Gewinnen oder sterben. That was some German 'win or die' for you there.

[caesaria.livejournal.com]

Name: Sonja
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've seen a couple of friends mention the community a while ago, but wanted to hold back on applying until I got a lot further in the series, which is now, so here I am.
Age: 29
Location: Germany
Occupation: 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!.

I'm just gonna go ahead and start with the geographical location. Because that is something that's currently on my mind a lot. I lived in a sea side town for years (and I grew up right next to a giant river) and now I've recently moved very far inland, into a pretty mountainous region without any water nearby. And I miss it so much ooooooomg. I never thought I'd miss the sea as much as I do. Just... being able to go for a walk along the harbor, seeing the ships come in, feeling the breeze on my face. I miss that so much now and in my ideal living situation, proximity to the sea or a big river would play a huge part! I'm also more of a city person. Or at least small town. Not complete countryside. I need to be able to go out and get food and entertainment whenever I feel like it and I would die in a place where one bus a day comes through and every person living there knows your name and your every move.

As far as homes go, I'd like a simple place. Solid. I would really like a wooden house. I am aware of the fact that you can't have a wooden house in any climate, but they do amazing things with solar-powered heating these days and with the right kind of money, I think even I could make a wooden house work in this gray and rainy country ;-)
I'd like a simple, wooden house. Two floors. Free-standing. A garden in the back. Or a garden all around. No woods, though, no tall trees. Just grass, to run around in, build a swing on (totally for me, not for any potential kids :p), play football on or plant flowers when you feel like it. I'd decorate the house in warm, cozy colors. Reds, oranges, yellows. But also lots of pink, because I love pink more than anyone in their right mind should love pink. I'd like a clean, efficient, polished kitchen, because I never cook and I want a kitchen that makes me want to learn. I want a bedroom with a giant bed. A bed almost as big as the room. I want big windows on all sides of the house, I want a mixture of wooden and metal furniture, I want a free-standing bathtub and a walk-in closet. I want to decorate with cutesy, flowery stuff, pillows, curtains, rugs. But I also want functionality. I want a comfortable writing desk and table and a silent washing machine. I want art on my walls, but not collectors items. I'd hang my friends' art up or posters of my favorite bands. Because I will never not be the person who hangs posters of her favorite bands on her walls.

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!

- The biggest thing in my life right now is that I want a career that makes me happy. I recently started university again, at 29, to go and chase my dream. I want to work in television. Or the media in general. I want to write TV news reports or make radio or work in movie distribution. But really, mostly television. I've wanted to work behind the scenes in TV for as long as I can remember and now I'm finally going for it and I could really use some magical genie support :D If I could get a job in the media field, a job that makes me happy, that is the number one thing I wish for right now. This wish sort of includes a sub-wish, which is that my degree goes well. I'd like a successful degree, which then leads to a good job. Money is also always an issue, but I never want excessive amounts of money, just enough to get by. And maybe one day enough for that dream house. But the money is not an extra wish, it's just a result from the hopefully good job I'd get ;-)

- I want my mother to be set for her retirement. Now, this IS a financial wish, because my mother has worked her butt off for many, many years in a very physically demanding job which has ruined her health and when she is about to retire in a couple of years she's barely gonna get enough retirement money to get by. And she deserves more than that. She gives and gives and gives, to me, my brother, her friends. And she never gets. My mother and I are not on the same wavelength most of the time. She doesn't understand me, we fight a lot and we talk much less than we used to. But still, she has always been there when I needed her and I went through a really terrible time financially recently and she gave me money even though she had absolutely none to spare herself and I just... I want her to get something back. For once. Because she dreams of visiting New Orleans and Prague and seeing a Tasmanian Devil in the wild and I want her to be able to do all of that and more.

- My third wish is for gay marriage to be legal everywhere. And in the same vein, everywhere where just being LGBT is still illegal (and there are still those places in the world!), I want that to stop as well. I want everyone, every single person in the world, regardless of gender, ethnicity, social status or sexual orientation to be able to be who they are without fear of punishment or persecution. I want people to get the fuck over themselves with their opposition against gay marriage because of biblical reasons or whatever. I live in a country where civil partnerships have been legal for many years and there has not, to my knowledge, been an apocalypse here lately. I just want everyone to have the right to love who they love and to make it legal to say 'I do' to that one person you can't live without. This should not be that fucking hard, universe. Make it happen.

