Prince of Thorns (The Broken Empire #1)

Tons of trolls have thrown out the “but THINGS WERE JUST LIKE THAT BACK THEN!” argument ad nauseum. Which is total bullshit, of course. Now with the season finale of “Outlander” (which, spoiler, also included rape) the trolls are coming back.

I just want to ask, why is it whenever producers/directors/writers want to demonstrate “gritty historic realism” it’s ALWAYS RAPE? It’s always sexual violence toward women/girls.

You know what would be gritty historic realism? Dysentery. GoT has battles and armies marching all over the place. You want to show “what things were like back then”? Why aren’t we seeing 500 guys by the side of a road puking and shitting their guts out from drinking contaminated water while the rest of the army straggles along trying to keep going? Or a village getting wiped out by cholera? Or typhus, polio or plague epidemics?

"Tell me, tutor,' I said. 'Is revenge a science, or an art?”

"Tell me, tutor,' I said. 'Is revenge a science, or an art?”

"Hate will keep you alive where love fails”

"Lucifer spoke thus. Pride took him from heaven, though he sat at God's right hand.' Her voice grew faint, the hint of a whisper. 'In the end pride is the only evil, the root of all sins.'
'Pride is all I have.”

"You know how to break the cycle of hatred?" I asked.
"Love," said Gomst, all quiet-like.
"The way to break the cycle is to kill every single one of the bastards that fucked you over," I said.

When cutting out a heart, and I speak from experience here, expect to be crimson head to toe. The necromancer's blood looked purple in the torchlight and barely reached past my elbows.
"If anymore of you bastards want to waste my time with stupid melodrama, please form an orderly queue."

"That Jorg, that Prince Jorg, he's got a madness in him. A stranger to reason, a little in love with death perhaps?"

"So how're you going to open that [door]?" Rike's words came out mumled. I'd mashed his lips up pretty good.
I hadn't the slightest idea.
"I thought we could try knocking it down with your head."

In a duel, man to man, swords against sword, it can be a lack of skill that gets you killed. often as not, though, it'll be a matter of luck, or if it goes on too long then it'll be the man who tires first that tends to die.
In the end it's about staying power. They should put that on headstones, "Got tired".

"So let's forget about that now and you can take us to see the Watch Master."
"Lay down --"
"Yes, yes, so you said. Look." I stood up straight and turned to try and catch the moonlight. "Prince Jorg. That's me. Pushed the last Watch Master over the falls. Now take me to Coddin before I lose my famously good temper."

“'Water! Water!'
It’s always water with the dying.
Strange, it’s killing that gives me a thirst."

"Raven! Always the ravens".

“'Water! Water!'
It’s always water with the dying.
Strange, it’s killing that gives me a thirst."

"Raven! Always the ravens".

“You got responsibilities wh

“You got responsibilities when you’re a leader. You got a responsibility not to kill too many of your men. Or who’re you going to lead?”

“Memories are dangerous things. You turn them over and over, until you know every touch and corner, but still you’ll find an edge to cut you.” I looked into my own darkness. I knew what it was to be trapped, and to watch ruination. “Each day the memories weigh a little heavier. Each day they drag you down that bit further. You wind them around you, a single thread at a time, and you weave your own shroud, you build a cocoon, and in it madness grows.” The lights pulsed beneath my fingers, ebbing and flowing to the beat of my voice. “You sit here with your yesterdays queuing at your shoulder. You listen to their reproach and curse those that gave you life.”