Lord Varys

Not sure what you mean there. I'd say Tolkien's interpretation of the Ring's destruction as 'divine intervention' is just one of many as the way he wrote the story can also attribute to Gollum's clumsiness or simply a lucky coincidence. Well, me, of course, as it is my take on the stories. I'm quite sure you won't try to tell me it is a crucial feature of Christian beliefs (or the substance of the average Christian story) that there are Elves and Half-Elves who can choose immortality and who are then going to spend eternity in a literal ship in the sky playing the role of Venus ... rather than, you know, be with his wife and children. The idea that heroes are transformed into stars in the sky is a rather crucial feature of various non-Christian mythologies. You conflate history and religion again. The FA of Middle-earth isn't religion, it is history for the people we talk about. Again, the kings literally wield the sword of Elu Thingol. And all the histories and lore they would have access to are not comparable to religious texts but rather to historical texts. And nobody walks around and claims that a well-attested era of our history only a couple of generations in the past (which is actually the case for the long-lived people we talk about here) was invented or faked. That they started to view things differently than their ancestors is also clear - but the way it is written it makes them appear to be stupid morons as no sane person would end up believing Sauron over the Valar or actually think it was great to worship Morgoth. And the same also goes for the inaction of the Valar and Eldar who effectively did nothing to prevent the tragedy. That is the kind of thing which triggered the whole discussion. Most of those stories are rather, say, badly written tragedies where people actually do walk into the dragon's mouth knowing what they are doing. That effectively goes for all the 'evil' or 'tragic' figures, starting with Melkor (who knows that Eru is in charge and all his efforts are in vain), Feanor, Thingol, Turgon, Túrin, etc. The Fall of Númenor is just one of the most glaring examples, I think. This also includes Sauron in the early SA as well as Saruman and Denethor later. They all know what's right and what's wrong, but they do the bad thing, anyway. For 'reasons' that are rarely, if ever, clear. They were in contact with Gil-galad since Aldarion's time, and certainly would have had contacts with him and his people once they established their colonies. I do agree that Pharazôn wouldn't have cared much about his or Elrond's opinion, but there is a long time of decline there. Thinking a bit about it, the textual history of the Akallabêth shows how Tolkien also failed to truly connect it with the later texts, i.e. LotR. Interactions with Elves mainly/only mean Tol Eressëa in that text when the long history of colonies in Middle-earth would mean that most contacts with the Elves would take place on that continent. It is also rather odd that they never invited any Elves to live with them in days after Aldarion went back to Middle-earth or that the island didn't become a place Eldar going to Tol Eressëa would visit there. Well, Elrond isn't a real person. The way to phrase that issue is that the author failed to portray him in a manner that would make sense due to his family connections. Boromir is clearly lacking the insight his father and brother have ... and Denethor is not tricked by silly stories about Melkor being the good guy, but rather by a magical stone showing him real images in a wrong context. Not to mention that the man is also pissed on a deeply personal level that the returning king will take everything he deems his from him. Senile Pharazôn pulling a Denethor and worshipping Morgoth etc. does make a certain sense as I conceded above ... but an entire people - many of them younger people whose deaths will be decades or even centuries away - following suit not so much.

Better ask the High Septon what he and his crazed followers want to do to 'devil worshippers'. The point being there is that Stannis burned his own property, not the property of a religion or even other people. He didn't decree that his bannermen on Driftmark, Claw Isle, Massey's Hook, etc. also do burn their own property. That is irrelevant. The point of our discussion is your characterization of R'hllorism as an 'iconoclastic religion', not the real or imagined flaws of this or that follower of that religion. Tywin happens to be an Andal and a lord. Does this mean all Andal lords have their guardsmen rape their minor daughters-in-law? It also has to do with the religion as practiced in that city. The Braavosi red priests obviously have not yet taken over Braavos nor driven out all other religions ... which is what they should have done if they are as aggressive as you paint them since exploiting religious tolerance is a rather easy way to win converts. Nope, in light of the fact that R'hllorism is no new religion and a huge red temple is standing there in Volantis this issue raises the same question as in Volantis. Your theory is just pretty bad, obviously. It is also rather interesting that 'R'hllorism' is even a particularly united religion. There is no leader running things and there are cultural differences to the various types of red priests we met so far. Volantene red priests are slaves and tattooed whereas Myrish are neither, and Braavosi red priests can't be slaves for obvious reasons. The author himself has already told us that Melisandre's own motivations and beliefs are decidedly different from that of other red priests. Not that we needed him to say that - it was obvious since we met Thoros and even more so after we met Benerro and Moqorro.

LOL, you say one attack on a Great Old One idol whose followers practice a heinous 'religion', the claim the red priests always 'burn this or that', and Melisandre equal that this religion is, on average, more extreme than others. That is nonsense in light of the fact that we have a number of crucial red priests and their followers not doing this stuff. Most crucial is the fact that there is religious freedom and tolerance in Braavos where there are followers of R'hllor and even more importantly that R'hllorism is a rather influential religion among the slaves of Volantis with a hugely impressive and expensive temple ... and so far the High Priest Benerro has also not tried to attack the gods and beliefs of the Valyrian ruling class of the city. In fact, Dany is only crucial for him as Azor Ahai Reborn, not as a means to overthrow the other religions in Volantis. I think that is a good chance that we will see the High Septon and Aegon start a crusade against Thoros' converts in the Riverlands and as the threat of Euron (and thus, in a sense, the power of the Drowned God would increase even if there aren't (m)any converts) increases they will also do away with the religious tolerance earlier High Septons had towards the minority religions in Westeros. How red priests in Dany's retinue will be seen by the time she shows will depend on when she shows and how far winter and the Long Night have advanced by then. I'm sure R'hllor will gain more and more followers in winter in Westeros. The entire point of the Thoros plot in the Riverlands is to lay they groundwork for that. Just as it is no coincidence at all that R'hllor apparently resurrects the dead and not the Seven or the old gods. Stannis burned the idols in his own sept on Dragonstone, just as he burned his very own godswood at Storm's End. That is his right, just as it his right to kill people who presume to 'guard' his property against their rightful owner ... not to mention defying their king. That is a crucial thing. Most readers don't really understand Melisandre. She wants the people who join her to be fully on her side, especially Stannis, and that involves breaking with old traditions, etc. But as we see her attitude towards Davos, the lukewarm fake convicts among her flock, and Jon Snow it is quite clear that she hasn't as much issue with dissenting opinions or religious as one thought when seeing her only through Cressen's and Davos' eyes. The crucial thing is that the fate of the world is at stake.

Yes, I know. And I do think there is a good chance that something like that happens. But regarding Margaery and the Tyrell situation in general we have to keep in mind that the Faith might yet conduct its trial which could go wrong for Margaery and Arianne/Aegon could decide to unleash the Dornish army in the Prince's Pass against Highgarden before they move against KL to further distract/weaken the Reach before they move to depose Tommen. After all, with Willas and Garlan occupied with the Ironborn threat on the Shields the chance for the Dornishmen to actually capture Highgarden itself is not exactly low. If any such things were to happen then the potential for a peace between Aegon and the Tyrells might even be gone before Aegon's forces take KL. While the Sand Snakes do have a lot of potential to wreak havoc I think Tyene's chances to mess with Margaery during the trial might be better than Nym's chance to actually murder Tommen or Myrcella. Nym will come with a retinue to KL but the Red Keep is full of Lannister and Tyrell guardsmen. Tommen (and Myrcella, if/when she arrives at the castle) should be pretty safe from direct attacks, especially in the wake of the double murder. No chance for any royal to go anywhere unattended. Nym could repeat Gregor's stunt if/when the city falls to Aegon's forces, though.