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. ;)

My first instinct for these kind of questions is always to write 'nothing' and be done with it, because I have most definitely had more failures in life than successes. But I am not that woe-is-me person anymore, so I will try to answer this question as best as I can. I think the thing I am best at is getting back up. A year ago I was at the lowest low point. Like... SERIOUSLY low. Like, 'jumping off a bridge seems pretty damn tempting right now' kind of low. One year later I've moved myself all the way across the country, started to go for a degree I've always wanted, started over from scratch and have never been happier in all 29 years of my life. And this seems to be a theme with me. Shit happens, I crumble, I get over it. Sometimes shit happens, followed by more shit and even more shit for kicks. But I am still here. This is a big deal. And I am proud of that. I had help, friends (and family to a lesser degree, even though my mother helped a lot financially, if not emotionally), but I think I did a whole chunk of it myself. I pulled myself by the now fabulously bright red hair and dragged myself out of it. I keep doing things that surprise me, I jump hurdles that I never thought I could jump and I keep growing as a person and becoming stronger and yeah, that is an accomplishment that I can actually be proud of.

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.

The most important out of these is a tie between Love and Friendship. Or maybe a combination of them. Because you can't have friendship without love and you can't have love without friendship. At least I can't. I love my friends more than anything in the world because they've been there for me when no one else was. They've been there for me when even I wasn't. And a lot of those friends are people that I have never even met in person and some of them did more for me than my family has ever done. Not to crap all over my family, but I did not grow up in the most loving and warm of homes and I was never a kid with many friends either. So I am all the more appreciative of the friends I've made in the last ten years or so, people who've been with me through the lowest point in my life and people I could always tell everything to. And I love them so much. I've not had much luck in the ~romantic love~ department, but I am secretly the most romantic dork and really hope I find love one day. Because I feel like I'd have a lot of love to give. I just need someone to give it to.

The least important out of these is harder. Ok, Knowledge. I was thinking money at first and it's certainly down there in importance, but right now it's such a huge factor in my life, in that I have none, that I can't ignore it. So I went for knowledge instead. It's not that I don't like knowing things. I do. I like learning as well. But... I am also perfectly happy to look things up. I am the first person who admits that she doesn't know something and that she needs to do some research on it. I don't even want to know everything. I like being somewhat knowledgeable on the subjects I study or the things I am really interested in. But I will never be one of those people who enjoys learning about things that are hard for me to understand. How does that saying go, you don't have to know everything, you only have to know where to find the answers. Or something. Paraphrased. See, I don't even know the exact phrase. And I am perfectly fine with that xD

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


Long ago I was brought into this life, a little lamb
A little lamb
Courageous, stumbling
Fearless was my middle name
But somewhere there I
Lost my way
Everyone walks the same
Expecting me to step
The narrow path they've laid
They claim to
Walk unafraid
I'll be clumsy instead

(R.E.M. - Walk Unafraid)

As children most of us are told that the world is our oyster. That we can be anything we want to be. And so we approach the world with exactly that attitude. And then we fall flat on our face. I fell harder than most. I was a very lonely child. Painfully shy, almost no friends, always chubby, never comfortable in my own skin. I was bullied. Heavily and for years. I had exactly one friend all through middle school. And even in relation to her I felt 'less than'. Mediocre. She was brainy and everything came easy to her and I had to really fucking work if I wanted halfway decent grades.
I took a long, long, loooong time for me to not feel like that little girl anymore. It was a slow process. Baby steps. Sometimes I still remember that day when four boys from my neighborhood pelted me with snowballs filled with stones and I came home bloody and with torn clothes. And then I wake up and I realize that that happened almost twenty years ago. And that one of those boys is now in jail, one is in a dead-end job and I haven't heard about the other two in ages. I grew up. And gradually, very very slowly, I learned to 'walk unafraid'. I started doing things my way. Divorcing myself from what society maybe expected. And it paid off. It always does. Taking a risk is something you just sometimes have to do. If you never take risks, you'll never experience anything other than what you're used to and you'll become one of those 'narrow path' people from the song. Small-minded and set in your ways. Sure, I took some risks that failed spectacularly. And I would lie if I said that I don't regret a whole bunch of things I did. But they all made me who I am and I am still on the path to become the person I am supposed to be and sometimes I take ten steps backwards. But I'll get there in the end. Because the world is my fucking oyster and I'm gonna come and get it, whether you like it or not. And I don't even like sea food :p

