Win or Die?

[pilot101.livejournal.com]

Name: I am a nameless faceless (wo)man
How did you find out about the community? If it's through an LJ user, please tell us who it is (individual user if possible, not just a community name!): Someone mentioned it at ONTD but I couldn't tell you who. Sorry!
Age: 22
Location: London, England
Occupation: Interning at two charities - providing legal aid




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!.

When I think of my ideal home, I imagine a cabin/cottage in the Scottish highlands. It’s not so much the building itself that matters but the location. I want it to have at least the appearance of isolation; no other houses or buildings close by. It has to be surrounded by hills and mountains and next to a vast loch. Complete quiet and solitude. However mid-dream, my realistic side kicks in and I remember certain pertinent facts about myself; I am not outdoorsy and I pretty much lack practical skills and common sense. Plus complete isolation sounds kinda nice in the abstract but then one day some sod in the local village wake up to find I’ve sawn his face off and turned it into a lampshade.... I'm just too practical to indulge my fantasies. Okay so perhaps I’ll keep the isolated cottage for when I’m fifty, by which time I’ll have learnt valuable life skills, own sensible shoes and probably hate humanity. Of course by then knowing me I’ll probably want to live in the desert or in an igloo or something random. That the real problem right there; I never really seem to know what it is that I actually want, or what I want seems to constantly change with whatever mood I’m in.

In the meantime, my ideal home would have to be in London because that’s where I live now and where I intend to live for the foreseeable future. It’s the only city I can imagine staying long term in. Location again is important but I’m open-minded because there are so many areas I like. However, it still has to be fairly close to shops, cafes, restaurants and with good transport links. I’m thinking an old townhouse, three storeys at least, with very high ceilings (I like space, and if my house isn’t going to be surrounded by it, then I need it inside my home). Period features throughout. It has to have character and a sense of history. I don’t want a modern soulless shell. The top floor will be entirely mine. I’m thinking a secret staircase so nobody can find me when I don’t want to be found. I’d like a roof terrace too. There would need to be a huge library and a study. It would be a grown up house. However, there is the possibility that I never will grow up and so I need a mid-life crisis basement (which you reach by slide) with every type of game console you can imagine, an air hockey table, table tennis, a cinema room etc.

Of course then there are other days when I think in my ideal world, I wouldn’t even own a home and would simply live out of a suitcase travelling from place to place.

That was basically the least coherent answer ever. Sorry.

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!

I wouldn’t wish for anything. If fiction has taught me anything, you can’t trust genie wishes. They will fuck you over. Like you’ll ask for world peace and the next thing you know we’re being ruled by cyborg overlords.

I suppose that's not a very helpful answer. Okay, if the genie was forcing me to make wishes using the threat of cyborg overlords....

1. The ability to teleport through space and time at will. I want to be my own tardis basically. I would just have to think of a particular place or time and then I would be able to transform myself there. I’d just spend the rest of my life going on adventures and solving mysteries. Of course I would try not to irrevocably change the course of history (just in case you were worried about that). I also wouldn’t need to waste a wish on unlimited money or the like because I can simply teleport myself into bank vaults. If I’m not feeling criminally inclined, I can teleport myself into the future to find out what investments or bets I should be making. Plus, I’ll have a readymade career of writing bizarrely accurate historical ‘fiction’.

2. I also want the power of invisibility. Fun (for the voyeur in me) and practical (I don't want to go back in time and be lynched for my converse or eaten by a dinosaur)

3. World peace - for the cyborgs

I possibly haven't taken this question too seriously. Plus, by the time I'd finished that sentence, I'd thought of about ten more superpowers I'd quite like.

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. ;)

Oh dear, this question is tough. I’m unsentimental so I don’t tend to look backwards very often or think much about the things I’ve done in the past. Ask me again in 10 years. Seriously, I don’t feel like I’ve particularly accomplished anything of note yet. Actually, I think I’m probably too self-deprecating to feel pride about anything that I do. I could find the cure for cancer and I would be like ‘yeah, what about that global warming though. I AM A FAILURE'

Possibly, in a perverse sort of way, I’m proud of simply surviving university. I went to a really good uni (I think I fluked my way in). Everyone else seemed to be super-competitive and driven and I……..am not. It was like I was that one stoner kid surrounded by an army of Tracey Flicks. Made me feel like shit to be honest. Plus I hated my subject and the workload was breakdown inducing, that made it about ten times worse. I pretty much spent the whole time in my room watching episodes of The Wire and drinking cup-a- soups. A few times I considered packing it in and going home. I didn’t and now I have a good degree in a useful subject from a uni that usually impresses people.


