Groo

We have several religions in the story. Most don't seem to impose much in the way of a moral code. There's nothing like the Ten Commandments, for example. That being said, several of the characters are clearly religious. Catelyn frequently prays to the Seven and seeks guidance and comfort from the Faith. Ned clearly embodies adherence to the old gods. There are other clearly religious characters. Twyin is not one of them. His worldview, his actions, his concerns, what he talks about. None of it is religious. That's not a criticism, just an observation. I don't see how you could make Twyin religious without actually changing the character.

So. Boy travels to cave. Boy spends rest of life in cave. That wouldn't be much of a story arc or a character arc.

@Castellan reply above matches what I would have said. If it wasn't clear, I did mean bring back as a conscience thinking being. So far, from what we've seen the wights do appear to be little more than zombies.

How is Sansa not a "primary" character? We've had 20 Bran chapters and 24 Sansa chapters.

So far bringing people back from the dead has only been R'hllor and fire magic. Maybe we get a Bowen Marsh prologue where he witnesses Melisandre bring Jon back to life before Bowen is killed in the chaos following the mutiny.

That's why I'm going to go with Sansa. Of course, I'm excited about all the cliffhangers but we sort of "know" where those stories lines could or should be going. I really don't know what Martin has in store for Sansa. Even reading her preview chapter, I'm still not sure what's going to happen to her next.

Last Hearth Hardhome Skagos

You have a good point. Brandon marrying Catelyn makes plenty of sense if he did have southron ambitions. Lyanna marrying Robert not so much.

But Barbrey Dustin said Rickard had southron ambitions. That means it's the gospel truth. If one character says something it must be true. That character couldn't be wrong or lying or just stupid. Martin never has characters misunderstand what's happening around them or see things with their own internal bias and he certainly never has any of his characters lie.

I couldn't agree more. Brandon hot-headedly came charging into King's Landing demanding the crown prince. Regardless of whether Brandon was justified, no one was going to have a problem with the king arresting Brandon for doing that. Burning Rickard Stark was more problematic but could have still been contained as a purely Taragaryen/Stark problem. Most lords throughout the land would have been fine sitting on the sidelines for that, especially if competing stories were being told about what happened. Plenty of lords would happily have sided with the king if it meant a chance for spoils at the expense of the Starks. But the Mad King couldn't help himself. He'd already killed the heir to the Vale. Now he wanted to kill the heir to the Stormlands, who hadn't done anything, and the new heir to the North, who also hadn't done anything. Of course, many lords rebelled against that. Who was safe and how far would the Mad King go? There was a lot of buildup but that was the actual act that triggered the rebellion.

She's basically lived her entire life in Essos. Her story takes place entirely in Essos. The politics, wars, and struggles she's dealt with are all internal to Essos. If she stopped worrying about the Seven Kingdoms that she's never really been to then what you're suggesting would be a natural conclusion to her story. I doubt that will happen, though, just because GRRM keeps sending Westerosi characters her way. It's hard, for example, to picture Tyrion's story ending in Essos helping Dany put an end to slavery.

Bolt-on How can anyone make an argument with a straight face when step one is insert hyphen into someone's name?

I would say not leaving with Sandor on the night of the battle. She alerted Cersei but I don't think things would have gone all that differently even if she hadn't. The whole gold cloaks betrayal was Littlefinger's doing and if he had sided with Ned it would have been Cersei who ended up in a cell. Ned was also perfectly willing to warn Cersei himself anyways. Ned even had time to get Arya and Sansa away but he let Littlefinger delay him. On the other hand, image how differently things would have been for Sansa if she left with Sandor. No marriage to Tyrion. No threats from Lysa. No Littlefinger. It was also more of a true decision. She knew what Sandor was offering. She had a basic understanding of the situation and the risks involved. With Cersei, Sansa didn't really understand all that was going on.

Ha! That's a trick question! Water immediately vaporizes in any vacuum, including space. Temperature is irrelevant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . What? Claiming fantasy/sci-fi readers are science nerds is just a stereotype.

If Melville could fill Moby Dick with long tedious chapters about the minutiae of sailing and the extraction of whale oil, then Martin can definitely add a few chapters on pH factors and proper drainage techniques.

Why would Aeron call a Kingsmoot if Theon was around? Aeron wanted Euron gone and all he would have to say is Theon is the rightful heir like it had been for centuries. It had been a long time since there had been a Kingsmoot and Aeron only called one because he was trying to replace Euron with his younger brother Victarion.

Isolating himself was a real problem but the mistake wasn't Sam and Aemon. The Night's Watch needed more maesters. Sam was obviously an excellent choice, and the hope was Aemon could influence the Citadel to send more. No, the problem was sending away Grenn, Pyp, and Edd. He got rid of loyal reliable men just to appear to not be playing favorites.

Perhaps there was more to the dowry. Horses and other gifts, for example, but the silver was the highlight.

Greensight, hatching dragon eggs, creating wights, growing lemons. It's probably best that GRRM leaves an air of mystery around all the magical elements in the story.

I think that's a fair grade. It's always hard to judge military leaders when they're put in difficult positions where a big "win" isn't possible. Tyrion didn't have the forces to crush Stannis or sweep his army from the field. Tyrion was in a perilous defensive position where the question is just how long you can hold out. If Kings Landing had held out for weeks or months, then Tyrion would have looked like a hero. The relief army came fairly quickly, however. He gets credit for not collapsing right away but Tyrion didn't really have a chance to make a major impression on people one way or the other since relief came so quickly.

You've got me thinking now. I always thought arresting Tyrion was supremely boneheaded, but in fairness to Cat, it was a sudden unexpected encounter and she had been led to believe that Tyrion was behind the assassination attempt. Releasing Jaime, on the other hand, is nothing but raw desperation. She had plenty of time to think on it. It's not a good plan. It has plenty of downside and she went ahead and did it anyways.

That is an amazing line. Is it yours? Can I borrow it?

My problem with this is there isn't much rejoicing in Dorne about Robert and Renly's deaths. The Martells aren't sitting around saying "That's Robert and Renly taken care of. Now we just need to take care of the Lannisters." It's clear from all their conversations that their primary hatred was always for the Lannisters. More importantly, they have a very active notion of revenge. They didn't just want Tywin dead. They wanted to be the ones to do it. I think it's more than fair to ask if they blew their chance at revenge during the war. Renly was only a boy during Robert's rebellion. He didn't actually do anything against them. Why not support Renly and thoroughly crush the Lannisters? Why not be cynical about it, too? Support Renly, wipe out the Lannisters, elimate the other Baratheons, and then later support Viserys against Renly?

Go, sit at that other table! Don't talk to us, loser.

Slight tangent but this made me consider who in the main story I actually think of as a knight. The vast majority of official knights only really register in my mind as fighters. I don't mean that as some sort of social or philosophical statement about the institution of knighthood. I just mean, as a reader, for which characters does the word "knight" come to mind when I think of that character. Brienne obviously tops the list. The other two, for me, are Barristan and Sandor. Granted, Sandor might be an odd choice, but I always think of him as the angry tormented knight. I suppose some might put Jaime on the list but there's way too much other stuff going on with him for me to think of him as a "knight".