What do you think about ASOIAF’s depiction of the characters who are attempting to be upwardly mobile? There’s Littlefinger (yuck). Bronn –not evil, but doesn’t seem to have a moral compass akin to any of the good guys. Enigmatic Varys. Not even considering the lesser nobles willing to cut some throats to advance. Is Davos the only upwardly mobile character who is unquestionably good-hearted? I’ve noticed there are many social climbing jerks in this book and wondered what you think? Thank you!

I think there’s more good’uns out there than just the one:

Septon Barth, Gendry, Jon Snow, etc.

If Daeron I had allowed the Dornish nobility to retain their position in exchange for fealty, as Aegon the Conqueror did in other places, rather than appointing overlords from outside Dorne, might the Dornish revolt have been averted? On the other side, what did the Dornish hope to accomplish by murdering Daeron under a peace banner? Surely they must have realized the likely outcome of doing this would be massive retaliation.

It certainly would have helped, but I don’t think it would have prevented it, because so much of the revolt came from below and not from above.
I think what the Dornish hoped to accomplish was twofold. First, to remove an enemy commander they couldn’t defeat on the field. Second, to create a change in government which might allow an end to the war. Daeron wasn’t about to accept peace without victory because victory was his doing and his legacy; Baelor might (and in fact did).

More in-depth thoughts on Iron Man 3? I noticed that you put under “good” in your MCU ranking. I always found it to be one of the more underrated entries in the MCU.

I think IM3 has several things going for it:

Shane Black’s script, which is especially suited to a smart, snarky main character like Tony Stark and the kind of people he likes to have around him.
I actually think having Tony Stark out of the suit, experimenting with new tech, etc. was a good move after IM2′s repetitious robot-fighting. And the supposed whip-saw over the Iron Legion that some people didn’t like I would argue works much better in combination with CA:CW.
Likewise, I think there’s better use of the secondary cast, especially with Pepper (although I would have liked to see more fallout from her getting super-powers).
Going really far out on a limb, the twist with the Mandarin is actually a great idea. The original Mandarin, while having a neat power suit, is so rooted in nakedly racist Yellow Peril/Fu Manchu tropes that playing it straight would be unforgivable.

Is the “curtain of light at the end of the world” some kind of portal, literally joining Planetos w/ the Other’s realm? Or is it a magic protection that the Others made, a kind of Northern Wall to keep human and CotF magic out and protect their own home/spawning pit?

I think it’s a combination of magic and the aurora borealis.

Assuming we get another Dunk and Egg story, do you think Egg will keep the “Egg” disguise after the events of The Mystery Knight? Or, given that there’s no way word that Prince Maekar’s youngest son was squiring for a seven foot tall hedge knight wouldn’t get out, he’ll drop the ruse?

Well, from WOIAF we know that it becomes publicly known, so he eventually stops. When, I don’t know.

I’ve read that the societies of the Middle Ages lacked the advanced and extensive bureaucracy of the Roman Empire. Would this bureaucracy have been staffed with commoners or middle-class individuals? If so, did this lead to any shift of influence between classes?

The Roman bureaucracy was interesting, from a class perspective.

On the one hand, the Roman state relied heavily on local elites to collect taxes, pay for public works, events, and services, conduct imperial religious ceremonies, and going upward from those elites you got the imperial nobility who were often called on to become prefects, procurators, and other provincial officials, all the way up to imperial governors and consuls and the like.

On the other hand, very low-status individuals, like freedmen, eunuchs, and slaves, could become incredibly high-ranking members of the civil service through proximity to the Emperor. So on an individual level, there could be quite startling social mobility (to say nothing of the more than a few emperors who started from incredibly lowly backgrounds).

So in terms of the class effects on Mediveal Europe, I think you can look at what happened when the bureaucracy emerged in Early Modern Europe: it’s not that the nobility disappeared and the bourgeoisie took over, but there were more bourgeoisie in government than had been the case earlier, and a lot of them became noblemen themselves (see the “noblesse de robe”).

Does Mercy wear Arya’s face or someone else’s?

Mercedene (or Mercy) is a face that the House of Black and White use as part of their training process:

They brought a robe for her as well, the soft thick robe of an acolyte, black upon one side and white upon the other. “Wear this when you are here,” the priest said, “but know that you shall have little need of it for the present. On the morrow you will go to Izembaro to begin your first apprenticeship. Take what clothes you will from the vaults below. The city watch is looking for a certain ugly girl, known to frequent the Purple Harbor, so best you have a new face as well.” He cupped her chin, turned her head this way and that, nodded. “A pretty one this time, I think.”

The idea being that Mercy, as an established junior mummer, can go through a course of training in the art of method acting, which is necessary if a Faceless Man is to successfully pass themselves off as someone else, while not being important enough to raise suspicion.

Now I’m confused. So Cersei is literally full steam ahead and her brakes have been cut?

Yes. Hence she has no hesitation in doing stuff like ordering Frankengregor to kill Margaery.

In response to someone’s question about why Robert Strong might kill Tommen, you describe Cersei as not having “any more breaks.” Do you mean in the sense that she can’t catch a break anymore, because all of her chickens are finally coming home to roost?

Typo, sorry. Meant “brakes” not “breaks.”

Why is the area east of goldengrove, north of the mander, south of the blackwater rush so bare? Any idea what is there? Do the Rowans rule all of it as part of the Northmarch? Any idea where the Osgrey territory is with regards to that area? Is it in there?

Well, keep in mind, we have no idea where a lot of important Reach houses are from – the Roxtons of the Ring, the Shermers of Smithyton, the Vrywels of Darkdell, etc. – so it’s quite possible they’re from that region.

IMO, the Northmarch applies to the border region between the Reach and the Westerlands, which would suggest that the Osgrey lands are to the west of Goldengrove, probably between Old Oak and Highgarden.