Lord Varys

As an ending for Abner's story it is not bad. I remembering reading somewhere that George intended to include an actual steamboat race which was then cut because he thought it would not make sense in real history + scientific vampires setting, as folks would remember the Fevre Dream then. That abandoned plot line really shows and mars the final third of the book. Yes, I think it was mainly references to rape in the war. But since you do have Dreamsongs it is easy to just read that version.

Just to clarify, I wasn't offering links to pirated texts but ways to get access to rare stories. Some of the stories which are not collected in books that are currently in print have been published online, among them treasures like '... For a Single Yesterday' (which anyone should read right now who hasn't so far as it is really quite good and arguably a better take on 'the golden days of hippie life' than The Armageddon Rag as it focuses on the emotional/romantic aspect of it). Also, of course, sharing or loaning or giving away books isn't piracy, either, as anyone making use of a public library or a public book case knows. It is also unfortunately not true that most of George's stories are still in print. We do have Dreamsongs, but most of the older collections are out of print for years and are hard to find (and buy) indeed. Certain stories can be bought as individual ebooks, but none of the older collections. If you want to own all of George's (collected) short story fiction you have to spend considerable time, effort, and money these days. In fact, for me it was easier to buy German translations of the collections A Song for Lya, Songs of Stars and Shadows, and The Sand Kings than to actually get a hold of the English originals. What's in print is the (fix-up) novels (even The Armageddon Rag, strangely enough), Dreamsongs, and Nightflyers (due to the recent TV show). But the latter seems to be out of print again, actually. But it is as at least permanently available in ebook form. The sad story is that Dreamsongs does not actually collect the bulk of George's short fiction. It appears like that because it is two big volumes, but it also contains all those scripts and editorials and excerpts from other works. A lot is missing, especially from the early days. Really think the book very much breaks down when we get to the 'oh, never mind them vampires, now comes the civil war and then we go back to domestic vampire squabbles' moment. There is some good atmosphere and writing there, but it is clearly a first novel (Dying of the Light basically grew out of a novella and wasn't really conceived as a novel). It has a strong beginning and middle part and decent characters and scenery. Also, I think both the primeval evil vampire monster guy is too weak in his mindless power as well as the underlying message - strength, even good strength, has to come from predatory behavior/barbarism - of Joshua's (failed) fight against the guy is something I don't like. If you take it as a concept it is like going with the idea that only meat-eaters can be good soldiers or other such crap. You have The Ice Dragon in Dreamsongs and it is better to go with that version as the picture book aims at children and was thus slightly edited. My niece liked it, though. The picture book, of course. Thinking a bit more about the stories, I think my favorite would be 'In the House of the Worm' which I read very late but it was a very intense reading experience, one of the kind you have a lot when your in your teens and twenties but not so much at a later age. But there was exploring the decaying world and the caves with Annelyn and I just couldn't put it down until I had finished it.

The novels show a writer learning to write. Dying of the Light is recognizably growing out of a novella, but it tackles a lot of themes addressed in his early other stories and works pretty fine in that regard. The big problem of that novel is the ending as it is akin to, say, Tyrion's story ending with him (apparently) dying on the Blackwater or drowning in the Rhoyne. You would say, 'well, in light of what came before not unexpected or totally bad, but damn hell unsatisfying'. The novel introduces concept and characters the story should have wrapped up better. Instead, it lets the (ultimate) fate of the protagonist and two other crucial characters dangling. Fevre Dream is better conceptually but suffers from a major breakdown after two-thirds where the plot drastically changes and is then led to a kind of pitiful conclusion after a time jump. That is a big letdown. But the ending works much better. The Armageddon Rag is arguably George's best novel prior to AGoT. It does have a proper ending and it does have a plot gravitating towards that. It's major flaw is the silly idea that actual leftist revolutionary would turn to occultism and the literal devil to bring about political change. That is not very likely as a concept, and if you try to pull something like that off, if you think of, say, of a femme fatale version of Che Guevara as an occultist nut who actually hopes the literal devil would help them to bring about a new world then, well, you have to laugh out loud. The book would have worked much better if the people doing the plot were more like hippies trying to get back to the golden days of yore, symbolized and expressed by the music of the 60s and early 70s. Romanticism and a longing for the lost days of youth kind of fit well with occultism and demons, not so much political revolutions. One is tempted to ask what the hell the devil's tax policy would have been... I think the scientific vampire stuff there is not so great, especially not the silly notion that a species could develop and (kind of) flourish where the women routinely die giving birth (to one child). The characters there also foreshadow a lot of the characters we see in ASoIaF, especially in the Tywin-Tyrion department. In general, though, George is a much better novella/short story writer than a novelist. His greatest works would be his later short stories/novellas (including Dunk & Egg), not so much his novels. And ASoIaF is only as great as it is because every chapter is effectively written as a short story with a punchline/twist at the end. That is mostly evident in AGoT where there are often considerable time jumps between the chapters but we also get a lot of that in AFfC which contains some of George's best prose, for instance in the Dornish chapters. But many of the earlier short stories are pretty good, too.

I think 'the vastly so' is open for debate. Although I have to say I only read half of their Butlerian Jihad thing and,the prelude to Dune thing they did ... so I don't know how worse the other stuff was.

