The “longships” of the Iron Fleet are actually small warships rather than proper longships: 

“He had set sail from the Shields with ninety-three, of the hundred that had once made up the Iron Fleet, a fleet belonging not to a single lord but to the Seastone Chair itself, captained and crewed by men from all the islands. Ships smaller than the great war dromonds of the green lands, aye, but thrice the size of any common longship, with deep hulls and savage rams, fit to meet the king’s own fleets in battle.“

Hence the cabin. 

the-queen-of-bithynia:

racefortheironthrone:

the-sun-of-rome-is-set:

the-queen-of-bithynia:

racefortheironthrone:

Yes, and it has to do with fashions of royla address. According to Francois Velde of heraldica.org, “Your Highness” was the most common style across Europe from the 12th through 15th centuries CE. When Charles V became Holy Roman Emperor in 1519, he decided that he was too special to be a mere “Highness” – he did after all rule an empire that spanned from Asia to the Americas to eastern Europe – and instructed his court that he be described as “Majesty.” 

Francois I of France, who would spend his entire reign fighting Charles V, wasn’t going to take this lying down and so insisted on also being referred to as “Majesty,” which led to a good deal of linguistic one-upmanship where Charles insisted on being called “Imperial Majesty” to Francois’ mere “Royal Majesty” and then Francois retaliated by using “Most Christian Majesty,” and so on. Henry VIII of England, who would be out-ego’d by no man, also began using “Majesty.” Just to confuse everyone, though, the English court continued to call him “Grace” and “Highness” as well as “Majesty” in legal documents, until the reign of James I, where it was regularized that the King is a “Majesty,” and Dukes and Archbishops are “Graces.”

So the TLDR is: a Majesty outranks a Grace. 

To answer your second question, this is because GRRM wanted to simplify terms of address, the same reason that he used the same title of “lord” for everyone. 

The Virgin Royal Majesty vs the Chad Imperial Majesty.

Charles V was really a prideful bitch huh 

(L’orgoglio immenso fu)

When you’ve got a jaw like this, you kind of need to be:

@the-sun-of-rome-is-set 

I think Francis was the one having issues. Charles upgrading his title wasn’t unreasonable considering how much land he ruled – all that universal monarch business – while Francis (who lost the imperial election) did the same despite not actually ruling any extra territory. 

@racefortheironthrone, were there political advantages in the title upgrade for Francis and Henry, or was it purely an ego thing? I could see either being the case.

Given that it’s nothing but symbolic politics from the start, it was really egos all around. I’d add that Charles’ upgrading and his land didn’t end up helping him that much in the long run – hence his decision to divide the empire on his retirement, due to his belief that the concentration of so much land in one person had led to the Hapsburgs getting ganged up on by everyone around them…

the-sun-of-rome-is-set:

the-queen-of-bithynia:

racefortheironthrone:

Yes, and it has to do with fashions of royla address. According to Francois Velde of heraldica.org, “Your Highness” was the most common style across Europe from the 12th through 15th centuries CE. When Charles V became Holy Roman Emperor in 1519, he decided that he was too special to be a mere “Highness” – he did after all rule an empire that spanned from Asia to the Americas to eastern Europe – and instructed his court that he be described as “Majesty.” 

Francois I of France, who would spend his entire reign fighting Charles V, wasn’t going to take this lying down and so insisted on also being referred to as “Majesty,” which led to a good deal of linguistic one-upmanship where Charles insisted on being called “Imperial Majesty” to Francois’ mere “Royal Majesty” and then Francois retaliated by using “Most Christian Majesty,” and so on. Henry VIII of England, who would be out-ego’d by no man, also began using “Majesty.” Just to confuse everyone, though, the English court continued to call him “Grace” and “Highness” as well as “Majesty” in legal documents, until the reign of James I, where it was regularized that the King is a “Majesty,” and Dukes and Archbishops are “Graces.”

So the TLDR is: a Majesty outranks a Grace. 

To answer your second question, this is because GRRM wanted to simplify terms of address, the same reason that he used the same title of “lord” for everyone. 

The Virgin Royal Majesty vs the Chad Imperial Majesty.

Charles V was really a prideful bitch huh 

(L’orgoglio immenso fu)

When you’ve got a jaw like this, you kind of need to be:

Mostly the latter. Jorah lacks for self-reflection. 

No, I don’t think so. Slavery is a taboo in Westeros  – “the old gods and the new alike hold slavery to be an abomination” – and given how the Rhoynar suffered at the hands of slavers, both in the wars against Valyria and during Nymeria’s wanderings, I doubt they felt any different.

