Category: Uncategorized

is there any way Robb could have worded his letter to Balon that would have got the Ironborn on board? I know Balon wanted to attack the North already anyway, but he seems to at least consider Lannisport as a target before he gets to the “give [him] a crown” bit, and gets hung over it being too hard to hold long term. if robb had comitted to a long term occupation of the Westerlands though, would Balon look at taking the coastlines himself more favorably as an option?

If Robb sends a letter addressed to the King of the Iron Islands that offers an alliance, Fair Isle, and the Westerlands coastland in return for military support, but that lets him know that if the Iron Islands attack the North, 17,000 Northmen are mobilized on the western coast of the North against them, a boom chain has been built across the Saltspear, the Manderlys are building a western fleet, and Theon will be raised up as a usurper against Balon…

Maybe Balon doesn’t attack the North. But maybe.

I know you’ve probably covered this somewhere, so ignore if you’d rather not go over it again, but I was wondering how the WOTFK would have changed if The Vale committed to the war (say Lysa was usurped or broke away from LF) either after Ned’s execution or after the Battle of the Camps? Like, how would the Vale army progress? Meet up with Robb, Roose, do something on their own initiative? Thanks for your time!

Here you go.

The Season 5 DVD extras apparently confirm that Melisandre and Stannis do burn Shireen and that Brienne actually did kill Stannis. Does the latter confirmation change your opinion that Stannis will be the 1000th LC? Surely if Stannis was going to be a significant player at the Wall/in the North in the future he has to survive somehow; Brienne won’t necessarily be the one to kill him in the books but if he dies in some other way won’t that obviate a future arc at the Wall?

I think I’ve already addressed this here. 

So let me see if I have this straight. Robb Stark won every battle he was ever in (as a teenager!) and had his vassals conspiring against him from the get go as he was considered “weak” Mace Tyrell “won” one battle in his life (that he didn’t personally show up for) but none of his bannermen (including noted warriors like Tarly) will lift a finger against him AND he has a rep as a great warrior. Something’s missing here…

Bolton’s something of an outlier here, but I wouldn’t say that he has them “conspiring against him from the get go.” Rather, they’re looking to see what kind of advantages they can get from him – Greatjon wants command, Manderly wants a mint, Cerwyn and Mormont are interested in marriages, Hornwood wants lands and privileges – because he’s a new commodity.

Mace is a known quantity, and while he’s a bit of a doofus, he has a decent command of feudal politics. Randyll Tarly gets the military commands, his mother is a Redwyne and his sister married the Lord of the Arbor, the Fossoways get a marriage to Garlan and his other sister, he’s married into the Hightowers, and so on and so forth. So he’s got a good constituency behind him. However, I will note that House Fossoway, House Florent, House Willum, House Varner, House Crane, etc.. all abandoned Mace the moment Renly died.