No one will believe I wrote that drunk at 4AM
Shit, S06E05. Just gonna say that the Doorman bit was possibly the worst best Oh Wow It All Makes Sense In Hindsight moments of the series. The implications of that being possible are interesting, but holy butts... as if he hadn't been dehumanized and used as a tool enough already.
Yeah it was pretty stupid, but it also managed to pull out some emotion you know? The way I see it, if it's stupid and it works, it's not really that stupid ;
D
Seriously without Hodor that episode is just more filler
Tru tragedy. Honestly though, that origin was an unexpected twist, but one that explains his peeps Modus Operandi. Sad that we're down to only 3 left after that spear, plus an unknown number of Crasterlings I suppose?
The long haired ones, I think there were a lot more than the one that got Sam'd, Snow'd and Reeded... Right? They had the horsemen of the apocalypse thing going on but I think they're moving the focus onto the Night King now
I saw that little look when they were leaving Castle Black too. I don't see it going much farther, but one can dream~
I don't think they'll balk at an attempt to corner the shipping market with Bear and Maiden fair lol, though knowing D&D they'll get together only to have a tragic death or something.
Also on thinking of Littlefinger, a lot of his whole stated strategy and teleportation makes no sense - especially the part where he takes his elite force that could conquer Westeros and sends it to conquer the rather unworthy prize of the North. Very large, very difficult to control and it isn't even that wealthy or rich in grain or manpower. The only thing it seems to have had in abundance were loyal soldiers, which the North has been quite literally cutting down on in recent times. With control of Sansa, it would have been readily possible for Littlefinger to control most of the North and greatly bolster his armies with loyal survivors, but since he got D&D'd that's impossible.
So either this is bad writing or Littlefinger is lying, heads or tails on that.
Assuming that Littlefinger is just being a dishonest shit, I can only then surmise that the next best move for him to make would be to foster civil war in the North as much as possible, Stark bannermen under Snow versus Bolton bannermen under Ramsay, ensuring no one interferes with his machinations in the southlands from the North. That's only step one - by losing Sansa's trust, Littlefinger has lost the North and can only rely on Little Robin and the Vale, with his allies in the Westerlands of dubious support for various reasons (trust and quality of the support mainly), which leaves the Riverlands question.
Quite notably in the books Littlefinger has already taken over the Riverlands, but in the show the great divergence in his strategy (beyond Sansa) is the Riverlands, with the Lannisters awarding Littlefinger Harrenhal (notably being on the approach to the Vale's Bloody Gate) but award much of the Western Riverlands on the Trident to the Freys.
Before leaving Mole's Town, Littlefinger warns Sansa not to rely on her brother, noting that he is not a full Stark, and his wildlings are loyal to him and not her. She is the Stark who most takes from the Riverlanders, the most like her mother Catlyn Tully, and Blackfish Bosspiss Tully has just mustered the Riverland soldiers most loyal to the Tullies (to still be fighting after all this time) at the important Fortress and City of Riverrun. That city controls passage through the trident and is the most important strategic centre of the Riverlands, even moreso than the Twins. Control Riverrun, you control the Riverlands. By suggesting that Sansa seek to gain herself an army to protect herself against the Boltons and Jon Snow (as currently, Sansa is the legal heir to the North, for Jon is a bastard, Rickon hostage and Bran is presumed KIA - unless Jon Snow decides to take the North for himself. Of course he's too goody goody to do so, but that was before he was shanked, and Sansa's not seen Jon for a long time - how well does she know the new Jon?). If Sansa succeeds in enlisting the Blackfish's army to her cause, the Tully remnants will have to crush the Freys to reach the North, and once they reach the North then Riverrun will be open for the taking.
With Freys and Tullies out of the picture, from Harrenhal Littlefinger will be able to take the entire Riverlands without a fight, all of his enemies having defeated themselves or stuck in the Winters of the North. Irregardless of who wins in the North, Littlefinger will be able to make his bid for hegemony in the South. The only issue is he is not a military commander, certainly not a match for Mace Tyrell or Kevan Lannister and a Reach-Lannister alliance would still have a good chance of defeating him, he would need the Stormlands or Iron Islands on his side to safely take over Westeros without risking an open war.
If he had the North this would not even be a Game of Thrones, he would've already won. It seems then that the next move is with the Vale and Riverlands open, to seek mercenaries and gold from abroad - given Littlefinger's Braavosi heritage and connections (the whole economic crisis was facilitated by him to force many houses into his pocket), this should be feasible and he should still be able to conquer Westeros. They don't emphasize much that Littlefinger's father was a Braavosi mercenary who was hired by Westerosi nobles, of course - Littlefinger is a friendly and powerless man of no talents, you can trust him :^)
From then on only a military defeat in battle, dragons or assassination would be able to stop him. That or 20GOODMEN. This is assuming that the Lannister-Reach alliance does not take note of him amassing his soldiers against them (seeing that his is indeed not an ally, but a foe), does not solve its debt crisis, does not stop the Faith Militant and attempts an invasion of Dorne. The big question to be answered is what is the next step after he takes the Riverlands and gains control over two realms. Does he attempt to take the North irregardless, offering to place Sansa on Winterfell in exchange for an alliance, or does he seek to strike south or west with his elite Vale soldiers, the Riverlands, the Lannister levies and Braavosi mercenaries? If he does strike south, what will his objectives be?
The Northward route is fraught with danger and is a very risky move which may not reward him with anything. Worst case scenario, he even creates a powerful enemy in the North. Southwards seems to be the best bet.
Of note is that Littlefinger has no claim to the Throne and doesn't even seem to want to be King, he prefers to control a weak King, as seen in S1 when he proposed to Ned Stark to make Renly King as Renly could be easily manipulated. Taking control of Tommen would afford him this control, but there is no guarantee that Tommen would even survive a siege or not be extricated to safety, but unless he finds Gendry or Aegon there are no other possible pretenders to the Throne he could use - they either do not exist in the show or have been killed off recently (Myrcella, Stannis, Shireen - now only Tommen, Danaerys and Gendry have credible claims to the Iron Throne, and Aegon does not exist and probably will not be introduced to the show given that there's no John Connington).
That is of course, unless Margery Baratheon is pregnant with Tommen's child. What was the unknown information that the High Septon told Tommen that made Tommen so anxious to commit force against the Faith Militant? What made Tommen grow so nervous so quickly? If Littlefinger was capable of taking this child and raising it, he would be able to mold it however his ambition saw fit - assuming such a child exists. At least until Westeros got toasty, but Varys's line seems rather fitting here - Littlefinger would burn Westeros to the ground if it meant he could rule the ashes. One has to wait and see if Danaerys will do the same.
Of course the writing could just be shit and Littlefinger's master plan no longer exists beyond:
- Get noble children
- Give them away to your enemies
- ???
- Win Game of Thrones
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Topic: A Game of Thrones: Every time somebody uses the spoiler tags take a shot. (Read 205743 times)