I think you have to approach this differently. This society is distinctly different from anything we know. For about 10,000 years the societal order has been frozen into a perpetual status quo. There is no war in this world, as the Empire includes effectively all human settlements and there are no aliens or other enemies. Conflict, if it happens, can only happen with permission of the Guild unless it is a confined to a single planet. That should be rare, though, as the Empire consists of planetary holdings which are given to the great houses as fiefs by the Emperor. If new planets are colonized or in need of pacification then the Sardaukar would do that before a planet is granted to a great house. Conflict between great houses - which are the only legal entities which have interests that transcends a single planet - is strictly regulated by the rules of kanly. There are no or very few open wars in this world. We also have the technological power balance with the atomic weapons of the Landsraad keeping those of the Corrinos in check as well as the lasgan/shield problem which effectively means fighting among soldiers goes back to a certain type of hand-to-hand combat. Shaddam IV colluding with the Harkonnens to destroy Duke Leto is a huge breach of protocol. That means that soldiers as we know it are actually pretty rare as most planets in this setting would never see wars as we know them. The Sardaukar and Fremen's fighting skills are shaped by the environments they live in ... and those planets are both exceptional in the sense that weather and climate control means are not used to turn the planets into paradises as most or all of the other planets are. The Corrinos train their Sardaukar in a world where lots of lots of people are killed by the natural surroundings as well as by the training itself ... and the Fremen do the same. They also constantly fought each other on a monstrous world and the idea is that the people living through that ordeal are, in an evolutionary sense, best suited to survival in such harsh conditions. That is then combined with a fierce martial culture. If you read on you will see how quickly and easily the changing living conditions on Arrakis - both a milder climate and different lifestyle coming with it being the new imperial throne world - change the Fremen.

Yeah, the Fremen are the best fighters in the known universe and that is because of the environment they live in. Salusa Secundus, the 'prison planet' which forms the Sardaukar is also a very hostile environment which created a similar but less effective martial culture. The entire take of the new movies, especially the second part, of presenting the Harkonnens as 'colonizers with big guns' undercuts the message of the book which has the Fremen as the people totally in control of their own planet. The reason they don't drive away the outsiders is that they are not unified and don't really care about them as they only live in two very small cities. The one thing some of the Fremen later learn from Jessica and Paul are Bene Gesserit fighting skills, but they are not taught to everyone. It is the fact that the Fremen and their religious zeal are in control of everything that puts Paul in the tight corner that his own wishes and life don't really matter in the end ... the Jihad will come, regardless if he lives or dies. What the books fail to actually explain is what exactly the point of the Jihad is. What the goal is. Paul has the Imperial throne in the end, a huge majority of CHOAM shares, he controls everything and everyone. And all that wealth and power will also profit the Fremen. So why do they feel the need to butcher billions...? Don't they share the feeling that they have won already? Is it about how to correctly worship and pray to the living god and his divine sister? Is it about Fremen puritanism and superstition? We just don't know. The Jihad just sits there as an elephant in the room in Dune Messiah and we have no clue what the point or even pretext was. And the logistics of it all is also kind of weird. No great house or other powerful faction would actually want to oppose Paul openly, now that he can cut them off permanently from the spice. The Guild certainly would do what he wanted ... but if nobody is going to resist you openly why the hell would you (Fremen fanatics included) want to massacre billions of people rather arbitrarily...? If you want to read something else check out The Dune Encyclopedia after you finished book 4 (it contains information up until that point). That is really a masterpiece of 'fake history' in all its glory and really the cornerstone against which similar books should be measured against. You find something fun literally on every single page in that book. Best nuggets still are the list of all the Emperors, the article re-imagining Muad'dib as a native Fremen pretending to be a lost Atreides, or the tragic discovery of a certain Duncan ghola that Leto II is unfortunately suffering from a hereditary mental disorder... It is also great how the pre-Butlerian history of the universe is imagined, how the concept of 'Empire' is projected back in time to dominate even the history we know, and how the origins of the Bene Gesserit are traced back into the human prehistory. Have to admit, though, that I actually do like most of KJA's Star Wars novels. Those characters he gets pretty well. It is pretty clear why the Guild would do what the Fremen want. They need the spice ... and the Fremen bribe them with spice. So if something makes sense in the setting then the fact that Fremen and smugglers both can count on the Guild to turn a blind eye to their activities. Of course, there is a kind of problem in the history of the setting as I'm not sure when and how the spice of Arrakis was discovered and used to build up the Guild of the post-Butlerian feudal empire. The ban on thinking machines disrupted/greatly hindered space travel for a time, but it makes little sense to assume they only stumbled on the spice and its magical properties when they were in need of that. Rather the spice would have been known beforehand, only slowly becoming the ultimately important 'fuel' of the feudal empire as it developed. The fact that substances like spice existed would have only allowed the ban on thinking machines to be enforced (more or less) in the entire known universe as if the only means of space travel was through thinking machines then there would have been people fighting back against the ban imposed by the Butlerian fanatics. By the time of Dune pretty much everybody uses it because spice is the best substance for a number of things society depends on ... but that wouldn't have always been the case. For instance, we know that the Bene Gesserit can create Reverend Mothers using spice/water of life as well as other potentially lethal drugs. The navigators may have already experimented with other drugs until settling finally and exclusively on spice from Arrakis. The people we now know as the Fremen were Zensunni wanderers who only colonized Arrakis during the feudal Empire era, a couple of millennia before Dune, not before Butler's Jihad, so it stands to reason that Arrakis may have been a part of the feudal empire before it was actually colonized by the people we now as the Fremen. Then we would see the Guild helping the Zensunni to find a home on Arrakis for some reason, while at the spice was already harvested on Arrakis. In fact, I just checked that the Dune Encyclopedia has the Fremen been brought there only about 4,000 prior to Dune, both to give them a home and to have an independent means of access to the planet and its spice. The Fremen were designed to live on that planet, having gone through many hardships on other worlds before, including a stint on Salusa Secundus. Arrakis as a planet is a fief the Emperor hands out. It stands to reason that sometimes the Corrinos themselves did some of the hard work there (or some princes from cadet branches) or that the need to hand out Arrakis as a Imperial fief with a lordly overseer only arose at a time when the need for spice in the entire empire was so great that it really had to flow constantly. Before that, the Guild may have allowed may independent contractors to do spice-mining on Arrakis, especially at a time when the planet was not yet fully colonized by the Zensunni.

