The Ravenry: Week of 9/7/2015

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. We’re like the ASOIAF version of Navi, guiding you through the world, except without berating you to “Hey, listen!” every 2 minutes.

So, without further ado, here’s The Ravenry for the week of 7 September:

What if Season 5 Was Good, Like Really Good? (Winterfell, Meereen and Dorne) — Corrected!

Part 1 dealt with storylines we thought were the best in Season 5, but for every good storyline, there’s always the bad one (the bad pussy one). Today’s podcast episode delves into the worst storylines of Season 5. From underwhelming battles to poor dialogue to convoluted motivations, we explore:

• The Boltons: the sole Northern House in Season 5
• Stannis’ tell-don’t-show march on Winterfell
• Brienne the Candlewoman
• The Coming Mask Making Industry Bubble in Meereen
• Jorah Connington’s/Varys’ travels with Tyrion
• Dorne…

But instead of criticizing the show, we offer ideas to make it better. At the end, we give a few thoughts on where we think Season 6 might go!

Agree or disagree, and let us know your thoughts on Season 5 and what you would have done to improve it in the comments below!

You can also listen to us at itunes or podbean.

The History of Westeros: Battle of Ice Part 2

A Complete Analysis of the Upcoming Siege of Winterfell Part 2

Introduction

In part 1, we set the scene for the upcoming Siege of Winterfell. Today, I’ll analyze and speculate on strategy and tactics of the battle between Roose Bolton and Stannis Baratheon, and then I’ll predict the outcome of the battle.

Here’s how I’ll break down the post:

• Loyalty of the Houses Aligned with Stannis and Roose
• Disposition and Dispersion of the Armies in and around Winterfell
•  Roose’s and Stannis’ battle plan
• Opening Acts of the Battle
• The Battle of the Crofters’ Village
• The Pink Letter
• The Battle of Winterfell
• Wild Cards

Before I jump into this analysis, I want to be very careful in stating that the scenario that I sketch out below may not be fulfilled at all. It’s very possible that none of what I write, some of what I write or most of what I write comes to pass in The Winds of Winter, but if you enjoy speculation on probably the most anticipated book of the decade and one of the most anticipated plots in that book, then I hope you’ll enjoy reading. So let’s dive into it.