They didn’t say anything about him other than that Dorne was supporting the anti-Cersei alliance. So who knows where he came from. Could be a Martell cadet line, a descendant through the female line (although Dorne allows women to inherit lordships), a bastard, or just one of the local lords who seized power.
The fact that Bronn, who isn’t even a noble, was promised Riverrun and then Highgarden shows that the ruler can pretty much put anyone he wants in a vacant lordship, regardless of inheritance. (And of course, the Bolton’s were given Winterfell because of their support of the Lannisters.) Of course, it would be better politically to put in someone who has some connection to the former lordship.
You can ask them in the book thread, or start a new thread not limited to the show.
This was discussed in a previous show thread, and knowledge from the books could still be spoilers. For example,
there is a prophecy about who will kill Cersei (the “valonqar” prophecy) that appears in the books but was not included in the show. If the show in fact follows the books then that could be a spoiler, even though the show is far past the point where the prophecy was made in the books. Likewise, someone brought up the “Horn of Winter,” which was significant regarding the White Walkers in the books but barely shown in the show, speculating that it could have been important in the fight against the Night King. As it turned out is it was not, but if it had been that could have been a spoiler.
Basically, the rules have worked well in keeping the peace on a highly contentious issue for years, so I don’t see any reason to throw them away now. If you absolutely must discuss the books, there is a thread for that.
They say, “What is dead may never die,” by which they mean someone who has been almost drowned (died) in their “baptism” as Ironborn will live on in an afterlife with the Drowned God.
The Greyjoy’s house words are “We do not sow.” Traditionally, all manual work (farming, mining) in the Iron Islands was done by slaves/thralls. The Ironborn regarded the only honorable profession to be stealing from, raping, and enslaving their neighbors. They are a completely parasitical culture and consider it dishonorable to do any real work.
There is probably an interesting short story to tell about Mathyw Tyrell, fourth son of one of Olenna’s many grandsons who were not as pretty as Loras and thus never made it onto the show, who was vacationing in Dorne when Jaime sacked Highgarden.
By the end of the story he has permanently settled in Sunspear, changed his name to Smyth, and signed up as an apprentice cobbler because he’s learned that if you aren’t at least Loras-pretty there is no fortune to be had in begging.
And he considers himself damned lucky to be alive, because Cersei does not like loose ends.
They don’t farm, etc. they only steal. So far as I can tell from the depictions, don’t have enough land to maintain plantations full of slave farmers. All we know is that they steal. They’re like Vikings—raiders without the rest of Norse civilization.
Well, you’re lucky then to be able to see all the episodes without waiting in between and without knowing what to expect.
Finally, while seeing them back to back, did you notice a drop in quality in the last seasons that a lot of us perceived?
Don’t forget Harrenhal, which Janos Slynt, Tywin Lannister, Roose Bolton, and Petyr Baelish were all lords of at some point on the show. And Robb had promised it to Walder Frey.
I wasn’t talking about the technical ability to replace it in post, which I know is trivial, but to change it on their HBO GO stream while still leaving it paused at the same place when I returned to it.
This seems to be a commonly held opinion, but for my money the whole Sparrows storyline (which extended from the beginning of S5 to the end of S6) was one of the best the show has ever featured. And I think the hate for the Sand Snakes is a bit overwrought.
What bugs me most about them is how flat-out stupid they were. They want revenge against the Lannisters, so they kill the single least dangerous Lannister, thus ensuring maximum response after inflicting the most minimal amount of damage. It’s like the Japanese fleet attacking Pearl Harbor for the sole purpose of leaving a flaming bag on the doorstep, ringing the doorbell and running.
Definitely. The only reason I kept watching was because the earlier seasons were good, with excellent writing for a TV show. I think I mentioned in another thread, Ned getting killed was a surprise, especially because in all shows, the “good” guy usually gets saved at the last minute. Then the Red Wedding where everyone was killed.
