Post by markg171 on Apr 13, 2016 21:58:14 GMT
Seems queer that Aerys would require his KG to "take command" of ten thousand men.
Well yes and no. Robert is a bit of an oddity in that he was his own general. There have been other martially inclined kings of course (like Aegon I, Maegor, Daeron I, etc.), but traditionally speaking, the king's generals are his KG and his Hand.
Hence why we see that Merryweather was leading the war effort, and then Connington. Both of Aerys' Hands. Then Aerys turned to his KG, with Lewyn commanding the Dornish army, Barristan and Darry Connington's old army, and Jaime with the forces of King's Landing.
So it's not that odd that Aerys made Lewyn the commander of the Dornish troops. It's after all a traditional role for a KG, and Lewyn not only happened to be Dornish himself, but a Prince of Dorne too. He is rather the logical commander of the Dornish forces, short of Doran or Oberyn (though Oberyn being absent from the war gets my alarm bells all ringing)
Might they have been led by a woman?
Perhaps, but it's still the same problem IMO. Who? There's no Lady Blackmont or Lady Jordayne or anybody that we've ever heard of who marched with this army. This army had 10,000 spears, but we've never heard any anybody notable, male or female, among them.
And we really have no idea what Jory's circumstances were. It may have given offense for a junior bannerman to ride in the stead of a senior when his liege lord needed a favor.
Well we do happen to know though that Jory was one of, if not the top swordsman in the north by at least AGOT.
"Carrots and apples," Ned repeated. It sounded as if this boy would be even less use than the others. And he was the last of the four Littlefinger had turned up. Jory had spoken to each of them in turn. Ser Hugh had been brusque and uninformative, and arrogant as only a new-made knight can be. If the Hand wished to talk to him, he should be pleased to receive him, but he would not be questioned by a mere captain of guards … even if said captain was ten years older and a hundred times the swordsman. The serving girl had at least been pleasant. She said Lord Jon had been reading more than was good for him, that he was troubled and melancholy over his young son's frailty, and gruff with his lady wife. The potboy, now cordwainer, had never exchanged so much as a word with Lord Jon, but he was full of oddments of kitchen gossip: the lord had been quarreling with the king, the lord only picked at his food, the lord was sending his boy to be fostered on Dragonstone, the lord had taken a great interest in the breeding of hunting hounds, the lord had visited a master armorer to commission a new suit of plate, wrought all in pale silver with a blue jasper falcon and a mother-of-pearl moon on the breast. The king's own brother had gone with him to help choose the design, the potboy said. No, not Lord Renly, the other one, Lord Stannis.
Either he's gotten much better over the years, or he was still very good back in RR. Now the Cassels in general seem to be very good swordsmen given that Jory was a great swordsman, Rodrik was master-at-arms, and Martyn likely helped kill some KG (he could've died without doing anything of course, but we know he fought in a battle where 3 died), but without knowing much about Martyn, I don't know if I can say that he's actually any better than his son, who we know is great with a sword.
So I'm left with multiple oddities then. Jory is closer in age to Ned and is one of his better friends given that he helps in the bedding which is basically the equivalent of being one of your groomsmen nowadays, and he's an amazing swordsman. So why bring Martyn instead of Jory? Just seems like a weird pick to me as IMO we've basically established that Jory is Ned's closer companion, and likely the better swordsman in case of a fight. So why Martyn? All Ned's description of him was that he was "proud" which doesn't seem like it should be that much of a contributing factor.
And leave Winterfell without a Stark?!
Well there's baby Robb, and Benjen