Win or Die baby!

[windfury.livejournal.com]

Name: Alexia
How did you find out about the community? If it's through an LJ user, please tell us who it is: Pretty randomly came up in a search while I was looking for icons, although I can't help myself but dip my toes back into fandoms lately.
Age: 30
Location: Australia
Occupation: Former lawyer, current student.




All About You

1. Describe your ideal house/home. Please go into as much detail as possible, and be sure to include your ideal geographical location in the description!.

Location wise in the city. I’ve lived in rural areas, and hate it, it’s very limited and very isolating. I like to be where things are, where people are and where I have options. There’s much more potential for a richer and more satisfying life in a city.

I think my ideal house is a country house in the city to some extent. My first priority is the place but if I could have that I’d then have a house that wasn’t crowded and overwhelmed, maybe high walls or trees to cut it off from the city to be my own space.

I have a thing for those beautiful old church conversions you see sometimes. Stone and timber building, lots of light, lots of air and a garden area as well. I would like a garden, big old trees and lots of space for animals. I like pets a lot, even though I can only have two cats in my current house, if I had my own place I’d have many more pets generally.

I want rooms and rooms of books, floor to ceiling, and a gigantic concert hall with a grand piano and acoustics that make even my flat singing voice sound amazing.

Decoratively I’m kind of a traditionalist. I like wooden floors and heavy dark wood furniture, mixed with deep leathers and soft dark fabrics and lots of plush comfort and so on. I hate those ultramodern minimalist setups, I’d be all about antiques etc if money were no issue.

2. Imagine you’re given the classic opportunity: a genie granting you three wishes. What would you wish for? Please be as elaborate as you can. Wishing for more wishes is not permitted!

1. Money. Enough money to never have to worry about money again. Enough money to do and buy anything and everything, enough to be able to satisfy my every whim and desire for the rest of my life. Money doesn’t solve all of life’s problems but it sure as hell helps smooth things out and makes the ride more pleasant.

2. Happiness of course. As the saying goes it’s the only thing money is not meant to be able to buy. Then I’d have everything right?

3. Control of time. To be able to stop it, or to move backwards and forwards through it. I want to be able to go back and correct things and do and say all the things I should have done and said and didn’t realise until later, I want to live the perfect moments over and over again. Never miss another opportunity, never suffer regrets. It would be true freedom.

3. In your life so far, what accomplishment are you the most proud of? Why? You can list more than one if you have trouble deciding. ;)

Finishing law school.

Due to a very interesting family I left home at 15 and put myself through school then through law school afterwards, largely driven by a desire to not just say fuck you to all the people who wrote me off because of my circumstances but to beat them at their own game. It took a hell of a lot of work, and burnt me out like you wouldn’t believe, but I’m still glad I did it.

4. Which of the following is most important to you: Love, Money, Knowledge, Family, Friendship, Adventure, or Pleasure? Which is the least important to you? Please explain why for each choice.

Love, although I cringe to admit it. I very much agree with the ‘that which we love destroys us’ sentiments expressed a number of times in the books. It’s something I’ve done stupid, idiotic, life changing things for from time to time, including but not limited to changing jobs, staying in awful soul destroying long distance things that didn’t work, and uprooting my entire life and moving interstate to where I knew basically nobody. Twice. I can’t think of anything else that would push me to that. There’s nothing else in the world like being with someone you love, it’s like crack to me. That said I've loved very rarely, but extremely intensely when I have. Part of my emphasis on it is how rare it is to me. It’s something difficult and therefore something I value highly.

Family is least important. Don’t get me wrong, I love my mother and sister, but we aren’t super close and don’t really confide in each other or anything like that. I’ve had very little to do with the rest of my family for a long time, and it’s not something I miss or really desire.

5. What's one quote (or passage, song lyric, etc.) that effectively describes you and your values? Explain.

I’ve seriously left this sitting on my desktop completed except for this question for about two weeks. I can’t think of one quote that sums up me and my values. I’d prefer to think that’s because I’m so amazing it just can’t be done, rather than the total lack of creative inspiration it may appear to be on the surface >.>

So in that spirit and with tongue firmly in cheek I’m going to quote the very quotable Barney Stinson and say:

When I get sad, I stop being sad, and be AWESOME instead. True story

Hey if that’s not a good quote to live by I don’t know what is. Everyone could do with a little more awesome in life imo.

6. How do you manage your money? On that note, how important is money/financial security to you? Go into as much detail as you can.

I’m good with money and financial security is extremely important to me. To be quite honest security in general is fairly important, and financial security is a big component of that.

