Wow, I Never Noticed That, v. 14

[dornishdame]

Part of him wanted nothing so much as to hear Bran laugh again, to sup on one of Gage's beef-and-bacon pies, to listen to Old Nan tell her tales of the children of the forest and Florian the Fool.

But he had not left the Wall for that; he had left because he was after all his father's son, and Robb's brother. The gift of a sword, even a sword as fine as Longclaw, did not make him a Mormont. Nor was he Aemon Targaryen. Three times the old man had chosen, and three times he had chosen honor, but that was him. Even now, Jon could not decide whether the maester had stayed because he was weak and craven, or because he was strong and true. Yet he understood what the old man had meant, about the pain of choosing; he understood that all too well. (Jon IX in A Game of Thrones)

By the end of A Dance with Dragons, Jon has chosen honor three times over something he wants:

1) At the end of A Game of Thrones when he ultimately decides to stay with the Night's Watch rather than go south to Robb.

2) In A Storm of Swords when he returns to Castle Black rather than remain with Ygritte.

3) In A Storm of Swords when he turns down Stannis's offer of Winterfell and legitimacy to remain in the Night's Watch. 

There are arguments to be made that Jon later chooses Arya over the Night's Watch, and family over honor, in A Dance with Dragons; but like Aemon Targaryen, Jon has thrice ultimately chosen honor over desire. 

[Lost Melnibonean]

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Two more red-cloaked guardsmen stood atop the steps. Red Lester muttered a condolence as she passed. The queen’s breath was coming fast and short, and she could feel her heart fluttering in her chest. The steps, she told herself, this cursed tower has too many steps. She had half a mind to tear it down.

This, of course, foreshadows Cersei burning the Tower of the Hand. But consider the author's emphasis, and he has Cersei think a bit later...

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Lord Tytos had grown very fat, and his heart burst one day when he was climbing the steps to his mistress.

Cersei is getting evermore out of shape! And she is drinking too much. Given all the possible foreshadowing we have for her demise, how ironic would it be if Cersei's heart burst climbing steps?

[ravenous reader]

7 minutes ago, Lost Melnibonean said:

Cersei is getting evermore out of shape! And she is drinking too much. Given all the possible foreshadowing we have for her demise, how ironic would it be if Cersei's heart burst climbing steps?

That certainly would put an exclamation point on her heartlessness!

Who, or what, then would the valonqar be in that scenario?

[Lost Melnibonean]

1 hour ago, ravenous reader said:

That certainly would put an exclamation point on her heartlessness!

Who, or what, then would the valonqar be in that scenario?

[Lost Melnibonean]

Three things...

I

This...

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"Aye," Ser Creighton said, "chewed off by a direwolf, I hear, one of them monsters come down from the north. Nought that's good ever come from the north. Even their gods are queer."

Brienne I, Feast 4

Recalls this...

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"MY LORDS!" he shouted, his voice booming off the rafters. "Here is what I say to these two kings!" He spat. " Renly Baratheon is nothing to me, nor Stannis neither. Why should they rule over me and mine, from some flowery seat in Highgarden or Dorne? What do they know of the Wall or the wolfswood or the barrows of the First Men? Even their gods are wrong. The Others take the Lannisters too, I've had a bellyful of them." He reached back over his shoulder and drew his immense two-handed greatsword. "Why shouldn't we rule ourselves again? It was the dragons we married, and the dragons are all dead!" He pointed at Robb with the blade. "There sits the only king I mean to bow my knee to, m'lords," he thundered. "The King in the North!"

Catelyn XI, Game 71

II

Remember the discrepancy between Lion’s Tooth and Lion’s Paw?

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"And you're only a butcher's boy, and no knight." Joffrey lifted Lion's Tooth and laid its point on Mycah's cheek below the eye, as the butcher's boy stood trembling. "That was my lady's sister you were hitting, do you know that?" A bright bud of blood blossomed where his sword pressed into Mycah's flesh, and a slow red line trickled down the boy's cheek.

"Stop it!" Arya screamed. She grabbed up her fallen stick.

Sansa was afraid. "Arya, you stay out of this."

"I won't hurt him . . . much," Prince Joffrey told Arya, never taking his eyes off the butcher's boy.

Arya went for him.

Sansa slid off her mare, but she was too slow. Arya swung with both hands. There was a loud crack as the wood split against the back of the prince's head, and then everything happened at once before Sansa's horrified eyes. Joffrey staggered and whirled around, roaring curses. Mycah ran for the trees as fast as his legs would take him. Arya swung at the prince again, but this time Joffrey caught the blow on Lion's Tooth and sent her broken stick flying from her hands. The back of his head was all bloody and his eyes were on fire. Sansa was shrieking, "No, no, stop it, stop it, both of you, you're spoiling it," but no one was listening. Arya scooped up a rock and hurled it at Joffrey's head. She hit his horse instead, and the blood bay reared and went galloping off after Mycah. "Stop it, don't, stop it!" Sansa screamed. Joffrey slashed at Arya with his sword, screaming obscenities, terrible words, filthy words. Arya darted back, frightened now, but Joffrey followed, hounding her toward the woods, backing her up against a tree. Sansa didn't know what to do. She watched helplessly, almost blind from her tears.

Then a grey blur flashed past her, and suddenly Nymeria was there, leaping, jaws closing around Joffrey's sword arm. The steel fell from his fingers as the wolf knocked him off his feet, and they rolled in the grass, the wolf snarling and ripping at him, the prince shrieking in pain. "Get it off," he screamed. "Get it off!"

Arya's voice cracked like a whip. "Nymeria!"

The direwolf let go of Joffrey and moved to Arya's side. The prince lay in the grass, whimpering, cradling his mangled arm. His shirt was soaked in blood. Arya said, "She didn't hurt you . . . much." She picked up Lion's Tooth where it had fallen, and stood over him, holding the sword with both hands.

Jofftey made a scared whimpery sound as he looked up at her. "No," he said, "don't hurt me. I'll tell my mother."

"You leave him alone!" Sansa screamed at her sister.

Arya whirled and heaved the sword into the air, putting her whole body into the throw. The blue steel flashed in the sun as the sword spun out over the river. It hit the water and vanished with a splash. Joffrey moaned. Arya ran off to her horse, Nymeria loping at her heels.

After they had gone, Sansa went to Prince Joffrey. His eyes were closed in pain, his breath ragged. Sansa knelt beside him. "Joffrey," she sobbed. "Oh, look what they did, look what they did. My poor prince. Don't be afraid. I'll ride to the holdfast and bring help for you." Tenderly she reached out and brushed back his soft blond hair.

His eyes snapped open and looked at her, and there was nothing but loathing there, nothing but the vilest contempt. "Then go," he spit at her. "And don't touch me."

 

Sansa I, Game 15

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"Joff told us what happened," the queen said. "You and the butcher boy beat him with clubs while you set your wolf on him."

"That's not how it was," Arya said, close to tears again. Ned put a hand on her shoulder.

"Yes it is!" Prince Joffrey insisted. "They all attacked me, and she threw Lion's Tooth in the river!" Ned noticed that he did not so much as glance at Arya as he spoke.

"Liar!" Arya yelled.

"Shut up!" the prince yelled back.

"Enough!" the king roared, rising from his seat, his voice thick with irritation. Silence fell. He glowered at Arya through his thick beard. "Now, child, you will tell me what happened. Tell it all, and tell it true. It is a great crime to lie to a king." Then he looked over at his son. "When she is done, you will have your turn. Until then, hold your tongue."

As Arya began her story, Ned heard the door open behind him. He glanced back and saw Vayon Poole enter with Sansa. They stood quietly at the back of the hall as Arya spoke. When she got to the part where she threw Joffrey's sword into the middle of the Trident, Renly Baratheon began to laugh. The king bristled. "Ser Barristan, escort my brother from the hall before he chokes."

Lord Renly stifled his laughter. "My brother is too kind. I can find the door myself." He bowed to Joffrey. "Perchance later you'll tell me how a nine-year-old girl the size of a wet rat managed to disarm you with a broom handle and throw your sword in the river." As the door swung shut behind him, Ned heard him say, "Lion's Tooth," and guffaw once more.

Prince Joffrey was pale as he began his very different version of events. When his son was done talking, the king rose heavily from his seat, looking like a man who wanted to be anywhere but here. "What in all the seven hells am I supposed to make of this? He says one thing, she says another."

"They were not the only ones present," Ned said. "Sansa, come here." Ned had heard her version of the story the night Arya had vanished. He knew the truth. "Tell us what happened."

His eldest daughter stepped forward hesitantly. She was dressed in blue velvets trimmed with white, a silver chain around her neck. Her thick auburn hair had been brushed until it shone. She blinked at her sister, then at the young prince. "I don't know," she said tearfully, looking as though she wanted to bolt. "I don't remember. Everything happened so fast, I didn't see . . . "

"You rotten!" Arya shrieked. She flew at her sister like an arrow, knocking Sansa down to the ground, pummeling her. "Liar, liar, liar, liar."

 

Eddard III, Game 16

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He'd owned a sword named Lion's Tooth once, Sansa remembered. Arya had taken it from him and thrown it in a river.

Sansa V, Clash 57

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Arya squirmed in Harwin's grip. "It was me. I hit Joffrey and threw Lion's Paw in the river. Mycah just ran away, like I told him."

Arya VI, Storm 34

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Sansa remembered Lion's Tooth, the sword Arya had flung into the Trident, and Hearteater, the one he'd made her kiss before the battle.

Sansa IV, Storm 59

Perhaps this is why Arya recalled it wrong...

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Brienne remembered her fight with Jaime Lannister in the woods. It had been all that she could do to keep his blade at bay. He was weak from his imprisonment, and chained at the wrists. No knight in the Seven Kingdoms could have stood against him at his full strength, with no chains to hamper him. Jaime had done many wicked things, but the man could fight! His maiming had been monstrously cruel. It was one thing to slay a lion, another to hack his paw off and leave him broken and bewildered.

Brienne I, Feast 4

III

And Oatherkeeper was the larger of the two swords forged from Ice...

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But she had another longsword hidden in her bedroll. She sat on the bed and took it out. Gold glimmered yellow in the candlelight and rubies smoldered red. When she slid Oathkeeper from the ornate scabbard, Brienne's breath caught in her throat. Black and red the ripples ran, deep within the steel. Valyrian steel, spell-forged. It was a sword fit for a hero.

Brienne I, Feast 4

Somebody shoulda taught the maid not so fair how to roll up he bedding--longways, not sideways. 

[Lost Melnibonean]

Two things...

I

The first hint of dissatisfaction with Jon Snow’s command...

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A small army was crawling over the ice a quarter of the way up, where a new switchback stair was creeping upward to meet the remnants of the old one. The sounds of their saws and hammers echoed off the ice. Jon had the builders working night and day on the task. Sam had heard some of them complaining about it over supper, insisting that Lord Mormont never worked them half so hard.

Samwell I, Feast 5

II

Jon Snow truly is the special snowflake...

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"Samwell," said a glum voice, "I was coming to fetch you. I was told to bring you to the Lord Commander."

A snowflake landed on Sam's nose. "Jon wants to see me?"

 

Samwell I, Feast 5

Of course, Jon goes on to send Samwell to Braavos in this chapter. When he bids Samwell farewell, he notes the snowflakes melting in Samwell’s hair, which recalls the snowflakes Jon saw melting Robb’s hair when he bid farewell to his brother. Samwell is a gonner.

[The Fattest Leech]

28 minutes ago, Lost Melnibonean said:

Two things...

I

The first hint of dissatisfaction with Jon Snow’s command...

Samwell I, Feast 5

II

Jon Snow truly is the special snowflake...

Samwell I, Feast 5

Of course, Jon goes on to send Samwell to Braavos in this chapter. When he bids Samwell farewell, he notes the snowflakes melting in Samwell’s hair, which recalls the snowflakes Jon saw melting Robb’s hair when he bid farewell to his brother. Samwell is a gonner.

Damn melting snowflakes! 

I know the part you mean because I always hated reading it. Poor Slayer. 

[Lost Melnibonean]

4 hours ago, The Fattest Leech said:

Damn melting snowflakes! 

I know the part you mean because I always hated reading it. Poor Slayer. 

Poor Slayer? What about Puddles's wee ice orphans and ice widow? 

[Lost Melnibonean]

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Once, when Jon came to consult with Maester Aemon, Sam had asked him why he spent so much time at swordplay. "The Old Bear never trained much when he was Lord Commander," he had pointed out. In answer, Jon had pressed Longclaw into Sam's hand. He let him feel the lightness, the balance, had him turn the blade so that ripples gleamed in the smoke-dark metal. "Valyrian steel," he said, "spell-forged and razor-sharp, nigh on indestructible. A swordsman should be as good as his sword, Sam. Longclaw is Valyrian steel, but I'm not. The Halfhand could have killed me as easy as you swat a bug."

Samwell I, Feast 5

So, we should expect that Jon has become an exceptional swordsman, no? And that this passage referenced Qhorin as Jaime begins to train with his left hand suggests that Jaimed has as well, no? 

ETA

Wow, I never noticed that greenseers could read through the eyes of ravens...

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Jon’s solar was back beyond the racks of spears and shields. He was reading a parchment when Sam entered. Lord Commander Mormont’s raven was on his shoulder, peering down as if it were reading too, but when the bird spied Sam it spread its wings and flapped toward him crying, “Corn, corn!”

Samwell I, Feast 5

[Walda]

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“These Yunkish dogs cannot be trusted, Your Worship. Even now they plot against you. New levies have been raised and can be seen drilling outside the city walls, warships are being built, envoys have been sent to New Ghis and Volantis in the west, to make alliances and hire sellswords. They have even dispatched riders to Vaes Dothrak to bring a khalasar down upon you."(ASoS, Ch.71 Daenerys VI)

Khal Jaquo has a low-priority alliance with the Yunkai? Or just a co-incidence that he is at the headwaters of the Skahazadhan two and a bit books later?

[Lord Wraith]

13 minutes ago, Walda said:

Khal Jaquo has a low-priority alliance with the Yunkai? Or just a co-incidence that he is at the headwaters of the Skahazadhan two and a bit books later?

I think that Khal Jaquo plans to attack Volantis since it is weak at the moment. The fleet is divided: part is coming up to deal with the Dothraki, some a ferrying over Aegon and the Golden Company, some are attacking Mereen. Not to mention how divided the city currently is with the slaves close to near revolt. Couldn't have a better time to attack and sack the city.

[Walda]

@Lord Wraith, so why is Khal Jaquo (still!) behind the hills of the eastern hinterland of Slaver's Bay, sacking the lands of the Lhazarene? Shouldn't he and his Khalasar be galloping down the demon road, or prowling in the disputed lands, or near the headwaters of the Selhoru with a khalasar of thirty thousand, like Khal Pono?

Seriously, Go West, young Khal.

[Lord Wraith]

1 hour ago, Walda said:

@Lord Wraith, so why is Khal Jaquo (still!) behind the hills of the eastern hinterland of Slaver's Bay, sacking the lands of the Lhazarene? Shouldn't he and his Khalasar be galloping down the demon road, or prowling in the disputed lands, or near the headwaters of the Selhoru with a khalasar of thirty thousand, like Khal Pono?

Seriously, Go West, young Khal.

I got them mixed up. I was thinking of Khal Pono. My bad.

[sweetsunray]

aCoK, Jon I

Black moleskin gloves covered his hands; the right because it was burned, the left because a man felt half a fool wearing only one glove.

"You'd be surprised. This vault is a treasure, Jon."

"If you say so." Jon was doubtful. Treasure meant gold, silver, and jewels, not dust, spiders, and rotting leather.

 

The grounds seemed deserted this morning, with so many rangers off at the brothel in Mole's Town, digging for buried treasure and drinking themselves blind.

 

Jon wears moleskin gloves, and moles are blind, hence "Jon, you know nothing."

But a treasure of rotting leather is burried in an underground vault full of dust and spiders, and it's got to do with a woman Jon believes his mother was a whore, like the buried treasures in Mole's Town.

[Lost Melnibonean]

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The decks tilted, creaking, as the galleas Titan’s Daughter heeled to starboard and began to come about. 

The star of home. Arya stood at the prow, one hand resting on the gilded figurehead, a maiden with a bowl of fruit. For half a heartbeat she let herself pretend that it was her home ahead.

 

Arya I, Feast 6

I got a silver stag says the bowl of fruit the Titan's dughter is holding is filled with lemony lemons. 

 

[The Fattest Leech]

13 minutes ago, sweetsunray said:

aCoK, Jon I

Black moleskin gloves covered his hands; the right because it was burned, the left because a man felt half a fool wearing only one glove.

"You'd be surprised. This vault is a treasure, Jon."

"If you say so." Jon was doubtful. Treasure meant gold, silver, and jewels, not dust, spiders, and rotting leather.

 

The grounds seemed deserted this morning, with so many rangers off at the brothel in Mole's Town, digging for buried treasure and drinking themselves blind.

 

Jon wears moleskin gloves, and moles are blind, hence "Jon, you know nothing."

But a treasure of rotting leather is burried in an underground vault full of dust and spiders, and it's got to do with a woman Jon believes his mother was a whore, like the buried treasures in Mole's Town.

Sorry, in in my phone watching a great show called Rome, but, I found this. It shows what you say about buried treasure. Good find: 

A Game of Thrones - Jon VII

"One of the guards overheard Clydas reading the letter to Maester Aemon." Pyp leaned close. "Jon, I'm sorry. He was your father's friend, wasn't he?"

"They were as close as brothers, once." Jon wondered if Joffrey would keep his father as the King's Hand. It did not seem likely. That might mean Lord Eddard would return to Winterfell, and his sisters as well. He might even be allowed to visit them, with Lord Mormont's permission. It would be good to see Arya's grin again and to talk with his father. I will ask him about my mother, he resolved. I am a man now, it is past time he told me. Even if she was a whore, Idon't care, I want to know.

[sweetsunray]

18 minutes ago, The Fattest Leech said:

Sorry, in in my phone watching a great show called Rome, but, I found this. It shows what you say about buried treasure. Good find: 

A Game of Thrones - Jon VII

"One of the guards overheard Clydas reading the letter to Maester Aemon." Pyp leaned close. "Jon, I'm sorry. He was your father's friend, wasn't he?"

"They were as close as brothers, once." Jon wondered if Joffrey would keep his father as the King's Hand. It did not seem likely. That might mean Lord Eddard would return to Winterfell, and his sisters as well. He might even be allowed to visit them, with Lord Mormont's permission. It would be good to see Arya's grin again and to talk with his father. I will ask him about my mother, he resolved. I am a man now, it is past time he told me. Even if she was a whore, Idon't care, I want to know.

The same aCoK, Jon I chapter keeps on going about "blind" people. Mormont tells the backstory of "blind" Aemon Targaryen, about Brightflame, and Maekar, etc, and then the Raven spoke, "King, King," after Mormont finishes how the Kingslayer ended the dragonline, and Jon noting how the raven likes that word, and how Aemno and he have vows and a brother for king in common.

[TheDrunkenDornishman]

When the Hound comes back with Mycah's corpse, Ned notes that his eyes appeared to be glittering deep in his helm. Was Sandor crying over what Cersei just had him do? 

[Lost Melnibonean]

In Arya I, Feast, The George devotes a paragraph to Arya's regret about not saying goodbye to Denyo, the cabin boy aboard the Titan's Daughter. Was this fluff? Was it supposed to show that Arya had lots of regrets? Will we be able to compare it to a future Arya who doesn't think such silly sentimental thoughts? Is it just there to suggest that we will see him again? Or does it have something to do with the other Titan's Daughter, aka Alayne? 

ETA

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At the top she found a set of carved wooden doors twelve feet high. The left-hand door was made of weirwood pale as bone, the right of gleaming ebony. In their center was a carved moon face; ebony on the weirwood side, weirwood on the ebony. The look of it reminded her somehow of the heart tree in the godswood at Winterfell. The doors are watching me, she thought. She pushed upon both doors at once with the flat of her gloved hands, but neither one would budge. Locked and barred. "Let me in, you stupid," she said. "I crossed the narrow sea." She made a fist and pounded. "Jaqen told me to come. I have the iron coin." She pulled it from her pouch and held it up. "See? Valar morghulis."

The doors made no reply, except to open.

 

I got a golden dragon says the eyes in that moonface was red, well... at least one of 'em.

[Walda]

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he had found Beans, Books, and Old Bill Bone in one of Meereen’s less savory cellars, drinking yellow wine and watching naked slaves kill one another with bare hands and filed teeth.(ADwD, Ch.60 The Spurned Suitor)

Drinkwater's excursion to the loucher part of Meereen put me in mind of Biter, and Rorge.

According to Martin

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Rorge owned a pot shop or bar in Flea Bottom, the really bad part of King's Landing. Rorge would stage rat fights, and dog fights, bear cub fights, etc., and make money of these fights. At some point he found young Biter, a big ugly kid with no parents or something like that, and took him in. Rorge starting putting Biter into the fights, fighting mastiffs and bear cubs, etc. And then he said something like "And all of this led to his winning personality! So there you go, that's the backstory for Biter that I haven't written yet, but I might!" SSM

So, was Rorge already familiar with places where naked slaves with filed teeth fought to the death? Or did the tooth-filing evolve organically, the way the use of Biter appeared to? It is still a bit of a mystery why those two are found in the company of a faceless man, in the black cells. Could Rorge be a Meereenese ex-pat? We hear of fighting pits in Astapor, but nobody claims that those are far-famed, and we hear of bulls and bears rather than men (although that seems to have been the style of fighting that Biter did, too.)

However, 

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The fighting pits have been a part of Meereen since the city was founded. The combats are profoundly religious in nature, a blood sacrifice to the gods of Ghis. The mortal art of Ghis is not mere butchery but a display of courage, skill, and strength most pleasing to your gods.(ADwD, Ch.02 Daenerys I)

And the faceless men are also profoundly religious in nature, dispensing the gift of the many-faced god in a way that is no mere butchery, that displays courage, strength and (especially) skill.