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having played episode one again i cannot even begin to properly word all my love for ethan into, like, a cohesive statement. he is just so deeply sad because, while everyone in-game meets tragic fates, he’s truly the only doomed one. it makes everything about him heartbreaking -- everything he says now carries an unfathomable weight, every smile becomes a haunting image, all the glint in his eyes and how he goes about everything is nauseating. ethan, genuinely, is best summed up as this :
“love is the bane of honor, the death of duty.” -- maester aemon, a game of thrones.
and,
“love’s not always wise, i’ve learned. it can lead us to great folly, but we follow our hearts wherever they take us.” -- robb stark, a storm of swords.
because from the very start, ethan is ( inadvertently ) faced with a choice. will he be a brother, or a lord? the issue is that ethan cannot possibly be both, despite what he solemnly says to talia. it’s impossible to be. there will come times where these interests will conflict and, as the lord, he is expected to prioritize his lordship and house over any and all familial bonds. rodrik is taught this as well, given that his biggest concern is preserving ironrath at any cost … not saving ryon, or himself, or seeing to it that his family comes out unscathed. he expects that everyone is buckled in like he is, that they will either win or die with their house, because that’s just the way of things! of course, this isn’t to say rodrik doesn’t care, because he does! so, so much so. but there is an expectation he has embodied through the years and it shows. it’s what father taught him from as early on as asher’s exile. it’s what ethan is thereby expected to do.
but … he can’t. in the end, ethan does make a choice. he may die as lord ethan, but he also dies, most importantly, as talia’s twin, as ryon’s brother. as their protector -- even if he failed to protect them both. in the face of complete danger, a great hall full of enemies and a known scourge of the north, he does the risky thing, the foolish but loving thing, and practically rips talia out of evil’s grasp to instead shield her. he cannot help it, just like he cannot help but draw that harsh line, that ‘leave them be’ … there is much ethan is willing to withstand and he can stand there and talk all anyone likes, as a lord’s expected to do -- he’ll be insulted, harassed, threatened, belittled, and he’ll grit and bear it, roll it off his shoulders like water … but he cannot just let ramsay talk to and sniff around talia and ryon. there is this heightened sense of ‘don’t even look at them, don’t even address them, they may be in this room but they should be treated like they’re not’. he is deeply hyper vigilant of their presence in that room and of the stake of that. ethan, despite everything, is their brother ,,, not their lord. he dies brave because he dared to love them and love them more than duty or courtesies.
but this isn’t shocking. ethan’s biggest influence in life, outside of the obvious, was asher. you can just tell. he is the sibling ethan is paired most with, the one who protected him, and did so violently and at the cost of trouble. he has learned from that in his own way, has kept some of those lessons close to heart … as elissa says, asher had always protected ethan and talia. always. he didn’t hesitate, he acted, because ethan was in danger and there was ‘nothing else’ asher needed to know. isn’t that what ethan does, in the end? talia’s in danger, and there’s nothing else ethan needs to know. you can smell the asher influence in him, especially in this line to ryon, if you choose it :
none of this is wisdom, even though ethan is full of it despite his age. it is just love, plain and simple. it is a very foolish, ridiculous thing -- reckless, impulsive … ethan can’t even wield a sword! he has no real hope of fighting anybody for his siblings, of protecting them in the way their elder brothers could do, except his inability pales when compared to his willingness to act anyway -- to instinctively protect even at every disadvantage, because it is where his heart lies, and ethan follows both heart and mind, though there are moments where one wins out over the other.
it’s less of ‘i’m the only thing standing between our enemies and my house’ and more of ethan being all that’s standing between his family and bad people, as well as bad things. it is ethan versus the world, but what he’s shielding isn’t ironwood or a keep or dignity, it’s his siblings -- a brother’s role … he has shed any safety and has become the vulnerable one, by force but also by necessity ( he, by all accounts, really takes being lord on the chin ; because there has to be someone there, and that’s ethan, and so ethan will do ‘his duty’ ). so is it any wonder that elissa, and the narrative, really stress how good it’d be to get asher back? because who will protect ethan now that he’s lord? and why is the best candidate not soldiers, or his sentinel, but an older brother who cares not for lordship? … all of this is ethan’s tragedy and then becomes a part of his lord title. his bravery was born out of irrational love for talia, a love that transcends anything else! and it is the death of him.
