Westeros Sorting

Name: Kait
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Age: 19
Location: Adelaide, Australia
Occupation: Student




All About You

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 house would be relatively small. A couple of bedrooms (just in case I decided I could be bothered having someone else living with me), a lounge, kitchen, and a huge library stuck on the side. I’m in love with the English cottages, so something like that – beautiful brick walls, and odd little crannies. I’d also like an attic. I could put a big writing desk up there and channel Emily Dickenson.


I would have a huge garden – overgrown, with shaggy trees and rough grass. Fruit trees down the back. I wouldn’t leave Australia, so half these things would be in the process of dying, but I like golden grass. In the height of summer, it would all bake, and the heat haze would ripple through everything. I could sit on my lovely shady veranda and get lulled to sleep by the peace of it all.


It would be on a flat, with hills in the distance, the ocean just down the back – near enough to smell and hear if the wind blows the right way.


There’s something very calming about not having to listen to anybody else, and I would love to move back out into the country, but I wouldn’t be so far away that it took me ages to get to civilisation in case I needed milk, or something.

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!
I would wish for more genies! But I guess that counts as cheating.


First wish is for money – I’m so original. I’d give it around to my family so that none of us ever have to worry about it again, then take myself off around the world on a trip. I want to see the world for myself, up close and personal. Thus far, I have seen a bit of SA, and Canberra.


Second wish… I think I would wish for everyone around me to stay healthy. It’s kinda selfish, in that I don’t want to watch anyone die of cancer, or get Alzheimer’s. But that’s what I’d wish for: my loved ones lives’ to be free of health-related pain.


And to tell the truth, I would probably keep the genie around, just in case I ever had need of the third wish. Kind of like Aladdin. That way, when the crap hits the fan, I’d be covered. That might be cheating, but I can’t think of anything that I need badly enough (apart from finances) to waste a wish on.


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. ;)
Last year, I got hit with depression. Cue sad story. Then I managed to pull myself together, overcome my fears, pride and self-hatred (uncomfortable bedfellows, if ever there were), and take the steps towards getting over myself better.


It’s kind of a perverse pride, because it’s just a return to some form of normalcy, and there are times when I feel like I was and am just being a whiney little shit. But getting through all that just cemented the fact that I am a fighter – even if most of the time I’m fighting myself.



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.
Hmm, this is a tough one. My first reaction was family, but maybe I should revise that to friends. Because I love, love, love my family, more than anything. I’m close to my immediate family on my Mum’s side, grandparents, aunts and cousins. They’re my support network, and my closest friends. I would be lost without them all, and I can’t imagine not having such a brilliant family. But, I consider them friends, maybe I should say friends? The family I don’t see on my Dad’s side don’t hold any real sway over me.


Of course, that’s assuming that pleasure means those extra experiences, rather than normal happiness. Otherwise that is my most important thing: being happy.


I think money is my least important. At the moment, I am rather poor, and it did really bother me last year. Still bothers me now, sometimes, particularly when people talk about going places and I simply can’t afford to. But, the other things are far more important than money, so long as you have just enough to scrape through. I’m not impressed by the amount of things people have, but rather who they are.


5. What’s one quote (or passage, song lyric, etc.) that effectively describes you and your values? Explain.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”


I like this quote from Terry Pratchett a whole lot, because it shows me I’m not such a contradiction at all. It sets my two sides– realist and dreamer – up to fight each other, but actually forces them to work together. I see the quote as meaning you need both to make it through – your dreams to make the hard work worth it, and the hard work to make the dreams reachable.



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’m a bit of a tight-arse, and a bargain-hunter. That’s by necessity though (living hand-to-mouth at the moment). Most weeks I can’t afford anything ‘extra’, so I’ve gotten very good at budgeting said extras in, and saving up over a few weeks to go out. So, because I can make ends meet and live on next to nothing, I’d say I’m pretty good with money.


Financial security is important to me – I would love to have it, and you can breathe a bit easier when you’ve got a little extra cash tucked away somewhere. But it doesn’t matter as much to me now, being a uni student who only has to worry about herself, as I know it would if I had someone else to support, like kids.


So to be honest, because I’m in a tight financial situation at the moment, I don’t know if I can answer this question without the ‘I’m relatively poor’ bias. It’s entirely possible that I would win a million dollars and spend it all on gold-leafed books and diamond-studded boots. Well, not boots, I hate shoes. But you get the point.



