It’s been my understanding that the numerous pirate crews in the Stepstones are supported or atleast tolerated by either Myr, Tyrosh or Lys. Is that correct, and if it is, why do the other powers in the regions like Braavos or Volantis tolerate that?

ethicalnecromancer:

racefortheironthrone:

Because Braavos and Volantis (and Pentos) also make use of pirates and/or sellsails (and the difference between them is about as clear as between pirate and privateer).

I thought Braavos had its own standing navy. Isn’t that what the Arsenal shipyards are for?

It has both.

Fire & Blood Volume I: Prince into King, the Ascension of Jaehaerys I

Fire & Blood Vol. I does not stint for material on Jaehaerys I – no less than eight chapters, almost three hundred pages, focus on his reign – which means that it is not going to be possible to cover this monarch in one chapter. And since almost all of this is new material, I’m going to go chapter-by-chapter.

Which is not much of a sacrifice, because this is the strongest material in the book,…

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One thing I love about ASOIAF and ADWD in particular is the fantasy setting becomes less Eurocentric. I’m well read in ASOIAF but not fantasy in general, are there other good stories/series set in the fantasy-analogs of medieval Persia or Polynesia or ancient Egypt?

I was gearing up to recommend some non-Eurocentric fantasy, but then I saw that you wanted some more specific recommendations.

Here are some Egyptian recommendations.

I know there’s quite a bit set in India, although I’m more familiar with the English language stuff than the Hindi or Urdu. In terms of more specifically Persian stuff, I hear good stuff about Renee Ahdieh’s The Wrath and the Dawn or Alwynn Hamilton’s Rebel of the Sands but I haven’t checked them out myself.

Polynesia…nothing comes to mind, unfortunately.

It’s been my understanding that the numerous pirate crews in the Stepstones are supported or atleast tolerated by either Myr, Tyrosh or Lys. Is that correct, and if it is, why do the other powers in the regions like Braavos or Volantis tolerate that?

Because Braavos and Volantis (and Pentos) also make use of pirates and/or sellsails (and the difference between them is about as clear as between pirate and privateer).

Looking at extra-European models of medieval government and I have to wonder if it was impossible for medieval Europe to have something like China ie instead of feudalism it’s more a bureaucratic state or a meritocratic system of promotion (in theory, at least). Was there not enough stability, did bodies like the Church have an investment in keeping power split within secular authorities, or are there under-reported instances of this happening in, say, East Europe or the Byzantines?

Not impossible at all. I would argue you could do it quite easily through a combination of the Carolingian succession working out more smoothly so that his empire doesn’t get divided, and then the Byzantines doing better so that Eastern Europe stays more, well, Byzantine.

Would administrator’s like Thomas Cromwell who also had a military background be rare?

Given that a lot of noblemen would have military experience as well, no.

Experience as a rank-and-file soldier? Yes, that would have been rare,

what would be like if the someone who was born a king what kind of life would he have

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King

With the Brotherhood without Banners, would you say GRRM is borrowing from both the Robin Hood the outlaw lord fighting for the true king and the older Robin Hood the yeoman revolutionary stories?

A bit of both.

Regarding Robin Hood and his opposition to the king and aristocracy, is it known whether there was an ethnic (for lack of a better term) component to his program (basically a latter-day Hereward the Wake)? In other words, did he oppose the king and nobles because they were foreigners, or would he have just as happily robbed a hypothetical Godwinson king and Anglo-Saxon lords?

Great question!

Kind of impossible to know for sure, given that Robin Hood’s legend as far as we can tell started well after the Norman Conquest.

On the Robin Hood question: what would your ideal film adaptation look like, and what are your thoughts on the “Nottingham” script that eventually became the bland Ridley Scott movie?

Haven’t read the Nottingham script, but I agree with Patrick Willems that one of the main problems with both Robin Hood and King Arthur movies of recent years is that they’re doing “gritty re-imaginings” of stories that people don’t remember the original versions of.

Not that “gritty re-imaginings” are bad per se, but I think they work a lot like deconstructions: you need to be familiar with the source material for the deconstruction to land. Hence why I don’t think either Watchmen or Batman v. Superman work thematically or dramatically, because the vast majority of film audiences didn’t have a familiarity with the texts that the source materials were reacting to and playing off of.

This is even more true of Robin Hood and King Arthur. Compared to previous generations, people nowadays aren’t as familiar with Walter Scott and Joseph Ritson (let alone the Geste) and the children’s adaptations of the same, or for that matter with Geoffrey of Monmouth, Chrétien de Troyes, and Thomas Mallory.

If you did a straightforward – not literal but evocative – version of those texts, I think you’d blow people’s minds because it’s like nothing they’ve seen before.