Affc - Tumblr Posts

28.06.2023

#Mira-Marathon | Hasbro

Film Name: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023); Production studios: Paramount Pictures, Entertainment One, Hasbro Studios, Hasbro, AFFC, Northern Ireland Screen, Allspark Pictures, British Film Commission, Film In Iceland; Director by: John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein; Screenwriters: Chris McKay, Michael Gilio; Starring: Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, Hugh Grant; Genres: Fantasy, Action, Adventure, Comedy; Running Time: 2 hours, 14 minutes;

"Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves" is an exciting adventure film of 2023, a well-known tabletop role-playing game. This is an uplifting and fun movie about a group of adventurers in search of a missing artifact.

My rating: 9/10

I’m abouuuut 15%? Through A Feast for Crows and I truly cannot comprehend how anyone thinks of Arya as this cold-blooded killer who is “too far gone.” I guess I still have most of this book and ADwD to read and she’s a POV character in both, and I’m trying not to let bias influence my interpretation, but man, this is a sweet and compassionate girl. She’s scared and trying her very best to be brave. She’s gone to a distant land simply because she doesn’t know what else to do. And she arrives at her destination and the first thing she does when she gets to the house of black and white is to notice a stranger seems thirsty and bring him a cup of water. Selfless kindness. He didn’t ask. They didn’t even exchange words. She just noticed he seemed thirsty so she brought him water. Arya hates showing vulnerability and deliberately does not want to appear scared to others, but she has a very tender heart and instinctively looks out for loved ones and strangers alike.

“The Mummers put her in a pink silk gown and shoved a tourney sword into her hand. The Goat wanted her death to be amuthing. Elsewise …”

“… the sight of Brienne naked might have made the bear flee in terror.” Connington laughed.

Jaime did not. “You speak as if you know the lady.”

[. . .]

“The bear was less hairy than that freak, I’ll—” Jaime’s golden hand cracked him across the mouth so hard the other knight went stumbling down the steps. His lantern fell and smashed, and the oil spread out, burning.

“You are speaking of a highborn lady, ser. Call her by her name. Call her Brienne.”

—Jaime III, AFfC

Stop no it’s so tender. I am OBSESSED with the theme of names + Brienne and Jaime. Genuinely Jaime going from calling her “wench” to attacking men who disparage her and insisting they call her by her name strikes me so HARD. They way they are constant shadows in each other’s narratives now that they’re apart is so. MMM. Both of their POVs are so delectable to read.

Thoughs on Mace Tyrell? I undertand that the show really cemented his image as a foolish lord, but I can't avoid to feel a little of cringe when someone claims that the Tyrells are a matriachal family and that Olenna easily manages his son like a puppet. In the books Olenna complaing that Mace is always "tut-tut" at her and the fact that he have managed to change so easily from a king to another without facing mayor consequences to his family makes me question how much of a oaf he's truly.

Hi, thanks for the question. To be honest, I don’t have a clear answer. I’ve thought about it many times.

TLDR; Olenna not liking Mace is a combination of family relationships and perhaps polital tactics. Mace is certainly not a puppet nor a complete fool. But he isn’t the smartest either, I’d say he is about average and certainly has some flaws.

Long text (sorry, if brevity’s the soul of wit, I don’t have it)

I believe it’s a good case of a pair of ego’s bumping against each other, the older generation looking down on the next, Olenna being unsatisfied that her child doesn’t exactly act as she would, and some truth.

Olenna sees herself as a very clever cunning woman, and she is, undoubtedly, but bookwise we have awfully little to stave that, we know little of what she has achieved. What we do know is that Olenna is very much involved in marriage politics, she claims to have boycotted a marriage to Daeron Targaryen, and was very involved in Margaery’s engagement with Joffrey both in conversations with Littlefinger and Sansa. And as many old women she loves to stick her nose in everything, especially since she feels she’s clever. So I do believe she tries to exercise as much influence as she can.

Secondly, an often used technique to get people to talk, is to start critiquing people. Once you start talking trash about somebody, people are quick to jump in. Olenna complaining about her family members might be a way to see who agrees, and is thus against her family. It’s Westeros, Randyll sent his own heir to the wall. Walder Frey plays with his heirs, the list goes on. Family backstabbing is a sport in Westeros as Mace’s got heirs to spare. Secondly, Littlefinger and Doran Martell both believe it can be beneficial to be perceived as weak and stupid. Perhaps she tries to get people to underestimate Mace.

