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Matthew.

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Everything posted by Matthew.

  1. I had a similar thought when I read about the Mount Tambora eruption of the 1800s a while back, but I wasn't familiar with the volcanic winter of 536; as you suggest, I think some of the surviving historical accounts might have given GRRM some creative inspiration. At a minimum, I think such accounts could have inspired the general "feel" of GRRM's ice apocalypse, but just as there are some potentially interesting prospects related to comets and impact winters with regards to the Long Night, I feel similar potential exists for a volcanic winter. I don't have a specific theory in mind, but a volcanic winter is the sort of thing that could potentially be connected to either the ascent and decline of dragons (eg, activity around the Fourteen Flames), or to the magic of the CotF; for example, if the magic of the Old Gods could be used to instigate the Hammer of the Waters, perhaps it could also be used to induce abrupt and catastrophic volcanic activity.
  2. As you know from prior discussions, I don't really agree with you regarding the 13th LC--not that I think he's definitely still around, just that I believe that the continued existence of the NK is a viable prospect, in the same way that I think the other Kings of Winter could still be out there, assuming that some (or all) of them became Others. That said, to your point about the Nightfort, I also feel that the longstanding "Stannis becomes NK 2.0" theory is plausible, and that that Melisandre comment adds a bit of narrative momentum to that notion. He has lost more and more of himself to fuel Melisandre's shadows, Melisandre is eager to perform a sacrifice, and Stannis's cause seems destined for disaster--regardless of whether he wins or loses at Winterfell, he's not going to have the resources to push south or defend the Wall, which seems to all be setting the stage for Stannis to make a desperate choice at the Nightfort. There's also the HotU vision of a blue eyed king whose sword glows like sunset--rather than glowing like the dawn.
  3. This is the way I interpret that passage as well, which I believe is further supported by the fact that Thistle has clawed out her physical eyes--Varamyr is being 'seen' in a magical and spiritual sense, and he can feel that the thing that has raised Thistle is looking upon him. Later in ADWD, Melisandre 'sees' Bran and Bloodraven in her fires, so the concept of magic users, dreamers, and seers glimpsing one another is not unique to the magic of the old gods, but even so, I believe that the overall context of the Varamry prologue - elaborating on skinchanger powers and taboos, the moment where Varamyr's spirit is riding the cold winds, and the final moment where Varamry is 'seen' - is meant to hint at the idea that there exists a relationship between skinchanging, the weirwoods, and the Others.
  4. Although it's not a new concept within this thread, it is still interesting to see Melisandre explicitly refer to the Nightfort as the "heart of the Wall," since we might assume she's not speaking from a historical perspective--rather, she is probably stating what her own magical intuition is telling her about the nature of the Wall.
  5. I had no idea that he envisioned the Lannister castle as being entirely inside the Rock; I was one of the people that thought it was a castle sitting atop the Rock. I wonder if there's some easy path to get daily sunlight, or if we're supposed to envision the denizens of the Rock as all pale and afflicted with rickets.
  6. This was the exact scene I thought of as well. I don't know if this was just the show attempting to make Aemond more sympathetic - by being less complicit - in what happened, or if some of this is coming from GRRM, and is being used as a platform to explore broader ideas about the dragons. Another dragonlore related scene was that Rhaenyra's stillborn baby, according to the books, had dragon-like features, just as Rhaego did, and the show made a point of cutting between Rhaenyra's labor and Syrax reacting, as if it "knew" what was going on.
  7. Speaking of anti-dragon conspiracies (or more accurately, anti-magic), I wonder whether this show will ever address the premise of Marwyn's "grey sheep."
  8. Mine too, Paddy Considine is doing an excellent job. I'm enjoying the show a lot more than I thought I would, although I think it has way too much expository dialogue, and most of the secondary and tertiary characters feel pretty insubstantial--as though they only exist within the world to occasionally deliver the aforementioned expository dialogue. However, I put a lot of the blame for those issues on the source material, rather than the show writers; GRRM has entered this phase where he's treading closer to being a "content creator" than a novelist, churning out books that are heavy on world building and plot points, but lacking the approach to prose, characterization, and narrative that made ASOIAF and Dunk and Egg engrossing.
  9. Yes, the Others themselves don't need to be numerous to pose a tremendous threat. Depending on what the range is on the ice horde's wight raising ability, they have a whole potential army of the dead awaiting them if they ever breach the Wall, thanks to the civil war. The other factor in their favor is the (presumably) long winter, and all of the freezing and starvation that will entail; the Others don't need numbers, they only need patience.
  10. Generally I would agree, and I think GRRM even gives a warning at the beginning of AFFC or ADWD to that effect--that book order of POVs should not necessarily be taken as a chronological order of events. However, with Dany's aGoT chapters, we do have at least a little bit of guidance as to the order of events. Robert orders her assassination after Eddard has been named Hand, but before she has hatched the dragons.
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