GOT RE-READ (Come post things you noticed)

[shadowsofasshai]

I've been posting on a lot of older boards but I would like people who are re-reading the series to post here. Right now I am on Game of Thrones. 

 

One of the things I just noticed is a fore-shadowing of why JON would be the Price who was Promised. 

[shadowsofasshai]

 

 

 

"Frog-faced Lord Slynt sat at the end of the council table wearing a black velvet doublet and a shiny cloth-of-gold cape, nodding with approval every time the king pronounced a sentence. Sansa stared hard at his ugly face, remembering how he had thrown down her father for Ser Ilyn to behead, wishing she could hurt him, wishing that some hero would throw him down and cut off his head. But a voice inside her whispered, There are no heroes, and she remembered what Lord Petyr had said to her, here in this very hall. “Life is not a song, sweetling,” he’d told her. “You may learn that one day to your sorrow.” In life, the monsters win, she told herself, and now it was the Hound’s voice she heard, a cold rasp, metal on stone. “Save yourself some pain, girl, and give him what he wants.” 

 

 

This was in the Sansa Chapter. She wished some hero would throw him down and cut off his head. Which is exactly what Jon Snow does to Janos Slynt at the wall. Throws him down and beheads him. It is a foreshadowing that Jon will be there hero. Perhaps "the last hero." That would make sense too because that is a tale of the first men, and Jon has the blood of the first men. If the Last Hero, the prince who was promised and maybe Azor Ahai are all one, this would mean he is all of those. 

 

Plus the Many Faced God, the faceless men believe that Azor Ahai, the stranger, the black goat?, the drowned god are all one. This would make me believe that the heros are all one as well. 

 

 

[shadowsofasshai]

I also posted this about Dany's dreams (before of after) Childbirth, 

 

Wings shadowed her fever dreams.
“You don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?” 

She was walking down a long hall beneath high stone arches. She could not look behind her, must not look behind her. There was a door ahead of her, tiny with distance, but even from afar, she saw that it was painted red. She walked faster, and her bare feet left bloody footprints on the stone. 

“You don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?” 

She saw sunlight on the Dothraki sea, the living plain, rich with the smells of earth and death. Wind stirred the grasses, and they rippled like water. Drogo held her in strong arms, and his hand stroked her sex and opened her and woke that sweet wetness that was his alone, and the stars smiled down on them, stars in a daylight sky. “Home,” she whispered as he entered her and filled her with his seed, but suddenly the stars were gone, and across the blue sky swept the great wings, and the world took flame. 

“ . . . don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?” 

Ser Jorah’s face was drawn and sorrowful. “Rhaegar was the last dragon,” he told her. He warmed translucent hands over a glowing brazier where stone eggs smouldered red as coals. One moment he was there and the next he was fading, his flesh colorless, less substantial than the wind. “The last dragon,” he whispered, thin as a wisp, and was gone. She felt the dark behind her, and the red door seemed farther away than ever. 

“ . . . don’t want to wake the dragon, do you?” 

Viserys stood before her, screaming. “The dragon does not beg, slut. You do not command the dragon. I am the dragon, and I will be crowned.” The molten gold trickled down his face like wax, burning deep channels in his flesh. “I am the dragon and I will be crowned!” he shrieked, and his fingers snapped like snakes, biting at her nipples, pinching, twisting, even as his eyes burst and ran like jelly down seared and blackened cheeks. 

“ . . . don’t want to wake the dragon . . . ” 

The red door was so far ahead of her, and she could feel the icy breath behind, sweeping up on her. If it caught her she would die a death that was more than death, howling forever alone in the darkness. She began to run. 

“ . . . don’t want to wake the dragon . . . ” 

She could feel the heat inside her, a terrible burning in her womb. Her son was tall and proud, with Drogo’s copper skin and her own silver-gold hair, violet eyes shaped like almonds. And he smiled for her and began to lift his hand toward hers, but when he opened his mouth the fire poured out. She saw his heart burning through his chest, and in an instant he was gone, consumed like a moth by a candle, turned to ash. She wept for her child, the promise of a sweet mouth on her breast, but her tears turned to steam as they touched her skin. 

“ . . . want to wake the dragon . . . ” 

Ghosts lined the hallway, dressed in the faded raiment of kings. In their hands were swords of pale fire. They had hair of silver and hair of gold and hair of platinum white, and their eyes were opal and amethyst, tourmaline and jade. “Faster,” they cried, “faster, faster.” She raced, her feet melting the stone wherever they touched. “Faster!” the ghosts cried as one, and she screamed and threw herself forward. A great knife of pain ripped down her back, and she felt her skin tear open and smelled the stench of burning blood and saw the shadow of wings. And Daenerys Targaryen flew. 