I don’t think she’s the awesome pupeteer of house Tyrell, if she was, she wouldn’t be so annoyed with her son and husband. A pupeteer is someone who exercises control over someone. Olenna constantly complains about Mace and calls him dumb. Personally, when I call people dumb, nine times out of ten it is because I don’t agree with their decisions. Mace obviously has no problem ignoring his mother, otherwise she wouldn’t be as annoyed. Olenna might influence some decisions, but she has no full power over Mace.

Next as to whether Mace, who clearly makes his own decisions from time to time, is oafish. What do we actually know? He’s not the best military tactician. It’s been pointed out that the military succeses he did have, were because of Randyll Tarly, Kevan Lannister believes that with Tywin dead, no one is better suited to lead an army than Randyll. Not Mace, not Jaime, but Randyll. Randyll was also the real hero of the ONLY battle we know Mace took part in, and Mace totally stole the credit for the victory. That doesn’t make Mace an oaf, but he is at least arrogant and silly for claiming military victories and pretending he’s good at war. He also talks about his siege of Storm’s End as if it was a success. As if it was hard to be stationed there with good food supply and do nothing but make sure that no food got into Storm’s End. Now, I have seen on certain fora that it could have been a deliberate move by Mace. By dragging out the siege he didn’t kill lords of other houses (which would make post-war diplomacy for the Tyrells hard or could potentially result in revenge plots if the war turned out in the favour of Robert, and that was the case), nor could he be blamed of abandoning the Targaryens. Keeping the siege also meant he didn’t lose his men in war, didn’t lose face or was branded a coward. That could be, but it’s only a theory. And so far many young heirs went into the war, risking the futures of their entire houses. Mace already had three sons by that point (or 2 sons going 3, Loras was born during the first year of the rebellion), he had heirs to spare. I reason he’s at least a bit of a coward who wasn’t willing to get hurt, and was deliberately avoiding battle because he KNEW he wasn’t good at it. So +1 for his knowledge of self and avoiding situations that would have outed his weaknesses, but a great military mastermind? Nope.

Mace’s "Always side with the winning team” approach has kept the Reach safe from most harm in Westeros, and nobody’s going to complain when the harvests are good, food is plentiful, and no heirs are dying. We got an example of the potentially destabilizing power of a big lord losing their sons in the shape of Karstark. So his politics have kept the Reach at least stable, but was that deliberate? Or was it just a coincidence that him jumping ship benefitted the other lords? His one clear act of diplomacy within the Reach was his marriage. He married a Hightower, which is good internal Reach marriage politics, and the Hightowers are one of the oldest/the oldest Reach house. But personally, I believe his marriage was decided upon by his parents. Almost all marriages in Westeros are. It would also make Olenna the go-to marriage diplomat of House Tyrell. Which is very possible. During my diplomacy courses at uni I was taught that niche diplomacy is a great thing since it always you to maximize your influence and become a “go to” for certain matters.  It’s interesting to me that the Tyrells almost always marry within the Reach, and almost always to one of the houses that are supposed to hail from Garth Greenhand’s children. If all your high families are interwoven, it’s hard for them to take up arms against you. On the other hand, a need for intermarriage could also point towards a fear of the other noble houses in the Reach.

That’s it though, it’s clear Mace’s eyes are aimed at the “big politics”. He doesn’t care for Highgarden. The Western coasts have been attacked by Ironborn for months and what does he do? Nothing. The Shields are taken? Nothing. Also, given how stressed Loras is about needing to sail to the Shields, and rashly attacking Dragonstone, tells me that Mace didn’t leave enough troupes within the Reach so it could protect itself. Otherwise Loras wouldn’t be so desperate to go there with his men.

Alright, but now for his King’s Landing Politics: - A smart move was locking down the Rose Road, leading to riots and starvation in King’s Landing. A great move to apply pressure on the council, and he kept the pressure on until he had a sweet deal in regards to marrying Margaery to Joffrey. He might also have been involved in the poison-Joffrey plot and played the “shocked father” role perfectly.