anyway, the point is that ethan’s themes of embodying the protector role for his siblings, as a brother and not as a lord, is so fucking important to me and breaks my heart. i nitpick the game’s writing but you can really tell they knew what they were doing with ethan all the way through and just committed to making it as miserable as possible. the foreshadowing is so painful to replay </3 he couldn’t be dooming himself more than he is :
plus him dying and still, in the middle of choking on his own blood and suffocating, watching so intently as ryon is dragged from the great hall? the way this parallels rodrik’s helplessness with elaena in episode six? where he is too injured to move and can only watch as someone he loves ( and wants to protect ) is dragged away by whitehills, kicking and screaming for help? specifically from rodrik? ryon, having told ethan he knows ethan will protect them, having told ethan he is the strength on his sword? … literally everything about this is so devestating the fucking themes here are meant to kill you on sight truly :
i love you ambiguous endings i love you pyrrhic victories i love you tragedy masquerading as a happy ending i love you characters who are living and dead at the same time i love you cognitive dissonance i love you existential death
Holy shit, this is so interesting. So you know that game Telltale made about Game of Thrones years ago? I have been watching clips and gameplays of it for the sake of nostalgia, and apparently there's a longer version of the song Talia sings at the funeral. It plays after the chapter ends, when the credits are rolling. In that version, there's a line where she urges Mance Rayder to kill the Boltons. I never knew about that, I only heard the in-game short version before. How fucking interesting is that? I'm losing my mind about this now. Wolfswood clansmen (or at least the Forresters) would prefer the King-Beyond-the-Wall over Bolton rule. That's such an interesting dynamic. I'm going fucking insane about this now.
gregor has to be a horrible dad because wdym rodrik and asher’s happiest moment in ep5 is them deciding to kill themselves and doom ironrath 😭 they were SOOOO happy about this its genuinely hilarious im sorry
what’s your experience with asoiaf’s tv adaptation, game of thrones?
i have no experience with it … i’ve seen multiple clips though! mainly for characters i wanted a more firm grip on, like margaery, cersei, tywin … mostly king’s landing scenes because mira’s storyline is so entrenched in the show version of those plots and characters than the novel one. i find watching short compilation videos most entertaining when engaging with the tv series. but i’ve promised myself to never actually watch it in full because a.) i love myself too much for that, and b.) i already knew going in that i would probably be a book puritan. you just get more with writing due to being inside the characters’ actual heads. and i also agree with a lot of the general consensus from fans that the show adaptation was heavily misogynistic -- the girl characters were all the same ‘girlboss’ archetypes and, not only that, but a lot of female storylines either got removed or overpowered by male ones. ( in what world is it not misogynistic to remove catelyn’s whole ‘lady stoneheart’ plot? it just irks at me )
in fact, i think a lot of ttgot’s bad writing stems from the show writing … my whole elaena vs gwyn rant in my top five background characters post is a very common ‘game of thrones’ problem. telltale tries really hard to study the material they’re writing from and usually excels at replicating it ( example : tales from the borderlands ), so i believe ttgot does the show justice, in the sense that it then also suffers greatly from those writing flaws as well. that, plus a lot less of a budget and backbone, and we get our lovely little mess lol. anyway, despite my aversion to game of thrones, i do plan on watching some episodes eventually. when i get dragged into a media, i’m someone who needs to consume everything about said media, even if i’m apprehensive or uninterested. and i’m sure the show had its good moments! i definitely think a lot of the casting was quite good, and that the actors are strong and fierce in their portrayals -- but i think i’ll always be a book puritan first and foremost anyway. i’m picky like that. i think it’s obvious to everyone that grrm had more of a vision and something to say, in comparison to d&d.
