Three Shadows in Bran's Vision

[Voice]

I've read several threads, as well as the essay at the Citadel, that deal with Bran's Vision in AGOT Bran III and have yet to see someone else suggest my own belief regarding the identities of the shadows Bran sees around Eddard, Sansa, and Arya when they're stopped at the Trident on their way to KL.

ETA the earlier part of this quote when Bran sees Jaime (in bold):

It seemed as though he had been falling for years.

Fly, a voice whispered in the darkness, but Bran did not know how to fly, so all he could do was fall.

Maester Luwin made a little boy of clay, baked him till he was hard and brittle, dressed him in Bran's clothes, and flung him off a roof. Bran remembered the way he shattered. "But I never fall," he said, falling.

The ground was so far below him he could barely make it out through the grey mists that whirled around him, but he could feel how fast he was falling, and he knew what was waiting for him down there. Even in dreams, you could not fall forever. He would wake up in the instant before he hit the ground, he knew. You always woke up in the instant before you hit the ground.

And if you don't? the voice asked.

The ground was closer now, still far far away, a thousand miles away, but closer than it had been. It was cold here in the darkness. There was no sun, no stars, only the ground below coming up to smash him, and the grey mists, and the whispering voice. He wanted to cry.

Not cry. Fly.

"I can't fly," Bran said. "I can't, I can't . . . "

How do you know? Have you ever tried?

The voice was high and thin. Bran looked around to see where it was coming from. A crow was spiraling down with him, just out of reach, following him as he fell. "Help me," he said.

I'm trying, the crow replied. Say, got any corn?

Bran reached into his pocket as the darkness spun dizzily around him. When he pulled his hand out, golden kernels slid from between his fingers into the air. They fell with him.

The crow landed on his hand and began to eat.

“Are you really a crow?” Bran asked.

Are you really falling? the crow asked back.

“It’s just a dream,” Bran said.

Is it? asked the crow.

“I’ll wake up when I hit the ground,” Bran told the bird.

You’ll die when you hit the ground, the crow said. It went back to eating corn. Bran looked down. He could see mountains now, their peaks white with snow, and the silver thread of rivers in dark woods. He closed his eyes and began to cry.

That won’t do any good, the crow said. I told you, the answer is flying, not crying. How hard can it be? I’m doing it. The crow took to the air and flapped around Bran’s hand.

“You have wings,” Bran pointed out.

Maybe you do too.

Bran felt along his shoulders, groping for feathers.

There are different kinds of wings, the crow said.

Bran was staring at his arms, his legs. He was so skinny, just skin stretched taut over bones. Had he always been so thin? He tried to remember. A face swam up at him out of the grey mist, shining with light, golden. “The things I do for love,” it said.

Bran screamed.

The crow took to the air, cawing. Not that, it shrieked at him. Forget that, you do not need it now, put it aside, put it away. It landed on Bran’s shoulder, and pecked at him, and the shining golden face was gone.

Bran was falling faster than ever. The grey mists howled around him as he plunged toward the earth below. "What are you doing to me?" he asked the crow, tearful.

Teaching you how to fly.

"I can't fly!"

You're flying tight now.

"I'm falling!"

Every flight begins with a fall, the crow said. Look down.

"I'm afraid . . . "

LOOK DOWN!

Bran looked down, and felt his insides turn to water. The ground was rushing up at him now. The whole world was spread out below him, a tapestry of white and brown and green. He could see everything so clearly that for a moment he forgot to be afraid. He could see the whole realm, and everyone in it.

He saw Winterfell as the eagles see it, the tall towers looking squat and stubby from above, the castle walls just lines in the dirt. He saw Maester Luwin on his balcony, studying the sky through a polished bronze tube and frowning as he made notes in a book. He saw his brother Robb, taller and stronger than he remembered him, practicing swordplay in the yard with real steel in his hand. He saw Hodor, the simple giant from the stables, carrying an anvil to Mikken's forge, hefting it onto his shoulder as easily as another man might heft a bale of hay. At the heart of the godswood, the great white weirwood brooded over its reflection in the black pool, its leaves rustling in a chill wind. When it felt Bran watching, it lifted its eyes from the still waters and stared back at him knowingly.

