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Why is the Iron Bank calling in loans on the merchants if their focus is on Iron Throne debt?

To put pressure on the regime, the same way that the IMF, EU central bank, etc. used pressure on Greek banks to pressure the Greek government. 

If merchants can’t get loans, then they can’t generate the commercial activity that the monarchy taxes. This is intended to make the regime see “reason,” and barring that, weaken it so that the Iron Bank’s chosen replacement can more easily triumph. 

Why do you think Stannis left King’s Landing for Dragonstone? Was it just offence at being passed over as Hand, or is there merit to the argument that he was waiting for the Lannisters to kill Robert, so that he could announce the incest & illegitimacy of the children and claim the throne?

I’m sure that’s part of it, but what people always seem to discount out of hand for no damn good reason is that Stannis was also acting in defense of his life and that of his family. The Hand of the King, the second-most powerful man in King’s Landing, had just been murdered and Stannis didn’t even have the handship to protect himself with.

In King’s Landing, Stannis was a sitting duck – on Dragonstone, he had the defenses of the castle, the ability to interdict anyone travelling to Dragonstone, and the freedom to start building an army. 

RFTIT Tumblr Weekly Roundup!

RFTIT Tumblr Weekly Roundup!

Hey folks, it’s that time of the week again! First, the news: I have 3 pages of Tyrion XI and 2 pages of Jon VI roughed out, so I’ve officially commenced Battle of Blackwater Week preparations! The Kickstarter is up to 85% of the final goal! 128 out of the original 172 donors have contributed, so we’re just waiting on a couple dozen more people to re-do their contributions, and then we can get…

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Speaking of the monarchy’s limited legal powers do you think Martin gave the lords the power of pit-and-gallows just so he could have Ned pass the sentence on the NW deserter and Tyrion outmaneuver Lysa at the Eyrie?

I don’t think it’s *just*. I mean, he also wants to have the issue come up with Rohanne Webber and Ser Eustace Osgrey, and he wants to have something for Egg to reform, etc. 

But I think that was a big part of the original impulse. 

Did some reading on wikipedia on what a federation is and what being one means for the Triarchy. “a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing states under a central government.” Now this may be the modern version, so if one dials it down to asoiaf terms, does it simply boil down to 3 City states making decisions effecting their combined foreign policy, leaving the internal politics seperate or only lightly under the control of the 33 Magister Triarchy Council? RSA-Fan

We don’t know. The only actions of the Triarchy we have any evidence of are all foreign policy related. 

I’ve recently been reading Peter H. Wilson’s history of the Thirty Years War, and one thing that strikes me is how primitive the political structures of Westeros are compared to actual late medieval/renaissance European political structures. Do you think it was a mistake on Martin’s part not to include, for instance, kingdom level estates or other representative bodies? He seems to be telling late medieval stories with early medieval political structures.

Well, keep in mind, the Thirty Years War started 131 years after the Wars of the Roses ended, so you’re dealing with two eras. I wouldn’t call the Thirty Years War late medieval, and it’s honestly a lot more Early Modern than Renaissance, certainly by the end.

But yes, political structures are really weird in ASOIAF. As I discussed in my first Hollow Crowns essay, the Westerosi monarchy is really uneven. Its tax systems are way more advanced than its judicial powers, etc. The Great Councils of Westeros is a lot more like the Magnum Concilium of the Norman Kings than the Parliaments of the 13th and 14th centuries, let alone the Tudor Parliaments. 

In defense of Martin’s projection of the forces at the Trident: I believe the Royalist army numbers 40,000, which makes a bit of sense if you give that the Crownlands was allowed the time to generate the full mass of their forces (~15,000). Subtract the Dornish force and we’re now down to 25,000, total. I find that to be a relatively believable number for whatever Reacher, Stormlands, and Riverlord contingents were able to join up with the army at the capital, or en route to the Trident.

For the part of the Rebel army, it seems that 35,000 is the given number. The Vale and the Riverlands all had to deal with various infightings, which surely detracted from the available numbers they could bring against Rhaegar. Additionally, after Robert’s defeat at Ashford and his flight into hiding at Stoney Sept, I could reasonably see his Stormlands contribution at the Trident to be negligible. Assuming Ned’s banner calling to have been a rushed affair, I can see 35,000 as being reasonable.

I dunno if I agree with that calculation. The combined total strength of all of these regions is ~90,000 men even without the Stormlands, and I just don’t buy that Robert’s entire army was wiped out at Ashford, given its description as an inconclusive battle. 

So the rebels only mustered a third of their potential strength and yet somehow managed to win the war, let alone subdue the loyalists (who in this scenario had a 2/3 majority?) in their home provinces? I don’t buy that. 

Moreover, Ned had many more months to mobilize than Robb did, when you consider that Gulltown was taken in 282 AC and his army doesn’t show up until 283 AC. But even assuming that he did go fast, that’s still 18,000 men, which would mean that the Vale and the Riverlands contributed only 8.5k each. For comparison, Edmure, after two complete wipeout battles where thousands of Riverlanders were lost and months of occupation by the Lannisters, was able to pull together 11,000 men. 

Honestly, 45,000 would be the minimum number I would find believable, and that’s making some pretty big assumptions about how many loyalists there were and how many men were left behind to garrison the various provinces against them. 

You recently stated that if you could change one thing from AWOIAF, it would be the part about the Disputed Lands being a desolate war zone . Had the Triarchy not fallen apart in 130AC, would they have allowed the formation of a 4th “daughter” to be the bread basket for the other 3 cities. If the reason for M,T and L’s trade wars where about access to raw materials and food, would a DL’s government, elected like the Volantene Triachs (a Triach per city), be a possible next step forward for them?

I don’t think so. Even during the Triarchy, we’re talking about a federation, and I doubt these city-states would give up control over their farmland. Also, a lot of the territory is going to be devoted to servicing the nearest market, with the big question being who controls the borders and the center. 

Your government isn’t that much different from the actual Triarchy, with the difference being a Council of 33 magisters vs. 3 Triarchs.