I have been responsible for taking care of myself from a fairly young age, including financially supporting myself, which has given me a strong appreciation for what it is like to live under a great deal of financial stress and the ability to manage my personal finances to deal with that. Obviously as a result financial security is important to me.

Management wise I am cautious, and quite conservative. I budget, I seek to use my money wisely, I don’t take big risks. I buy good quality things that will last and like classic stuff that doesn’t go out of style easily. That’s just how I am, I don’t actually sit down and think “oh gotta be careful with money” or anything like that. I tend to save even when not really intending to. I laughingly blame it on my mother for making me a Capricorn.

7. Name (and elaborate on) some of your hobbies. What are your favorite things to do outside of school/the office?

I read a lot. I’m a gamer, I used to be super serious and competitive with that but sadly now I barely have enough time and largely play casually to keep in touch with people. I love the circus, I do classes mainly focused on aerials (trapeze, lyra, tissue), which are incredibly addictive but I really need more upper body strength to be better and have trouble making it to the gym regularly. I’d like to get back to martial arts as well but suspect I won’t be able to make time for quite awhile. When I get my tax return back this year I’m finally going to do something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and get a motorbike (a Ducati Monster if anyone’s interested, god they’re sexy bikes). I used to play football (soccer) a lot, although a knee injury stopped that I still follow the sport. So basically I like stuff.

I wish I had more time to indulge in hobbies. Right now it seems like I spend 90% of my waking hours in front of a computer working on one thing or another. So obviously I end up doing things like writing this app.

8. Name three things you are afraid of. Explain.

1. Failing – I hate not doing well. I’m super competitive and not winning or doing badly at something drives me nuts. I’m very driven, and I expect to succeed at things. I really don’t cope well if I don’t.

2. Aging – not because of dying but just getting old scares the hell out of me. There’s nothing good about it, you have to relate to the world in an entirely different way and it’s a way I don’t want to relate to the world in. I’m happy with youth and beauty thanks very much (well, youth at least). When you age you lose everything, from the ability to do pretty much everything that makes life worth living to the extreme end of even your memories and basically who you are. Do not want.

3. I’m afraid I’ve lost something very important to me forever. Don’t really want to elaborate on this one much. The loss was nobody’s fault and all just circumstances and luck and chance and I hate that and am scared that such random stupid pointless things that are totally beyond my control could have such huge impacts and literally just completely change my life in a way I can't fix.

9. Name (and elaborate on) your top three BEST and top three WORST qualities (personality-related, not physical). Please answer as fully as you can, as this is an important question.

Best

1. Intelligence - I’m very much a self-made person and have managed to get through life on the strength of my intelligence. I’ve been accused of arrogance about it in the past, and I do lack patience with people who aren’t quite as quick, but it is how it is. I’ve managed to get through some really rough times, and I’ve done it because I was smart enough to do so.

2. Loyal – I am extremely loyal to people who are important to me. It’s hard to get me to be loyal to someone in the first place, but once I am I will have their back forever, regardless of what happens or what awful things they might do.

3. Responsible – I’m just that kind of person. I tend to step up and take on responsibilities, mainly out of a desire to see things done right (by my definition of right of course). I like to see things through and generally take my responsibilities and commitments very seriously and personally. It’s kind of a strange thing to be proud of, but I am, I like that people will trust me or rely on me, and I do live up to that when I can.

Worst

1. Temperament – I tend to be quite emotional temperamentally, which I view as a weakness. It’s something I have to consciously keep in check and I have to force myself to step back and be calm and handle things based on rationality and not emotion. A lot of my problems in life fairly directly stem from where I’ve failed to do so. People I know casually don’t see that side of me ever, but the people I’ve been close to would be totally nodding at this. I do hide it well, but it’s there and bothers me.

2. Self-conscious – I don’t think a little bit of self-awareness is a bad thing, but I tend to take it to far and it crosses the line into self-consciousness for me. I very much have a mask I wear and an image of myself I try to project, and I can be quite defensive in protecting that. I can take offence a little too easily because of that, and in generally I think it kind of stops me just relaxing and being me. The irony is that my image is very much one of not caring what people think, but actually I do and just wish I really didn’t care at all.

3. Controlling – I’m a lawyer at heart, I’m very much trained to think in a certain way that includes seeing all the possible options. I see everything like that, never as a thing itself but all these options and possibilities spiralling outwards basically. When you see the world like that it’s hard not to respond by being quite controlling of it to try and direct things. I would love to be able to let things go and just enjoy the moment, but in general I can’t. There are times when I can manage it and they’re the times I associate with really feeling alive, so it frustrates me that it’s not something I can do more.




