Mhysa, They Called Her. Someone Told Him That Meant Mother. Soon The Silver Queen Would Come Forth From

“Mhysa, they called her. Someone told him that meant Mother. Soon the silver queen would come forth from her city, smash the Yunkai'i, and break their chains, they whispered to one another. And then she'll bake us all a lemon pie and kiss our widdle wounds and make them better, the dwarf thought. He had no faith in royal rescues.”

(Tyrion X, ADWD)

“Sometimes he wanted to slap her, shake her, scream at her, anything to wake her from her dreams. No one is going to save us, he wanted to scream at her. The worst is yet to come.”

(Tyrion XI, ADWD)

Dany tended Ser Jorah's wound herself, and it began to heal. (Daenerys I, ACOK)

She kissed Irri's hand where Drogon had bitten it. “I'm sorry he hurt you. Dragons are not meant to be locked up in a small ship's cabin.” (Daenerys II, ASOS)

Yesterday a wagon had been overturned and two of her soldiers killed, so today the queen had determined that she would bring the food herself.

-

Dany walked right past him. There was an old man on the ground a few feet away, moaning and staring up at the grey belly of the clouds. She knelt beside him, wrinkling her nose at the smell, and pushed back his dirty grey hair to feel his brow. “His flesh is on fire. I need water to bathe him. Seawater will serve. Marselen, will you fetch some for me? I need oil as well, for the pyre. Who will help me burn the dead?” (Daenerys VI, ADWD)

“You swore to me that the fighters would be grown men who had freely consented to risk their lives for gold and honor. These dwarfs did not consent to battle lions with wooden swords. You will stop it. Now.” (Daenerys IX, ADWD)

Lions. They were going to set lions on us. It would have been exquisitely ironic, that. Perhaps he would have had time for a short, bitter chortle before being torn apart. (Tyrion XI, ADWD)

I don't get them. Even IF Daenerys had actually killed that woman and that child on purpose, why would they even care? She was a fucking slaver.

All wrapped themselves in tokars, a garment permitted only to freeborn men of Astapor.

The tokar was a master's garment, a sign of wealth and power.

Victmizing a character like this in order to make Daenerys look bad is a new low... They are the ones who say that Dany deserves to die because she is a “slaver” and a “colonizer” and they also keep defending what Mirri did to Rhaego (a fucking unborn child). Then why the fuck they suddenly care about some random female slave master and her “evil spawn”???? fucking hypocrites.

the jnsa agenda

twist/decontexualise/rewrite/straight up lie about parts of the texts

get caught

cry about it

‘no you!’

call other fandoms stupid/braindead/illiterate

rinse and repeat

You know, the more I think about it the more I realize the depth of how toxic and detrimental the environment Septa Mordane created was to the girls. I’ve seen it discussed at length when it comes to Arya (as it should be, it plays such an important part in her narrative) but I’ve rarely seen it addressed when it comes to Sansa.

Now obviously, the damages inflicted were nowhere close to Arya’s. Sansa was the golden girl, the scale every girl in Winterfell measured themselves in terms of being a perfect young Lady. On the other hand, Mordane thought that an appropriate response to Arya’s failure to meet that ideal was to shatter her self-esteem to the point where she didn’t think her own family wouldn’t want her because her hair wasn’t properly combed. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say Sansa got the better hand there.

But I do think Mordane’s teachings impacted Sansa in a bad way too. I find her insistence on having the girls conform to the (southron) ideal of ladyship almost obsessive. Sansa is partially to “blame” for that (I know, poor wording but I couldn’t think of another way to say it), since her meeting all the expectations likely pushed Mordane to always ask for more - to the point where even the royal princess didn’t live up to her.

And don’t get me wrong, Sansa excels at these traditional activities mainly because she enjoys them. She likes singing and embroidery and being courteous. She likes being the “good girl” and, let’s be honest, the benefits that come along with it. But on the other hand, she is not given any space to grow outside of that particular image. Septa Mordane is constantly riding her to behave a certain way, and scolding her everytime she says or does something that could be considered slightly out of place from what a lady is supposed to do.

“I’ve never seen an aurochs,” Sansa said, feeding a piece of bacon to Lady under the table. The direwolf took it from her hand, as delicate as a queen.

Septa Mordane sniffed in disapproval. “A noble lady does not feed dogs at her table,” she said, breaking off another piece of comb and letting the honey drip down onto her bread.

