Lord Neddard Stark Posted June 22, 2015 Share Posted June 22, 2015 Hand Injuries in the series to me have always stood out for some reason. I've always thought it symbolized that start of a significant change in a character. Davos Seaworth -Bit obvious one here, we know that Davos lost his fingers when he became a Knight, and after that he became a man of duty and devoted his life to serving Stannis. Catelyn Stark - When she loses dexterity in her fingers after saving Bran from the Assassin, she decides to put aside her own feelings. Pushes all her grief and stress to the back of her mind to stay strong and hold her family together, this leads to her descent into madness and her slow transformation into Lady Stoneheart. Jaime Lannister - This scenario is a little bit different, because Jaime losing his hand was more like losing a huge part of who he was as a person which is the reason he changed and not symbolizing or foreshadowing it. But after this, he becomes his own man, he becomes more diplomatic and stops letting people manipulate him/ Not sure if anyone's as already pointed this out before, or if this is glaringly obvious, but I've been wondering what the point of the hand injuries are in the series because they've always seemed to be really prominent... If you haven't an alternative take on this, please share it, because I am by no means an expert at analyzing or deciphering a story and I may be reading into this a bit to much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balerion the kitten Posted June 22, 2015 Share Posted June 22, 2015 Interesting. I guess hand injuries signify a the loss of a former identity.Davos no longer is a smuggler but instead a Lord/knight.Catelyn (I would beg to differ that she was descending into madness and that her transformation into SH was slow) later becomes stoneheart.Jaime ditches his kingslayer identify (even if others didn't) and becomes Jaime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragon Seed Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 Catelyn Stark - When she loses dexterity in her fingers after saving Bran from the Assassin, she decides to put aside her own feelings. Pushes all her grief and stress to the back of her mind to stay strong and hold her family together, this leads to her descent into madness and her slow transformation into Lady Stoneheart. "Put aside her own feelings" Your joking right? She one of the most selfish people in the series. Any way, Jon Snow injured his hand also and I remember there being a theory about it. Maybe it could give you some answers to you question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EastTymor Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 Serry injuring his hand changed Victarion from a dimwitted brute into a dull-minded beast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jelfling78 Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 Urrigon- He lost half his hand playing the finger dance, he died from and infection after a maester tried to reattach his fingers. It didn't change him that we know of as he's dead, but it did change Balon and Damphair especially when it came to trusting Maesters and the Greenlanders. Qhorin Halfhand - Didn't he become as good a swordsman with his left hand as he was with his right? Theon - Flaying of his fingers ( as well as other parts turned him into Reek) Great Jon Umber - After Greywind savages his hand, he starts to respect Robb and proclaims him King in the North Donal Noye - Loses arm, gets sent to the NW. There are loads of references Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littleRickon Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 There was a large and excellent post on injuries and their symbolism. I think there are three typical injuries, each with a sort of "classic" meaning in general literature 1) head: character is a thinker, emphasis on intellect2) hand: character is an achiever, emphasis on action3) foot: i remember emphasis on reproduction, forgot the rest (maybe preservation?) there are a lot of injuries (and deformities) in ASOIAF, so a lot of symbolism is loaded unto characters here.Jon really stands out as the only character who has all three marks, which I think I remember was a special hint on him being a "ruler". He has the burned hand, the arrow to the knee and eagle-claw marks on his face. I think Ghost has them as well....Tyrion is a thinker with his deformed head. I don't know if bald already counts as a mark, but Varys, Tywin, Stannis fit the bill.Roose has the distinctively grey eyes thing going.JonCon only has a limitied time to complete his actions, with his hands showing greyscale. Jamie is also pure action. not many leg references, I just remember lame Lothar Frey, and Doran of course. Willas is a cripple - as is Bran. What about Littlefingers across-the-chest-scar? disclaimer: there are so many injuries in the series that I'm not sure this isn't just confirmation bias here.... anyway, that was a pretty cool thread, maybe someone remembers how to find it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dragons Hand Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 Serry injuring his hand changed Victarion from a dimwitted brute into a dull-minded beast. He's so dynamic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shmewdog Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 Jon Snow's burned hand comes to mind as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerrorVoid Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 I have a feeling that hand injuries, especially burned hands or golden hands are connected to AA prophecy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Neddard Stark Posted June 23, 2015 Author Share Posted June 23, 2015 "Put aside her own feelings" Your joking right? She one of the most selfish people in the series. Any way, Jon Snow injured his hand also and I remember there being a theory about it. Maybe it could give you some answers to you question. Not when it comes to her family. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Neddard Stark Posted June 23, 2015 Author Share Posted June 23, 2015 Urrigon- He lost half his hand playing the finger dance, he died from and infection after a maester tried to reattach his fingers. It didn't change him that we know of as he's dead, but it did change Balon and Damphair especially when it came to trusting Maesters and the Greenlanders. Qhorin Halfhand - Didn't he become as good a swordsman with his left hand as he was with his right? Theon - Flaying of his fingers ( as well as other parts turned him into Reek) Great Jon Umber - After Greywind savages his hand, he starts to respect Robb and proclaims him King in the North Donal Noye - Loses arm, gets sent to the NW. There are loads of references I know there was quite a lot, I just wanted to focus on the major ones that everyone will remember. It's quite a recurring theme in the series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Neddard Stark Posted June 23, 2015 Author Share Posted June 23, 2015 Jon Snow's burned hand comes to mind as well Yep totally, However I couldn't really think of a way it tied into his Arc. I've left a lot out so people can share their own in the thread :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wellcraines Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 Not to mention all of the dead Hands of the King... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knight and Dayne Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 I posted a thing about this a while back. Jamie, Davos, Catelyn, Jon, Victarion and the general misfortune surrounding the office of the hand of the king all made my list. Greatjon Umber is a good addition too. My read was that hand injuries symbolize transformation, which is pretty easy to relate to rebirth in AA prophesies. Would like to see that post about other injury symbolism for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Neddard Stark Posted June 23, 2015 Author Share Posted June 23, 2015 Not to mention all of the dead Hands of the King... Snap ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balerion the kitten Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 Serry injuring his hand changed Victarion from a dimwitted brute into a dull-minded beast.I'm pretty sure the writing style changed when moqorro fixed Vic's hand. Have no idea what that means but it seems to mean something Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Neddard Stark Posted June 23, 2015 Author Share Posted June 23, 2015 I posted a thing about this a while back. Jamie, Davos, Catelyn, Jon, Victarion and the general misfortune surrounding the office of the hand of the king all made my list. Greatjon Umber is a good addition too. My read was that hand injuries symbolize transformation, which is pretty easy to relate to rebirth in AA prophesies. Would like to see that post about other injury symbolism for sure. Ah, I didn't mean to rehash basically what you said. I did have a look around before I posted it and didn't see anything like it. Apologies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knight and Dayne Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 Ah, I didn't mean to rehash basically what you said. I did have a look around before I posted it and didn't see anything like it. Apologies. No problem, and I probably wasn't the first either. Didn't get a lot of bites on my thread, but I do love the idea, and I'm glad I'm not the only interested party. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Neddard Stark Posted June 23, 2015 Author Share Posted June 23, 2015 No problem, and I probably wasn't the first either. Didn't get a lot of bites on my thread, but I do love the idea, and I'm glad I'm not the only interested party. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Steller Posted June 23, 2015 Share Posted June 23, 2015 (Never mind, I spoke too soon on Victarion, sorry) But yeah, I somehow missed that this was actually a trend in the story with all the characters and their hand injuries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.