Lord Varys

Sure, but those would then be (semi-)professional archers. We know such exist, that isn't an issue. But they, too, would be a thing in larger villages/proper towns, where people actually have some kind of culture, not the kind of hovels full of shit where Eustace Osgrey's villagers rot. The place there is rather significant - the Reach is the most populous and most fertile region of Westeros. Yet on the lands next to the lordship where the finest horses in the Reach are bred the peasants pretty much live like animals. But we should also not overdo the archery thing. George definitely thinks men who train at archery don't do that for a living. It would be part of village or town culture - archery contests on every other harvest feast, etc. These people mostly work 24/7 on their farms and fields as peasants do. Even things like tourneys rarely draw actually peasants from the region as spectators. For instance, the innkeep's lad in THK runs away to watch the tourney, but we don't hear anything about the Ashford peasantry collectively forgetting to work so they can watch how their lord's maiden daughter honor is defended by the champions. I'd also suspect that most good archers are actually part of the household guards/standing men-at-arms of the lords in their castles. We see this, I think, to a point in the first Jaime chapter of ASoS. Obviously, archery is not as professionally done in Westeros as being popular or thorough enough to do away with or at least seriously challenge armored knights. Which would imply that it doesn't really exist much as a culture independent of the lordly castle culture. We also have to note that we actually never see yeomen (they are mentioned once in the speech by the traitor septon in TMK), nor do we see people who could reasonably be constructed coming from such a class. What we do have is a kind of petty nobility that are scarcely above the peasant level. But such people do have their own colors and heraldry, so they cannot be the class/group of people from which the likes of the Freys and Manderlys and Lannisters take the men-at-arms who wear they colors and bear their arms. And it is quite clear, I think, that the richest houses of Westeros are, in the end, insanely rich who can indeed afford to and do clothe and arm and feed the men who fight for them. We can deduce this from the allowance/wealth a guy like Leo Tyrell has. The guy wastes a lot of money in the inns and brothels of Oldtown. And while he is a first cousin of Mace Tyrell, he is still an acolyte of the Citadel, training to be a maester, so technically Mace should not drown him in money. If he does, it means the family really has a lot of money.

The Iron Throne is in KL, and to win it Aegon has to take it. And technically he is opposed by 30,000-40,000 Reach men which should win the day easily enough, even if he had full Dornish support. Aegon might get declarations of support and lords bending their knee after he takes Storm's End and then KL ... but in winter and in a war-torn Westeros that won't translate into him gaining troops left and right. I'd say magic and, perhaps, smarter naval battle tactics. But sure enough - I'd actually also expect him to win a mundane battle against the Redwynes simply for narrative reasons. This is a story, and Euron is a major antagonist while Paxter is a featured extra with almost no lines. They are, as Harry Strickland shows. They are going to sell Aegon out if he were to lose. And they will break camp and retreat again if the campaign is not going to look profitable. Where is it raining heavily? The 30,000-40,000 Tyrell men are not all heavy cavalry. They should have just as many archers and professional men-at-arms as Aegon has, since the latter does not only not yet have the entire Golden Company at Griffin's Roost/Storm's End but is also outnumbered 5:1 or 6:1. There will be some rabble among the Reach men, to be sure, but their strength is drawn from the castles and towns of the Reach where we would expect to have the best trained feudal levies in all of Westeros. There is chance that a bumbling general is going to make things very hard for the Tyrell effort ... but you would have to be an utter moron to lose against 5,000-6,000 men with 30,000-40,000 men. Even if Mace or Randyll were to march with only half their strength they would still have 15,000-20,000 men - more than double than Aegon will have after he has taken Storm's End. Sure, but that is then a narrative, non-military reason: People favoring a (perhaps) false dragon to a (confirmed) false boy stag can make some sense. Aegon is likely to win because Tommen's government will collapse from the inside rather than be defeated on the field. The chance that Aegon could defeat the Tyrells on the field are actually pretty bad - and he could never hope to besiege or storm the city. If he wins, then because the Reach men refuse to fight him or outright defect to his side. All that is prepared by the infighting in Tommen's government. They brought how many men to Winterfell? 300, I think, 100 of them knights. They could wreak some havoc, to be sure, but unless theirs were a carefully coordinated betrayal in the middle of the battle - like Roose planned it for the Karstarks - they should have little effect. Even more so as the Freys should actually expect something like that. There is no chance in the world that even Hosteen Frey expects them to jointly butcher Stannis. Rather, the guy is looking forward to slaughter the Manderlys on the way to Stannis if he gets the chance. He does think Wyman did the same with his kin on the way to Barrowton, after all. Well, if he wins, it will likely be due to him using the terrain to his advantage and seeing the enemy commanders make grievous mistakes - which is also a great way to neutralize military advantages in numbers and equipment. And to be sure - the terrain advantages can only be exploited only once. He could still be crushed like a bug if Roose is smart enough to check things out before he unleashes his own forces. The Karstark double betrayal is going to have a huge effect, one imagines, but once it is revealed it is revealed. Ditto with the lake. If both will play out during the original Frey attack, even Ramsay could put Stannis down. And the clansmen want to die in the fighting. Their attacks will be suicidal, so Stannis could lose too many men in the first battle, long before he even gets close to Winterfell. Stannis best chance is not so much a military victory of his side, but a disintegration of the Bolton camp - like Aegon has to hope team Tommen is going to collapse. And chances are not so bad there as the only glue tying most of the Northmen at Winterfell to the Boltons was 'Arya Stark'. With her gone, Roose and Ramsay might be murdered by some turncloak Northmen in Winterfell itself.