He looked east, and saw a galley racing across the waters of the Bite. He saw his mother sitting alone in a cabin, looking at a bloodstained knife on a table in front of her, as the rowers pulled at their oars and Ser Rodrik leaned across a rail, shaking and heaving. A storm was gathering ahead of them, a vast dark roaring lashed by lightning, but somehow they could not see it.

He looked south, and saw the great blue-green rush of the Trident. He saw his father pleading with the king, his face etched with grief. He saw Sansa crying herself to sleep at night, and he saw Arya watching in silence and holding her secrets hard in her heart. There were shadows all around them. One shadow was dark as ash, with the terrible face of a hound. Another was armored like the sun, golden and beautiful. Over them both loomed a giant in armor made of stone, but when he opened his visor, there was nothing inside but darkness and thick black blood.

He lifted his eyes and saw clear across the narrow sea, to the Free Cities and the green Dothraki sea and beyond, to Vaes Dothrak under its mountain, to the fabled lands of the JadeSea, to Asshai by the Shadow, where dragons stirred beneath the sunrise.

Finally he looked north. He saw the Wall shining like blue crystal, and his bastard brother Jon sleeping alone in a cold bed, his skin growing pale and hard as the memory of all warmth fled from him. And he looked past the Wall, past endless forests cloaked in snow, past the frozen shore and the great blue-white rivers of ice and the dead plains where nothing grew or lived. North and north and north he looked, to the curtain of light at the end of the world, and then beyond that curtain. He looked deep into the heart of winter, and then he cried out, afraid, and the heat of his tears burned on his cheeks.

Now you know, the crow whispered as it sat on his shoulder. Now you know why you must live.

"Why?" Bran said, not understanding, falling, falling.

Because winter is coming.

Bran III, AGOT (chapter 17)

I included a large part of Bran's Vision in the quote above because I think it is important to understand the context in which GRRM places the Shadows. Bran is seeing different, yet specific, places in the world at present, not several years (or books) into the future. While there are many prophetic elements to absorb, the scenes and individuals he sees are all as they exist in the present moment. As his body lies motionless abed, eyes wide and seeing nothing in the cold tower at Winterfell, his consciousness takes a journey, viewing the world from above. He is not looking into the future, or the past, rather he sees the deeper truths in current affairs - and people.

I'll refer to the shadows all around his father and sisters as Shadow #1 (dark as ash, with the terrible face of a hound), Shadow #2 (armored like the sun, golden and beautiful), and Shadow #3 (a giant in armor made of stone, with nothing inside his visor but darkness and thick black blood).

Main shadow-identity theories, from the Citadel:

The ash-dark shadow with the face of a hound is obviously the Hound, Sandor Clegane. The figure in golden armor must then be the Kingslayer, Jaime Lannister. The giant in armor made of stone has been discussed a little more, however. There are three main possibilities: Robert Baratheon, Tywin Lannister, or Gregor Clegane, the Mountain that Rides. (full essay: http://www.westeros.org/Citadel/Prophecies/Entry/1791/)

Another plausible candidate offered in forum comments for Shadow #2 is Joffrey.

There are also some great arguments made for Ser Gregor, unGregor/Robert Stone, being Shadow #3 (even though his metamorphosis does not occur for several books/years into the future, he is not at the Trident with the Starks, and never plays a large role in their character arcs).

Another popular suspect for Shadow #3 is Littlefinger due to the Giant of Braavos being associated with his ancestral heraldry, his role as puppetmaster looming over KL, and the bloody game in which he uses the Starks so often.

But here's the problem with the Mountain and LF, they're no where near the Trident when Bran sees the shadows around his father and sisters. As stated, he is viewing people and locations at present, not conflicts (or mad-maester Qyburn's science experiments) yet to come, and this all occurs at the time of Lady's death sentencing at the blue-green rush as his father pleads with the king. Also, LF does not fit with the pattern GRRM has laid out in the vision - the first shadow is not described in armor, while the second and third are. This leads me to think the first is not a knight (he is "no Ser"), and that the other two are indeed anointed knights. It is often mentioned in ASOIAF and D&E that usually only knights wear armor. So that rules out LF as Shadow #3.

