YMMV / Race for the Iron Throne

• Archive Binge: Steven did an essay on each chapter of the first two books and reached chapter 65 of A Storm of Swords. That's over two hundred essays, plus extensive looks at World of Ice and Fire, Fire and Blood, and essays on topics such as politics in Essos and the Blackfyre Rebellions.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: Many characters undergo this under his analysis.
  • Most notably, he insists that Robb Stark was far less naive than people give him credit for, that his mistakes are down to bad luck. He also insists that Edmure Tully did flout Robb's orders and that he did get specific instructions from Robb to Hold the Line and exceeded his command.
  • Attewell also shows that despite Littlefinger's reputation as The Chessmaster, he's not as intelligent as he thinks, and only succeeded through massive gambles that could have easily been incredibly damaging pulling through.
  • He also points out that Tywin Lannister is not as effective as a lot of the fandom makes out, underestimating Robb Stark and only ever winning victories on the field through overwhelming force of numbers, and having a habit of being overly violent and cruel in a way that comes back to bite them.
• Diabolus ex Machina: He notes that a great deal of the War of the Five Kings is down to good luck received by the villains. He cites the Ironborn Invasion as a plan that should never have worked or succeeded, and yet somehow against all reason, it proves to be damaging, albeit in a manner Balon Greyjoy never expected. He also notes that Robb Stark's defeat came from Disaster Dominoes of bad luck rather than any specific mistake on the latter's part, such as the fact that one of his main commanders Roose Bolton may have been furthering their own interests from the start.
  This points to something I’ve been saying for a long time: that while the Starks certainly made their fair share of mistakes, their downfall was ultimately the result of a number of different factors, many (if not most) of them completely unforeseeable (to say nothing of unlikely) – like Theon taking or Ramsay burning Winterfell. This in turn means that it can be difficult to sort out the truly consequential mistakes from the ones that turned out not to matter.
• Genius Bonus: To get the most out of the essays, you'll probably need a wiki or be well-versed in the lore of Westeros.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: His fanfic Hour of the Wolf, which was posted several weeks before Fire & Blood was in stores, depicts Corlys Velaryon as a smug man who denies having any part in the assassination of Aegon II. F&B depicts him as a man who doesn't deny any of it, only arguing it was "for the good of the realm".
• Unconventional Learning Experience: The main books are already filled with this, but Attewell's essays have sent many readers to look up obscure lore and trivia connected to medieval and Early Modern History. A lot of people first heard of the Refeudalization of Poland from his blog.