Maia

This is very much untrue. Lion's share of Jon's successes hinge on him being a son of Eddard Stark and having been raised alongside his legitimate siblings as well as his direwolf. Without the prestige of his father's family, a noble education at the most powerful regional court it afforded him, without his physical resemblance to the Starks and their sigil as his animal companion he wouldn't have had the opportunities he did. And all he had to do to get Ghost was to be self-effacing for a couple of minutes. Oh, and don't start me on his getting a Valyrian steel sword on a very contrived pretext and even more ridiculously, not being relieved of it by the wildlings. Finally, simply being male is also an unearned advantage for him. That's not to say that Jon didn't make a fairly good use of his advanatages, but let's not pretend that he is some kind of self-made man. @Oana_Mika: Sadly, we can't trust GRRM. I had had some reservations about his depiction of adult women in ASoIAF from the beginning, but it seems like at some point while writing ADwD and materials for the worldbook, which became WoIaF and FaB, he decided that his setting wasn't sexist enough and it's women too capable. I used to think that it was a clumsy and misguided set-up for Dany overcoming these obstacles, but after the ending of the show and reading the early outline for the "trilogy", I suspect that it was meant as a justification for her failing. Because whatever else may have been distorted by the showrunners' chase after subversion and shock, king Bran could have only come from GRRM. Ditto Martin's hypocritical stance on dragons, where they are simultaneously weapons of mass destruction and also somehow give their female riders and to some degree even Daemon zero political clout and don't prevent them from being pushed around by dragonless men. Oh, and also they are unbeatable by mundane means, except for all the many cases when they were killed by the same. Etc., etc. Honestly, very little concerning dragons and their use in FaB and WoIaF makes much logical sense.

This is actually somewhat unclear, since we have a primogeniture versus proximity to the title holder situation here. Both principles were used to determine inheritance during the RL Middle Ages and it was very much situational which prevailed. This also happened in Westeros when king's sons inherited ahead of king's grandchildren from senior lines. i.e when Jaehaerys I chose Baelon over Rhaenys and Aegon V was chosen over his niece and nephew. There may even be an example in the Stark family tree where children of Cregan's second son Edric, including his sons, didn't inherit, but their uncle, the third son of Cregan, did instead.

Thanks, I guess I just have to wait for the final book to learn the answers. At least I didn't miss anything of substance. A slight correction - it is currently the other way round, which was an important plot point in Ht9. Hm, I wonder why they even needed it, though, given that they have alternative methods.

I loved the book, as is evident from the speed of my reaction post . The main narrator voice resonated with me much better than in the previous volume, while the setting, plot and mysteries remain as intriguing as ever. I also enjoy having certain theories of mine having been proven right! It is great how every installment manages to have a distinct tone and show another part of this very imaginative setting. Yep. Have I missed something in the previous books? I didn't re-read, just read this https://www.tor.com/2022/06/08/as-yet-unsent-tamsyn-muir/, which wasn't in the ebook : Care to elaborate? I don't understand. Oh, and I forgot to mention that Nona is an absolute treasure.

Stannis will last long enough to get re-united with Shireen and for the Others to put him into a hopeless enough situation that he'd sacrifice her. He is set to win the Battle of Ice and take Winterfell by subtrefuge. Beyond that, Ramsey isn't a particularly interesting villain in the books, despite his cruelty, Roose is superior to him in every way. I kinda expect either Nymeria's pack to move north and do for him, or for Bran to somehow remotely skinchange his dogs ditto. Though maybe Roose will finally decide to get rid of him too, as with "Arya" gone, he is just a liability. Frankly, even with her around he was already harming Roose's situation more than helping it. What I don't expect is some great rivalry like in the show or gathering of yet another army by Jon or yet another battle, etc. I think that attack on Jon is in part supposed to narratively stop him from running off to chase after Ramsey.

