Another "Bittersweet" Alternate Ending for GAME OF THRONES

The other day I had another idea for a "bittersweet" (per George RR Martin's stated plan) ending for the Game of Thrones television series that draws on the scripts of Alice Shipwise. In one of her "Battle of Winterfell" episodes, she depicts the Northerners--who had earlier been skeptical of Danaerys Targaryen due to her foreignness--converting hard-core for her after seeing the dragons in action against the White Walkers. This seems a lot more realistic than what happens in the actual show where the Northerners hail Jon Snow as "a madman...OR A KING" for riding a dragon, much to the ignored Danaerys' irritation.

(Seriously, she's been doing this for years and much more effectively, yet Jon who I don't think was very successful at commanding Rhaegal in battle is the one getting all the glory. Yes, they know him better than her, but still.)

Things broadly follow the television series until the attack on King's Landing. The city begins ringing its bells in surrender, but the Lannister die-hards continue firing on Danaerys from the Red Keep. Danaerys goes full dracarys on the Red Keep itself (not on the hundreds of thousands of non-combatants trying to surrender), only to accidentally trigger the wildfire stashes her father Aerys had stashed throughout the city. This leads to King's Landing going up like in the show, only with Danaerys watching in horror from atop Drogon as Jon, Grey Worm, Arya, etc. flee the city in a panic rather than her gratuitously murdering hundreds of thousand of helpless civilians and then making a megalomaniac speech about conquering the world afterward.

(I came up with a similar scenario around the time of the series finale and Twitterati Jacob Budz came up with a more detailed version and created a meme for it, which you can see here. Or just see below.)

Danaerys and her allies come together afterward and realize they have a massive mess on their hands. Not only do they have an enormous humanitarian crisis to deal with, but word is rapidly spreading in the South of the "Mad Queen" who murdered King's Landing, on top of the xenophobic nonsense Cersei had already been spreading earlier. Even though they all know that this isn't what happened, what matters is what people will believe. Danaerys isn't going to be accepted as a liberator from the White Walkers (most of Westerosi doubt they actually exist) or Cersei "I blew up the equivalent of the Vatican" Lannister. She will have to conquer most of Westeros with fire and blood. Although earlier in the series she'd made all sorts of threats to do exactly that (as people who defended her evil turn at the end of the series love to point out), seeing firsthand what this will entail on top of the losses she'd taken earlier (both personally and in dead soldiers) have soured her on the whole proposition. Bonus points if it turns out that, as Jon Snow pointed out earlier in the series, that witch wasn't a reliable source and Danaerys is pregnant with Jon's child.

(This is perhaps where Bran can come in, as Danaerys might not know she's pregnant at this point. This is another idea I borrowed from Ms. Shipwise, as it might make Jon agree to a political marriage even if he finds the idea of sleeping with his aunt gross.)

So what ends up happening is that Tyrion Lannister, who is once described as standing "as tall as a king" despite his dwarfism, ends up succeeding his sister Cersei as the king of everything south of the Neck. Jon retains his title as King in the North with Danaerys--whom the Northerners now adore even though people in the South view her as a monster--as his queen. To secure peace between the now-sundered halves of Westeros, Sansa's marriage to Tyrion is re-instituted.

(EDIT: A friend pointed out this could potentially undo Sansa's character development from a prince-obsessed bimbo into Littlefinger 2.0. This would need to be handled carefully--perhaps it's her idea, to immediately terminate the war rather than risk the rise of an anti-Targaryen leader in the South? The fact she and Tyrion both worship the Seven while Jon follows the Old Gods and Danaerys is irreligious might be helpful in heading off a Faith-inspired holy war against the pagan and the atheist. You could have Jon find it horrifying but ultimately agree to it.)

Like my scenarios earlier, this would meet Martin's goal of a "bittersweet" ending:

*The war ends with the victory of good over both supernatural and human evil, but enormous numbers of innocent people die anyway. Shades of Hiroshima.

*Danaerys wins the war but loses the peace purely by accident (as opposed to the contrived "everything goes wrong and she goes crazy" scenario we got in the show) due to other people's ignorance and bigotry. She gets to marry the man she honest-to-God loves, but it's a shotgun marriage with Jon's enthusiasm rather lacking given the revelation she's actually his biological aunt. Danaerys might not be bothered by the incest part, but she only has one-eighth (two-eighths if Yara Greyjoy and the Iron Islands come along) of what she sailed west to fight for--and it's the poorest and most backward section too. And although the fact she brings the world's only living dragon with her and Jon is a fairly mild personality means she's not going to be mistreated and will realistically have a large say in things, she's still a consort to a less-talented man rather than ruling queen.

*Although Sansa does get her childhood wish to be queen, it's to a man that, although she trusted him enough to spill the beans about Jon being a Targaryen and respected him due to his unwillingness to consummate their forced marriage, she has no romantic feelings or even physical attraction to whatsoever. And who is probably twice her age to boot. Of course, Tyrion does respect her intelligence and this would likely be some kind of Rule of Two situation rather than some kind of "unattractive nerd power fantasy," but still.

(My original idea featured Sansa remaining in the North, which means a future of catfighting with Danaerys, but this wouldn't be much fun either and it would give her even less opportunity to show off her intelligence and political savvy.)

My Thoughts on GAME OF THRONES Season 7 Episode 2: "Stormborn"

Last night I watched "Stormborn," the second episode of the seventh season of HBO's fantasy series Game of Thrones. In this one, there's a lot going on, including Danaerys' invasion of the Seven Kingdoms running into a major snag.

The Good

*Sam's surgery on Ser Jorah to cure his greyscale was extremely painful to watch, which was kind of the point. And the way they cut from Sam's knife penetrating Jorah's damaged skin to Arya cutting into a pie was masterful--if gross--in the same way they cut from Sam emptying bedpans to Sam serving slops in the Citadel cafeteria.

*I was very glad to see Arya going home instead of continuing her likely suicidal attempt to take out Cersei. Seriously, the group I watch the show with was straight-up cheering when, upon learning her brother (well, cousin, but she doesn't know that) Jon was ruling the North, she turned around.

*Although Jon is going about it in a clumsy way (no thanks to Sansa), he shows he has the best interests of the North at heart. He really should send Ser Davos or even Sansa herself to Dragonstone to negotiate with Danaerys, at least at first. Hopefully Littlefinger won't take advantage of his absence to push Sansa into doing something stupid and dangerous--it would suck massively if Jon had to personally execute (as far as he knows) his own sister for treason Ned Stark style.

*There are lots of good speeches here--Varys stands up to Danaerys and talks about how he's loyal to the people who'll prosper with good leadership and suffer under bad, Cersei rallying Westerosi lords against Danaerys' army of violent foreigners, and Jaime's attempt to woo Randyll Tarly and overcome his oaths to House Tyrell.

*I liked the scene between Jon Snow and Littlefinger in the crypt, even though I vocally referred to Littlefinger as an "oily prick" while it was actually in progress. Littlefinger mixes lies with truths as usual--Jon does owe him a lot for saving his behind in the Battle of the Bastards, but he had a lot more than just "differences" with Ned Stark and it wasn't very smart of him to reveal that he loved Sansa just like he loved her mother. Seriously, he earned that Big Brother Beatdown there. And the sheer gall of him coming to "pay respects" to Ned Stark's grave when it was him who betrayed him to his death in the first place. DIE! DIE!

*And Euron Greyjoy proves he can walk the walk, not just talk the talk. He takes Yara's fleet (or at least the core of it) by surprise in a pyromaniac orgy of slaughter, he's the first man aboard Yara's flagship riding down a skull-headed gangplank cackling with glee, and by the end of it, he takes multiple stab wounds and multiple blows from a whip from the Sand Snakes, and he still triumphs. Hot damn. That battle sequence was excellent and Euron is my favorite bad guy now. Many of the Game of Thrones villains are just gross (Ramsay, Joffrey), but Euron is just crazy awesome.

