Master of Coin

Steven was an incredible contributor to the ASOIAF community, a great friend to the moderators of this blog and to so many others. His work analyzing ASOIAF chapter-by-chapter through a historical and political lens, begun in 2012, was a landmark and a prototype for numerous fans writing ASOIAF analysis, a true paragon. His blog on tumblr, where he kindly answered so many questions about the series in addition to his essay writing, was an inspiration to the ASOIAF fandom here, helping to build a community based on textual analysis. It's not an exaggeration to say that this blog would not at all be the same without him.

Some additional links - a beautiful tribute from one of Steven's closest friends:

HotD - pick a side

the saddest yet funniest bit in asoiaf is easily when theon returns to the iron islands and spends about an hour dressing up in his nicest furs and silks and wools and jewellery and goes to see the father he hasn’t seen in a decade. and balon is immediately like what sort of metrosexual nonsense have you picked up on the mainland? oh you’re wearing a necklace you bought? paid for? didn’t steal it from the corpse of a man you killed? are you fucking gay or something and theons like