What do you think are the major imports to Lannisport/Casterly Rock?

That’s a good question. I’m guessing there’s a fair degree of food imports (mostly from Reach, Riverlands) – the Westerlands are pretty hilly, which tends to mean less arable in terms of grains and vegetables (Westerlands seems to tend more towards cattle-herding). Wines, definitely, both from Dorne and the Reach. Wool and probably timber from the North, tin from the Isles, linen or flax from the Reach, Dornish silks and citrus fruits and olive oil.

Lots of luxury goods from Essos, I imagine – chiefly textiles (lace, tapestries, carpets, fine woolens), but also perfumes, dyes, spices, advanced manufactures from Myr, furs from Qohor (I’m guessing there’s a heavy tariff on steel to protect strategically important industry), hard alcohol, glassware, etc.

Not sure what your stance is on the fAegon theory, but my question is this: If Aegon isn’t actually Aegon, then how did they doop Connington into going along with this whole Mummer’s Farce?

I came up with the Double-Swap Theory. I think Varys convinced him because he’s absolutely sincere in his belief that Aegon is Aegon. And a Targaryen looking kid will look like Rhaegar.

What do you think the odds are of history repeating itself and the Iron Islands being victim of yet another retributive genocide?

Another? The Iron Islands hasn’t been hit with a retributive genocide. Retributive wars, certainly, but not genocides.

why does Olenna block the willas/cersei match in ASOS?

Initially, she’s trying to get Willas to marry Sansa and get a claim on Winterfell. Afterwards, the main thing is that she doesn’t want to be too dependent on the Lannisters – Margaery’s enough of a connection, and you want to have your dynastic links to as many powerful houses as you can.

Also, Cersei’s unlikely to have many more children.

Are you going to do some more commentary on Telltale’s Game of Thrones, with episode 2 out and all?

Yes. I’ve been super-busy, so I haven’t had the opportunity to play Episode 2, but I have it downloaded and I badly want to play it. So expect a playthrough/review soon.

What do you think is the long-term fate of the wildlings? Extermination, return to Beyond the Wall, or absorbed by the Northmen?

Absorbed by the Northmen. Honestly, there’s not a whole lot of difference between them, the hill clans, and the Skagosi, so they could potentially fit in. The main thing is going to be getting them to accept property rights, otherwise their neighbors are going to kill them.

What is Roose Bolton’s endgame when it comes to Ramsay? Roose tells Theon that Ramsay killed Roose’s heir and that Ramsay will likely kill any sons Fat Walda bears. Roose then does nothing when Ramsay tortures “Arya” even though her crying hurts Roose’s cause (per Lady Dustin). We know Roose can stand up to and control Ramsay – he does so on a few occasions. Still, why let Ramsay publicly do things that threaten not just your legacy after you’re gone, but also your cause while you’re alive?

I don’t know. Roose is very very odd.

Ilyn Payne cannot read, yet he is a knight. Was illiteracy a common problem among the nobility?

Usually pretty rare. At least some functional literacy was normally considered necessary.

I’m guessing the Paynes are pretty recent nobility – we don’t hear of Paynes before Ser Ilyn, their sigil suggests they used to be tax collectors or accountants for the Lannisters, so maybe Ser Ilyn never learned growing up and got a battlefield promotion to knighthood. It’s quite possible that Ser Ilyn has some kind of learning disability.

It’s also quite possible that Ser Ilyn’s trauma from the tongue removal has meant that he has no desire to communicate. Given his drinking, his low level of self-care, his obsession with his work, I wouldn’t be surprised.

When Lyanna is on her deathbed, it’s written that the room smelled of blood and roses. And when she dies, “rose petals spilling from her palm, dead and black.” This may be trivial, but why would she have rose petals in her hand? Any significance?

I always thought the rose petals were the blue winter roses from her crown as queen of love and beauty, the one Rhaegar gave her, which she was holding.

mightyisobel:

If you’re here for ASOIAF meta, you may have already read Steven Attewell’s essay on slavery and Reconstruction in Old Ghis.

Attewell finds convincing parallels from the U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction in the violent factions of Meereen, where a political crusader rains down…

I think Mighty Isobel has some interesting points to make about the way in which Dany’s POV limits what kind of stories you can tell about Meereen. However, I think some of the criticism goes a bit far.

For example, Mighty Isobel argues that “To the extent that unnamed artisans do appear, they mainly complain about their loss of status,” and that Martin doesn’t address “redistribution of real property to compensate the freedmen for their years of unpaid labor.” I don’t think this is accurate – in fact, I think Martin specifically mentions Grazdan’s weavers to show the conflict between former slaves and their masters over economic power. Hence Grazdan demanding a share of their wages, and Dany sentencing him to buy them new looms, and the Sons of the Harpy targeting those upwardly-mobile freedwomen as “a statement to the ex-slaves of Meereen about what happens to those who try to rise above their station and a statement about Dany’s interference with the rights of the Great Masters.”

Likewise, I do think we see a number of examples of freedmen exercising agency to construct new lives – the Unsullied choosing new names, the freedmen forming the Mother’s Men, Free Brothers, Stalwart Shields, and Brazen Beasts for self-defense, Rylona Rhee’s political activism, and while it’s outside Dany’s POV the structure and symbolism of the ruling council Barristan establishes.

In terms of the “costs borne by enslaved people themselves,” I think we’re given a number of examples. Stalwart Shield’s poignant desire to be held, to show that he has a man’s heart if not a man’s part. The freedman demanding compensation for his wife’s sexual abuse at the hands of his former master of the House of Zhak. Missandei’s grief when her brother is murdered by the Sons of the Harpy.

So as I said, while I agree with the larger point, I think the case can be taken too far.