[Archiving] Addressing a few points on BD28

[necessarian]

Originally posted: 24.4.'15

I’m writing from my tablet because it’s late and I just got home, and since I’m not going to get to replying to all the comments on the chapter until tomorrow, there are a few things I want to discuss, because they came up more than once. And I need to get all this off my chest! Sorry for the wall of text; idek if you can do read-mores on mobile. Might pop under one tomorrow but for now this’ll have to do.

(Spoilers for my latest chapter, obviously.)

First: I’m deliberately very sympathetic towards Sansa and Catelyn, in part becauseI’m wary of how many people dislike them, and in part because at its heart BD is a story about women sticking together and forging their own paths in a society that is oft cruel to them. I like to think that this is all in the grand tradition of Jane Austen’s masterful social commentary, but I am just a pretender to the throne. I write Brienne as forgiving of both women despite, or perhaps because of, their predicament. Catelyn in particular has many points of contention with Brienne, but I have taken great care not to paint her as too much of a Mrs Rochester, and bring in more of her grief as it is in the asoiaf books. And Sansa… Sansa is young, and has made a bad life choice that led to societal ostracisation, but by no means did she know that it would turn out the way it did, and I’ve tried to make that clear. So it’s not great to hear that people come out of my fic hating Sansa and Catelyn for reacting the way they do to their situation, especially since I’ve taken some care to show that Brienne understands both their positions, despite any disagreements. Obviously I can’t stop anyone from disliking a character, but I hope that this extra perspective can maybe change your minds!

(I should have known that Stark Hate was a risk I was taking when I decided to steer the story in this direction… so um buckle up for a fair few more sad things happening on that front?? The word “destruction” is in the title for a reason.)

Now, two questions that came up:

1. Is Sansa still in love with Joffrey?

So many people brought this up that I almost began to doubt myself what I’d written. Short answer, no. Long answer, one never quite forgets their first love, in the same was that Brienne will never forget the intensity of her erstwhile feelings for Renly. Sansa, as of now, is furious at Joffrey for essentially leading her on. It’s a huge scandal to elope, and worse, to elope but not marry, and Sansa did not know it wouldn’t end in marriage. She’s in a terrible place and if society allowed, she’d just move on and forget all about it, but it is Seemly for her to marry now, and so Jaime has done her the service of making a match. Sansa is under no obligation to be happy with this, though. She’s been through some shit. She most likely will never be happy married to Tyrion, never truly. But that doesn’t mean she’ll ever love Joffrey again after he betrayed her trust.

2. Why is Catelyn so mad at Jaime?

Ok first of all, this is something I haven’t actually gone into much, because the story is from Brienne’s POV, so of course you’re not getting the full picture. So think of this as a bonus to the fic! Catelyn, most of all, is mad at Joffrey for ruining her daughter’s prospects. By extension, she is mad at Cersei, the key influence in Joffrey’s life, and so her anger has also extended to the entire Lannister family. (We saw that earlier in how angry she got when Brienne mentioned Jaime to her.) And why isn’t she mad at Tyrion too? Well, she doesn’t know that Jaime arranged the match, since Brienne is the only person Sansa told, and also Catelyn sees Tyrion as the saviour of her daughter’s reputation. It doesn’t have to make sense. Grief never truly obeys logic.

I hope that this has managed to clear some things up for some people! I’ll pop a link to this at the bottom of the chapter tomorrow. Until then… thanks to everyone who read this, and especially thanks to everyone who left a comment on the chapter! Your words are all valued, even if perhaps we haven’t seen eye-to-eye on some things :’)