It would be very strange if they were cutting Marston Waters to replace him with some other original character. And I don't think Marston even makes sense as a crony of Aegon II. The point of his character is more that he is, overall, a more decent character than Aegon's other buddies and sycophants (men like the Toms, Alfred Broom, etc. in the book) and is thus actually deserving of the white cloak Aegon gives him. Even if he was involved in the Peake scheme to murder Aegon III and Daenaera much later on, he certainly was quite decent until then. The Eddard Waters fellow would more likely to be the show's take on the silent five which could then mean the man can die in some of the many battles. And thinking about that a bit - as the show will likely make the Dance last longer in-universe than it does in the books - so that Joffrey, Aegon III and Viserys II can grow up a bit - as well as considering the fact that Baela and Addam/Alyn will be older in the show, the chance is not so bad that Daenaera Velaryon - if we get her in the show at all - might be reconceived either as a child of Jace and Baela or as a child of Alyn and Baela. Daenaera is the ward of Alyn and Baela when she is married to Aegon III, so she is, in effect, their child, just not in the biological sense. That could easily enough be changed in the show. In the book Daenaera is born in 127 AC, so if the Dance were to last, say, five years rather than two in the show then the show canon could easily enough have Daenaera as Aegon III's child bride if she were, say, born in the second or third year of the war. Also, of course, if Aegon III is younger upon his ascension at the end of the war then the Regency era would last longer, allowing Daenaera to grow up some more before the wedding. While something like that is possible, I'd actually hope the show guys come around and restore (at least) some of the cut scenes to the episodes in some fashion. If you look at episode 9 then the cut of the Dalton Greyjoy thing seems to be a huge blunder. The interaction between Otto and Alicent after the Green Council has totally changed. Alicent feels betrayed by her father, and the whole 'hunt of Aegon' plot is supposed to determine the coming government. Alicent knows her father will cut her out of the new government if he were to be the kingmaker. That is something that makes little sense in the episode as aired as all the Green Council did there was to prepare for a coup without Alicent's knowledge - but a coup leading to a king she herself also wanted to make. So the idea that Alicent and Otto would not continue to work amicably together once the truth is out makes actually little sense. Ditto Alicent turning to Larys for information independent of Otto in that humiliating scene. This all makes more sense if she has realized that her father and his cronies plan to cut her out of the new government completely and send her to Pyke as mother-wife to a 16-year-old pirate. As things play out in episode 9 Alicent is the kingmaker now and she controls her son (so far), so the notion of marrying her off is something that must be off the table now. If this is a plot line they reintroduce in season 2 it would have to come through Aegon II himself (wanting to get rid of mommy, say) or Aemond, not so much Otto. Rather, I think, Alicent could come up with the idea that her father take a new bride. Alicent would have to mourn her late husband the king, whereas Otto is a widower for decades by then.

You are just trying to play up an issue. The R'hllorians are not more or less intolerant of other religions as (the current faction running) the Faith. And, of course, trying to burn down the idol of Shub-Niggurath is a noble and valiant thing. The vilest cult in the Free Cities we know so far is that of the Black Goat. Aegon will make matters worse simply by being there and fighting to gain the throne. And once (or if) he gets he will have to fight to keep it and to pacify the Realm. Hell, if he takes the Others seriously he even might to rise an army to march up north to help defend the Wall and crush Stannis and subdue the North on the way. Even if they were playing things nice - like they do in the Stormlands right now - they will be hated by the people they displace. If Tommen and Myrcella were merely deposed/captured the Westermen are still not going to cheer Aegon. And the Tyrells and the Reach won't just sagely nod if Margaery is deposed as queen because Aegon refuses to marry her. And since things are almost certainly set up in such a way that the High Septon will declare Aegon the rightful king and champion of the Seven chances are very good that the Tyrells won't make their peace with Aegon lightly or at all since the Faith actually dared to arrest Margaery - and might yet play a crucial role in destroying her reputation or even her person. The High Septon's attack on both queens was nothing short but suicidal in the long run as the chance that the Iron Throne and the noble elite will actually suffer this kind of behavior for long is ludicrous. Randyll Tarly already wants to butcher all the sparrows, and a King Tommen ruling in his own right might very well remember how his mother and wife were treated by the Faith in his childhood. That's it. Just as Stannis magically doesn't have 20,000 cavalrymen at the Blackwater never mind that he could have only won cavalry men at Storm's End as Renly only went there with his horsemen.

My point was that Tolkien himself knew the very setting and plot of the core stories in his mythology were not exactly 'Christian' in a meaningful sense. At best you can say they are not overly contradictory to a Christian mindset ... but even that is up to individual reader, their preference and their orthodoxy. You could, for example, easily enough make the case that an author whose writings are obsessed with 'Elves' and 'Elven longevity/immortality' for all his life kind of took the a wrong turn if he wanted to write about 'Christianity' in a meaningful sense. After all, if something Christian tradition doesn't exactly write about it is Elves and Dwarves and all that other pagan stuff. Tolkien is writer who wants reconcile the imaginary pagan Anglo-Saxon/Celtic mythology he imagined England deserved with his own Christian beliefs ... but he never actually succeeded at that as the themes, plots, and characters of his core mythological stories are decidedly non-Christian. Instead of creating a mythology for England (or at least a myth-cycle covering prehistory) he ended up being one of the founders of modern fantasy literature. Which is arguably the last thing the young man who started to write the LT wanted to be. No, it was clearly about the plot there. If you tell an Orpheus-and-Eurydike story then being able to soften the heart of the God of the Underworld should actually be the deciding factor. It should be about an individual's ability to touch the gods and also about the power of the god in question to grant a second life. But Tolkien's later rewrites and speculations undercut that plot. This is also why things like the flat world eventually don't work in his mind. Or why he, in my opinion, never got around to ever write a long account of Eärendil's story - never mind that he is very much at the center of the entire mythology, the very reason Tolkien started to write the LT. The notion that a hero is transformed into a star in the sky is a decidedly pagan idea, as is the entire early cosmology ... and the later somewhat reworked cosmology, too. It doesn't work as a story in a more sober, more reflected mythology. I don't blame him, I say that he couldn't do/finish the reworkings because the shift in meaning made it hard to impossible to reconcile the substance of the story with the way he wanted to interpret or view them. But we have to go what's in the text, and the text just says they wanted to conquer the Blessed Lands because they thought they granted immortality. That wouldn't have changed. There is ample evidence in LotR about the scope and depth of the knowledge of the Dúnedain in Middle-earth. Just think about the naming habits of the Stewards. Would they have Denethors and Ecthelions and Berens if they had no clue about the FA heroes? Whatever the Faithful knew back in the SA the royal party would have known, too. Didn't mean the Avari so much - although they would have interacted with them, too, during their colonization of Middle-earth - but rather the Eldar of Middle-earth. They knew, for instance, that Gil-galad and Elrond were immortal, too. And speaking about Elrond - knowing that he is the brother of their founding king it is utter silliness on behalf of Tolkien himself to not even address the issue that (1) Elrond may have wanted to reach out and help his grand-nephews on the island when things started to go wrong, and (2) that Elrond's intimate connection to the House of Elros was not something the members of the house themselves tried to exploit to understand the nature of Elvish immortality. Well, fake news can be believed, but the people we talk about here do have a special and deep insight due to their special nature. We can easily believe they might fall for cleverly constructed lies ... but the narratives we are given are full of holes. I mean, in the end we can, perhaps, see why senile Pharazôn feeling death approaching might be grasping at straws ... especially if he was spending a lot of time with Sauron. But it already starts to get complicated when we ask why his wife Miriel or his entire court would consider devil worship a great idea. Not to mention a war against the literal gods. They know their island was created by the Valar ... so the notion that it might be, you know, taken from them is not exactly far-fetched.

