Barristan Selmy - Tumblr Posts
ASOIAF characters + their childhood heroes
I’ve seen a lot of comparisons between the Daenerys/Barristan scene with the Daenerys/Jon scene, where she notices that Jon is in a lot of ways like her brother, as in he doesn’t enjoy what he’s good at, aka killing.
But Dany is the one who mentions it, which I’d interpret as she knows she’s good at killing people, mainly with her dragons burning them and she enjoys it.
While Jon doesn’t.
Which would make him a better person in the eyes of Dany and the viewers.
So I got people really upset with this, and from what I gathered they seemed no to see my point but an apperentl dislike for Dany, which I do not have, in fact I like her very much. So here is an alalysis of the SHOW about this scene and my interpretation of it. Which a lot of mentions of the episodes where Dany and Jon do kill.
The first thing is when Barristan Selmy talks about Rheagar S5E4 Barristan Semly: Rheagar never liked killing, he loved to sing. And then there is the scene between Jon and Dany in S7E3 J:You’ve been talking to Tyrion. D:He is my hand. J:He enjoys talking. D:We all enjoy what we’re good at. J:I don’t.
after said scene Dany looks at Jon with a very interesting look, which is hard to interpret. But she at least thinks about what Ser Barristan told her about Rheagar and makes a connection between a good man (as she knows Rheagar was by Ser Barristan) and another good man Jon. But also Dany says very casually that “we all enjoy what we’re good at”, which includes her. And she is good at defeating her enemys and killing them. And she definitly is enjoying some of it, whereas Jon is not.
Looking at Dany’s kills thoughout the seasons:
I am not counting Drogo, obviously, because that is an entirely different thing.
S1E10 Miz Maz Durr The burning of the Witch, very painful death and pure revenge, of course. And Dany liked burning her. That woman killed her husband and her child after Dany did something nice to her (even if Miz saw that differently) and watching that scene makes you want Miz to die, you don’t want her to survive, there is a sense of justice and because of the sense of revenge you want it to be painful and so does Dany. S2E10 House of the Undying She loves killing this guy, she loves the power and who in her position wouldn’t. He trapped her and kidnapped her children, he deserves to die and yes there is no other posibility to kill him but with the dragons, not you can see her smiling as her dragons kill him. And not only because she is proud they finally can breath fire, but because that man is dead.
S2E10 Yaro Xhoan Daxos, Dorea she smiles, before she lockes them up. It is revenge for them betraying her, she didn’t kill them for the sake of their death, but for revenge. And she is very happy with the outcome, her getting enough to buy a ship.
S3E9 unsullied army My favourite Dany scene of all of them. And she loves how she outsmarted him, she is very smug about it and she very happily, smiling saying Dracarys and burns him. And has no problem whatsoever to order the death of all of the men of power.
S6E4 Khals The Khals at first just followed their tradition and didn’t want to follow her orders (because why would they). But afterwards they threatened her, and she enjoyed that fire very much and killing all of them at once. Was their death necessary for her war, yes, did she spear all their men and wifes, yes, but she enjoyed the death of the Khals. Also a very painful death. S6E9 Meereen Burning the ships. Not the best shot of her. She looks weird, and I honestly can’t tell what her face is even supposed to look like, but she was very smug when talking to the masters, because she knew she had already won and they would fall. S7E4 Highgarden: smile before the burning of the soldiers, very confident in what she does, pissed off, because she lost her fleet, burns the food, for the sake of the enemy not getting it, instead of saving it for her own army. S7E5 Tarlys gives Randall Tarly more than once chance, but not Dickon, who is a lot younger and obviously isn’t smart enough to bend the knee here, where Tyrion’s words would have made sense. But on the other hand Dany did say she wouldn’t put them in chains. BUT Tyrion sees that Dany is not on the best path here, because she is using Drogon to make the soldiers fear her, not love her, like she did with the smallfolk and the slaves in Essos, she makes them scared of her, by burning them, so that they would bend the knee. This gives her peace at the moment but no love in the long run. She does not enjoy this, but she is very cold and practical about it. It reminds me of Jon beheading Janos Slint, he gave him more than one chance, but unlike Dany there was no other option for Jon, because of the laws of the NW. I am not saying that Dany is a bad character for liking to kill. A lot of GoT chracters like to kill, Arya, Sandor, Bronn are all likeable and they are very good and like killing. And Dany has very good reason for every single of her kills. I enjoyed watching the deaths of all of the Essos storylines very much, I rooted for Daenerys, but I also see she enjoyed killing her enemys, I enjoy watching her killing her enemys and I do so for other characters aswell. I mean Arya killing Walder Frey was no different from the kind of revenge Dany goes through and I don’t think anyone didn’t cheer in that scene.
And in comparison here are Jon’s kills:
Jon is a lot more, necessary but not enjoyable about death, a lot like Ned Stark was, very dutyful.
I am cutting out
-Quorin Halfhand, because Jon clearly didn’t want to kill an ally, but did as he was told for the necessity of the NW
-the Free Volk he travelled with, because they were his companions. Because there would not be any joy out of those for anyone (maybe the Mountain).
-S5E8 Hardhome He fights a White Walker here, so it’s not exactly a moment of that’s a person. He is fighting about general survival, but even after the survival he isn’t happy about being able to kill a Walker. He is just all over done about how many people are dead and what that means. -the other Walkers and White’s scenes, because they are not alive, it’s killing Zombies, not alive people.
So we have:
S4E9 Styr This Is probably the only kill I’d say Jon had any sense of I really want to kill that guy, until Ramsay came (but there was a long list of reasons for Ramsay), but the other Wildlings Jon did definitely not really want to kill, I think Styr he wanted dead. Maybe not kill him personally, but dead overall, because he fought Jon head on and really tried everything to kill him. But Jon is clearly not happy. For him the whole battle is just hoping for it to be finally done and not lose to many people he cares for. He fights because he has to, not because he wants to. That also show’s later when he bolts Tormund. He just wants this to be over. He is done or fighting and death. -S5E3 Janos Slynt Jon gave him an order and he refused 3 times. Even after Jon gave him a last back out chance and he even insulted Jon in front of the whole NW. There was no chance, not even Ser Alliser said anything, because he knows the rules of the NW, all of them do (besides Janos the idiot). And Jon is very Ned Stark with the deserter, I have to do this, I don’t like it, but I will do my duty. But he doesn’t enjoy it, even if he hated Janos Slynt, he doesn’t like it.
-S6E3 The traitors It is a very official affair. He goes through with it very merciful, considering they killed him, Olly killed Ygritte (which Jon never held against him) and Ser Alliser hated his guts from day 1. But he simply hung them, which is a quick and relatively painless death. And 3 out of the 4 of them don’t even seem to hate him for it, (only Olly looks with hatred, the others go down with acceptance) but they know he is only doing his duty. And he kills them but he is clearly unhappy with it, even after they killed him, betrayed him, he didn’t like it.
-S6E9 Battle of the Bastards Jon cuts though a lot of soldiers and he is pissed, you can see that, he wants his enemies dead and he kills them, but he isn’t enjoying it. He wants Ramsay dead (of course) but he isn’t having fun fighting and killing like a lot of characters do. He just cuts though them left and right, trying to get through to Ramsay. Because he wants Ramsay dead, every viewer waited for Ramsay to die, we knew it was coming and Jon didn’t even kill him (which made sense) but is also very important. This is the first time Jon really wanted to kill someone, even with the traitors, even Janos Slynt, he didn’t want them dead right away, but he wanted Ramsay dead. This isn’t a kill out of duty, it is out of hatred, but Jon doesn’t come out of the fight with a sense of winning, but a sense of losing.
Whereas Dany kills and wins, Jon kills and loses. The deaths around them were very different deaths to begin with. Dany losing Viserys was not a defeat, it was a victory, whereas Jon losing Ned, Robb, Rickon thinking Bran is dead were all just deaths that hurt him more than anything. But he didn’t get more power, he just got pain, while Dany got stronger. Dany lost Drogo and Jon Ygritte. Both of them lost the person they love, but again Dany got her children and her own Khalassar that way and Jon only got one more person he loved dead. Both of them grieve for their lost once of course, but for Jon it’s just losing more and more though death, whereas Dany gets victories out of it.
Which is why Dany enjoys killing and Jon does not.
And I think that in Dany’s eye he seems like a good person, perhaps a better person than she is, because she knows herself, she knows she enjoys it. But he does not.
I am not saying Jon is a better person or Dany is a bad person, they both have their strenghts and weaknesses, but I think in this scene Dany thinks of Jon as a defnitly good, but even better person than she is in this perticular way.
