win or die
Mar. 20th, 2012 02:00 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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westerosortingName: Georgina
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 found out about this community as it is mentioned a lot on ONTD, sorry I don't have a particular user who recommended me.
Age: 20
Location: Chester, England.
Occupation: Student (English Literature & Creative Writing)
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!.
My ideal home would be very old, and outwardly very large. It would have a long and majestic drive and a huge water fountain. Inside the building would be warm and homely, with a big, big kitchen, open fires and many bedrooms for guests. Most importantly the grounds would be sprawling. Ideally there would be large areas of lawn aswell as masses of tall, dark trees and hidden, secret areas with little ponds and rock formations. Geographically the building would be somewhere on the British Isle. I'm leaning towards North England/Scotland or Cumbria because of the areas of natural beauty there.
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!
My first wish would be that all the members of my family live long and happy lives. This is a big ask, as my extended family is enormous, but no member of it could be excluded from this wish or I'd have to change it. It's not about money, just health and happiness.
My second wish would be to have the motivation and the bravery to fulfill my dreams. I don't want them handed to me because then they're worthless, I'd just like a push.
And my third wish ... I'd like to possess some really bad dirt on some high ranking politician/government official... hell, maybe the Prime Minister himself. I'd want it to be so dirty and so scandalous that I had absolute power over his decision making. I wouldn't make him do anything bad, I'd just make him act on the wants of the people for once. I'd have power without the shitstorm that is the life of a politician.
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. ;)
I think I am most proud of getting into my first choice University in the city I love, and moving away from home and being able to survive on my own. I've made amazing friends, taken good care of myself and had the best time. It's been a test on my independence and there have been a few wobbly bits but on the whole it's been easy and I've loved every second. I'm doing well in my classes and I love them all. So yeah, just Uni in general really.
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 would be knowledge. Either that or family, but I'm a person that is pretty self-contained, and though I love my family to death, I don't think I always need them as much as I need knowledge. I think life without learning is pointless. I like to suck knowledge out of everything. I want to see all sorts of things and know about them and I think this goes hand-in-hand with adventure. Going out into the world alone is the best way to learn, imo, and I love that. I like travelling and visiting places where I can learn and experience new things. I think without knowledge the world is less interesting, and more difficult to maneuver. Knowledge really is power.
Least important, I want to say money, but I know that's not the case. I wish it could be ... so I'll go with friendship. I've had a couple of friendships crumble spectacularly over the last few months, one of whom I'd considered my best friend for around fifteen years. I've just come to realize what a fluid thing friendship is. It's important, but it is in no way stable and that's why I don't think its good to pin too much on it. People will let you down or stab you in the back and then you have to be ready to deal with it and move on. I have a lot of friends who I love dearly but I know that people and circumstances change, and they may not be in my life forever.
5. What's one quote (or passage, song lyric, etc.) that effectively describes you and your values? Explain.
If my family was a house in Westeros our words would be 'We Don't Have Much Money But We Do See Life'. Since the day I was born I was incredibly, incredibly close with my Grandmother (Nan) and this was her go-to quote. In good times and bad times, she'd say it. Always. She passed away two years ago and since then the words have evolved in my family into a kind of representative of what we are as well as a nod to her memory. I've dissected it completely since then and it speaks to me on so many levels, not just because I associate it so closely with the fearless and inspirational matriarch of my family, who ran from her home country, Ireland, to London when she was 16. She lived off barely any money, which she did for most of her life really, but raised the most spectacular family anyone could wish for and was strong, funny and fearless until the day she died. I love the 'We' of the quote because it says unity, and my family is very much united. And I love the 'see life' part, because not only does it refer to excitement which is the way my Nan used it, but also a kind of special perspective. We really see life.
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 manage my money well. I'm more inclined towards saving than spending and I always have been. That said, I enjoy material goods a lot. Financial security is important, it's something I worry about. But as a student being supported by her parents I worry about their financial security ten times more than I do my own. Though I worry about money I only do so because I have to, everyone has to. I'd rather renounce modern monetary systems and go and live in the woods tbh.
7. Name (and elaborate on) some of your hobbies. What are your favorite things to do outside of school/the office?
I like reading and I like writing, though I do less of the latter than I probably should. I love exploring. I take myself off to new places by myself and just wander around for hours. I like experiencing new things and seeing new things, especially places of natural beauty of historical significance. I like to look at art and listen to music. I like running, but not in any kind of organised way, more in a chasing things, running home instead of walking kind of way.
