If the show can’t spoil the books, why were people losing their minds over Shireen’s death?

Well, let me put it this way: I can say, without fear of contradiction, that Shireen is not going to be burned by Stannis before the Battle of Ice, leading to his defeat by the Boltons.

How do I know this? Because in the books, Shireen is 700 miles away from Winterfell and Stannis is less than three days ride away. Moreover, Stannis’ army is running out of food and couldn’t make the trek back to the Wall.

So, while Stannis might yet burn Shireen in the book, the context for the decision will be entirely different. And context matters far more than the mere event itself. After all, it’s not a spoiler to say that the salesman dies at the end of Death of a Salesman. What would make it a spoiler is to explain how and why that event actually happens.

And increasingly, I don’t think the show is going to give us the right context. Myrcella probably is going to die – Maggy’s prophecy, after all – but I doubt it’s going to be due to Ellaria Sand giving her a poisoned kiss so that she can die in Jaime’s arms.

I just think that the folk out there who think that Season Six won’t “spoil” (I think the “spoiler” culture has gone too far, but that’s a separate thing)TWOW are naïve and kidding themselves. Have you made peace with that?

Well, I don’t care about spoilers, so it doesn’t really bother me.

Moreover, given the divergences between book and text and how they’re growing over time, I don’t really think the show can really spoil the books.

Do you agree that if Westeros were to encourage mass immigration of skilled workers it would be a huge boon to their economy? Especially with all the men getting killed off in the war, it would be good for population growth too, having them marry local women. Why not encourage all the slaves Dany has freed to sail for Gulltown or White Harbor, produce, and reproduce!

Absolutely, that’s why I frequently have immigration in my Economic Development Plans.

why do we never see anything equivalent to the reconquista, with the andal houses in Dorne (and the other kingdoms of westeros) trying to reconquer Dorne from the rhoynar?

Well, the Andals in Dorne settled in the east, not the west, and thus were right in the middle of the Martells’ orbit. If you mean the First Men kings of the mountains, certainly the Yronwoods tried at various points of time.

As for the other Andal kingdoms – well, the Reach and the Stormlands certainly went to war with the Dornish repeatedly over the years…

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Hello folks, it’s that time of the week again! Feeling slightly better, so I hope that the pace of updates should pick up shortly. In the mean time, let’s see what we’ve got on offer: historical analogues to the slave armies of Essos. why House Jordayne isn’t related to House Dayne: version one, and version two. Reasons why I think Randyll Tarly might be a Blackfyre supporter. Lannister…

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A followup to the Maegor and Dorne question: do you think Maegor would have been more successful than his parents and aunt or less? The Dornish fighters apparently left the noncombatants behind in their castles while they escaped into the desert. I don’t know what Aegon did to them but I guess Maegor would have dealt with them more harshly. Would this have made the price of resistance too high? or alternatively, would this have hardened their resolve to resist this brutal would-be conqueror?

I don’t know. I think one major difference is that Aegon et al. were still trying to conquer – yes, they burned a lot of castles, but ultimately they were trying to occupy and hold Dorne. Maegor might very well have gone for the “make a desert and call it peace” strategy.

Do you have a have a Watch Revival Plan to revert the Watch’s glory days of 10000 swords & 19 castles to go with your regional development plans?

Not particularly. Mainly, I would say that you need to A. settle the Gift immediately so that the Night’s Watch can feed and supply itself, and B. abolish the vow of celibacy, so that natural reproduction can provide replacements for the next generation, so that you’re not always having to rebuild from scratch.

If the entire adult population of Westeros was knighted, and had all the rights and responsibilities of knights, would their overall welfare improve?

Welfare is a bit of a tricky word to use – ultimately, knighthood is a mark of legal status. In Westeros, it means that you have the right to trial by combat, so you’re not completely at the mercy of a local lord’s right of pits and gallows.

So if the entire adult population of Westeros was knighted, what you’re really doing is removing a major source of inequality when it comes to civil rights and legal personhood, not so much their economic or social welfare necessarily.

Largely because 90% of the population of Westeros probably could not afford to actually fulfill the responsibilities of knights – arms, armor, horses, training, are way beyond the means of your average peasant.

Could/would you mind describing or listing the respective complements and causalities of the Northern and Lannister forces at the Battle on the Green Fork? I seem to be seeing a good deal of discrepancy on the topic.

So we know Bolton goes into the Battle of the Green Fork with ~17,000 men, and has around 10,000 during the time of the Battle of the Fords, suggesting around 6-7,000 casualties.

As for Tywin’s army, there’s this weird thing where it seems to be around 20,000 forever despite taking casualties. My calculations is that between the Battle of the Green Fork and the forced march that followed, I think Tywin lost at least 3,000 men.

How do the north repopulate after harsh winters?

The usual way, I suppose.

But seriously, the sad reality is that, while you always have to be worried about population declines leading to production declines and a vicious spiral, the upside of a drop in population in an economy like the North is that the GDP per capita increases greatly.

The barns, farmhouses, fences, granaries, and land don’t go away during the winter, so they’re there to be claimed by whoever survives. With more wealth to their name, people get married earlier, have more kids, and have better levels of nutrition and health, which means more kids surviving infancy and more people living longer.

So most likely, the North goes through something of a population boom in the springs and summers.