James Fenimore Cooper XXII

They raid outside of the kingdom. Which reflected poorly on the rulers of Westeros for allowing a vassal to engage in piracy. They must have caused property losses for the Free Cities of the east and yet we have nothing in the story that says the iron throne effectively stopped the Ironborn. It reflects badly on the Targaryens and the Baratheons to allow this to continue.

Battle of Fire This fight will be the biggest battle in the novels. There is the land battle between Ser Barristan's forces and the Masters' armies. Massive engines of war, like the trebuchets are employed in this fight. Barristan has the world's best infantry under his command. Victarion is bringing help and will engage the enemy in the largest naval battle that we will likely see. The Unsullied will finally see the kind of action they were trained and prepared for. I am excited to read about the square formation and the lockstep system. Meanwhile, Tyrion and his sell sword friends will get involved. Sers Geris and Archibald pledged their support and fighting on the side of the Dragon Queen. The small Dothraki khalasars make up part of the cavalry. The dragon binder horn will cause an unknown, unpredictable effect. The slaves turned soldiers are about to get blooded for the first time. The dragons are present. Daenerys could bring Drogon and the Dothraki to the battle at the crucial moment. The Masters' armies have the upper hand in numbers. They hold the seas and the port. They are helped by the other slave cities of Volantis and Qarth. Their trebuchets are superior to what weaponry the city defenders have. Their big advantage in my opinion is their allies inside the walls, the harpy. It is just like the harpy to strike when the defenders are busy. I also think they have allies within Tyrion's sell sword camp. A sell sword fights for gold and the masters have more of it. The masters do not care about the cost in human toll. I predict a long war. This is not a battle that will happen and conclude over the course of days. The scale is very large. Larger than any battle we have read and it involves both land and sea. The masters have the advantage because they have a choke hold on the city. Barristan and Skahaz have people they have to protect. The masters do not care about protecting people. The dragons are the wildcards in this war. Battle of Ice This one is a fight for a castle. It's basically a siege between two sides who are running out of resources. This battle is likely to conclude in a short amount of time as there is just not enough resources available to fuel a long conflict. The wildlings will get involved and it will be messy. Stannis has allies inside the walls in the form of Wayman Manderly's people and Mance Rayder. He has a trick up his sleeves to lure the Boltons into a trap. It will be disappointing if Roose doesn't also have a trap for Stannis. The players are Roose Bolton, Stannis Baratheon, Mance Rayder, Wayman Manderly, the Frey contingent, wildlings, Jon Snow, Mellisandre, and Theon Greyjoy. The people inside the walls have the advantage in this fight because they are sheltered from the elements. The move is on Stannis to get inside the walls. He has to make that move soon. The problem Roose faces is running out of supplies. He was clever to send the Manderly forces out of the gates. While they could side with Stannis it also means more mouths to feed for the enemy. Manderly is wise enough to secretly leave some of his people behind the walls because he too knows the Boltons question his loyalty. It could be he poisoned the remaining food supply before going out the gate. Magic is a wildcard in this battle. I can see Bran getting involved. Theon could go nutzo on us and assassinate Stannis. Ramsay is another wildcard because he might be dumb enough to assassinate his father. Jon Snow is another wildcard who can bring the wildlings to the fight.

You might want to separate the show from the books. The two are not the same. Benioff and Weiss created their own characters and they are not like their book counterparts. Dany is actually a very capable ruler. The problems in Meereen are the results of a very bad people who does not want to give up slavery. That city has a lot of potential to become great. It is near the coast. It has access to the Skahazadhan. The weather is great for farming crops who do well in warmer climates. You will not find another teenager in the story who can find a way to win the love and the respect of a khal like Drogo. Her strength and her courage are unrivaled. She is the smartest among the teen rulers. For sure smarter than Joffrey, Jon Snow, Robb, Sansa, and Margery. Daenerys is fighting to help save the lives of other people to whom she owed nothing to, unlike Joffrey, Jon Snow, and Robb who mainly just care about their families. Those guys like Jon Snow and Robb Stark support their families, right or wrong, and they shunt their duties aside, compromise ethics, to serve their families, whether its right or wrong. I love Daenerys for all of the reasons I mentioned. Factor in the intangibles like her charm (proven when she lulled Mero into complacency) and her beauty (loveliest girl in the world) and it is hard not to love Daenerys. She also has the cool factor of hatching the dragons and riding Drogon.

