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Believing that Dothraki will perform anywhere as well as historical Mongols did is frankly an insult to both historical Mongols and George Martin himself - and this is true for actual historical Mongols. Believing that they will perform the way meme Mongols did is frankly dumb. So I have one question for you: HOW? How exactly do you expect Dothraki to supply themselves, in Westeros, in winter? Do you understand at all how difficult it is to supply an army in medieval conditions? Or you think they are going to contact the US Air Force Air Mobility Command for help? Acquire massive lembas supplies from Lothlorien? Also, Long Night affected Essos as well. So even if the USAF AMC gives a hand, where exactly will they be getting the food to fly to Westeros in the first place?

Reading about this odyssey of a computer repair effort is making me sadder than a goddamn greek tragedy Meanwhile: Nobody said restoring the Sultan would be easy, but speaking of the Greeks. They joined the civil war on the side of the perfidious Kemalist loyalties. But the Romanians had my back and gave lend-lease aid without actually contributing to the war effort. So I ate all the IS LLANDS, Makedon, and Epirus just for the steel and chromium of it. I left Athens and the Peloponnese because I'm a nice God Empress like that. Puppeted, of course. I mean they joined the civil war. Sixty thousand dead Turks from the Hellenes alone. Romania gets my eternal gratitude and we can race to blitz Bulgaria. But that's in the distant future of '39. For the rest of '38 we're celebrating baby! The Sultan's back in towwwwn!!! France went all communist. Hitler was deposed for the Kaiser (Always depose Hitler, c'mon). And the U.S.S.R. devours itself (long live Ukraine, eh!). Japan went off-course and chose rapprochement with U.S.A. and Briton, which is fucking weird. But whatever. That fascist civil war should be popping off in one of them any day now... And I know which one I think it'll be.

Thanks for the post. Shipping fictional characters is fun and why not, we all like to know about relationships. The name calling and all the trolling on the old Sansa threads was just so tiring. Show Tyrion, as I didn’t watch the abomination past the 4th season, I missed out on most of his ‘Sainthood’. Glad too as I like Tyrion he such scoundrel who is fun to read. Well said. The fandom has changed once the show ended, for better or worse.

That's a step too far.

I fear it hitting me on the way out

I follow Pat’s Fantasy Blog and he has been highly recommending Michelle West. I went on her website and it seems like a few of her series tie together and take place concurrently. What’s the chronological reading order for her books?

1. Dany had honoured the terms of her treaty with Yunkai to the letter. European powers (other than the UK) were indeed very eager for peace with Napoleon. They turned because they realised he would just never stop. As Spain found in 1808, even. having a puppet government in place, that danced to Napoleon's tune, was not enough to spare them from invasion. If, Dany had chosen to break her treaty with Yunkai, and had mounted an invasion, then yes, Yunkai would have casus belli. But that is not the case. In fact, the Yunkish broke their treaty the moment she left. The other invading powers, Qarth, Tolos, Mantarys, New Ghis, Volantis, have no ground for war whatsoever, save one. They are ideologically committed to slavery. 2. @Ranhas already explained what GRRM meant.

You know, I think it's almost got to come out from Meera to Bran or Bran to Jon. This act means something, binds Ned to Howland in gratitude and Howland was bound to Lyanna in kind. You would think all debts were paid in all these acts of valor or whatever caused this gratitude, but no, Reed send not simply his heir or only son, he sends both his children to see one of Ned's on quest. This bond of kinship, stewardship, duty I don't even know what to call it between Howland and Ned, didn't end with Ned even a little bit. Meera and Jojen are all of Reed's children far as I can tell. They don't appear to be asking for anything in return. Howland is willing to risk the future of his house for Bran, not even an heir to house Stark. Surely Reed knows this. Very interesting relationship here. Can't wait for the next smallest mention of Howland, events at the Tower of Joy--all of it.

No matter how sharp Dawn is, it only has at most) two sharp edges and you need your arms free to wield it. Cutting your way out of a net isn't straightforward even with a magical blade. It could easily be enough to buy the couple of seconds necessary for an opponent to deal a key blow. But I thought we all agreed that Howland is a Faceless Man who warged into his net to poison Arthur with the revelation that Ned (aka Daario) is actually the son of Aerys and Joanna, and the father of Ashara's twins (Daenerys and Young Griff), and Arthur killed himself out of embarrassment at how contrived and unnecessary that plot twist was.

