Jump to content

Angel Eyes

Members
  • Posts

    4,438
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Angel Eyes

  1. On 2/23/2024 at 12:33 PM, sifth said:

    I would have switched up the missions he gave Oberyn and Quentyn. I’d send the strong handsome guy, who knows the east and has connections there to meet with Dany and my ignorant son who looks like a frog to KL, so my enemies think Dorne is weak. 

    If there's anything Oberyn understood, it was image politics. In his party to King's Landing he brings lords, ladies, and heirs from all across Dorne, who had interests in the political games of Westeros and whose reputations dwarfed Tyrion's own party.

    Contrast Quentyn's green band of not-so-merry men who were pretty much all from Yronwood: Cletus, Archibald, Gerris Drinkwater, the dead maester, and pretty much showed that the only one supporting Doran was House Yronwood.

     

  2. 2 hours ago, SeanF said:

    If I was betrothing my daughter to Viserys, I'd have channelled a lot of money to my agents in the East, and/or the Iron Bank, to ensure that Dany and Viserys were well-guarded, and well-guided, and that they enjoyed a standard of living appropriate to their station. Allowing my daughter's intended husband to be mocked as "the beggar king" is pretty stupid.

    Then, I'd be looking for every opportunity to undermine the rule of King Robert.  So, yes, I'd have to swallow whatever cock and bull story that Jon Arryn told me, about the deaths of Elia and her children, but I'd be looking to gradually build up Dornish military strength.  I'd be reaching out to groups like the Golden Company to sound them out about the possibility of an invasion.

    I'd want to put out feelers to the Tyrells, and the other Targaryen loyalists, about the prospects of backing a restoration.  I'd also be reaching out to the Ironborn, suggesting backing for their indpendence, and seizing all the land they wished in the West, in return for the aid of their fleet, in due course.

    I've always wondered what sort of cock and bull story Jon Arryn cooked up, including the return of bones, because we all know returning bones always reduces hostilities. ;)

    As far as Viserys and Arianne was concerned, I've also wondered why Doran gave up on him so early, unless this was a retcon by GRRM.

  3. A.) If starting after Robert's Rebellion, start building up forces after losses taken during the war. Keep a watch on Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen, the former is supposed to be my goodson after all, wouldn't want him to a liability. If fostering him is not an option, arrange for my daughter Arianne to meet him overseas at the most and start up correspondence at the least.

    A lot of what I would do is detailed in this blog post.

    https://warsandpoliticsoficeandfire.wordpress.com/2016/03/11/the-windblown-grass-doran-martell/

  4. 33 minutes ago, astarkchoice said:

    1 id disgaree there it strikes me more dany is specificaly describing the 1st time he connects in graphic detail, the noise and sparks image as the bloodrider begins  hits home as jorahs defence is passed.

    Like any real fight or sparring  itl begin with some feints and movement to disguise the 1st real blow when it comes, life and death on the line so  thats expected. qotho spins the blade above his head and it describes jorah goes in on the offensive..for what it was worth.

    2 come on now jorah is a pretty good knight..just not elite as his early showings at pkye and the tourney he won hinted he  could be but hes from a tougher than normal great  house and has spent  part of his life chasing any little border clash that could help him keep his golddigging harpy 1st wife!

    3 theres plenty of variation of the draw weights bur recurve>>standard  ..and of course the advantage of being a horse archer is unlike regualr archers you can ride very close  to infantry (or a knight if you avoid their lance ) and loose. When you see grown  men who took it up in their 30s onwards bullseyeing tennisballs or loosing 3- 4 shots in a single gallop pass it boggles the mind the mind what cordinated  1000s of  them practiced from birth could do!

     

    4 the book is a must read for that period and meticulously researched, they started as just anther largely horse archer tribe who co-opted heavy cavalry centric tribes into their ranks by victory and diplomacy where others had failed.... extra draw weight bows and loosing a few dozen  metres or so closer than their similar rivals gave them wins that others   couldnt achieve with weaker bows and more nervous (longer range)  shooting.

    5 part of it is georges handwaving of siege warfare..which is a facinating subject.

     

     

    6 well as iv said they COULD be its just it requires all the right conditions (open non muckyfield)  AND them to be super skillful   as individuals  AND have teamwork wayyyy  beyond the vastly superior nomads we discussed  AND be willing to eat heavy casulties to win!!! 

