u/Sea-Negotiation8309

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Throughout much, if not all, of the series, there's a recurring joke or idea that the group as a whole seems to think Chandler is a loser, constantly belittling him and making passive-aggressive comments about him for no apparent reason. However, if you watch the show, nothing suggests he's a loser.

He's the most financially successful of the group, having practically supported Joe without issue for much of the series. Despite hating his job and being quite lazy, he's proven to be very capable, receiving several promotions (even managing an office in Tulsa). When he moves into advertising, he's good enough to jump several rungs on the career ladder.

It's frequently mentioned that he's terrible with women, but while he has commitment issues that prevent his relationships from lasting long, he has no trouble attracting women, as shown in the early seasons where he successfully uses humor to smooth talk and charm women effortlessly.

He's shown he can manipulate the group, like when he turns them against each other by pointing out all their annoying flaws, causing them to completely forget about their cigarettes while they argue amongst themselves.

So why do they consider Chandler a loser?

As many know, Moat Cailin is the fortress considered the gateway to the North, guarding the only land route.

The thing is, in most fanfics, whether it's Ned or Jon, it seems the best fortress to give them would be Moat Cailin. However, Moat Cailin is far too important to be outside the direct control of the Starks. It's the gateway to the North, and giving it to any other house, even a cadet branch of the Starks themselves, is too risky in the long run.

This could lead to the formation of a new House Frey or, as with the Greystark branch, a rebellion.

Therefore, Moat Cailin, simply because of its importance, would never be chosen to form a cadet branch.

If you're up to date with the manga, you'll know that Benjamin has recently been infected with a deadly virus and now has less than 10 hours to win the War of Succession by establishing martial law and legally legitimizing his own bastard son as his heir. This will ensure they ascend directly to the throne upon his death, while he plans to use Furykov's ability to merge with his guardian beast and become a guardian deity to watch over Kakin.

The thing is, as I understand the rules of the current War of Succession, everyone who wants to claim the throne should have boarded the Black Whale. So, did Benjamin bring his son with him?

Does being a Royal Guard offer any benefits beyond the prestige of belonging to the institution? I haven't really seen any mention of advantages to being part of the group, as they seem to be just a much smaller version of the Night's Watch. In fact, Visenya created the Royal Guard based on the Night's Watch and their vows.

If we compare them to other historical royal guards like the Praetorian Guard, there's a clear difference.

The Praetorian Guard had many clear advantages. Their mandatory military service was shorter, 12 years with the Praetorians instead of 16 years in the legions. Their salary was three to six times higher than that of a legionary, increased by the donativum bonus, granted by each new emperor, which was equivalent to several years' salary and was often repeated for important imperial events or those affecting the imperial family: birthdays, births, and marriages.

So, besides prestige and living in the Red Keep, does the Royal Guard offer any benefits to its members?

If you had to give each army of the Warring States something that would make them superior to the others, what would it be? For me, it would be like this:

Qin with weapons like crossbows

Zhao with superior cavalry thanks to their constant battles with the Quanrong

Han being a poison specialist

Chu with the best weapons and armor thanks to their metallurgy

Yan with an army composed entirely of mountain clans

Wei with superior engineering, capable of building enormous and complex structures

I'm still not sure what Qi would excel at

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For those who don't know, Japanese kodoku or Chinese gu is a type of ritual magic that involved sealing various venomous creatures (for example, centipedes, snakes, scorpions) inside a sealed container, where they devoured each other and supposedly concentrated their toxins in a single survivor, whose body would then be consumed by larvae until it was devoured. The last surviving larva contained the complex poison.

Based on this, the Kakin succession war is based on kodoku, in which the 14 princes must kill each other until only one remains. The thing is, that's only half the ritual, since the other half is having larvae consume the winner's body.

This leads me to my current theory that the Kakin succession war isn't a ritual to select the next king of the Kakin empire, but rather to select the next body for the first king of Kakin.

Basically, the entire Succession War is a massive Nen technique enhanced by post-mortem Nen. When there are 14 legitimate princes of Kakin, the Succession War must be prepared, and the winner will become the new body for the first king. That's why there are 14 sarcophagi to store the 14 princes' bodies, connected to a central chamber where the current king must reside.

The current king is the first king of Kakin, and he will transfer his soul into the body of the "winner" of the Succession War.

