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Canon Claude

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  1. It really seems to me that Kingsguard serving for life is a serious problem in their makeup. I don't care how fit or smart or alert someone might be in their 20s, that isn't going to last forever. And no, Barristan is an exception not a rule. We see for ourselves how men like Trant and Blount can age badly. What's the use of keeping guys like that in your kingsguard?
  2. That doesn't make sense either. Why would they think it was credible? Jaime doesn't think Robert likes Renly at all, but Cersei thinks Robert will listen to Renly's advice to metaphorically smoke a cigarette on the Hindenberg? Guess Steller wasn't missing anything: Renly is just being a short-sighted idiot. So why would Varys and Pycelle take him seriously??
  3. Aegon's allies might very well have taken their cue from his wishes. Obviously, that didn't happen, but Aegon II and his council couldn't have predicted the future.
  4. The problems began when Viserys chose to beget more children. Aegon's birth signified a problem with the line of succession. Having Rhaenyra be his only child would have forced the hand of every lord in the Seven Kingdoms. It would have avoided the Dance, and it would have forced the Seven Kingdoms to adopt progressive Dornish customs on lines of succession.
  5. Makes sense that Ned wouldn't ever tap into that potential, he was more Arryn than Stark.
  6. Is it me, or is it weird how Blackfyre played no role whatsoever? We know that Aegon II claimed it as proof of his kingship, but he never uses it. Sure, he doesn't get much of a chance in battle, but you'd think that Aemond would have jumped at the chance when Aegon was out of action. Daemon always had Dark Sister, after all. It's not like Targaryens would leave their Valyrian steel swords behind when they go riding dragons. Not to mention the fact that Blackfyre doesn't come up when Rhaenyra takes over King's Landing. Did Larys take it? Did Aegon take it? Either Rhaenyra didn't have it, or else she seems to show no interest in the sword, either for herself or her heirs. I can see why she wouldn't take it when fleeing the Red Keep, but it's strange how with all the looting and chaos, the sword managed to remain safe. House Royce lost their own VS sword during the madness, why shouldn't Blackfyre have disappeared when three different men claimed leadership of the capital? To be honest, I'm also baffled at how Dark Sister managed to be recovered from the Daemon/Aemond showdown, but at least there I can put two and two together (ie Alys Rivers kept it for her own son, then House Targaryen presumably recovered it after Alys was dealt with). But Blackfyre's presence is so vague and confusing. It just seems like GRRM forgot to account for it when by all accounts, it should have been stolen and disappeared. It's not like valuable royal heirlooms haven't been plundered throughout history.
  7. Okay, let's all be honest, here. Dunk is dumb. He is dumb in the same way that Prince Myshkin was dumb. Dunk's stupidity is born out of a naiveté and ignorance which is much more wholesome than Victorian's brute stupidity. But he is still dumb. He was dumb enough to attack a Targaryen prince, dumb enough to tell Maekar that his sons were awful, and he wanted to take Aegon out on the road to avoid him being just as awful as his older brothers. In any other setting, Dunk would have been harshly punished for what he did and said. It's only due to luck that he failed upward into the Kingsguard. Victarion might be dumb, but he at least knows how to exist in his culture. But at the same time, Dunk is way too good for his society, so I'd say although he's dumber than Victarion, he's much better than him too. As for fighting, I'd say Victarion would win if we're talking about Dunk's fighting skills in the current D&E books. Maybe by the time the Laughing Storm's rebellion, Dunk had caught up to Victarion's level, so then it becomes more difficult to say. Though I'd still guess that it would be Victarion.
  8. Conquering a region isn't as easy as it looks. All across history, there have been cultures which steadfastly resisted domination and endured. The British tried to colonise Ireland, and they only managed to keep a quarter of it. Afghanistan resisted invasion after invasion, they're still there. And it's not easy to wipe out an entire culture, you'd have to kill everyone on the Iron Islands to do it. Who's going to go to each island and systematically slaughter every person there? Eddard's not going to do that, not even Robert would be dumb enough to try. Also, to be fair, the Ironborn did have periods where they put an emphasis on trade. House Hoare, for all their tyrannical cruelty, did at least see the sense in dragging the Ironborn kicking and screaming away from the Old Way.
  9. Fair, heh. I just never liked the Targs. TWOIAF gave me plenty of reasons to dislike them, and FAB only confirmed that the people of Westeros should have wiped them out when they had the chance.
  10. It took you until FAB to be put off by the Targaryens?
  11. There's a lot of talk about which regions of Westeros are like which parts of the world etc. but what about the Free Cities? I feel like that's a much more debatable question, since they seem to be blended together from various aspects of world history. Braavos, for example, feels like a mix between Amsterdam and Venice, with an anti-slavery ideology thrown into the mix. Qohor has aspects of Constantinople. That sort of thing.
  12. It kind of baffles me that any Andal army would look at the Neck and decide it was worthwhile to enter it and head north. The causeway is bad enough as a road through the Neck, since the crannogmen have you hemmed in a narrow place where an army can't maneuver or even make some kind of camp. But at least the causeway is a safe passage. Imagine trying to make your way through the Neck without that road to guide you. And travelling the causeway takes twelve days! I can't imagine anyone ever making it as far as Moat Cailin; the swamp and the crannogmen would have sorted them out way before that. But leaving armies aside, how did anyone else travel south? We know that there's some sort of trading going on, or else the Freys wouldn't have been able to make any money on their bridge. That implies a steady stream of merchants and whatnot going between the North and the Riverlands. But we never hear of them on the causeway, let alone before the causeway was built. Did the crannogmen offer themselves as guides? Did they charge a fee for their services? Is the causeway wide enough for merchants to pass each other by, or would they be utterly screwed if two carts are going in opposite directions?
  13. I can't recall if the books ever make it clear, but I figured that the knights of the Kingsguard would need assistance with their armour and weapons like any other knight. And yet it strikes me that Jaime Lannister seems to be the only knight of the Kingsguard who makes use of squires. What about the others?
  14. Coming back here because of a scene in HOTD which got me thinking. Suppose that a member of the Royal Family were to attack a knight of the Kingsguard in a fit of rage or whatever. Would the Kingsguard have to allow himself to be killed if that's what the royal family member wished? And yes, I know it's a mad act to treat your own bodyguard like that, but we know how many mad Targaryens there have been (or just fools, for that matter).
  15. Let's assume you're a middle-class level type of smallfolk; not rich but also not poor. Where would you want to live? For my part, I'd want to live in the Vale, as far from the mountain clans as I can manage. Maybe Gulltown.
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