Sunflowers by the Sea

sabotensan:

SPOILERS
FOR A STORM OF SWORDS

So I’m doing a re-read of the Grenn and Pyp relevant chapters and A Storm of Swords had me squeeing every now and then but then Sam’s chapter happenend and I was done for good because I mean look

“Queen’s men,” Pyp told him - after he let out a whoop, and shouted, “Run and bar the doors, lads, It’s Sam the Slayer come back from the grave,” while Grenn was hugging Sam so hard he thought his ribs might break - “but best you don’t go asking where the queen is. Stannis left her at Eastwatch, with their daughter and his fleet. He brought no woman but the red.”
“The red one?” Sam said uncertainly.
“Mellisandre of Asshai,” said Grenn. “The king’s sorceress. They say she burned a man alive at Dragonstone so Stannis would have favourable winds for his voyage north. She rode beside him in the battle too, and gave him his magic sword. Lightbringer, they call it. Wait till you see it. It glows like it had a piece of sun inside it.” He looked at Sam again and grinned his big hepless stupid grin. “I still can’t believe you’re here.”

and then when Sam started to plot

Later, over cups of watered wine in the privacy of Pyp’s cell, Sam’s tongue loosened and he found himself thinking aloud. “Cotter Pyke and Ser Denys Mallister have been loosing ground, but between them they still have almost two-thirds,” he told Pyp and Grenn. “Either one would be fine as Lord Commander. Someone needs to convince one of them to withdraw and support the other.”
“Someone,” said Grenn, doubtfully. “What someone?”
“Grenn is so dumb he thinks someone might be him,” said Pyp. “Maybe when someone is done with Pyke and Mallister, he should convince KInd Stannis to marry Queen Cersei too.”
“King Stannis is married,” Grenn objected.
“What am I going to do with him, Sam?” sighed Pyp.
“Cotter Pyke and Ser Denys don’t like each other much,” Grenn argued stubbornly. “They fight about everything.”
“Yes, but only because they have different ideas about what’s best for the Watch,” said Sam. “If we explained-“
“We?”, said Pyp. “How did someone change to we? I’m the mummer’s monkey, remember? And Grenn is, well, Grenn.” He smiled at Sam, and wiggled his ears. “You, now … you’re a lord’s son, and the maester’s steward…”
“And Sam the Slayer,” said Grenn. “You slew an Other.”

AND THEN the last Jon chapter
after the voting

Pyp, Grenn, and Sam trailed after him, chattering, but he hardly heard a word until Grenn whispered, “Sam did it,” and Pyp said, “Sam did it!” Pyp has brought a wineskin with him, and he took a long drink and chanted, “Sam, Sam, Sam the wizard, Sam the wonder, Sam Sam the marvel man, he did it. But when did you hide the raven in the kettle Sam, and how in seven hells could you be certain it would fly to Jon? It would have mucked up everything if the bird had decided to perch on Janos Slynt’s fat head.”
“I had nothing to do with the bird,” Sam insisted. “When it flew out of the kettle I almost wet myself.”
Jon laughed, half amazed that he still remembered how. “You’re all a bunch of mad fools, do you know what?”
“Us?” said Pyp. “You call us fools? We’re not the ones who got chosen as the nine-hundreth-and-ninety-eighth Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch. You best have some wine, Lord Jon. I think you’re going to need a lot of wine.”
So Jon took the wineskin from his hand and had a swallow. (…)

I have too many emotions for this bunch of mad fools.

irresistible-revolution:

So I finally feel somewhat ready to collect my thoughts about Irene/Moriarty. So many people have written so many smart things. One thing I have noticed tho is people saying they’re so happy about the Moriarty reveal because they ‘hated’ Irene before, cos she was a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, cos she was a ‘Mary Sue’, cos she was too girly and pretty and Sherlock was in love with her, and i want to kindly object. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl is an annoying trope and i’m so glad Elementary subverted it, but it’s important when we critique these sexist tropes that we don’t end up hating/critiquing women who embody these tropes, thus losing sight of the larger (white male) power structure controlling their narratives. There’s nothing wrong with a woman being girly, spunky, bouncy, flirtatious, quirky, soft, sweet, vulnerable etc. What’s problematic is when these traits are presented through a white male gaze, and become a composite of ‘ideal womanhood’ at the expense of other women, and are centered around serving the white male character’s needs.

Read More