That is Stannis' problem, not that of the red priests in general. And even Melisandre got quite a few genuine converts, among Stannis' people, the watchmen, and even some wildlings. In the Free Cities the red priests are obviously not burning other gods or holy objects or else there would be real trouble up to civil war there. In fact, the only theocracies we know were not created by followers of R'hllor but in Lorath, Norvos, and Qohor. I didn't claim she will 'feed the people', I said she shouldn't have problems feeding her people, especially her armies. Taking food from the Westerosi should actually be an advantage as it will weaken (potential) enemies while strengthening her forces. Not sure you even remember what I'm talking about here. In AGoT it is clear that Robb has to march soon as his bannermen won't wait indefinitely at Winterfell, independent from the goal of the campaign. And I compared that to the Dornish situation to illustrate that George gives shit about the logistics of feeding armies - or even the minutiae of armies themselves. In a book series where 20,000 men can camp in a barren mountain pass environment for years without having problem feeding themselves the chances that such logistics come up as a significant plot point later are very low. George would make a fool of himself if one character/army had to struggle with such issues while they are literally non-existent for others. What we do know is that people buy and sell food, so unless Renly was stealing food from the people he expected to cheer him on he would have to buy the food from them. Which he could, to a point, with Tyrell money and through the Tyrells own food stores. But a 100,000 men plus their retinues and hangers-on, etc. do march through farmland and fields. They destroy crops that would have been due in the next harvest, etc. This whole campaign thing should have been a problem, especially on this scale. But it wasn't much of an issue. My point more was that I really don't expect them to die quickly. Earlier attempts to bring elephants to Westeros failed because they died on the ships (Corlys' elephants, for instance), but Harry apparently got some for the Golden Company earlier and they were robust enough to make it to Westeros. We can also speculate that Dany is going to arrive in Westeros as a blind cripple as lots and lots of stuff can happen on the way. But so far the dragons are in her control or kind of in the grasp of people who want to work with her (which goes for Victarion, Brown Ben, and Tyrion), so the idea that her determined enemies will be dragonriders is pretty outlandish at this point. It is like insisting Cersei is going to ally with Dany for some reason. And Drogon is now pretty much under Dany's control. She lacks a saddle and a whip, but it shouldn't be that hard to overcome that issue. You cannot really put yourself in the shoes of a Westerosi nobleman, right? They do not think like that, especially if they are dealing with a Targaryen dragonrider. Now you are turning around things again. Nobody dropped off Golden Company men on Tarth or Estermont because storms forced them to do this. During a storm you wouldn't even try to land on an unknown shore. They were dumped there because the ships were scattered and the captains didn't care where they were getting rid of their human cargo. Dany's captains won't be people having 'a duty to their ships' but a duty to their queen and her cause. Which would be a successful invasion. Not the preservation of a couple of ships at the expense of the queen's main objective. That silly lines came up quite some time ago in the story. Did Dany go south from Astapor to reach Meereen or Yunkai? Did she fly south to reach the Dothraki Sea in the north? And it is you who goes with the notion Dany will go to Westeros for conquest, to take the Iron Throne. If that were indeed the main goal it would be nonsense to not land at KL and take it. It would be utter stupidity to land somewhere else and march there through ice and snow. It is also quite ridiculous to assume she would do anything else as every succession or civil war for the Iron Throne so far involved the challenging power to march against KL. The Dance of the Dragons was basically a war between Dragonstone and KL. It has a decent wall and gates, but they can be breached easily enough. And might already be breached by some other pretender before Dany even shows up. And chances are very good that a good portion of the Kingslanders - perhaps even the majority - might prefer the dragonrider(s) overheard to the dragonless fake boy who might or might not be in the city by that time. LOL, what? Oh, so now we will have Long Nights magical storms to hinder Dany's invasion or trade across the Narrow Sea in general, but not wights or Others in Westeros at the same time causing (some/many) people there to consider allying with the vast armada and the dragons of the Dragon Queen? Right. You cannot have both. Not dead yet, but worn down to the point that they don't care about the propaganda you want them to fall for. And, of course, if there is anti-Dany propaganda then it will be aimed at the people, including peasants. That is obviously a huge exaggeration. LOL, Daenerys is a Targaryen. She is no foreigner. Christian nobility like the Habsburger would never intermarry with the Ottomans, but obviously every nobleman in Westeros would like Daenerys Targaryen as a wife or sister- or daughter-in-law. The Mongols were pretty cool, actually. And of course Black Balaq and Garys Edoryen and Lysono Maar are foreigners, just as Strickland and those self-styled Strongs and Coles and Mudds are scum, just as the bastards among them are. These people won't be welcomed with open arms in Westeros, especially if they want lands and titles and castles. Mace has all his money on Tommen. I told you that those are wrong. And whatever they have left is not going to join Aegon, that much is clear. They might end up joining Dany or they might help Euron bring Aegon down. But as I said - Aegon might very well think it is his job to pacify the Realm, to carry the war to Euron, Stannis, the Riverlands and wherever else there is trouble yet. And that will likely cost him dearly as winter has come. The lad will be drunk with power and victory if he wins the Iron Throne very quickly and easily. Since there are literally no sources on the effectiveness of the Volantene soldiers it makes no sense to even try to speculate about that. The crucial thing about the tiger soldiers is that they are many, fanatical followers of R'hllor whose High Priest tells them Dany is their savior/living god, and they were a powerful tool in Volantis' earlier wars - which they waged with and against the free companies in the Disputed Lands and elsewhere. They would be as professional as the Golden Company. I mean, you do notice that the triarchs are merely mildly concerned by the presence of the Golden Company in their lands, right? They don't think Volantis will fall in a fortnight to 10,000 professional Westerosi-style sellswords. That means they have reason to believe that they could crush the Golden Company easily enough. We also have Victarion pissing his pants once he learns that the Volantenes are on their way to Dany, too. He is a moron, but if he knows anything that how to guess and assess the strength of fighting men. He knows the Iron Fleet under his command can't stand against them. Feels like you are not exactly the most religiously tolerant person on the planet. R'hllor magic is real, the Seven are impotent phantoms. The Faith Militant and the new High Septon are another dead end, another distraction leading the people down the wrong path. That is a separate issue, as this is the World of Ice and Fire, so neither is going to go away. And of course fire will be a bare necessity in winter. This is a story about a fight of fire and warmth and life against ice, cold, and death. It is people plus three dragons against ice demons and their undead thralls. A very simple equation in the end. They are growing. Dany won't arrive in Westeros tomorrow. And chances are great that people will fall over themselves to convert to Thoros' god once the resurrection of 'Catelyn Stark' is a public fact and her forces actually put down the Lannisters and Freys in the Riverlands. Beric already had a lot of success in the underground, but the magical and miracle aspect of this whole movement will only gain traction once the effects are out in the open. Death is not necessary the end in this world. People can come back. And even if they are strange or somewhat twisted, nine of ten people will prefer such a resurrected loved one to a dead and cold corpse.

LOL, okay, but people in Westeros are needing fire and warmth in winter, so priests burning things (to get them warm) should be exactly their thing, especially in the Riverlands where the converts are spreading. These people won't have any issue with whatever followers of R'hllor Dany may or may not bring.

That is not the point. The point is that this whole issue is one of many where Tolkien failed to properly rework his pagan gods into proper angelic beings - which is only but one of many examples of him failing to properly rewrite his mythology which is, as originally conceived, decidedly more pagan than Christian. You can just take the core plot of Beren and Lúthien which is basically a new take on Orpheus and Eurydike. The crucial piece at the end is a loving partner breaking through the barriers of the allegedly heartless god of the underworld. But if Mandos is merely some little angelic pawn of Eru's with little to no actual power/authority in the matter at hand (which is huge since it involves an actual resurrection) then the entire plot is undercut. Why does Lúthien have to sing in front of Mandos if Eru is making the decision? Or Mandos already knows that this is the plan? This people merely act out a pre-conceived cosmic narrative, especially where the most important events are concerned. We have good reason to believe that any place the Valar were living would have had similar qualities as the Blessed Realm. The island of Almaren at the center of Middle-earth was similarly created, for instance. Yes, but an original unseen 'Fall of Man' story took place in the east. That is a crucial part of the mythology. We know that the Music was not supposed to include Melkor's nonsense, and while some things bettered the final design, there is a lot of garbage left which is why it is Arda Marred. The Silmarillion as such not so much. Tolkien almost completed the LT and a pre-LotR Silmarillion version ... but afterwards there are mostly fragments. He made attempts to write out new versions of the longer tales and he made Annals and such which kind of turned into other Silmarillion-like summaries of crucial events ... but the Silmarillion as such was not really something he worked much on after the LotR was finished. Point is that even such a narrative doesn't show up in the Akallabêth texts. Such ideas are trying to make sense of a not very well conceived Atlantis story. It doesn't help explain why the hell the Númenóreans would even believe that the Blessed Realm is the land of immortality. They never were there, and they certainly didn't read MT texts about zombification there. They know they are fundamentally different from lesser men regarding abilities, long life, and free death, and they have no reason to believe that those qualities came with the land they live in ... so why the hell would they ever believe the lands the Valar life made them immortal? There are Elves living in Middle-earth who are similarly immortal as the Elves from Tol Eressea who visit with Númenor. That the taboo not to go there vexed them is clear and one can understand that ... but the idea that they would become immortal if they went there comes pretty much from nowhere. Just as literal devil worship is kind of silly there. Pharazôn got somewhat senile in the end, it seems, but he and all his followers knew that they had put down that Melkor fellow back in the day. His own ancestor Eärendil living in the sky destroyed Thangorodrim. It is silly for a king who presumes to rule the entire world to worship a loser. This is the problem if you have incarnate gods and devils who can (and are) mastered or destroyed with brute physical force. Even if they are long-lived and have terrible eyes and fiery hands they are, ultimately, not all that different from other beings. Thus adding the ultimate theological sin of devil worship and blasphemy to Pharazôn's crimes doesn't fit well with the Silmarillion setting - which wasn't the core of the Atlantis story, either. During the writing process of TLR it became a sequel to the Silmarillion mythology, but that was not originally intended. Thû flying to Númenor as a great bird to seduce the people there works better, overall, as them falling prey to a Sauron they effectively beat into submission before. Being awed by a divine/supernatural sorcerer being you not (seemingly) defeated earlier works much better than the version we got in the end.