I’ve seen a lot of comparisons between the Daenerys/Barristan scene with the Daenerys/Jon scene, where she notices that Jon is in a lot of ways like her brother, as in he doesn’t enjoy what he’s good at, aka killing.
But Dany is the one who mentions it, which I’d interpret as she knows she’s good at killing people, mainly with her dragons burning them and she enjoys it.
While Jon doesn’t.
Which would make him a better person in the eyes of Dany and the viewers.
CANON DAENERYS CHALLENGE || Heartbreaking Moments: Dany’s reaction to finding out about Jorah’s and Barristan’s betrayals
Was there no one she could trust, no one to keep her safe? […]
Go, go away forever, both of you, the next time I see your faces I’ll have your traitors’ heads off. She could not say the words, though. They betrayed me. But they saved me. But they lied. “You go …” My bear, my fierce strong bear, what will I do without him? And the old man, my brother’s friend. “You go … go …” Where?
And then she knew.
What's crazy is that Barristan has the character development that people pretend Jaime has but because he supports Dany and doesn't spend all of his page time talking/thinking about how evil Targaryens are, it gets ignored
Characters remembering/mentioning Rhaegar Targaryen
This is a scene from AGOT that I like very much, it’s from Sansa I, I think.
All the known characters Rhaegar Targaryen beat during the tourneys.
Prince Rhaegar’s prowess was unquestioned, but he seldom entered the lists. He never loved the song of swords the way that Robert did, or Jaime Lannister. It was something he had to do, a task the world had set him. He did it well, for he did everything well. That was his nature. But he took no joy in it. Men said that he loved his harp much better than his lance.
Join us in the upcoming Targaryen November! Here is the list of prompts.
DAENERYS APPRECIATION MONTH 2021: ↳ Day 10: Cute, soft and silly moments.
“Ser Barristan,” she called, “I know what quality a king needs most.” “Courage, Your Grace?” “Cheeks like iron,” she teased. “All I do is sit.” *** In the purple hall, Dany found her ebon bench piled high about with satin pillows. The sight brought a wan smile to her lips. Ser Barristan’s work, she knew. The old knight was a good man, but sometimes very literal. It was only a jape, ser, she thought, but she sat on one of the pillows just the same.
Jaime snapped. “…good men every one.” “Dead men, every one.”
barry is actually so cute for being ok with lewyn having a paramour even though he was kg + defending dany for having daario as a side piece even though she’s married + mentally considering egg’s gay son to have married for love. being weirdly progressive and chill for an old man cop is such a cute unexpected trait idk
https://www.tumblr.com/radicalsansa/739060101195907072/if-youre-looking-at-hotd-through-a-medival
😨
How exactly does GRRM want us to look through a "medieval lens"? Does he want us to look through a medieval lens when we're watching underage girls be married off and suffering marital rape? Does he want us to look through a medieval lens when soldiers rape and pillage innocent smallfolk? Does he want us to look through a medieval lens when tyrannical kings are supported just because they took the throne?
GRRM's books may take place in a medieval-esque world, but that doesn't mean he wants the audience to support the atrocities normalized by a medieval society. He uses his setting to criticize the actions of the medieval world.
He uses Daenerys' campaign against slavery to show the monstrosity of the slavers and those who stand by allowing it. He uses Sansa's treatment by Joffrey to show the hypocrisy of the order of knighthood and medieval chivalry. He uses Jon's treatment in Winterfell to show the harm of bastardphobia. He uses Arya's time among the smallfolk to show how the petty wars of lords impacts the people. He uses Brienne's life to show the damage the patriarchy does to non-conforming women. He uses Rhaenyra's story to show the far-reaching harm to the world the patriarchy causes. He uses Barristan Selmy and Jaime Lannister to show the dangers of blind loyalty to a king.
We the audience are not supposed to justify a character's actions just because it was normal for the time. That's like justifying Thomas Jefferson's owning of slaves because it was the norm for rich men in Colonial America. We are supposed to be horrified with the world's treatment of people who don't conform to it. We are supposed to feel angry at the normalized and rampant injustice. We are supposed to acknowledge that, while the books (much like the world) are filled with people who do the wrong thing, the characters are not all equally bad.