Not sure if there would be any sense to having a cloaked Nettles appearance rather than properly casting her already for season 2. If they want to properly depict her bonding with Sheepstealer there would be some tweaks to her story in any case as she must have had a sponsor for her dragon adventure. Nettles grew up as a poor dockside whore, she wouldn't have the funds to feed dozens or scores of sheep to a dragon before she claimed him. That is part of the reason why they might have postponed her introduction because she might be somebody who is either pushed to make an attempt (because they know she has Targaryen blood and tell her) or they help her to go through with her plans. The show also better tell us who Ulf and Hugh are, and how they end up thinking it would be a good idea for them, specifically, to try to mount dragons. Unlike the books - where a dragon is more or less yours from the moment you first mounted him successfully - the show has this as a process and a bond that doesn't necessarily include total control at all times as Aemond-Vhagar and Luke-Arrax showed. (Dany's problems mastering Drogon completely in ADwD indicate that the books might also include such complexities.) However, the setting means that only people who are reasonably sure they have Targaryen blood would be given access and permission to try to claim the dragons, so Ulf and Hugh will likely either know something about their (immediate) ancestry or be told something about that. The show had Daemon prepare Vermithor for a future rider, so Hugh better not be some random dude with very distant Targaryen ancestors but rather, say, another grandson of Jaehaerys I. With Nettles chances for her casting are very low because we now know who plays Ulf, Hugh, and the Hull brothers. Why tell us this but not who is playing Nettles? And for Daeron it is a given that we would have either had reports about scenes featuring him or casting reports/rumors about other Oldtown characters from his story line.

It is not just that, it is also that there are no spy reports about scenes being shot at Oldtown or a Reach setting ... nor casting rumors or confirmations about characters we would see if we were to see Daeron at Oldtown, meaning Lord Ormund, his wife Lady Sam, his son and heir Lyonel ... all or some of which we would expect to see with Daeron in an Oldtown setting. He would need some people to talk and interact with. And if we had Daeron paying KL a visit - say, for the funeral of King Viserys I or later Prince Jaehaerys - then we would have good reason to expect that to have been revealed in the spy reports we got so far as they covered a lot of scenes in KL, especially big outside scenes involving many extras and crowds. At this point we should indeed have casting confirmation as we would have for Nettles. Both Daeron and Nettles are crucial characters people want to see and ask about, and it makes little sense that they tell us that they cast the other dragonseeds and (so far) tertiary characters like Ser Alfred Broom ... but not Daeron and Nettles.

That is factually wrong as not merely George confirmed that Daeron is in the show but also Ryan Condal ... and he did it repeatedly. We also have the final opening credits from the first season which do not only depict Daeron as existing and alive, but also Prince Maelor. That was clearly a creative decision by the people making this show wanting to send the message to the audience that certain people actually do exist within the show universe. Chances are about zero that this show eventually depicts the fake Daerons George has first actually write about. While it is very likely they turn up during the reign of the Dragonbane, even that is not clear yet. There could also be some aged fake Daeron who pops up during the reign of Baelor the Blessed or the Unworthy. The impression is indeed that they change the chronology in the book to unfold in a different manner, more in steps and not at the same time. I think the idea behind that might be that the war will escalate only slowly, with folks in the Reach (Lord Ormund Hightower included) being not eager to rush into war. We also have that to a point in the book since Jason Lannister has to be commanded by Aegon II to marshal an army and try to defeat the Black lords in the Riverlands. Chances are that the show will depict the Black Reach lords to marshal armies to attack the Hightowers only later, with that then resulting in Ormund raising his host, leading to the Battle of the Honeywine and the aftermath. But I'd not be surprised if they start to build up slowly for the Reach plot at the end of season 2 ... like they should do with the Ironborn plot and, it seems, they are doing with the Gullet plot as we are supposedly going to see the Council of the Triarchy in Tyrosh. They could even have Otto going there physically to give him something to do after he is fired.

Otto and Aemond and now, perhaps, between Aemond and Alicent's brother Gwayne. But I'd imagine we are likely also going to get talks between Alicent and Gwayne and general conversations about the Hightowers back in Oldtown. They will have to explain why Daeron did not accompany Gwayne to KL and also why Lord Ormund is right now, apparently, not raising an army to defend Aegon II. As I said, Ormund being married to Samatha Tarly (a Black supporter) could slow things down in Oldtown. It might also be that Lord Ormund isn't as invested in pushing a Hightower agenda at court as his father was ... or he feels less beholden to Alicent and Otto as his father was. Could also be that Otto wasn't all that popular with his brother's son and heir in Oldtown. He may have been quite frustrated and not exactly the best uncle during his 10+ years a former Hand and landless knight living off his brother's generosity.

Sure, but the book actually gave us the backstory for that, while the show only gave us a backstory for the name of the Green faction. The name of the Blacks is equally significant and as the Targaryen colors are actually red-and-black even the book didn't really make it clear why the faction name was 'Black' rather than 'Red'. Rhaenyra Targaryen dramatically dressed in red-and-black at that anniversary tourney in 111 AC, not only in black. I guess it was a black gown with red embroidery or something along those lines, but that is actually never established in the text. I imagine there were some lines cut establishing Rhaenyra's faction as the Blacks ... but just naming an episode 'The Black Queen' doesn't establish anything. In fact, it is likely to confuse the audience not knowing the source material as the episode as such gives no significance 'the blackness' of Rhaenyra's queenship. It didn't explain in what sense Rhaenyra was or is a 'Black Queen'. And I'd also prefer it if Rhaenyra's personal sigil during the war wouldn't be turned into a black dragon or something like that (that is for Daemon Blackfyre). The Targaryen sigil is actually a red dragon, not a black dragon. And George actually had a nice and complex idea with Rhaenyra including her mother's Arryn falcon and Laenor's Velaryon seahorse into her personal sigil. It looks pretty well and season 2 should take the time for Aegon II choosing his golden dragon and Rhaenyra her own personal banner. But the time to explain/introduce the Blacks as a court faction was season 1, not season 2.

