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I missed these signs, would you mind elaborating? Yeah it was fantastic, the last 2 seasons have some of the best episodes of television I've ever seen and it did end quite well. That's definitely a useful word. I'd say there's something along those lines going on with some shows that don't have any genre trappings, Sex Education utilizes elements of it in the setting as part of creating a setting that's kinda both US and UK and neither. I'm sure I've watched something else recently that also had a similar vibe.

They travel much much further to raid essos and so on, its got fresh water and food and trees and probably space and rich soft soil for those things to exist on (all things they are short on) , sounds bigger than most of the other ironislands and yes they most certinly do sow...in fact they do better when they 'sow' and only raid essos , its only the arrogant priviligend greyjoys who can afford to not 'sow'! Besides no one else is there..the north has no western fleet, so theres no one to contest them adding this new ripe large island to the bleak stoney iron islands!!

During my recent stateside visit I actually got to see two cybertrucks in the wild. My first thought was that in real life they're even uglier than pictures and videos suggest. My second thought was the body rusting issue is very much not exaggerated.

I think you're looking at this with a total outside view. 1. If you lived in a world where some people worshiped DEATH, the embodiment of what everyone in a good mental state doesn't want to be, and in addition accepted coin to be kill people you would be really scared of them and think they are psychos. 2 and 4. The old gods seem to be a more cultural thing than an actual religion to the people of the north and the Faith of the Seven is the catholic church done wrong. For my reasons you could look at my post "Expanding Westeros." 5. I used to think this too, however House Cambodia made a really good point (on another post) that we don't know much about the modern red faith outside of Melisandre, who could be an extremist with views warped by Asshai.

Nice! Haven't they already left in separate directions though? I suppose they could cross paths again via the BwB but I tend to think Jaime's fate (and Brienne's, and Pod's) will not be resolved in this prologue. They will have their own chapters. So I am not sure the BwB will appear. While I tend to agree with others above and elsewhere that there is a fairly well established pattern in the prologues of alternating "Ice" and "Fire", it is also true that the Oldtown prologue is harder to place. IMO it might be a case of these categories deliberately getting more muddy and less clear cut. We might be getting into territory with magical influences that are more nuanced and maybe corrupted. Sybell descends from Maggy, but Maggy's magic is much harder to place than pure "fire" or "ice". Sybell herself made some potions which is a more classical "witch" type method, and is not even necessarily magical (simply medicinal). We don't know if she can taste blood and read futures, and we don't have any hint so far of anything else either. So whatever she can do, it will be a big reveal if it is indeed her magic that features in the prologue. It will also IMO tell us more about her Essosi origins and influences which will ultimately be relevant to Dany as she burns her way across Essos (IMO) as well as clarifying more subtle moments with similar origins and influences in other characters, other parts of Westeros. There are in fact whole regions of Essos with different religions than R'hllor, each with their own magical practices. The histories GRRM has constructed suggest that the East has always been meddling in subtle ways whenever given a chance in the affairs of Westeros and all of these magical guilds or religions or whatnot may now be trying to assert themselves as Westerosi governance shows signs of severe weakness. In short, this prologue might not be "fire" or "ice" but rather... "mud".

"The islands are located several weeks' travel away from Oldtown, slightly farther south than the latitude of the Summer Isles, and at a longitude farther west than even Lonely Light. The islands are very small, with a combined land area no larger than Dragonstone; the largest of the islands is no more than a third the size of Dragonstone itself. Alys Westhill described them as "a mountain attended by two hills".[1] The islands are pleasant and bountiful. Springs and streams provide plentiful fresh water. The islands are uninhabited but for the wildlife, including wild pigs and huge, sluggish grey lizards as big as deer, whose bites can cause severe infections. The trees are heavy with edible nuts and fruits unknown in other lands.[1]" It's hard to see why the iron born would be interested in these islands, considering their "We do not Sow" aspect. Also, they are too far away to control.

Because I didn't see one. I'm sorry I'm not all knowing. Also, this isn't supposed to be a thread just on the different faiths but all the things people think could improved on in the books.

https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Aegon,_Rhaenys,_and_Visenya_(islands)

Well it's not easy to build harbors when there is no reason to. It's hard to find what flints finger is good for other than agriculture maybe. I was thinking more along the lines of if the north started exporting goods to the south, a harbor could be built there to host some "military" ships to protect the merchant ships in northern waters. It would also protect blazewater bay and the saltspear.

Maybe, maybe not. I likened the situation to Japanese Zen and ninjas. But many religions have their non-violent and violent wings, like the Faith of the Seven and the Faith Militant -- in real-world analogies, monastic branches of the Catholic Church in conjunction with the 'monastic order' of the Knights Templar.

Not necessarily - like Dorne, maybe the coastline is too rocky and treacherous. I'd tend to assume that if it were easy to build harbours, over the past thousands of years it would have been done.

I meant that it could be turned into a well protected harbor if they wanted to. Like it is a natural harbor that can be easily protected.

We've already got a thread on religions. Why do you keep starting new threads and expect people to read them when you don't bother to read and post in other people's threads?

You can't tell that from maps. From maps, there should be dozens of harbours on the Dorne coastline.

I enjoyed your post; it's very well thought out. But I think the situation with the Faceless Men is a bit more nuanced. There are lots of religions that believe that all other religions are false. But most of them don't encourage believers to actually take action against other faiths. The Faceless Men make no effort to convert others to their faith; and they haven't tried to burn the statues of the Seven in the sept of Braavos. And given their "very specific set of skills," they could do a lot of damage to other religions if they wanted to. So in that sense, they are tolerant. Oddly enough, it occurs to me that the Faceless Men and the religion of the many-faced god are actually two separate organizations. From what we know of their history, it seems that the religion and the guild of assassins both originated at about the same time, among the same people. But their assassinations are completely secular; they make their decisions about whom to kill without using any rituals or prophecies to ask their god"s opinion on the matter.

Just a passing thought, but wouldn't it be delicious if Sybell prophesies to Jamie that he will be killed by his sister?!

If only she had the chutzpuh to study sculpture at St. Martin's College.

Because I don't see it adding much to Tyrion's story, tbh. It would relieve him of a lot of his guilt and make him less complex IMO. Maybe that's my lack of imagination, but the most obvious implications for the story I see all affect Dany more than Tyrion.

Same, but since I do buy into this theory i didn't post it :p

Didn't even have the decency to come from Greece, have a thirst for knowledge.

Yeah, I had one of the coworkers not recognise me entering the staff room too. Right now, due to teacher shortages, our school employs two uni students who are also sisters of the high school students attending our school. With both of them, I had my mental moment of "what is student xy doing in the staff room", before realising it was actually their older sister! I also once showed a photo of myself as the class teacher and my students (15-16 years old at the time) to my coworker. He couldn't find me on the photo and said there were only students in it. Thank you!

I agree that it’s my favourite, too. Cosca, Friendly, and Morveee, the ethical poisoner, are just hilarious.

'Makes' is probably the wrong way to think about it (personally I don't care about money in a partner or particularly in general, I made over 3x what my wife made 15 years ago, she going to make more than me for the rest of our relationship) 2 people making the same salary can have vastly different disposable wealth and assets. Agreeing how money should be spent and what is important is key, not how much you have IMO.

Spending millions of dollars to prove your pals are lying rapists and war criminals. It's like he suffers from a weird case of some sort of vicarious masochism.

"Likely they were too shy to come out," Ned jested. He could feel the chill coming up the stairs, a cold breath from deep within the earth. "Kings are a rare sight in the north." Robert snorted. "More likely they were hiding under the snow. Snow, Ned!" It'll be king Jon.