BlackLightning

Honestly, the show really fked up the Free Cities plotlines. The omission of the fAegon plotline played a direct part in the show's failure in its last two seasons. So many missed opportunities for Arya, Tyrion and Dany's character arcs and it makes Robb's union with Talisa pointless. Like I remember a couple scenes in the show where Talisa is writing home to her family to first announce that she has married a king and then announce that they are expecting their first child. There was nothing at all. I would've started back in season 2 or 3 by mentioning that the Maegyr family is a very wealthy Volantene family. There actually is a Maegyr in A Song of Ice and Fire. Malaquo Maegyr is one of the ruling triarchs of Volantis (Volantis is a republican democracy, by the way) I would've made Malaquo her father. And I would have it so that she had a mother -- let's call her Myriah -- and two brothers. A younger and an elder with the younger having been the one who had been saved by the slave. Season 5 We would hear nothing about House Maegyr in season 4. But I would've had the Maegyr family come back in season 5. I would've had it so that they would've met Tyrion and Jorah. They would've been the ones that Jorah and Tyrion got their ship from. I would've made it the elder son Drako a minor antagonist of Tyrion. After giving them the ship that they need to get to Meereen, I'd have him first try to buy Tyrion off Jorah and then try to steal him away from Jorah with a game of cyvasse. Drako cheats to win but he is exposed and embarrassed by Tyrion. When he tries to resort to violence, he is then overpowered...again by Jorah. Before they'd leave, an angry Tyrion would tell him the truth of the Red Wedding and how his sister died to spite him Season 6 Part of the family would appear in Meereen as a part of the anti-slavery coalition that was undermining the city. But I would make it so that the father Malaquo and the elder brother Drako was the one who was there. Malaquo would be killed but Drako would be spared...at the cost of the entire family's assets. Meanwhile, Talisa's younger brother Qaleb and Talisa's mother Myriah would appear in the Theon/Yara section of season 6. Learning that the Ironborn are in the city, Myriah would seek out the Greyjoys and ask for confirmation/details about the Red Wedding. Theon would tell the truth, thus getting him to wrap his mind around the tragedy. Season 7 Myriah Maegyr and her sons would then show up unannounced at Winterfell with a small group of sellswords (let's say they show up with the Windblown) and a fairly large amount of food and supplies. Their sudden arrival causes quite the fuss because the northmen think it an invading army. I would have it so that they show up shortly after Arya does. Ostensibly, the Maegyrs have come to collect Talisa's bones and the bride price that the family was supposed to be paid...but in truth, they are looking for a new home as Daenerys Targaryen's abolitionism has totally destroyed their finances. The brothers in particular demand justice for Talisa's murderers. As it so happens, the Stark sisters played a key role in the fall of the Freys and the Boltons. I love @Angel Eyes's idea about having it so that Talisa's brother and Littlefinger become rivals for Sansa's attention. Except I would have it so that the elder brother becomes interested in Arya instead of Sansa: Arya and Drako bond over life in the Free Cities and their shared bloodlust (Drako would think it so cool that Arya killed the Freys) while going back-and-forth about the concept of slavery. Drako and Littlefinger would hate each other: part of it will be due to the rivalry between Braavos and Volantis and the other part due to Littlefinger's business dealings. Sansa, in the meantime, would be bothered by the presumptions and overreach of the Maegyrs (as well as the financial strain that their visit is bringing upon them) as any other highborn lady would be. As Bran is the Lord of Winterfell, he has the final say and he has overruled Sansa in the matter of hosting the Maegyrs. But Sansa would be uncomfortably reminded of how slavery in Essos sounds a lot like her marriage to Ramsay. She also would be jealous of how Arya is so very obviously being courted. She would eventually become suspicious of Myriah Maegyr what with her strange Volantene habits. She would eventually come to be suspicious that Talisa had bewitched Robb into marrying her, thus making Talisa partially responsible for the Red Wedding. THIS would be the principal reason of how Sansa and Arya come into conflict: Arya thinks Sansa is being controlling and crazy while Sansa thinks that Arya is jeopardizing the family for stupid, selfish reasons. Littlefinger would be pitting them all against each other as he'd be planting false evidence for Sansa to find and feeding Arya half-truths. One such half-truth would be about Sansa's attraction to Drako. Bran, in the meantime, proves to be a very good host despite his icy-but-still-kind, slightly detached nature. He would be getting acquainted with the younger brother who -- as it were -- became a follower of R'hllor. Lots of interesting meta discussions about ice and fire, about magic, about history. Bran also gets approached by the leader of the Windblown, the Tattered Prince, who is trying to convince him to give him Pentos. More on that later. Bran misunderstands Sansa and Arya's spat up until Drako goes to him with a complaint that makes him probe deeper into the issue. This is where Littlefinger's downfall occurs. Littlefinger dies Jon and Dany would marry in the season finale of season 7. If I was to incorporate fAegon plotline into this: in my head-version of a TV show canon, I'd have fAegon appear and play a part in this story. For example, I would make it so that Talisa had a sister who was the wife of the Golden Company's treasurer. This sister (we'll call her Calla) would be with Aegon in the south as part of his Small Council while the other brothers primarily interact with the Starks in the North. I'll do Season 8 later

