The Official Nonsense Thread

[Minty]

Bear in mind much of what I am about to say is speculation on my part, no spoilers are contained within. I know some of what lies ahead, but I'm avoiding touching that for obvious reasons!

I'd a feeling Filch The Squib was going to do the dirty, although technically he'd every right to screw over the Starks the way they'd screwed over him, just not in the way he did it - about the worst possible chivalric crime in the book to do that to guests & means his entire family's word will never be trusted again, although the way all of them in Westeros are merrily iconoclausting for short term gain it's going to be a miracle if anyone trusts anyone else by the time it's all over.

The Lannisters are also pretty f**ked in the long term, although Tywin's too rash to realise it - on top of betraying the old king at the first siege of King's Landing (they were meant to defend it from the Starks and Baratheons - instead they let them in) & Jaime as head of the King's Guard actually killing the mad king, they're certain to get the main blame for the Red Wedding as no one would credit the Freys with having the courage to do it without big friends in the wings. People will now see them as exterminating all the major houses one by one (first the Targarians, now the Starks, and their signature song boasts of the Lannisters exterminating the Raynes, once the second richest house of Westeros) in order to take over all the lands of Westeros, not merely content to take the throne.

In the earlier episodes you pick up from the others that Frey's regarded as a joke by other nobles despite holding such a strategically important castle - too busy being a randy old git than looking after his family's interests (the running joke in the books being he's the only man in Westeros that could raise an army solely from his breeches). Frey's side of the argument is he's desperate to keep what they have & is terrified that the Starks, Boltons, Tullys & Lannisters are always looking for excuses to try nicking it - the main fear being the Frey's will lose it to the one of the four which attacks them last after they've beaten off the other three. He's been wed several times (outliving wife after wife as they all end up dying after one childbirth too many) & those four houses are the only ones that kept finding excuses never to so much as send a representative to any of the last few. To Frey it's a calculated slight on his house, in reality it's a calculated slight on him (I think Catelyn Stark says something about how he gives everyone the creeps!)

Frey acted as he did to get the message over his family weren't pushovers, but in the longterm he may have secured their doom. The Red Wedding occured at the moment the Freys fell under the overlordship of Littlefinger (as the new owner of Harrenhal) which means they now have to worry at some stage he'll use that as a pretext to wipe out the Freys one way or another so he can grab their lands and property (especially the all important The Twins) for himself. At least the Starks & Tullys were honest, even if they did think the Freys a joke. But with Baelish & the Lannisters as your "allies", who needs enemies?

The one person that really benefits from what happened I think is Stannis. Until the Red Wedding, he was finished. But after this, plenty more will start sympathising with the Brotherhood Without Banners, whose main base is in the Riverlands - Tully and Frey country. The BWB are loyal to no noble, only by by faith to Stannis' concubine, the loony Red Priestess, & with much of the Riverlands owned by the ordinary people ruined by the war, the BWB could be the right faction in the right place at the right time.

As for Arya, if she wasn't already pretty pissed before, she's REALLY pissed now (& like everyone else she thinks she & her sister are the only Starks left alive). However, be prepared for surprises as to what she'll do about getting her revenge.

Oh, there is also one last major twist to the aftermath of the Red Wedding, but you will have to wait for the last episodes of series four for it to happen. Don't even bother trying to guess it, you never will! When I read it in the books, I was like WHAAAAAAAAA!

On the subject of veg, they should cultivate square vegetables that utilise the space in the fridge better.