That is not the case. R'hllor is a slave god in Volantis, which means the god of the lowest class who decidedly do not run things and do not burn people left and right. Melisandre is the exception from the rule, not the rule. The main line red priests are like Thoros, Benerro and Moqorro. And Moqorro, for instance, was not exactly the driving force behind Victarion's weirdo double sacrifice to the Drowned God/R'hllor. The obvious new zealots in charge in Westeros are the new High Septon and his fanatical minions. Who cares if gods actually exist? George himself said that Thoros is so successful in converting Riverlanders because the people there see him and his god work miracles. Things no other priest/god has done so far in Westeros. And that success should only grow as hunger and cold start to plague the Riverlands. Because the other Free Cities have a good military, too. But Volantis didn't lose other territories so much. It lost conquered territory in the wake of a war lasting for a hundred years which was ended by an internal revolution. There is a clear decadence in Volantis regarding the ruling class and the amount of slaves they have. But their slave military is very

Well, if this were an option then it is going to work logistically. It is a rather long journey from Vaes Dothrak and Slaver's Bay to Westeros, so if Dany were able to feed people on that journey she would also be able to do it once they are in Westeros. But I actually see no reason for the silly belief that she would drag refugees to the other end of the world? What would be the point of that? Especially in winter and when they are going there to face ice demons and zombies. Castrating soldiers for raping strikes me as a rather dangerous thing to do. Stannis is the pretender who is most likely to be slain by his own men, either burned as a sacrifice to R'hllor by the Queen's Men (whose true allegiance was always a dagger at his throat) or simply because the men are done taking shit from him. The Dothraki would do what Dany commands them in Westeros. They might also rape women, but who would care much about that? Dany might to a point, but if she unleashes them she would be fine with whatever they do or else she wouldn't unleash them. Also not sure what that issue has to do with a feeding problem. The Dothraki taking food from the peasants is good for the former. They have food, which means full bellies and strong arms, which any hypothetical rebellious peasants will lack. Nope, it straight out contradicts what George himself writes about the feudal duties the Northmen own the Starks. Robb can't have them assemble at Winterfell and wait indefinitely ... but somehow Doran Martell can? Even with no Martell prince there leading or overseeing them? That makes just no sense. That should still cause trouble in the Reach. This is not some bureaucratic state monster. Traders do trade in food, so if 'King Renly' takes food for his men without ample monetary compensation the people wouldn't be happy. It is not that they are that many elephants, anyway. Nope, she won the allegiance because she had a huge dragon and threatened to murder the little king and burn his entire castle, garrison, and mother. That is the implication. And with Addam and Jacaerys Velaryon we see what effects a dragonrider showing up (and making promises) can have on the willingness of various lords to marshal armies. The idea that Dany would not be doing that personally or through her other dragonriders is silly. In fact, if there is an invasion she will first fly across the sea to check things out and make deals. Well, for the threat it is enough for people to know she has armies across the Narrow Sea and the means to make a landing in their lands. Which will cause problems for the people living there if they are not going to be friendly. And because the captains just decided to dump the soldiers wherever they landed. You are not thick enough to believe that Dany's captains would do the same. Say, a storm scatters her fleet ... then they will do as even fucking Victarion did on his journey to Slaver's Bay: Regroup at a crucial landmark - say, Dragonstone - and proceed from there with sufficient strength to KL. The notion that 'storms' will suddenly disrupt the Narrow Sea trade when this has never before happened is utter silliness. LOL, that is just nonsense. George has already said Dany won't go to Asshai. If anything, she will go west to reach the eastern shore of KL, but that's it. And I also daresay that Dany is far too bright to draw her strategies from the cryptic comments of from a rather obscure masked sorceress. Sure enough - since it shouldn't be that hard to conquer one city. She did it before with Astapor and Meereen. Why should KL be different? And who said that the Iron Throne is the endgame here? When have you last consulted the actual books? Naval trade in the Narrow Sea goes both along the coastlines as well as back and forth between the cities on either coast. For example, Sam's journey from Eastwatch to Oldtown via Braavos. Or little Varys' mummer tour as a slave boy which included both Westerosi harbors as well as Free Cities. These people are proper seafarers who have no trouble moving away from the shorelines. LOL, who ever said that? She might bring in sufficient food from Essos to feed her soldiers, her people, and her allies? But all of Westeros? Hardly. Especially not the people who haven't bend the knee. Why should she even try to do that? The point is more that the way things stand right now there might be no maidens left to rape by the time Dany finally shows up. Nor any fighting spirit left in the starving, freezing and brutalized peasantry. So now we are comparing climate change effects to - what exactly? Years' long winters in a magical world where freak seasons have so far not fanned the flames of war and migration in the continent we talk about? Why would we do that. Sure enough - it is a huge question why the hell anyone is actually still living north of the Neck in this shithole world - but people are for 'reasons' ... so we have to accept that and move on. Who cares about that? Dany isn't some silly Ottoman invading a foreign country with a different culture and religion. She is the last scion of the rightful dynasty of the country she might be invading, a dynasty who created the unified kingdom these people live in. Her soldiers will be viewed the way the Golden Company is - or the way Dutch or French mercenaries fighting for this or that pretender in the Wars of the Roses were viewed, not as some kind of barbaric invasion. There might be some problems in the regions she invades ... but she won't march through the entire continent, so that will be a small issue. I didn't mean the time, but the practice. Riverlanders are pissed because they have been foraged and brutalized again and again by various factions, often enough by the same sellswords who switched sides. But be that as it may - similar things might happen in other regions, too, long before Dany arrives. Euron already has more means to harm the people than any other pretender. Sure enough, he should have little trouble seizing the throne ... but then people are likely to march or move against him. And being a young and somewhat foolish lad he might actually think it is his duty to pacify his new Realm personally by way of marching to the Riverlands, the Reach, or wherever else lawlessness and fighting continues. Euron might easily enough oust him or make things very hard for him, and chances that the Tyrells will just meekly accept being ousted from power is also not very likely. Even if a good portion of the Reach lords declare for Aegon, Highgarden is not likely to follow suit ... and they will continue to control the bulk of the Reach's forces because they are simply way too connected with the other great houses in the Reach to be pushed aside. Also, of course, if Aegon were to marry Arianne, or if the Prince's Pass's Dornish army were to invade the Reach and attack Highgarden on behalf of Aegon while Tommen or Myrcella yet rule in KL peace between Aegon's new regime and the Reach might not exactly be stable. And the West is never going to accept Aegon as king, either, especially not if Tommen and Myrcella are killed. This story will continue to be a multifaceted monster, a huge mess of ever shifting alliances and betrayals, not some simple Aegon vs. Dany thing. And as (most likely) the last outsider to enter the game Dany will have her pick of potential allies. She could make deals literally with anyone. Especially if the Others are out in the open already ... but even if not. Varys' plan was Aegon to be the endgame, the guy who cleans up the mess. But he couldn't wait, so now he entered the fray at the wrong time and without dragons. That won't work. That is rather silly as so far there are literal no followers of R'hllor among Dany's people while there is an ever growing number of R'hllorian converts in the Riverlands. If Dany ended up being joined by thousands of tiger soldiers following R'hllor you might have a point ... but then the game would be off, anyway, as the the tiger soldiers would likely cut through Westeros like a knife through cheese. They are the well-trained, standing army of the second most powerful Free City. In any case, though, Thoros' converts are likely preparing the ground for Dany's eventual power base in the Riverlands. Aegon will likely ally with the High Septon and the Faith Militant and they will add fuel to the fire by launching campaigns against the converts in the Riverlands. And perhaps also against followers of the old gods if they can. Also, of course, R'hllor and red priests will likely be very popular in Westeros soon because their magics and god will actually help to keep the cold and night at bay. There is a reason why the hell Melisandre's entire religion revolves around using fire and shadows to fight against the dark. Indeed. In context one would imagine that Dany will only take Dothraki she can trust. Men willing to cross the sea and thus abandon the old ways they believed in previously. We got the template for that back in AGoT with the people who witnessed the Mother of Dragons event. She will likely be technically be able to convince all of them to migrate to Westeros if they accept her as their Stallion person, but it isn't likely she will force them to do this. But she would always have the means to jump on Drogon and fly back to the Dothraki Sea to ensure more Dothraki come if they are needed.

