Author: stevenattewell

Well now I have to ask….what are your other reasons for thinking Ready Player One was bad? (I was underwhelmed by it and am bemused by the popularity, so I’m curious about other people’s experience of the book).

kierongillen:

It’s kind of a running joke now, with Jamie and me randomly tearing on RP1. Jamie read it on a plane, and was so annoyed, he forced me to read it. I was two seats behind him and the right, so I got to watch his responses live. There was an awesome bit where he literally shut the book and shook his head. I did pretty much the same thing, at the same point.

There’s various issues with it, but the core philosophical one would be is that its plot is the inverse of Rue Britannia’s. It’s a story where a Retromancer has enslaved an entire world and we’re meant to cheer and not think it’s fucking creepy.

Harys Swyft’s Coup

How was Harys Swyft able to consolidate power over the government so fast? The two Kettleblacks were arrested by Kevan, not Swyft, so why’d they stick around for Kevan to show up? Why’d Osfryd tolerate being stripped of command of the Goldcloaks without causing a Goldcloak civil war between himself and Humfrey Waters? And what was Osmund doing? Why didn’t Swyft remove him too? Wouldn’t the two have reason to skip town once they heard of Cersei’s arrest, like Owen Merryweather and Aurane Waters? And why did Qyburn tolerate being kicked off the Small Council? Why didn’t he move first and have Swyft ousted?

  1. It was really Pycelle running the show, and Pycelle has decades of experience in royal government.  
  2. Osmund couldn’t run, he was a member of the Kingsguard. Osfryd was either loyal to his brothers or lacked the initiative to go on his own.
  3. Who’d fight for Osfryd? Osfryd’s a transparent henchman of a deposed queen, so he doesn’t have any political influence after Cersei’s arrested. (Add to that that his brother’s just confessed to treason, perjury, aatnd murdering the High Septon.) Osfryd is an incompetent and frankly a bit dim, and he has absolutely no connections to the Goldcloaks, having been named about two months prior. By contrast, Humfrey Waters is the former captain of the Dragon Gate – he’s got substantial experience in the City Watch and likely made more than his share of friends – and has the backing of the King, the Hand, and the Grand Maester.
  4. Probably stuck guarding the King.
  5. Pycelle probably considered him less of a threat b/c he’s just one knight.
  6. See above.
  7. What’s Qyburn’s alternative? He’s Cersei’s appointee, and Cersei’s just been arrested. He has no pull with Tommen, no one in royal government knows or trusts him. 

Inns and Travel

My understanding is that often times inns in fantasy are anachronistic in the way they are depicted. In our own history inns largely sprung up in the stagecoach era when roads were better and travel was more common. In Westeros it seems they cater to travelling nobility rather than say, merchants. Am I correct in thinking this is anachronistic? 

See here.

How do ravens work? Do most ravens need to be carried back to their castle by land after flying?

The ravenry system of the maesters is a very complicated point-to-point communication system, based on the historical use of homing pigeons. As with homing pigeons, most ravens are one-directional and have to be transported back to their homes to be used again, and the system as a whole works because maesters in each castle have a bunch of ravens trained to go to different castles, which they then share around to maintain contact.

However, there are some birds that are an exception:

The maester mopped sweat from his brow with his sleeve. “N-not entirely, Your Grace. Most, yes. Some few can be taught to fly between two castles. Such birds are greatly prized. And once in a very great while, we find a raven who can learn the names of three or four or five castles, and fly to each upon command. Birds as clever as that come along only once in a hundred years.” (TWOW)

Evidently, the Citadel haven’t figured out the historical trick that you can reliably get homing birds to go in two directions “by placing their food at one location and their home at another location.” 

Is there any particular reasoning behind the Watch’s horn blast System (1 for Rangers, 2 for Wildlings, 3 for Others)?

Rule of Three.

As for why that order…it’s about dramatic tension. The sudden spike in tension that comes from going from one blast meaning “friends” to two blasts meaning “enemies” doesn’t work if it goes one = wildlings and two = rangers. 

Likewise, the two/three structure allows for a further spike in tension: you thought you were dealing with a regular enemy, but now you’re dealing with a much more dangerous threat! 

Two questions about bastardry if you’ll oblige. Firstly, is Catelyn’s fear of Jon’s children vying for control of Winterfell reasonable? Secondly, in AGOT Ned vehemently declares that Jon, as a bastard, would be shunned at court but we don’t really see that level of prejudice throughout the series; is this something GRRM decided to tone down a bit?

  1. Broadly, yes. It’s a bit exaggerated – Catelyn does after all have three sons whom Ned has all claimed as his own, so a Daemon Blackfyre scenario is not likely – but there havee been cases where bastards have challenged or surplanted their trueborn kin (looking at you Ronard Dondarrion né

    Storm, you cunning so and so). 

  2. I’m not sure how to view that comment, because I think you could see it from a number of angles. One answer is that Ned, wanting to keep Jon’s secret, does not want an entire court’s worth of gossips and conspirators wondering who the mother is. Another might be that Ned, not being familiar with King’s Landing politics, has overestimated the prejudice – it could well be the case that Jon would be sneered at behind his back or by the Lannisters, but a Hand’s favored bastard son is not a bad person for a courtier to cultivate. A third might be that court ettiquette follows the monarch – given Cersei’s murderous dislike of Robert’s bastards, she might have set the standard that bastards period are not welcome at her court. And finally, it might be an example of early installment weirdness.