It’s one of those circumstances where she’s violating the spirit of the law while remaining just within the letter of the law: with the War of Five Kings technically still on, she can demand military support from the King’s subjects. However, by refusing to let them return home home to defend the Reach, she’s getting close to the level of Aenys or Aerys I in terms of not holding up the king’s obligation to protect his subjects. 

I think there’s a bit of a celebration about Spiderman coming back to Marvel, but I also like the idea about the new Spiderman movies centering around important events in high school. 

One of the shortcomings of the previous Spiderman movies, even the first two Raimi ones, is that outside of a couple rote bullying scenes, Peter Parker’s social environment was limited to a very few plot-important characters. The Obsornes, Mary Jane or Gwen Stacey, Aunt May and Uncle Ben, and that’s about it.

Whereas giving Peter Parker a lived-in social environment with lots of different people around him is a great way to make a smaller-scale movie feel important, instead of just throwing more villains at us, because it means that Peter has something to protect that the audience cares about. 

What you see as incompatible, I see as potential obstacles that can be the source of good story-telling: how do you balance being a good parent and being a good superhero? Do you see superheroing as risking your life irresponsibly or trying to make the world safe for your kids to live in? How do people with an adventure-seeking personality deal with the responsibility and tedium that comes with having kids? 

(It’s almost like a metaphor for career vs. family struggles…)

And one of the ways that I know that it can be a source of good storytelling is that it’s been done before: the Fantastic Four have kids, X-Men have had kids, Luke Cage and Jessica Jones have kids, Jessica Drew fought a Skrull invasion immediately after giving birth. 

So no, I don’t think there are life stages incompatible with being a superhero. 

Horse-breeding takes a lot of land for pasturage. The Iron Islands do not have a lot of land for pasturage, and what soil they have is thin and rocky. 

In addition to the horse-raising problem, you have an issue of opportunity costs. It takes time to learn to be a good horseman, and the best cavalry in world history came from nomadic horse people who rode constantly from extremely early ages. 

The Iron Islands are a seafaring people, and it also takes a lot of time to learn to be a good sailor – so you have to choose one or another to specialize in. 

Blackfyre Rebellion – definitely comparable; we know that ten thousand men died at Redgrass, which puts it in the same range as most of the major encounters of the War of Five Kings. 

The Dance is kind of weird, because the army sizes are tiny compared all other Westerosi wars. My No-Prize explanation for that is that, post-Aegon’s Conquest, Westerosi divided up their armies to avoid committing their numbers to a single engagement where one dragon could wipe them out.  

I agree with my colleague Elana. Full stop. 

As for the Spiderman marriage, I’m a firm believer in Claremontian organic character growth. People graduate high school all the time, they get married all the time, they retire all the time. Trying to freeze characters in particular ages/life stages is a guaranteed formula for stagnation and impactless storytelling. 

And while I’m at it, the D.C philosophy of no happy relationships ever represents a stunted and abhorrent view of humanity, let alone maturity. 

Daemon might not have been leading the vanguard and thus might not have gotten shot waiting for Ser Corbray to be led off the field. 

leeshajoy:

seekingidlewild:

vikingsheep:

A Tumblr-less friend posted this theory her husband had. I slammed the headcanon button so hard I should have bought it dinner first.

Thor: Banner, I desire to act like a normal human for a time. How should I accomplish this?
Bruce: Well, um, normal people don’t have your speech pattern, for one. They, um, have jobs and hobbies…
Thor: Hobbies?
Bruce: You know, photography, video games, puzzles…
Thor: And how does one acquire a ‘job’?
Bruce: Most people use the inter… you should probably look in the classifieds in a newspaper. Also, try shaving the beard and cutting your hair- you’re a bit recognizable.
Thor: *sees Superman/Clark Kent costume* A disguise? Like that man?
Bruce: Sure, yeah, glasses work.

-later, above a Chinese restaurant-

Thor: Hello? I saw your ad. I’m Kevin.

Wait, Thor can’t be Kevin. Thor loves coffee.

Thor loves coffee. His human persona “Kevin” hates it. So he keeps taking a sip without thinking about it and then going “oh shit I’m supposed to hate coffee” and spitting it back out again.

This is a genius idea. Heartily seconded.

Quentyn is repeating a historical falsehood:

“If? The word is when. Dorne is the least populous of the Seven Kingdoms. It pleased the Young Dragon to make all our armies larger when he wrote that book of his, so as to make his conquest that much more glorious, and it has pleased us to water the seed he planted and let our foes think us more powerful than we are, but a princess ought to know the truth. Valor is a poor substitute for numbers. Dorne cannot hope to win a war against the Iron Throne, not alone. And yet that may well be what you have given us. Are you proud?” The prince did not allow her time to answer. “What am I to do with you, Arianne?”

Dorne is believed to have 50,000 spears, but only has 25,000 and prefers to let the rest of Westeros believe that as a cheap form of deterrance. 

Now, Dorne may have had more men in the past – for example, King Ferris Fowler led 10,000 men to war against Garth Goldenhand, while only controlling a small part of Dorne. My guess is that the brutal wars that Dorne experienced after the Targaryen invasion – involving as they did the mass bombardment of castles and holdfasts by dragons, scorched-earth tactics involving the destruction of wells and other sources of water, and total war directed against civilian populations – massively affected Dorne’s demographics similar to the impacts of the various Mongol invasions. 

Stark:  35,000.

Tyrell: 100,000.

Lannister: 45,000.

Martell: 25,000.

Tully: 20,000.

Baratheon: 25,000.

Greyjoy: 15,000.