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.

LOL I have inadvertently talked so much about money already. The answer to the first question is simply 'badly'. When I was a kid, we were doing ok financially. Never more than ok, but ok. We lived in a small house. We went on holiday almost every year. Both my parents worked full-time. Life was reasonably happy. Those were simpler times. Growing up didn't agree with me, financially. I liked my creature comforts, sometimes more than I could afford. Clothes, books, DVDs, food. More of everything than I needed. And this attitude never really left me. It's a vice I carry from my teenage years. I like useless crap. Still. And I will spend money on it. Even if I don't have it. Recently though, through my personal financial crisis, I have learned a few things. I am better with money now, better at restricting myself. I needed to make it to almost 30 to at least somewhat learn how to handle money. That is rather sad, let's be honest.
In general, financial security is nice. Especially when you've been through not having it, you appreciate it more afterwards. But I was never one to want ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD. Sure, I like my useless crap. But there is only so much useless crap you can have. There is a limit. I don't need a fancy car. I don't drive. I don't need a private plane or a yacht. I don't need designer clothes. They don't make them in my size anyway :p It's never of any importance to me how much money other people have. I recently made a friend who is richer than anyone I have ever met. Her parents bought her her own inner city apartment when she finished school. Also several horses. And she has, like, a maid. It's like something from a movie. But she is the cutest person and so down-to-earth and I always feel like, if you don't let your money (or lack thereof) define you, then I'm gonna like you. And yes, I see how hypocritical that sounds with how goddamn much I have talked about my lack of money so far in this application. LOL. That is really just influenced by current circumstances. But normally money is really, really, really not important to me. At all. Having it is really nice, but not having much is not the end of the world either.

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. Books were always my escape from reality and I love them more than anything. I take a book with me wherever I go. I got the weirdest look the other day when I got the ginormously huge ADWD hardcover out on the bus and started reading it LOL. I read in a lot of genres (pretty much anything is fair game unless it's purely historical or straight-forward crime) and a variety of authors. I like the classics and the newest of the new. I read a LOT in English. It started as a way to learn the language better when I was a teenager, but over the years it's become this thing where I don't even read a book in the German translation anymore if there is an English-language original floating around somewhere. I think that and watching movies and TV shows undubbed have massively helped with how good my English is now. I am pretty much fluid these days. I routinely get asked whether I've lived in the US or Canada for an extended period of time because I speak with such an ~American accent. I haven't. LOL. I think that's pretty cool^^
TV and movie watching are also a big deal in my life. Especially TV shows. This is also one of the reasons why I want to work in television. The whole format fascinates me more than anything. I love how you can just get lost in a serialized story and how much you start to care about these fictional characters when they're written and portrayed well. I also write. Short stories, poetry, journalistic blog entries. I sing too. And act. Not currently, since I just moved to a new town, but I really want to find a theater group or choir soon. The course I study is Media and Theater Studies, so theater is also a big hobby of mine. I like watching it, I like working on it, I like being in it. I also like obsessing over it in the way that Broadway and Broadway actors are a huge deal in my life.
Also, always, procrastinating on the internet, chatting with friends, reading celebrity gossip blogs and looking at hilarious cat pictures. As you do. Oh and sleeping. Sleeping is a great hobby of mine. I just need to find more time to do it ;-)

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

- Birds. As long as I can remember I have been terrified of birds. It's the wings, mostly, that flapping wing motion (and sound). It gets progressively worse the bigger the flying monster is. Flies - eh. Moths - ughhh. Butterflies - GTFO. So let's not even get into birds. Seriously. When there is a pigeon sitting on the sidewalk where I want to go, I cross the street. When a bird is moving in my general vicinity, I freeze, my heart rate goes up and I start to panic. All the way overhead they're fine. As soon as they get close to me I immediately picture a scene from The Birds happening to me in my head and I can NOT help it. That movie, by the way, was recently used as an example in my film class. I asked to be excused while the rest of the class watched the clip. LOL I wish I was kidding.