You just jump to the conclusion that people have to be well-trained to behave the way (some of) them do in a novel. George's view of professionalism in the soldiering department and yours are not the same. He thinks it is enough to get a crash course in fighting during a march, similar to a 18-year-old drafted to go to Vietnam. Of course men are trained and men use weapons, but we don't know what they did when the POV looked the other way. And it is a silly over-interpretation to assume 'pikemen' in Westeros are more than barely trained rabble with sticks. And for the hundredth time: It is quite clear that unlike real world feudal levies, rich Westerosi lords do clothe and arm their levies. We see this with the Frey men wearing Frey colors rather than their own (which they would have if they were part of the noble feudal hierarchy). Ditto with Manderly or Lannister leivies. That men on a battlefield are armed and decently equipped doesn't mean they bought those arms and equipment themselves. You are fooled by general descriptions which you take at face value. It is like saying that Renly actually did have 100,000 professional soldiers at Bitterbridge. LOL, men like Steelshanks Walton do not have 'the job' of a soldier. They do fight as part of their feudal contract. Their actual job description is peasant. That is made crystal clear by a man in-universe who, unlike you, is actually an expert on Westerosi military matters. The City Watch thing is part of bad world-building on George's part: Why should a feudal levy from some village or country estate who most likely will never fight in an actual war be a better soldier than a man who works 24/7 at a trained standing militia which keeps the peace in city hundreds of thousands strong?

Why can't we put this at rest? Yes, there is a small elite of castle-trained men who fight with castle-forged steel. Men who are trained at war by their lords. But the bulk of every major army that is raised during one of the very rare civil or succession wars is made of untrained or badly trained rabble. Steelshanks Walton is actually a very noteworthy example for this, as the guy is apparently one of Roose's most trusted lieutenants. Yet the man is not, in fact, a paid man-at-arms nor the Northern equivalent of a household knight. He is a peasant who has the feudal obligation to follow his lord to war when he calls on him. Which he likely does only once or twice per generation. If such a man plays such a crucial role in Roose's army this does tell us a lot about how military matters work. Jaime differentiates between such guys and the likes of professional soldiers who are basically sellsword/freerider scum. Whenever George actually portrays details we get the 'the lords draft (untrained) peasants to war' narrative, while the notion that there is some kind of invisible well-trained class of feudal levies outside the lordly/landed knight sphere is literally based on nothing but projections into summary descriptions of battlefields. Also, by the very fact of the history and world we talk about here - large scale wars are effectively unheard of, happen but once or twice a century (and then they only last 1-2 years). There is no foreign enemy to fear, merely certain local or regional threats to some people in the vicinity of Westeros (Ironborn at certain times, wildlings in the North/Vale, Dornish conflicts). That means this society doesn't need many professional soldiers. They are needed to guard and man a castle, to keep the peasants in line, to put down local rebellions, and to hunt down brigands and outlaws. Every lord is called upon to keep the King's Peace in his own domains, so his liege lord doesn't need a force strong enough to do his bannerman's job on his bannerman's domains. And with there being effectively little to no wars, most knights and such have effectively no battle or war experience. The great warriors Daemon Blackfyre and Robert Baratheon most likely had no actual war or battle experience prior to their respective rebellions. Aside from tourneys and, perhaps, outlaw hunting.

