Tag: game of thrones

Race for the Iron Throne Volume I Now In Print!

Race for the Iron Throne Volume I Now In Print!

I am very happy to announce that Race for the Iron Throne, Volume I is now in print! And unlike Volume II, this one didn’t have to be chopped into two books to stay under binding limits.

As before, I have an ask for all of you: if you’ve not had a chance to get your copy through the Kickstarter, please buy my book. And then, regardless of whether you’ve bought your book through the Kickstarter…

View On WordPress

Bleg re Scott Kaufman

I usually don’t ask people for stuff via Tumblr, but this is important enough for me to break my rule. My friend and colleague Scott Kaufman, who you may well remember from our Game of Thrones podcasts on Lawyers, Guns, and Money, is dealing with some really serious medical issues right now. 

He’s thankfully getting better, but even with health insurance, the ICU isn’t cheap. If you could help out here, it would make a huge difference. 

Thinking About the White Walkers and the COTF

So I was talking with @goodqueenaly about the whole Season 6 revelation that the Children of the Forest created the White Walkers, and our conversation crystallized some problems I have with this twist. 

  1. If the White Walkers were a weapon, why weren’t they used during the war between the First Men and the Children during the Dawn Age, given that that war was an existential crisis for the Children where they brought down the Hammer of Waters on the Arm of Dorne and the Neck?
  2. Why the two thousand year gap between the Pact that ended that war and the Long Night, which is the first recorded encounter between humans and White Walkers? 
  3. If the Long Night was so centered on Westeros, why are there records of the conflict across Essos, from the Rhoynar in the west (who tell of the hero of the Rhoyne who sang the secret song to bring back the day), to Asshai (where the legend of Azor Ahai was born), to the Bone Mountains (where the patrimony of Hyrkoon the Hero was founded), to Yi Ti (where the woman with the monkey’s tail saved the world from the Lion of Night, and the Pearl Emperor built the Five Forts to guard his lands from the Lion’s demons)?

Jon being King of the North: on what basis could he claim the throne? The North isn’t overthrowing monarchy/aristocracy, after all, they still all want their castles and titles, they just want to ignore Ned’s legitimate daughter in favor of his illegitimate son. What happens when it comes out he’s a Targ?

Jon is King in the North on the same grounds that Robb became King in the North – through right of acclamation as opposed to right of inheritance (since Robb’s father was not King in the North before him). It should be noted, moreover, that King in the North != Lord of Winterfell. 

As for him being illegitimate, Lady Mormont spoke for the majority: “I don’t care if he’s a bastard. Ned Stark’s blood runs through his veins.”

Him being a Targ will be a complicating factor, but when the Targaryens land on Westeros with a giant army and three dragons, having a Targ in your corner might not be a bad thing. 

Still about Cersei taking the Iron Throne in the show. Thinking more in terms of short term claims: as of now nobody really knows Cersei blew up the wildfire caches. With the most likely successors all out of the game (including Cersei’s own children) won’t she be the most likely ruler anyhow, anyway, until other clamaints even realize they do have a claim that may precede her? I’m guessing she believes she has time/is able/ to organize to counter those, somehow…

The King, the Queen, the Queen’s brother and father, and the High Sparrow all died on the same day and then Cersei became Queen and declared war on her former in-laws. I think people are going to put two and two together. 

Could you explain the proximity arguments for the Estermonts and Florents, please? Why does marrying a family member into the royal family give you a claim on the throne? And if the Estermonts and Florents have a claim through proximity (presumably from their marriages to Steffon and Stannis), shouldn’t Cersei also have a (better) claim through her marriage to Robert?

So here’s my way of thinking, and there’s no reason necessarily to think it’s better than anyone else’s (thinking of @nobodysuspectsthebutterfly, @goodqueenaly, and @warsofasoiaf here):

If what matters is who the closest blood kin of the king is, then the Florents are kin to Princess Shireen and inlaws to Stannis (if you accept that Stannis and Shireen were the lawful kings/heirs to the Iron Throne). Next most recently, the Estermonts are kin to Robert, Stannis, and Renly through Cassana Estermont, regardless of how you see the succession going from that point on. After that, the Targaryens are kin to Robert, Stannis, Renly through Rhaelle Targaryen,  as well as to all previous kings. 

Cersei’s blood relationship to Robert Baratheon is much more distant than any of those, going back 90 years Gowen Baratheon and Tya Lannister, but even then that pairing died without successful issue, and 120 years ago when an unnamed Baratheon woman married a male Lannister and had issue. It’s highly unclear whether Cersei has any blood connection to Robert.

Now, there is an argument that she’s the mother of Joffrey and Tommen, but…A. their parentage and kingship was publicly put in question and Cersei has already admitted to incest in one case, and B. claims rarely go up the generations in that way, and C. even if the Lannister branch was chosen, Targaryen and Great Council precedent would suggest that a male cousin rather than Cersei herself, would inherit. 

So it looks like in the show that Daenerys will take King’s Landing from Cersei (maybe Euron gets involved somehow). But the conventional wisdom for TWOW has been that Aegon will take King’s Landing from the Lannister-Tyrell regime (how Myrcella and Tommen die would still be up in the air). So is Aegon’s excision from the show indicative of how he’s ultimately unimportant? Because in the show there’s no opposing candidate for a second Dance and Dany will steamroll everyone in her path.

I don’t think it’s so much ultimately unimportant as unimportant to Benioff and Weiss, who are being rather radical in chopping out material so that they can skip to the end.  

So is Rickon really just a shaggy dog story in the books given his fate in the show? I’ve always felt that the Davos-goes-to-Skagos-and-retrieves-Rickon plan seems too convenient to work as intended. Wyman Manderly is going to die (either from his recent wounds or being killed by Stannis before he can reveal his true colors). And doesn’t it seem just a little farfetched that Wex followed the group across half of the North without being observed or sensed even once, then waltzed into WH?

No, I think it’s that Rickon is five, so he’s not going to accomplish anything himself. So the show decided they could kill him off without changing the plot that much. 

About some of your doubts concerning the HBO show’s finale: given the results of Cersei’s last play (i.e. everyone else is dead), isn’t there enough of a political vacuum for Cersei to realistically be able to seize the throne without facing too much official protest about it? There is basically no credible claimant yet. The entire Baratheon/Lannister/Tyrell succession is extinct. Wouldn’t Cersei be the closest KL has to some semblance of political continuity? It is suicidal, yes, but right now?

As for a vacuum, in the city itself, there’s no one left to oppose her on the Small Council, the Sparrows are leaderless, and Cersei does have some guardsmen. But without any shred of popular legitimacy, all it takes is one good riot to bring it all tumbling down. 

And for outside the city, the Florents are the closest in proximity, followed by the Estermonts, followeed by the Targaryens themselves. Lannisters are way too remote. 

But as to continuity…the attraction of continuity is stability, security, and predictability. Cersei offers none of those things; she’s basically Aerys the Third. If allying with the Lannisters through a dynastic marriage, the closest form of alliance there is in Westeros, brings you death by wildfire, there’s literally no upside to being on her side, and no downside to opposing her because she’s going to kill you anyway. 

Dany’s arrival makes all this moot anyway. She’s got the two biggest Targaryen loyalists on her side, in the show anyway she’s got an ironclad claim to both the Targaryen succession and the Baratheon succession, she’s got an enormous army, and she’s got dragons.