I'll respond to this in this thread:

Well, Ygritte sexually assaulting is actually book accurate. More or less. That's essentially what happens; it just happens a season earlier. Jon is coerced into losing his virginity. It's a lot like it was with Dany: I wouldn't call it (first-degree) rape but...it's not done out of free will. But other than that I agree. "Tough but fair" grandpa Tyrion was only a very big issue because it took way too much time and completely derailed the plot of the War of the Five Kings. Roose Bolton got to Harrenhal way too late. The Talisa Maegyr thing was a mess. But it still could've been salvaged if we saw House Maegyr come back (in a big way) in the Essos stories (Dany, Tyrion or Arya...but especially Tyrion). If they popped up at Winterfell during season 7 (or evem if Sansa reached out to them in season 6), it would've given Littlefinger and the Starks something to do in Winterfell that wasn't completely idiotic or inexplicable.

Oh yes. That one lady who fought a boar with a knife comes to mind. And not even all sellswords wear heavy armor. The Golden Company are the only sellsword company in which everyone is outfitted with heavy armor. Maybe a good portion of the horses and elephant are armored too... She could always have armor made. She can do it for portions of her armies (like she can make the Mother's Men into an army of heavy infantry while leaving the Unsullied as light infantry) or her entire army. It would take time but I'm thinking that there is going to be a time skip before the fall of the Wall occurs either in the epilogue of Winds or the prologue of Dream.

If he were to continue that practice, he might as well take his own arakh and slit his throat open. It'd be suicide to do so. Given the nature of Dothraki warfare, I think that the Dothraki are more than capable warriors on horseback and on foot. Drogo would be superior all around. At some point, they would have to dismount. If not, then at some point, they would be forcibly dismounted and would need to continue fighting. We don't know how many battles Drogo fought and under what circumstances...but he won them all and the law of averages states that he had to have fought and won on foot eventually. If memory serves me correctly, Khrazz did go for the head but Barristan just ended up dodging it.

Cousin incest isn't incest in Planetos. Nor is it considered incest to vast majority of people in the real world. You might have an argument with first cousins but not at all with second, third and fourth cousins. Dialed-down in the case of Aenys and Rhaenys. Queen Rhaenys would've handled the situations that King Aenys was dealing with a lot better. This Maegor resurrection theory is interesting though. Not buying into it yet...but it's an interesting thought.

Now this is something that Dragonstone would truly lack. If it's a relatively mountainous island with its own volcano, it's not going to have many flat areas. I envision Dragonstone to specialize more in raising livestock than in growing foodstuffs.

Isn't Belwas' body covered in scars from bladed weapons? Didn't Khrazz die in battle while wielding a arakh? Drogo is dead but he never lost a battle nor did he die in one. And his body was not covered in scars either. Which makes the order... Drogo Belwas Khrazz Good points.

Honestly, I think I am chalking it up to Stannis being wrong (which he often is) and bitter (which again...he often is) I think it's just a case of Stannis complaining about things he doesn't like and understand with his rose-tinted glasses. Because we never hear about any similar complaints from the Targaryens who ruled the island before him. Neither Lords of Dragonstone nor Princes of Dragonstone. Granted, Dragonstone and the islands sworn to it cannot field massive armies. The Conqueror and his sister-wives were more than confident about their chances of conquering Westeros: yes, dragons help but they are an air force. You need an army (and a navy) to be able to hold and manage territory. So yeah, while they aren't fielding the type of armies that Winterfell or Highgarden can field true but I think it has more to do with the fact that they are islands (and not very big ones either), not with the lack of agricultural fertility there. Maritime climate with volcanic soil? Apples (and similar fruits), wheat, barley and nuts like every other similar land in the summer. Autumn would have some really good yields what with pumpkins and squash. An indoor garden would be able to produce a lot of turnips and greens. Not bad at all. Stannis needs to stop comparing Dragonstone to Storm's End. The Stormlands are probably richer (not that much richer) with a lot more space and that probably bugs him. He needs to get over it! Dragonstone is a giant natural-born naval base. Storm's End is not. They are going to have different yields and different military capabilities.

