Jon Snow Appreciation MonthDay 6 - Familial Relationships

Jon Snow Appreciation Month Day 6 - Familial Relationships

Rickon yelled, "Me! Me now! I want to play!" Little Walder beckoned him on, and Shaggydog started to follow. "No, Shaggy," his brother commanded. "Wolves can't play. You stay with Bran." And he did...

...until Little Walder had smacked Rickon with the stick, square across his belly. Before Bran could blink, the black wolf was flying over the plank, there was blood in the water, the Walders were shrieking red murder, Rickon sat in the mud laughing, and Hodor came lumbering in shouting "Hodor! Hodor! Hodor!" (Bran I, ACoK)

Rickon: *laughs hysterically at attempted murder*

Me: "aww, he's so cute 🥺🥺"

ARYA STARK APPRECIATION MONTH 2022 ↳ Day 23: Men in Arya’s life → Men searching for Arya throughout the series

She would have been better alone. If she had been alone, the outlaws would never have caught her, and she’d be with Robb and her mother by now. They were never my pack. If they had been, they wouldn’t leave me. She splashed through a puddle of muddy water. Someone was shouting her name, Harwin probably, or Gendry, but the thunder drowned them out as it rolled across the hills, half a heartbeat behind the lightning. The lightning lord, she thought angrily. Maybe he couldn’t die, but he could lie.

***

It had been so long since he had last seen Arya. What would she look like now? Would he even know her? Arya Underfoot. Her face was always dirty. Would she still have that little sword he’d had Mikken forge for her? Stick them with the pointy end, he’d told her. Wisdom for her wedding night if half of what he heard of Ramsay Snow was true. Bring her home, Mance. I saved your son from Melisandre, and now I am about to save four thousand of your free folk. You owe me this one little girl.

***

We are five thousand strong as I write, our numbers swelling every day. And word has come to us that Roose Bolton moves toward Winterfell with all his power, there to wed his bastard to your half sister. He must not be allowed to restore the castle to its former strength. We march against him. Arnolf Karstark and Mors Umber will join us. I will save your sister if I can, and find a better match for her than Ramsay Snow. You and your brothers must hold the Wall until I can return.

***

The outlaw gave him an encouraging smile. “Well, as it happens, we’re looking for a dog that ran away.” “A dog?” Merrett was lost. “What kind of dog?” “He answers to the name Sandor Clegane. Thoros says he was making for the Twins. We found the ferrymen who took him across the Trident, and the poor sod he robbed on the kingsroad. Did you see him at the wedding, perchance?” “He would have had a child with him,” said the singer. “A skinny girl, about ten. Or perhaps a boy the same age.”

***

You know nothing, Jon Snow. He thought of Arya, her hair as tangled as a bird’s nest. I made him a warm cloak from the skins of the six whores who came with him to Winterfell … I want my bride back … I want my bride back … I want my bride back … “I think we had best change the plan,” Jon Snow said.

***

“I mean to have Arya as well. I have men searching.”

then/now

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No, but all this "Arya is naturally violent' is doubly hilarious coming from the same folks who think that Sansa is going to speak politely and thank everyone and sing songs and become leader of the North!

The North is a violent and brutal place. We are introduced to it with Ned making his 7 year old son watch a beheading and Jon Snow warning Bran to not look away from a man getting his head cut off...

“And don’t look away. Father will know if you do.”

Bran kept his pony well in hand, and did not look away. - Bran, AGoT

Ned then wants his 3 year old toddler to play with a direwolf because winter is coming...

“Is he afraid?” Ned asked.

“A little,” she admitted. “He is only three.”

Ned frowned. “He must learn to face his fears. He will not be three forever. And winter is coming.”

“Yes,” Catelyn agreed. The words gave her a chill, as they always did. - Catelyn, AGoT

Jon Snow gifted his nine year old, much loved, little sister a sword as a going away present! This is a world where ten year olds have been Lord commander of the wall.

The Mountain clan chiefs pay Jon Snow a visit and are only reassured when he promises to behead his child hostages if the Freefolk step out of line. Ned Stark took Theon Greyjoy as a child hostage. Jorah Mormont fled Westeros in fear of Ned Stark's punishment for being a slaver.