1. A fundamental argument against the peace with Yunkai, both in-universe, and on the part of the reader, is that it is unjust. What Daenerys hates is that to obtain peace, she must sacrifice justice. Establishing a slave market outside the city of Meereen is unjust. That really is not "just a matter of opinion." 2. The peace terms contained no territorial concessions by Meereen. We know from Hizdhar's proposed appointment of the Shavepate to oversee the river that Meereenese rule extends for 150 miles. We also know from the crucifixion of the children that Meereenese territory extends at least 163 down the coast. Ergo, the market is opened on Meereenese territory. 3. You're the one trying to argue that a peace between two beligerent parties is real, once they cease hostilities, notwithstanding that one of them (unknown to the other) has engaged a very powerful third party as its proxy to attack the other. That is where your argument (and Feldman's) becomes unsustainable. Volantis can't prepare an invasion force overnight. The Yunkish envoys will have had plenty of time to return home, and to report on the outcome of their negotiations. 4. Why would it be a dissenter who attempted to poison Daenerys? The obvious move for the slavers is to take her out, and for Hizdahr to become sole ruler. 5. Astapor was not treated as a rogue state, because (a) its neighbours were slave states and (b) its victims (the Lhazareen and defeated Dothraki tribes) were unable to fight back. If Lhazar had a powerful military, they would have squashed Astapor like a bug, rather than tolerate the theft of their children. 6. I really don't see the distinction between slave traders who provoke warfare and piracy in order to get their raw material, pirates who capture people and sell them to slave-traders, and slave-trading pirates. We're splitting hairs here. Suffice to say that once states are strong enough to fight back against polities who seize their people as slaves, they do so. What enraged European states was that North African states were seizing their people. It wasn't the theft of goods on the high seas that motivated them to attack. 7. Co-existence between slave and free ceased to be possible in the 19th century. Free states found intolerable the idea of having to hand back runaway slaves, or to allow slavers to convey slaves across their territory. Courts in free states increasingly treated slave mutinies as self-defence. States with powerful navies interdicted the slave trade on the high seas. The USA fought a civil war over the matter. In-universe, Braavos fought a war against Pentos to end slavery. It frees slaves from ships that it captures on the high seas. I think there is little doubt that if Astapor were its neighbour, it would have intervened very forcibly to end the creation of the Unsullied. Unfortunately, it is far away. 7. WRT Davos, it is not a difficult ethical choice for him to make. Likewise for Jon, it's not a difficult ethical choice (incidentally, Nights Watch neutrality is a tradition. It is not a part of any vow). The difficulty lies in the fact that doing the right thing is very dangerous, and may cost both men their lives. It's not a case of either man having to choose between evils, or weigh up competing goods.

Mad Queen Daenerys Yes, I also ship SanSan. I fully acknowledge that it would be creepy in real life, but I like it in the books. I think that there are still a lot of fans of all the “problematic” relationships (Dany/Drogo, Rhaegar/Lyanna, anything from Fire & Blood, even Jaime/Brienne) but that they’ve been mostly discouraged by all the name-calling. Yeah, as much as I like ASX, I disagree with much of his Tyrion analysis, and it had a huge influence on fans. Something he blames Tyrion for is his treatment of Cersei, insisting that if Tyrion had been nicer to his sister, she wouldn’t have accused him of murdering Joffrey. Except, we know that isn’t true because of the introduction of the valonqar prophecy. For better or worse, Tyrion was essentially absolved of any wrongdoing because of it. Cersei would have never trusted Tyrion no matter how hard he tried to win her over, and she would have been looking for any possible way to have him whacked. Even if Tyrion is both flawed and privileged, most of what happens to him is still supposed to be a reflection of how society treats people who are unable to conform to its standards.

I'd read that.

What does MQD refer to? Always hated Clegane bowl. @The Bard of Banefort are you a SanSan fan? Me too, do they still exist? Being old and dorky, I never watch any of the videos as this forum is enough for me.

Where?

Yes, I believe he’ll be disqualified if found guilty. Yes, the Libs ran a candidate who polled a poor third. No, it’s not just mind boggling. It’s fucked. He has nine lives.

They constantly reference this movie on How Did This Get Made and I'm still not entirely sure what they're getting at. To me a Jacob's ladder is a section of an obstacle course at an overnight summer camp I went to. Shit was dope and ended with a zipline over a lake that you dropped into.

Mods, I recommend an IQ test instead of which house has a ____ sigil to admit fellas into the forum. Even a bot would read the book before posting sth dumb af like that. I reverse my opinion, these are not hate alt bots. Just hate alts. Human stupidity and the universe are infinite. Not sure about the latter tho.

Poor Joffrey. These scenes with Sansa are the only ones where I feel any sympathy for him. I can't remember how old he is but Sansa is only 12 and he does not seem much mentally older than 14 at the most. He is genuinely taken with her and they are strolling around with him trotting out all the high faluting courtesies he's learned and her thinking he's so handsome and repying in kind. He is trying to act princely in a sauve way that would make listening adults laugh. It all breaks down when there is a larger audience with the dratted Renly in it. But Joffrey doesn't really show his true colours till he encounters Arya and Micah. All a bit sad really.

New York Times is saying his removal happened...this year? (Or did you mean something else happened during Dr. Strange?)

I want to emphasize the impact of Alt Shift X's Youtube channel on a lot of the online discussion surrounding ASOIAF. His "The real Tyrion Lannister" video got 6.7 million views, 7% of the entire readership of ASOIAF. That obviously moves people over, especially those who were casually invested in the TV show who then became hyperinvested in the books. I don't think he's a master of his story, and that's been apparent since he scrapped the time jump he wanted, but I do think he's a master of his characters. He has never seemed as concerned with plot as he does with making the people he writes occupy genuinely compelling spaces in the world that he created. He has allowed Westeros to truly become one of the greatest fictional worlds, filled to the brim with realistic depth and detail. I think people appreciate GRRM for his genius now than they used to, but I'm also pretty new to the deeper fandom.

Sorry, but Hitler's Aborted Clone is not conservative enough for today's Republican Party.

You mean 3 more seasons. 4 seasons in total.

Why would those things be connected? What does that mean?

The funny thing about the shipping one is that there’s now pushback against people shipping LukexAemond because “Luke is a minor” and like. . . yeah, Aemond looks like a forty year old man, but the characters are both supposed to be teenagers. Relax. I personally don’t like Rhaegar, but it’s gotten to the point where even I feel obliged to defend him at times. I think it’s more that Dany’s haters are less passionate now. But I agree, her fans are crazier post-GOT.