A Girl Begins to Redeem Herself

I agree. HBO's talentless writers keeps on dumping the glory to good 'ol jon snow the one who knoweth nothing. As for our beloved assassin, she's been robbed of what she deserves. Arya should be one of those who has a very well developed character; she trained to become a top notch assassin in Braavos, threw every bit of being Arya Stark in her to become No One. She even loss her childhold because of the horrors she have witness at a very young age. That's what you call a real character development. As for Jon he's just in the North swinging his f*cking bastard sword at the Boltons, he almost got himself killed again because he charged at the enemy on his own (how genius lord commander of the night's watch, you just shown how genius you are in being stupid). Davos is the one who took charge of the army because Jon gone wild and went after Ramsay by himself, won the war because of Sansa, then he suddenly gets away with all the glory being pronounce by the northern lords as the f*ckin' king in the north. Mediocre writing at its finest courtesy of HBO and their talentless writers. They should've just stick with the books and just age-up the characters.

Warning: Rambler ahead

As others have said, I'm not really liking how they throw Jon in the front of every situation. He wasn't at Hardhome in the books. Nor is he the best swordsman ever. One of my favorite parts with Jon in the books was actually where he was getting his ass kicked by the 'Lord of Bones' (Mance). Which only left him baffled how a man smaller than him could be stronger and faster with a heavy weapon. It showed Jon, while having potential, isn't the best just because he was trained in a castle. Valyrian steel does not make the swordsman.

Even with dark!Sansa, I still can't like the show character. I couldn't really say why Until I read the books. The dialogue is great in Season 1. But it was written for a character who was 11. Not 14 or however old she was in the first season. (Most certainly not a 5'9" woman) The dialogue just didn't match the show appearance of Sansa. It made her sound outright dim-witted, and not just naive. Dark!Sansa just keeps too many secrets from everyone. She's letting herself be played by Littlefinger. If only because he knows she is keeping secrets.

Book!Sansa and Show!Sansa are very different. But I did like how Book!Sansa started to show sympathy towards her treatment of Jon. Show!Sansa did very much the same, but then immediately pushed him to arm's length.

Concerning who should rightfully be King/Queen in the North. I'd probably stick with Jon for the time being. Out of all the surviving Stark Children, only Jon has experience leading Men and taking command. (Can we Ignore HBO's dumb solo charge against an Army?) Prior to that, he had actually been a pretty good commander. In addition to that, it was in Rob's will, the first king in the North in hundreds of years, to name Jon as his heir. Now that I think about it. You could say that Sansa started off what would make Jon king in the North--She sewed a cloak for him with the Stark Sigil. She basically said to everyone who sees him, "I recognize him as a Stark."

Sansa doesn't know how to lead, only manipulate. Arya is an assassin, and again, not a leader. She has taken command in the past; actually doing quite well with her escape from Harrenhal. But ordering a couple of children is different from ordering an army. (Form up here and attack at my command... Or I'll go without you! )


Revanstar said half the eps seemed like fanfiction. That was my exact thought when I saw Tyrion not get eaten by dragons. However, that does work with a theory I've seen. That the Mad King raped Tywin's wife, and Tyrion is the result. "You are no son of mine." and "Since I can't legally prove you are not my son."

Wow. This really got away from me. I'll stop throwing thoughts at the page and let others have a chance.

Wait, no! One last thought.

Rickon. What a pointless character. Survived all those years only to get killed by Ramsey. He barely had any dialogue! It was a really disappointing end for him, I felt worse about Osha dying.

Am I the only one who would actually prefer this very obvious, Disney-fied and trope-y thing Does Not Happen?
-sighs-
To be honest, the whole 'Jon being shoved front and center and given all the things', coupled with the insistence that He Father Children For Dany has really started to drive me from the entire fandom.

I mean, if this is what our own fandom members are promoting, what the hell is the point?

Hell, why bother including Arya in anything at all? Going canon we all know she'll likely end up dead in the end anyways. Which is a perfect representation of what our community -always- gets to look forward to with any character.


Editor's note:
I do realize that comes off as completely bitter and snappy. I will admit I have personal experiences that have soured me on the whole scenario, which are likely bleeding through my perspective on it all, so I do apologize for that. I can't quite bring myself to remove the post though, because it is a very genuine consideration. I mean, first we have DanYara, which is entirely out of left field to contend with, because, well I have no fucking idea - and now we're getting down to the only end of the series we'll ever get (because GRRM will never finish the books, sorry to say), and yes, we'll likely have Jon/Dany shoved in our faces and hey, who knows if HBO will even have Dany/Arya meet at all?
It's bloody depressing.
And feels even moreso when it is embraced in our own community.

it is, for me anyway...the whole Incest=Targaryen fire babies thing that makes me pick Jon, since everything Not R+L=J reveal, coupled with the mummer's dragon commentary, makes me not believe in anything other than Jon containing Targaryen ancestry.

Really, it's going to be Dany seeing the value in Aerys'Bastard!Tyrion, who Would be a good king, and Dany/Tyrion shippers are the Real winners.

Jon, however, alone doesn't have the skill or the army or really Anything when it comes to successfully getting the things he needs in end game.

He needs Other People to make him important in context, Tyrion to get him to make something of himself (a bastard) and join the Watch, Jeor to make him something other than Alliser's bitch, Halfhand to make him a Wildling, Ygritte to sell him as one, Dark!Sansa to save him from being a complete and utter idiot, Melisandre to bring him back from the dead, Dany to make baby dragon riders, the Wildlings to fight the Others.

Jon is half a Stark and half a Targaryen and half a useful character.

I think I like Bloodlines (as well as requested Unchained), because I need for there to be that conflict, I can't accept the perfect Stark Disney Jon, who gets all the shiny things AND Dany AND the throne.

I accept Arya as Shadow because of her skills as clandestine assassin (aka Batman), not entirely sure of What she is but drawn to save the day even if She herself isn't the magical chosen hero.

She's not fireproof, didn't come back from the dead, isn't somehow secretly royal blooded, doesn't sleep or marry her way to top.

Other than warging, she is painfully ordinary, Dany is the Queen of the Andals, she is what she is because of her blood, Arya is what she is because she willed it to be.

The contrast (and their glaringly obvious collision course) is what attracted me, Jon is only in the mix because of his damnable Targaryen blood and semen.
And for me, anyway, it's a bit of a self projection to Not be able to give that to the person you love, raise that kid as your own, and, Somehow, find love and happiness despite 'coming up short' in that department.

Yep, that it can.

We don't have scars, Starky, none at all...

Well, in the end those who have decided on Jon/Dany and their progeny will likely be proven right anyways, and those who can make our fandom work around that will end up being the best hope for its survival.

Art reflects life.
This is the best people like us can ever expect, inside or outside of any fandom.