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.

Most important: Family. No need to think about it. It feels like a betrayal to put anything else above my family (my immediate family that is – the extended family, I’ll be honest with you, I could take or leave)

That wasn’t really much of a choice so I’m going to pick my second most important. That would probably be a tie between knowledge or pleasure. I love to learn. If I had the money, I would probably simply spend the rest of my life studying. And what’s the point of life if you don’t derive any pleasure from it?

Least important: Love. Okay that might sound odd given my other answers but that’s because I’ve taken this heading to mean romantic love and not familial love or the love I have for my best friend or my pets or anything like that. How do I explain this without sounding bitter, lonely or like a sociopath. I just don’t have any interest in romantic relationships beyond the physical. I have even less interest in marriage. Below zero interest in kids. I don’t have issues. I’m not traumatized. I just don’t want to be tied to anyone. I'm young, maybe that will change. I doubt it.


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

‘Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing' (Macbeth)

Contrasted with:

Why are you shitting on life before you’ve even lived it? (I can remember the quote but not where it comes from. For some reason I think Bill Nighy might have said something like this, in some British thing where he was playing the character of Bill Nighy – I realise that narrows it down to pretty much anything he’s ever done)

The first quote sums up how I usually feel about life (and it sounds so badass). I’m so downbeat, if my life was made into a film I’d be played by Bill Murray. Eeyore is my spirit animal. The second quote just reminds me to buck the fuck up basically.

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.

Well currently, with no actual job to speak of, I have very little money to manage. Obviously in the future financial security is going to be important but it’s not something that I’m worried about just yet. Actually, I find having money to be quite stressful. I’m never sure how to spend it and I have this weird guilt complex so that whenever I spend money I worry that I should have saved it instead. I’m pretty frugal with my money. I’m just not very materialistic in general I think.

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

Reading. By the time I die, I intend to be known in the local area as that crazy old lady with all the books (I will also have some cats but I intend to be better known for all my books). I love to read. I’m old school though; I need an actual book in my hand. I don’t do e-readers and all that jazz. I could write an epic ode to reading and bore you all to death but I’ll stop here.

Cultural stuff: Basically, I like nothing more than spending hours traipsing around art galleries and museums. I could find a museum about toothpicks absolutely riveting. I love going to the cinema (and I can be something of a film snob) and I would love to be able to go to the theatre more regularly.

Travel: This would be my ideal hobby if I had unlimited funds. I was lucky enough that my family travelled a lot when I was young. It wasn’t even that we were very well off, they were just very skilled at holidaying on a tight budget. There are still so many places that I want to visit, sights that I want to see. Once I get started in my career I intend to travel several times a year and I’m going to save so that when I retire I can basically go on a never-ending gap year.


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

This is a hard question to answer. I’m basically delusional when it comes to knowing my own limits. I’ve ended up in some scary situations (and nearly drowned about four times) because I’ve pretty much barrelled in and ignored my doubts.

1. Failure – I hate to fail at anything. I judge myself quite harshly but above all I really hate letting other people down.

2. Mental illness – There is a history of this in my family across several generations. It’s so horrible to imagine because of the value I place on my mental faculties and because I despise the thought of being dependent on anyone else.

3. Serial killers – My other two fears are really legit, this one is just quite daft. The other night, after I found the back door open, me and my brother went around the house making sure that a murderer wasn’t hiding anywhere. We checked wardrobes and cupboards on the off chance that it was a dwarf serial killer. I've seen too many horror films okay. I'm slightly paranoid.

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.