7. Name (and elaborate on) some of your hobbies. What are your favourite things to do outside of school/the office?
I had separate things, but: reading, watching movies and playing video games are all for one reason. Stories. Stories are my life-blood – if I didn’t have fiction to think about, I would go insane. I tend to get very invested (if I can’t, I won’t read/watch/play), and find the whole experience of watching a story unfold, watching characters grow almost magical. I’ve been accused of being a bit of a snob, because I also then love unpicking them, but it’s not that. I just want to be able to get inside character’s heads, and the authors heads – look at why things happened, why they chose to tell the story in that way. I really could not live without getting some sort of story a day – whether it be part of a book, a TV show, or a movie.


I also enjoy researching things that aren’t for uni. So, I can spend hours reading about anthropology or philosophy (until I have to do an essay, when my interest dries up). I also love reading about stories – so, ‘meta’/essays on TV shows and books, whether LJ or scholarly, or listening to DVD commentary. All those things that make someone a super-nerd, according to friends.


Writing. So that I can tell my own stories, and get to know other sides of myself.


Bike-riding. I enjoy riding. It keeps me sort of fit, and I like the fact that you can go fast – unlike when I attempt to run. I find it very relaxing to be on the move, and so it helps me wind down.


Play cards. I absolutely love playing cards – unfortunately I don’t know many people who do, so it tends to be me forcing others to play with me. I don’t even know what it is, exactly – maybe I’m a closet gambler, or something.


8. Name three things you are afraid of. Explain.
Heights. I fell off a stack of pallets when I was younger, and since then I’m terrified of heights. The scene where Sam and Frodo climb up the steps in Lord of the Rings actually makes me feel sick, which is a little pathetic.


Failure. This little fear has stopped me doing lots of things in my life, because if I can’t do something I don’t even want to attempt it. If I’m forced to do something I mightn’t be good at, I tend to panic, and just don’t enjoy myself, until I know what’s expected from me, and if I can meet those expectations. Failure for me can mean literal ‘F’ grades, or simple social failure, such as parents not liking me.


Death. I know we’ve all gotta go, but the thought of there being nothing scares the shit out of me. I can’t get behind the idea of an afterlife, and that’s fine, until I realise that time is going to go on without me and I’ll just… end.


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.
Three Best:
1. Loyal. I’m not the most outwardly affectionate of people, or even the most trusting, but whenever any of my family of friends is going through a tough time, or needs help, I’m there. I would do anything for the people that I love, and god help you if you pick a fight with any of them. I know a lot of people say stuff like this, but for me it’s true. Once you have my trust, you have my loyalty, and you need to do something huge to break that.

2. Curious/Open-minded. I like to know the ins-and-outs-of-a-ducks-bum (to quote my mother), and if something interests me I love to learn about it – discovering new things, from all different points of view. Because this curiosity extends to other people – in that I like to know what people think, or what they do – I come off as very friendly and easy to talk to. Because I want to understand everything, I’m also not very judgemental, and I hate gossip, because there’s always two sides to every story, and people just don’t seem to bother trying to find those other views.


3. Independent. This gets me in trouble sometimes, but I genuinely enjoy doing things for myself. I’d rather puzzle something out on my own, than have other people give me answers. I also love the fact that I can spend time by myself and not get bored, and that I don’t have to rely on other people for everything/anything.

Three Worst:
1. Proud. This is the flip side to being independent, I guess. I don’t tell people if I’m having trouble with things, or if I’m upset, or even if I’ve made a mistake a lot of the time. I want people to only see my best side. I also hate admitting to failure, or that I can’t do something. I’d much prefer to bluff my way through something hard, and I come across as really confident most of the time, when I’m just too proud to let people see I’m messed up and stressed. This makes me a bit of a bitch under pressure, and I tend to get angry at people who give me unwanted advice. It also means that I can appear rather cold, because under stress I withdraw and focus on trying to keep that wall up, rather than on trying to make other people feel comfortable around me.

2. Unconfident. I don’t feel like a good person a lot of the time. I’m insecure, and basically paranoid that people will hate me. I don’t think I can do anything as well as other people, which has an impact more on the creative side of things, as I love to write but am normally too scared to show people what I’ve done.

