You know the PoV characters are safe, if they make it to a second book. Robb never had a PoV. Everything he did was seen through Catelyn's eyes. How's death keeping her down these days?

You DO know that traditionally heroes KILL dragons, right? Or did you think Tolkien was a grim and gritty writer for killing off the hero Smaug?

The family has everything to do with it - it's why she can deal with the dragons safely and Quentyn Martell gets the marshmallow treatment.

True enough.

At least Robert had the sense to realize that he was incompetent. And from your comment about "appointing someone to do it better" I take it you missed the end of Barristan's plotline, where we see that her followers ARE having to rule in her stead. The difference being she simply walked off, and didn't bother to make any arrangements for her absence. Yay, responsibility! And she did not lose time due to any of those things you attribute! She lost time because she was living like a feral animal and menstruating all over the place.

Huh? If we did that, we'd be stupid. Why would anyone go to England from America to free himself from dynastic tyranny?

Tell that to Astapor. She left a hippy idealistic dream-team in charge and a butcher with even less political experience and training than Dany took over in no time flat. And if those who will not learn from the past are doomed to repeat, you are suggesting that Daenerys is doomed to repeat her father's mistake. Demanding the deaths of two men simply for the crime of being related and engaged to the girl his son lusted after is exactly why Aerys deserved what he got. But Daenerys would rather cover her ears and hide away in her little girl fantasy world where she & her family are the good guys and everyone who defends himself from their depredations is evil and a "dog."
That doesn't make her right.

So what. Mere words, and words, as they say, are wind. Was she looking for Sansa in Jaime's camp at Pennytree? Ooops. She DID quit, or at least take a detour.

Yes, people can change and reform themselves. Does being slightly more polite now that he can't fight back if someone gets pissed off at his snotty behavior erase three decades of degenerate self-indulgence? Even if he IS sincerely reformed and trying to do good, why is he supporting a usurper to the Iron Throne, and threatening to murder infants to induce their fathers to surrender their own castles to his contemptible and avaricious uncle? Why is he assisting with the degradation of men he knows to be honorable, and the exaltation of contemptible venal turncoats? Why does he get a free pass, now that the war is conveniently over and his side is in charge and there is no one who has the will and the power to hold him accountable? He is not in the clear until he faces justice or makes restitution. Jaime has done neither and shows no inclination to do so.

Wait, indulging in his lust at the expense of their dignity and self-esteem and exploiting their poverty to get some is NOT treating them shamefully?! What the hell kind of world do you live in where hiring a prostitute is NOT treating her shamefully! The difference is that after Shae he discarded his pretense of consideration and kindness, which was really nothing more than a sop to his vanity and an attempt to maintain the illusion that he was desirable.

And it was SOOO kind of Roose Bolton to convey Jaime's greetings when he stabbed Robb through the heart! That made it much nicer, didn't it? Being polite to a woman you are raping while paying some sleazebag for the right to do so, is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic and priding yourself for your efforts to keep the ship afloat!


Yes, a stranger's penis forced into you is SOOO much better than a rude word any day!
She flattered him because he was far more financially well-off than any other john she could aspire to! Her pretense of affection and love were an ACT to manipulate him and keep the gravy train rolling! And he knew it too, but let himself be deceived by the flattery and taken in by the illusion she wove to keep getting his money! There was NOTHING of respect or courtesy or love in their relationship. He paid her for sexual gratification and the illusion of affection. She performed for him and did what he wanted because it was a better deal than she could get anywhere else. And before you spew any of that victimless crime garbage, recall that the laws of supply and demand affect poon as well. Every woman who sells herself for coin or comfort makes it that much more difficult for decent women to demand respect in a sexual relationship.

