The hairy bear

@Lady_Qohor Catelyn has always been a very responsible woman. She would be aware how it would look if she interceded to his old husband to favor a friend who has recently claimed to be in love with her and has even fought a duel for her hand. Ironically, Jon had no reason to suspect that Lysa was only trying to help a childhood friend, but if Catelyn was his wife, Petyr would be seen as a rival. Catelyn didn't even visit Littlefinger when he was hurt after the duel, because she thought it was her duty towards Brandon Stark. I'm sure she would also have been dutiful towards Jon. You might be right in saying that Catelyn considered Petyr a friend, and perhaps she'd have found a way to help him after some years. So perhaps he'd rised high too. Still, I think she wouldn't have helped him as much as Lysa did.

I'd assume that Littlefinger managed to rise up to the Small Council thanks to Lysa's influence. She would be the one that convinced Jon Arryn to bring him to King's Landing for a post in customs, and while Petyr's talents can't be denied, he surely relied on Lysa's help when a connection, recommendation or any kind of support was needed. That wouldn't be the case with Catelyn, who wouldn't want anything to do with him. There's no reason to blame Lysa for Jon Arryn's issues. Jon had already tried to have heirs with to wives before Lysa, and he failed. When he married Lysa, he was 67. Even with our current medical standards, at this age most men can't father children because of reduced sperm count, quality and mobility. And Jon wasn't precisely a healthy man, as Lysa tells as that he had already lost half his teeth when she married him. Also, children sired by men as old as Jon (he was 76 when little Robert was born) have a much higher likelihood to suffer birth defects or development disorders. Because of that (and Littlefinger's willingess to kill the boy) I would bet on Robert being Jon's son.

I wonder if they have posted pics of those five characters because they intend them to be the primary protagonists of the first season. Meaning that the show would not focus as much on the likes of king Viserys and Princess Rhaenys.

The official twitter account is posting official pics of some of the protagonists: Not sure if I'll get used to Corlys' pale rastafari look. One detail worth noting is that Otto wears the Hand insignia, which would suggest that he'll be in the post at the beginning of the series.

If Robb exchanged Jaime for her two sisters, his image would suffer a lot from it. It would no longer be a matter of a feeble-willed woman losing her mind to save her loved daughters (something that can be understood in the Westerosi misogynistic mindset), and it would be seen as a sign of weakness and inability to rule. Robb's leadership would be put in question. Rickard Karstark's wrath would no longer be directed towards some defenseless prisoners, but towards Robb. And I'm sure they'd be other lords who'd think that a king cannot ask his bannermen to sacrifice their lives to capture a prisoner, and then bargain him away.

I agree that some more linguistic diversity would make for a better setting. I'm also not a big fan of the author's pointless favoritism in the Blackwood-Bracken feud. Some other changes that I'd introduce: Reduce the time spans. The Rhoynar should have come like 500 years ago (200 before the Targs). The Andals should have come at most a thousand years ago. Make Westeros smaller. Like, reduce its size by half. You could reduce the size of the armies by the same amount, if you wish. This reduced size would work better with the idea of a culturally homogeneous Westeros, and would make it easier to swallow that the Targaryens could keep the realm together without dragons for more than a century. Reverse the coasts. Put the Stormlands and the Vale (isolationist, with more remaining influence of the First Men) on the western coast. Put the Reach and the Kingdom of the Rock (most Andalish kingdoms, with coastal trading cities) in the eastern coast, with KL and the Blackwater Bay between them. The Iron Islands would switch to the eastern coast too, allowing them to keep their pillaging culture on other nations of the Narrow Sea. Try to make the setting more consistent with the irregular seasonal pattern of Westeros. The food storages should be strategic locations, there should be mass migrations every long winter, etc. Make the Wall lower. Again, reducing its height by half would put some sense to the idea of killing someone at the top with arrows, or scaling it with primitive equipment. Make the Iron Islands bigger. It would make them more credible as a naval superpower. Introduce some major changes across history. The most prominent houses now shouldn't be the same ones that were prominent centuries ago. A couple of the Seven Kingdoms could have formed a dynastic union at some time. One of them could have invaded another for a few decades. Dynasties could have changed. Great houses could have disappeared (not only in the Wars of conquest). Etc. Fix the rivers. Put the sources of the rivers on mountains and vales, instead of marshes and plains. Make some of them flow north instead of south.

They seem Fabien Frankel (Criston Cole) and Rhys Ifans (Otto Hightower) to me.