That is one of those reinterpretations. Originally, the Valar were conceived as physical gods and that's why they eat and drink, live in houses, build cities, and have children. That is also the original reason why they are male and female and form couples. Once reconceived as angelic beings without bodies them taking on shapes similar to the Children to honor them makes sense - also the custom of ritual meals with the Eldar at special occasions - but less so the notion they should build cities and live in houses ages before the Children are even there. Spirits don't need places to live. If thought through this whole thing means that there are places in this world where all plant and animal life is immortal or at least as long-lived as the Elves. That makes little sense in a larger context as it means that Eru actually intended to put Men into a world where they decidedly did not belong as they could not possibly live the way they are in an all-out Blessed Realm. Of course, to a point this is connected to the original Fall of Man that happens unseen in the Silmarillion texts and can be hardly brought into accord with Melkor-Morgoth's own story regardless how you play. But even if we go with the Tale of Adanel's idea that Men were originally talking to Eru directly and as long-lived as the Elves, the problem remains that it is a core problem of Tolkien's concept of death that it is a gift to Men and they were always destined to leave Arda to be with Eru. That simply doesn't fit with the idea that Arda Unmarred/the Blessed Realm would be a monstrous place for Men to be. 3000 years mean much less if your average lifespan is a couple of centuries. And there are no cultural breaks, no civil wars, nor any attempts of revisionist history. The Númenóreans know that their ancestors fought against Morgoth in the War of Wrath and that they were rewarded for this heroic action. Their king's own sword is the sword of Elu Thingol himself. The Númenóreans just don't want to die prior to Sauron's arrival. They don't want to worship the devil, originally, nor do they want to be evil. They just don't want to die. And they should know that conquering the lands of the Valar would not make them immortal. That wasn't the point. The point is that the way a true Númenórean dies - by lying down, closing his eyes and just die - like Aragorn does in the end is not something a real man could possibly do. Dying is not a spiritual issue nor one of attitude or character. But it is painted as such in the story. Unlike lesser men the Númenóreans feel age coming in a different way then we do and they can then die of their own free will to pass on. And this didn't really change with their corruption - they always can die of their own free will, they just refuse to not do it then and then enter into dotage and senility. They know they are fundamentally apart in that way from other men as they are in their long life. And they also know that this has nothing to do with their own blessed land, Númenor, but with a gift granted to their ancestors because of their bravery. Sure, but those people live in a magical world where gods or divine beings actually walk around and talk to them. The founder of their ruling dynasty is literally a star in the sky. And they know their own way of dying sets them apart from other men. They know it is nothing to fear. Sure, you could still have some doubt about what happens after death but who would think it will be bad dying if all those good divine beings are actually real? The idea that nothing happens after death would be silly, as would be the idea that monster devour your soul in hell or other such nonsense. The Devil is a real person in this world, with a body which can be hurt and destroyed, and their ancestors just helped doing that. The sin of the Númenóreans isn't the fear of the unknown but clinging to worldly possessions, a wish to extend life on this plane. Which goes directly against their nature and inner longing to move on. Such fears usually don't lead us to worship the literal devil. And the appearance of his literal lieutenant on their island should actually cause them to reconsider the truth of their own knowledge. Sauron is the disciple of the very Enemy their ancestors helped to vanquish - moreover, he also happens to be one of the key adversaries of Beren on his quest. Beren from whom their kings also happen to be descended from. These people are just painted as naive morons. They know way too much to fall for such silly lies. Eru is the very own god of Númenor. The kings do worship him in annual rituals. They are not in need of evangelizing.

It could be quite fun to put one of Arnold's attempts to topple Jeyne during the Dance. Didn't seem to have happened then, but Jeyne faced a lot of troubles as her own kin (Arnold and perhaps others as well) thrice rose up against her (it is specified that Arnold tried it twice, but she faced three rebellions by other Arryns in total). Wouldn't even necessitate a change as Arnold could escape to be eventually caught again. Or a brother of his could rise on his behalf, etc. He was Captain of the Bloody Gate since 124 AC, so we should see him if they shoot a proper entrance to the Vale by Rhaena and company. We could also have him on Jeyne's council if he was indeed her staunch supporter if there is ever a larger council scene in Eyrie which we would expect both for Rhaena scenes as well as Jace's original plea for help to Jeyne. I'd also expect season 2 to at least reference Ser Arnold, his son Eldric and other Arryns as the rebellions against Jeyne should be something that comes up to illustrate that Rhaenyra's bid for the throne is far from hopeless. Ditto Cregan might also reference or even show evil uncle Bennard and his three sons. After the first season's faithfulness to the characters and overall setting I'm pretty sure we will get Roddy the Ruin as general of the Northern army, but Cregan might add his ingrate kin to the Winter Wolves so we can see at least some Starks dying gloriously for the Dragon Queen (say, in the Fishfeed or at Tumbleton). Alternatively Bennard Stark could actually be the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch Jace is going to meet at the Wall.

Have to say the over familiarity is kind of strange as I still can't barely remember what Detmer ever did. I remember she didn't even have a name in season 1, no? And the cyborg woman they all grieved for again now was even worse. The deep emotional bond between Saru and Burnham and Burnham and Tilly makes sense. And the relationship of Culber and Stamets. But the other people didn't spend all that much time together, all things considered. Especially not with the new guys, i.e. Burnham and Tilly. But I do like that guy as well. Had to laugh in the last episode how Culber talked about surviving literal death. I mean, if they want us to take that seriously then the guy should be on permanent leave getting proper future treatment since they arrived there season 3. No person going through that should continue to work as a physician. Would agree that SNW is worse in that capacity in season 2. What makes it better than Discovery is the more episodic storytelling which allows for a broader scope of episodes and a better exploration of various characters. The entire plot of Discovery's season 4 could have been a two-parter ... and not a very strange and silly plot dragged out for that long. And the Burn was pretty much the same, just as 'divine tech' is this time.

Why are we now talking refugees in addition to soldiers? Why would Dany drag refugees on a campaign of conquest to Westeros in winter? Especially if climate and weather should be much better in Slaver's Bay, Volantis, or even the southern parts of the Dothraki Sea compared to Westeros? Not sure why the Dothraki would be much of an issue there. If they follow Dany to Westeros they will be disciplined - in their mind this place is some savage backwater the size of Lys of Tyrosh (according to Jorah). They have no interest in the place, so if they go they would have to be fanatically loyal to Daenerys. After all, they would have to cross the sea for that. Which has been anathema to them so far. Depends on the size of the respective armies. Dany could very well also only bring 10,000 men to Westeros. But Aegon's Golden Company is likely going to be joined by up to 20,000 Dornishmen, men who have to eat, too. How little George cares about army logistics can be drawn from the fact that the two Dornish armies sit in the Prince's Pass and the Boneway, respectively, since ACoK. Apparently the food logistics of Westeros are so great that an army can assemble and do nothing for months and years in an infertile mountain region without suffering any problems whatsoever. Not sure how well that fits with the notion that feudal duties last only a couple of months or that people have to go back home for harvest (which is a thing in the Yronwood lands, among others). Such a large army would still live off the land and thus off the potential winter provisions of the people in the region. Yet they enjoyed the ride and the parties. I'm sure the elephants are not there to die quickly. What would be the point of that? Dany has dragons and is a dragonrider, so she could rise armies on the basis of flying above the coastal regions of Westeros, visiting a few castles, combined with the very real threat of a military invasion of their lands. You read things and know, for instance, how Visenya Targaryen won the allegiance of the Vale. Or how the bastard Addam Velaryon raised an army for the queen who denounced him as a traitor. Reread things. The Golden Company are dumped all across the Stormlands by the captains of the ships who transported them. They were not in charge of the navy. The triarchs commissioned sufficient civilian trade ships to get them out of their lands. Ships go back and forth between Pentos and KL on a daily basis, just as the Narrow Sea is full of ships everywhere. Also we know that autumn storms are more common than winter storms. The later are more severe so there is certainly a chance for Dany's or Euron's or some other important fleet being caught in a huge storm ... but they would not affect the day-to-day naval trade between the Free Cities and Westeros. It shouldn't be hard for Dany to take KL if she lands there. Not sure what warfare there would be? Did Maegor conquer all of Westeros? Or Jaehaerys I? Or Aegon II or Rhaenyra or Aegon III? Nope. They just seized and kept (or lost) the throne. A much shorter distance than from Gulltown to Eastwatch - yet Jon Snow thinks he can feed his people with food from the Vale. Well, if the Tyrells can drown KL in food brought up from Highgarden, so could Dany drown Highgarden or Harrenhal or Riverrun in food coming in to KL from Pentos. The Flatlands are full of farms which produce food. And it stands to reason that similar farmlands exist all around the lands of Essos controlled by the Free Cities. The huge Volantene cities along the Rhoyne, for instance, cannot live off air and water alone. The freedmen companies would be disciplined as well, and the Dothraki, too. They know how to fight, and they also know how to forage. I mean, sure, some xenophobic or racist peasant might be a tidbit more pissed if his crops are taken by Dothraki, but who cares about his opinion in that world? No, a proper famine leads to people just dying off starvation. In population centers you can get food riots and the like if the famine is due to things you can blame your rulers for - like, say, if there is a blockade or mismanagement. In other cases you will get riots where people try to steal food from those who (allegedly) hoard it, etc. But you won't get that in villages and small settlements. But nobody is going to blame Dany for winter or the civil wars taking place before she even arrived in Westeros. And even if that were the case - keeping the rabble out is what castles and cities have walls for. People who are starving won't travel far nor are they capable of threatening or taking castles and cities. In fact, if people fear Daenerys because of her dragons and barbarians and what not - they are more likely to flee from the regions she might land at or attack rather than go there. Tywin commanded that certain places be burned ... but we actually not see huge portions of the Riverlands being burned. What we see is more like Thirty Years' War double and triple foraging the same places combined with a deliberate brutalization of the common people. Just take Vargo Hoat's methods as an example. A policy of scorched earth is mentioned but not explicitly shown. However, the idea that Aegon, Euron, Stannis, whoever else is going to sit on their hands until Dany shows up rather than continuing to brutalize the people and destroy the infrastructure is silly. We see how things are declining further in the Riverlands already, now with Lady Stoneheart's quest for revenge. It is easily imaginable that the Ironborn and the Dornishmen combined will put huge parts of the Reach in the same state the Riverlands are in right now. Aegon's campaign for the throne could destroy the Crownlands, etc. KL and its surroundings could easily be a sacked ruin by the time Dany shows up. Especially if Euron showed up there first. That is all up in the air.

The 'sex as a spectrum' debate is pretty easy, I think, as it is quite clear that regardless which factors determine sex in humans (or even all mammals) in detail, the sexes in questions are either female or male. Conceptually there is no third sex for us (although it might be fun if there were). All intersex conditions also seem to fit in either the male or female continuum and it actually makes little sense to conflate intersex conditions (and rights) with the trans issue which really don't revolve around sex (so much) as it falls to the individual intersex person's view of things whether they (want to) feel or identify more as male, female, or in-between. On the sex levels all trans men should be female, just as all trans women would be male. What changes certain physical aspects on a physiological level would be various medical treatments, surgeries, etc. not how one feels or identifies on a personal level. That is if we reduce things to sex or pin it down on sex then being a trans woman is actually part of 'the male spectrum', just as being a cis man would be part of that spectrum. And vice versa with trans men. It seems quite clear that a lot of the transition aspects of self-id could be done away with if were to slowly abolish or erode gendered naming habits, meaning trans people could keep whatever names they have because they can refer to both women and men. You don't have to reinvent yourself if what you are and feel like is always a permitted and accepted part of what you could possibly be. While I think that the prison debate regarding trans people is kind of silly, it is only so due to the fact that there is a valid reason in certain or many countries not to be living in close quarters with a bunch of other criminal men. I think if I had to go to prison I'd prefer to be imprisoned with a bunch of women - not so much because I want to rape or molest or harass them but simply because I'd think the risk of being raped, molested, or harassed myself there would be much smaller. (Although I actually might be wrong there. Never much thought about going to prison.) In that sense the idea is very much valid that people would self-id as female if that were allow them to be not be sent into a prison full of men. I myself would likely be one of them, especially if all I had to do was to change some official papers. Also, of course, informally it is easier to push yourself into, say, a group specifically for women if you can just identify as one. That is even more the case if we go with the concept of non binary or agender. Who would go on say they are sure they are 'absolutely cis'? The idea that safe spaces would be or are invaded by trans people kind of feels weird to me as, especially, public toilets are not and never have been conceived as 'safe spaces'. It is (or should be) convention that you don't enter the opposite sex's public toilet/bathroom, not a matter of the law that you are not allowed to do so (although there might be countries which made such laws). And the whole thing is more about modesty and shame less so about safety.

Not sure it matters much who plays Bloodraven as a faithful adaptation of the stories would put him on screen for, perhaps, ten minutes. Ser Maynard Plumm would be another matter, though. Even if they were to expand things a bit, the show should focus almost exclusively on events around Dunk & Egg which means all I could see for Bloodraven doing something more would be for them to have some scenes in KL covering the Great Spring Sickness and the deaths of Valarr and Daeron II followed by the ascension of Aerys I. If they did Eustace's tale of the Redgrass Field as a long and detailed flashback sequence we could have more Bloodraven, but since the man would be a youth back then he should be played by a different actor.

