Kings have no friends.

GOOD CHARACTER =/= GOOD PERSON

(Source: battletoasters)

minebyrights:

Warning: potential pretension, meta and the like.

In which I attempt simply to place Stannis in full well-rounded view, the same as any other ASoIaF character given his prominence in the series, without either claiming he is the Best King to Ever King or that he is Fundamentally Morally Empty and Does Not Care At All About the Realm and its People Overall in a Way That No Other Ruler Does and is thus Objectively the Worst Candidate for the Throne.

The need for this is based on the following observation I have: other rulers who get equal or less screentime and have similar stated ambitions at one point or another to Serve the Realm and/or Their People have similar contradictions between stated values and actuality and yet do not have their base humanity and morals written off so frequently or basely or automatically as Stannis does. Robb can execute his own bannermen or send a force of 2,000 men out to die as a diversion and generally bungle the crap out of a war for a throne with disasterous effects for the smallfolk of the Riverlands without his basic sense of Having a Morality and Caring For His People impugned. Dany can blatantly break established custom/law/what have you through magic (DRAGONS), be naive about the effects of war on smallfolk, and run a city into the ground through incompetence without having her basic sense of Somewhere Having a Morality and Caring for Her People impugned. Renly can play at war without seeing the full picture and thus endanger the smallfolk caught in the war without having his basic sense of Morality and Caring For His People totally impugned. And this doesn’t take into account the extremely effective but at heart apparently uncaring for the smallfolk Tywin or the truly Objectively the Worst Ruler (to the extent that’s possible in ASoIaF) Joffrey.

It’s long, but before the cut my “thesis” so to speak: Stannis’s ultimate Narrative Role is Man Versus Kingship, Nature Versus Institution, and the like. In this conception he cannot be All Ruler and No Man and thus morally bankrupt in a way that no other kingship figure is; the focus on this dynamic and tension simply brings to the forefront his contradictions and potential hypocrisies in a way that does not happen for any other ruler, as no other rulers have this hyper focus on the law/duty/institutions and the problems that trying to strictly follow it raise for Being a Good Human Being. Narrative lenses like that through which we see Stannis or any other character are extremely important, and one of the main tools of literature is how they shape a reader’s perception of things just as how camera angles direct how viewers see things in TV or film, but they are not the be-all-end-all of a reader’s engagement with a work or the be-all-end-all of an author’s Overarching Point. (Part of the reason why we like to and are fundamentally able to play around with fanfiction and imagine what could be or could have been is that the strict lenses and story focuses a story gives do not fully limit or define a character’s possibilities.)

But really, the details of my argument, after the cut.

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lazy-planewalker:

fortinbrasftw:

widowmaker:

S3 Character List revealed

wicnet:

Hibberd at EW has the scoop on characters now confirmed to be IN for S3, including:

– Mance Rayder: We’ve heard about him all season. A former member of the Night’s Watch who became the “King Beyond the Wall,” the leader of the Wildlings. 

– Daario Naharis: A confident and seductive warrior. 

– Jojen Reed; Meera Reed: A teenage brother and sister duo with special insights.

– Edmure Tully: A brash young member of the Tully family.

– Ser Brynden Tully (The Blackfish): Catelyn’s uncle.

– Lady Selyse Florent: Stannis Baratheon’s wife.

– Shireen: Stannis’ daughter.

– Olenna Redwyne (The Queen of Thorns): Margaery Tyrell’s sharp-witted grandmother.

– Beric Dondarrion: A skilled knight who is the leader of the outlaw group Brotherhood Without Banners.

– Thoros of Myr: A red priest who follows the same religion as Melisandre.

– Tormund Giantsbane: A Wildling raider.

I’m sorry all I saw was this over and over again: – Ser Brynden Tully (The Blackfish): Catelyn’s uncle.– Ser Brynden Tully (The Blackfish): Catelyn’s uncle.– Ser Brynden Tully (The Blackfish): Catelyn’s uncle.– Ser Brynden Tully (The Blackfish): Catelyn’s uncle.– Ser Brynden Tully (The Blackfish): Catelyn’s uncle.

….Tormund Giantsbane: A Wildling raider

 

Olenna Redwyne (The Queen of Thorns): Margaery Tyrell’s sharp-witted grandmother.

OLENNA MY FIERCE GREEN SPIKY QUEEN YES

Also, I can’t fucking wait to see how they’re gonna pull Daario’s gold teeth and purple beard off.

HAR.

Ask me my “TOP 3” anything!

(Source: troublefindsme)

Haven’t seen Blackwater yet

Tell me true Tumblr, DOES TYRION STILL HAVE A NOSE?

tywinning asked: "#Lauren is the acting expert on CLannister #For a reason #TBH I never thought about the Lannisters much beyond Tyrion feelings #I'm a Baratheon man as you know" LOL. And I bow to your Baratheon expertise, Dr. Thomas. Your rambles are a joy to have on my dash.

The Gilded Lion

tywinning:

stannisisthefury:

Every once in a very long while, Lord Tywin Lannister would actually threaten to smile; he never did, but the threat alone was terrible to behold.

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Yes good!

Some points:

1. Tytos did not marry the woman. She was his mistress. So, to all intensive purposes, this lowborn woman was acting Lady of Casterly Rock.
2. I think it’s debatable whether Tytos “unleashed Tywin” for the rebellion. We don’t really know how much of the initiative was Tywin’s and how much was his father’s. Personally, I think it was more Tywin’s initiative, given that Tytos was such a “gentler sort of lion”.
3. Tywin smiled (that we know of, since we’re getting it all second hand) when: Tarbeck Hall came crashing down, Aerys made him Hand, when he married Joanna, the twins were born, secret Cersei smiles after Joanna’s death. There’s a misleading fanfic out there that says Tywin smiled 5 times, but Genna recounts 4 times, and then Cersei talks about her father smiling. (Yes, I do know all of this by heart. Tywin Stan 4life)
4. I’ve said it before in more detail that I think Tysha’s gang rape was more about Tywin than anyone else. It’s interesting that you view it as a tit for tat re: Joanna, but IMO, I think it’s more his personal neuroses with whores and his family’s image and the fear that history would be repeating itself after his death if Tyrion had this lowborn wife. Tywin’s very much concerned with his legacy and building something for after his death. (At the time of the rape, there was no precedent of anyone leaving the KG. While Jaime was almost certainly always his front runner as his heir, I think Tywin liked to keep as many options open as possible.)
5. All of what you said about the problem of perspective. I think HBO does a little to remove this problem of perspective, which is why people kind of started gushing over Tywin the last few episodes. That isn’t to say Tywin is a “good” person, if we’re using such simple terms, but Martin does a very good job in showing that the Lannisters’ actions are justified from their POV, based on their motivations and desires. 

I bow to your superior Tywin knowledge, and thank you for the addendums/alternate theories.

The Gilded Lion

Every once in a very long while, Lord Tywin Lannister would actually threaten to smile; he never did, but the threat alone was terrible to behold.

Read More