He looked thoroughly disgusted, didn’t he? I don’t have a great read on his character, but as I understand it:
-He was raised to total obedience and total unquestioning violence.
-When he was freed from slavery, he still directed a lot of that total obedience toward Dany, who ate that shit up.
-Missandei’s love was helping him see himself as an individual. Her death was a blow to his self-image that I can’t wrap my brain around.
-He burned evidence of her because I don’t think he could quite wrap his brain around it either.
-Dany ordered him to get vengeance, and he threw himself into obeying her orders.
-Dany–the other person who helped him have an individual identity–died.
So where does he go? Does he become a massive force of vengeance? Does he become paralyzed by no longer having someone to follow? Does he look for a principle he can call his own?
I’m not halfway through this thread but I’ll make some points now.
As to the wisdom of naming Bran the new King? I’m thinking of Aesop’s “The Frogs Who Wanted A King”. Perhaps in the aftermath a King Log seemed a better choice.
Arya? She’s going on walkabout with some PTSD.
The Night Watch? lt’s a useful place for unnecessary sons. In the 1960s judges would often tell youthful offenders “You can go to jail or join the Army. You have 3 minutes to decide.” That’s why there still is a Night Watch.
Jon has had his fill of the Night Watch. His watch was ended when they murdered him. So he’s leading some folks back to their homes north of the wall. He’s got some healing to do and he can do it there. And even if he’s banned from the 6 Kingdoms, I bet Sansa might let him back to Winterfell for a visit.
Why was that, by the way? Why didn’t anyone else bring military forces? How is it plausible that none of the other kingdoms were able to bring fighters with them to attend this gathering?
And do we know that they didn’t? Was it established in dialogue that all the delegates other than Sansa came all alone?
It occurs to me that Danys snap might have worked better if she heard no bells while everyone else heard them. Her delusion was so bad that she couldnt hear the bells and so to her they refused to surrender.
And i thibk its been pointed out but I love how Tyrions speech to Jon was basically lifted from a hundred posts in last weeks thread.
As for whether anyone else brought their army–it wasn’t established through dialog that they didn’t, but when Sansa mentioned her army at the walls, nobody else chimed in with mention of their army too. It’s not clear what this gathering expected to do exactly–the sudden “choose a king now” thing looked like a surprise. Maybe they showed up thinking that Jon was going to make a play for king, having received Varys’s messages (did those actually go out?) I dunno.
Dornes expeditionary force was slaughtered before they got the The Red Keep. Yara had three ships last I remember. The Eryrie forces have been part of the Northern Army since The Battle of the Bastards. That’s all I can remember.
A question about the name “seven kingdoms”: Thats the North, the Rock, the Isles and Rivers, the Stormlands, the Reach and Dorne right? (named before Dorne offically joined but still including them), The Iron Islands, who had their own king, were later conquered to make 8 kingdoms but the name wasn’t changed, but with the North seceding the figure still goes down to 6? Is that correct?
The Iron Islands controlled the Riverlands at the time of Aegon’s conquest. Harren the Black (the guy who made Harrenhall was King of the Isles and the Rivers and his family came from the Iron Islands).
Aegon the Conqueror did conquer the Iron Islands but took the Riverlands away from them, if I recall correctly. Dorne conceded without being militarily defeated.
And also my recollection is that the later conquest of the Iron Islands was during Robert’s Rebellion when the Greyjoy’s declared independence and had to be re-conquered by Stannis Baratheon.
I’m going by memory so I could be completely wrong.
Kind of like a couple of major collegiate athletic conferences who can’t seem to count.
“Seven Kingdoms–has a nice ring to it. Who cares how many we actually have.”
Some questions and thoughts 24 hours later, from my wife and me:
So, did Winter come? I thought the premise of the books(I read the first three 17+ years ago) was that a BIG winter would come and the zombies up north could come down really far.
Who is Azor Ahai? Or is that false? Wait, Red Woman’s religion is clearly true. She brought back Jon and can do actual demony magic.
Was the face-changing storyline pointless? She didn’t do it at all in the last episodes.
Is it super bad that a dragon is alive out there? Can it reproduce on its own?
Was Bran planning to be king one day? Dude, that’s cold, man.
Why would Sansa Stark not bow to literally a Stark on the throne? We think it is just because the show wants Sansa to come away with something…so they gave her a crown and made her Queen of a region.
