I’ve heard it said that medieval society was a lot more violent than the modern day, not just on a geopolitical level, but all the way down to the level of street violence. Is that true?

There’s a whole scholarly debate about this, in part because we don’t have anything close to minimally decent statistics from that period, so it all comes down to these academic bank shots where you’re looking at court records or burial records in a given area and then everyone argues about how representative the samples are.

Steven Pinker and those who agree with him argue that murder rates were way higher in premodern levels, there are plenty of people who disagree.

Personally, I’m unsure. On the one hand, premodern societies had much weaker police and judicial systems, so potentially there was less disinhibition for just hauling off and killing someone who pisses you off. On the other hand, various technological advances (the invention of the gun, the invention of modern industrial poisons) makes killing people way easier than the messy business of having to do it by hand, and rising urbanization means people are bumping into strangers more often who they might want to kill and makes it easier to disappear them or vanish yourself.

are longships the only type of ships usefull of a riverrine marine?

No, but within a medieval context, they’re hard to beat as models.

How could you make Westeros more democratic, or meritocratic, without pushing the nobility into rebellion? Give more power to Guilds maybe, let cities and their urban classes become more wealthy/powerful?

Well, democratic and meritocratic are not the same things; got to be careful when thinking about virtues and political systems, because a lot of people from 18th century liberals to the present day fox themselves by blurring those categories.

So I’m torn between my Team Smallfolk side and my historian’s side. My Team Smallfolk side says we go full Wat Tyler, let the nobility rebel, and then crush them like we’re Flemish artisans. My historian’s side says that revolutions can go backwards and that change is often gradual and long-term (but also that it often goes in a process of “punctuated equilibrium” where you have to push as far as you can in the moment, but always being careful that you push for what’s sustainable).

I would say that you build on existing institutions:

First, institutionalize the Great Councils of Westeros, as a quasi-representative body that embodies an alternative principle of legitimacy beyond the right of blood or conquest, and which seems to operate under the principle of all lords being equal (that’s something you can build off of. (Likewise the Kingsmoot, the elections of the Night’s Watch, etc.) Eventually, build the Great Councils into something akin at least to the Tudor Parliament if not yet at the level of the Parliament of the 17th century.
Second, extend the tradition of “any knight can make a knight” and the quasi-revolutionary nature of the knight’s oath. On a cultural level, encourage storytelling about Ser Duncan the Tall and other knights who expressed their virtues by defying their superiors rather than obeying them. Expand the class of knighthood down into the elite of urban society by making guild masters, burghers, etc. knights. This should create a class of people who have something to lose from the old order coming back, who can mobilize other people to fight counter-revolution. Eventually, give all knights representation on the Great Councils – although the principle of “one lord, one vote” might have to shift to something more elective, because getting everyone in one room is hard enough already.
Third, restore the reforms of Aegon V, whatever they may be. Really work on enforcement, so that the law is uniform whether it’s under the king’s eye in the Crownlands or out in Dorne or in the far North or out in the Westerlands. Work to extend royal justice vis-a-vis the right of pit and gallows, perhaps compromising with the local lords by letting them recommend candidates for justiceships. Eventually, work to expand the idea that individuals and communities have inalienable rights – perhaps building off of the ideology of the Seven that we’re all children of the Gods, etc.

Sansa is going to take the forces of the Vale North via White Harbor right? What happens to them when the Wall goes down? Will Sansa ends up in the besieged Winterfell? If so how will she get through the Others and wights besieging it? And what happens to Littlefinger? Does he meet Stannis or die to the Others?

Yes.
Maybe the cavalry to relieve Stannis’ siege of Winterfell, maybe something else?
Eventually, not sure if it’s sieged at the time.
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.)

So, in dramatic theory, story structures tend to fall into one of two major categories: revolutionary, that is, those which involve the breakdown of tradition and the creation of a new dynasty; these tend by and large to be tragedies (i.e. Hamlet, where the previous Danish monarchy dies, and a new dynasty takes over) and confirmatory, that is, those that reaffirm those traditions and familial structures which existed at the beginning of the story (Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, etc.).

(Dramatic Theory, cont.) (2) I suppose there must be some sort of spectrum in there–I think Macbeth could debatably fall into the reaffirmation category, for example–but I’m curious, given your previous analysis of GRRM as a capital R Romantic, and GRRM’s stated goal of essentially deconstructing the High Fantasy ideal of a good king, how you think ASOIAF will play out in this respect.

This is an excellent question. One thing that makes me uncertain is that these structures were mostly pre-Romantic (hence all the Shakespearean examples) and part of what the Romantics did that was so shocking and avant-garde in their time is that they broke with a lot of these structures. So I could see GRRM going either way.

For example, I’m damn sure that the Starks will retake and renew Winterfell as part of their “coming home” arc. However, I’m genuinely unsure as to whether there will or won’t be an Iron Throne by the end of the series, or whether Jon or Dany will live to see the end of ADOS – Tyrion I think is more suited to the Edgar/epilogue role, so him I’m less worried about.

As far as hand-to-hand in the middle ages goes, don’t you need a fairly good knowledge of wrestling/holds to fight people in armor even if you’re armed? (Unless you have a specialty weapon like a mace/pollaxe).

I believe I mentioned wrestling, just that they wouldn’t be trained in fisticuffs.

Can a riverrine fleet fight at sea? More specifficaly, can they fight the ironborn?

Well, technically speaking Ironborn longship are pretty riverrine in design. And I would imagine Riverlander riverrine ships are heavily based on Ironborn designs, given their relatively recent occupation by the Ironborn.

On the topic of Ser Shadrich, how is he planning on taking Sansa to King’s Landing to collect his reward? She’s not going to go willingly and if he tries anything there’s a crapload of people there who will stop him.

See here.

Is it reasonable to assume Brynden is the Riverlands equivalent to Brandon like how Juan is the spanish John? Or other similar instances of names that seem similar but are regionally specific?

Maybe? Or it could be a thing where there’s variations on the name even in one kingdom, with Brandon, Brynden, Brendan, etc. similar to in our world Jacob, James, Jim, Jack all come from the same name.

I recently ran across a theory that Ser Sharick the Mad Mouse could be Howland Reed in disguise, looking for Sansa, and planning to smuggle her out of the Vale. I’m admittedly intrigued by the theory, but I’m curious what a more seasoned ASOIAF analyst like yourself thinks of it.

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!