The Ravenry: Week of 9/28/2015

Hello seekers,

As you may or may not know, Wars and Politics of Ice and Fire has its own Tumblr page (as well as its own Twitter and Facebook pages).  Even more excitingly,  we here at the blog have partnered with ASOIAF University to answer questions about A Song of Ice and Fire.  We – that is, NFriel and myself – take the text-based questions submitted to us, write up thoughtful text-based answers, and publish these answers on the Tumblr.

So every Monday we present to you The Ravenry.  We collect the questions we’ve answered during the previous week over on the Tumblr in post form, with a brief description of each, and publish it here, and link that post on Twitter and Facebook as well. The Queen Regent and the Lord Hand had their most productive week yet, discussing everything from books in Westeros to marriages and beddings. Plenty of hypotheticals and theorycraft, there’s certainly something for everyone this week.

Here’s The Ravenry for the week of September 28th:

• NFriel speculates on an upcoming religious conflict between the Brotherhood Without Banners and the newly-armed Faith Militant and the Holy Hundred.
• SomethingLikeALawyer highlights the problems Rhaegar would have even if he won the Trident, and why he was doomed the second he abducted Lyanna as a follow-up.
• SomethingLikeALawyer believes Aegon V’s pro-smallfolk reforms would have gone over better if his marriage agreements worked out.
• SomethingLikeALawyer theorizes why there aren’t a lot of Northman-Dornishman marriages.
• SomethingLikeALawyer discusses the three stories behind Criston Cole’s hatred of Rhaenyra Targaryen.
• NFriel determines Mushroom’s reliability as a chronicler, and follows-up with how primary sources are portrayed in the novel series.
• NFriel outlines where maesters are sent after earning their chains.
• NFriel answers the advantages Rhaenyra would have had if she was fostered with the Queen Who Never Was.
• SomethingLikeALawyer posits that civil war was inevitable following Daeron’s lopsided Dornish treaty.
• SomethingLikeALawyer denies that Tywin wanted to be crowned king after Robert’s Rebellion.
• SomethingLikeALawyer confirms that the Lannisters are the wealthiest house in Westeros.
• SomethingLikeALawyer puts forth Daemon Targaryen’s moves if Viserys married Laena Velaryon.
• SomethingLikeALawyer stresses Edmure Tully’s weaknesses as a commander.
• NFriel details the pressures on a Laenor-Rhaenyra marriage.
• NFriel demonstrates the shortcomings of a Sansa marriage to a Martell.
• NFriel wonders Hoster Tully’s marriage options for Lysa Tully.
• SomethingLikeALawyer doubts Robert would have wanted to kill Maester Aemon.
• SomethingLikeALawyer showcases the incredible danger Cersei was in if Robert failed to die on his hunting trip.
• SomethingLikeALawyer illustrates why Stannis never informed Eddard about his investigation.
• SomethingLikeALawyer visualizes an Old Way/New Way conflict in an Iron Islands without Balon Greyjoy.
• SomethingLikeALawyer lists the wealth of the Great Houses, from wealthiest to poorest.
• SomethingLikeALawyer talks about book manufacture and commissioning manuscripts.
• NFriel looks at whether Daenerys is barren and whether Mirri is to blame.
• NFriel defines the difference between acclaiming a bastard and legitimizing one via acclaim.
• NFriel examines the evidence to see if Euron was involved in Balon’s death.
• SomethingLikeALawyer addresses why troop counts are so much lower in pre-Conquest Westeros (great follow-up by Race for the Iron Throne here).
• SomethingLikeALawyer charts when the Targaryen dynasty was strongest with and without dragons.
• NFriel emphasizes the importance of Rhaegar having no siblings for years on the complicated Aerys-Rhaegar relationship.
• NFriel explains the lack of details the community has on the hatching of dragons.

Also, there was a great write-up on why the ‘rebellious tomboy’ trope that characterized Robb’s Maegyr stand-in for the show is misogynistic. The Queen Regent added her thoughts on that. The Lord Hand agrees, and finds that the portrayal of female characters only having merit if they reject the traditional feminine gender roles indicative of poor writing.

As always, we love to hear your text-based questions, so if you have a burning question about ASOIAF, click this link to send us a raven. The more specific the question, the better text-based answer we can write, although we do our best to answer them all.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King