The Bad

*No mask for Sam when he's doing a highly risky--to him-- operation on Ser Jorah? Given how he knows from the Archmaester that the man who cured two advanced cases of greyscale died of the disease himself, I'm surprised he didn't wear a mask, whatever equivalent to goggles exist, etc.

*I thought the scene with Grey Worm and Missendei went on for too long. Yes, it's good to know even someone as damaged as Grey Worm can still love (and we know from an earlier season that the Unsullied, despite their physical incapacity, still desire intimacy) and Grey Worm's speech was good, but it seemed like the show's typical gratuitousness. I would have preferred a shorter scene and more time devoted to the Ironborn-on-Ironborn slugfest.

*Sansa needs to stop publicly undermining Jon and arguing with all his decisions. One of my friends said she wanted to punch Sansa through the TV screen. Seriously, they just talked about this last week, and Sansa is a lot more mentally agile and better at playing the game than she was in the earlier seasons.

*When Ellaria and Yara are talking about what Yara would do as queen of the Iron Islands, what they hell does she mean that Theon would serve as her "protector"? As we see later in the episode, Theon isn't very good at "protecting" anybody right now, or at least not protecting people from those bigger and more aggressive than he is. Yara knows how broken Theon is from the failed attack on the Dreadfort. Of course, perhaps this was wishful thinking on her part.

*How did Euron take Yara's flagship by surprise? It's at the heart of a much larger fleet. If he were somehow able to sneak his own ships into the core of Yara's armada, smash up the flagship and its immediate bodyguard, and then flee, leaving most of Yara's fleet actually intact that'd be one thing. But if he attacked at the edges and pushed inward destroying everything in his path, Yara and friends would have a lot more warning rather than being taken by surprise.

*I would have prolonged Theon's agony before he flees. He's shown no problems killing lots of Euron's Ironborn earlier in the episode, which shows he's got a lot of his mojo back. Maybe he advances more boldly on Euron, but slowly breaks back down before Euron's taunting and seeing Euron's people killing everybody around him? Intercut it with some Ramsay flashbacks and it'd be much better.

*Danaerys' strategy to conquer Westeros without alienating the people and leadership by using foreigners to attack the capital and without gratuitously destroying King's Landing with her dragons leaves out just what she would use her dragons for. They're war-winners when used aggressively--see the Field of Fire, the Battle of the Last Storm, and the burning of Harrenhal from Aegon's conquest--and they would allow her coalition to win with far fewer losses.

More Thoughts

*I wonder if they're setting up Sam to get greyscale with the Archmaester's warning and his insufficient precautions.

*The last time we saw Littlefinger getting choked by a Stark it was Ned in King's Landing, and it didn't end well for Ned. And we see Littlefinger rubbing his neck and watching Sansa ominously after emerging from the crypts beneath Winterfell. Jon better watch his back, because the little man is going to try something evil no doubt.

*With the Targaryen-loyalist faction of the Ironborn gutted and the current Dornish leadership captive (and possibly much of the Dornish army destroyed in transports), Danaerys might definitely need to "be a dragon" now, and with Qyburn building a huge ballista (that, per the books, is capable of killing a dragon) and having most of Cersei's wildfire stash besides, that could end badly for her. Hopefully she'll unleash the dragons on Casterly Rock in the next episode, which, incidentally, would give Qyburn more time to build up the capital's anti-dragon defenses.

*Theon is explicitly still alive at the end of the episode, although the sharks will likely be attracted by all the dead and wounded in the water. Unless some remnant of the Targaryen Ironborn fleet is there to pick him up, he looks like he's in trouble. On the other hand, the fact he's explicitly left alive onscreen means that this isn't the last we've seen of him. Let's hope Euron went with a "sneak in, burn, and sneak out" strategy that left much of Yara's fleet intact, for his sake at least.

*Ellaria Sand and one of her daughters are now prisoners of Cersei Lannister, whose innocent daughter they'd treacherously murdered. I wouldn't expect them to live very long, although given how in the books Qyburn seems to enjoy experimenting on women, there might be something much worse for them in store than Cersei simply chopping off both their heads.

(Yara's in a tight spot too, but Euron might want to pimp her out to one of his political allies for Greyjoy dynastic reasons.)

As always, looking forward to next week.

My Thoughts on "Game of Thrones" S7 Episode 1: "Dragonstone"

Just got back from watching the first episode of Game of Thrones Season 7, "Dragonstone." Here are some thoughts. Beware, here there be lots of spoilers...

This episode was really funny, both things that are obviously intended to be comic and things that really aren't. For example, the scene at the beginning where Arya Stark disguises herself as Walder Frey and poisons all of the male Freys (or at least the ones involved in the Red Wedding) was funny to me. It's not because watching people getting poisoned is innately funny, but because it's so masterfully done (including how Arya-as-Walder avoids drinking the poisoned wine and keeps "his"wife from doing so) and because Arya-as-Walder's speech is so cutting.

In terms of things that actually are supposed to be funny, Euron Greyjoy rocked the house this episode. I particularly liked his comment on how he's got "one thousand ships and two good hands," which is obviously a jab at Jaime Lannister. I also liked how Jaime reacted to it, as well as his less-than-flattering assessment of the Ironborn in general.

In case you're wondering what's going on, Euron arrives at King's Landing with the Iron Fleet to offer himself as a husband to Cersei Lannister, who has at this point usurped the Iron Throne but in the process has made a lot of enemies. Cersei displays what could be common sense in rejecting Euron (a known backstabber), at least until he can prove himself. But that could also be unnecessary arrogance, since the Iron Throne is in such a perilous state that something as drastic as a royal marriage might be necessary to get the Ironborn back on board. One wonders if there are any suitable women to push Jaime on? Oleanna Tyrell is too old and based on the events of the last season, any member of the Sand Snake junta in Dorne is out of the question.

And of course we see Tormund Giantsbane lusting after Brienne of Tarth again. That's pretty funny, especially his comments to Podrick Payne.

Moving on from the comedy, a lot of really important stuff story-wise happens in this episode. At long last, Danaerys returns to Westeros, taking control of Stannis's former stronghold of Dragonstone and dramatically touching the ground of her long-lost homeland. The "next week on Game of Thrones" preview shows all of Danaerys' allies gathering around Aegon's table and Yara Greyjoy offering to attack King's Landing right away, so that plot looks to be moving at a rapid clip.

I did like seeing some of the drama between Jon and Sansa. Sansa has clearly learned how to play the game and be ruthless as needed from Cersei and Littlefinger. She points out that Ned and Robb made some bad decisions and paid for it with their lives. However, publicly arguing with her brother is not the way to get what she wants. As Jon points out to him, that undermines his authority as King in the North, and he can't have that. And Littlefinger is clearly trying to manipulate Sansa into doing something.

(With Bran back in the game, we have a possible succession issue in Winterfell--Jon is a blooded warrior but he's a bastard, Sansa is the oldest remaining true-born child but she's a girl, and Bran is the oldest remaining true-born son but he's disabled. Depending on whether the break in his spine is he might not be able to father children, and he certainly can't lead men in battle.)

It was also interesting to see the Lannister soldiers who are friendly to Arya, one of whom was singer Ed Sheeran. I honestly thought they had bad intentions at first, with the way they were trying to offer her food and wine, but it seems they were honestly trying to be friendly. Maybe all the previous criticism about the violence toward women on the show has been taken to heart? Or perhaps the producers were making the point, like the books do, that when the nobles play their games of thrones, it's the commoners who suffer. None of those men seem like bad guys at all, but if Cersei and Jon go to war, Arya's people will kill them or they'll kill Arya's people. All very sad.