Well, so much for his intelligence. That's his fault, that he came to believe such exploitation was acceptable. Yes, what Tywin did was unjustifiable, but so was Tyrion's part. He knew he had no business marrying Tysha, but he did it anyway, knowing what he was exposing her to, even if he had no idea of the specifics. And he was hardly being a good husband - he treated her more like a kept mistress than a marital partner! But as far as the marriage thing goes, Tyrion, like Cersei or Sansa or Catelyn or Robb Stark or any other high born child, knows growing up that his hand in marriage is not his to give away. In exchange for the wealth and comforts that being part of a noble family entails (and by comforts, I mean things that can be the difference between death by exposure, disease, starvation or assault, not a bigger TV screen or faster internet connection), they have to be ready to marry the person their house leadership determines will best serve the interests of that family. Did he want a loving marriage? So do most nobles in Westeros. How seldom are their wishes granted? How many young boys with dreams of a beautiful lady wife have to settle for some crusty-faced porker or a vapid socialite who can't hold a conversation about anything more serious than court fashions & scandals? What about Tyrion's own cousin who was made to marry an infant, with more than a dozen of the horniest years of his life to pass in unfulfilled abstinence while he waits for his lady to begin menstruating. And then, when he finally gets to have sex, in his late 20s, it will be with a 12 or 13 year old child. Life sucks for EVERYONE and Tyrion had no business marrying a woman of such low birth on such short notice. Yes, he was thirteen. Yes, boys that age are not renowned for their wise decisions. But a year or two after that age, Robb Stark was leading an army to war against an powerful foe, with the survival of his entire family riding on his ability to do it better than a man renowned for his cunning and leadership and limitless resources. Or compare him to Daenerys, your heroine, getting plowed by a massive brute with whom she had exactly one word in common, every single night, until her pregnancy was diagnosed on her fourteenth birthday! A little self-control on Tyrion's part should not be asking THAT much! But, no. He had to have his way, and got an innocent girl gang-raped.

He should not have been keeping her! He knew it, Varys warned him and he kept it up. All other issues aside, as the one footing the bill, you'd think Tywin should have the right to tell Tyrion he can't bring Shae to court.

What a lovely company of selfish, scumbag assholes to find himself in! Robert and Rhaeger made the realm bleed for their selfish choices, and Rhaeger's wife was raped and murdered and his daughter brutally stabbed repeatedly. Some innocent baby died in place of his son, all because that MARRIED man developed an infatuation with someone else's fiancee. People like to assume he's exonerated by Lyanna's consent (as if she had any more right to give it than Tyrion had to marry Tysha or Robb to wed Jeyne), without ever considering the fact that he is cheating on a good woman whom no one has an unkind word to say. He lets his father stir the realm to civil war by slaughtering his vassals on Rhaegar's behalf, while Rhaeger is off having a fling with his mistress in their "Tower of Joy" and his wife sits at home with his insane father and baby children! How anyone can regret the death of this piece of crap is beyond me. The evils of Robert Baratheon and Petyr Baelish are well documented in the current on-going storylines and need no repetition here.

I never said that was the purpose of the phrase, but that is another level to it. He HAS been using women and casting them aside, however nicely he imagines he cushions the fall. Sure, it's a nice break when you're servicing the Imp for a day or a fortnight or however long he is lingering in your locale, and he gives you nice jewelery and you eat like a lady, and he talks sweetly to you, and then he goes. Back to court or the Rock or on a journey to Winterfell with his royal brother-in-law or a whimsical trip to see the Wall, and what does his recent paramour do then? Once the coin he gave her and that obtained from selling his nice presents runs out, it's back to banging smelly farmers or thugs with no manners or consideration in filthy surroundings, and being used as an object again, and for the rest of her life (which is likely to be prematurely shortened by disease or abuse or privation). Meanwhile, he's moved on to the next pretty face (and other parts) for hire. Where DO the whore go after he is done with them? Has he ever given them a second thought? But now he cares because the motivations of the virgin he deflowered and exposed to gang rape are revealed as different than he had been told originally! I'll save my sympathies, thank you.

Thhpppt. Lyanna probably thought the same thing.