The issue is kind of odd, as the question is not how 'realistic' some culture or military equipment is, but more what narrative role certain groups play in the story. The Dothraki as such might eventually play a role in the Dany plot ... but so far she has yet to win their allegiance. However, if she does, then their role is not going to be that of moronic cannon fodder as there would be no need to introduce them as such. After all, the Dothraki last featured prominently in AGoT, and up until the last Dany chapter of ADwD (and the silly show) we didn't even have textual evidence that Dany might have the time and opportunity to get even with the Dothraki khals she wants to punish, nor any good reason to believe she could end up as their divine leader. If the latter were to happen there will be a narrative reason for this, a reason why Daenerys will get access to hundreds of thousands of capable and willing fighters ... and that reason is likely not going to be for such a campaign to fail in a fight against peasants with sticks. The entire Aegon plot shows that a Targaryen pretender might be able to win the Iron Throne only with a core contingent of 10,000 foreign and opportunistic sellswords. Dany has three dragons and could thus the same easily enough. But that isn't her plot, obviously. In that sense this is similar to people going on about how Euron Greyjoy should be crushed completely by Paxter Redwyne as he is actually commanding the largest military fleet in Westeros while Euron is actually lacking the Iron Fleet right now, which happens to be the actual proper Ironborn war fleet. However, the plot is constructed as such that Euron Greyjoy as a character and danger would be entirely pointless if some featured extra with, perhaps, ten lines in the entire series were actually to crush him. Or would could go on about how Aegon's landing in the Stormlands is hopeless as the Golden Company are a bunch of self-serving sellswords with only 1,000 knights (and that only if all of them were at Griffin's Roost/Storm's End which they are not) about to face 30,000-40,000 of the Reach's finest, possibly even under the command of 'the finest soldier of the Realm' (which shouldn't amount to much, of course, but, anyway). Realistically, nobody should declare for Aegon as he not only pretends to be a dead guy but is put forth by a bunch of landless exiles with zero support from an actual Westerosi nobleman of standing and influence. Even if both Dornish armies were to come to his aid eventually they should still be crushed by the Tyrells. But that is not all that likely to happen. Larger armies, better equipment, etc. will not be the deciding in those cases. And if push comes to shove magic will do the trick. As will most likely be the case with Euron vs. Paxter. We could go on about Stannis vs. Roose. Stannis lost effectively his entire cavalry and the Freys and Boltons should easily enough make short work of whatever 'cavalry' the clansmen brought. But that is not likely what's going to happen there, either.

One way to make Rook's Rest more fun would be to have the Blacks not be morons and have them arrive there with more than one dragon, so things really escalate. As they don't seem to want to portray Helaena post-Blood & Cheese as a weeping, unwashed madwoman confined to her rooms (which would effectively translate to little or zero screen time for her), I'd not be surprised if the Greens brought Sunfyre, Vhagar, and Dreamfyre to Rook's Rest, while the Blacks arrive with, say, Syrax, Meleys, and Moondancer. Sticking to the book narrative to a point, we could have the dragonriders reveal their presence in succession in an attempt to intimidate the other side into a retreat ... with it then going terribly wrong. Size does matter in such clashes: Vhagar is the largest dragon alive, and Dreamfyre would likely be the third largest. A bit smaller than Vermithor but, perhaps, larger than Silverwing. And we have to keep in mind that if Helaena does never actually ride Dreamfyre on screen in this show - aside from, what?, two frames in season 1 - then the inclusion of that dragon is effectively just a waste of CGI money. The Storming of the Dragonpit could just as well work with Syrax as the big dragon inside rather than Dreamfyre - or a changed number of dragons. It could also be great narrative buildup for future events if Baela is there. She is effectively Rhaenys' foster daughter in the show, and it could make sense to have her dance with Aegon II a bit before they have their kind of random clash at Dragonstone much later. Rhaenys' death could be more tragic/meaningful if she sacrifices herself so that Rhaenyra and/or Baela can get away from Rook's Rest. Afterwards we could have Baela as a character who really pushes for vengeance and a escalation of the war.