Worst:

1 – Impassive – cold, dry, imperturbable, inexcitable, inexpressive. Sometimes I feel like I just don’t feel things as strongly as other people do. The things that I do feel very strongly about, and get impassioned about, usually concern the problems of other people. I can work myself into a complete rage about a perceived injustice suffered by other people. My feelings tend to be all or none.

2 – Reserved – A bit different from the above, as this is more about people’s perceptions of me. Derives from the fact that I am very shy when I first meet people and I take a long time to open up. Although with people I feel very comfortable with, I am actually quite self-confident and gregarious.

3 – Indecisive – It has taken me so long to answer these fucking questions because I have pretty much changed my mind for every question I’ve answered at least once, especially this one. Links with the failure fear – I am always second guessing myself. I am also a procrastinator extraordinaire. Why do something today, when I could do it next week? Or preferably the week after that.

Best:

1 – Sense of humour – No matter how shit things seem, I can almost always see the funny side. I think that’s a good quality in anyone to be honest. I don’t like people who are pompous and take themselves too seriously (but I will gleefully take the piss out of them). I have quite a wry sardonic sense of humour. Toned down a bit now from when I was younger, when everything I said seemed to sound vaguely sarcastic. My humour is directed at myself more often than it is at anyone else because I’m generally sensitive about people’s feelings.

2 – Independent – It’s the positive spin on my impassivity (which is my worst quality in regards to the perception other people have of me). I go my own way. I know my own mind. I have never been susceptible to peer pressure. I’m pretty self-contained and I like that.

3 - Steady - I think I mean this in several senses. I'm hardworking and diligent and I just tend to get on with things. I'm also loyal, to people and to my principles and values. I'm calm and stoic in most situations (when I was younger I was much more temperamental and hot headed)

A Song of Ice and Fire Related

1.How many books from the series have you completed?

All except ADWD although I know all the big plot points because I'm a tragic spoiler whore.

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

This is such an interesting question because I watched the TV show, got involved in fandom (for spoilers) and then read the books, so my perception of the characters changed through that process. For example, watching the TV show, Dany was my instant favourite. I felt so much for her. Fandom’s rampant misogyny made me love her more and then I read the books and I felt no connection to her or her story at all. I don’t understand it honestly. I feel like it’s a moral failing on my part.
So weighing up all the factors – these are my favourite characters.

1. Jon Snow: Didn’t really interest me all that much in the TV show apart from my weekly urge to run my fingers through his curls. Then I found the R+L=J theory and my interest spiked (I love that whole secret destiny trope and at that point I thought he and Dany could meet and be awesome and vaguely incestuous together). Then I read the books and I fell in love. Pretty much straight off from Bran’s POV, I adored Jon. Yes, yes, I know, tropes and emoness and so on but I’ll be honest everything that people find irritating about his character, I find endlessly endearing and hilarious. I love his noble honourable moments. Stepping up and looking out for Sam and so on. Yet I love his douche moments even more. I can’t even explain it. I suffer from CAPSLOCK!Harry syndrome. I love me some teenage angst it seems.I love when he’s kindly trying to convince Sam being a steward isn’t so bad but when he gets made one, suddenly it’s all DO YOU TAKE ME FOR A COMMON SERVANT? I love when he solemnly vows to himself that he will absolutely definitely not be sleeping with Ygritte ……….and then he does, twice (and once more in the morning). So basically = Jon is fundamentally kind and decent with moments of shining bitchery and occasional rage fits. He has a badass sword and a badass albino wolf and has a natural instinct for cunnilingus. Ergo, bow down, he’s fucking awesome.

2. Arya Stark: “Can I be a king's councillor and build castles and become the High Septon?".
No Arya, indeed you cannot, but you may marry a king’s councillor and perhaps one of your strapping sons will build castles, huzzah! Arya, like every other woman in this series has limited options. But like Brienne and possibly Lyanna Stark (two other characters I’m intrigued by), she doesn’t seem willing to simply accept that. She questions and challenges the way things are. She isn’t a lady. From all that I’ve been able to surmise from these books; being a lady is all about shallow courtesies, looking pretty and embroidering crap. Arya’s treatment of her bastard half-brother and the Mikah is a hell of a lot more noble and kind (and thus lady-like) than Sansa’s or her mothers. It was kind of a no-brainer that I was going to love the kickass proto-feminist. She’s is almost implausibly badass. The moment I knew I would love her forever, no matter what psychopathic route she ends up going down, is when she tries to eat that guys eye worm in AFfC. Brilliant.

