SeanF

But, there’s not a lot to protect the gate from the ram. I think the ramp makes it easier for Uruk hai to attack.

Coming back to this, the more general point is, how often is war depicted realistically, either in fantasy fiction, or TV and film? 1. I mentioned above, armour seems to be useless, worn largely for decoration (see the Spartacus TV series). 2. “Honour” is far more important than winning. If you have a powerful fortified position, and the enemy approach, naturally you leave it to fight them in the open, or else let them through the gates, in the interests of good sportsmanship (see King Arthur, 2004). 3. When you’re defending a fortress, there’s a wide ramp leading up to the gates, which might as well have a sign saying “attack here.” No one thinks to construct moats, arrow slits, murder holes, nor to prepare cauldrons of boiling water and oil to tip over the attackers (Helms Deep). 4. Always use fire arrows, even in open battle in broad daylight (Gladiator). 5. The best use for heavy cavalry is to charge stone fortifications (Return of the King). The best use for light cavalry is to charge lines of heavy infantry or the undead (Game of Thrones). 6. Logistics are for wimps. Armies either carry vast wagonloads of food with them, or can march across an entire continent living on air. 100,000 men can be accommodated on an island the size of Man (Game of Thrones again). 7. Disciplined armies appear to have no battle tactics other than the wild charge, followed by individual duels (Braveheart). 8. Despite heavily outnumbering you, enemy mooks are often quite chivalrous, fighting you one at a time. Also, they are quite incapable of aiming guns properly (too numerous to mention).

Just as, if Dany and Viserys had been captured by Robert’s goons, and taken into “protective custody.” ”Alas, a winter chill carried off that pair. So tragic. Yet, mayhaps it were for the best. Life held very little for them further.”

"The boy was a lackwit, despised by his own vassals. In truth, a painless death by sweetsleep would be a kindness and a mercy."

If we ever get the last two books, I suspect Martin will make KJ Parker look cheerful and optimistic, by comparison.

Breaking a marriage promise is reprehensible, but it is not a crime against the Gods. Murdering guests, at a religious ceremony, is not just a crime against those guests, but a terrible offence against the Gods. That is why the Freys will receive no mercy.

Jaime does bear quite a bit of the blame. His incest with Cersei, and then throwing Bran out of the window, were big factors in leading to war.

I think that some freed cities are bound to finish up, ruled by tyrants, just as parts of Europe, the Americas, and the Caribbean did, during and after the Age of Revolutions (1790-1830). Yet, the destruction of chatteldom will have been a real step forward.

If a large part of the Dothraki leave the slave trade, Slavers Bay is liberated, and Volantis revolts, that puts the slavers very much on the defensive in Western Essos. It’s unlikely Tolos and Mantarys could hold out, and that would leave Myr, Lys, and Tyrosh in a precarious position. Any successful revolt/liberation drives home that the slaves are many, and the slavers are few.

I think that punishing rape is far more likely to be the case if the victim is highborn, rather than lowborn. Very few lords would be likely to spare a knight or common soldier who raped a highborn woman, unless that man was *extremely* useful (like Ser Gregor).

My guess is that Melisandre will burn Gilly's baby, as part of reviving Jon.

I think that outcome is extremely likely.

I'm still torn over whether Sansa will overdose Sweetrobin, not for shits and giggles, but because LF manages to persuade that her life depends upon her marrying Harrold Hardyng.

Stannis punishes rapists amongst his men, as well. I think some leaders do see rape as a crime, and would punish those soldiers they caught doing it, but at the same time, see it as more or less inevitable, once parties of soldiers are sent out raiding and foraging. And, as the example of Pya (or Shae), shows, there’s a thin line between women willingly sleeping with soldiers, and being pressed into it. I doubt if the women who were hanged because they “lay with lions” were very willing.

I don’t think that any leader in-universe would consider pillage, or sacks of cities taken by storm, as war crimes. Rape is widespread, on all sides, but as far as I know, only Tywin specifically uses it as a terror tactic. The brutality of foraging probably depends if one is on home/allied territory, or enemy territory. In the case of the former, soldiers are restricted to taking what they need. In the case of the latter, they’re taking all they can, and leaving settlements in flames, behind them. Tywin’s also aware that some of his knights are unhappy with atrocities - and he’s prepared to excuse them - hence his comment about some work being fit for lions, and other work fit for dogs and goats.

It reads to me like something out of Mad Max.

The ancients could be very brutal to religious dissidents, but their issue was with *ritual* rather than belief. Pay the official Gods their due, and you could worship privately as you wished. Dishonour the Gods, by refusing sacrifice (as Christians, Jews, druids, and some mystery religions did), and the authorities would turn hostile. Jews were a special case, protected initially so long as they offered prayers for the Res Publica, but viewed with increasing suspicion under the empire. As you say, heretics are viewed with far greater hostility than other religions. In Westeros, there ought to have been clashes between iconophiles and iconoclasts, and those who believe the Seven are separate deities vs those who see them as manifestations of one deity.

I think I'm one of the few fans who's never played the games, and know very little about them. But, I really enjoyed the books, and liked to see Ciri developing into the main protagonist. The show, I find something of a curate's egg. Good in parts.

Sure. If they wish to blockade Israel by sea, then they must comply with the laws that relate to blockades (stopping and inspecting ships for contraband). Lobbing missiles at passing ships makes them, as you say, pirates.

It is such an appallingly bad take on history, for D & D to apply Niemoller’s prose poem to an anti-slavery campaign

Not as bad as Sansa saying she’d have remained “a little bird”, if it weren’t for Ramsay raping her. Or Tyrion’s “first they came for the slave traders, and I did not speak up …” speech. The show took every bad idea and theory, and then they ran with it.

Breach of guest right, blasphemy ( a wedding is a religious ceremony), treason, regicide, would, by in-universe standards, justify the killing of every man, woman, and child, of House Frey. Along the destruction of the Twins, and sowing their lands with salt.

Or Sansa will resume her marriage to Tyrion, and ask his forgiveness for not consummating their marriage.

Not really in this world, it seems. If there were some major schism in the Faith, or if the Red Clergy were to start burning followers of the Faith, that would change.

Jon and Sansa will be lovers.