Considering Daemon's fickle personality it should have been rather easy to hand him to rope to hang himself. One way could have been to drive a wedge between him and Rhaenyra by having some young maiden seduce him ... something Nettles may have succeeded at during the Dance without any Green help. There are also a number of ways to get Viserys to exile him yet again - most noteworthy his marriage to Rhaenyra which was done without royal permission (something that led to Daemon's exile before when he married Laena). No indication that Alicent or the returning Otto tried to play that card. It also strikes one as rather strange that the aging and ailing king could not be persuaded to change the succession in favor of Aegon after the Rhaenyra-Daemon marriage as Rhaenyra was originally named heir to prevent Daemon from gaining royal power. But the obvious way to get rid of Daemon would have been to kill him. Either by way of poison or by arranging an accident. The man was a dangerous warrior, but even they can be killed. And killing Daemon and/or Rhaenyra is certainly preferable to plunging the Realm into a civil war by way of a badly planned and poorly executed coup. All true ... but we know or have some reason to believe that certain people may have gotten away with arranging the murders of Laenor Velaryon, Harwin and Lyonel Strong. And, of course, the Greens to plot the vilest treason by way of staging a coup. A clandestine murder needs less accomplices than the kind of coup Alicent and Otto plot in the book (and Otto in the show). They/he has to trust his buddies on the council and many other people executing the plans. That was a mad solution if the prime motivation was to get rid of Daemon whispering in Rhaenyra's ear. My point remains that you only stage a coup and only crown your own monarch if that is what you want. Self defense by usurpation is a silly scenario. You also get that in the ridiculous arguments defending Renly's attempted power grab as a way motivated by him fearing that the Lannisters would kill him. Yes, such motives could also play into such actions to a point, either as a lesser motivator or a justification, but you only start a movement or invest all your political capital, power, and money into a bid for a crown if you actually want that (for your pretender). If you are merely afraid for your life or the reduction of your or your family's power and prestige you have other, less suicidal ways to get what you want, political assassination being the main option. And the idea that in the show setting Alicent, Otto or the Greens in general are motivated by fear of Daemon is simply not actually in the show. None of them ever actually expresses the fear that they will be killed by Daemon, specifically. Otto tries to feed Alicent the idea that Rhaenyra will have to murder Aegon and his brothers to solidify her power, and Alicent also pushes that idea onto Aegon ... but neither ever mentions or talks about Daemon in that context. Instead, we have Rhaenyra being reluctant to go to war/push her claim against Aegon's while Otto actually planned to murder Rhaenyra and her entire family to ensure a smooth succession until Alicent shut that down. The writers could have played up Alicent genuinely fearing for the lives of her children or Otto fearing for his own in the wake of Rhaenyra marrying Daemon ... but that is not actually in the show. Nor do the characters in-universe care much for the murder of Rhea Royce as an indication that Daemon might continue to murder family members (possibly in part because nobody actually witnessed Rhea's death). Hopefully the writers are smart enough to have the Rhea thing come up in future Vale plot lines, possibly even having the Royces declare for Aegon II to have some smaller battles/campaigns in the Vale which help explain why Jeyne only assembles huge armies at the end of the war. A big blunder in the writing of the show is that the alleged murder of Laenor doesn't play into the fears and beliefs of Alicent, her children, or other characters. We have Rhaenys and Corlys kind of believing Rhaenyra had their son murdered, but get Vaemond only depicted as a greedy guy obsessed with what he sees his birth right ... when they could have easily enough written him as a man who (also) wanted to avenge his nephew's murder. A big problem there is the scenario of Laenor's fake death presented as a murder in a context where Rhaenys and Corlys believe Rhaenyra and Daemon murdered their son. They would have never just ignored that but either arranged Rhaenyra's and Daemon's murder in turn (if push came to shove via the Faceless Men) and/or turned Green. The idea that they would 'stay neutral' for a time in such a setting makes little sense. In that sense the (alleged) death of Laenor should have been an affair that looked very much like an accident with only fringe conspiracy theorists - which would not include Rhaenys and Corlys - believing that foul play was involved. Rhaenyra and Daemon rushing into their wedding without a proper mourning period could have been enough for them to have cooler relations to them ... not to mention the whole Strong boys issue which could also have been a bigger issue for at least one in the couple (not Corlys as he is also proud of his grandsons in the book).

While all that is true, the details of the claiming of that particular dragon strike me as less relevent (or easily changed if the writers had decided to race through the plot to the finish line) than the introduction of Nettles the character and her eventual connection/relationship/whatever to Daemon. In the book Daemon sits on his hands at Harrenhal for months, that is something the show could change and have him fly back to Dragonstone to plan the attack on KL. If that were to coincide with Nettles claiming Sheepstealer we could see them interact prior to the Gullet or before the fall of KL. We can expect the show not to waste lots of episode of them flying together through the Riverlands and spending many evenings/nights at Maidenpool. We should expect some of that, but it would make more sense to give the entire plot time to develop at different general story points. More importantly, the show also should take time to set up the Hull boys properly and, especially, Hugh and Ulf as their betrayal is something that should have substance in the show since the writers can't wiggle out of giving them depth and character by way of saying they were illiterate and never explained their intentions. It makes sense that Gyldayn's sources would paint baseborn bastards and commoners as the worst kind of people ... but this is not the road the show has to take. Or at least the show can make them more three dimensional. (I'm not saying they should necessarily tone down the monstrosity of some of Hugh and Ulf's crimes at Tumbleton.) As we know by now there was at least one cut scene in season 1 referencing Daeron ... and I'd say that mentioning him wasn't optional in season 1, it was mandatory and it is a mistake that they didn't do it as he is an integral and crucial part of the royal family. You could even say it was a mistake to not show him as they could easily have used a child actor who is never going to be used again. Unless I'm mistaken the ages of the younger children are kind of messed around with, anyway. By episodes 4-5 we only have Aegon and Helaena, and while Aemond may have been conceived in the night of the Viserys-Alicent sex scene we get in episode 4, Aemond, Jace, Luke, Baela, and Rhaena are all much closer in age in the show than they are in the book (which is all a result of Rhaenyra being of the same age as Alicent which meant that less time would pass between Alicent and Rhaenyra being married). That means little Daeron could have easily enough been seen as a toddler in Alicent's chambers in episode 6 or even 7 with his fostering at Oldtown being established in dialogue. In any case, though, chances that show Daeron is closer in age to Joffrey than to Jacaerys is quite likely. The chance that Daeron would not be mentioned in season 2 is ludicrous. If they don't reference him, Ormund, Lyonel, Lady Sam and others at all then they could just as well drop the entire Reach plot, as any actual scenes taking place at the Hightower/Oldtown should depict those characters. One imagines that Gwayne Hightower will set up the future Reach characters and plots, starting with establishing that Otto's brother is now dead and there is a new Lord of Oldtown. It would also make sense to make more of Lady Sam's Black leanings and have the main branch of House Hightower not be overly keen to get drawn into a fully fledged civil war. The decision to move the Reach plot to season 3 would work better if Sam were able to persuade Ormund to try to keep Oldtown out of trouble. It also strikes one as likely that season 3 will first continue with the Riverlands plot, moving then to the Ironborn plot and having the Reach plot up until the Battle of the Honeywine (including a proper depiction of the Black Reach houses marching against Oldtown) before turning to the Battle of the Gullet and, eventually, the Fall of King's Landing. What we know of season 2 so far indicates a very slow pace, taking time for character development and people processing events.

