It depends on whether the demons who attacked Yi Ti and whom the Five Forts were built to defend against are the same or differrent from the White Walkers. 

I wouldn’t exclude the Dany stuff in Qarth, b/c a lot of that was apocalypse presaging. The ghost grass, the spirit turtle, etc. 

bonesoaked:

racefortheironthrone:

goodqueenaly:

As far as I can tell, the only evidence for this “theory” is that Shadrich is short and crannogmen are short, which is, at its most charitable, flimsy. Is every character ever described as short a secret crannogman in disguise? Is Littlefinger Howland Reed too? What about the black brother Bedwyck, even shorter than Shadrich? What about Arianne – she’s exactly the same height as Ser Shadrich? Are they all secret crannogmen, or is it remotely possible that there are other short people in Westeros besides Howland Reed and his kin?

Moreover, the attempt to make Ser Shadrich’s backstory mysterious is, in my opinion, unwarranted. Shadrich is not evasive about his past or motivations, far from it: he point blank tells Brienne that he fought for Stannis at the Blackwater, paid a huge ransom, and is looking for Sansa Stark because of the rich reward Varys offered for her capture. Why should we the audience not believe him? Is there some indication in the text that he’s lying, or otherwise withholding the truth (as was clearly the case when, for example, Illyrio was discussing his plans with Tyrion)? We know the reward is true: Kevan tells Tyrion before his trial that “Varys has offered a hundred stags for word of [Sansa’s] whereabouts, and a hundred dragons for the girl herself”. Is it so impossible to believe that someone would know about this publicly offered bounty and want to collect on it, especially if that person had lost quite a bit of money recently?

In my opinion, Shadrich is Shadrich, exactly who he claims to be. I’m fully in agreement with my bestie @poorquentyn that Shadrich (whose realization of “Alayne Stone”’s true identity was emphasized in Sansa’s released TWOW sample chapter) is going to try, but fail, to seize the girl worth a hundred dragons, thus revealing that Littlefinger’s supposed bastard is in fact the last living trueborn heiress of House Stark in Westeros (or so most anyone knows). He’s not important in himself so much as he is important in kickstarting Sansa’s narrative toward Winterfell and home.

So yeah, any theory which has Howland Reed being anyone but Howland Reed I find silly and extremely unlikely to be true. Give Howland Reed his just due, and let him reveal himself, as himself, in a fashion which suits the narrative.

Ser Shadrich ain’t no crannogman, see? Yeah, and if youse says anything like that again, you’re gonna get one like that, and one like that, and you’ll have to carry your teeth in a sack, I don’t care how big youse are!

Oh my gosh, the Mad Mouse is a wise guy. THAT’S why I like him so much despite so little content.

He is somewhat Joe Pesci-ish. 

anonymousautonomousavatar:

racefortheironthrone:

kwaj:

racefortheironthrone:

racefortheironthrone:

Let’s see:

• Jon’s clearly a Beastmaster Ranger.
•  Arya’s a Homebrew variant of Assassin Rogue.
• I feel like Tyrion is a Charisma/Int Mastermind Rogue.
• Sam’s a Bard who might be mutliclassing into Wizard if Marwyn’s accepting students.
• Cersei, Catelyn, Sansa are Aristocrats from 3.X I guess?
• Arianne might be a Bard from the College of Whispers, or maybe a Charisma/Int Mastermind Rogue, but she’s underleveled. 
• Asha is a Swashbuckler Rogue with Sailor Background.
• Jaime is a Fighter who’s having to respec from Battlemaster into a more Warlord style. 
• Barristan Selmy is a Paladin.
• Aerys Oakheart is a Paladin who broke his Oath.
• Areo Hotah is a Protection Greataxe Battlemaster Fighter.
• Aeron Damphair thinks he’s a Cleric, but he’s actually a Prophet Priest Kit from AD&D 2nd edition whose Wisdom is too low to cast spells.
• Victarion is a Champion Fighter with a Sailor Background who super min-maxed for combat, so Wis, Int, and Cha are all dump-stats.

Missed a few, b/c there are a lot of POV characters:

• Ned Stark is a Fighter/Aristocrat.
• Davos is a Thief Rogue with a Sailor Background.
• Brienne of Tarth is a Battlemaster Fighter verging on Paladin.
• Theon Greyjoy is a Dex-Based Archery Fighter who thinks he has a Sailor Background but really has a Noble Background, also thinks he has higher Cha or Int than he really does. 

So is Melisandre a Cleric or a Warlock?

Depends on how you look at R’hllor, I suppose. 

Melisandre fits pretty well to an Undying Light Celestial warlock from the unofficial UA because access to resurrection spells and flame magic

You win a No Prize!

opinions-about-tiaras:

racefortheironthrone:

racefortheironthrone:

No, not necessarily. As seen with Cersei Lannister, a woman doesn’t necessarily take her husband’s name. 

Also, based on some questions I got, a clarification/extension:

• Dornish custom is that Arianne’s kids take her name, so her family name is not in danger.
• Sansa is a bit more iffy, but there is precedent for husbands and children changing their names to maintain continuity: Joffrey Lydden became Joffrey Lannister when the male line ended early in the Andal period; the Tallharts offered to have Beren Tallhart (whose mother is a Hornwood) change his name to Hornwood if he was named heir, sot hat the line could continue. 

I’ve always thought that Dorne’s equal-opportunity inheritance laws should lead to a lot of weird politics surrounding House names, words, and sigils.

Logically speaking, Dorne ought to experience a slow but gradual aristocratic consolidation, as in every generation 50% of heirs will be women (possibly a bit more, as women don’t go to war so much even in Dorne and therefore will die less) and some of those heirs will marry male heirs, uniting their houses and fiefs together in the person of their heir.

It makes sense from pure power politics standpoint (”Listen, the two of us together are getting pushed around, but if we marry our kids and unite our demesnes, our grandkids will be much more powerful”) but there’d be a lot of haggling over which names and symbols are passed on.

Or there might be a social taboo against heirs marrying heirs to prevent consolidation/loss of fiefdoms, to compensate. 

racefortheironthrone:

No, not necessarily. As seen with Cersei Lannister, a woman doesn’t necessarily take her husband’s name. 

Also, based on some questions I got, a clarification/extension:

• Dornish custom is that Arianne’s kids take her name, so her family name is not in danger.
• Sansa is a bit more iffy, but there is precedent for husbands and children changing their names to maintain continuity: Joffrey Lydden became Joffrey Lannister when the male line ended early in the Andal period; the Tallharts offered to have Beren Tallhart (whose mother is a Hornwood) change his name to Hornwood if he was named heir, sot hat the line could continue. 

opinions-about-tiaras:

racefortheironthrone:

poorquentyn:

racefortheironthrone:

1. Yes.
2. Maybe the cavalry to relieve Stannis’ siege of Winterfell, maybe something else?
3. Eventually, not sure if it’s sieged at the time.
4. I don’t think LF makes it out of the Vale, I think Sansa has the Vale’s reins in her own hands by this point. (Which is part of the reason why I think LF has been so bad this season – his character isn’t alive at this point in the books, so they can’t give him anything really plot-relevant to do.)

I’m of two minds as to when Littlefinger dies. On the one hand, I totally agree that it comes off in Season 7 like he’s already dead at this point in the books and so they don’t have anything important for him to do. On the other, there’s the prophecy about Sansa slaying the savage giant in the castle made of snow, and part of me feels like, for drama’s sake, Sansa has to learn the extent of LF’s sins before she turns on him. She can’t really do that before reuniting with Sandor and/or Jeyne Poole. 

Why does she need to reunite with Sandor for that?

And I feel like LF will reveal the extent of his sins in a big Villain Monologue, because he really deserves to have one. 

Does Littlefinger have that many huge sins left that Sansa doesn’t already know about?

I know @poorquentyn brought up his betrayal of Ned Stark… but is there any possible way that Sansa doesn’t know about that already? That was a huge, public thing; Littlefinger whipped out a knife and dramatically held it to the throat of the Hand of the King while said Hand was trying to overthrow Joffrey. And he did it in front of assembled gold cloaks and various and sundry others.

That would have been a matter of enormous comment and gossip for months and months on end both at court and in the city, even with everything else going on. Could it actually have completely sailed over Sansa’s head?

And most of Littlefinger’s big stuff above and beyond that which is at all relevant to Sansa, Lysa got out into the open right before Littlefinger killed her right in front of Sansa.

I suppose there’s the incipient murder of Robin Arryn? Sansa doesn’t like Robin but I think she’d balk at Littlefinger murdering a child.

I think overall it’ll be a matter of putting it all together and realizing he’s the one to blame, the mastermind behind it all. 

But as for Ned Stark…that’s tricky. Keep in mind, I think Cersei would have censored the story about what happened in the throne room b/c the only people there were the Small Council, the Goldcloaks, Ned’s men, Joffrey, and the Kingsguard. Also, Sansa was kept very isolated throughout ACOK, didn’t know about Oxcross until Joffrey had her brought out and beaten. It’s not really until ASOS and the Tyrells that she gets access to any gossip per se.

But yes, I think Robin’s death will be a catalyst. 

Enough to gain local superiority, but not too many; remember, unlike blue water combat, rivers have very defined widths, so you can only fit so many abreast. 

My rough guess is 25-50, but if you wanted a precise figure, you should be thinking about how many miles of river there are on the Trident, the Godseye River, and the Rush (at least that part inside the Riverlands), divide that by one day’s sailing distance to establish patrol radii, and then multiply that by 2-3 depending on the width of the river.

No, not necessarily. As seen with Cersei Lannister, a woman doesn’t necessarily take her husband’s name. 

kwaj:

racefortheironthrone:

racefortheironthrone:

Let’s see:

• Jon’s clearly a Beastmaster Ranger.
•  Arya’s a Homebrew variant of Assassin Rogue.
• I feel like Tyrion is a Charisma/Int Mastermind Rogue.
• Sam’s a Bard who might be mutliclassing into Wizard if Marwyn’s accepting students.
• Cersei, Catelyn, Sansa are Aristocrats from 3.X I guess?
• Arianne might be a Bard from the College of Whispers, or maybe a Charisma/Int Mastermind Rogue, but she’s underleveled. 
• Asha is a Swashbuckler Rogue with Sailor Background.
• Jaime is a Fighter who’s having to respec from Battlemaster into a more Warlord style. 
• Barristan Selmy is a Paladin.
• Aerys Oakheart is a Paladin who broke his Oath.
• Areo Hotah is a Protection Greataxe Battlemaster Fighter.
• Aeron Damphair thinks he’s a Cleric, but he’s actually a Prophet Priest Kit from AD&D 2nd edition whose Wisdom is too low to cast spells.
• Victarion is a Champion Fighter with a Sailor Background who super min-maxed for combat, so Wis, Int, and Cha are all dump-stats.

Missed a few, b/c there are a lot of POV characters:

• Ned Stark is a Fighter/Aristocrat.
• Davos is a Thief Rogue with a Sailor Background.
• Brienne of Tarth is a Battlemaster Fighter verging on Paladin.
• Theon Greyjoy is a Dex-Based Archery Fighter who thinks he has a Sailor Background but really has a Noble Background, also thinks he has higher Cha or Int than he really does. 

So is Melisandre a Cleric or a Warlock?

Depends on how you look at R’hllor, I suppose. 

Bit of each, it seems like.