
Bellegere Otherys, the Black Pearl of Braavos
I have no idea what a Braavosi courtesan would wear, so it’s this.

Bellegere Otherys, the Black Pearl of Braavos
I have no idea what a Braavosi courtesan would wear, so it’s this.

Huevember – Day 26.
“Thirty yards from shore, three black swans were gliding over the water, so serene … no one had told them that war had come, and they cared nothing for burning towns and butchered men. She stared at them with yearning. Part of her wanted to be a swan. The other part wanted to eat one.”
( A Clash of Kings – Arya V )
Cute things about Arya:
– Arya likes exploring.
– She likes picking flower and giving them to her dad causes she loves him.
– She likes babies and playing with kids.
– She makes friends with ANYBODY.
– She used to swing her doll around when forced to eat vegetables.
– She gets sad when she thinks about Bran being sad and misses playing with her baby brother Rickon.
– She talks too fast when she gets excited. (Ex. When talking about her old brother Jon)
– She swims like a fish.
– She gets sad when thinks her wolf puppy Nymeria not liking her anymore.
– And she put someone on her hate list cause he stole best friend’s favorite helmet.
– She adopted some random baby at 9 just cause she was scared.
– First thing we hear about her: “Arya is already in love…”
– Causing a “scandal” she names her direwolf after the amazing Rhoynar princess who saved her people by leading them to safety in Dorne, united them as one people, ruled for years as an equal to her husbands and heirs, all while defeating six kings and sending them to the Wall, quelling rebellions, fighting off assassins, and forging Dorne into what it is today
– “The woman is important, too!”
– She threatens to shoe a horse because her Septa says she has hands like a blacksmith’s
– She calls fireflies “lantern bugs” like Aegon the Unlikely in the Dunk and Egg novellas
– She punched Jon for scaring baby Bran when he dressed up like a ghost in the crypts. Then they all laughed about it
– She felt bad that the fleas in her clothes would die when she washed them
– She loves Hodor and Old Nan dearly and is excited to see them again when they have to leave KL
– She misses Hodor’s laughter and Old Nan’s stories and uses them to help guide her on her travels
– She trains Nymeria to fetch things to help her pack faster
– Showering kisses on Jon when he gave her Needle before he left and, “The memory of her laughter warmed him on the long ride north.”
– She fires off a thousand questions when she’s interested in something
– She turns her bullies into friends on the road
– She loves talking and listening to all kinds of people regardless of class
– “You in there?” “No!” she shouted.
– She growls and kicks in her sleep like a puppy when she’s having wolf dreams
– She befriends and defends Mycah even though her sister disparages him for being a butcher’s son
– She water dances in the branches of Heart Tree at Harrenhal
– She feels so bad about sending Nymeria away even though it’s to save her life. And she hopes Nymeria makes friends with other wolves so she won’t be alone
– She’s captain of the S.S. NedCat and gets very defensive when it’s suggested that her father could have loved anyone else
– “Jon Snow had given her Needle. Maybe she had to let them call her Lumpyhead, but she wasn’t going to let them call Jon a thief.“
– She got a flippershake from the King of the Seals
– She caught and kissed Balerion the cat right between the eyes
– She totally ogles shirtless Gendry while he’s working in the forge
– Hunts and scavenges to feed others even when all she has to offer are bugs
– After Hot Pie keeps going on and on about yielding to anyone who finds them: “What if the wolves come?” “Yield.” A+ sarcasm
– She saves Sam in Braavos and offers him food which Jon would be super proud of
– She doesn’t want to cry but cries a lot
– She bickers with Gendry over which direction moss grows in like an old married couple
– She misses Brusco and his daughters and the girls at the Happy Port when she’s no longer pretending to be Cat
– She is constantly trying to protect her pack even though she’s 9-11 and tiny
– She got on a horse so she could be taller than Gendry during an argument
– She worries that a heart tree might be in pain because of it’s anguished face
– She thinks about how Hot Pie would like Braavos because of the good food
– “She would not betray Jon, not even to their father.“
– “Arya had loved nothing better than to sit at her father’s table and
listen to them talk. She had loved listening to the men on the benches
too; to freeriders tough as leather, courtly knights and bold young
squires, grizzled old men-at-arms. She used to throw snowballs at them
and help them steal pies from the kitchen. Their wives gave her scones
and she invented names for their babies and played monsters-and-maidens
and hide-the-treasure and come-into-my-castle with their children. Fat
Tom used to call her “Arya Underfoot,” because he said that was where she always was. She’d liked that a lot better than “Arya Horseface.”– Ultimate wolves and girls aesthetic
This is just off the top of my head. I could seriously be here all day.
Definitely. The narrative makes such a big deal about what clever players Petyr and Varys are- why not do something much more interesting and do it with a little girl? I mean, we have one who learns a dozen languages and becomes a skilled killer at age 9 while another exceptionally bright kid is becoming a tree wizard, plus a girl who survived fire to hatch dragons so, it’s hardly the picture of unrealistic for a girl groomed to be a lady becomes a good diplomat.
I also don’t just want to see more of the arts or history and whatnot- I want GRRM to EXPLAIN why these are important. Because they are, and the GA for both series just… doesn’t get it. (Even fan faves Tyrion and Arya acknowledging Sansa’s talents in the arts or diplomacy and etiquette isn’t enough.) He needs to show real examples because in spite of their praise for the “realism” of the series, a lot of modern readers are frankly, really naive about how things worked back then and honestly don’t realize or care to see the value of women’s work back then. Embroidery and poetry and sewing might be considered frivolous hobbies today but seeing was absolutely ESSENTIAL to both stay warm and show status, and the arts have always mattered to teach history and ideas as well as to simply create some beauty to feed the soul with. (What do you think people did in peace time when nobody had any wars to worry about?)
Let Sansa keep people warm in the War with her sewing, maybe with other women (like, maybe, including her sister who has learned to sew better?) singing hymns to keep up the morale like in the Battle of Blackwater. Let her excellent knowledge of the Great Houses and smaller ones and the ways wars have been won and lost from all the times she’s listened to songs or pored over her books come in handy more. Let her make big decisions with how to protect her people like in the show (which includes sums. IDC what Arya said, Sansa does a great job in the Vale so I think her poor mathematic skill were exaggerated). Let her excel in the areas her siblings don’t and let her be allowed to shine and contribute in a way that’s presented as equally meaningful to magic or fighting.
The very first thing you should know about me is – I’m a book snob. So much so that my family absolutely will not watch the Harry Potter movies with me and and I absolutely will not watch the last three Harry Potter movies period.
As my book snobbery relates to Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire, after some convincing from a friend, I knew I wanted to watch the show. However, because I knew that it was based on a book series, I had to read the books before I could allow myself to get into it. I binge-read all five books, all 4,500+ pages, in about two weeks to prepare myself to watch it.

