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Random Thoughts About ASOIAF


The Bard of Banefort
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11 hours ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

I wasn't thinking in terms of better/worse, but more strictly in terms of same/different. It's public knowledge that GRRM provided D&D with the endings for the major characters. If those endings turn out to be different in the books, could it be interpreted as him having lied to them?  

should D&D sue George for lying about endings some 20yrs before he writes them? would we? ! 

Edited by EggBlue
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12 minutes ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

@Ran Do you perhaps have some more background info on Jonothor Darry? As I understand it, House Darry is a smaller house, that isn't known for producing first-class warriors. So I wonder how he ended up in the Kingsguard, especially in the era of Barristan Selmy and Arthur Dayne?

The Demon of Darry was a past Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. 

The Darrys are strong Targaryen loyalists, considering the tapestries they had of all the kings. And Ser Willem Darry was the one entrusted with Daenerys and Viserys. He was Jonothor's brother.

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7 minutes ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

Wasn't he also the master-at-arms at King's Landing? So I guess he was a great warrior too.

He was indeed master-at-arms. Doesn't necessarily mean he was great-great, but he was no doubt considered skilled and suitable to teach princes and wards of the court and so on.

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3 minutes ago, Ran said:

He was indeed master-at-arms. Doesn't necessarily mean he was great-great, but he was no doubt considered skilled and suitable to teach princes and wards of the court and so on.

I don't know, I always percieved the Darrys as kind of similar to the Freys, a mid-ranking house in the Riverlands. And yet there are no legendary Frey warriors, and definitely no members of the Kingsguard. Why this difference?

I know it's a random thought, but that's what this thread is for. :D

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6 minutes ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

I don't know, I always percieved the Darrys as kind of similar to the Freys, a mid-ranking house in the Riverlands.

They're a much older house, dating from the time of the First Men and their wars with the Andals.

Lord Darry was noted as a loyalist to Daeron II during the First Blackfyre Rebellion, so it seems the family has been strong royalists at least as far back as that. 

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8 minutes ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

I don't know, I always percieved the Darrys as kind of similar to the Freys, a mid-ranking house in the Riverlands. And yet there are no legendary Frey warriors, and definitely no members of the Kingsguard. Why this difference?

I know it's a random thought, but that's what this thread is for. :D

Well, the Umbers and the Crakehalls are also mid-tier houses, the Cleganes even less so, and they all have their fair share of warriors, so I don’t think it’s that peculiar in this universe.

One interesting thing is that, with the exception of Cregan Stark, there haven’t been any really notable Stark warriors. Most of the other great houses have had a few.

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2 minutes ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

Well, the Umbers and the Crakehalls are also mid-tier houses, the Cleganes even less so, and they all have their fair share of warriors, so I don’t think it’s that peculiar in this universe.

Maybe so, but I always assumed that being in Aerys' Kingsguard is like being on the Golden State Warriors team with Steph Curry and Kevin Durant. You have to be truly special.

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2 hours ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:
1 hour ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

Maybe so, but I always assumed that being in Aerys' Kingsguard is like being on the Golden State Warriors team with Steph Curry and Kevin Durant. You have to be truly special.

A lot of factors play in, but you’ll notice that KGs are disproportionately from houses near King’s Landing/in the Crownlands, ie direct vassals of the crown. So some of it is politics, some of it is familiarity, some of it is prestige, or reputation, and the farther from KL your house is, the larger your reputation would have to be to be noticed in KL. 
 

But there aren’t (that we know of) any particularly legendary Selmys before Barry, nor Whents before Oswell, and while Jaime was undoubtedly a fantastic fighter, that was not why he was on Aerys’ kingguard. So, there’s no formula. 

There are houses with a reputation for producing a lot of great warriors, but aside from the Daynes that’s mostly houses like Crabb and Umber and Crakehall and Baratheon and Strong and Clegane and Mormont who are notable for producing a lot of huge, strong men. 

Edited by James Arryn
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1 hour ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

Maybe so, but I always assumed that being in Aerys' Kingsguard is like being on the Golden State Warriors team with Steph Curry and Kevin Durant. You have to be truly special.

You've more or less answered your own question here. How often do the children of superstar athletes grow up to be superstar athletes as well? If your bar is set at that level then you aren't going to see much in the way of family "dynasties".

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2 hours ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

Maybe so, but I always assumed that being in Aerys' Kingsguard is like being on the Golden State Warriors team with Steph Curry and Kevin Durant. You have to be truly special.

well , they were . just because we don't hear Arthur Dayne level stories about him doesn't mean he wasn't good . in fact , we relatively know little about Aerys's kingsgaurd . we don't know when and how any of them donned the white cloak aside from Barry and Jaimie and it's only Arthur ,Barry and Gerold Hightower who have their reputed nicknames. anyways , small house or big , Darrys are known to be of biggest Targaryen Loyalists . this , his big brother's word and his warrior skills must have been the reasons he was accepted in Golden State Warriors team . right? 

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Sort of a crossover comment, but I was thinking about the spin-offs, and no matter how good they are, I don’t think book fans will ever be satisfied. It would be different if the series was finished, but I think this fandom has ascended to a level of bitterness where any small change is going to annoy us. I’ve already seen book fans complain about how the Targaryen and Velaryon sigils don’t match the book descriptions exactly. So even if HOTD or any of the other shows are smash hits, I feel like we’re sort of pre-conditioned to be disappointed.

Edited by The Bard of Banefort
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19 hours ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

One interesting thing is that, with the exception of Cregan Stark, there haven’t been any really notable Stark warriors. Most of the other great houses have had a few.

Yeah, it seems like the Starks have historically been more administrators than warriors. One could argue that Brandon, Ned's brother, was a great fighter, although maybe not Kingsguard-level.

Edited by Takiedevushkikakzvezdy
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I’m coming around on the idea that Euron might team up with Cersei and crown himself as some kind of King in the West. The show may have completely made up their alliance, but I could also see it as a bastardized version of whatever George has in mind for Cersei. I could see her being taken captive by Aegon and acting as a POV inside of the Red Keep as well, but there are a few quibbles with that:

a) In this scenario, Robert Strong would all but certainly have to die. Would he really be removed from the story that fast?

b) Would Cersei really spend two books as a prisoner in King’s Landing? (I don’t have a link, but George apparently let slip that she survives TWOW). 

It’s also an additional complication that would explain why the book is taking so damn long. Cersei vs. the Tyrells —> Tyrells and Cersei vs. Aegon —> Aegon vs. Cersei and Euron —> Cersei and Euron vs. Asha and Theon —> Asha and Theon vs. Stannis —> Stannis vs. the Boltons —> Stannis vs. Aegon —> Aegon vs. Dany —> Dany vs. everyone. 

My head hurts. Just stay dead, Jon.

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