win or die
Feb. 18th, 2013 09:10 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
ruchi7.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
westerosortingName: RB
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 was just googling random ASOIAF related things and stumbled upon this community.
Age: 21
Location: Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Occupation: Student, English Literature
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!.
For my ideal house, I picture something done very much in the modern style of architecture. It should be situated in a location close to a wooded or forest area, but not right inside, preferably next to a water body such as a lake or a stream. It would preferably be in a higher altitude in a tropical region, so that there is plenty of sunshine but it is still cool and fresh most of the time. I would like for the surroundings to be peaceful and quiet, with the water body providing a great view and the forest at the back of the house. The house itself I would like to be made of materials that are suitable to the location, so that the house in very much a part of its surroundings. I would like for it to be made using lots of glass, huge windows, perhaps a whole wall of glass. Alternatively (or if they can somehow be combined) I’d like huge balconies overlooking the great view. I’d like minimalist interior design, but with huge comfy sofas and lots of plants, fountains, books and little nooks to read in everywhere.
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!
Wish number one – A billion dollars. Just because the fact of the matter is that money can buy you 99 percent of anything available in the world, and I definitely enjoy my ‘creature comforts’. I also love travelling and would love to just stop everything and travel the world (not possible with my current situation). Also, I feel strongly about a lot of causes, and money would definitely help me to feel a little bit less helpless about the crazy world out there.
Wish number two – Eternal Youth. Having spent some of that money to become my best looking self, this is what I would ask for. Not a vampire/zombie style eternity, obviously, more along the lines of Tolkien’s elves, with the choice to die if I so wish. There is so much I want to see and do and experience in the world, one lifetime is definitely not enough. This would also give me enough time to really figure out the mysteries of the universe and hopefully stick around long enough till someone invents a time machine and we discover aliens/they discover us.
Wish number three – For all my favourite people in the world to be eternally young along with me. If they want. If this seems greedy (yes, it definitely is), I’d ask for at least ONE person to make immortal with me, someone to share all that youth and money with.
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 recently won a highly competitive merit-based scholarship to do a post graduate degree. I worked really hard on my application, the interview was a gruelling process, and I was 99 percent sure I wouldn't get it, because my area of interest was quite unconventional. So when I did it was a really great feeling and a real confidence booster. I was also glad to make my parents proud, because they've always been so supportive of my not so seemingly lucrative educational and career choices, and happy to not have to depend on them to continue my studying.
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.
I would choose knowledge as the most important to me. I’ve always been an academically inclined sort of person, and if I could comfortably do it I would be a student forever. As it is, I love reading and studying new things, and want to really learn a lot more, and hopefully contribute to the knowledge base of the world. I definitely believe knowledge is power and its important to me that my ideas remain fresh and I keep moving forward intellectually and creatively. Family is also very important to me, because I have a great, very supportive family (by which I mean my parents and siblings). My relationship with them is not perfect, but their approval and safety means a lot to me. Friendship and financial stability are also important to me. So adventure would be the least important, if I HAVE to choose. Although I want to have a lot of experiences, its not as important as the people in my life and my desire to succeed.
5. What's one quote (or passage, song lyric, etc.) that effectively describes you and your values? Explain.
“The question is not how to survive, but how to thrive, with passion, compassion, humour and style.” – Maya Angelou
I adore Maya Angelou and her poetry – anything she says is gold to me. I love her brand of empowered womanhood, its what I aspire to be. The quote sums up the way I want to live my 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.
Although my family is today upper middle class, growing up (especially my early childhood years) we didn't have a lot of money.Even once we were comfortable, my father was still very careful with money and consequently I’ve been instilled with the almost catholic sense of guilt when it comes to spending money. So I try my best to trim unnecessary expenses and save up, and am OK at it – I manage to get by on limited student funds an do the things I want. My only really bad money vice is that very rarely I splash out for something I really want which is somewhat unnecessary (and frequently nerdy) , and do it with no remorse at all, such as a collector’s edition BlueRay of my favourite movie, a signed copy of a favourite book, some kind of travelling etc. I have to add that as I’ve always hated math, I also subsequently hate banks, cheques and any kind of financial jargon. I depend on my mom’s advice about investment and things, and I’ve never regretted it.
7. Name (and elaborate on) some of your hobbies. What are your favorite things to do outside of school/the office?
Reading, and writing – I don’t know if this counts as a hobby because its technically part of what I do anyway as a student, but I enjoy reading lots of things outside my course (literary and trashy) and I enjoy writing stories, poems, and other silly things which are again not within my academic requirements.
