I love this.
No, it’s the company of sellswords the Second Sons who are staying behind to keep the peace in Mereen.
The Dothraki sea isn’t a desert but a vast grassland. It extends in latitude from south of King’s Landing to the southern part of the North. One would expect that it would get quite cold, especially in the center part of the continent.
I’ve been wondering about the invasion plans. It would make the most sense for Tyrell armies to come up from the Reach to besiege King’s Landing, and then disembark troops from the fleet once they had securing a landing area.
Given that Tyrion was the architect of the defense of King’s Landing during the Battle of the Blackwater, I’m sure he knows better than anyone how to overcome its defenses. He certainly knows about the old wildfire gag, since he invented it. But dragons could easily take out any fire ship that was sent out. (They would probably eat it and enjoy the snack.:D)
One question not addressed is what has become of the Stormlands and Dragonstone with the extinction of the Baratheons. Stannis would have taken all available troops north where they were destroyed. Anyone remaining wouldn’t have formal allegiance to anyone. It would be quite appropriate for Dany to establish a base on Dragonstone, the ancestral Targaryen seat.
In retrospect, having a separate death scene for Pycelle was kind of random. I mean it did make for a fun creepy Qyburn getting his revenge (the actor doesn’t get nearly enough credit by the way), but plot-wise, it would’ve been fine for him to die with everyone else in the sept.
What would’ve been more interesting, I think, is if Cersei had Kevan specifically assassinated. Showing not only that she was killing all the sparrows, but committing kinslaying to finally fully assert her power and get everyone out of the way of her rule. It would ramp up the degree of ruthlessness on her part a notch. Would’ve made for a better scene.
Bronn’s “not blonde enough for you?” jab about the serving girls makes me wonder if a Jaime/Daenarys match might be in the cards. She would probably look enough like a young Cersei to remind him of her plus she’s a better person.
I wonder if Bran will see who pushed him from the tower window in his visions.
I just hope the prostitute makes a claim against his estate.
I wish we had gotten at least some hint as to whether the high sparrow was full of shit or not. It seems like he was completely legit and now he is dead so that ends that.
I got that he was completely sincere in comforting the afflicted, just very strict and a bit zealous in his dedication to afflicting the comfortable.
I didn’t get any hint that the high sparrow was anything but legit. It would be thematically consistent - the only guy in the whole mess who was driven by a legitimate desire to serve the realm and the people.
Really, if we didn’t identify with the characters he was up against, and generally have an instant revulsion from militant religious people, he’d be the good guy.
I agree with those who say he was legit, but that’s not to say he wasn’t playing the game. He was making moves to get himself more power, but we wanted to use that power to serve the gods.
Jaime told the Freys that his 8000 man army just snuck up on them. Ramsay said his army (combined Bolton/Umber/Karstark) was 6000. I don’t know if Jaime had all the Lannister army with him, but even if half the Unsullied have been killed Dany still has a formidable number. Plus a shitload of Dothraki. Plus the Tyrell army. Plus the Martel army. Plus dragons. And that’s even if the Stark/Vale armies sit it out to fight the White Walker army.
Who is left of any size to back the increasingly toxic Lannisters? The laughable Frey troops? With Walder and Sons dead, I imagine their forces are stockpiling stuff for winter and not looking to do much fighting. A stiff fart in the Lannisters’ general direction would do them in right about now.
Given that the Lannisters have been fighting for years on end and have suffered a number of defeats, and that they have no money left to pay anyone or buy any supplies, it’s surprising they can field even that many.
Well, there is a recently snubbed Littlefinger, who has an army.
He seemed clearly based on Savonarola from Renaissance Florence, lighter of the original “Bonfire of the Vanities” - it is my understanding that Savonarola was sincere, but had an austerity stick so far up his butt that he was ultimately hated and hung, and was full of power and himself.
