Corvo the Crow

Assuming gravedigger is indeed Sandor and that "the hound" is dead as we are told, do you think Sandor will get knighted? Sinca he's living with religious people now and FotS and knighthood is heavily associated it seems a possibility, especially considering the company that visited the island, Septon Meribald who was a false knight but has become a Septon to repeny, Ser Hyle Hunt who was a bad knight but is now trying to aid Brienne with her quest. Lady Brienne Tarth, a women who is trying to be a model knight and the squire Podrick Payne. It is as if these knights, former knight and knight to be were there to show Sandor what a true knight should be and that even bad and false knights can let go of their past and try to do good. Meribald is especially noteworthy in this since he too has suffered a near death incident before changing his ways.

Naah! I posted a short analysis of it in the Wow I never noticed some months back. Of Ned's original 50, he senda back 4 with lady's bones, loses 3 against Jaime, sends away 20 with Beric and takes 8 with him to throne room, so at most 15 guys at tower. Lannisters have around 100 men once those in throne room with cersei excluded. That's 3 northmen dying for 1 westerman when the odds are 8-9 to 1 or worse if Ned had men holding the ship as well. Whereas Robb has 6K men against Jaime's ~2K and 10 westerman were slain for every one of Robb's. That's with odds of 3 to 1. Northmen are superior soldiers that much is obvious.

Even Stannis has chosen duty to family when faced with a hard choice. If Jon wasn't a bastard Ned could easily have overthrown Robert if it came to blows. He still had his army at his back, fighting the war's last few battles in the south. Hoster would support him, loyalists as well. It doesn't need to be a war either, he can convince Robert to stepdown and claim it for himself and reveal Jon's parentage sometime after and proclaim him to be the king and become hand. He did nothing to place Jon on throne means Jon really was a bastard, or at least Ned believed so.

Targaryens are not yet overthrown at this point, they are still clinging on to DS and likely lords who are now Stannis' bannermen still supporting them. Dorne as well. Also it was never the intention to Replace targs, especially with Robert.

But still, thanks!

1. Hey I am honorable Ned, though I don't have much of a reputation now, my guardian and foster brother now me to be a man of honor, among so many other lords mostly of the vale. This here young boy looking so much like a Stark is of my blood but not of my body. Remember my sister, the pretty and young wild girl with the staple Stark looks Rhaegar kidnapped? It turns out woman can become pregnant if a man is involved and he is their son. 2. I am Ned from the winning side, would you prefer Targaryens you fought for removed entirely and my hothead foster brother as the new king or would you prefer them staying in power with my newborn nephew as king, under a regency council with seats to losing sight also and many marriages made to knit the realm together? 3. Hoster is already in pocket, most loyalists with perhaps the exception of Dorne would definitely think so. Jon Arryn is neutral at worst, more like to be supportive as it means a smoother transition of power from Aerys to anyone else. Two likely opposers from the winning side are Robert of the least power with many of his targ loyalist bannermen and Tywin with his war crimes. So, Of these three likely opposers, Dorne would definitely go Jon over Robert. Robert and Tywin can be handled without bloodshed. 4. No idea on what the promise excactly was. It can simply be to protect him from robert and not to hide his identity and adopt him as a son.

Was Robert placed as king immediately after the sack or after some time has passed? Doesn't matter, If Jon was legit the Ned we know would stake his claim no matter what. Not if he does it immediately. No one would have the stomach to do more fighting at that point, especially with the peace and soldiers going home. Ned has perhaps the biggest army in his bloc composed from a single region, Hoster is his father in law, Jon is not only his foster father but also his brother through marriagr and also son in law to Hoster, at worst he'll be neutral, more likely he'll see this as a better solution. Only one in that bloc who'll strongly disagree is the weakest Overlord among them, Robert. Tywin can quickly disentengle himself by cutting loose Amory and Gregor. Loyalists would also feel less fucked with just Aerys deposed and not the Targaryens removed entirely. Only exception coule be Dorne, they can be granted marriages and heads, perhaps even Tywin's.

It's not a theory on the origin of ironborn, just a theory about one particular branch of a house that is of small significance and B. Shipwright. It's not a crackpot wrapped in tinfoil either, connections are there and they are not even hidden but in plain sight.

One thing I wonder, if Jon is not born out of wedlock, why did Ned not stake his claim? It's so uncharacteristic of him. He refuses both Renly's and Petyr's offers due to his honor and tries to install Stannis despite having no power of his own. Stannis is nothing to him and a bad canditate besides as many of the greathouses don't care for him or dislike him at best. Jon on the other hand is Rhaegar's son with Lyanna, his own nephew and at the time he had a great force of his own, perhaps the most numerous one in his powe bloc as riverlands, vale and stormlands were fragmented during the war and it's not like Hoster would go against his son in law who could very well be Hand for many years to come.

Thanks! I try to post more information as I find them. Keeping the first post up to date with those is a whole different matter though, especially since I mostly post from a very small screened phone.

I've been mostly listening folk rock for the past few years and it has led me to scandinavian ballads, which is my preferred music to listen to for a year or so now. Anyway, one such song is Garmarna's Herr Mannelig, linked below. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy44ocuoWhE It's about a mountaintroll who wants to marry the young squire/knight herr mannelig as she will become a human if he marries her but is refused because she is not a christian and the spawn of necken and devil Necken are water spirits. It immediately struck me then, we have a people called bog devils, living in the Neck and one broken boy, who wanted nothing but to become a knight, in love with one of those devils spawn of the neck.

Oakheart could also be something oath related

Except unlike lepers, these guys are actually walking dispensers for a contagious disease.

On "no men left" Since I've only recently noticed how layered the Westeros Nobility is, with even Hayfords with perhaps a hundred men raise capacity having at least one landed knight with a small tower of his own and a garrison of 6 I think Alys was really telling the truth with Karhold having no men left. Karhold having no men left doesn't necessarily mean Karstark lands are bereft of any fighting men trained at arms, they may still have hundreds of such men. It's just that these men can't be "raised" as they are scattered across the land in small numbers garrisoning the keeps of landed knights and smaller lords. In the same logic, Ramsay may not have been lying about bringing the "garrison". It was just that these men were not only from Dreadfort's garrison but from the garrisons of all the knights and lords in Dreadfort lands. So when Ramsay said it was his fathers garrison, it doesn't contradict Donella's intelligence that Ramsay was massing men. He was massing men from the garrison of his father's bannermen(apart from Dreadfort garrison) in short his father's garrison. Some may even have come from some smaller keep, holdfast or tower house Roose owns himself directly, like the Stark Holdfast we see in the first Bran chapter, making them Roose's own garrison just not from Dreadfort.

A small thing, a confirmation of a sort perhaps; So I've given a number of "more or less 3000" for Tarlys judging by the ~7500 men marcher force of Tarly, Caron, Dondarrion. Since Caron and Dondarrion are also marcher lords who have on average 2000 foot and 400 horse, Tarlys, again a marcher lord and a lord of same "tier" having 2500-3000 men seems right.