He got a royal decree that made Ramsay a Bolton for realsies. That’s sort of what people are saying Stannis could do for Jon, but that’s a little more complicated since there are other living Starks (assuming they live and Stannis gets to be king). There may not have been any other Boltons.
And for a minute it looked like Jaime would quit the Kingsguard, which you “can’t” do, and become Tywin’s heir. Or maybe that’ll happen anyway.
Assuming he can get away with it.
It’s a technicality in any event. But I was thinking of Tywin’s ‘you are no longer a Lannister’ pronouncement.
I think watching the clip of Jaqen giving Arya the coin makes it fairly certain that Arya is going to Braavos. Jaqen says to give the coin to a Braavosi if she ever needs to find him. Jaqen is from Braavos, the captain is sailing to Braavos, therefore the captain is going to bring Arya to where she can find Jaqen … in Braavos.
Nope. They would, but Varys just up and disappeared at the same time as Tyrion, and, after all, no one trusts a eunuch.
A king can legitimize a bastard. Presumably, doing so would make him *fully *legitimate, which in Jon Snow’s case would make him first in line to be Lord of Winterfell, other Stark children or no (he’s older than all of them, and a male besides).
Stannis would also have to grant him a release from his Night’s Watch vows, and it’s unclear if even a king can do that (or whether Snow would accept it even so). Although I guess a king can do whatever no one stops him from doing.
We know a king has that power. We don’t know if Stannis can do it without anyone asking, and we don’t know if it’s worth the complications since giving the title to Jon effectively takes it away from a Stark. Jon would be cutting ahead of them in line. You can imagine the Tullys might not like it, for example. After all there are other ways Stannis could honor Jon without giving him Winterfell specifically, like giving him his own title and lands.
Regarding Brienne’s fight with The Hound, how likely is such an outcome in the real word? i.e. a woman beating a guy who is huge and has beaten many men.
IIRC, Brienne has beaten almost all men she has fought: Some random dude in the episode when she was introduced, she almost beat Jamie before Locke showed up, she beat The Hound.
How realistic is this, given men and women’s mucle strength and body mass? (Of course, GoT is not the most realistic show in the world, but wondering if this aspect had any credibility to it)
Hardly. Early this season, possibly the first episode, the Hound got into that barfight with the guy who killed Arya’s friend. Once that guy was incapacitated, Arya slowly, deliberately, methodically, and cruelly murdered him, repeating to him the same thing he said to her friend.
I think that in a world like that, the king saying “you’re the heir despite being a bastard” or even “from now on, you won’t be considered a bastard anymore” would prevail over technical inheritance rules.
And we have an example of that with Bolton junior, who is now heir presumably instead of some cousin of Bolton senior, just because dad said so.
That wasn’t some random dude: that was Ser Loras Tyrell (Renly’s lover), one of the most skilled fighters in the Seven Kingdoms. Not that she’s necessarily as good as he is, but she’s still supposed to be really good.
Edit: Ah, just saw I’m not the first to post this. Sorry.
You find it literally incredible that a woman could defeat a man in a swordfight? A fictional woman, who has been depicted as tall, broad, strong, single-minded, skilled, etc?
General comparisons of men and women are based on averages. Brienne is clearly above average.
Why is this a question for you? Why look at this female fictional badass and discount her as a mere woman, who couldn’t possibly beat a man in the REAL world?
Brienne is in the 99.99% range for women – like the female version of the Mountain. The Hound is in the 95% or so for men. And if the Hound hadn’t been wounded, and if they had both been fighting with regular swords, he probably would have won. As it was, when he’s wounded and Brienne has Valyrian steel (sharper, stronger, better balanced, and lighter than regular steel), they are evenly matched and she wins by a lucky fall-down-a-hill.
I think it fits the world and characters as they’ve been established.
I agree that it fits the world, and what we know of Brienne. She beat Loras, who is clearly in the top rank of fighting men, and the Hound was injured.
But I think the Hound is in a much higher percentile than 95%. He’s a big, big, strong guy, and a fearsome fighter, who stands out among other fearsome fighters. Remember in season 1 when the Mountain chopped off his horse’s head and was about to attack Ser Loras, The Hound was physically strong enough to block his swing and hold him off, which very very very few would be.
It did seem a bit much for Brienne to beat someone that takes on multiple men at a time and wins. But it was a great fight and she has skills and was in a much healthier state. I’m just glad that my prediction that it was the Hound’s ear she was going to bite off turned out to be the case.
In addition to being wounded, the Hound probably hadn’t had nearly as much (or as high quality) food and sleep as Brienne. He’s shaking down farmers for spare silver and radishes; she’s bankrolled by Jaime Lannister and doesn’t have a price on her head.
And while slender Arya isn’t much worse for the wear, someone as huge as the Hound burns a hell of a lot of calories - especially when he’s always wearing heavy armor and having to rough people up to survive. It’s possible that the Hound’s muscles were, in a way, a net disadvantage in the context of that specific fight.
I can’t believe we got to the end of season 4 without some sort of Stark reunion.
Was anyone else surprised that Tywin didn’t know that Cersei’s children were all fathered by Jaime? A few episodes back, Tywin said something to Jaime like “and you will go back to Casterly Rock and have children named Lannister”. I thought Tywin was alluding to Cersei’s kids.
She beat Jaime when he was in very weakened condition, and The Hound was not doing great either. It doesn’t bother me because I’m sure plenty of real duels happened under conditions like that, but they didn’t have her fighting The Hound or Jaime at full strength.
Right, I thought that was a big deal. I’m not sure how long Brienne and Pod or The Hound and Arya were traveling, but she was fresher and healthier and better equipped.
