crocordile:

squirrelwrangler:

crocordile replied to your post:

jesus yeah the first night thing is also present in ASOIAF in a chapter when Roose Bolton says it existed and uses it as an excuse to rape Ramsay’s mom >_____> r i d i c u l o u s

Yeah, like with Roose, it makes sense that he’s a creep and fake justification for one man’s abuse of power (and the Umbers as nasty gossip about the wild neighbors you don’t like), but it is ridiculous. Though the more I try to justify it away, honestly with how GRRM doesn’t go for accuracy w/ the medieval (and late renaissance, and yet no gunpowder which even at Crecy they had canon) but for this darker and more sexist and awful and grim version, adding that myth and making it fact in this world fits with the crap-dark Westeros. (WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE POWERFUL MERCHANTS AND GUILDS IN WESTEROS?)

i have no words for how much I hated Aemund lol. the absolute worst. I WAS WAITING FOR YOU TO COMMENT ON THE SMALLFOLK KILLING RHAENYRA’S DRAGON WHATA SCENE

Oh gaaaah Aemund. Like, explain the eye loss episode because it hints that Rhaenyras’s sons were nasty little shits too, but man oh man was he just progressively a meaner and uglier piece of work with each new paragraph (but loyal to big bro, so wondering if he’s a proto/echo Victarion?)

That smallfolk mob scene!!! Just- after the first Tumbleton battle description, you understand exactly why killing off dragons is the best idea ever, because as terrible as wars are in these novels, there’s hope to escape and survive if it’s just armies of men, not those nuclear analogue dangerous to foe and ally and fuck dragons.

But the press of the mob, the hundreds that die but that we get their names, they are heroes of Westeros, just ugh the image of the queen’s dragon flying trapped in the Pit and the relief when the roof caves in but at the same time horror because the people trapped underneath, but ugh, that they get all the dragons – that was a pleasant and happy surprise.

also the greyjoys were a letdown!! the mention to the young lord reaper in the beginning makes you super excited but he never shows up?

SO UNFAIR!

Actually, the novella was extremely abrupt in its ending. like what??? what there a rogue editing process that chopped off the last paragraphs or something? 

We have an account for how Aemund lost his eye in the Rogue Prince! They were all very young, Aemond was 10 and he attacked 3yo Joffrey physically, and when his brothers ( who were around 5 and 6 year olds) found out they came to his rescue, and in the ensuing brawl Aemond lost his eye….  I think pulling out a dagger was extreme but Luce was 5 years old, had his nose broken, and at this time all the bastard bullshit propaganda was already being thrown around, idk idk I don’t think they were shitty kids *falls hard for whatever propaganda was being spread through those books*

That scene with the mob in the dragon pit made a huge impact on me omg…. yes, at any rate, even though i don’t share your extreme feelings on dragons, I also am glad they finally all died out and think it was ABOUT TIME x_x but I was so sorry for the peasants that died in the attack agaavabdnfjnfjnsk!!!!! 

Yeep the ending was super abrupt and they cut a few parts which many fans were expecting – like the fact that the twins Arrik and Errik, both of the kingsguard but fighting for different sides, were supposed to have killed each other at some point, etc

I do think the novella suffered HEAVY editing and a lot must have been left out!! That means I… should probbaly…. read… my copy of the world of ice and fire at some point >____> but i just have so much to read ahahjansbhsjd (BTW I FORGOT TO MENTION i finally read Shard of Honor, and am finishing a few other urgent readings before jumping on Barrayar!)

As for GRRM’s shitty grasp of medieval/renaissance period, WELP, yeah, I wouldn’t even care much about the gunpowder and the utter lack of scientifical improvement if at very least he didn’t cling to the GRIMDARK EVIL AGES clichés >___>

WHELP. WHAT THE EVERY LOVING F**, AEMUND? Like, that was not the ages of the story I expect to deal with? (Seriously? Who was watching those princes? Fail. So much Fail)

Ugh- there are some dragons in fantasy stories I do like; I’m not 100% anti-dragon. But they are a cliched and boring fantasy option, and there are more interesting and less-used beasts one could use as an author and I hate how generic they are and that I’m supposed to think ‘oh cool fantasy awesome strong symbol’ when I see them. And the dragons in ASoIaF only begin to be remotely interesting as the horrific uncontrollable symbolism of war’s inglorious destruction. Frankly when they were long extinct but had once existed, that was interesting. (Dany’s eggs hatching = lame disappointment and try as I can, nothing shakes me from this)

But ugh, that scene was the closest to a proper and glorified Peasant’s Revolt, something which was SO COMMON in both medieval and Renaissance and Reformation/Counter-Ref and here we finally had a fantasy version and this time the nobility/class oppressors were symbolized by dragons and it wasn’t knights but the combined and tragic but the disenfranchised people powerful in their numbers and despair and hope and drive… ♥

(I read enough ‘radio to the Romans’ type series where they do have the introduce gunpowder or introduce the industrial revolution into a ‘medievalish’ world that I can get my fill from those series. But the gaps in world-building in ASoIaF make me wonder if I need to research maybe something about the French society at this time because going off the English models the lack of the guilds and Armed Band of London – where are any town mayors? I know the World Book finally send some light on charter cities. and I probably need to read the fourth book because that’s where the Faith rise to power because that was another thing that bugged me, the lack of powerful monasteries and church lands and positions…)

The novella seemed very edited by buzz-saw needed at least a thousand words extra space. Like, if he was going for ‘incomplete medieval document with missing holes in the narrative’ – that would have been neat – more footnotes then, I think. Maybe too much Pratchett and then digging around in HoMe, but it begged for some faux-translator’s asides.

YAY Bujold! Cordelia is awesome!