8. Name three things you are afraid of. Explain.
I don't have any major, everyday fears. I'm the designated spider-disposer amongts my housemates and I have to describe to them what happens during scary movies while they cower. I give blood and have a morbid fascination with watching it pump out of me so I'm not in any way squeemish. The prospect of an unfulfilled and run-of-the-mill life scares me. The idea of my parents getting old scares me. And I guess, thirdly it would be the fear that nothing happens after we die, that we're just gone .....Fuck, that was all very depressing.
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'd say one of my best traits is my ability to make people laugh. I definitely get it from my Dad and share it with my sisters. Humour is love in our family. I believe that saying something that gets a roomful of people to laugh is a way of exuding confidence even if I don't necessarily have any, I think its a very dominant thing and can very much establish a kind of authority.
I think my second best trait is probably my lack of fear. I'm not afraid to stick up for myself and I'm especially not afraid to stick up for the people I care about. I enjoy a good argument and do not easily back down. As for things like the dark, or heights or new experiences ... life is too god damn short.
I think my third best trait is my intelligence. I have great common sense and since I came to Uni I've realised my skills of comprehension are actually really good. I retain information well which means I wipe the floor at pub quizzes. My imagination is the best part, take away my imagination and I'd be nothing.
Worst:
One of my worst traits is my laziness. Its a very weird laziness though because if it's something that involves prominent activity then I'm not lazy. Like if I had to walk 30 minutes into town to go to the bank I'll do it right way, or if my Mum wants something from the shop I'll offer to go right away, or if I have to walk the dog or cook or make the fire. But if I have work or tidying to do in my room I'll find any excuse not to do it.
Sometimes I talk before I engage my brain. Not in a foot-in-mouth sort a way more in a 'what was the point of saying that' kind of way. I'd like to be a strong, silent type and I sometimes am, but when a conversation gets going my brain and mouth lose track of eachother and the latter usually runs off before the former has a chance to edit. Interestingly I never they way I process actions is very different. I think all things through, considering possibilities and factors before I execute.
The third one I'm going to list under worst is how self-reliant I am. I actually think this is a good thing, and would have listed it as such but I know that it can sometimes be and alienating factor. When it comes down to it I know that nobody knows be better than I do, and I'm the person who at the end of the day has to look after me. When it comes to emotionally dealing with things I very rarely, if ever, look to other people, choosing instead to shut myself away and deal with it alone. I'm wholly comfortable in my own company to the degree that I sometimes push people away just to get some alone time. I know this is a good thing for me as its how I best deal with life, I just struggle with the balance sometimes because I know there are people who want to look after me and I just struggle to let them.
A Song of Ice and Fire Related
1.How many books from the series have you completed?
I'm about a third of the way through ADWD after a lengthy ASOIAF hiatus.
2.Who are your favorite three characters in the series? Why?
Arya Stark - Since Book one she's been my girl. She's forged the best relationships with other characters, possesses immence independence and bravery and has survived so much when others in the series have fallen down. She's reinvented herself many times but always remains true to herself.
Jaime Lannister - He's the character who has most benefited from his own P.O.V. In Book One my Stark love made me hate him but now I see that most of the bad things he has done have been with the best intentions and for the greater good (I saw that through gritted teeth for my bb Bran though). He's extremely loyal to his family (sometimes to a fault) and has suffered just as much as any character. His external reputation doesn't match who he really is, and I feel for him for that. (Plus him and Brienne made the best roadtrip-sitcom-duo of all time)
Rhaegar Targaryen - Okay, so he's been dead for the whole series but this guy fascinates me. His actions were the catalyst for the war that brought down the Targaryen dynasty, actions that do not seem to conform with who Rhaegar was. I know he has a bigger part to play in the series, and there's so much mystery surrounding him and Lyanna! I'm fascinated by him as Dany & Viserys' (R.I.P Sweet Prince) brother and the Prince who had even young Cersei Lannister fawning.
3.Who are your least favorite three characters in the series? Why?
