James Arryn

They’re like, “that’s some old shit. What do you want to do today?” You’re like, “how about you keep trying “to solve that murder, man? “That shit happened on Monday. It’s Wednesday. We’re not gonna solve that shit.”

And, er, Iraq, et al.

I have almost no sympathy for Theon as a character, but there’s no doubt he was fucked by circumstances beyond his control and after that he was bound to be despised no matter what he did. If he’d betrayed his own house for the Starks, the Starks and Northerners would have branded him a turncoat that way too. Balon’s the one to blame, or I guess Robb (but I have a hard time blaming anyone for not knowing just how stupid Balon Greyjoy could be)…not Theon. He was running on black ice from the moment he stepped back on Pyke. And once he’d made the only choice Westeros accepts…the house you’re born into…suggestions he should have half-assed it is imo just Stark fandom taken to an extreme.

I know it’s true, but realistically, why would the Wyls still hate the Reach? It’d have to be something Reachers did hundreds of years ago. It’d be like if the Brits still hated the French as if….oh. Oh, ok.

God rest the souls of that poor family… and p***y's half price for the next 15 minutes.

“They make a desert and call it peace.” ~ Calgacus, but really Tacitus, talking about Rome/every imperial power ever. To be fair, though, the Starks Arryns et al are also guilty of the same sin with their own subjects. Voluntary feudalism isn’t really a thing.

I know that legally speaking they’re relatively insignificant, but a part of my soul hopes that Trump goes to jail for ‘making false statements’. It would be the most specifically just conviction in history.

Laurence Fox is such a disappointing human being. Can’t wait for his stint at Downing.

Oh, I’m not doubting someone would do it, I’m saying that’d tell us a lot about them. I’ll say this for them; they’ve at least identified the problem.

An entirely golden toilet isn’t screaming ‘fake’ with every iota of its existence?

Somebody’s hitting the grumpy years.

Happy Birthday!

Here’s an admission: I was slow to realize just how stupid Vic is. I chalked so much up to just living his ethos, I didn’t bother to think about all the shit that gets past him. I mean, I knew he wasn’t exactly bright, but I thought more ~ normal to below normal with a single-minded outlook. Part of this was my big feeling of letdown with Dorne and the IB, whose depiction was not imo as fully formed and interesting as the rest of Westeros, though it had intriguing potential. But still, looking back, I wonder how I missed it.

Oh, I’d think it’s still paying. Just like with most toll bridges, it’s not usually an army at a time, just a steady drip of travellers and merchants to keep a steady if unspectacular income.

I’m not sure Ned’s memories of Brandon are all that monochromatic. I detect notes of bitterness, envy and slight disapproval along with older brother crush stuff.

Interesting. Ned was a good ruler for the North, and I think we’re a bit harsh on his time in KL. First the game was late in the 4th quarter when he entered and he didn’t even know it was being played. Second, his actual moves revolving around his knowledge isn’t what kills him so much as the things people he (understandably) thinks are on his side keep doing, Cat kidnapping Tyrion (then letting him go), Sansa choosing Cersei over him, LF whom Cat said he could trust…it’s fine to say he shouldn’t have followed that advice, but he had to trust someone, and given how little he knew the players, taking Cat’s advice makes more sense than just picking, say, Varys on a whim. It didn’t work out, but imo it’s only a little on Ned…yes, he should have taken Renly’s offer…but it’s understandable that he did not yet realize how little time he had left to act…no, he probably shouldn’t have warned Cersei, but that’s fundamental to who he is as a person, that’s not about being stupid or naive, he makes the same choice (or some version of it) if you give it all to him to do over. He was completely okay with risking his life for the sake of his honour if it was just about that. Also, I would not remotely compare Cersei with Tyrion to Sansa and Arya. The first is ~ psychotically abusive, the latter just standard sibling stuff, Arya generally gives as much as she gets. If Sansa actually is horrible to anyone it’s Jon, but she’s just following her mom’s lead there and it’s sins of omission more than commission. It IS weird she goes like the entire day of the fall of the Starks before even wondering about Arya, but at the time that was written she was probably still a villain in the making in GRRM’s mind.

I think he’s said two specific things which are related but not specific to what the OP is discussing. First he’s said he wishes in retrospect that he’d given Robb a POV. Secondly he’s said that he didn’t realize just how great of a character Oberyn was until after he’d killed him off. Neither of those would fit the quote exactly but might shed a little light. I think the quote seems to be a mechanical issue, ie a character is needed to for a specific function/perspective, and both of his ~ expressed regrets had more to do with getting more enjoyment out of the two characters rather than have them fulfill some other function.

If it’s just him and fAegon and the GC, you’d probably be right in wondering why some version of approximately this wasn’t available earlier with Viserys. I guess you could say that, Greyjoy Rebellion aside the crown had never been this vulnerable or distracted. I’m still open to being impressed by Doran, but for now he seems to be an exercise in paralysis by analysis, surrounded by a family who don’t seem to think beyond their next spear thrust.

Bereaved parents don’t only kill themselves in the immediate wake of their loss. Sometimes it just takes time, sometimes another nudge, like say your brother dying, could do it. Saying all this I have no investment in how the Ashara thing played out. I think it seems like something we’ll get further details about, or one of those dead ends where GRRM either gardened away from this line, or that he just likes peppering the text with unknowables to heighten a sense of realism.

