Mark of the West

He was sacrificed at the altar of Gregor's malice, not much else. That he may have known where and who was doing what to whom as it relates to the former Hand of the King was a fortunate happenstance for the schemers involved. Relying on the random availability of an open gorget to conduct a targeted hit seems sloppy.

Then the Gods of the Grove. The Old Gods. It has a Druidic nature I find appealing, a connection to an earlier more magical period when the world was young and uncorrupted by the rise and fall of squabbling empires.

Jaime seems content to be fairly agnostic. Works for me too.

The entire Ironborn and Dornish narrative. Minus Theon's story it's so boring. I understand the Planetos world needed a comparable Viking raider and Spanish story line, but really I sped through those chapters as quickly as possible.

At this point in the waiting it would certainly be a best seller

Hanging out wherever whores go probably

Craster, no doubt. Because, he does Craster things with his kiddies. Just. Ick. And, Vargo Hoat simply because: say it don't spray it. Yuck.

Neither. The Smiling Knight and Arthur Dayne; both are metaphors. Paragons of good and evil. It's hypnotic to watch Jaime vacillate from one to the other in thought and deed because he's not a convenient hero. He's the anti-Eddard. Anti-heroes are more interesting and less predictable.

I came to Tolkien's literary work relatively late in life, my thirties, and after having seen the movies. I loved them and it led me to devour his legendarium wholly, usually starting a walk through Middle Earth as the leaves start falling every year. Martin's more adult-centric world (and it is. I mean, like Boromir says, one does not simply do the tango with their sister in Mordor. Or. Maybe they do, but Tolkien left that somewhere in the margins) interested me in a more immediate way. That's not an indictment or affirmation of either, just an observation. Jaime is probably my favorite character despite his obvious flaws. His story is certainly one of the most interesting because of his simultaneous heroism and depravity. I hope to God he follows a less predictable arc than in the series. But, I love both author's works for what they are.

Is Bowen Marsh a crannogman? I thought initially he was a bastard of House Reed, but it seems they are their own noble house. The "Old Pomegranate". Edd Tollett makes me laugh

This. Cat was about as good as a person can be for ASOIAF, even though some of her decisions were questionable (i.e. Jaime). Now she's some zombie lady with a fetish for hempen rope. I get this sentiment. And, I remember GRRM lamenting the conflict between the story as he envisioned it and the story as his niece? saw it. She envisioned Magic as a central theme ie. dragons and white walkers. Were they always part of his mythos? or was his story more of a historical romp? I can't remember. Dragons are cool though. No denying

The war as described seems catastrophic, both for the armies involved and the populace. What, with the Mountain riding around burning from here to there and every army using the countryside as it's mobile larder there was certainly starvation and disease in addition to any deaths directly related to the actual fighting. A total war on the population to be sure. But, if 5.25 million dead is 13.125% then that indicates a population of 40 million. Too high I think, though I haven't read anything but the five novels and don't know if that kind of number is mentioned elsewhere in his universe. He modeled Westeros on the British isles which had a late medieval population of maybe 5 million. I could believe the percentages, but the totals might be lower.