Jaehaerys II already started to abolish some of his father's reforms, most likely because they were very much opposed by the lordly establishment. Tywin is later also praised for doing away with them completely, which makes it even more quite clear that the nobility hated those reforms as a class. I'd not be surprised if mostly honorable lords opposed those reforms. Chances are not so bad that Egg's most fervent opponents might turn out to be a younger Jon Arryn and Edwyle Stark. (In that context it is actually noteworthy that Edwyle's sister Jocelyn married into the lesser branch of House Royce of the Vale. Could turn out to be a marriage contract made at a time while Jon Arryn was the informal leader of the anti-reformist agenda. Keep in mind that Jon's first wife was one Jeyne Royce who could have been a sister to Jocelyn's husband Benedict Royce.) Gerold and eventually Tytos Lannister were not only Targaryen men but, at least specifically Gerold, Egg men. Ditto, one imagines, the Laughing Storm prior to the Jenny affair. We should also assume that the betrothals made with the Tyrells, Tullys, and Redwynes were not attempts to turn determined opponents of Egg and his policies into supporters - hard to imagine if their own class interests were at stake - but rather to forge ties with very influential houses who had been, so far, neutral on the question of reforms. If that is (loosely) accurate, then the two remaining great houses spearheading severe opposition to Egg's reforms would indeed be the Starks and the Arryns - with the spurned houses eventually using the rejection of their children as a pretext to also join the opposition. Of course, it is also possible that some mid-tier lords rose to prominence and influence while championing the opposition to Egg's reforms. It is also possible that opposition only took up steam later and was actually led by members of the spurned families (aside from the Baratheons who were pacified with the Rhaelle-Ormund match), namely the Tyrells, Tullys, and Redwynes. But I do get a feeling that there is a good chance that the Starks and Arryns wouldn't be happy with a king trying to curtail their ancient rights and privileges. Dorne should stay out of the whole affair, I think, as the union made it clear that Dornish law would always prevail in Dorne, meaning the Iron Throne wouldn't have to right to implement changes there. Not to mention that Dorne is a more progressive society in many aspects, anyway.

No, we don't know that, as the Epilogue as published makes it clear that Kevan and Mace made the decision to send Swyft to Braavos, not some queen. That 'the queen' that is talked about in the Mercy sample chapter actually is Cersei is also just a supposition, as the queen in question is not named. As I said above, it is not just that. Yes, the Epilogue would have to be rewritten, but we would also need more Cersei chapters in ADwD for the Mercy chapter to make sense there as Raff still has to return to KL and Swyft would have to get his mission specifically from Cersei. Also, of course, the plot of Varys murdering the Lord Regent in the Epilogue to create more turmoil would not work in such a scenario as a Cersei sending Swyft to Braavos would need to run the government again for such a decision - but a Kevan toppled as the regent by a Cersei getting out of prison somehow would not be needed to be murdered by Varys. This notion that

The entire point was that the idea that Mercy could have featured in ADwD it the sample chapter form would only make sense if the Epilogue is heavily rewritten and a lot of Cersei chapters are finished and added to ADwD to set up a scenario where 'the queen' [Cersei] sends Swyft to Braavos. George's own words make that very unlikely as the decision to move Mercy to TWoW was apparently made shortly before publication of ADwD. It is much more likely that the sample chapter as given is a slightly earlier version as Swyft will leave KL only after the discovery of the double murder and George had no intention to spoil what is going to happen in the city after the corpses are found.

That would make little sense in context as Cersei sending Swyft would have to mean the trial(s) already took place when he left - not to mention Cersei seizing power again somehow, against overwhelming odds. Mace Tyrell is Hand of the King right now, and while she might believe the Tyrells murdered Kevan and Pycelle, the Tyrells themselves are likely to believe she was behind the double murder - and they have the power to arrest her, accuse her of being behind the double murder, and condemn her in the same kind of sham trial that declared Tyrion guilty of regicide. Cersei herself has no power to arrest and accuse Mace or Margaery or Randyll in a similar manner. In fact, as Cersei is effectively under house arrest and constantly watched and attended by the High Septon's septa guardians, it is hard to imagine that she could even try to hatch a scheme to do anything. She couldn't even talk alone with Qyburn right now. And the Tyrells have no reason or motivation to ease the conditions of her house arrest.

But then we don't talk attractiveness but rather if somebody is a proper long term partner, etc. Attractiveness usually doesn't involve family history. However, anyone who actually were to ditch their husband/wife or long term partners because of something their parents did before their birth is still an asshole to me - and I daresay also to most other decent human beings. Being born of incest or black magic doesn't contribute to hotness positively or negatively as you simply don't know that about a person, fictional or otherwise, when you meet them and your body and mind tell you if they are hot or not. It would be equally silly for me to say Maegor is 'hot' because he is the product of sibling incest or black magic because that has literally nothing to do with him as a person or how he would affect me if we were meeting somehow. It is akin to saying somebody is hot because their parents both had dark hair or both were working as physicians.

And what would then have happened after Maelys Blackfyre died? If the sword was with the company and there was no heir, why should the captain-general not claim and wield it? The Golden Company would not expect some Aegon plan to eventually be made back in 260 AC. Rhaegar wasn't the king. So of course he would not wield the sword of kings. Aerys II would have had it somewhere and Varys would have stolen it. Like he may have taken little Aegon. That nobody talks about the whereabouts of Blackfyre or Dark Sister is odd in any case, never mind where they are.

Sure. But the earlier established fact was that Blackfyre is important enough as a symbol of kingship that it being a gift to some bastard can mean 'the throne' in the eyes of a lot of people. And that is not really reflected in the history depicted in FaB and, more so, in TWoIaF.