From what we know or I think I heard is that neither Daeron nor Nettles have been cast for season 2. But the story doesn't seem to advance very far. The dragonseeds can claim their dragons over a longer period of time in the show, meaning Nettles might come into the fray only in season 3. Even in the book the Sowing likely wasn't over in a fortnight. It might have never actually ended as, say, would-be dragonriders might have continued to search for the Grey Ghost until his death, etc. The text even has them bring up new dragonriders at the first Black Council ... and then they apparently don't do anything in that regard for an entire year. Also, it is a great idea to build up Hugh and Ulf and their eventual betrayal slowly. Hugh, especially, wants to be king eventually, a process that slowly developed over time. Condal has said, I think, they will depict the war as something where many people think they have to choose between Rhaenyra and Aegon ... while others think they might make even better kings. One of those clearly seems to be Aemond, especially during his time as Prince Regent (a position he might actually be determined to never give up again), the others would be Hugh and Ulf, eventually. The show might very well portray one of them as Rhaenys' half-brother (Aemon's bastard) while the other could be Daemon's half-brother. Daeron should definitely be mentioned a lot in season 2 if they don't show him yet. It is odd to postpone his appearance yet again, but it seems they moved the entire Reach fighting plot to season 3, not just Daeron. Season 2 is going to focus on fighting in the Crownlands (Rosby, Stokeworth, Duskendale, Rook's Rest), the Riverlands (Harrenhal, Battle of the Burning Mill, possibly culminating the Battle of the Red Fork), and some additional Vale and North stuff (no fighting there, apparently). But if they moved all the Reach stuff to season 3 they are not likely to rush the Fall of King's Landing, meaning season 3 might feature Reach stuff up until the Battle of the Honeywine before the Battle of the Gullet and/or the Fall of King's Landing. Then they also have to get to the Ironborn stuff which I don't think they want to cut, either. But they might only get involved after Jason Lannister's death leaves the West defenseless.

Again, even if we go with your idea there ... why not just destroy Daemon in the years between his marriage to Rhaenyra and Viserys' death? He is not the heir and he can be ruined, exiled (again) or killed. There are precedents for such murders. This would be infinitely easier than a coup or succession war since the latter will involve much more bloodwork and kinslaying to keep Aegon on the throne. Rhaenyra and her entire bloodline have to go then ... as show Otto correctly points out. The point of making Aegon king is to make Aegon king. That is the agenda, and nothing else. If Alicent were truly afraid for the lives of her children because of Daemon she would have found a way to get rid of him. She effectively runs the government in episode 8 ... and years ago her foot sex buddy killed two crucial men very easily and effectively. The idea that Rhaenyra can only sit safely on her throne when Alicent's sons are dead is not suggested by either book or show. Rhaenyra is the chosen and anointed heir as per royal decree. It doesn't hinge on her not having trueborn (half-)brothers. Alicent's children would be safe unless they plotted treason. If it were different, Viserys I himself would have found ways to neutralize Aegon, Aemond, and Daeron (say, by sending them to the Wall, make one of them a KG, maester, septon, etc.). Vice versa it is not the same as the show itself depicts. Rhaenyra and her bloodline have to go because they are a threat to Aegon since Rhaenyra was the chosen and anointed heir. That is what Otto says. Rhaenyra and Daemon never have such thoughts, nor does Alicent truly believe stuff like that (in episode 6 she tells Aegon shit like that to cut him off from Rhaenyra's sons, but she doesn't really believe that). But to be sure ... the show didn't turn the two women into besties. We only have their honest reconciliation in episode 8 which is then followed by the deathbed word ... which give Alicent final permission to crown Aegon. She now is not an evil bitch turning against her late husband the moment he dies ... she genuinely thinks they were both on the same page in the end. Book Alicent's portrayal is that of a willing seductress (possibly sleeping with Viserys prior to Aemma's death) marrying a man she clearly never loved (we can draw that both from Viserys' rotting in his bedchamber as well as from post-Dance Alicent never taking about her husband). There is little indication in the book that her father pushed her into things against her will. Her reading exploits with King Jaehaerys I show that she had a lot of ambition and agency on her own ... there was nothing the Hightowers or Otto personally could gain from having his daughter care for the senile old man. This is the narrator telling us that Alicent Hightower wanted to be close to royalty. She is conceived as a Targaryen groupie, basically. Later on Alicent and her inability to get along with her stepdaughter is what sows the seeds of the Dance. It is her character flaws that are the problem, her toxic remarks, her unwillingness to accept the decree of her lord husband and king. Otto might play a minor role there in the book, too, but he is gone when things really sour between Rhaenyra and Alicent and he also had nothing to do with ensuring the children would not get along with each other. Book Rhaenyra might also share a portion of the blame there, but she is never portrayed as the active party. No records about toxic remarks from her or her side. More glaring are things in the book because of the age gap between the two women - no 7-14-year-old is to be blamed for not getting along with her stepmother if said stepmother is ten years older. There are such things as the accountability of adults as compared to childish behavior of ... children and adolescents. Alicent could have won Rhaenyra's love or at least affection. They could have worked as a family. That they did not is, as per the narrative, Alicent's fault. With the incest thing going on there were quite a few ways to tie the branches of the family together ... but that wasn't what she wanted. Her only goal was to make Aegon king, not to make, say, a son or grandson of Jacaerys and Helaena king. This is why the template of the book Alicent actually seems to be Livia from I, Claudius. Alicent is the evil stepmother who wants to push aside her stepdaughter (and her children) for the benefit of putting her own (favorite?) son on the throne. That is the only agenda, and everything else serves that endgame. Alicent's feigns affection and love to Viserys but only uses him as an instrument to get what she wants, not caring for his wishes. The show made things more interesting by making Rhaenyra and Alicent not die-hard enemies from some years after the birth of Aegon and Aemond but made things more complex. They also retained the complexity George included in the narrative - which most people either ignore or overlook - that Otto Hightower was actually the architect of Queen Rhaenyra. He made her the Heir Apparent. In the show Alicent partially retains that view, a view that was her father's originally. That all said - I also don't like the lack of Alicent's ambition. Her being unhappy with her role as queen is silly. That is what she wanted - or should have wanted in the show, even if she didn't love Viserys - it shouldn't have been something her father pushed on her with her not being able to feel comfortable in that role years after her marriage and some time after the birth of her elder children. But things like the Green Council cutting her out because she was the woman actually do make sense in a scenario where she is not actually an evil scheming bitch feigning affection and love for the king while secretly plotting with her evil cronies all the time. Still, I'd have preferred it if Alicent's role as queen had slowly pushed her into a position where she was ordering around her father and the council rather than being treated as a pawn by them. They could have still made coup plans behind her back ... only for them quickly realizing that this was a grievous mistake when Alicent learned what they were doing.