- No one coming to my funeral. That is something I've always irrationally panicked about. At any given day as a teenager I would wonder if I died RIGHT THIS SECOND who would show up to my funeral. On good days it was, like, my family and maybe my best friend. On bad days it was bloody no one. And that scared me to death. And that is something that still lingers in the back of my head. If no one loved me enough to show up at my funeral, that would be the saddest thing I could ever imagine.

- Failing all my classes - again. This is not an irrational fear, since this has happened to me. I had to quit school and it triggered what is now referred to in my family as my 'Year of Hell'. I survived it, it made me stronger, yadda yadda. But if I happens again I will fucking kill myself.

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:

- I am an optimist. This is one of those things where terrible, earth-shattering things can happen on a daily basis and I would still be an optimist. Things WILL be alright. This helps me get up in the morning and it helps me through the day. And it helps other people through the day as well. I mentioned earlier in the app that I am a 'get back up' kind of person and that could almost be my life motto. Life sucks. That's just the way it is. But it is our job to somehow live with that and try to make it suck just that little bit less for us with a bit of positivity and spirit. I think I can provide that. I've certainly been providing it for myself and I'd be happy to be the optimistic beacon of light in someone else's darkness.

- I like to think of myself as a good friend. I think I am very in tune to my friends' sorrows and I am always there to listen to you when you need me or talk to you when you need help. Not that I am the sage who always gives wise counsel, but sometimes my optimism can help. I like making people laugh and I like to give people lots of love in all the ways I can and I just like to be... there. It pains me when I am too busy to talk to my friends for a while and I always worry about them and whether they're alright. If you're my friend once, you'll be me my friend forever - unless something terrible and unforeseeable happens - and I will be as loyal to you as anyone can be. This also includes telling you when you're full of shit. Because a loyal friend doesn't let you go trough life while you're full of shit, they tell you straight up and make life ultimately easier for you. I am the kind of friend you can call at 3am at night to bail you out of jail that you landed in for indecent exposure in a public water fountain. I am not that friend who jumps in with you, though. Well ok, I might jump in. But definitely not naked.

- I am a fighter for justice. Injustice in any way, shape or form makes my skin crawl. If I see an injustice happening around me, I speak up about it. Sometimes I am not sure about the immediate plan of action, but I am definitely not one to sit idly by while someone is being treated unfairly. I am not a revolutionary, but I notice things and if I can get the ear of a revolutionary who might be able to help, then I'll jump at the chance. Discrimination is the bane of my existence and I can not even deal with prejudiced, small-minded, bitter people hating on others for ridiculous principles. Every person has the right to a free and happy life and every day you see people who get denied their rights by others with more power. And that makes me angry and it makes me SICK.


Worst:

- I am such a mess. And I mean that in more than one way. Firstly, I am messy. I am chaotic and unorganized and I let things lie where they fall and never pick them up again. I have a hard time keeping to schedules, there is clutter all over my life and inside my brain. I am constantly late because I have no clue where I put my watch or because I simply forgot to set the alarm the night before. This sort of behavior has caused me to let people down before and there is almost nothing I regret more than that.
Secondly, I am an emotional mess. I wear my heart on my sleeve and I can be a wreck with emotions and mood-swings and I am anything but stable. Being my friend is a challenge. I might start to bawl in the middle of a conversation and you'll have no clue why. And I've snapped at people who definitely didn't deserve it.

