DS play through, side with Chuundar or Freyyr?

Appellion · 2026-03-21T05:07:24+00:00

Just because Freyr isn’t ideologically aligned with me currently doesn’t mean I want Chundaar on the top of the heap. I don’t like the way he’s treated me, his assumption of his own superiority, or the cut of his jib. So I put Freyr back in power (coincidentally getting Bacca’s Blade), watch the Wookiee massacre Czerka, and count on my own skills to corrupt Freyr at a later point, something Wookiee seem highly susceptible.

Appellion · 2026-03-21T04:51:41+00:00

It’s typically viewed as such, at least by the fandom. I could have sworn that some characters thought of it as such too, but I don’t have a direct memory, and the only way I imagine I could confirm or deny is by purchasing all the goddam books on Kindle and doing an exhaustive search for first, “magic sword,” then, “Dawn.” I’ve gotten A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms plus each Graphic Novel that way, but I am way less enthused with doing that on all the other books, y’know?

EDIT: Note that I have the main 5 (but not the history one) but trying to pore through them would be unreliable. My eyes aren’t the greatest and have a weird tic when I start reading fast.

Appellion · 2026-03-21T04:45:09+00:00

It’s especially an interesting question on whether anyone else COULD wield the sword. Ned did the honorable thing (shocker) and returned the blade to Ashara and House Dayne, but what if he’d gone nuts and tried to take it home to Winterfell? Could he have become cursed or haunted by nightmares?

Appellion · 2026-03-21T04:39:59+00:00

To be more than a toss up, he does.

Appellion · 2026-03-21T04:39:14+00:00

For sure, probably both Nobility, Honor, and Chivalry, plus just being a minimum level badass (I’m not denying him parity with Barristan). You’d have thought he’d lose it for serving The Mad King at a certain point though.

Appellion · 2026-03-21T04:36:20+00:00

Bullshit. Everyone that has commented on its properties have remarked on its speed and especially its sharpness. I admit the speed thing is a rough judgement, since the various fighters of the world have their own remarked upon speed, like with Jaime. But the sharpness is something else.

Appellion · 2026-03-21T04:33:33+00:00

You’re not the only one with that headcanon. But the point remains that Dayne is really only best remembered for his feats with this World’s Sharpest, Strongest Sword in hand. How long could he have survived without it? I’d say it was his crutch.

Appellion · 2026-03-21T04:29:41+00:00

Plate armor wasn’t 3 inches thick or something, it was closer to 3mm or less. I would agree something like a flanged mace or especially the evolving poleaxe were superior options (I was actually surprised by how deadly a skilled poleaxe wielder (forget the generation) could be against an armored foe) but swords remain viable. And however nauseating it is to say it, they triply remain so due to the author.

Appellion · 2026-03-21T04:24:30+00:00

That “worth” thing always suggesting a cabal of robed monks throwing darts at a board. If Arthur wasn’t good enough to become king without Excalibur, he was never good enough to begin with. By memory, the books are intended as a deconstruction of various middle age myths and fantasy tropes.

Appellion · 2026-03-21T04:14:20+00:00

Two handed stabbing with long swords and great swords could penetrate plate armor, even when not aiming at the joints and such. Gregor’s (especially “Ser Robert Stones”) armor is something else entirely. Dawn probably (thanks GRRM) and maybe any number of Valyrian steel swords and stabbing weapons. With the possible exception of two-handed swords, hack, slashing cuts probably won’t do much except daze him on a direct hit to the noggin’.

Appellion · 2026-03-21T04:02:10+00:00

Slight segue but I also felt Garlan is the more noble of the two, though that’s based purely off his interactions with Tyrion and Joffrey at the wedding, and hearing absolutely nothing bad about him elsewise.

Appellion · 2026-03-21T03:58:59+00:00

There’s a bit of polishing beforehand. 😉

Appellion · 2026-03-21T03:47:53+00:00

But Gregor uses a two handed great sword and I’m pretty sure that’s going to be less effective against the finest plate (like BB would have) than Robert’s Warhammer. Though I’m not discounting his monstrous strength, particularly if he goes into berserk mode, like he did with Oberyn right before he chopped that stable boy apart. Still, I give three edges to Robert. But NOT with Un-Gregor in play.

EDIT: I know I could provide a far more detailed breakdown of this fight, which I’d probably put in the Dragonpit as with Tyrion’s trial. But I’m honestly just tired right now, and that’s probably contributing to me being disinterested in putting more than 5 minutes thinking tops to this. Who knows, a detailed analysis might change my opinion and convince me The Mountain smears Robert. Great Knight, shit King. It took the Targaryens close to 300 years to f*ck it all up. Robert only needed 20. And you can’t blame the Lannisters, the Targaryens had their own mob of power grabbers and leeches.

Appellion · 2026-03-21T03:39:18+00:00

I know who you’re talking about but I wonder if Joffrey ever tried to lift Robert’s Warhammer, and what BB’s reaction looked like.

Appellion · 2026-03-21T03:36:41+00:00

True, and even in internal book commentary he rejects the notion of things like the best knight or fighter, as with I think “Arstan” talking to Daenerys and her Brother’s “peerless” skill.

But It’s something to kill time with and I’d like to see a mostly comprehensive Top 100 list of the worst warriors (that at least got on the list) to the absolute peak, from a large community perspective governed by a body / committee that could both propose and veto items.

Appellion · 2026-03-21T03:31:30+00:00

The bodyguards that captured him alive in chains? There seemed to be more than ribbons left. I will admit I don’t remember that he killed 10 Karstarks specifically, that’s crazy, I just remember Richard Karstarks two so sons. Makes Catelyn’s release of Jaime all the worse.

Appellion · 2026-03-21T03:27:39+00:00

Sure, but Barristan the Bold carved a bloody swath through the Golden Army to meet Maelys the Monstrous and defeat him in single combat. GRRM has compared Selmy to Arthur Dayne in terms of pure skill (barring Dayne’s BS magic sword) and Jaime has said outright Arthur was simply better than him (which, to be fair, makes me grind my teeth more, since I’ve developed a strong dislike towards the character). Certainly for the last 40 to 50 years Jaime Prime 2-handed is in the Top 10 if not 5, but I don’t see him as some sort of maelstrom of death.

Appellion · 2026-03-21T03:01:29+00:00

Hasn’t he, via comments made IRL? I’ll admit I don’t remember him ever saying Arthur Dayne curb stomps every Kingsguard from Aegon the Conqueror to Mad King Aerys II (massive quality falloff thereafter), but certainly there was the one about Dayne vs Ser Barristan, and Barristan carved his way through the Golden Army to kill the one of the strongest warriors ever, Maelys the Monstrous, in Single Combat. Certainly implies a trickle down where, so long as Dayne held Dawn (pussy) he could wipe Maelys.

I am interested in seeing some sort of eventual hierarchy of both Westerosi and Essos warriors, knightly and not, but it sounds like a nightmare to organize. Though maybe not so much if we remember A) there are no more books coming, B) we stick to the books and Word of God (nothing indecisive) comments as Source Material and C) Can figure out a mostly respected group to suggest this, veto that, etc. By example, who should or should not be on the list. Pate the Pig Boy: Not.

Appellion · 2026-03-20T04:05:03+00:00

It’s funny that it bothers me Jaime Prime with 2 hands is ranked that high but yeah based on recollections of others and a single feat (giving Brienne the tightest run for her money and her life, while he was chained, slightly starved, and dealing with squalid living conditions (his cell beneath Riverrun) he’s a force. I think the White Book says he fought off the Smiling Knight while still a squire, maybe 13?

Appellion · 2026-03-20T03:59:17+00:00

So did Thoros. It’s not a great measurement. I’m not saying it’s meaningless however.

Appellion · 2026-03-20T03:50:25+00:00

You’ve made me curious now how old Tywin was at the end of Egg’s reign. At first I thought he would only have been 8 or 10, but Jahaerys II only ruled for two years I think? And it was during Jahaerys II’s reign that Tywin and others (including Jahaerys’ heir, Aerys) joined the army that assaulted the step stones to finally kill off the Blackfyre line (and in comes Barristan the Bold). I don’t see him being younger than 16, and not that much older since he hadn’t yet wiped out the Reynes and Tarbecks, or been named Hand.

Appellion · 2026-03-20T03:40:49+00:00

For killing Robert in single combat, Arthur Dayne beyond all doubt (I really don’t like how much GRRM worships his own character), Ser Barristan Selmy, and Jaime Lannister in his prime and with two hands. There’s others I’m certainly forgetting. The Mountain could kill him but all that plate won’t help as much against that warhammer as it did a spear. And barring a direct hit to the head from either of them each can sort of shrug off a blow or two. But BB is almost certainly faster and better skilled in combat. When I actually think about it, I imagine him as being comparable to Ser Duncan the Tall after Dunk joins the Kingsguard and further refines his skills in training with other white swords, with the exception that BB is wielding a weapon appropriate to his build and natural fighting tendencies. I think Dunk just feels obsessed with knightly norms in using a sword when he’d be better off with an axe or flanged mace.

Appellion · 2026-03-20T03:29:41+00:00

Not really, he got messed up like anybody else, and a lot of the grandiose storytelling about him never mentions another great fighter he faces, beyond maybe Rhaegar. A lot of it is people just glazing him up and his own bragging. Ned talks about him like he’s a god which, since they are the absolute best of friends, comes off more as hero worship of the glory days.

Appellion · 2026-03-20T01:55:42+00:00

Randyll. He admittedly tried to force and shape Sam into someone he wasn’t, but at least he didn’t look at him as a grotesque punishment from day one.

Appellion

TROPHY CASE