The North is financially poor and their primitive cultural stage will not have the commerce to support another port.  The port will not have the traffic to thrive.  

The danger to Bowen will come from a revived and wighted Jon Snow.  Jon even when he was alive was not the poster boy for good temper and sound judgement.  Jon the Wight will be on Stoneheart mode.  He will two agendas.  Find Arya and kill everybody in Castle Black.  Neither of which serves any moral principles.  The Brotherhood will understand why the men killed Jon.  They have witnesses to prove Jon was guilty of treason.  Any person who heard Jon in the Shield Hall can testify to the madness of the Arya rescue operation.  Wunwun's disposition presents a lot of problems for the Crows if the giant calms on his own.  He killed an anointed knight in a fit of rage.  He is a dead giant unless he can prove his innocence.  He will need somebody to speak for him because his language skills is not up to that task.  There is sadly nobody who can command respect who will step up for WW.  Bowen is a fair man though and might at least agree to ask a Wildling to interpret for WW to gather the facts.  

On 10/23/2022 at 12:35 AM, Finley McLeod said:

Archmaester Marwyn told Samwell that the maesters had been poisoning the "dragons."  I think he meant the maesters were poisoning the Targaryens.  The Dragon Lords of Valyria, including the Targaryens, were not suffering from mental health issues.  They could not have controlled their dragons if they were. 

The maesters do not trust Marwyn's family.  He could be a Targ bastard, Blackfyre,  Velaryon, or Celtigar.  The maesters are ignorant and do not know about the White Walkers.  If they did they would know the importance of the dragons.  Perhaps they know and are serving the White Walkers. 

Dragons cook their food. Not rare, not medium, but well-done.  Poisons will not survive cooking.  Marwyn meant the Targaryen humans.  The ones on the throne and the babies.  That makes the Citadels guilty of a long line of treason dating back 300 years.  I would raid the Citadel and check their recorded history.  Put to death all the ones who are still alive from the reign of King Aerys II and are guilty of plotting against the Targaryens.  

Arya repeated Sandor's sin when she murdered Dareon.  Micah and Dareon were innocents who were victims of the moral rot in the upper class of Westeros.  Sandor and Arya made the injustice even worse.  Sandor at least feel guilt.  Arya feels nothing.  

The Unsullied are the elite fighting corps of Daenerys Targaryen's armed forces.  Best of the best.  

Arya joined a religion which thinks offering deaths to the gods is good.  Arya would send the city full of people as an offering to her new gods.  

On 10/12/2022 at 12:32 PM, The Commentator said:

Edward, Catelyn, Robb, Lady, and Greywind are dead. They have lost all of their possessions. The Lannister had a Writ prepared to take away all of their material goods.  The question for me is if they are victims of their enemies. How do you consider the Starks?

I consider them the bad guys of the story.  Arya is already a villain and Jon is a traitor at the wall.  Yes they are victims but they also victimized others.  

On 10/17/2022 at 3:59 PM, Corvo the Crow said:

With all these threads about Dany and her army sprouting recently, I believe there is one question that must be answered before all others. Dany is currently at Meereen(well, her forces are) perhaps months of travel away from the western coasts of Essos. Winter has come and we saw that Even the Golden Company, which was already around Volantis, much further west than where Dany was, had trouble crossing the narrow sea by the time they got there. Golden Company has long since left the area and already made their voyage across the sea while Dany is still fixed in Meereen so the weather will get much much worse by the time she's finally prepared to cross the Narrow Sea. Will she be able to cross and Invade Westeros? If GRRM wasn't the kind of writer who was doing plot twists for the sake of plot twists, making them out of thin air with little support or background or whatever, I'd say there's no way that Dany would be able to make to Westeros before the next spring.

One thing you overlooked.  Winter, incompetent leadership, rebellions, and family battles are quickly weakening Westeros.  Daenerys is getting stronger.  Her dragons are growing.  Her armies are getting new recruits day by day.  She even has a church supporting her.  She can and she will sail for Westeros.  

On 10/14/2022 at 12:32 PM, Aldarion said:

Unsullied tactics are literally tactics for idiots. They are based on Spartans, in large part, and Spartans were morons. Unsullied, if anything, are even worse.

https://fantasyview.wordpress.com/2020/03/11/tactical-overview-the-unsullied/

In fact, Unsullied copy the worst aspects of the Spartan society. I will drop ACOUP links below for more detailed reading, but fact is that rather than producing absolute badasses, Unsullied training - dehumanization, deindividualization and breaking down of human spirit and dignity - will have produced broken automatons incapable of acting without guidance from above, without actually giving them any superior combat skills in exchange. It literally ruined people for absolutely no gain: we have no reason to believe that an Unsullied is in any way a better soldier - not a better fighter, but a better soldier - than your average Westerosi levy infantryman. Despite the brutality of the agoge system - which Unsullied training replicates - Spartiates were not, in fact, better hoplites than citizen militiamen which most other poleis relied on. They were decidedly average.

https://acoup.blog/2019/08/16/collections-this-isnt-sparta-part-i-spartan-school/

And Unsullied tactics are also similar to Spartans - form a shield wall, hold the line. That's it, that is what the Unsullied do. There is literally nothing advanced about these tactics, they are in fact tactics for dummies, something you don't actually need any training for. All you need is fear of disappointing your comrades, and that is something any army provides. In other words, excessive Unsullied training is completely wasted, because they use tactics that are perfectly usable by militia. Hell, 15th century European militias used pike block tactics which were far more sophisticated than phalanx tactics. In fact, Spartan phalanx was - despite their "Spartan training" which the Unsullied emulate - completely incapable of complex maneuvers - which, I should note, Macedonian professional phalangites, Roman landowning legionaries and Byzantine and later European landowning troops did with regularity.

https://acoup.blog/2019/09/20/collections-this-isnt-sparta-part-vi-spartan-battle/

So yeah: Unsullied tactics are not advanced even by the standards of antiquity. Compared to tactics we actually see utilized by Westerosi armies, Unsullied tactics are basically child's game. Hell, wildlings utilize more complex tactics than what we see Unsullied do, and these are just armed civilians and hunters.

Nothing personal Aldarion. I  don't put much value in your argument.  I have seen a lot of your postings on this topic and disagree with you.  The Unsullied are the best infanty and they will perform well for Daenerys if or when she takes them to Westeros.  They are trained to an extreme level and cannot be matched by any army in Westeros.  Sure there are few of them but their number should equal the number of passable quality knights in Westeros.  The Unsullied alone are not enough to take the whole territory of Westeros but they will be invincible with the main force consisting mainly of Dothraki, Together they will make the  armored meat heads in Westeros run from the battlefield.  

Funding wars and successions is but a small part of what they do.  The bank lends to businesses large and small.  Essos has more advanced commerce and can support the growth of the bank.  They made bad loans to Westeros.  The loans to Stannis and Jon are not secure.  Tycho will be in deep sh!t very soon with his employer.  

The bank took a chance with Stannis. Pretend for a short minute that Stannis became king.  The bank would impose austerity measures on Westeros (like we did to Greece).  Stannis would tax the hell out of the people and try to force the lords to pay more.  His time on the throne will make Truss' time as PM an eternity.  

The loan to the watch is not secure but the bank got lucky when Marsh killed Jon.  Their chances of getting their money back just doubled.  Marsh is a good administrator while Jon Snow sucked.  It is still a bad loan even if the chances of getting it back doubled.  Winter is upon them.  Revenue is not coming.  

10 minutes ago, Craving Peaches said:

The issue is that...

They do not have more advanced war science. Take the unsullied for example. Bronze age equipment and tactics. And these are supposed to be the finest Essosi soldiers.

That is what they trained in.  Do you judge the knights because they train with wooden swords?  No.  Do you judge the quality of a Braavosi swordmaster because they train with wooden swords?  The Unsullied are provided with those weapons upon their purchase.  The buyer is under no restrictions to limit them to those.  She can equip them with armor and if they can afford it, Valyrian Steel weapons.  

