Dany won’t burn Aegon because: she is not a pyromaniac, has no proof that Aegon is fake, Aegon has done nothing to piss her off (even killed/defeated her enemies for her), Aegon is a kinsman offering her an alliance (burning him is not exactly great PR), Aegon is a Targaryen with public support etc. I can see potential conflict but it goes against Danny to do this sort of thing

Totally disagree.

Dany’s decisions about a lot of things are driven by prophecy, as we see with the “three treasons.” And in Aegon’s case, Dany has prophetic reasons to believe that Aegon is false – the mummer’s dragon – especially when she turns up and Varys the Mummer shows up by his side and realizes that Varys and Illyrio have been double-dealing with her.

And in terms of pissing her off – he’ll have taken her throne. Yes, he’ll be offering her an alliance, but as one of his (multiple) queens. Dany is not about that any more. She’s the Mother of Dragons, the hero heralded by prophecy, and she is done making peace.

Greetings, Was there any historical societies/organizations that George used as inspiration/source material for the creation of the Night’s Watch?

I’ve written about this extensively in my Game of Thrones and Clash of Kings essays in the relevant chapters (Prologue, a couple of Tyrion chapters, all of Jon’s).

Why was Ethan Glover not killed by Aerys II like everyone else in Brandon’s party? Clearly he survived long enough to ride with Ned to the Tower of Joy.

I don’t know. My guess is that it’s a bit like how Tom Paine avoided being guillotined during the Terror – a chance bit of luck that kept him off the list or out of sight while the executions were going on.

In Ethan Glover’s case, I think Aerys had a very limited attention span and would drop in and out of manic phases, so Ethan may have been lucky enough that by the time it came to him (after all, Ethan as the son of a master, is below the others of Brandon’s companions in rank) Aerys had lost interest and thus the order wasn’t given to have him killed.

Instead, he was just left to rot in the dungeons until Ned took the Red Keep and freed him.

Do you think Jaime is going to fight UnGregor to stop Cersei from burning King’s Landing? Will it be public? I would prefer it if Jaime was remembered as “the best and the worst” Kingsguard

No, I don’t think that’s Jaime’s story.

Why do you think Petyr helped Ned figure out Joffrey is a bastard if he was just going to betray Ned anyway?

In order to put the Starks and Lannisters in conflict. Petyr wants a prolonged civil war to allow him to rise in power and then turn on the weakened participants. That requires Ned to move against the Lannisters so that the Lannisters will move against him and then the North will retaliate.

I read your old essay on Pratchett’s Guards Guards, and found it amazing. I was wondering if you have any other Pratchett recommendations for a neophyte?

There’s something good in all of them, but if you want a list of my favorites.

Small Gods. Mort. Reaper Man.
Guards Guards, Men At Arms, Feet of Clay, Jingo, Fifth Elephant, Night Watch, Thud.
The Truth, Going Postal.

Maester Steven, may I please ask if you think the Seven Kingdoms at present possess a centralised College of Arms or whether you believe that each of the former Realms maintains its own “King of Arms” and his court? (Also, may I please ask how you would organise a Westorosi College of Arms if you were asked to?).

I don’t know the precise organizational nature, but there are heralds in Westeros doing their job of knowing who everyone is and announcing them at formal events, acting as messengers, etc. And we know that heraldry is taught pretty widely – see the reaction of people to Brienne carrying the black bat of House Llothston.

However, I don’t know if heralds do the same job of maintaining genealogies and the like – that seems to have been taken over by the maesters, who probably are the ones in charge of teaching heraldry to the highborn.

RFTIT Weekly Tumblr Roundup

Hey folks! It’s that time of the week again – I recorded a podcast for Episode 4, but am having a bit of an issue getting uploaded to Lawyers, Guns, and Money’s FTP servers. When that’s done, I’ll post it right away. In the meantime, let’s see what’s in the Tumblrs: Why would lords/kings favor city charters? City gates and roads problems. Why did the Gardeners unite the Reach but the Trident’s…

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I saw some people say that GRRM must be a political realist that loathes idealism based on Tyrion’s “7 year” offer (never mind that it’s a show-only invention). Please tell me this is wrong, because it seems very wrong to me.

GRRM is well aware of the history of American Reconstruction, where we tried the “seven year” offer and we got the Klan and Jim Crow instead.

So the Boltons aren’t as treacherous as people think they are, but what about the ironborn? You can’ deny that their historyis a millenia long testament to human evil, even w/minor instances of goodness like Quellon, the squids always seem to return to their reaving, which invariably has a larger and longer lasting impact on the mainland than their brief and premturely smothered trade. Would “making another island from their skulls” really be that extreme if they’re just going to start up again?

Again, go back to the text. The Hoare kings ruled from the Andal invasion until Aegon’s Conquest, and for much of that period, pursued a different policy. Harmund the Host, Harmund the Haggler, Harmund the Handsome, Qhorwyn the Cunning, these men pursued trade and diplomacy instead of reaving.

The Old Way is not the only way of the Ironborn, it’s a revanchist, reactionary tendency aimed at the New Way.