“She’s not a dog, she’s a direwolf,” Sansa pointed out as Lady licked her fingers with a rough tongue. “Anyway, Father said we could keep them with us if we want.”

The septa was not appeased. “You’re a good girl, Sansa, but I do vow, when it comes to that creature you’re as willful as your sister Arya.” She scowled.“

-  [AGOT, Sansa I]

I mean, they’re eating breakfast in the middle of the road. They’re not exactly in a banquet with the royal family. It’s not really a situation where people would think less of Sansa (or Septa Mordane…) for feeding her wolf. They most likely don’t even notice them. Moreover, what I find interesting is that when Sansa pushes back (= don’t comply blindly), Mordane immediately labels her as “willful” and not a good girl anymore - something Sansa based her whole identity around.

There is such an insistence from Mordane to appear like a perfect lady… but not on much else. I don’t recall any instance where she pushed Sansa to cultivate skills outside of the realm of appearances. Sansa says “she could read and write better than any of her brothers”, but she’s never praised on that. Or for remembering a shitload of sigils and their corresponding houses. She’s never being pushed to work on skills she seems to be lacking in (namely maths and managing a household, even though they’re crucial tools for a lady). In short, there’s not much emphasis on developing the mind over the body.

An obvious example, in my opinion, is this one.

Her father’s decision still bewildered her. When the Knight of Flowers had spoken up, she’d been sure she was about to see one of Old Nan’s stories come to life. Ser Gregor was the monster and Ser Loras the true hero who would slay him. He even looked a true hero, so slim and beautiful, with golden roses around his slender waist and his rich brown hair tumbling down into his eyes. And then Father had refused him! It had upset her more than she could tell. She had said as much to Septa Mordane as they descended the stairs from the gallery, but the septa had only told her it was not her place to question her lord father’s decisions. 

- [AGOT, Sansa III]

To be honest she’s not wrong (Sansa doesn’t indeed have enough facts about the situation to make an informed opinion, and also she’s 11), but what bothers me most is there isn’t even an attempt at discussion. She immediately shuts down Sansa’s opinion. I don’t mean they should march in there and demand Loras be sent instead of Beric, but there could at least be talking about it. Sansa is meant to be queen, and I believe it is Septa Mordane’s job to make her, if not politically savvy, at least introduced to politics.

That was when Lord Baelish had said, “Oh, I don’t know, Septa. Some of her lord father’s decisions could do with a bit of questioning. The young lady is as wise as she is lovely.” He made a sweeping bow to Sansa, so deep she was not quite sure if she was being complimented or mocked. Septa Mordane had been very upset to realize that Lord Baelish had overheard them. “The girl was just talking, my lord,” she’d said. “Foolish chatter. She meant nothing by the comment.”

- [AGOT, Sansa III]

Now it might be a bit of a stretch, but I do believe Mordane is more mad that someone overheard Sansa express her opinion, moreover one that is “unladylike” (aka she doesn’t agree blindly with her father) than any concern she might have of presenting a united Stark front in front of the court. I could be wrong, of course, but since Mordane doesn’t show any sign of being politically conscious, I don’t think I am.

Notice also that her way of diminishing Sansa’s remarks is by going after her intelligence. Sansa is not stupid. She’s able to read people pretty well, and she often makes astute observations. The problem is, she is very quick to cover them up with a layer of illusions when they don’t fit with what she wishes. Joffrey and Cersei kill Lady? But they’re so beautiful and gracious and kind to her afterwards, they’re not the ones to blame, Arya is, nothing would have happened if Arya had done what she was supposed to do, if she had been a good lady. Margaery and the Tyrells might have ulterior motives in befriending her? But they’re so beautiful and gracious and kind to her, they’re nothing like the Lannisters, they just want to help her. Sansa always ends up warping reality into a version she is more comfortable with, not only in AGOT but throughout the other books as well. She refuses to look too deep and face the brutal truth until she is forced to do so - despite often making the correct assumption at first glance.