Their tactics are actually very advanced.  The only development to make those tactics dated is gunpowder.  Absent gunpowder, those tactics are effective.  They were good enough to force Valyria to fight hard before beating Ghis.  

Tywin and Jaime are bad men.  Cersei and Tyrion are not as bad.  Yet.  Tyrion is liked by most people.  Tywin and Cersei are not so liked.  Jaime is a polarizing figure.  I don't like Jaime but some others do.  

I have noted over the years that the people who adore Jaime are the same ones who dislike Daenerys and the Targaryens.  It is also observable that Pro-Daenerys people like myself hate Jaime.  I don't think what he did to Bran even matters.  The only thing that matters to us when it comes to Jaime is whether we like Daenerys or not.  I have a liking for the Targaryens because I like Daenerys.  

Cersei killed another girl in her teen years.  She killed Melara.  But be fair.  Arya started killing at a younger age.  Arya shows little if any guilt and no remorse.  How can you really hate on Cersei and like Arya at the same time.  Bronn is a much worse person than the Lannisters except Jaime.  Jaime is more evil than Sandor.  

Sexism? Yes it is a factor for many.  Which family you like is more of a factor.  

I made a comment on the subject of Essos that the scale went up when George Martin took his readers to the vast Dothraki Sea, Vaes Tolorro, and Slaver's Bay.  It is not just the scale of the places that increased but the population and size of the armies as well.  Volantis and Meeren are enormous compared to King's Landing.  The military capability and the destructive forces increased proportionally to the size of the population and the more advanced war science in Essos.  That is before we even talk about Drogon and his brothers.  Here we are only entering the Unsullied and the Dothraki into the formula.  They are scary enough on their own.  The Targaryen army will be further bolstered by the freedmen who are undergoing military training.  Dany should be able to win a hard fought campaign with her Dothraki and Unsullied.  If she chooses to do it that way.  I am not so sure she will.  We know she cares for her soldiers.  We know she has a good feel for which of her assets to risk and which to save for later.  She will want to lessen the casualties on her side.  For that, she will employ mercenaries.  Mercenaries will be at the front.  Promises of land and titles will be made.  She will have allies in Westeros and they too will be given promises.  The so called Second Houses from each kingdom will be waiting in line for their turn to upset the Great Houses and they will support her claim.  An example is Lady Dustin in the north, Walder in the riverlands, and the Hightowers in the Reach.  

The parents were only partly to blame.  They left the safety and isolation of the north for the big city to play at politics and some social climbing.  But Sansa, Robb, and Arya later made bad decisions.  Sansa basically lied to cover for her boyfriend, Joffrey.  Arya made the choice to become an obsessive murderer.  Arya has so far gotten away with it but her murdering will catch up with her.  Jon broke the rules at the watch and got himself assassinated by his own men.  It is not fair to place all the blame on the parents.  

The story began in the closed and rather small world of the north.  It gradually expanded and new people and places were introduced.  You have to look at the novels as one story.  It began in a backwards village with unsophisticated people who have not gone much further than their small confines would allow.  Ned and Cat had travelled but their children were ignorant and never been to a city.  Never been to a city!  Imagine that.  The first scenes take place in the north and then story expanded to the Free Cities and Essos.  The vastness of the great Dothraki Sea and the size of the cities we see in the east introduced us to a whole new level of scale.  The settings changed from muddy villages in the west to the developed cities of the east.  Don't worry if that is not enough for you.  George Martin plans to bring back the Dothraki in a big way.  We will learn of their origins in the next book.  

On 10/6/2022 at 2:38 PM, Craving Peaches said:

So I was wondering about something the Green Grace says to Daenerys.

This would imply that the people of Meereen were not always Slavers. Could this be true? Or is she just telling Daenerys what she thinks she wants to hear?

I don't believe it. The old woman was trying to play games just like the old toad in Dorne.  It worked in Dorne because Rhaenys was weak.  Daenerys is a child but she is very smart.  

Daenerys tried to play nice and give the Meerenese a chance to do the right thing and accept a new way without the evils of slavery.  Most of the Meerenese are starting to adapt and accept but the Harpy are terrorists who want the old, evil ways to return.  The next step is to eliminate the entirety of the Harpy organization.  

