[TWoW Spoilers] Alayne I

[NorthGirl]

Mmm... yes and no. Yes, Sansa was educated to please. No, Sansa's objectives are more nuanced than that. In AGOT Sansa's objective isn't to please Joffrey. It's to become Queen and have her life turn into a song. Pleasing Joffrey is means to an end for that, but ultimately, her mind is set in an egoistic objective, not in someone else's pleasure.

And what we see here is that, for some unknown reason, she wants Harry to agree to the betrothal and she acts to achieve that goal. But, just like in AGOT, getting Harry to like her is means to an end.

I don't want to speak for Julia Martell... But I think the point is, her education told her that being "proper" and successful is dependent on her being pleasing. It's not that she was selfless, it's that her job is to please others and the burden of success in the relationship is 100% on her. If she has to change, so be it.

[Colonel Green]

Ysilla Royce is already married or betrothed to Mychel Redfort. And as we've seen, Littlefinger's been quite generous to Nestor, not to mention that it would be a smart move for the Lord of the Eyrie to marry the daughter of the Lord of the Gates of the Moon

So yeah, I think Myranda has a good shot

Yohn has other daughters apart from Ysilla. And if Myranda blows up Littlefinger's marriage plans for Alayne, he's obviously not going to do anything on her behalf, marriage-wise.

[Good Guy Garlan]

Yohn has other daughters apart from Ysilla. And if Myranda blows up Littlefinger's marriage plans for Alayne, he's obviously not going to do anything on her behalf, marriage-wise.

Well, he wouldn't have to know Myranda was responsible. All it would take is a whisper to the right person. But good point about Yohn having more daughters, I'd forgot about that

[Nictarion]

Am I the only one who simply assumed Myranda was just being Myranda and messing about with the "oooh you took my Harry away!" comment?

That's the way I took it. :dunno:

[John Doe]

So Harry's lover Saffron's father is the richest man in Gulltown. 'A fortune in spices' means he has been trading with Braavos. And his daughter is more precious to him than gold. So what will he do to make her happy? Employ a faceless assassin to kill her rival in love, Alayne Stone.

I thought the chapter just smashed one crackpot theory, we don't need another to replace it.

[Grail King]

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I'd trust Myranda as far as I could throw her. LF warned Sansa about her. The girl is ruthless, I'm calling it now, and I think she's totally capable of throwing Sansa under the bus if it meant a chance with Harry

And I'm going to agree with you. :agree:

[Ser Harly of Southwell]

This chapter was a breath of fresh air. It is good to see Sansa happy again. She basically hasn't been this way since Winterfell and the Hands Tourney. But she is smart this time and knows what is happening and how to play the game. She seems free. Running around, dancing, flirting. Something I never thought she would do again at the end of Storm.

This is actually the first chapter I actually liked Sweet Robin. And I liked how it showed he actually has an idea of what is going on around him politically. I totally misread him as a stupid little boy before, I guess.

I still think there be something more to those tapestries, seemed a little anti-climatic. But I was probably reading to much into them in Feast.

Its also good to have an idea of the direction that the Vale is going to go before the show starts.

And whilst I believe the Mad Mouse knows she is Sansa, I don't know how he would know...?

[Grail King]

Why not?

I think she ruin the plan because she wants HTH for herself, she's more into power and raising her status.

[LongRider]

If so, it's an artificial shortage that will mostly be bad for those who are selling off early... which he is telling them not to. The ones who will sell off are the LD, who are his enemies.

Why wouldn't he (or anyone in his position) use that opportunity to make his enemies indebted to him + weakening them economically?

If it's an artificial shortage it's bad for the smallfolk who need to eat and are forced to pay an inflated price to LF for food. Why wouldn't others do that? Perhaps they are ethical and not sleaze bags like LF.

[juanml82]

If it's an artificial shortage it's bad for the smallfolk who need to eat and are forced to pay an inflated price to LF for food. Why wouldn't others do that? Perhaps they are ethical and not sleaze bags like LF.

Or they need to pay things now, so they have to cash their goods now.

[Grail King]

Why? I'm just curious.

I don't trust her, she's jealous of PB bastard, she wants HTH herself, wants to advance herself and her House ( like most people) Sansa is competition.

[kimim]

On the other hand, if it hadn't been for LF, Sansa wouldn't have gone to KL and spent a couple of years as an abused hostage there, being called stupid and having to pretend to be meek, but would be leading a happy life in Winterfell with her family and household, so there would have been no need to help her self-esteem as it wouldn't have suffered to begin with.

