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Random Thoughts About ASOIAF


The Bard of Banefort
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We have threads for small questions that don’t fit anywhere else and for things we never noticed before, but I’ve often found myself in a situation where I have a random thought about ASOIAF (or the fandom), but don’t feel like it fits in any of the active threads or is worth starting a new thread for. And thus was the Random Thoughts thread was born. What are some of your thoughts or observations that don’t fit anywhere else on the board? 

Edited by The Bard of Banefort
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I’ll start with one about the fandom: having now been following this series for close to a decade, I’ve noticed that the online community tends to go through hive-mind stages where they decide that a particular character is ackshually Super Evil. Right now it’s Tyrion, who is apparently Satan reborn, but in the past it’s been Jaime, Sansa, Arya, Dany, etc. All of these characters have flaws, but in this sense I would say it crosses from criticism into demonization. Give it another year or two, and we’ll have new hero-who-is-actually-a-villain.

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The screaming sounds that are heard in the Wailing Tower at Harrenhal may be spooky, but they probably also make the tower a great place to scheme and hatch plots. We saw in ASOS how Olenna Tyrell had her fool sing loudly to drown out the sounds of her own scheming, so if someone wanted to avoid their plans being overhead (say, a plan to overthrow your father as king), then this would be the perfect place to do it.

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There's this idea among fans that Jaehaerys I forced Alysanne to have more children, but I think that's a misunderstanding of the text. Here's the quote in question:

Quote

“I am forty-two years old,” she told the king. “You must be content with the children I have given you. I am more suited to be a grandmother than a mother now, I fear.”

King Jaehaerys did not share her certainty. “Our mother, Queen Alyssa, was forty-six when she gave birth to Jocelyn,” he pointed out to Grand Maester Elysar. “The gods may not be done with us.”

The implication here is that if Alysanne has any more children, that would be the will of the gods. She and Jaehaerys will continue to have unprotected sex, and if she conceives again, that means that the Seven willed it so. This was the way most people viewed sex and conception in the Middle Ages (just with God instead of the Seven), and even in some cultures today. There's nothing to suggest that Alysanne considered taking moon tea either.

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Torrhen's Square and Raventree Hall are so similar that in my head canon TS was original home of House Blackwood. There is also a possibility that Stark who "liberated" that castle was Torrhen and that castle was renamed for his glory.

We know that one of victims of Starks when they conquered the North was House Towers and one thing we know about Moat Cailin is that castle had 20 towers so I assume that House Towers owned that castle until they were wiped out by victorious Starks.

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On 2/22/2022 at 6:20 AM, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

I posted this in the small questions thread, but maybe it's more fitting here: Is Dorne affected by winter somehow? Does it get cold there, or is it always warm to some extent?

Not sure, but I don’t recall there ever being any mention of snowing in Dorne, so it’s probably not affected too strongly.

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It’s kind of hilarious that the only person in ASOIAF aside from Robert who thinks that Rhaegar running off with Lyanna was messed up is Daenerys. 

For all Sansa’s love of songs and romances, I don’t think this is one story we ever see her invested in, which I suppose makes sense as a Stark. Maybe she, like Brienne, saw Robert’s love for Lyanna as the real romance. 

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1 hour ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

Not sure, but I don’t recall there ever being any mention of snowing in Dorne, so it’s probably not affected too strongly.

I tried comparing it to some real-world regions, like Morocco, but since the 7 Kingdoms are much closer to each other than real countries it's not really a good comparison.  

Edited by Takiedevushkikakzvezdy
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7 minutes ago, Corvo the Crow said:

If Dorne is any real world region, it's Spain. Mountains to the north with the French border and deserts and coasts elsewhere. The natives, Basques, living in the mountains and later migrations such as the Germanic tribes like the Visigoths and then Moors as well.

Dorne was definitely inspired by Spain to a degree, but the Dornish deserts as described in the books seem more vast and Middle East-ish to me.  I might be wrong, though.

Edited by Takiedevushkikakzvezdy
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