    OR for  battle hardened westerosi infantry to suddenly become cowards and flee, men who have eaten  volleys of longbow arc/ballistic shots and stood!

    2. Second wife; his first one was a Glover who died.

  5. I remember watching The Last Samurai (the one with Tom Cruise not Lance Henriksen) and started thinking about how a force like the Dothraki, a culture based on the art of war for centuries but with few resources, could fare against a better-equipped foe. In the first battle, the Japanese soldiers, under Algren's command, are ill-trained and prone to panic, even with Algren and Gant. During this battle there don't seem to be any officers aside from Colonel Bagley (who's at the rear), General Hasegawa, Algren, Gant, and an unnamed junior officer who shows up later. Bagley sees the Samurai as savages, but Algren counters that their focus for the last thousand years has been war. The Samurai, led by Katsumoto, take advantage of a fog bank and attack the troops in a forest, which limits their ability to shoot straight. And the soldiers are afraid of the Samurai, who'd once held power of life and death over them. Cue near-immediate rout with most of the (very few) Samurai casualties personally inflicted by Algren and Gant (who is killed), while Hasegawa commits seppuku.

    In the final battle, Bagley, now directly subordinate to the Emperor's advisor Omura on the battlefield, with better-trained troops, more time to prepare, and more firepower, is wise to how the Samurai operate and starts off with a howitzer barrage. The Samurai, now advised by Algren, retreat and Bagley is hesitant, but Omura, who is a)overconfident, b) has no experience, and c) dismissive of the Samurai, overrules him and orders the bulk of the army to attack... which plays right into the Samurai's hands as the troops, now in range of arrow fire, get trapped by flammable mines. Cue a brutal melee. However this time there's enough soldiers that the Samurai are ground down to only a few dozen. Katsumoto, who knew defeat was inevitable, orders a suicidal charge that breaks through the infantry lines; Algren kills Bagley, but the charge is silenced by Gatling guns. Katsumoto commits seppuku with Algren's help.

    However, Katsumoto never actually meant to win, but to teach his pupil the Emperor that the values that Katsumoto held dear had a place in Japanese society. In contrast, Omura's inexperience in battle (he is a businessman) and general dismissive behavior towards the Samurai made the battle closer than it should have been, and played right into Katsumoto's hands.

    While the tactics themselves are somewhat suspect, it's in line with the storytelling and characters. On the other hand, would the Dothraki be smart enough to use such means to their advantage?

  6. 2 hours ago, H Wadsworth Longfellow said:

     

    Jon is the return of the Night's King.  I am sure there have been awful commanders in the past but I agree about Jon causing the most harm because of what he has done.  Getting himself into conflict with the Boltons is the cause of the coming fall of the Night's Watch.  Some of the mistakes was going to happen because Jon was not good at leading.  He was too prejudiced and too emotionally attached to Arya and Robb.  He was also not the brightest in the brains area. 

    The Dothraki will serve Daenerys and redeem themselves.  The khalasars will soon be hers as they have never been Drogo's.  The purpose of the khalasars is to bring down the slave trade and by doing so, earn their redemption. 

    The Watch has been failing and falling for years.

    And how will the Dothraki become part of Daenerys' army? It was pretty clear what was going to happen to her with Drogo's death. Unless Daenerys goes the show's route where she burns all the Khals...

  7. 8 hours ago, astarkchoice said:

    It all depends claims  alone are no use without power, its as varys said its all down to interpretation.

    Now she has a claim to winterfell and we know there are 2 forces(manderly and stannis) who could put her there for their own ends.

    The riverlands are well tied up as frey- lannister BUT if the freys of the twins get.a. red wedding 2.0 and blackfish can sneak a force into riverrun or save edmure then the extra political weight of a tully stark could swing that region...esp if backed by the overlord of the riverlands and lorf of harrenhall AND/OR  backed by the valelords!

    The westerlands her claim is so weak as to virtualy not exist ..she is considered complicit in the murder of joff and tywin with tyrion , no f-ing way the lords of westerlands let her ever take casterly rock esp when lannisport is infested with lannisters

    Would Winterfell want her? Several of the lords know Robb wrote her off.