By the way, a Black trailer is silly as the show neither named nor established Rhaenyra's faction so far, so only book readers know the name. Why they would call themselves that is, of course, equally unclear as Rhaenyra's dress was dropped completely.

That would be motivation/justification to kill Daemon ... but it doesn't make Aegon a good or even mediocre potential king. It doesn't give good motivation for the coup. The show's narrative of 'Viserys changing his mind on his deathbed' repairs the second major flaw in George's outline - the biggest blunder being Daemon and Rhaenyra not preparing for the succession struggle that's firmly on the table at least since 120 AC, counting on teenagers to forge alliances they should have made personally years ago -, namely, that the Greens don't publicly announce Viserys changed the succession on his deathbed or a some days before, forging his last will and testament. That would have been the obvious way to make Aegon the rightful king in the eyes of the public. Instead we have Eustace portray Aegon as a pious and dutiful son by way of him rejecting the crown that was Rhaenyra's by right ... which makes it clear that Otto and Alicent made no attempt to paint Aegon's coronation as something his father supported in the end, implicitly confirming they are traitors to the late king and his wishes. That is a silly way to stage a coup. The king's word and wishes are the only real law in this land, so not using this authority - real, misunderstood, or forged - is stupid. The show actually made that better. Had George included something like that in FaB his AGoT appendix narrative of Rhaenyra contesting the rise of Aegon II would have actually been accurate again. Who could possibly prove the king didn't have a change of heart on his deathbed? No one. The Blacks could just (want to) believe Rhaenyra was still the rightful heir. Like Stannis believes he is, etc. Alicent acting on behalf of her children, etc. would just reinforce the evil stepmother/slut character she is in the book. We got some nuance there in the show. Alicent is not in the game for herself or her blood, is not the clichéd protector/arbiter of her sons, like book Alicent who is clearly based in some parts on Graves' Livia, but rather somebody who is conflicted because she is part of a larger whole. We also see this with Otto, who isn't just a powerhungry asshole but a guy who is both pushed by his brother as well as deluding himself his/Hightower interests are the interests of the Realm. I think that is actually the best way to show him becoming imperious by way of growing attached to his high office. It is not a two sides narrative ... it is a narrative in which neither side are clean or white heroes since the war as such is wrong, but there is still one side that is clearly worse than the other. And consistently so, especially in the source material. The show added nuance to the Greens, but keeps them as the faction who is 'more evil/corrupt'.

Having both sides use Viserys last words/wishes as their justification is actually a nice way to make them less disgusting powergrabbers. George's Greens let the old man rot in his bed. And making Alicent ambitious for her own brood isn't really agency in modern sense, especially since Aegon is so manifestly unsuited for the job. If we had the book scenario they would have to actually explain how Rhaenyra & Daemon neither saw the coup coming nor prepared for a struggle or war. Dalton Greyjoy is more prepared than they ever were... Yes, there are multiple shots of him but who is the pale white one? Is it Baela on Moondancer doing that fast plunge down or was that a fast cut from her to Aegon? If it is Baela then the chances that she will be at Rook's Rest are pretty good. Would be a nice way to spice things up.

Can anyone sort out the dragons?

In Braavos there are indeed bravos who duel regularly ... but there are rules for that kind of thing. Sam's black clothes are viewed as a provocation, but even he doesn't really get into trouble. You are like a guy saying because alcohol or weed can be bought in a specific country all people must do it. Only certain people do, just as in Martinworld and similar societies which center around 'honor' only a certain small class of people do have 'honor' to defend or care about. The overwhelming majority of the people don't do duels. It is something for the higher/ruling classes. And in Braavos it is restricted to the bravos. No, slavery is but one part of the problem. Killing people for fun/sport is inherently wrong, too. No reference to 'culture' or 'religion' can justify stuff like that.