And while I wouldn’t say her upbringing is sole responsible of the blinders she puts over her thoughts, it does play its part. On one hand because, in my opinion, she tends to doubt her own intelligence (she is very quick to believe she is stupid, despite the words being uttered by Cersei and Joffrey of all people) since it was never emphasized to be important, and thus not a feature she built her identity around. On the other, well, that’s what she was promised right? Do as you’re told and you’ll get what you want. Except it doesn’t work, it never works. And Sansa - despite never actively reflecting on it - is a prime example of that. She did everything right; she did everything that was asked of her, relishing every aspect of it, thriving under it. Because that’s the contract, right? Do everything we say, and you’ll get everything you (are supposed to) want. And it works for a while. She gets the admiration of her peers, the praises of the adults, a beautiful prince and the promise of a wonderful life free of pain and hard labor. But, as we saw, that contract is flawed in the first place because the other party is never held accountable to keep its part of the bargain.

Sansa never questions what she’s spoon-fed, because like I said, she prides herself on being a “good girl”. She’s the one who follow the rules to an exceptional degree, and she’s rewarded for it. She even draw strength from it. But she never realizes how intimately constricting these rules are. That a lady’s courtesies is not her armor, but her shackles. She never realizes these rules are meant to keep her down, passive and helpless. Those are rules made by men and for men, designed to keep women relying on them alone, without any means to fare on their own. 

I find particularly telling that Sansa doesn’t have any relationship in her life that isn’t dictated by conventions, that isn’t conditional. She refuses to consider Jon as her brother because he’s bastard-born, and bastards are wicked - it doesn’t matter that she grew up with him, that she knows what kind of guy he is and that every one of her siblings think of him as their true brother. Arya can’t conform to the system, therefore she doesn’t have a place in Sansa’s world, she isn’t fit to be her sister, she isn’t worthy of care and attention. (And yet, a few chapters later, she dreams of having a sister eerily similar to the person Arya would have been had she had the proper support system.) Even her best friend Jeyne Poole, her closest companion, a girl with whom she grew up and shared everything, isn’t exempted of Sansa’s classism. Sansa has some very unkind words towards her supposed best friend. She may not say them aloud, but she thinks them nonetheless.

Jeyne covered her eyes whenever a man fell, like a frightened little girl, but Sansa was made of sterner stuff. A great lady knew how to behave at tournaments. 

- [AGOT, Sansa II]

Of course, Jeyne had been in love with Lord Beric ever since she had first glimpsed him in the lists. Sansa thought she was being silly; Jeyne was only a steward’s daughter, after all, and no matter how much she mooned after him, Lord Beric would never look at someone so far beneath him, even if she hadn’t been half his age. 

It would have been unkind to say so, however, so Sansa took a sip of milk and changed the subject.

- [AGOT, Sansa III]

(Notice that it is not the thinking part she finds unladylike, but the saying part; meaning a lady is supposed to always be conscious of that class barrier, to uphold it even with her closest friends. The only thing stopping her is knowing it would hurt Jeyne’s feelings, though whether it stems from genuine kindness or superficial (”ladylike”) kindness is unclear.)

Jeyne Poole had been confined with her, but Jeyne was useless. Her face was puffy from all her crying, and she could not seem to stop sobbing about her father.

“I’m certain your father is well,” Sansa told her when she had finally gotten the dress buttoned right. “I’ll ask the queen to let you see him.” She thought that kindness might lift Jeyne’s spirits, but the other girl just looked at her with red, swollen eyes and began to cry all the harder. She was such a child.

- [AGOT, Sansa IV]

To me, this ever-present consciousness of status and class means she’s never unconditional with others, she’s never free, she’s never real. She constantly thinks about how to act, what is appropriate (allowed) to say, be it with strangers or with her own family and friends. 

And that intense focus on appearances, on conforming to the statu quo is at the core of her narrative. This is a trap she keeps falling in, way after the first book. Sansa constantly rewrites herself to fit into what’s expected of her, hoping to be handed her share of the bargain - even when she knows it’s been drawn for other people’s benefit. This is what have been ingrained in her brain since the moment she was born, and I really hope that one of the key realization of her journey will be to realize how fucked up that ideology is.