We have no clue how many men Dany is going to bring across the Narrow Sea. To take KL she hardly needs 50,000 men if she also happens to have dragons. But even if she did, people will die in battle and then the food of the Kingslanders will pass from whoever held it before into Dany's hands. Keep in mind that Dany also has no huge problems feeding thousands and thousands of people (about 8,000 Unsullied plus many more freedmen following her) during her marches. Obviously people can live off the land to a degree somehow in Slaver's Bay. The comparison I made is valid, though, as the assumption is that Aegon will magically be popular despite the fact that his foreigner sellswords will take food from the people (and likely also castles, titles, wealth, and lands from current nobility) while Dany is somehow imagined to be at a disadvantage there. Sure enough - if we imagine Dany or any pretender marching with hundreds of thousands of people from one end of the continent to the other it should affect the people to a very large degree. But that isn't the issue. Dany will come from the east by ship, like Aegon, and she will land close to the capital and take it. That is her campaign, like it is Aegon's. Also notice that Renly could feast and party with 100,000 men during his progress-march in the Reach without so much as denting the Reach's ability to feed itself or others. These people do have gigantic amounts of surplus food, apparently. Or they don't give a fig about the winter provisions of their peasants and don't face any bad consequences because of that. Punitive expeditions which may or may not follow thereafter would be done by lords and knights bending the knee to Aegon/Dany, not necessarily by their foreign troops. That would only be the case if nobody in Westeros where to declare for them which is silly. Dany won't unleash all the Dothraki against, say, Dorne or the Westerlands, just as Aegon won't throw the entire Golden Company against the Vale, say. We could expect some Dothraki to join a contingent of knights, just as Aegon might send some Golden Company men with whatever Dornish or Reach levies might declare for him ... but the idea that a Targaryen pretender would ever have to drown Westeros with foreign soldiers to take the Iron Throne is silly. It is also kind of weird to assume that a monarch sitting the Iron Throne will or has to march out into the country to wage a war (much less one who is a dragonrider). Rebels wanting to overthrow him or her would have to march against them, and good luck with that in winter. You read the books, you know how this goes. Joff and Tommen didn't march to war, only Robb and Renly and Stannis did, because they wanted to be king/avenge themselves. And Balon sent out his generals to do his fighting. In winter we can expect that pretty much nobody far away from KL would give a fig about the pretender taking the city from another pretender ... aside from the die-hard followers of the losing pretender or the losing pretender themselves if they were able to flee. Even if you had personal quarrels with the new pretender, reason would dictate you bide your time and wait for spring. We can imagine silly scenarios where Aegon or Dany turn into Robb and Stannis who are effectively in the field all the time. But it is not likely that either is going to want to do that in winter. And especially a dragonrider can fly around a lot, dissuading potential rebels before they march into the field and striking deals with potential allies and friends to raise an army in their name without actually having to call on them with a strong host of their own. This will also come in handy if there is a food crisis. Somebody can fly to Pentos or Myr to ensure more food ships are coming. Ditto with Gulltown. We are talking about a very narrow sea called the Narrow Sea and a very developed infrastructure of naval trade. I mean, it has been firmly established that the Vale is cut off from mainland Westeros already due to climate, weather, and geography. Yet it has also been established that the Vale is immensely fertile, one of the bread baskets of Westeros, and the place from which Jon Snow expects to buy food for the NW in the immediate future. This is not a plot line that will disappear from the books because it is logistically impossible or very hard to ship huge amounts of food from Gulltown to Eastwatch or White Harbor. In fact, Jon wouldn't have thought about looking for food in Braavos and the Vale if it were impossible. And it would be even easier to ship food from Pentos or Myr to KL, or from Volantis, Lys, or Tyrosh to Oldtown and/or up the Mander. The Golden Company are scattered, but they are still thieves. They occupy a number of castles and stole food from the garrisons as well as the local population. Bottom line is - this is not a plot line George is very interested in. Yes, in relation to winter he has to deliver, but not in relation to the weird 'the smallfolk are starving and therefore the guys in charge will face trouble' idea. Starvation usually doesn't lead to rebellion, so it is in fact the case that if Aegon or Dany or anyone else wants to seize and keep power they better keep the starving people starving while securing sufficient food for themselves and their followers. They would have to make concessions to city folk, especially in the capital and wherever they intend to live during winter, but not to the population at large. The Riverlands exemplify the problems the people right now reasonably well. There are many refugees and outlaws there because the region is war-torn. Soldiers foraged food again and again and again while also destroying homes and houses of the people living there. They had to leave if they wanted to survive. But they wouldn't have left by the droves if merely their winter provisions had run out. That is a much slower process and one these people are apparently accustomed to. If Daenerys were, say, Stannis and had to burn all of Westeros between the Wall and KL to get to the Iron Throne she might be the most hated monarch of all time once she gets there ... but she will land on the shore, at a place of her choosing. Her way to the Iron Throne should be very short, possibly even shorter than Aegon's. Which means the idea that not exactly many people are likely to blame her for the current food shortage on the continent in winter and after a long civil war.

The question is kind of silly as nobody actually asks what the hell the Golden Company are living off right now and how the hell Aegon is going to win the hearts of the poor Westerosi smallfolk if his foreign sellsword scum is stealing food from them? Because that is what they are doing right now in the Stormlands. And yet there are still Stormlanders joining him. This is something that could become a plot ... or not, as it didn't with all the other campaigns in the books we got so far. Bottom line is - soldiers will always eat because they will take whatever food is left from the non-soldiers ... and then the non-soldiers will starve and freeze to death, and that will take care of them to the point that there won't be much of an organized resistance movement. Food riots are something for city folk - and there there is likely to be some trouble like we had before. But in the country people will just quietly starve and die. It is also kind of silly to assume that Aegon or Dany or any of the current pretenders in Westeros will launch massive campaigns across the continent in winter. What we can expect is naval campaigns and short regional or local campaigns. Both Aegon and Daenerys are likely to try to take KL, but not much else. That means that the provision of the troops marching to war is likely going to be as important as a plot point now that it was before ... with the only change being that it is winter now and not so easy to find food. It is winter now, and they have no clue how long it will last, so what moron would start a war of conquest now rather than next spring? Stannis' people almost froze to death marching from Deepwood Motte to Winterfell ... and that was merely an autumn storm. But, of course, Daenerys will likely control huge fertile lands in Essos less affected by winter when she goes to Westeros, so there will be means for her to ship food to Westeros if she wants to do that - just like the Lords of the Vale might or might not decide to ship food from the Vale to other regions of Westeros since they have a lot of surplus food stored.

Tolkien was a Catholic, but he didn't wrote and never set out to write specific 'Catholic' or even 'Christian' stories. The basic plot and setting of the Silmarillion stories are the Lost Tales. They changed a bit, some more than others, but the basic framework and setting never changed. And those are, in essence, stories about a mythological, pre-Christian England whose Elves and Men are ruled by gods and fate. I think part of the reason why Tolkien never properly rewrote any of the big stories is that he realized he couldn't change them to fit with 'a more Christian perspective', one he definitely had later in life. All he could do was to write essays and drafts about how this or that event in his history could be interpreted so that it would fit better with Christianity. You see this best with the Valar whose change from incarnate pagan gods acting under a distant and aloof creator god (comparable to the supreme god that is once mentioned in the Edda, at the end) to angelic beings under the Christian god is never actually realized in the text. What the hell do bodiless angels need cities and houses for? Val(i)mar and the other lands and places in Valinor are never again described as detailed as they are in the LT but they never go away, either, just as the late change of Fionwe, son of Manwe, to Eonwe, herald of Manwe, is not a concept that is well thought through. If the Valar don't have children, why are they male and female, and why do most of them live together in couples? Free will in the Christian sense also cannot really exist in this world where fate is distinctly tied not only to the Music of the Ainur in some sense, but also marred and twisted by the literal presence of the Devil in the substance of the world itself. The kind of stories Tolkien wanted to tell were stories where people act out a large tapestry of tragedy. That is the basis for everything. People know what they doing is wrong and evil and stupid ... but they can't help themselves. That is the common thing, starting with Melkor himself in the beginning, followed by Feanor, the other Elves up to Turgon and Thingol all the way to Túrin, Sauron, the Númenóreans, and Saruman and Denethor. Think you read the MT up already, but that actually answers nothing as it makes really no sense that Aman could ever be blessed in that strange manner as, originally, the Valar were to and did live in the entire world, so unless 'zombification' of Men were to be a problem in the entire world of Arda it makes little sense that the Valar would twist their own lands in the west in such a manner as to make them inhospitable for Men. And to play the 'the Fall did it' card yet again is just cheap in the extreme as it also were to be vapid and cruel on Eru's part to ensure Men could not interact with Elves and Valar in Aman. The Fall of Númenor is another strangely conceived story which doesn't really fit well with the Silmarillion stories. The Númenóreans know for a fact that they got their island as part of their ancestors bravery in the fight against the Devil Incarnate. They have good reason to know that the god of the Valar - their own god - does exist and they know they were blessed with long life and a great island and a good death because of the deeds of their ancestors. They are not the people who start to cling to worldly possessions when death doesn't come with old age but as a longing to move on to another world/place. If you are blessed like they are why would you develop delusions about a land making you immortal or even think that 400 years of life aren't enough? Death is nothing to fear then, even more so as the god you would go to after death is most likely actually real and the nice guy Manwe and his messengers told you about. If you think about it, we have to imagine the Númenóreans who eventually devolved to the level of petty children. 'I don't want to die!' makes sense in our world, but if you die like Aragorn, if that is the rule ... then how could death be something to fear? This is not something you can will yourself to do. You can't lie down and just die. We can't do that. For the Númenóreans to do that they would have to be mentally and perhaps even physically slightly different than 'normal humans' are. But Tolkien paints this as a mere 'attitude thing'. This whole idea would work much better if the people falling had no actual good knowledge about how things actually are, and no heroic ancestors who gave their lives to defeat the Devil Incarnate. I mean, if the land makes immortality, why the hell are there immortal Elves in Middle-earth? And what about that Sauron guy? Isn't he an immortal little god, too, living in Middle-earth? And aren't Númenóreans themselves blessed with long life and great abilities never mind whether they life in Númenor or Middle-earth? It can still make sense that Númenor makes war on Valinor, but the idea to do that so they could take possession of the land that makes you immortal is kind of silly.

