This Small Question Thing

[rmholt]

It was Viseryon tunneling into the ceiling.

Perhaps. I also note that there are stairs inside the pyramid walls.

[R'hllor's Bastard]

What was Thoros of Myr's job at KL?

Seems originally he went to convert Aerys but the king wasnt interested.

Then he just hung out all this time? He fought in the greyjoy rebellion, and apparently drinking buddies with Robert.

[Fire Eater]

What was Thoros of Myr's job at KL?

Seems originally he went to convert Aerys but the king wasnt interested.

Then he just hung out all this time? He fought in the greyjoy rebellion, and apparently drinking buddies with Robert.

He just tried chilling at KL, and earning Robert's good graces and winning glory in the Greyjoy Rebellion and melees.

[Summer is Ending]

What was Thoros of Myr's job at KL?

Seems originally he went to convert Aerys but the king wasnt interested.

Then he just hung out all this time? He fought in the greyjoy rebellion, and apparently drinking buddies with Robert.

Pretty much.

“I had a gift for tongues, though. And when I gazed into the flames, well, from time to time I saw things. Even so, I was more bother than I was worth, so they sent me finally to King’s Landing to bring the Lord’s light to seven-besotted Westeros. King Aerys so loved fire it was thought he might make a convert. Alas, his pyromancers knew better tricks than I did.

“King Robert was fond of me, though. The first time I rode into a mêlée with a flaming sword, Kevan Lannister’s horse reared and threw him and His Grace laughed so hard I thought he might rupture.” The red priest smiled at the memory.

[Mini Ghost]

What's up with Ghost and Lady Mel? I couldn't believe when Ghost approached Mel and she petted him.

I liked it better with Ghost and Val. The scene made me smile.

[Fire Eater]

What's up with Ghost and Lady Mel? I couldn't believe when Ghost approached Mel and she petted him.

I liked it better with Ghost and Val. The scene made me smile.

Mel could have used some of her powders to draw Ghost. I don't really know why Ghost came to her.

[The Drunkard]

Stannis says the Florents can field 2000 swords at best, and IIRC no one disagrees with him when he says so, so are the Florents really that weak? I always got the impression the Florents would've had an army a fair bit larger.

[Fire Eater]

Stannis says the Florents can field 2000 swords at best, and IIRC no one disagrees with him when he says so, so are the Florents really that weak? I always got the impression the Florents would've had an army a fair bit larger.

Stannis knows the strength of every house. It's no wonder the Flirents want Highgarden.

[aryana]

I recall Aemon (?) saying that dragons are gender-neutral, so I suppose there's a future for the dragons. I will try to find the source when I get home (if I don't forget about it).

I thought Aemon's remark was about a grammatical gender, like valonquar for instance. It's possible that one (or more) of Dany's dragons is a female, but you can't see it when they are really young (like with chickens), but it could show by now if one dared to check it out.

Here's my question: what is Occam's razor? I keep seeing it in threads, but I can't figure it out. I'm not a native speaker, so if it is cultural, I would like a wider explanation.

[The Dornishman's Wife]

Aemon was indeed making a point about grammatical gender but using facts about real gender: The "Prince" of the prophecies can also be a princess, because Valyrian is a bit hazy about gender (at least at the relevant context) because dragons are. (That valonqar is also ambigous is something that's popular with some forum users but hasn't been stated explicitely in the books.)

As we're talking this much about it, might as well give the full quote and be done with it:

“No one ever looked for a girl,” he said. “It was a prince that was promised, not a princess. Rhaegar, I thought. the smoke was from the fire that devoured Summerhall on the day of his birth, the salt from the tears shed for those who died. He shared my belief when he was young, but later he became persuaded that it was his own son who fulfilled the prophecy, for a comet had been seen above King’s Landing on the night Aegon was conceived, and Rhaegar was certain the bleeding star had to be a comet. What fools we were, who thought ourselves so wise! The error crept in from the translation. Dragons are neither male nor female, Barth saw the truth of that, but now one and now the other, as changeable as flame. The language misled us all for a thousand years.

