Let's discuss Varamyr Sixskins...

[Harpo of House Trashcan]

Okay. I think Varamyr is a very interesting character couple with the fact that I'm interested in wildling culture. We know a decent amount about his past. I want to know what you guys think

[WhiteWalder]

I'm sure we will hear more of One Eye since he is in Summer's pack.

[drayrock]

Didn't he die and try and take over that chick?

[Mad Monkey]

We learn about a community of wargs, though they don't seem to be as in tune with green magic as the people Bran is with. We also learn that there's a trick to prolonging your life using animal to create a second life for yourself.

One thing I thought was surprising was that it's possible for someone to resist being possessed by a skinchanger. The spearwife was able to resist / expel Varamyr's spirit from her body through willpower. Bran had better hope that any of his future human victims are more like Hodor than Thistle.

[Harpo of House Trashcan]

Oh yeah... One eye is in Summer's pack. Also, do you think Varamyr can warg out of One-eye?

[Mad Monkey]

Oh yeah... One eye is in Summer's pack. Also, do you think Varamyr can warg out of One-eye?

I'm pretty sure that that power dies with the human body, right? Haggon, his mentor, calls it the second life -- basically, once your original body, the one that you were born in with the warg powers, begins to die, you have the option of switching into one new body. But that's it -- the new body / second life does not gain your power to skinchange.

Haggon would call it an abomination, the blackest sin of all, but Haggon was dead, devoured,

and burned. Mance would have cursed him as well, but Mance was slain or captured. No one will ever

know. I will be Thistle the spearwife, and Varamyr Sixskins will be dead. His gift would perish with his

body, he expected. He would lose his wolves, and live out the rest of his days as some scrawny, warty

woman … but he would live. If she comes back. If I am still strong enough to take her.

You can cheat death, but only once.

[shiola]

i'd like to know more about that "pack" of wargs.

[IRON BANK]

I'm pretty sure that that power dies with the human body, right? Haggon, his mentor, calls it the second life -- basically, once your original body, the one that you were born in with the warg powers, begins to die, you have the option of switching into one new body. But that's it -- the new body / second life does not gain your power to skinchange.

You can cheat death, but only once.

So with that being said could Bran being a stronger warg actually jump into a living body for a longtime and jump back. If sixskins could do it once. Why couldn't Bran?

[mindchap]

I think his chapter was meant to enlighten us to a few different things:

1. That taking over another mind is not as simple as we think also the individual being taken over matters as well.
   
2. That, for a warg at least, at the moment of death you become one with everything.
   
3. That a warg can live on, to some extent, in it's creatures.
   
4. And last, but not really definite, the Others seem drawn to blood, or more precisely, blood on the ice.
   

Just my thoughts.

[Mad Monkey]

So with that being said could Bran being a stronger warg actually jump into a living body for a longtime and jump back. If sixskins could do it once. Why couldn't Bran?

What do you mean? Bran has possessed people (Hodor) for indefinite periods of time; there doesn't seem to be a time limit to this power -- he stays as long as he wishes to, and leaves, just as Varamyr does.

[Mini Ghost]

But in the prologue the wolf saw a wight walker? Is that before Summer met the wolves?

[mindchap]

But in the prologue the wolf saw a wight walker? Is that before Summer met the wolves?

I think so because Bran & Co have just gone through the Wall at the start of Dance.

[Free Northman]

Varamyr is to Bran as a common variety garden gecko is to Balerion the Black Dread.

What Varamyr can do with his talent is only the tip of the iceberg of what Bran will be capable of.

[Danger Zone]

:agree: Which is further demonstrated by One-eye and the rest of the pack submitting to Summer.

Though even a failed attempt to skinchange someone is an excellent defense mechanism.

[King Tam Stark]

will varamyrs son who jon permitted beyond the wall play an important role in the story?

[.more wine.]

I have been thinking about the emphasis put on skin changing into a person, eating human flesh or mating while warning being

an "abomination". I felt like that point was really driven home like there is something to it and Bran is treading on thin ice warging into Hodor and eating human flesh with Summer. Is this foreshadowing Bran going to the dark side or experiencing a real crisis because of his actions if he continues down this path?

[Direwolf Ammy]

I have been thinking about the emphasis put on skin changing into a person, eating human flesh or mating while warning being

an "abomination". I felt like that point was really driven home like there is something to it and Bran is treading on thin ice warging into Hodor and eating human flesh with Summer. Is this foreshadowing Bran going to the dark side or experiencing a real crisis because of his actions if he continues down this path?

I think those were just taboo because they were considered villainous abuse of the gift, but Bran is still fighting against the dead and I don't see him becoming a villain. Hodor is meant to be Bran's body, that's pretty much what he's been on the journey anyway and it's fitting for Bran to have a "knight" body among the ones at his disposal. Being a warg at all seems like it was not very accepted, since Varamyr's dad sent him away when he found out

[Ludd]

Varamyr while a warg appeared to have killed his brother, which was perhaps the main reason he was sent away. He was not a pleasant sort of child even.

Rcall old Nan's fear of wargs

[Lady Lea]

I think those were just taboo because they were considered villainous abuse of the gift, but Bran is still fighting against the dead and I don't see him becoming a villain. Hodor is meant to be Bran's body, that's pretty much what he's been on the journey anyway and it's fitting for Bran to have a "knight" body among the ones at his disposal. Being a warg at all seems like it was not very accepted, since Varamyr's dad sent him away when he found out

Yikes. Hodor is there to help Bran (as he has on numerous occasions). Not to be possessed by him. Hodor is a human being!

[Arya Targaryen]

I have been thinking about the emphasis put on skin changing into a person, eating human flesh or mating while warning being

an "abomination".

And Varamyr broke all those rules. Especially the "mating" one: he always warged the female wolf while she was taken by One Eye :ack:

I have a feeling, that the Stark kids (Jon included) will break those rules, too. Bran did the skinchanging into a person (and probably the human flesh), Arya (and Nymeria) ate human flesh I think, only the mating remains. Summer and Ghost would need a female wolf to do that. I wonder if any of them will have a thing with Nymeria... (I know they are from the same litter)