When I read Cersei, I just want to slap her up and down the Kingsroad.



I didn't say i wanted him to die, I don't, but ol' George hasn't killed anyone off in awhile and it would be a return to form. Actually, Robb died after having PoV's in 2 books (or is it 3?) Martin kills PoV characters to make the suspense more palpable, to up the ante so you know that nobody is safe.



See my reply thread further down labeled "Actually,"



Haha! So instead we get Aegon VI: No Dragons This Time.



Not sure that her family has anything to do with this, but I'm pretty sure when you were a kid you didn't say "Hooray, Spider-Man, WOOT that you got bit by just the right spider to wield a power outside your ability to rationalize, and win you that MJ poon."



Not even remotely expecting her to work this one out on her back, she's wearing bloody rags standing next to dragon. I don't think she's gonna have to bang anybody to get them to listen.



But unlike Robert, Daenerys has lost track of time due to her hectic schedule of trying to bring peace, prosperity, and freedom to a nation, instead of appointing someone better to do it for her.



Well, he asked for it, for one :-P



You can never save everyone, and freedom and justice have it's price. This is what would have happened if American's had wanted to go back to England to free themselves from dynastic tyrrany.

And may I say you like some weird people. The silent, devoid-of-free-will partner of one of the scheming, plotting archvillain and architect of betrayal in the Seven Kingdoms; the devious, cowardly eunuch who manipulates events to induce a civil war and inflict further sufferings on the land because of his arbitrary favoritism of one family; and the aforementioned vapid twit of a self-entitled princess. I find it deliciously ironic that as Barristan Selmy recounts his experience in escaping Joffrey he says how the truth was not welcome at that court, only to have his story finish with Daenerys refusing to listen to the truths he has to tell about a man her spoiled, sadistic & arrogant brother told her was a villain. Because he would have been under 10 if he HAD ever met Ned Stark which makes him a much better judge of character than the knight who has served four or five kings and fought against the man and served alongside him on a council.

Nobody ever said Daenerys was perfect, but her not wanting to hear the truth that the wingman who helped her entire family slide into near extinction is not quite the same as Joffrey not wanting to see what his people wanted or what was best for the Realm. Daenerys is biased and idealistic, but Joffrey was sadistic and deranged. And have I mentioned that nobody seems to have bothered to teach Daenerys anything about political intrigue, yet she has been very successful making executive decisions that render auspicious outcomes. She may have lost her tentative hold on Meereen the minute they thought she was dead, but she held Meereen with words and wits and self-sacrifice. (and a few swords, aye.)



Brienne has a code of ethics that rivals Ned Stark's. She swore to find Ned Stark's daughter and even frightened, alone, and lost she swears never to quit looking. I don't know that she would lure Jaime to anything. She regards Jaime with a mixture of admiration and disapproval anyway, but, unlike many people in our story who refuse to believe that people change, Brienne accepts that Jaime is not the same man he was 20 years ago, and that he may possibly deserve the chance to prove himself.



Yeah, Ramsay Snow is no Mirri Maz Duur, but I think George topped the charts on brutality here. (not really a good thing)



WOAH.

Tyrion certainly is a spurned and spoiled second son who still lives better than most whole men.

He does treat women shamefully. Everybody does. But not until after Shae. He always treated whores with a lot more respect and dignity than any other men. He wants a lady love, not a whore, but believes he will never have one, so he settles for the arms and embraces of the paid. However, he still treats them like ladies. (Men are often much more rude to Ladies than Tyrion is to whores) In the beginning he tried to treat Shae like he was a Lannister and she was a whore, but she treated him as an equal, and he came to see her as such. He loved her, protected her, and provided for her no differently than Ned Stark did for Lady Catelyn, and she did not love him in the early years of their marriage. Tyrion did the same for Tysha, until his beloved brother, who never lied to him, told him she was a whore. And Tyrion, with low self-esteem, believed that no normal woman would want to wed and bed him. Heartbroken, he learned the wrong lesson. Tywin Lannister wanted to keep his son from the lowborn and whores alike, but Tyrion learned that the only love he would ever had would cost him gold. With Shae, she accepted it all and wanted more. He denied her what he couldn't give her and what he had to to keep her safe, and she testified against him and then wound up in his father's bed, the rival of a lifetime, literally. Now Tyrion, twice deeply wounded and emotionally baggaged, is finally treating whores the way everyone else in Westeros always did. And he is seeking for his star-crossed lady love, just like all the other foolish men did, just like Robert Baratheon, Petyr Baelish, and Prince Rhaegar.

The fact that he doesn't know where whores go is NOT an indication that he is out of touch with the whores themselves. There is obviously no answer to the "Where do whores go" riddle, the point Tywin made was; "I care little and less about this girl, and you will never find her anyway." Tyrion asks the question frequently in self-aware irony, because there is no answer, and if there were it wouldn't find him Tysha anywhere. In this age, finding one person is nearly impossible, as about 50% of our surviving cast can attest to.

Westerosi whores are not bedslaves any more than a Westerosi tourney knight is a Meereneese Pit Fighter. Haven't you learned from George? We are all slaves. Only some are paid in food, shelter, and clothes, while others are paid in coin that they use to buy food, shelter, and clothes. A slave may be bred to another slave of their master's choosing, but in Westeros a daughter will be bred to a son, and the Father's will make the choosing. A slaver may sell one of his slaves children, or a man may sell his child into slavery. In Westeros a Lord may take a man's child as a ward or hostage, or a man can make his boy an apprentice, or a maester, or a squire. The Black Brothers are even closer to being slaves, as almost none of them are there by choice, they are there for life, and they make their wages in food tithes. Even the Kings and Queens must sell themselves in marriage for the good of their peoples and the benefit of the realm.

I hope Tyrion finds Tysha because it's so far fetched and dreamy it just might happen. His is one of the few happinesses that will not doom a realm