Author: stevenattewell

Getting some cool ASOIAF Maps recently got me thinking about roads. It seems there are some places (Kings Landing, Winterfell) that seem geographically important enough to draw roads towards them. I imagine other castles or towns are built because of where the road goes. Are there historical parallels for that? When roads are built what kind of factors go into where they go?

Excellent question!

In terms of where fortified settlements are found, prominent hills that provide for better defense, natural harbors on the coasts, good crossing points of navigable rivers, and points on overland trade routes (as well as crossroads) are all good candidates. 

For example, the city of Florence prospered in no small part because it was positioned right on the overland trade route between Venice and Rome, and on the overland trade routes from Italy to northern Europe. So in a sense, roads helped to build the city…although Florence’s growing industries in wool cloth, silks, and finance then gave reasons to build roads to connect other places to Florence.

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In terms of what factors decide where roads go, it really comes down to geography (in the sense that a lot of main roads get built to connect major regions – think about the Via Appia, which the Romans built to connect Rome to connect the capitol to the grain-growing regions of southern Italy – or to deal with major natural obstacles (think roads built through mountain passes or bridges or the like)),and demography (in the sense that when you have clusters of people (because they’ve found a spot with certain advantages) it generally makes sense to build roads to connect them so that trade can be conducted, and this in turn makes those clusters bigger because it’s easier to move to those clusters, and creates new clusters at key points of the new networks).

Are you sure Tyrion will try to play Aegon and Dany against each other? It seems that he’s unusually fond of the cast of The Shy Maid, could it be possible he actually wants Aegon to succeed? He makes thoughts like how he hopes Griff makes a good decision, and wishes he was back with Griff and crew.

Tyrion already has played Aegon and Dany against each other by getting Aegon to sail to Westeros and claim the throne Dany thinks of as her own instead of coming to her aid and arranging a dynastic marriage on relatively equal terms. 

Did the victors of he rebellion try to swipe what happened to Elia&kids under the rug? What is in WoIaF seems to be the official version of events,that the guilty are unknown,but everybody talks about Gregor. What might JonArryn have told the Martells? Did he try to sell them the same? Would make Oberyn’s“mummer’s show of an inquiry“more’fed up with bullshit’than mere impatience. Also gives the Dornish more reason to resent the new regime&secretly plan to overthrow it.

Well, with the highly significant caveat of Tywin’s “coverup” of who killed them and who gave the order, no. The bodies of the children were publicly displayed, the stories spread far and wide, etc.

Jon Arryn managed to make peace with the Martells, likely by emphasizing the chaos of the Sack of King’s Landing, that none of his own forces participated in the murders in question, and probably emphasizing that, with plenty of Starks murdered in Martell-adjacent locations, the Martells probably didn’t want to open that can of worms when they were so politically isolated. 

Any chance that George will only have part of the Dothraki forces that will unite under Dany actually cross the narrow sea? What about none of them at all? Somebody like Tyrion or Barristan or Marwyn (or of course, Missandei) could dissuade her with the cultural and logistical challenges. Plus, that Volantis will likely be attacked by them, the likes of Qohor (especially, given the Three Thousand), Myr, Norvos, and Pentos could be threatened.

None at all? Hell no. You don’t spend that much time setting up Dany and the Dothraki only for them to have no impact.

Whether they’ll survive the Second War for the Dawn? Less likely. 

another question about riverland border defence. if the kings of the rivers and hills had managed to secure control of the golden tooth, would it protect against the westerlands as well as it protects the westerlands against attacks from the east?

It would certainly help: 

If the Riverlanders held the Golden Tooth, it would act as a bottleneck against any incursions down the River Road pass, holding back any attacks until the Riverlands had a chance to mobilize, and giving the Riverlanders a chance to fight the Westermen in the mountain pass where the larger numbers of the Westermen couldn’t be brought to bear, as opposed to the more open valley below where in OTL Jaime steamrolled over poor Vance and Piper. 

Now, it can’t prevent the Westermen from going through Deep Den down the Gold Road and then swinging north to attack the underbelly of the Riverlands as Tywin did in OTL, but there’s still a significant advantage in shutting down a potential route of invasion and knowing that there’s really only one route the enemy can take. 

Could it be that the assassination attempt on Daenerys(poisoned wine) was only stopped because Robert had taken his order back on his deathbed. Varys said it might be too late,and it was last minute. Jorah still reported on Dany in Qarth,and we now know Illyrio didn’t expect Dany to survive with the Dothraki anyway&only mattered again for his plans as she hatched dragons. Did the cancelling of the kill order arrive in time&save Dany&not Jorah’s ‘love’?

Here’s the thing that people don’t get about the wineseller: the whole thing was staged to push Khal Drogo into accelerating his plans for invasion, and carefully scripted by Varys and Illyrio. 

Varys gets the order, but rather than hire a professional like one of the Sorrowful Men or something, he hires a complete patsy who even a relative naif like Dany sees through in an instant. And then he sends a letter to Illyrio telling him exactly what’s going to happen, and Illyrio sends a letter to Jorah, and lo and behold Jorah’s on the scene to “save” Dany and gain her trust so that he can help Varys and Illyrio “steer” Dany from long range. 

In other words…it’s not a “real” assassination attempt, it’s more of an elaborately plotted piece of theater meant to convey the impression of an assassination attempt.

A mummer’s farce, one might say…

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RFTIT Weekly(ish) Tumblr Roundup!

RFTIT Weekly(ish) Tumblr Roundup!

So…my previous plan kind of got sidetracked when my iPad decided to brick itself for 24 hours, which meant that I didn’t have access to my highlighted copy of A Storm of Swords in order to add the quotes into my outlines. So instead I went to work on my essay series on the Great Councils because I had it partially written already. Thus, the new plan is Sam I, then finish Great Councils Part II…

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So Speaks Martin

oadara:

This is an excerpt from George R. R. Martin’s novel Fevre Dream. 

The context here is that when Abner Marsh, the book’s protagonist, is first introduced he is against slavery but doesn’t do anything to stop it. After the events of the novel, he comes to empathize with the slaves and radically changes his stance. He says this towards the end of the novel:

I never held much with slavery […]. You can’t just go… usin’ another kind of people, like they wasn’t people at all. Know what I mean? Got to end, sooner or later. Better if it ends peaceful, but it’s got to end even if it has to be with fire and blood, you see? Maybe that’s what them abolitionists been sayin’ all along. You try to be reasonable, that’s only right, but if it don’t work, you got to be ready. Some things is just wrong. They got to be ended.

Sometimes Fire and Blood isn’t such a bad thing. 

Or in the original:

“The Almighty has his own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope—fervently do we pray—that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, “The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

People always love to quote the paragraph that comes after, but often skip past this one.