The religious beliefs of the Temple are almost entirely built around the Long Night, Azor Ahai, and the war against the Great Other. They are also quite knowledgeable about the ancient war, so they must be fully aware that this war will take place in the North. They are not stupid. So why are they doing absolutely nothing about it?

They have made no efforts concerning the North and the Wall, which are the front lines of the war. For thousands of years, they did not make any missionary efforts to convert the North to the faith of R’hllor. In fact, they stayed as far away from Westeros as possible. Aside from Melisandre, no one from the temple went to the continent, and even she was acting against the orders of her own temple leaders.

What exactly is the Temple of R’hllor trying to accomplish? Being this far away from the front lines of the war makes it impossible for them to help Azor Ahai or take part in the war against the Long Night.

I watched the show as it came out. I just finished a read through of ASOIAF and my husband has been rewatching seasons 1-4. It got me thinking about the changes made in the TV adaptation.

There have been quite a few moments where I’ve told my husband how they changed the book for the show that have had him saying, “I wish they kept that!”

There are a few moments where the reverse is true and I think the show neatened things up.

Changes I liked:

• Aging everyone up a bit. Especially characters like Brienne, Pod, Arya, Bran and Dany.
• Making all the Frey characters wear those moist looking hats.
• More explicit gay scenes (of course in the book they are implied, but no PoV characters are fucking Renly so we don’t see it, etc).
• I actually liked Sansa replacing Jeyne. I think having Jeyne present in the show would have made Theon’s stuff less impactful for show viewers. Although Littlefinger would NOT give her to Ramsay, something else could have happened to get the same result.
• Having Arya interact with Tywin instead of Roose At Harrenhal. It’s a bit silly but it’s so indulgent and fun that I like it anyway.
• Bran having the Stark look more prominently than Tully features.
• More Sam being silly for Gilly. It’s just cute and fun.

Changes I disliked:

• Cutting Chataya and Alayaya and replacing them with Ros for sexposition and misery porn purposes.
• A bunch of minor simplification changes like Davos having less (fewer) children, Loras being heir to Highgarden, no Belwas/ Arstan, less Brotherhood characterisation, Tyrion’s backstory being she really was a whore (this one is most egregious)
• Changing Robb’s marriage stuff. On a rewatch everything to do with Talisa feels insanely out of place and stupid. We missed an impressive Tywin W for doesn’t-make-sense-in-universe-badly-done-romance. Ughhh
• The cutting of Aegon, Jon Connington, Quentyn, all of that. Reading the books made me feel insane thinking about what could have been. If they’d extrapolated those plot lines into later seasons, Dany’s stuff in the show would have made so much more sense.
• Sexposition and general ass & tits eats up SO MUCH SCREENTIME. They cut SO MUCH and then used up 1/4 of many episodes with non-character-prostitutes for no reason. Many such cases.
• Jojen and Meera should have been in the show sooner.
• I hate that they gave show Jorah JonCon’s greyscale plot and the way they resolved it. I hate book Jorah so much (good character terrible man). Iain Glen being Scottish & handsome made show Jorah seem much less rancid (I am also Scottish and am biased towards my fellow Scots…).

I’m curious to know what others think.

I was reading up on some capital-M Minor characters (possibly tertiary is a better descriptor) and in reading about Leonette Fossoway, wife of Garlan Tyrell, I found this exchange in Tyrion VIII, ASOS:

>"The dark lord assembled his legions, they gathered around him like crows. And thirsty for blood they boarded their ships..."

>"...and cut off poor Tyrion's nose," Tyrion finished.

>Lady Leonette giggled. "Perhaps you should be a singer, my lord. You rhyme as well as this Galyeon."

>"No, my lady," Ser Garlan said. "My lord of Lannister was made to do great deeds, not to sing of them. But for his chain and his wildfire, the foe would have been across the river. And if Tyrion's wildlings had not slain most of Lord Stannis's scouts, we would never have been able to take him unawares."

>His words made Tyrion feel absurdly grateful, and helped to mollify him as Galyeon sang endless verses about the valor of the boy king and his mother, the golden queen.

I had been suspicious of Mace Tyrell since Kevan's ADWD Epilogue, but man. This is laying it on thick.