Occam's razor is a principle of reasoning, basically stating that if you have two explanations for the same thing, the one that makes fewer assumptions (sometimes referred to as the "simpler" explanation) is more likely. In practice people often disagree which one of two given explanations is actually the simpler one, but sometimes it is quite clear (e.g. don't explain with a huge conspiracy what you can also explain directly). It's called a "razor" because of the idea of "shaving off" unneeded parts of your theories and named for William of Ockham (!) who often employed it, but he was by far not the first to state it.

[corbon]

Aemon was indeed making a point about grammatical gender but using facts about real gender: The "Prince" of the prophecies can also be a princess, because Valyrian is a bit hazy about gender (at least at the relevant context) because dragons are. (That valonqar is also ambigous is something that's popular with some forum users but hasn't been stated explicitely in the books.)

As we're talking this much about it, might as well give the full quote and be done with it:

To explain further, the Valyrian word for prince is apparently the same as the word for Dragon, so it isn't actually a prince that was promised, but a Dragon that was promised. And since dragons can be either gender, it would be equally possible to translate that as a princess that was promised.

[Lonin]

Here's my question: what is Occam's razor? I keep seeing it in threads, but I can't figure it out. I'm not a native speaker, so if it is cultural, I would like a wider explanation.

The English wiki has a good explanation of Occam's razor, http://en.wikipedia....i/Occam's_razor

its often used to mean that the 'simpler' explanation is the better one (however, its a more complicated concept than that)

[callmedodge]

If no one has successfully sailed into the Smoking Sea or been to Valyria at all since the Doom, how is it that the Maesters have maps of the current coastline? Surely someone has been there and mapped it so?

[Real Heir of Bear Island]

I've never seen this on a forum topic about it, though a friend of mine mentioned it was on teh boards before. I picked it up on a re-read.

Does anybody else think that there is a good chance Theon killed his own bastard son when he killed the miller's sons? He talks about bedding the miller's wife and Martin's crazy enough to slip that in there. Turncloak and a kinslayer!

[DaveSnow House Stark]

Seems like there is no reason to give Theon a bastard? He is already one of the most hated characters in the series, seems like it would just be piling on him.

[Real Heir of Bear Island]

Seems like there is no reason to give Theon a bastard? He is already one of the most hated characters in the series, seems like it would just be piling on him.

Well he is hated by most in the story because they think he killed the Stark boys. But he really didn't. He may be indirectly responicble for Robbs death, but besides that all he did was try to impress his father. The kinslayer title seals his fate as cursed. That is why he is recieved such harsh punsihment from Ramsey.

To be clear, I don't think its something that would ever be revealed. But it has to be put in there for a reason.

[Summer is Ending]

Well he is hated by most in the story because they think he killed the Stark boys. But he really didn't. He may be indirectly responicble for Robbs death, but besides that all he did was try to impress his father. The kinslayer title seals his fate as cursed. That is why he is recieved such harsh punsihment from Ramsey.

To be clear, I don't think its something that would ever be revealed. But it has to be put in there for a reason.

He's not just trying to impress his father he's all ambition with no brains. He actually expected his father to give him Casterly Rock, Lannisport and the majority of the west. Theon the moron.

[Real Heir of Bear Island]

He's not just trying to impress his father he's all ambition with no brains. He actually expected his father to give him Casterly Rock, Lannisport and the majority of the west. Theon the moron.

100% agree with that statement. He was played like flute by Ramsey.

Ramsey got him to pretend to kill the Starks, weakening his poisition. Then he convined the genious to give him silver so he can go out and find some men. So he basically paid Ramsey to capture "his" castle thus completing the biggest folly in the entire story. Quentin and the dragons comes in a close second.

[corbon]

I've never seen this on a forum topic about it, though a friend of mine mentioned it was on teh boards before. I picked it up on a re-read.

Does anybody else think that there is a good chance Theon killed his own bastard son when he killed the miller's sons? He talks about bedding the miller's wife and Martin's crazy enough to slip that in there. Turncloak and a kinslayer!

Its possible but dubious. Theon would have had to be around 13 or 14 when he fathered the younger millers boy (a match for 5 year old Rickon) on a woman who already has a kid. He might be starting to sleep with castle girls at that age, but probably not riding out into the countryside to sleep with ' old married women' for another couple of years, at least.

[Fire Eater]

What is a spitfire?