I disagree. Dany could still fly to Asshai on dragonback--especially after paying Qarth a visit. That said, she either needs to do it in Winds or it needs to be written about in Dream.

What's really crazy (and really makes Theon's actions inexcusable and stupid) about it is that Asha literally did the same with the Glover children and told Theon to do just that.

I'm sorry but who is Lanna again?

True but these are prostitutes we are talking about. I think that a lot of them will care more about the money and status that they (and the child) would receive than the actual wellbeing of the child or any further social ramifications. Glass half full mindset.

I find that hard to believe. As ugly as he might be, Tyrion is still a Lannister. And not just any Lannister, a Lannister of the main branch, a son of the Lord of Casterly Rock. To have Tywin Lannister's grandson is to get a big paycheck...maybe not for life but you'd be taken care of in the meantime. Joy Hill is well-provided for and even is able to secure a good marriage to the heir of House Westerling. In the end, it just points to Tyrion being sterile. After all, being able to study and quantify the infertility of men is a relatively new advent in science/medicine. A lot of men in the medieval era just didn't know, didn't care or blamed it on women.

Yes. But the show made it as if he was a good guy, heroic even. I hated that. Remember when Jon was sitting in a prison cell and asked Tyrion if murdering Daenerys was worth it and if he made the right call? Remember how Tyrion told him that he doesn't know and told him to ask him in ten or twenty years? I literally threw an magazine at my TV.

Exactly Which flies in the face of the TV show's conclusion. Tyrion plays the game of thrones, manipulates Jon into killing Daenerys so that he wouldn't be (rightfully) executed for repeated incidences of treason...yet, he gets to keep living his life, fulfilling his life's passion as a politician and joking about building more brothels while Jon is disgraced and exiled, Jaime (who despite his failings) always looked after the interest of other people is killed and Daenerys is dead. What a piece of work.

Well then GRRM has a lot of explaining to do in Fire and Blood, Vol. 2 because it's just not cutting it for me. If Aegon III and Viserys II wanted to continue the male line of the family that badly, then the Dragonknight should have never become a Kingsguard and the Young Dragon should have been betrothed before the age of 12. And marrying Prince Aegon to Princess Naerys was, again, unnecessary especially seeing that they didn't even like each other as regular siblings. Prince Aegon could've had any distinguished noblewoman and still sire Targaryen children. Marry Naerys to either Baelor (of similar temperament and outlook) or Daeron, marry Daena to one of Alyn's son and marry Aegon to a noblewoman of a worthy house that was loyal to Rhaenyra during the Dance.

True. But then we'd be back to square one with a Velaryon male (a bastard born of a commoner no less) being wed to a Targaryen female who would be heir to the Iron Throne. It'd be a claim that would get a lot of resistance.

Ahh okay Why did Viserys force Aegon and Naerys to marry each other? It was completely unnecessary as Aegon had five other unwed children, Baela and Rhaena had children of their own and there were (presumably) plenty of other Baratheons, Velaryons and Arryns to choose from. Or, he could've pulled a page out of his own book by wedding them to a child of a different Westerosi high lord or another Valyrian-descendant Essosi nobleman.

Yes but all of the details pertaining to Tywin's decomposition and putrefaction is a pretty explicit symbol for how terrible of a person he was and how his legacy is one of filth, corruption and rapid decay. It provides closure and drives home the fact (despite Tywin's many fans and admirers in the fandom, in real life and on the TV show) that Tywin was a evil man who caused a lot of unnecessary trouble and misery.

Given Daeron I's preoccupation with Dorne, I think Daeron might have been gunning for a Dornish marriage so as to further consolidate his conquest. It didn't work, needless to say.

Yes It would be deeply depressing if it wasn't so hilarious. That makes sense. Because were there any Targaryen holding Dragonstone at the time? If all the remaining Targaryens were in King's Landing or on Driftmark and if the regents were more concerned with bringing peace and unity back to the realm and rearing the underaged king (which they were), then Dragonstone (particularly the local dragonpit) was essentially being managed by the maester therein...with no oversight whatsoever.