The Mountain clans with Stannis are not bothered that he is making human sacrifices to the Lord of Light - they just think that he is making human sacrifices to the wrong God and that the sacrifices should have been made to the Old Gods instead.

This is Big Bucket Wull:

Winter is almost upon us, boy. And winter is death. I would sooner my men die fighting for the Ned’s little girl than alone and hungry in the snow, weeping tears that freeze upon their cheeks. No one sings songs of men who die like that. As for me, I am old. This will be my last winter. Let me bathe in Bolton blood before I die. I want to feel it spatter across my face when my axe bites deep into a Bolton skull. I want to lick it off my lips and die with the taste of it on my tongue.

“Aye!” shouted Morgan Liddle. “Blood and battle!”

We are seeing the comeback of direwolves, wargs, skinchangers and greenseers. Bran is warging Hodor and probably eating Jojen paste, Jon is going to spend time in a wolf, Arya is going to be leading Nymeria and her wolf pack, wild child Rickon grew up with Osha on cannibal island and shaggydog is eating unicorns. They are all bad-ass wargs and have bad-ass Wolf Dreams. Jon, Arya and Bran are all central, important characters in the series and they have all engaged in morally grey acts.

Ghost, Nymeria, Shaggydog and Summer will come back in a big way and play important roles - as stated by GRRM again and again in interviews. The Stark-Direwolf bond is very important.

"I heard the same thing from my cousin, and she's not the sort to lie," an old woman said. "She says there's this great pack, hundreds of them, mankillers. The one that leads them is a she-wolf, a bitch from the seventh hell." - Arya, ACoK

GRRM mentioning hanging Chekov's wolfpack on the wall to use it in the future.

Plus,

Speaking of which: Martin leaves a little note for the producers when writing about Ramsay’s flesh-eating hounds, whom we see hunting down a girl for sport.

[N.B. A note for future reference. A season or two down the line Ramsay’s pack of wolfhounds are going to be sent against the Stark direwolves, so we should build up the dogs as much as possible in this and subsequent episodes.] - Script notes

And this is what happens if Northern houses refuses to fight for their leige lords:

And when Lord Umber, who was called the Greatjon by his men and stood as tall as Hodor and twice as wide, threatened to take his forces home if he was placed behind the Hornwoods or the Cerwyns in the order of march, Robb told him he was welcome to do so.

“And when we are done with the Lannisters,” he promised, scratching Grey Wind behind the ear, “we will march back north, root you out of your keep, and hang you for an oathbreaker.” - Bran, AGoT

And this is how Robb Stark got the support of the GreatJon

Yet Robb only said a quiet word, and in a snarl and the blink of an eye Lord Umber was on his back, his sword spinning on the floor three feet away and his hand dripping blood where Grey Wind had bitten off two fingers.

“My lord father taught me that it was death to bare steel against your liege lord,” Robb said, “but doubtless you only meant to cut my meat.” Bran’s bowels went to water as the Greatjon struggled to rise, sucking at the red stumps of fingers… but then, astonishingly, the huge man laughed. “Your meat,” he roared, “is bloody tough. “

And somehow after that the Greatjon became Robb’s right hand, his staunchest champion, loudly telling all and sundry that the boy lord was a Stark after all, and they’d damn well better bend their knees if they didn’t fancy having them chewed off. - Bran, AGoT

He got the GreatJon's support because Greywind chewed off his fingers and not by speaking politely, with good manners and saying thank you.

This is how Lyanna Mormont addressed King Stannis:

Bear Island knows no king but the King in the North, whose name is STARK. - Jon, ADWD

No being polite or charming. Just the brutal truth.

This is Wylla Manderly:

“A thousand years before the Conquest, a promise was made, and oaths were sworn in the Wolf’s Den before the old gods and the new. When we were sore beset and friendless, hounded from our homes and in peril of our lives, the wolves took us in and nourished us and protected us against our enemies. The city is built upon the land they gave us. In return, we swore that we should always be their men. Stark men!” - Davos, ADWD

Alys Karstark, who got on a horse in the harshest winter, made it all the way to the wall to ask that the son of Ned Stark help her. Marrying a Thenn from beyond the wall to save her house. Jon compares her bravery to Arya Stark and calls her 'Winter's Lady'.

