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What do you think of the possibility that Varys is a Targaryen, either by virtue of the female Blackfyre line or of Aerion Brightflame from his time in Lys? Is there any possibility that Varys’s reproductive capacity was the price demanded by the Faceless Men? If so, who would have been the recipient of the gift? You can feel free to answer questions separately or not – if answered at all.

I’m a hard no on both questions. 

First, I’m very certain that Varys is exactly who he and Illyrio says he is, a former mummer who turned himself into one of the most influential people in Westeros and Planetos. 

Second, not only do I not think that happened, but I think the very idea would be an abomination for the Faceless Men. They’re not psychopaths, they’re a holy order. 

Why is Lannisport such a large/prosperous city, when it’s located in a place where there aren’t any particularly notable trade routes running through it? Wouldn’t it make more sense for a city to develop around Seagard, where it could connect seaborne trade to riverine trade on the Trident, or on the Iron Islands, considering the Ironborn have been dominating the sea in the east for generations? I don’t see what factors allowed Lannisport to gain the #3 spot in Westeros.

jade-owl:

racefortheironthrone:

Yes, geographically, it’s a bit odd. 

But Lannisport seems to be a case of urban development around industry – namely that it’s the major harbor near a really really big mining, smelting, and smithing complex that includes gold, but also steel and likely copper and silver as well. Add to the industrial population the people who work in services around that industry (you’ll need assayers for the gold, you’ll need lots of guards and locksmiths for security, you’ll need merchants to handle transactions and clarks to write things down, you’ll need warehouse workers to store the stuff, you’ll need bakers and butchers and grocers to feed the population, you’ll need tavernkeepers and bartenders to get them drunk, you’ll need a city watch to keep order).

Then because it’s the major port near the city, and sea transport offers advantages in terms of transporting your heavier cargo, you have longshoring and shipbuilding and local merchants who decide to branch out from just handling local commerce, etc. 

Then you add on that, given that gold and gold products are a high-value commodity, and that a lot of places need it for their currency as well as for decorative purposes, merchants from Oldtown and points beyond are going to want to deal directly with the producer rather than deal with the markup from middlemen. And so the city keeps growing, despite being on the wrong side of the continent. 

Is very true. In the real world the city of Potosí, which was for all intents and purposes in the ass end of the world, had at one point around 200,000 inhabitants thanks to the silver mine.

Casterly Rock would be like that on steroids, plus providing the processing and shipping for all the gold and silver produced in the rest of the Westerlands.

That’s an excellent comparison!

One thing that bugs me about Volantis…if freeborn Volantenes outnumber the scions of the Old Blood, how is it that native Volantenes can vote, but they never managed to win the right to stand for the Triarchy, like the plebeians did during the Conflict of the Orders?

I don’t think the sons of freedmen get the right to vote. So I think that limits things somewhat. 

Also, look at the antebellum South – majority non-slaveowner, government run almost exclusively by slave-owners. 

Is it at all even remotely possible that the womans name that Rhaegar whispered with his last breath was Visenya and not Lyanna? Bc that was my initial thought when reading it cause Rhaegar was so obsessed with prophecy and all that

No. GRRM is a capital-R Romantic, producer and writer of Beauty and the Beast, etc. He’s not going to waste an opportunity to have his white-haired pretty boy think of his doomed love with his dying breath. 

Because, yes, Rhaegar was obsessed with prophecy. But Rhaegar was also obsessed with music and poetry, and well, Rhaegar. He’s not going to screw up his Byron Moment.