Although the episode was overall pretty good, I didn't like what I called the "extended poo montage," much to my friends' amusement. They could have made the point that Sam's life as a Citadel novice sucks in half the time, freeing up a few minutes to elaborate on some of the other subplots.

Also, what about Edmure Tully? Is Arya aware he's a captive in the Twins? It could be that she is and desire for revenge has consumed her to the point she doesn't care about her uncle. With most if not all of the male Freys dead, that might leave Edmure in an unexpectedly strong position to reacquire the Riverlands, assuming they don't just forget about him in the dungeon.

Still, definitely looking forward to next week.

What If Robb Stark Got a Do-Over?

Today I've got another alternate-universe fan-fic from the world of A Song of Ice and Fire for your enjoyment. Both of them courtesy of the biggest alternate-history forum on the Internet, of course...

The first one is entitled "Robb Returns," written by the board member whose handle is Cymraeg (and who has a bunch of really awesome stories available for the Kindle). The gist of it is that the Old Gods send Robb Stark back to a year-ish before King Robert Baratheon comes to Winterfell to ask Ned Stark to become the Hand of the King. To the other denizens of Winterfell, Robb is acting quite strangely--he immediately hugs his sisters and younger brothers (whom he thinks are dead), acts disconcertingly hostile toward his foster brother Theon Greyjoy, and weapons-master Rodrik Cassel reports that he fights like a man who's killed.

Maester Luwin and Ned Stark soon suss out the truth and there's a chance to right the wrongs of canon. Goodies include...

*The touch of the Old Gods giving those who've been touched (first Robb and then Ned) red irises, like the sap of the heart trees. Fortunately for them it fades, but it's a cool little touch.

*An amusing bit about how...popular...King Robert and Tyrion Lannister were with the prostitutes and Winterfell's female staff.

*Ned, who'd kept his distance from Theon in the event Balon rebelled against and he'd have to kill him, actually tries to be the father-figure Theon needs.

*And best of all, Robb goes back early enough that Domeric Bolton, Roose Bolton's legitimate son, is still alive.

This story is of especial interest because my writing fan-fiction in Harry Potter and the Transformers movie-verse (you can see my page here) was inspired by reading the story "The Moment It Began," which gives the dying Severus Snape a do-over.

However, just because a character can avoid the mistakes of his canonical lifetime doesn't mean everything's going to be peachy-keen. Snape in "The Moment It Began" still had to deal with the petty torments of James Potter and his friends, the enmity of the Death Eater wannabes he's now spurned, and the war with Voldemort. Since a major trait of the ASOIAF universe is that (almost) everything that can go wrong will, I expect Robb and the Starks will have issues too. For starters, Roose has ordered Domeric to try to charm Sansa Stark, which might make things a bit awkward if King Robert wants to betroth Sansa to Joffrey. And Ramsay Snow is still out there, waiting to cause trouble...

Enjoy!

Stannis Isn't The Mannis Anymore... (SPOILERS)

So I watched Game of Thrones last night, and it was generally an entertaining episode. I liked what happened in Meereen, especially the dramatic return of Drogon and the incineration of a whole bunch of Sons of the Harpy.

However, there was one major aspect of the story I didn't like, and given its magnitude, it really put a dent in my enjoyment of the episode and the series generally.

Stannis letting Melisandre sacrifice his daughter Shireen. To be perfectly blunt, that's incredibly out of character and straight-up character assassination.

Here's a handy graphic showing what happened in the books, courtesy of @lenlovecraft on Twitter:

The creators have generally done a good job consolidating and simplifying a huge, complex book series into something that would work for television. I understand that even with a season per book, there's still a lot of material that would need to get left out.

However, there's a difference between that and giving a character a personality transplant. Stannis's overriding cause is the rule of law and dynastic legitimacy. His older brother Robert's "trueborn" children aren't really his and his actual children are all bastards, so that means Stannis is the legal king. Renly challenges Stannis for the kingship and refuses to back down, so Stannis kills him. He continues the war even after the defeat of his army on the Blackwater, even after one of his in-laws comes up with a peace proposal (marry Shireen to Tommen) behind his back, because of rule of law. He abandons his seat of power to defend the Wall because defending the kingdom against an external threat (the 100,000 wildings and the White Walkers driving them on) is another means of gaining legitimacy--instead of getting the throne to save the kingdom, he saves the kingdom to get the throne.

And should anything happen, Shireen is Stannis's heir. In the pre-released Theon Greyjoy chapter of The Winds of Winter, Stannis explicitly tells his henchman Justin Massey to continue the fight to seat Shireen on the Iron Throne even if Stannis himself is killed in the coming battle with the Boltons.

“It may be that we shall lose this battle,” the king said grimly. “In Braavos you may hear that I am dead. It may even be true. You shall find my sellswords nonetheless.”
The knight hesitated. “Your Grace, if you are dead — ”
“ — you will avenge my death, and seat my daughter on the Iron Throne. Or die in the attempt.” 

Does this seem like something a man who would kill his only daughter, his only heir, would say? Given his wife's fertility problems (all those miscarriages in jars), if anything should happen to Shireen, House Baratheon is dead.

People are claiming that Stannis in the books and Stannis in the show are not the same character, and that people who complain are "Book Puritans." However, are there any characters besides Stannis that get personality transplants like this? Every other character is generally the same as they are in the books, but Stannis, instead of being an atheist obsessed with the rule of law and justice (because in the absence of gods, justice must come from men), is now a crazed religious fanatic.

In the discussion on the alternate-history forum of the episode, someone posted a video in which the showrunners claim Renly would have made a great king (instead of a selfish narcissist who'd set a VERY dangerous precedent--do we want a civil war every time the king dies?). See 3:30 and 4:30, especially the latter. If they hate Stannis for killing Renly and have been character-assassinating him from the very beginning (I haven't watched much of the show pre-Season 4, but I remember complaints that he was too in the thrall of Melisandre), well, they're incredibly, incredibly petty. We're talking "Paul Verhoeven butchering Starship Troopers because he read one chapter in the book and didn't like it" levels of pettiness here.

However, some points in the showrunners' favor:

*I heard on Twitter that George R.R. Martin himself actually said to do this. It's confirmed in this video here. Martin is the creator of the book series and thus the ultimate authority on what's canon and what's not. However, Martin said it happens in a later book. If that's the case, what I think will happen is that Stannis's men who remained at the Wall get the letter claiming Stannis is dead and Ramsay is coming and decide to sacrifice Shireen unilaterally to call down some Red God juju lest they all get flayed alive. Another theory I've heard is that Melisandre burns Shireen to resurrect Jon Snow as the real Azor Azhai. Either way, Stannis does not do this and that's the important part.

*If Shireen must die, there's still a way to do it that's not so grossly out of character for Stannis. We've seen Melisandre work magic from the blood of Robert's bastard Gendry, who has the "king's blood" she needs. This she accomplishes by drawing blood with leeches. There might not be leeches in the North, but they could always do good old-fashioned bleeding. Shireen is eager to do this to help her father (per her pre-burning speech) and Melisandre praises her for her zeal. The first bleeding causes some kind of minor miracle, so Melisandre does it again and again. Shireen starts to weaken and sicken, but she's eager to help and it is working. Eventually Stannis puts his foot down, but Shireen is now really anemic and between that and the harsh conditions, dies.

That sequence would have all the tragedy of what happened without Stannis being so murderous and out-of-character.

Furthermore, this only happened because Ramsay's "twenty good men" plan actually worked, which is incredibly unlikely. Given Ramsay and his Northerners' knowledge of the terrain and Ramsay's sheer audacity I could imagine them doing something besides getting killed trying to kill Stannis (which I thought would happen), but they were way, way too successful. They get in and out of the camp (where they've never been before) without losing a man, they destroy the siege engines and the food specifically, etc. Ramsay is capable, but this is getting into Villain Sue territory.