“ . . . wake the dragon . . . ” 

The door loomed before her, the red door, so close, so close, the hall was a blur around her, the cold receding behind. And now the stone was gone and she flew across the Dothraki sea, high and higher, the green rippling beneath, and all that lived and breathed fled in terror from the shadow of her wings. She could smell home, she could see it, there, just beyond that door, green fields and great stone houses and arms to keep her warm, there. She threw open the door. 

“ . . . the dragon . . . ” 

And saw her brother Rhaegar, mounted on a stallion as black as his armor. Fire glimmered red through the narrow eye slit of his helm. “The last dragon,” Ser Jorah’s voice whispered faintly. “The last, the last.” Dany lifted his polished black visor. The face within was her own. 

After that, for a long time, there was only the pain, the fire within her, and the whisperings of stars. 

 

1. Where is the long hall with stone arches ? Any place we know of with that description ? Maybe the throne room in Kings landing ? 

2. She was seeing stars at night, which means it would be daytime in Westeros. She is seeing great wings and the world take flame. Westeros on fire, dragons in Westeros. 

3. She feels the dark behind her, and Ser Jorah is in this vision. See Jorah is from Bear Island and North of him (behind him) would be beyond the wall where White Walkers are in the dark. The Red Door seems further way than ever in this vision. If that door was in Dorne, then it would be further away then ever from Bear Island, leagues and leagues away. 

4. Shows that Viserys was not the last dragon, he was not a dragon at all. 

5. The door is still very far ahead. She feels an icy breath behind her and she knows if it touches her she will die. "More than death, howling forever alone in the Darkness." She dreams of what would be the White Walkers, the cold they bring and the wights. 

6. Confirms Dany is the "last dragon" and her son will never be, her children will be dragons. 

5. Are these kings she is dreaming of Valyrian Kings or dead dragonlords of Valyria ? Maybe her descendants ? 

6. This one is really cool. The red door is so close to her, the cold far behind her.  Drogo always refers to the Castles in Westeros as "Stone Houses." So she makes it to the south, Dorne in my opinion which is why the red door is so close. But then the stone is gone, and now she is flying in the Dortraki Sea. But since she is flying, she could smell home, she could see the door. 

7. Then she see's rhaegar, but its not him, it's her; she's the last dragon. 

 

"After that, for a long time, there was only the pain, the fire within her, and the whisperings of stars."

 

^^ Could all these be sent by Quiathe ? We know Quiathe appears to her over and over again in stars."

[shadowsofasshai]

Why can only Dany see the shadows is what caught my attention. I am re-reading the series myself right now. It is kind of like the story Syria Forrel told to Arya about how he became the water dancer. The Sea Lord of Bravvos had him come to him and asked what he saw, it was supposed to be some magical beast like a tiger, but all he saw was a Tomcat. A man who "sees" can see the truth, he is not effected by glamours. Hence he became the first sword to the Sea Lord because he could protect him not from any regular man but from glamours which are the real danger. 

Now Mirri Maz Duur obviously has been to Asshai, she says it in the previous chapter and again in this one right before she begins her "blood magic".  Before this Dany does not believe she is really a Maegi. 

 

Mirri Maz Duur sat back on her heels and studied Daenerys through eyes as black as night. “There is a spell.” Her voice was quiet, scarcely more than a whisper. “But it is hard, lady, and dark. Some would say that death is cleaner. I learned the way in Asshai, and paid dear for the lesson. My teacher was a bloodmage from the Shadow Lands.” 

Dany went cold all over. “Then you truly are a maegi . . . ” 

“Am I?” Mirri Maz Duur smiled. “Only a maegi can save your rider now, Silver Lady.” 

 

Is this something that "only Dany can see?" I feel that MMD, like Mellisandre used powers and potions to put on a show for Daenerys. Daenerys was the only one inside the tent when MMD said "the dead will dance here tonight". So Daenerys believes her and believes there is something "magic" going on in that tent.

Ser Jorah didn't hear this comment and doesnt really know what is going on inside the tent so he brings her in. Now either something really is there (the shadows) and only Daenerys can see them because she's special in some way, or nothing is going on inside the tent and she is almost hallucinating. At this point she is in extreme pain because she just went into labor. Could the pain have sparked some kind of madness? 