3. Sansa Stark: Now this one probably comes as a surprise after my other choices. It came as a surprise to me. My love for Sansa just kind of snuck up on me. For most of the 1st book, I didn’t give a toss about her. Prissy, shallow, snobby, naïve, always banging on about bloody knights and princes etc. She was just generally a bit of a twit. But hey, we’re all twits at that age, don’t even front. And then, the crap that is heaped upon her! Witnessing the death of her father, Joffrey and his knights (Knights! Her precious knights!) beating her, left in the Lion’s den surrounded by said twatty Lions, married into the family that masterminded the murder of her family, the rest of the former wholesome perfect family unit either dead, lost or freezing their bollocks off at the Wall…. On and on, shit is heaped upon her. So indifference turned to pity. But it was in the way that Sansa had dealt with all her troubles made me love her. She exhibited a level of patience, restraint and quiet inner strength that is no less courageous than any of Arya’s antics.

Honourable mention: Ned. I really am attracted to the stable, solid good characters it seems (also: Davos). I think this may be because if I lived in the world of Westeros, I would probably end up like Cersei, cut throat and ready to scheme to protect those closest to me. Ned’s sheer kindness, which he extends even to his enemies, is way more impressive to me than any of the other characters game playing or clever sceming. Ned doesn’t make the top three mainly because of the ?+?=J issue (and his loyalty to Robert - perplexes me man). If R+L is correct, it makes me love Ned even more because of the sacrifices he had to make. I mean, taking Jon in like that and protecting that secret was immense. But if, Jon’s mother is Ashara or Wylla though, then to be honest it was just unnecessarily cruel not to tell Jon and Catelyn.

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

Narrowing this down to three is damn near impossible. The force of hatred is strong in this one. I can think of about twenty characters I dislike.

I’m going to eliminate my love-to-hate characters. Viserys has provided me with far too much entertainment. ‘Do you want to wake the dragon?’ has legitimately entered my everyday vocabulary. Cersei is also amazingly hilarious. I also find myself thinking 'Joffrey was fond of making men fight to the death’ at random and inappropriate times and thus cracking myself up. Plus, I’d eliminate both Viserys and the Joffinator because they’ve died over the course of the books. Vengeance has already been served and there are more live and kicking motherfuckers to usefully direct my hatred at. Except for Gregor, he’s so vile, I hope he keeps coming back as a zombie just so he can be killed over and over again.

Now that’s more manageable, I think I’m going to go with:

1. Littlefinger: Part of me actually kind of likes and admires Petyr. I mean honestly whenever any shit goes down in these books, whether it’s a character death or a raven flying off course, I pretty much assume that Petyr has a hand in it and he’s off somewhere twirling a comically oversized moustache. However, he ruined the possible love I might have had for him by being a lifelong creeper. I want, no actually I need, for a character to go right up to his face and scream CATELYN JUST WASN’T THAT IN TO YOU. The fact that he has now transferred the focus of his creeper tendencies to Catelyn’s thirteen year old daughter is horrifying to me. I want him to be outwitted by someone, preferably Hodor, and then kicked out of the moon door.

2. Gregor Clegane: Yeah, like I said death isn’t enough to end my dislike of the Mountain. The story about the innkeeper’s daughter and what he did to Elia… He is absolutely vile. Vile, vile, vile. Did I mention that he’s vile? Because he is. He’s vile. But he’s a pretty underdeveloped character. He’s just a rampaging psycho. So maybe I should throw his brother Sandy in here as well. He’s underdeveloped too, but he isn’t a raging psychopath like Greg, he’s just an asshole. A woobie asshole. Together, they almost make one whole character.

