James Steller

To be fair, Merrett was an active participant in the massacre. Whether he personally killed anyone or not, his actions were consciously done in the name of helping his relatives slaughter guests beneath their roof. Walder didn’t kill anyone by his own hand, and he didn’t do much of the planning either, all he did was play host for a few hours. I doubt anyone would say Walder was innocent.

Most would probably say “yes”, but I don’t know if that’s true. One of the first hints that Catelyn had of the Red Wedding was that Olyvar and Perwyn and Alesander were absent, and they were all Freys who were too sympathetic to Robb. Olyvar even tried to stay on as Robb’s squire after he married Jeyne Westerling. We can assume that Stoneheart has retained most of Cat’s memories since she’s only been brought back once and she seems to have a good memory for who was at the Red Wedding. She’d surely remember that Olyvar was absent and had no part in the massacre.

I’ll pick someone from each region: Yohn Royce Edmure Tully Wylis Manderly Daven Lannister Rodrik the Reader Trystane Martell Garlan Tyrell Edric Storm Lollys Stokeworth

Didn’t the Hoares try to outlaw thraldom and reaving, though? A lot of the Hoare kings seemed to push for cooperation and trade over war. I don't think we can write them all off as being the worst of the Ironborn

Hell of a stance to take, advocating for a traumatized teen to kill himself in front of his wife and brother…

More Dunk and Egg, but only if it verifies my belief that Aegon did the unexpected by arresting Brynden rather than it being an arrangement planned in advance. I want so badly to have this sinister murderer be shocked that the king he put on the throne isn’t going to reward him for doing a heinous act.

I strongly disagree with this. Aegon III became my favourite non-ASOIAF character thanks to Fire and Blood fleshing him out and developing him. We already knew the gist of his life, but having it play out in detail made it more real. We got to see how he interacted with the various adults in his life. Cregan, Tyland, Unwin, and Torrhen all became more real through their diverse interactions with Aegon, and it really means something when he stands up to Marston Waters, Gareth Long, and especially when he takes charge of his kingdom at long last. It was the best way for FAB to end.

I suspect it wasn’t until the Blackfyre Rebellion. He must have had to prove his worth and talents to King Daeron in a major way, and given the vagueness behind the start of the Blackfyre Rebellion, I suspect he was the one who alerted Daeron of the rebellion before it could really kick off. Hence why they were ready to arrest Daemon so quickly and nearly ended the rebellion at a stroke.

And that was a rarity worth noting. Nobody was knighted that young since Maegor

Nice to hear the colonialists chiming in, heh. joking aside, I didn’t intend to act like the Andals were all bad, nor that the First Men were all good. But for all the progress that happened technologically, it clearly came at a high price.

Presumably, another knight has to vouch for you on occasion, given what happened with Dunk at Ashford.

Bloodraven is five years younger than Baelor. He would have been 13 when Baelor beat Daemon in that tourney.

That is a very good point! The Hightowers would absolutely have become the Lords Paramount of the Reach post-Conquest, assuming they were still smart enough to open their gates and welcome Aegon.

Would the Targaryens have embraced the faith of the Old Gods to rule over their First Men subjects? Would their incest have been as much of an issue? Would the Wall still be well manned into the events of ASOIAF? There are a lot of questions to be raised with this scenario, to be sure.

In case you need the reminder, Maester Wyllis is a minor character from TWOIAF. He writes a thorough account of Hardhome while living there under a wildling’s protection. When said wildling is killed, Wyllis has to flee for his life. He returns to Oldtown and finishes his book, but then disappears. He is last seen looking for a ship to take him to Eastwatch by the Sea. Much as it raises a lot of questions for me, I can’t help but feel like we won’t get any answers.