Every man should lose a battle in his youth, so he does not lose a war when he is old.

The High Septon once told me that as we sin, so do we suffer.

And what lesson can we draw from Volantene history? If you want to conquer the world, you best have dragons.

I buried him with mine own hands, in a place he showed me once when I was a squire at Storm’s End. No one shall ever find him there to disturb his rest.” He looked at Jaime defiantly. “I will defend King Tommen with all my strength, I swear it. I will give my life for his if need be. But I will never betray Renly, by word or deed. He was the king that should have been. He was the best of them.

I love fantasy. I grew up reading fantasy. But, I wanted to put a somewhat different spin on it. The whole trope of absolute good versus absolute evil, which was wonderful in the hands of J.R. Tolkien, became cliche and rote in the hands of the many Tolkien imitators that followed.

Shattered legs may heal in time, but some betrayals fester and poison the soul.

Laughter is poison to fear.