Shadow #1 dark as ash, with the terrible face of a hound

I think people have been a little too literal in their interpretations of the shadows. While the Hound has burn scars on half his face, he is not ash-dark in color. And though he is scarred, his face still looks like a human man, not a hound. Yes, yes, I know he has a helm fashioned in the shape of a dog's head, but I don't think Bran is having a literal vision of his helm. Alas, he doesn't describe Shadow #1 as having armor at all. He sees through to the inner character of each shadow, and he sees that one was abused/burned, brutal but loyal, and does not make his own decisions.

So yes, I agree Shadow #1 is the Hound, Sandor Clegane.

Shadow #2 "armored like the sun, golden and beautiful"

The second shadow is not wearing "golden armor" as the Citadel mistakenly claims above. Rather, "he was armored like the sun, golden and beautiful." I think that is an important distinction that must be made. At a moment such as this, experiencing supreme spiritual clarity, why would Bran see Jaime or Joffrey as bright as the sun and beautiful?

Remember, he is not simply witnessing physical appearances in his spirit-flight, he is seeing through the facade and understanding characters' inner intentions.

In conclusion, Shadow #2 is Ser Barristan Selmy. The only remaining true steel knight of the King's Guard, the kind of true knight Bran once wished to become. His honor shines as brilliantly as the sun in Bran's eyes.

Shadow #3 "loomed a giant in armor made of stone, but when he opened his visor, there was nothing inside but darkness and thick black blood"

This seems to be the shadow with the most possible identities in the threads I have read. For me, this can only be Ser Ilyn Payne. He's the one that lept to mind on my first reread, and now that I'm reading AGOT for the fifth time, it can only be him.

He looms over the others as a giant because he is an unflinching threat to Lady (and Bran) at the moment, and he represents the darkness and blood awaiting Ned.

Armor made of stone... because he is hard, cold, and silent.

And there's nothing inside his visor but darkness and thick black blood due to the countless murders he has 'seen to', and soon he will 'see to' the death of the father of House Stark. Like Sansa, Bran sees darkness, death and blood in Ser Ilyn, and rightly so. Bran may even sense his own imminent death in Ser Ilyn.

In the quote/scene/moment below (the chapter just before Bran's Vision), we see the moment firsthand from Eddard's POV that Bran is seeing simultaneously while learning to fly in the very next chapter - Ned pleads with the king and the presence of all three Shadows are felt.

"We have a wolf," Cersei Lannister said. Her voice was very quiet, but her green eyes shone with triumph.

It took them all a moment to comprehend her words, but when they did, the king shrugged irritably. "As you will. Have Ser Ilyn see to it."

"Robert, you cannot mean this," Ned protested.

The king was in no mood for more argument. "Enough, Ned, I will hear no more. A direwolf is a savage beast. Sooner or later it would have turned on your girl the same way the other did on my son. Get her a dog, she'll be happier for it."

That was when Sansa finally seemed to comprehend. Her eyes were frightened as they went to her father. "He doesn't mean Lady, does he?" She saw the truth on his face. "No," she said. "No, not Lady, Lady didn't bite anybody, she's good . . . "

"Lady wasn't there," Arya shouted angrily. "You leave her alone!"

"Stop them," Sansa pleaded, "don't let them do it, please, please, it wasn't Lady, it was Nymeria, Arya did it, you can't, it wasn't Lady, don't let them hurt Lady, I'll make her be good, I promise, I promise . . . " She started to cry.

All Ned could do was take her in his arms and hold her while she wept. He looked across the room at Robert. His old friend, closer than any brother. "Please, Robert. For the love you bear me. For the love you bore my sister. Please."

The king looked at them for a long moment, then turned his eyes on his wife. "Damn you, Cersei," he said with loathing.

Ned stood, gently disengaging himself from Sansa's grasp. All the weariness of the past four days had returned to him. "Do it yourself then, Robert," he said in a voice cold and sharp as steel. "At least have the courage to do it yourself."

Robert looked at Ned with flat, dead eyes and left without a word, his footsteps heavy as lead. Silence filled the hall.

