Small Questions v. 10106

[Alyn Oakenfist]

So we're told Renly gathered an army of 100.000 which he marched at a nails pace instead of you know, taking KL head on. The question is, how did the army feed itself with such a size and such a pace? How did it not implode under famine and sickness?

[The Young Maester]

Martins magic wand decided to make a wish and that wish was for renlys army to not suffer anything related to hunger, disease, or desertion.

But truthfully their isn’t a realistic explanation. It’s practically impossible to maintain such a force. So all I can say is Renlys great charm kept all negative things away (till the lord of light arrived).

[Isobel Harper]

On 11/12/2020 at 1:25 AM, TheLastWolf said:

Maybe the books aren't finished because GRRM is busy revisiting older books to tie up all loose ends? 

*nods* I'd say Mystery Knight, The Sons of the Dragon, and Fire and Blood (as well as others I might be missing?), which all have been published after ADwD, have kept GRRM quite busy as well.

In addition to having taken more of GRRM's time, they've potentially affected certain plots, subplots, and/or histories pertaining to the current series, which would affect the writing process.

 

[TheLastWolf]

17 hours ago, Isobel Harper said:

*nods* I'd say Mystery Knight, The Sons of the Dragon, and Fire and Blood (as well as others I might be missing?), which all have been published after ADwD, have kept GRRM quite busy as well.

In addition to having taken more of GRRM's time, they've potentially affected certain plots, subplots, and/or histories pertaining to the current series, which would affect the writing process.

 

[R2D]

On 11/12/2020 at 11:03 PM, Alyn Oakenfist said:

So we're told Renly gathered an army of 100.000 which he marched at a nails pace instead of you know, taking KL head on. The question is, how did the army feed itself with such a size and such a pace? How did it not implode under famine and sickness?

Renly didn't move all that slowly. He was at Bitterbridge, halfway between King's Landing and Highgarden, 1 month and a few days after he marched from Highgarden. This was a normal pace according to the most accurate asoiaf timeline available. If he travelled at a fast pace he would have reached King's Landing at just about 2 weeks earlier, and in about 40 days if he ditched his supply train. It wasn't that he was staying at one place for weeks at a time.

This wasn't without reason, either. Tyrion observes that Renly is letting the two factions, Lannister and Stark, weaken each other. That way, he conserves his army and also gains more supporters with his progress by hosting tourneys and feasts to court allies. There's also another element. Renly is specifically said to feast at lords' holdfasts on his progress. His pace also allows his supply lines to keep up with his army. This way, he prevents his soldiers from plundering the countryside, and thus maintains good PR. In the War of the Roses, there was a monarch who was barred entry from a city because their army had been ravaging the crops and homes of peasants and the people feared they would do the same to the city. Renly is doing the opposite, he maintains a good image by not plundering and hosting feasts and tourneys instead, and has plausible deniability from starving the city (as he was so removed from King's Landing when the riots took place, the peasants blamed the Lannisters), and when he arrives at the gates he would be the one supplying food to the city, instead of demanding it, and thus would be welcomed instead of denied. 

The Reach is huge, so that would be why it was able to supply his army and also, as mentioned, Renly was feasting his army at lord's homes as he travelled. The Tyrells were easily able to feed the starving city when they arrived. In fact they are so opulent Joffrey's feast had 66 courses. Also, in the time between Renly's death and the alliance between the Lannisters and Tyrells, the army was idle for months. But there was no disease or famine indicated. So I don't think it was ever a problem.

Edited November 14, 2020 by R2D

[Alyn Oakenfist]

1 hour ago, R2D said:

Renly is doing the opposite, he maintains a good image by not plundering and hosting feasts and tourneys instead, and has plausible deniability from starving the city (as he was so removed from King's Landing when the riots took place, the peasants blamed the Lannisters), and when he arrives at the gates he would be the one supplying food to the city, instead of demanding it, and thus would be welcomed instead of denied. 

The Reach is huge, so that would be why it was able to supply his army and also, as mentioned, Renly was feasting his army at lord's homes as he travelled. The Tyrells were easily able to feed the starving city when they arrived. In fact they are so opulent Joffrey's feast had 66 courses. Also, in the time between Renly's death and the alliance between the Lannisters and Tyrells, the army was idle for months. But there was no disease or famine indicated. So I don't think it was ever a problem.

Still the supply chain and logistics must have been something out of hell. Renly should have counted his blessings that army never went into enemy territory or deal with a competent foe employing hybrid warfare (the Dornish come to mind) cause he would have starved in that case.

[broken one]

How do we know Theon/Reek was castrated? I do not recall it being pointed straight forward in books, but people here mention it.

[CamiloRP]

4 hours ago, broken one said:

How do we know Theon/Reek was castrated? I do not recall it being pointed straight forward in books, but people here mention it.

 

There are three pieces of evidence: Ramsay says that Theon isn't even a man, which I don't consider strong enough of an evidence, because Reek is no man in Ramsay's eyes, manhood or not; when Ramsay asks Theon to get Jeyne ready he says "I can't, I have no..." and Ramsay says to use his mouth; and Theon thinking about "that other thing" Ramsay took.

Yet there's also evidence against it, Theon thinks about fucking a woman after his supposed castration, only to later think that he doesn't dare, (not that he can't). Theon also thinks that Ramsay only cuts things off after skinning them (and after the skinned begs for it) I think flaying a penis would be effin' hard.

Some people take this to mean that George wanted to leave things open ended so he could chose what to do later, I do not like this, as the "other thing" line seems to obvious. Some people think that Ramsay convinced Theon that he cut off his penis without actually cutting it, I think it makes no sense.

Truth be told, I can go either way, I strongly favour the belief that Theon's other thing was cut, but I wouldn't be surprised or outraged or anything if it wasn't the case.

 

[Lost Melnibonean]

On 10/12/2020 at 6:18 AM, TsarGrey said:

I'm currently paying some idle mind to colors, the ones worn by Jaime Lannister especially. As I am sure there has been stuff on similar things (the colors and how George uses them) in the past, would anyone have something they'd care to link?

 

[Isobel Harper]

On 11/24/2020 at 1:46 PM, Lost Melnibonean said:

 

"Gold" and "silver" are commonly used, traditionally and in-story, to represent solar and lunar, masculine and feminine respectively.  

Jaime and Cersei, when thinking of the other, think of each other as "gold like the sun."  

Bronsterys (I don't know his forum name, otherwise I'd tag him!) recently came out with an essay covering white and black themes: https://redmiceatplay.wordpress.com/2020/04/12/white-and-black-the-archetypal-duel/

Archmaester Aemma (whose essays are also on that page) wrote an essay (or a few?) regarding red, green, and blue colors, but I'm not sure she's published it; I can't seem to find it on there.

 

[zionius]

On 11/20/2020 at 6:43 PM, broken one said:

How do we know Theon/Reek was castrated? I do not recall it being pointed straight forward in books, but people here mention it.

In the show commentary track of that episode, GRRM said:

Quote

I have absolutely nothing to do with these Theon scenes. (He wrote the script of that episode, but Theon's castration scene was added by D&D) In the books yes Theon is tortured for years,he essentially disappears at the end of book two and doesn't reappear to the beginning of book five by which time he's transformed into reek, so there's some mention in flashback and dialogue of the fact that he's been tortured for several years and essentially broken down his whole personality, and he's lost various bits of his body, some of his teeth, some of his fingers and toes, other parts...well, I leave that a little more to the imagination than what we're about to see here. So now this scene was a hundred percent David and Dan.

 

[Yaya]

please, there is no canon that Lyanna ran off with a married man.

 

[Ser Leftwich]

13 hours ago, Angel Eyes said:

Question on Rhaegar and Lyanna, particularly the latter. Suppose they eloped. If Lyanna’s main problem with Robert is his whoring around and the high likelihood he’s going to cheat on her, why is she content with running off with a married man? That’s hypocrisy.

