I’m Absolutely Obsessed With The Reddit Side Of The Tolkien Fandom, In Particular, This Discussion

this guy again

TIL anyone who's going to overwinter in Antarctica has to have had their appendix out. Because removing an appendix that's not causing any trouble just as a precaution is way better than having one that's about to burst when you're on the ass-end of the planet with no way to be rushed to a hospital if shit gets real.

Do you think willas tyrell will be exactly like how he is spoken about? As this lovely, we’ll-read and respectful man. Or will he have a Tyrion edge to him like how Tyrion is portrayed but his pov shows differently. How do you think his personality and archetype will be? 

I would certainly like to think that Willas Tyrell will be an overall positive character in the story. Every time Willas has come up in the story, he is the subject of admiration, approval, and/or affection: he is the big brother of Margaery’s memory who “used to read to [her] when [she] was a little girl, and draw [her] pictures of the stars”; he is the familial protector of Garlan’s childhood, who dubbed him “Garlan the Gallant” to protect him from crueler, body-shaming monikers; he is the “mild and courtly young man, fond of reading books and looking at the stars” whom Tywin identifies as his preferred new husband for Cersei (and note that Tywin says that “all reports” verify this description of Willas). While it might be easy to dismiss the consistent praise of Willas as merely the product of pro-Tyrell bias, I find it difficult to agree entirely with such an assessment. Oberyn Martell, certainly, had no incentive to praise Willas to Tyrion, even if he, Oberyn, wanted to deflect Tyrion’s barbed observation that the prince of Dorne had “trampled” the heir to Highgarden; likewise, Tywin hardly spared his (private) contempt of Robert Baratheon, for example, even though he actively sought to marry Cersei to Robert in the aftermath of Robert’s Rebellion.  

Indeed, I do not think it at all coincidental that these descriptions remind me most strongly of Samwell Tarly. Just as Randyll Tarly had set out to forcibly mold Sam into (his conception of) the perfect warrior, so Mace Tyrell had forced Willas into a tournament when he, Willas, was “still a green squire” (according to Mace’s WOIAF app entry) and when he “had no business riding in such company” because Mace “wanted another Leo Longthorn”. In turn, just as Randyll’s years of physical and psychological abuse toward Sam caused Sam deep and lasting trauma (so much so that he still fears Randyll’s brutal disapproval toward a career as a maester, despite owing no further obligation to Randyll now that he is a brother of the Night’s Watch), so Mace’s decision to urge Willas into Westerosi (peacetime) martial glory resulted in permanent physical disability inflicted on his son (and, relatedly, the consistent identification of Willas as a “cripple”, a shameful state in the eyes of largely ableist Westeros). However, where Randyll vigorously and horribly attempted to crush Sam’s non-martial interests, Willas seems to have been allowed, maybe even encouraged to pursue the same. Where Randyll treated with contempt Sam’s gentle bonding with his siblings - singing a lullaby to help baby Dickon sleep and sharing a bed in childhood with his sisters - Willas clearly showed himself the caring older brother to Margaery and Garlan; where Sam was chained by the neck for three days in a dungeon for merely suggesting that he become a maester, Willas has seemingly eagerly pursued his interest in books and learning. Importantly, where Randyll refused to show further interest in training Sam as his heir once he had Dickon, Mace has never done the same with Willas: Garlan and (especially) Loras may be the sort of talented young knights celebrated in Westerosi culture, but Mace has nevertheless deputized Willas as his representative in Highgarden (even praising Willas as such when he rejects Cersei’s suggestion that he, Mace, “is needed in the Reach”). Willas, perhaps, offers something of a glimpse into what Sam might have become, had Randyll Tarly not been such a violently hateful misogynist and male chauvinist - that is, an intelligent and capable heir without performing the expected (read: battlefield) roles of Westerosi male aristocrats.  

That similarity in character I think will result in a meeting of the minds, so to speak, in TWOW. When (and not if, I believe) Euron Greyjoy attempts to take over Oldtown as its apocalyptic god-king, I think Sam will make his way out of the city and toward Highgarden (as the political heart of the Reach and the closest major seat of protection, especially to a Reach-raised aristocrat like Sam). This is where good-natured, empathetic Willas Tyrell may work far better for the story than a more cynical or caustic take on the character: where Sam has been throughout his life mocked and derided for his lack of martial interest and his bookishness, Willas is exactly the sort of person to empathize with Sam and be keenly interested in what he has to say (especially given that Willas himself had warned Leyton Hightower of the ironborn’s coming). It is Willas who may appreciate Sam’s diligent study into ancient texts, especially into the supernatural, and so Willas who may be willing to listen to whatever advice Sam can provide, or even help himself with such research (in whatever archives Highgarden may have) in the quest to defeat Euron. (Incidentally, if Alleras-who-is-really-Sarella makes it out of Oldtown with Sam - and I certainly want to think she does - then Willas’ amiable relationship with her late father and demonstrated interest in learning may appeal to not only Oberyn’s proud daughter, but the one who had “wanted to know everything there was to know” on her dad’s field trip to the ruin of Shandystone.) 

So this is all a very longwinded way of saying that yes, I think Willas will be a Pretty Cool Dude when he gets introduced (so far as anyone in Westeros can be, anyway, and certainly anyone in a feudal aristocratic system). I don’t think it makes a lot of sense for GRRM to build him up consistently as such a positive figure and then say “actually just kidding, he’s a big old jerk” (though we’ll leave Jaehaerys I out of this discussion …). Rather, I think it works much better for the story if Sam finds one much like himself, but with the political power he never had - a true ally, kind, empathetic, and willing to listen to what he has to say when few others have. I firmly place Willas on the side of the good (along with Sam and, so I hope, Sarella) in the fight against the evil that is Euron and his attempted apocalyptic takeover.

Piper at the Gates of dawn my beloved.

Where are we going, boys??

Another question because I just noticed this, are the twin suns in your version of Carcosa black holes? In your art the sky looks like it warps around them and they seem to have that ring of light around them that black holes do. If so, that's another really cool idea!

Thank you! Yes, they are black holes, beacuse that's the only way my brain can imagine black stars. Besides black holes are cosmic horror stuff in my opinion... the whole concept of them is positively unsettling. In a good way.

Quick paintings on infinite painter. In the second version I added some giant lovecraftian jellyfish just for fun. I guess that the lighthouse keeper will like them.

Because everyone keeps asking about it.

These Bastards are available as prints, cards and postcards over on RedBubble.

I’ve had a go at making stickers out of these and it’s bloody horrendous. So I hope you all can suffice with prints for now.

Please also have a look over on my INPRNT store for more artwork x