Amph A Song of Ice and Fire Discussion Thread

Ordered it, its coming here in a few days.

Why not?

 

Just finished the Princess and the Queen. It was pretty good I'll post some brief spoilers

Spoiler: Princess and the Queen background

Here's the family tree. As you can see, it doesn't branch very far (especially Daemon Targaryen). The Blacks are the supporters of Rhaenyra and the Greens the supporters of Aegon II. Just a note one ages. Rhaenyra's Velaryon children were her heirs before her two Targaryen ones. At the beginning, Rhaenyra is 32 Jacaerys is 15, Lucerys 14, Joffrey 12, Aegon III 9 and Viserys II 7. Aegon II was 22, Helaena 20, Aemond 19 and Daeron 15.



The sides of the civil war were

Aegon II
House Lannister
House Tyrell
House Baratheon

Rhaenyra
House Stark
House Tully
House Arryn

Many of the minor lords in the Riverlands, the Reach and the Crownlands were split. Dorne was an independent kingdom and didn't take part. House Greyjoy was approached by both sides but they aren't in the story after that so they might have stayed neutral. Most of the major battles took place in the Riverlands and the Reach and the Crownlands

Spoiler: Princess and the Queen Dragon Duels!

Here's another tree (kind of confusing) but this one shows the dragons




There were some cool duels. This is one part of the book that suffered from its dry history style. It would have been awesome to see some POVs .

The first major duel was between Rhaenyra's son, Lucerys Velaryon with his dragon Arrax against Aegon II's brother Aemond and his dragon Vhagar. That's the same Vhagar flown by Visenya Targaryen during Aegon's Conquest. They fought over Shipbreaker's Bay after both were sent as envoys by their families to Borros Baratheon gain support for each side's claim. Borros chose Aegon II and afterwards both Targaryens and their dragons clashed. Aemond and Vhagar won. Arrax was killed by Vhagar and Lucerys was killed when Arrax slammed into the bay.

The second major duel was with Princess Rhaenys and her dragon Meleys against both Aemond and Vhagar and Aegon II and his dragon Sunfyre during the Battle of Rook's Rest. Rhaenys (don't confuse her with Rhaenyra like I did at first) had been considered as an heir to Jaehaerys I but he chose Rhaenyra's father Viserys I instead. She held no hard feelings though and supported Rhaenyra's claim through. Rhaenys and and Meleys led a suicide charge against Aegon/Sunfyre and Aemond/Vhagar. She and Meleys were both killed but they nearly tore off Sunfyre's wing and burned Aegon II so severely that he spent most of the war being attended by maester's while his brother Aemond ruled as regent.

The third and most awesome duel was between Aemond with Vhagar against Prince Daemon and his dragon Caraxes. Daemon was Rhaenyra's second husband and father of the future Aegon III and Viserys II. Since he was also the brother of Viserys I, he was Aemond's uncle as well. Caraxes was able to bite Vhagar's neck but Vhagar tore open Caraxes's stomach and ripped a wing. As both circled lower towards God's Eye, Daemon jumped off of Caraxes's back onto Vhagar's and thrust his sword (Dark Sister) through Aemond's eye and into his brain. Daemon and the two dragons were killed when they slammed into the lake but it was still awesome to read.

The rest of the story is pretty tragic. Rhaenyra's other two Velaryon sons are also killed. Aegon II had allied with Tyrosh, Lys and Myr and their fleets clashed with Rhaenyra's Velaryon fleets at the Battle of the Gullet. During the battle Jacaerys (who reminds me a lot of Robb Stark in the book) was killed when he and Vermax were brought down by grapnels during the sea battle. Joffrey (lol) was killed, fittingly after the people of Kings Landing revolted and stormed the Dragonpit to kill all the dragons. Rhaenyra had taken King's Landing after Aemond's army had been drawn out by Daemon but she pissed off the populace by her cruelty and paranoia. Aegon doesn't fare much better. His two younger brothers both died, Aemond of course in a dragon duel and Daeron at the Battle of Tumbleton and his sister and wife Halaena commits suicide after their son Jaehaerys is assassinated (at only six years old). He eventually captures Rhaenyra and feeds her to his crippled dragon Sunfyre, but the story ends with Rhaenyra's followers pledging to continue the struggle in her fourth son (future Aegon III)'s name.

 

Spoiler: Princess and the Queen

Well the Tullys were basically forced to join Rhaenyra's forces. Her husband Daemon's opening move was to capture Harrenhal with his dragon Caraxes, which cut off the Riverlands from Kings Landing and Aegon II's forces. The riverlords around Harrenhal declared for Rhaenyra after this, with the Blackwoods and Darrys being foremost. The Tullys and the Freys went along with it since a majority of the Riverlands had already done so, and they didn't want to deal with a dragon.

House Stark (Cregan Stark being the head at this time) kept to their word in support Rhaenyra which they had pledged years ago. And House Arryn (Jeyne Arryn being head) declared for Rhaenyra since doing otherwise would throw Jeyne's rule into question.

 

Only a couple of mentions. The head of House Tyrell is literally an infant. If I recall his mother acts as regent for him and she declares for Aegon II since Aegon's mother is a member of House Hightower, either to support their vassals or not cause a further civil war in the Reach.

 

Well, they're pretty horrible, no doubt there. I can't say either of them are ideal -- but the Free Cities are both older and more modern, being former Valyrian states with more advanced social, economic, and political structures. Westeros is just this cold, terrible, medieval backwater.