So yeah. Poor story decisions (Ramsay the Ubermensch) breeding more poor story decisions (Stannis murdering his own daughter).

Still, it's mostly been a great show so far and I'm definitely going to watch the season finale.

ASOIAF AU Fan-Fic: So Soars The Young Falcon

On my alternate-history forum, a gentleman whose handle is CDA started writing an alternate timeline set in the world of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. It's entitled "So Soars the Young Falcon" and diverges from canon at the Battle of the Bells during Robert's Rebellion. Instead of dying at Jon Connington's hands, Denys Arryn (Jon Arryn's cousin and heir at the time) kills Connington and the royal army routs. This brings the rebellion to an accelerated conclusion, which is both good and bad. No details due to spoiler reasons...

CDA wanted to explore the world of Westeros through the lens of the early modern period. Although Westeros is generally referred to as a medieval world, one writer has made the claim it has more common with Europe's early modern period (the age of Renaissance and Reformation). See this article here.

So on the macro level, this timeline features, among other things:

*An incipient proto-Columbus, preparing to follow in the footsteps of Brandon the Shipwright. Let's just say that Brandon did not sail off to his death and there's something on the other side of the Sunset Sea...

*A septon present at the Battle of the Bells has his faith tested by the carnage and becomes a reformer of the Faith of the Seven who challenges the established religious hierarchy. He's an analogue to John Wycliffe. We've also met the analogues for Jan Hus and John Calvin as well. The way things are looking we're going to get all the disruption of our world's Reformation, and that's before the devotees of the Red God come west in significant numbers and the Others start stirring. Oh boy...

This in addition to some different adventures for the canon cast, including Ashara Dayne, Sandor Clegane, Jaime Lannister, Ned Stark (whose wolf-pack expands significantly), Lysa Arryn, and the mysterious "Young Griff." It's a lot of fun.

The Lion of the North: Another ASOIAF Fan-Fic

Some of you might have seen the older blog post I wrote to promote "A Different Song," an A Song of Ice and Fire fan-fic depicting Ned Stark and the Northern cavalry interrupting the Sack of King's Landing. They discover Jaime Lannister has already killed Aerys the Mad King and together Ned and Jaime rescue Princess Elia Martell and her daughter Rhaenys from the vile Gregor Clegane and Amory Lorch respectively. It's a pretty entertaining story so far, but the author is rather slow in updating.

Well, the same alternate-history forum that spawned "A Different Song" spawned an unofficial sequel/spinoff, "The Lion of the North." The author would rather not post it on fanfiction.net, so you can read it on Space Battles or (without reader comments) An Archive of Our Own. And he certainly keeps the updates flowing. The gist of it is that King Robert Baratheon and Tywin Lannister connive to kill Elia and her children (I think in this continuity Aegon survived, which he didn't in "A Different Song"), leading to a permanent breach between the Lannisters father and son. After Jaime is too argumentative, Tywin disinherits him and prevails on Robert to expel him from the Kingsguard. He leaves for the North with Ned and things go from there...

Although I really don't like some of the stuff that goes on in King's Landing (it involves bringing in Melisandre a generation early and giving her magical powers that canon does not indicate she has, making the whole situation needlessly complicated), the stuff following Jaime, Ned, Catelyn, and even the young Tyrion is really well-done. The most recent update is even pretty funny--kids (in this case Robb and Jon) say the darnedst things upon meeting dwarfs.

So check it out!

On "Problematic" Elements in a Fantasy World

On Twitter this morning, I came across the following Tweet by Avery Edison, re-tweeted by well-known author Dan Wells, whose John Cleaver books I am a fan of.

Avery Edison ‏@aedison 20 Feb 2013

I HAVE CREATED AN EPIC FANTASY WORLD WHERE DOGS CAN FLY AND GOLD CAN SPEAK and also women are subjugated sorry that's how it was then OKAY?

This isn't the first time I've seen that argument. A particularly vocal member of New Millennium Diverse Fantasy (a Facebook group I would join if it weren't for how aggravating some of its members are) insisted the manifold cruelties of A Song of Ice and Fire cannot be defended on the grounds of "realism" because this is a world where there are dragons (capable of nursing from lactating human women no less) and the Others.

The argument is superficially plausible, but emphasize "superficial." The pre-industrial societies most fantasy worlds are based on (including Martin's) for the most part sucked. For everybody (by modern standards even nobles were poor), but women in particular had it bad. A feudal economy and/or social structure is going to produce elements the Internet Social Justice crowd will call "problematic" by its very nature. Power corrupts and putting all the power in the hands of rich, strong young men is going to have bad consequences for women, the poor, etc. For all its vaunted power, the medieval Catholic Church tried and failed to restrain private war, violence against the Jews, forced marriage, etc., and this was an institution that supposedly had authority over said rich, strong young men's everlasting souls.

(If anything, this is a reason to call out fantasy worlds with princes, princesses, etc. for how they idealize a time that was very bad for almost everybody. George RR Martin's brutalities deconstruct these tropes--the handsome prince Joffrey Baratheon is a spoiled sadist, the pretty princess Sansa Stark is unbelievably naive and suffers for it, and rather than being a Perfectly Arranged Marriage, the union between King Robert Baratheon and Queen Cersei Lannister is unequal and abusive. And the violence the brutish Gregor Clegane and Amory Lorch inflict on the Riverlands is based on a specific military tactic from medieval warfare.)

J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings has been criticized by SF author David Brin due to how, despite its feudal-ish nature, the society is depicted as fairly benign. Perhaps the Stewards of Gondor keep a close eye on the nobles so they don't oppress the common people (in the vein of the Chinese emperors or certain Byzantine dynasties--and Tolkien himself compared Gondor to Byzantium, so that might actually work), but I don't remember this from the text. The Knights of Dol Amroth, in order to have the leisure time needed to become effective cavalry, almost certainly rely on the labor of a large number of peasants. Human nature being what it is, a more realistic portrayal of this type of society would see peasant unrest and complaints, especially in bad times. It's not like real history lacked for them in England or in France.

Now, this is not to say any story based on such a society HAS to be an atrocity pit. Even the pre-modern societies all of us can agree were cruel and restrictive (toward women and others) weren't nearly as restrictive as one might think. Misogynistic medieval Europe still produced personalities like Eleanor of Aquitaine and Joan of Arc. And in fact, fantasy elements can actually serve to undermine social injustice.

For example, the Wheel of Time series (which I admit I haven't read) depicts magic as something only women can use safely. Such women would have a much greater capacity to defend themselves against male violence, which would reduce the need for male protection and thus male control. Even oft-criticized Martin depicts the ruling Targaryen dynasty, whose members of either sex have a unique ability to bond with dragons and thus have an overpowering weapon in war, forbidding the conquered Westerosi nobles from claiming the right of First Night over peasant women.

So if you're going to base your fantasy world on a pre-industrial society, depict it with all its rough edges. If you're going to depict it being less unpleasant than it was, justify it. Although Avery Edison's flying dogs and talking gold wouldn't make faux medieval Europe a less misogynistic place, a woman with feminist inclinations and a fire-breathing dragon (and the ear of a man with similar assets) just might.

On Developing A Character Without Much Agency...

One of the criticisms the early drafts of my novel Battle for the Wastelands received is that the character Catalina Merrill, sister of rebel chief Alonzo Merrill and unwilling concubine of the villain Grendel, is a "stereotype." One of my early readers has described her as a princess in a tower awaiting someone to rescue her.