A Song of Ice and Fire Related

1.Who are your favorite three characters in the series? Why?

1. Sansa Stark

So I didn’t like Sansa much personally on my first read through, but I loved her arc. Then on my second read through she grew on me a ton, and now I’m on my third read through and I know enough about all the fandom Sansa hate to just love her. So I’m kind of choosing her for her and for what she represents.

I have such huge issues with the way a lot of people in fantasy fandoms respond to the more feminine female characters. Everyone loves the women who fit into the whole warrior women trope (which is so beautifully subverted by Brienne), but characters who are feminine, or take traditionally feminine roles get so much hate and it really drives me nuts.

Unlike the more traditional kick ass female fantasy characters (Arya, Asha, Dany) Sansa draws on her femininity as her strength, and people/readers respond so negatively to that. But she is actually incredibly strong in her own way, she survives things that would kill the other characters, I can’t see Arya lasting ten minutes in Kings landing for example, and the political environment she has learned to negotiate killed her father and brother who just couldn’t seem to learn how to work it. Sansa learns to bend, and so she doesn’t break and even in adapting she manages to retain some of her childlike innocence. And even in the worst situations she just does some awesome things. I think I really started to love Sansa when she refused to bend her knees so Tyrion could put the marriage cloak on her, it’s strength but in an entirely different way to what we normally see as strong females in fantasy.

As a character I see her as a foil to Cersei somewhat, they have this weird, dysfunctional relationship which I love seeing play out, and I see Sansa developing into being what Cersei could have been if she didn’t have all her baggage about being female and didn’t make all the bad choices she has. There’s just so much potential with Sansa and I can’t wait to see how she grows more.

2. Tywin Lannister

This man is just completely bad ass.

Yeah he’s a dick, but everyone is a bit of a dick and he owns it. He understands the game and plays it better than anyone when he has to, but he himself is actually really straight up and really pragmatic. He doesn’t fuck around and steps up and gets things done and does them well. And for all that he plays the game he doesn’t compromise himself or who he fundamentally is, he left Aerys and managed to walk away with his reputation and life intact. He refuses to accept slights to himself or his house. And he just does it all with so much style.

Really he was so amazingly effective at absolutely everything (except parenting) that he had started to dominate the books and had to be killed in a completely ridiculous and stupid way or the whole series would have turned into a Song of Ice and Tywin, which is nowhere near as catchy for tv.

3. Three is hard.

The last place is a 4 way tie between Jaime, the Blackfish, Theon Greyjoy (who I feel compelled to explain my like for and actually wrote out in length as number 3, then deleted because his lack of personal strength put him just outside regardless of how much I actually like him), and:

Oberyn Martell

He gets to represent the fun side of life for me. He’s smart, intelligent, snarky, sexy and lives a pretty amazing life. What’s not to like?

He isn’t scared to take risks, he’s driven, he’s able to see and take opportunities as they come but doesn’t let go over his focus. I love that he never gave up on his desire for justice and vengeance and how far he was willing to go to see that done. As a character he has an amazing presence whenever he’s in a scene. I adore reading him.

2.Who are your least favorite three characters in the series? Why?

It’s too easy to say Gregor, Joffrey and Ramsay Bolton. They’re written to be monsters so that takes all the fun out. Instead I’m going to look at some of the characters that have more depth who’s traits I dislike.

1. Cersei Lannister

To be fair I love Cersei as much as I dislike her. I really enjoy reading her chapters, and I have a lot of sympathy for her character. And this is starting really badly for a list of least favourites.

Anyway, I dislike her because I really dislike the way she handles things. It’s just awful. The whole emotions and anger and reacting that drives her really bothers me. To me maturity is very much about keeping that temperamental side in check, and being rational and generally sensible, so seeing someone who lets that emotional, angry, reckless side of their person so entirely rule them makes me cringe. Reading Cersei makes me alternate between wanting to shake her and just facepalming and screaming NOOOOOOOOO at her.

2. Mace Tyrell

Is pretty much everything I find contemptible in a person. He’s an unjustifiably self-important social climber, not particularly bright and so completely focused on appearance and short term gain that he’s entirely lacking any sort of substance.