  8. 6 hours ago, astarkchoice said:

    Could be he was a knight of renowned skill , jorah managed to punch above his weight as his being almost 1st in at pyke and his victory at the tourney after hinted hed be an elite knight thus a good guy to bring into the family as long as there were plenty of other kids to marry off for strong house alliances

    If he was renowned, how come that isn't mentioned?

  9. So in the Strange Marriages thread, I was intrigued by one particular marriage between Branda Stark, elder daughter of Rodrik Stark, and Harrold Rogers of the Stormlands. Simply put, Harrold Rogers is/was a mere knight, several degrees below a lordship of any kind (and on the other side of the country to boot). How come the Starks were content with marrying Branda to a knight? If Branda were unmarried, why wasn't she flung at Rickard, whom her sister Lyarra married?

     

  10. So it's mentioned that Balon Greyjoy was a fierce and fearless raider in his youth, but he doesn't do much during his rebellions, just sits back on Pyke and lets his brothers and children do the fighting. He's also mentioned to have a stoop in his shoulder. Now there doesn't seem to be much opportunity for reaving and warfare during Balon's youth; judging by the calculations on the wiki he would have been no more than a child during the War of the Ninepenny Kings and not even in his teens if he participated in Quellon's raids on Faircastle (Tytos Lannister, who was Lord of Casterly Rock at the time, died in 267 where Balon would have been 12 at the most). That leaves Robert's Rebellion where Lord Quellon was killed at the Mander and Balon led the retreat back to Pyke to claim the Seastone Chair. So is it possible that Balon suffered a shoulder injury during the Battle at the Mander which prevents him from fighting (and somehow he isn't usurped)?

  11. Dany's prospects aren't looking too good; she's stuck in the Dothraki Sea puking one way and excreting green slime the other, with a band of Dothraki bearing down on her, suffering visions that tell her "Dragons plant no trees", advice that she's likely to follow.

  12. 8 hours ago, Hippocras said:

    Nice catch.

    A really very very large number of characters still alive would need to die before he would ever be conceivably named King, so that path seems unlikely, even if the Egg association and the wordplay might suggest it.

    I think it is more likely he will end up in charge of Casterly Rock. Why? Well either his backstory is entirely truthful and he has key female line Lannister ancestry, or the theory that he is Tyrion’s son by Tysha turns out true. In that case, Tyrion would legitimize him and name him heir.

    This second version of course would mean he is not really a Payne at all (unless Tysha was part Payne) and was simply raised as a Payne because Tywin asked it of them. Tywin does take care of Lannister children, including bastards, and any child of Tysha’s (if Tyrion’s and not fathered by one of the guards) was not actually a bastard.

    So this would not answer the questions here surrounding House Pain (misspelling intentional) but those questions may be answered in other ways. Meanwhile the coins on the sigil may be a double reference, in part, to the coins paid to Tysha for each guard, and the fact that Illyn Payne was the head of the household guard at the time of Tysha’s mistreatment.

    I thought it says in-text that Ilyn Payne was appointed the King's Justice just after Robert's Rebellion as a "wedding present" from Tywin.

  13. 24 minutes ago, Ran said:

    It's explained by the fact that he was a great reaver in his youth, and was only in decline now.

    He had the most significant Drowned Priest and the Lord Captain of the Iron Fleet as his brothers who were extremely faithful to him, and Victarion was not a man people were willing to cross (at least not until Euron came around). 

     

    Balon's mentioned as having a stoop in his shoulder; could he have suffered that at the Battle of the Mander in Robert's Rebellion since he doesn't do any fighting during either time the Greyjoys rebel under his rule?

  14. 29 minutes ago, astarkchoice said:

    Id say once the north was cut off he assumed robb would be finished by the lannisters (later lannister-tyrells) to the rear if they tried to take moat cailin by force, even with its rep of being never taken  from the south it doesnt mean history cant be made..but that doesnt mean his whole ironborn  force has to sit there(nor could they supplywise). Id say its more.grmm.forgot about them.otherwise theyd been taking coastal forts and castles piecemeal before they can be reinforced.

     

    Like how Dany forgot about the Iron Fleet? ;)

  15. 8 minutes ago, astarkchoice said:

    Yeah the real worldbuilding issue with it is why in the fuck he sat back with the entire ironborn military after the sucessful inital assaults esp as things went better than he ever in his wildest dreams could have planned! 

