Win or die...

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Name: Toria
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!): I think I first heard mention of it in the sansaxsandor community, but I can’t remember which individual user it was. Sorry!
Age: 20
Location: North Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Occupation: Full time Politics and International Relations 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!

It’s easier for me to describe my ideal location than the house itself so I’ll start with that. It would ideally be somewhere out in the middle of nature and quite remote. As long as I have a decent internet connection I don’t mind it being miles away from civilisation! It would be in a heavily forested area and preferably near mountains, as I’d love it to have that really wild and untamed landscape. There would also need to be rivers and lakes, and basically just be very beautiful. There would be lots of snow in the winter but nice bright summers as well because I like to have that seasonal change, and not be in an environment that stays constant throughout the year.  I’d want it to be a place where it’s easy to feel free and unlimited, not all hemmed in and constricted like I feel in cities.
For the house itself I almost want to say a castle but that would be silly! But it would be large and spacious but elegant looking. My main stipulation would be that it has to have lots of windows to let lots of light in to every room. It’d also have balconies because I’ve always wanted to have a balcony! I’d just like it to be large and airy with a kind of classic, fairy-tale look to it really I’m not too bothered about the specifics.

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. This might seem cliché but the first thing I’d wish for wouldn’t be about me but it would be about making the world a nicer place. I’d wish for the end of extreme poverty and suffering throughout the world. This is something I actually want to get involved with fighting when I graduate university so it would definitely be my first choice of wish. I might be tempted to use all 3 wishes on similar things but I don’t want to be repetitive here.
2. Secondly, I’d wish to be more successful in my life. I wouldn’t want to have unlimited success in everything I do because I think that would take all the challenge out of life, so I’d generally just want to be better at the things I do. Like, I’d want to be a better public speaker, a better writer, a better dancer etc!
3. Happiness. I want a happily ever after, simple as that.


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. ;)

Erm, this is difficult. Possibly winning an award for a short story I wrote when I was 17. That meant a huge amount to me because I’ve always wanted to be a writer.

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: Love. Other things like adventure and knowledge on that list are also important to me but they wouldn’t matter if I was living a life without love. I’d probably give all those things up for love if it came down to it. Love is what makes life special. And you can’t have friendship or family or pleasure without love either so I think that it is definitely the most important because it brings so many wonderful things into your life.

Least Important: I kinda think that they are all important so… I’d probably say money. Money is important but I think if I had all the other things I’d still be happy with life. I’d like to be financially secure but I wouldn’t sacrifice any of the other things for it.

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

“Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
     Gleams that untravell'd world, whose margin fades
     For ever and for ever when I move.” - Tennyson

I think this is the hardest question! Ultimately I chose this one because it describes how I feel about my future. It sums up how I feel that everything I’ve lived through and experienced so far informs how I view all the things in my future. Also it expresses my feelings on how much the world has to offer and how the more you experience the more the horizon shifts away so that it always feels that there is more and more out there to experience. To sum up, it covers my feelings of optimism and enthusiasm for the future whist also valuing the impact that my past experiences have had on me. I’ll stop rambling now. 

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 actually better with money than I expected to be. When I started uni I expected to be a typical student and blow all my money straight away on pointless stuff and basically just manage it really badly but that didn’t happen. I’m in my last year at uni now and I’ve actually saved a lot, whilst still managing to treat myself whenever I want to. I think I’m fairly good at not being too extravagant whilst still giving into my materialistic side fairly often! I have the philosophy that money is there to be spent so I don’t deny myself things just for the sake of keeping money in the bank. But at the same time I’m sensible enough to know what is just a frivolous waste of money and what is okay spending. I personally feel that I have the balance right between spending money on pleasure and keeping enough saved to be fairly secure.
This pretty much sums up how I feel about financial security as well. My Dad is pretty tight with money and I’ve never seen the point in being that severe. I feel it’s good to indulge yourself sometimes, otherwise what is the point in having money saved at all? As long as there is enough money left over to be comfortable/covered for emergencies I don’t think there’s much point in stressing over money.


