Valyrian steel dagger will return in the books at all, or has that plotline played itself out? After all, in the books Tyrion has come to the conclusion that Joffrey hired the catspaw, but if I recall correctly, no one else on the books has, nor on the show has anyone solved it (another ball dropped by D & D, it seems).

I don’t mind the dagger being the thing used to kill LF, but I could also see the dagger being done and dusted already.

Will Varys successfully transition from fAegon to Daenerys, or does he die during the confrontation? I don’t buy his claims to be so concerned about the kingdom and the kingdom alone. Why would some mummer’s castoff from the Nine Cities who made his livelihood on the secrets of the powerful be so “devoted” to the powerless? Although I do like his singular aversion to magic. It shows that he does in fact have biases, for all he tries to hide them.

No, I think he’s done. But he is concerned about making a world in which what happened to him does not happen to anyone else, through the creation of a perfect prince.

You mentioned in one of the liveblogs(?) that you think Littlefinger is already dead in the books where the show is now. What other characters in that situation? Personally, I think both Varys and Cersei are dead.

Well, I will say that I think King’s Landing is definitely resolved before everyone jets off to the North.

I really didn’t get Littlefinger’s role in Season 7. I could understand if Sansa didn’t understand the full ramifications of everything LF did before Bran showed up, but besides the initial scene where Arya, Bran, and Sansa reunite under the weirwood tree (which I think was comparatively well done), the only framework and basis on which LF’s final scene could be constructed was D & D’s past history of taking a conclusion scene and writing back from it. That said, I did like the

(wtf season 7 LF, cont.) (2) pseudo-socratic method discussion between LF and Sansa in the final episode and how Sansa turned it on him when he was called to answer for his crimes.

As I said on Twitter, D&D actually explicitly state they wrote this plot backwards and structured it to try to “TWIST!” the audience.

As for why LF didn’t make sense, I think it’s mostly this and that he’s probably dead by this point in the books.

Do you think lord Butterwell stole from the royal teasure as Littlefinger?!

Not nearly on the same scale or through the same methods. Perhaps the normal level of corruption, but not anything on the same scale.

Can Dorne rely solely on its resources to feed the population during winter, or do they have external sources too?

I imagine they import food in winter to some extent.

hi! i’m new to the books and i’m on a clash of kings right now, got to the battle of the blackwater and davos talks about wildfire. i’m not sure if anyone’s answered my question in the books prior to this point, i couldn’t find it, but how does the wildfire stop if nothing can extinguish it? if not water and not the lack of oxygen, wouldn’t it then turn the whole of blackwater into a giant, flowing pyre? i mean this sounds very stupid obviously, but if it can’t be put out…?

It’s magic. As to why it stops, it seems to stop when it consumes itself as a means of fuel: “once it takes fire, the substance will burn fiercely until it is no more.”

If Rhaegar did annul his marriage, then does that mean his children by Elia would be made illegitimate (like Mary Tudor was after Henry Viii divorced Catherine of Aragon)?

Yes. Annulment means the marriage never happened legally speaking.

Do I need to log in towerofthehand to read your essays?

No, but you might need to set your spoiler levels so you can see the text.

To what extent would the seven pre-conquest Kingdoms have maintained official / permanent diplomats with each other? Would there just have been delegations sent when needed (similar to Cat going to Renly in ACOK) or might there have been long-term courtiers from other Kingdoms present in the various capitals?

It probably depended on proximity – I imagine the Reach would need someone permanently in Casterly Rock, Storm’s End, Sunspear (after Nymeria), and maybe in the Riverlands, but the Vale or the North would be much more infrequent, for exmaple.