WRONG WRONG WRONG

Rome conquered the world with its Legions, who were largely responsible for that organization. The Roman bureaucracy didn't come to any real fruition until the end of the Republic and the beginning of the Empire, when Rome went from a collection of tributary subject states into a superstate. Food production didn't truly pick up until the subjugation of Egypt in the Late Republic, long after Rome was rising in the world, and even then, most of it went into the Grain Allowances after the Gracchian Reforms of the late 1st century BC. Rome's armies were second-to-none. Better training (cohesive movement, rigorous training and a professional army), better equipment (segmented steel armor, high-grade steel swords) and better tactics (formations and cooperative units) gave them an edge from Day 1. The only reason Carthage had any success at all was that they had some better Generals, until Scipio Africanus came along for Rome and handed them their ass on a silver platter.

The only real vulnerability that Legions had was mobile horse archers like the Parthians. They could put any army to shame in their time and would have done long after if their methods hadn't been lost to time, up until the advent of gunpowder weaponry, which they wouldn't have been able to deal with.

Besides, they did more than fight. They built all of the roads, aquaducts, walls and fortresses. Westeros could do with all of that.

---------- Post automerged at 17:47 ---------- Previous post was at 17:44 ----------

See above.

/history rant

 

Sooooo, on matters other than if Harry's going to become Hermione and teach for the rest of the story...

If Harry is the Prince Who Was Promised, does anyone think we've seen any of the signs foretelling his coming? Smoke and salt could be the scene in the dragonpits. Anyone know if cxjenious has said anything about referencing the prophecies from the books more directly?

 

Repeating what you said over and over does not make it true. Legions were not some invulnerable super army and they've been defeated again and again by various nations. And no, Carthage didn't lose due to superior Roman generals, but rather because Rome could replace its legions much faster than Carthage could replace their trained troops. How? Organization and food production.

Your dismissal of food production shows that you don't actually understand how important it was to Roman success. You say "most of it went to grain allowances" as if that means the food was wasted, when it's the opposite of reality. This grain allowance for urban citizens is exactly what allowed Rome to raise large armies again and again. Because these urban citizens do not have to farm, their labor was available for the army. By contrast many other nations were also able to raise large armies...until it came harvesting time.

Absolute nonsense. Swiss and German pikes would've handed Roman legions its ass on a platter. Medieval heavy cavalry would've shattered Roman formations like bowling balls. It's the height of fanboyism to claim that Roman military prowess was unmatched till gunpower weaponry.

You also completely forgot about China.

Newsflash, so did every other semi-competent army in history. Roman siege methods and technology were no match for medieval ones. What the Romans considered a fortress would've been a minor fort by medieval times.

 

All this talk about Harry changing Westeros got me thinking.
Screw better weapons and armies, screw better technology. What Harry could bring about is Women's Rights and Gender equality.

 

Hmm, well Cersei would be quite supportive though I think it would be disastrous. This is Westeros, not 1960's. Women showing strength and threatening the ego's of conquerers, who already rape and pillage, is not a wise idea. If I was a woman and in Westeros, I wouldn't go anywhere near a women's rights convention.

 

What?

I believe you may have meant dragon, but I could be wrong and you might be referring to a meme or something.

Wouldn't be the first time.

If Urban Dictionary is to be believed it's a mentally challenged dragon.

 

one man ,no matter how poweful, can not change the way society works, change must come from the populacional in general.all he can do is plant the seeds of change the must be worked by the future generations.if harry somehow tries to make the changes by force, the best he could achieve would be,at best, temporary results.

 

A lot of people have speculated on what it means that Harry is Tywin's heir. It's not just money and land that he is inheriting, it's the Lannister name which we all know Tywin is obsessed with maintaining. So, if/when Harry becomes King, he will be a Lannister King therefore making the Lannisters the royal house and bringing their name further glory for all time. Look at it from Tywin's point of view: Harry, the extremely capable heir carrying his name/legacy who loves his family enough to fight his own father (who is King, therefore making such an act treasonous) for his mother's sake (a dumb, cruel, narcissistic bitch) versus Joffrey i.e. the New Mad King and Caligula on Westeros who carries the Baratheon name.

Hmmm, I wonder which one would he prefer on the Iron Throne?

 

I think I read previously that Harry would become a Baratheon if he became King.

Also, Cersei may be cruel and narcissistic, but certainly not dumb.

 

If Joffrey is assumed to be the oldest male heir of King Robert, then he inherits the Baratheon lordship as well as the Crown, even though he is of House Baratheon and House Lannister. Tywin, on the other hand, does not have a direct line male heir because he lost the ability to pass his land and titles to Jaime when Jaime became a Kingsguard and forsook all lands and titles, and he pretty much disowned Tyrion. The title would then pass through his daughter to his eldest grandson, Joffrey, if he were to die and do nothing. Since he has adopted Harry as his heir, however, Harry is legally his eldest son, in terms of inheritance, so Harry would become Lord Lannister, and while Joffrey would be of his house, he would be Joffrey's familial Lord, just as Harry, a Baratheon, would be beneath his brother, as Joffrey would be Lord Baratheon as well as King (assuming that Joffrey's parentage doesn't get called into question to disqualify him from being Lord Baratheon, in which case it would revert to Harry, the only true biological son).

Ah, the complexities of patrilineal inheritance.

 

Wait, everyone says Harry can't make advanced contraptions and technology, but could he just conjure/transfigure such and then have people learn and reverse engineer it?

 

Now I remember why I never went into inheritance law.

/sarcasm.

 

Only if he already knew the precise nature of what it was that he was conjuring (which he'd have to learn to do first), in which case he would be equally able to draw a schematic, already knowing the inner workings of whatever it was he needed.

Which makes it all kind of tautological, really.

 

Why it is necessary? I am pretty sure that McGonagall have no full knowledge about structure of cats.

 

On the contrary, they started with toothpicks to needles in first year for a reason: simple, homogeneous and pretty much two-dimensional.

You have to know a thing to make a thing.

 

I really don't think that's a rule for HP transfiguration. Cedric managed to turn a rock into a golden retriever, and even Harry's class makes pincushions into hedgehogs. If years of veterinary-level study in animal physiology were required to accomplish such things, I think it would have been mentioned.

But this is once again wholly irrelevant to Cxjenious's story, both because no one ever tries to transfigure advanced mechanical devices in the HP universe, so we don't have a reason to think it's even possible, and even if it was, having Harry able to conjure up tanks/planes/whatever would be the stupidest plot development of all time.

 

I doubt it's necessary to know the inner workings of the thing you are conjuring/transfiguring. Otherwise transfiguring animals would be impossible as you would have to know the exact composition of all internal organs, know the function of every organelle inside every cell, and understand all biological cycles and the complex balances of various chemicals.

 

I think there's a little magic involved, or it would be impossible, but I think the principle holds true. When they had their exams, they were told to turn a teapot into a tortoise because while they were similar shapes, they had different materials, construction and details, and also they were different in that one was alive and the other an object. They had to demonstrate understanding of those details in order to change it. That's why points were taken off for the student (can't remember which) who successfully made their teapot a tortoise, but failed to change the shell to the proper pattern. It's all about detail and understanding, plus a dose of magic.