Author: stevenattewell

You recently finished an answer saying “I don’t consider Littlefinger to be on the same level as Varys because…”, can you develop more about Varys? How smart he is and how the Westeros situation is under his control? Varys, in the last chapter of ADWD, shows that killing Kevan was a simply way to get in control in the westerosi situation again, since the political (un)governance was good for his planes.

poorquentyn:

The primary difference is motive. Littlefinger’s out for revenge, Varys is out to change the world. The Spider is an extreme utilitarian with a radical political agenda, determined to replace an exploitative elite class with his “perfect prince” and willing to do whatever it takes–whatever it takes–to get there. Ultimately, Littlefinger’s story is about very, very personal demons, even as he has a huge impact on politics; Varys is certainly driven in large part by his own past, but he’s got an ideology rather than just targets, and so he actively contributes to the political questions in the text more than almost any other character. 

I think he’s going to temporarily succeed as the stars align for Team Aegon in the first half of TWOW: the Martells, the sparrows, and the Golden Company’s “friends in the Reach” (coughRandyllTarlycough) are natural allies, and as Varys notes to Kevan, the Lannister-Tyrell alliance is ready to crumble from within. But “enlightened absolute monarchy” doesn’t actually work, the immense collateral damage of the war undercuts Varys’ populist agenda, and Dany is coming for the “mummer’s dragon” with fire and blood. Varys’ project definitely appeals to me at some level, but I think GRRM’s making it clear that mutilating children to further your dream of a world in which no children are mutilated like you were is not a good model for revolutionary change. 

Seems appropriate. 

Would Captain America Approve of Punching Nazis? (YES.)

graphicpolicy:

Would Captain America Approve of Punching Nazis? (YES.) #comics #failhydra #captainamerica

captain-america-punching-featured

As would surprise absolutely no one who’s followed my People’s History of the Marvel Universe series, I’m a strong believer in the idea that our pop culture is both influenced by our political culture and can have a strong influence on that political culture. Thus, it’s a major problem when the author of both of Marvel’s current Captain America comics gets all pearls-clutchy about whether it’s ok…

View On WordPress

The long-delayed/waited blog post about Marvel’s current Captain America comics and the punching of Nazis. 

Follow-up on your Golden Company podcast: Chains being a former slave is a cool theory, but on the road to Griffin’s Roost, he tells Arianne that his ancestor fought at Redgrass Field and followed Bittersteel into exile. He could be lying/have become a slave anyway, but I thought it would be cool if he were a Roxton. Their arms have a chain motif and they’re a Reach house we don’t hear anything about in the present day, possibly because they were marginalized after supporting the Blackfyres.

Right, right. 

And I think I’d even written something about the Roxton sigil and Chains. 

Nevermind!

Does each new lord/lady of a vassal family have to swear fealty to their overlord, or is it explicit continuation from their predecessors? Does each new overlord or monarch summon their vassals to swear fealty to them upon ascension?

Good question!

The short answer is that it depends on the particular feudal culture and the particular period, because it matters whether the fiefdom was seen as the personal gift of the monarch or the rightful inheritance of the son, and so on. 

image

In most feudal systems I’m aware of, however, there was a necessity to have the new vassal make homage to their new overlord. It’s an opportunity to redo the ceremony – which is handy for the sovereign because it means that they get to do the ceremonies regularly and display their power. It’s also an opportunity for revenue-generation – a lot of feudal systems assessed a one-time tax when a fiefdom was inherited. And the same goes for a new overlord – you want to make sure that all the vassals know who’s in charge now, and to firmly establish their direct loyalty to the new man.

Moreover, if you think of it in symbolic/ideological terms, it makes sense that you would want to renew whenever there’s a transfer of power between generations. Remember, medieval politics is all about the body – the king is physically annointed, they give status and title by touching you or giving you a ring, and political influence comes from how close you are physically to the king. 

So if you have a new body or bodies standing in as vassal or overlord, it’s a new physical relationship and you need to enact the ritual again. 

How usefull do you think the band of the nine were for the golden company? would they have been better off just conquering and holding the disputed lands by themselves?

Highly useful. Let’s take a look at the Band of Nine:

THE OLD MOTHER: A pirate queen.
SAMARRO SAAN, THE LAST VALYRIAN: A notorious pirate from a notorious family of pirates from Lys, with the blood of Valyria in his veins.
XHOBAR QHOQUA, THE EBON PRINCE: An exile prince from the Summer Isle, he had found his fortunes in the Disputed Lands and led a sellsword company.
LIOMOND LASHARE, THE LORD OF BATTLES: A famed sellsword captain.
SPOTTED TOM THE BUTCHER: Hailing from Westeros, he was captain of a free company in the Disputed Lands.
SER DERRICK FOSSOWAY, THE BAD APPLE: An exile from Westeros, and a knight with a black reputation.
NINE EYES: Captain of the Jolly Fellows.
ALEQUO ADARYS, THE SILVERTONGUE: A Tyroshi merchant prince who was wealthy and ambitious.
MAELYS BLACKFYRE, THE MONSTROUS: Captain of the Golden Company

Of the Nine, three are pirates who could provide the Golden Company with badly-needed naval support for their amphibious invasion. (Remember, the Golden Company is a land-based mercenary army that needs a lot of ships to transport itself by sea. Hence the whole malarky they get into with Volantis in ADWD.)

Three or four (depending on where you put Derick Fossoway) of them are other sellsword company leaders, no doubt there to provide additional manpower. This is also highly useful for the Golden Company – while they’re some of the best soldiers in the world, there are still only 10,000 of them and if you’re going to go up against the Iron Throne, you need manpower.

Alequo Adarys provided finance and a credible puppet-ruler in Tyrosh, and lasted the longest out of all of them. 

So yeah, I think the Band of Nine were overall a positive. The only drawback I see is that trying to grab Tyrosh first might have delayed an invasion of Westeros, but it’s not like going straight for Westeros had been particularly successful in the past. 

Hi, Maester Steven! Do you think Mel may have made her way into Stannis’ household by claiming to be able to cure and eventually curing (?) Shireen à la Grigori Rasputin and the Romanovs? And do you consider Rasputin to be a good historical counterpart for her in general?

The parallel has been made before, and yeah, I think there are some parallels with Rasputin – her evangelical piety, prophetic tendencies, her mesmeric force of personality, and her intense sexual charisma. However, there’s one big missing element: there’s no evidence of Melisandre ever promising to cure Shireen, because if she had there would be some explaining to do about why she hasn’t succeeded. So Selyse’s faith came from elsewhere else. 

Indeed, in the books, Selyse’s attraction to the Faith seems attached to the idea that Stannis is Azor Ahai reborn and R’hllor will make him king, and the more forward-looking idea from Davos V of ASOS that:

“Your own wife begs as well, lord husband.” Queen Selyse went down on both knees before the king, hands clasped as if in prayer. “Robert and Delena defiled our bed and laid a curse upon our union. This boy is the foul fruit of their fornications. Lift his shadow from my womb and I will bear you many trueborn sons, I know it.” She threw her arms around his legs. “He is only one boy, born of your brother’s lust and my cousin’s shame.”

So rather than looking for a cure for Shireen, Selyse seems attracted instead to the idea that R’hllor can restore her fertility and allow her to bear a male heir. 

I saw an article on History Behind Game of Thrones claiming that Casterly Rock is essentially broke, but when I looked for other articles explaining how/why this was the case, I came up dry. Because of other dubious claims/arguments on that blog, I no longer read it. Judging from your analysis of the Westerlands, etc. you don’t buy this line of reasoning–but I was wondering why someone would think Casterly Rock is broke in the first place?

Because the show invented the idea that the Westerlands were out of gold in Season 4 Episode 5 and people ran with it despite GRRM stating very specifically that this was not the case in the books.