My immediate response was that she's not in a position to realistically do a whole lot. She's one of if not the youngest of a small number of concubines (Grendel's harem numbers in the single digits and is guarded by a couple trusted soldiers, while the notoriously intrigue-ridden Ottoman harem numbered in the hundreds and was policed by large numbers of eunuchs). This puts her (and other concubines as well) in a weak position for harem intrigue (especially when Grendel is around and can keep an eye on things), and due to her being essentially a political prisoner, she has the least personal freedom of the bunch. I viewed criticism of her lack of activity as akin to those people who complained about Sansa Stark not punching Joffrey "Baratheon" in the face or trying to escape King's Landing, where she's a hostage of the ruling Lannisters, in the A Song of Ice and Fire novels. All that would accomplish would be to get both of them killed (or at least punished severely) and given the history of victorious oppressors in our world, most people would rather live on their knees than die on their feet. The actress who plays Sansa in the TV show pointed out that if she "acted out" like Arya, she'd be dead. Although Catalina is too valuable to Grendel's schemes for him to easily kill, she doesn't know that, plus there are other things to fear besides death.

However, although that response works on the macro level, it does not work on the micro level. It's been a long time since I've read A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords where most of the "Sansa in King's Landing" story takes place, but I do remember the following:

*When the drunken Ser Dontos makes a fool of himself at a tournament, Joffrey orders him to be drowned in wine, but Sansa suggests he instead make Dontos a fool (jester) because this would be "crueler." Joffrey, a sociopathic sadist who isn't particularly smart, falls for this. Despite her weak position and regular torment by Joffrey and his lowlife bodyguards, she is able to manipulate him and save a man's life.

*When Stannis Baratheon lays siege to King's Landing, Sansa tells Joffrey that her brother Robb always leads his troops into battle in person. This provokes Joffrey to spend at least some time on the front lines of the besieged city rather than hiding in the Red Keep. I don't remember this part clearly, but I get the distinct impression this was Sansa's sly attempt to get Joffrey killed without putting herself at risk.

*Sansa does manage to warn Oleanna Tyrell, grandmother of Joffrey's intended Margarey Tyrell, that Joffrey is a sadistic monster. This leads to Oleanna, a political mastermind and the real ruler of House Tyrell, to conspire with Littlefinger to have Joffrey assassinated and Margarey married to Joffrey's kind-hearted but weak younger brother Tommen "Baratheon." Good riddance to bad rubbish.

And on a historical note, it's not like oppressed people sat around being passively miserable all the time. They had coping mechanisms like religion (Santeria in the Caribbean and what strikes me as an early form of Pentecostalism in America, the Bacchal cult in ancient Rome), art (there's a fascinating essay I read in high school discussing religious quilts made by black women as a form of creative expression as well as an act of religious devotion), pets (to use a more modern example, Jaycee Dugard and those women kidnapped in Cleveland had them), etc. And one can be free in one's own head, at the very least.

How does this affect Battle for the Wastelands? Well, in addition to some earlier edits making Catalina's weak position more obvious, I've also devised some ways to foreshadow some of my future plans for her in the way Martin seems to be foreshadowing Sansa becoming a political mastermind (Littlefinger spirits her away after Joffrey's death and makes her his apprentice in political intrigue). Over this past weekend, I've come up with some bits of internal monologue that would not only develop Catalina as a character, but also to foreshadow some things I have planned for her later. They don't require her to do stupid things or even amount to major changes in the novel, but they make for a much more developed character and set things up for later.

For my fellow writers, particularly those writing about time periods (or fictional worlds analogous to those time periods) where people were oppressed and had their activities restricted, hopefully this post will be useful to you.

Ned Stark Lives: Another Cool ASOIAF Fan-Fic

Lately on my alternate-history message-board, what-ifs set in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire universe have been particularly interesting. One recent what-if was, "What if Ned Stark had taken the black?"

(That was the original plan, before King Joffrey "Baratheon" gave the impulsive order to cut off his head, throwing gasoline onto the Stark-Lannister feud that had already led to war in the Riverlands.)

The board member whose handle is Rhaegar I suggested a fan-fic entitled, well, "Ned Stark Lives!" The point of divergence from canon is that Varys overhears Littlefinger subtly suggesting Joffrey have Ned killed rather than exiled to the Wall and ensures that, thanks to his poisoning talents, Joffrey has a few days of severe diarrhea. This keeps him away from Ned's public "confession" and so Ned leaves King's Landing with, among others, Gendry and his own daughter Arya in disguise as a boy. However, crossing the war-torn Riverlands isn't easy, even with a warrior like Ned to help out.

Overall, it's a really, really interesting story. Things go (more realistically) happier for House Stark than in canon. And the story is so well-done that it even made me care for the vile Lannisters and Theon Greyjoy, who follows his canonical path to a certain point. Heck, even the sleazy Littlefinger gets a moment of glory. These are people whom I've criticized in very stringent terms to my fellow ASOIAF enthusiasts, so getting me to like them takes effort. And I rather like what the writer did with Roslin Frey, who seems rather less shallow than the other women of House Frey. Not only that, but more intelligent (she recognizes how dysfunctional their situation is). There's also a comic bit about how the Freys are seen by the other houses they're intermarried with--her Rosby relatives tease her by asking if her father (Walder Frey) is really her great-grandfather.

My main beef is that a lot of attention is devoted to Gendry/Arya. On top of the fact that he's in his teens and she's ten or eleven and the fact it takes up so much of the story, there's also the social/political problems with this relationship. Although Ned remembers his father being too controlling of his wild sister Lyanna (and her probable rebellion against his betrothal of her to Robert Baratheon by eloping with Prince Rhaegar Targaryen, which set the stage for Robert's Rebellion) and has shown a willingness to indulge Arya's tomboy ways by allowing her fencing lessons, Gendry is still a commoner even though his father is King Robert. Furthermore, as a daughter of the ruling Lord Stark, Arya is quite a useful piece in the political games that Ned, having been severely screwed by Littlefinger and other players, has gotten a bit more adept at playing. And on top of that, she's been promised to Elmar Frey as part of the deal that got Robb Stark's army a quick passage into the Riverlands to rescue Ned in the first place. Realistically Ned and Catelyn would find some gentle way to separate them or in the less likely event Ned is willing to let such a situation occur, he would probably find some way to raise Gendry's social position to make him a "worthy" match for a daughter of the Lord Paramount of the North.

(For example, Gendry does something really clever later in the first story to help the Stark armies return to the Ironborn-afflicted North without taking insane numbers of casualties. Why wasn't he knighted? Gendry gets knighted in canon by Beric Dondarrion anyway and the "upjumped smuggler" Davos Seaworth ended up Hand of the King, so it's not like this sort of thing doesn't happen.)

In any event, the sequel moves away (to a large degree) from the Seven Kingdoms proper to the Wall and the areas around it as the Others begin driving the wildings toward it like the Huns once drove the Germans against Rome. There's less room for teen/preteen drama and more room for Ned whupping up on the Others with his Valryrian steel sword. :)

The ASOIAF Collaborative Timeline Continues (SPOILERS)

There's been some more discussion on my alternate-history message-board about the alternate A Song of Ice and Fire timeline beginning with King Robert Baratheon dying in the last days of the Greyjoy Rebellion after he and Ned Stark kill "King" Balon Greyjoy and his burly brother Victarion. Here is some of the earlier discussion I've posted, and what's coming is what came afterward.

*The Mad King Aerys II had caches of wildfire left all over King's Landing and Jaime Lannister killed him when he tried to set them off. Possible major stashes could include the Red Keep where the king and his minions would have easy access to them, the Dragonpit for maximum casualties, and the Great Sept of Baelor to give the Seven the finger for not helping Aerys. Euron's raid on King's Landing thus far seems to consist of an attack on the Great Sept where Cersei is captured and another attack on the Red Keep. Both are set on fire after being plundered. If even some of the wildfire goes off, we might have something akin to the Great Fire of London (the first or second) or the fire in Rome under Nero, which could kill tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people. Depending on how much damage is done, it might be necessary to move the capital to Dragonstone or Storm's End while the city is rebuilt. Rebuilding the ruined city on top of a decade of partying by Robert might put the realm in the same kind of financial danger it was in canon, although Littlefinger supervised by Stannis Baratheon could no doubt supervise the raising of the needed funds without them going anywhere they shouldn't.

