Moments of Foreshadowing v.11

[Lost Melnibonean]

This...

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There was a stillness to this wood like nothing Bran had ever known before. Before the snows began, the north wind would swirl around them and clouds of dead brown leaves would kick up from the ground with a faint small rustling sound that reminded him of roaches scurrying in a cupboard, but now all the leaves were buried under a blanket of white.

Bran I, Dance 4

Foreshadows this...

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The snow had stopped three days ago, but none of it had melted. Beneath the trees, the ground was blanketed in white, still pristine and unbroken. "No one's here," said Bran, bravely. "Look at the snow. There are no footprints."

"The white walkers go lightly on the snow," the ranger said. "You'll find no prints to mark their passage." 

...

Summer stopped suddenly, at the bottom of a steep stretch of unbroken white snow. The direwolf turned his head, sniffed the air, then snarled. Fur bristling, he began to back away.

"Hodor, stop," said Bran. "Hodor. Wait. " Something was wrong. Summer smelled it, and so did he. Something bad. Something close. "Hodor, no, go back."

Coldhands was still climbing, and Hodor wanted to keep up. "Hodor, hodor, hodor," he grumbled loudly, to drown out Bran's complaints. His breathing had grown labored. Pale mist filled the air. He took a step, then another. The snow was almost waist deep and the slope was very steep. Hodor was leaning forward, grasping at rocks and trees with his hands as he climbed. Another step. Another. The snow Hodor disturbed slid downhill, starting a small avalanche behind them.

Sixty yards. Bran craned himself sideways to better see the cave. Then he saw something else. "A fire!" In the little cleft between the weirwood trees was a flickering glow, a ruddy light calling through the gathering gloom. "Look, someone—"

Hodor screamed. He twisted, stumbled, fell.

Bran felt the world slide sideways as the big stableboy spun violently around. A jarring impact drove the breath from him. His mouth was full of blood and Hodor was thrashing and rolling, crushing the crippled boy beneath him.

Something has hold of his leg. For half a heartbeat Bran thought maybe a root had gotten tangled round his ankle … until the root moved. A hand, he saw, as the rest of the wight came bursting from beneath the snow. Hodor kicked at it, slamming a snow-covered heel full into the thing's face, but the dead man did not even seem to feel it. Then the two of them were grappling, punching and clawing at each other, sliding down the hill. Snow filled Bran's mouth and nose as they rolled over, but in a half a heartbeat he was rolling up again. Something slammed against his head, a rock or a chunk of ice or a dead man's fist, he could not tell, and he found himself out of his basket, sprawled across the hillside, spitting snow, his gloved hand full of hair that he'd torn from Hodor's head. All around him, wights were rising from beneath the snow.

Two, three, four. Bran lost count. They surged up violently amidst sudden clouds of snow. Some wore black cloaks, some ragged skins, some nothing. All of them had pale flesh and black hands. Their eyes glowed like pale blue stars.

Bran II, Dance 13

[Lost Melnibonean]

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The trees stood shoulder to shoulder, like men in a battle line, all cloaked in white.

Bran I, Dance 4

I am thinking that we will see something like the Ents and Huorns of The Lord of the Rings.

[Rhaenys_Targaryen]

12 hours ago, Lost Melnibonean said:

Bran I, Dance 4

I am thinking that we will see something like the Ents and Huorns of The Lord of the Rings.

"All cloaked in white"

That brings to mind the Kingsguard, whose cloaks and armor have been described as "snow-white" and "white as fresh fallen snow".

[NewDay]

I tried searching the forum on Mirri Maz Duur and Dany, couldn't find any posts about a specific idea I had regarding the prophecy. Apologies if this has been posted before, I'm a newbie and haven't had enough time to read through the forum extensively.

Anyway in AGOT, Daenerys IX

"Drogo will return when your womb quickens again and you bear a living child"

SPOLIER:: If you have not watched  S2Ep10 on the TV series:

Anyone else see the above quote to be foreshadowing Daenerys House of the undying visions, where she sees Drogo in a tent north of the wall holding a living child? ... I've just started reading the books, currently on ACOK. This was just an idea i noted, whilst reading. 

