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[ADWD Spoiler] The tom cat with the torn ear


Reggie

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i think it was mentioned in the epilogue when kevan was with cersei and tommen. tommen said the "bad cat was outside his window."

isn't that the same cat Arya chased? if so, that's at least the second time that cat has shown up in the series.

the cat really has no essential part in the story and yet he's been mentioned more than once. could he be a warg?

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He also shows up in A Clash of Kings and rubs against Sansa's leg. The general thought on the black tomcat is that he's Rhaenys' black kitten Balerion. Personally, I'm waiting for him to take his revenge by killing off Tommen's kittens.

It's funny, I never even considered that before! Maybe one day Arya will warg into that cat and use it to kill someone, like Jaquen did with what's-his-name's dog in Harrenhal. (I can see it now...Robert Strong, UnGregor, is marching down the stairs when Arya-as-Balerion dashes in front of his feet, tripping him. He falls against a brazier and goes up like a torch.)

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It's funny, I never even considered that before! Maybe one day Arya will warg into that cat and use it to kill someone, like Jaquen did with what's-his-name's dog in Harrenhal.

Actually its heavily implied in AFFC that Jaquen fed the dog Manticore blood (I think)to drive it into the killing rage. Its in the Arya chapter where she's learning about poisons.

Edit: Btw only caught that in my obsessive reread prior to ADWD.

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Actually its heavily implied in AFFC that Jaquen fed the dog Manticore blood (I think)to drive it into the killing rage. Its in the Arya chapter where she's learning about poisons.

Edit: Btw only caught that in my obsessive reread prior to ADWD.

Ha! See what I get for not re-reading A Feast For Crows before starting A Dance With Dragons. (I couldn't help it; the new book was just sitting on my desk and AFFC is so long...) It does seem unlikely that Jaquen would also be a warg, so I'll take your explanation instead.

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the cat really has no essential part in the story and yet he's been mentioned more than once. could he be a warg?

This next observation is a bit of stretch but here goes:

1. The cat with one ear cat scratched Joffery (same conversation Tommen has about cats...one of them anyway)

2. Joffery starts to dislike cats because he was hurt by one.

3. Joffery commits animal abuse and that crazy feline abortion

4. King Robert founds out and tries to punish Joff

5. Cersei freaks out.

6. The King's Marital problems further degenerate.

Arguably,with the insane logic I'm using, that one cat could be said to have hastened the events of AGOT by furthering the distance and coldness between the Robert and Cersei.

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This next observation is a bit of stretch but here goes:

1. The cat with one ear cat scratched Joffery (same conversation Tommen has about cats...one of them anyway)

2. Joffery starts to dislike cats because he was hurt by one.

3. Joffery commits animal abuse and that crazy feline abortion

4. King Robert founds out and tries to punish Joff

5. Cersei freaks out.

6. The King's Marital problems further degenerate.

Arguably,with the insane logic I'm using, that one cat could be said to have hastened the events of AGOT by furthering the distance and coldness between the Robert and Cersei.

...ultimately causing instability in the realm, and preparing for Aegon's return. I think we know who's cat it is.

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Yeah I've always assumed the cat was Princess Rhaellas little cat. I don't think there's anything to this cat. Just one of those little things that GRRM keeps having show up just for fun. Not every little thing in the series has to have some incredible importance.

I also think people are going a little crazy with the warg stuff. People are seeing wargs everywhere.

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It's really weird how much Balerion is showing up. I mean, why is he important enough that he got a random mention here as well?

Rhaenys=warg? :dunno:

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Yup. One of Varys's little birds is a warg.

If one person in a thousand is a warg, then it could actually be. But I wouldn't go advertising it to Varys. I wonder if his hatred of Magic extends to things like that as well.

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Yeah I've always assumed the cat was Princess Rhaellas little cat. I don't think there's anything to this cat. Just one of those little things that GRRM keeps having show up just for fun. Not every little thing in the series has to have some incredible importance.

I also think people are going a little crazy with the warg stuff. People are seeing wargs everywhere.

Yep. Sometimes a cat is just a cat. It's a nice touchstone through the series for obsessive readers, but probably not the center of a great conspiracy.

Though I, for one, would love to read that cat's memoirs, a la ETA Hoffman's The Life and Opinions of Tomcat Murr.

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I really do think it's just a cat. Though I think it is symbolic of the character of Arya in that both of them lost their families and were forced to become quick and tough and savage.

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As I noted in the Arya thread, it's the cat Arya was chasing when she ran into Tommen and Myrcelle and then fleed from them into the caves where she overheard Illyrio and Varys scheming. When you read the two passages, it's pretty obvious its the same cat. The cat even back then had a fearsome reputation, at one time overturning a cup on Robert's table but he laughed it off.

Interestingly, Tommon referred to Arya as a filthy boy and the cat is referred to as filthy.

My interpretation is that the cat is GRRM foreshadowing that Arya will kill, or at least attempt to kill, Tommen. Arya has shown a connection to cats already so there may be some subconcious warging going on -- similar to her experiences in Nymeria where Arya probably is influencing animal behavior but not actively controlling them. The biggest reason why I think this is the case is because the black tom showed up in the epilogue, which is usually a good place for telegraphing the reader of things to come. Martin likes his easter eggs to sometimes be filled with prizes of plot development to keep the reader re-reading.

Of course, the black tom could be actually stalking Cersei and Tommen is just a victim of being in Cersei's company. More foreshadowing perhaps. :thumbsup:

A crazy theory that someone else came up with is that Arya is already in KL at the time of the epilogue setting up a kill, but I think that's probably incorrect

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I have to support the black tom is Balerion theory and doubt there's much argument on that. I also support the Arya is reaching out to cats as a skin changer on a subconscious level. It's clearly happened with the cats in Braavos and with Nymeria we know skin changing abilities are not limited by distance. I think it's also worth noting that Varamyr Sixskins, when recalling his training specifically avoided cats because of their personalities. It would be interesting to look for these effects in Arya in the future.

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This next observation is a bit of stretch but here goes:

1. The cat with one ear cat scratched Joffery (same conversation Tommen has about cats...one of them anyway)

2. Joffery starts to dislike cats because he was hurt by one.

3. Joffery commits animal abuse and that crazy feline abortion

4. King Robert founds out and tries to punish Joff

5. Cersei freaks out.

6. The King's Marital problems further degenerate.

Arguably,with the insane logic I'm using, that one cat could be said to have hastened the events of AGOT by furthering the distance and coldness between the Robert and Cersei.

Ok, this is pure genius, lol :)

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Why would that be obvious? Plus, don't you have to be somewhere close to the animal? Arya is hundreds of miles away across the narrow sea.

Why wouldn't it be obvious? We were shown that Arya can warg cats. We know Arya has a prior relationship with Balerion.

Apparently it isn't obvious to everyone, but it was the immediate conclusion that I jumped to, just like it was obvious to some people that Theon was gelded (not to me) or that Quentyn was the sun setting in the east (not to me).

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