Voraciously consuming TV shows, movies, web series, anything and everything to do with pop culture. I love genre fiction, weather its scifi, fantasy, detective, or even a little bit of romance. I tend to get obsessed with fandoms and spend a lot of time on various forums, tumblrs and fansites.
I also love watching plays, ballet, anything with dance or song or witty dialogue in it.
I also am fond of dancing (and have been learning dance for several years). I’m an okay dancer but I love it anyway as its a really great stress buster for me.
I like going for long-ish walks, and occasionally small scale treks. Its the only sporty thing I can remotely tolerate.
8. Name three things you are afraid of. Explain.
1) Snakes. I generally am not fond of animals. But snakes are the most terrifying.
2) Very large parties where I know very few people. I have social anxiety, especially around new people, so this situation is the scariest possible place for me to be.
3) To die without achieving something awesome – what this means is that I am constantly worrying that I am not living up to my potential and doing the best I can.
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) Creative– Fairly intelligent, but more importantly, I can be quite creative and crazy, and think outside the box. This is what allows me to experience the world the way I do, and fuels my academic career as well as most of my interests.
2) Passionate –Although there are many things I am unsure about, that I haven’t decided on, there are also certain things I’m very committed to. Certain political issues, my personal dreams and ambitions, people I respect and love – they are all very important to me. When I believe in something (or someone), or want something badly, I can be very vocal about defending it. I try my best to channel that passion, that emotion into productive avenues, but don’t always succeed. I still count this as a positive thing because again, its what motivates me and keeps me going. Also you do not want to get into an argument with me about certain issues (women’s rights, for one) because I get scary and red-faced and spit flies.
3) Determined – Once I commit to something, I see it through. I hate leaving anything unfinished.
Worst –
1) Lazy – Its a strange combination, determined and lazy, but its me. I mean this in a very physical sense – I can’t be bothered to wake up before 10 unless I absolutely have to, and I love spending the day in pyjamas. And unless I have a concrete goal in front of me, I most likely will. I wish I could be more physically active.
2) Social anxiety – I can be very shy and awkward, and though I have gotten better over time, there is still room for improvement.
3) Over-thinking – Sometimes I tend to get all caught up in my head, and really over think everything, and the worst outcome of this is that I can be a bit self-involved and unsympathetic sometimes. Also means I don’t always seize the day like I should.
A Song of Ice and Fire Related
1.How many books from the series have you completed?
I’ve read all of the first four books, and I’m about halfway through the fifth one. I’m a very new fan of this series – I only started reading the books last July (I have NO idea how the series managed to ignore the series for so long. Its shameful, really.) I managed to blow through the first three books spoiler free, but was subsequently spoiled for most of book 4 and 5 by some wicked folks and careless reading on the internet. Consequently, my speed of reading dropped, and I still have half of book 5 to go. But I know the THING that happen at the ends x(
Silver lining: I’ll have to wait for book 6 only a year and a half!
2.Who are your favorite three characters in the series? Why?
1) Sansa Stark : I love the growth her character undergoes. From a selfish, naive young girl, she becomes a truly strong survivor. As everything she ever believed in crumbles around her, you can see a surprising loyalty emerge within her, combined with a very intuitive intelligence. For someone so young, she shows a lot of resilience and acumen in handling people and their various demands. Sansa Stark shows, most importantly, that she is a survivor – the shallowness of her previous life somehow becomes the ability to absorb all her experiences, learn from them, and move forward. She is still loyal to her family, and that becomes the cornerstone of her desires. But she is also learning how to match her ambitions to the reality of the world. I love that she is shaping into this woman that is simultaneously cunning and charming, deceptive and brave. She is a good example of what is generally considered feminine and weak can be strong in its own way, and I really hope she at some point takes ownership of herself, her beauty and her claims and is able to exact revenge on her enemies.
