I mean, in our world, religions form, grow, and expand, but there are still belivers in the original holy lands to those faiths. So why aren't there any large colonies of believers of the 7 in Essos?

Ned wasn't even destined to be lord of winterfell... In less than 6 months ​ned lost 90% of his familly. His father died and his older, taller, more charismatic brother also died.

At 16 years old he become warden of the north and he have obligation to win and prove himself to big personalities like l greatjon umber, rickard karstark, roose bolton and much later barbrey Dustin (book character don't worry) and convice them to follow him

He was completly on his own , his best friend Robert and foster father Jon arryn had their own bannerman to deal with. ned managed to lead them both in time of war (the rebellion and the Greyjoy rebellion) and in time of peace

In S1E1, Will sees the White Walkers beyond the Wall, escapes, and is later captured and beheaded by Ned Stark.
But how did he get back south of the Wall? He was riding his horse when he was found, so he couldn’t have simply climbed over the Wall.
And how could he have passed through one of the Night’s Watch castles without being stopped as a deserter?

Renly was Robert's younger brother. Stannis was the older brother and had the stronger claim to the throne. So why couldn't Renly just accept that and support Stannis??? Then Melisandre would never have had so much power over Stannis.

If Renly had simply known his place and backed Stannis, SO MUCH SHIT could have been avoided. The whole situation could've played out completely differently.

Like bro, I get that you had the army and the charisma, but having more people on your side doesn't magically give you the better claim.

As I first did cities I now also want to share the characters I see in real history.

Tywin Lannister=King Edward "Longshanks" Plantagenet. This is the most obvious one as Martin himself said that it was the source. Edward as a young man took the reins from the ineffectual and weak rule of his father king Henry III and obliterated the rebellious barons to his father spearheaded by the powerful vassal Lord Simon de Montfort (Roger Reyne) whose blazon was a silver lion on a red field, rebelling against the golden lion. Edward annihilated the Montfort house and its power and restored royal control (rains of castamere story). He was a fierce and stern man, once said to have stared down a maid that displeased him so hard that she died of a heart attack. And he presided over a powerful and prosperous England, but suffered a son and heir rather disinterested in ruling (Edward II=Jaime Lannister).

Robert Baratheon=William the Conqueror (though Aegon obviously fits as well). Now many say that Robert is Henry VIII, but I disagree. Robert wasn't nearly as mad as he, and the one similarity is the fatness in later age. Like Robert, William grew up once a dear friend of the king of England Harold Godwinson (Robert and Aerys) but rose up against him, some sources even indicate William was bethroted to King Canute's daughter blown off by King Harold (Lyanna Stark). William shatters a dynasty and conquers a kingdom, a powerful warrior who in later ages is said to have quarreled a lot with his brother Odo (Stannis).

Alicent Hightower (book)=Eleanor of Aquitaine. A shrewd and powerful woman from a powerful and influential family with a lot of wealth who navigated politics through marriage and initially was wed to a king she did not care much for but used for her gain (Eleanor and king Louis of France).

Arthur Dayne=Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar or "El Cid". Like Arthur, Rodrigo was a legendary knight of Castile in the 11th century who never lost a single battle in life. And again like the Sword of the Morning, operated in Spain, one of the cultural inspirations of Dorne. His greatsword Tizona (Dawn) is on display at a museum in Spain.

Barristan the Bold=William Marshal. Like Barristan, Marshal was a famous english knight of incredible skill known both in battle and tourneys, who survived multiple kings he served into a ripe old age, dying at 73.

Aegon the Unworthy=Henry VIII. Now here is our Henry. Started out very well, was a very handsome, charismatic and promising regent in youth, but had difficulty controlling impulses. Ended up a psychotic and hedonistic monarch who damaged the realm greatly.

Which characters do you see?

It's established in Season 5 Hardhome that the Night King resurrects the dead and they become wights and their eyes turn blue

So how did the dead guy from season 1 that was brought back to castle black come back to life? We didn't know about the night king yet, he probably wasn't even planned to exist by the writers at that stage.

What do you think?

Oldtown=Ptolemaic Alexandria. The Greek successor kingdom of Alexander the Great which saw a greek pharao and a great emigration of greeks settle Egypt together with local egyptians and rule a powerful kingdom and city for centuries. Famous for its great lighthouse and library, and focus on knowledge and religion.