- I tend to let people walk all over me. I am getting slightly better at this, but I have always, always suffered from low self-esteem. Or NO self-esteem, really. And time and time again people have used this weakness to hurt me or for their gain. I trust too easily, so I never really suspect any evil when someone comes to me and asks me for something. And before I even realize what happened, shit has hit the fan and I didn't see it coming. I have been getting better at standing up for other people, but standing up for myself is still a struggle. Whenever something good happens to me I get immediately suspicious because I think I don't deserve it. I give up too easily as well. I am a little bit of a quitter.

- I am cripplingly shy. The other day, I was supposed to meet a girl from one of my classes to hold a presentation with at uni. I had no idea what she looked like though, so I just stood there and waited. After a while a girl showed up. And then she just stood there. She shuffled around a bit and looked at her shoes. I did the same. Neither of us spoke a word. After EASILY twenty minutes some teacher came by and asked us who we were waiting for and that's how the girl and I finally got talking, because she was indeed my presentation partner. If that teacher wouldn't have showed up we might as well still be standing there. The (non-)adventures of two chronically shy people, live and in color. LOL it would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad.





A Song of Ice and Fire Related

1.How many books from the series have you completed?
I am currently on page 232 (that is roughly a quarter through) of A Dance With Dragons. I expect to be done with it soon. Ish. Well, I'm busy. But I'm on it ;-)

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

- Arya Stark. She is everything I am not and yet everything I want to be. She is strong, independent, has her own mind about everything and is a born fighter. Her life is misery piled on top of misery, garnished by some more misery. But she takes it all in stride. At such a ridiculously young age she gets thrown into a war that she wants no part of and loses everyone she loves - and yet she survives. Because she is clever and headstrong and quick at adapting to new circumstances. Sure, Arya cries sometimes, but who wouldn't? She has more reason to cry than most. But at the end of the day she gets on with it. Whether it's scrubbing stairs, practicing swordplay or pushing a fish cart. She loses parts of herself along the way and she toughens up more than anyone should. But she will never back down. She is basically too fierce for life.

- Tyrion Lannister. Mostly because he is the shining light of snark in a deadly serious world. Nature has made him short in length but great in character. He is hilarious and wicked and so, so, SO clever. If everyone listened to him, a lot of trouble could have been avoided. He is a visionary, a scholar. But Tyrion is also a survivor. Sure, he has been lucky more often than not. But he is a devious little bastard and just knows when to play his cards right. He goes off the rails eventually, he cracks under the pressure and stabs a sword right through the source of his torment, but even that made me like him more. Because he is just SUCH a richly developed character and people underestimate him and disregard him and yet he weasels through. He is the tiniest hero of this story but he occupies a huge part of my heart.

- Oberyn Martell. Yeah I know this is probably a weird one compared to the other two. And I debated long and hard with myself about this third name. But sometimes a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. Because Oberyn Martell can GET IT. Repeatedly and at all times. Yeah, I said it. He is the hottest piece of ass in all of Westeros. Everyone in Dorne is so sexy and so sexual and no one more than Oberyn. He likes sex and couldn't care less who knows it. He likes girls and he likes boys and his lover is a wild and untamed beauty who likes sex as much as he does and I bet all they ever do is have sex. And I like imagining that. Oberyn is unapologetic and proud and gorgeous and glorious and let's face it, he was probably too hot to handle for GRRM so he let him heroically go. But it's ok, he'll have lots of sex in heaven ;-)

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

- Cersei Lannister. I didn't dislike her as much right away. I only started really, really disliking her when her POVs started. Because holy crap, how deluded can one person get? I mean, I get it, you have issues and your life is a mess, but... I mean seriously? I thought maybe she had her reasons for being the way she was, but ... her reasons are actually vanity and a deluded idea of how she deserves all that she hopes to get? That was a let-down. Because I can deal with evil. I can deal with ambitious and cruel and manic. What I can't deal with is pathetic. And Cersei to me is just pathetic. There is no one she genuinely cares about anymore. I think at this point she has even given up on herself.

