Guest Appearance on Bores, Gore, and Swords!

After some vigorous Twitter DM debating, Ivan and Red from Boars, Gore, and Swords invited me on their podcast to talk about why they’re wrong about Robert’s Rebellion, what we think about fan theories as suggested by Twitter, and who we think will be alive at the end of HBO’s Game of Thrones. You can check it out here!

If Robb sends someone other than Theon to treat with Balon and Balon goes through with his invasion anyway, does Robb have to kill Theon or could he keep him alive as a potential candidate for the Seastone Chair, sympathetic to the Northern Cause?

Robb would have to think fast. Either he’d need to kill him on the spot to make it clear that the King in the North ain’t nothing to f*ck with, or he’d need to crown him on the spot and declare him the true King in advance of a future invasion of the Iron Islands.

If you could add or create a Team Smallfolk POV for the War of the Five Kings (if not the series as a whole), who would you add and what would their story arc be?

Other than Davos, you mean?

Maybe Gendry, getting a ground-level view of the Brotherhood’s operation in the Riverlands.

I don’t have a tumblr account, so I can’t ask PoorQuentyn this, but is Euron’s musing that we won’t know whether we can fly unless we jump off some high tower an allusion to the Hightowers of Oldtown?

I agree with @poorquentyn that Euron might blow the Horn of Winter from the top of the Hightower.

While I’m a little surprised that you went full Borgia/Julius II/Wolsey with your High Spider (one would borrow liberally from the life of Gregory VII, a man of humble origins who humbled an Emperor, were I inventing a High Septon myself), please allow me to say how delighted I am that you appear to have liked my question – one can’t tell you how delighted I am to see that more may well be forthcoming in this vein!

I avoided Gregory VII because the Faith clearly never got strong enough to enforce a Dictatus Papae, so I needed someone whose works crumbled at the end.

Maester Steven, I recall you mentioning previously that it was often to the advantage of pre-Modern Sovereigns to tour their domains (if only to quite literally eat up their more troublesome vassals’ disposable income and fly the flag) but may I please ask if the logic behind a Royal Progress holds good for a Medieval Pope? (more succinctly “Would it be to the advantage of a Medieval Pope to go on an Ecclesiastical Progress?”).

The same logic doesn’t quite apply, as the Church being a corporate entity (to say nothing of universal) means that you’re taking your own money, whereas pilgrimages mean the money comes to you.

But that’s not to say that it never happened, just for different reasons.

May I please ask if you have any thoughts on how a High Septon might be able to save Face in the wake of the Storm-Kings aggrandisement after the fall of House Teague? (I actually wonder if it would be possible for a High Septon to make an heir of Arlan the Avenger take a “Walk to Canossa” in expiation of his ancestors massacre of the Faithful).

Well, religious condemnation would be a good start, although it wouldn’t be called excommunication or interdict since the Faith of the Seven doesn’t have communication or confession as sacraments.

Political conniving with regional rivals would be a start – the Arryns would no doubt be worried about being next, the Lannisters would not be happy about a new rival on their borders, and so on.

I don’t know if a “Walk to Canossa” would be possible, it would depend on internal political conditions of the Stormlands, as the IRL one wouldn’t have happened without the revolt of the German bishops and nobles.

Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Samwell I, ASOS

“You keep it…you’re not craven like me.”

“So craven you killed an Other.”

Synopsis: Retreating from the Battle of the Fist of the First Men, Sam Tarly slays a White Walker with the help of Small Paul and Grenn.

SPOILER WARNING: This chapter analysis, and all following, will contain spoilers for all Song of Ice and Fire novels and Game of Thrones episodes. Caveat lector.
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Whyd would marrying a foreigner into a local house make them loyal? Becasue treachery would sour relationships with their spouse? Or is it less sentimental, like the cross-pollination of personnel during this time would make betrayal harder to pull off?

The idea is you’re less likely to betray your wife and child’s people, and that your son will be even more so because it’ll be their blood relations. So a mix of sentimental and practical, I would think.

for a realistic Alternate hsitory regarding the faith being severely split, would every single faith worshipping kingdom have their own version of the “true” church, or would some kingdoms simply side with whichever of their neighbors they considered the True one?

It could go any number of directions: you could have seven schisms, you could have regional schisms, you could have a Gallician settlement and regional competition for the High Septoncy itself, and so on.