While Jaime seems to genuinely regret not being able to save Elia & her children (“I never thought he would hurt them!”), why is it that he never seems to feel any real regret to pushing Bran off the tower? He barely even thinks about it in his monologues.

Because direct personal culpability is worse than accidental neglect.

How would an Essosi person likely protect themselves against being pressed into slavery the way that Tyrion is enslaved by Jorah? In antebellum America the social privilege of being white could have protected a person, but with Essosi slavery not being based on race or any other visible characteristic, what’s stopping someone from kidnapping and putting tattoos on one of the old blood of Volantis?

Essentially, your personal status and power and how you can marshall that to protect yourself – how many people know you and would put up a fight if someone grabbed you or might recognize you on the auction block, how many bodyguards and what kind of home security you could afford, what kind of neighorborhood you could afford, how much trouble a kidnapper would get into if they got caught, etc.

But there weren’t any guarantees – look at what happened to Plato when he was enslaved as punishment by the tyrant of Syracuse. If it hadn’t been for a friend who happened to visit the auction block that day who bought him and then manumitted him…

The plot element of the Iron Throne having a tremendous debt to the Iron Bank strikes me as extremely similar to the Yorkists owing a huge debt to the London branch of the Medici bank. In fact the fates of the Bruges/London branches (and those involved) makes me conclude that GRRM pulled inspiration from this front. To your knowledge is there any articles or discussions that discuss this?

Well, the Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank by Raymond De Roover is a good start.

Might one please ask if you have ready anything from the ASTRO CITY series? (I must admit that I love this series almost as much as I adore the concept of a DC Multiverse, which means that there is very little in comics that I enjoy more).

I’ve read Astro City here and there. It’s very good.

Anon Asks: Spiderman

Following your response to the Iron Man question, do you have any thoughts on Peter Parker you could elaborate on?

Before you read this, go watch anything MovieBob has ever done on Spiderman, because that dude gets Spiderman.

He’s the ur-nerd power fantasy, that a pure accident could come along and transform you, the weak and socially awkward nebbish, give you super-strength, toughness, agility, and the ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound (webslinging basically being how people who grew up with skyscrapers all around them think about flying). Peter Parker isn’t born on Krypton and he’s not a billionaire playboy with a tragic past, he’s a nerdy kid from Queens who went to a science exhibit and became magic. Without Peter Parker and all the characters who followed him, you don’t get Harry Potter.

What saves him from becoming the Gamergate/Rapid Puppies/etc. toxic nerd is Uncle Ben and “with great power comes great responsibility.” It’s pretty remarkable that, out of Steve Ditko’s objectivist anti-populism, Marvel somehow ended up with a working class hero with a conscience. Spiderman rejects the path of personal fame and fortune in favor of selflessly protecting the people of New York because it’s the right thing to do. And despite J Jonah Jameson libelling him every damn day, the people of New York know he’s on their side:

Another thing that sets Spiderman apart from a lot of superheroes is that, even though he’s super-strong, he doesn’t look it. Spiderman doesn’t have the Charles Atlas body of so many superheroes – he’s scrawny, and though he’s pretty lanky, he’s still on the small side and he looks even smaller when you put him up against supervillains who are giant mountains of muscle. By his very design, Spiderman is an underdog:

Partly that’s because the nerd power-fantasy doesn’t work if the secret identity falls apart because Peter Parker suddenly looks like a linebacker, but mostly because Spiderman’s strength comes from within. At his best, he is the David against the Goliath, the little guy who stands up against the big guy and refuses to give up, ever.

Could you spend a golden dragon in one of the Free Cities, gold being gold, or would you have to convert it to a local currency somehow?

Depends on whether the merchant in question does a lot of business with Westeros (and thus needs dragons to buy stuff in Westeros) or not, in which case they’re going to want local currency.

The thing about gold being gold is that coins have different sizes, weights, and purities, so a dragon is going to be worth a certain number of Volantene honors and a different number of Braavosi square-coins and a certain number of Lyseni ovals, and so forth.

Keeping track of the different types of coins and their value is often a pain in the ass, which is why merchants might either make use of a moneylender themselves or tell you to change your money first and then pay them.

With Civil War were you more team Cap, or Team Iron Man? And why? (Love your posts btw!) <3

Thanks!

Team Cap, I’ve discussed why in previous posts. Check my archives.

Hey, I was reading through your backlog of Captain America stuff, and I was wondering if you had any similar thoughts on Iron Man you would like to share?

Not nearly as much. I never particularly gravitated to Iron Man in the comics that much, partly because of his whole militaristic, Cold War, capitalist, Howard Hughes origins, and partly because I never really found the secret identity/heart condition/addiction side resonating with me. And especially in recent years, he’s really been written as an awful person.

RDJ did a lot with his charisma to make the character more interesting and relatable, but there was always stuff in the movies that really didn’t get explored enough: the whole “privatized world peace” thing from Iron Man 2 got sidelined after HYDRA popped up in Winter Soldier (I don’t like the idea of billionaires running their own military policy, but I don’t want HYDRA getting their hands on Iron Man tech) but needed to be worked through more given what happened in Age of Ultron and Civil War, etc.

Finally, I guess because of Marvel’s smörgåsbord of characters, I’ve never really need to relate to Iron Man that much. When it comes to sciencey heroes, I’d definitely identify with Peter Parker over Tony Stark.

jedimaesteryoda asks: Septon Cellador’s antagonism towards Jon

Cellador is alongside Marsh and Yarwyck when they go to address concerns from Marsh and Co.

Septon Cellador cleared his throat. “Lord Slynt,” he said, “this boy refused to swear his vows properly in the sept, but went beyond the Wall to say his words before a heart tree. His father’s gods, he said, but they are wildling gods as well.“

Is Cellador’s opposition towards Jon based in part on being prejudiced towards those who follow the old gods or as he calls them "wildling gods”?

Absolutely.

Hello Maester Steven! You were recommended by Joanna. What would each region of Westeros trade in? in your opinion? (Like Reach=Agriculture)

I discuss this in my series on economic development, but the World of Ice and Fire does give us a foundation on what goods the various kingdoms trade in: the North exports lumber, the Riverlands cattle, the Vale grain and marble, the Iron Islands iron and tin, the Westerlands gold and silver, the Reach wine and grain, the Stormlands lumber and amber, and Dorne produces olives.

Now, there are clearly some simplifications and omissions there: it can’t possibly be the case that only the Iron Islands produces iron because otherwise other regions couldn’t have shifted over to the Iron Age and the Iron Islands would have been much richer; we know that the North exports wool and the south (probably the Reach) exports linen; we know that the Vale produces pumpkins and fruit as well as cereal crops; we know that the Reach has mines and mills as well as farms; we know that Dorne produces peppers, citrus fruits, wines, silks and satins as well as olives.