Lady_Qohor

Random musing - I wish we had heard more from Gyles Rosby and Tanda Stokeworth in the story before they died. These guys seem to have lived in the Crownlands for 70+ years, they would have had first hand tales of Aegon V, Jaeherys II etc. Unlike Aemon and Barristan Selmy, they wouldn't necessarily have felt an obligation to the Targaryens of old and could have been a source of good gossip.

Lord Quenton Hightower - carried out a harsh but effective lock down of Oldtown when the grey plague hit, thereby saving millions across Westeros and potentially even Essos. Then got his throat slit. Torrhen Stark - bent the knee and saved thousands of his own men. (Possibly) Daenerys - Sure she's killed some people and caused some deaths but she definitely saved some lives by ending slavery and by buying the Unsullied trainees, she's saved the lives of hundred if not thousands of new born babies.

Oh I agree that the UK populist right can't use religion to bolster their arguments in the same way that those in the US can. My point was that in the UK we tend to assume and talk about those on the populist right being principally influenced by things like greed, racism and classism - they are influenced by all those things, but I feel some may be also underestimating the extent to which they are influenced by religious beliefs.

I agree that we're less religious than the USA (thank goodness) but I wonder if religion is influencing the UK populist right more than people think it is. While the populist right isn't that verbally Christian and includes a few prominent non-Christians, it is noticeably anti-Muslim. It is also noticeable how right wing press talks about Muslim refugees vs refugees belonging to other religions.

I was thinking about the S7 and S8 and realised that despite often being the most experienced battle commanders in the room, Greyworm and Tormund hardly ever get to input into battle strategy. I can't decide if this is just bad writing or bad writing + reflection of the hubris of medieval nobles who assume they are naturally better than the lower borns at everything.

Interesting, what makes you think they aren't just alligators or caimans. We're just told that they look like logs when submerged, there's no mention of them being spotty like a leopard.

Looks great. That area of Essos is so facisnating, I wish we knew more about it.

Like this theory/ I know its been said before but the fact that the Others are called 'The Others' (synonymous with othering and general bigotry) makes me think they are actually not the evil villains of the story.

The irony is that Theon, unlike most Ironborn his age, has actually been in real battles fighting real knights, not just bullying unarmed peasants and fishermen. He just needs to steal some stuff from knights killed in Robb's battles. Hell, why not show up wearing Jaime Lannister's armour and claiming that he was the one who captured Kingslayer - something not even his father can boast to. Don't tell me that Theon is above lying.

My guess is that we're going to see some kind of Stark civil war between Sansa and Rickon (with both being used as pawns by Littlefinger and Manderly respectively). My hope is a resurrected evil Jon Snow

Absolutely, for nobles who aren't really allowed to work, war is basically one of the only ways (other than marriage) that they can increase their wealth or gain prestige

If Tywin did truely love Joanna, as is mentioned in the book then he probably wasn't rational when she died. Grief and ableist prejudices typical in the medieval era aren't exactly synonymous with rationality.

To be fair, we only have hard gossip in story of him sleeping with Barbery. He may have slept with others but it doesn't sound like he was a massive man whore. If he was I would have thought Cat or Ned would have thought about it or that Lysa or Littlefinger would have mentioned it as a way to insult Brandon.

You're right that it's not usual among living legitimate siblings. However, my point was that it does have some precedence, among the Scots, illegitimate siblings and what appear to be at least a couple of cases in France. - Louis Viii had two living legitimate sons called Philip at one point - Philip VI appears to have had two living legitimate sons called John at one point. Totally agree, there's no way the writers thought about this in as much detail, this was just something interesting to think about on a Friday afternoon.

Oh I know that, but I was making a point about the TV show where the writers named Aegon. You're right, from what I can see it doesn't have precedence in Westeros. I just wanted to point out that as this happened with real life medieval royals, the decision to name Jon Aegon wasn't as ridiculous as I previously thought (although it still is pretty ridiculous)

I don't know if this has been pointed out before, but in an age of high infant mortality, it could be argued that it's coldly pragmatic rather than strange for kings to give their favourite name to more than one child, for example: - James III of Scotland had two sons named James - His son, James IV had two sons named Alexander - Charles II had four sons called Charles and two daughters called Charlotte (these were all with different women but even so.. .) - Empress Matilda (aka the real life Rhaenrya) seems to have had three half sisters also called Matilda. Let's just be grateful that it's unlikely the next season of Hot D will introduce Rhaenyra's three bastard half sisters who are also called Rhaenyra

I mean...just because something happens all the time, does not mean its not icky.

I don't know if dreading is the right word for me. I kind of see it as a weird well-funded fanfic project (rather than part of the ASOIAF canon) and fanfic can range from great to mediocre to truly dire.

I don't see how they can and for it to fit into the rest of the story, but I can't think of a reason why they would bring up this prophecy if it wasn't going to play a bigger part later on. One thought I did have, that I hope doesn't come true is that Rhaenrya spends the start of the war, stuck on Dragonstone, recovering from childbirth. That may not make for great TV, so the writers might decide to send her North to tackle a new Wight walker threat. The implication being that Rhaenrya damages her chances of getting the Throne (and maybe her sanity) in order to save the realm, drawing a parralell with Daenerys. I hope that's not what happens, its lazy writing and I prefer my targaryens (and other fictional Lords) to be selfish rather than noble

For those in the UK who want to see Pilou Asbæk (Euron Greyjoy) act properly in an great political drama, Borgen is now available on BBC Iplayer. Starring alongside him is Birgitte Hjort Sørensen (Karsi - the spearwife at Hardhome), who also delivers a great performance. Just a brilliant show that I'd really recommend.

That is weird. Maybe Ned's disapproval of the tournament or maybe she just didn't want to be forced to sit next to Sansa for hours on end? However, I would have thought that Arya would be independent minded enough to get round those barriers if it meant watching the best knights in the land hit each other with really big sticks.

Krysten Coombs (one of the dwarf entertainers at the Purple Wedding) is currently competing for Britain in badminton at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo. He's lost out on a chance for gold or silver after he was defeated by India's Krishna Nagar, but there's still a chance he could get a bronze medal (match takes place early tomorrow morning). At the very least, he's going to come in fourth place He's previously won silver at the 2017 World Championships.

I'm currently reading 'A Fistfull of Shells' which is on West African history (would really recommend) and came across the name Heinrich Barth. Barth was a 19th century German traveller and scholar. Immediately I thought this is where Septon Barth comes from but a quick Wikipedia search shows that there are multiple historical Central European intellectuals named Barth. Does anyone know if Septon Barth is named after anyone in particular or do you think GRRM just thought it was a good name for a Westerosi scholar?

Really??????????? You think Larra came back to Westeros decades later, in disguise, and became her own son's mistress, even going so far as to have his child. And all this based on no evidence. I know this is ASOIAF but really??????????

...who is Arthur Dayne