"Where is the direwolf?" Cersei Lannister asked when her husband was gone. Beside her, Prince Joffrey was smiling.

"The beast is chained up outside the gatehouse, Your Grace," Ser Barristan Selmy answered reluctantly.

"Send for Ilyn Payne."

"No," Ned said. "Jory, take the girls back to their rooms and bring me Ice." The words tasted of bile in his throat, but he forced them out. "If it must be done, I will do it."

Cersei Lannister regarded him suspiciously. "You, Stark? Is this some trick? Why would you do such a thing?"

They were all staring at him, but it was Sansa's look that cut. "She is of the north. She deserves better than a butcher."

He left the room with his eyes burning and his daughter's wails echoing in his ears, and found the direwolf pup where they chained her. Ned sat beside her for a while. "Lady," he said, tasting the name. He had never paid much attention to the names the children had picked, but looking at her now, he knew that Sansa had chosen well. She was the smallest of the litter, the prettiest, the most gentle and trusting. She looked at him with bright golden eyes, and he ruffled her thick grey fur.

Shortly, Jory brought him Ice.

When it was over, he said, "Choose four men and have them take the body north. Bury her at Winterfell."

"All that way?" Jory said, astonished.

"All that way," Ned affirmed. "The Lannister woman shall never have this skin."

He was walking back to the tower to give himself up to sleep at last when Sandor Clegane and his riders came pounding through the castle gate, back from their hunt.

There was something slung over the back of his destrier, a heavy shape wrapped in a bloody cloak. "No sign of your daughter, Hand," the Hound rasped down, "but the day was not wholly wasted. We got her little pet." He reached back and shoved the burden off, and it fell with a thump in front of Ned.

Bending, Ned pulled back the cloak, dreading the words he would have to find for Arya, but it was not Nymeria after all. It was the butcher's boy, Mycah, his body covered in dried blood. He had been cut almost in half from shoulder to waist by some terrible blow struck from above.

"You rode him down," Ned said.

The Hound's eyes seemed to glitter through the steel of that hideous dog's-head helm. "He ran." He looked at Ned's face and laughed. "But not very fast."

Eddard III, AGOT (chapter 16)

Bear in mind that this is all happening just before Bran awakens. I subscribe to the theory that the sacrifice of Lady in some way pays for Bran's life. Three shadows surround this event and his life depends on it. The Hound is fetching for his master, Ser Barristan senses the ill being done, and Ser Ilyn is evoked to send the Direwolf to darkness. If Cersei had succeeded, and Ser Ilyn had been the one to 'see to Lady' I believe Bran would have remained in his unconscious state. They are of the North, and the pain Eddard felt as he took Lady's life was necessary or it wouldn't have been a sacrifice, and Bran would still be dreaming or dead.

Here's further mention of who I believe are the three Shadows, from Sansa's POV (the chapter just before Ned and Bran's above):

"What's happening?" she asked a squire she knew.

"The council sent riders from King's Landing to escort us the rest of the way," he told her. "An honor guard for the king."

Anxious to see, Sansa let Lady clear a path through the crowd. People moved aside hastily for the direwolf. When she got closer, she saw two knights kneeling before the queen, in armor so fine and gorgeous that it made her blink.

One knight wore an intricate suit of white enameled scales, brilliant as a field of new-fallen snow, with silver chasings and clasps that glittered in the sun. When he removed his helm, Sansa saw that he was an old man with hair as pale as his armor, yet he seemed strong and graceful for all that. From his shoulders hung the pure white cloak of the Kingsguard.

His companion was a man near twenty whose armor was steel plate of a deep forest-green. He was the handsomest man Sansa had ever set eyes upon; tall and powerfully made, with jet-black hair that fell to his shoulders and framed a clean-shaven face, and laughing green eyes to match his armor. Cradled under one arm was an antlered helm, its magnificent rack shimmering in gold.

At first Sansa did not notice the third stranger. He did not kneel with the others. He stood to one side, beside their horses, a gaunt grim man who watched the proceedings in silence. His face was pockmarked and beardless, with deepset eyes and hollow cheeks. Though he was not an old man, only a few wisps of hair remained to him, sprouting above his ears, but those he had grown long as a woman's. His armor was iron-grey chainmail over layers of boiled leather, plain and unadorned, and it spoke of age and hard use. Above his right shoulder the stained leather hilt of the blade strapped to his back was visible; a two-handed greatsword, too long to be worn at his side.