Duels over honor issues are not rampant in Westeros nor Essos as far as we know, and they are not something you have to enter into, either. The Dothraki might be a tidbit different ... but that is all a moot point as the pit fighting is deadly blood sport profit, and not something people who are concerned about their 'honor' enter into of their own free will. It works very fine, that is the reason why quite a few cultures and religions are gone these days, and also why people do away with silly practices, like, say, bullfighting. And, of course, the Ghiscari culture as connected to slavery and slavery practices suck hard. It has to go. The rich people have to find some other ways to generate revenue than watching people kill each other.

Not anything, just some things which have clear foreshadowing. The dragon stuff foremost among them. But there is also a chance that he might yet become a king, as the whole thing about his shadow indicated. As tall as a king could very well mean he is going to be a king one day. Not checking your numbers, but the Westerlands are far from spent. There were some losses in both Jaime's and Tywin's armies, but dispersed men can go back home (and likely did do just that). Ditto with the Lannisport army. The military potential of House Lannister is about 65,000 men, according to some sources, and Tywin and Jaime together only marshaled 35,000 men. You also have to consider how fucking rich Cersei Lannister is. If push comes to shove she can buy tens of thousands of sellswords, both in and outside of Westeros. And if she has to flee KL she might actually send representatives to the Disputed Lands to hire men with Lannister gold. Her personal conflict can revolve around other things. That she is, in the end, the true savior and not one of the fake ones like Stannis and Aegon, is actually quite clear by the plot. The entire ironical point of her plot is the fact that she prepares for an invasion/conquest that is, most likely, not going to happen. At least not as an invasion to conquer, but as an invasion to save or to help save people. If she were to come to Westeros as another pretender fighting for her own petty gains/ambitions they are not likely to defeat the Others. Dany is certainly not Henry Tudor, but Aegon is pretty much Perkin Warbeck (coming at a time when no Henry Tudor sits more or less securely on the throne). Aegon is going to be good guy who might try his best ... but who will fail as a king. I've no clue if he is going to be a tyrant or a weakling or both ... but he will fail for this or that reason. Not necessarily to the point that he will be completely done by the time Dany shows up - depending on the kind of story George wants to tell - but a failure nonetheless. Varys has set him up as the perfect prince and savior ... and he just isn't that, as he is not the hero of this story. Ah, no. He has to conclusively prove to the world and the people that he is actually Rhaegar's son ... the world and Dany don't have to disprove that claim. He claims to be a person that is officially dead for seventeen years while not even looking like a properly 18-year-old (rather like 15-16-year-old according to Tyrion). Aegon's situation is Cersei's children reversed. Stannis and his buddies have to prove that the children Robert Baratheon raised as his own are not, in fact, his biological children, but the children don't have to prove that their legal father is their father. Because that is the status quo. The status quo regarding Aegon is that he is dead and gone. He has to make people believe that his silly fairy-tale story of benevolent eunuchs and cheesemongers and pisswater princes is true. The only way he can hope to do that is by having success in the field. But any sign of weakness can easily reverse things. That is why Aegon was supposed to marry Daenerys and was earlier supposed to ally with Viserys III and his Dothraki. If all he has is just the word of the likes of Varys and Connington he has pretty much nothing. And that will be his undoing, sooner or later. The idea that some guy can just claim he is a long dead prince and thus seriously harm or damage the claim of the last genuine Targaryen who is also a kind of miracle person bringing back the extinct dragons is a pretty big stretch. Even if Aegon were genuine, there are a number of precedents where the elder line was passed over for scion of the younger, if the eldest son died. Aerys II himself named Viserys III his heir rather than Aegon, and Viserys III, in turn, named his sister Daenerys. People who care about legal prattle in Westeros would know this ... but the dragons are a much better argument. As is the high likelihood that Aegon is a fake. Well, yes, of course, right now no king can be 'good' in the sense that they can't make the Realm prosper. Which is pretty much the issue we talk about here. Aegon certainly might be able to win the allegiance of a considerable number of lords and knights - for the time being, at least - but that will just further the division in the Realm and prevent the existing factions from working together. He doesn't have to be 'evil' to be forced to act as a tyrant, just as Dany doesn't have to be. And my point never is that she will be some kind of super gentle queen or anything ... I say her personal and military power will cow people into submission and/or motivate them to join her because it is better to be in the winning team than in the loser's team. The notion that the Westerosi give a shit about butchered Ghiscari or even Essosi from the Free Cities is very low. They do not permit slavery, either, and view the merchant lords and magisters of the Free Cities with contempt, anyway. Beric and Cat returning didn't involve blood magic. It just happened, and, in the belief of Thoros and his followers, because the god R'hllor himself made it happen. We have no even remotely similar miracle from any of the other deities. Yes, but that is not mirrored by, say, a good or at least decent group of ice priests or ice sorcerers. Sure enough, there was monstrous fire magic going on in the past in Old Valyria. But that is over for centuries. The dragons are basically just animals whose existence is no threat to anyone ... while the fire magic of the red priests is, overall, a good thing, although used in questionable manners sometimes (Melisandre's shadowbinding isn't fire magic, that is shadowbinding). The only ice magic the books have to offer so far are the magic of the Others, and they are clearly evil ice demons who want to destroy all of humanity, perhaps all life on the planet. The Valyrian mages never wanted to that, as far as we know. In that sense, the fire mages we see in the series are champions of life. They fight the ultimate enemy. If there is an apocalypse it will be one of ice and winter and darkness, not one of fire and summer and light.# Ice is not totally bad in principle in the books, of course. But as a faction in the symbolic 'Song of Ice and Fire' it is clearly standing for the villains, the Others, not the good guys. I'm just saying that Aegon is a fake savior - regardless whether he is Rhaegar's son or not -, I'm not saying Dany is the only savior. The dragon has three heads. There are three people at the core of this prophecy, and Aegon is not not one of them. But, of course, as this is a really big ensemble show there will be other crucial heroes in addition to the three dragon heads as well. And perhaps Aegon might even play a small part there. I'm not running around saying he must die early. The Westerlands are not spent, Aegon has a lousy power base even with Dorne, and Euron is the most dangerous - and likely most powerful - player in the entire book series. If you don't see that, I can't help you. We are entering the magical volumes of this fantasy series now. What Mel did for Stannis in ACoK will pale compared to what spells Euron (and others) will work now that magic is growing stronger by the day. Do you really think people will even learn or care to learn what happens there? Slaver's Bay is at the far end of the world. Mace Tyrell received a report about things there, and perhaps a handful of other lords ... but who will care about such stories now that winter has set in and pretty much anybody will be starving? Do you care about reports from the far end of the world?