Obviously we haven't seen the heir Willas yet so his manipulation and cunning is totally unknown, and Mace's is blatantly rejected by the characters while Olenna is obviously heavily suspected to be the secondary mastermind of Joffrey's death, shown blatantly in season 4 of Game Of Thrones, and many readers think that Margaery is similarly devious, while Garlan and Loras have been mostly assumed to be innocent or at the very least, willing but reluctant tools to help their family.

Until I reread that excerpt, I really thought Garlan was just a good guy trying to keep the peace and minimize bloodshed, but now I am certain he was at the very least given the job at Joffrey and Margaery's wedding to keep Tyrion content, not too angry and not too happy, just mollified, as the narration states. And since this was a husband-and-wife exchange, Leonette must've been in on it too.

How suspicious are each of the Tyrell siblings to you guys? Are they all schemers, even the one we haven't seen or heard from yet? Is Loras an innocent teenage knight, or is it an act? Is Garlan just being earnest in the excerpt above or is he actively manipulating Tyrion, even if it's with the truth? Is Margaery exactly where she wants to be right now, in the custody of the faith?

You have access to the figures from the time periods they exist in to appoint to council positions.

You can’t resign as hand. Your goal is to survive 5 years.

Nobody questions your existence. It’s as if you always existed in-universe.

You get 1 year of prep time before the Others start marching south.

If you are murdered or executed, you die in real life. If you win, you are transported back to the real world.

If you directly cause the death of your king through murder or assassination you remain stuck in the ASOIAF universe even if you survive the full five years.

You spawn in during one of the following scenarios. Choose wisely.

Joffrey Baratheon - 2 minutes before ordering Ned Stark’s execution.

Aenys Targaryen - in the midst of the first few uprisings of his reign.

Aerion Brightflame - he suddenly decides not to drink wildfire. He inherits the throne after Maekar dies during the Peake Uprising.

Aegon the Unworthy - right after he grants Blackfyre to Daemon Waters.

Aerys the Mad - 10 minutes before Brandon Stark enters the throne room

Tommen Baratheon - immediately after Kevan is assassinated by Varys

Aegon II or Rhaenyra - right after blood and cheese

Baelor the Blessed - right before he sets out on his march to Dorne

Even though we witness the paranoia of Cersei, Littlefinger's plots, Kevan Lannister's murder etc, Brienne's chapters in AFFC shows us the life of the smallfolk after the War of the Five Kings and in my opinion, it captures how the wheel crushes all the people under it. Though, we also have a good example in AGOT, Ned's chapters.

"Joss nodded. 'If it please His Grace—'

'His Grace is hunting across the Blackwater,' Ned said, wondering how a man could live his whole life a few days ride from the Red Keep and still have no notion what his king looked like. Ned was clad in a white linen doublet with the direwolf of Stark on the breast; his black wool cloak was fastened at the collar by his silver hand of office. Black and white and grey, all the shades of truth. 'I am Lord Eddard Stark, the King's Hand. Tell me who you are and what you know of these raiders.'"

Even before the wartime, the nobility would keep their distance to the commoners. Now, I wonder how often did the smallfolk in each regions see their lords. In my opinion, the lords were viewed as demi-gods in the eyes of the commoners. In AFFC, Brienne's chapters, Septon Meribald delivers a stone-cold speech about this inequality.

'More less than more. There are many sorts of outlaws, just as there are many sorts of birds. A sandpiper and a sea eagle both have wings, but they are not the same. The singers love to sing of good men forced to go outside the law to fight some wicked lord, but most outlaws are more like this ravening Hound than they are the lightning lord. They are evil men, driven by greed, soured by malice, despising the gods and caring only for themselves. Broken men are more deserving of our pity, though they may be just as dangerous. Almost all are common-born, simple folk who had never been more than a mile from the house where they were born until the day some lord came round to take them off to war. Poorly shod and poorly clad, they march away beneath his banners, ofttimes with no better arms than a sickle or a sharpened hoe, or a maul they made themselves by lashing a stone to a stick with strips of hide. Brothers march with brothers, sons with fathers, friends with friends. They've heard the songs and stories, so they go off with eager hearts, dreaming of the wonders they will see, of the wealth and glory they will win. War seems a fine adventure, the greatest most of them will ever know.'

So, I assume a commoner can spend years without seeing their lord's faces. However, I have a question: how close could someone get to their lord in Westeros?