Oh I totally agree. It's just weird to see her thrive, with LF, of all people. I mean...that lemon cake? lol. It's GOOD to see her happy, too, even with LF, even when I know Martin will undo it in the next chapter.

[Wizz-The-Smith]

There has been some great chat on this thread about the numerous bits of new info we have, I have enjoyed the read.

However, reading Ran's explanation that the controversy was regarding Alayne's new sexuality, plus w/o a certain character involved, I have been surprised there are not more posts relating to Sandor. It has been noted that there is no sign of hound/dog references in this chapter, and that is certainly a departure from previous books.

To add to that, I found this interesting, regarding a previous Sansa dog/Hound reference.......

'' I will dream a sweet dream, and when I wake there will be dogs barking, women gossiping beside the well, swords ringing in the yard.''

Compared with......

'' Outside the window she could hear the laughter of the washerwomen at the well, the din of steel on steel from the ward where the knights were at their drills. Good sounds.''

So not only is there no mention of Sandor/hounds/dogs, this seems to me another point of note. Sansa's sweet dream has been realised without the dog references.

I gotta say, I was a little disappointed with this. It was one of the things I was looking out for having missed it on first read, and have since posted with some people that helped me gain a greater understanding of that storyline. Oh well, I still enjoyed the chapter immensely ! :)

[LongRider]

Or they need to pay things now, so they have to cash their goods now.

Actually, that's a good point too.

[Pod The Rod]

So Harry's lover Saffron's father is the richest man in Gulltown. 'A fortune in spices' means he has been trading with Braavos. And his daughter is more precious to him than gold. So what will he do to make her happy? Employ a faceless assassin to kill her rival in love, Alayne Stone.

Oh please oh please oh please Dear Lord. I want that reunion NOW, even more than Jon/Arya.

[Colonel Green]

I thought the chapter just smashed one crackpot theory, we don't need another to replace it.

Crackpot will never die!

[Led]

If it's an artificial shortage it's bad for the smallfolk who need to eat and are forced to pay an inflated price to LF for food. Why wouldn't others do that? Perhaps they are ethical and not sleaze bags like LF.

Well, we don't know who the others are selling to either. Perhaps they are simply selling to other lords, so the smallfolk are without either way.

We also really do not know what exactly LF will do with the food that is hoarded. Perhaps he will use it to feed the smallfolk that are his subjects, and the subjects of the lords loyal to him.

Really, all we see here is that the lords wants to sell the food because the prices are good, and LF telling them to prevent that. The LD will do it anyways, which LF says is stupid because prices will rise (which he would also say even if he doesn't do it to raise prices, since he needs to convince his loyal lords not to sell).

Also, please do not claim that the other lords are more ethical just because they want to make some quick money :rolleyes:

[Crow's eye in the sky]

Am i the only one that find this chapter rather sloppy?Not even close to the Arya chapter!

Well, if this is any indication...

For all of you who have been howling for another taste of THE WINDS OF WINTER ... My faithful minions have just translated the first Alayne chapter from WordStar and uploaded it to my website.

GRRM, 2/2/15, not a blog.

I think the chapter we see in TWOW, will be more polished than it is. Sample chapters have a tendency of being slightly different from the final version.

[Michael Stark thenewwolf]

I really liked the chapter. Just makes me feel like GRRM knows its going to be a while till Winds is out so he gave us another fun morsel to keep out taste buds ready.

[LongRider]

Well, we don't know who the others are selling to either. Perhaps they are simply selling to other lords, so the smallfolk are without either way.

We also really do not know what exactly LF will do with the food that is hoarded. Perhaps he will use it to feed the smallfolk that are his subjects, and the subjects of the lords loyal to him.

Really, all we see here is that the lords wants to sell the food because the prices are good, and LF telling them to prevent that. The LD will do it anyways, which LF says is stupid because prices will rise (which he would also say even if he doesn't do it to raise prices, since he needs to convince his loyal lords not to sell).

Also, please do not claim that the other lords are more ethical just because they want to make some quick money :rolleyes:

I claimed that perhaps some are more ethical than LF because they don't want to manipulate the market to their own advantage, not that they want to sell now because the prices are good. LF wants to hoard to inflate prices is how I read it. Not a good thing, and LF feeding the smallfolk without extracting every last copper he can from them? Fat chance.