also, i know it’s not a game of thrones, but i did watch almost all of house of the dragon season one! enjoyable mostly -- though the plot and the greens deeply frustrate me, so i had to inevitably put it down due to all the political folly and stupidity. another reason i’m more of a book person is because my secondhand embarrassment can handle reading those sorts of things better than watching them … oh, and i do plan to watch a knight of the seven kingdom when it releases perhaps. i just got the book ( woo! ) and the fandom seemed more receptive to the trailer, which gives me some hope for actually liking it versus game of thrones.
hey! just wanted to say i love your ttgot thoughts/analyses, it's so so nice to have another fan still active in the community, especially one so prolific! i saw in one of your posts you said you started reading asoiaf, how are you liking the books so far? also, are you planning to write any ttgot fic in the future?
oh, this is so sweet! for one, i’m very tickled that you love my posts! those kinds of compliments encourage me to keep posting on here and within the ttgot tag … and thank you for seeing me as ‘prolific’! i’ve never been called that before but i’m honored. i know i talk and babble a ton, so i’m glad my thoughts come across how i want them to. especially since my biggest fear when posting is this idea that i’m not wording things well or explaining myself / my emotions in a way that’s accurate to what’s going on in my head. so, again, means a lot! thank you!
as for the books, i’m loving them so far! i finished a game of thrones back in september and was surprised by how much i adored it. i’m currently on a clash of kings now, which might take me a while to sludge through because not only am i reading it with my fiance, but i’m also marking it and taking notes as i go along. my whole purpose for picking up the series was so that i could understand the world the forresters are in a bit more … so jotting down notes about plot beats and the world is an essential part of that process. especially when the game itself underperforms horrifically in that regard, you know? but, ah, i’m not too far along yet. i just finished the first catelyn chapter of the book! hopefully i can read more today and this week.
i also have the fire & blood novel, which i’ve impulsively started, alongside the world of a song of ice and fire book! i’m hopefully going to get my hands on a knight of the seven kingdoms too … it’s all very exciting, really. i haven’t read a book in forever, much less have i been interested in a book series, so i’m hurriedly collecting everything i can and desperately waiting to consume more and more. asoiaf isn’t a book series i’d have ever seen myself being into since it’s way outside my usual genres. i’m not even a fantasy person, haha. but i’m glad i gave them a try because not only are they super informative about ttgot, but the subject matter and characters are just so good. i feel like a better reader? and, despite appearances, a lot of the topics within asoiaf are actually up my alley, despite how little i care for the fantasy or medieval backdrops overall. very fun! i’ve thought about posting a sort of ‘asoiaf diary’ on here as i read through the books for the first time … if that’s of any interest.
and yes! i have many plans to write ttgot fic. there’s a couple drabbles currently in my scrivener file right now that are percolating. i, obviously, have many opinions about the characters and their relationships … and what better way to show those thoughts and my analysis about everything than through fanfic? i would especially like ttgot to feel more akin to asoiaf, and the only way to do that is to … write? rewrite? many of the characters and plots could use some touch-ups so to speak ; although on a more fun note, i just love the characters and i simply wish to explore them … i will probably write a modern au fic at some point, for pure indulgence sake. maybe some other silly ideas. hopefully some of these drabbls and such will get posted in december -- or sometime this winter. once my life cools down a bit, i plan to write something ttgot related almost every day in a kind of ‘nanowrimo’ fashion. we’ll see though! there’s no dry well of ideas for me, so it’s mostly a matter of finishing works and posting them.
but thanks so much for the interest again! it was fun to ramble a tad about my readings and how desperately i want to write ttgot fic lol. feel free to send in another ask anytime! <3
Nice to see people still into TTGoT! Whose some of your favorites by the way?
me joining rather dead fandoms and sticking around for a few years to poke at it with a stick is a hobby of mine, but hello! hi! it’s nice to see other fans still around, and thank you for the question! as a general rule of thumb ( and because of the vagueness ) i will list like … a top five favorites thing. i’ll also exclude the playable characters, the forresters + gared, seeing as that would quickly turn into a 60k ramble real fast lol. though i doubt it’s any surprise that my top three are rodrik, asher, and mira given a good chunk of my posts on here.
so, my top five favorite background characters!