This post was deleted since I started writing this a few days ago (so sorry it took me so long to finish this answer), but the gist of it is that TG is right because of the medieval standards of Westerosi society. In the case of Rhaenyra, like I said earlier, GRRM uses to Dance to show the damage of the patriarchy and male primogeniture. The dragons are wiped out because of TG's greed and sexism. The realm suffers thousands of deaths because the greens couldn't stand a woman, a non-conforming woman no less, to take the throne. GRRM doesn't want us to just nod along and say, "oh that's fair, after all it is normal for the time :)". No, we are supposed to see the injustice of the situation and the harm that injustice causes.
Jon Snow, secretly the son of R&L
Alleras, secretly Sarella Sand
Young Griff, secretly Aegon VI Targaryen, secretly Aegon Blackfyre
Griff, secretly Jon Connington
Arstan Whitebeard, secretly Barristan Selmy
the Gravedigger, secretly Sandor Clegane
The Knight of the Laughing Tree, secretly Lyanna Stark
Abel, secretly Mance Rayder
Varys, secretly a Blackfyre???
Quaithe, secretly whoever needs to hide her face from Dany
Pycelle, secretly a Lannister bastard
Brienne of Tarth, secretly a Targaryen (descendant) and relative of Duncan the Tall
Gorgeous comic that I commissioned from @pepelinkri depicting Dany’s visit to the Astapori refugees. This is a very underrated book scene that encapsulates who Daenerys Targaryen is: a compassionate and selfless leader who is determined to go to any lengths to help her people (despite not receiving anything in return for it) and who inspires her allies to do better in the process.
Every day she sent them what she could, but every day there were more of them and less food to give them. It was growing harder to find drivers willing to deliver the food as well. Too many of the men they had sent into the camp had been stricken by the flux themselves. Others had been attacked on the way back to the city. Yesterday a wagon had been overturned and two of her soldiers killed, so today the queen had determined that she would bring the food herself. Every one of her advisors had argued fervently against it, from Reznak and the Shavepate to Ser Barristan, but Daenerys would not be moved. “I will not turn away from them,” she said stubbornly. “A queen must know the sufferings of her people.”
[…] What kind of mother has no milk to feed her children?
[…] “You should not linger here overlong, Your Grace. The Astapori are being fed, as you commanded. There’s no more we can do for the poor wretches. We should repair back to the city.”
“Go if you wish, ser. I will not detain you. I will not detain any of you.” Dany vaulted down from the horse. “I cannot heal them, but I can show them that their Mother cares.”
[…] There was an old man on the ground a few feet away, moaning and staring up at the grey belly of the clouds. She knelt beside him, wrinkling her nose at the smell, and pushed back his dirty grey hair to feel his brow. “His flesh is on fire. I need water to bathe him. Seawater will serve. Marselen, will you fetch some for me? I need oil as well, for the pyre. Who will help me burn the dead?” By the time Aggo returned with Grey Worm and fifty of the Unsullied loping behind his horse, Dany had shamed all of them into helping her. Symon Stripeback and his men were pulling the living from the dead and stacking up the corpses, while Jhogo and Rakharo and their Dothraki helped those who could still walk toward the shore to bathe and wash their clothes. […]
Before midday a dozen fires were burning. Columns of greasy black smoke rose up to stain a merciless blue sky. Dany’s riding clothes were stained and sooty as she stepped back from the pyres. (ADWD Daenerys VI)
Daenerys Targaryen Appreciation Month 2021
↳ Day 29 → Men in Dany’s Life: Her Knights and Captains
i. Jorah Mormont ii. Grey Worm iii. Barristan Selmy iv. Daario Naharis v. Brown Ben Plumm
Jaime snapped. “…good men every one.” “Dead men, every one.”
Khrazz laughed. “Old man. I will eat your heart.” The two men were of a height, but Khrazz was two stone heavier and forty years younger, with pale skin, dead eyes, and a crest of bristly red-black hair that ran from his brow to the base of his neck.
“Then come," said Barristan the Bold.
~
“I command you once more, in King Joffrey’s name, to prove the loyalty you profess and open these gates,” said Ser Amory.
For a long moment Yoren considered, chewing. Then he spat. “Don’t think I will.”
~
“Bring on your storm, my lord-and recall, if you do, the name of this castle”-Ser Cortnay Penrose
Robert had shame enough to blush. “It was not the same,” he complained. “Ser Barristan was a knight of the Kingsguard.”
(insp) (continued)