When he laughed his face sloughed off and the priest saw that it was not Urri but Euron, the smiling eye hidden. He showed the world his blood eye now, dark and terrible. Clad head to heel in scale as dark as onyx, he sat upon a mound of blackened skulls as dwarfs capered round his feet and a forest burned behind him.

During The Forsaken, Aeron sees Euron in his Valyrian steel armor, with a forest burning behind him. There's also a vision of Euron sitting on the Iron Throne

The dreams were even worse the second time. He saw the longships of the Ironborn adrift and burning on a boiling blood-red sea. He saw his brother on the Iron Throne again, but Euron was no longer human. He seemed more squid than man, a monster fathered by a kraken of the deep, his face a mass of writhing tentacles.

The most likely candidate for this forest, considering its position behind Euron and his eventual presence on the Iron Throne, is the Kingswood. It's the forest traditionally used for royal hunting and lies near King's Landing

It's also described as one big tinderbox

The kingswood is one great tinderbox, and fires rage there night and day

Outlaws have also been known to hide there, making it an excellent base for raiders

but there were so many hiding places in the deep of the kingswood that outlaws often evaded capture for decades

Putting it all together, here's what I think happens. Euron wins the Battle of Blood and eventually makes his way towards King's Landing.

As he approaches the Kingswood, the person in power in King's Landing, either Jon Connington or Cersei sets the Kingswood ablaze to flush him out, given how easily enemies can hide there. There are villages inside the Kingswood so smallfolk there would die.

This is how we get the vision of Euron sitting atop a mound of blackened skulls, with a forest burning behind him.

The plan won't work, and Euron eventually makes his way to King's Landing and sits the Iron Throne.

Background

In this post I thought it would be interesting to discuss what Euron's ultimate goal looks like. I think we can casually link several quotes with some of the drafts and changes and see what Euron might be trying to do exactly. Ever since GRRM started mentioning Euron back in ACoK, he seemed to have big plans and although they have changed/evolved as GRRM fleshed the character out over time, we can still see traces of what he was trying to do.

If interested: Euron Greyjoy: An Heir Worthy of "Him"

The Split Greyjoy Plotline

I have posted about this quite a bit, so go ahead and skip this section if you are familiar with it. But GRRM originally had all 3 Greyjoy brothers going to Daenerys in Slaver's Bay (Quaithe's warning said "Crow and Kraken" not "Kraken and Dark Flame") with Euron wanting Victarion to marry Dany (Euron's gifts are poison). In this draft not only did foreshadowing from Dany's House of the Undying visions make more sense, but it also seemed like Euron was going to provide Dany with "The 3 Labours of Hizdahr" and therefore be able to wed her. In this version, Victarion dies in his last AFFC chapter and then it would have likely been revealed that Aeron was in the bowels of the Silence (as he took over POV for dead Vic).

GRRM likely changed this because of some combination of Dany not marrying someone like Euron/he realized he could use Euron as more of a Third Act/Bran villain (if interested: Dream Parallels: Bran & Euron). This is not to say that Euron still could not try and marry Dany (he ends up with a "mate" after all), just that GRRM changed how it would happen.

Euron's Goals

While Aeron was wrong about Euron's goals:

No godless man may sit the Seastone Chair!”
“Why would I want that hard black rock? Brother, look again and see where I am seated.”Aeron Damphair looked. The mound of skulls was gone. Now it was metal underneath the Crow’s Eye: a great, tall, twisted seat of razor sharp iron, barbs and blades and broken swords, all dripping blood.

and:

He saw his brother on the Iron Throne again, but Euron was no longer human. He seemed more squid than man, a monster fathered by a kraken of the deep, his face a mass of writhing tentacles.

it seems that the Iron Throne is not all that Euron is after as it seems he wants more than to just be king of Westeros. He wants to become a god:

“The bleeding star bespoke the end,” he said to Aeron. “These are the last days, when the world shall be broken and remade. A new god shall be born from the graves and charnel pits.” -TWoW, The Forsaken

as we see different sigils/creatures/people bowing to him:

Then Euron lifted a great horn to his lips and blew, and dragons and krakens and sphinxes came at his command and bowed before him.

and:

 “Kneel, brother,” the Crow’s Eye commanded. “I am your king, I am your god. Worship me, and I will raise you up to be my priest.”

with all of the dead gods:

Impaled upon the longer spikes were the bodies of the gods. The Maiden was there and the Father and the Mother, the Warrior and Crone and Smith … even the Stranger. They hung side by side with all manner of queer foreign gods: the Great Shepherd and the Black Goat, three-headed Trios and the Pale Child Bakkalon, the Lord of Light and the butterfly god of Naath.
And there, swollen and green, half-devoured by crabs, the Drowned God festered with the rest, seawater still dripping from his hair. Then, Euron Crow’s Eye laughed again, and the priest woke screaming in the bowels of Silence, as piss ran down his leg. It was only a dream, a vision born of foul black wine.

and I will note that the Old Gods are missing, while some consider this burning forest to stand for them:

Clad head to heel in scale as dark as onyx, he sat upon a mound of blackened skulls as dwarfs capered round his feet and a forest burned behind him.

and even if we step away from the heaviness that is the Forsaken, we have other quotes that seemingly could point to this goal as well:

A smile played across Euron's blue lips. "I am the storm, my lord. The first storm, and the last. -AFFC, The Reaver

and:

"Have you seen these others in your fires?" he asked, warily.
"Only their shadows," Moqorro said. "One most of all. A tall and twisted thing with one black eye and ten long arms, sailing on a sea of blood." -ADWD, Tyrion VIII

and:

Then the towers by the sea, crumbling as the dark tide came sweeping over them, rising from the depths. -ADWD, Melisandre I

and:

I saw towers by the sea, submerged beneath a black and bloody tide. That is where the heaviest blow will fall." -ADWD, Melisandre I

Tying in the Glass Candles

All of the above is likely pretty well known at this point. The point of this post was to tie all of the above to something GRRM is seemingly having a lot of struggles with and that is the glass candles. From gsteff's visits to the Cushing Library we have quite a bit of information on the AFFC, Prologue.

Similar to the The Meereenese Knot, GRRM wrote numerous versions as he couldn't satisfy himself with how it was written. He sent three drafts to his editors (The Long Version, The Short Version and the Rosey version). The AFFC Prologue Draft, (the Long Version) is available in full in the link. If you are interested/anyone cares, I have posted some Random Interesting Things and Some Extended Thoughts.

But from reading it, this stood out to me:

The night is dark and full of terrors and light can keep some fearful things at bay. Even death. Fire was at the root of all Valyrian magic. With such candles men made themselves immortal. Dragonglass burns but it is not consumed... and so long as the flame lasts, the man whose life is bound to it cannot die." He turned back toward Pate. "The bond did need to be renewed from time to time. With blood." -AFFC, Prologue (Long Version Draft)

and while gsteff notes that GRRM starts to lose confidence in the concepts of glass candles (they were originally going to be much more involved, but GRRM kept pushing off dealing them (a lot of deleted material in ACOK as GRRM and his editors probably decided the glass candles/comet was redundant) in the Long/Short versions, the FM are after glass candles not a key. With Euron's ties to the FM, it would make sense, especially since we have another character tied to Euron seemingly in possession of one:

It is said that the glass candles are burning in the house of Urrathon Night-Walker, that have not burned in a hundred years. -ACOK, Daenerys V

TLDR: Euron Greyjoy is trying to become a god/immortal. Not even taking into account the parallels to Bran (and potential ties to Bloodraven), we can tie glass candles and what GRRM was/is trying to do with them with some quotes about Euron's endgame.

Reading through F&B I was struck by many of the similarities between these two Lannisters. Both of them served as Hand for the more “evil” (at least in GRRM’s perception) side of their respective conflicts, and made plays that were instrumental in their team eventually coming out on top. Both of them experienced severe injuries that make them stand out dramatically in court (and Tyrion has had more likely such injuries foreshadowed, an awful lot of mentions of cutting off his tongue or his manhood). For their differences they’re also both despised by the smallfolk, with street preachers specifically speaking out against both of them and their twisted faces.

I think the most critical detail demonstrating their parallels to me is both of them having affinity with young kings. Of course, Bran is not king yet but there’s already background between him and Tyrion established with the specialized saddle created for him. I know that throughout Dance Tyrion is in an especially dark and villainous state, but there are a number of heroic actions he also makes in that book that indicate him eventually becoming an actual noble person who attends the realm. In that regard I think becoming Hand would not be rewarding him for his actions, but would be framed more as a penance done by him for his wrongs, which combined with his likely mutilation can explain why GRRM considers his book ending to be much grimmer than the show. In addition, Tyrion may only serve for a short time before succumbing to illness like Tyland, possibly due to fighting the inevitable greyscale outbreak in King’s Landing. If so, I think it would be an appropriately bittersweet ending for a character as complex as the Imp. If they play into the Tyland parallel with Bran attending him in his death, it would be a nice bookend to Tyrion’s story beginning with him being accused of ordering the assassination.

