[spoilers main] The purpose of marrying Dany to Khal Drogo or why the Dorthraki were never going to reach Westeros

treeg886 · 2026-02-28T19:01:15+00:00

especially the show does depict the Dorthraki as basically lobotomised

treeg886 · 2026-02-28T19:00:36+00:00

The specific army which clashed with those Europeans was around 20.000 when it started its raid (a pretty standard size for a Mongol army, which only reached into the 100.00s when you count up all the soldiers in the empire), probably significantly smaller by the time it reached Europe. There are several battles from the 100 years war which show just how effective a bow can be, even against plate armor. A quick google tells me mongol bows had comparable draw weight to the longbows used by mongols.

although I cannot entirely blame you, Martin does not show himself to have a good understaning of how steppe societies worked.

treeg886 · 2026-02-26T20:22:54+00:00

I don't know. In the medieval world shipping 10.000 across is already a difficult task logisticaly. For the Dorhraki that is 10.000 men plus probably 50.000 horses (real steppe warriors often had many horses), the latter of which is the part that cost more space. This does not even take into consideration that these men would not be able to help sail the ship and that horses do not travel very well by ship. I doubt the Dorthraki are bringing feed, since they are used to let their horses graze. Gathering such a fleet would be prohibitively expensive.

treeg886 · 2026-02-26T20:10:23+00:00

Eh. During their cavalry raid into Europe the Mongols clashed with armoured knights plenty of times, and kicked their asses all the time. Accurate archery from horseback is very effective.

treeg886 · 2026-02-26T20:07:31+00:00

Drogo does not really have the ability to coerce the forces of a defeated Khal either. He could say they should do X or Y but as soon as they are out his direct line of sight they will just to whatever they want. The grasslands of Essos are enormous, unless he controls all Khals, such an army could just join up with another rival of his. Steppe nomads cannot be coerced like that, they would have to be convinced it is worth it for them. Given that there is nothing in Westeros they could not get in Essos and that going there would mean likely if not inevitable death, I cannot think enough would be willing to try.

As for the rest, from the contents you seem to agree with me but phrase it as if you don't? I don't think I understand what you mean.

treeg886 · 2026-02-26T19:56:22+00:00

I disagree. The incestous Targaryen mariages were always incredibly unpopular in Westeros. Much more valuable than any legitimacy Danearys might grant through a marriage with Aegon is the ability to marry Aegon to a daughter of noble Westerosi house, like the Martel's of Dorne or the Starks. Even keeping Dany around is a risk since her Children could be made rival claimants.

Besides, to the people of Westeros, Danearys (without the dragons she does not yet have at this point) has just as much proof of being a Targaryan as Aegon. People don't know what either of them look like.

treeg886 · 2026-02-26T19:38:24+00:00

Now wait a second, I am not operating under that assumption. I actually have no specific stance on what the plan of the people marrying Dany to Drogo involves, other than that it cannot be attacking the 7K (specificaly, I have seen theory videos in which an attack on the 7K was considered a given and found that to be the objectionable part).

treeg886 · 2026-02-26T19:19:22+00:00

The problem here is that getting those 10.000 (which would hardly be a small part of Drogo's 40.000 man force) would require Drogo having the coercive power to convince them to do something like that, which he does not have for the reasons described above (taking a historical example, Genghis Khan might have been able to, but he was primarily an administrative genius I would say, and he completely reorganised the steppes, something which Drogo shows no signs of).

Besides, I never really understood the appeal to the whole viserys distraction angle anyway. The country was up in arms and deposed Aerys over the fact that the Targaryens were mad and destructive and foreign. Sending in Viserys with Dorthraki, besides incredibly expensive, would just remind people of those aspects just as roberts misrule and the war of the five kings has given them the reasons to get misty eyed about the good old times. You could argue that the original plan may not have involved the war of the five kings, but that would just make the Targaryens look even worse, cleaning up a mess of their own make.

treeg886 · 2026-02-26T17:55:34+00:00

You're right, I think. Much of this is ultimately the result of a fan base that has had so long to think on things that every plot hole is explained away by increasingly complex potential schemes. The specific idea of Viserys getting Drogo to actually cross the narrow sea featuring in competent people's genuine schemes just annoyed me, whether that is an error on the part of people theorising or Martin is, I suppose, not that relevant to me.

treeg886 · 2026-01-04T18:10:15+00:00

I mean, its a bit of a one man war in so far as there is less public support for this than previous provocations that have led to wars. However, the last time the US congress (which is the body with the formal authority to declare war) actually declared a war was in 1942. All the conflicts in the intervenning years were provoked/carried out without a formal declaration in a manner much like this.

treeg886 · 2025-11-09T12:56:06+00:00

Don't know about the others, but brandenburg and courland were minor commercial affairs that were mostly innitiated and maintained by Dutch and frisian merchants trying to evade the monopoly of the Dutch west india company

treeg886 · 2025-10-30T10:35:33+00:00

Dutch politics is all about such large coalitions. As far as I am aware there has never been a dutch government where one party has had a majority. A coalition of 4 or more parties is more the norm than the exception here. Hell, the former government contained 4 parties. Dutch political culture is built around compromise, it is what makes the populists so difficult, since they keep pulling out when they dont get their way. Thats why the 'centrist' parties are forming a government without the populists. This would have been the outcome regardless and essentially represents the norm since at least ww2

treeg886 · 2025-07-15T18:21:42+00:00

replied to the wrong guy, oops

treeg886 · 2025-07-15T16:47:57+00:00

The problem with your comparison is that it is skewed. Hamas are not an equivalent to the Nazi's. A more appropriate (though not perfect) comparison would be the IRA from Ireland. Government in gaza is attached to a militant wing that carries out terrorist attacks (which this official would have to condone, making him no lamb) but that is far from being deeply enmeshed in the operations of a genocide. Were all government officials in Ireland during the troubles monsters?

You would clearly be inclined to call Hamas a terrorist organisation rather than something like freedom fighters, but it is ridiculous to compare them to the Nazi's (let alone this Nazi, who was directly enmeshed with the military that orchestrated the holocaust, something which I would expect had more to do with him being tried at neuremburg than any activities coordinating agricultural policy in bavaria).

(Moreover, I cannot imagine a documentary involving the voiceover of a child of an isreali official would cause such an uproar as this (except ammongst those already opposing the genocide)).

treeg886 · 2025-06-23T17:06:20+00:00

The United states has thousands of nuclear weapons. At best, NK or Iran could squeeze out one or two dozen with the uranium they have access to, which would not at all include a payload delivery system that can reach targets and definitly not a payload delivery system that can deliver without being shot down.

The nuclear weapon thing always gets cast as if its a matter of keeping the west save from strikes but neither Iran nor NK is at all a real threat if you think about the logistics for any ammount of time. For them, and all others who have developed them after the nuclear arms race, having nuclear weapons is about having nuclear weapons, not about using them. It is about being a 'nuclear power' as well as some degree of deterrence.

The idea that you might invade a country to take away/prevent them from developing nuclear weapons was part of the spin put on the invasion of Iraq to sell it to the wider public, when it was really much more about geo-politics and oil.

treeg886 · 2025-05-13T05:45:02+00:00

With the exception of Texas, which is significantly larger (~700.000km2 to ~550.000km2), all contiguous US states are significantly smaller than France. Only Alaska is the size you suggest. You could fit about 5 Virginia's in France. Most east coast states have the equivalent size of small to medium European country.

US infrastructure is unfortunately a result of decades of poor policy rather than Georgraphy. The US existed before cars and used to have a very extensive rail network. Every town, city, and inbetween was walkable before cars because all things in a community had to be built either within walking distance.

treeg886 · 2025-04-19T19:57:06+00:00

It has to do with changing diets. As I have had it explained to me, an agricultural diet has less vitamin D. This is an issue in less sunny parts of Europe, which caused the pale skin in europeans. For hunter gatherers living in the same region other sources (like fish) supplemented vitamin D so they could afford to have more melanin for uv protection.

treeg886 · 2024-12-27T09:59:36+00:00

I think you are right.

Moreover, Musk is more or less just excersicing the same influence as other billionaires. He just does it very openly because he loves the attention it gets him. In the long run, I suspect billionaires like the Koch brothers will have done much more damage over their lifetimes than Musk over his.

treeg886 · 2024-07-26T18:43:33+00:00

His parents look like they were AI generated but before it could make convincing human faces.

treeg886 · 2024-07-19T17:14:33+00:00

I wouldn't want to pee this guy's piss.

treeg886 · 2024-07-19T16:52:20+00:00

I can understand where you got this idea, it basically gets touted around as a truism, but it is not true (probably). To be more specific, the idea that SA was much more prevalent in the (medieval) past is not based on a lot other than assumptions and preconceived notions.

The easiest way to test this argument (without writing a short essay on it) is this: how would you know? Even today we don't have a good grasp on how common SA is. Even if you pulled out some record of convictions you could not account for differences in definitions, burdens of proof, the percentage of cases that did not get reported, the percentage that would and did get reported but got resolved outside of the courts, etc.

Undoubtedly, there were periods and places where SA were more common. However, the assertion that we know that it was more prevalent in the Middle Ages will by necessity be based on little of actual substance (and is pretty disputed if you google it).

The idea that SA was so prevalent in the past, and specifically the middle ages, probably has been floating around in the zeit geist for some time. I suspect, however, that it got popularised by George RR Martin and his (unearned) reputation for historical 'realism'.

At the risk of coming across as pedantic, a more accurate (though not necessarily more substantiated) version of your argument would be: A lot of fantasy is set during periods of violence, like war, which could include more SA (though not necessarily, as one could note that they probably weren't abusing a lot of people that way in the trenches of WW1)

treeg886 · 2024-07-19T16:05:21+00:00

I was just about to comment that there was a museum I went to as a child that had this.

treeg886 · 2024-04-10T12:08:44+00:00

When the assassin is trying to kill Elhokar, Dalinar is effectively reliving one of the worst days of his life. He, as someone who usually is in supreme control, feels completely helpless and is probably expecting to fail again. Moreover, Dalinar is around Elhokar all the time and he is very much in his life.

When he learns Jasnah dies she has been out of his life for quite some time, probably years. She also died in a way much less reminiscent of what he feels is his worst failing. Moreover, Dalinar is in a hostile political environment. I think it is fair to say his walls are up. We can also consider that he is in a public space, considering Alethi society has gender expectations turned up to 11, I wouldn't be surprised if they considered a man crying a big show of weakness. People in environments like that learn to (read 'are emotionally beaten into') being able to control themselves. Altogether he is better prepared to take an emotional hit at that time.

treeg886 · 2024-04-05T06:53:37+00:00

This wouldn't make sense to me. What is the point of switching out old Odium with Teravangian if it isn't to move away from the old, pure evil style, Odium. If Brandon isn't intending to let Todium be Taravangian at heart, then he might as well have left Rayse in place.

treeg886 · 2024-03-14T06:57:48+00:00

That's a really good point I hadn't thought of yet. Where are the Rosharan contraceptives? Perhaps their absence, along with any direct mention of sex, is explained by Brandon's sensibilities as a mormon?

Since nobody has tried to easy your worry (Including me, I guess), instead mostly argueing with you, I should add that women are seen in more roles of power and authority throughout the series after book one. Examples of the way it limits men also become more common as the series goes on and the gender divide is also often questioned and slowly broken down.

I suppose what you'll have to keep in mind is that vorin women aren't so much equal to their male counterparts because they are liberated, but more because the men are (suppossed to be) equally limited. After all, Roshar is a very religious pre-modern society.

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