hi! loved your dance of the dragons analysis so much!! have you ever thought of writing a similar-ish analysis about the first blackfyre rebellion? i’m aware there’s not as much as information as with the dance, but still would enjoy reading some of your theories!! esp. about daemon blackfyre :)
Hello; thanks for the question and the kind words!
Regarding the Blackfyre Rebellion, I believe I mentioned this in Part 11 of the Re-Analysis but I do intend to cover the First Blackfyre Rebellion in the context of a new series dealing with Targaryen history from 136 to 196 AC! I'll be analyzing all the kings from Aegon III through Daeron II, and the plan is to devote a part each to the latter along with Daemon Blackfyre and the First Rebellion itself, plus an analysis of Bloodraven and Bittersteel to finish out the series.
That'll get under way once I've published the finale of the Re-Analysis or Part 12, which will hopefully be in the near future. If that sounds at all interesting to you, then stay tuned!
Would you happen to have any information about/knowledge of the contribution of Canadian volunteers to the American war effort in Vietnam? Apparently one Medal of Honour recipient, Peter C. Lemon, was from Toronto, Ontario!
There isn’t a ton out there, largely because Canada didn’t send its own units as part of the Free World Forces (like Australia, Republic of Korea, etc). Those who served as part of the US military arguably had a harder time of it upon returning home. The US military did not keep explicit records about their foreign volunteers either.
Here are a couple of snippets:
“An estimated 10,000 to 12,000 Canadians served in the American military in Vietnam, although nearly half were Canadian citizens living in the United States. Seventy-eight Canadians are listed on the wall of the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington, DC.” [Source: The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War edited by Spencer Tucker]
Peter C. Lemon was indeed from Toronto, Ontario, and the only Canadian to be awarded the Medal of Honor in Vietnam. The medal was for actions that took place at Fire Support Base Illingworth on 1 April 1970. [Wiki]
Articles:
“Vietnam War - Allies in Vietnam - Canadians” by Fred Graffen (no date)
“Vietnam War Also Haunts Canadians Who Served” by Christopher S. Wren (1985)
“Ron Parkes on Canadians in the Vietnam War: Canada’s Stories” by Luc Rinaldi (2014)
“The Vietnam War: Canada’s Role” (2015)
“Lost to History: the Canadians who fought in Vietnam” by Chris Corday (2015)
This is totally unedited because I do not have time to do so before work but wanted to get it up. So hopefully you’ll all forgive any mistakes.
In a heartbeat, in brief second it takes confusion to turn to recognition, fear begins clawing its way up June’s throat. It tears at her flesh, rattling the bars of her ribcage in a demand for release, feeling not unlike the alien presence that’s always hovering at the dark edges of her mind.
“What happened?” she asks, the words coming out weak and quiet where the fear would have her scream them.
“There was an explosion,” Kirkland says. He’s one of Flagg’s men - one of Waller’s men, really, but in this moment he’s Flagg’s - and his voice is soft and gentle, pitching to a sympathetic tone. “Motherfuckers set a trap for us. Flagg took the brunt of it.”
The fear kicks hard at her gut. She feels she might be ill.
It’s difficult to see Rick through the rush of bodies around him. Doctors and nurses working in a flurry to save his life.
He’s going to die.
She doesn’t know where the thought comes from - her own mounting hysteria, the demon watching all this through her eyes, or maybe it’s some extrasensory perception, like when mothers wake up at the same time their teenage children are in car accidents. It doesn’t really matter in the end because she knows it’s true. Rick will not survive.
There are hands on her suddenly. Kirkland’s, a couple nurses. She’s no longer in the hall, on the non-sterile side of the glass. Did she decide to enter the room? She can’t remember. She feels like she’s watching it all from far away, like it’s some other woman trying to get to the bed, screaming in a pathetic, animal wail for her dying lover.
That’s how she knows, when the sharp point of pain hits her in the neck, that it’s a sedative.
“Put her in Iso 2,” Kirkland says while her body grows heavy, dragging her awareness back into it while it sinks to the ground. “Make her comfortable. She won’t be leaving for a while.”
A surge of white hot rage helps keep her awake a few seconds longer. She can’t leave him, not when he has so little time. She needs to stay with him.
From low on the floor, she can see Rick’s foot at the edge of the gurney. It’s bloody and mangled and it’s missing its mate, left it behind at the scene of the explosion.
He’s going to die.
He can’t.
It’s a bone-deep need inside her. He can’t go. He can’t.
Maybe it’s selfish, but she doesn’t know anymore how to live without him. Without Rick, it’s just her and the other inside her skin. Without him, she won’t have anything left to hold onto. Soon, it’ll just be the monster.
Maybe it’s fear that brings the word to her lips. Maybe it’s a desire to get it over with. Maybe it’s a prayer. June will never remember enough to know because while she sinks into darkness and strong hands move to lift her off the floor, someone else rises up to take control.
The last thing Rick remember is fire and pain and the thought that he’s sorry to be leaving June alone, with no paladin to protect her. The first thing he sees is her face, pale and thin, in the bed next to his.
“She’s fine,” Kirkland says when he’s halfway to his feet. “Just sleeping off the sedative.”
“Sedative?” he echoes dumbly while a lot of other things register, like that he’s half-naked on a gurney and can’t feel a single hurt.
Kirkland’s not the squirrelly type, but it doesn’t miss Rick’s notice that he doesn’t look at him when he says, “She was freakin’ out. We had to put her down.”
Rick doesn’t like that phrasing one bit - June isn’t a dog, for all that thing inside her is definitely rabid - but he lets it slide; there are bigger issues here.
“What happened?” he asks, adopting the gruff tone he uses in the field.
Kirkland, expectedly, doesn’t hesitate to answer. “She-” he waves a hand- “transformed or whatever. Became that half-naked bitch. Healed you.”
Awe and not a little bit of fear wash over Rick. They didn’t know the Enchantress was capable of that - or that she would. Kirkland made no mention of Waller, which means there was no threat hanging over her head. Does this mean June was in control? Or something else?
“How’s the leg feel?” Kirkland asks while Rick steps across the narrow aisle between their beds. It’s such an out of nowhere question that it stops him. “You kinda lost the left one back there. She grew you a new one.”
He settles his weight a little heavier on his heels. “Feels fine,” he lies. In reality, he can feel that twinge in the ankle, the one from a bad turn it took three years back. She regrew the damn thing, but with all its old flaws. He has no idea what that means.
Kirkland’s in the only chair he can see, so he carefully lifts June up, moves her to one side so he can slide in behind her. She must be sleeping for real now because she sighs and turns into him, fingers clutching while she sleeps. He hopes healing him tired the Enchantress out so maybe for once she can let June have some good dreams. She deserves a decent night’s sleep before Waller gets here and decides it’s time they reevaluate her powers.
He holds her a little tighter and relaxes, but doesn’t sleep a wink himself.
Why is religion on Westeros so strange? Like we never see character pray and when they do (Sansa, Catelyn) is seems to be in moments of tension. Is the Royal family really not going to church/sept? It shouldn't be an outrage? Outcries of "ungodly" monarchs?
HotD even has Rhaenyra say she never learn to pray! A 14 year old princess doesn't know how to pray?
On that point. How is no one trying to kill freys but for the Brotherhood? It was a wedding (a religious celebration) meaning a Septon was there. Did a holy man agree with it? If so... Why has no one spoke of it? Done something?And shouldn't house Frey be the Westerosi version of excommunicated?
And how did the entire country not rebel against Cersei for blowing up the Westerosi Vatican?
I mean we see that happen with early Targaryens and Jaehaerys inventing the Doctrine of Exceptionalism ... But they had Dragons, so I can acept the Septons bending to Jaehaerys. But they doesn't mean Westerosi just don't believed in gods.
For a "medieval" like world, Westerosi are very modern skeptics.
You bring up excellent points; the simplest answer I can give is to check out Part 2 of Bret Devereaux's series comparing Westeros to Medieval and Early Modern Europe, which covers religion in detail.
As to why Westeros is this way, consider that Weirwoods aren't found in Dorne and even the Giants settled in the Marches as opposed to the Red Mountains themselves, but we never hear about pre-Pact First Men religions still being practiced in Dorne, except perhaps a blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference to the Blackmont king worshipping a 'dark god' before Nymeria sent him to the Wall. I talked a bit about that at the end of my Dorne series, but the Dornish worship the same gods as Aegon yet there are no religious consequences for him annihilating them and presumably burning septs and members of the faith in the process.
When it comes to incorporating organized religion into ASOIAF, the story often dips into tropes outside of examples like Septon Meribald. This doesn't mean that skepticism and agnosticism weren't present in pre-modern Europe, or that churches were packed every sunday until the Enlightenment, it just means that George's worldbuilding of Westerosi religion and the way he writes it has flaws which come through in the story.
Hi ! I've been really enjoying your "Military Analysis of the Dance" series and your fix-it ideas. Reading your commentary about how Rhaenyra's claim should've been "dead in the water" and how a Dance would've made way more sense if Aegon was her cousin made me think of another possible scenario and I'm curious what you would think of it: What if Rhaenyra was Rhaenys' daughter instead of Aemma's ?
Consider: After Aemon dies with Rhaenys as his sole issue, Jaehaerys betroths Rhaenys and Viserys and marries them as soon as possible (If we want to keep Laenor and Laena as half-Targaryens, we could have Alysanne arrange Viserra with Corlys instead of Theomore Manderly and have her not die a stupid death). There is no Council of 101, because as far as anyone is concerned, succession is settled: Viserys will be King, Rhaenys will be Queen, their shared progeny will inherit the Iron Throne, combining their claims. Except Rhaenys gets Aemma's canon fate and dies in childbirth with Rhaenyra as her only surviving child, and Viserys remarries as in canon.
In this scenario, Rhaenyra would have a matrilineal claim to the Iron Throne through Andal Law which her half-siblings do not have. Without the Council of 101, there would also be no precedent of the lords of the realm preferring a patrilineal claimant over a matrilineal one. Would this set of circumstances improve Rhaenyra's claim to the throne and make the Dance more plausible while keeping GRRM's original vision of a war between siblings ? Or is Rhaenyra's claim still too weak ?
Thanks for the question; I'm glad you've enjoyed the series!
If the scenario is that Rhaenys isn't married to Corlys and pregnant with Laena in 92 AC, the year before Viserys married Aemma Arryn, I think it would still depend on whether or not there was any betrothal between Viserys and Aemma before hand. If not then I don't see why Jaehaerys couldn't have Rhaenys marry Viserys to ensure Aemon and Baelon's blood lines were united. Gaemon Targaryen's children Aegon and Elaena ruled Dragonstone together after his death, prior to the Conquest, so I don't see why Viserys and Rhaenys could not be crowned king and queen together.
If Rhaenys meets Aemma's fate and Viserys still marries Alicent and has children by her, then even sans a 101 Council Aegon II is still Viserys' first born son and eldest son, so while Rhaenyra's combining Rhaenys and Viserys' claims would certainly help her case she'd still be up against existing inheritance law. That being said, the absence of Laenor means there's no real 'slam dunk' marriage option for her aside from Aegon II, so I could easily see Rhaenyra and Aegon getting hitched to combine their claims. So her claim is certainly better while still facing a challenge, but there's also a very straightforward option for avoiding crisis.