It is so weird that the Dance is actually more sexist than the historical events which inspired it! Because the 2 Matildas were both very personally active in the conflict. Matilda of Bulogne, Stephen's wife was actually _the_ reason why he managed to hang on to the throne. She even occasionally commanded troops and while Empress Matilda was more of a political leader, she still raised troops and was physically present at many significant battles, etc. They didn't just leave everything to their men once the conflict became a war.

This was only true in AGoT. We know canonically from the later volumes that there are weirwood heart trees in Harrenhal, 3 at Highgarden and Casterly Rock has one as well. You are right that there are no weirwoods in the Red Keep and Riverrun in the books - in both cases it is mentioned in the text that the heart trees are oaks and they aren’t carved. I guess the show changed that.

Yea, honestly, that's probably why they decided to beat the on "ice and fire" prophecy drum - they are creating a potential set-up for "Snow", where Jon will get his high-fantasy arc against the Others that was excised from GoT, and the outcome of that last is going to be treated as merely a respite, a False Spring. What else of interest is there still for him to do? Overthrow Sansa?. In hindsight, it seems that GRRM's subversion intent has always been limited to a Fisher King archetype becoming the "high king" rather than an Arthurian archetype, who would be the the prophesised savior, but remain largely unknown and unaknowledged. The idea that a woman might play either of these roles was clearly a step too far for him and only used as a diversion. In fact, the initial outline* spells rather clearly IMHO that Tyrion, Jon and Bran - i.e. "dwarfs, bastards and broken things" were supposed to be the overall main characters, with everybody else being merely a source of conflict or motivation for these 3. So, "Snow" could just go back to the roots, as it were, and somewhat redeem all the various set-ups of the Others, the Long Night, the prophecies, etc. Since the main political part is done, and Dinklage is unlikely to want to come back, they could even dispense with Tyrion at this point. *Which clearly demonstrates, along with WoIAF an FaB that GRRM's "gardening", despite all the annoyance and delays that it caused, tends to greatly improve on his original ideas.

That was stupid and disappointing down the whole line, despite nice visuals. Why couldn't the doc perform a Caesarian on Mars, when he had good enough equipement to save Ed from that metal splinter in his guts? How is it that Kelly didn't burn up on the ascent, but there were all these pretty flames on the descent? The Korean mission had to be one-way to begin with - there was zero equipement to lift off again, so all the pathos seemed really overdone and felt like a re-hash of Ed's Johnstown arc. If Danny is remorseful, why didn't he do the right thing to save supplies for the rest of them? Did he purposefully try to kill Ed? It sure looked that way to me, but he/the showrunners were too spineless to admit it. Critics of the Mars program are shown to be completely right - nothing was achieved except for endless drama. Oh and now the 8(+1) guys who remained for the sake of a fetus have to somehow survive with insufficient supplies and without a biologist. And without the space center, but I guess that this brings Helios back into the game. Why was Elen dropping in on Pam whilst in the middle of national emergency?! Or did she fail in everything and resign? Why would Margo have run to Russia instead of facing the music, this is completely out of character. She was willing to go to jail in 1992 and only gave in due to the threat to Sergei, now he is safe. NASA was her life and she managed to keep most sensitive information back even as a spy, now she'd have no choice but to give Russia everything. All for the sake of some more BS "never the twain shall meet" drama. At least Molly got a good exit. Time jump to 2003 is really ill-advised, IMHO, since the way things ended in this season it makes no sense for Mars programs to continue, whereas there is a potential for interest in the struggle for survival of the stranded group and them finally doing/finding something worthwhile there. Maybe it will turn out that they'd still be there 8 years later somehow, since political will on all sides will stretch only to funding supply runs but not a mission capable of bringing them back? Kelly and the Stevens boys need to go, though, they are all 3 parade examples of the evils of nepotism.

