How do you envision a time skip in the series would have played out if GRRM had somehow managed it?

That’s a good question. From what we can tell from his comments, the main drive of the five-year gap was to skip the bildungsroman section of Arya’s, Bran’s, and Sansa’s stories specifically.

In this fashion, GRRM could use flashbacks to do a training montage that explains how Arya became a badass assassin, Bran became a greenseer/shaman/wizard ‘arry, and Sansa became a Machiavellian politician, without having to spend a lot of time describing the incremental process of maturation in detail.

It would also have changed their ages. Arya would re-enter the narrative as a 16-year old, Bran as a 15-year old, and Sansa as a 19-year old. This obviously would change what kind of stories he could tell about them: 15-16 is still a pretty young adolescent, but within the world of ASOIAF Robb Stark was King in the North at their age, so the reader would be more accepting of them changing the course of world events. Likewise, as adolescents, anything having to do with sexuality would feel very very different than it would without the gap.

The problem, as GRRM found out, is that the gap doesn’t work as well for everyone else who isn’t those three characters, sending them on Odysseus-like extended sojourns where they would inescapably experience extended character stagnation. Tyrion’s drunken depression works in ADWD because (for him) it’s right after he’s killed his father and his lover – it would wear much much more thin if it had been five years. Jon and Daenerys’ ultimate failure as leaders make sense if they’re adolescents who have no experience in government and came to power way too early, it doesn’t work for people in their 20s who’ve been ruling their respective kingdoms for five years.

So overall, I think he made the right call. If I were to have advised GRRM, I would have said it’s a lot easier to go back to your earlier books and do a find and replace on the ages of your younger characters, adjust your timeline a bit, so do that instead.

On your Dornish economic plan, how long would it take to pull the Torrentine into that valley and make it fertile? One generation, two? Your plans are great but can be undercut by having stupid kids (Quellon, Viserys II, etc) seeing the desert bloom and a forest of acacia rising up agaist the red sands has a dramatic effect.

At least a generation, and likely more than one, although it’s likely an iterative process where you’re gradually diverting more and more water and pushing it out further and further, so it’s not like you only receive the benefits at the end of the process.

But yes, that’s always a danger with elite-directed reform, especially in systems where political power is inherited. Unlike more broad-based systems, where you have institutions that can provide continuity of policy far longer than the span of a human life, you get these sudden and often wrenching changes when there’s a change in personnel (as it were).

Would Braavos be in “control” of the headwaters/valley of the Upper Rhoyne, say the section north of Norvos, given their maritime nature? TY.

Unclear. Control probably goes too far – the Braavosi are pretty heavily invested in their maritime navy as opposed to a riverrine navy, and trying to control the Rhoyne would mean persistent conflict with Norvos, Qohor, and Volantis, on terms that would be pretty bad for the Braavosi. It would be a huge investment with a poor rate of return, when maritime control offers much better profit margins.

Rather, I think the Braavosi are only interested in access to the Rhoyne. It gives them a much larger market they can sell into and buy from, it speeds up traffic for longer voyages, it offers them substantial military advantages while risking little of their own since the Sweetwater doesn’t link with the Rhoyne, etc.

Do you think there any castles or fortresses in the Disputed Lands not directly linked to an existing walled settlement? Are their any in the lower Rhoyne territories controlled by the Volantene?

Disputed Lands – maybe, but there’s no textual evidence. Likely depends on terrain – are there any hills or fords or other geographical features which would make a fortress useful? Or is it a featureless plain where mobility and flexibility are key and fortresses just limit you?

Lower Rhoyne – far more likely, although again, no direct textual evidence. Forks in the river, fords, bends in the river where the speed of the current changes, etc., rivers offer far more locations where one would want a fortress.

Why do you think it took the Manderlys to establish White Harbor at the mouth of the White Knife given its prime trading location? Do you see the North’s material existence or culture as particularly averse to founding permanent cities. Was it more of the fact that the area was (as detailed in WOIAF) highly contested between so many petty kings for so long? Historical contingency? Thanks for your reply.

Money, primarily. It’s not like the North didn’t use the mouth of the White Knife – the Wolf’s Den was fortified because that territory was useful to them. But the Manderlys had a depth of liquid capital that the less-fertile North simple didn’t have to hand, and because it was the only option, they invested all of it into a single location. This created the necessary labor demand for a proper city.

