Author: stevenattewell

Having seen your “favourite historical document”, I find that sort of visualisation absolutely fascinating. Where can I read more about how they developed that model?

Unfortunately, I don’t think you can. 

That document was found in the out-sized exhibits section of the Committee on Economic Security’s papers, and I didn’t find anything else relating to it or its author Lewis Baxter or Economic Security Associates in the rest of the CES’ papers. The only other place I’ve found this Lewis Baxter mentioned anywhere is that he wrote an unsolicited amicus brief to the U.S Supreme Court on monetary policy in a case in the 40s (I think). 

I think that Lewis Baxter and his model are historical lacunae, where we just don’t have the sources because they didn’t survive to the present. 

What do you and Bob Chipman mean by a soft reboot with Flashpoint? In the IT world that means rebooting the software, but not the hardware of a computer. Are you saying they should start a new series based around that episode, keeping all of the actors from The Flash show?

So, DC are planning a Flashpoint movie. In the comics, Flashpoint was a storyline in which Barry Allen uses his powers to try to go back in time and fix the timeline because someone evil has been messing with it, and in the process creates a new DC universe. 

In comics, this is referred to as a soft reboot because you’re not completely starting over from scratch, you’re just saying that some things are now different (another term for this is a retcon). A hard reboot would be saying that all of the previous comics didn’t happen and starting all of the characters over from their origins. 

So in a putative Flashpoint movie, you could have Flash go back in time and change history such that say, Man of Steel/BvSDoJ/Justice League didn’t happen, without changing the events of Wonder Woman. 

Before the Battle of the Blackwater, why did the Tyrells need to meet up with the Lannister host? I was thinking it was to finalize the marriage deal between Joffrey and Margery, but even knowing that Tywin’s the one who really calls the shots, it’s not like they need his approval at all before hand. Couldn’t the Tyrells have accepted the deal from LF and just attacked Stannis with their own host, w/out Tywin, like if he had crossed the Red Fork or Arya had named him as one of her 3 kills?

Because A. Mace Tyrell is an extremely cautious man, and B. Mace Tyrell is not stupid enough to help the Lannisters in their moment of need before getting them to sign on the dotted line – he’s no Balon Greyjoy. 

What do you think needs to be done to save the DC Cinematic Universe?

  1. Keep Patty Jenkins running Wonder Woman. Build the DCU around her. 
  2. Do a soft reboot with Flashpoint, as Bob Chipman has suggested.
  3. Recast and retool visually and aesthetically as needed. Deep-six the Snyder aesthetic and the not-Marvel-comics-r-srius-business attitude. 
  4. Make a bunch of solo films focused on creating likeable characters. 
  5. Then bring them together with something novel. 

RFTIT Tumblr Weeklish Roundup

Hey folks! Thanks for putting up with my long delay on finishing up Part III of the Life of the High Spider (which still has some errors that’ll need to be fixed when I combine all three parts into one document). I’ve already started work on the last part of the Politics of Dorne,  but it’ll be a while in coming because I have a lot of grading to do in the next week. In the meantime, I’ve got a…

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Could Tywin have asked Robert to release Jaime from the Kingsguard immediately after the rebellion? And send him back to Casterly Rock. Also if the answer is yes, I don’t understand why he didn’t do it.

He could have asked, but Robert wouldn’t have necessarily said yes…

However, the way Tywin phrases it here suggests that he did see Jaime’s vow as binding until recently:

Lord Tywin glanced at Jaime’s stump again. “You cannot serve in the Kingsguard without a sword hand—”
“I can,” he interrupted. “And I will. There’s precedent. I’ll look in the White Book and find it, if you like. Crippled or whole, a knight of the Kingsguard serves for life.”
“Cersei ended that when she replaced Ser Barristan on grounds of age. A suitable gift to the Faith will persuade the High Septon to release you from your vows. Your sister was foolish to dismiss Selmy, admittedly, but now that she has opened the gates—” (Jaime VII, ASOS)

So it may well have been that he thought at the time that it was unthinkable that a member of the Kingsguard would be dismissed from office, but once it happened, he was happy enough to use the precedent (and a fair bit of bribery) to get what he wanted. 

Does the term “The Great Bastards” apply to people like Brynden’s sisters or the children of Lord Butterwell’s three daughters (illegitimate children of nobly born women), or is it limited only to Daemon, Brynden, and Aegor? And do you think there might be other Great Bastards that we just haven’t been introduced to yet?

The term “Great Bastard” was given to all those of Aegon IV’s acknowledged bastard children from noblewomen, so it does include Brynden’s sisters, as well as Shiera Seastar. 

It doesn’t include Jeyne Lothston (who could well have been his daughter by Falena Stokeworth as well as his mistress) because she wasn’t acknowledged, or Merry Meg’s daughters because she wasn’’t highborn although those children were acknowledged, or Bellegere Otherys’ children because she wasn’t a noblewoman and there was a question as to paternity. 

What real-world precedents are their for the KingsGuard? Are they usually a state’s ‘best’ soldiers? I’ve always wondered that having to stand around on guard duty all day (especially for when the royal family waxes large) would make them less effective than a conventional, regularly working sellsword. How did they maintain their fearsome reputation?

The Kingsguard are something of a pastiche between your Royal Guards (think the guys in the giant bearskin hats) and various historical orders of knighthood: the Knights of the Garter or the Knights of the Golden Fleece.

They tended not to be the best soldiers per se, but the most disciplined, because you wanted them to be on their guard to defend the person of the monarch. Hence why Royal Guards “may not eat, sleep, smoke, stand easy, sit or lie down during your tour of duty.“