Floki of the Ironborn

52 minutes ago, Alester Florent said:

The punishment laid out for Ser Braxton does seem unnecessarily cruel, as Floki says, effectively forcing him to choose trial by combat, a situation moreover where he is doubtless uneasy because he's fighting the king himself. It's hard not to feel sorry for the guy: it seems like the king's anger at Saera was taken out on him. At least his death was, in the end, relatively quick.

Having said that, given that one of the great things about flails - indeed perhaps the only thing about them that makes them worth using over a morningstar or mace - is their unpredictability and ability to blow past guards (including shields) and inflict damage behind, it does seem that he used his weapon rather poorly in the ensuing duel if Jaehaerys was able to take every blow on his shield. If he'd picked a different weapon, or used it better, he might have been able to win that duel.

That does raise a good question… what would have happened if Braxton won the duel?

4 hours ago, GZ Bloodraven said:

Stinger got cocky in front of the king; it's definitely weird and a bad parenting move and Freudian no doubt, but Braxton was basically openly taunting the Kingsguard and the King.

I mean, what else was left for him? If he didn’t accept trial by combat, he was marked for life as a cripple. He was backed into a corner where Jaehaerys could personally kill him. 

I know Jae-hae is listed as one of the best kings in House Targaryen’s history, but good gods did the Saera storyline paint him in a bad light. I’m not saying that Saera was a victim, mind you: she was clearly a spoiled bully who took advantage of her position to abuse smallfolk. But there really is something profoundly unsettling and overly Freudian about how Jaehaerys handled things with the Ser Beesbury. He pretty much forced him into a trial by combat just for having consensual sex with his daughter, personally fought, and killed him all while making Saera watch. Like, what was that supposed to accomplish? Whose pride and honour was that really trying to fix? I don’t blame Saera for trying to get the hell away from him. And it looks like she did a great job for herself. She managed to avoid the Targaryen s***show and make it rich in Lys.

Really? He doesn’t strike me as a competent guy. Not at all. 
Jon Con is biased because of his man crush for Rhaegar. And I don’t trust anything Varys says. So far we’ve seen Aegon be arrogant, temperamental, and easily swayed by Tyrion. He’s swanning around making his own impulsive decisions, making it very clear that he’s no better than anyone else vying for this absolute monarchy. 

-Arya and Jon will become a couple (leave that terrible story idea in the original draft where it belongs)

-(insert character) is secretly a (insert mythical creature/monster)

19 minutes ago, boltons are sick said:

 The thing, Tyrion isn't doing it to help the clansmen and doesn't really care about them or their history with the people of the Vale. He is just doing it to hurt Lysa Arryn for imprisoning him by using the clansmen and their resentment towards the inhabitants of the Vale of Arryn and doesn't care about the collateral damage their pillaging is going to inflict on the Vale and its people, so long as Lysa suffers in some way, which is very spiteful when you think about it.

Sure, but that’s still not the worst thing Tyrion’s done, let alone worse than what Cersei has done.

Strange take, honestly.

The mountain clans are themselves the victims of colonialism and attempted genocide. Forced to live a meagre existence in the worst parts of a region which was violently taken away from their ancestors. Give them more weapons as far as I’m concerned.

RBG are also the colours used in the sigils of House Strong, Hoare, and Shawney.

Tywin Lannister is a mix of Pope Alexander Borgia and Edward I of England.

GRRM has admitted that Stannis is partly inspired by the Roman Emperor Tiberius, but I also see elements of Richard III in him as well.

The Dothraki are a mix of Mongol, Plains Indigenous, and Scythians. 
 

It would also be too obvious to point out that the Iron Islands seem to be a loose adaptation of ancient Norse society.

29 minutes ago, astarkchoice said:

It does seem strange boltons survived esp given we know the kings of winter have exterminated at least 5 houses (frost, amber,towers ,greenwoods and ,greystarks) and house blackwood fled the north so prob would be 6 if they hadnt ran!

House bolton not only contested control for centuries but on 2 occasions sacked and burnt winterfell as well as flaying starks however when we put it into perspective we know the starks also waged war with the barrowkings (ryswell and dustin and possibly others)  for 200 years of conflict in 1000! This  on top of various battles vs ironborm,skagosi, vale of arryn, kings beyond the wall and other powerful northern lords like the marsh kings...a history of constant warfare to subdue the north.  The very fact boltons could.sack winterfell twice and are top 3 houses in the north by books start hint its always been a rich powerful area with a solid fort! We know at least one of their stark wars they were aligned with the greystarks thus exterminating both houses was probably beyond the starks for that war.

We know they also alligned with the starks to throw back forces from the south so have been useful allies.

Overall it most likely timing that saved them...they bent the knee by the time the starks had secured such a stranglehold of  the north that wiping out house bolton wasnt worth the effort nor was any futute resistance likely.

That’s a good point, I forgot about the Andal invasions. That’s probably what saved the Boltons more than anything. The North had a common enemy and the Boltons stayed loyal until there was an opportunity to finally overthrow House Stark.

7 minutes ago, Maegor Targaryen I said:

Yes the Boltons are the traditional enemy of the Starks. At the very least the most recent internal one. With the shit that happened between them I’m surprised the Starks didn’t just wipe the family out. Making a cloak out of a Stark’s skin, well any human being’s skin, is cause for it in my opinion.

I agree, I don’t see how the Boltons survived when so many other houses didn’t. I guess the official reason is that the cost of victory would have been too much, but unless the Boltons had a lot more allies than we’ve seen, I don’t see how that’s the case. Even now, Roose can only seem to rely on the Karstarks: everyone else’s loyalty is uncertain at the very least.

2 hours ago, Terrorthatflapsinthenight9 said:

While we don't know when Roose began to truly plot against Robb Stark, he made a point of weakening the other northern houses while preserving his forces from the beggining as seen with his command during the battle of the Green Fork where he sent the Hornwood, Manderly, Karstark, Glover and other noble houses forces to face the Lannisters army's might resulting in lord Hornwood's death and tons of deaths and important lords and heirs being captured. 

To be clear, Roose:

-forces a night march on his troops

-ruins the element of surprise by sounding loud horns

-runs downhill from the high ground towards an army which is bigger and has far more cavalry

-loses over a quarter of the army (he started with more than 17,000 infantry, and after the battle (plus after the Freys pull out) he's got less than 10,000 left)

-deliberately keeps his own men in the vanguard so that they're least impacted by casualties

If it wasn't for Robb's great victories, I daresay Roose would have been in big trouble from Robb after a defeat like that. I don't even know if he ever really understood what had happened, either. Roose could have told him anything by raven, and since he was killing off the Northern forces piece by piece, there wouldn't be anyone to tell him otherwise.

Ramsay is absolutely too crazy to consider himself in danger. He does what he pleases, and he's had a lot of luck getting out of well-deserved punishments.

As for Roose, he was definitely planning things. It's pretty obvious, given how he was undercutting his rivals from the very first. I'd say he was always hoping to find an opportunity to supplant the Starks. 

Putting Ramsay in charge was absolutely a strategic decision on his part. He can rely on Ramsay being unpredictable and wild. Of course, he couldn't predict that Daryn Hornwood was going to die, at the same time as his father, but he had to have known that the war would lead to some kind of issue on the home front. And once Ramsay noticed, he'd happily exploit it for his own means. Roose is a lot like Littlefinger in that regard; he doesn't control chaos, nor does he even try to control it. He simply rides the wave as far as he can go until the next wave shows itself. 

49 minutes ago, Nevets said:

Baratheon men from where?  He has no holding of his own, so he would need to get them from Renly or Stannis, both of whom he dislikes, and the feeling is mutual.  He not going to ask them for anything. 

He also appears to be perfectly happy letting his wife dole out cushy jobs in the capital as patronage.  Being a man-at-arms would be such a cushy job.  Plus, Robert is a lazy and feckless ruler and doesn't really give a damn about that kind of thing. 

It really amazes me how in a history which includes men like Maegor, Aegon IV, Aegon II, Aerys II, and Daeron I, Robert still ends up being one of the worst kings ever to sit on the Iron Throne.