But yes, the development of the Wolf’s Den was likely inhibited by the castle being the Vale’s focus of attack during the Worthless War and then suffering the effects of civil war and repeated change in management.

I hope I’m not confusing you with someone else, but in one of your essays about the Blackfyre Rebellions, you said that Daeron’s attempt to squander Blackfyre support after the Redgrass Field failed because he chose a “middle path” between Baelor’s clemency and Bloodraven’s punishments. Which do you think he should have embraced then? Would he have been better off being lenient with the blacks, or should he have been sterner?

I think you mean squelch rather than squander.

But yes, that’s what I said. As to which path is better, I don’t know; history has plenty of examples of either strategy succeeding and failing.

If Daeron II had followed a Robert-like path of clemency, it’s likely that the former Blackfyre loyalists just wouldn’t have had the motive to keep rebelling. Gormon Peake isn’t going to back Daemon II if he’s still got his castles, for example. However, it could be the case that you’d get a long peace but with a lot of underground machinations a la Robert, but then you still have peace.

If Daeron II had followed a Tywinesque policy, there are no more former Blackfyre supporters left to support any future rising. However, it’s still possible that the country as a whole – even former Targaryen loyalists – might have revolted against such blatant tyranny, similar to how Bloodraven lost his political support when he murdered Aenys Blackfyre

Why do you think did Asha, in her Kingsmoot speech, suggest the idea of the Ironborn acquiring parts of the Stoney Shore/Sea Dragon Point from the Starks, instead of lands on Cape Kraken/Flints Finger?

Because Asha still held Deepwood Motte, which is the main seat of power in the Sea Dragon Point region, and Flint’s Finger was still held by the North, and while Asha had an agreement with Lady Glover, she didn’t have one with the Flints.

After a large war with high civilian/peasant casualties, I’d assume that agriculture would be disrupted. In order to get more people back in the fields, would it be feasible for people living in city slums to be offered farming land if they were willing to relocate to it? They’d lack the knowledge required for farming, but, realistically, could that be taught to them in large numbers? If so, would the lords of cities filled with the poor consent to it, glad to get rid of them?

Offering vacant land to new settlers is a historical thing that happened, but not particularly city-dwellers. Remember, pre-modern societies were (for the most part) almost entirely rural.

So instead what you’d see is offers being made to landless agricultural laborers, younger sons who aren’t going to inherit the family farm, farmers from neighboring regions.

Say you were Quellon Greyjoy prior to Robert’s Rebellion and you had just “freed” the remaining thralls on the islands. Given the relatively infertile nature of the II’s soils, would it be a wise move to convert most of the farmland into pasture for sheep, similar to the Highland Clearances of Scotland? I think that for a Lord wishing to promote better relations with the greenlanders, this is a smart move. Thought?

I don’t know if the Iron Islands has the landmass to make wool exports a viable economic strategy, especially when you’re right near to the North which can outproduce and outcompete you in that market without stretching.

As I said in my post on the Iron Islands and econ dev, I’d emphasize ironmongery, commerce, mercenary work, and organized crime.

If a Westeros noble’s wealth depends on agriculture, how much does he know about agriculture? Can Mace Tyrell sow and harvest a wheat crop?

A noble doesn’t need to know how to sow and harvest a wheat crop and wouldn’t ever learn – indeed, it would be injurious to the dignity of a nobleman to suggest that they should undertake the work of a smallfolk.

However, depending on the nobleman, they might well learn from their maester a good deal about agriculture from a managerial standpoint – what kind of land is best suited for what crops or livestock, how best to rotate crops to maximize yield, the theory of livestock breeding, the uses and siting of various agricultural improvements, etc. – so that the various manors and lands of their fiefdoms are run well. On the other hand, it may be considered that this too is the province of lesser men – bailiffs, stewards, reeves, maesters, etc. – and that all a nobleman needs to know is the old Parthian curriculum.

And that would largely come down to the ideology of the house. Randyll Tarly clearly leans to the latter view, whereas I would be willing to bet a substantial amount of dragons that, while no Redwyne earns their living by stomping grapes or cutting weeds, they pride themselves on being really, really obnoxious oenophiles.