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

Reading – ASOIAF obviously, but I don’t tend to stick to any particular genre.
Writing – sometimes fanfics, but mostly just my own stuff nowadays.
Dancing – latin dances, some modern/hip-hop, a bit a ballet
Drawing – I used to paint but I just mainly do pencil sketches of people.
Horse Riding – my best friend owns horses so I’m lucky enough to get to ride them J

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

1. Heights. I don’t deal all that well when close to a long drop off anything. However I do love flying and I really want to have a pilot’s licence one day, so that’s a bit contradictory.
 
2. Spiders. Yeah, spiders freak me out. Nothing more to explain there really.
 
3. The thought of failing my degree keeps me up at night.

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. I stand up for what I believe in. If I really care about something I will stick with it. I think I’m a fairly good friend when it comes to standing up for them when they need it too, I’m fairly loyal. I can be shy at other times but if something really matters I think I’m quite a strong person. If something is important to me I can be much braver than I would be at ordinary times.

2. I’m nice. People tend to tell me that I’m friendly and that I’m kind. It’s something I actually try quite hard to achieve. I think it’s quite easy actually for me to be a jerk; I’m sometimes a bit judgemental so I’m pleased that I can control that effectively. I was pretty bratty at one stage of my childhood and so I think it’s an achievement that I’ve grown beyond that and that my kind and compassionate side dominates more now. As I’ve grown up I’ve come to value being a good person more and more as a characteristic and I think I’m getting the balance right between being practical and being kind.

3. Intelligence. I’m pretty smart, I don’t know how to elaborate on this without sounding really full of myself. But yeah, I’ve always done really well at school and university. It’s useful to be clever, I think!

Worst:

1. I’m a total dreamer. If I didn’t have a life to attend to occasionally I’d probably spend the whole time in a daydream. I’m a bit too much of a romantic at times and that probably isn’t too helpful in the real world. It makes me a bit antisocial sometimes too and probably makes my expectations of people too high as well at times. I still always expect things to turn out perfectly no matter what and I know I should probably stop thinking like that but I never do. I like my fantasies too much!

2. I doubt myself too much. I used to be quite shy when I was younger and occasionally that still comes back to haunt me. I get really annoyed with myself when this happens and I think I’m getting better at overcoming it, but yeah, it still happens.

3. On the other hand, I can be pretty arrogant or selfish at other times. Probably comes from living in my own bubble too much, but I think I value my self higher than others at times. 





A Song of Ice and Fire Related

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

I’ve read them all. Everything but A Dance With Dragons I’ve also read more than once.

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

Sansa Stark – I LOVE Sansa. Partly because I think she’s the character I’m most like in all the series. I completely empathise with how she is at the start of the series when she believes life is a song. I was definitely like that at her age, and to be honest I still think like that now. I actually think it shows a lot of strength on her part that she still clings on to some remnants of her old belief in fairytales even when she’s Alayne. I think it’s her way of coping with the world, by staying true to her belief that there is love and beauty there whilst wising up to reality at the same time. I think she’s shown incredible bravery by how much she’s endured in King’s Landing, and it’s a kind of bravery that I can relate to more than other characters. What she does there is too easily dismissed as passivity when I think it takes real guts and strength to go through all that she’s gone through and still stay true to herself.

Jaime Lannister – Jaime is one of my favourite characters partly just because his narrative makes me laugh! I also really like him because I think he’s essentially a good man who does bad things. Most of the bad stuff he’s done (like chucking Bran out the window, which I don’t forgive btw) he does out of a base of good intentions – he does it to protect those he loves. I think he’s a really brave man who finds himself in terrible positions. Killing Aerys was the right thing to do in my opinion, but I think it took an incredible amount of guts to do it when he knew how people would treat him afterwards. I think in Jaime, like Tywin, we get to see how being a good person isn’t necessarily a good thing when you are in a position of power, which is something I see a lot when studying politics so I think it’s really cool to see that in ASOIAF.

Sandor Clegane – Sandor is awesome because from the start he is one of the most badass characters around. And yet from pretty early on we get to see from his interactions with Sansa that there is actually so much more to him than just being a violent, cruel man. His back story with Gregor is simply tragic, as is how much it has clearly affected the person he has grown up to be. In Sandor we see someone who potentially has a good heart but is so much a product of his environment/upbringing that he is completely desensitised to violence – hence the laughing after killing Mycah etc. But after his interactions with both Stark girls we get to see that under that he is becoming increasingly conflicted and is filled with real self-loathing. He is undeniably one of the most dangerous characters in the series but with both Arya and Sansa he really does try to protect them, which is really fascinating to me. I definitely think he is one of the most complicated characters around and I love that.


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

Joffrey Baratheon – I hated Joff from the start and obviously that just got worse and worse after EVERY. SINGLE. ONE of his actions. I don’t think I really need to elaborate on why. However I would like to say that I really do love to hate him. I think he was the best villain the story has had, simply because he was so hateable. I actually do really miss him now he’s dead. Just because he was so good at being a total jerk all the time.
 
Ramsay Bolton – Joffrey might be my most hated but Ramsay is definitely the sickest by far. I really hated Theon after what he did in ACoK but after reading ADwD I love him again, simply because what Ramsay did to him is so heinous that no one could ever deserve that kind of treatment. Not even Joffrey. I want to fantasise about Ramsay getting killed but as no one else is as sick as he is I don’t think he’ll ever get the death he has earned.
 
Gregor Clegane – If I happened to live in Westeros I think Gregor would be the one I feared the most. More even than the other two because at least they limit their cruelty to only a smaller number of people so I might be able to avoid getting caught up with them. It’s pretty difficult to avoid Gregor, he just rapes/burns everything in his path.


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

The scene where Sansa builds Winterfell out of snow. Right up until Littlefinger has to ruin everything by being a creep anyway. But the first part of that scene is the most beautiful one in the whole series to me. Sansa’s narration of it is simply beautiful whilst also being tragically heartbreaking as she thinks such sad thoughts about how her life has turned out and how disillusioned and alone she is, it really affects me a lot. It has some of my favourite lines in it. The tragic ones at the beginning like “A godswood without gods. As empty as me.” and her thoughts about her last day in Winterfell and also the ones where she draws strength on her identity as a Stark – “I am stronger within the walls of Winterfell.” I think it’s just a really beautiful and moving scene, and it conveys so much about how the world has changed so much since the beginning of the first book.

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

I’d quite like to see Jon on the Iron Throne, but I’d also like to see him be back as Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch. I sort of feel like it’s his place to be there and I don’t think the Others will ever be fully defeated so I think we’ll need him there. So, if Jon is still at the Wall I’d like to see Jaime on the Iron Throne, I think he’d make quite a good job of it, especially if Cersei is dead at this point. Also if Jaime is king then Brienne could be Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. I hope Dany stays in Meereen to rule there with Tyrion as her Hand. I hope Arianne takes over from Doran in Dorne after he dies but I hope she let’s Tommen and Myrcella live in Dorne too because I don’t want them to die but I think they probably will. I want Asha to rule in the Iron Islands. The North is what I care about the most. I’d love to see Sansa as Queen (either of the North or on the Iron Throne actually) but I mostly just want her to be happy and I think if she’s a queen she’ll have to make another political marriage and I really, really want her to marry for love (my personal choice would be the Hound) so I actually would like to see her be the ruling power in the North with either Bran or Rickon being the actual King in the North, that just depends on whether Bran stays as a tree or not. Also I would like Arya to stop being a faceless man and go back to just being badass Arya having adventures across Westeros, possibly with Gendry.
But as this is GRRM I don’t expect any of this to happen L
 
P.S. Sorry for rambling on, but you did say to elaborate…

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