I think I specifically referenced the fighting pit thing regarding her being naive. She gives in to demands of the pit fighters who were formally enslaved who Hizdahr propped up to support his arguments. She doesn't know how to counter a former slave's demand to continue in his/her monstrous profession, even more so in light of the crucial role the pit fighters played in the fall of Meereen. Ditto with her inability to counter Xaro's story about the formerly rich guy who wants to be his slave now. She shies away from paternalism there, but people living in a fucked up society that is changing need to be told that they can't do depraved things in the new society, even if they want to or are fine with the consequences. One of the best examples would be a ten-year-old child laborer whose income helps to feed and clothe his ailing mother. We can't allow him to work for a living at that age, and we do have to change the circumstances that force him to work. The correct reply to the pit fighters would have been 'Do something else! Join my freedmen companies, become sellswords, do learn another trade. The blood sport times are over.' And to Xaro: 'You will release that man at once, and you will also free all the slaves you brought with you to Meereen. If you want to help your old friend then give him an annual allowance or buy him back his old house or hire him as a clerk or official, but I won't have your filthy slavery shit in my city!' Dany is not naive about her marriage to Hizdahr, of course. But she is also naive in her belief that she can trust Galazza Galare or any of the Meereenese elite to the point that she does. She actually think they might accept her eventually, and she also thinks they have a real interest in peace and co-existence ... when they simply don't. The only shared interest they have is to prevent a sacking of the city by the Yunkish allies ... because that might result in further loss of wealth and perhaps also in the establishment of direct Yunkish rule in Meereen. And that is then why the Green Grace makes the Hizdahr match and has him broker a peace with Yunkai and the others so they can prevent a direct conflict, undermine Daenerys from within, and eventually kill her off so that the Meereenese figurehead king at her side can take over. This only fails because the leader of the Yunkai'i, Yurkhaz zo Yunzak, who was in favor of peace, is trampled to death in Daznak's Pit and the second most influential Yunkish leader, Yezzan zo Qogaz, who has similar inclinations, mounts the Pale Mare. Then the hawks among the Yunkai'i gain traction, backed and urged on by the sellsword commander Bloodbeard who wants spoils. And all the Yunkish allies also know that the Volantenes are on the way, having declared war on Dany independently of their own coalition (but urged on by their envoy). The peace they created is not likely to survive the arrival of the Volantenes, anyway, so if there are spoils to be had, they better sack the city now, or else they would have to share. Nah, that is a monstrous practice, no matter the reasons or justification or history of the practice. That people raised/living in that culture/society defend or like it, doesn't change that simple fact. The pit fighters speak up not only for themselves but as pawns in Hizdahr's new enterprise. He, a former slaver who would like to restore slavery and seize power in Meereen by way of marrying Daenerys Targaryen, bought up all the fighting pits and would fill his pockets from the profit the fighting generates ... while the actual pit fighters would get a small salary (and perhaps some price money if they 'win') and risk their very lives in each fight. There is no defense or justification for that. And the ironic part of that is that some of the very pit fighters who served as Hizdahr's pawns earlier - I do remember Barsena, specifically - end up being brutally butchered in Daznak's Pit.

Sorry, but the pit fighters were slaves, originally. They weren't put out of work, they were freed. Hizdahr then comes in as a rich capitalist who basically offers the now 'unemployed' pit fighters to hire them as 'workers' to continue their 'trade'. But their trade is monstrous savagery that has to be abolished along with slavery. It is like hiring a freed sex slave back as a paid prostitute. The trade is bad in general, not only if it involves slavery. Dany is too naive/stupid to see that, just as she has no good refutation ready to deal with Xaro's cunning defense/justification of slavery.

Didn't mean you there, as I dimly recall that the essays in questions also draw such parallels. A real parallel to US history, as @SeanF and I did lay out in earlier discussions, can be the Civil War and Abe Lincoln to a point. Dany is a self-taught prodigy, too, married to a slaver (descendant), etc. who is radicalized over time. Not to mention that George himself echoes the pre-war abolitionist sentiments that America has to do away with slavery with 'fire and blood' in his own slaver states novel 'Fevre Dream'. And historically it is quite clear that the war wasn't enough. The American slavery elite lost their slaves but not their power and wealth, allowing the country to continue in racialized apartheid and racism for decades and, to a point, into the present. In ADwD, Dany is acting like a post-Lincoln president, trying to heal wounds and bridge gaps ... when the work is not completely done. But the silly interpretation of quite a few American readers is to take the viewpoint of the degenerate slavers in a kind of unconscious defence of their own slaver ancestors or slaver founding fathers. Daenerys is faulted for invading a 'foreign culture' when in fact the only issue they differ about is slavery. And the fucking slavers are put down by freed slaves. When the Unsullied butcher the Astapori the idea isn't that they do this as they would do any other thing. It is something they would have wanted to do for a very long time. Dany is just a catalyst there. We also see that in detail with the rekindled hope for freedom in the Volantene slaves. Dany fails when she compromises and listens to degenerates like Xaro, Galazza, and Hizdahr. They and their ways have to go. If they are spared or not otherwise neutralized effectively, you get the plot of ADwD. Changing a system in a rather small city state is not hard. Kill the crucial members of the elite, dispossess and exile the rest. Do away with slavery, and redistribute the obscene wealth of the slavers. It is not going to be paradise tomorrow, but it would be a decent start. Bigger states would be harder to change, of course. Dany and her regime are about to lose the freedmen when she disappears. The Unsullied refuse to fight for and defend Meereen under King Hizdahr. A tidbit of more slaver accommodating could have very well lead to serious friction in Dany's camp.