*Although Jaime Lannister will be Lord Paramount of the Iron Islands with Asha Greyjoy as his lady, other ruling houses will send younger sons to be lords where Ironborn families were wiped out entirely. The younger Stark boys could be given islands to rule, while Roose Bolton could send his murderous bastard there as well, possibly saving the life of his legitimate son.

(Considering how violent and sadistic Ramsay is, I can imagine him adopting Ironborn customs like taking "saltwives" and paying the "iron price" just to justify him raping and stealing.)

*The pro-Targaryen coalition (Euron Greyjoy, Khal Drogo, Viserys Targaryen, "Aegon," and Danaerys Targaryen) is going to run into trouble if Drogo dies per canon. In canon Viserys tried to sneak into Danaerys' room the night before her wedding to molest her and if she's widowed while he's still alive, he might try to claim her as his wife. Canonically both "Aegon" and Euron are interested in marrying her as well. If Danaerys has the dragons, she'll have the means of defending herself and choosing her own husband. I suggested that's one way to kill off Viserys is have him lay hands on Danaerys and then get incinerated by the dragons and/or chopped up by Danaerys' bloodriders. Alternatively, if Euron takes Dragonstone in the process of killing Stannis, he might kill Viserys in an effort to awaken dragons from the stone there. Viserys has royal blood and if he's still the nut-bag he was in canon, even ten years of brutal training in war and sorcery from Euron might not be enough to temper him.

(If we want Danaerys to name one of her dragons after her brother, maybe Euron gets wind that Viserys is going to go after her and then kills him? All she'd hear is that Euron killed Viserys and if Viserys was having some kind of drunken crazy episode like just before how he died in canon, she might not even blame him. She isn't angry at Drogo for "crowning" the obnoxious Viserys with molten gold, after all.)

*With only Joffrey and Myrcella born to Cersei, ostensibly fathered by King Robert, it might be harder to figure out that they're bastards born of incest. Most of Ned's children with his wife Catelyn look like their mother, but nobody claims she was secretly sleeping with her brother Edmure. Given how in this timeline Cersei gives birth to Euron's rape child and later (presumably) has children with her new husband Edmure, if those children tend to look Lannister (blonde hair, green eyes), people might not ever suspect anything. On the other hand, many of Robert's bastards have already been born and they're all dark-haired.

*The anti-Targaryen coalition could have problems of its own. With Stannis dead, if Joffrey and Myrcella are  disinherited, this means Renly Baratheon is king. Renly tried to claim the crown in canon even though Stannis had the better legal claim, so him being an "Evil Uncle" to Joffrey and Myrcella might not be out of character. Ironically unless Ned has gotten proof, he might take Joffrey's side against Renly. And although Edmure is not head of House Tully until his father Hoster dies, he might be willing to defend his wife against any accusations directed at her. He was willing to stand by Roslin Frey in canon, after all, even though their wedding was a trap that killed his sister, nephew, and many of his political allies, and on at least one occasion he has been described as "soft of heart, soft of head." I'm imagining Edmure fleeing with Cersei to Tywin Lannister if it looks like his father is going to arrest Cersei for treason and incest, which could lead to a Tully civil war between father and son. Although Edmure doesn't really seem to be the sort to inspire a rising against Hoster, the possibility of having to fight Tywin might be...intimidating to some of the riverlords. In particular, I'm thinking of the slimy, opportunistic Walder Frey.

*Given how in this timeline Varys poisons Regent Jon Arryn soon after Hand of the King Stannis is killed in battle with Euron, he could easily send letters in Jon's name to Mace Tyrell, Renly, and Tywin telling them they're the new Hand of the King and they need to bring an army to King's Landing to protect it against another attack by Euron. If both of them show up at the city with armies, each will likely claim the other was planning a coup to take control of Joffrey. Each would have a credible reason to do so--Tywin is Joffery's grandfather and was Hand for 20 years to the Mad King Aerys II, while Mace has the very marriageable daughter Margaery he can marry to Joffrey to gain influence over the young king and Renly is King Robert's brother like Stannis was and has ample governing experience. All you'd need is a skirmish or someone getting poisoned and you could have a two-way or three-way battle right there. Alternatively, one or more of the leaders could back off to avoid a fight they can't win--and then start the fight on their own terms later.

*Meanwhile, the pro-Targaryen forces gather in Essos and Dragonstone and the Iron Fleet sails to liberate their ancient homeland from its occupiers.

A Collaborative ASOIAF Alternate Timeline

On my alternate history forum, I came across an A Song of Ice and Fire timeline with the point of divergence being that King Robert Baratheon is killed in the final battle of the Greyjoy Rebellion. The assumption being that Robert, a glutton for fighting on top of food, booze, and sex, would be leading from the front despite being commander-in-chief of the entire war effort.

(Here's some fan-art depicting Robert plowing through some Ironborn with his gigantic war-hammer.)

I got involved relatively late in the discussion. Here's a rough sketch of the timeline that resulted. The board member Hero of Canton suggested that the point of divergence is that Balon Greyjoy and his brother Victarion lead an assault on Robert's siege engines in person. Robert kills Balon and Ned Stark kills Victarion, but Balon's personal troops go berserk at the fall of their lord and gang-pile Robert. Robert is wounded by a spear and the wound doesn't seem bad at first, but it festers and in a few days Robert is dead. Joffrey is now king, but he's only six years old. The dying Robert names his foster father (and current Hand of the King) Jon Arryn Regent and Lord Protector until his (supposed) son Joffrey comes of age, with his stern brother Stannis as the new Hand. He also releases Jaime Lannister from his vows as a kingsguard and names him the new Lord of the Iron Islands.

(Yes, he's a kingsguard and that's legally problematic. I'll get to that later.)

Fortunately for Balon's two surviving children Asha and Theon, Jaime is present to make up for his failure to protect the children of Prince Rhaegar by fighting off an attempt by the maddened Gregor Clegane to kill them. As a result, "the kingslayer" earns a second nickname for protecting the kids. Theon is fostered at Winterfell per canon, with Asha betrothed to Jaime to strengthen his position. Asha is entirely cool with this, since she views his battle with "The Mountain That Rides" as paying "the iron price" for her.

Unfortunately for most everyone, the nefarious Euron Greyjoy has escaped the Iron Islands, leading an exodus of Ironborn die-hards into exile. On his way east, he stops to raid King's Landing and carries off Cersei Lannister, Robert's widow who is pregnant with Myrcella at the time, while she was visiting the Sept of Baelor to pray for the health of her unborn child. His intent is to hold both mother and baby hostage and once the baby is born, threaten her to ensure Cersei's....cooperation.

Apparently there's a reference in the third book to the High Septon being able to release a kingsguard from their vows for a suitable donation, but the High Septon's price is higher than expected. Euron has used black magic in his assault on King's Landing and the Septon wants something resembling a Crusade to punish him. The "young hotheads" of the realm (Edmure Tully, Oberyn Martell, and Jaime himself) set off to rescue Cersei and take down Euron, with Tywin promising Cersei's hand to whomever rescues her.

Eventually Euron is brought to bay among the Stepstones between Westeros and Essos. In an epic three-on-one fight with "the young hotheads," Euron is apparently killed. Cersei and Myrcella are rescued, but there's a complication the board member AJNolte suggested--Cersei is pregnant with Euron's child. Although means of ending a pregnancy exist in this world ("moon tea" seems to function like a morning-after pill, with tansy being a full-blown abortifacent), the unfortunate Lysa Arryn shows what happens when it's administered later in the pregnancy. Ultimately Cersei bears Euron's bastard, who is given to Tyrion Lannister (he of the "cripples, bastards, and broken things") to look after.

