'A Feast For Crows' concluding post and more Jaime & Brienne Love and OTP

[winterspel]

When I was re-reading bits of AFFC and taking notes for this last post on the book, the shape of excessive Jaime/Brienne/OTP Love came to me, so forgive me (or don't) if there's more of that in this post than anything else. As I showed kitsah last Friday night, I've gone uber-geeky about this - my hardcover of A Feast for Crows is feathered with post-it

Comments

[linaerys]

Whew! There is a lot to think about there, but nothing to really disagree with. You gave this a much closer reading than I did. So, nothing to add except:

Brienne + Jaime FOREVAH!

Well, actually, I'll add that it broke my heart a little that Arya didn't connect Lord Snow to Jon. It shows she's much further gone than Sansa.

I didn't think about the idea that Sandor Clegane was still alive at the Quiet Islands, but it makes sense, what with the insistence that "The Hound is dead"--you're just waiting to here the unspoken: "but Sandor lives."

[winterspel]

I'll add that it broke my heart a little that Arya didn't connect Lord Snow to Jon. It shows she's much further gone than Sansa.

Yes! You're right - she's detaching herself far more than Sansa, who is learning to play the game of thrones from an expert, but hasn't lost her ties entirely. I always thought Sansa was more cast adrift (and she has no wolf), but I think that once Arya heard of her mother's death, it killed something inside her.

Brienne + Jaime FOREVAH!

Yes, yes, oh please, yes. It's been a while since I have shipped two book characters this hard. I wouldn't have read as closely as I did and discovered that Jaime told Brienne she looked like a pretty horse, otherwise! LOL

[winterspel]

I would add “Thapphireth” and the bearpit as “nice” things he did for her - that and entrusting her with his honor (and saying that Brienne had honor) which in a way, probably means more to her even than that he saved her from rape and from death.

I suppose I should have mentioned them, but in my mind those things were so huge that they went without saying! :D ...goes off to amend post...

And yes, you're right, he probably does feel a bit of embarassment for striking Connington (I wondered about Jon's name, too...), and you're right, I don't think Jaime understand why exactly he's reacting this way about Brienne. He's been one way for so long that seeing life and love any differently is going to require a lot of unlearning and self-exploration!

The fact that Un!Catelyn's last act before she was killed was to kill the more or less innocent Jingle, well, she set herself on this path even before death. And death has warped her further, as Thoros seems to indicate about Dondarrion as well. We're in for some rough(er) times, I am afraid

[winterspel]

Can you imagine what it would be like for Jaime to be with an open, warm, generous, compassionate, and kind woman? Any woman, but particularly Brienne? For him to walk into a woman's arms without having to hide it from the world and just give himself over to it? Look at me, I'm getting all mushy... The relationship between Cersei and Jaime always struck me as terribly adolescent (like they'd never outgrown their childish relationship with one another) - Jaime insisted on the day in the tower with Cersei at Winterfell and wouldn't take no for an answer, and he took her on the altar of the sept after Joffrey's death without a thought to consequences - while he's not as bad as Cersei, he wanted what he wanted, and he took it when he could. It was an unhealthy addiction - he might have "loved" her, but there was no adult love between them. His love was purer than hers, because he was utterly faithful to her and their relationship was the most important thing in his life, the thing that had defined him just as much as his sword hand until

[nutmeg3]

Between you, you and queenofthorns are so thorough that I can't say much other than ITA. I hadn't picked up on Jaime's comment about the horse and then the horse turning out to be a beauty, and that's really comforting, since I, too, would love to see the two of them together, even if only briefly before tragedy strikes.

I was glad to read that you're not totally freaked by Arya, either. I was beginning to think I was the only one. I think she desperately needs to learn the difference between vengeance and justice, but I'm actually amazed by the strength and resiliency that have gotten her through, all on her own, with no moral compass (because she's a 10-year-old tomboy, for God's sake, and kids are heathens at heart) and virtually no help. I'm terrified by her blindness, though. I don't want to believe it's permanent, but Martin's a cruel master, so I'm not counting on anything.

I somehow need to find the time to reread this book.

[winterspel]

I want Brienne and Jaime to get together so bad! Yes, even if only for one frakking hour. ;) Or ten minutes. Ten minutes of love, real love. :D I'll take anything!

Yes, I agree with you that Arya must learn the difference between vengeance and justice. There has to be hope for her, that she'll come back from this edge she's teetering on - she does still have her wolf, after all, and even if the wolf is a vicious killer now attacking people all over the riverlands. Meep!

I think it's nothing short of miraculous that she's made it this far on her own wits - pretty amazing feat, as you said for a ten year old. But one of the things that I love about Arya's character arc is that it allows Martin to show us aspects of the world he's created that we wouldn't otherwise see. Arya has really been among the people who in many ways have been most affected by war - the little people who get caught in the messes that the lords keep creating. And now we get to see Braavos...

[nutmeg3]

I think both Arya and Nymeria will be "broken" until they're reunited. Really, they've both become savage now, but my hope is that once they find each other again, they'll find strength and balance in each other, even as damaged as they both are now, and begin to heal and grow into who they should be/need to be.

[kitsah]

Heya! Responses below

I realized it wasn't too big to post as a reply, so here are the quotes:

[winterspel]

Re: the two orders of the Faith Militant:

p.422High Septon: "King Maegor's laws prohibit that, as Your Grace must know. It was by his decree that the Faith laid down its swords."

Cersei: What did she care what Maegor the Cruel had decreed three hundred years ago?
p. 423Lady Merryweather shared the queen's delight, though she had never heard of the Warrior's Sons or the Poor Fellows. "They date from before Aegon's Conquest," Cersei explained to her. "The Warrior's Sons were an order of knights who gave up their lands and gold and swore on their swords to His High Holiness. The Poor Fellows...they were humbler, though far more numerous. Begging brothers of a sort, escorting travelers from sept to sept and town to town. Their badge was the seven-pointed star, red on white, so the smallfolk named them Stars. The Warrior's Sons wore rainbow cloaks and inlaid armor over hair shirts, and bore star-shaped crystals in the pommels of their longswords. They were the Swords. Holy men, ascetics, fanatics, sorcerors, dragonslayers, demonhunters...

[kitsah]

Part 2! I actually ran out of comment space