Areo Hotah was a temple slave in Norvos during his youth, but almost certainly was manumitted when Lady Mellario was married to Doran Martell and moved to Dorne. Indeed, as evidence of his freed status, we can point to the fact that Areo Hotah chose to stay and serve Doran Martell when Mellario separated from her husband and moved back to Norvos. 

opinions-about-tiaras:

racefortheironthrone:

I don’t agree that “there’s not much trade opportunities for a northern merchant fleet.” If there’s enough trade opportunities for the hardscrabble Iron Islands to have an active port town doing business from southern Westeros and Essos both:

“The Myraham was a fat-bellied southron merchanter up from Oldtown, carrying wine and cloth and seed to trade for iron ore…A handful of Lordsport merchants had gathered to meet the ship. They shouted questions as the Myraham was tying up. “We’re out of Oldtown,” the captain called down, “bearing apples and oranges, wines from the Arbor, feathers from the Summer Isles. I have pepper, woven leathers, a bolt of Myrish lace, mirrors for milady, a pair of Oldtown woodharps sweet as any you ever heard…”

“…Theon was more interested in ships than gods. Among the masts of countless fishing boats, he spied a Tyroshi trading galley off-loading beside a lumbering Ibbenese cog with her black-tarred hull.”

“…She had surrendered her virtue at six-and-ten, to a beautiful blond-haired sailor on a trading galley up from Lys.” 

then there’s no reason that the vast agricultural markets of the North just on the other side of the Flint Cliffs from Ironman’s Bay, wouldn’t find buyers from among the ships that sail the northern stretches of the Sunset Sea.

By contrast, trying to sail west across the Sunset Sea has historically been a fool’s venture:

“Strange tales like this are common at the edges of the world, however, and the Lonely Light stands farthest west of all the lands known to us. Many a bold mariner has sailed beyond the light of its beacon over the centuries, seeking the fabled paradise said to lie over the horizon, but the sailors who return (many do not) speak only of boundless grey oceans stretching on and on forever.”

To be entirely fair, it’s less than clear WHY the northern reaches of the Sunset Sea have so much traffic. That’s literally the end of the world, and north of Seagard there’s almost nothing there. And yet you have things like Mance Rayder’s cloak being repaired with silk from Asshai found in a wreck on the Frozen Shore, literally as far from Asshai as it is possible to get. Who the hell ships silk up NORTH of Bear Island?

My own headcanon is that the fur trade and the ice trade must be INCREDIBLY lucrative. Historically speaking both of those things caused traders to sail to incredibly undeveloped lands with dubious harbors and infrastructure in order to acquire them.

As for that chunk of the planet between the Sunset Sea and the Shadow Lands beyond Asshai, my own thought is that it’s nothing but thin place, something like the Scar from Bas-Lag or the unfinished lands not yet hewn from Chaos in the Elric books or Felix Gilman’s The Half-Made World. When you sail east far enough the waters turn strange and odd and inhospitable, the same thing happens when you sail west, and Essos east of the Five Forts or Stygai is deeply fucked up. (Not that K’dath or Stygai are exactly normal to begin with.)

That side of the planet just… isn’t finished yet.

Keep in mind, storms can blow ships a long, long way, so it’s not a given that the ship with Asshai silk in it was heading to Bear Island or beyond.

Fur and ice are good picks for commodities, but I’d also throw two of the other key Early Modern to Modern era commodities that were imported by the Muscovy Company: timber and flax (to quote Robert Hughes “in eighteenth century strategy, pine trees and flax had the naval importance that oil and uranium hold today) for masts, spars, and sails. 

abigailnussbaum:

racefortheironthrone:

Sure, I’ll do a short one:

• fun chase movie. 
• sense of humor from the first movie intact, so that’s good.
• could have used a bit more object-based size changes: the salt shaker and the Pez dispenser were good, but they were in the trailers and there wasn’t much else.
• liked the Inner Space-style Quantum Realm stuff. Michelle Pfeiffer as one of the Vuvalini was a cool take.
• really liked that it ended with the main antagonist being reformed. Marvel hasn’t really done that before (don’t think Bucky quite counts.)
• bit of a tonal shift in the post-credits. 

Technically, both Loki and Scarlet Witch count as reformed villains (though Wanda wasn’t the main antagonist in Age of Ultron).  But they were rather poorly done (in Loki’s case, consisting of a personality transplant between movies to get rid of those pesky Nazi sympathies), whereas AM&tW is upfront about Ava’s faults – she’s perfectly willing to hold a gun to Scott’s kid’s head, after all – but also makes it clear that they come from a background of pain, abuse, and looming death.  It also gives her a support system in the form of Foster, who both helps her and draws boundaries.  It’s a really nicely done character arc, and probably not one that I would expect for a more central character, where the writers are more invested in getting the entire audience on the right page – i.e. “now you’re an Avenger”.

Right. I was specifically thinking about the main antagonist of a film being reformed in the film in which they are the main antagonist.