Greatjohn only suggested it after a long and fruitless discussion among the assembled rebel nobles about which king to support, where the main argument against Stannis was that he hadn't made his claim for the throne, while Robb was unwilling to support Renly because he was the younger brother. The question wouldn't have even arisen if Stannis had done the logical thing after Robert's death, instead of inexplicably dithering for months. Heck, the Riverlanders likely would have already proclaimed their allegiance to him by then, because they were fighting the Lannisters anyway. Really, Stannis had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

There is zero indication that independence was even a blip on the northern lords radar until a situation where it was unclear which Baratheon king to support arose. As to Renly, there is a world of difference between him chosing to support his older brother's claim if accusations of bastardy against Robert's children were made immediately after the king's death and the regent's arrest by the Lannisters - likely with some horse-trading involved, like being named heir and stepping down after already having claimed kingship, made promises to his followers and assembled a huge support. It could have gone either way if Stannis declared himself earlier - particularly since Renly was significantly younger than Stannis and could reasonably expect to inherit the crown. So, yea, it would have changed everything.

I have finally caught up after missing a few weeks and... did the Mars expedition(s) actually undertake, like, any exploration and scientific discovery at all? All they seemed to do was dealing with the fallouts of Danny and Kelly screw-ups so that they could GTFO back to Earth. What a disappointing contrast to the previous seasons! No wonder that Helios had no enthusiasm for a Mars colony - though I guess that we are about to see Kelly give birth on Mars and she and her kid becoming the first permanent residents. Oh, and didn't Helios have 2 landers? Was the second one completely destroyed? North Koreans on Mars, while absurd, doesn't seem so bad by comparison. In fact, it appears to reference persistent rumors that were going around USSR for decades that some of the unmanned Moon missions had been secretly one-way manned ones, because Soviet robotics wasn't up to snuff. I.e. Lunokhods, etc. Regarding Wilson't coming-out, that wouldn't remove the threat of Larry being indicted for perjury, would it?

If Stannis acting on Jon's advice could convince the mountain clans to fight Boltons for him, it should have been a snap for Jon himself to recruit them to help protect the Wall. Particularly since they'd be the first to feel the brunt of whatever comes through it. Frankly, them not running to support NW when Mance Rayder's invasion was imminent is a huge plothole. But it really doesn't seem that Jon understands that the wildlings are dangerous, given that he intended to let the Weeper through as well if he promised to behave. All without any plan of how to feed them in their tens of thousands too, until a miraculous, wholly unexpected and illogical open-end loan from IB. But even so, it is a long, long way from a promissory note to an actual food supply. Realistically, once provisions grow short at the latest, in a couple of months or so, a large fraction of wildlings should just move south and go on a pillage rampage, hostages here or there. Their allegiance to their leaders is tenuous, and it is the leaders who had to surrender their sons as surety, not the masses. Logically, Jon's actions should result in something similar to what happened when Goths were given refuge in the Roman Empire, only without all the malfeasance. He was also going to denude the Wall of both wildlings and NW when he decided to go after tBoB, since he was sending a lot of the remaining black brothers and a big chunk of remaining food to Hardhome at the same time. I don't know if GRRM intends to aknowledge this, but looking at it from practical point of view, Jon's plans were a complete cluster. Idealistically motivated, yes, but... Of course, Marsh and Co. weren't allowed to capitalize on any of the good arguments they had and were restricted to just spouting prejudice, so it wouldn't surprise me if the authorial intent is that Jon was right about everything. Wouldn't be the first time that he has been spared from making hard choices or from the consequences of his decisions. Both are based on real historical precedents . The first is what Athenians did in the run-up to the battle of Marathon - 10 generals, who rotated operational command between them every day. The second happened a lot throughout history despite the obvious drawbacks, but Renaissance Italy and the Thirty Years War are particularly glaring examples. Anyway, I am surprised that it hasn't been mentioned so far, but I nominate Stannis sitting on his butt for months after Robert's death and Ned's arrest, instead of immediately publicizing his bastardy accusations and his claim to the throne. There was literally no downside for him going public at once, since his association with Jon Arryn's investigation already doomed him if Lannisters remained in power, while proclaiming himself would have given their many enemies a rallying point.