I think he was for real. A true believer and a Zealot. But he definitely was ambitious and happy he was in control so he could spread his religion across Westeros.
With ‘crackpot’, I meant my own speculations, i.e. Bran perhaps not knowing Jon’s parentage yet. I agree that the matter is pretty much settled, but I wasn’t sure whether Bran really has all the pieces to the puzzle yet—otherwise, having part of what Lyanna was saying be inaudible just strikes me as a somewhat strange choice.
Well, summer was officially declared done in the first episode of the second season, when the citadel sent out its white ravens. (And of course, the very first episode is called ‘Winter is Coming’, and I think it was clear early on that this didn’t merely refer to the Stark words.)
However, I don’t really see what’s odd with this: having a 5/6-year autumn after a 10-year summer doesn’t inherently strike me as overly long. If you accept the latter, I see no reason to reject the former.
Varys had turned a traitor when Dany was a girl, the daughter of a mad man and the sister of an entitled jackass. What feats of outstanding governmental aptitude had she shown sitting around in Braavos that convinced Varys she could do such a fine job of ruling Westeros that it was worth yet another bloody and devastating civil war (after her family had caused quite a few in Westeros already)?
He has not just said but also shown that he is interested in Sansa; she is his Queen of Love and Beauty, the personification of his own version of the American dream.
And before you mention his deal with the Boltons: so far, we have no proof that he knew the extent of Ramsay’s depravation. Actually, it makes no sense to believe that he did.
Sansa was his casus belli against the Boltons but also his trump card in the fight for control of the North after the Boltons were defeated. He needed her as a Stark, the “last” Stark, to unite the North.
So, he would not have risked his trump in such a way, even if he was callous enough to do this to Sansa.
But there is no sign that he feels any indifference for her, quite to the contrary: Sansa might be the only person who could have toppled Littlefinger with ease at one time, while he knew perfectly well what she could - and might - do. And still he neither silenced nor coerced her to not use her power over him.
It’s open to debate whether show-Littlefinger is in love with Sansa or with his image of her - regardless, he has reason to care for her.
I’d go further, and say that we have witnessed the defects of the feudal system itself. Davos’ and Tormund’s dialogue about trusting the wrong kings or rather kings in general seemed to be a sign of a growing recognition that something was fundamentally wrong … - but then they joined in when the “King of the North” was hailed by those lords.
I’d have much rather preferred to see them share a glance of unease. But then, I didn’t understand the scene anyway: The wretched failure was praised while the victor and actual heir was completely ignored.
Varys was only concerned about the incest because the truth was coming out too soon for his war. But he was willing to accelerate the time-table to use the truth to the Targaryens’ advantage.
As you know, Varys supports someone else in the books - but we won’t go there at all; in the show, Arya overhears Varys’ plotting against the crown in season one (see link further up). I think the original plan centered around Viserys; when he got himself killed, the focus switched to Dany.
Varys’ actions against Dany make perfect sense in the book, carrying them over to the show was a mistake and created, imo, a plot hole that cannot be explained away satisfactory.
But it makes sense to accept the scene from season one in the catacombs as an insight into Varys’ lenghty plotting against the crown.
Ah, yes the best for the Realm. Isn’t it fascinating how many war mongers have claimed to do exactly that in history? And how often they aren’t asked simple questions, like: What is this “best”? For whom will it be the best? Who or what is the Realm you claim to work for? Who has authorized you to define what is best for me and everyone else?
I might easily be proven wrong on the show, but I don’t think he is a moral character at all. His support for the Targaryens before one of the two survivors showed any sign of divinely ordained superiority should make you wonder what his motivation could have been at that time?
What strong argument are you talking about? Deficit spending is not a problem in itself. We are told that around half of the debt is still held by the Lannisters who never showed any interest to bankrupt the crown.
Littlefinger’s debt-machinations are more worrisome in the books and often the source of his influence throughout the realm, but it isn’t a major point in the show.