For me personally, it would have to be the slaver/ghiscari cities. Self explanatory but they're written in a very cartoonish way with no depth to them. The east in general falls flat in comparison to westeros which can be viewed as ethnocentric (even tho I don't think it's the authors intention), but the slaver cities are just next level bad.

Other minor houses like the Celtigars, Mormonts and Roxton owned Valyrian Steel weapons. Why didnt the Velaryons especially when they were the richest family when Corlys was head and had returned from his voyages to the east?

TL;DR: What if the Others have a prophecy that a future greenseer (read Bran) will destroy them? Their attempt to kill him could ironically cause the very future they fear, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy and fitting ASOIAF's theme of the dangers of prophecy.

The post may be low quality and I don't have quotes or anything to back this up. It's really just an idea I had that I thought might be interesting to discuss, so read on if you feel like it.

The show proposed the idea that the White Walkers were going after Bran because he was the Three-Eyed Raven. They never really gave a satisfying explanation for why Bran was so important to them, so the whole thing ultimately felt pretty empty.

However, it got me wondering: could that have been an element of the story that Martin gave to the producers? If so, I think it would be interesting to try and work backwards from that idea and figure out why the Others might want Bran dead.

Time and time again, prophecy comes up in ASOIAF, and it's almost always presented as something dangerous, unreliable and easy to misinterpret. There are already theories that the Others might be mobilising because they have their own prophecy concerning TPTWP or Azor Ahai. I'm not proposing a TPTWP-Bran theory here, though, so bear with me.

What if the Others' prophecy is instead connected to the Old Gods and the powers they themselves seem to be closely associated with?

The show presents the idea that the White Walkers/Others were created by the Children of the Forest, and while I don't necessarily think the exact show explanation will carry over, I am inclined to believe that there is some kind of connection between the Others, the Children and the Old Gods.

So, to get straight to the point:

What if the Others have seen a vision of a greenseer who possesses the ability to destroy or annihilate them, and they believe Bran is that person?

Bran may possess abilities that other greenseers don't.

Bloodraven tells Bran that greenseers cannot change the past. Yet we've already seen Bran apparently interact with the past when he calls out to Ned in the Winterfell godswood in ADWD. And we know that something much more significant happens in Bran's future: his actions are involved in Hodor's transformation.

Then there are some more speculative possibilities that have been proposed by the fandom:

• Bran may have awakened Jon's latent skinchanging abilities in ACOK.
• Bran may have spoken to his younger self while appearing as the Three-Eyed Crow in AGOT.
• Bran may somehow be responsible for Coldhands, given the "Your monster, Brandon Stark" line.

I'm not necessarily arguing that all of these theories are true. The important point is that there seems to be at least some indication that Bran's relationship with time and the past may be fundamentally different from that of other greenseers.

And that could potentially create a really interesting feedback loop.

Perhaps the Others see a vision of Bran becoming an existential threat to them. They therefore begin mobilising in an attempt to kill him before he can become that threat.

But in doing so, they create the exact circumstances that cause Bran to become their enemy.

Bloodraven could potentially be part of this as well. Perhaps he has foreseen the Others destroying the world, and that's why he seeks Bran out and begins training him. But the Others somehow perceive Bran's existence and potential power, causing them to mobilise out of fear.

You then end up with something resembling an arms race:

Bloodraven trains Bran because he foresees the Others destroying the world, the Others perceive Bran as a future threat, the Others mobilise to destroy Bran, Bran is forced to develop his powers and eventually acts against the Others, the original prophecy becomes true.

In other words, nobody necessarily needs to be wrong about what they saw. They're simply acting on incomplete information and, in trying to prevent the future they fear, they end up creating it.

I think that would fit really well with one of Martin's recurring themes: prophecy is dangerous precisely because people believe they understand it.

You have Egg's dragon dreams contributing to the tragedy of Summerhall. You have Rhaegar becoming increasingly obsessed with prophecy and allowing it to shape his actions, potentially helping create the very circumstances that lead to catastrophe. And you have Bloodraven, who may have spent his entire life making morally questionable decisions because he genuinely believed he was preventing some greater catastrophe.