2) Jaime Lannister: I love complex characters, I love redemptive arcs, and I love seeing someone grow and change in such a real, believable way. What I love about Jaime is how he is a study in some wonderful ironies and paradoxes. Yes, he has an incestuous relationship with his sister – but in a world fraught with marriages of convenience, betrayals, lies, and death, this love seems somehow the most honest and genuine of all the other ‘romances’. He truly loves her, is faithful to her, and would do anything for her. The change he undergoes when he loses his hand brings out all of the better qualities he had suppressed; the ones that stem from his insecurity and that therefore make him more relatable and likable. I love his arrogance, smugness, and sharp sense of sarcasm that characterize him in the early books, but I also love that all of his Kingslayer personality hides a deep seated vulnerability and insecurity about his inherent lack of ambition and subtlety (and the scorn he earned from his father). I adore his interactions with Brienne as well. Jaime, like Ned, is forced to be a player in a game he neither knows nor wishes to be a part of. His cynicism and extreme callousness, I think, comes from that place of being hurt by a world he expected much more from. What redeems him is that although he thinks the world is unfair, he still tries to impose his own sense of justice to it. Yes, he can still be selfish, impulsive and cold at times, he is also passionate, loyal, and capable of great love. The struggle between his ‘dark’ and ‘light’ side, both of which seem equally strong, makes him a really wonderful character to read about.
3) Tyrion: Because how can you not love him? I like him for the same reason I like the other two: love of complex, gray characters with a million conflicting motivations and a very real dark side. Tyrion is both intelligent and ambitious, not afraid to go after what he wants. He has a hunger to prove himself to the world, and at the same time he is able to completely enjoy the ride and somehow be kind and considerate. I think he would make an excellent advisor to whoever the next monarch ends up being, and I really also want him to find someone who loves him, or at least to learn to love himself.
I know it says three, but I have to mention Asha Greyjoy, Brienne of Tarth, and Oberyn Martell. Masters in badassery and awesomeness.
3.Who are your least favorite three characters in the series? Why?
1) Jon Snow: He may be one of the main characters, but I find his personality extremely irritating. I find his PoVs hard to read for several reasons, and first and foremost is his constant whining. I understand that some bad things have happened to him, that being a bastard is no fun, etc etc. However, so many characters have terrible things happen to them. They all seem to deal with their trauma in interesting ways except Jon Snow, who just spirals into self-pity and sulkiness much of the time. Even when he becomes Lord Commander, he is unable to leave his past behind him, allowing the pressure of proving himself to get to him and leading him to make some pretty bad decisions. Tyrion gave him the advice he sorely needed right at the beginning: to wear his weakness as his armour. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t take it, and allowed his weakness to be shoved inside layers of ice and hurt and weepy feelings, where it then festered until it came back to stab him in the back.
2) Joffrey: There are many pretty terrible people in ASOIAF but Joffrey is special. I don’t so much have a problem with his evilness – his grandfather’s record of terrible deeds and people’s lives destroyed is definitely worse – but the fact that he’s evil with no purpose. Just chaotically making everyone’s life horrible, killing kittens and enjoying it, and being a whiny brat in the bargain, Joffrey has no redeeming quality.
3) Lysa Tully/Arryn: I don’t understand her character at all. Perhaps this is because I’m not a mother (or a mothering type), but I neither sympathize with Lysa Tully’s motivations or her craziness. She is a selfish, jealous, possessive woman with some really deep set issues.
4.#1 Favorite moment in all of ASOIAF so far? Why?
I considered Joffrey’s death, or Jaime going back to save Brienne, but I ultimately settled on the chapter where Tyrion is rescued from the dungeons, kills his father and runs away. Tywin’s murder is so well orchestrated – Jaime rescuing Tyrion, the dramatic confessions and revelations that follow, and the final release of all that rage Tyrion has suppressed for so many years. While Tywin is a brilliant villain, the moment of his death on a chamber pot is very satisfactory, and almost poetic. It was a brilliant twist that combined our desire for a ‘win’ for Tyrion and Tywin’s downfall in an epic albeit dark way.
5. In your dream-world, how would you like to see the series end, and why?
The only way I would see Jon Snow being redeemed if R+L=J is canon. Things would make sense, and he could then be one of the three ‘heads’ of the dragon and also the prince who was promised. I would also like to see Tyrion join Danaerys, he would be the perfect Hand for her, and add the experience, knowledge and cunningness her cause seems to lack. It would be cool if he was also a Targ (through the more complicated theory that Aerys raped Joanna Lannister) but even if he isn’t this situation works. I would like to have him either win Victarion over or steal the dragon horn, and thus descend upon Westeros with Dany and win the throne, before finally joining with Jon Snow and Sam and defeating the White Walkers. Dany will then be Queen, with Jon Snow at her side, and adopt an heir from among her courtiers (and maybe choose Stannis? That would be cool.)
