Jump to content

A Thread for Small Questions VI


Lady Blackfish

Recommended Posts

What happened to the army of the North? IIRC Robb came south with 20,000 men and then gets a few thousand more from the riverlands but when he is killed at the red wedding he only has 3,000 men.

The Robb loyalists suffered many grievous blows, and he himself lost the Karstarks by beheading their Lord. Roose Bolton carefully killed off or crippled many bannermen loyal to Robb. He sent two of them to Maidenpool, Glover and Tallhart. When crossing a river, he left 1/3 of his strength (Norrey, Locke, Burley and Ser Wylis Manderly with knights) on the other side, and they were attacked by Ser Gregor. He mentions leaving 600 men to guard the crossing, Stout and Cerwyn men. This is from ASOS p566.

I come to think of Roose Bolton's somewhat cold statement at the Twins, when asked what men he brought with him. "Dreadfort men, in chief, and some from Karhold. With the loyalty of the Karstarks so doubtful now, I thought it best to keep them close." Bolton manouvered Robb's strength away.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What happened to the army of the North? IIRC Robb came south with 20,000 men and then gets a few thousand more from the riverlands but when he is killed at the red wedding he only has 3,000 men.

First, he divided his forces at the Twins, hatching the plan to use most of his infantry under Roose Bolton's command to lure Tywin Lannister into battling the futile Battle of the Greenfork, while he attacked Jaime at Riverrun with his cavalry. He also left some not-so-numerous troops at the Twins.

Roose Bolton, if I remember correctly, remained in control of this sub-host for most of the war, taking Harrenhal after Tywin left it to fight Stannis on the Blackwater. Meanwhile, Robb launched raids in the Westerlands with his own forces, taking several castles of the local lords. He fought a Lannister army led by one of Tywin's cousins (his name escapes me right now) at Oxcross and won a decisive victory, but after that the Western lords couldn't really muster much of a defence.

After the Blackwater and the Westerling fiasco, Roose Bolton decided to switch sides and, as the Red Wedding drew closer, he sent some of his own, possibly loyal to Robb, men (Robett Glover and Helman Tallhart) to attack the city of Duskendale in the Crownlands where they were defeated soundly by Randyll Tarly and then caught in their tracks by Gregor Clegane as they retreated. Meanwhile, Robb lost the Freys and the Karstarks by, respectively, marrying Jayne Westerling and executing Rickard Karstark; thus he lost at least five thousand troops, in my estimation.

At his way to the Red Wedding, Roose Bolton was "attacked" by Gregor Clegane, just as he crossed the Trident, and his rear guard was butchered; in reality, I suspect this was coordinated move since Gregor's attack really struck on those Northeners in Bolton's host who were possibly still loyal to the Starks and could prove to be troubelsome at the Wedding.

So, by the time of the Red Wedding, part of Robb's army had turned their cloaks, another part consisted of loyal, but captured by the enemy troops, and he himself had lost a sizeable chunck of soldiers in his stupid political decisions. And that's not counting the men killed in the various battles he fought.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

First, he divided his forces at the Twins, hatching the plan to use most of his infantry under Roose Bolton's command to lure Tywin Lannister into battling the futile Battle of the Greenfork, while he attacked Jaime at Riverrun with his cavalry. He also left some not-so-numerous troops at the Twins.

Roose Bolton, if I remember correctly, remained in control of this sub-host for most of the war, taking Harrenhal after Tywin left it to fight Stannis on the Blackwater. Meanwhile, Robb launched raids in the Westerlands with his own forces, taking several castles of the local lords. He fought a Lannister army led by one of Tywin's cousins (his name escapes me right now) at Oxcross and won a decisive victory, but after that the Western lords couldn't really muster much of a defence.

After the Blackwater and the Westerling fiasco, Roose Bolton decided to switch sides and, as the Red Wedding drew closer, he sent some of his own, possibly loyal to Robb, men (Robett Glover and Helman Tallhart) to attack the city of Duskendale in the Crownlands where they were defeated soundly by Randyll Tarly and then caught in their tracks by Gregor Clegane as they retreated. Meanwhile, Robb lost the Freys and the Karstarks by, respectively, marrying Jayne Westerling and executing Rickard Karstark; thus he lost at least five thousand troops, in my estimation.

At his way to the Red Wedding, Roose Bolton was "attacked" by Gregor Clegane, just as he crossed the Trident, and his rear guard was butchered; in reality, I suspect this was coordinated move since Gregor's attack really struck on those Northeners in Bolton's host who were possibly still loyal to the Starks and could prove to be troubelsome at the Wedding.

So, by the time of the Red Wedding, part of Robb's army had turned their cloaks, another part consisted of loyal, but captured by the enemy troops, and he himself had lost a sizeable chunck of soldiers in his stupid political decisions. And that's not counting the men killed in the various battles he fought.

And on top of that you have all the attrition, that comes from moving a large army around in a pre-modern setting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How did Varys get in the Small Council?

As far as I can recall without having to start digging through the books, he managed to gain Aerys' favour by feeding him information about treasonous plots and whatnot; Aerys, being kinda terrified by conspirators both real and imaginary, probably thought him useful, maybe a bit like Cersei did with Qyburn. After the War of the Usurper, Robert pardoned Varys and let him sit on his new Small Council, because, heck, every king needs a good spymaster.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Where did the term "Mary Sue" come from and what does it mean exactly?

Thanks.

ok, it comes from a character in a parody of a star trek fanfict, who was kind of "the perfect girl". Young, talented, smart, beautiful ecc.

So, mary sue (or gary stu) means a character who is pratically perfect.

There is an excellent article on wikipedia here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue

and a mary-sue litmus test here

http://www.springhole.net/quizzes/marysue.htm

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...