8 hours ago, Craving Peaches said:

Pomegranate juice will flow.

On top of frozen Snow wrapped in black.

How do y'all think the Unsullied and Dothraki will perform in Westeros?

As well as Robert Baratheon feared.  The Dothraki would force the Lords to run to the security of their castles.  Their walls will buy them some time until the Unsullied comes.  Then it's game over for the Lords and their peasant armies. 

On 6/27/2022 at 11:22 PM, Here's Looking At You, Kid said:

George planned for five characters to survive to the end.  Sansa is not one of those five.  Sansa will be the next of the Starks to die. 

I also chose Sansa to die. 

Ghost will live as long as the plot needs Jon to do further harm to the kingdom.  It won't be Ghost.  I am saying Sansa because she doesn't have a direwolf.  She will just pass on into the afterlife.  If there is such a place. 

Sansa is the next wolf to die.

On 6/15/2022 at 11:12 AM, BlackLightning said:

I actually think that Shaggydog and Nymeria will survive the main series. I expect that they'll be dead in the Epilogue

But I do think Ghost will die. Not until A Dream of Spring. When Jon's identity as a legitimized bastard of Eddard Stark dies, that will be around the same time Ghost will die.

Flawed.

Arya has done a lot of bad things and Nymeria is still kicking.

Indeed, Arya is the worst of the lot and her wolf is still living.  Albeit showing symptoms of instability. 

On 5/22/2022 at 10:12 AM, Lyanna<3Rhaegar said:

Do tell where in the 'duties' of the watch it's said to cause a mutiny & murder your LC. 

Jon had gone beyond illegal with what he has been doing for Arya.  Jon's conduct was treason.  Treason to the watch and a betrayal of everything the watch has stood for.  What he was going to do was far more wrong.  Bowen Marsh is an honest man who was put in a terrible position because of his idiot lord commander.  Bowen Marsh had no personal interest other than to stop an atrocity.  

@the trees have eyes

Bowen Marsh has a good understanding of the roles and duties of the Watch.  Jon's understanding is almost as good.  The main difference between the two is dedication to duty and fitness for command.  Those things which Jon never had.  While Jon may have began with the idea of saving mankind, he took the wrong turn after his little sister married Ramsay.  He could no longer function as a man of the night's watch because he was an emotional man who was too loyal to the Starks to be any good at commanding an army who came from many different backgrounds.  Jon was an unfit basically.  It was mistake to vote him to lead the Watch.  Jon is incapable of objectivity.  He's too emotionally bound to the Starks.  To Arya more than the others.  Bowen Marsh is the better man in those last chapters.  He understood the true duties of the Watch. 

On 4/26/2022 at 5:49 PM, Rondo said:

Lord Commander Jon Snow betrayed the NW and dragged the ancient Brotherhood into conflict with Roose Bolton.  The immediate consequence is chaos within Castle Black.  This unrest will spread to the other forts on the wall and will lead to a divided Brotherhood.  While most will agree with Bowen Marsh, there will undoubtedly be some who will disagree with the assassination of their lord commander.  Regardless of how erratic and incompetent Jon was, he was their elected lord commander.  What will happen shortly after Jon takes his last breath:

1. Wun the Giant will be killed but not without trouble.
2. Bowen Marsh will take over as the interim Lord Commander.  He will organize Castle Black but the wildlings will not be placated.
3. I do not think Bowen and the Brother will be able to stop the wildlings from leaving the castle to attack the Boltons.
4. The Weeper and his people will come calling just when the castle is in disorder.

What else?

Immediate consequences will be a storm of swords between the brave men of the watch and the barbaric free folk.  Bowen Marsh may not survive the storm.  He knew and he willingly risks his life "for the watch" to remove his crazy lord commander Jon Snow.  The dangerous Jon Snow was killed to save the watch.  He had to be removed"for the watch" and by that, for the sake of humanity.  Bowen risks capital punishment to save the watch.  He did it for the watch to save mankind from Jon's bad decisions.