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“A Lannister bank is all of the sudden a real threat to the sovereignty of the king, because a Lannister banknote now threatens to become an alternate currency” – RE your Crownlands Development Plan – Wouldn’t the Golden Bank’s reserves still need to be in the form of Golden Dragons, the currency for which the King has the sole right of seignorage? Am I missing something or could this allow for the relatively peaceful co-existence of both institutions?

Reserves aren’t necessarily in the form of coins – they can also in the form of bullion, deeds to real estate, stocks and bonds, etc. So the issue is that the Golden Bank would be circulating notes backed by gold bullion, which represent an alternative currency. And in a world that runs on metallic standards, a lot of people are going to be happy to take Casterly Rock’s gold. 

It’s going to cause institutional fracture regardless, because what’s at stake is who controls how much money is in circulation. Even if the reserves were in golden dragons, who decides how many notes the Bank can circulate per dragon (i.e, what the bank’s reserve rate is)? Who decides how many dragons get minted per year? You’re going to get fights between the Bank and the Crown for authority. 

So we know that GRRM needed to have Edmure fight the Battle of the Fords so that Tywin could be present at the Blackwater and put the Stark’s backs to the wall – great example of fingers on the plot scales. Even so, what do you think BookRobb’s reasons were for not telling Edmure his full plan? Hubris? Youth? Disrespect for his uncle?

edgar-allan-poes-sweet-lenore:

racefortheironthrone:

I think both he and Brynden expected that Edmure would obey rather than exceed his orders. 

Which is a singularly dumb command decision. Edmure had the authority to disregard orders if he deemed it necessary, and anyone who knew him could have predicted he would seize the opportunity when he saw it. A commander should know his subordinates, and if Robb wasn’t familiar enough 26th Edmure the Blackfish definitely was. Robb should have either brought Edmure in on the plan or put someone else in his position.

This conclusion strikes me as entirely presentist. Edmure had only ever fought in one battle in his entire life, he was very much a blank slate, and assuming that Robb and Brynden (who, btw, has spent the last 15 years in the Vale not the Riverlands) would know exactly what he would do isn’t good analysis.

I don’t think that “Edmure had the authority to disregard orders if he deemed it necessary” quite holds either. Insubordination is a thing that exists, so does exceeding one’s orders – if your logic holds, than every time an officer disregards orders they must have had the authority to do so. Here’s what we know: Robb and Brynden considered his orders to “hold Riverrun” to be sufficient, and they’re the ones who grew up in Westerosi military traditions. 

So we know that GRRM needed to have Edmure fight the Battle of the Fords so that Tywin could be present at the Blackwater and put the Stark’s backs to the wall – great example of fingers on the plot scales. Even so, what do you think BookRobb’s reasons were for not telling Edmure his full plan? Hubris? Youth? Disrespect for his uncle?

I think both he and Brynden expected that Edmure would obey rather than exceed his orders. 

Warwick the Wild: Regional Nationalism in Westeros

Dornish nationalism gets a moderate amount of discussion, but are there other regions of the Seven Kingdoms where there is meaningful nationalist/proto-nationalist sentiment? E.g. the North or the Vale, or is it still too bound up with personal loyalties?

I’ve talked a bit about Northern nationalism here and here.

I can see some other sources of proto-nationalist sentiment – the Reach has it’s fixation with chivalry, the Vale has its snobbishness and emphasis on codes of honor, and of course there’s the toxic nationalism of the Iron Islands. 

Hiya! Varys used JonCon specifically because if he vouches for Aegon’s parentage, people will take it seriously, right? But unless I’m missing something, as soon as Aegon sits the throne, that utility is moot, and JonCon now becomes a liability because of what he would do if he ever found out the truth. What I’m asking is: do you think Varys plans to get rid of JonCon after Aegon’s crowned?

Quite likely. Although he doesn’t know Jon Con’s already a dead man walking. 

Steven Xue: How does the Night’s Watch get their Maesters?

One thing about the Watch I don’t get is how they receive their Maesters? We know that for Aemon, he already had undergone training as a Maester when he volunteered to join the Night’s Watch so I suppose in his case it made sense for him to take over when his predecessor died (assuming they had one at all at the time). He was a rather special case since he was already qualified but in other times I don’t think that is how the Maesters at Castle Black are normally replaced.  

In any case I have no doubt that whoever becomes Maester to the Night’s Watch will have to be one of their comrades (eg Aemon). This makes me wonder if whenever the Watch needs a Maester they would just send the most learned of their order to the Citadel to be trained as one (as was the case with Sam) or like everywhere else the Citadel just appoints one for them who then gets initiated into their order.

I also wonder why despite his advanced age Aemon never took on an apprentice to take over in case he suddenly passes away. Even though he had stewards aiding him with his day to day duties, he didn’t seem to have an understudy until Sam came along. Did he expect the Citadel will send a replacement when the time comes?

I think it’s more common for the Citadel to just send a new one. Aemon is a bit of an unusual case – as you say, he was already a maester and volunteered, but he also lived an extraordinary long time, so there wasn’t a need for replacements in a long time. 

However, I would push back on the apprenticeship point, because that’s not how maesters work. Remember, you have to build your chain by studying under different maesters and then be judged by an archmaester chosen by the conclave as an expert in that field. This way, the order as a whole controls the certification of maesters, and the loyalty of a maester is to the institution rather than to their former master.