Alysanne Mormont attacking the IronBorn, killing people and winning back the North:

Alysane Mormont, whose men name her the She-Bear, hid fighters inside a gaggle of fishing sloops and took the ironmen unawares where they lay off the strand. Greyjoy’s longships are burned or taken, her crews slain or surrendered. The captains, knights, notable warriors, and others of high birth we shall ransom or make other use of, the rest I mean to hang …

“Aye.” Alysane stared at Asha for a moment. “I have a son. He’s only two. My daughter’s nine.”

“You started young.”

“Too young. But better that than wait too late.” A stab at me, Asha thought, but let it be. “You are wed.”

“No. My children were fathered by a bear.” Alysane smiled. Her teeth were crooked, but there was something ingratiating about that smile. “Mormont women are skinchangers. We turn into bears and find mates in the woods. Everyone knows.” Asha smiled back.

“Mormont women are all fighters too.” The other woman’s smile faded. “What we are is what you made us. On Bear Island every child learns to fear krakens rising from the sea.” The Old Way. - ADwD

Lyanna Stark, daughter of the North, standing up for her father's men, participating in tourneys and wielding a sword being compared all the time to Arya Stark

Frey Pies.

Lot of battle and violence that is going to happen in TWoW as Stark supporting Northern factions goes to war with the Boltons. No one is going to be asking the Boltons nicely to give way. War and violence is necessary and is happening. Lots of people are going to die. Lots have already died. Brutal sacrifices are necessary. From the TWoW sample chapter things are not going too well for house Umber.

That's not even counting the brutal Old Kings of Winter - Theon 'Hungry Wolf' Stark, Brandon 'Ice Eyes' Stark

In the aftermath of his victory King Theon raised his own fleet and crossed the narrow sea to the shores of Andalos, with Argos's corpse lashed to the prow of his flagship. There he took a bloody vengeance, burning scores of villages, capturing three tower houses and a fortified sept putting thousands to the sword in the process. The heads of the slain the Hungry Wolf claimed as prizes, carrying them back to Westeros and planting them on spikes along his own coasts as a warning to other would be conquerors.

"When the Warg King's last redoubt fell, his sons were put to the sword, along with his beasts and greenseers, whilst his daughters were taken as prizes by their conquerors."

A World of Ice and Fire, The North, The Kings of Winter

The Boltons were scared of the Old Kings of Winter, Bran's visions shows human sacrifices as part of a pact with the Old Gods/Children of the forest, Brandon Ice Eyes hung the entrails of slavers from heart trees and Stark vassals feared these kings.

And we get closer and closer to the brutal Long Night, described as such by Old Nan:

“Oh, my sweet summer child," Old Nan said quietly, "what do you know of fear? Fear is for the winter, my little lord, when the snows fall a hundred feet deep and the ice wind comes howling out of the north. Fear is for the long night, when the sun hides its face for years at a time, and little children are born and live and die all in darkness while the direwolves grow gaunt and hungry, and the white walkers move through the woods” - Bran, AGoT

It's why 'Winter is coming' is the house motto for house Stark. It's what everything is heading towards. Brutal cold and harsh sacrifices and violence - lots of violence.

To then decry this violence and the hard core fantasy aspects of these books to espouse some kind of ridiculous notion that polite charm and songs and decorum is what is going to win the day and all the characters who engage in violence = bad, especially female characters who kill or wield hard power = bad, shows such a fundamental lack of understanding of ASoIaF as a book series.

And again, it's funny that it's the same folks who believe in Stark/Northern exceptionalism and keep shilling for Northern independence who keep decrying violence despite the feudalistic/medieval violence inherent in the North and talking about asoiaf as some kind of pacifist manifesto where one of the most pro-status quo character in the series is going to bring about hope and change and peace by maintaining decorum, talking politely and being charming. Because after everything, everything we have read about the North, that's what's going to work and that's what GRRM is apparently heading towards ....

