Good morning (or afternoon, or evening, or whenever you are in the time-space continuum), lovelies!
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, SomethingLikeaLawyer and I – 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. This week was a busy time for the Ravenry (especially for the Lord Hand), with 48 questions answered (the most we’ve ever done here). We traveled all around Westeros and Essos, forward and back in wibbly wobbly spacetime, from individual characters to meta-thematic questions.
A note about question answering. We here at the Ravenry do our best to answer every question we get, but it’s a, well, Sisyphean task. We do, however, reserve the right not to answer rude comments. Demanding to have a question answered will not get the questioned answered more quickly. This is not usually a problem, of course; the vast majority of the questions we get are well-meaning and respectful.
Without further ado, here’s The Ravenry for the week of October 5:
- SomethingLikeaLawyer explains why Daeron II damaged his regime
- Nfriel speculates on whether Tywin knew the truth of the Jaime-Cersei relationship
- SomethingLikeaLawyer ranks the Hightowers in terms of probable wealth
- SomethingLikeaLawyer thinks about which pre-Conquest kingdom could stand best against the rest of the realm
- SomethingLikeaLawyer gives his opinion as to the most- and least-reliable narrators
- SomethingLikeaLawyer hypothesizes about a scenario in which Theon warns Robb of Balon’s northern invasion
- SomethingLikeaLawyer outlines Daemon Blackryre’s problems in rule
- SomethingLikeaLawyer and NFriel approach a scenario in which all three Baratheon brothers perish shortly before the end of Robert’s Rebellion
- SomethingLikeaLawyer discusses what life would be like for career knights in Westeros
- SomethingLikeaLawyer answers why Barristan will be focusing on the trebuchets in the Battle of Fire
- SomethingLikeaLawyer shows the folly of a Seven-focused crusade to covert the North
- SomethingLikeaLawyer considers how the deaths of Robert Baratheon’s parents affected his adult behavior
- SomethingLikeaLawyer demonstrates the succession problems of a Daenerys-Aegon-Jon royal union
- SomethingLikeaLawyer assesses what might have happened had Robert named Stannis hand over Ned
- SomethingLikeaLawyer clarifies the probable cause of death of Dalton Greyjoy
- SomethingLikeaLawyer looks to why Jaime stayed in the Kingsguard pre- and post-maiming
- SomethingLikeaLawyer elaborates on Sansa being an unreliable narrator
- SomethingLikeaLawyer corrects an earlier misstatement about the Antler Men
- Nfriel describes the multi-castle voting process of the Night’s Watch
- Nfriel theorizes about the relationship between Rhaegar and Viserys
- Nfriel talks about the Pact of Ice and Fire applying beyond the Dance
- Nfriel guesses when Kevan Lannister probably visited Dragonstone
- SomethingLikeaLawyer clears up Barristan Selmy’s delusions
- SomethingLikeaLawyer comments on the probability of the North holding out against Aegon the Conqueror
- SomethingLikeaLawyer shows the point of Theon’s potential to rule the Iron Islands
- SomethingLikeaLawyer remarks on the problems of peace and vengeance post-Blackfyre Rebellion
- SomethingLikeaLawyer examines why a Valyrian invasion of Westeros wouldn’t need the Children of the Forest to fail
- SomethingLikeaLawyer points to the logic of vengeance swaying current Dornish scheming
- SomethingLikeaLawyer briefly contemplates whether Brandon Snow could have killed Aegon’s dragons
- SomethingLikeaLawyer suggests why Daena the Defiant was not alive during her son’s rebellion
- SomethingLikeaLawyer dismisses the possibility of a Cthulhu-like monster attacking Oldtown
- SomethingLikeaLawyer conjectures about the potential escape to Dorne of Elia and the Targaryen children
- Nfriel uses reader bias to demonstrate the seeming lack of Westerosi focus on Daenerys and her dragons
- SomethingLikeaLawyer applies Varys’ long-term plan to Jon Arryn’s uninterrupted Lannister investigation, with murderous results
- SomethingLikeaLawyer guesses as to Daenerys’ reaction to the arrival of her great-great uncle Aemon
- SomethingLikeaLawyer illustrates how Westerosi lords would earn their wealth
- SomethingLikeaLawyer weighs the potential reaction of Daenerys to the Mirri-training Marwyn
- SomethingLikeaLawyer evaluates Jaehaerys II’s Ghost-of-Targaryen-Past reaction to the downfall of his house
- SomethingLikeaLawyer critically assesses Bloodraven
- SomethingLikeaLawyer submits that the Great Council of 101 would invalidate all claims of Rhaenyra
- SomethingLikeaLawyer analyzes the purpose of a Great Council, particularly that of 233 AC
- SomethingLikeaLawyer notes why many Targaryen names share the ae diphthong
- SomethingLikeaLawyer elucidates the usage of unreliable narration in ASOIAF, especially concerning Theon
- Nfriel verifies Baela and Rhaena’s place in the succession to Driftmark pre-Dance
- Nfriel offers an explanation as to why the Tarths seem to shift in surname
- SomethingLikeaLawyer explains why Viserys was too late to push Rhaenyra’s claim by her majority
- Nfriel illuminates the lack of Valyrian imperial expansion into Westeros
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.
Love you lots,
The Queen Regent (NFriel)
Wars and Politics of Ice and Fire 