If any 'puppetmaster' wanted to push a claim to threaten the Tyrell's claim to Highgarden, he would never choose Shireen. He'd certainly look from a male. From one of the families that also have blood ties with the Gardener kings of old but that are more prestigious and powerful than the Florents (such as Rowan or Oakheart). And if a Florent had to be chosen, it wouldn't be a daughter of a daughter of a third-born son. Shireen is an absolute no one when discussing the rights to Brightwater Keep. She's even less, in relation to Highgarden. And that's even before taking into account the fact that she's a scarred little girl seen as a monstrosity by many. The Tyrells wouldn't consider her as a threat at all.

Agreed. It could (and should) have been dealt with better, but it isn't a deal breaker. The huge problem was forcing Ted and Robin. It's a relationship that we had already seen that did not work, with no chemistry, with no purpose. It paled when compared to what Tracy and Ted had. And forced the writers to break up Robin and Barney, reverting all the character development of the later. Awfully conceived. It's a matter of taste, I guess. But I'd always consider Ted as much more likeable than Lily. And in any case, if there was some "unlikable" aspects of him, I don't think those were related to the number of relationships with women he had on the course of the series, which is what Ghostlydragon seems to imply. Did he? Both Victoria, Robin (1st time) and Stella seemed like good bets at the beginning. And the reasons they were rejected were not slight flaws (Victoria moved to Germany, Robin had completely different live goals and priorities, and Stella left him at the altar). I don't see how Ted's behaviour in those instances make him "unlikable" and deem him a "whore man". If I'm not forgetting something, that only leaves Zoey as the other long-term relationship (which admittedly, was a bad choice from the start).

I liked Ted. He had his flaws, of course, but a flawless character is not interesting. I don't see how having multiple girlfriends on the path of looking for true love is something that should be frown upon on the 21st century. And I wouldn't care at all to see a woman do the same thing.

There should be no doubt that Lyanna was fully aware of Rhaegar's death by the time she gave birth. She was in the Tower of Joy with the three KG who had a detailed knowledge of everything that had transpired in the war (remember the "I looked for you in the Trident" exchange). So she would have thought of which name he'd want to give to her child beforehand. She may have confided it to her companions. But in any case, it makes no sense to assume that she didn't have time to name her son. Complications from childbirth do not cause an sudden death.

When George decided to get rid of the 5 year gap, he famously said: "If a twelve-year old has to conquer the world, then so be it." This clearly indicates that George's plan to address the youthfulness of many protagonist will be not to address it. Also, if George felt that there was a need of a "transition book" that skips a few years in order to make the younger characters grow up, that book would have been A Feast of Crows. If he didn't do it then, he won't do it in the penultimate book of the series.

Of course! But I was referring to the fact that Rhaegar had already fathered an Aegon and a Rhaenys. In Dany's vision at the House of the Undying, he says that "There must be one more" and "The dragon has three heads". Since the three heads of the Targaryen dragon represent Aegon and his sisters, I can see Rhaegar imagining that her next child would be a girl he'd name Visenya, the negative associations be damned. At least in House Frey this rule would not apply, with plenty of Walder cousins and uncles around. It's true that we don't have many cases of repeated names on family members of the same generation* but this may have more to do with GRRM trying to avoid confusions to the readers than an actual in-world taboo. * Besides the Freys, the only other example I've been able to find is a couple of Brandon cousins in the Stark family tree (a son of Willam and a son of Artos). But it's possible that the first Brandon died before the second was born.

If Lyanna had named his infant son Brandon, there would have been absolutely no reason for Ned to change it. Additionally, I'm not entirely sure it would make much sense to name their child in Brandon's honor, but at the same time not moving a single finger to de-escalate the conflict. Rhaegar didn't intervene to stop Brandon and Rickard's execution, or appease his father when he asked for Robert and Jon's heads, or pacify the war that was being fought not very far from he Tower of Joy. The casualties at the Battle of Summerhall or the people that starved at Storm's End could have benefited from a timely intervention from Rhaegar. On top of that, Rhaegar led the armies that faced the rebels at the Trident. He wanted to "change things" after the battle, but first he intended to kill Jon, Robert and Ned. As far as we know, he didn't try to negotiate or make concessions before the confrontation. I don't think this is the behaviour of someone who feels particularly guilty about the death of Brandon. As someone obsessed with prophecies and lore, if Rhaegar had decided a name for his future infant that would have been Visenya or Viserys (after siring a Rhaenys and an Aegon).

And by the way, we've got a cover for the Wisdom of Crowds! Leo's banner confirms what we all suspected: he'll become the figurehead of the rebels, and Orso is going to regret his mercifulness.