They don't have it, or else Strickland would wield it. It may have been in one of the chests ... but Illyrio started as a poor bravo and Varys as a slave boy. Neither inherited or owned a Valyrian steel sword. More to the point, Haegon Blackfyre gives up his sword before he dies and the same war sees Bittersteel captured after his second duel with Bloodraven. Would be a miracle if somebody absconded with the sword. Ditto for Daemon III who was cut down in battle by Dunk. More to the point: If Aerys I recovered the sword of kings it might make more sense that Egg allows Bloodraven to keep Dark Sister. If they had no Valyrian steel sword left the guy would have gone swordless to the Wall.

That is a decision by the author, not a fact of history. There were ways to make Blackfyre more prominent although I do agree in principle that dragons were more important than swords at that time. However, the symbolism of Blackfyre as 'the sword of kings' isn't something that can reasonably have developed in the wake of the Dance as Aegon III, Baelor the Blessed, Viserys II, and Aegon IV were all exactly not very martial kings, either. To them the sword would have been as important as it was to Aenys or Viserys I. But the Blackfyre narrative makes little sense if not all the kings before did actually own and wield Blackfyre in a visible manner, nor would make it much sense if nobody stressed the importance of this ancient heirloom as something that symbolized Targaryen kingship. Aegon IV giving Blackfyre to Daemon can only be exploited by the Blackfyre partisans as an important symbolic act if it were universally accepted that the sword did symbolize the kingship - or was at least an important token of Targaryen kingship in pre-Blackfyre history. That would be a stretch as, to our knowledge, he also didn't take his crown (which was in the possession of the Prince Regent). Aegon II did not flee KL of his own free will - he was dragged out of the castle by Larys Strong and handed to one of his cronies. And the point of all that was to hide Aegon from Rhaenyra. Allowing him to keep Blackfyre would have been a huge risk in light of where Larys was sending Aegon. He executed some Grand Maesters and wives and others with it, not to mention also wielding it during the battles he fought - which would not necessarily all have seen him seated on dragonback all the time. They weren't that contrived, as what Jaehaerys does there is very much in line with how chivalry is depicted in ASoIaF. They could have gone with the duel he fought for Laena's hand to go with something from the book. But showing how dragon warfare wasn't everything on the Stepstones was not bad ... as the dragon didn't help him to really conquer or hold this kingdom of his. There is no such rule for Dark Sister, actually, as Prince Baelon was not necessarily more accomplished than Prince Aemon. The fact that Aenys gave Blackfyre to Maegor is actually undermining the 'the sword of the kings' narrative, as Aenys was unquestionably the second king of the Targaryen line, the one from whom all the later kings are descended from. With this event undermining such a narrative, there should have been later events highlighting how Blackfyre is actually connected and contributing to the kingship. For Jaehaerys I we do have that, but not for Viserys I and the Dance. It is possible that Aegon III will wield it in whatever campaigns he has to fight against fake Daerons and Aemond's son. And there is Daeron I. But then the sword should feature less prominently until given to Daemon Blackfyre. And keep in mind the sword is viewed pretty much as a crown or a royal scepter by the time of the Second Blackfyre Rebellion. Daemon II lacking it at Whitewalls undermines his cause with his own followers in no small degree. It is also possible that the Targaryens actually recovered the sword after the deaths of either Haegon or Daemon III. It could have been lost during the Sack of King's Landing rather than remaining with the Blackfyre pretenders/Golden Company or Varys/Illyrio.

Come on, now, the manner of your birth/conception doesn't figure into that. Why not say we don't find children born of rape attractive? Or people raised by gay couples? Or people whose parents were criminals? Better still: People who were conceived by artificial insemination or sperm/egg donation or by way of surrogate mothers? Bottom line is - the manner of your birth/conception doesn't figure into people's criteria of attractiveness. If it did, we would all have to need to know more about people we find attractive than we do when that decision is made. And anyone rejecting a partner they originally liked and had no problem to be with once they find out that their parents were closely related is an asshole.