Now, as I think I mentioned before, it’s moving to “The Walking Dead” level of stupidity. If it was this bad at the beginning, I would have stopped watching. Now, I just want to see how it ends.
But yes, pretty much everything was a surprise, and I didn’t have to wait years to watch all the episodes, so it was great in that aspect as well.
This episode we learned that Yara took back control of the Iron Islands. Which in and of itself is pretty darn stupid. Euron is still alive and well and in active command of the bulk of the Iron Island military force. Why in the world would the people back home give control to Yara? That makes no sense.
Considering Euron’s campaign is almost certainly the largest military action in the entire history of the Iron Islands, think about a similar context in the real world.
It’d be like during WWII, the American president personally leads the Africa campaign for the American troops. While that’s happening, Congress appoints a new President, choosing the loser of the last presidential election, because the current president is away leading the military. I mean, seriously?
Streams aren’t downloaded to a local hard drive like how a DVR works. It’s more like On Demand, which is also why fast forward, pause, rewind, and any kind of scanning is much faster and more responsive on a DVR than via On Demand or streaming. (I mean, obviously they buffer, but it’s the same difference as watching a video on youtube vs watching a video file on your hard drive.)
All that to say that they merely had to update the server version of the show and then all the streamers automatically point to that new version. Since the length of the show didn’t change, your place is still saved correctly when you go back to it.
Yara was sent to capture the Iron Islands in Dany’s name; she wasn’t sent to call a snap election in the kingsmoot. Are we all watching the same show?
Your scenario is probably not uncommon in history (though I don’t have any examples off the top of my head) but it’s 100% definitely Older Than Steam in historical fiction. Ivanhoe has the titular hero teaming up with Robin Hood and the Black Knight (King Richard in disguise) to clear the path for Richard’s return to the throne, which Prince John has usurped while Richard was off on crusade.
“Euron can’t defend the Iron Islands. Not if he’s in King’s Landing with all his men and his ships. We can take our home back.”
Euron went all-in and didn’t leave a defense. I’m happy to assume Yara knows a good bit about the situation because Euron has a big mouth and no political restraint so she heard an earful of it down in the ship’s hold. But that’s an assumption and you’re free to assume otherwise.
Euron needs every man he can get for his biggest-in-history fleet. Who’s left there? Old men, women and children? Yara at least has fighters. And remember that Euron is not the brightest bulb. Theon of all people managed to infiltrate his fleet and sneak onto his flagship to rescue Yara. He’s apparently not so good at leaving someone to mind the store.
But the main reason she went back was so there would be a place for the north folk to retreat to if the Night King won at Winterfell. So I expect her to show up to the fight at some point. And win or lose the Iron Islands there.
I don’t know if Yara has any role to play in the primary endgame, but assuming she survives to the cooldown material and assuming the post-war political situation looks something like Westerosi Standard, I do expect her to get a seat on the Small Council. If we get a really happy ending, and if Ellaria hasn’t gone completely mad down in the black cells, maybe she’ll even get a wedding! I’m not holding out hope for too much celebration though, but I’ll stock up on rice just in case I’m happily surprised.
For the most part, I think her story is done. In terms of the main action, she’s cutting off the possibility for Euron to retreat and lick his wounds if things go badly for him, which is a slightly awkward “plug up the potential story hole in advance” kind of place for a character to be in, but there you have it. At least she’s back home.
Euron could lose 90% of his fleet, limp back home, and and still be strong enough to roll over Yara and her forces like blades of grass. (Because at 90% losses, he’d be down to 100 ships vs Yara’s 3. Even on land, that’s a 30:1 troop ratio in Euron’s favor.)
Then again, Yara could decide to build and man 1000 NEW ships right now, and have them ready to go before Euron could sail back home. For me personally, Yara building and outfitting 1000 new ships right now before Euron gets home would be exactly the same amount of stupid as Euron building his 1000 ships in the first place.