Post by lonewolf on Jun 7, 2019 19:40:17 GMT
So, has enough of a respectful mourning period passed yet for us all to enjoy a lively discussion on how within the space of a single generation the Starks went from one of the most honest and trustworthy noble houses to freefall into manipulation, betrayal, and a lust for power that rivals most of the other Houses we spent so many years loving to hate?
King Bran: Arguably the main series villain if you consider just how far he may have reached to move pieces into play at the right time and place, able to see the reaction and outcome to any potential set of events.
["Why do you think I came all this way?"]
Sansa, Queen in the North: Her tutelage under Cersei Lannister and Littlefinger combined with some horrific lessons in cruelty at the hands of Ramsay Bolton [show only] hardened her to a point where she refused to bend so much as an inch in order to help save the North from the Army of the Dead. If Jon didn't have a paltry scrap more authority than she did to sway events, she would have driven Dany away right from the start, every citizen of the 'Independent North' be damned. And if that wasn't enough, she couldn't even bear to pledge allegiance to her full-blooded legitimate brother King Bran when all was said and done.
[Maybe it was some Margaery influence at play - "I don't want to be a Queen, I want to be the Queen."]
Jon 'Aegon' The Turncloak: Ah, conditional love has never been so perfectly depicted before! As much a Beggar King as Viserys ever was, Jon runs to Dany at Dragonstone with a questionable crown and his hat in his hands begging for aid in the form of dragonglass, Dany's army, oh, and the fire of her three dragons would also be quite helpful. He -eventually- bends the knee, shares her bed, and then abruptly disconnects from her the moment he finds out about his own lineage. Once the army of the dead is defeated (with Dany paying the greatest cost to save a kingdom that completely rejected her) he rebuffs her at every turn without so much as a respectful conversation about the state of their relationship now that old truths have come to light.
Then, abusing the absolute love and trust she has wrongly placed in him, he murders her. After all she has done for him, and the North, and after claiming to see that she has a good heart, he quickly decides that nah, she's a lost cause after all and commits the ultimate betrayal after she has one understandable loss of control.
["So tell me, who manipulated whom?"]
Ironically, it's only the 'cold-blooded murderer' who gave up the Stark name for a time to become 'No One' who retains any semblance of that old Stark honor and leaves the shores of treachery after saving every single life in Westeros without asking for a single thing in return for herself.
["What's west of Westeros? No one knows. That's where all the maps stop. That's where I'm going."]
Ahem.
I'm gonna just hide in this beautiful trench over here now that I've launched that particular grenade...!
King Bran: Arguably the main series villain if you consider just how far he may have reached to move pieces into play at the right time and place, able to see the reaction and outcome to any potential set of events.
["Why do you think I came all this way?"]
Sansa, Queen in the North: Her tutelage under Cersei Lannister and Littlefinger combined with some horrific lessons in cruelty at the hands of Ramsay Bolton [show only] hardened her to a point where she refused to bend so much as an inch in order to help save the North from the Army of the Dead. If Jon didn't have a paltry scrap more authority than she did to sway events, she would have driven Dany away right from the start, every citizen of the 'Independent North' be damned. And if that wasn't enough, she couldn't even bear to pledge allegiance to her full-blooded legitimate brother King Bran when all was said and done.
[Maybe it was some Margaery influence at play - "I don't want to be a Queen, I want to be the Queen."]
Jon 'Aegon' The Turncloak: Ah, conditional love has never been so perfectly depicted before! As much a Beggar King as Viserys ever was, Jon runs to Dany at Dragonstone with a questionable crown and his hat in his hands begging for aid in the form of dragonglass, Dany's army, oh, and the fire of her three dragons would also be quite helpful. He -eventually- bends the knee, shares her bed, and then abruptly disconnects from her the moment he finds out about his own lineage. Once the army of the dead is defeated (with Dany paying the greatest cost to save a kingdom that completely rejected her) he rebuffs her at every turn without so much as a respectful conversation about the state of their relationship now that old truths have come to light.
Then, abusing the absolute love and trust she has wrongly placed in him, he murders her. After all she has done for him, and the North, and after claiming to see that she has a good heart, he quickly decides that nah, she's a lost cause after all and commits the ultimate betrayal after she has one understandable loss of control.
["So tell me, who manipulated whom?"]
Ironically, it's only the 'cold-blooded murderer' who gave up the Stark name for a time to become 'No One' who retains any semblance of that old Stark honor and leaves the shores of treachery after saving every single life in Westeros without asking for a single thing in return for herself.
["What's west of Westeros? No one knows. That's where all the maps stop. That's where I'm going."]
Ahem.
I'm gonna just hide in this beautiful trench over here now that I've launched that particular grenade...!