1. god, number one is a very tough spot. perhaps beskha? she’s definitely somewhere on this list and is deserving of a high spot, considering. in my first playthrough i was indifferent to her, but quickly became more endeared the second time playing. she’s just … fun. the scene in which she rages at asher only to deflate and become unspeakably vulnerable about her pain ; the act of exposing her most secret wounds … there is no other scene like it in canon. you feel it all so vividly. without that moment, i doubt i’d like beskha so much, nor would i think she could stand alone as her own character. i’m also a sucker for loyal devotees — asher is beskha’s whole world and their codependency fascinates me greatly and i could talk about it in depth. it’s sweet, it’s good for them ( being able to be intimate with someone ), but i do also enjoy the unhealthy implications. beskha, accidentally, subconsciously, creating a slave-master dynamic with asher, where she does what he says, goes where he goes, no matter how much he hurts her … the fact he can so easily pawn her off to rodrik, and beskha listens — it’s a little morbid but unavoidable. years of trauma have made that the ‘default’ in her mind, has reshaped her views and way of thinking. i like taking her and thinking of those sorts of things … viewing her as this complex victim of intensive abuse and every knotted, tangled thing that comes with it. as a scarred woman with no actual outlets for this sort of pain. she copes by clinging to asher, drinking herself stupid, and fucking and killing things. she is like. the perfect failure of a woman. in a modern au she’d avoid therapy and find it stupid. her apartment is trashy and she’s a fuckboy with her fellow slut asher. under all these shallow airs she hints at having thirty layers of insane trauma you would balk at and wonder how she didn’t kill herself. she either says killing herself is pussy shit or has this broken monologue about how ending her life now would make everything she went through pointless. anyway, i fucking love her.
2. elissa comes to mind, so elissa? another one that had to grow on me. she is so obviously the catelyn tully stark of the story — or at least, the catelyn tully stark who is crazy and violent in her grief, because elissa shares very little of catelyn’s logic or head for war. anyway, i love mother characters, i just do, which means i’m smitten with elissa and her plights. the fact she even gets mad at dead ass gregor for not saving rodrik at the twins is iconic, like, her heart lies with her kids well and truly and not really with her husband despite caring about him. i find that interesting! it also removes her from catelyn in a way … i like to imagine elissa never really grew to love gregor yet found a peace within their relationship, as women often do. she loves that he’s not cruel to her. she loves him saving her and giving malcolm a home. she loves swelling with his children and having them, and perhaps, she loves that part more than anything else. it is enough. her love for ironrath is manufactured, kind of false … she is projecting her old home upon it to make it bearable, livable, and grows frenzied when that is threatened, again. elissa likely imparted a lot of troubling lessons upon mira as a growing girl because elissa thinks boldly and in extremes. and she’s not exactly the best mother to her girls, at least when we see her, which is interesting. you see how talia mimicks her but elissa channels everything into her male children … she is a boys mom alas. not shocking, given westeros and it’s patriarchy, but you know. i think her stoic nature in the face of women’s suffering could maybe say a lot about her. it’s interesting! i like seeing her display concerning behavior. i like when she attacks ludd like a crazy woman in asher’s route, just no balls. to me she is a woman with the worst depressive episodes you’ve ever seen. big fan <3
3. eurgh, i hate to admit this … i shouldn’t even put him on here … but gryff. yes, him. lol. him and ludd are hateable in the best way, though gryff ranks on this list just because he’s so fucking hilarious. like. his insecurity and absurd childishness in comparison to rodrik’s solemn irritation makes for a lot of fun … like, rodrik is better than him. utilizes power more naturally as a man born for it. he is kind of everything gryff hates and cannot be, as some lowly forthborn … it makes for an interesting push-pull that i wish there was more of in the game. how long did they coexist? i love images of rodrik hobbling about only to be hounded by gryff — to be harassed and heckled and for rodrik to wish gryff would just drop dead. anyway, gryff is funny. he’s just the right amount of pathetic and deplorable for me ; he is someone who plays the fool but is also someone disgusting at his core. his treatment of elaena is horrible, seeing as he really only wants her to humiliate rodrik. which is a lot of his actions, honestly! he is obsessed with this forrester firstborn — with lording power over him, yes, but also of this particular picture of rodrik as some arrogant beast of a man. i think gryff is insanely gay and he has some trauma crush on rodrik lmfao. he wants this power play between them … he likes ‘taking’ rodrik’s stuff ( elaena, duncan ) and like, cannot shut up about his dick or rodrik being a ‘good little forrester’ … he’s a guy who was probably a victim of abuse but is also just someone who is just sick in the head, so how bad do you feel for him, really? you know? lol. i don’t know! i like him because he’s fun.