All the Stark children must be united, and Sansa and Arya must pool their resources to win the North back for the Starks, preferably killing the Boltons and Littlefinger in some epic fight/murder scenes. Sansa, having through elaborate manipulations and some help from the chaos of King’s Landing won the North, the Riverlands and the Vale, should be crowned the new Queen in the North who then bends the knee to Dany. I unfortunately don’t see a happy ending for her – though she gets her revenge, it probably comes at too great a cost, and I think it would be very hard for her to ever really be in love and be happy after all that happens to her (very Frodo-esque).
I don’t anticipate a happy ending for Myrcella, Arianne Martell, or Asha Greyjoy, although I love these characters. (I would love for the women of Westeros to win everything, but this probably won’t happen.) Cersei will be killed by Jamie, who should be Lord of Casterly Rock. Finally, I want Jaime and Brienne to get married and have lots of epic warrior babies and grandbabies and live happily ever after.
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[MARTELL]
Date: 2013-02-18 11:51 am (UTC)[TARGARYEN]
Date: 2013-02-18 12:56 pm (UTC)[Stark]
Date: 2013-02-18 03:09 pm (UTC)Have to say its nice to see another fan of Sansa Stark out there!!! That girl really is such an amazing character in my mind.
Also wanted to say I really loved your theories and hopes for the end series. I really could see some of this actually happening too...
Re: [Stark]
Date: 2013-02-19 01:28 am (UTC)I love Sansa so much! She is definitely my favorite PoV, I'm missing her in DwD. Glad to meet another fan!
[LANNISTER]
Date: 2013-02-18 03:14 pm (UTC)And do you really think it's only going to take GRRM another year and a half to finish TWOW? ;)
Re: [LANNISTER]
Date: 2013-02-19 01:33 am (UTC)[TULLY]
Date: 2013-02-18 04:52 pm (UTC)[LANNISTER]
Date: 2013-02-18 05:49 pm (UTC)[TULLY]
Date: 2013-02-18 05:53 pm (UTC)[TYRELL]
Date: 2013-02-18 08:48 pm (UTC)[TULLY]
Date: 2013-02-18 09:16 pm (UTC)[TULLY]
Date: 2013-02-19 12:15 am (UTC)[Martell]
Date: 2013-02-19 12:57 am (UTC)& congrats on the scholarship!
Re: [Martell]
Date: 2013-02-19 01:35 am (UTC)[MARTELL]
Date: 2013-02-19 03:52 pm (UTC)Oh, and this: "Silver lining: I’ll have to wait for book 6 only a year and a half!"
LOL you sweet summer child ;) (not making fun of you, just saying that it will be a shocking turn of events if TWOW actually gets published in 2015, especially with everything else GRRM has added to his plate lately)
Re: [MARTELL]
Date: 2013-02-19 04:37 pm (UTC)[STARK]
Date: 2013-02-19 08:23 pm (UTC)[MARTELL]
Date: 2013-02-19 09:31 pm (UTC)[TARGARYEN]
Date: 2013-02-20 06:57 am (UTC)[STARK]
Date: 2013-02-20 07:08 am (UTC)[TYRELL]
Date: 2013-02-20 07:09 am (UTC)[STARK]
Date: 2013-02-20 07:32 am (UTC)[TULLY]
Date: 2013-02-20 08:56 am (UTC)[STARK]
Date: 2013-02-20 12:11 pm (UTC)[TYRELL]
Date: 2013-02-20 01:18 pm (UTC)[LANNISTER]
Date: 2013-02-20 02:18 pm (UTC)[Tyrell]
Date: 2013-02-20 02:45 pm (UTC)[TULLY]
Date: 2013-02-20 03:45 pm (UTC)[TARGARYEN]
Date: 2013-02-20 07:22 pm (UTC)[Lannister]
Date: 2013-02-20 09:13 pm (UTC)[LANNISTER]
Date: 2013-02-21 03:52 am (UTC)Stark
Date: 2013-02-21 07:08 am (UTC)[STARK]
Date: 2013-02-21 08:07 am (UTC)[LANNISTER]
Date: 2013-02-21 11:31 am (UTC)LANNISTER
Date: 2013-02-21 03:35 pm (UTC)[MARTELL]
Date: 2013-02-21 07:16 pm (UTC)[TULLY]
Date: 2013-02-21 09:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-22 11:19 am (UTC)You may join
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