Jessamyn Redfort is only mentioned in the Regency text covering Jeyne's eventual death. While it is possible that she was her 'dear companion' for years and decades they could also only have gotten together during or after the Dance. That said, I don't expect the show to take that road and would rather expect her to be there as her close friend and advisor when the show introduces Jeyne. And if they do focus more on the Vale than FaB did - as they should, as Rhaena will be there and Morning is supposed to hatch there, etc. - they could easily enough move elements from the Regency era into the Dance by turning the Vale succession war into a side campaign of the Dance, having the Mad Falcon escape and declaring for Aegon II while Jeyne's supporters stay true to Rhaenyra. Or they just go with some of Rhea's Royce relations turning Green for rather obvious reasons, as Rhea's demise in the show is clearly somewhat different than in FaB. But then - if Corlys and Rhaenys can ignore the alleged murder of their own son, so could the Royces ignore the murder of Rhea. Which is something that we, the audience, knew to be a murder, but the Royces in the Vale do not as it was not witnessed by anyone.

Yes, he realizes what's happening along the way, and realizes too late that he is trapped for good and (kind of) makes his peace with it. Previous adaptations focused more on the payback aspect of the story which is there, too, but if you look at the larger picture it really doesn't matter if Shaddam and the Harkonnens are punished or not. Of course, Paul the Martyr would launch another kind of holy war than the one they got, it would be more a war of revenge than what they did - which seems to have been a war to establish a proper theocracy according to Fremen beliefs. Because as I said and as the end of the book makes clear - Paul has all the military, political, and economic power at the end. The reason he marries Irulan is only to seize all the CHOAM shares of the Corrinos. There is no need for a continued war from an Atreides' point of view. That is the entire point of the control over the spice Paul acquires. The fact that there is a war shows that Paul has effectively no real control over his 'followers' nor do the Fremen wage their war to get their living god something he wants or needs. They just do it in his name and nothing he could do or say would stop them. The new movie undermined the 'figurehead' part in the end by giving Paul and the Fremen an actual pretext/justification for the jihad - the continued resistance of the Great Houses - which isn't there in the book. The terrible part about the war in the book is that the only reason for it seems to have been Fremen fanaticism - the wish to make the entire universe worship their god the way they want to. All other beliefs, religions, ways of life would have been heresy and blasphemy. Not to mention that to most Fremen planets with as much water as Caladan would have been seen as obscene simply by existing... Has been a while for me, too, but the problem with that book is that the war is not really discussed or touched upon in detail. But we get enough to immediately see that the corrupt clergy the Fremen created and run as well as the religion built around Paul and Alia is nothing they actually designed or wanted. In a very real sense they both are figureheads and puppets who play a role in the Fremen religion (e.g. Saint Alia of the Knife). They are not really in charge. Or rather - they are only in charge as living gods wanting what living gods want - being worshipped, rule the entire universe with an iron fist, etc. If they were to decide to not want to be living gods wanting living gods stuff they would quickly become dead gods and the people ruling in their name would continue doing the same shit in their name. They can execute all the traitors, heretics, villains they want, can seize and take everything they want, etc. ... but they are not free to return 'power to the people' if they wanted that, nor retire or try to be secular dictators/absolute rulers. And that even continues in book 3 when blind Paul sees no other choice but to undermine the monster he created than using religious language yet again, painting his own sister and her followers as heretics who betrayed 'Muad'dib's legacy'.

While Westeros does have also a culture of gigantic architecture, Essosi architecture is vastly superior to Westeros'. And not just in Yi Ti and Asshai, obviously, but also in Qarth and even Volantis and Braavos. Just think about the size of the great cities of Yi Ti or the comparison of the Red Temple of Volantis to the Red Keep. Or, more importantly, the comparison of the towns along the Rhoyne to the cities of Westeros. Yes, they have slavery, but we don't know how crucial slavery is to YiTish culture, say. Westeros is stuck in perpetual feudalism with effectively no social mobility and no education for anyone living outside a castle or a city - which is the bulk of the people. The Free Cities do have social mobility for adventurers and bravos (not only) via the free companies, it also allows for the rise of humble merchants and scoundrels to the level of magisters (Rego Draz, Illyrio Mopatis). And you can also rise to prominence via piracy. Something like Davos' career is a very lucky accident which only happens in a civil war setting when you have the luck to help a crucial member of the victorious faction. City culture is also more an Essosi thing - and in that sense Oldtown would also more an Essosi city as it seems clear that the entire city culture there was shaped by developed due to the trade connections and cultural exchange between the place and Valyria and its colonies (and the Summer Isles, etc.).

The Dune Encyclopedia has a nice and much better alternative version of the Butlerian fanatics as a religious conflict which is instigated when some man-machines in a culture ran effectively by thinking machines in the sense that many decisions are handed to computers and such decide to abort the unborn child of Jehane Butler. Eventually it is taken over by mercenaries and adventurers, etc. Something like that they even had in the expanded edition prologue of the Lynch movie where pre-Butlerian people are lazy and complacent and 'run by' machines rather than being the victims of some kind of silly Skynet-like evil computer. Yes, it is clear that the other enemy there would have been some other culture/group grown out of the Scattering, definitely not evil robots pulled out of the ass of the fan fiction gang. That said - in light of the fact that Herbert decided to reinvent the Tleiluxu as a deeply religious people combined with the fact that Scytale came back as a master and is carrying gene material stretching back to the era of Paul it strikes me as likely that the intention there was to go 'full circle' or 'back to the beginning' to a point in the final book. Not to Butler stuff, but to the original Dune era, and, of course, to add a final twist to the Golden Path plan of Leto II. Some parts of him were still kind of alive in the new sandworms and that should have played a real role, too. And it seems clear that his breeding program - while also undercutting the foresight Kwisatz Haderach stuff for good - did more than just that. We see that in the descendants of Siona. They are a different breed of superhumans. We also have that 'back to the beginning' and 'a final unification' thing in the final Duncan Idaho gaining the memories of all the Duncan Idahos. That would have been important, too. Sad part is that they apparently shot that scene and many others ... and he decided to not include it and the others. The movies are stunning visually and greatly adapt the core story, but not much else. Yueh, for instance, lacks screentime in part 1, as does Thufir in part 2. And, of course, them not elaborating on Chani's connection to Liet-Kynes. Her wanting 'to save' Arrakis through secular science rather than religious nonsense because she was her mother's daughter could have greatly helped there. I imagine they had such scenes there but they were cut, too. It is clear in part 1 that Liet's role with the Fremen was supposed to elaborated later on. While I agree that this is the first adaptation making it clear that Paul is going to be a monster - or a the figurehead of a monstrously fanatical movement - the movie undercuts that message by having the Great Houses opposing his rise to the throne in the end. That is then the explanation/justification for the Fremen crusade ... whereas in the book Paul has all the power he and the Fremen could want and the latter still want to butcher billions in their misguided zealotry. There is no political justification nor even a pretext for the jihad in the book. And it is clear that all Paul can do is stand by and rubberstamp the wishes and deeds of the fanatics. If he were to try to stop them, he would be killed and the war be done in his name, anyway. Cutting the first Leto babe was okay, turning Alia into Jessicalia not so much. My biggest gripe with part 2 is that the Fremen are portrayed as a colonized people whose technology/abilities are inferior to the technology/soldiers of the Harkonnens - which goes directly against the books as even Fremen women and children can hold their own to a point against the Sardaukar. In a very real sense Paul is the victim of Fremen culture and ideology. Yes, the Bene Gesserit shaped their religion in the past, but as things take up steam he can only play the role of savior as they want it to be ... or he can die. He doesn't actually control things. He is little more than a catalyst. All he succeeds at is staying alive and getting his revenge, but nothing else. The movie shows that part rather well at the gathering when he visibly plays a role for their benefit there ... and that is what he has to do the entire time. That kind of stuff continues in Messiah and Children when we get to the trope of the blind seer and finally to Alia's 'possession'. Things are governed by religious rules and superstition. A living god/savior's power is, in the end, ruled by the rules and tenets of the religion he is a part of.