4. elsera, i think! let the record show that i really hate a lot of gared’s arc ( boring, undeveloped, underwhelming — the north grove even more so ) though elsera as a character archetype hits a lot of niches for me, similar to beskha! i enjoy her off putting demeanor and how she appears more approachable than josera at first, more understanding or even kind, until the slow reveal of her blood magic. she just cares so little for human life as an individual blessing because, to her, everything is meaningless besides the potential for a joint cause ; there is something holy in the assimilation of isolated components into a bigger, more alive organism. while we don’t see much of her, i do think elsera is rather broken to hell and back due to her practices — she devotes every part of her body and blood to her magic, honing it, learning it … i like that josera, someone whom loves his sister dearly, is still unnerved by her. he has probably watched this dark art consume her for years, has seen her channel everything into being a ‘useful’ bastard to their lord father, has seen her buy into and eat this north grove excuse. it’s worrying!! he’s worried!! but she is defensive about it, and so josera backs off … what can he do? elsera probably argues that warging is just as dangerous. she probably turned to blood magic because she lacked those warging abilities and became desperate to make gregor proud, somehow, in some other magical way. also, she has ethan’s face! she looks so much like this soft little boy who could not harm, couldn’t even try … it would be so jarring to the forresters. could ethan be like that? could they? elsera could be a cautionary tale about taking gregor’s lessons too well, in my opinion, and gared falls hook, line, and sinker. changes worse for it. lots to like about her honestly!! i loooove creepy women!
5. god. number five. i have so many characters who could go here, but i think i’ll have to hand this over to royland degore, honestly! he’s one of the rare few who was an instant hit for me during my first playthrough lol. like beskha, he perfectly nails those dog motifs for me — his whole thing is scarred loyalty, his whole thing is to fight, to protect the forresters’ dignity just as much as their lives, and isn’t that fascinating? i am a royland as sentinel truther, sorry. he is the perfect fit : a man who is brash, yes, who is angry, yes, but a man who retains his honesty even in the face of dislike and a man who will obey no matter how little he agrees. often, i think of royland’s absolute horror when asher tells him to call off the plan in his route, because royland hates that, he hates asher doing this, hates asher agreeing to marry gwyn ; hates them bending to those fucking whitehills … yet royland’s face also flattens into a grim acceptance and he agrees to see it done, and doesn’t share asher’s change in plans with anyone else. he is a lord’s hand. while he may bite and disagree or insult, royland’s loyalty is stern and obedient. i think his more submissive nature versus duncan’s assertive one is an interesting dissection — because, outwardly, they display themselves differently. there is a lot of fun in that! duncan is most interesting as the traitor, as a man who wants peace yet cannot stomach obeying commands he doesn’t personally agree with. someone who will cripple his house and say heinous things because he is just so justified, so righteous … but i digress! i love royland. i love his backstory with his family and his knighthood. his whole ‘family was brutally slaughtered and assaulted’ makes a lot of him make sense, especially his whole penchant for teaching the ladies to fight too. mira’s whole arc with morgryn would send royland into hysteria genuinely because that’s the last thing he’d ever want for one of lord gregor’s girls … ah, and i like him and rodrik as a duo. i wish they had more development, because it’s very obvious rodrik’s favorite had been duncan while royland’s was asher … seeing them slowly find a routine and realize they prefer each other now would’ve been so sweet. love this mf he never lets me down!