    Its clear grmm sorta just forgot about them or wanted us to forget them to add to the shock value of 'reek'

    Going off of that, I'm surprised that the North wouldn't have some form of defense or alert system in place since the Ironborn like to raid them (i.e. the reason why Dunk and Egg were headed northwards in The Mystery Knight because the Ironborn were threatening three coastlines).

  16. 19 hours ago, astarkchoice said:

    The lannisters unlimited gold , now  in'current times' added to the reynes/castermeres gold mines! The lanniater should thus be the most powerful family in all of westeros , in real world terms unlimited gold and the power that comes with that would be virtualy as effective as dragons.

    And in other cases, the silver mines the Greatjon seized (which are technically still underwater) barely put a dent.

  17. Simply thinking about Branda Stark, there's the fact that Harrold Rogers is a mere knight, somewhat lower on the Westerosi food chain, meaning little is gained. Also, Rickard married her younger sister Lyarra; typically an older daughter is preferred for a match if both are single (e.g. Laban deceiving Jacob by swapping Leah and Rachel or Lady Catherine de Bourgh's surprise that Kitty and Lydia Bennet are out in society before their eldest sister Jane is married). Could this mean that Branda was already married by the time Rickard was of age?

  18. 2 minutes ago, Groo said:

    But Barbrey Dustin said Rickard had southron ambitions. That means it's the gospel truth. If one character says something it must be true. That character couldn't be wrong or lying or just stupid. Martin never has characters misunderstand what's happening around them or see things with their own internal bias and he certainly never has any of his characters lie.

    I left out the southron ambitions on purpose. But even if Rickard has southron ambitions on his mind, did he need to make a match for Lyanna with someone who was decidedly unsuitable not to mention on the other side of the country? He could have tried making one for Lyanna with Jaime (pre-Kingsguard) and Jaime would have an advantage because he was closer.

  19. On 1/16/2024 at 8:04 PM, The Lord of the Crossing said:

    Sam's horn could be the real one.  He gives it a big blow and Oldtown comes crashing down.  It's too far to bring down the wall but the nearest tall structure is in Oldtown.

    There was a Southron conspiracy and I don't think Mance Rayder was involved.  Ricard, Robert, and Jon Arryn were plotting to usurp the throne. 

    Rickard was simply stupid, not plotting. That alliance via Robert and Lyanna's marriage would probably have fallen apart like a house of cards.

  20. On 1/19/2024 at 3:51 AM, SeanF said:

    Coming back to this, the more general point is, how often is war depicted realistically, either in fantasy fiction, or TV and film?

    1. I mentioned above, armour seems to be useless, worn largely for decoration (see the Spartacus TV series).

    2.  “Honour” is far more important than winning.  If you have a powerful fortified position, and the enemy approach, naturally you leave it to fight them in the open, or else let them through the gates,  in the interests of good sportsmanship (see King Arthur, 2004).

    3.  When you’re defending a fortress, there’s a wide ramp leading up to the gates, which might as well have a sign saying “attack here.”  No one thinks to construct moats, arrow slits, murder holes, nor to prepare cauldrons of boiling water and oil to tip over the attackers (Helms Deep).

    4.  Always use fire arrows, even in open battle in broad daylight (Gladiator).

    5.  The best use for heavy cavalry is to charge stone fortifications (Return of the King).  The best use for light cavalry is to charge lines of heavy infantry or the undead (Game of Thrones).

    6.  Logistics are for wimps.  Armies either carry vast wagonloads of food with them, or can march across an entire continent living on air.  100,000 men can be accommodated on an island the size of Man (Game of Thrones again).

    7.  Disciplined armies appear to have no battle tactics other than the wild charge, followed by individual duels (Braveheart).

    8.  Despite heavily outnumbering you, enemy mooks are often quite chivalrous, fighting you one at a time.  Also, they are quite incapable of aiming guns properly (too numerous to mention).

    4. It makes sense when you're trying to frighten or trap. e.g. The Magnificent Seven (2016) when several wagons are set on fire by Red Harvest, frightening horses and forcing some of the bad guys to turn round or just stop.

    5. With that Return of the King reference, that was intentional on the writers' part to show how much the pressure has gotten to Denethor.

    6. I wonder how Renly managed to accommodate that many at one time.

×
×
  • Create New...