Lannisport=London. Medieval London was like Lannisport a successful and wealthy trading hub, known for skilled smiths. And Casterly Rock being inspired by Gibraltar also works with the english connection as it fell under english rule as of 1704.

Kings Landing=Any center of political power like Constantinople, Paris etc. But fittingly also the city it was filmed at, Dubrovnik in Croatia which thrived as a political and trading center in the late medieval age.

White Harbour=Talinn, Estonia. A minor but relatively large for its area, city in the north thriving on maritime trade.

Bravoos=Medieval Venice. Like Bravoos Venice is of course a city on the waters, a wealthy banking center, and had a famous festival of masquerade like Bravoos has the "festival of unmasking".

Gulltown=Visby, Gotland, Sweden. Medieval Visby was a connecting point between trade routes like Gulltown and drew in wealth thus. Also acting as a buffer zone to the Swedish kingdom (when not conquered briefly by Denmark) like Gulltown buffers the Vale of Arryn, and both had its own fleet.

When Catelyn was confronted by Tyrion and decided to stop ignoring him, the whole scene where she's reaffirming ties with her fathers bannermen and going around to each one asking about their families and then at the very end just making her order as the daughter of Hoster Tully was really cool to watch and kind of similar to the scene with Cersei and Littlefinger where she said power is power.

I also found it interesting how this same episode had Cersei comment to Ned how Sansa only took after her Tully mother and then we have this scene where Catelyn is acting as a Tully and using Tully allies. .

Tommen was younger, was he not? Yet there was the whole plot line in season 5 and 6 of Cersei simply being the ‘Queen mother’ that did not hold much power on paper. Yet, this was not an issue in earlier seasons with her and Joff.

Is it to do with the fact Tommen married Margery and she was an adult?

As a king, you can't just have a massive group of people who refuse to bend the knee just running about, it threatens your whole legitimacy.

Was there ever any hope for the freefolk to live south of the Wall?

How the FUCK do you stand there and let your own daughter be sacrificed because Melisandre told you so??? THAT WAS YOUR CHILD.

He could've said NO. He could've chosen his daughter over a fucking crown. Instead, he just stood there and watched. And for WHAT??? THEY ALL DIE ANYWAY. Stannis dies, Selyse dies, and Shireen dies for absolutely NOTHING.

And Selyse??? HOW can you stand there as a mother and allow this to happen to your own daughter? Shireen was innocent and trusted them. It genuinely breaks my heart.

Why the fuck did he do that?

I will die on this hill! Robb did NOT have to marry Talisa.

He could literally have kept her as his mistress. Would it have been politically ideal? No. But was Robb the first king in Westeros to have a mistress? Absolutely not. Kings have been doing that forever. He could have maintained his alliance with the Freys AND kept Talisa in his life.

But noooo, Robb had to be like “MY HONOR 🥺” and throw his entire kingdom into chaos.

HONOR MY ASS. 😭

You broke a marriage pact, pissed off the Freys, weakened your political position, and ultimately helped get yourself, your mother, and your entire cause slaughtered.

The show really softened Tyrion (not only externally)

He starts as a bitter and cynical, but sympathetic outcast in series and books both. He is obviously a genius, regardless of mistakes he makes. A lot of mind games were won by him.

However he has a Symon Silver Tongue killed and puts him into a pot of stew. Becomes consumed by fantasies of murdering Cersei (no lies, this one I approve lol). Has sex with an enslaved girl who cannot refuse him and deliberately pusher Young Griff toward invading Westeros.

Is GRRM setting up a redemption arc or a villain arc?

Imho this actually makes sense why he was on the Dany’s side in the series… feels like two craving for redemption characters are turning into villains. I assume that this could be in the following books, it looks pretty logical to me.

Tbh I personally loved all of his chapters in the books. He feels like one of the most interesting POVs.

How woul he react if he found out when they meet in season 1 that Ned hid the truth about Lyanna and if Ned told him that Rhaeghar and his sister were in love? Would he forgive Ned for keeping this secret for so long? Would he eve believe him?

Let’s set aside his illegitimacy for the purposes of this discussion.

I have long thought “Succession doesn’t work backwards,” when Cersi is crowned. But then who is left of House Baratheon? I don’t think anyone on the show… None of Robert’s “issue” had children.

Stannis and Renley are both dead. Renley had no kids and the show seems that Shireen was Stannis’s only child.

I suppose if they really looked there was probably some distant cousin. There is Gendry but no one to legitimize him.