Here's a little rant. I love thinking about Arya with her siblings because literally any pair of them is perfect:

Arya and Jon: they literally share neurons, easily the smartest people in the room, GRRM hasn't let them attend a council together yet because he knows they'd be too powerful. BUT at the same time they can literally make the worst decisions ever and the other will disagree AND somehow support them at the same time, no questions asked. If Arya had been there when Jon sent all his friends away because Lord Commanders Can't Have Feelings she would have privately smacked him in the head with a roll of parchment, but if anyone else asked she would puff out her chest and tell them off in seven languages. If Jon had been there when Arya kept circling trees in the Riverlands because of her Moth Only Grows On One Side theory he wouldn't have stopped complaining and teasing her the entire time, but if anyone else had made a comment he would have had Ghost following them menacingly for days. They are each other's favourite person in the whole world and I can't wait to see them being badasses together

Arya and Sansa: the "we used to hate each other but now I can't imagine facing this without you" trope. The "we were raised to believe we were too different to ever get along and I've only realised how much I love you when it's too late". The "bickering goes from frustrated to fond". The "sisters by chance but friends by choice". The "I can't stand you but I can't stand the thought of anything happening to you". The "I didn't realise how much I need you by my side until you weren't there". So little content yet, but so many possibilities for the future

Arya and Bran: THESE TWO. THESE TWO. The hearts of pure gold these two have. How many times do you think they would have allowed the other to feel worthless if they'd been there? If Bran had heard Arya saying their mother might not want her back? If Arya had heard Bran calling himself broken? They would have shut that down before the other could even finish the sentence. These kids who lost everything. Someone should have been taking care of them, but it will be alright, because they're going to meet again and you can bet they're going to take care of each other. But also. BUT ALSO. The sheer power these two irradiate. They're the forgotten ones, the underestimated and overlooked, the ones left for dead, the ones NO ONE WILL SEE COMING. And if they work together? Their middle-sibling-partner-in-crime energy is about to take on a WHOLE new level when they come back and literally no one is prepared for it. Least of all me

Arya and Rickon: my head has mixed the Mother Hen Arya energy and the Abandoned Baby Rickon energy and I haven't been able to produce a single coherent thought since. They share so MUCH. No one is going to be able to understand Rickon's impulsiveness and restlessness like Arya. Rickon speaks in the Old Tongue when he's angry to build a wall between him and everyone else? Watch my polyglot baby girl learn Skagosi in weeks to tear that wall down brick by brick. Watch her make sure he gets the childhood that was taken from his siblings. Watch her tell him stories about their parents, about Robb, watch her take him to the Godswood and their mother's little sept and the crypts to speak to them, to make sure he knows he was loved, that they fought to get back to him, that they are a part of him too, even when he can barely remember what they looked like. Watch him follow her around everywhere, hanging to her every word. Watch him learn Water Dancing movements before any Westerosi technique because it's what his Big Sister does and it is therefore the Coolest Thing In The World, watch him climb into her bed whenever he has a nightmare, watch him grow up tall and proud and kind, watch him smile wider and more freely than any of the starklings because my girl made sure of it

Also this is my post and I do what I want, so:

Arya and Theon: the horrors they have seen. They've both been held prisoners by monsters. They both convince themselves that the person they were is gone, that their name is forbidden even in their own minds, that they've crossed too many lines to ever be worthy of love again. They could understand each other so well and it lives in my head rent-free. What I would give to see them become friends as they heal, and afterwards. Give me Arya visiting Pyke and falling immediately in love with Asha, give me Asha trying to hate the daughter of the man who took so much from her family but finding it impossible, give me them becoming thick as thieves and Theon regretting ever introducing them to one another. Give me Arya holding Theon's hand while he talks to Alannys, give me Dagmer Cleftjaw and everyone in his ship taken aback by how much they care about this tiny, badmouthed, caring girl who was supposed to be their enemy. Give me them whispering to one another that maybe they understand their Prince's protectiveness of the Starks, if they're all like her. Give me Theon teaching her how to finger dance because she will try it whether he likes it or not and at least this way there is someone trying to keep her from accidentally stabbing herself. Give me Arya being the first to pull a laugh from Theon, and always being able to do so from then onwards. Give me them becoming a chaotic duo, sharing dirty jokes and cursing loudly and getting into trouble every time they're together, but it's fine because it's the good kind of trouble now, the hide-under-the-table-before-they-find-us and the laugh-until-your-belly-aches-whenever-you-remember-it kind, and it's so damn good to feel that way again

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk