Nevets

I actually disagree about Arya. I miss the horrors of Haren-hell. Her time there, afraid and helpless, are a big reason she such a fucked up mess by the time she gets to Braavos. I was looking forward to seeing how they handled it all. I wasn't expecting them to ignore it. Her time with Tywin felt like a really bad summer break. She needed something to be scared of. And not "they might find out who I am and ship me to Kings Landing or Casterly Rock" but "someone might beat me, rape me, kill me because they feel like it and can get away with it". And her screwing up the first two deaths is kind of the point. She's acting impulsively out of anger, one of her big flaws.

The death penalty was standard practice everywhere historically until comparatively recently. i don't think any real opposition came until the 1800s or so, at least for serious crimes. There might have been earlier objection for things like theft though. So I have a hard time condemning Ned for carrying out a punishment that no one in his world conceives of as being in any way wrong. I don't think the deserter said anything. There were four POVs present, and we have heard nothing at all about him saying so much as incoherent gibberish, much less anything understandable. If we haven't heard by now, we aren't going to.

I'm not sure how to quantify Brienne. She was created in the late 1990s and the concept of non-binary and trans didn't really exist then - at least not as they are understood today. Obviously, she is quite unusual for a female, but she doesn't seem to have any sort of identity crisis over it, and I tend to peg her as being straight when it comes to liking men. I think she's attracted; she just doesn't trust them. I've always had Cersei down as straight, with her activities with Taena as being essentially experimental. I sometimes wonder if Daenerys is bisexual, though. I don't we have seen any pure lesbians, and doubt we will. Brynden is an unknown quantity; he is at the top of any list of possible unknown queer characters, though. As far as queer characters go, I don't see any real interest in the matter on the part of the author. The setting and characters were created in the 1990s when gay characters were less prominent or any kind of a real issue. This may be possible, but it's important to remember one thing. Sansa is the main character in the Vale; it's her sandbox. It's where she will learn the game of politics and how to influence and manipulate people. So it's possible that Nestor could be an unexpected ally for her once she gets crosswise with Baelish. I think Myranda is already a likely ally. Yeah, you are one of the few. For myself, the sooner Meereen is put in the rear-view, the better. I'm getting tired of waiting for Daenerys to head for Westeros. Maybe he's not missing.. He could have gone home to Starfall after Beric's death and the breakup of the Bwb. He's had enough time, and I don't what else he might be doing.

GRRM likes to make things as difficult as possible for his main characters. So my guess is that if Sansa wants an annulment, she will have difficulty obtaining one. Given the apparent frequency of torn maidenheads especially for nobility, my guess is the physical evidence will be ambiguous, so it will probably be a political decision by whoever handles it. In other words, Martin can do as he wishes. Of course, if she doesn't want one, it will probably sail through with no difficulty. Remaining married could have its advantages, like not being pushed into a marriage she doesn't want.

Hightower is definitely at the top. They're almost as powerful as the Tyrells. Frey is next. They can defy their leige and get away with it. Plus they have a huge number of members and a strategic location. Redwyne has a huge fleet. Manderly, Royce, and Florent are powerful in their regions but pale in comparison to their leige and the other non-great houses.

I'm not sure I see either side thinking it's advantageous. I don't know what the Greyjoys could offer Robb that would justify giving them Sansa instead of using her on someone more useful and reliable. I would also worry about her being a potential hostage. Balon isn't what I would call trustworthy. And I think Theon having someone like Sansa as his wife wouldn't make Balon too happy. She's the daughter of someone he thought of as an enemy, and he would probably regard her as a bit of a weakling as well, which wouldn't help. By the way, I have no problem regarding Sansa as an object to be married off to best advantage. Everyone in the story thinks that way, including Sansa herself, even as it's a source of frustration for her.

I'd be a lot happier if we had something canonical and specific regarding coin size and exchange rates. Unfortunately he's given us so many amounts for things, some of which I expect were generated more or less at random, especially in the early books, that specifying things might cause as much confusion as certainly. So I think we're stuck with Fat Walda's dowry being a decent sum but it won't make him rich. I think the whole idea was just to show that Roose is sufficiently greedy he will choose a fat bride simply to get a bit more money out of it. Which somehow fits.

Part of the problem is that the numbers for coinage make no real sense. In medieval Europe, one ounce of gold was worth eleven ounces of silver. In the 1700s it was around 15-1. A gold coin being worth 210 silver coins (a number I've seen somewhere) would require a gold coin being 20 times the weight of the silver one. Like a U.S. dime and a double eagle (roughly the size of an old silver dollar). Basically a tiny silver coin and a very large gold coin. By the way, the double eagle was roughly one ounce. So if we assume a dragon is roughly one ounce, based on historical values, her weight would be equivalent to about 100 ounces, or probably around 100 dragons. I think that's a lot but I'm not sure.

I think his plan is something like this: Sansa marries Harry and has his child, preferably a boy. Harry dies, and Sansa eventually marries Littlefinger. Sweetrobin then dies, leaving Sansa's child as heir, and LF as guardian. In the meantime, he keeps Sweetrobin drugged, so he's weak and compliant, and the lords of the Vale will be relieved at his departure. Or something like that. This would likely require some collusion on Sansa's part, which he might expect but wouldn't get.

No, but Sansa tells him that the Queen has closed off Maegor's and the city gates are shut as well, and he responds that he has a white cloak and a sword. He never specifically offered to take her, he just said he could keep her safe. At that moment, though, she was afraid he might hurt her instead. He demanded a song, which she gave him, and he left without a word. I don't think leaving together was a serious option from either point of view.

No, I don't see leaving with Sandor as a good idea. First, they will be seen leaving (Sandor planned to force his way out) so there will be a massive search. The Lannisters may not care about Sandor, they care very much about Sansa. Also, the surrounding area is a war zone. Anything happens to Sandor, Sansa's probably fucked, literally as well as figuratively. Even if you dismiss these concerns, given her knowledge and experience with Sandor, her decision is entirely reasonable.

I think of Tywin as a consummate Machiavellian. He does what he thinks is necessary to accomplish his goal; a goal that is related to maintaining the power and prestige of his house, land or country. His actions have a purpose. We may not like the purpose, and his methods can be cruel and vindictive, but he does what he feels works best for the situation at hand . If generosity works, he'll use that, but he is perfectly willing to be cruel. But his cruelty isn't so heavy or widespread that he's regarded as a tyrant. He doesn't generally go looking for trouble or someone to hurt, but mess with him or his house and watch out. Don't get me wrong; I really do not like the guy. Sometimes I even despise him. But his actions always have a purpose and are rational, even if horrible.

With regard to Cersei, I am unwilling to try and psychoanalyze someone who not only can't be examined, but isn't even real. That's probably an exercise in futility. I will say that I regard her as evil, cruel, narcissistic, and a malign influence on everyone around her. The best response is to avoid her if you can and contain her if you can't avoid her. Ugh! I'll be happy when she's gone.

I'm going to guess that it is about 2500 ounces. That is roughly 3000 old U.S. dollar coins. That is a sizable sum of money. I think the gold to silver value ratio by weight in medieval Europe was around 11 to 1. I don't know where the 210 stags to one dragon comes from. That would require very small silver coins and very big gold ones; or a wildly different gold to silver value ratio.