anyway, i have so many honorable mentions!! despite my distaste for gared’s plots, i do heavily adore finn and cotter, i just … am also simultaneously disappointed in how little the game cares for them, finn especially. but cotter’s wildling plot twist was one of the better reveals! important note : i’m madly in love with maester ortengryn. he is hilarious. having this sort of hip and young and deeply unserious maester who comments on his lord’s big dick was the best move telltale ever made. he is also, like, a miracle worker? … him going from the stress and horror of ethan’s death to saving rodrik?? who definitely should’ve been dead?? he doesn’t get nearly enough credit. i totally think he let that whitehill soldier’s bite fester on purpose lmfao. that was well within his capabilities, he just Didn’t Want To. iconic!! croft is in a similar boat to ortengryn, where i just love him unabashedly, and find him and his dynamics fun — like, these characters do deserve to be on the list to some regard. along with sera who works as a good contrast to our stoic and disinterested mira. i have my gripes with sera’s handling ( the game wasn’t sure what they wanted her intentions to be, or how far to take her jealousy ) though i still love her mindset! her aspiring for marriage in order to escape her lowly standing and bastardly name, yet that same fake sweetness also being why margaery doesn’t prefer her company … hers and mira’s goals couldn’t be more different, their interests totally unaligned, and there is also the discussion of femininity — how sera is the standard perfect wife-to-be while mira is some prissy ice queen … it’s fun! engaging! a little catty lol.
there is also gwyn and elaena … maybe a few months ago, i would’ve put elaena on here and i would’ve had gwyn as, like, a hated character, but oddly i would sooner place gwyn up here than elaena. gwyn’s grown on me. hard. i’ve written some stuff via her point of view and thought more on her motives, her flaws and complexities, and i’ve also seen the odd hate boner a lot of old fans had for her and she’s just … become more sympathetic to me as a result. while she is utterly naive and most definitely self centered, she is ultimately the only one who cares to end this feud as peacefully as possible. in my playthroughs, rodrik and ludd do not desire this peace and would rather die in bloodshed than have their houses coexist … but gwyn is willing to fight against men and their egos, thank god, lmfao. i’ve seen people say that gwyn and asher marrying wouldn’t have solved anything and i think this is?? silly?? it operates on this consensus that gwyn does not mean what she says to asher ( like, promising to see gryff exiled ) and that asher is too stupid to play a longer game. but gwyn literally betrays her family and kills a whitehill soldier to save asher’s life, after watching asher kill gryff and refusing to intervene. all because asher proved to her that their future, and them seeing house forrester and house whitehill combine, was more important than more violence or revenge. like … gwyn is about this shit! in that final moment she proved that she is willing to sacrifice and sacrifice majorly for the forresters, for asher, so long as they show they’re willing to listen to her and follow her dream … i understand she’s grating, and her insistence on submission and borderline slavery is irritating, but honestly it just gives gwyn a lot of nuanced character. so much about her is deeply sad to me now — and i don’t even ship her and asher, genuinely. their romance is so nothing burger but gwyn really is like. a woman who so clearly deserves to be lord whitehill. more so than ludd. than gryff. yet she’s not in charge, so all she can do is toil and sort of seek a man who will help her control this fued. honestly, i like her more than gryff, narratively, but canonically gryff is more fun for me to see, you know?