3. Worrier. I take a thought, and run with it, until the end of the world is coming and nothing I do can avert it. This means that if I’m already worried about doing something, I can whip myself into a frenzy by the time it comes around. I also tend to adopt other people’s problems, so I find myself worrying about them as well. I can get into quite the slump, worrying about things that will most likely never happen.





A Song of Ice and Fire Related

1.Who are your favorite three characters in the series? Why?
Dany. Watching her grow has been simply amazing – I fall more in love with her every chapter. From a meek little girl under the thumb of her brother, to a queen and mother of dragons – I mean, how could you not see how brilliant she is? Then, we have the dark undercurrent running through – what about the madness? Can she handle this? I like the fact that she’s also very just – freeing the slaves, for example – but at the same time we aren’t led to believe that that’s the same thing as being right – because there’s no way to feed them all. She screws up, makes mistakes, but doesn’t give up, and hasn’t been completely jaded. I love this about her.


Brienne. Like Dany, she’s a woman trying to make her way in a man’s world. Unlike Dany, she’s also ugly. I like the fact that, even though she’s not always comfortable in her skin, she doesn’t let other people change her or her goals. She’s an ugly woman who’s also a knight, and she’s not going to slink off home just because she’s unattractive and not welcome. Maybe that’s stupid, but I find it really admirable.


The third one was hard to pick, but Asha. Another kick-arse woman, I fell in love with her from the moment we found out she’d played Theon for a fool. She hasn’t been in it as much as the other two, but I find her dark sense of humour, tomboyishness (while still embracing her womanhood) and go-get-‘em attitude rather endearing. It helps that she’s really, really cool too. Of course, she can be a bit stupid at times – but that’s what makes all Martin’s characters so great – their grey areas.


Huh, they’re all women… Top three males are Jaime, Davos and Jon, just to prove I’m not completely sexist.



2.Who are your least favorite three characters in the series? Why?
Ramsey Bolton and Walder Frey – because they are such terrible, terrible, unredeemable characters. I mean, obviously we’re meant to hate them. Bolton terrifies me, actually. He’s insane. And Frey is a huge, huge bastard.


Lady Stoneheart. I realise that people will be like ‘what, why? Catelyn!’ I liked Catelyn. I really did. But, by hate I mean ‘wish she wasn’t alive, wish I didn’t have to read about her’. This is probably the only series where I have felt truly revolted at a character coming back as, well, a zombie. It creeps me out – it’s a violation of nature, and I hate the fact that Catelyn was reduced to it. As you’ll see in number three, the Red Wedding tore me around something shocking, and when she popped up again I felt like crying. So, Lady Stoneheart is far too uncomfortable for me. (Which is brilliant… blah I’m running around in circles!)



3.#1 Favorite moment in all of ASOIAF so far? Why?
The Red Wedding. No, that’s not right. That’s my least favourite bit.


But I think of all the scenes in all the books, this was the one that made me realise that this world is dangerous, and that I can’t take anything for granted – decisions have very real, very dramatic consequences. I was not expecting it – and I should have. I should have. But I thought – I don’t know. I’m more naïve than Sansa, seriously. It tore me to pieces – so unjust, so cruel, so unexpected. I was so mad, and so upset.


I think my utter lack of anything coherent to say should attest to how shockingly devastating, terrible and amazing I found this scene. None of my favourites are safe.


And yet, now, I can appreciate how influential this scene was. In terms of the fact that it made me feel so much, it made me realise that I’m actually in capable (cruel, bastard) hands with GRRM, and that I’m in deep.


4. In your dream-world, how would you like to see the series end, and why?
Dany comes on over the sea to claim Westeros. There’s not a war, everybody’s just like ‘oh, OK’ and gets on with being happy and prosperous. Look, this is a dream-world, alright?


The Starks are reunited – or at least John and Arya. I think this would get Lady Stoneheart into the grave, woo.


Bolton and Frey die in some insanely horrible, but somehow amusing way, so I can laugh at them and not feel like a creep for feeling glad someone died of molten gold, for instance.


Jaime and Brienne get it on. I don’t know why I’m so eager for this, but I really would like to see it happen. Um, not graphically – there can be a tasteful cut away. And in my dream-world, nothing ill would come of it.


Thanks for reading!