Winter is Coming (GoT is back)

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Also, I would like to see the "wheel" of aristocratic male domination broken, and don't think Daenerys as ruler or even Jon as ruler would be a good ending - I think they should make their world more modern and egalitarian like the NW, and both maybe not die, but finish out the story as emotionally wounded characters.

In all modesty, I'm the one who brought constitutional federalism to Westeros.

Proclaim of the Allied Kings

We, the rightful sovereigns of Westeros, in Order to establish lasting Peace throughout the continent, restore Law and Justice, provide for the common defence, and promote the General Welfare of our Realms, do hereby agree to join our forces and wisdom in a Commonwealth of the Free Kingdoms, whose setting principles shall be laid out in the following Charter.

Section I - Scope and Extent of the Commonwealth

Article 1 The Commonwealth shall be formed by the North, Riverlands, Vale, Dorne, Westerlands, Stormlands, Dragonlands (formerly known as Crownlands), and all other realms of Westeros which shall wish to join it at any time.

Article 2 The Purpose of this Commonwealth shall be to organize and maintain stable and peaceful relations between separate realms, or to deal with matters involving the common safety of all. This document shall in no way be construed to deny each of the aforementioned realms their absolute freedom and independence in resolving internal matters.

Article 3 Each realm must provide one twentieth (1/20) of their soldiers to form a Commonwealth Army. Said Army may only be used to fight a foreign force, and may not, under any circumstance, be directed against a member of the Commonwealth.

Article 5 The Commonwealth shall negotiate with foreign entities in the name of all its members on military and commercial matters that involve the interests of several realms. Single realms may still conduct separate negotiations with foreign entities, as long as those do not contradict the entanglements contracted by the Commonwealth as a whole.

Article 6 The Commonwealth shall settle any disputes arising between two or more realms in matters of trade or justice, which could not be resolved through direct negotiations. If petitioned by one of its members to act as a mediator in such dispute, the Commonwealth shall have the power to set appropriate trade barriers, and to order a realm to return an individual which is facing trial in another realm.

Article 7 A common currency shall be minted in all member realms. The individual realms shall remain responsible for its minting. However, if disputes shall arise between realms regarding the amount of coins produced by each, the Commonwealth may be petitioned under Article 6 to set reasonable minting limits.

Article 8 In the case that one member of the Commonwealth failed to honor the obligations subscribed under this document, the Commonwealth may call upon other realms to ensure, though military means if necessary, that the agreement is respected.

Section II - Structure of the Commonwealth

Article 9 All power recognized to the Commonwealth under this document shall be vested into a Lord Protector of the Commonwealth and into a High Council. The Lord Protector shall initiate all decisions, which may then be ratified or rejected by the High Council.

Article 10 The office of Lord Protector of the Commonwealth shall befall upon Daemon Blackfyre, and to his rightful heirs as identified under the common laws of succession. The Lord Protector shall rule as King of the Dragonlands.

Article 11 The High Council shall be formed by one member appointed by each of the rightful sovereigns of the realms that form the Commonwealth (including the Dragonlands). A High Councilor may at any time be removed from office by the sovereign who appointed them, and replaced by another.

Article 12 The High Council shall deliberate and vote on any Commonwealth action taken by the Lord Protector, with the exception specified under Article 13. A Commonwealth action shall become effective if and only if more than half of the High Councillors vote to ratify it. High Councilors must keep their deliberations secret to anyone aside from the respective sovereign who appointed them, to whom they must provide a complete and truthful account of their actions.

Article 13 If, upon request of the Lord Protector, at least two thirds of the High Councilors vote to acknowledge a state of war against a foreign entity, the Lord Protector shall assume full command of the Commonwealth Army in its struggle against said force. The High Council may, at any time, by a vote of two thirds of its members, revoke a declaration of war.

Article 14 The terms of this Charter may at any time be subject to revision if, upon request of the Lord Protector, more than three quarters of the High Councilors shall consent to the revision.

Appendix - Financial organization

The Seven Kingdoms being hereby dissolved, the now independent realms that once composed it shall assume full faith and credit for debts contracted by its Crown. Each of the formerly united Kingdom shall take up a share of this burden, to be determined in due course after the war's end, which shall be proportional to a realm's wealth and economic resources.

The Commonwealth Administration hereby established shall not contract any debt, nor levy any amount of money from its constituent realms, whether directly or indirectly. Each realm shall be responsible to provide for the expenses of its respective High Councillor, and the Dragonlands shall be responsible to provide for all additional expenses.


X Robb of the House Stark, First of his Name, King in the North

Over my dead body

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Also, I would like to see the "wheel" of aristocratic male domination broken, and don't think Daenerys as ruler or even Jon as ruler would be a good ending - I think they should make their world more modern and egalitarian like the NW, and both maybe not die, but finish out the story as emotionally wounded characters.

In all modesty, I'm the one who brought constitutional federalism to Westeros.

Over my dead body

I really need to make that Clash of Kings remake as soon as time allows, xD

Yes.  Yes, you do

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Also, I would like to see the "wheel" of aristocratic male domination broken, and don't think Daenerys as ruler or even Jon as ruler would be a good ending - I think they should make their world more modern and egalitarian like the NW, and both maybe not die, but finish out the story as emotionally wounded characters.

In all modesty, I'm the one who brought constitutional federalism to Westeros.

Over my dead body

I really need to make that Clash of Kings remake as soon as time allows, xD

Haha, I'd love to be an external observer and watch as the new Robb tries to replicate my success.

Or you could always play as someone else

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

it was SOOOO tense, I don't know if I've ever been so tense watching a TV show before.


So...Bronn or Daenerys, who were you rooting for?  I was so torn, but I knew I didn't want Bronn to die more than anything else.

Bronn since Dany's really annoying; even though I knew it would happen, I was genuinely disappointed Qyburn's ballista didn't work.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

it was SOOOO tense, I don't know if I've ever been so tense watching a TV show before.


So...Bronn or Daenerys, who were you rooting for?  I was so torn, but I knew I didn't want Bronn to die more than anything else.

Bronn since Dany's really annoying; even though I knew it would happen, I was genuinely disappointed Qyburn's ballista didn't work.

Why?  It was clear to me from the moment that I saw it in the basement of the Red Keep that aiming it would be its weakness.

B/c I really want Dany to die b/c she's sooooooo annoying.  Stannis would've been the best of the possible rulers prior to Shireen's burning (which probably isn't gonna go down in the books the way it did in the show).

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

it was SOOOO tense, I don't know if I've ever been so tense watching a TV show before.


So...Bronn or Daenerys, who were you rooting for?  I was so torn, but I knew I didn't want Bronn to die more than anything else.

Bronn since Dany's really annoying; even though I knew it would happen, I was genuinely disappointed Qyburn's ballista didn't work.

Why?  It was clear to me from the moment that I saw it in the basement of the Red Keep that aiming it would be its weakness.

B/c I really want Dany to die b/c she's sooooooo annoying.  Stannis would've been the best of the possible rulers prior to Shireen's burning (which probably isn't gonna go down in the books the way it did in the show).

It won't go down the same way, obviously, (I'm almost certain Stannis wins against the Boltons in the books) but I believe Stannis burning Shireen is one of the few specific events GRRM gave to the show-writers in advance.

I thought he told them Shireen was going to get burned by Stannis' faction rather than Stannis himself, although I could be mistaken.  It certainly won't happen for quite a while if Stannis does it as Shireen is at The Wall (with Selyse and Melisandre whom I could easily see taking the initiative, so to speak, and doing it themselves) while Stannis is fighting a battle at the outskirts of Winterfell.  

Now what I could see is if Stannis defeats the Boltons and takes Winterfell, but then decides to burn Shireen much later in the series when the Others have surrounded Winterfell or after The Wall has fallen as some sort of desperate sacrifice that he wrongly believes would allow him to defeat the army of the dead shortly before he dies in some sort of battle.  I still think it's more likely Selyse and Melisandre just burn Shireen at The Wall without actually telling him though.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Bronn's bromance is more with Tyrion, who is also there... and Bronn is ultimately a sellsword, and a pragmatic one, he declined Tyrion's offer to be his champion during the trial by combat.

But that was way back when the show was still trying to be an adaptation of the books as opposed to...well...whatever it is now.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

I've never rage-quit an episode of a show before, but that Arya-Sansa scene was sooooooooooo awful.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Watched the leaked version of episode 6 last night. Very good episode, you will not be disappointed. Let's just say that the game has changed considerably and one fan theory was right.