"No, Dany wanted to say, no, not that, you mustn’t, but when she opened her mouth, a long wail of pain escaped, and the sweat broke over her skin. What was wrong with them, couldn’t they see? Inside the tent the shapes were dancing, circling the brazier and the bloody bath, dark against the sandsilk, and some did not look human. 

She glimpsed the shadow of a great wolf, and another like a man wreathed in flames. "

Now this part I take as many things but in a few chapters prior Jon and Ghost were fighting Other, the man from Benjen's ranging party that they found close to the Weirwood Grove. He had become a wight. Ghost suddenly goes insane while locked in Jon's room. He was put under guard and Jon thinks he is just growling at the guards, but when he opens the door they are dead. He hears movement upstairs in the Lord Commanders Chambers, and follows the noise. When he realizes its the dead man, Other, Ghost attacks him but almost dies. He had him gripped so hard, it wasn't until Jon took off one of his arms that Ghost was released, then the wight goes for Jon. Jon is being choked almost dead when Mormont opens the door. Ghost attacks the wight again just long enough for Jon to wiggle free and grab the lantern Mormont had in his hands. He throws it at the curtains then grabs the burning curtains and throws them at Other. He continues to run around and move before melting. If you recall the other dead man "flowers", I think his name was, had killed 4 men before the fire Jon Snow started the fire. The burning tower killed him. 

We know that the book doesn't go in chronological order. It is late in the afternoon when this is happening, Dany said to her blood riders "tell them to stop I can not go any further for today, because she is pregnant." They weren't supposed to stop riding for some hours. They are in the East, so it could be 12 hours earlier across the world, 3 or 4 in the morning maybe. Which would be the time when Jon was fighting off the wight. Maybe she had a glimpse of what was going on, on the other side of the world. 

Mellisandre has powders that cause visions and shadows that would scare any man. Her flames also show visions, Stannis really did see a great battle in the snow inside the flames. Dany mentions twice about the Brazier after leaving the tent. 

"The tent was aglow with the light of braziers within. Through the blood-spattered sandsilk, she glimpsed shadows moving. "

So maybe she really does see what is happening on the other side of the world. And it would make sense if it had to do with Jon Snow because the R+L=J theory would explain their blood is connected. Just like the Stark's wolves sense whats happening to each other far away, the dragon s can sense what is happening far away to their blood. Jon was almost just choked to death by a wight and is about to die before the wolf saves him and Dany is in immense pain, feeling as if she is about to die in child birth. 

 

These are just some of my interpretations but I really don't think the wolf is a man because she says some don't look human. The man in fire was clearly human she could tell, the other shapes didn't look human. The wolf she clearly knows is a wolf. 

The wolves we know in this story is

Lady- Dead, Nymeria (lost in the river lands, but amassing a pack), Grey Wind (who in the Chapter previous to this was in the Whispering Woods fighting a battle with Rob when they capture the King Slayer,) Summer and Shaggydog (both in Winterfell with Bran and Rickon), and then Ghost who was just fighting a flaming wight with Jon. Jon is connected to his wolf, and Dany could be connected with Jon by blood. So maybe she could sense the wolf and Jon as well, like Bran and Rickon sense each other and have the same dreams. Grey Wind, Bran and Summer knew when Lady died. Jon could be her nephew her true brothers son. Her blood. The other Starks would not be her blood therefore no connection, but Jon would be her blood. 

 

 

 

I just started re-reading the chapter when Dani awakes and see Jorah says this. He saw some "shadows" but he definitely did not see how vivid they were like Dany did, she was able to see the wolf and the man (a burning man) Jorah just simply saw shadows. 

 

“Monstrous,” Mirri Maz Duur finished for him. The knight was a powerful man, yet Dany understood in that moment that the maegi was stronger, and crueler, and infinitely more dangerous. “Twisted. I drew him forth myself. He was scaled like a lizard, blind, with the stub of a tail and small leather wings like the wings of a bat. When I touched him, the flesh sloughed off the bone, and inside he was full of graveworms and the stink of corruption. He had been dead for years.”

Darkness, Dany thought. The terrible darkness sweeping up behind to devour her. If she looked back she was lost. “My son was alive and strong when Ser Jorah carried me into this tent,” she said. “I could feel him kicking, fighting to be born.”

“That may be as it may be,” answered Mirri Maz Duur, “yet the creature that came forth from your womb was as I said. Death was in that tent, Khaleesi.”

