RFTIT Tumblr Weekly Roundup!

Hey folks! So I’m going to be away from the blog for a few days – which means I won’t be covering Season 7 Episode 2 at the normal time, sorry – but I wanted to let you know that doesn’t mean you’ll be without content. Politics of the Stormlands Part III is already scheduled to go up on Monday, and I’ve also scheduled a discussion thread to go up on Sunday so you can talk about Episode 2 to your heart’s content.

In the meantime, we got some stuff on the Tumblrs:

ASOIAF:

• The Southron Ambitions Conspiracy vs. Robert’s Rebellion.
• Followup: Robert’s Rebellion and Guest Right.
• What if a Gardener had survived the Field of Fire?
  • Part I
  • Part II
• Why are Cersei’s children considered abominations?
  • Part II
• Why did the Scots lose at Falkirk (re: schiltron tactics)?
• What should Jon have done at the “Battle of the Bastards”?
• How would cannons change the balance of power in Planetos?
• The Faith and hypocrisy.
  • Part II
• How long does it take to build a ship?
• On Balon Swann.
• The ranging to Hardhome as a command decision.
• Jon and Robb’s will.
• Rewriting the Andal Invasion of the Stormlands.
• GRRM as Romantic vs. romantic. 

Thoughts on Game of Thrones, Season 7 Episode 1, “Dragonstone”

So…the great live-blogging experiment ran into some heavy technical problems, but was otherwise a lot of fun. While we figure out the format going forward, here’s what I thought of the episode:

Season 7 Live-Blog Transcript

For those of you who weren’t able to make the live-blog or who got hit by the many technical problems we ran into, I’m including a full transcript of our chat below the cut:

Game of Thrones Season 7 Premiere Live Blog!

Hey folks! Many of you have been asking me about my plans to cover Season 7 of the show – which I plan to do with some blog posts, nothing fancy like in previous seasons. But as a special treat, I’ve teamed up with an amazing group of ASOIAF people from Tumblr – wendynerdwrites, Goodqueenaly, PoorQuentyn, turtle-paced, Caroline – and we’re going to do a group live-blogging of the premiere.

For technical reasons that are genuinely baffling, I had to set up a temporary site just to host the live-blog, so please join us @9PM Eastern (UTC -5:00)!

RFTIT Tumblr Weekly Roundup!

Hey folks! With Arya III done, next on the list is Politics of the Stormlands Part III, which is bringing us closer to the end of the Seven Kingdoms series, after which will probably be an essay on the Great Councils of Westeros. Also, since people have been asking me, yes I plan to do blog posts about Season 7 of Game of Thrones but not a podcast, for a whole host of reasons.

In the meantime, we have a TON of stuff on the Tumblrs:

ASOIAF:

• Walder Frey and Tywin.
• Do Westerosi understand inflation?
• Gerold “Darkwing Duck” Dayne.
• Why is “Pate” at the Citadel?
• Crowfood Umber’s strategy.
• Brienne’s last stand and the weirwood dream. 
• How “hold the door” could be improved.
• Victarion’s handy end.
• A couple questions about titles.
• A long debate about Stannis and Mance.
• A couple questions on scutage.
  • a follow-up on how much scutage was.
• Why is Maidenpool part of the Riverlands?
• How much land to support a medieval city?
  • Part II
• Things the Teagues could have done. 
• How foods switch from luxury to commonplace and vice-versa.
• On changing the currency from “dragons” in a post-Targaryen Westeros:
  • Part I
  • Part II
• When did House Osgrey of Leafy Lake die out?
• How do I remember stuff?
• The Manderlys thinking about the Reach.
• On the length of medieval wars:
  • Part I
  • Part II
  • Part III
  • Part IV
  • Part V
• Westerosi lords as lobbyists.

Non-ASOIAF:

• Thoughts on Spiderman: Homecoming.
• Does Spiderman 3 get a bad rap?
• Spiderman 1 and 2’s villains.
• How to do a Sinister Six movie.

Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis: Arya III, ASOS

“I could have stayed with Hot Pie. We could have taken the little boat and sailed it up to Riverrun. She had been better off as Squab. No one would take Squab captive, or Nan, or Weasel, or Arry the orphan boy. I was a wolf, she thought, but now I’m just some stupid little lady again.”

Synopsis: Arya has two conversations with Harwin, one more honest than the other.

SPOILER WARNING: This chapter analysis, and all following, will contain spoilers for all Song of Ice and Fire novels and Game of Thrones episodes. Caveat lector.

New Blog Recommendation: Hidden History of Westeros

As some of you may well know, our very own Anas Abu Salah has started up their own blog, Hidden History of Westeros, in which they endeavor to make up for the shortcomings of the World of Ice and Fire by coming up with really interesting headcanons that fill in the gaps in the historical record and give some of the existing but not exciting material another layer of polish to make them sparkle.

I cannot recommend this site highly enough. Already they have posts up on the Stormlands and Westerlands, and they make those chapters so much more colorful and thematic, and even better, really give the reader a sense of a pre-Targaryen Westeros that had real inter-kingdom interactions on all kinds of leveels.

So subscribe to them already!

RFTIT Tumblr Weekly Roundup!

Hey folks! So, work has begun on Arya III (which, btw, marks me passing the 20% mark through ASOS) but in the meantime, let’s see what we’ve got on the Tumblrs:

• The Iron Bank and the Great Game.
• On the Dead Ladies Club:
  • Part I
  • Part II
  • Part III
  • Part IV
  • Part V
  • Part VI
• Invasions and transport ship needs.
• Smallfolk conceptions of lordly honor.
• Naval communications pre-radio.
• Outlawed lords and property rights.
• Melisandre: magic or trickery?
• The wall of bodies in Season 6 Episode 9.

Politics of the Seven Kingdoms: The Stormlands (Part II)

credit to ser other-in-law

The Andals in the Stormlands

Earlier, I discussed some of my frustration with the historical sections of the Stormlands chapter. In this section, we get to some of my biggest pet peeves with this section of the WOIAF – namely, that its account of the Andal Invasion of the Stormlands doesn’t really pass muster, especially when viewed in comparison to the other Seven Kingdoms.

RFTIT Tumblr Weekly(ish) Roundup

Hey folks! We’re actually a bit overdue for one of these, so I have quite a bit of stuff from the Tumblrs ready to go:

ASOIAF:

• How did Ned Stark’s style of government differ from other Starks?
• What did the crannogmen do to piss off the Freys?
• On the North and politics:
  • Part I
  • Part II
• On the Vale and politics:
  • Part I
  • Part II
  • Part III
• Prospects for Sunspear competing with Oldtown for trade.
• “Link schools” for Westeros.
• Aerys II and public works.
• Why colonizing Sothoryos is a bad idea.
• Westerosi cities vis-a-vis Essos.
• On Robb’s western campaign.
• What’s a marcher lord?
• What’s a man-at-arms?
• Casualty figures for Oxcross.
• The timing of Lannister mobilization.

Non-ASOIAF:

• Thoughts on X-Men: Dark Phoenix.
• The tercio and Early Modern warfare.