You know what made Robert the best candidate? His charisma, his proximity to the economic and political power center in the south, his youth, virility and bachelorhood.And his ambition. All of these things are lacked in one form or the other by his allies. None of them combine them all.

Robert's claim is a paper thin pretense (oh hai, I have an obscure link to this major house, help me kill them and take their shit!). Perhaps not completely cynical (depending on who you ask) but but even Robert doesn't really buy into it and given how shitty the Targs were he could have gotten away without it.

 

Robert's grandmother was Targaryen, and his father cousin to Aerys no? That's not that obscure...

I've always been wondering about a return to independent kingdoms myself. Don't know who'd take the Crownlands (maybe Robert or Stannis, based on their Baratheon blood and Targaryen ties?), but otherwise...

 

I still find it odd that those hair/eye traits are taken for proof positive that someone is a Lannister, just as Baratheon are dark hairded/dark eyed and Tagaeryens are silver haired/violet eyed. I understand the whole "seed is strong" thing but it smacks of a deus ex to me. Am I just crazy?

 

It's not just you. It seems weird to me too. Physical characteristics follow dynastic bloodlines, especially male ones, rather than being inherited according to basic genetics.

I just write it off as a result of their world being steeped in magic and try not to look at it any deeper.

 

I suppose in a world where dragons are real, the genetic proof positive isn't really that hard to explain. It still just bothered me because the Tully's, Tyrells and others aren't noted the same way, even the Stark's don't really have more than just "black Hair" and Sansa/Arya break that anyway.

 

It's just a family trait, might be magic-related 'cause this is a magic-y world. Might be that Baratheons made sure to marry dark-haired chicks to make it more possible, and Targs marrying only each other really helped their Valyrian features move along in uniform. Or it could be that, with the Baratheons, for example, one Maester looked at the guy and went, "Hmm. His hair's brown. But... it's kinda black under a certain light. Fuck it!" Another solution: the lineage/geneology book? It had "Orys Baratheon, black of hair." and then, for every line afterwards, after the name, quote marks, to indicate the same. And then Pycelle, after Jon Arryn asks for the book? "Shit I better add that Joffrey was actually golden-haired, or Jon Arryn will figure out the terrible secret: We Maesters are lazy as fuck."

And you misused deus ex. Bad Riley.

 

I couldn't think of a better term Matt. Sorry. Still a bit fuzzy from last night's bender and blearily stumbling my way into work. What term would you use?

 

You could go with contrived coincidence, probably. Just plain weird. Convenience of plot.

I'm sticking with, "Eh, it's probably magic, if not, it's logical enough to fly with me, or just plain lucky. Not something worth dissecting, even though I already kinda have earlier. But now I'm hungry. Those honeycomb and chocolate biscuits in the fridge sound nice. But I've already had like four today, and while I may not be watching my figure, I should at least be conscious about it. But then again, they're delicious as fuck, and if I don't eat them, somebody else will, and I can't accept it. What kind of poor lazy college student would I be if I left food to waste? It's not like I can buy these things willy-nilly. I gotta be careful with money, responsible and shit! I mean, maybe it wasn't responsible to buy that Mario game today, but come on, it's Mario. *Whistles Mario theme in head* Shit, now that's stuck in my head. I gotta listen to something else to drown it out. Oh hey, Game Of Thrones music. That's good. I like that. Game Of Thrones is pretty awesome. I might check for some ASOIAF fics now. Heh, remember when I was talking about Westeros genetics on DLP? That was crazy. I better check DLP. It's been two minutes. There could be a new post. Hell, I could've got a thumbs up. Little do people know getting a thumbs up on one of my awesomely hilarious sexy posts makes my dick grow. That and this honeycomb chocolate biscuit I just ate are making this a good night, overall. Yep. *Mario theme returns*".

 

Extremely relevant.

 

This is what the Iron Throne is for GRRM.



Here is his blog post

 

It's a Christmas tree! And Westeros it must be in the southern hemisphere and so, celebrate Christmas in the summer, and as such, of course would hate a long winter. A long winter means no Christmas! No wonder the Targaryens went mad, with no Christmas cheer for sometimes years at at time. I bet Aerys was a Grinch, though, and that's why he truly went mad. This also means that R'hllor is Santa (And Melisandre and her ilk immortal zombie reindeer, of course), while The Great Other is some kind of Jewish monster (Perhaps a giant driedel, and along with dragonglass, it's weak to ham and shrimp. The White Walkers are Rabbis and being turned into a wight is actually a Bat Mitzah), The Drowned God is Kwanzaa (Because nobody knows what the fuck the Drowned God's religion is about either) and the Faceless Men are Jehovah's Witnesses (And thus Arya's story will take a horrifying turn when it becomes her next birthday).

Excellent. This makes everything make much more sense.

 

Found another rendition by the same artist, but with a higher quality image here. This version doesn't seem to be made up of swords like the one on GRRM's blog. Still shows you the size of it.

Does look pretty daunting - even the room its in. Budget reasons or whatever, I always thought HBO's rendition of King's Landing and the Red Keep in general felt a bit...small and lackluster.

 

Why would anyone even want to sit in that. You'd think at least one of whoever made it's successors would be like "Fuck, that's scary. Let's get a new one with some cushions."

 

Probably a combination of not wanting to look like a pussy in front of your entire court for the rest of your life, and not being able to look like a pussy since someone might accuse of not being a suitable king because blahblah sit the throne blahblah.

 

Now imagine it with all the skeletons of the dragons. A sign of the Targaryen power indeed.

 

A story about the Dance of Dragons, the most awesomely named Civil War in existance. Looking forward. And a Molly POV, looking forward indeed.

 

I'll definitely be getting that one. Thanks for the heads up!

 

GRRM Excerpt

Gogogooo

 

I just finished my extremely long analysis of the Princess and the Queen excerpt.

Please go read it/upvote it on Reddit/reblog it on Tumblr.

Reddit thread.

Tumblr post (easier to read, I think).