This is in no way a small question. We don't know what happened, so pre-judging the situation is both oversimplifying and assuming too much.

[Lady Anna]

Does Bran know that Robb and Catelyn died at the Twins?

[Lommy's Shade]

57 minutes ago, Lady Anna said:

Does Bran know that Robb and Catelyn died at the Twins?

He has an inkling. From ASOS:

Quote

The dream he’d had … the dream Summer had had … No, I mustn’t think about that dream. He had not even told the Reeds, though Meera at least seemed to sense that something was wrong. If he never talked of it maybe he could forget he ever dreamed it, and then it wouldn’t have happened and Robb and Grey Wind would still be …  

 

[Alexis-something-Rose]

About this;

"There you are, Gormy," called the rider on the black, a young man lean and lithe, with a comely, clean-shaven face and fine features. Black hair fell shining to his collar. His doublet was made of black blue silk edged in gold satin. Across his chest an engrailed cross had been embroidered in gold thread, with a golden fiddle in the first and third quarters, a golden sword in the second and the fourth. His eyes caught the deep blue of his doublet and sparkled with amusement. 

About the highlighted bit, does it mean that his eyes are the same deep blue as the doublet?

[Springwatch]

On 12/2/2020 at 8:31 PM, Alexis-something-Rose said:

About this;

"There you are, Gormy," called the rider on the black, a young man lean and lithe, with a comely, clean-shaven face and fine features. Black hair fell shining to his collar. His doublet was made of black blue silk edged in gold satin. Across his chest an engrailed cross had been embroidered in gold thread, with a golden fiddle in the first and third quarters, a golden sword in the second and the fourth. His eyes caught the deep blue of his doublet and sparkled with amusement. 

About the highlighted bit, does it mean that his eyes are the same deep blue as the doublet?

Almost, I think. When he wears the doublet, you notice the same blue in his eyes.  If he wore a different colour, you might not notice it. It's like the plum-coloured dress that Viserys gives to Dany. He says: "The color will bring out the violet in your eyes...." Her eye colour does not really change, but the purple shade is more noticeable.

 

[Hugorfonics]

12 minutes ago, Springwatch said:

Almost, I think. When he wears the doublet, you notice the same blue in his eyes.  If he wore a different colour, you might not notice it. It's like the plum-coloured dress that Viserys gives to Dany. He says: "The color will bring out the violet in your eyes...." Her eye colour does not really change, but the purple shade is more noticeable.

 

I think so too... Having said that Johns blue eyes are the same color as his second cousin sixth removed (is that right? The unworthy was Johns grandfather and Danys great great great great great grandfather, I think) so its a weird description.

I mean purple and blue kinda look alike

On 12/2/2020 at 3:31 PM, Alexis-something-Rose said:

. His eyes caught the deep blue of his doublet 

like, what color is that? Lol

[Alexis-something-Rose]

2 hours ago, Springwatch said:

Almost, I think. When he wears the doublet, you notice the same blue in his eyes.  If he wore a different colour, you might not notice it. It's like the plum-coloured dress that Viserys gives to Dany. He says: "The color will bring out the violet in your eyes...." Her eye colour does not really change, but the purple shade is more noticeable.

That's what I thought, but I wanted to make sure my understanding was correct. Thanks for the reply. There's also a line in the Mystery Knight where Daemon wears a purple doublet to bring out the purple in his eyes. 

1 hour ago, Hugorfonics said:

I think so too... Having said that Johns blue eyes are the same color as his second cousin sixth removed (is that right? The unworthy was Johns grandfather and Danys great great great great great grandfather, I think) so its a weird description.

You don't even have to go all that far back in the story to encounter two other characters with eyes that take on the color of the color they dye their hair in.

 

[The Bard of Banefort]

Was it ever confirmed who Daemon's source on the Green Council was during the Dance? I'm guessing it was Larys Strong, but I'm not sure.