ARIANNE MARTELL WEEK 2022 Day 6: The Sand Snakes → Tyene Sand

Instead, she made herself think about the Sand Snakes, Tyene especially. Arianne loved all her bastard cousins, from prickly, hot-tempered Obara to little Loreza, the youngest, only six years old. Tyene had always been the one she loved the most, though; the sweet sister that she never had. It had always been her and Tyene, with Garin and Drey and Spotted Sylva. Nym would sometimes join them in their sport, and Sarella was forever pushing in where she didn’t belong, but for the most part they had been a company of five. They splashed in the pools and fountains of the Water Gardens, and rode into battle perched on one another’s naked backs. She and Tyene had learned to read together, learned to ride together, learned to dance together. When they were ten Arianne had stolen a flagon of wine, and the two of them had gotten drunk together. They shared meals and beds and jewelry. They would have shared their first man as well, but Drey got too excited and spurted all over Tyene’s fingers the moment she drew him from his breeches. Her hands are dangerous. The memory made her smile.

Jaqen and Arya by Grennara

Okay so as always, for some reason these unhinged people spread lies about Lina and me. I can’t tell which accusation is about me and which is about Lina, but here goes; since people want to abuse identity politics. 🤷🏾‍♀️ And yes, I’m name-dropping everyone, since you white freaks want to continue harassing Lina and me and spreading vile lies about us, even on other platforms. I will let Lina speak for herself though, quite frankly, she already has, just like I already have, and we’ve been ignored every time. 

-I was never run out of tumblr. I was more active on Twitter in other fandoms after facing racist harassment on here (which I’ll get to 💜) but even in 2021 I occasionally logged back on to reblog some stuff. And I’m not on here to wage fights about “LGBT and POC headcanons”. I am literally a bisexual South Asian woman. Being an “lgbt poc” is more than just about fictional headcanons; it is literally who I am. I am the one who receives death threats and rape threats on twitter from white supremacists and on here from white people and biphobes, so spare me the trite blithering about fictional characters. Me making fun of daensa is not homophobia especially considering how often I talk about my actual wlw Dany ships. Me telling WHITE Martell stans that they are fetishizing MY CULTURE and orientalizing MY PEOPLE every time they make their little gifsets and what not is NOT racism. Fandom is not activism. Thinking daensa are lesbians who’ll fuck or that the martells are spicy ethnic people is not lgbt or anti-racist activism; these are mere headcanons in a work written by a cishet white man. You’re not doing jack shit for lgbt people of color by 1) heralding these characters in a white male author’s work rather than supporting actual nonwestern queer authors and 2) viciously targeting ACTUAL lgbt poc (like me) and blatantly ignoring our material realities because we don’t perform our identities in neat and respectable ways or because we don’t have the “right” taste in fiction created by a white guy. And on that note, why is it bad for me not to agree with daensa and ethnic martells but it was okay for @blind4lcve, a white woman, to diagnose me with internalized racism and to use biracial members of her family as proof of the Martells being nonwhite, because apparently real life racism and real life slurs are the same as a toddler being called smelly. 

-Users like @/stargareed hate-stalked my blog to compile accusations of me being an “anti-white racist”. Users like @/minitafan, who is openly a “stan” of the fucking BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY, making posts about how mean people of color are and how we apparently believe “all white people are evil”. This is fine and acceptable, right? 

-Users like @maesterleia accusing a gay man of color of doxxing her over a gentle disagreement, calling me a bully despite me never interacting with her positively or negatively, and @asoiafuniversity (all run by white people) and @nobodysuspectsthebutterfly summarily “warning” said man of color and having their minions block all of us. Again, accusing a man of color of a cyber crime and then trying to deplatform both of us over a DISAGREEMENT in characterization. But this is acceptable, and in fact, Butterfly and Leia can act like victims, because the nature of white womanhood is so insidious that white women can cry and play the victim and get away with anything and everything they do. When Black and North African women on twitter made fun of the black!Jeyne Poole headcanon and had rightful concerns about trauma porn, once again, Butterfly and her friend @/mylestoyne acted like they were getting bullied, and Butterfly even blocked all the women on twitter who criticized that headcanon. 

-Users like @princesanymeria spreading horrific lies about me “befriending Nazis on twitter” (despite my twitter being public, lol), when I have in fact gotten death and rape threats from white supremacists on twitter. And her proof for me “befriending Nazis” was me watching Attack on Titan 5 fucking years ago (and I didn’t bother deleting my reblogs because, uh, I have nothing to hide!). Saying that I hate other South Asians because I’ve argued with some before, as if a person who isn’t Desi has any right to even interfere in those arguments or even understands the nuances of Desi identities. 