Doesn't Neumann's power work only on living things? Cindy can implode everything, but I think that she needs line of sight too - that's why they were hiding behind corners from her during their raid on the facility. I don't understand the need to belittle Maeve's powers. It fits the spirit of the show far better if she was in fact stronger and more dangerous to Homelander than she told herself she was. If she truly could have done something during all these years, but willfully chose not to out of cowardice. What's the attraction in Homelander being completely unassailable? It just makes the whole overarching plot seem like boring make-work. And personally, I would have found it deeply unsatisfying and disappointing if they killed her off, but let A-Train and Soldier Boy live. The lengths they went to to preserve A-Train were far more egregious and far less explicable, IMHO. Give us some more evil mirrors instead - there are plenty of popular super-heroes to chose from. BTW, speaking of breeding superheroes - why didn't Liberty/Stormfront have Soldier Boy's kids again, if she wanted to create her master race? At least, not in the natural way and not to her knowledge, since I strongly suspect that Homelander was created from her egg-cells. Yea, it seems clear that the overall arc is doomed to be pedestrian water-treading until they are ready to finish or know that they are getting canceled. Even then we'll likely get something awfully clichéd like Ryan being the only one capable of finishing dear old dad. Still, as long as the episodes in isolation are entertaining I'd likely watch.

I graduated school in USSR very shortly before it's fall - I know what I am speaking of *. Foreign languages were taught for 7 years, beginning with the 4th grade. English, German or, very rarely, French. It was the case for me and for my parents. Only sometime during the 20-ties - 30-ties when my grandparents went to school was there a short period when foreign languages weren't part of the general school curriculum. Ditto a couple of years for colleges/universities. Granted, the goal was mostly to be able to read and translate, rather then converse with or understand native speakers, though larger cities did have specialized foreign language secondary schools, where some of the subjects were eventually taught in the foreign language and students could speak fluently. It took serious connections to get a kid in, though. Likewise, people who graduated from language programs at universities, etc. were also fluent. As an aside, students who went to one of the schools with instruction in the language of a given Soviet Republic also had Russian at school that was taught very seriously from the first grade on and an additional year of school because fluency in Russian was so pushed by the state. Whereas kids in Russian schools had the official language of a given republic from the second grade on, but how much importance was put on it, varied wildly from republic to republic. In some cases it had such a low status that there was no instruction in it for years, because no teachers could be found. Which contributed to the problems with native Russian speakers in many regions after the dissolution, of course. Kids in Russia proper just had one subject less. But naturally, people who needed it for their jobs, would have received additional instruction to refresh and improve their foreign language skills, like for instance the cosmonauts in this continuity. * BTW, that's why I can also authoritatively say that Margo being able to call Sergei on a public payphone from abroad was absolute nonsense. They didn't call it the Iron Curtain for nothing! In fact, you couldn't even call from or to another city via such corner payphone, it was strictly local.

As I feared, a disappointing finale after a great season. Homelander is still untouchable and now even more so because he has Ryan, the Deep and A-Train are still his bootlickers, the Boys are somehow still alive and somehow somebody is still funding them, they wrote out another woman and a bit character with a bad-ass design... And IMHO the only reason Maeve isn't dead is because they wanted to avoid "kill your gays" trope. How very boring. This is why I never could get into regular superhero comics and they are emulating their worst aspects while pretending to be an edgy and critical take on them... Meh.

I am afraid that Aleida is irrevocably tainted by association in any case, unless she goes to over Margo's head with her suspicions before the things blow up, which she isn't going to do. And I am not sure how Margo would be able to save Sergei's family if she turns herself in - she'd need to gain time for that, which would necessarily mean shutting up and discrediting Aleida. Even if she confesses and convinces CIA or whoever to run her as a double agent, this would still be the case. And there are Russians to consider too - if they feel that Margo is slipping away or about to fall, who knows what they will do. BTW, I know that this is largely alt.history by this point, but USSR specifically tried to ensure that the few people allowed to go abroad would be married and have families, which remained back home, to prevent defections. Ditto cosmonauts, etc. Which makes me deeply suspicious of the dude flirting with Kelly. Could it be that after their success with Margo, they had orders to try to recruit more spies in this manner? Also, not that it was taught particularly well, outside of specialised schools, but everybody had 7 years of English at school and a couple of years at college, so "where did you learn English?" was a rather nonsensical question. It is just that most people had no use for it afterwards and forgot it, which obviously wouldn't be the case for people in the space program.