"The king is gone hunting, but I know he will be pleased to see you when he returns," the queen was saying to the two knights who knelt before her, but Sansa could not take her eyes off the third man. He seemed to feel the weight of her gaze. Slowly he turned his head. Lady growled. A terror as overwhelming as anything Sansa Stark had ever felt filled her suddenly. She stepped backward and bumped into someone.

Strong hands grasped her by the shoulders, and for a moment Sansa thought it was her father, but when she turned, it was the burned face of Sandor Clegane looking down at her, his mouth twisted in a terrible mockery of a smile. "You are shaking, girl," he said, his voice rasping. "Do I frighten you so much?"

He did, and had since she had first laid eyes on the ruin that fire had made of his face, though it seemed to her now that he was not half so terrifying as the other. Still, Sansa wrenched away from him, and the Hound laughed, and Lady moved between them, rumbling a warning. Sansa dropped to her knees to wrap her arms around the wolf. They were all gathered around gaping, she could feel their eyes on her, and here and there she heard muttered comments and titters of laughter.

"A wolf," a man said, and someone else said, "Seven hells, that's a direwolf," and the first man said, "What's it doing in camp?" and the Hound's rasping voice replied, "The Starks use them for wet nurses," and Sansa realized that the two stranger knights were looking down on her and Lady, swords in their hands, and then she was frightened again, and ashamed. Tears filled her eyes.

She heard the queen say, "Joffrey, go to her."

And her prince was there.

"Leave her alone," Joffrey said. He stood over her, beautiful in blue wool and black leather, his golden curls shining in the sun like a crown. He gave her his hand, drew her to her feet. "What is it, sweet lady? Why are you afraid? No one will hurt you. Put away your swords, all of you. The wolf is her little pet, that's all." He looked at Sandor Clegane. "And you, dog, away with you, you're scaring my betrothed."

The Hound, ever faithful, bowed and slid away quietly through the press. Sansa struggled to steady herself. She felt like such a fool. She was a Stark of Winterfell, a noble lady, and someday she would be a queen. "It was not him, my sweet prince," she tried to explain. "It was the other one."

The two stranger knights exchanged a look. "Payne?" chuckled the young man in the green armor.

The older man in white spoke to Sansa gently. "Oft times Ser Ilyn frightens me as well, sweet lady. He has a fearsome aspect."

"As well he should." The queen had descended from the wheelhouse. The spectators parted to make way for her. "If the wicked do not fear the King's Justice, you have put the wrong man in the office."

Sansa finally found her words. "Then surely you have chosen the right one, Your Grace," she said, and a gale of laughter erupted all around her.

"Well spoken, child," said the old man in white. "As befits the daughter of Eddard Stark. I am honored to know you, however irregular the manner of our meeting. I am Ser Barristan Selmy, of the Kingsguard." He bowed.

Sansa I, AGOT (chapter 15)

So what do you think?

[Pod The Impaler]

It's generally accepted these were Sandor, Jaime, and Gregor.

A description of Jaime's appearance: "He dresses in white, like any member of the Kingsguard when on duty, but he also wears his family colors and distinctive armor of his own: gold-plated, with a lion's-head helm at other times."

The colour is also a sort of symbolic theme with him, as with all Lannisters. (And we know what the term "golden boy" means.)

[Minstral]

Wasn't Oberyn considered as a strong possibility of a knight "armored like the sun" at one point? House Martell banner and all, and he did make use of a bronze shield to reflect the sun into Gregor's eyes.

[Voice]

It's generally accepted these were Sandor, Jaime, and Gregor.

Yes, and I think the generally accepted identities are wrong, save the first

[Voice]

A description of Jaime's appearance: "He dresses in white, like any member of the Kingsguard when on duty, but he also wears his family colors and distinctive armor of his own: gold-plated, with a lion's-head helm at other times."

The colour is also a sort of symbolic theme with him, as with all Lannisters. (And we know what the term "golden boy" means.)

