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Mallister's are rather awesome


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They built the castle Seagard to defend the Riverlands against the Ironborn, instead of just fleeing to a safer place. They rebelled against Harren the Black and supported Aegon. They hate the bloody Frey's and supported Robb also. Jason Mallister is a rather dashing, noble character. And their sigil is also cool. Like the Blackwoods, they always seem to pick the right side.

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1 hour ago, Ser Tristan Flowers said:

And they only have like 8 ships to protect the Riverlands from the Ironborn, wich I think is hilarious.

Personally I find that odd. You'd think they'd have an impressive fleet by now after all these years. 

But then again maybe Seagard is built by a narrow part of the coast which only requires a few ships to defend.

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2 minutes ago, Canon Claude said:

Personally I find that odd. You'd think they'd have an impressive fleet by now after all these years. 

But then again maybe Seagard is built by a narrow part of the coast which only requires a few ships to defend.

Well they couldn´t compete with the iron fleet no matter what they do. They´re propably primarily used for scouting and civilian purposes. But it´s still funny and goes to show how terrified the Riverlanders are of the Ironborn.

I wonder what that conversation would had looked like.

"My Lord, we must do something about those filthy pirates raiding our coast."

"Why yes, let´s build the smallest fleet in Westeros, that´ll show ´em!"

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14 minutes ago, Ser Tristan Flowers said:

Well they couldn´t compete with the iron fleet no matter what they do. They´re propably primarily used for scouting and civilian purposes. But it´s still funny and goes to show how terrified the Riverlanders are of the Ironborn.

I wonder what that conversation would had looked like.

"My Lord, we must do something about those filthy pirates raiding our coast."

"Why yes, let´s build the smallest fleet in Westeros, that´ll show ´em!"

Lol, couldn't compete. Don't you know Jason Mallister killed Rodrik Greyjoy and threw his Ironborn into the sea when they tried to invade?

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1 hour ago, Canon Claude said:

Personally I find that odd. You'd think they'd have an impressive fleet by now after all these years. 

But then again maybe Seagard is built by a narrow part of the coast which only requires a few ships to defend.

The Lannisters only have 20-30 ships to call on and they are a Lord Paramount. Mallisters are probably more akin to the Velaryons, who brought 4 war galleys to Stannis when he staked his claim.

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4 hours ago, Universal Sword Donor said:

The Lannisters only have 20-30 ships to call on and they are a Lord Paramount. Mallisters are probably more akin to the Velaryons, who brought 4 war galleys to Stannis when he staked his claim.

The Velaryons don't make sense either. They were once the richest House in the Seven Kingdoms, marrying Targaryen kings and ruling the Royal Fleet. Where did all this power go??

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5 minutes ago, James Steller said:

The Velaryons don't make sense either. They were once the richest House in the Seven Kingdoms, marrying Targaryen kings and ruling the Royal Fleet. Where did all this power go??

I think it ended with the Sea Snake passing. ADOD took too much from them in terms of gold and blood

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2 hours ago, James Steller said:

The Velaryons don't make sense either. They were once the richest House in the Seven Kingdoms, marrying Targaryen kings and ruling the Royal Fleet. Where did all this power go??

2 hours ago, Masha said:

I think it ended with the Sea Snake passing. ADOD took too much from them in terms of gold and blood

The disappearance of Alyn Oakenfist certainly contributed also. Not to mention the Lucerys Velaryon who was Aerys' master of ships. Presumably, he committed the family's own ships to the royal fleet, and thus had their sea power crippled for a while.

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5 hours ago, James Steller said:

The Velaryons don't make sense either. They were once the richest House in the Seven Kingdoms, marrying Targaryen kings and ruling the Royal Fleet. Where did all this power go??

The curse of the added material. In order for Martin to make a house or a person sound badass, he writes them as the biggest badasses at the time. That is how we have a house have the largest fleet for a decade or so, and then turn into a nobody later in the time of the books. A Targ marries the daughter of a trade prince more wealthy than the Iron Bank, but in the books no one has ever heard of them and the Iron Bank is suddenly this giant that has a rep of replacing princes and kings. 

And then there is the stasis of other houses that seem to go on for thousands of years doing the same old thing. There are houses that "used to be someone" and have members of it marry the Targs, even though they are now a minor house and all the talk is about marrying the kids of great houses, or at best second largest houses in regions. 

It's called poor world building, where you go for the fancy and the fantastic, but don't bother with it making sense later on. The further east Martin goes, the worst it gets. The further back in time Martin goes, the worst it gets. The more he tries to hype up a house or a person because he is writing badasses for readers of the genre, the worst it gets. 

There is little one can do, so don't overthink it. At best try and find a semi-legit reasoning and move along. The Mallisters have not had to deal with Ironborn raiders for the past ~300 years, and only had to deal with an invasion once. Said invasion was defeated on the beach, not in a naval battle. So a handfull of ships for coastal patrol seems fine. The Velaryons were on the losing side during RR. Stannis now holds Dragonstone and the Royal Fleet. No shit, being on the losing side of a war ends up bad for some people, plus maybe they could not replenish losses so fast after a storm literally destroyed the entire Royal Fleet.

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9 hours ago, James Steller said:

The Velaryons don't make sense either. They were once the richest House in the Seven Kingdoms, marrying Targaryen kings and ruling the Royal Fleet. Where did all this power go??

Well they got trashed a bit in the Dance (lost 1/3 of fleet and all the Seasnakes treasure). I'm sure they lost fighting ships for Daeron I. They definitely lost ships on the stepstones. Most of their wealth seem tied up in commerce from the far East, and Alyn got lost somewhere somehow. With KL taking most of the trade and commerce because of it's size and the Velaryons losing their dragons (and close familial relations with the Targs), it just kinda seems gone.

And if we look at the other "rich" houses (Lannister, Tyrell, Hightower, et al) they have either material wealth from minerals and raw materiel, agriculture, or wealth from commerce derived from a giant city (or both). The isles of Blackwater Bay seem to lack the ability to command any of those (save obsidian for the upcoming Winter War).

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22 hours ago, Ser Tristan Flowers said:

And they only have like 8 ships to protect the Riverlands from the Ironborn, wich I think is hilarious.

Only 8 ships makes sense. It's probably enough to patrol their small coastline and as much as they can afford to maintain. If they sight large Ironborn navies they race back to shore to warn the Mallisters. But if there's only one or two long boats they can chase them down with numerical superiority.

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