The The The Summer Isles, a place that just by the sound of it brings to mind the polar, or solar opposite of what much of a Song of Ice and Fire has been slowly and inexorably building towards.

A long night.

Two, a mega winter.

We hope the books will end with some kind of summer.

And we know it won't be overwhelmingly joyous

because George has said that. He said, bittersweet is the emotional ending he's aiming for.

And that's in that sense the summer islands are almost a goal, an aspiration, if an unreachable

one in terms of what we might hope West Rossi culture looks like when it's said and done.

And that'll just mean in terms of weather, though that's obviously a big deal.

Not just because they might not have been impacted much or at all by the original Long Night,

which is a pretty interesting tidbit to consider in this episode, but how they live.

Their value systems are, shall we say, more civilized in many ways. By that, I mean,

simply speaking, they produce happier individuals, people who are more likely to live lives

free from suffering, and less likely to inflict suffering on others. They arguably have a more

sophisticated view of sex, and they definitely have a

better way of handling warfare and violence on a cultural level. Not to mention they have

superior technology in many areas, especially shipbuilding, navigation, and associated ideas. This is in

part because their culture is not overwhelmed by constant violence, and they are

pretty far out there. Sailing is a natural evolution of a culture that lives so far away from

everybody else. They provide quite a contrast to Westeros despite this, because even all that said, violence is a huge part of who

they are. They are humans, after all. But it's still a big contrast because they're less so.

It's a point of comparison, the Summer Islands is in a lot of ways. They are opposite extremes.

...