LynnS

Nor do I. What I glean from it is that the dreamtime is related to creation myths and interconnectivity with the natural world. Also with legendary heroes. Bran and Bloodraven aren't the only greenseers. There are cotf connected to the weirnet. What are they doing? If they are the dreamers calling Bloodraven; then they are connected or networked to each other. Given that 1 in 10,000 skinchangers can be greenseers, can they combine their powers and abilities into songlines (another dreamtime concept)? Was the great lore that built the Wall a dreaming of a multitude of powerful greenseers? And do they now maintain the Walls and the seasons?

I was just joking.

I'd like to bring up this concept of dreaming or the dreamtime relating to Maori legends. Here's some blurbs from wikipedia. Does any of this sound familiar? Isn't this what Leaf says to Bran about the CotF -that they go into the earth, the stones and the trees. Varamyr experiences this on his true death before he starts his second life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dreaming At one point, Bloodraven tells Bran that the dreamers are calling him. I wonder if GRRM is applying a form of the dreaming to the Cotf and greenseers. In the everywhen of a greenseers extistance; was the false spring at Harrenhall a dream of spring?

I wouldn't want to shake hands with the undead. You might come away with more fingers than you started out with. Martin said very early on that the Others were living, a form of life. He described them as beautiful. That does not fit with the tv shows treatment of them. Because they certainly weren't beautiful. It's not really clear what they look like from the prologue and if they would be beautiful without the horror attached to them. Mel tells us that they are made of snow and cold and ice. So then a crystalline life form that reflects its surroundings? Rather than a glamour which has been suggested before? They have a soul of ice, a term Mel uses to describe the Great Other. Thay are individuals who communicate with voices that sound like ice cracking. They can skinchange or extend their souls to animate the undead wights.

Yes, GRRM doesn't really say what he has been doing per se. He's seems more newsy these days. Wow, Feather... you remember things I said, that I barely remember. I think the basic idea was the Wall acted like a dam restricting and containing the flow of cold magic (known as winter), during the summer and releasing it in the winter. Winters and summers seem to be managed magically. Perhaps the seasons are being dreamed by greenseers aka giants in the earth. The Wall also has the function of keeping the servants of the cold from passing. I think this is something separate from the seasons. The Wall may also be a source or reservoir of magic as Melisandre tells Jon. Apparently, he and presumably, she can use it. If true, that implies that others or Others can use it for their purposes. I would guess that the Horn of Winter is tied to or uses the magic of the Wall in some way. We know it was blown once before and the Wall and wards still stand. So the idea that the Wall has fallen is open to interpretation.

I keep poking around looking for some news or an update. Is no news, good news? If he was close, would he say anything about it, or keep it to himself? There would be an awful frenzy and he'd get no peace.

The problem seems to be too many notes.

I like this interpretation. The corrupted heart that Dany sees above the table where she sits is representative of the Warlocks heart tree. She is seated at a table where she is on the menu. There are two additional persons seated with her, to whom she is meant to replace as a life source for the undying. Very much like Bran replacing Bloodraven.

Ahah! Interesting thought. In his speech, at Northwest Grad in 2021; he makes the point several times, that a lie can go around the world, before the truth can get its shoes, boots or pants on. I don't spend any time on the xyz stuff these days; but there is enough that is incongruent or sketchy for me to keep an open mind. Especially when it comes to prophecy or signs and portents. Some of that is political theater.

I have two persistent, nagging ideas, that I am not willing to throw in the trash just yet - concerning magical objects. One is the Dawn Sword and the other is the Horn of Winter. Without going into tremendous detail; I'll sketch out the basic idea. In Ned's fever dream, he describes the Dawn Sword as 'alive with light'. This fits neatly into the Red Religion aesthetic of 'life, light and love'; that we he hear repeatedly from Melisandre. George Martin has also said that we will be amazed with what the Dawn Sword can do. Well, what can it do then? Putting aside all the conjecture about what is made of, or how it was made; my guess is that under the right magical conditions; the sword can produce a light as bright as the sun. Hence, the name Dawn Sword. Sunlight is an effective weapon against the wights. Such a weapon could be used like a shield. The question is who would wield such a sword or cause it to shine with the light of the sun? It's interesting that Melisandre shines like the sun when she births a shadow assassin (as witnessed by Davos). So my guess is that someone who has been reborn as a fire wight, would have the ability to light up the Dawn Sword. At this point, I'm guessing that Jaimie might be raised as a fire wight, perhaps by Thoros of Myr. It's curious that Bran (in his coma dream) twice describes someone, that we assume to be Jaimie, as 'shining bright as the sun'. If Melisandre can create darkness, perhaps another can create light; hence the moniker "Lightbringer". The second nagging thought is that the Horn of Winter is the broken horn that Jon gives to Sam; telling him to repair it. The horn is not only cracked; it's also chipped around the rim. So perhaps a magical metal band was removed to disable the horn. As it happens; Tormund has metal 'arm rings' he hands over to Jon Snow; Except for one which he tells Jon was handed down to him from his father. He's not giving that one up. I think it's possible that this is the metal band that is missing from the horn in Sam's possession. And it may be the reason that Mance says that they didn't find the horn. That they were looking for a horn that fits the ring. This might also be the only way to repair the horn. Restoring the ring to compress the horn and seal the crack. That's the basic premise for these objects. Cheers.

And I thought grammar and punctuation were optional.

OHHH! That's very interesting.

There were some interesting things that came out of the show; that made me wonder how involved GRRM was in the writer's room. Not writing episodes specifically; but throwing out ideas that would work with book canon. The white castle that Viserys dreams of building. Cersei dreams of something similar: Make of that what you will. We did to see dragons and something of their nature. Aegon's prophecy is another that makes sense and doesn't conflict with book canon. I'm have no sympathy for Larys Strong at all. I don't care if he has a club foot. He's a psychopath and a creep. He probably is skinchanging rats. The less I see of him, the better.

Yes, it has been fun to read and I like the psychological exploration. I don't really have anything to discuss. I have some general guesses or plot developments I'd like to see. I hope we get something new soon. I'm not that interested in House of Dragons except for what we could learn from Cregan Stark.

Yes, I wondered about the powdery consistency. It's the butter and sugar finely granulated throughout that holds it together in the baking process once it is pressed into the pan. It was fully mixed with the flour once it started sticking to the sides of the food processor. My brother-in-law loves it. I asked him if he wanted to take them to work, but he doesn't want to share. It is a shortbread; because Ted Lasso does say he calls it a cookie while the Scots/Brits call it a biscuit (originally to avoid a cookie tax). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortbread On another subject; I'm very entertained by Frey Family Reunion's thread on the general forum. The idea that Sansa meant to poison Tyron; who then accidently poisons Joffrey; makes me laugh like a drain. Although that's not exactly what FFR has in mind.

Nope. I had to check twice to be sure. Just as per instruction. I used a food processor on pulse as directed. I substituted Fiori di Sicilia for almond extract (nut allergies). I think you could use any number of extracts for flavouring. It's lovely and soft, almost like a shortbread. There is a thin cookie texture on the outside. I think I could substitute the shortbread layer for millionaire bars with it. And I think you can press it into tart tins for that purpose also. Or top with crushed nuts instead of coarse sugar. I baked for 40 minutes. It turned out really well.

Well f*** me! Is that ever delicious. Mrs. Cooterian gets the Golden Apron for that recipe!

You have to see it Melifeather. It is so funny. Ted Lasso on Apple TV. I don't want to give anything away. A big part of the experience is the element of surprise.

Don't forget to say F*** me! I'll have to do a batch with almond extract and one with coconut extract since my sister is allergic to almond. Now she knows I have the recipe, she's on my case. I made her a batch of ginger cookies today. So store tomorrow for ingredients.

Well, f*** me! and thanks for the recipe. I got the big mixer out today for making molasses-ginger cookies tomorrow. But damn, I'll give Ted Lasso cookies a try as well.

Oh, I should have been paying closer attention.

Oh, I see. If it had been thrown overboard, you could surmise that it was a hairnet of poison and dissolving it in the sea was an effective way to get rid of it. So potentially, Sansa still has a hairnet of poisons she can use? Now that she has evolved from the caged songbird to the mockingbird; who knows what Littlefinger's apprentice will do. But I think it more likely that Olenna and Littlefinger cooked this up together and part of the bargain was that Littlefinger gets Sansa. So potentially, Olenna knows where Sansa is and who's she's pretending to be. Fiddling with the hairnet may have been a subtle push, for Sansa to use the escape route, being made available to her, when the time came to run.

If the question is: could she have been the poisoner; how does she get the poison? To make this work; the hairnet would have to be all strangler crystals and I suppose they would have to be inactive in their crystal form but fragile to handle? Or Olenna wold have had to pass the crystal on to Sansa by dropping it into her hair to be retrieved. There doesn't seem to be anything that points to a conversation about it. Would Sansa be psychologically capable of carrying this out either consciously or unconsiously? I suppose so, but it's a stretch. Whatever happed to the hairnet? I forget. Did Littlefinger toss it overboard?

@Frey family reunion How would Olenna or Sansa know which crystal in the hairnet was the strangler? Assuming that there was only one and you can't tell the difference between the poison crystal and amethyst?

Yes, it's interesting. I haven't thought of those passages in quite that way before. I'm not sure how you get around the notion that she was unaware of what she was doing. But the idea that memory suppression is at play is not out of the question. We've seen that with Bran and possibly Ned. We've also seen Sansa go into a fugue state at the Eyrie. I can stay open about this one.