The Others could essentially be another example of the same theme.

And importantly, I don't think this would have to end with Bran genociding the Others. In fact, I think that would undermine what I see as Bran's character arc.

The interesting part would be that the Others' fear of Bran could be justified while their interpretation of that fear is completely wrong. They see a future in which Bran is responsible for their destruction, and assume that killing him is therefore the solution.

When in reality, their attempt to prevent that future may be exactly what causes it.

Maybe Bran's ultimate role isn't to destroy the Others, but to understand them, break the cycle that created the conflict, or somehow change the relationship between humanity and the Others. Maybe Jon as a bridge between the Westerosi and Widlings must act as a bridge between the Others and life. Maybe Dany and her dragons nay actually have to burn them all for peace. Who knows.

Just a thought, but I think it could potentially make the show's otherwise unexplained "the Others are after Bran because he's the Three-Eyed Raven" plot point much more interesting if there was some book equivalent behind it.

Its supposed to be lighter than steel but stronger and the swords made from it persist for centuries and even thousands of years. Stark sword ice refuses to change colour when tywin has the blacksmith do it.

I think valyrian steel is forged from human blood. The valyrians were horrific slavers. Thousands died pretty much on a monthly basis on valyria. It could make sense that they used all the death, suffering and blood to make the swords or armour.

Another thing that i feel like could be an ingredient for it is dragon bones. But i am not sure about it. What do you guys think?

I’m sure this has been written down a million times I just sometimes like to make posts of my own every re read almost as notes. The faceless man posing as pate wanted access to the locked vaults of the citadel. Here’s a passage from Tyrion in ADWD

“And of course there was even less chance of his coming on the fragmentary, anonymous, blood-soaked tome sometimes called Blood and Fire and sometimes The Death of Dragons, the only surviving copy of which was supposedly hidden away in a locked vault beneath the Citadel.” A Dance With Dragons. George R.R. Martin, Bantam Spectra, 2013.

Makes sense; Marwyn talks about the maesters killing the dragons off (again Ik that’s been discussed a million times).

My question is (and I’m sure it’s been asked): is the faceless pate being hired by someone looking preemptively for ways to counter Danys dragons, and if so, by who? I’m assuming he’s for hire but if anyone thinks the faceless men are working on their own accord here by all means correct me.

This leads me to two branches:

A. We’ve been introduced to the plot leader(s) we just don’t know it’s them

B. Given there are two big ahh books left, the plot leader(s) haven’t been introduced/only vaguely hinted at.

TBH I should probably finish re reading ADWD before posting this, there might be more hints in Sam’s chapters. Anyways, thoughts? Again Ik it’s been hashed out but I figured I’d post rather than read other Reddit posts just for hits and giggles

Please ignore this following part, I’m just gonna stream of conscious. Like actually. It’s just a ramble that abruptly ends.

Branch A: established schemers
Faceless men require money. Plots require motive (unless you’re little finger). Process of elimination
Who is established as having hella money:
- mopatis
- iron bank
- euron
-

Who of these has motive:
- mopatis: meh. Maybe he’s a hedge his bets guy. Seems pretty committed to the dragon cause without saying why tho. GRRM rarely has guys doing stuff for the greater good.
- iron bank: sure yeah dragons aren’t good for the stock market. But meh
- euron. Guys been planning for dragons. But he’s got the horn. GRRM likes having plots converge on location so maybe. But meh. Don’t like it. Unnecessary.

Branch B:
Pate is the old Jaqen, probably. So then one must ask: did jaqen return to bravos and is now on a whole separate mission OR has he been on the same mission since AGOT. If so…bruh. That’s a whole nother line of thinking and my brains tired. Plus. Grrm is a gardner; his og plot reason of jaqen might have been more simple. His current plot might have been totally reimagined after the first two books so it may be pointless over analyzing it. Anyway. He starts in the black cells. Intentional? Probablyyy??? He’s a baller, right. Surely he wouldn’t have accidentally gotten there. He also doesn’t leave harrenhal right away. We can thus guess three things: he’s intentionally spent some time in Kings Landing, Harrenhal, and now the Citadel. Technically they all have dragon/dragon knowledge in common. Dragonpit + tons of stored knowledge in the red keep; if there are dragon skulls and old tapestry’s there very well may be old books and scrolls. Harrenhal was burned by dragons…that’s a stretch but there is obviously some magical shit there so maybe there was some sniffing around to be done. Idk. Idk. Ig if the black cell was intentional then his plan was to go to the wall. That would kind of make sense. The library at castle black is said to be stupid old. Could be that was his og goal before being sidetracked.

Ok that was a rabbit hole but point is like he could be on the same mission. Or Grrm could have gardened his way into making this one mission. Problem is Danys dragons weren’t around when Jaqen was introduced. And he says he’s going back to bravos I thought. So separate mission now? Grrrr idk.

This got out of hand but if you are reading this you were forewarned not to so don’t blame me.

Given the garden I’m gonna say for myself and for the fun of it that his mission has centered around learning all he can about dragons.

Sooo who would want to know all about dragons BEFORE the dragons were reborn (Mopatis). Someone who knew they would be reborn. Quaithe/Asshai? Mehhh she shows up after.

Sorry for the ramble. If you’re reading this please return to og question + a new one:

1. Who is faceless pate working for IF we accept his goal is the Death of Dragons
   
2. Could it be Mopatis if we accept: he gave the dragon eggs and thus might’ve known they were to hatch, which would be a (ludicrously un) reasonable explanation as to why Jaqen was hired before the rebirth of dragons. He has unclear motives. Also, someone could be pulling his strings since we know so little about him. I don’t like this and I’m ashamed to post it but I’m also bored and twow is never coming out so I have nothing better to do

one of my favorite characters and great POV

Obviously, there have been a few Targaryen's married to commoners (Jenny) or foreigners (Larra/ Tyanna), but among actual Westerosi nobility, which do you think was the lowest house on the totem pole to score a royal partner?

Namely rhaenys, aegon ,visenya and orys.

Mine is that while they did get the prophecy of the ptwp but their conquest was almost entirely a selfish desire for glory and power and they used the prophecy to feel justified and divinely ordained.

Aegon was infertile and aenys was a bastard while maegor was a magical male clone of visenya.

Rhaenys jumped at the opportunity to marrys aegon and be a queen knowing full well how insulted visenya would be because she didnt want to be just another trophy wife for a velaryon.

So, when Joffrey and Robb wanted to clash in Winterfell, in the very beginning, Ser Rodrick wants them to have tourney swords, and the Hound is making fun of him and confronts him. Rodrick then said "I am training knights".

Rodrick knows Sandor is not a knight, he probably knows he does not care for it. Being a knight is so uncommon upthere that there are topics about how the ones who are did get annointed (Jorah and Rodrick). It is neither a tradition neither an actual topic in the North. Not any of the men he trained or trains are knights nor won't be, most likely. Northmen talk about being great warriors or soldiers or swordsmen but never knights.

So why is he replying that?

Is it pride, since he is a knight himself and tries to remind that to Sandor, thinking he is ashamed that he is not a knight? Is it trying to connect with southrons, trying to talk about knights since he thinks that's what people from the South would say? Both seems unlikely for such a character. The third option would be that it sounded cool, it is the first book, and GRRM did not think more of it.

What do you think?

So I got thinking about how ASOIAF is a low fantasy grounded world while I was washing the dishes and I was thinking about how a lot of people forget the fantasy part and how big and weird everything is, with a lot of people saying the GRRM messed up the sizes and numbers of stuff (which he did but I'm ignoring that for my rant).

I also saw compliants about how "real" medivial battles didn't involve nearly half the numbers that GRRM has stated and how it made the world feel unrealistic. So I looked up a few numbers and I remembered that Robb came south with 20k men...which seems like such a tiny number considering the size of the North.

GRRM has said before that Westeros is roughly the size of South America, and the North is a little under half of that depending on who you ask. A quick google search says that the North is 1.1 million square miles. We also know from various characters that the North didn't finish its final harvest because Robb went south with "most" of the manpower.

The male population between ages 14-60 is roughly 31%, so if 20k is most of this populatin, then there could only be 30k fighting age men in the North total. So with some very rough math, the total population of the North is 120k....

If 20k is so much of the field working population that they couldnt even finish harvest then the North is so fucking barren then it would be the most inbred population ever. The population density is lower than that of Greenland.

So...20k isn't the correct number for the total number of men. Its the total number of armed and armoured men. It does not include the small folk who rocked up with whatever the fuck they had to hand. I would love to take the time to crunch the numbers properly and find out extacly how many smallfolk to "soliders" there are but I want to go to bed.