I wouldn't blame them either. However, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the Citadel started doing that way before the Dance. Maegor's reign drove home the message that dragonkings are much more dangerous and much less trustworthy than regular kings. Absolute monarchs are frightening enough as it is. Any monarch with a flying, fire-breathing dragon that almost no one else has (no matter how experienced or competent they are) and a centralized government is an absolute monarch of "the worst kind." It's like if the President of the United States was the king of the United States and he was the only one in the whole world who had nukes and subsonic fighter jets. Westeros is a feudal, decentralized monarchy--always has been. Under Maegor, it got very close to becoming an absolute, centralized monarchy. Which, again, is frightening. It would be cool (and make a lot more sense) for Archmaester Vaegon of House Targaryen to be the father of the anti-dragon, anti-magic conspiracy. It would make so much sense: he hated dragons, he wanted no parts in the royal family life, he declined the opportunity to be king and sought to make the next decision for the kingship a democracy. What if he orchestrated events to prevent the Seven Kingdoms from being ruled by another dragonlord? Maybe Vaegon saw a massively destructive and bloody Targaryen civil war coming a mile away (it's logical to assume as much). Maybe Vaegon was a edgelord who just hated his weirdo family. Maybe Vaegon was militantly pro-science despite his family's clear magical background. In any case, if Vaegon was the master engineer of the anti-dragon conspiracy, then it would be safer to orchestrate events so that the dragonless, laissez-faire Viserys sit the Iron Throne instead of shrewd and dragonriding Rhaenys as the ruler of Westeros. It doesn't matter if Rhaenys was Queen Regnant or Queen Regent: you'd still have a shrewd, dragonriding Rhaenys ruling the country as an overlord or an behind-the-scenes puppetmaster for decades. Plus, both her children were dragonriders with one of them commanding the gigantic Vhagar. What also doesn't help are the consorts. Pretty, mild-mannered, honor-worshipping Aemma Arryn...or extremely experienced, ridiculously wealthy, well-traveled Corlys Velaryon. Between Rhaenys and Corlys, you'd be hard-pressed and self-destructive to keep anything from them. Especially if it pertained to the dragons.

True. But he named and treated Aerea (the firstborn child of one of his most bitter enemies and the rightful heir to the Iron Throne) as his heir...for years. Let me say that again: Aerea was the rightful Queen of Westeros as the heir of Aegon the Uncrowned, Maegor's most serious rival. King Maegor not only acknowledged that in a way but he publicly made her his heir. If he did ever in fact had a son, he would've simply betrothed Aerea to that son. Granted, it was politically expedient as it disarmed Aegon's widow but that doesn't mean it was any less valid. And if we know anything about Maegor, it's that he means what he says and does what he means. That's more than Jaehaerys ever did. He listened and took the advice of women around him. He listened to his mother more than anyone. As a matter of fact, he trusted the women around him more than he ever trusted the men around him--which is probably why he reacted so horrifically towards his wives and their families. Their betrayals -- perceived or real -- hurt him deeply. And Maegor also never pretended to be the perfect, good king. He was a mean, stubborn and unfair tyrant to everyone, not just women.

I do think that Illyrio and Varys want the Blackfyres (aka non-magical Targaryens) back in power but for their own reasons., For Varys, I think he is either a female Blackfyre masquerading as a storied Lyseni eunuch or a gelded male Blackfyre that also happens to believe that anyone can be a king. To him, divine right to rule by way of heritage, superpowers and connections is nonsense, lies people tell each other to make one king more righteous and worthy than the other. That was the whole point of the "power belongs where people think it belongs." He essentially believes that putting lipstick and jewelry on a pig makes a beautiful woman. For Illyrio, I think it's partly a simple matter of affection for Aegon, Varys and Serra. He loves them dearly so he is wiling to do whatever he can to ensure that they are happy and honored with positions and privilege. However, I do think that Illyrio also has political and economic motivations that go beyond the Iron Throne: I think Illyrio wants to either bring slavery to Westeros or bring Westeros into slavery. Destroying or enslaving Braavos is probably part of that agenda or masterplan. Maybe he wants a global slave-based economy where he always gets the first cut and the final say. I think at the end, Illyrio is going to get exposed and Varys is going to be proven wrong. You can't make kings. Kings -- as far as GRRM is concerned -- make themselves or they are made by the gods...or both. I think that the point that GRRM is making that the ultimate king/queen is a uniquely powerful person with an organic history of overcoming or enduring hardship, intellectual excellence and good connections who maintains balance and pursues justice while ensuring prosperity. The magical powers of Dany and the Starks is one of the main things that makes them truly different from other noblemen and the likes of other kings...it's what makes them truly royal.