I think Bran is seeing more than physical descriptions, and Jamie is not present when Bran sees Ned pleading with the king.

Wasn't Oberyn considered as a strong possibility of a knight "armored like the sun" at one point? House Martell banner and all, and he did make use of a bronze shield to reflect the sun into Gregor's eyes.

I haven't seen Oberyn cited in the threads as a possibility, but he is also not present at the Trident. Bran is seeing people where they stand at the moment he is falling/flying in the vision.

[horizon]

Sandor & Jaime are given.

Three is under discussion, somewhere I read it could be LittleFinger, but Gregor is certainly possible.

[GallowsKnight]

Although I think 2. is most likely Jaime, I enjoy the theory that the 2nd Shadow is Oberyn Martell whose sigil is a sun.

Thematically he has links to Gregor too. The idea that Gregor is the third shadow looming over both Sandor and Oberyn.

[Voice]

Sandor & Jaime are given.

Three is under discussion, somewhere I read it could be LittleFinger, but Gregor is certainly possible.

Yes, I described LF and Gregor as candidates in the OP...

C'mon! Gotta think outside the box people. Generally accepted theories ≠ canon.

[Voice]

Although I think 2. is most likely Jaime, I enjoy the theory that the 2nd Shadow is Oberyn Martell whose sigil is a sun.

Thematically he has links to Gregor too. The idea that Gregor is the third shadow looming over both Sandor and Oberyn.

Neither of them are at the Trident! And Gregor has a negligible effect, if any, on any of the Starks' character arcs. Kinda feels like people aren't reading the OP.

[Adara]

Well written OP, you've made some good points :cheers:

Over them both loomed a giant in armor made of stone

Sandor is a KG deserter, Selmy was dismissed, now serving the enemy. So, Illyn Payne still serving as executioner would be looming over those two would make sense.

[Voice]

Well written OP, you've made some good points :cheers:

Sandor is a KG deserter, Selmy was dismissed, now serving the enemy. So, Illyn Payne still serving as executioner would be looming over those two would make sense.

:cheers: Cheers to you Adara! glad someone actually read what I had to say :)

[Adara]

Alright. So, now let's get she standard connection to the GHH prophecy, move them altogether and let Sansa slay Ser Illyn Payne in a castle built of snow :lol:

Kidding. I really like your way to look at Bran's dream. Especially the presence of all three shadow candidates at the Trident.

[Voice]

He's seeing real events and real people in specific places. People keep jumping to characters across the realm or years/books into the future. I don't get it.

As he's falling, learning to fly, he glimpses what's going on at the Trident, and that is where the shadows are around Ned, Sansa, and Arya.

ETA: LOL, but I'm all for Sansa smothering Ilyn in snow

[Biter the Gallant]

Very interesting opinion, makes sense. However, this means Bran was seeing dragons (or symbolical dragons) which were already alive at the time around Asshai (but that is a very mysterious part of the vision anyway).

[Voice]

Very interesting opinion, makes sense. However, this means Bran was seeing dragons (or symbolical dragons) which were already alive at the time around Asshai (but that is a very mysterious part of the vision anyway).

I've thought about that part of the vision a lot too.

He lifted his eyes and saw clear across the narrow sea, to the Free Cities and the green Dothraki sea and beyond, to Vaes Dothrak under its mountain, to the fabled lands of the JadeSea, to Asshai by the Shadow, where dragons stirred beneath the sunrise.

Who knows what is lurking in Asshai, but I think he is glimpsing the Red Comet. We're drifting into the territory of another theory, but I think the comet fits with Dany hatching the eggs more than any of the other interpretations we have from characters in the story thus far. Old Nan said it meant dragons after all, and she was the oldest person in all of Winterfell.

Bran is falling fast, but he is extremely high in the air at this point. He can see the horizon of the world. And if what he is seeing is the comet, it makes sense to me that it carries with it the essence of Dany's dragons.

ETA: Also, the bleeding star is first visible in the east, in the direction Bran is looking when "He lifted his eyes." Jhogo is the first person mentioned in the books explicitly to see it.