Not in the order of events, but they are ordered in such a way that the reader is not spoiled about crucial events that happened at another place around the same time or somewhat earlier. POVs can and are only ahead of other characters if and when it doesn't spoil things. If it seems some things are spoiled - like with Cersei receiving news about Davos' execution at White Harbor, say - then we have every reason to not take such news at face value. Ditto with the news about the Hound's death, etc. Not only that, but the Epilogue gives us the new and final version of how and why Raff and Harys end up in Braavos - as per a decision by the Small Council made under Kevan and Mace and as per informal advice Kevan gave Harys shortly thereafter (to hire some of the Mountain's men who arrives in KL with Red Ronnet Connington). I don't think Cersei 1 of TWoW will necessary feature Harys Swyft or Raff, but we should get a few lines about Cersei hearing or learning that Harys Swyft effectively fled the city in the wake of the double murder, giving the earlier decision of the Small Council to send him to Braavos as a pretext/excuse. When Cersei was arrested, the rats fled court (Aurane Waters, the Merryweathers). The double murder should have a similar effect - especially with the last remaining Lannister crony on the council. Even more so as Harys as Kevan's father-in-law would very likely fear that the unknown murderers might actually want to put him down, too. He was rather close to the guy. It is also pretty easy to make the Mercy chapter fit with current events. All George has to do is to change the talk of the soldiers (they could gossip about the walk of shame or the double murder or even about non-political issues) and, perhaps, change the description of Harys Swyft's looks (he should be more haunted) and his general mission in Braavos. Shouldn't take much time/effort. I think the best way would be to have Harys in Braavos as an effective refugee who feigns or pretends to be there on the Iron Throne's business. The idea that he would be keen to return to the viper's nest that's KL soon or at all would be a big stretch. At least not before the situation there has been really resolved.

Nope, you listed Maegor's bad character traits and then beat him up for the manner of his conception: Being born of his incest should have no bearing on anyone's attractiveness in any case. It is not something you will ever learn about a partner or spouse unless they know and tell you. There are people out there who are the result of intentional or unintentional incest (e.g. people born from couples who met without knowing they are closely related). You even get that in the books when Sam never even has bad thoughts about Gilly's double or triple incestuous background as well as she herself participating in incest and giving birth to an incest child.

I remember commenting on how absent a 'king's sword' Blackfyre was when TWoIaF first came out. Back then Dark Sister was talked about and featured a lot as Visenya's, Maegor's, Jaehaerys', and Daemon's sword ... while Blackyre was the trinket Aenys gave away, basically. FaB gave more context to the early history of Blackfyre by making it clearly Maegor's favorite sword after Aenys gave it to him and by making it the sword Jaehaerys trained with and wielded in battle and duel throughout his long reign. But it is still a pretty big oversight to have this important symbol of kingship play literally no role at all during the reign of Viserys I and, especially, during the Dance. Hell, it would have made a lot of sense to have Viserys I pull an Aenys and give Aegon Blackfyre as a gift to celebrate his knighthood as Rhaenyra as a traditional woman would have had neither the skills nor the wish to wield the sword herself. That, in turn, could then have been a way for the Green loyalists to argue that Aegon should be king and also a precedent the Blackfyre partisans could cite later to back their own narrative. In light of all that it is actually a pretty big surprise that anyone would think - or care to clam - that 'the sword is the kingdom' after the Unworthy gives it to Daemon. Aegon III, Baelor, Viserys II, and the Unworthy himself are not likely to do any crucial or important feats with Blackfyre. Daeron I might to a point ... but he will lose the sword upon his death only for Baelor to get it back from the Dornish, so whatever his deeds ... he lost the sword of the kings along with his life. HotD remedied that to a point by having Viserys I wield the sword whenever he sits the Iron Throne or shows up in all his regal power. I do hope the sword will also feature prominently in the show, both as an actual weapon and a symbol of kingship. Notably, I hope it will pass from Aegon II to Rhaenyra and back to him to show the transfer of royal power. I also don't want Aemond or anyone else wield it while Aegon is incapacitated as that would undermine it as a symbol of kingly authority. An idea I like to toss around is that Rhaenyra is going to use Blackfyre to personally behead Otto Hightower. Second-best version would have Daemon do it with Dark Sister, but I do have a feeling that show Rhaenyra might go with 'she who delivers the sentence should wield the sword'. I do expect that Alys Rivers will indeed recover Vhagar's carcass and Aemond's corpse along with Dark Sister, possibly with the help of her magics/visions, handing it to her son who will wield it in whatever fight is going to take place between him and Aegon III. As this will take place around 150 AC, most likely, we might also see the young Dragonknight doing his first bold deeds during that war/campaign, being rewarded by his royal uncle with the sword as a testimony to his bravery.

