Marla smiled gently. “I have a gift for you, Joanna.” She reached down under her chair and brought it out, wrapped in folds of crimson velvet.
Joanna approached as if the bundle was like to bite her, and watched as her mother flipped back a fold of cloth. The beast that greeted her had the soft sheen of gold, and his eyes were tiny rubies that glimmered in the light. She reached gingerly for the proffered treasure, curled her fingers around its soft body, and clutched it nervously.
“You are a Lannister,” Marla said, pulling her close, as if afraid of losing her. “Things are expected of you.”
Text adapted from AGOT and ASOS
@riana-one commissioned this beautiful fanart for me for my birthday, and @dovahcaine did such a great job drawing Joanna Lannister and her mother, Marla Prester. Thank you both so much, I’m so happy! 💕
First, the bulk of the Frey and Lannister forces are at Riverrun, so it makes sense to have the wedding there since the guests (and the groom) are already there.
Second, it’s where our POVs are. Brienne went to Riverrun to get Jaime, and that’s where they both disappeared from.
Third, it works better thematically. We’ve already had the Red Wedding at the Twins, repeating it there retreads the same ground. But having Lady Stoneheart commit a similar atrocity at Riverrun – a place that’s been associated throughout the series as a place of safety, a place where family is protected and loved – complicates our understanding of revenge. If the cost of revenge is that this place is defiled, is it worth pursuing?
Plus, that’s where Tom o’ Sevens is, and he tells Jaime he intends to stay for a while…
I’d also argue that it makes far more sense for Walder’s character to have the wedding at Riverrun as a symbol of his “triumph” over the Tullys. Think about the sick satisfaction he’ll get from asserting that the Tully seat now belongs to House Frey – and their friends of Lannister of course. What could be more perfect than to a have a Lannister-Frey wedding at the now Lannister-Frey held Riverrun to drive the point home and to spite the shades of those Tullys who looked down on him? He is having a wedding that symbolizes the very betrayal that killed them right in their own castle. Who is laughing now?
Also, the thematic relevance of the cost of revenge is far more affecting if it’s Catelyn’s own home that Stoneheart is indiscriminately massacring people in.
A groundbreaking litigator for women’s rights before being appointed to the bench, Ruth Bader Ginsburg has worn many aspects in her eighty-five years. On the Justice’s birthday, flip through some photographs of her as a girl in Brooklyn, as a law graduate who left Columbia as co-valedictorian (but with no job offers), as a young mother, and as an advocate whose greatest legacy may be in the cases that she argued before what was then an all-male Supreme Court—and won.
(Photographs from the collection of the Supreme Court of the United States.)
A small tidbit that I remembered! A while back, when looking through ASOIAF related art, I came across the official website of artist Paolo Puggioni. He did the Tourney at Harrenhal piece for The World of Ice and Fire. While identifying the characters depicted, he talked about how GRRM was very particular about this specific art and briefed certain aspects of it to him, giving small descriptors for each character. This is some of what GRRM said:
“We’ve always imagined that the perfect image of the tourney at Harrenhal would kind of let you pick out all these figures in the stands, each with their different reactions when ‘the smiles died’. Jon Arryn and Robert and Lord Hunter joking a moment before what was happening dawned on them, Ned watching as Rhaegar was about to stop in front of his sister (who must have been seated quite close), mad Aerys glowering in the distance, Elia stiff-backed and trying to act as if nothing was wrong, Jon Connington probably looking vaguely sad (read: jealous), and so on.”
We’ve never actually gotten any indicator of Elia’s reaction to Rhaegar crowning Lyanna in the text (although we can imagine), so this is the first I’ve seen, as limited as it is. Stiff backed and trying to act if nothing was wrong. Oh, Elia. Giving nothing away, still playing her part and swallowing her humiliation as her husband disgraces her for all to witness. The dates we’ve been given tell us she was pregnant with Aegon at the time too. The argument that she might have agreed to this near unprecedented public display of humiliation has always been bizarre and baseless but this says all it needs to. Does this sound like someone who knew what Rhaegar was about to do? Someone relaxed and unfazed as her husband publicly announced his preference for another- in a world where it would ruin her- as she’s made to watch?
The moment where all the smiles died. Beautiful Elia, second on the left, watching as Rhaegar crowns another. An act so cruel that nobody could believe it was happening yet it’s still made into a romance at her expense, with her being made complicit in her own dishonour and suffering. Elia Martell deserved better.
Link to the artist’s page, where he also identifies all the characters in the piece, including Elia [x]
“First row, from the left: Ashara Dayne, Princess Elia Martell, Prince
Oberyn Martell, Brandon Stark, Lyanna Stark, Eddard Stark, and
(standing) Robert Baratheon.
Second row, from the left: Jon Connington, Prince Lewyn Martell, Lord Hunter, Jon Arryn.” – Paolo Puggioni
Sam speaks 