As it looks like we’re doing random anon questions: do you actively follow any webcomics?

Isn’t it risky for Doran to send Arianne to negotiate with the Golden Company? Sellswords probably don’t respect laws regarding ambassadors. If things don’t go the way he wants them too I definitely see Connington taking Arianne hostage to force Dorne to fight for them like what Aerys did to Elia.

I don’t think that’s what’s going to happen. I think Arianne marries Aegon.

What’s your thoughts about the Injustice: Gods Among Us series? If you’ve never actually played the first game what are your thoughts about the general premise?

Not a fan of the basic premise at all.

Maester Steven, do you think the Volantene masters have notably failed to integrate the freeborn population non-old blood population into the wider project of the slave society? We have the one guy claiming even the poorest man still feels himself above a slave, but if the attendance at Benero’s sermons is any indication, the proportions of freeborn and slaves are roughly correspondent to wider Volantene society. That implies to me the religious identity is overpowering the other distnintions.

I think the Volantenes screwed up by emphasizing the “Old Blood” so much that they failed to establish unity of interest and identity with the non-Old Blood majority.

Much is made of Ned in A Dance with Drawgons, from Lady Dustin’s frustration to the hill clans fighting “for the Ned”. By contrast, Robb doesn’t really get a mention. Do you think Robb is going to be overshadowed by his father in Westeros’ history books?

I don’t think I agree with that:

It belonged to the half-grown child with the blond eyebrows and the long green braid. “They killed Lord Eddard and Lady Catelyn and King Robb,” she said. “He was our king! He was brave and good, and the Freys murdered him. If Lord Stannis will avenge him, we should join Lord Stannis.”

Robb Stark goes down as the James Dean of the North – the young, handsome, “brave and good,” king cut down before his time by the evil Freys.

What happened in western Essos between the end of the century of blood and the rise of the triarchy?

Wars, trade, politics, culture, the usual.

Based on what you know from real-world historical examples, how do you think the thousands of Volantene citizens actually vote in their yearly elections? Pot shards in a basket? Public proclamation? Voter registration and secret ballot?

Could be any of those, but I would doubt the last as voter registration and the Australian ballot were rather late innovations.

Do you think Dacey Mormont was supposed to be taken hostage rather thank killed? Benfrey Frey grabbed her rather than trying to kill her. As the heir to a major Northern House she would be valuable. The guy who killed her Ryman is an idiot who might have killed her impulsively.

I think that was true of a lot of Northern lords/ladies at the Red Wedding, but it’s too late now.

Did Cersei really plan to have Robert killed in the confusion of the melee? We never really hear anything about it during her POV nor does she ever mention it during conversation with any other Lannisters. Did Varys invent it to fuel the Stark-Lannister friction & prove his loyalty to Ned?

1. Yes. We see Cersei using reverse psychology to get Robert to sign up for the melee ahead of time.

2. Why would Cersei spend any time talking or thinking about a failed assassination attempt after the successful attempt went off?

3. The two assassination attempts bear a marked resemblance – they both use Lannister loyalists, they’re both “accidents,” and they’re both really shoddily relying on random chance to actually kill Robert.

Maester Steven, relating to the recent question about iron, why did the first men of the Vale never adopt iron/steel weapons? Isn’t it possible they could have captured some of the andal invaders and learned the secrets of iron and steel smithing from them? Also, I read the first men in the Vale didn’t have horses to use against the invaders. Couldn’t they have captured and bred enemy horses?

Well, a lot of them did – the “Redforts, the Hunters, the Coldwaters, the Belmores, and the Royces” are all First Men Houses and gained access to Andal technology when they bent the knee.

But if you’re asking why before: blacksmiths aren’t usually that numerous among raiding expeditions. Learning how to use iron isn’t as simple as just knowing there’s a thing called iron – iron is actually rather difficult to forge, and there’s a whole bunch of interlocking technologies all the way from mining to quenching, that you need to get right.

But no, the First Men absolutely had horses – Robar used his mounted forces to launch his counter-charge against the Andal lines which almost won him the battle. The Andals had more horses, that’s all.