We must've watched a different episode then, because what I saw was FUBAR.  Actually, I think I know what you're referring to and in fairness, that part was pretty cool.  That being said, without spoiling anything, let me just say that some of the Winterfell scenes, especially the one where Sansa finds Arya's bag were easily among the worst in the show's history.  Not even the acting could elevate that mess.  We're talking "you want a good girl, but need a bad pussy" level bad writing and the characterization of several of the major characters (one in particular) was arguably the worst in the entire history of the show, effectively turning several key protagonists (at least for this episode) into obnoxious idiots with so little resemblance to their characters (show or book version, take your pick) that they might as well be OCs from a bad fanfic who just happened to share a name with someone in GoT/ASOIAF.  

And I know internal consistency isn't exactly the show's bread and butter at this point which is fine, but these scenes threw everything we know about major characters out the window for no reason (and it couldn't even stay consistent with what happened earlier in the episode regarding one plot point).  It's not like you can even go "Okay, the Winterfell stuff didn't work at all, but I guess I can understand why they made that creative choice."  Unless you're one of those conspiracy theorists who believes D&D are literally writing a fanfic whose plot is just an excuse to make characters they like into Mary Sues (or Villain Sues in a few cases) while turning the ones they don't like into some sort of Westrosi Ron the Deatheater (see TV tropes).  

I find it hard to believe that D&D are deliberately doing that, but some of the creative choices they've after running out of BookVerse material really make you wonder if Martin didn't just say "here's a one sentence description of where everybody is at the end" and D&D have been forced to just make the rest up as they go (actually, this would explain a lot tbh, especially if D&D are talented enough writers to adapt the material, but not talented enough to constantly develop high quality borderline-original content in that verse).

While the Winterfell stuff kinda ruined the episode for me (it was really that bad), I will say that the battle beyond the wall was pretty good and I expect most will really enjoy this episode for that reason alone.  There is also a great twist that won't happen in the books, but should be so cool that even I'm pretty d*** excited about it.  

I think this is one of those episodes where if you mainly come for the acting, battles, and incredible effects, you'll love it (nothing wrong with that btw).  If you come mainly b/c you're invested in the characters, the political aspect, or the plot/writing, you'll react more like I did.  I also imagine you'll see a rather divergent reaction between folks who've only seen the show and folks who've read the books (like me).  Ultimately, the show is the show and the books are the books.  There are legitimate arguments for both being better, especially before the show passed the books.  Anyway, I hope folks enjoy it more than I did.  Despite my feelings about the episode, I'm still gonna watch it tonight b/c the stuff it did well was so much fun.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Looks like production on Season 8 will start even later in the year than production on Season 7 started last year:

http://collider.com/game-of-thrones-season-8-filming-date/#premiere-date

This raises the possibility that Season 8 won't actually be ready for broadcast by next July.  The postproduction might not be done by then.  But if it slips much later than that, then are they really going to put the show up on Sunday nights against football?  I think if they're going to push it into September or later, then you've got to think about switching to a different night of the week.  Alternatively, they hold it back until February 2019, when the football season is over....

Don't tell me that.  Let me live I denial a little longer

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

That will be remembered on par with Ned's death.

 Finally White Walkers and Wrights versus Dragons... and while the Dragons cause great initial damage, it looks like the Night King was EXPECTING the dragons, even allowing Jon's plan to unfold and use him and Jorah as bait for Dany. He knew it was coming. He was waiting. He knew the dragon would show up. It was all part of his plan.

 And not how fans thought a Dragons versus White Walkers battle would go, which makes you wonder about the endgame.


 RIP to Uncle Benjen and Thoros, as well.



 Oh and Arya D&D's original character who in no way resembles Arya is totally psychotic. I hated Sansa in season 1, and was "meh" on her until around Lysa's death and she manipulated the Lords of the Vale. But come on. This isn't even close. Arya D&D's original character who in no way resembles Arya is threatening her sister with death. Sansa is reverting a bit back to her spoiled self as well, but it's not even close.

FTFY

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

A thought just occurred to me -what if this tension between Arya and Sansa is actually a setup mutually agreed upon between the two with the ultimate goal of killing Littlefinger?  Sansa can't execute him outright for obvious reasons (especially since even if Bran has told them both everything about him, they have no actual evidence -yet), and Arya can't just assassinate him out of the blue no matter how much she wants to.  So they have to lure Littlefinger into making a mistake grave enough to justify his death, and what better way to do that than to make him think there is still a conflict between the two sisters that he can exploit?  They're both intelligent, cunning, and ruthless, enough such that they can pull it off.    