[Lost Melnibonean]

2 minutes ago, NewDay said:

I tried searching the forum on Mirri Maz Duur and Dany, couldn't find any posts about a specific idea I had regarding the prophecy. Apologies if this has been posted before, I'm a newbie and haven't had enough time to read through the forum extensively.

Anyway in AGOT, Daenerys IX

"Drogo will return when your womb quickens again and you bear a living child"

SPOLIER:: If you have not watched  S2Ep10 on the TV series:

Anyone else see the above quote to be foreshadowing Daenerys House of the undying visions, where she sees Drogo in a tent north of the wall holding a living child? ... I've just started reading the books, currently on ACOK. This was just an idea i noted, whilst reading. 

Theories based on HBO GOT content belong in the subforum for the TV show. 

[Joy Hill]

In AGOT, just before Sansa pleads for Ned's life, Dontos is seen chatting with LF.

[Lord Wraith]

14 hours ago, Joy Hill said:

In AGOT, just before Sansa pleads for Ned's life, Dontos is seen chatting with LF.

Nice...

[Lost Melnibonean]

At the Lazy Eel in White Harbor...

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Davos called to the proprietor for another cup. When he brought it, he brought him a candle too. "You want food?" the man asked.

"We got meat pies."

"What kind of meat is in them?"

"The usual kind. It's good."

The whores laughed. "It's grey, he means," one said. 

"Shut your bloody yap. You eat them."

"I eat all kinds o' shit. Don't mean I like it."

Davos II, Dance

[Lord Wraith]

On 2/7/2017 at 2:06 PM, Joy Hill said:

In AGOT, just before Sansa pleads for Ned's life, Dontos is seen chatting with LF.

He his also talking to Ser Balon, perhaps another connection? I know Ser Balon was also attending those Stokeworth dinner along with Baelish. Mayhaps another friend of Baelish?

[PCK]

Something I just noticed re-reading Arianne's conversation with Doran at the end of Feast:

"I have worked hard at the downfall Tywin Lannister since they told me of Elia. I had hoped to strip him of all he held dear before I killed him."

 

Compared with what the woodswitch told Cersei;

"You'll be queen until another comes and casts you down and takes all you hold dear."

 

Lends more credibility to the idea Aegon, backed by Dorne will kick the Lannister regime off the throne in the books. I think it's also interesting that Aegon and the last line from Cersei's prophecy "your pale white throat will have the life drained out of it by the valonqar" are both cut out of the show.

[chrisdaw]

Arya stuff quickly despite it being only partly foreshadowing because I can't be bothered fleshing it out into a topic.

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"Obsidian," Maester Luwin insisted, holding out his wounded arm. "Forged in the fires of the gods, far below the earth. The children of the forest hunted with that, thousands of years ago. The children worked no metal. In place of mail, they wore long shirts of woven leaves and bound their legs in bark, so they seemed to melt into the wood. In place of swords, they carried blades of obsidian."

Arya POV at Acorn Hall.

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Tom was singing when they returned to the hall.

My featherbed is deep and soft,
and there I’ll lay you down,
I’ll dress you all in yellow silk
and on your head a crown.
For you shall be my lady love,
and I shall be your lord.
I’ll always keep you warm and safe,
and guard you with my sword.

And how she smiled and how she laughed, the maiden of the tree.
She spun away and said to him,
no featherbed for me.
I’ll wear a gown of golden leaves,
and bind my hair with grass,
But you can be my forest love,
and me your forest lass.

"I have no gowns of leaves," said Lady Smallwood with a small fond smile, "but Carellen left some other dresses that might serve. Come, child, let us go upstairs and see what we can find."

Arya is obviously the maiden of the tree, and it's Arya Lady Smallwood is peaking of dressing when she says she has no gowns of leaves. Arya is going to get the COTF camouflaged tree armour treatment, and it'll be what all those references to fighting/soldier trees is going to be about.

But that's not really what I'm interested in here. Arya is the maiden of the tree, which will make Gendry the lord here.

The language in the second verse,

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no featherbed for me.
I’ll wear a gown of golden leaves,
and bind my hair with grass,
But you can be my forest love,
and me your forest lass.

correlating nicely with this nugget of foreshadowing.

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Calm as still water, she took the Bull by the arm and drew him back behind a tall flowering hedge.

But theming is what matters here in the song. The maiden of the tree being wild and not wanting to play the lady. Arya being a lady is a point of contention between Arya and Gendry. Rank doesn't matter to Arya, but it does to Gendry, and so there becomes a wall between them. For them to bed, which they will, Gendry is going to have let down this wall and the two indulge in forbidden love.

Forbidden love is hounded on in Arya's arc, but particularly relating to this scene,

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Its master was away fighting in the retinue of his master, Lord Vance, the castle gates closed and barred in his absence. But his lady wife was an old friend of Tom Sevenstrings, and Anguy said they'd once been lovers.

The song's singer and recipient are rumoured to have once been lovers, and whatever the case it's clear there's something between them.

Later Lady Smallwood tells the tall tale of how Arya's mother came to release Jaime after a night of passionate love, but Arya is saved from the tale, too young her ears at this point for forbidden passionate love, and winds up with Gendry in the smithy.

Anyway, Gendry was right to build that wall between them when he learned she was highborn, as he'll be wrong to give in to temptation the one time. Of that one time will come a child, a new little bastard born of a king's son and a queen. And queen Arya will be, the Lady which Lady Smallwood turned her into when she arrived in her hall as the maiden of the tree. It'll break Arya's heart, it'll break Gendry's heart, but they must part and the child, the little threat to the realm he will be, Daemon Blackfyre come again, will need a home, and to remain secret, for his safety and the realm's. Maintaining that wall would have solved a lot of problems before they began, but that's why we have Lady Smallwood.

Like she threw rocks at Nymeria, like she wished Weasel to run and never come back and like she killed the doll of the village chief's daughter to get her to stop following her, Arya is going to have to force and wish away another dependant.

Lady Smallwood has a daughter she sent off to Oldtown. We'll see how that girl fares the Ironborn. She has a husband, we'll see if he survives the Riverlands. She had a son, he died young.

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Arya spotted a yellow tent with six acorns on its panels, three over two over one. Lord Smallwood, she knew, remembering Acorn Hall so far away, and the lady who'd said she was pretty.

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Some of the women tried to put her in a dress and make her do needlework, but they weren't Lady Smallwood and she was having none of it.

Lady Smallwood who  Arya thinks of so fondly, is going to be given and take in to raise Arya's and Gendry's lovechild.

[Joy Hill]

On 9/2/2017 at 5:42 AM, Lord Wraith said:

He his also talking to Ser Balon, perhaps another connection? I know Ser Balon was also attending those Stokeworth dinner along with Baelish. Mayhaps another friend of Baelish?

I suspect that too.

Not to mention his family has been shown to be pretty opportunistic (sending a son to fight under each king to make sure they're on the winning side). LF probably knows what he must offer to Ser Balon to seduce him.

[a black swan]

23 hours ago, chrisdaw said:

~snip~

I love your analysis on stuff like this!  Really great insights. 

[Lost Melnibonean]

Davos enters White Harbor aboard the Merry Midwife. A midwife's purpose is to help bring a child into the world. Foreshadows Davos bringing Rickon into White Harbor. 

[Lost Melnibonean]

Hmm... How should we read this, that Tyrion will not succeed?

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As the salmon was being served, Ser Axell Florent had entertained the table with the tale of a Targaryen princeling who kept an ape as a pet.

I doubt the good folk of Westeros distinguish between monkeys and apes, and our favorite monkey is the twisted little monkey demon, no? Illyrio is not a Targaryen princeling, but he is ostensibly backing one.

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This prince liked to dress the creature in his dead son's clothes and pretend he was a child, Ser Axell claimed, and from time to time he would propose marriages for him. The lords so honored always declined politely, but of course they did decline. "Even dressed in silk and velvet, an ape remains an ape," Ser Axell said. "A wiser prince would have known that you cannot send an ape to do a man's work."

Illyrio might or might not have a son (the presumed Targaryen princeling, perhaps), who might or might not be dead, but he had a bunch of silks and velvets for a young boy and packed those off with Yollo. And Yollo's own father did try to make marriage matches for him. 

Or does this suggest that Tyrion will overcome all despite all the shit the monkeys of Westeros hurl at him? 

I think it suggests that, no matter what he might accomplish, he will never be thought of as more than a twisted little monkey demon by more than a handful of characters. It also suggests that Illyrio is merely using Tyrion, but we know that already, don't we?

[Lord Wraith]

On 2/17/2017 at 9:15 PM, Lost Melnibonean said:

Davos enters White Harbor aboard the Merry Midwife. A midwife's purpose is to help bring a child into the world. Foreshadows Davos bringing Rickon into White Harbor. 

Oh excellent this also works with the Order of the Greenhand's theory that Jon is the son of Ashara and Eddard. Ashara was disguised as the Fisherman's daughter. They had sex on Sisterton and Ashara was kept in the Wolf's Den paralleling Davos's stay there. Oh and the Wolf's Den was built by Jon Stark.

[Lord Wraith]

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"Desperately," Varys said, "yet he craves life even more. By now, the princess nears Vaes Dothrak, where it is death to draw a blade. If I told you what the Dothraki would do to the poor man who used one on a khaleesi, none of you would sleep tonight." He stroked a powdered cheek. "Now, poison … the tears of Lys, let us say. Khal Drogo need never know it was not a natural death."

Grand Maester Pycelle's sleepy eyes flicked open. He squinted suspiciously at the eunuch.

Note Pycelle's reaction, since he knew Jon was being poisoned and let him die.

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Tyrion tsked at him. "I saw the tears of Lys among your potions. And you sent away Lord Arryn's own maester and tended him yourself, so you could make certain that he died."

"A falsehood!"

"Shave him closer," Tyrion suggested. "The throat again."

The axe swept back down, rasping over the skin. A thin film of spit bubbled on Pycelle's lips as his mouth trembled. "I tried to save Lord Arryn. I vow—"

"Careful now, Shagga, you've cut him."

Shagga growled. "Dolf fathered warriors, not barbers."

When he felt the blood trickling down his neck and onto his chest, the old man shuddered, and the last strength went out of him. He looked shrunken, both smaller and frailer than he had been when they burst in on him. "Yes," he whimpered, "yes, Colemon was purging, so I sent him away. The queen needed Lord Arryn dead, she did not say so, could not, Varys was listening, always listening, but when I looked at her I knew. It was not me who gave him the poison, though, I swear it." The old man wept. "Varys will tell you, it was the boy, his squire, Hugh he was called, he must surely have done it, ask your sister, ask her."

 

[Lost Melnibonean]

4 hours ago, Lord Wraith said:

Note Pycelle's reaction, since he knew Jon was being poisoned and let him die.

 

The whodunnit subplot with the big reveal at the end is the principal underpinning of the narrative conflict in the War of the Five Kings. 

[Joy Hill]

5 hours ago, Lord Wraith said:

Note Pycelle's reaction, since he knew Jon was being poisoned and let him die.

 

Good catch.

 

Speaking of Pycelle, in ASOS Tyrion 9, during Tyrion's trial, he speaks of a certain poison. 

"Widow's blood, this one is called, for the color. A cruel potion. It shuts down a man's bladder and bowels, until he drowns in his own poisons."

I wonder if Oberyn used this poison on Tywin.

 

[Lost Melnibonean]

5 minutes ago, Joy Hill said:

Good catch.

 

Speaking of Pycelle, in ASOS Tyrion 9, during Tyrion's trial, he speaks of a certain poison. 

"Widow's blood, this one is called, for the color. A cruel potion. It shuts down a man's bladder and bowels, until he drowns in his own poisons."

I wonder if Oberyn used this poison on Tywin.

 

Quite possibly...

http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?/topic/67678-oberyn-poisoned-tywin/