And now the meme!

[dolabellae]

Just before I poked my head back above the parapet, this one was going around

Name a character from one of my fandoms, and I'll give you either

Comments

[lareinenoire]

Oooh! How about...Littlefinger!

[dolabellae]

You don't half know how to pick them! Littlefinger is totally amoral, his relationship with Sansa is distinctly disturbing, and he bears a huge share of responsibility for the mess Westeros is in at the moment - but I can't help enjoying reading about him, for the obvious reasons. He's just so sharp, he thinks on his feet, and even when very clever people like Tyrion think they've got him where they want him he makes their schemes work for him. The Lord of Harrenhal can marry the Lady of the Eyrie...

I also like the very concrete details Martin puts in about how he's risen to power - his nous for making money, the way he builds up a bureaucracy of lower-born men and foreigners who are directly responsible to him and hugely more efficient than knights & lordlings would be so they go undisturbed - it reminds me of the influence gained by freedmen under Claudius.

I suspect he has to get his at some point - surely no-one can stay ahead of the game for ever? - but I more than half don't want it to happen.

[lareinenoire]

He really is awesomecakes, though, isn't he? In a horrible way. ;) And, yes, I expect he'll end up dying horribly, mainly because this is Martin, and it looks like just about everybody is going to end up dying horribly.

[nineveh_uk]

I could add Marjorie Phelps to my list.

I could a tale unfold...

[dolabellae]

...but I haven't thought about it enough yet and I don't want to commit to backstory that won't fit in. I have a distinct feeling that Marjorie knows John Bellasca, though.

I am always filled with huge admiration for how well Marjorie deals with her feelings for Peter. Dignity and cheerfulness are qualities much to be desired in that situation and not easily attainable. And I love the image, in earlier days, of them having fish and chip suppers and indulging in low entertainment...

Re: I could a tale unfold...

[nineveh_uk]

I have a distinct feeling that Marjorie knows John Bellasca, though.
For the prospect of that, I am prepared to wait as long as necessary (although preferably not over 5 years).

I do wish we saw more of Margery, but there just aren't books to fit her in. I'm only surprised that JPW didn't shove her into Thrones, where she actually might have fit.

If a great liking and friendship were enough...

[dolabellae]

I will do my best not to make it anything like a 5 years wait - but you know what happened with the Squid's tragic canal perigrinations... As soon as I can come up with something like a plot - or at least a bit more than "OK, let put these people together at a party or the first night of an exhibition or something and see what happens" - actually, maybe I should just do that! I don't want to do something too Marjorie & Peter-centric otherwise it will be horrifically Mary-Sue ish.

[dbassassin]

Well, you know I've got to ask you about Jaime, now.

And your canon for Rosier is so fabulously different from mine. I love it!

Shame he didn’t realise it was Goyle he ought to have been concerned about…

*snorfle* Even Draco considers them interchangeable. Poor Goyle!

[dolabellae]

Was it you I was having a conversation with about characters I liked in ASOIAF? I seem to remember disappearing after saying I was rather ashamed of mine, and probably leaving you with the impression that it might be Jaime, because I think that was what you suggested

[dolorous_ett]

Interestingly, my theory about why Crabbe is still alive is quite different. The Room of Requirement has more than one Vanishing Cabinet! He crawled in as a final refuge, to emerge miles from anywhere, wand snapped in two, covered in soot and not a penny to his name.

And things would have gone quite badly for him if he hadn't been taken in by a band of new-age travellers, who tolerated his odd ways without mockery or patronising, and taught him how to live like them. He is now a professional juggler, weaver of friendship bracelets and a fair to middling practitioner of Indian Head Massage. His old life seems about a million miles away, and he never wants to go back.

Which could all be about to change, because Millicent Bulstrode now works in the DHS, and one of these days she's going to act on that hunch she's always had that he's still alive, and try to track him down...

And if reading all that hasn't tired you out, I'd be very interested to know your thoughts on Rickon Stark.

[dolabellae]

I love the fact at least two members of (the only two members of?) the Crabbe fandom have got to work providing explanatioms for how he could have escaped from the Fiendfyre. Two Vanishing Cabinets! Indian Head Massage! Brilliant!

My explanation isn't really that Draco can't tell them apart: I must finish that fic and explain. It has Millicent in, as well...

Rickon, now... I haven't got any grand theories about him; he must be going to play some part, as GRRM could easily have made Bran the youngest of the family - unless he just needed to have one more Stark to be heir of Winterfell after even more of a bloodbath in the remaining books! I do hope not.

Or he could be Cersei's valonqar - who said it had to be her little brother? - though I'm not sure how long I can see her clinging on and Rickon seems a little young for strangling still. Though, he is 'the wild one' and it's interesting that he's off with Osha, who's pretty formidable. I wonder whether they'll be in the next book, and if so in whose viewpoint? Davos, at White

[dolorous_ett]

I rather like the idea of Rickon doing for Cersei (assuming Sansa doesn't get to her first).

One of the many Rickon-related treats that must be in store sometime soon is that he's headed for Greywater Watch, where there will be crannogs and small, greyish, slithery people. I am also looking forward to the scene he makes when he finds that the lovely chicken soup he's been welcomed with is actually frog...

And I had never made the connection between Shaggydog and poor Rhaenys and Balerion. But you're right - it is a good omen for him, and the Starks could use a bit of good luck.

Bring on the small, greyish, slithery people!

[dolabellae]

I am definitely looking forward to meeting the crannogmen when they turn up.

I like to think that Balerion escaped, giving Amory Lorch a good taste of his claws and teeth in the process, and is lording it out over the cats of the Red Keep to this day. In fact, having just googled him to find out who killed Rhaenys (couldn't remember if it was Lorch or the Mountain), I see that someone has linked him with the tom Arya chases when she's training with Syrio Forel, and provided the quote that he's 'older than sin and twice as mean.' Yay Balerion!

(Sorry, that was a bit of a diversion from Rickon! I have always been a cat-person...)