sorry theres something inherently tragic about the riverlands like. theyre the central kingdom, theyve three major rivers which bring the people food and feeds their crops and helps their trade, they've got the Isle of Faces and Ravenhall and Riverrun and they connect all other kingsdoms, but no matter what decade u look at, theyre always ravaged. the ever going conflicts between the Blackwoods and the Brackens, Harrenhal being built on the bodies of thousands of peasants by one invader only to then be drowned in fire by another, then an uprising marched through them and only ended when two dragons fought high above them all, and just when peace was there, the dance happened and they burned again and again, and when Robert's Rebellion happened and their liege lord wed his daughters to the rebels and the last key battle happened at the Trident, they knew peace for a time, before it was promptly ripped away from them again by the Lannisters and then the War of Five Kings and the Northern rebellion and the raiding and the Red Wedding. even still with the war technically over, the Brotherhood Without Banners is fighting for them and their liege's daughter is now haunting their assailants and there are people who sought to protect them like Edmure Tully or help them like Septon Meribald and its all so
re convos about robert strong being the embodiment of the ideal kingsguard and the epitome of everything about the core of that institution (being a mindless undead gregor clegane, weapon with no identity beyond the enaction of the violent and stomach churning cruelty of the monarchy behind him, the comically perfect agent of state violence), i love that jaime spent so much time dwelling on and trying to reform it as an institution that reflects the abstract values he once held dear from the inside only for that to end with him fucking right off with brienne to “save an innocent girl”, prioritizing his vow to cat instead of returning to his duties and kg vows. and cersei being reborn as she feels the cold steel of robert strong, who blots out the sun, lifting her up “like she did joff when he was a babe”, essentially replacing jaime as her new sword, extension, and champion. peak fr
jaime being caught before he could fall and lifted up in the bath where he is “naked as his nameday”, and it is his symbolic rebirth and baptism in the narrative… and he keeps noting that brienne “hands as big as gregor clegane’s”, is warm… yeah
yeah
“She never screamed and certainly never cried. Sly was one word used to describe her. Vain was another. Viserra was beautiful, all men agreed, blessed with the deep purple eyes and silver-gold hair of a true Targaryen, with flawless white skin, fine features, and a grace that was somehow eerie and unsettling in one so young. When one stammering young squire told her she was a goddess, she agreed.”
Thousands of years in the future of Asoiaf
Some insane right wing person from the reach will make a post about how renly and Lora’s were not gay. And that this new documentary about the war of the five kings is woke.
It came to me in a dream 
The Hammer and the Anvil
art by @wweskywalker ♡
i love the asoiaf in-universe rumor mill because whether the story spreads organically or via industry plant they're all kind of bangers
- stannis baratheon being cucked by his own fool
- jaime/cat/brienne threesome so good it made cat stark betray her own sonking and free the kingslayer
- lady stoneheart/berric dondarrion necro4necro
- sansa turning into a winged demon wolf and flying out the window of her tower in the red keep never to be seen again
- someone saw a kraken for real i swear to gods
i say this as a catelyn enjoyer, catelyn's hatred of jon is not particularly rational in the sense that it doesn't hinge on jon's own personal character. like some of it is borne out of wider prejudice regarding bastards (socially stigmatised as treacherous and grasping of their trueborn siblings' rights) of course, but the thing that hurts her most is what jon's presence in the household symbolically represents. and it's not the infidelity, it's the perpetual reminder of the disenfranchised position of women in their society and how little agency she truly has in her marriage and in the wider social sphere. the thing about catelyn's character is that she might be the conforming lady archetype, but she's also written to be very much aware of how disadvantaged women are in westeros.
"I might have been able to trade the Kingslayer for Father, but . . ." ". . . but not for the girls?" Her voice was icy quiet. "Girls are not important enough, are they?" Catelyn I, ACOK Is this my punishment for opposing him about Jon Snow? Or for being a woman, and worse, a mother? Catelyn V, ASOS “Father,” she said, “Father, I know what you did.” She was no longer an innocent bride with a head full of dreams. She was a widow, a traitor, a grieving mother, and wise, wise in the ways of the world. “You made him take her,” she whispered. “Lysa was the price Jon Arryn had to pay for the swords and spears of House Tully.” Catelyn I, ASOS Brienne looked at her with those blue and beautiful eyes. “As ladies die in childbed. No one sings songs about them.” “Children are a battle of a different sort.” Catelyn started across the yard. “A battle without banners or warhorns, but no less fierce. Catelyn VI, ACOK
^ these are not the words of someone who's content with her lot in life or has made perfect peace with the rules of westeros's feudal patriarchy. brienne and catelyn are both acknowledging the thankless role women are made to play. "no longer an innocent bride" / "wise in the ways of the world" has a certain misery to it, considering the topic at hand is hoster's abominable treatment of lysa for transgressing social norms. even a sentiment such as - "Pity filled Catelyn's heart. Is there any creature on earth as unfortunate as an ugly woman?", is not coming from a place of scorn or thoughtlessness, but from knowing too well how cruelly their world treats women, how brienne's appearance would affect her marriage prospects.
“Our duty.” Catelyn’s face was drawn as she started across the yard. I have always done my duty, she thought. [...] I gave Brandon my favor to wear, and never comforted Petyr once after he was wounded, nor bid him farewell when Father sent him off. And when Brandon was murdered and Father told me I must wed his brother, I did so gladly, though I never saw Ned’s face until our wedding day. I gave my maidenhood to this solemn stranger and sent him off to his war and his king and the woman who bore him his bastard, because I always did my duty. Catelyn VI, ACOK
there's such clear resignation here, this is not how you talk if you're proud to have done your duty, if you feel you were actually rewarded for having done it. and duty here means meeting the unforgiving expectations of westeros's feudal patriarchy. if sansa's chapters are about growing out of that conditioning by realising that there is no reward to be found here, then catelyn's chapters are about showing the personal cost of having lived your entire life internalising those ideals. her house words being 'family, duty, honor' is a very deliberate character choice.
so it's not just that ned cheated on her, but that he unanimously made the decision to install jon at their home and catelyn's feelings were allowed no say in the matter, that it happened even before she was able to step foot in winterfell with robb is another blow. she had just been exchanged as goods from one (dead) brother to another and she was supposed to be okay with all this, like the most natural thing in the world because her house words were drilled into her since childhood. but we know she wasn't. she stamped down that resentment out of duty, because he's her lord husband and she was to obey him, but that pain and the alienation for having done her duty was going somewhere. openly resenting her husband or her father is not a socially allowed option, so all that resentment gets unfairly taken out on jon, someone she has authority over. and i think identifying the major cause of that hatred as her frustrations with westoros's patriarchal ideals is important because that means knowing the truth of jon's parentage wouldn't have changed anything. that ned kept such a thing from her and again, unanimously made the decision to commit treason without consulting catelyn, is once again simply telling her that she has no control in this marriage, that her judgement is both unasked for and not valued.
i do think that the three heads of the dragon--dany jon and tyrion--are unable to have biological kids of their own. dany has the prophecy that her 'womb will never quicken', and jon's likely coming back from the dead without that capacity, and there are indications that tyrion is impotent, outside the fact that hes bedded prostitutes for years without having any known bastards. bran is also impotent, and if the 'fisher king' ending is true, he's going to be the king and unable to produce kids. when blood and legacy is so important in westeros, this fact that the future of westeros is coming from a revival of people who arent going to have kids and dynasties of their own (and thus perpetuate the cycle of blood) is very significant