Catelyn Stark - I get a lot of shit for this, but I can't help it. I've begun to sympathise with her a lot more, but I can never escape the fact that on my first reading of the books I groaned everytime her P.O.V came up. I just ended up wondering what stupid decision she was going to make in any given chapter. She's very impulsive, and all her actions are very overt which mark her out against the other more tactile players. She treated Jon like shit which I've never really forgiven because Jon couldn't help who he was born to, so I think her ignorant hatred made me less sympathetic to her tragedy. Also her habit of becoming engrossed in one of her children and ignoring the others (Bran after his fall, then Robb) irks me.
Mormon't Raven - The squawking and the 'COOOOOORN' just piss me off.
Daavos - This one was tough. I like Daavos, I just think he is the weakest character in the series. He's not rounded and is clearly just a plot tool to provide a perspective into Stannis/Mellisandre. I just think he has very few defining, or interesting traits despite the fact he is active in some very good plot points. He's surrounded by characters that ooze intrigue, like Salladhor Saan and just can't compete with them.
4.#1 Favorite moment in all of ASOIAF so far? Why?
Now this was ridiculously tough but I'm going with the Red Wedding. It was tragic,so fucking tragic, and sudden and amazing. It had the degree of dramatic climax that is rarely ever achieved in printed fiction and for me comes second only to Blackwater for dramatic scope. It was one of the many, and by far the most stark, example of a part in the series where I really realised just how much these characters and this world meant to me. When Cat made the point of asking for bread and salt to secure guest's rights I just knew something was going to go down. I just never expected, well.... that! It's the prime example of how fearless GRRM is. Not only did he kill a beloved character, he had him killed so brutally and then had his corpse mutilated along with that of his faithful direworlf. When you contrast him with other contemporary authors (Rowling, I'm looking at you) who just seem too attached to their characters to allow them to die its so much more realistic and, in a strange way, rewarding. The game of thrones is a dangerous game and Martin knows this, so he culls his characters appropriately. Not everyone can survive and its more exciting when you are very much aware that any chapter could be your faves last.
5. In your dream-world, how would you like to see the series end, and why?
In my dream world Dany finally reaches Westeros, what she does when she gets here I'm happy to only speculate, I just want her to set sail already.
I'd like the iron throne to retain power of the Seven Kingdoms but with so much animosity amongst all the major houses I struggle to think who they would all bend the knee to. It could be Dany because she would represent an exterior force that has been detached from the current wars in Westeros.
The baby Starks are reunited, including Jon. They need a catch-up, lbr. The last time they were all together Ned was alive and Bran was in a coma.
I really don't have any set hopes on how it all ends, I've learned better than to hope ASOIAF will got the way I wants it to.
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Targaryen
Date: 2012-03-26 08:09 am (UTC)On another note, I also had a lot of issues with Catelyn, and for a long while proclaimed by dislike for her (for her ambition to have Sansa on the throne, for insensitivity to Jon, for utter abandon for other kids that her current devotion to one of them meant). She looks good enough in comparison with other Westerosi mothers, and I kind of let most my negative feelings go, but I still can't say I like her .
Re: Targaryen
Date: 2012-03-26 11:17 am (UTC)I feel exactly the same about Catelyn. I've had some pretty impassioned discussions about her with those who really like her and I usually do accept many of the points they make about her and her actions. But I still just cannot come round to liking her.
Re: Targaryen
Date: 2012-03-26 11:50 am (UTC)Re: Targaryen
Date: 2012-03-26 12:13 pm (UTC)Tyrell
Date: 2012-03-26 01:29 pm (UTC)Targaryen
Date: 2012-03-26 03:19 pm (UTC)Targaryen
Date: 2012-03-26 11:45 pm (UTC)Lanniser
Date: 2012-03-26 11:58 pm (UTC)All that said, I see various traits in you, mostly because you are still in this wonderful young phase of your life, off exploring and doing interesting things and testing out personae as they come... but the undercurrent of "authority comes from confidence" I think you are a Stark.
Re: Lanniser
Date: 2012-03-27 09:38 am (UTC)Tyrell
Date: 2012-03-27 02:01 am (UTC)Tyrell
Date: 2012-03-27 05:43 am (UTC)Tyrell
Date: 2012-03-27 06:01 am (UTC)Martell
Date: 2012-03-27 07:04 pm (UTC)Tyrell
Date: 2012-03-27 10:22 am (UTC)Martell
Date: 2012-03-27 03:39 pm (UTC)Omg! You're from Chester! :D I've been there once for 2 weeks, I just loved the city and had a great time!