3. The Greyjoys: Yeah the whole bloody lot of them (except for my flawless Queen Asha):. I almost went for the Freys for obvious reasons but nobody is hanging or baking Greyjoys as far as I know, so they’re more worthy of my hate. Right first up, I pretty much disliked Theon from the moment he appeared on the page. The fact that he later got POV chapters and I was able to see into his mind, only made me dislike him more. It’s very hard for me to change my initial impressions about a character (The only exception is Sansa - I mean even when Jaime was pushing small children out of towers he had a certain joie de vivre I appreciated). Theon is delusional, petulant, arrogant and just downright annoying and has basically no redeeming features to balance that out. Although I do wish he could have met Viserys and Joffrey. That would have been an epic circle jerk. And yes I know that Theon has been horribly tortured and so you could say he’s got more than his comeuppance but I don’t care. He’s still a wanker, but now he’s just a wanker without any skin. Then we’ve got Aeron Damphair, the most boring tosser that ever bored. Reading his chapter in AFfC was like a test of endurance. I hate all those religious fanatic types. At least Melisandre's voodoo seems halfway legit (with those shadow babies and all), someone needs to introduce Damphair to the concept of CPR. Then, every second page we have Victarion being all, oh poor me, my evil brother probably raped my wife so I had to beat her to death, oh boo hoo, why don’t my marriages work out?. I side-eyed his chapters so much, I don’t think I’m capable of looking directly forward anymore. Also I hate hate hate that salt wife stuff. Frankly, all of the Ironborn should just be swept away into the sea. Sort that out Drowned God.

4.#1 Favorite moment in all of ASOIAF so far? Why?

I’m spoiler whorish ways mean that nothing is ever a surprise. However, a spoiler did actually manage to slip by me and when I read ASoS, I had no idea that Artsan Whitebeard was actually Barristan the Bold until the reveal. A total ‘fuck yeah’ moment. I love him.

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

Others are destroyed, peace reigns blah blah. That’s boring and inevitable, let’s get to the fun aftermath. Obviously Jon sits pouting on the Iron Throne. I don’t even know where Dany’s at. She can rule with Jon or she can go conquer some other kingdom. Any other surprise!Targaryens can bugger off. Growing up as a bastard and being at the wall and being the brother of a girl like Arya, Jon would probably have quite an enlightened view about Westeros society and would actually give two shits about the peasants who suffer while all the nobles play their game of thrones. Plus, I think Jon is one of the few characters who wouldn’t actually want the throne and so therefore he must have it. Of course there would have to have a small council of awesome to get shit done. Sansa is his Hand and actually marries a boy who is gentle and kind and brave. Tyrion can be master of coin as he really does seem to enjoy paying his debts. Plus he can continue his bromance with King Jon and they can pout together about life’s cruelties. Samwell is his Maester and also the Master of whispers, using highly trained talking ravens to gather intel. Sam spends the rest of his time playing with kittens, dancing, singing to Jon and telling Lord Tarly to get stuffed when he comes creeping for forgiveness. Barristan is Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. Brienne is a member of the Kingsguard as well, which she joins after rejecting Jaime. Arya and Gendry travel around the world, she as a professional badass, delivering justice and him making her awesome direwolf helms. Bran becomes some sort of all-knowing flying shape-shifting warlock. People pay attention to Rickon.

Basically everybody I love gets a happy ending. I envisage Stark group hugs, direwolves cuddling up to dragons, rainbows and sparkles. Everybody I hate gets thrown in a pit and mauled by Nymeria, Shaggydog and Summer then roasted by the three dragons while Ghost watches on like a boss.

I am aware that everyone I love will probably die or be horribly damaged by the end of the last book. The books began with the Starks and I want it to end with them. In my realistic dream ending, I really just want Jon and the remaining Stark kids to be reuinited. I want Lady Stoneheart to find out four of her kids are alive and well and for her to find peace. I want everyone involved in Ned’s death and the Red Wedding to burn in the seven hells. That’s not too much to ask is it?

Comments

Greyjoy

[odeocowboys.livejournal.com]

I feel you on the romantic love thing. People judge me so hard when I say I don't want to get married or have kids.

That aside, I think you're a Greyjoy (an Asha-like Greyjoy, if that makes you feel better). You've certainly got the personality and a lot of the qualities that are associated with being a Greyjoy. However, since you dislike them so much, I think I'll go with Martell. You were rather Doran-y in some spots.