Even the debt toward the Iron Bank hasn’t proven to be a desaster for the economy or the political system in Westeros; the Bank didn’t dare to bother the mighty united realm under Robert, and they only took indirect action against the weakened realm later by backing another candidate for the throne - without doing anything themselves against the rulers who told them to f- off.
And what we see of the realm prior to the start of the War of the Five Kings looked prosperous enough. Wide-spread poverty and destitude set in with the war, the war that could have been prevented easily with just a little bit of intelligence information given to Jon Arryn by … who was it again, who was responsible to do that?
The Mad King, a Targaryen, had run things into the ground.
Robert was not a good king, no doubt about it, but he was clever enough to know it. And he made someone Hand who managed to bring peace and order to a realm that had fought a terrible civil war. Jon Arryn made a couple of mistakes but he arranged peace with Dorne (though not executing Gregor Clegane and Armory Lorch was going to prove to be a far-reaching mistake) and brought the Lannisters into Robert’s coalition with the marriage to Cersei. Yeah, that also proved to have terrible consequences but the political strategy was sound.
Robert’s rule only had to deal with one serious uprising, and we know how that ended for the Iron Islands.
In short, Robert’s reign went as well as you could hope for after a bloody civil war had divided the realm and poisoned so many Houses against one another.
Didn’t Jamie promise him nice rooms at Casterly Rock?
But a medieval level of development is not what we see; the Dothraki, the Unsullied and the Slavers seem to represent ancient times. Neither the Unsullied nor the Dothraki show any gear and have also not shown any tactics that should, under normal circumstances, compete with the more medieval armies of Westeros.
Which makes a comparison to the Mongols difficult: they were exceptionally well and innovatively equipped; weaponry and armor were usually superior compared to their enemies. More importantly, they were highly disciplined, tactically trained incessantly and emphasized logistics and well developed lines of communication. They were a highly mobile model army that utilized its advantages to the max.
The Dothraki are more akin to a propaganda image of the barbaric Hun, and have little in common with any actual historical model.
The Unsullied are - as far as we can see - an anti-Dothraki weapon, and if the Dothraki fight the way we have seen onscreen, the Unsullied should fair pretty well.
But it stretches plausibility beyond snapping to set them against a more diversified army with medieval weaponry.
Of course, Westeros lacks atomic bombs. So, anyone resisting Dany is toast anyway.
IIRC, that’s exactly backwards. The realm was rich and prosperous even with the Mad King on the Throne, but Robert’s spendthrift ways had bankrupted the Kingdom and the Lannisters couldn’t reverse the trend with constant warfare after Ned’s beheading.
It’s about a thousand miles away, and Cersei is likely to hear that he helped the Starks. (You can’t double cross someone indefinitely and not have them figure it out, even someone as stupid as Cersei.)
Littlefinger goes with the winners, and the Lannisters have a losing hand. The only way he would ally with the Lannisters (in the event circumstances force them to overlook his betrayal) would be so he could get his troops into the city and overthrow them (which actually could be a scenario to put Littlefinger on the Iron Throne). If Littlefinger “helps” them, it wouldn’t work out so well for the Lannisters.
Yeah, remember it was Tywin as hand of the king who basically ran the kingdom while the Mad King ruled. Tywin was an evil bastard but only if you opposed him, he was a more than capable caretaker for the kingdom. Robert on the other hand drove the kingdom into financial ruin even if he was a decent guy.
A country is not a private household. Spending money, even money you just borrowed, means that people get that money. Robert wasn’t building monuments and rasing armies with that money, he injected it into the economy. This helps to spread prosperity, it doesn’t take it away.
Debts are irrelevant for a country as long as the creditor cannot force you to give it all back.
Do you mean the guy who ordered every Targaryen to be slaughtered? After all, that was the reason Jon was hidden from him, to the point that Eodard lied and claimed Jon as his own son. Decent people in Westeros are few and far between.