This seems to be a semantic trick I just realized while listening to a video about prophecies:

The prophecy of the prince, the prophesied savior of humanity who will free the world from darkness and whose arrival will be heralded by a bleeding comet, cannot be a king or queen.

Because the prophecy speaks of a prince (gender is not specified), not a king or queen.

Therefore, the person destined to be the promised prince must ironically be a prince, which would eliminate any candidate who proclaims themselves king or queen.

Did I figure something out, or did I just go crazy?

With the recent flashback to Brook's past, he may have just earned the unenviable title of the character with the most tragic backstory.

He was an orphan who spent his early years in abject poverty and was ready to die at any moment.

His kingdom was completely destroyed, and almost everyone he knew was murdered.

The older brother figure he had, and the person he loved most, King Leuben, was killed by the second person he loved most, Shuri.

Then he became a pirate and had to watch his entire crew, the Rumba Pirates, die, remaining alone for sixty years in the middle of the Florian Triangle with no other company than the corpses of his crewmates.

How is it that Brook remains sane after practically seeing everyone he loved die twice and being left completely alone and adrift for six decades?

I know YiTi exists, this is just a hypothetical scenario where Westeros develops similarly to the history of China.

The story of Westeros, inspired by Chinese history from the Sho dynasty to the Han dynasty.

The story of Westeros, inspired by Chinese history from the Sho dynasty to the Han dynasty.

For this reason, I decided to modify the order of the events of ancient times mentioned above.

FOUNDATION OF THE VALYRIAN FREEDOM: In Essos, the peaceful shepherds of the Valyrian peninsula discovered dragons dwelling in the Fourteen Flames. The Valyrians tamed the dragons with magic, which allowed them to gain influence over the region. Thus, the Valyrian Reach was established, with its capital, Valyria.

The Freehold of Valyria rose, triggering a mass migration of numerous peoples fleeing west across the Arm of Dorne into Westeros. These peoples would later be collectively known as the First Men.

While the Freehold waged multiple wars against the Empire of Ghis for control of Essos, the First Men traveled inland across Westeros, displacing the Children of the Forest and the giants. This sparked a 200-year war with them, during which the First Men began to establish their cities and kingdoms. The most important of these were founded around the River Trident, and the conflict ended with a pact between the Children of the Forest and the First Men, in which they agreed to live in peace and divide the lands.

Meanwhile, in western Essos, in the land of the Andals, the religion of the Faith of the Seven is founded.

The Frankish fiefdom, feeling threatened by the rapid spread of the religion throughout Essos, outlaws it and begins a hunt against its practitioners.

Threatened, the Andals begin a mass migration to Westeros, crossing the Narrow Sea and landing on its eastern coast at the Fingers of the Vale.

For the next five years, massive waves of Andals arrived in Westeros, beginning a rapid and constant conquest of the territory thanks to their technological superiority in possessing steel weapons and tools. They managed to displace the First Men, most of whom either converted to the Faith of the Seven or moved to the northern lands, where they continually resisted the Andal invasions.

The Age of Heroes: After the war between the Andals and the First Men, an 800-year period of peace emerged, during which the Andal and First Men cultures and races blended. This period is named for the great men and women who lived during these years of relative peace and prosperity. Many noble houses trace their lineages back to this era through stories, songs, and legends, most notably a group of eight legendary individuals. The first of these was Garth the Gardener, who unified most of the tribes of what are now called Westerosi and, using magic and knowledge of vegetation, introduced new crops such as the potato and the... Corn, which led to a population explosion, doubling or even tripling the population across the continent. The last to do so was Brandon the Engineer, who, to prevent the constant flooding of the Trident, united hundreds of tribes with the goal of building a system of dikes and canals to divert excess water to the sea while retaining some for crop irrigation, thus putting an end to the Trident floods.

Rhoynar Migration: It was during this 800-year period that the so-called Rhoynar Migration took place. After the Rhoynar defeat in the Second Spice War, a Rhoyn warrior queen evacuated the survivors of the war from Garin, mostly women and children, in ten thousand ships fleeing the Valyrians, reaching the region of Dorne in southern Westeros, where she and her people sought refuge and eventually intermingled with the Dornish people.

The Targaryen Migration: At the end of the Age of Heroes, the Freehold controlled everything Having defeated their greatest enemies, and preparing to continue their expansion, they turned westward and annexed a group of islands in the Blackwater Bay off the east coast of Westeros. Through arcane arts, they built Dragonstone as their main outpost, and the Targaryens, a minor family in the Senate, offered themselves for the governorship of the islands, persuaded by their daughter Daenys, a renowned Augur (priest who practices divination).

The Doom of Valyria: Although the exact events are unclear, it is known that the fall of the Freehold began when the Fourteen Flames erupted simultaneously. The Valyrian Peninsula was devastated, and the city of Valyria was left in ruins, though not completely destroyed. The dragons of Valyria were virtually exterminated, and the Valyrian Freehold crumbled in the Century of Blood.

The Long Night and the Century of Blood: The massive volcanic eruptions of Valyria's fourteen volcanoes released an enormous amount of volcanic ash that blanketed the sky, creating a vast black cloud that obscured the sun, making it appear as if it were still night, even during the day. This period would last 900 years.

At the same time, with the fall of Valyria, the various generals and city-states of Essos began fighting for control of the continent in what became known as the Century of Blood. This culminated in the total defeat of the remaining Valyrian generals due to the death of their dragons, a consequence of the freezing temperatures brought on by the Long Night.

From the north of Westeros, in the lands of perpetual winter, a humanoid species of ice elves, later known as the Others or White Walkers, began an invasion. The Long Night had caused a dramatic drop in temperatures, and they marched, killing and raising the dead to serve as their servants. The undead, and nearly annihilating all the men, women, and children of Westeros.

The war came to an end when a massive alliance of tribes, then known as the Night's Watch, armed with dragonglass weapons, managed to defeat the White Walkers in the Battle of Dawn. According to legend, once the battle ended, the thick cloud of volcanic ash that covered the sky dissipated, bringing an end to the Long Night.

Construction of the Wall: After the defeat of the Others, Brandon the Builder, descendant of Brandon the Engineer, with the help of giants and the Night's Watch, erected the Wall, a monumental fortification of ice and ancient magic, to protect the realms of men from the White Walkers and as a way to mark their territory. A sworn brotherhood was formed to serve as a permanent guard on the Wall. The watch adopted the same name as Brandon's confederation of tribes: the Night's Watch.

All the tribes that did not want to be under the rule of Brandon the Builder moved north of the wall, isolating themselves from the rest of the continent and becoming known as the savages or, as they called themselves, the free folk.

That's what I have so far. I've also thought about how to divide the dynasties:

Before the Targaryens:

1. Xin Dynasty
2. Shang Dynasty
3. Zhou Dynasty 3.1. Spring and Autumn Period 3.2. Warring States Period (the time when the Seven Kingdoms were formed)

After the Targaryens:

4. Qin Dynasty (From Aegon the Conqueror to Maegor)

5. Han Dynasty (From Jaehaerys to Aerys II) with the state of Westeros at the time of Robert's Rebellion, the kingdom not officially divided, similar to the Three Kingdoms period

My theory about Riboku's weakness is his overconfidence in having everything figured out. That was his downfall during the Western Zhao Invasion Arc when he thought he had already considered all the routes Qin could take to supply their armies in the city, never considering that they might have bribed Qi for help, even though it was shown during the Coalition War that Qi is very susceptible to helping when offered large sums of money—money that Qin possesses.

Or during the ambush of Kanki at the Battle of Gian, where he was confident in knowing Kanki's weakness. Having him surrounded, he believed he would win immediately, only for Kanki to escape, creating a formation never before seen and completely out of Riboku's plans.

His weakness is believing he has everything figured out.

As many know, one of the things Qin Shi Huang (Ying Zheng) is famous for is the Terracotta Warriors, an underground army composed of more than 8,000 life-size statues of soldiers, horses, and chariots, sculpted from clay to represent the army that was meant to protect Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum.

What makes the Terracotta Army even more impressive is that each warrior was individually molded, so no two faces are alike. They vary in height, weight, military rank, and expression.

Therefore, if we apply this to the narrative, Hara could have Ying Zheng model the Terracotta Warriors statues after the generals, soldiers, and officials who helped him along the way to achieving his dream, as well as a nod and tribute to all the figures who died along the way.

Imagine the statues:

Ou Ki Mou Bu Tou Ou Sen Yo Tan Wa Mou Gou Duke Hyou Kan Ki Ri Shin Ou Hon Mou Ten Heki etc.

All buried alongside Ying Zheng, and the final image of Ying Zheng riding alongside all his generals and friends in the afterlife.