This is like when everyone tied themselves in knots last season trying to explain how Arya survived that stabbing.  This sort of stuff gets quite simple once you realize Benioff & Weiss are simply sh!tty writers who won the lottery and have been bumblef***ing their way through something with little to do with the books ever since they ran out of book material.  They're like some sort of two-headed Mr. Magoo, the ratings keep going up no matter how bad the screenwriting gets b/c the show is still really entertaining to watch in terms of acting and pure spectacle...it's just not ASOIAF at all anymore except in name.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

After bingeing several YouTube videos before season 7 started, I came across the idea that Bran was the Night King and shared it with my friends, who of course laughed it off.  I am glad to see it gaining some steam and legitimacy!

All due respect, I'd put a $50 against a $10 that you're wrong.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Other than the Theon stuff, I thought it was a pretty bad episode.  Even the Night's King riding Rodan made no sense (what was his plan before the dragon showed up?  Wait around and do nothing?).

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Other than the Theon stuff, I thought it was a pretty bad episode.  Even the Night's King riding Rodan made no sense (what was his plan before the dragon showed up?  Wait around and do nothing?).

The Night King had been waiting for the Dragons this entire time. He knew they were coming. He kept Jon&co on that island as bait for Daenerys. It was a trap. The Night King has the same abilities as Bran, he knows all of the characters.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Um, 100% serious.

And as I already posted, we already saw them preparing the chains in Episode 1.

Translation: It makes no sense, but D&D wanted the Night's King to ride Rodan even though it's not gonna happen in the books, so that's what happened.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Um, 100% serious.

And as I already posted, we already saw them preparing the chains in Episode 1.

Translation: It makes no sense, but D&D wanted the Night's King to ride Rodan even though it's not gonna happen in the books, so that's what happened.

Why do you keep saying "Rodan"?

The names of the dragons are Drogon, Viserion, and Rhaegal. The NK has Viserion.


It makes perfect sense. We've seen more than once how the NK has Bran's powers, notices Bran's powers... even reanimating wights is similar to how Bran can possess the living.

So we're throwing "three heads has the dragon" completely out the window? 

Btw, I keep saying Rodan b/c it kinda looked like the NK was riding Rodan in one of the shots. 

We can say "it's not going to happen on the books" all we want, but the problem is that we don't actually have the books.

I can and do blame D&D for inexcusable disasters like Show Dorne, but when all you have is a vague outline of the endgame for such a complex plotline one can hardly blame them for some of the story decisions they had to make, particularly when we have nothing to compare them to.

So since the Show and the Books have diverged a long time ago I think it's best if you judge them separatedly, and in doing that I didn't found this season to be bad at all, indeed I found it better than Season 5 and Season 6.

D&D have said this is not how the wall comes down in the books.  Also season five was waaaaaaaaaaaaay better than season seven.  Season six was when things really went off the rails, but I'd say even that season was better than this one.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Narratively, it seems rather unsatisfying if the only way for the White Walkers to pass through the wall was to rely on Team Humanity to go on this dumb mission whose only purpose was to prove that the White Walkers were a threat.  And I'd have the same objections if the "Bran inadvertently de-powers the Wall" theories were correct.  The White Walkers being a threat only because the humans make dumb mistakes doesn't work for me.

Of course, this gets at a problem with Jon's entire goal of uniting the human race against the WWs.  How does he even know that the WWs have a way to get past the Wall?  They haven't managed it for the past few years, so for all he knows, they don't have any way to do so.

So then, let's suppose that they didn't get through the Wall.  What is the plan of Team Humanity then?  Launch a massive pre-emptive strike against them (even though that could backfire, since that could lead to many more deaths, plus the possible loss of the remaining two dragons)?  Or just man the Wall in case of invasion, but otherwise wait and see (for years?  decades?) if the WWs manage to do anything?  How long do they put the war for the Iron Throne on hold while they wait around to see if the WWs do anything?  It's a moot point now that the Wall has come down, but they didn't know that it would come down when they were talking about this.

It just seems like Jon and co. have been taking it as a given that the WWs are very likely to take over the whole continent soon-ish, despite not really having any reason to believe that the Wall wouldn't stop them from doing so.

This. 

Why does "the dragon has 3 heads" have to be about dragon-riders?

I'm pretty sure Martin has explicitly said that's what it is referring to, so...