Joannalannister

JoannaLannister, also known as Tywinning is a blogger, fanfic writer, and essayist primarily engaged in the A Song of Ice and Fire fandom, though her feminist meta analyses are often applicable to other properties. Joannalannister’s writing focuses on the politics, history, and themes of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, with particular emphasis on House Lannister. She owns and admins ASOIAF University, a fansite dedicated to George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy universe. She was a panelist at Con of Thrones in 2017, 2018, and 2019, and would have returned in 2020 if the con hadn’t been cancelled due to Covid-19.
In her own words, Joannalannister is “really into promoting fandom organization and making sure other people are able to find what they’re looking for.”
==Websites and Communities==
===ASOIAF University===
Joannalannister created the tumblr asoiafuniversity with renlyslittlerose in January of 2012 as a place for discussion and analysis of ASOIAF. The site also engaged with the corollary fandom for the show of the book series, Game of Thrones, but stopped accepting submissions focused only on the show on May 17th, 2015, the date that the Sansa-Ramsay episode aired., Post detailing ASOIAFU’s new policy on show submissions. Asoiafuniversity has almost 19,000 followers as of September 2020. Past follower milestones are detailed in a post here.
In December 2014, Joannalannister set up a twitter account for asoiafuniversity., Advertising post on ASOIAFU’s site for the premier of their twitter account.
===Tywin x Joanna Collection===
A Fanfic Collection on AO3 for fics focused on the ship of Tywin Lannister/Joanna Lannister, moderated by Joannalannister.
==Blogs and Tags==
Joannalannister runs and helps moderate several tumblr blogs, and is affiliated with many more. She also started and is active in a few notable tumblr tags.
===Personal Blogs===
====TywinxJoanna====
A blog dedicated to the TywinxJoanna ship that posts and reblogs fancontent, meta, and announcements relevant to the ship. It also has a section dedicated to fanfic recommendations for the pairing. The blog is moderated by Joannalannister, Deepden, and Myrcellabaratheon.
====Pre-Game of Thrones====
Created in 2012, Pre-GameofThrones was the first dedicated pre-ASOIAF series blog on tumblr. The blog is dedicated to meta and fanworks focused on characters and events that take place before the main events of the ASOIAF series. This spans from ancient history of the world, thousands of years past, up to the childhoods of the main characters of the series. The blog includes sections dedicated to fan resources and fan fic recommendations. As of September 2020, the blog has almost 14,000 followers.
===Affiliated Blogs===
Joannalannister’s blogs are affiliated with many others, including:
*asoiafedit
*dornedaily
*iheartgot
*fuckyeahgameofthrones
*fyeliamartell
*watcherswall
*valar-morekinks
*aryajon
*ladycassanabaratheon
*jaimecerseilibrary
*historyofwesteros
*themaesters
*cerseijaimetyrion
*dailybrienne
*toranekostudios
*cerseilannistersource
*dailyrobbstark
*ottomanladies
===Tags===
Joannalannister created and popularized several ASOIAF-related tags on tumblr, such as:
*#valyrianscrolls
As the show grew in popularity, Joannalannister felt that the typical ASOIAF tags were being taken over by show content. She created the #valyrianscrolls tag on tumblr for people who wanted only book content. Debut post explaining the the #valyrianscrolls tag The tag was designed to be something recognizable from the books, but unlikely to appear in any HBO productions.
*#asoiafedit
She created the #asoiafedit hashtag on tumblr with cerysehightower, before together creating the source blog asoiafedit in May of 2015. , Premier post for the #asoiafedit tag.
*#gotfic
Based on the #gotedit tag created by Queencersei, Joannalannister created and promoted the #gotfic tag on tumblr as a place to sort ASOIAF and GoT fanfiction from general ASOIAF and GOT posts., Promo and explainer post for the #gotedit tag.
* #asoiaf meta
She formalized and promoted the #asoiaf meta tag on tumblr as a place for people to post their analyses of asoiaf and get them seen , Premier and explainerr post for the #asoiaf-meta tag.
==Convention Panels==
Joannalannister has been invited to speak at Con of Thrones, an ASOIAF Convention, every year that the con has been held. Her notable speaking engagements include:
===2017===
*You’re not the one - A panel about heroes, antiheroes, and villains 
*A World of Our Own: Game of Thrones/ASOIAF Fanfic — A panel about ASOIAF fanfiction and transformative fandom. 
===2018===
*House Lannister: The Pride of Casterly Rock – A panel about “What lies ahead for Tyrion, Cersei, and Jaime? Has their family history made their path inevitable?” 
*Rhaegar and Lyanna: The Reality and the Aftermath – A panel about Rhaegar and Lyanna reveal.
