Possible, although he if he was deluded in the first case b/c of wine, why wouldn’t he make the same mistake while out of his mind on milk of the poppy?

It’s highly unlikely, but yeah, Stannis is pragmatic enough to make a deal if it’ll win him a throne. 

The Medieval Scots relied on the schiltron, a formation of pikes that was originally circular and then transformed into a rectangle thanks to Robert the Bruce. While effective at holding off English cavalry and dismounted men-at-arms, it was really vulnerable to the English and Welsh longbowmen due to the tight-packed, static infantry being a really good target for archers, hence the Scots’ defeat at the Battle of Falkirk.

The rectangular schiltrons that the Bruce introduced at Glen Trool and then exploited to devastating effect at Bannockburn were far more mobile and better-trained, allowing them to be used both defensively and offensively. It also helped that the Bruce kept his cavalry close in hand to protect his schiltrons by driving off any offensive use of longbowmen, whereas often before the Scottish cavalry had fought independently against the English cavalry and often been driven off the field, leaving the schiltrons exposed (as happened at Falkirk). 

AHA! Thanks to @nobodysuspectsthebutterfly​, I was reminded of the following from Tyrion IV of ACOK:

racefortheironthrone:

That’s an excellent question, because I realized that I was also unsure about this question. My asearchoficeandfire-fu was failing me, but @goodqueenaly​ found this rather interesting passage from Tyrion III of ASOS:

“My lords, with your leave, I propose to travel to the Vale and there woo and win Lady Lysa Arryn. Once I am her consort, I shall deliver you the Vale of Arryn without a drop of blood being spilled.”

Lord Rowan looked doubtful. “Would Lady Lysa have you?”

“She’s had me a few times before, Lord Mathis, and voiced no complaints.”

It’s a rather surprising moment, because I had been looking in AGOT for where Tyrion discusses Littlefinger’s boasting at court, and had had a false memory of him boasting about both Tully girls when in fact the text only mentions Catelyn. 

So this raises some interesting possibilities: either Littlefinger had realized what happened at Riverrun, but was unwilling to admit the full truth either to himself or anyone else, or he and Lysa had actually had an affair either in the Vale or King’s Landing (which is something that’s been debated but never proven), or Littlefinger was inadvertently telling the truth while lying.  

“I’ve heard it said that you grew close to the Tullys.”

“You might say so. The girls especially.”

“How close?”

“I had their maidenhoods. Is that close enough?”

So Littlefinger is either consciously aware that he slept with Lysa – which would suggest that he intended to kill her the whole time – or (as I’ve suggested above) is truth-lying. 

Discussed here. If LF had died as a result of the duel, pretty much all of AGOT doesn’t happen. To quote myself:

“Jon Arryn isn’t murdered, Eddard isn’t made Hand of the King, Bran isn’t thrown out of a tower, etc. Instead, Jon Arryn and Stannis expose Cersei, she and Jaime and the children are likely executed, Robert remarries Margaery Tyrell, and Tywin faces a united Stark/Baratheon/Tully/Tyrell/Arryn force that he can’t possibly beat.”

opinions-about-tiaras:

racefortheironthrone:

Yes. Just a lot farther than people think. 

Planetos IS round. If you sail west from Westeros you’re gonna get somewhere.

There seems to be some kind of immense strangeness on what for lack of a better term I’m going to call the “backside” of Planetos. Nobody who tries to sail the Sunset Sea returns, and as you go towards the Utter East the land and the ocean turn progressively more… perturbing.

My own pet theory is that the world isn’t quite “finished” over there, or perhaps was once and is now broken. That there’s an area of untamed reality where the laws of nature don’t quite apply, a place more of magic than of matter. Similar to the west in Gilman’s “The Half-Made World” or to the more explicit realms of Chaos from the Elric novels.

I think it’s more a reference to Columbus mis-calculating the circumference of the earth – which is why people were skeptical about his voyage, everyone knew the world was round, they just also knew that he’d screwed up his math – and thus nearly getting himself and his crew killed because he hadn’t brought enough supplies for the crossing of the Atlantic. 

racefortheironthrone:

If Daeron wasn’t killed by treachery but rather say a stray arrow in battle or, since he probably led from the front, battle wounds either during or after a fight, how would that change things?

It would change his legend a little – glorious death in battle vs. cut down dishonorably. It would, however, change Bloodraven’s reputation quite a lot: while there’s too much stacked against him for him to have a good reputation, he wouldn’t be singled out as a kinslayer until much later. 

Err…on the off-chance that I misread Daemon for Daeron (in my defense, they’re very similar names, both of them were military prodigies who liked to lead from the front, and both died treacherously):

I don’t know if that would change things that much. Anti-Dornish sentiment wouldn’t be quite as fierce, there wouldn’t be a move to execute the highborn captives, for example – but I think it would be rather marginal compared to the central issue of tens of thousands dead in the wars. 

If Daeron wasn’t killed by treachery but rather say a stray arrow in battle or, since he probably led from the front, battle wounds either during or after a fight, how would that change things?

It would change his legend a little – glorious death in battle vs. cut down dishonorably. It would, however, change Bloodraven’s reputation quite a lot: while there’s too much stacked against him for him to have a good reputation, he wouldn’t be singled out as a kinslayer until much later. 

Yes. Just a lot farther than people think.