- Melisandre of Asshai. Now. I get that she's an interesting character. Intriguing and really well written. But she scares the living daylights out of me. She is a religious fanatic and I know the destructive power religious fanatics can have. There is nothing wrong with a strong belief system, but she uses and abuses her beliefs for her own gain. She is a puppet master and an evil red scorpion in a really gorgeous body. The way she has Stannis wrapped around her finger is just plain scary. He is not a stupid man, yet he follows her like a sheep. Blind followers like him are also annoying, but in this case Melisandre bugs me more because she knows exactly what she's doing and she is literally leaving a trail of bodies behind wherever she goes.

- Craster. I think the reason for this goes without saying. But ok, if you insist. A guy who constantly rapes his wives and daughters, gets them all pregnant and then marries the daughters again, all the while killing all his infant sons? SPLENDID CHAP, REALLY :p

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

This is really, really hard. And I have thought about this answer a lot. But the one scene that my mind keeps going back to is one that isn't so much about any of the characters. It's more about perspective and style and depiction of the action that's happening. It's the Battle of The Blackwater. This scene is actually incredible. We see this all important battle that ends up changing the whole direction of the story through the eyes of a man we barely know yet. A man who is not directly involved with any of the other major POV characters, at least not yet. He is not a soldier either, he is a simple man, a sailor, a reformed smuggler. And here he stands describing to us what happens. And it's glorious destruction. It's bright and loud and then a thousand things happen at once and you get completely swept up in the story. When I first read it I felt like I had entered the story. Like I was standing next to Davos right as his ship sinks, watching green fire engulf me.
This is just such a brilliant chapter in terms of storytelling. I think it's completely unique in the whole series, as a stand-alone chapter that just pulls us into a battle on the hopelessly losing side and shows us all the terrors of war first hand. And on top of it it ends with what I at the time thought was the end of Davos, who I love dearly, so that just drags you down with him and makes you want to put the book down for a while and have a good deep sigh. Man, I just love this chapter, ok? xD

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

Like I said, I'm still reading ADWD, so if any of these things happen or can't happen anymore, please don't shatter my illusions :p

I would like the remaining Starks (at this point Arya, Sansa, Bran, Rickon (even though he seems MIA ;) and even Jon) to reconnect. That is pretty much all I've wanted for four books and every time my hopes get crushed. LOL. The one time where Sam meets 'Cat' in Braavos I nearly screamed at the book because I was like 'Noooooooooooo! So close!'. Alas, it was not to be. I just want a Stark reunion. Of any kind. Even a small one. Throw me a bone here, dude, seriously.
I would like to know who Jon's mother is. Parents are. You know. That. I care about that for some reason and I want closure. I am never one to wish death on any character, but I think I would be mad if Cersei made it out alive while so many others didn't who were better people. But then, that is the nature of this series. Also, I want Melisandre to get what's coming to her. I want Sansa to have an epic moment of redemption. I want her to have Winterfell. And for no reason at all I would quite like her to marry Gendry (who by then has found out who he is and their combined bloodlines combine the realms). I mean, everyone and their mother ships him with Arya, and so do I, but I want Arya to remain unmarried and a fighter, a soldier and a protector. I want Arya to be a Knight, basically. And lastly, I would like Dany to make it to Westeros. Maybe not as a ruler, but just.. as a person. Just as a girl. Coming to see the land she has heard so much about. I am completely convinced that she is doomed, that her death is set in stone, don't ask me why, I am just convinced. So I really, really want her to at least see Westeros before she dies. I think that is all. It's mostly interpersonal stuff. I mostly don't care who ends up ruling the Seven Kingdoms, as long as it's not Cersei or Melisandre ;-)

Comments

Greyjoy

[misstopia.livejournal.com]

Seeing a lot of possibilities here, Martell, Lannister, Targaryen, and Tyrell. Boy oh boy, ummmm. I'm going to go with Targaryen in the end, even though being a quitter and having low self esteem don't really jive. You come across as caring too much about capital j Justice for a Tyrell (which was my first impression, your app is very Growing Strong) and you're a shade too straight talking for Lannister, I think. The whole thread in your app about learning to be down with yourself reminds me of Dany coming into her own. And I think your pinache is a bit more glitzy than house Martell.

IDK, you gave me many mixed feelings, none of them a pullaway winner, but I'll stick with the dragon in the end.