I don't think you're alone in thinking those things, not one bit. Well, maybe alone in thinking his claim is most sound. What is this talk of 'claim'? Conquer that bitch.

Had a long conversation about the potential size of the unknown world yesterday. We only see the very top of Sothoryos and Ulthos, both of which have a certain inspiration from South America and Africa. Naturally, if inspired by those continents, we can imagine that they are pretty large land masses. Especially considering Sothoryos is a large jungle-covered continent. Ulthos looks as if it could easily connect to Sothoryos, making them one large continent, and making Essos a small portion of the larger land mass.

In my own personal world-view of ASOIAF, I imagine Sothoryos extending down very far, with the land of always winter extending up just as far, with a land bridge perhaps just barely connecting the two. I also imagine a huge ocean between Far Eastern Essos & Ulthos and Westeros.

One of the most interesting things I've seen on the map was a particular region, above Asshai. Written there is 'Cities of the Bloodless Men'. There are no actual cities labeled, which could be for a myriad of reasons (they are farther east still, it is just at the edge of the known world, so little is known, they could be a culture of the past, etc). But what exactly does George mean by Bloodless Men? Are they extremely pale, like the Qartheens, only more so? Are they pacifists? Is it a more mythical answer? Will we ever know....

The cities of the bloodless men, interestingly enough, are surrounded on the western side by natural protection. To the north, they have a massive canyon called The Dry Deep, as well as something called the Cannibal Sands. To the west and south, they have the Mountains of the Morn. Certainly interesting that something called the Bloodless Men are so surrounded by protection from other cultures.

Below the cities of the bloodless men is the city of Winged Men and the city of Carcosa. Both are cities that are still inhabited, and they sit on opposite sides of a sea called the Hidden Sea (presumably because this area is completely surrounding by the Mountains of the Morn). The themes of the Winged Men and the Bloodless Men seem like either a tribal life, or the names people gave a culture they know very little about. Winged Men also lead me to wonder if they perhaps have domesticated a flying creature that allows them to travel the mountains more easily, or if they merely dress in a lot of feathers.

Going to stop this post now, perhaps I'll cover another particularly interesting region later. Got a bit carried away with myself.

EDIT: the map of Braavos is one of my favorites, the architecture and city style is completely different from King's Landing. There was a particularly interesting island within Braavos that didn't have a bridge connecting it to the rest of Braavos, unlike most other islands. It has a very interesting and different architectural style on one of the buildings on that island, with an out of the ordinary amount of land that is not crammed with buildings. Oh fuck it, I'll take a picture.

[imgur]SSgAy[/imgur]

Here is the cities of the bloodless men region, while I'm at it:
[imgur]pf2Zy[/imgur]

 

Good point lol. In any case, the Greyjoys sitting the Iron Throne would be best for the kingdoms imo, and they love conquering bitches. :awesome

Also, has anyone seen this? 16-bit RPG version of season 1 of the show - hilarious.

 

Carmine, now that you have finished ADWD, be sure to read the Theon chapter from TWOW and listen to this awesome bit of a Victarion chapter that GRRM read.

 

Yeah, the Theon chapter was at the end of my copy of ADWD:ATF. Pretty awesome, and suggested Ramsay's letter was at least partly false.

I'll listen to the Victarion bit now and am very grateful for you mentioning it, he's no doubt my favourite POV character; my favourite non-POV being Littlefinger, ofc.

 

Methinks the far East sections of the map, such as the Winged Men, the Bloodless Men, etc., are nods to medieval maps, where the edges bore labels such as 'Here thar be dragons' or something to that effect.

 

I realized that I never shared the custom Game of Thrones board game house cards I made. Expanded the board game to 9 player, good times were had.
In case anyone is interested:

House Arryn
House Baratheon
House Greyjoy
House Lannister
House Martell
House Stark
House Targaryen
House Tully
House Tyrell

 

http://i.imgur.com/D1Ina.jpg

This is a pretty awesome picture of the characters from ASoIF drawn animelike. It's pretty similar to the Harry Potter animelike picture that is floating around the internet.

I posted it here because it is spoiler heavy for people who've only seen the TV show.

 

George recently released an official APP on the iPhone giving us interesting tidbits.

Theorycrafters (got the name from me being on WoW) on the asoiaf.westeros.org forums (a place I frequently visits, some of the theories are on point, and were the ones who lead for me to believe that

Spoiler

Jon is the son of Lyanna and Rheagar, but it hasn't been proven yet).

have compiled a list of thing that were revealed.

Here's the direct link to the thread http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/topic/77776-stuff-thats-confirmedhinted-at-in-awoiaf-app-v2/

 

GRRM released another sample chapter from TWOW!!! Arianne.

FUCK YES.

 

Interesting news regarding the Dangerous Women anthology, which was slated to include a piece on the wolf-women of Winterfell, part of the Dunk & Egg series. Instead, a piece about the origins of the Dance of the Dragons will be in this anthology, entitled, "The Princess and the Queen."

Also in this anthology are pieces by Jim Butcher, Brandon Sanderson, and Sharon Kay Penman.
:awesome

 

A new Joe Abercrombie tale as well?! Sold.

 

Meh. Still less impressive than an upcoming DLP Anthology.

 

So, I have a question that I don't recall ever seeing answered in the books. Why was it Robert's Rebellion, and not Eddard's Rebellion?

It was a Stark who was kidnapped. It was Lord Stark, and the Stark heir who were burned alive by the Mad King.

Just seems odd to me. Was it ever answered in the book?

 

I'd imagine that if Ned had decided to sit on the Iron Throne on that day, it would have been remembered as Eddard's Rebellion.

 

Alliteration.

Less facetiously, I think the answer is simple. Robert staked his claim to the throne, making him the rebellion's leader.

 

It was Robert's great love that was kidnapped. Robert quickly emerged as the charismatic young leader. And Robert won. So yeah, Robert's Rebellion.

Also, it's only called that within the context of the current series timeline, which is years later after he's won. At the time it might've gone by all sorts of different names, before the tragic ending of losing Lyanna though he wins the throne from the evil Targs solidifies Robert as this larger-than-life figure that represents the rebellion. Could've been Jon Arryn's PR work, to help paint Robert's plight as the sympathetic one - which, I mean, it kinda was, as far as overthrowing Aerys went.

And if all that doesn't convince you, I bet the fact whoever came up with it in-universe was proud of the alliteration, and as such, didn't have the heart to change it.

 

Yeah, I'm aware that it was probably only called that after the Rebellion was over. I just used it to illustrate my point. I had a feeling that that's all it was, but I was really hoping that there was some scene I just couldn't remember that went into some detail about it.

I'm just going to go with the alliteration thing.

 

Robert's grandmother was a Targaryen, which they thought gave him the best claim for the throne. He's the figure head, so they went with the alliteration thing.

 

Which was a pretty convenient line of bullshit basically.

It's called Robert's Rebellion because he sits the throne and the people writing the songs and stories want to flatter him in order to get his money, so that name comes up and sticks.

Alternatively, Robert as the most viable candidate to rule was always considered the likely benefactor and leader and so was seen as the leader.

 

It was his Targaryen blood that made him a better candidate than the Starks, Tullys, and Arryns. Had they all been on equal footing there, who knows which house would have tried to claim the throne, but Robert had the best claim.

Edit: Basically, no, I don't think his blood was a line of bullshit.