James Steller

Maybe I was taking Tywin too seriously when he said that Catelyn was meant to become a hostage. She would be used to leverage the fall of Riverrun, or so I assumed. Plus given the fact that the Freys killed her last after everyone else was already dead, it seemed like it was an afterthought because her mental breakdown. But it also does make sense that she was always meant to die.

Maybe I’m missing something, but what role did Petyr play in orchestrating the Red Wedding? If anything, I’ve heard theories here which argue that he murdered Joffrey to avenge Cat’s murder just as much as it was to spread chaos. And also, even if he did help plan the massacre, Catelyn was never supposed to be a casualty of said wedding, they only killed her because she lost her mind.

16 is adulthood in this world, so we could both be right. But far as I know, Ethan is never referred to by Ned as a child, and Ned doesn’t strike me as a man who would bring children to a battle.

Ethan was not a child. He was of mature age and he was one of the warriors Ned took to Dorne.

It isn’t part of the list, but one moment that felt really repulsive is how he reacts to the corpse of Masha Heddle when he returned to the crossroads inn. This woman, little more than a peasant, who did nothing but beg to keep trouble out of her already-perilous life, is supposed to have stopped armed noblemen from abducting Tyrion? And then when Tywin tortures and kills her out of petty vengeance, what is Tyrion’s response? He callously and condescendingly lectures her rotting body as if she had it coming and she was the cause of his troubles. What was she supposed to do, exactly?

I feel like Barbrey just said that to Theon to cover her tracks in case the Boltons make Theon tell them about what he discussed with Lady Dustin. She is playing a dangerous game just like Wyman Manderly, I’m sure of it. Maybe she does resent Eddard to a point, but she clearly hates Ramsay and the Freys. She will not go down with them.

I find it hard to believe that the Mad King would burn Rickard Stark alive and sentence Robert Baratheon to death for no reason other than his being Lyanna’s betrothed, but finds it in his heart to spare Brandon’s squire. It was clear by then that Aerys’ paranoia made him suspect almost everyone. I think he was beyond the kind of pragmatic thinking you imply with that explanation. Plus, what does keeping Ethan hostage get him? Why wouldnt he have executed Ethan during the rebellion as punishment for his family’s participation in the war against him?

Obviously it’s still a mystery why he was spared, but I’m open to hearing any viable theories. At first glance, I would have assumed that he was needed to help guide Eddard to Lyanna. But if he knew all along where Lyanna was, then why wouldn’t he and Brandon Stark have gone after her in the first place? Or is it all just a red herring?

I don’t think Tywin would have done it. He’d stolen Ice and melted it down for himself. The Starks will never forget that. I think Tywin knew that Robb would be too proud to negotiate a peace, so he cooked up a scheme to wipe out the Starks so that he could finally have his Valyrian steel swords.

That in itself changes a lot. No death of Joffrey at the wedding, Tyrion isn’t put on trial, Oberyn isn’t killed in a trial by combat, Tywin isn’t shot by Tyrion… though to be fair, Oberyn might very well have poisoned Tywin, but then that changes things too.

Yes, my mistake. I figured that Visenya, as has been already said, used magic to create Maegor. It would explain why he is a psychopathic and violent figure who cannot himself reproduce children. He is an evil abomination made by unnatural means.

I’ve puzzled for a long time over what could possibly have been in Nymor’s letter which would ensure that Aegon not only agreed to peace, but would make sure that peace was kept. Any kind of leverage Nymor had would need to be perpetually available. For example, I don’t buy that it had anything to do with Rhaenys still being alive and Nymor promising to end her misery. Nothing would stop Aegon from avenging her after she died. It needed to be something more permanent. case in point, his inability to have kids. I could buy that Rhaenys, put to torture, would confess that Aegon’s sons weren’t his because of impotence. And that’s a secret which could forever be held over Aegon’s head. Then by the time his sons came to power, the peace had lasted long enough that the desire for war would have faded. Plus the seven kingdoms were busy with their own madness by the time Aenys took charge.

To be fair, Viserys’ return to the realm with an infant son was a stabilizing factor in the line of succession. Aegon’s reluctance to have kids, coupled with his bride being six years old, was no longer a problem with his brother as the heir and a young father. Maybe Daeron figured the same could apply to him while he focused on the conquest of Dorne. And if he’s Alexander, then maybe he was much more interested in one of his boyhood companions who was put in command of his cavalry during the campaign?

Does he know that Alayne Stone is Sansa? His comment in her TWOW chapter could be dramatic irony or some foreshadowing to the reader. I still haven’t figured it out yet.

I hope you brought snacks for this fishing expedition. Joking aside, I wouldn’t be surprised if Daeron whelped a few bastards while on his conquest. But at the same time, he’s clearly based on Alexander the Great, and Alex was too busy campaigning to get married and have an heir. He wasn’t married until his mid twenties, and his heir was only born after he died. Daeron was clearly a busy guy trying to conquer Dorne, so even if he was married, he probably wasn’t sharing a bed with his queen for even a third of their married life together.

Add that pairing to the strange marriages list, then. And at least House Ambrose is an established noble house in the Reach with a long history. Even with all those kids, I still find it strange that Hightower would settle for such men as Jorah Mormont and Jon Cupps to marry his daughters. There were plenty of better options, too. Stannis could have married Leyla, for one thing. A far better option than Selyse Florent, since the Hightowers could feasibly challenge the Tyrells for the lordship of the Reach. Lynesse could have married Bryce Caron, Beric Dondarrion, Andar Royce, Daven Lannister, Edmure Tully, etc.

No, I’m not going to act like Stannis is innocent and a 100% victim. I’m not blind to the fact that he is a deeply flawed man who does highly questionable things. That’s par for the course with anyone in this series, too. I do think he’s one of the most compelling and best-written characters in the series. Warts and all. You can’t dismiss me that easily.

I think you and I read that scene differently. For my part, I see that as Stannis showing empathy and affection for an animal which he connects with, since it lives in the shadow of Robert’s bird. His reflection that he was being foolish, coupled with the fact that he abandoned the bird for being “useless” is a sign that he has suppressed his empathy over the years after he was mocked and shamed for it. And yes, Robert’s mockery is typical sibling behaviour, but that behaviour leaves scars, however small. It clearly left a mark on Stannis, not least because he remembers it so clearly and brings it up twenty years later. It’s a tragic story to me; Stannis didn’t have to be so inwardly withdrawn and emotionally broken, but life punished him, and so he conditioned himself in pursuit of an ideal set by his older brother, who preferred to replace Stannis with Ned Stark as a brother figure.

Absolutely. That’s the only explanation that makes sense to me. It’s in keeping with Robert’s bullying behaviour towards Stannis when they were kids, too.

Stannis and Selyse’s marriage baffles me on all levels. Supposedly, the reason why it was made is that Robert wanted to check the Tyrells or something like that by marrying his brother - who was also his heir at the time- to a member of their bitterest rivals. Though I don’t understand (a) how the Florents could ever be considered rivals with only 2000 swords at their command (b) why the bride was the daughter of a third son over someone higher up in the family. (c) how the marriage was supposed to matter once Robert had sons of his own (d) what Robert expected from that marriage when the Florents clearly didn’t care about Stannis or Selyse when they sided against them with Renly anyway. The only way it makes any kind of sense to me is that Robert arranged for his antisocial and awkward little brother to marry the ugliest and least appealing woman he could find on a flimsy pretence of creating tension in the Reach, when really it was just Robert having a laugh. The fact that he also soiled Stannis’ wedding bed with a more attractive Florent woman says a lot to me as well. Also, Jorah’s marriage to Lynesse Hightower didn’t make sense to me at all. They’re from opposite ends of Westeros, they have different religions and wildly different expectations of lifestyle. I don’t care how besotted they might have been, it makes no sense to me why Lord Hightower ever approved of that marriage. It really just feels forced into the story by GRRM, though I don’t know why considering he could have gotten Jorah to Essos in a variety of much more plausible ways.

Davos is absolutely a badass, for all the reasons you gave. ”Jared of House Frey, I name you liar” is still one of my all time favourite GRRM moments.

Oof, I didn’t think of that… but yeah, I’d say he absolutely would have poisoned Aerea. What better way to hurt Rhaena? That’s clearly what he wanted to do. And no, I don’t think it would be justifiable to poison a PTSD-riddled child for acting out, or for her mother’s failings, for that matter.

We won’t ever know. Maybe she did love him in her own way at first? Maybe she didn’t? Maybe he was such a complacent boy that he was happy to take the easy road in life until it stopped being easy? But for my part, I think if Androw was meant to be a sympathetic serial killer, then GRRM should have made him less of a lump on a log without a single interest. If he’d ever actually been depicted as wanting more from life rather than being too lazy or scared to do anything, then his “woe is me” moment might have had more of an impact on me.

You’re right that Rhaena hurt a lot of people in her life. But if we’re going to speculate that Androw had depression, then Rhaena absolutely had untreated PTSD. She was made to marry her own brother and nearly died for it. She then lost her brother in rebellion and was forced to marry her own uncle. Her daughters were taken away from her and then held as hostages against her while Maegor raped her repeatedly. And then she was passed over in succession in favour of siblings who weren’t sympathetic to her, to the approval of a mother who wasn’t supportive of Rhaena. Add to that the betrayal by Elissa Farman, the deaths of her lovers, the abandonment by her own daughter… I won’t say that Rhaena was justified doing and saying what she did, but she was clearly in pain and not getting the help she needed. He was already an embarrassment to his family. That didn’t stop him before. Plus I think he’s still less of a black sheep than Elissa. Also, Rhaena straight up told him that the wrong Farman left. She didn’t care about appearances, she was openly living a lesbian lifestyle, it’s just the histories that avoid admitting that. I refuse to believe she would have cared if Androw jumped in a ship and abandoned her for literally anywhere else. I can agree with that. But I imagine he’d have been just as miserable if he’d stayed on Fair Isle when his brother took charge. Franklyn struck me as a thorough C who would have either kicked Androw to the curb or subjected him to humiliations of his own.

Again, he wasn’t forced to marry her. He could have probably left Dragonstone and done his own thing. I highly doubt Rhaena would have stopped him. We can only speculate on what her “true colours” were. But given the absolute tragedy that is her life, I am willing to give her more leeway than a privileged boy who suffered so little hardship in his life that he didn’t even learn to swim while living on a godsdamn island. Maybe. But we can’t know for sure.