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Your Unpopular ASOIAF Opinions/Hot Takes


Maegor_the_Cool
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11 hours ago, Alester Florent said:

I feel it's worth noting that "professional soldier" and "wanting to be rewarded with farmland" are far from mutually exclusive. Most Westefosi smallfolk have farming backgrounds in their youth, and the majority of soldiers would probably happily retire from their dangerous profession once they have secured a means of support.

Roman legionaries of the late Republic and Empire were professionals, who were rewarded with farmland at the end of their term of service. Nowadays, the majority of professional soldiers serve for a number of years, then leave the military and find a new career. The number of "lifers" has always been relatively small.

In fact, I’d say that most experienced soldiers would be experienced farmers.  There will always some who fight only for coin, but ownership of land brings status.

A man who farms 30-100 acres is a very big fish in his village.  

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1 hour ago, Him of Many Faces said:

I think George writes fantastic sex scenes and I have never understood why the fandom likes to bicker about them. Fat pink mast is too cringy? I'd like to hear a more poetic description of a penis that's about to enter a vagina the first time. 

 

 

Limp pink noodle.

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Aegon is not a Blackfyre, and may in fact be the real thing.

 

On 12/27/2023 at 11:43 AM, Him of Many Faces said:

I think George writes fantastic sex scenes and I have never understood why the fandom likes to bicker about them. Fat pink mast is too cringy? I'd like to hear a more poetic description of a penis that's about to enter a vagina the first time.

Now that take is red-hot.

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11 minutes ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

Unpopular prediction: George’s New Year’s blog post will only be a little under a month late this year. I expect it by the end of January. Don’t expect more than two sentences about Winds though.

"I am still working on The Winds of Winter, and have written about 1,100 pages"

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6 hours ago, Alester Florent said:

"I am still working on The Winds of Winter, and have written about 1,100 pages"

He sounds so angry, whenever he talks about Winds. It just seems sad at this point. "Yea, yea, I'm working on it; here's topics X, Y and Z", seems to be the norm.

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5 hours ago, sifth said:

He sounds so angry, whenever he talks about Winds. It just seems sad at this point. "Yea, yea, I'm working on it; here's topics X, Y and Z", seems to be the norm.

He's going to be frustrated either way. If he's internally given up on it, he'll be annoyed that he can't just 86 it and get on with his life because there's this whole multimedia thing hanging off ASoIaF and there's a host of entitled fans who'll make his life a misery. If he genuinely does want to get it finished - and in my experience storytellers do want to tell the stories they create - then it will be infuriating that it's taking him this long to get it onto the page.

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On 1/1/2024 at 12:40 AM, Alester Florent said:

He's going to be frustrated either way. If he's internally given up on it, he'll be annoyed that he can't just 86 it and get on with his life because there's this whole multimedia thing hanging off ASoIaF and there's a host of entitled fans who'll make his life a misery. If he genuinely does want to get it finished - and in my experience storytellers do want to tell the stories they create - then it will be infuriating that it's taking him this long to get it onto the page.

He’s spent so long writing and rewriting Winds now that he’ll never be satisfied with it. This is one of the problems that crops up when authors reach a level of success where they no longer have to listen to their editors. Charles Dickens wrote most of his books in installments and therefore could only ponder over each successive part for a limited amount of time, and usually his stories benefitted from it. Now, I’m not saying that any modern author should write under the constraints that Dickens did, particularly for a series as unwieldy as ASOIAF, but I think GRRM would have benefitted from having a stricter deadline or more resolute editor. It would have forced him to keep the ball rolling.

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On 1/2/2024 at 8:21 AM, The Bard of Banefort said:

He’s spent so long writing and rewriting Winds now that he’ll never be satisfied with it. This is one of the problems that crops up when authors reach a level of success where they no longer have to listen to their editors. Charles Dickens wrote most of his books in installments and therefore could only ponder over each successive part for a limited amount of time, and usually his stories benefitted from it. Now, I’m not saying that any modern author should write under the constraints that Dickens did, particularly for a series as unwieldy as ASOIAF, but I think GRRM would have benefitted from having a stricter deadline or more resolute editor. It would have forced him to keep the ball rolling.

Yeah, Tolkien too only really got convinced to publish Hobbit by Lewis, and then wrote Lord of the Rings because publisher wanted a follow-up story after Hobbit's success.

Without that external pressure... just look at what happened with the Silmarillion. Or Unfinished Tales. Or literally any story he ever wrote other than those two.

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On 1/4/2024 at 10:02 AM, Aldarion said:

Yeah, Tolkien too only really got convinced to publish Hobbit by Lewis, and then wrote Lord of the Rings because publisher wanted a follow-up story after Hobbit's success.

Without that external pressure... just look at what happened with the Silmarillion. Or Unfinished Tales. Or literally any story he ever wrote other than those two.

It’s a strange paradox, because many of us (including myself) wouldn’t have found ASOIAF without GOT, and the timing lined up perfectly for the show’s success. I don’t think GOT would be as successful as it was if it came out today. But the show starting before the series was complete was disastrous for the books. The publishing house lost any leverage they had in pressuring GRRM to finish the next book, and all the fame and adulation made him too insecure to finish the story. 

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32 minutes ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

It’s a strange paradox, because many of us (including myself) wouldn’t have found ASOIAF without GOT, and the timing lined up perfectly for the show’s success. I don’t think GOT would be as successful as it was if it came out today. But the show starting before the series was complete was disastrous for the books. The publishing house lost any leverage they had in pressuring GRRM to finish the next book, and all the fame and adulation made him too insecure to finish the story. 

And all we’ll remember about the series is the crap of later seasons.

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The irony is that after the initial wave of critical reviews, it’s all but guaranteed that fans will come to love TWOW no matter what their first impression is. Because let’s be honest: we’re basically a cult at this point. Twelve years later and we’re still hanging around here everyday, hunting for breadcrumbs. So George really has nothing to worry about.

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  • 4 weeks later...
3 hours ago, Kal-L said:

Very unpopular take here but Robert was no more ruthless towards the Targaryens than they had previously been towards him.

If you’re referring specifically to Aerys and Rhaegar, I agree.

if you’re including Rhaella, Elia, and their children, I’d disagree.

Edited by SeanF
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The series would be better if Jon didn’t come back to life. Don’t get me wrong I love Jon; he’s kind and honorable, but this series has way too many fake out deaths. They’re sort of becoming a joke at this point. 

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