Gendrya in ‘castle in the sky’ for @adecila, thank you for suggesting they were really fun to draw <3<3

Huevember – Day 14.
“And they told how afterward Ned had carried Ser Arthur’s sword back to the beautiful young sister who awaited him in a castle called Starfall on the shores of the Summer Sea. The Lady Ashara Dayne, tall and fair, with haunting violet eyes.”
( A Game of Thrones – Catelyn II )
Thanks, Anon! I’m glad you enjoyed the piece; I very much enjoyed it myself.
Let me share some of my favorite “badass” ladies who were completely rad and powerful despite not being warriors or more obviously, physically “badass”. This is certainly not a comprehensive list, just who I could think of off the top of my head, and it’s not in any particular order.
- Lady Johanna Lannister: wife of Jason Lannister, Lord of Casterly Rock during the Dance of the Dragons. Her husband was killed in action, and Lady Johanna ruled at the Rock in his absence. The black-supporting Greyjoys sacked Lannisport and made off with Lord Farman’s daughters (and Jason’s favorite mistress and their daughters), but Johanna was not about to leave that lying down. She allied with the admiral of the Reach and sent forces to the Iron Islands in the power struggle following Dalton Greyjoy’s death. Her forces captured, among other prisoners, one of Dalton Greyjoy’s salt sons; Lady Johanna took him, gelded him, and made him her son’s fool, to remind everyone that the Lannisters pay their debts. But she was not merely the vengeful sort: Johanna restored the glory of House Lannister and lent gold to the crown to rebuild the realm after the disastrous civil war which had claimed her husband.
- Rhaenys Targaryen: yes, a warrior, but she is as much a queen as a warrior, and as a queen, she had an inherent sense of how to play her position. She understood, for example, the need to patronize singers and bards. In a land without any kind of mass media, where literacy is confined to the wealthy and elites, singers and bards remain one of the only means by which the common people learn about the history and legends of the Seven Kingdoms; by patronizing singers and ensuring their production of paeans to the Targaryen regime, Rhaenys further that the smallfolk would remain firmly behind the nascent Targaryen regime. You can read more about why I love her as a queen here.
- Alysanne Blackwood: ok, I’m cheating again, because Alysanne was a warrior who commanded her own archers. But I do like Alysanne, who (along with two other cool ladies, Baela and Rhaena Targaryen) petitioned the One-Day Hand Cregan Stark to pardon Corlys Velaryon. Alysanne used her own hand in marriage to ensure that Corlys – a veteran statesman, the man the realm needed to begin working on peace after the Dance of the Dragons – would not go to the block because of Cregan’s implacable Northern honor – a shrewd move, and one that allowed Alysanne to use a traditional feminine role for a political gain.
- Alysanne Targaryen: the one #3 is named after, and my favorite favorite favorite character in all pre-ASOIAF. I can’t even go into all the ways I love how clever Alysanne is. Just read my essay.
- Alys Karstark: I once said Alys Karstark was my favorite secondary character. I don’t know if that’s still true – I have a lot of favorites, and my answer changes on any given day – but I do love her. Alys has already lost two of her elder brothers and her betrothed to the War of the Five Kings, and her father to his ostensible liege Robb. She’s smart enough to recognize that Arnolf and Cregan Karstark want her very real claim to Karhold, so on her own she jumps on a horse and rides to the Wall, on the hope that the brother of the man who executed her father (and a politically independent black brother besides) would help her. Jon offers her marriage to the Magnar of Thenn, which she accepts to ensure her safety and which would also provide her a veritable small army if she needs to assert her claim to Karhold in the future. Sigorn a wildling lord more like a god to his people than a ruler – a complete stranger from an alien culture who does not speak her tongue, at least natively. And yet what does Alys say when Jon asks if she’s afraid? “Let him be afraid of me.”
Those are just a few. Of course we know others, more famous cases – Margaery Tyrell, Olenna Redwyne, Sansa Stark – and this is by no means a complete list. But I think it’s important to recognize that, as much as we think of “badass” meaning fighters like Brienne or the Mormont ladies, it is equally badass to use a lady’s or queen’s position to gain power.
The Queen Regent (NFriel)