Bran has a considerable interest in the Others, the supernatural, magic, etc., in large part thanks to Old Man's stories. I'm sure that if Gared had mentioned anything about monsters or the like, Bran's ears would have perked up in a big way. So I doubt anything of interest, even ravings, was said. As for the bad writing, I'm inclined to think it's a factor here. It's the first book, and I doubt Martin was expecting it to be nearly the sensation it became. There is a lot of sloppy writing in the early parts of the series; plenty of things that either don't stand up to close scrutiny or leave things unexplained that theorists then try to fill in. I think Gared's story is along those lines. It's there to tell us that the Others are real and scary, introduce us to some main characters, and provide an excuse for the discovery of the wolf pups. It does the job nicely, but if you try to analyze it like a real event, you can't. You run into too many inconsistencies, as we've seen in this thread. The author can't think of everything, and Martin wasn't making as much effort back then as he has more recently. Which may be one of the reasons it's taking so long; inconsistencies and the like take time to find and eliminate, especially in something as complex as this.

Shortly after naming Weese, Arya came to the realization she should have named someone important, but by then it was too late. So she was on the expediency bandwagon fairly early on. I have serious doubts that Arya will kill anyone else on behalf of the Faceless Men. In my more conspiratorial moments, I wonder if even the insurance seller is really dead. We have no actual confirmation. Arya is poorly suited for the role of assassin for hire, and I'm sure the Faceless Men have figured that out by now. That's probably why she now appears to be on the slow track. I think her story is one of losing and recovering her identity, and the realization that vengeance and violence aren't as great as they now appear to be.

To the best of our knowledge, Gared said nothing at all. Nobody present has mentioned or thought about him saying anything - crazy or not. Given that this is a work of pure fiction, events not mentioned or readily inferred never happened. Ergo, Gared said nothing. Being silent and crazed by fear will not get you out of punishment in this world.

There were four POVs at Gared's execution. If Martin wanted him to say anything remotely intelligible, it should have come out long before now. Any reveal at this point will probably be regarded as either a cheat or a retcon. Gared served his purpose. His story is over.

While I'm quite sure Raynald Westerling is dead, he's the only one I believe to be dead that I can imagine still being alive. Brandon Stark is safely dead; I assume you meant Benjen. I think he's still alive, along with Ashara Dayne and Tyrek Lannister. On the other hand Syrio Forel, Stonesnake, and Quentyn Martell are quite dead, wild speculation to the contrary.

Lord Mormont told Tyrion, "it would seem he foreswore himself and fled. I should never have believed it, not of him, but Lord Eddard sent me his head from Winterfell". So it would appear he did not show up at Castle Black.

I don't see this the way you do. First, Rhaegar passes up the logical candidate: his wife, who is present. He then chooses an apparent stranger to whom he has no connection, who is of marriageable age but not yet wed. This is guaranteed to set tongues wagging. "Why did he pick her? What's going on?". Romantic or political interest are the logical conclusions. Neither is good here. Barristan's situation with Ashara is not the same. She is a maid of honor to Princess Elia and the sister of a fellow Kingsguard. She's a logical choice, even in the absence of a romantic attraction. The problem with Rhaegar choosing Lyanna is that he has no obvious non scandalous reason to do so. Rhaegar has no friendships or other connection to any Starks not is she a logical honoree otherwise; connected to the organizers for instance. So scandalous or conspiratorial reasons will start to be considered. Hence the unhappiness of the Starks and Robert. And the fueling of Aerys's paranoia.

She's also pretty good at getting people to do what she wants. And the training she's getting in gathering and analyzing information will serve her well as well.

I doubt Coldhands and the Black Gate could make Gared mad unless he was about there anyway. We've had several other characters in contact, including an extremely sheltered teenage girl and a little boy, and it affected them not in the least. My guess is that Martin never bothered to figure out how Gared got across the Wall, and given the POV structure there's no way to convey it to the reader in any event. I think that we will never find out how he got across and it's unimportant for the story in any case.

He planned to write a long paper about his experience? Too bad he never got around to it. I always assumed he got across at the Bridge of Skulls.

I don't think Tywin ever expected Tyrion to be able to claim the North. I interpreted his marrying Sansa to Tyrion as more of a blocking move than anything else. It means no one else can claim through her. Any suggestion of Tyrion ruling there was probably a sop to Tyrion's pride to get him to go along. If Tyrion succeeds, great; but Tywin isn't counting on it.