- He doesn’t do anything as master of ships

- He does want more positions for the Reach but doesn’t get these in AFFC. he doesn’t “win” them either, he just manages to get them because Cersei screwed herself by letting the Faith arrest Margaery. Now that Mace is Hand of the King, Tarly justiciar and Redwyne Lord Admiral he has all positions he wants. But what has he decided? What did they do? What was their plan with those posts? It isn’t clear

- Mace was literally laying siege to Storm’s End and could have prevented Aegon from taking it (he was laying siege to Stannis’ men, but his army was big enough to potentially keep off Young Griff’s fleet. But the second he heard Margaery was arrested he just came to King’s Landing with full military force, not even leaving some troupes behind that could’ve kept up the siege against the few men Stannis had left behind. Now Stannis’ men could go and get rations so the siege was ruined, and  Griff managed to take it (or so we hear in the released WoW chapters). That’s just straight dumb-assery, he could have used his men wiser. And he wasn’t just laying siege for Cersei. From Storm’s End it’s just a march through Felwood and then up the Bluebell and down the river to Highgarden. It didn’t even do anything, by the time he got there Randyll had arranged Margaery’s release already. And what was he going to do? Lay siege to KL? Really? Good luck boy, to succesfully take KL you need ships, and the Redwyne ships aren’t anywhere near him.

- It is known the Iron Throne has huge debts and still he wants his cousin Garth The Gross as Lord Treasurer. As father of the queen, and as hand, he was already expected to cough up money and invest in the throne. Because if the throne goes bankrupt, and the throne has to start demanding huge soms of all lords and smallfolk in winter... shit isn’t going to be pretty. It was already going to be bad. But to have the main responsible for the money be your own family as well? The Tyrells are doing good but that’s a ticket to bankrupcy. He wants power so bad it’s going to screw him over.

- Winter is coming and he isn’t worried at all (and that’s a thing I blame every player of the game of thrones for).

So all by all Mace isn’t blatantly stupid. He can be diplomatic and courtly, and knows the game of “give and take” politics better than say Stannis or Ned. He can also lie easily (about his victories, about being afraid that his daughter could have gotten poisoned... That is if we rule out that Mace is so full of himself he legitly believed the victory was his and was involved in the purple wedding poisoning). He also knows how to do image control, he’s called the fat flower by his mother and is despised and mistrusted by Cersei but given that he has no real military victories and has done nothing but switch sides for over twenty years, his reputation could be so much worse, yet it isn’t.

But he is at least a bit negligent of the Reach, is power hungry, doesn’t think long term, weak military skills, can’t think clearly in times of crisis (like Margaery’s arrest) and his moves are just plain predictable at this point.

I’d also say much of his "wins” relied on luck: Margaery becoming queen was partially up to luck and circumstance. If Ned had been succesful in telling Robert about the twincest, then Margaery could have become Robert’s queen. But although everyone in KL knew, no one was doing anything to help Ned, including the Tyrells. So Marg wouldn’t have simply become queen, the Tyrells weren’t working towards it. It was only after Robert died that Margaery marry Renly (queenmaker plan 2), then broker a deal with the Lannisters (attempt 3) , so on. Mace had four adult children, and only one of them married. Why didn’t he marry them to influential houses? Or at least promise them? How old were they supposed to get before he would start marrying them? Mace wanted more Reach men on the small council. When Cersei refused and replaced him on the council he only complained. Complaining isn’t scheming. It was only because Cersei screwed herself by arresting Margaery that she was stripped of her position of power and Mace and his friends gained their positions. Because contrary to Cersei, Kevan is a sane person who knows the Lannisters must treasure the allies they have.

Of course, we could still learn a lot more about the Tyrells. We might learn a lot more in the upcoming (hopefully) books. I could be very wrong :)

"Ask for Merry. Meralyn is her true name, but everyone calls her Merry, and she is." Merry bought a dozen oysters every time Cat came by the brothel and shared them with her girls. She had a good heart, everyone agreed. "That, and the biggest pair of teats in all of Braavos," Merry herself was fond of boasting.

Cat Of The Canals, A Feast for Crows

Shivering, she sat up in bed and ran a hand across her scalp. Stubble bristled against her palm. I need to shave before Izembaro sees. Mercy, I’m Mercy, and tonight I’ll be raped and murdered. Her true name was Mercedene, but Mercy was all anyone ever called her… Except in dreams. She took a breath to quiet the howling in her heart, trying to remember more of what she’d dreamt, but most of it had gone already.