Heh, I was wrong on all counts with my predictions. Ed sabotaged himself by taking Danny along - he 100% wouldn't have turned back if he had been with anybody else. OTOH, their landing craft seemed to have problems, so maybe it would have all ended tragically instead. I am very afraid for Aleida - Margo is backed into a corner and may try to save her own and Sergei's skins at her expense. Also, wasn't he supposed to have a wife and children? I am almost certain that it was mentioned at some point in the previous seasons. Aleida's obsession is understandable, given that her father was accused of espionage back then, but it also makes it easier to frame her. I really hope that they won't try to up the soap drama by having Kelly defect to USSR. I had a feeling that maybe the Russians have scuttled their expedition on purpose once it became clear that they would lose the race, to get access to US resources on Mars and first-hand experience with their technology. I expected a mutiny there for a moment, before Danielle decided to go for landing. So, Karen's next step is politics, right? And Wayne is great as always.

Except we now know that they didn't actually bungle it, Gunpowder excluded, they were just pursuing a goal that Mallory was unaware of, which was at odds with her own. All the chaos was for distraction and to signal the extraction crew. It is kinda interesting that most of the team was content to fade into obscurity afterwards, with the Twins not even using their powers for many years. I guess that Edgars wasn't worried about Soviets having Soldier Boy, because Vaught already had Homelander? Also, it is not clear that he was speaking for the firm at large back then - he could have been just an ambitious middle manager. I am now very confused about the compound V chronology. In the previous season we have been told that Vaught brought his research to US after WW2, so how is it that Soldier Boy was already a supe during the D-Day? When Nazi Germany itself didn't field any supes at all even in it's most desperate hour? Additionally, I feel that the whole "supes are fundamentally useless despite their massive power/destruction potential" is overdone to the point that it has become boring and a parody of itself. Soldier Boy could have been a real soldier and done his bit at D-Day, while still remaining a massive PoS. We have been reminded that permanent V is hideously dangerous to non-babies, so what's the deal with Neumann casually giving it to her daughter, whom she seemed to love? When even Stormfront didn't risk using it on hers? Generally, while I am loving this season, I am beginning to feel that they are treading water. A-Train is alive, the Deep is back, they aren't getting rid of Homelander, because he is "the heart of the show", ditto Butcher, etc. I guess that they might kill one of the women in the finale yet again? I just don't see there being enough material to keep it fresh for 2 more seasons (Kripke allegedly has a plan for 5 all told) if they are so unwilling to mix up the core male cast and kill off some of them.

Wow, what an episode! I don't think that there is room for them not getting to Mars, though, since it has been made clear that if they flub this attempt, there wouldn't be support for another for a very long time. The US lacks political will and Wilson is poised to stab NASA in the back, not to mention the likely possibility of Margo's secret coming out and resultant scandal. The Soviets are spent and desperate, that's their last-ditch attempt at relevance. I don't see Dev having resources and desire for a repeat either. And there are just 4 episodes left in this season, with no guarantee of another one. I assume that Bill will help Ed to disable the auto-pilot and he'll save the other 2 crews. Whereas NASAs separate cargo missions will provide them with resources to land, do some actual science and return. The other 2 seem like pure "plant the flag" endeavours. And there is going to be some unneccessary Danny drama to spice things up, sigh. I am greatly enjoying this, hand-wavy or not.

