When Roose comes back North and sees Theon as Reek, how come he doesn’t remove Theon from Ramsay’s care and take better care of him? We know Euron has taken the Iron Islands by then and he’ll kill Theon, but the Bolton’s don’t. You would think Theon Greyjoy is a valuable hostage who could be used for more than Ramsay’s amusement.

If Theon knows that Euron is king by Theon II, surely Roose would also know by the time that he meets Theon.

Cistocosta submitted

Re: The Blackfish and the Kingsguard. I once wrote an essay for the TotH about who Robert could’ve picked and I have a different explanation for why he didn’t become a White Sword: no man worth his salt would serve next to Jaime. http://towerofthehand.com/blog/2012/08/01-kingsguard-that-might-have/

Interesting point.

Maester Steven, I have been on an American Revolution binge recently and wondered if you lean more towards Hamilton and the Federalists or Jefferson and the Republicans. Or if you are taking the neutral Washington route, what aspects from the two competing views do you side with? And could we call the iron throne a sort of mix of the two with a somewhat strong central authority mixed with some regional autonomy? Thanks, love the blog!

Well, I’m a Tom Paine man, myself, but if I had to choose (we know it’s lose-lose), there’s something to Croly’s formulation of “Hamiltonian means for Jeffersonian ends,” even though a lot of research has questioned the sincerity of the Democratic-Republicans’ populist rhetoric.

In terms of the Iron Throne, I wouldn’t make that comparison. Westeros is a feudal monarchy, not a republic of any variety.

What do you think of DC rebirth so far?

Haven’t been reading a lot of it, tbh.

Isn’t the in-story and fandom comparison of the BWB with Robin Hood and the backstory-only Kingswood Brothehood fundamentally flawed? Unlike Robin Hood of legend and the KB, thge BWB were originally legal officers of the Crown who got screwed over a coup (analogous to the Resistance of World War II) rather than dedicated outlaws. They don’t do much theft or highway robbery. I always thought Jaime’s refusal to understand that, as a mark of how flawed his judgment was.

Depends on the version of the Robin Hood story you’re using, but a lot of the later ones have Robin Hood as fighting in the name of Robert Lionheart as the true King of England, so there’s a resonance there. Also, the BWB do expropriate Sandor’s gold and ransom Arya, which is pretty Robin Hood-esque.

As for the Kingswood Brotherhood, the resonance is even stronger:

Wenda = Maid Marion.

Big Belly Ben = Little Jon.

Fletcher Dick = Robin as archer.

Simon Toyne = Robin as disinherited nobleman.

Smiling Knight = Will Scarlet.

Also, the Kingswood Brotherhood were very much into robbery, kidnapping, and fair maidens, and had the support of the smallfolk for defending them against perceived royal injustice. And had songs written about them:

No man’s gold was from them,

nor any maiden’s hand.

Oh, the brothers of the Kingswood,

that fearsome outlaw band.

What in the name of the Old and New Gods did Roose say to the Northern Lords to explain his part in the Red Wedding? He cannot claim he just got away, he has 2000 Frey swords with him, which makes him obviously complicit in the crime even if no one knows it was he who murdered Robb. How can any Northern – highborn or lowborn – justify following a Frey (and Bolton) into battle to themselves?

We don’t know exactly, as far as I can tell. All we know is “Roose Bolton lies about his part in the Red Wedding.” (ADWD)

But in general, I think his argument goes like this:

The Iron Throne has named me Warden of the North, and I hold Winterfell and Arya Stark.
We have your kin as our prisoners.
I will rid the North of the Ironborn.
Submit and you’ll be treated fairly. Resist and I will destroy you.

Is the Wonder Woman movie using World War One because it’s the only war that you can have a pacifist message about, without any modern political implications?

If the trailer didn’t show Wonder Woman climbing out of an Entente trench and only fighting Germans, maybe. But that doesn’t seem to be what they’re going for.

I’m not a doctor, but in a medieval context shouldn’t Jaime died by infection after the amputation of his hand? Or at least losed his arm?

Unlike medieval European doctors, the maesters of the Citadel have a working understanding of antiseptics and anti-biotics.

About Wonder Woman; do you think she would work better in World War II? Personally, I like using World War I as a setting. It isn’t as well-represented in films and media, and doesn’t a more morally ambiguous “waste of lives” enforce the fact that Wonder Woman is about peace, not war? There is a tragedy in men dying in trenches or on No Man’s Land which I think fits the vibe they seem to be going for.

Yes, I do, for several reasons. First, since Greece was invaded in WWII, you have a very straightforward hook to get Wonder Woman out into “man’s world.” Second, Wonder Woman was created about a month after Pearl Harbor and her mission in “man’s world” was to fight the Nazis – which continued through to the first season of her TV show in the 1970s.

Here’s the problem with using WWI. As we can see from the trailer, Wonder Woman isn’t venturing into “man’s world” to negotiate a peace between the Triple Alliance and the Entente Cordiale – she’s there to fight against Ze Germans, which raises the question of why the Amazons are picking sides in the conflict, or what happens when Wonder Woman comes across soldiers mutinying or calling for men to join soldiers’ soviets? (Or where she was during WWII?)

Moreover, speaking as a great-grandson of a man who survived the trenches and the tunnels of Ypres, I think there’s a clash between the “tragedy in men dying in trenches or on No Man’s Land” and the super-heroics of Wonder Woman. The trailer showed Wonder Woman going over the top, except that, unlike the millions and millions of young men who were mowed down by machine gun fire, she’s got bulletproof bracers and a magical shield that will keep her safe from harm. That bothers me on a deep level.

Also, as I said before, I find the whole failure narrative troubling.

Loved your latest CBC post, and the interaction between Tywin and his legal heir got me thinking: if events at the end of the first book had gone just a bit differently and Ned, Sansa, and Arya were exchanged for Jamie and the other WW captives, what do you think Ned’s reaction / first conversation with Robb would have been like?

Well, I think Ned would be very impressed by how well Robb acquitted himself, and would probably keep Robb in a position of command while he’s healing from his injuries.

In terms of their first conversation, he’d probably tell Robb that Stannis is the true heir to the Iron Throne and the North will declare for Stannis ASAP. And he’d probably tell Robb about what he learned.