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Canon Claude

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Posts posted by Canon Claude

  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. 1 hour ago, Ran said:

    Yes, more or less. Cersei and Pycelle, and by implication Varys and Stannis, all seemed to consider Renly's plot at least credible.

     

    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? 

     

    1 hour ago, James Steller said:

    I’m trying to be generous and not just write him off as an idiot. So am I missing something? 

    1 hour ago, Ran said:

    It's 100% the case that Renly saw the short-term mechanics primarily, and wasn't concerned with the long-term except as vague things they could deal with when they came to him.

    Guess Steller wasn't missing anything: Renly is just being a short-sighted idiot. So why would Varys and Pycelle take him seriously??

  3. 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. 

  4. 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. 

  5. 6 hours ago, Lord of Raventree Hall said:

    The group of people who I was like “why does anyone put up with them” after TWoIaF are the Iron Islanders. Their history is literally just annoying the other Kingdoms, never actually allying with any of those Kingdoms or trading nicely with them, and generally being a nuisance to the other cultures of Westeros. The fact that the Iron Islands has never been conquered and made into a vassal state by any of the larger kingdoms just makes no sense. Robert/Eddard almost casually smashed Balon Greyjoy, and I just don’t get why this didn’t happen a long time with a permanent occupying force. 

    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.

  6. 7 hours ago, Craving Peaches said:

    I was excited to read it at first but I quickly grew bored, and it really put me off the Targaryens (I was a fan of theirs before I read that book). I thought Aegon would be a competent general but he was actually quite incompetent. He puts his army in a losing position then goes and saves them with the dragon rather than just using the dragon to beat the enemies in the first place. Waste of lives. Dragons were boring. I was either apathetic to the Targaryen characters or actively disliked them. I was thinking they should really have been overthrown as soon as they lost the dragons. No one needs to put up with their incest and other supremacist nonsense when they no longer have the cheat code dragons. The best part of the book for me was when the People rose up against the tyrants and killed the bioweapons. 10/10 moment, very inspiring. My favourite characters were Queen Argella, Brandon Snow and the psycho Arryn.

    It took you until FAB to be put off by the Targaryens?

  7. 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.

  8. 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?

  9. 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). 

  10. 6 minutes ago, SeanF said:

    Robert.  For eloping with his enemy, and birthing dragonspawn.

    Assuming that she doesn't just say she was abducted and raped. Robert was quite quick to believe that story the first time.

    Though I imagine Lyanna would think death is preferable to living with the man who killed Rhaegar.
    But also, your scenario implies that Robert knows about Lyanna's child. Do you think Ned wouldn't hide the baby if Lyanna didn't die?

  11. 19 minutes ago, James Steller said:

    Frankly, if it’s true that Lyanna ran off with Rhaegar, then I’d like to see Ned point out that her and Rhaegar’s actions led to the deaths of thousands of people, including two of her own relatives and Rhaegar himself, as well as his wife and kids. Let’s see her try to justify it with “but our baby is the chosen ooooonnnnnne”

     

    7 minutes ago, Craving Peaches said:

    Something something 'muh greater good' something something. Just like Bloodraven.

    Heh, and who said Stannis and Renly fans couldn't agree on something?

  12. astarkchoice's thread inspired me to make this one, based around the notion of what would have happened if Lyanna hadn't died.

    There are so many 'what if's attached to this scenario that I can't even begin to quantify them, especially since we still don't really know what happened to her, not even the exact manner of her death. 

    But even if we narrow it down by bending to the main theory (she died giving birth to Jon Snow), then what would happen if she didn't die? 

    Would Ned still agree to protect her son? Would he send Lyanna to be married off to Rhaegar's killer? Would she kill herself or kill Robert if that happened? Would she try to beg Ned to annul the engagement? Would she want to run away? Would Ned help her hide? Would Ned agree to cover for her by claiming she was dead so Robert wouldn't look for her? 

  13. 7 hours ago, astarkchoice said:

     

    -robert vs ned: lyanna survives and ned this time lets the world know she wasnt abducted. Robert is furious and embarassed and accepts cersei as jon arryn suggested to secure the lannisters into his new regime. Jon arryn takes his banners home as do the tyrells....if robert presses for war who wins between asoiafs besties?

    There are a lot of assumptions being made in this paragraph, but I'm also fascinated by the implications. Lyanna surviving is  somehow not a hypothetical which I ever envisioned. I feel like it deserves its own thread.

    7 hours ago, astarkchoice said:

     

    -neds war: ned had planned to take the  northern forces past the wall to deal with the rumours.of a king there. How does he fare?  If he wins how does it affect the wot5k?

     

    The outcome depends on if Ned and his army comes across Mance Rayder or the Others. If it's the former, Ned probably wins a Pyrrhic victory, maybe at the cost of his own life. If it's the latter, then the Northern army is destroyed.

    7 hours ago, astarkchoice said:

     

    -roberts war: long talked of taking the summer isles...disaster or huge sucess for westeros

     

    Based on Nymeria's experience in the Summer Isles, the Westerosi would be utterly destroyed by diseases and hostile creatures alone.

    7 hours ago, astarkchoice said:

     

    Aerys war:  the mad king wanted an all out war vs bravos over debts owed

     

    Braavos wins handily, and the Braavosi get to depose the last Valyrian dynasty and avenge their enslaved ancestors. 

    Actually, that would have been amazingly poetic. 

  14. 1 hour ago, Curled Finger said:

    As I recall Ice was nearly as big (tall?) as Robb so it is unlikely he would have attempted to use it in battle, though taking it along as a symbol isn't out of the question.  Still, Robb didn't seem to employ a lot of symbols.  He had Grey Wind and the northern lords and didn't seem to require a whole lot else to make his point.  No, I think he would have left Ice in a secure place, River Run or somewhere close he knew the family heirloom would have been safe.  

    What may have been a bit ironic would have been to send Brienne with Cat and Ice back to Winterfell.  Wonder how that might have turned out? 

    To be fair, Robb was still growing when that observation was made. Later on in the story, Catelyn describes Robb as being 'tall', so we can assume that he's had a growth spurt since the start of AGOT. For all we know, he could have wielded Ice efficiently, especially from horseback.

  15. 2 hours ago, The Commentator said:

    What consequence do you expect? It wasn’t theft. It’s a victory trophy for the Lannisters. That’s how people see it.

    A writ of attainder was signed and it took away everything from the poor Starks. The kids deserve better but Jon, Robb, and Sansa aren’t blameless in the Stark fall.  

    Then why did the Dornish return Blackfyre to House Targaryen after they killed Daeron I? They could have just kept it for themselves, by that logic.

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