*All that is Gold Does Not Glitter: The Connections Between Lord of The Rings and ASOIAF – A panel examining connections between LOTR and ASOIAF 
*The Five Year Gap — A panel also featuring Ashaya, Joe Magician, and Bookshelfstud
*The Dead Ladies Club– Presented with Ashaya of History of Westeros, Sue of Watchers on the Wall, and Jess Naftaly. Joannalannister was quoted from this panel in an article on The Verge., The Verge Article “THE BIGGEST GAME OF THRONES FANS IN THE WORLD ARE NOT WHAT I THOUGHT THEY'D BE” by Kaitlyn Tiffany
===2019===
* Last of Their Name – A panel on disappearing dynasties in ASOIAF, presented with Hamfast42. 
* Metafandom: The Intersection of A Song of Ice and Fire Fans and its Fandom — A panel with nobodysusupectsthebutterfly. 
*ASOIAF: A Pop Culture Dialogue — Panel with nobodysuspectsthebutterfly and Michelle Jaworski of the Daily Dot. 
*Fan Art: Purpose, Process, and Place in the Fandom – Panel with nobodysuspectsthebutterfly, Sanrixian, Vanessa Cole, and Jean Tait 
*Dunk and Egg: The Past and Future of Westeros – Panel with Hamfast42, nobodysuspectsthebutterfly, Steve Love, Michal Schick, and Chris Wright on Dunk and Egg. 
*Aragorn’s Tax Policy – Panel with Hamfast42, Jim McGeehin, and Patrick Sponaugle. 
*Tywin’s Legacy – Panel with Aziz of History of Westeros and Wendy Weissman. 
 
==Notable Essays==
===The Dead Ladies Club===
The Dead Ladies Club (sometimes referred to as the “DLC”) is a term Joannalannister uses to refer to a collection of female characters in the 1-2 generations preceding the main story of A Song of Ice and Fire, as described in an essay of the same name. The essay, published in 2017, explains and expounds upon the term, which she had been using at least since 2013. , A post examining Tywin Lannister that is believed to be the first still-active use of the term “The Dead Ladies Club” on Joannalannister’s blog. It explains how the DLC are women who are severely underdeveloped, even unnamed, compared to their male counterparts and their impact on the story, and how this is emblematic of systemic sexism within the world of the story and in George R.R. Martin’s writing. The essay is broken into 9 parts:
#WHAT IS THE DEAD LADIES CLUB?
#“NOW SAY HER NAME.”
#WHO ARE THEY NOT? 
#WHY DOES IT MATTER?
#THE DEATH OF THE MOTHER
#THE DLC AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE
#CONCLUSIONS
#FOOTNOTES AND MISCELLANEOUS
Further expansions of the ideas presented in the essay can be found in other posts on Joannalannister’s blog.
=== Casterly Rock===
Joannalannister’s essay analyzes the size, scale, and scope of Casterly Rock, the ancestral home of the Lannister family in ASOIAF. Cross-referencing official ASOIAF-related materials with real-world practicalities and other fan analyses, she details how large Casterly Rock must really be, and how much wealth these mines could realistically bestow upon the Lannister family. This essay received “Reddit Gold” on Reddit. , The Reddit Post linking to Joannalannister’s analysis of Casterly rock which received “Reddit Gold.”
=== Ladies in Waiting in Westeros===
An analysis on the function of real-life Ladies in Waiting, compared to the various examples of Ladies and their companions in ASOIAF. The essay breaks down specific characters and their ladies, the terms used to describe them, and the meta significance of how these women are portrayed. In particular, the essay speculates on the companions of Rhaella Targaryan and the in-universe effects of those relationships.
===Joanna Lannister: A Bitch In Her Own Right===
In this essay, Joannalannister details the common fandom view of the character Joanna Lannister at the time, and pushes back against it with her own suppositions of what Joanna must have been like, given the scant details in the text. This essay has some now-outdated suppositions, because The World of Ice and Fire compendium came out with contradictory information, but at the time, Joannalannister was one of the first people to start talking about Joanna Lannister in a substantive way, and helped drive fanon of the character, since little was known about her from the books at the time. 
===Cersei as Rapunzel===
An essay exploring fairytales as depicted through ASOIAF characters, specifically, as titled, Cersei as Rapunzel. Joannalannister makes thematic comparisons of Cersei as a maiden trapped by misogyny and by the physical Tower of the Hand. She also details direct textual parallels between descriptions of Cersei’s circumstances in the book to the text of the Rapunzel fairytale.
===Other Notable Essays and Series===
*A Plus J Does Not Equal T: A series of posts arguing against the theory that Tyrion is the son of Aerys Targaryen
*Gender in ASOIAF: A series of criticisms of misogyny in ASOIAF. 
*The Windblown Webber: An essay lying out Joannalannister’s theory on who the Windblown Webber is.
==References==
Category:Fanwriters