Craving Peaches

I never said they were tolerant in the modern sense, I said I didn't see how they were any worse than the other religions with regards to tolerance. Other religions imprison, torture and humiliate people (being burned alive is extremely painful, drowning is also awful until the lack of oxygen kicks in and then it's supposed to be peaceful). It's not stated explicity but I find it highly likely that they too would punish women for sexual transgressions, based on how they treat people in general. Also, the new Faith Militant don't appear to have done much so far? The only people subject to ill treatment so far after the HS took over appear to have been Cersei, Osney Kettleblack and the member of the most devout who was put on a strict diet, and (correct me if I'm wrong) Cersei was imprisoned not just because of sexual transgressions but because they believed she had killed the King and the High Septon, which would be standard practice for a murder suspect. Torturing a confession is nasty but par for the course in this series. Cersei herself does it, as does Daenerys and numerous other characters. If it was another religion in charge of Cersei's punishment she probably would have been burned alive/drowned for her actions. I mean other religions go around burning everything/anything they don't like, looting and slaving etc. Sure FotS and Old Gods have done this in the past but we don't see it much if at all anymore, unlike with R'hlorr and the Drowned God. Everything I can see paints the FotS and the Old Gods as the most tolerant out of the Westerosi religions and the Red Faith. Which is admittedly not very hard. Because the competitors love to burn other people's places of worship down, and their religious items, and them in generally. Really, I don't see how it is much of a contest. The Red Faith is hands down the most intolerant religion, endorsing slavery, painful execution of disbelievers, destruction of the property of other religions, holy war against the enemies of the faith, convert-or-die mentality, and also has a black or white morality system so if you're not with them you're against them, are an agent of evil, can be subject to extreme violence and so on. Other religions have at least a bit more nuance. FotS and Old Gods have reformed for the most part beyond this mentality, Red Faith has not. Red Faith has all the worst traits of FotS prior to reform plus a more painful execution method. FotS/Old Gods also compare favourably to religions elsewhere in the world, where you have delights such as the Black Goat, Dothraki death cult, all the other deities demanding human sacrifice, whatever is going on in places like Carcosa, etc. Really I think the only other two religions that beat the FotS/Old Gods in terms of tolerance are the Lord of Harmony and the religion in the Summer Isles.

Sorry, I should have specified in the current series. The most intolerant FotS member I can think of is Septon Chayle. High Sparrow doesn't seem very tolerant but we haven't seen much of him yet. Same issue would apply to followers of the Old Gods though, when the First Men first showed up they too slaughtered masses of children, not to mention the children themselves probably did something nasty to generate the Hammer of the Waters. And of course the Drowned Religion/Red Faith are still in this phase of wanting to kill unbelievers. Plus R'hlorr followers are also burning places of worship, artworks etc. Faith Militant doesn't sound good but it may have been beneficial in protecting roads, peasants etc, which would have been especially helpful in a time where the kingdoms weren't centralised. Septon Meribald's circuit seemed good and that was one man travelling alone. I don't know, sometimes I feel like people (just to be clear I am not trying to suggest you did this, it is more so an issue on other sites) take the Catholic church analogy and project all the bad stuff they did in real life on to the FotS even when there is not much to suggest it in the books. Yet of course those people don't then project the less savoury aspects of pre-Christian religions on to the Old Gods. I feel like there is a bit of a double standard here...

Faith of the Seven for inside cities/when around other people, Old Gods for when alone in nature. Faith of the Seven and the Old Gods seem to be the only major religions to not practice human sacrifice anymore AND be against slavery (though that might be a Weserosi custom rather than linked to religion). R'hlorr and the Drowned God both support this (thralls, temple slaves etc.), and the Many-Faced God endorses human sacrifice. So if I had to rank them: 1. FotS/Old Gods 2. Faceless God (because it is against slavery at least) 3. Drowned God 4. R'hlorr (burning is more painful than drowning) For all the people saying the FotS are intolerant, is there anything specifically that marks them out as such, or at least more intolerant than other religions? I don't think any FotS members in the series have called for non-believers to be burned (unlike R'hlorr followers), nor are they burning items/places of worship (unlike R'hlorr followers). R'hlorr followers clearly seem like the most intolerant religion in my view, closely followed by Drowned God followers.

There is a secret conspiracy to continuously purge the middle classes of Westeros to keep them small, in order to prevent Westerosi society from progressing beyond late medieval/early modern era. I love it but the only piece of 'evidence' mentioned was that Varys ratted out the Antler Men, which he could have done for numerous other reasons.

Where exactly is this second wall supposed to be hidden anyway? Or is it destroyed or something?

I don't hate them, but I find theories relying on the 'second moon' myth too much strage. Only one character in the whole series ever refers to the legend and she dies in book one, plus there are other theories about the origin of dragons which seem more realistic. If it is going to play a big role I feel like it would be made more prominent.

Yeah but it has a spear going through it meaning spear beats sun so every house with a spear is now top tier by this logic.

Scorpion beats dragon. So that's what you'd want on your sigil.

Muh honour as a Kingsguard. Like, okay, but this guy is a psycho. Could you maybe relax it this one time. Well the excuse given by the text is that he was younger. But he was presumably wearing plate armour the whole time so not sure how stealthy he could really be. There is a theory that Duskendale was an inside job though, which could explain how Barristan managed to rescue Aerys.