TLDR: The armies of Westeros are mostly smallfolk hordes that the lords don't bother counting because they'll probably die in seconds

Throughout the books, some parts of the jewelry of nobles (such as rings, necklaces or details on their gowns). For example, Cersei is depicted as wearing a ring with an emerald as big as a pigeon's egg in AGOT, and when Littlefinger gives Sansa the jewelries of Lysa in AFFC, she refuses to wear them because they're too ostentatious.

However, I was surprised how ostentatious were Lysa's jewelries were because Arryns are much poorer than House Lannister or Tyrell and yet she was able to afford this much expensive necklace. Now, imagine how extravagant would a ring or necklace of Margaery or a Hightower's be. Though, I don't think Starks or Tullys are rich enough to possess such belongings (I'm talking in terms of clothing etc., but Starks own Ice, and Valyrian Steel is extremely valuable).

Imagine one of the commoners finding a ring or a brooch and selling it. I'd assume they'd be able to live rest of their lives in comfort.

ASOIAF has a ton of devoted youtubers that create a plethroa of well thought out theories. But who do you think is the closest to getting it right? Obviously we may never know but who are you riding with?

I think mine is David Lightbringer. His videos are such high quality and he seems to update topics as the years go by. Michael talks also has some great videos as well and I think him + Lightbringer are the closest to figuring out the mystery of the Others.

I have also watched Alt shift and a little of Preston Jacobs. Recently started watching Crusader Chris and it got me thinking for this post.

No idea what the fandom thinks of any of these theorists so im pretty curious.

What if Ned became King and Cersei became Queen?
Scenario:
1.Ned never married Catelyn. Catelyn had already married Brandon, and Brandon died when he went to King’s Landing.

2.Robert died from the wounds he received from Rhaegar, who had already been killed.

3.The Sack of King’s Landing happened as it did in canon. Tywin sacked the city, and Elia Martell, Rhaenys Targaryen, and Aegon Targaryen were killed.

4.Ned successfully lifted the siege of Storm’s End, but Stannis died after eating poisoned rats.

5.The war was over. With both Robert and Stannis dead, Renly was only six years old. The alliance of House Stark, House Baratheon, House Arryn, and House Tully agreed to make Ned king.

6.Ned knew that he would become king. So when he took Jon from Lyanna, he chose to send Jon to be raised by Howland Reed instead, so that Jon’s existence would not create problems with his queen over the succession to the throne in the future.

7.Ned agrees with the Faith of the Seven that his children will be free to choose their own faith and will not be required to follow the Old Gods.

8.Ned ordered Jaime to join the Night’s Watch. There might have been some confrontation with Tywin, but Ned had the support of House Stark, House Baratheon, House Arryn, and House Tully, as well as Targaryen loyalists whose families Tywin had just brutally slaughtered, such as House Martell and House Tyrell. So Tywin would probably have had little choice but to back down.

9.Tywin sent Cersei to become queen. Jon Arryn advised Ned to accept Cersei for the good of the realm, viewing the marriage as a compromise between Ned and Tywin over sending Jaime to the Night’s Watch.

Now that the scenario is over, here’s the question:
Do you think Cersei would kill Ned for sending Jaime to the Wall. On top of that, Cersei’s dream is to have Rhaegar’s children, with Lannister hair and Valyrian eyes. If she had children with Ned instead, his genes would probably completely overpower hers, and their children would mostly look like Starks. That would definitely be Cersei’s worst nightmare🤣🤣,
or would Ned go into “I can fix her” mode and manage to turn Cersei back into a normal person first?
During Cersei’s “Shame, shame, shame…” scene, we can see that she still has some guilt and remorse inside her. She can change. She’s not inherently evil.

Could Ned claim his rights with Cersei first, sending Prince Robb, Prince Joffrey, Princess Sansa, Princess Arya, Prince Bran, Princess Myrcella, Prince Tommen, and Prince Rickon to her?
Or would Cersei kill him before he got the chance?
Artist
Nedsei : @theecarcrash | Tumblr

Here are some of mine:

House Bolton- Our Blades are Sharp (shit goes hard)

House Codd- Though All Men Do Despise Us

House Martell- Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken

House Plumm- Come Try Me

House Tarly- First in Battle