Re: Martell
Date: 2012-03-27 08:50 pm (UTC)I go to Uni in Chester so spend the majority of my time there now. I love it so, so much. It's beauty never gets old with me, glad you enjoyed it too!
PS. Love the icon. You can never have too many Gods round here.
Tully
Date: 2012-03-27 03:50 pm (UTC)Tully
Date: 2012-03-27 03:54 pm (UTC)Targaryen
Date: 2012-03-27 05:51 pm (UTC)Lannister
Date: 2012-03-27 06:23 pm (UTC)On another note ugh I enjoy the time I spend alone...sometimes I think I enjoy it a bit too much and way to often, also I'm glad to see another app of someone who enjoys a good argument!
Re: Lannister
Date: 2012-03-27 08:47 pm (UTC)There's not much better than a good argument or debate, it's the best way to stretch out the old brain muscles in my opinion.
Yes! Time alone is extremely underrated.
Re: Lannister
Date: 2012-03-27 11:09 pm (UTC)Greyjoy
Date: 2012-03-27 06:58 pm (UTC)Re: Greyjoy
Date: 2012-03-27 08:44 pm (UTC)Martell
Date: 2012-03-27 07:05 pm (UTC)Also your humour, independence and lack of fear.
Tyrell
Date: 2012-03-27 08:12 pm (UTC)Martell
Date: 2012-03-27 11:44 pm (UTC)Lannister
Date: 2012-03-28 12:37 am (UTC)Targaryen
Date: 2012-03-28 04:43 am (UTC)I saw a lot of Asha-flavored Greyjoy but came down on the side of Martell in the end. Besides, I think Asha and the Sand Snakes would get along swimmingly, yeah?
Martell
Date: 2012-03-28 08:10 am (UTC)greyjoy
Date: 2012-03-28 08:24 am (UTC)Tyrell
Date: 2012-03-28 10:40 am (UTC)greyjoy
Date: 2012-03-28 11:03 am (UTC)Tyrell
Date: 2012-03-28 11:40 am (UTC)Jeor Mormont's raven was in my top three favorite characters!
Lannister
Date: 2012-03-28 02:30 pm (UTC)But I think I have to go with Martell I do see Greyjoy and Lannister in you as well and very nearly voted for the lions.
Tyrell
Date: 2012-03-28 04:56 pm (UTC)Stark
Date: 2012-03-28 06:09 pm (UTC)Stark
Date: 2012-03-28 06:12 pm (UTC)Lannister
Date: 2012-03-29 01:03 am (UTC)Martell
Date: 2012-03-29 02:45 am (UTC)Tully
Date: 2012-03-29 03:06 am (UTC)Stark
Date: 2012-03-29 03:32 am (UTC)Stark
Date: 2012-03-29 06:07 am (UTC)Your app was very enjoyable to read, I must say, and some things sound sooo familiar to me, which probably should've pushed me towards Stark, but I'll have to go with my overall feeling and say Lannister.
Martell
Date: 2012-03-29 03:44 pm (UTC)First though...I love your inclusion of Mormont's raven in your least favorite characters. Both hilarious and oh so true.
And honestly I think that is weirdly part of what led me to eventually decide Tyrell for you. I saw bits of Martell and a LOT of Stark (the house you described, especially your focus on natural settings, how you don't much care about money, etc.) but your comment about wanting to know something about a person in political power just screams Tyrell to me. That and that you aren't so keen on friendships but seem to care a lot about your family.
Tully
Date: 2012-03-29 08:38 pm (UTC)Stark
Date: 2012-03-30 03:34 am (UTC)Your third wish struck me as really Lannister (or maybe Tyrell), your emphasis on family and knowledge seemed to fit well with Lannister or Martell, your answer to #5 was very Martell/Tully to me, your lack of everyday fears also makes me think Lannister/Martell/Targaryen. And what you said about making people laugh and how it relates to confidence and dominance just made me think Lannister in a huge way. But on second look, that answer (and in general your positive and negative traits) fit Greyjoy REALLY well (but they also seem pretty suiting for Lannister). So yeah, it's close between a bunch of houses, but I think Lannister wins overall.
Tully
Date: 2012-03-30 05:37 am (UTC)But in the interest of having my vote count, I'm going to vote *MARTELL*
SORTED: LANNISTER
Date: 2012-03-30 11:36 am (UTC)You may join
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