SeanF

Another reason for not wanting Trump elected. I remember how depressed he was about it in 2016.

I do think, that Martin views Tyrion more sympathetically than a lot of readers do. Sometimes, one just has to accept that one sees things differently to the author. I don’t find Dany/Drogo romantic, or Robert a “loveable oaf” (I’ll grant the oaf), or Joffrey a standard teenage bully.

A friend compared the later seasons to people who've just started at film school, and who go for jump scares all the time, not realising that twists have to be seeded.

Sex slaves love Tyrion, and they love their work, too. The complete whitewashing of Tyrion and the Sunset girl was a disgrace. These discussions bring back so many horrid memories.

Tyrion was able to explain slavery to Missandei and Grey Worm, on the basis of being enslaved for a fortnight.

This ties in with characters being written to act in ways that are untrue to human nature, in HOTD. Plenty of noblewomen have been forced into marriage with the murderers of their family, but nobody enters such a relationship voluntarily, unless they hated their own family. Realistically, Sansa would be thinking in terms of winning enough support in the Vale to reconquer her home.

That last bit is surprising, given that they did want to show Septa Unella being raped, and included Bran’s creepy comment about how beautiful Sansa looked on her wedding night, and Sansa’s about her experiences with Ramsay and Joffrey making her stronger.

I can’t help thinking that if GOT was written like HOTD, Cersei would have had a crush on Dany, slipped into Dragonstone one night, and suggested the two of them run off to the Summer Isles together.

The prices in Dunk and Egg seem to imply that one dragon is roughly one pound sterling, in c.1400, which would make one stag worth about one silver penny at the time (pounds were not actually minted in 1400, but it was a unit of accounting). The highest value coin was the noble, 2/3 of a pound, or two marks. In 1400, £3 would be quite sufficient for a young man without dependants, to live adequately for a year. But, sums like £10,000 or £40,000 would be colossal for 1400. £10,000 was the kind of income that John of Gaunt had, £40,000 was the kind of income the king had. Those prizes are two orders of magnitude too high. Prizes of £100 or £400 would themselves be considered lavish, but not completely unheard of. £20 is the minimum for a knight's fee. With an income of £40, you are expected to present yourself for knighthood (which is an expensive honour, and for that reason, some professional soldiers preferred not to be knights). £100 is the kind of income a wealthy knight would have, from his estates, £100-£200 the kind of income the very wealthiest merchants might earn (but earning money through commerce has less prestige than drawing an equivalent rental). £15-£25 is the sort of income a successful doctor or lawyer might earn. £10 the sort of income a master mason would earn. £2-£3 is about the average.

"Let's have a game of pitch and toss, Igor!"

I I’m quite certain that Catelyn did not practise incest with her brother.

I think pop military history tends to misunderstand what makes “uncivilised” people formidable. With the Māori, it was their wonderfully designed fortresses, with excellent fields of fire, and rapid adaptation of European firearms; with the Mongols, hunting strategies that made it possible to converge thousands of men on targets a huge distance away, mixing light and heavy cavalry, and being sufficiently humble to pick up techniques from their enemies; with the Germans, well thousands of them served in the Roman army, and learned how to fight like Romans. But, one should not necessarily expect the average reader to ignore long-standing tropes.

OTOH, the Dothraki are Fremen. People made into formidable warriors by their environment. At the level of popular military history/science “barbarians” defeat “civilised” peoples, by virtue of being tougher, and less prone to vice.

I don’t see how any leader can be anything other than light-grey at best. Leadership requires taking hard, cruel, decisions, at times. But, there’s a big gulf between say, Saladin, Qutuz, Alfred the Great, L’Ouvrture, at one end of the spectrum, and Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot at the other.

Either Jonos Bracken or Marq Piper. I don’t believe Robb says “hang young women.” The order would be “execute collaborators.”

Throughout real history, I think the number of grey hats far exceeds the number of black hats. But, the black hats exist. Daemon is a black hat. Someone like Stannis a grey hat.

I could see Alicent being willing to see her sons sent to the Wall, as a way of saving them. But, I don’t see Alicent’s willingness to sacrifice her sons as true to a mother; not unless she had a knife to her throat, like Helaena, and was told to choose. Or else, she’s wildly besotted with Rhaenyra.

Bolton’s atrocities at Harrenhall were all his own work, I’m sure. But the women were hanged by the Trident, miles away from Harrenhall.

That's one thing that's always puzzled me a bit about the main books. Objectively, Robb Stark's soldiers do some pretty horrible things (pillaging the West, mass rape, torching villages, hanging young women for sleeping with Lannister soldiers - I doubt if those young women would have had any choice in the matter). They may not be as bad as the Lannister soldiers, or the Ironborn, but, they're still pretty grim. And these acts are all taking place on such a widespread scale that Robb must be aware of them (Catelyn's aware after all). Whatever orders he may give, it’s clear that such acts go unpunished. But absolutely no one, who is at all sympathetic, thinks of Robb as anything other than a perfect hero. Jon, Ser Davos, and Wylla Manderly all see him as such. And for sure, the treacherous murder of Robb and Catelyn and the others is vile, and presented as vile. Is it just the case that the Starks are given a pass?

I ended up hating GOT’s Tyrion with a passion. He actually does a lot of terrible things, but fails upwards, and is horribly sanctimonious. Even right at the end, he thinks that starving Kings Landing into submission is “humane.” In prison, he tries every argument he can think of with Jon, to save his own hide, before kicking him to the kerb at the Dragonpit. He was the Albert Speer of the show.

I’ve never seen Prince Daemon as being good and bad in equal measure. Ordering Blood and Cheese to murder an infant is the act of a man who is rotten to the core.

The boring truth is that 70% of winning a war is logistics.

Oh, and Ginny is frequently depicted as an unfaithful alcoholic, who only married Harry for his money, to justify his leaving her.

The Starks’ behaviour towards Daenerys in Season 8 is the kind of stuff that lands you in the 9th circle of hell.

Fanfiction can be unintentionally hilarious, especially when “shipping” is involved.