[The Evil Queen]

The vision is obviously showing present events, everyone he sees is doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing at that moment in the book, Robb is at Winterfell, Catelyn and Rodrik are on a boat, with a bloody knife, Ned, Arya and Sansa are at the Trident, Jons is a bit odd though. So the idea that the shadows surrounding them are present at the Trident is a nice idea. However, I wonder about how Bran sees Arya in this vision.

and he sees Arya watching in silence and holding her secrets hard in her heart

Other than Needle, what secrets does Arya hold at this point? Her derision of Joffrey, Sansa, the Hound and the Queen, and even Robert, would be obvious and open to everyone around her, so her hatred and resentment would not be secret. She has no real desire to kill anyone until Ned dies, so its not that. What are the secrets she holds hard in her heart? Not to mention she hardly stands by in silence watching all that occurs, she is very outspoken irc. Doesn't seem very reflective of the present to me, but very much reflective of how she will become.

So whilst on the surface the vision shows the present, it also seems to show more than that, it does seem to show shadows of the future.

[Mithras]

These visions show the present but the way they were written are for foreshadowing purposes and they must be related to future events. I agree with Sandor, Jaime and UnGregor. I think they will all be involved in the "Saving Sansa from the KL" along with Brienne, Pod, Arya and Jon.

[Annara Snow]

Why would he be seeing Barristan? He had nothing to do with any of the events at the Trident, he never played any role in Sansa's or Arya's lives and not even a significant one in Ned's. So Bran was just having a symbolic dream about random people who were at the Trident at the time? Why? What's Barristan's dismissal from KG to Bran, or Arya or Sansa or any of them?

And why would he see Barristan as beautiful and radiant? He was also doing nothing but obeying orders and wasn't making his own decisions.

[Danelle]

Wasn't Oberyn considered as a strong possibility of a knight "armored like the sun" at one point? House Martell banner and all, and he did make use of a bronze shield to reflect the sun into Gregor's eyes.

According to an interpretation of that vision, the shadows are:

• Sandor

Oberyn

Gregor

And the vision was about Sandor defeating Gregor during the Tourney and Oberyn's duel with Gregor.

I always thought that Oberyn was the most likely candidate for Shadow 2.

Armored like the sun could also refer to poisons.

According to Victarion,

Poison was for cravens, women, and Dornishmen.

Perhaps part of Oberyn's sun armor is the use of poison.

Nevertheless, I prefer Jaime to be Shadow 2.

In regards to the possibility of Barristan being Shadow 2, I think that we need to interpret dreams, visions and prophecies according to the information that the text provides and not according to our own assumptions.

Both Jaime and Oberyn have been identified by readers to be Shadow 2, because there are several hints in the text.

In Jaime's case, we are told that

• Lann the clever stole gold from the sun, to brighten his hair. Jaime has the typical Lannister look, green eyes and golden curly hair.

While in the beginning of the books Jaime apppears dressed in Lannister crimson, later he is seen wearing KG white.

Catelyn, even though she is obviously suffering and she is fully aware of his despicable actions, she notes twice that he is quite handsome and beautiful

Glinting gold in the lamplight, the whiskers made him look like some great yellow beast, magnificent even in chains. His unwashed hair fell to his shoulders in ropes and tangles, the clothes were rotting on his body, his face was pale and wasted . . . and even so, the power and the beauty of the man were still apparent.

Catelyn stared down at him in revulsion. Was there ever a man as beautiful or as vile as this one?

In regards to Barristan being Shadow 2, the thing is that we have no hints suggesting that he might be the one.

He is described as handsome but other than that there are no further clues.

Ned does think that Barristan is a great knight, but the fact is that Barristan is dissapointed by the time he spent in Robert's KG and his feelings towards Aerys are quite ambiguous as well.

I think that it is a bit far fetch to suggest the Barristan's honor shines, and therefore Bran imagines him as someone armored like the sun, golden and beautiful.

As for Ser Ilyn, I don't think that he is Shadow 3....

In the text there are no hints that point towards him as being a giant made of stone, literally or metaphorically.

If anything Ilyn simple followed orders.

He might not be the nicest person in the world but he doesn't appear to be malevolent either.

Especially in comparison to Boros Blount and Meryn Trant, who not only enjoy Barristan's shameful treatment but are eager to abuse Sansa at Joffrey's orders.

This is Ilyn's description in Jaime's chapter

Ser Ilyn Payne made his way to Jaime's side, looking like the beggar at the ball. His ringmail was old and rusted, worn over a stained jack of boiled leather. Neither the man nor his mount showed any heraldry; his shield was so hacked and battered it was hard to say what color paint might once have covered it. With his grim face and deep-sunk hollow eyes, Ser Ilyn might have passed for death himself . . . as he had, for years.

In SOS we are told the reason which lead to Ilyn's present condition

Aerys had Ser Ilyn Payne’s tongue torn out just for boasting that it was the Hand who truly ruled the Seven Kingdoms. The captain of the Hand’s guard, and yet Father dared not try and stop it!

In FFC we are told how and why Ilyn became the King's justice

Ser Ilyn's appointment had been a wedding gift from Robert Baratheon to the father of his bride, a sinecure to compensate Payne for the tongue he'd lost in the service of House Lannister. He made a splendid headsman. He had never botched an execution, and seldom required as much as a second stroke. And there was something about his silence that inspired terror. Seldom had a King's Justice seemed so well fitted for his office.

Jaime also describes Ilyn's chambers

The chambers stank of rotted food, and the rushes were crawling with vermin. As Jaime entered, he almost trod upon a rat. Payne's greatsword rested on a trestle table, beside a whetstone and a greasy oilcloth. The steel was immaculate, the edge glimmering blue in the pale light, but elsewhere piles of soiled clothing were strewn about the floors, and the bits of mail and armor scattered here and there were red with rust. Jaime could not count the broken wine jars. The man cares for naught but killing, he thought, as Ser Ilyn emerged from a bedchamber that reeked of overflowing chamber pots.

There is no wonder that Sansa was terrified by Ilyn, but that doesn't suggest that Ilyn has a particular grudge against the Starks or that his actions doomed House Stark. Ilyn was simply following orders.

Joffrey ordered him to kill Ned and so he did.

Jaime ordered him to kill the man who tried to rape Pia and he did.

One of the Mountain's men had tried to rape the girl at Harrenhal, and had seemed honestly perplexed when Jaime commanded Ilyn Payne to take his head off. "I had her before, a hunnerd times," he kept saying as they forced him to his knees. "A hunnerd times, m'lord. We all had her." When Ser Ilyn presented Pia with his head, she had smiled through her ruined teeth.

Ilyn doesn't question orders, he does what he is told.

It all depends on the person who commands him.

For me Ser Ilyn fullfills a role of shadow self and Lord confessor to Jaime rather than a giant made of stone.

[Mychel_Redfort]

and he sees Arya watching in silence and holding her secrets hard in her heart

Other than Needle, what secrets does Arya hold at this point? Her derision of Joffrey, Sansa, the Hound and the Queen, and even Robert, would be obvious and open to everyone around her, so her hatred and resentment would not be secret. She has no real desire to kill anyone until Ned dies, so its not that. What are the secrets she holds hard in her heart? Not to mention she hardly stands by in silence watching all that occurs, she is very outspoken irc. Doesn't seem very reflective of the present to me, but very much reflective of how she will become.

I believe this is the first hint of Arya's list, triggered by Mycah's death. At this point she might not want to kill people yet, but at least she truly hates them, as she tells her father a bit later in Arya II :

Arya desperately wanted to explain, to make him see. "I was trying to learn, but" Her eyes filled with tears. "I asked Mycah to practice with me." The grief came on her all at once. She turned away, shaking. "I asked him," she cried. "It was my fault, it was me"

Suddenly her father's arms were around her. He held her gently as she turned to him and sobbed against his chest. "No, sweet one," he murmured. "Grieve for your friend, but never blame yourself. You did not kill the butcher's boy. That murder lies as the Hound's door, him and the cruel woman he serves."

"I hate them," Arya confided, red-faced, sniffling. "The Hound and the queen and the king and Prince Joffrey. I hate all of them. Joffrey lied, it wasn't the way he said. I hate Sansa too. She did remember, she just lied so Joffrey would like her."