No Happy Choices and No Happy Endings: A Monstrous Sacrifice in TWOW

Intro

Artwork by Fantasy Flight Games

“There is power in a king’s blood,” the old maester had warned, “and better men than Stannis have done worse things than this.” The king can be harsh and unforgiving, aye, but a babe still on the breast? Only a monster would give a living child to the flames. (ADWD, Jon I)

“Sacrifice is never easy or it is not true sacrifice” underpins the central struggle between Stannis, Melisandre and Davos in A Storm of Swords. Where Stannis wonders aloud, “what is the life of one bastard boy against a kingdom”, Davos responds with “everything.” The context of this conversation is the fate of Edric Storm, bastard nephew to Stannis. And while readers find resolution in the survival of Edric Storm in A Storm of Swords, the question that Stannis poses and Davos answers doesn’t conclude with Edric Storm.

While Game of Thrones showed us a version of that conclusion with the burning of Shireen Baratheon, this will likely not be the extent of the dynamic of human sacrifice in A Song of Ice and Fire. Instead, George RR Martin has laid down significant groundwork in the extant material for a similar conflict to erupt early in The Winds of Winter — with Melisandre, a Davos archetype and the life of a bastard boy set against the fate of a kingdom.

Wars and Politics of Ice and Fire Podcast, Episode 09: Fan-Submitted Questions and Answers

A Song of Ice and Fire is a gripping work of fantasy, but it’s also full of mysteries. Moreover, it’s a series that generates a lot of deep thought and questions. In today’s podcast, we try our best Melisandre impression and look into our fires to give you all the answers to questions you’ve been asking for months now. Thank you so much for all of your questions.  Some of the questions we answer are on the topics of:

• Aegon and whether his true identity actually matters.
• Whether Tyrek Lannister is alive
• A potential live-video youtube Q/A
• The Others and whether the War for the Dawn was resolved peacefully
• Many more!

As a bonus, we are taking question full time now. We didn’t totally get through all of your questions this time, but we’re taking your questions from here on out, and we’ll incorporate them into our episodes going forward! So, submit your questions to us below, and we’ll be happy to answer any and all questions (eventually!).

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At the end of the podcast, we talk about where you can find the blog’s social media. Here’s some links to help out

• Twitter
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Additionally, you can find us individually on twitter at the following spots:

• Nfriel
• SomethingLikeaLawyer
• Militant_Penguin
• BryndenBFish

Thanks for listening!

The Ravenry: Week of 8/17/2015

Salutations, 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, a little while back we here at the blog partnered with ASOIAF University to answer questions about A Song of Ice and Fire.  We – that is, myself and SomethingLikeaLawyer – 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. Your beloved Queen Regent has returned to her rightful place on the Tumblr Iron Throne, dispensing wisdom from the high seat built of melted gifs and hashtags.  Of course, our fearless Hand has sat the throne as well, despite also writing several thousand wonderful words on the Young Dragon, the Septon-King, and the Thankless King. (Expose your eyeballs to those Wednesday!)

Here’s The Ravenry for the week of August 17, 2015:

The Ravenry: Week of 6/29/2015

Hello, 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, a little while back we here at the blog partnered with ASOIAF University to answer questions about A Song of Ice and Fire.  We – that is, myself and SomethingLikeaLawyer – 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. If we were a radio call-in show, we’d be one of those super-late, why-are-there-still-non-singing-humans-on-the-radio-at-this-hour ones where the hosts always talk in real quiet voices. We’re that kind of show.

So, without further ado, here’s The Ravenry for the week of 29 June: