[ADwD Spoilers] All of the little things

[Ahri Adaran]

Overall I'm disappointed with this book, but one of the things that Martin always does well is plant all kinds of little things that you don't notice at first that makes rereading the books a joy. Here's a list of all of the ones I've found that aren't always obvious to the first time reader (especially if you're dumb like me).

-The Three Eyed Crow is Bloodraven.

-The Stark kids break all of the rules for warging that Varamyr's old teacher laid out (warging into cats, eating humans in animal form and warging into humans).

-The ever-awesome Manderly served pie made out of the dead Freys at the wedding feast. This is especially funny in that Roose carefully checks to make sure that Manderly eats it before having some himself.

-Mance Rayder's Winterfell infiltration plan was a direct ripoff of Bael the Bard's one right down to the fake name (Abel). Maybe Mance hid from Ramsey down in the crypts as well?

-Hodor ate a bit of one of the Night's Watch deserters who betrayed Mormont at Craster's Keep. Lots of cannibalism in this book...

-Jon might be AA or might be AA NOW. Let's break down the prophesy:

When the red star bleeds: the idiot knight who took on Wun Wun has a star as a sigil and there's something red about him (hair? forget...) and he's bleeding.

and the darkness gathers: the watch's oath and it's evening.

Azor Ahai shall be born again: getting stabbed to death is a good way to set up being born again.

amidst smoke: Jon notices that his wounds look like they're smoking.

and salt: Bowen Marsh's tears

-In Bran's visions the girl beating the boy at sword sticks was probably Lyanna beating her brother Brandon.

-It seems that Arya saw the Kindly Man sneaking up on her and whatnot by warging into a cat. By personal theory is that warging will make it impossible for Arya to stay a Faceless Man even if she becomes one for a while, since they'll always be a lot of Arya in Nymeria and the Faceless Men can't root out that connection.

-Ned saying that he hopes that they'll (presumably Robb and Jon) be as close as brothers, is yet another clue that they're not actually brothers, but instead cousins.

-Melisandre saw a human becoming a wolf and then a human again. Combined with Jon's last word and the Varamyr prologue, it should be pretty clear that Jon has warged into Ghost and his consciousness is sticking around in there and then he'll (presumably) somehow get his consciousness back into a human body (presumably his after Melisandre fixes it up, perhaps by burning bits of it like Victarion's priest did) later. Also note that the technical wording of the Night's Watch oath gives Jon an out and Jon/Dany shippers hope if Jon get resurrected.

-Good boots being hard to find (Janos Slynt, Daeron, etc.).

-One reason I'm distrusting Ramsey's letter to Jon Snow is because of Tycho Nestoris. If there's any one who could bail out Stannis at least a bit from his disaster it's the banker I'm sure that no matter what else happens in this series, we'll hear a good bit more from the Iron Bank.

-It seems that on the Rhoyne they sailed past the same stretch of river twice.

-It seems that Ramsey has castrated Theon, or at least rendered him sexually incapable.

-Tyrion's repeated mention of his first job as drain administrator, I think I know how he's going to take Casterly Rock.

-Jeor Mormont could have been a weak warg and is living on in some limited capacity in his old pet. Alternatively, his crow could be one of Bloodraven's wargs (possibly Rhaenys' black king's landing cat as well?) that he uses to keep an eye on things at Castle Black.

-Danny might no longer be barren. It is theorized that her heavy bleeding at the end of the book might have been an early miscarriage due to the nasty berries since MMD's prophesy might have been fulfilled:

"When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east," Quentyn Martell's death, he is the sun.

"When the seas go dry" The Dothraki Sea has gone dry.

"and mountains blow in the wind like leaves." The dragons' destruction of the pyramids seems the most likely here. They are burned by the dragons and the ashes blow in the wind.

It is possible that Drogo (and Rhaego?) are living on in some form in their dragons as we know that that sort of thing it possible from Varamyr and that fits with the prophesy of Drogo being returned to Dany (maybe).

-Trying to dissect Frey inheritance makes my brain hurt, but I have a suspicion that Big Walder is rapidly moving up the list.

-Theon hears Bran in the Godswood. Some of the other instances (like him talking with Ned) could be real too, you can't change the past by looking through the trees into the past, but you might be able to make some of the things that have already happened happen.

-Victarion's darkly hilarious attempt to breed peace and understanding between R'hollor and the Drowned God with his ecumenical religious ritual.

-"Mance" says "I'm not the king" while being burned. Bit tip-off there. Especially when combined with: "Inside his cage, Mance Rayder clawed at the noose about his neck with bound hands and screamed incoherently of treachery and witchery, denying his kingship, denying his people, denying his name, denying all that he had ever been."

-The weird little asides in Jaime's chapter about the hills named after breasts seem to be about Bloodraven and Bittersteel's moms and their respective tits.

-Griff thinks of Lemore as a "lady" not a septon. Who is she? Is she Ashara Dayne? Could be, could be...

-Who the hell is the Stark woman in Bran's visions hoping that her kids will get vengeance for her?

-The appendix confirms that Lanna is the Sailor's Wife's daughter. Apparently whores go to Braavos and Tyrion has a trueborn daughter.

-We get a glimpse of Pennytree where Duncan the Tall's old master came from. Egg claimed it as a royal fief it would seem.

-The bit from Bran's vision: "Then there came a brown-​haired girl slen*der as a spear who stood on the tips of her toes to kiss the lips of a young knight as tall as Hodor." refers to Duncan the Tall it would seem. Is Hodor his descendant? Are we going to get to see Nan in the next Hedge Knight book?

-The Ghost of High Heart could be the same as the wood witch that Barristan mentions. She could have been a Child of the Forest as she is mentioned as being very short. She could possibly be the Child of the Forest who speaks the common tongue with Bran, she mentioned that she used to be out and about in the wider world. This means that we could have someone alive who was at Summerhall. Most interesting.

-The bit in Jon's mind about killing the boy so the man can be born might end up coming true rather literally if the various Jon resurrection theories are true.

-Melisandre was sold into slavery, as seems common with Red Priests.

-It appears that Jon Connington is gay and had feelings for Rhaegar Targaryan.

-Val's reaction to Shireen's greyscale and the amount of exposition about it in Tyrion's and Griff's plotlines hint at there being something more to it than meets the eye.

-We know that one Mors Umber had a daughter carried off by wildlings and that Tormund "Giantsbane" has a son who is very tall. Did he steal his wife from the Umbers?

-The pet raven says "king" quite a lot around Jon and has for a while. Very interesting in addition to it saying Jon's full name.

-Bonifer the Good, who leads the Holy Hundred and is very religious and who is given guardianship of Harrenhall in AFfC seems to be Queen Rhaella's lost love who she was forced to abandon when marrying Aerys.

-Rhaelle Targarysan (Egg's daughter) married into the Baratheon family for love.

What else? There's got to be a lot more of this sort of thing, there always is with Martin. What little connections with previous books are there? What hidden Easter Eggs? What exactly do the non-obvious prophesies mean? The fact that my list is so long is one of the reasons that I'll keep reading this series despite being annoyed with the last two books, there's just so many little things that make rereading the books a joy.

Note: I didn't figure out almost any of these for myself, I'm really really bad at that.

Note: since this thread started I've added in a number of additions and corrections.

[The Warmth of Winter]

I'm not sure it's hidden or anything but from Melsandre's Pov it seems likely that she was a slave or knew someone who beacame a slave. She thinks of a name and then "Lot seven" which indicates a slave auction.

[Ygritte]

Good easter eggs all. :) But I think Lyanna was whomping on Benjen, not Ned, and the mountain could be the pyramid of Meereen.

[Selmy]

I'm not sure it's hidden or anything but from Melsandre's Pov it seems likely that she was a slave or knew someone who beacame a slave. She thinks of a name and then "Lot seven" which indicates a slave auction.

Yeah I thought it was pretty apparent that as a child she was a sold as a slave to the church of Rhllorllorrlorrrlor and eventually worked her way up to priestess.

[jxd]

Bran saw Benjen w/ Lyanna, not Ned

[BrainFireBob]

New loony theory:

Rickard Stark is the illegitimate son of Aegon the Unworthy, who got it on as he would with his noble's daughters. His mother raised him to try to bring down the Targs, and he was forging marriage alliances with that in mind- the North remembers. These may have been his southron ambitions.

We have potential foreshadowing in Bael's son, who took the name Stark though he was a grandson of the line. And Starks are stark and unforgiving.

As someone pointed out in another thread, it was Rickard's alliances that brought down Aerys, and even defined sides in the War of Five Kings.

[tozka]

-Trying to dissect Frey inheritance makes my brain hurt, but I have a suspicion that Big Walder is rapidly moving up the list.

A quick check in the wiki shows that Big Walder Frey is the son of the 12th son of Lord Frey. There are a lot of people that need to die in order to Big Walder to become Lord.

You can add that Jon Connigton is gay, and has had romantic feelings toward Rhaegar.

[Ahri Adaran]

A quick check in the wiki shows that Big Walder Frey is the son of the 12th son of Lord Frey. There are a lot of people that need to die in order to Big Walder to become Lord.

You can add that Jon Connigton is gay, and has had romantic feelings toward Rhaegar.

Hmmm, what's the clue that the feeling was romantic? I missed that.

As far as lots of Freys needing to die for Big Walder to move up the list, I'm perfectly fine with that...

[jack88]

Hmmm, what's the clue that the feeling was romantic? I missed that.

As far as lots of Freys needing to die for Big Walder to move up the list, I'm perfectly fine with that...

Rhaegar was Jon Connington's "silver prince" with "beautiful hair" that got blown around as they watched the sunset

Bit of man love going on there

[Aegoner]

Rhaegar was Jon Connington's "silver prince" with "beautiful hair" that got blown around as they watched the sunset

Bit of man love going on there

Might also be another factor in his refusing the idea of being married off at the end.

[Claireducky]

New loony theory:

Rickard Stark is the illegitimate son of Aegon the Unworthy, who got it on as he would with his noble's daughters. His mother raised him to try to bring down the Targs, and he was forging marriage alliances with that in mind- the North remembers. These may have been his southron ambitions.

We have potential foreshadowing in Bael's son, who took the name Stark though he was a grandson of the line. And Starks are stark and unforgiving.

As someone pointed out in another thread, it was Rickard's alliances that brought down Aerys, and even defined sides in the War of Five Kings.

As I pointed out HERE Rickard CANNOT be Aegon's son. No way, no how. The timelines don't work. Aegon would have died around 60 years before Rickard was born.

[Maoltuile]

-The Three Eyed Crow is Bloodraven.

The Bloodraven reveal was great. There's a story there to be told (and before Bloodraven shortly pops his clogs, as he'll need to do for the Bran arc to progress)

-The ever-awesome Manderly served pie made out of the dead Freys at the wedding feast. This is especially funny in that Roose carefully checks to make sure that Manderly eats it before having some himself.

The Manderly stuff in the whole book was awesome indeed, from the initial signs in White Harbour that 'something was up' with the war preparations to his revenge for the Red Wedding (the Frey pies). Finally, one of the good guys gets it together in a major way and offers some hope! (of course, White Harbour will fall into the sea or something next book).

-Ned saying that he hopes that they'll (presumably Robb and Jon) be as close as brothers, is yet another clue that they're not actually brothers, but instead cousins.

Agreed.

-Melisandre saw a human becoming a wolf and then a human again. Combined with Jon's last word and the Varamyr prologue, it should be pretty clear that Jon has warged into Ghost and his consciousness is sticking around in there and then he'll (presumably) somehow get his consciousness back into a human body (presumably his after Melisandre fixes it up, perhaps by burning bits of it like Victarion's priest did) later. Also note that the technical wording of the Night's Watch oath gives Jon an out and Jon/Dany shippers hope if Jon get resurrected.

Interesting to see if the Stark warging gene is what allowed Coldhands (i.e. Benjen, whose character is pointless without this plot element).

-Jeor Mormont could have been a weak warg and is living on in some limited capacity in his old pet. Alternatively, his crow could be one of Bloodraven's wargs (possibly the black king's landing cat as well?) that he uses to keep an eye on things at Castle Black.

I think that something of Lord Mormont is certainly still in his bird. There's strong hints that all of the Mormonts have at least the potential to be wargs.

The old black cat in King's Landing (Arya/Tommen) has to be Rhaenys' kitten, I think. There's too much setup there.

-Trying to dissect Frey inheritance makes my brain hurt, but I have a suspicion that Big Walder is rapidly moving up the list.

'Big Walder' seems to actually be a decent sort, unlike most of his relatives. It'll be interesting to see who it was that Theon ran into when he left the hall in Winterfell (i.e. the conversation about why he still lives).

-Theon hears Bran in the Godswood. Some of the other instances (like him talking with Ned) could be real too, you can't change the past by looking through the trees into the past, but you might be able to make some of the things that have already happened happen.

My feeling is that Bran can speak to Theon because they're both in the present, the here-and-now.

-The weird little asides in Jaime's chapter about the hills named after breasts seem to be about Bloodraven and Bittersteel's moms and their respective tits.

It looks like plot material (with Pennytree) for yet another Dunk & Egg story

What else?

There's clearly something going on with greyscale/grey plague. The strong reaction of Val in claiming that Stannis' daughter is 'dead' is suggestive that something's up. What would happen to a victim of greyscale who went north of the Wall's protection against the Others? What would happen if the grey plague ravages Westeros, and the Wall has fallen?

And Lady Dustin seems like the classic GRRM setup for a hidden 'good guy', to give a plot twist.

[The Scabbard Of the Morning]

Melisandre is a slave with no slave tattoo, I think her entire appearance could be a glamour.

[Maoltuile]

Melisandre is a slave with no slave tattoo, I think her entire appearance could be a glamour.

Does Thoros have a tattoo?

[Claireducky]

Does Thoros have a tattoo?

No, but we have no evidence that he was ever bought as a slave by the Red Priesthood. Melisandre we have strong reason to believe so, with her recollection of "Melony, lot 7".

So either it is all a glamour, or she was sold into slavery somewhere other than Volantis (as Volantis is the only place we see using the tattoos for slaves so far-- the cities on slaver's bay do not).

[Team Snow/Stark]

Am I the only one who thought that Mormont's crow saying "Jon Snow" was a monumental moment? My first thought was of Bran warging into the crow and finding Jon and speaking out. Any thoughts?

[Ran]

Slave tattoos are a Volantene thing. In Slaver's Bay, they don't use it, and presumably they don't use it in Asshai.

[Steel_Wind]

"When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east," Quentyn Martell's death, he is the sun.

"When the seas go dry" The Dothraki Sea has gone dry.

"and mountains blow in the wind like leaves." Something something the Mountain that Shambles. We don't know what Qyburn did to him, presumably something that fulfills this bit."

HOLY CRAP! I missed this one. Nice catch.

[tze]

We now know that Mors "Crowfood" Umber, uncle to the Greatjon, had a daughter who was kidnapped by a wildling raider. Kidnapping women is part of the Free Folk's marriage rituals. A raider who could attack Last Hearth and carry off an Umber daughter would be considered a fine raider indeed.

Jon notes that Tormund's son, called Toregg the Tall, is at least a foot taller than his father. Tormund is called "Giantsbane," yet the story he told Jon in ASOS (he burrowed into a female giant) is almost certainly false.

Not dispositive, of course. But who wants to bet that Tormund was the raider who carried off Crowfood's daughter, Toregg (and possibly the other children) are Crowfood's daughter's children, and the raid at Last Hearth is why Tormund is called "Giantsbane"?

[Claireducky]

We now know that Mors "Crowfood" Umber, uncle to the Greatjon, had a daughter who was kidnapped by a wildling raider. Kidnapping women is part of the Free Folk's marriage rituals. A raider who could attack Last Hearth and carry off an Umber daughter would be considered a fine raider indeed.

Jon notes that Tormund's son, called Toregg the Tall, is at least a foot taller than his father. Tormund is called "Giantsbane," yet the story he told Jon in ASOS (he burrowed into a female giant) is almost certainly false.

Not dispositive, of course. But who wants to bet that Tormund was the raider who carried off Crowfood's daughter, Toregg (and possibly the other children) are Crowfood's daughter's children, and the raid at Last Hearth is why Tormund is called "Giantsbane"?

Very interesting-- I like it!