And Tyrion will be able to raise him in a more appropriate fashion. In canon, Tristifer Botley was one of several boys fostered at Pyke after the Greyjoy Rebellion and while there, had something of an affair with the young Asha. Since Asha is promised to Jaime Lannister, he's not just going to be sent away when it's found out, but something far worse. Either the Botleys rescue him before he gets the chop or the whole house goes into exile in exchange for his life. The Botley lands are given to Tyrion, who marries into an Ironborn family that has historically not gotten along with the Botleys as a parting middle-finger to them.

(Meanwhile Cersei is married off to Edmure, since Oberyn would reject such a marriage out of hand and Edmure has a reputation for being soft-hearted. Hopefully this will be better for her than marriage to the abusive oaf Robert.)

However, it turns out Euron Greyjoy isn't actually dead. His sorcery saved his life and per AJNolte's suggestion, he seeks out those who hates the Baratheon regime as much as he does--the exiled Viserys and Danaerys Targaryen. He takes Viserys as his evil apprentice, while Danaerys ends up married off to Khal Drogo per canon.

Meanwhile, back in Westeros, Jon Arryn bring the rising star Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish to court and per canon makes him Master of Coin (this was my idea). Stannis, however, does not particularly like a man who runs brothels in King's Landing, and keeps a very close eye on how he spends and invests the king's money. Robert has been king for several years before dying at Pyke, so I imagine the realm's finances aren't in the best shape.

Ultimately, things come to a head. Littlefinger provides funding to Euron Greyjoy with the goal of Stannis leaving King's Landing to fight him. This gets him out of Littlefinger's hair for the moment and will hopefully get him killed, with other potential Hands like Mace Tyrell less likely to keep too close an eye on him. Meanwhile, Varys the closet Targaryen loyalist is still there, providing assistance and information to Viserys and Danaerys and "Aegon." Joffrey will have a better upbringing than in canon but six-odd years of being ignored by his "father" and spoiled by his mother during a crucial period in his development and whatever inborn psychological issues resulting from being conceived of incest are still going to be there. He's going to try to assert himself as the king more and more, with Varys no doubt trying to enable his worst aspects to pave the way for a Targaryen restoration.

If war comes, I'm imagining it as follows. Euron kills Stannis in battle and raids the eastern coastline with his understudy Viserys while Khal Drogo and "Aegon" and the Golden Company begin preparing an invasion of Westeros per canon. Varys poisons Jon to sow even more chaos, while Doran Martell waits to unleash Dorne's army. Meanwhile, a grown-up Tristifer leads a fleet to the Iron Islands to get back with Asha over Jaime Lannister's dead body.

(In the books Asha thinks Tristifer thinks she's some damsel in need of rescuing and in this timeline you could make a case she is--her father has been overthrown and she's being married off to one of the men who did it. Tristifer can still be the dorky and well-meaning fellow he is in canon and not be TOO much "darker and edgier" as a result of a decade-long association with Euron.)

And in the meantime, the Others are stirring in the lands beyond the wall. Not sure how the dragons will be born in this scenario. The broad strokes of the canonical scenario could still take place, albeit in different circumstances. That would deprive the planned Targaryen restoration of  its Dothraki manpower and could even cause infighting among its surviving leaders--Viserys will likely try to claim Danaerys as his wife, but Danaerys, now the Mother of Dragons, may not be interested. There's also "Aegon" and someone from House Martell (like Quentyn or if Doran learns about Danaerys' bad-boy fetish, maybe Oberyn) or even Euron who would also like that honor.

Anyone want to write a fan-fic set in this world? I'll blog about it if credit is given. Here's the second part of the timeline, bringing us to this world's version of the War of the Five Kings.

The Consequences of a Westerosi Kingsmoot...

In early December, I blogged about an interesting fan-fiction written by a fellow member of my alternate history forum entitled A Parliament of Fowls: The First Kingsmoot of Westeros. Catelyn Stark persuading Renly and Stannis Baratheon to put their feud aside and join forces with her son to fight the Lannisters has led to an entirely new political order in the continent, a full-blown elective monarchy. That had some very interesting consequences...

These consequences are being explored in the sequel, The Glory of Ice: Reign of the Mockingbird. As those of you who are into the series know, the mockingbird is the personal insignia of one Petyr Baelish, more commonly known as "Littlefinger." As one of the most devious political operators in Westeros, he managed to finagle his way to the Iron Throne by doling out all sorts of political favors and manipulating everybody. All is peaceful for the moment, with the notable exception of the Iron Islands falling into civil war while the united Westerosi army--led by the lords of the Vale Littlefinger had promised lands to--gathers to curb-stomp them. However, A Parliament of Fowls ended with Stannis Baratheon seeing the following vision in his sorceress Melisandre's flames:

Stannis stared deeper into the flames as they kept dancing. And little by little, they morphed and changed. Stannis saw things he never thought he would. He saw himself being paraded through the Seven Kingdoms as a hero. He saw the Wall and the war. That great second god the red woman kept harping about approaching the North with all his icy might. He saw death knocking at the gates of Castle Black and approaching the doors of Winterfell. Stannis saw steel clash on steel and the Iron Throne shake from the quake of the Seven Kingdoms breaking apart once more. He saw the four directions of the earth clash in an eruption not seen since the doom came to Valyria. He saw a field of flowers burn and the sun darken. He saw a wolf and a stag go east, a lion roar, and a kraken tangle with a titan sitting on a throne of blood and bone. And finally he saw himself in a cloak of crows.

The kraken is the symbol of House Greyjoy and the Titan of Braavos is Littlefinger's family crest, so I imagine the war for the Iron Islands is going to be nasty and Littlefinger is going to get thoroughly unpleasant. Silver Phantom 2 holds the theory that he's a full-blown psychopath, as elucidated in Matt Staggs' essay. I am generally skeptical of branding prominent evil people as psychopaths--I view the idea of "ponerology" as essentially a eugenicist conspiracy theory held by extreme leftists, and evil people like Hitler and Stalin have demonstrated the capacity for emotional attachment that would disqualify them from being true psychopaths--but Littlefinger doesn't have to be essentially a highly-functional brain-damage case to be a real scumbag.

(I hold that Littlefinger is psychologically normal but is essentially a much, much more powerful male version of Sansa Stark who learned that life was not a song and ended up embittered and generally nasty as a result. Psychopath or evil neurotypical, either way he's a highly dangerous man.)

Looks like it's the calm before the storm...

New Fan-Fic: Westerosi Elections?

My alternate-history forum features a sub-forum called "Alien Space Bats" where non-mundane points of divergence like supernatural intervention, time travel, etc. get discussed. It also features alternate histories of existing works. One of the most popular "AHs of fictional worlds" is George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.

I found one ASOIAF divergence particularly interesting and wanted to share it with you all, but the ASB forum is members-only. Luckily author Silver Phantom 2 has his own fanfiction.net account and at my suggestion, posted his chapters there. Now everyone can see it.

Behold, The First Kingsmoot of Westeros!

The gist of it is that Catelyn Stark manages to convince Renly and Stannis Baratheon to put aside their feud and join forces with House Stark and House Tully against House Lannister, with who is to be king in Westeros to be decided later. In the meantime, the invasion of the North by the Ironborn and some kind of undescribed treachery by House Bolton throw a wrench into things. The political situation mushrooms into an Ironborn-style Kingsmoot in King's Landing, with all the landed nobles voting. This being ASOIAF, all sorts of shenanigans break out, and the wild cards of the Others and Danaerys Targaryen have yet to be played.


