#jeyne poole
that is a scenario i daydream about with jon @jonsnow-creative
lady arya and the turncloak get delivered to the wall. the disappointment that it is not arya; the worry. where is she? the need to protect jeyne anyhow. a confrontation with theon finally but that’s the state he’s in. theon smiling at ghost like go on eat me i won’t mind.
#I love ghost and Theon obv#but more I love Jon and Jeyne#my hope is that Jon continues the pretence that Jeyne is Arya in public#and that this means when his parentage reveal happens she is able to support him with issues around assumed names for protection#and the complications that arise around identity#I know that you can read it as problematic that Theon whilst celebrating the recovery of his own name encourages Jeyne to keep Arya’s name#but there is a difference between knowing your name and assuming an identity to keep you safe#I’m also interested in Jeyne and Jon’s motherlessness#and obviously all 3 of them have these starkling adjacent childhoods which are interesting
jeyne jon interactions i never thought much about before but your interest is contagious & i agree; especially if jon is in a position of power in his pretence. generally the thought of jeyne keeping up the fake arya identity for a sustained time is very interesting to me; it’s part of why i stalled in my daydream(-made-fic) about post escape jeyne+theon that having her reclaim her name was pleasantly cathartic for about 5 minutes but then it’s “ok and now what? obv. if what you start playing from is the canon timeline all this is complicated by jon’s death & presumed resurrection and how changed he will be after that (substantially, i hope). i also wonder where arya will come in with this, since i very much don’t want her & jeyne to have an antagonistic relationship & want them to collaborate instead (i particularly hate the theory that arya will kill jeyne to reclaim her place).
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that is a scenario i daydream about with jon @jonsnow-creative
lady arya and the turncloak get delivered to the wall. the disappointment that it is not arya; the worry. where is she? the need to protect jeyne anyhow. a confrontation with theon finally but that’s the state he’s in. theon smiling at ghost like go on eat me i won’t mind.
Post link
that is a scenario i daydream about with jon @jonsnow-creative
lady arya and the turncloak get delivered to the wall. the disappointment that it is not arya; the worry. where is she? the need to protect jeyne anyhow. a confrontation with theon finally but that’s the state he’s in. theon smiling at ghost like go on eat me i won’t mind.#I love ghost and Theon obv#but more I love Jon and Jeyne#my hope is that Jon continues the pretence that Jeyne is Arya in public#and that this means when his parentage reveal happens she is able to support him with issues around assumed names for protection#and the complications that arise around identity#I know that you can read it as problematic that Theon whilst celebrating the recovery of his own name encourages Jeyne to keep Arya’s name#but there is a difference between knowing your name and assuming an identity to keep you safe#I’m also interested in Jeyne and Jon’s motherlessness#and obviously all 3 of them have these starkling adjacent childhoods which are interesting
jeyne jon interactions i never thought much about before but your interest is contagious & i agree; especially if jon is in a position of power in his pretence. generally the thought of jeyne keeping up the fake arya identity for a sustained time is very interesting to me; it’s part of why i stalled in my daydream(-made-fic) about post escape jeyne+theon that having her reclaim her name was pleasantly cathartic for about 5 minutes but then it’s “ok and now what? obv. if what you start playing from is the canon timeline all this is complicated by jon’s death & presumed resurrection and how changed he will be after that (substantially, i hope). i also wonder where arya will come in with this, since i very much don’t want her & jeyne to have an antagonistic relationship & want them to collaborate instead (i particularly hate the theory that arya will kill jeyne to reclaim her place).
ooh thank you for the reply. I have so many thoughts that were inspired by this about the whole pass the parcel of identity that is going on with asoiaf young team (Theon has had his identity physically removed from him (in a sense) but he has reclaimed it, Jon and Young Griff-Aegon’s identities are being foreshadowed as a mirror image (I should probably write a whole thing about this but I won’t and by tonight I’ll have forgotten half of it), do Arya’s and Jeyne’s taking on of other identities work in mirror image too? In Harrenhal Arya not being Arya keeps her safe (to some degree), in Winterfell Jeyne being Arya keeps her safe (to an even lesser degree)?? and then? this could be interesting to explore in parallel with the Jon Young Griff-Aegon mirroring because of some in fandoms use of the lowercase f. just how important is the truth of your identity? And does sometimes the experience and the way things appear hold more power than the ‘truth’?). the fact that it’s often the younger characters who are swapping identities, or having to take on aliases gives this theme a parallel, surely, with adolescence experience, with the twist and discovery of who we are that goes on for many people through the ages these characters are at?
So to Jon and Jeyne. For me, I’ll be disappointed if Jon doesn’t retain most of his humanity post resurrection, (if he becomes very single purpose in the way Lady Stoneheart appears to be to me, I’ll feel I haven’t got the payoff on so many things I want explored, the way he is closing off from his friends in adwd, the identity chaos that is surely the response to being fucked up about being x almost your whole life and then finding out that was actually a lie by your caregiver and you are in fact y ). If Jon retains his humanity and his position of power and he chooses to protect Jeyne by pretending she is his beloved sister, that’s an interesting dynamic. Plus I am always interested those who have had power taken from them (as Jeyne has) then finding they have other power and seeing how the powerful can also feel powerless, so if Jeyne gets to help Jon deal with that whole I’m not x I’m y situation, because she has an understanding of identity and the impact of his childhood, I’ll find that very satisfying.
This went on (it could totally have gone on longer)
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I don’t think grrm treated any character as badly as he treated Jeyne Poole. She bullied Arya because she was Jealous of her and wanted what Arya would get easily - a good marriage to a lord and he gives that to her in the worst way and it feels kind of like some kind of twisted punishment. After being kept in a brothel and being “trained” for two years from the age of eleven she gets to have Arya’s life, return to her home and marry a lord but that lord is Ramsay Bolton, the biggest sadist in westeros who puts her through unimaginable torture and she’s forced to keep being Arya even after her escape because as Jeyne she’s worthless to the northern lords who aided in her rescue and she can’t get her identity back without suffering severe consequences, a reminder that Jeyne Poole has no value unlike Arya Stark. Not only that, but she becomes disfigured and her body is permanently scarred which again feels like punishment for making fun of Arya’s looks so she essentially loses her own looks. Her abuse is described in horrible detail but we never get her POV not even one small chapter to give her some agency in the story where she has none. It all really rubs me up the wrong way especially when I see people say that she deserves it or that they don’t care about what happens to her because she was a bully as a child (did jon deserve to die by the hands of the men of the nights watch for bullying them? No? But Jeyne’s suffering is deserved apparently) or because she’s simply an unimportant character. GRRM has written a lot of disturbing shit and it is what we readers expect but he really went too far and crossed the line with his cruelty towards Jeyne Poole.
Jeyne Poole my beloved, my sweet summer child, my poor little meow meow…
That’s Sansa’s little friend, the steward’s girl. Jeyne, that was her name. Jeyne Poole.
“Lord Ramsay.” The girl dipped down before him. That was wrong as well. The real Arya Stark would have spat into his face. “I pray that I will make you a good wife and give you strong sons to follow after you.”
“That you will,” promised Ramsay, “and soon.”
Reek II, A Dance with Dragons
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just the quickest sketch of jeyne p and sansa
