Nathan Stark

Quaith just needs a hug. That's probably why she's crying though, because she disappears whenever anyone tries to touch her. Living in some tower with nothing but a glass candle for company must be pretty lonely.

No, he didn't "try to teach him." He hired a bunch of goons to do things like drench Sam in blood, hang him up in chains for a night, thwack him around with a sword, all to "toughen Sam up." What is that "teaching" exactly? Like I said. All Randyll did was cause Sam to withdraw even more. As to the rest of your comment, you ought to reread the books. Sam killing the Other is immensely courageous no matter how you slice it. It does not matter one iota that Sam's back was against the wall. Afterwards, he survived the Night's Watch mutiny at Crasters Keep escaped and helped Gilly and her baby survive the haunted forest. Then he faced down Cotter Pyke and Jason Mallister, two very intimidating men in their own rights, and manipulated the both of them into backing Jon for Lord Commander. That is not "wayy later." That's maybe a month or two later. And it's way before Sam put Dareon in his place. (As an aside, no. Sam did not have to be "virtually carried" anywhere after the Fist. That chapter opens with the line "Sobbing, Sam took another step." He'd been walking for hours, and only needed to be carried by Small Paul for a short while.) I really stuggle to see how anyone can read these books and come away thinking that Randyll fuckface Tarly has any useful insights into how to raise a child. It really baffles me.

He'd have been pretty good at it if Randyll had bothered to teach him. I don't know how anyone can read Sam's story ark in A Storm of Swords, where he kills an Other, guides a girl and an infant through hostile wilderness, braves the Nightfort and manipulates an election, and conclude that Sam is soft, physically or mentally. He always had that in him. His useless meathead of a father just spent more time torturing Sam and trying to force him into being something he clearly wasn't, but all that did was fuck Sam up physically and mentally. Randyll was the cause of the problem, Randyll and his childish, macho worldview.

Here's the thing though: Sam was weak in body and spirit because of what Randyll did to him, not because he started out that way. Randyll tried to force Sam to develop martial skills that he was never suited for, and he humiliated Sam endlessly for the skills that he actually had. Sam loved reading, dancing, singing, and eating. As a potential Lord of Horn Hill, he could have been wicked smart, socially astute and generous with throwing great feasts, all of which are skills a House should want if it is to survive. Randyll thinks all a great Lord should be able to do is be a good soldier and fight wars, which is childish. He thinks singing, dancing and reading are for girls and so are inferior, which is equally childish. Randyll Tarly never developed emotionally past the age of 13, and so never grew to see the potential value of what he had in Sam. All he could see was that his son was fat and girly, and because Randyll is fundamentally a child, he felt ashamed to have a son like that.

All of these comments are perfectly true of course. The heart of the matter is that Renly takes nothing seriously, and so does not take Joffrey seriously. And Joffrey is someone who desperately wants to be taken seriously.

Like who?

1. Ghost. 2. Summer. They are both very good boys.

Let's unpack this assertion. Braavos is an Essosi city. Do they have an Asian seeming culture? No. Pentos is an Essosi city. Do they appear Asian? No. What about Quarth? That place seems more like George's deconstruction of Hollywood than anything related to Asia. I don't think Norvos has any real world parallels, Asian or otherwise. Slavers Bay is based much more on ancient Medditerranean societies than on medival Arabic civilizations. The Roynar are largely adjacent to Ancient Egypt. It's true that the farther east you go, the more "Asian" Essos feels, with the Dothraki acting as a sort of cultural bridge connecting western Essos with eastern Essos. However, the continent is so immensely diverse that declaring "Essosi culture" to be like "Asian culture" is clearly a huge leap to make. In universe, the slave trade affects all sorts of people, including Dany herself, who vivdly recalls the experience of being sold to Khal Drogo like a peice of meat. Arguing that Dany is a white savior because we percieve her as white isn't a compelling argument to me. Dany's trying to free slaves because she recognises the institution as an utterly depraved, inhuman practice that must be ended. It doesn't matter in universe what Dany's skin color is, or what skin color most of the slaves have, so why should we try to impose importance on those things? I think it's fair to critique George for not introducing pov characters of color in Slavers Bay, but I do not believe it was his goal not to do so. He simply didn't want to create even more pov characters. But setting all of the above aside. Danearys Targaryen is not culturally Westerosi. She is culturally Essosi. With the exception of Braavos, and nominally Pentos, every other city on the continent that Dany lives in is a slave city. She doesn't need to have been unfamiliar with Slavers Bay to have been deeply familiar with slavery. Dany is not trying to impose "western" cultural values upon "eastern" cultures. She is trying to get rid of slavery, a vile practice that is considered normal throughout the vast majority of Essos, including the "western coded" parts. To view Dany's story as a "white savior" narrative overlooks the context in which Dany's story is taking place. I think it is much more useful to view Danaerys as a modern political thinker stuck in a deeply antiquated society, who just so happens to have the actual power to force said society to change its ways.

Well, you've hit the nail on why Feldman's argument is so flawed. He is taking it as a given that Danearys should compromise with the slavers and make peace with them, because in his view, compromise is always worth pursuing if it leads to peace. But this requires ignoring how one sided the arrangement Dany has made with the slavers is, and it ignores the fact that the slavers don't intend to uphold the terms of the deal anyway, since they know the Volantene fleet is coming while Dany does not. You cannot compromise with people who are negotiating in bad faith. Feldman notes with approval the fact that Dany was able to compromise with the slavers at all, and laments her rejection of the peace she made at the end of the book. Feldman views compromise as an inherent virtue, when it just isn't. Does veiwing Dany as a white savior really tell us much about what she is missing as a character? Because if there is a society and culture that Dany is truly unfamiliar with, it is Westeros, not Slavers Bay. Dany is culturally Essosi, has grown up traveling around Essos, and is deeply familiar with the slave trade in Essos as both a beneficiary and a victim. Even Dany's own ethnic group of Valyrian descendents are typical targets for slavery. Lyseni bedslaves are bred specifically for their Valyrian feautures. Dany's desire to help the freedmen of Slavers Bay, and her inability to forsee the consequences of her doing so, does not in itself make her a part of the "white savior" trope. Dany might be a white savior in regards to Westeros, a culture that she has little familiarity with beyond second hand accounts. But trying to make her a white savior in Slavers Bay, knowing how diverse the slaves are and how quickly they have come to take action on their own without Dany, is rather like trying to force a square peg to fit a round hole.

The sequel is never as good as the original.

Silent Arya Sorry. What does any of this have to do with Arya being silent?

The claim being made that Dany is a "white savior" mostly derives from how the Thrones show chose to portray these events. In the show, we were subjected to the image of white, blonde Dany moshing on the hands of millions of nameless brown and black people. In the books, that same scene outside the gates of Yunkai played out rather differently, and as has been discussed, the slaves themselves hail from many different cultures, including a few from Westeros. It was the showrunners choice to involve 21st century American notions of slavery into George's established narrative.

Poor Sansa. She is one of the least loved characters in the ASOIAF fandom for largely silly, superficial reasons. And even her actual fans pair her up with the most gut churning ships. Jon (her own cousin who she sees as her brother?) Sandor (a man decades older than she is and who nearly raped her one time?) Tyrion (a self-pitying, entitled man child who thinks he's owed love and affection for clearing the absolute lowest possible bar?) Arya (her actual sister. WTF?) I won't dispute @Corvo the Crow regarding possible Jon/Sandor parallels. Sure. They exist to some extent. That said, just because said parallels exist doesn't mean they were intentional, or that they forshadow anything in particular. I don't see Jonsa happening. I do think Jon and Sansa are very similar characters in terms of personality. Both are romantic idealists at heart, just like dear old dad. And Sandor is kind of a bitterly jaded former romantic, whose worldview was shattered in the cruelest way possible. So the three do occupy a similar spectrum of romantic dreamers that GRRM loves to write about. They are joined by Arriane, Sam, Bran, Brienne, Barristan and Quentyn. Guess Sansa better get busy.

Abandon hope, 'ye who enter here.

Curiosly, Hoster has brown hair Whereas Tullys are known for their Auburn, including Blackfish He has also been more of a father to the Tully children than Hoster was Conclusion, Tullies are Blackfish's bastards with Minisa Whent. Blackfish didn't marry because the woman he loved was married with his brother. No.