SeanF

If Kate’s not into it, presumably she’s happy that her friend performs that particular task, in her place.

I never understood why The Meereenese Knot was such a problem. Maybe he just can’t see the wood for the trees.

Neither Robb nor Cat murdered their own soldiers. And Robb is not a vassal who gives oaths to Walder Frey.

I'm sorry, I don't give much of a toss for either Daeron or the insurance broker.

The problem with *not* executing Karstark is that you licence every lord with a grudge to murder prisoners, and their guards.

The problem was the Targaryen thread was hijacked by criticism of the moderators. The poster in question knows what he did, and why the moderators acted as they did.

If we see it in purely contractual terms then Robb entirely made good his breach of contract, by offering a lord paramount as husband. And, not even the Code of Hammurabai treatsg the murder of 3,500 as a just response to breach of contract.

Killing the Tickler and Raff, and the four bloody mummers (as Nymeria) was performing a public service.

With the exceptions of Cersei and Tywin, every major character was made either more stupid, or more nasty, than their book counterparts, sometimes both. We dodged a bullet, when HBO chose not to make “Confederate.”

My impression was Benioff and Weiss’ take on the books is that it is good to be a scheming psychopath. Ned and Catelyn and Robb (and ultimately Jon and Dany) were just stupid saps, whereas the Starks and Tyrion and Bronn had learned how to play The Game successfully.

I think Dany is unquestionably a hero. But she may be a tragic hero like Turin Turambar or Julian the Apostate. The hero who comes within a hair's breadth of greatness, but is brought down by some fatal flaw.

The Boltons lost those privileges when they committed regicide and treason.

Because Tyrion is so engaging from the outset, it takes a long while to realise just how appalling a person he is. The whole notion of making the Vale peasants suffer in revenge for Lysa Arryn’s treatment, and laughing at Masha Heddle’s corpse, is awful. He hears his father ordering mass murder and mass rape as terror tactics, yet he’s eager to serve him as Hand. He resents the people of King’s Landing’s lack of gratitude, yet he and his family are the ones who endangered them. Yet, I ended up hating show Tyrion more. He was still his family’s enabler, and only broke with them when they turned on him. As Daenerys’ Hand he was grossly incompetent, and got thousands killed with his stupid advice. He was desperately trying to save his sister, but it never occurred to him to reveal the passages into the city, through which soldiers could infiltrate. His “humane” alternative to storming the city was to starve the population into submission. After talking Jon into killing Daenerys, to save his own hide, he then kicked him to the kerb, while failing upwards. By the finish, I saw him as the Albert Speer of the tale. A wicked man who persuaded himself and others that he was righteous.

On reflection, I did like the portrayal of Olenna and Margaery. The books lack a Tyrell POV.

Lena Headey acted Cersei very well, to make Cersei what she was. But … the problem with making the Lannisters sympathetic is that it upends the story. The Lannisters are certainly very interesting, in the books, but they are awful people.

Another beef from the last two seasons, was dressing up the characters like the Cenobites, from Hellraiser. Cenobites From Hellraiser - Bing images

It was a swipe at Orson Scott Card, who had criticised them. WRT Arya, I think the show runners viewed her sadism as badass and empowering. Indeed, there was no consistent line taken towards cruelty. Sometimes it was glorified, other times portrayed as sinister.

Tyrion was lobotomised in the last three seasons. Other beefs:- 1. Trying to make the Ghiscari slavers sympathetic. They aren’t. 2. Presenting war ineptly, at least from the B o B onwards (apart from the Field of Fire). 3. Robbing Daenerys of most of her compassion and empathy. 4. Turning Arya into a sadist, who gets off on torture. Also, giving her superpowers. 5. Turning Sansa into the lovechild of Cersei and LF. 6. Turning the Others into Monster of the Week. 7. Teleporting armies that don’t need to be fed. 8. Turning Sam into Harold Lauder, with Gilly as his prize (remember that horrid thimble scene). 7. LF’s death. 8. Bran’s becoming king, as a reward for staring into space and making cryptic comments. 9. Sansa marrying Ramsay and rape making her stronger. 10. Porne. 11. The wight hunt. 12. Cocks and eunuchs rapidly ceased to be a source of much humour. 13. Dany in Qarth. This was the first time the two D’s produced substantial original material, and it showed how bad it would be. 14. Tyrion’s “First they came for the slave traders, and I did not speak up …” speech to Jon, to my mind, the absolute low point of all eight seasons. Quite how anybody could so misuse Niemoller’s prose poem defies belief. 15. The decharacterisation of Jon, over two seasons. The good parts. 1. Season 1, apart from “play with her arse. 2. Cersei blowing up the Great Sept. 3. The High Sparrow. 4. Hardhome. 5. The Field of Fire. 6. Cersei’s confrontation with Ellaria. 7. Dany at Astapor. 8. Tyrion’s trial (but not the stupid Cousin Orson scene). 9. The Battle of Blackwater. 10. The music

Thanks. My only visit to Andalucia has been Granada, which is a place of great beauty, only spoiled for me when I contacted a vomiting virus.

Thanks. Of course, there are plenty of typos to be corrected and revisions to be made, although I largely edited it as I went along. "The Great Forgotten": The Contribution Made by the Spanish to the Allied Campaign in the Peninsular War, 1808-1814. It's for an MA in Military History with Buckingham University.

I visited the Prado and Thyssen in October, as well as the Archivo Historico Nacional. I finally completed my Dissertation, last night.

IMHO, the problem for fAegon will be his supporters conducting a bloodbath of anyone associated with the old regime, in the capital, once they seize it. I’d expect some of the worst scenes of cruelty in the entire series to ensue.

Maybe incorporate it into The Worldwide Privacy Tour.

England, at least, was much richer, per head, in 1450, than in 1340, and the Black Death played a big part in that. The shortage of labour stimulated the demise of villeinage, and landlords had to find new ways of making money, with far fewer labourers. What they hit upon was rearing sheep. Exports of wool became a massive source of revenue to the Engish aristocracy and merchants. Overall productivity soared. That century was probably the most rapid period of economic growth in England's history, prior to the Industrial Revolution. Essentially, a popuation of less than one half its level in 1340 was actually producing more, overall, by the end of that period than at the start. That's how England financed the war. And, there were periods (1346-60) (1415-1430) where the war was highly lucrative for English participants. I know much less about France, but while the marches between English France and French France, were appallingly devastated, much of France was untouched by war, and the country had a huge population. It was only in the early 19th century that Russia overtook France, in terms of population.

Personally, I’d rather see Andrew inhabit a federal Supermax. But, I mostly share your views on Harry and Meghan.