Wasn't that scientist who got killed in the previous season also in "parental" role and even Madelaine in a completely f'd up way too? Anyway, the bigger problem is that I just don't see a consummate racist like Stormfront allowing an African-American to climb the corporate ladder of Vought - her husband's creation and legacy, instead of just murdering him. Speaking of her, from what we have seen, her powers were second only to Homelander's (maybe) and Ryan's. Didn't we have the team-up of Maeve, Starlight and Kimiko, with support from the Boys, being unable to really hurt her? And you'd think that her helplessness would have made her an ideal experimental subject. Though I wonder about that too - even crippled, shouldn't she still have super-strength in her remaining limbs and the ability to produce lightning? She just seemed much more feeble than she should have been, IMHO. Part of that was psychological, no doubt. But her death when Homelander was conveniently absent and nobody seeing her body makes me very suspicious. As to Neumann, I didn't have the impression that she was entirely happy with her own power, even though she has grown accustomed to it's use. And isn't taking normal V very dangerous for anybody who is not a baby, with majority of such people ending up horrifically dead? Wasn't that the reason why Stormfront didn't try it on her own daughter at some point? Wait, wait, wait - is teleporting Teddy from the supe orphanage supposed to be Madelaine's kid?!! He was found unaccountably unhurt after the explosion of her house, and I can't imagine Homelander saving him.

Finally watched the 4th episode and huh... I really didn't expect Also, I really don't know what to think about the news that they got a 4th season. I honestly don't see how the the narrative could go on without them disposing of Homelander, but also not how the show could go on without him. Though maybe the actor's recent antics would prompt them to try to go it without the character, we'll see. A couple of things I still don't understand:

Interesting. I really disliked Brothers of the Wind. It was even more disappointing to me than The Heart of What was Lost. What I loved most about the original Osten Ard trilogy was it's depiction of believable, distinct, alien mindset and culture (which is really rare in SF, sadly, with only a handful of examples where it comes across as more than one-sided exaggeration of human traits) and a really sympathetic main villain (one of them). Everything else was just OK. But now both of these things appear to have been demolished in the sequels. Also, social structures seem to be boring pseudo medieval stuff from central casting and roundly ignore the implications of extreme longevity on society. The way it is going, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Sithi and Norns are modified humans from the future or something along these lines. The jury is still out on the Ocean Children, but meh. The one intriguing piece was The small bit that I have spoiled myself on in the new trilogy was also a let down, i.e. that: So, I probably won't read the sequel trilogy. Be careful what you wish for, indeed.

Huh, I thought that it was so that she could go places without Vought knowing about it, but that she intended to carry the chip on her person at other times to mislead them into thinking that she was still on their leash? I guess that I am over-thinking it, hm. I guess, judging by the regrowth guy getting arrested in one of the Vought News clips, that they know that she was the leaker and are going to pull her access and sideline her as much as possible. Not sure how useful she can be in the coming season now that she is a known mole. And it isn't like she is all that capable as a superhero, given that not just Homelander and Stormfront, but also Black Noir and healthy A-Train could handily outfight her. Stormfront is totally coming back as some sort of Darth cyborg, isn't she?

I have finally watched "The Boys" and it was fun. These Vought News snippets are great, heh. One of my quibbles is that in season 2 the Boys continued survival against evil supes kinda becomes repetitive and trivializes the danger that they should be in. Also, the idea that they can be effective against supes by learning and using their weaknesses mostly got binned, which is a pity. I can't help but wonder if Butcher, who gets roughed up on the regular and is suspiciously able to just shrug it off won't be revealed as a supe at some point. I didn't understand why Starlight's mom asking Vought for a vacation with her daughter triggered the grabbing and imprisonment of the both of them. I also have questions about the whole Stormfront thing. If she was Vought's widow, shouldn't she and their daughter have had a lot of pull in the firma, so how did she allow Mr. Edgars to become CEO? You'd think that she would have just killed him instead if she failed to block him via normal channels. She got the V as an adult, so why is the program of administering it to adults still in experimental stage 70-80 years later? I thought that Homelander was the oldest superhero who was treated as a baby, which is why he was raised in the lab, while the others grew up with their families, but it seems that Liberty/Stormfront was being a costumed vigilant before he became active, so was it already a thing? You'd also think that she would have made sure that she had superpowered descendents. I guess that she didn't want to risk her daughter because the baby treatment wasn't yet perfected, but wouldn't somebody like her have made sure that her daughter had kids and so on, until they could safely get the V?