ASOIAF Big Bang: The Lady of the Gift Mix
For asoiafbigbang 2011/12.
This mix accompanies my fic The Lady of the Gift.
Generally speaking, I don't listen to music while writing, but it does play an important part in my thinking/planning/day-dreaming process, and spending such a long period of time on one story, I started racking up a playlist. So then naturally I made a soundtrack :) I know it isn't orthodox to claim yourself in a big bang, but, well, I already had all the songs...
Sometimes a song is there from another fanmix, because it's now a part of my fannish consciousness when it comes to one of the characters (White as Diamonds, Blinding), and sometimes the lyrics are just so perfect for a character or a particular part of the story (I'm on Fire, Broken, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy). But not all of the lyrics of all of the songs fit perfectly. Often there was one particular line that inspired something (this isn't everything you are) or a general feeling that the song created (Your Protector, Thistles & Weeds). And they aren't in the exact order I listened to them, either. Though some were more character songs than mood songs, I've tried to put them together into something vaguely approaching narrative sense, with an excerpt from the story that roughly fits in with the song. I hope you enjoy listening.
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1. White as Diamonds | Alela Diane
Some hearts are ghosts and live down in deep waters
Sansa stood abruptly and straightened out her skirts. "I will not marry Tristian Bolton."
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2. Your Protector | Fleet Foxes
Keep your secrets with you, girl, safe from the outside world
Arya knew her sister always tried to cry quietly, as though doing it loudly would be somehow ill-mannered.
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3. O Quanta Qualia | Azam Ali
Instrumental
There was snow on the floor by the Maiden's altar, a small drift that went to her knees, but despite that it felt blessedly warm out of the wind.
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4. Blinding | Florence & the Machine
No more dreaming like a girl so in love, so in love
"The Vale of Arryn?" Sansa asked, sobered. Did he know that was where she had been the whole time? We might have met after all, he might have- no. It served no purpose to think such thoughts again.
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5. I'm on Fire | Tori Amos
Sometimes it feels like you took a knife, edgy and dull, and cut a six inch valley through the middle of my soul
Once outside, Sandor stood beside the closed door, for a moment dumbly unable to move, listening to the sound of singing coming muffled through the thick oak door.
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6. Sackpipslat | Azam Ali
Instrumental
"Have you learned nothing, girl? More men fall short than succeed, and most never make the effort in the first place. All men are beasts, inside, even your gallant knights and great lords."
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7. Thistle & Weeds | Mumford & Sons
Spare me your judgements and spare me your dreams, 'cause recently mine have been tearing my seams
"Look at me," Sandor said. "If Baelish were not already dead, I would kill him for what he did to you."
Sansa smiled slightly, a wry expression that made her look older than her years. "I know."
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8. This Isn't Everything You Are | Snow Patrol
Just take the hand that's offered and hold on tight, this isn't everything you are
"Are you certain you wish to hear it?" she asked. "It does not cast me in a favourable light."
Sandor laughed, low in his throat. "Think who you're talking to."
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9. Broken | Tracy Chapman
A framed and frozen moment, so far from perfection, not truth or transcendence, will set you free
"Women like us, who have seen rather too much of the world, do not give our hearts away easily," said Daenerys, "even to those we trust with our lives. But we do have hearts, Lord Clegane, damaged though they may be."
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10. Running to Stand Still | Elbow
She's raging, she's raging, and the storm blows up in her eyes
"You remind me of someone," Sansa said distractedly.
"And who is that?"
Petyr Baelish, she thought. "My father," she said.
"You flatter me," Lord Bolton said.
Yes, I do, Sansa thought. He was much cleverer than you.
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11. Fumbling Towards Ecstasy | Sarah McLachlan
All the fear has left me now, I'm not frightened anymore. I won't fear love
Sansa smiled and cried harder and kissed him through her tears until the hall filled with light as the sun rose.
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12. Lovesong | Adele
You make me feel like I am whole again
Sandor was asleep as she had left him, his body curved in invitation around the empty space she had left. He stirred as she slipped beneath the covers, wrapping his arms around her body, and Sansa sank into his embrace with a deep satisfaction.
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***Download the music and artwork here [.zip]***