Yeahhh but it’s more fun to connect dots and make a story. And what’s so amazing about ASOIAF is that there’s enough breadcrumbs all throughout that it will all make sense.

We give Aegon an asterisk because there’s significant hypothesis that he’s not who he thinks he is.

People think that Illyrio and Varys might be secret Blackfyres, and that Aegon might actually just be a Bkackfyre raised to think he’s a Targ

So Aegon* and Golden Company landed in the Stormlands and conquered a bunch of small castles and keeps and stuff. But it was a stormy sail over so they’re kinda disorganized

So what happened was JonCon and Aegon* met up with golden company. The original plan was to meet up with Dany, but Tyrion convinced Aegon* that he had nothing to offer Dany, and he needed to do something big to be treated as equals.

Young Griff = allegedly Aegon Targaryen VII, Rhaegar’s first son. Everyone thought the mountain killed him as a baby but maybe Varys smuggled him out.

Jon Connington = Old Griff

JonCon was one of Rhaegar’s best friends, was briefly hand of the king under Mad King. He was a mid-major lord of the Stormlands, similar to Dondarrions

Q: who is Jon Connington and what is The Golden Company doing at the end of Dance?

One of my oldest friends is getting into ASOIAF and asking me questions. I’m far from an expert, but I’ve agreed to be his halfmaester.

Gonna post his Qs and my As here to try and juice some ASOIAF conversation. Jump in and tell me what I’m getting wrong and especially spill the tinfoil tea.

The out of book, less fun explanation is probably that GRRM hadn’t conceived of Blackfyres when he was writing the early books and was just kinda gardening his way through.

I wonder this too.

Maybe it’s a wait and see about Young Griff, then kill Viserys and try to join Dany/Griff/Golden Company/Dothraki?

George RR Martin has given me hundreds of hours of entertainment. There have been times in my life where obsessing about his worlds prevented me from obsessing and spiraling about my own.

He owes us nothing.

If he doesn’t write another word, I owe him a profound debt.

I loved the not very subtle jab that knights and sex workers are both just doing what rich lords will pay them to do.

Dunk and Egg could be a remarkable vehicle for class consciousness in Westeros and the real world, if the show runners don’t chicken out.

YES

Oh we’re getting Winds. Probably this year.

I hate it when those folks then do podcasts or episodic recaps, talking about mysteries when they know the answer. Drives me crazy.

The Leftovers, no question

Yo! I’m here for this level of crackpotitude!

I devoured Kuang’s Yellowface. It’s not part of a series or anything so it was a nice little stand alone book.

Hate Fueled Revenge Machine

open.spotify.com/album/5PpfbE...

This is in my constant rotation

100%

Renly starts as king of the Stormlands in the scenario I’m playing, so that’s cool. I’m envisioning some big old Southron Kingdom of Stormlands, Reach, and Dorne.

So in my newest game I’m Renly and betrothed to Margaery.

One path might be murdering Garlan and Willas and Loras to make Marg the heir, but yikes.

Is there some other way to take Marg’s (weak) claim and seize The Reach - either with Renly or with his kids?

I must be missing an obvious step.

I had my maester fabricating claims in counties. Sometimes I can claim the whole duchy. Cool. But trying to takeover the entire Reach (or whatever) one county at a time feels bananas.

What am I missing?

I’m trying to figure out how to enjoy CK3AGOT.

I’ve tried a kind of general conquer the world game starting as the Mallisters, but it got boring having my maesters rinse and repeat getting me claims on my neighbors.

I tried a Roberts Rebellion game as Ned, but Robert died in the first five mins

King of the Andals, Rhoynar, and First Men. Khal of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains… not too shabby.

Does Essos get long Westeros style winters? Dothraki, Illyrio, etc never seem to mention it.

Are you saying Bloodstone Emperor = Azor Ahai? 🤯🤯🤯

Sued at both Last Hero and Bloodstone Emperor would be sick band names.

Old Nan tells the story of the Last Hero in Bran IV. Seems westerosi.