Indeed. But more importantly, trials or no trials, the Epilogue would take place after both the Mercy chapter and whatever Cersei trial chapters there could have been in ADwD. If we take George at face value in the well-known quote you gave he would have to do a lot more than deciding shortly before publication of ADwD to move the Mercy chapter to TWoW. Instead, he would have to rewrite the Epilogue so as to have Swyft gone there and erase all the build-up for Swyft hiring Raff (which is connected to Red Ronnet Connington talk, etc.) since all that would have to have happened earlier, supposedly in some Cersei chapters, reorder events in his mind or in Cersei chapters already existing in some form so now the trials take place after the double murder from the Epilogue. This would be no small feat. Also, of course, it makes absolutely no sense to imagine that Cersei could have been 'in charge' again to the degree that Cersei could threaten to execute Kevan's father-in-law on a whim. Kevan was the duly appointed Lord Regent and Cersei winning her trial doesn't magically restore her to the regency or gives her otherwise the power to run the government. It is rather obvious that whatever the Mercy chapter is ... it is no accurate source on what transpired in KL after the Epilogue in its sample chapter form. Just as the Arianne sample chapters aren't, either. And I daresay having the book conclude with the double murder in the manner presented was something that was rather crucial to the conception of the entire book. George has hinted at Varys being still in KL for a long, long time before the publication of ADwD (my location line prior to ADwD was 'supposedly somewhere in King's Landing'). If Cersei has a chance for regaining the regency or some other fraction of real power in Tommen's government, it could only happen after Pycelle and Kevan are dead and gone. But even then a coup which puts her in charge in the way she seems to be in the Mercy chapters seems very unlikely. At least in the foreseeable future. With another army of Westermen and/or Euron's help she could eventually rise to the top again ... but she lacks both right now. And that is very intentional as the plot seems set up a swift collapse of the Lannister-Tyrell regime and Aegon's s rise to the Iron Throne in record time. The way 'the queen' is talked about in the sample chapter clearly is Cersei as she was pre-arrest and pre-walk. In fact, considering the timeline it is also quite odd that the scum guys don't exchange stories about the naked whore queen in the gutters - not to mention that it is not part of general talk in Braavos at this time.

Not sure your opinion is worth much as you are actually blaming/beating up fictional people for the manner of their birth. Maegor definitely was an asshole of enormous proportions ... but he is not to be blamed for the fact that his parents were married or that his mother may have conceived him with magic. Also, it is quite clear that the Targaryens are all stunningly beautiful in absence of their pale and purple eyes. Their bodies are all well built, their skin is spotless and smooth, etc. They even don't sweat much in heat which is most definitely an instant turn on, lol. Even the ones with physically deformities like Aegon II's son Jaehaerys are likely to be physically beautiful freaks with too many toes or fingers. Viserys III looked like a more slender version of Rhaegar. Which means he was the wet dream of the maidens in the Realm. Some of them tend to overindulge themselves, like Viserys I or Aegon IV in his later life ... but then they are just fat beautiful people. Robert was a handsome man in his youth, too, had he lost some weight he would have been a dashing guy in his mid-30s in AGoT.

All Targaryens are physically beautiful.

Yeah, also Swyft seems in no hurry to return to KL in the sample chapter nor is he aghast or sad over the death of his son-in-law - who happens to be Ser Kevan Lannister. That makes both little sense as Tommen's government is in dire needs of funds at that point, so he would either be determined to get more money as quickly as possible ... or jump on the chance to settle in comfortable exile in Braavos. But he does neither. He acts like a guy who has all the time in the world and who isn't under any immediate pressure. It was never supposed to appear as it was in ADwD as Cersei would never have been the queen who sent Harys Swyft to Braavos. That makes sense only in a setting in which the chapter is the first or one of the first Arya chapters of AFfC - at a time when Cersei was still completely in control of the government in KL. Any scenario in which 'Mercy' is going to be published unchanged and which has Cersei as the queen in question would push it back further and further as there would be a number of Cersei (or other new KL POVs) covering a number of events: - Aftermath of the double murder. - Trial(s) of the queen(s). - Plans for a coup. - Execution of a successful coup against the Tyrells and/or the Faith with the result of Cersei being completely and unquestionably in charge. - Decision to keep on Ser Harys Swyft as Master of Coin and sending him to Braavos as Kevan and Mace intended. That would need a number of chapters which would, most likely, not be included in the book in row after each other, but with a number of other chapters in-between. In the aftermath of Kevan's death it is already a bit of stretch that Swyft would stay on as Master of Coin. His son-in-law was his only ally on the council, so we can expect him to half flee from KL to Braavos since the mission he was already given gives him an excuse. The idea that he would stay at court long enough for Cersei to magically regain power - and then to work for him or she keeping this useless craven as Master of Coin (remember: Swyft and Pycelle betrayed her by offering the regency to Kevan and refusing to use the City Watch to free her from the Great Sept - which they could have done or tried to do before Randyll Tarly and Mace Tyrell showed up in the city) - is very far-fetched indeed. If Cersei were to regain the regency Harys would either die or be dismissed. Cersei would appoint new men she could trust. Swyft she never trusted, he was only added to her Small Council because he served as a kind of hostage against Kevan. She would certainly not send Swyft to Braavos where he might fuck things up further or never return to KL. In general, though, all sample chapters are not, in fact, finished and open to revision. We see this, for instance, with the Tyrion, Dany, and Jon sample chapters from ADwD. The Alayne sample chapter is so unfinished that it is still riddled with typos.

