#chapters 28 and 29 are both half-written but i'm working on it. they are sooo much fun!!! well. “”“fun”“”

[2maegor2cruel]

I don't like to continue on someone else's post so just two things:

1) Victarion does at a certain point believe Hotho to be the heir to Harlaw - obviously its Victarion so there are plenty of explanations as to why he would be mistaken lol but thats why I entertained the idea of a succession uncertainity at all

2) There are NO characters known to be salt sons in asoiaf just bastards (and we know from TWOIAF that salt sons don't have bastard names I think) so a huge amount of freedom is allowed to the reader to make their own headcanons about exactly how that system works and how bad/remarkable it is for one to actually inherit. Last Serving Daughter Is a great example of making one's own headcanons! I love it

All the rest I agree fully and don't expect this to be the Canon supported option and I hadnt even gone to check where house Serrett Is so thanks for that, just wanted to point out why I made the remarks I did. I just like to always consider interpretations that are not the first that comes to mind.

Heyo! Not to be weird but I've actually read a good bit of your asoiaf fanfic it is sooo... *chef's kiss* 🤌 (and I know you from The Discord. kudos to a fellow throbb ponderer 🫡🫡🫡 too bad I'm super shy and never post on there lol.)

Per your first point, I combed Vic's chapters but I honestly couldn't find anything specific about Vic believing Hotho to be the heir to Ten Towers. If there is, feel free to send it my way. That said, there is some general ambiguity to that particular inheritance because of Euron's move of making Harras Lord of Greyshield. My read was that because Harras will already be lord of both Grey Garden and Greyshield, it's somewhat expected that he might 'step back' from Ten Towers, and let that inheritance go to another Harlaw (namely Hotho lol).

Per your second point, it is genuinely strange that there are no characters we really know to be salt sons/daughters. To be honest, I think George just included the whole salt wife/son bit without thinking through all of the wrinkles it might cause, so salt wives/sons are pretty much ignored in feastdance. Consider Balon, as according to Aeron, Balon took his first two salt wives when he was seventeen (implying that he took more in the following years). And Balon never had any salt sons by any of these women? Seems unlikely. But obviously, George knew that adding salt sons to the Greyjoy succession crisis would only complicate things further (Asha would never have been Balon's heir, nor would Euron have ever been able to inherit after Balon's death, and story events would not be able to unfold in the way GRRM wanted).

To me, that indicates that maybeeee George shouldn't have included that bit about Balon's salt wives at all. Maybe. Just maybe. And also, Quellon let Balon do that? It seems like it would really undermine Quellon's attempted reforms to let his son go around taking thralls and salt wives. George. George are you listening to me. George. Hey.

Now, if I were famous American novelist George RR Martin (and thank god I'm not), I'd have it so that salt sons start with the last name 'Salt' (distinct from the bastard name 'Pyke'), but if their father has no other sons, then they gain the house name and are raised up as heir. And I would have written salt wives/sons into my story in a way such that they're actually relevant. But alas.

In that same vein, I'm actually a big fan of a potential Iron Islands civil war, because I love cataclysm! I love it when tenuous cultural/societal trappings splinter and create devastating calamity! The Iron Islands have a strong reputation for being fiercely independent and quarrelsome, and I am SO looking forward to the complete catastrophe TWOW will be for them. Even on a small scale, it would be super interesting if salt sons could challenge rock sons for their inheritance via duel or a mini-kingsmoot (lordsmoot?), and that was a constant point of tension. There's just so much juice there!

As a final note, I hope I didn't come across as a "well ackchyually-" annoying weirdo. I just really enjoy discussing the sparse ironborn lore we're actually given. I have approximately ten thousand of my own ironborn headcanons, some of which roughly align with established canon, some of which directly contradict it lol. That's partially why the Iron Islands are my favorite region in Westeros: we're not given nearly as much world-building about them as, say, the Starks, and the world-building we do get sometimes makes absolutely no sense. So there's so much room to craft your own headcanons/lore!

Anyway, I ❤️ other people's ironborn headcanons. I will try to restrain myself from writing another 50,000 words on the topic, but it's so much fun lol.