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Of the Stark children and Parallel Journeys


Artemis

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  • 4 weeks later...

I dropped off the grid for some time for the sake of studies, but I'm back and everyone's contributions and ideas are am.a.zing.

Great post indeed!

There are other small parallel between Bran's Journey and HoB&W. For instance, when taking Bran north of the Wall, Sam encounters a weirwood door, that asks him "Who are you?". Also there are parallels between BR and the Kindly man that you already mentioned, but also between the Waif and Leaf - they are both "children", but are actually much older and wiser than they appear, and kind of serve as the main guy (Bloodraven and the Kindly man)'s sidekick.

YES. Leaf in the North seems the Waif in Braavos. BR + Leaf / KM + Waif seem like counterparts in different regions of the world.

The same thing occurs, at least in the same vein of Sam responding to the Black Door's question, when Stannis asks Jon who he is:

It is interesting to note that we have yet to see a weirwood growing anywhere in Essos. Nearly every single god or goddess or worshiped entity has a place in Bravos, save for the Old Gods (and perhaps the Lamb-God of the Lhazarene; didn't see them mentioned), so no Godswood or heart tree is seen. But the doors of the House of Black and White, as well as some of the interior furniture, utensils, and bowls, are made out of weirwood. And not just any weirwood, but weirwood adorned with faces.

I completely forgot about that. Identity plays a huge part in each of the Stark children's story-lines but this one interestingly alludes to the magic of weirwoods/old gods of the North. I may be stretching this a bit here, but the weirwood-ebony doors of the HoB&W opened of their own accord only after Arya shouts "valar morghulis" just like the weirwood at the Nightfort that opens when a Black Brother says the NW oath. Perhaps the magic behind both is similar? This is in total speculation/crackpot territory here.

It'd be awesome to see the inside of the Moonsingers Temple; perhaps there weirwood-related items in the temple.

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"whispers" ...before Brienne gets to the quiet isle, Nimble Dick takes her to the castle that's in ruins. The "whispers" can be heard from the headless victims that whoever wanted...I think myth is the heads would talk to eachother??? Not sure if that can tie in at all HoBaW and BR and the whispers Bran and Arya hear...as well as whatever is going on at Quiet Isle.

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There's some parallels between Bran and Arya that seemed much more obvious to me on my second read through. First off, the Kindly Old Man and Bloodraven sort of serve as these all-knowing older male mentor type. I also noticed the similarities between Leaf and the Waif. Both of these characters are older than their childlike appearances lead one to believe.

It should also be noted that the information that the cotf give Bran is very fatalistic in nature. It's not too far off from 'all men must die.'

As for Sansa and Arya, well, they both have some suspect mentors in the KM and Littlefinger. They've served these men in different ways, but there are some similarities. For instance, they've both learned some new skills in gathering secret knowledge and working with poisons, though our Alayne is unaware of that last bit. By the end of AFFC/ADWD, both of the girls have been promised new pieces of clothes, a maiden cloak for Sansa and a acolyte robe for Arya, and a mysterious new person to meet in Izembaro and Harry the Heir.

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  • 1 year later...

Mind. Blown.

Obviously there's a link. There is no question at all. Martin wouldn't have written it as a coincidence, we know this well enough. But yes, what is the end game?? I have no idea what role Bran and Arya will play with the Stark family or how their new abilities will influence the wars that are currently waging and those on their way. But my god I'm excited to see them develop.

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Bravo!! Excellent job on pointing all these connections out. That is a lot to chew on

I had a lot of similar thoughts about bran and arya's connection. It seems one is becoming a servant to life(old gods,nature,and weirwoods) and the other is becoming a servant to death. I like these ideas you put out there lots of interesting points made, and definitely not bad organization for such a large amount of detail.

So, just one thought (and it's an extremely general one): couldn't the similar imagery suggest that Bran and Arya are ultimately serving two sides of one coin? Just like how people have said that ice and fire are part of the same song, I think that it would be pretty reasonable to argue that death and life are both parts of the same single reality. I think this could be a kind of yin-yang/coincidentia oppositorum thing.

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