Thread by @ItsNotTVpod

So Episode 3 of #HouseOfTheDragonHBO is taking us to the Stepstones to fight the Crab Daddy™ and The Triarchy. The show's version is slightly different from Fire & Blood, but let's unpack what we know from the books and lore (no spoilers) about the upcoming #HOTD conflict 🧵

The Stepstones are rocky islands in the Narrow Sea, between Dorne and Essos. F&B says they've "long been a haunt for exiles, outlaws, wreckers, and pirates." Which sounds lit... except the islands are shitty little rocks. But, they are vital to Westeros' shipping and trade.

The legends say they're leftovers from a land bridge that connected Westeros and Essos, which allowed "The First Men" to migrate west (and genocide the Children of the Forest 😭). Pirates have occasionally been a problem, but it's always been solved by dragons melting fleets.

About a decade before the show, a handful of the Free Cities in Essos (who rarely teamed up) decided to gang up on Volantis — the powerful and southern-most of the Free Cities, renowned for slave trading. For reference, Daenerys spent time there as a kid on the run from Bobby B.

We don't know much about these events, but we do know Volantis lost the Battle of the Borderland and the war at large. The victory led to an alliance between the attacking Free Cities of Lys, Myr, and Tyrosh — styled as The Triarchy, or The Kingdom of the Three Daughters.

The Triarchy itself had a radically different ruling structure than Westeros. Despite the "Kingdom" name, it had no king. It ruled with a High Council: a group of 33 oligarchs, 11 from each of the allied Free Cities. The Triarchy then took their combined power to the Stepstones.

Their combined armies and massive fleet (led by a Myrish Prince) began their conquest and quickly annexed the Stepstones, routing out pirates and imposing a toll on ships. As F&B says: The Lords of Westeros approved at first, happy to trade chaos for order... even with a toll.

But that Myrish Prince and his admirals began raising tolls, kidnapping children as slaves, even ransoming a noble-born lady from Westeros (and her cheap ass dad wouldn't even buy her freedom). Who was this Myrish Prince causing so many problems for the realm? That's right: 🦀👨‍👦

In the book, Craghas Crabfeeder was not a pirate sanctioned by the Triarchy, but himself a prince. He earned his nickname feeding said pirates to crabs. We don't get much more about Crab Daddy in F&B — no mention of a sick mask or gross face — but he's still got zero chill.

Which brings us to #HOTD Corlys, like in Episode 2, goes to Daemon and tells him Crab Daddy is costing him gold and boats... and Daemon's sword Dark Sister should be used for more than slaughtering sheep in the Vale. And tho F&B tells us the outcome of the war...

The details are very light. Again, no spoilers, but the Maester in the book doesn't spend nearly enough time breaking down what *actually* happens. So show watchers and F&B readers are both going in with fresh eyes to see how this fight goes down.

Credit for some of the great maps and art work to atlasoficeandfireblog.wordpress.com and awoiaf.westeros.org ✨✨

To hear more about what's going on #HouseOfTheDragonHBO check out our podcast! We drop new episodes every Wednesday after #HOTD

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