-Users like @/zoya-nazyalenskys, a white European woman, fetishizing South Asian identity, acting like she’s affected by the racism we South Asian women face all because she stans Yennefer and Desi!Martells, ignoring me, acting like a victim, and blocking me when I explicitly criticized her on this. 

-I don’t send anon hate. I directly confront people. I don’t know what this “300 messages suicidebaiting people” shit is, but what I do know is that a white French person created THREE SEPARATE sock accounts to STALK ME and send 70+ MESSAGES to various users who’ve either liked or reblogged my posts to dig up old fights I had with old mutuals (who are fandom puritan types). That isn’t harassment though, right? This same person called me a mole, animal, and sewer rat, and called @/jonsaflowers, another woc, the same things as well. Calling two women of color dirty animals isn’t racist though, right? 

@asoiafuniversity was blatantly invested in maintaining an anti-Dany agenda until its creators’ interests divulged from Jonsa stans’ interests. Let’s be clear about that. But this isn’t even about who likes or doesn’t like Dany at this point.

Let’s be very clear. There are big names in this fandom like Brynden Blackfish (who runs @/warsofasoiaf) who is an openly self-avowed ex-soldier who fought in the Iraq War, a zionist who has said he voted for Bush. Users like @/minitafan who stans the British royal family. Some person called lariska-prigtay on twitter who is an ex-Iraq war soldier. I have seen these people interact with all of these types and more. And I’m finding it very odd that Lina and I are considered “extremists”. Apparently, it’s racist and homophobic of me to make fun of a white w/w ship that is non-canon and that personally makes me uncomfortable with how much it deifies white womanhood and to criticize headcanons of clearly Southern-European coded characters with values extremely different from the values and practies of my own culture and to make fun of the white people who fetishize and blatantly misunderstand my culture and conflate South Asia with North Africa and West Asia. Apparently it is the worst crime of me to do that. But white people who believe that anti-white racism exists, who stalk and harass women of color, who call us slurs and animals, who stan the British royal family and have fought in imperialist wars and believe in imperialist ideologies, aren’t worthy of being called out and deplatformed? White people who fetishize nonwhiteness and who try to claim proximitiy to it because of the fucking fictional characters created by white people that they stan can do all of that and more and not get called out or deplatformed or harassed or demeaned? 

There are plenty of women of color who think Daenerys is coded as a woman of color. Are we going around saying that anyone who disagrees is a racist? There are plenty of people who think Daenerys is a boring straight woman who gives off tradfem vibes. Personally, I headcanon Dany as bi and ship her with many women (Arya, Asha, Brienne, Arianne). Are we going around calling anyone who thinks Dany is straight or doesn’t ship these ships a homophobe? 

I find it quite galling that the white people who act like white saviors and think that they are entitled to hosting these conversations because oh, they have “friends of color” and oh, they stan the Martells as “nonwhite”, are allowed to get away with blatant, vile, and repetitive acts of racism and orientalism and fetishization. I find it galling that my own bisexuality is ignored - why, because I’m not white? Because I don’t center my enter identity around queerness? Because I don’t perform identity politics and explain every facet of my trauma and offer it up on a silver platter for tumblr to devour? Because I don’t care for fictional femslash content? What does that have to do with my own bisexuality and the experiences I have gone through as a bisexual brown woman? What do any of YOU know about my bisexuality and my relationships with other women and how I conceive of my gender? 

I find it quite horrific that for years, no one has questioned or called out racists like Brynden Blackfish and even other racists who currently operate in the tumblr asoiaf fandom (including these big names). Because for the asoiaf fandom, it is worse to not have the correct opinions about “LGBT and POC headcanons” (even though most of us are queer people of color/queer women of color and we have our own headcanons to boot) about characters created by a white straight man (we’re not even dealing with content that has actual canon main nonwhite queer characters or content created by actual nonwestern/nonwhite women/queers), than it is to be an actual imperialist in real life who buys into American hegemony, zionism, ethnonationalism, and blatant white supremacy. 

Because I have so deeply offended people by being a meanie to them about their horrible headcanons or metas, these people (and I have a feeling who this is, and it’s not surprising they’re lying, considering they’re the type to dox Muslim women of color and tell them to seethe when their safety is threatened), it’s acceptable to repeatedly spread lies about me (without proof, of course) and twist shit that has actually happened TO ME, lol. But these same people will continue ignoring everything else and even propping up the racists in the fandom.