It is an unfinished chapter and likely reflects a status quo prior to Cersei and Margaery's arrest. The talk referencing KL in that chapter makes no mention of Kevan's death, the trials of the queens, or the threat Tommen's reign faces both from Aegon and the High Septon and thus doesn't fit with events after the Epilogue. The chapter was originally supposed to be in ADwD, so it would have taken place before the Epilogue. The Epilogue already made it clear that Cersei isn't going to send Harys Swyft to Braavos. The Small Council and Mace/Kevan decided that already. And the guy who might take his head if he were to fail is not going to be some queen - be it Cersei or Margaery - but Mace and Randyll. It is similar in that regard to the Alayne sample chapter as that, too, makes no references yet to the events in the last Alayne chapter - poisoning plot, Winterfell-North plan, etc. Even the Harry situation is somewhat off as AFfC established that Lady Waynwood would not force Harry into the match ... while the sample chapter implies they are already betrothed before they even met. There will be considerable rewriting in both chapters. She might eventually ally with Euron, but Euron can't help her in the city. Cersei has no men who are loyal to her left aside from, perhaps, some Lannister guardsmen. The City Watch is run by the Humfrey Waters guy she doesn't even know, the Faith Militant control Visenya's Hill (at least), and there are 30,000-40,000 Reach men under Mace Tyrell's command in the city. Cersei has no way to seize power in the capital at this point. Even if she were to win her trial.

Cersei is a political non-factor right now. She doesn't run the government and she lacks the men and the (moral) authority to seize power after Kevan's murder. What she thinks and says and wants to do will have very little effect on King Tommen's defense of KL or his campaigns against Aegon. Even if she were to magically seize power somehow, she would still lack the authority to actually do much as chance are zero that the Reach troops would follow her in the wake of the Margaery situation. That is a very likely scenario for a number of reasons some of which are connected to the Ser Robert Strong situation. Once his nature and identity is revealed - possibly only after Lady Nym and Tyene are already in the city - Dorne will never stand with the Tommen regime. Even if they thought Aegon was fake before, they would not suffer this monstrous slight. Also, we can assume that the High Septon is not going to approve a trial-by-combat victory won by zombie magic. That would be insane. A duel between two people where one happens to be undead (and thus, perhaps, almost inviolable) is a sham. So if Gregor's identity and nature were to be revealed during/after the trial-by-combat, Cersei could be declared loser even if Ser Robert wins. And that would also declare Tommen and Myrcella Jaime's bastards. From that point on the Tommen government would quickly collapse and we are likely to see massive riots in the city with the Tyrells standing aside as Margaery can't gain anything from staying connected with confirmed pretender bastard. Aegon will then be handed the city on a silver platter with no fighting between the Kingslanders/Tyrells and his forces. It looks as if some part of the Tyrell army will fight Aegon at Storm's End - or somewhere between Storm's End and KL - but if that actually happens should depend on when exactly the trial-by-combat takes place. Kevan's murder could also lead to it being postponed or cancelled right away depending on if Cersei is accused of Kevan and Pycelle's murder or not. If the Tyrell army is soundly defeated by the Golden Company and their allies this should also lead to further destabilization in the city - which could also be destabilized further if Mace and Randyll decided to cancel Margaery's Faith trial in favor of Tommen declaring her innocent - as Tarly suggested they do. The point of a Myrcella match would likely be that of Aegon strengthening his claim for the time being against Tommen. If the Golden Company would capture her and Nym on the way to KL - which is still possible, I think - this could be a nice way to destabilize Tommen's 'reign'. But Myrcella would then just be a placeholder - like Jaehaera - who Connington would quickly get rid of as soon as Aegon has taken KL. If she is dead, then she won't be a good match. But if the twincest were to be confirmed by the High Septon, the Tyrells could cut their ties with Tommen before he actually goes down - that would free them to try to marry Margaery to Aegon. Whether that will be a success is hard to say. Arianne (and Myrcella) are likely to reach Aegon first, and if Aegon does fall for Arianne and/or Arianne's hand will be her price for Dorne declaring for Aegon (which is not unlikely at all) then he won't have any other choice but to marry her. Margaery might then simply come too later. But if Dorne declares for Aegon without insisting on an Aegon-Arianne match then Margaery is the best possible match. With her would come the strength and support of the Tyrells which isn't something Aegon and his followers can dismiss easily.