Advise Dany. More like try to convince her to come to Westeros. Dany has goals of her own to help the slaves. Quentyn, Marwyn, and Quaithe want her help. Marwyn is a resourceful guy. Does he need a patron? It looks like an academic on an expedition to me. Maybe he had family money and had access to funds of his own.

How would the other lords react to Tanselle's puppet play? Stannis would be severe if he felt his family was being insulted. No less than what Aerion would do. This man loves to burn people. Tanselle gives a play where the stag is butchered badly and Stannis will react to this. Randyll would also give severe punishment to any puppeteer who poked fun at his family. Doran would deliver a strong cease and desist order. No further consequence as long as Tanselle complies. Tywin would have had her flogged and possibly thrown in jail. Her wagons and goods will be confiscated. It won't be pretty. Say if Tanselle were to give a show where the lions are killed by brave men, yes, Tywin would not react well to that. Aerion may be overreacting but the Dragon is the symbol of his House and no other house.

My intentions for starting this topic is to bring to attention the offenses committed by Jaime Lannister and the pass that he gets from many in the fan community. I have no idea what the author intended with the Jaime character. Is it the story of someone who has been doing horrible things all of his life and all of sudden finds redemption? I don't think so. Jaime's story doesn't read that way to me.

Please read on. I made some changes to the topic. Thanks

Several concepts came up during the discussions going on at the topics listed below: I don't want to hijack the topics from the two gentlemen because my point is not directly related and it made sense to me to create my own topic. Like I said, this is not directly related, but some ideas came up that deserve to be discussed. Two important concepts that keep getting brought up: Guest rights Double-standards I am seeing double-standards at work in the attitudes of the fans. One of the biggest violators of guest rights is Jaime Lannister. But no one seems to bring this up. One side of the fandom hate the Freys for what they did to the Starks. But many seem to brush the violation aside for Jaime Lannister. What Jaime Lannister did to Bran Stark is not a trivial matter. Bran was just in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Jaime and Cersei were in the wrong place, at the wrong time, doing the wrong thing. Seriously, FCS, Jaime is a Kingsguard who was supposed to be loyal to Robert! The attempted murder of Bran is a gross violation of guest rights. Jaime's violation is in many ways much more offensive compared to what Lord Walder, Bolton, and Tywin did with the red wedding. The red wedding is a sneaky war tactic against other fighting men. Robb Stark is not an innocent who was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. He was a full participant in the atrocities of the war of the five fools. He forced the Freys to make a choice and then betrayed them. One of the discussion contributors made mention that Robb Stark only came back to make amends because he needed Walder's help again. Another contributor rightly pointed out, Robb Stark knew the value of Stevron Frey and knew the man fought bravely for him. And he still disrespected the Freys. No apology would have come from the Stark camp to the Freys if Robb had no more need of their help. Robb Stark was not undeserving of what he got. All I am saying is, there is double-standards when it comes to how the fandom on this forum judge the violators of guest rights. Jaime Lannister deserves as much derision from the fans as Roose, Walder, and Tywin get. More, in my opinion.

Jon Snow, bastard son of Ned Stark was voted to lead the NW and soon after proved himself incapable of justice. Thankfully, a humble but dedicated crannogman took the initiative to remove Jon from power.

Jon is not neutral. That's been his problem from the start.

We already know what happened to the so-called cup bearers in Meereen. Daenerys didn't punish them for the crimes of their families. Nothing bad happened to them. As far as the ones that Jon took, we will never know because Jon got his booty perforated. The future of the wildling children are in the hands of Mr. Bowen Marsh. In my opinion, Bowen Marsh is not about to hurt those children. Marsh is a dutiful man with a good sense of what is right and wrong. I don't think we have to worry about these hostages. Now, if they were the hostage of Stannis, yeah he will burn them.

Each religion has its chosen one and the lines between myth and religion get blurred sometimes.

1) Yes 2) No 3) No 4) Yes 5) Yes 6) Yes 7) Yes 8) Yes 9) No 10) Yes for Walder Frey; No for Tywin (he started the war in the river lands); No for Roose (Robb treated him with respect). Only Walder was wronged by the Starks.

What do you think? Jon Con will be the voice of reason but another strong voice will come from Uncle Doran. The Martells want Lannister blood. Gregor murdered Elia and Rhaenys. Robert killed his father. Which is it? Forgiveness. Revenge.

Difficult to say. It should come from Roose. He's the head of the family and the warden of the north.