Mercy, The Winds of Winter sample chapter

Nice little parallel here, I'd never picked up on it untill now.

Ever stopped to think this might be the author waving at us telling us Arya is indeed merciful in nature (same as Meralyn is indeed a merry person)?

Cat knew the Braavosi words for mussels and cockles and clams, but along the Ragman's Harbor she cried her wares in the trade tongue, the language of the wharves and docks and sailor's taverns, a coarse jumble of words and phrases from a dozen languages, accompanied by hand signs and gestures, most of them insulting. Those were the ones that Cat liked best. Any man who bothered her was apt to see the fig, or hear himself described as an ass's pizzle or a camel's cunt. "Maybe I never saw a camel," she would tell them, "but I know a camel's cunt when I smell one." Once in a great while that would make somebody angry, but when it did she had her finger knife. She kept it very sharp, and knew how to use it too. Red Roggo showed her one afternoon at the Happy Port, while he was waiting for Lanna to come free. He taught her how to hide it up her sleeve and slip it out when she had need of it, and how to slice a purse so smooth and quick the coins would all be spent before their owner ever missed them. That was good to know, even the kindly man agreed; especially at night, when the bravos and roof rats were abroad.

Favourite Chapter: AFFC - Cat of the Canals

There is nothing to forgive!!

Why Daenerys Targaryen and Cersei Lannister are foils + Relationship with the common people (4/?)

Cersei and Daenerys are intended as parallel characters – each exploring a different approach to how a woman would rule in a male dominated, medieval-inspired fantasy world.—GRRM

Show Jaime:

“I know I just slept with Brienne who I have a deep attachment to, and I’m about six seasons deep into a redemption arch but Ima peace out and get crushed by rocks with my sister wife”

*Book Jaime literally in the middle of reading a letter from Cersei begging him to come and save her:

“I wonder what brienne is doing right now”

God, Jaime Lannister cared so fucking much what Brienne of Tarth thought of him. 15 years. Fifteen god damn years of being called the Kingslayer. His unofficial title, the way he’ll definitely be described in the White Book posthumously, states that he’s an oath breaker, that he killed his liege that he swore to protect. Never did he, not fucking once, defend himself from that title. Not once did he reveal that he was protecting Kings Landing from a cruel king. Not once did he justify his actions that paint him as, whether or not you give a fuck about the targs, a bad guy. A turncloak. An oath breaker. A man who was pardoned because of who he was to the new King. He didn’t give a fuck if people thought he was honorable or not.

And then Brienne of Tarth calls him Kingslayer to his face. He can’t stand that, and it’s not long before he’s revealing his motivations to her. He dreams about her. He gifts her a priceless sword called Oathkeeper. He cares so so much about her opinion of him. He fixates on his honor after they part ways and he probably hopes that word of his honorable actions, his refusal to spill Tully blood, reaches the ears of the Maid of Tarth.

She was not sure who as yet, but she knew she would find someone.

Eleanor Tomlinson as Alayne Stone/Sansa Stark

Max Irons as Harry the Heir

Yuri Chursin as Sandor Clegane

[...] he sang about some stupid lady throwing herself off some stupid tower because her stupid prince was dead. The lady should go kill the ones who killed her prince.

A Feast for Crows, Cat of the Canals

Jon fell to his knees. He found the dagger's hilt and wrenched it free. In the cold night air the wound was smoking. "Ghost," he whispered. Pain washed over him. Stick them with the pointy end. When the third dagger took him between the shoulder blades, he gave a grunt and fell face-first into the snow. He never felt the fourth knife. Only the cold …

A Dance with Dragons, Jon XIII

“One sailor with a story, aye, a man might laugh at that, but when oarsmen off four different ships tell the same tale in four different tongues…“

“The tales are not the same,” Insisted Armen. “Dragons in Asshai, dragons in Qarth, dragons in Meereen, Dothraki dragons, dragons freeing slaves… each telling differs from the last.”

“Only in details.” Mollander grew more stubborn when he drank, and even when sober he was bullheaded. “All speak of dragons, and a beautiful young queen.” – AFFC, Prologue

aaand off we go !

YESSSS I’M FINALLY AT THE DORNISH PLOT (and all the stuff that didn’t happen on game of thrones)