He doesn’t plan, he doesn’t think, there’s no strategy. He seems to just find the nearest person in charge, bend the knee and start kissing ass. Does he actually do anything useful ever? He screws up the siege of Storms End under the Targaryens, ignores the smallfolk until it’s convenient to make a big show of helping them for his own political gain, then he gets back to ignoring them again while the Ironmen reave along the coasts that he’s charged to protect as the Warden of the South (a responsibility he appears to entirely ignore). Then when he finally does something it’s helping create a bloodbath in which one of his children is critically injured while in the meantime, back in Kings Landing where he’s meant to be keeping an eye on things, his other child has been thrown in a cell and charged with treason, and of course his other child had to stay home and miss all the fun because he was crippled when good old Mace pushed him into tourneys when he was way too young.

He doesn’t have a single genuine conviction, not even a shitty morally grey one and just comes across as an empty person as a result. He never does what is difficult and always takes the easy way. And he is too stupid to realise that he’s trading away the long term respect and legitimacy of his house for empty short-term popularity.

That got a bit longer than I’d intended. I really don’t like the guy but strangely never see much criticising him.

The last one is a toss up between Robb Stark for his utter inability to learn from his fathers mistakes or listen to his mother or just generally think with his head brain, and:

3. Rhaegar Targaryen

Oh yeah, I’m going there. I chose Sansa not only for my like of her but for meta reasons, so I figure I get to balance out the scales with one in the dislike column as well.

We know very little about Rhaegar and what we do know isn’t exactly all nice yet the man has virtually attained godhood in fandom. Google up a thread on favourite asoif characters and you’ll find a hundred people saying Rhaegar is the ideal man.

The ideal man who left his wife and children as his crazy father’s hostages, to run off with somebody else, including taking ¾ of their personal guard with him to keep an eye on the new woman. Even giving the benefit if the doubt and assuming Lyanna’s consent (which I personally do believe was there, and I do subscribe to L+R=J) that was a pretty big dick move. Just putting it out there. He was selfish and arrogant, and these traits led to him pretty much starting the entire mess that has occurred in Westeros over the last 17 years, for reasons that he apparently explained to exactly nobody.

Doubtless there was some reason behind it, doubtless we will eventually find out, but honestly, I really don’t care what the reason was I’m fairly sure he could have handled and managed basically everything better, and certainly doesn’t deserve the blanket adoration he seems to get.

3.#1 Favorite moment in all of ASOIAF so far? Why?

Ok there’s four. I can’t pick a single favourite. Yeah, I know, my application is either demonstrating that I can’t count or have zero ability to follow rules (hey I remembered Win or Die! And hopefully even spelled it correctly. Mostly), but sorry, there’s still four.

Dany freeing the unsullied in Astapoor. Her riding her silver along he rows of slaves and calling her Dragons was such an amazing picture in my mind, on top of it being just a general Fuck Yeah! type moment.

Jaime in the Tully Dungeon. “There is no one like me. There’s just me”. OMFG amazing.

Sansa building the snow Winterfell at the Eyrie. Such a beautiful scene, which really capped off Sansa’s arc. I just have this incredibly intense emotional picture in my mind from this one. I love reading it.

Doran Martell’s “Vengeance. Fire and Blood” speech. How can that not just give you the chills.

4. In your dream-world, how would you like to see the series end, and why?

I’m not sure I can answer this one, since I may somewhat confuse how I think it’s going to end with how I want it to end.

I don’t really want happy endings. Part of what I love about the series is the way it deconstructs the fantasy tropes. Except maybe happy endings for Sansa, and possibly Jaime and Davos. And Theon. Ok so maybe a few happy endings. Although with Davos probably dead, Theon completely broken and my thinking of Jaime as going out in a blaze of glory somehow I don’t think I’m likely to get those. So basically all my hopes are resting on Sansa. But no pressure!

That said Jon is the child of R/L, he teams up with Dany and deals with the others by way of her Dragons. Then with Stannis’ support they join the north and take back the Iron Throne. Jon goes back to his Wall and Dany takes the throne. But it’s an empty victory and she’s the leader of a destroyed land in the early stages of a long Winter, and rules knowing that when she dies she will have no heir and the Kingdom will likely once again descend into chaos, undoing anything she does achieve.

I’m not sure about the other characters. I see Tyrion being instrumental in Dany’s success but never being able to shake off what happened with Tysha. Sansa taking back Winterfell in her own right, which I guess means something appropriately terrible needs to happen to Bran and Rickon (I’m sorry I just can’t make myself care that much about them). I would really like to see Arya reunited with Jon at some point and would like to see her meet and possibly deal with Lady Stoneheart. Beyond that I can’t say though.

I really want there to be some amazing twist that nobody anywhere ever saw coming.

Comments

Stark

[matitablu.livejournal.com]

Definitely Lannister, yeah - with a mish mash of Martell and Targaryen as (quite far behind) runner-ups :)