Although dropping full-blown parliamentary governance into Westeros is a bit dubious in terms of plausibility, our history has the precedent of the Magna Carta and how House Romanov became rulers of Russia. The story is quite entertaining. There isn't much if any violence, but the politicking is fascinating and everything seems in-character so far.

Enjoy!

Guest Post: Novels, Novellas, and Short Stories, Oh My!

Novels, Novellas, and Short Stories, Oh My!

By Delilah S. Dawson

If you’re on any sort of social media, then you know two things for sure: books are dead, and the zombie apocalypse is on the way. I can’t make any promises about zombies. But I can assure you that books are far from dead, although the publishing world is changing, maybe for the better. 

A traditional book runs 60,000 to 140,000 words for fiction, unless you’re talking George R. R. Martin, and then all bets are off. But traditional books aren’t the only answer, and not all stories need that many words. Stephen King and Isaac Asimov (among many others!) are known for starting their careers by writing short stories, which are generally 500 to 10,000 words. And with the advent of self-publishing and e-publishing, novellas of 20,000 to 40,000 words are growing in popularity. 

I wrote my first novel in 2009 and sold a three-book series to Pocket/Simon and Schuster in 2011. I tried to sell some short stories after that, and although I received several, “Almost; keep trying!” notes, I never managed to break into that market. So when Pocket approached me to write an e-novella, I was anxious to try my hand at a new medium—and also a little scared. After all, I was accustomed to dreaming big and having 100,000 words to explore my characters, set evocative scenes, and enjoy snappy dialog. How could I cut that down to 30,000 words and still feel like the tale was complete?

The answer was: pretty easily, actually.

I discovered that I love writing novellas. While it takes me around two sleepless months to whip out the first draft of a full-length novel and several months to revise, I wrote the 34,000 words of "The Mysterious Madam Morpho" in exactly ten days. The story came quickly, and editing has been a breeze. Because there was less to do, there was less to mess up. As this series is romance, I was able to focus in on the couple and keep them mostly in one place instead of the usual madcap adventure I favor. And boy, did they ever get personal fast. When you’ve only got one third of the time, you have to get busy three times faster!

As far as reading novellas, I’m starting to see the appeal. Buying an e-novella for less than two dollars can be a great way to discover a new author without investing bigger money in a book you might not finish. Or, if you really dig a series and the author has long windows between release dates, you can get a quick fix of your favorite world to tide you over. On the author side, it’s exciting to give characters who might not merit an entire storyline their own little adventure, and it’s also fun to broaden the world and explore new corners. 

Pocket liked my first e-novella enough to contract me for two more. The next step is collaborative as we go back and forth with what they’d like to see and what I’d like to write about. I’m excited to work within their wishes and deliver a story that will satisfy my editors and audience, not to mention entice some new readers into my steampunk paranormal world of bloodthirsty rabbits, dangerous cities, and topsy-turvy caravans.

To aspiring writers, I would recommend trying your hand at a variety of stories and seeing what works best. Whether you want to self-publish, enter contests, or go the traditional publishing route, every word you write is one word farther on your journey. Stephen King once said “The first million words are practice,” but he never said how those million words had to be divided up.

Delilah S. Dawson is the author of Wicked as They Come,the first in a steampunk paranormal romance series from Pocket/Simon & Schuster. You can find her on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, or on her blog. Her first e-novella, The Mysterious Madam Morpho,came out in October 2012.

Another Note On "Martin's Middle Earth"--Female Warriors

I've given some more thought to "Lord of the Rings if done by George R.R. Martin" scenario I posted here and I've come up with some more ideas.  Here there be spoilers, so watch out...

Despite the faux medieval setting, Martin has included several notable "warrior women" like Brienne of Tarth (who's as big and strong as most men), Asha Greyjoy, Maege and Dacey Mormont and the other women of Bear Island, and the pint-sized death machine Arya Stark.  Although the Norse had "shieldmaidens," women being active combatants in medieval times was fairly rare due to cultural norms and physical size issues.

It's been a long time since I've read Lord of the Rings or seen the movies, but the only female combatant I recall depicted in action is Eowyn.  Galadriel is described as having thrown down both during the War of the Ring and in the era depicted by The Silmarillon, but that could have been in a command role as easily as physically grappling with an enemy.  The movies depict Arwen as a better rider than Aragorn who evades the Nazgul to bring Frodo to Rivendell and even draws steel on them, but I don't think the rather old-fashioned Tolkien would have gone for that.

So, basically Martin's version of Lord of the Rings would have a far more active and violent female cast.  I'm drawing comparisons now to the Elves, who are different from the other peoples of the West due to being immortal and the oldest race, and the Dornish of A Song of Ice and Fire who practiced equal inheritance regardless of gender, allow their women much more sexual freedom, and were never conquered by the Targaryens.  The Elves could be a more gender-equitable society due to their smaller numbers and how long-lived the Elves are.

(Even if Elves have the same physical strength differentials than humans have, due to the Elves being so long-lived, Elven women would have more time to learn ways around that--think martial arts.  Even if they'd still be at a disadvantage against Elven men who would still be stronger and have the same thousands-of-years-of-free-time thing going, they'd be a very dangerous opponent for a man, a dwarf, or an Orc.)

Thus Martin's LOTR, if it included the flight to Rivendell from the Nazgul, would resemble the movie more than the book.  I'm thinking we might see Galadriel throwing down with the Forces of Darkness at the Battle Under The Trees and the destruction of Dol Guldur as well.  I'm thinking you'd see female Elf warriors as well, probably more in the vein of Asha Greyjoy (who is fairly normal in looks and size and seems to rely on non-grappling weapons like throwing-axes) than Brienne of Tarth (who is physically man-like to the point some fans have guessed she had a glandular problem).

As far as humans are concerned, Eowyn would still be there.  Making her, the one who slew the Witch-King of Angmar, into some Sansa Stark analogue who gets abused and forced into marriage for dynastic reasons, comes off as dubious and almost insulting even if there are some similar circumstances (a man who desires her, regardless of her opinions, and the dynastic thing) and the brutality is par for the course in Martin's work. 

However, if she's the one who kills Wormtongue, makes the decision about what to do with his rape baby (be it abortion or telling her infanticidal brother that she isn't going to allow a child to be killed because the father is a pervy traitor) if Martin's LOTR includes that plot element, and engages in hard-core warrior stuff like in canon, that might make up for it.

She could still kill the Witch-King of Angmar per canon or perhaps Saruman, especially since in the latter case there'd be a revenge element.  Even with the One Ring Sauron's physical body could be destroyed, so Eowyn could relieve Saruman of the hand with the Ring on it and then relieve him of his head.  If she manages to avoid thrown fireballs or other magical attacks or telekinetic wizard-staff-kung-fu like in the movie, it'd be a fight worthy of her canonical battle with the Witch-King.

(Of course, apparently one reason Bilbo could carry the Ring for so long without ill effect is because of his good heart and how he pitied Gollum and spared him when he could have killed him while invisible.  An embittered, angry Eowyn might be in serious danger of being corrupted by the Ring.  Unless of course she's wise enough to have it gotten away from her immediately, and she seems like she's got a brain based on what I remember from the books.)

Great...now I'm tempted to write a fan-fic depicting the battle between Eowyn and Saruman, with the latter's taunts and mind-games expositing the whole sick back-story.

Not sure who else there'd be.  If we want an analogue to Bear Island, where the women became warriors because the Ironborn and wildings would attack them while the men were fishing, maybe the Gondorian provinces closest to Umbar and its corsairs or the Easterling borders have a military tradition among the women as well?

About female warriors and the Dwarves, that might be trickier due to the fact that I think Tolkien said only a third of Dwarves are female and many Dwarven men never marry and instead devote themselves to their work.  Such a culture would have even more surplus males to expend in war and would have even more reason to be protective of women, even though I can imagine female dwarves being very physically formidable.