A Song of Ice and Fire/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions
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* Why did Varys put out the hit on Dany? ADWD reveals that Varys' plan, at the time, was for Viserys to join The Golden Company with Khal Drogo's khalasar (the price of which was Dany's hand in marriage), so wouldn't her death pretty much put an end to the pact? I understand he didn't want to support Ned in front of the Council so as not to draw attention/suspicion to himself, but, why not just take Robert's orders, tell him the assassin failed? Why actually ''send'' the poisoner?
** According to Jorah, they didn't so much send the poisoner as they put out an open bounty; kill one of the Targaryan siblings, get a lordship. Dany even joked that Robert owed Drogo a lordship for killing Viserys. Varys seemed to be betting that any attempt made would simply fail; Dany was the most protected person in what was suggested to be the most powerful khalassar in the world, sending anything less than a Faceless Man would most likely result in failure. On the other hand, he did have the ace of "Aegon" up his sleeve; maybe he was planning on killing Viserys and Dany as a way of putting Robert into a false sense of security. Varys' plans have to be flexible.
** The Khalasar joining the Golden Company seems to have been a very minor part in Varys' ultimate plan, which seems to focus entirely around ''Aegon'', not Dany. Aegon's not the ace up his sleeve, he's the whole plan... it's possible that Varys even engineered the fall of the Targaryen dynasty to put Aegon in a position to be raised the way Varys wanted him to be. Varys wanted a king raised by an honorable man, who would grow up to be humble and in touch with the common man, feeling like he'd been one of them. Dany was raised by her sadistic brother and can't go a conversation without reminding everyone she's "the blood of the dragon"... while she's a good person and would probably make a decent ruler, she's ''not'' what Varys wants, unless she's simply being Aegon's queen.
* If
** I think it is their [[Twincest]], and that Jon Arryn was starting to work out that Joffrey and Tommen and Myrcella might not be Robert's children, because he was looking at some of Robert's bastards as well and how they all had black hair. Cersei's worried that Jon knew Jaime was the father of her kids and told Lysa about it.
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**** The Kingsguard is also led by a Lord Commander. Also, both Varys and Hallyne are Lords even though they hold no lands or even a house.
***** Varys 'isn't' an actual lord, he is only called 'Lord Varys' out of respect.
** It's probably bits and pieces of the above, but also that the Night's Watch needs their leader to be a Lord specifically so that other Lords might theoretically listen to him.
* If a winter can last for as long as an entire generation (20 years +), er, how exactly can they grow food during this period? I mean, in our world, a hard winter can be enough to cause some serious starving, but when virtually the entire continent(?) suffers from extreme temperatures, how in the name of the old gods do they have even a slight chance of making it through a relatively short winter period, let alone a long one? And with this continent wide civil war going on... will a wizard do it all??
** Bear in mind that ''summers'' last longer than winters, and winters rarely last more than five years, so if they can preserve food they're just as well off as on earth. Also, in the area of Kings Landing it's probably going to be possible to raise some frost-resistant crops even during the winter. The winter that lasted an entire generation was all-around bad news, but that was 8000 years ago.
** Westeros in general seems to be slightly more tropical than mediaeval Europe - there are alligators in the Neck, remember. Out on the Wall it is probably fairly grim, but then they ''can'' hunt animals and have other food sent up from the southern parts of the North.
** Westeros suffers generation-long winters sometimes, but these seem to be somewhat rare... they seem to expect most winters to last between one and five years, ten being an extremely long one, and twenty years being a rare and horrible thing. They survive by 1) putting large caches of preserved food aside, 2) importing food from the parts of Westeros that aren't as bogged into winter, or from outside Westeros, 3) adapting to the conditions, such as Winterfell's very thorough methods (greenhouses, heated walls, etc.). Also their winters likely aren't one long, single bout of unbroken absolute cold... they probably include mild thaws and simply coolish days, enough at least for trees and bushes and grass to stay alive, and thus for animals to stay alive, and thus people to stay alive.
* How do they measure years in this universe? Actually, ''why'' do they measure by years, considering the main cultural point of a year is seasonal shift?
** The seasons are not regular enough to use as years in the Ice and Fire universe. They could use the moon, of course.
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