never blamed Lyanna, never even he mentioned her at all.     There is nothing known – yet - about Elia’s reaction to the events of the Tourney of Harrenhal, not we know also Lyanna’s thoughts on Rhaegar being married and a father of two. But we know that Elia had a “sweet wit” and that she knew that “the dragon must have 3 heads” we also know that one of the main problems of Lyanna being married to Robert, was the that he was an womanizer, he “wouldn’t be stick to their bed.” And she knew it, so I really believe that these two points speaks volumes about what really happened in the events later. So, no, I don’t believe in “love run” or much less in a marriage thing, like the series want us to accept. Especially because Rhaegar wasn’t the king, he had no real power to null any marriage and a second marriage was forbidden by the faith…but the HBO show wants to make Jon a legitimate king at any costs, even if logic is going to be out of the table.        

So, Elia is judge by her “not so beauty”, by her feminine aspects and pitted against a teenager mostly by the fandom.        

Judging Elia:The Frail, weak girl               In a last aspect, let’s talk about Elia’s health, that seems to be one of the major aspects we know of her, that Elia was fragile, that she almost died giving birth to her children and she couldn’t give birth to a third child, the third head.               Still, believe it or not, she gets judge because of that too. She get’s judge for not being healthy enough to have one more baby. And about that there is nothing I can say about it, I have no words at all to write about people who criticizes a character for not being healthy enough.                 So, why would you care? So, why should you care about Elia Martell being dismissed and getting bash from HBO show Got? Because Elia is a metaphor of what being a women in a sexist world means. You will be judge by your looks, the ones you date, your style, how you act and react and will be pitted against others, and gets bash if they think you are not better than them. Elia died a victim of her husband and father-in-law actions, Elia died, raped and murdered, so people could “ship” a couple, Elia watched her son being murdered, so Jon can be called “Aegon” and turn out to be the legitimate heir, and now Elia fans will have to see her marriage being null and children getting illegitimate, so Lyanna and Rhaegar can be a happy family with Jon, the king. Sorry, don’t ask me to support this and I’m sure that, if these kind of things happen in the books (which I highly doubt) I’m sure George Martin will give us in a logic and well written chain of events. Unlike is happening in the show. That is my vent and, Elia deserved better.

a song of ice and fire + female friendships // male friendships

a song of ice and fire + grandmothers (of the younger generation) (requested by anonymous)

// Catriona Balfe as Lyarra Stark, Yasmine Al Massri as Loreza Martell (the Unnamed Princess of Dorne), Tamzin Merchant as Rhaella Targaryen, Marina Alexandrova as Cassana Estermont, Sienna Guillory as Minisa Whent, Gabriella Wilde as Joanna Lannister, Anita Briem as Shaera Targaryen and Charlotte Spencer as Olenna Redwyne

Known Ruling Princesses of Dorne

*  the names of Nymeria’s daughter, the two members of the Red Princes and the latest Princess of Dorne are made up, since they are mentioned in canon, but not given a name. (Thank you to @drbobbimorse for the suggestions)

As I read you description of Renly's scheming to get Margaery to be Robert's mistress, how much of that do you think was his idea and how much was the Tyrells'? I tednt to read Renly as a (witting and willing) puppet of the Tyrells in their bid to get more power.

I think it was mostly (perhaps almost entirely) Renly’s idea. The Tyrells want power, yes, but they’re cautious about it. Well, partially cautious. For example:

Her grandmother snorted. “Gallant, yes, and charming, and very clean. [Renly] knew how to dress and he knew how to smile and he knew how to bathe, and somehow he got the notion that this made him fit to be king. The Baratheons have always had some queer notions, to be sure. It comes from their Targaryen blood, I should think.” She sniffed. “They tried to marry me to a Targaryen once, but I soon put an end to that.”“Renly was brave and gentle, Grandmother,” said Margaery. “Father liked him as well, and so did Loras.”“Loras is young,” Lady Olenna said crisply, “and very good at knocking men off horses with a stick. That does not make him wise. As to your father, would that I’d been born a peasant woman with a big wooden spoon, I might have been able to beat some sense into his fat head. […] It’s treason, I warned them, Robert has two sons, and Renly has an older brother, how can he possibly have any claim to that ugly iron chair? Tut-tut, says my son, don’t you want your sweetling to be queen? […] The thought that one day he may see his grandson with his arse on the Iron Throne makes Mace puff up like […a puff fish…] We should have stayed well out of all this bloody foolishness if you ask me, but once the cow’s been milked there’s no squirting the cream back up her udder. After Lord Puff Fish put that crown on Renly’s head, we were into the pudding up to our knees, so here we are to see things through.”

–ASOS, Sansa I

This discussion is of course about the Tyrells supporting Renly’s bid for king, but I think it also applies to Renly’s Margaery/Robert plot. While Mace might find the plan attractive, Olenna would consider the idea of throwing her sweet granddaughter into a den of lions in hopes she might succeed in turning Robert’s head and gaining a crown for hers absolutely appalling. (There’s the danger of Cersei knocking Margaery off, there’s the chance that the adultery/incest might not be provable, there’s a chance that Robert might make Margaery his mistress but not his new queen, or maybe he’d just love her and leave her like he does with most women, etc.) So I very much doubt it was a plan that the Tyrells came up with on their own and proposed to Renly.

Rather, I think Renly was visiting Highgarden, saw Margaery and heard something about how people were comparing her beauty and appearance to the proven royal-seducing Lyanna (which of course is B.S. but also Margaery doesn’t look a thing like Lyanna so, y’know, the romance of the Reach yadda yadda), and realized aha, here was the key he could use to influence Robert and get rid of Cersei. Maybe Loras played a small part too – like, “you’re unhappy with Cersei and Joffrey, why don’t you do something about it” – but he also was definitely Renly’s instrument in convincing his family to go along with the plan. Varys says Loras was writing to Mace, not the other way around. And also, Mace may be an ambitious pompous blowhard, but he doesn’t strike me as someone who’d come up with the idea to pimp out his daughter that way (unlike those who facilitated Aegon IV’s mistresses, like Lord Bracken with his daughters Barba and Bethany, or Lucas “the Pander” Lothson with his wife and daughter).

Note Renly also tells Stannis that he was planning to make Margaery Robert’s queen, he doesn’t blame it on the Tyrells or anything – and though thatcould just be his own “look how clever I am” taking credit for it, IMO it’s said too casually, as an admission of “yep, guilty, I had those plans all right”. Basically, I think it’s an extreme misread to think Renly was being manipulated by the Tyrells to give them power, or by anyone else. Everything he did was his own choices, alas.