I don’t think **Biggirl **was referring strictly to the line of succession. I think she was just using the “might is right” angle to say that if Rob and his army are dealt with, the Lannisters would do whatever the hell they want, heredity be damned.
Nah, I was speaking of heredity. I totally forgot nobody knows the younger Starks are “dead”.
So, if Stannis is able to withdraw with his head and at least some of his army intact, do you think that he’ll slink back to Rob Stark and accept his offer of alliance contingent on his recognition of the King in the North?
He’d be stupid not to, unless Mellisandre has another trick up her… sleeve.
Stannis didn’t even want to retreat when the battle was lost, flexible that man is not.
Yeah, I think it’s safe to say that Stannis is the definition of ‘inflexible’. He and Ned Stark should have been GREAT friends!
band name!
But still, giving Winterfell to a Lannister would be making Six Kingdoms out fo the Seven Kingdoms, and what the other five kingdoms’ leaders will IMMEDIATELY be thinking is, “How long until the Lannisters come after MY kingdom? Best join the other side as fast as I can!” It would be an extremely dumb move, best give the Winterfell throne to someone from a lesser House in the north who will be a good puppet while preserving Winterfell’s nominal independence. And Tywin, unlike Joffrey, is not dumb.
That’s not necessarily true. It was quite common in the mediaeval period for related families to hold different titles. The North could still be considered a separate kingdom with a branch of the Lannister family or one of its retainers at its head.
Why, exactly, is it that Arya has been unable to contact her family at ALL, for all the time that has passed?
What is stopping her from hijacking a raven and sending Robb or Catelyn, Jon Snow or even Sansa a note saying, “In hiding under an assumed name, will make my way to Winterfell when possible” or whatever.
Is it possible that there’s truly been no opportunity for her to do this?
I would presume ravens are strictly controlled for exactly the reason you stated, not just Arya, but anybody trying to send a message that might be detrimental to the cause.
You can’t just simply grab a raven and tell it to go to winterfell or to find an army in the field.
A common servant isn’t going to have the run of Harranhal and right now, that’s what Arya is. If she showed up at the maester’s, they’d want to know why and she would need a damn good explanation. Ravens also don’t fly to specific people like the owls in Harry Potter. They fly between castles, so a raven meant for Sansa would end up with the maesters in King’s Landing first.
Ah, so ravens are like trains or flights – they go back and forth between two fixed points? So you have to find the King’s Landing-bound raven? I should imagine that there are some destinations that are so popular that, for example, you have to constantly distribute King’s Landing-bound ravens throughout the land. By horse-drawn cart? I wonder – is raven delivery a for-profit privately supplied service or is it the king’s obligation?
Right. GOT ravens are trained to fly “home” to specific locations when released. If you have a raven whose home is at King’s Landing, you can release it, and it’ll probably get there. (Unless someone shoots it, or it falls victim to predation, or has a heart attack.) But if you want to send a message to Winterfell, you need another raven, from Winterfell, that thinks of Winterfell as home.
The Maesters of the Citadel are normally responsible for handling ravens.
I get the impression that the ravens are owned by the various Lords. But they are handled by the Maesters–who are generally in service to the local noble family. Servant girls don’t get to use raven-grams.
In fact, if Arya had shown up in Harrenhal’s ravens’ roost (assuming that dump had one), she’d be putting herself in danger. (Even more danger than lately!) Oh, little lady, you have written a message you don’t want anybody else to read? How is it you know how to write? (Tywin had noted that odd fact about her–but he just thought she was a displaced daughter from some minor noble family; there’s been lots of looting & pillaging lately–much of it on his orders.) Oh, you want to send it to our enemies? Guards!
Here, let me fix that for you:
I’m thinking giant. Osha seemed to suggest they were a real thing (of course, she says all kinds of crazy shit, so…).
That or it’s a Hodor skull. Maybe there’s a whole clan of Hodors beyond the Wall, having built an elaborate civilization and culture, written many heart wrenching plays and tales of epic valor, and achieved a deep scientific understanding of the mysteries of the Universe, all based on a language that has only one word. Hodor, hodor hodor hodor. HODOR !
I want an autographed copy of Hodor’s script.
OSHA: Blah blah blah walnuts.
HODOR: Hodor!
I think this is appropriate now. It made me laugh. Then the URL made me laugh again: Hodor!
