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Any idea where the Valyrian Dragonlords odd powers come from, as well as their unique physical ethnic features? I’ve read some thing implying or speculating that they might actually be partially Dragons in a physical literal sense either through what I imagine would be challenging inter-species copulations or some bizarre black magic? Thoughts on this?

I’ve talked about this here, but I might as well lay out the evidence:

Sheltered there, amidst the great volcanic mountains known as the Fourteen Flames, were the Valyrians, who learned to tame dragons and make them the most fearsome weapon of war that the world ever saw. The tales the Valyrians told of themselves claimed they were descended from dragons and were kin to the ones they now controlled…

The great beauty of the Valyrians—with their hair of palest silver or gold and eyes in shades of purple not found amongst any other peoples of the world—is well-known, and often held up as proof that the Valyrians are not entirely of the same blood as other men. Yet there are maesters who point out that, by careful breeding of animals, one can achieve a desirable result, and that populations in isolation can often show quite remarkable variations from what might be regarded as common. This may be a likelier answer to the mystery of the Valyrian origins although it does not explain the affinity with dragons that those with the blood of Valyria clearly had. (WOIAF)

“T///in the deep mines beneath the Fourteen Flames that lit the Freehold’s nights of old. Most mines are dank and chilly places, cut from cold dead stone, but the Fourteen Flames were living mountains with veins of molten rock and hearts of fire. So the mines of old Valyria were always hot, and they grew hotter as the shafts were driven deeper, ever deeper. The slaves toiled in an oven. The rocks around them were too hot to touch. The air stank of brimstone and would sear their lungs as they breathed it. The soles of their feet would burn and blister, even through the thickest sandals. Sometimes, when they broke through a wall in search of gold, they would find steam instead, or boiling water, or molten rock. Certain shafts were cut so low that the slaves could not stand upright, but had to crawl or bend. And there were wyrms in that red darkness too…Firewyrms. Some say they are akin to dragons, for wyrms breathe fire too. Instead of soaring through the sky, they bore through stone and soil. If the old tales can be believed, there were wyrms amongst the Fourteen Flames even before the dragons came. The young ones are no larger than that skinny arm of yours, but they can grow to monstrous size and have no love for men.” (AFFC)

“In Septon Barth’s Dragons, Wyrms, and Wyverns , he speculated that the bloodmages of Valyria used wyvern stock to create dragons. Though the bloodmages were alleged to have experimented mightily with their unnatural arts, this claim is considered far-fetched by most maesters, among them Maester Vanyon’s Against the Unnatural contains certain proofs of dragons having existed in Westeros even in the earliest of days, before Valyria rose to be a power.” (WOIAF)

So the theory is that Valyrian sorcerors knew fire magic and blood magic, and created dragons by unnaturally crossbreeding firewyrms and wyverns together, and then learned to form bonds with dragons by unnaturally crossbreeding dragons and Valyrians together. 

I had a thought on the Crown’s debt at the start of AGOT. LF is obviously stealing the Crown blind, but what about the navy? Aren’t navies really expensive to build and maintain? They lost a lot of ships off Dragonstone when Dany was born, but had a navy for Stannis to command during Balon’s Rebellion. Might that account for some of it?

It’s an issue of scale and scope on the one hand, and accounting practices on the other. Navies are expensive, but they’re less a constant as much as they are a cyclical source of costs.

They’re also not expensive enough to explain why even with a tenfold increase in income, the crown isn’t paying down any of the principal, and is paying the interest by taking out new loans.

Say Edmure inherithed Harrenhal through his mother do you think this will strenght his position or make It weaker ad lord of riverland!? In this alternative scenario di you think would be’ wiser to move the cap of riverland to harrenhal!?( Sorry for my english)

It would definitely make his position stronger: he increases his economic and military power by acquisition of a rich and populous fiefdom, and he gains a central position from which to project power in the Riverlands rather than ruling from its western border.

So I’m writing a paper on Plato’s theory of knowledge, and a major aspect of that theory plays into his idea of a philosopher-king, as seen in Republic. I’m supposed to make references to film, literature, real life events, etc. and one of the first that popped out at me concerned Varys and his Pauper Prince. So I was wondering if you could expound a little on Varys and his idea of the philosopher-king, and its links back to Plato.

(Plato and Philosopher kings, 2) Don’t worry, I’ll give you a proper MLA citation. It’s a semi-hobby of mine to sneak tumblr into my works cited of my school papers 🙂

So I primarily discuss it here. The key thing to me is the way that Plato’s theory in the Republic that the state should be governed by philosopher-kings, who would be educated by philosophers who teach only men of virtue, changes after his experience in Syracuse.

In Syracuse, Plato attempts to put his ideas into practice. First, Dion, the brother-in-law of Dionysius the Tyrant of Syracuse becomes Plato’s disciple, and Plato hopes to influence the tyrant through him. But then Dionysius takes a dislike to Plato and has him sold into slavery, and Plato only escapes because a friend of his happened to be attending the right slave auction and buys his freedom. Then later Dionysius dies, Dion bring Plato back to tutor the old tyrant’s son, but Dionysius II ends up banishing his uncle and makes Plato his prisoner. And so on and so forth – lots of chaos and intrigue, very little philosopher-kinging going on.

In the Seventh Letter and the Laws, which Plato writes late in life, Plato argues instead for a second best city, less perfect than the Republic but more practical given the frailties of human nature. And what makes it more practical is that there are written laws which prevent a single, corruptible individual from having too much power. Many scholars have thus concluded that Plato’s Laws are a reaction to his failure in Syracuse. 

So what does this have to do with Varys? Well, as I state in my essay, Varys’ whole project is to raise a philosopher-king who can radically reform the state and society and thus bring about the greatest good for the greatest number of people. The problem is that Varys can’t guarantee the character of the man he educated, or that having educated him from afar, Aegon will actually listen to him.