Renly not dying. Lannisters are done for at that point. Tywin couldn't handle Robb alone without Tyrell assistance. There is no way he could manage Robb and Renly with the Tyrells. Dorne probably jumps in to get revenge on Tywin. Stannis told no one about the incest or his claim to be king for weeks/months after Robert died for some reason though. It actually makes little sense (unless you assume Stannis was waiting for Robert to die so he could become king, which seems a bit mean). Stannis knew/suspected the incest at least since Jon Arryn died, yet he tells no one. If Stannis had tried to warn Robert or at least not sat on vital info whilst expecting everyone to develop psychic powers in order to serve him (because he waits weeks/months after Robert's death before proclaiming his claim to the throne, whilst also not responding to messages, yet gets annoyed that no one showed up before that(?)) things probably would have turned out for the better... Like if Stannis had said as soon as Robert died what happened with the incest, he would probably have got Robb's support and possibly Renly's. Instead, he just sits around, meanwhile Robb and Renly go off and do their own thing because it's not really a situation where they can just sit around. Yeah, should have let Aerys die. No one would miss him. Barristan probably indirectly killed at least a few dozen people with that action, just factoring in all the people Aerys had executed.

First Men may have been unable to smelt Iron properly but that does not necessarily mean they would not have any experience with iron at all. They could have had rare pieces of meteoric iron (or a magic variant) to make the occasional sword that was super-effective against the Others. The sword Dawn, for example, supposedly came from a meteor.

They have their own special dedicated section on the Guardian Website as far as I am aware. Thing is though people who aren't the Guardian are also annoyed by it so... If the Guardian are making more of it than is there (not sure I agree) they aren't alone and are probably being encouraged by how others are reacting.

I thought they mentioned it because it was revealed that in addition to the £10 million received already Hester had given or pledged to give a further £5 million after the comments were revealed? Another reason why it might be relevant is the new definition of extremism the Tories are pushing for. But they denied these comments would fall under the definition, because it wasn't an ideology. Still, it doesn't look very good that they are doing things like this while taking money from someone who called for an MP to be shot. It's more a 'Tory party is racist' narrative. And quite a lot of people seem to care... GPs call for health tech boss Frank Hester to resign after Abbott remarks | Frank Hester | The Guardian In addition, Hester apparently routinely says racist things, according to multiple former employees, so I get the impression this wasn't just a one off incident. I get what you are saying but the issue is that is not the justification the Tory party are using. They are claiming it is all fine again because he apologised and that he should be treated with 'Christian forgiveness'. Edit: They also claim they are transparent about donations but won't say whether they've accepted more money from Hester.

Yes, I forgot about that. It doesn't seem like he was intending to go to the Wall at all, at least by that point.

With regards to the aim to kill Ned, I don't see it personally. There was ample opportunity to off Ned before he was in King's Landing, even if they wanted Jaqen specifically to kill Ned while he was there, that does not seem to be a good reason for him to be in the Black Cells. Jaqen could be anywhere else in the city, impersonate one of Ned's guards and so on. Also, as others have said, it doesn't make sense for Varys to want Ned dead at that time. If Varys wanted Ned dead, he probably could have killed him himself, Ned easily could have 'died of his injuries' in the awful conditions in the Black Cells, or Varys could just let Ned be executed as happened since that destabilised the Realm. Though you are right it is a mystery why Jaqen was in those cells or travelling to the Wall in the first place. I am of the view that Jaqen is on a mission to find things to counteract Dragons. I strongly suspect he is looking for the Book 'The Death of Dragons', which I think is located in the Citadel. If so, Jaqen might have been in the Red Keep because the FM initially believed the book or something to do with the book was located there. And he might have been going to the Wall to gather intel/kill Maester Aemon rather than Jon. If he was aiming to kill someone at the Wall, Aemon seems more likely than Jon because more people know or have the ability to know about Aemon. Also, he could have killed Jon before he reached the Wall if that was his aim.

Also whole of Westeros is just inverted GB and Ireland stacked on top of each other. Game of Thrones’ Westeros Is Really Just Britain & An Inverted Ireland – Brilliant Maps

Come on, Scotland does have one actual city (Edinburgh ), beyond the Wall has zero.

Skagos could also be one of the Isles, which were formerly ruled by/vassals of Norway. Can't wait until the Riverlands are finally unified and then everyone else is in trouble.

And she had two people tortured in front of their father to force a confession. Daenerys is acting like a dictator, there is no doubt about it. She even buys into her own cult of personality.

She also already killed her brother, son and husband so...

My dad thinks Kate had an affair with Thomas Kingston and William found out and murdered him.

No proof that it was his ancestors No proof it was murder It's made very clear there is no actual feeding involved or Bran wouldn't have been hungry from lack of food etc. Please follow your own advice Valyrians were simple shepherds prior to discovery of the dragons WTF does this mean? Oops, your bias is showing again 3/10. Some creativity but let down by everything else.

Tyrion's mega thick plot armour has showed no signs of weakening so I am fairly confident he will survive.

Daenerys will turn evil and will have an army of dragons and savages serving her. Only the magic of the Old Gods can defeat them.

I've said this before but if Daenerys wanted to have (relatively) uncontested rule, she should have either totally assimilated into the local culture or done a complete overhaul. She's trying to compromise/get the best of both worlds at the moment which isn't working, because the elites are always going to want to get rid of her so long as she is wanting to get rid of slavery.