Brother Seamus

this is one of those tiresome definition arguments. Serf comes from servus, which meant slave in latin. With a correct understanding of the broader meanings of both terms, they are the same thing. A serf is a kind of slave. The term slave includes serfs, and in many cases they can be used as synonyms. They're just usually used in English to refer to different phenomena at different times and places, and, most importantly, in different socio-legal contexts. A 19th century russian serf had different rights and burdens from a 13th century french or saxon serf, and different from a 2nd century roman servus, who had different rights and burdens from a 1st or 4th century roman servus. and they all had different rights and burdens from an 8th century slav captured by christian franks or saxons, castrated, and sold into slavery in muslim spain, and different from a an 18th century african slave in the the us, which was different from an african slave in brazil or barbados. An irishman captured and enslaved by vikings had a different life - can be considered a different thing definitionally - from a viking captured and enslaved by north african muslims. It's the reality that counts first, and the clarity of your expression that counts next. Arguing about definitions, when language constantly changes and malleable, is a waste of time.

I've always felt that the idea of the hound being recruited as the champion for the Faith against Gregor/Robert Strong in Cersei's trial by combat had a lot of appeal. Fighting his brother to the death is the culmination of his entire life's desire for vengeance, and in this scenario he would be fighting for the faith that (presumably) saved his life and redeemed him. I don't see it as regression. he is still leaving his old life behind, and dedicating what remains of his life to fighting for the faith that he feels saved him, and turning his one talent, violence, to good (as he may see it). I think the main downside to this is that it comes too early in the story. If he does not survive he will not be around for the end game with the others, etc., which I still think is in the cards. If he does survive then presumably Gregor is dead and Cersei found guilty, which I also think is problematic for the eventual resolution of the various plot threads. That is, I guess that would mean that, for Cersei to make it to the end of the story, which I think she has to, she would have to find a way to evade the consequences of the guilty verdict. This could mean fleeing King's Landing for Casterly Rock, or luring the high sparrow et al to the great sept of baelor and then blowing it up, but however it happens there's a risk of it coming off as contrived. On the other hand, this turn of events is consistent with the speculation that Young Griff/fAegon will take King's Landing and rule for a while, pending Dany's appearance. Cersei abandoning KL could be part of what opens the city up to Griff's conquest and rule.

I agree the High Sparrow is being set up as a major villain. more to come.

Here is the latest, from a 7/22/23 grrm blog post, for what it's worth. i guess it could be worse. And, yes, yes, of course, I’ve been working on WINDS OF WINTER. Almost every day. Writing, rewriting, editing, writing some more. Making steady progress. Not as fast as I would like.. .certainly not as fast as YOU would like… but progress nonetheless. It keeps me out of trouble.

My prediction/hope is that he is not resurrected but is grievously injured and in a coma until after the 3/4 mark of wow, when he revives, and finds that his siblings have begun to gather at winterfell, and then he travels there and the siblings, maybe with the exception of Bran, are reunited.

Dany will have a huge army when she gets to westeros: unsullied at least one dothraki khalasar of 5,000-10,000, maybe more several thousand freedmen from slaver's bay most or all of victarion's ironborn two or three of the sellsword companies now at mereen tens of thousands of freedmen from volantis and other city between mereeen and volantis several tens of thousands from lys, pentos, myr and/or tyrosh some or all of which she will conquer before sailing to westeros thousands of random others who flock to her banners from all over essos some kind of force, probably mostly naval, from Braavos, which will throw its weight and funding behind her when they see what has happened to Volantis and the other cities of essos I am probably forgetting some. i predict something in the neighborhood of 200,000 total, by far the greatest army ever assembled in the known history of planetos. and don't forget the dragons. she will be unstoppable, and but for the others would conquer westeros quickly. but, before she completes her conquest, she realizes that the invasion of the others is more important.

I agree Perkin Warbeck seems to be the best inspiration for Aegon (fake or not; I think he is fake).

yeah. what they did with the show is mash/transposition from the novels

I agree. I don't understand the complaints. we don't hear anything about catelyn's body for several chapters after the rw, and LS is revealed in the epilogue. in the book we're allowed to believe she's completely dead for half the book. if they're doing it right we don't see LS until the last episode of season 4.

same here. hadn't read fantasy or sci fi since high school. thought it was too low-brow. started GOT Oct 2012 because I was/am thinking about writing a historical novel, and I wanted to see how a successful popular novel (that's kind of like a historical novel) was written. boom. totally hooked. read all 5 books in a about 3 weeks. it did not even occur to me until I was near the end of DWD that the series wasn't finished!! re-read again in March. I'm obsessed. i'm still hoping wow comes out by xmas 2013. please GRRM, write write write.