No Sally is intended to chase an army out of sight. An army moving out of sight is job done from the besieged’s point of view. No tricks Robb can pull while out of sight have much bearing on any of this…the Freys won’t care and they won’t change much if they come back.

It’s a misunderstanding to assume that because Robb had shown serious tactical nous, that he was destined to defeat Tywin. Also thinking Tywin is overrated is, imo, premature. We only read a line or two about the results of his and Jaime’s blitz into the Riverlands, but if we’d read that from a Lannister sympathetic POV we might think Tywin or Jaime were geniuses. First, when it comes to commanders, there are a bunch who just can’t do the job effectively. Especially as armies get larger, there are seriously bright strategic thinkers who get overwhelmed by the little stuff. Then you get levels or competence and specialization, etc. Tywin’s only real ‘mistake’ was assuming that Robb was a ‘green boy’ and assuming Walder Frey would be the same man he’s always been. Both of those are extremely good assumptions to make…and a military commander in the field doesn’t have the luxury of withholding judgment until all the facts present themselves. So this was more just him getting very bad luck that Robb was a rare 14 o 15 year old prodigy. And then, he fails at a river crossing, but there’s not a military commander alive who hasn’t failed at a river crossing, they greatly favour defenders and don’t really allow for much improvisation beyond the old send troops to look for a further crossing, but in the RL the RLanders are going to know those better. To me this is just a footnote except for how it ended up mattering. Lastly, Tywin organizing the RW doesn’t mean Tywin is afraid or Robb, it just means he has adjusted his calculations to account for the original error and is now seeing Robb as the threat he is. Tywin still likely thinks he can beat Robb in a set piece battle*, and probably feels that a lot of the advantages Robb had in the RL will be his out west. But Tywin has a lot of forks in the fire, and the Red Wedding is, from a practical standpoint, a brilliant way of having your cake and eating it. Now had Balon Greyjoy not been the guy who always chooses the worst option guy, who knows how that would have played out. But with the IB in the North, Tywin’s recognition that his former impetus was now Robb’s and his subsequent decision to focus on the same decisive chokepoint (Twins) and concentrate his efforts on bringing the Freys and Bolton into the fold, leaving him to deal with the threats to KL in person is signs of a serious strategic mind at work. Saying he ‘got lucky’…everyone who wins gets lucky. Robb got lucky himself at the WW; he was still shaking with how close Jaime came to ending the war right there some time later when talking to Cat, for example. But Tywin showed real strategic brilliance from different depths. If you were to ask which commander in the war had experienced the most varied and sustained successes during the Wof5K, an objective observer would probably say Tywin. It’s become common to downplay his skill because of how many things outside his control went his way, but the point is he took brilliant advantage of each. Not sure what more should be asked of him to understand he’s a real strategist. * and he well might, Robb has little experience in that kind of fighting, but of course that might be why he’d likely be trying to avoid them and just dangling the prospect in front of Tywin to further the ambush campaign. But as mentioned, he’d now be doing that where Tywin has the local knowledge/support/reinforcements, an extremely different dynamic, and now too Tywin is wary of him. Would have been interesting.

It would be extremely unlikely to ‘trick’ the Freys into an early sally large enough to ‘destroy’ them. Firstly, and most importantly, the Freys have MUCH MUCH better lines of sight on the other army. They can look down on them from several ~ stories above them. Secondly, castles are built to keep sallies relatively cost efficient. Think lobster trap entrances, etc. But third, the Freys would have no interest in sallying until they see Robb committed. They aren’t even certain to do so then. The are in a position of strength, Robb has gotten himself into a vice and as Napoleon said, if your enemy is making a mistake, don’t interrupt him. There’s just no urgency for them, or for Tywin…Robb is the only one working on a clock here and that would be patently obvious to everyone.

I also think the RL campaign is George trying to give the readers a more accurate picture of medieval warfare, where major set piece battles were very rare and usually avoided by both parties. Instead it was this kind of constant low level siege and sally life that becomes more about endurance (particularly to famine and disease, siege warfare’s two main death dealers) and odds, and occasional choices. During the HYW soldiers could live entire lives never getting a sniff of anything like an Agincourt, but spending their entire life fighting at war.

Getting caught in a siege with an enemy army in the field is like one of the greatest blunders a commander can make, especially during the medieval period when armies were smaller and less compartmentalized. It’s how Robb overcomes huge numerical disparity at Riverrun, it’s how Stannis gets rolled up at the BW and in turn rolls up the wildlings, again despite numerical superiority. It’s about as vulnerable as an army can be, it’s basically a rout waiting to happen. It, at the very least, means you are starting the battle off with enemies to your front and~ rear, the latter completely entrenched. It’s a disaster.

Essos got too woke. Couldn’t even sit down to a family dinner/human sacrifice without someone yammering on about the entertainment. If you’re not free to enslave, torture and kill others for your own reasons, how can you be truly free? Heard there are little folk in Westeros who don’t even have proper weapons….sounds like freedom’s back on the menu, boys!