The night watch being jumped by the white walkers.

Obviously much of the show’s plot is driven by the White Walkers being back and marching on the Realm, and the threat kind of informs the actions of all the characters who are aware of them. Jon Snow goes to Hardhome to rescue the wildlings because “we don’t stand a chance against the Night King without them.”

But wasn’t the Wall built with knowledge of the White Walkers for the explicit purpose of keeping them out? So that all the kingdoms wouldn’t have to drop everything and band together to fight them? In fact, forgetting that the Wall exists and deciding they had to be fought hand-to-hand ironically gives the Night King the means of destroying it (a dragon)?

It seems to me there was no breakdown in the Wall’s efficacy, everyone just decided to not let it do its whole job and massively shot themselves in the foot. The builders are watching from the Nightlands like “bruh. What did we do all that work for”

What the hell man :(

With so many prequel shows and adaptations slated for the GoT universe, I’ve been plunging into a re-read to see which bits of history and lore they could to drop into Aegon's Conquest, HOTD, and AKOTSK. One that I really hope they address is Joramun’s Horn.

There's been some debate over what the horn does and where it is, but I stumbled upon a random bit of realworld lore that may have inspired GRRM.

I think Joramun's Horn is an homage to Heimdall's Horn (the Gjallarhorn or Hollering Horn) which signals Ragnarök and rallies all of Asgard to fight for Life, even though their loss is inevitable. It’s a horn that can be heard across all the realms, not to destroy something, or be used as a weapon, but rather to warn all of Life of what's coming.

With that inspiration in mind, I think the "sleeping giants" were the old kings, lords, and commons of Westeros, and that one day, we may learn that the Free Folk were actually the original Night's Watch Rangers, scouting and watching for the Others' return.

Joramun was the Wildling King that helped Brandon the Breaker kill the Night's King (another Stark and the 13th Lord Commander, corrupted/turned by a corpse queen). Joramun rode south with his people, and Brandon rode north with his. So he doesn't sound like a bad guy to me... And the horn had to be important enough to still be remembered centuries later.

So if the horn is to warn, not destroy, you could imagine that by blowing Joramun's Horn three times, its blast would signal Winter's arrival, lighting all the beacon towers on the Wall, or magically carrying across the living realms, summoning all to fight for Life...including an army of wolves.

Also, I think Sam has it. It's a shame they never addressed it in the shows, but in the books he’s been carrying that “broken” horn around the whole time. Jon/Ghost found it in a Night's Watch cloak by the Fist of the First Men. So for GRRM to keep mentioning it in Sam's later chapters, I can’t help but think he’s got a plan to use it.

It’s chekov’s horn.

Many Stormland houses might even already support Edric for succession. It's like inviting another civil war.

Firstly, in Season 1 Episode 9, during Aegon's coronation within the Dragonpit, just after the coronation has been completed, Princess Rhaenys Targaryen burst out of the floor on the back of Meleys. She simply roars at the Greens and leaves. However, had she ordered an attack, she could have killed almost all of the Greens major players in 1 stroke. Aegon II Targaryen, Queen Helena Targaryen, Aemond Targaryen, Dowager Queen Alicent Targaryen, Hand to ths King Otto Hightower and Ser Criston Cole.

This would have left the Greens with just 1 dragon rider, Daeron Targaryen, 1 dragon Tessarion, and 2 small children, Jaehaerys and Jaehaera Targaryen. This is hardly a faction that people would want to support compared to Team Black's 5 dragons and multiple heirs.

The second time happens in Season 3 episode 3 when Daemon accepts the fake surrender of Ormund Hightower as well as the fake Daeron Targaryen as a hostage. By this point, the Blacks have all but won the war. The Greens Lannister Army has been slaughtered, the Triachy fleet burned and mostly scattered, Aegon has abandoned King's Landing, Aemond and Vagar have also left King's Landing for Harrenhall, Cole and Gwyane's small force are somewhere in the Riverlands and Rhaenyra has captured the city.

So, Ormund's force is the only remaining power left for the Greens. If Daemon, Hugh, and Ulf attack at this point, they can break the last Green field army and kill many of its leaders. Ormound, Jon Roxton and the real Daeron, assuming Daemon takes the fake Daeron back to King's Landing as a hostage and doesn't just kill him himself.

But again the Black's just let them go. Why? Especially seeing as how Daemon chastised Rhaenys for not attack in the Dragonpit and his love of killing Hightowers.