Bringing back something I wrote seven years ago back on Reddit:
I have an appreciation for Jon's ability to manipulate and scheme. From his first scene in AGOT he showed a gift at manoeuvring a situation into his favor, but the baby switch cements this ability the best I think.
First, its important to note that Jon doesn't rush into his lie and swap out of nowhere, he lays the groundwork and plans meticulously.
“Sire, some claim that you mean to grant lands and castles to Rattleshirt and the Magnar of Thenn.”
“Who told you that?”
*The talk was all over Castle Black*. “If you must know, I had the tale from Gilly.” - Jon I ADWD
He says something of which he'd heard rumors of, but he assigns the blame to Gilly so as to alienate Stannis further from her. By doing this, he deliberately leads Stannis into the conversation where he can mention sending Gilly off without drawing any attention or reprimand from the king who practically controls Wildling lives on the Wall.
“The wet nurse,” said Lady Melisandre. “Your Grace gave her freedom of the castle.”
“Not for running tales. She’s wanted for her teats, not for her tongue. I’ll have more milk from her, and fewer messages.”
“Castle Black needs no useless mouths,” Jon agreed. “I am sending Gilly south on the next ship out of Eastwatch.”
Jon is very good at reading people, and he uses that to his advantage by associating Gilly more and more with the things he knows Stannis dislikes and he does it covertly.
The king was confused. “I thought the wet nurse was this man Craster’s daughter?”
“Wife and daughter both, Your Grace. Craster married all his daughters. Gilly’s boy was the fruit of their union.”
“Her own father got this child on her?” Stannis sounded shocked. “We are well rid of her, then. I will not suffer such abominations here. This is not King’s Landing.”
He plays on Stannis' prejudice to achieve his goal.
Finally-
Melisandre : “Gilly is giving suck to Dalla’s son as well as her own. It seems cruel of you to part our little prince from his milk brother, my lord.”
Careful now, careful. “Mother’s milk is all they share. Gilly’s son is larger and more robust. He kicks the prince and pinches him, and shoves him from the breast. Craster was his father, a cruel man and greedy, and blood tells.” - Jon I ADWD
The above is what he says but in the next chapter this is what he thinks:
Gilly’s boy was older, Dalla’s more robust, but they were close enough in age and size so that no one who did not know them well would be able to easily tell one from the other. - JON II ADWD
He will die at sea, he thought, despairing. He is too old to survive such a voyage. Gilly's little son may die as well, he's not as large and strong as Dalla's boy. Does Jon mean to kill us all? - SAM I AFFC
Jon even swaps the physiques of the babies when describing them to Stannis in order to confuse him further and eliminate a chance of them being identified correctly. He further uses that incorrect physique to push the rhetoric of Gilly's babe being an "abomination" covertly to Stannis. Jon hammers out the details of the lie meticulously, not leaving any scope for failure by being vague. He goes all the way.
I think its an aspect of Jon's character people don't notice or credit much because it isn't at the forefront the way it is for Tyrion, but he too is capable of playing the game. I don't understand when people dismiss Jon's abilities in manipulation or write him off. He's often navigated such situations masterfully and shows himself great at reading people and what moves them from the very first book.
Dexter Morgan^
I think some people are reading too much into the Zava/Jamie dynamic, not in the sense that it’s not weird or condescending but in the sense that I think y’all are giving Zava too much credit. I simply don’t think he cared enough about Richmond to know that much about who was their “best player” because once he was there it would be him. What he does care about is the fact that only one person in that locker room was clearly not worshipping him. Dani and Jamie were both strikers and both aces but the way Zava treats them is very different, because Dani worships the ground he walks on and Jamie doesn’t. And let’s be real, Jamie doesn’t have the locker room influence that he used to. In S1, sure, he was the king, but he lost that cred after returning to Man City, and when he came back to Richmond, he wasn’t able to claw it back until the Dubai Air protest. Even after that, his influence is enough to have a good camaraderie and be respected as a teammate and leader, but it’s not the “bully the kitman because it makes me laugh” influence that he had before. If anyone has that influence after S1, it’s Isaac, Sam, and Dani, but Zava sees no need to condescend to them because they’re already on his side. The way Zava acts toward Jamie doesn’t read to me as “I took your spot, what are you gonna do about it,” it reads much more as “they all love me, you should get with the program.” It’s in no way a fight for dominance, mainly because Jamie isn’t really fighting back. It’s more like a cult leader trying to force an unwilling sheep into the flock. (And Rebecca, the only other person that doesn’t like him, is spared this treatment because A she’s a woman and B she sits in a position of power external to the dynamics of the team and coaching staff.)
idk i feel like dexter could've poor little meow meowed his way out of the electric chair if he'd really put his mind to it
Something that surprises me is that I almost don't see the acceptance of the theory of azhor ahai not being one person, but three.
I really would like to see more people talk about this because since the moment I learned about it it was the one that made the most sense for me, and I'm kind of delulu because I would like both Dany and Jon to be important and part of it, and by been three it could be possible.
In my opinion those two are part of it, the question for me is who would be the third one.
Tony: so, i got banned from shields safehouse because i'm apparently a "liability" and "reckless" and "stark"
Tony: that last one's just my name, but you should hear it the way coulson says it
toughest picture of the century lowkey
george rr. martin holding genetically engineered and newly “resurrected” dire wolf remus
Sometimes I imagine that Ned had made up a completely different story about Jon like he was the warded son of a fallen friend or something and had even planned to let Cat in the know someday if they came to trust each other enough
But then he brought baby Jon in and Cat immediately saw the resemblance and froze but wanted to start her marriage on the right foot by giving her new husband a way out because that's what a good wife does isn't it so she went "oh... is that a... nephew of yours, my lord?"
And Ned immediately panicked like NO. NOPE. NOT A NEPHEW. I SEE WHY YOU MIGHT THINK THAT BUT IT'S NOT. IT'S, UH, MY SON. THAT I MADE. WITH ANOTHER WOMAN. LIKE THE ADULTERER I AM. SILLY OLD NED THE ADULTERER THAT'S ME.
How it feels remembering that no one thought anything of Tony showing signs of being suicidal in iron man 2 because he just “acted like that all the time”
John: The results are in, I’m afraid you have updog… Bucky: What’s updog? John: Ava! Get in here, I told you I could do it!
rewatching tfatws from a new more down bad perspective