and elaena … i do not hate her. i feel for her, and her fate is so deeply rancid … i find her and rodrik’s love story cute and her red aesthetic amidst so many blues is a very welcome reprieve … but she is very lackluster. i hope to fix that? someday? elaena starts off very strongly in a first playthrough i think ; she is charming, beautiful, is a woman who hates the patriarchy, is supposedly our house’s saving grace … yet, upon more playthroughs, a lot of her becomes shallow. while the game initially has elaena as a girl who can stand on her own, as a woman who isn’t just rodrik’s love interest, she very quickly becomes so anyway? it’s a shame! after arthur’s death ( a death we don’t get to see her mourn ) all of her appearances are reduced to loving rodrik and wanting to see him prevail — i know she says she wishes to see the whitehills snubbed, and this desire makes sense given gryff, yet if rodrik dies, elaena seemingly fucks off and leaves ironrath without another word. she has no relationship to anyone besides rodrik and, to a tiny degree, talia? as a character who comes out the gate making it clear that while yes, she’s in love with rodrik and has been since childhood, she’s not going to marry him solely out of love especially given the severity of their houses, you expect more. and while she runs to rodrik for help about gryff, you don’t get the sense that she’s doing this because she wants to marry rodrik instead, at least not solely. she wants to have a choice, like her father promised her. she wants to be more than some sorf of prize to be won between gryff and rodrik. there’s all these implications of elaena being more than rodrik’s wife-to-be … i just wish these moments were more, and that elaena in general was more and complex, instead of being a bunch of vague girl boss traits. rodrik and elaena are the only couple to really ship in game but not because you can see what they see in each other, but because they’re fine. they’re smitten. they kiss sweetly and claim to love one another. they have some quick childhood sweethearts story.
i’m actually a little sour about their backstory, actually. i wouldn’t change it per se, although it’s rather telling that the game’s only real romance is founded on the idea of elaena previously having the freedom to choose a suitor, and she had chosen rodrik. it’s disgustingly simple. not to say this isn’t possible within the world! it’s just … plain. of course telltale didn’t want to imply any forceful nature regarding rodrik’s and elaena’s previous betrothal. they are one of the rare few who get to marry for a mutual love they both share … yet neither of them seem to acknowledge just how lucky they are — nor does the game point out how radical their actions are thereafter, especially when rodrik sleeps with a woman he is no longer officially betrothed to, snubbing both the whitehills but also elaena’s own noble family. like, that’s bad!! real bad!! elaena’s image would be tarnished forever if other nobles knew!! it’s like … elaena and rodrik are fine and sweet enough. yet i view them a bit more critically than i had before and wish they were deeper, more interesting, or that canon engaged with them meaningfully and allowed them to feel as real as they had in their humble beginnings. where they were fond of each other, sure, but rodrik was wooing elaena for an agenda rather than love, and elaena was asking for logic rather than sweet words. what can rodrik offer her family, given the risk? how can rodrik win elaena, a girl whom his family’s inadvertently using to battle the whitehills? logic, logic, logic. they should be deeper and elaena deserves to be more than someone who the game shoddily reduced to rodrik’s love interest in the later half because they had no clue what to do with her. ( simple : revenge? political fallout regarding her choices? etc? )
ah. now looking at it, maybe my list should be : beskha, elissa, gwyn, royland, and elaena. oh well. i like gryff too much to properly remove him and i did want to talk about gwyn and elaena back to back — in an interchangeable way, given their vague ‘love interest’ status. if it wasn’t obvious, i love the women within asoiaf. i think they are interesting and tragic and i cannot bring myself to hate any of them, because they are the true victims of the world, alongside children.
anyway, i’m so sorry for the length of this. i just had lots to say! i tried to keep my blurbs short and quick, but the lower i went down the list, the more i had to comment upon, so — i’m sorry? i could say even more than this probably. i’ve been stewing on all these opinions forever, alas. i suck at posting them, however, so if you have more questions ( or anyone else does! ) do feel free to ask, no matter how silly or serious!! i take either extreme haha.
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