“Only shadows,” Ser Jorah husked, but Dany could hear the doubt in his voice. “I saw, maegi. I saw you, alone, dancing with the shadows. “

“The grave casts long shadows, Iron Lord,” Mirri said. “Long and dark, and in the end no light can hold them back.”

Ser Jorah had killed her son, Dany knew. He had done what he did for love and loyalty, yet he had carried her into a place no living man should go and fed her baby to the darkness. He knew it too; the grey face, the hollow eyes, the limp. “The shadows have touched you too, Ser Jorah,” she told him. The knight made no reply. Dany turned to the godswife. “You warned me that only death could pay for life. I thought you meant the horse.” 

[shadowsofasshai]

He looked south, and saw the great blue-green rush of the Trident. He saw his father pleading with the king, his face etched with grief. He saw Sansa crying herself to sleep at night, and he saw Arya watching in silence and holding her secrets hard in her heart.

There were shadows all around them. One shadow was dark as ash, with the terrible face of a hound. Another was armored like the sun, golden and beautiful. Over them both loomed a giant in armor made of stone, but when he opened his visor, there was nothing inside but darkness and thick black blood.

^^ Bran's chapter right before he wakes up from his coma. 

I always thought that the hound was Sansa's shadow, Jamie was Ned's shadow and then the Mountain was Arya's shadow.

 

“And your outriders?” Ser Gregor Clegane’s face might have been hewn from rock. The fire in the hearth gave a somber orange cast to his skin and put deep shadows in the hollows of his eyes. “They saw nothing? They gave you no warning?” 

^^ This is cheaper 69, TYRION. 

But now I'm thinking that the Mountain could be Sansa's shadow because she escapes with Littlefinger to the Vale and Cersi is after her for Joffrey's death. Robert Strong is Cersi's man now. Will he go out looking for Sansa?

At this time, the mountain could also be Ned's shadow because he sent Beric Dondaerrion to capture him. Regardless this statement Tyrion makes proves to me that this shadow is the mountain, Gregor Clegane. The black blood Bran describes, puts it in a timeframe after he is poisoned by Oberyn; after Ned is dead. At some point I believe he will track Sansa or Arya for Cersi. 

[Mrslannistark]

In Catelyn I - when she is telling Ned about Robert's travels she says,

“We should send word to your brother on the Wall.”
“Yes, of course,” he agreed. “Ben will want to be here. I shall tell Maester Luwin to send his swiftest bird.”

Excerpt From: George R.R. Martin. “A Game of Thrones.” Bantam Books, 1997-08-04. iBooks. 
This material may be protected by copyright.

Check out this book on the iBooks Store: https://itun.es/us/9p7bz.l

 

WHY do they think Ben will want to be there? Does Ben have a relationship with Robert? Are they friends by default since Ned and Robert are like brothers? This is bothering me...

[Gargarax]

On 15. April 2017 at 4:37 AM, Mrslannistark said:

WHY do they think Ben will want to be there? Does Ben have a relationship with Robert? Are they friends by default since Ned and Robert are like brothers? This is bothering me...

Benjen must have known Robert; he was at Harrenhall for the tourney with his siblings and a part of the Knight of the Laughing Tree story.

He might also have wanted to petition Robert to send more men for the NW. It was the chance for the NW to have a private audience with the king, and why not send a man with the best connections.

 

My own catch today, rereading the Purple Wedding: Oberyn, Ellaria, Tyrion and Sansa discussing a former king being killed by his uncle - on the morning of Joffrey's death.

Also: The amount of foreshadowing of the Red Wedding is insane - I can't believe I didn't see it coming the first time I read ASOS.

[Prof. Cecily]

I'm on my third reading of GOT and the Catelyn V chapter has captured my admiration.

Crossroads, indeed!

Quote

When the supper bell rang, the sound was deafening. Catelyn had changed into dry clothes. She sat by the window, watching rain run down the pane. The glass was milky and full of bubbles, and a wet dusk was falling outside. Catelyn could just make out the muddy crossing where the two great roads met.

The crossroads gave her pause. If they turned west from here, it was an easy ride down to Riverrun. Her father had always given her wise counsel when she needed it most, and she yearned to talk to him, to warn him of the gathering storm. If Winterfell needed to brace for war, how much more so Riverrun, so much closer to King's Landing, with the power of Casterly Rock looming to the west like a shadow. If only her father had been stronger, she might have chanced it, but Hoster Tully had been bedridden these past two years, and Catelyn was loath to tax him now.

The eastern road was wilder and more dangerous, climbing through rocky foothills and thick forests into the Mountains of the Moon, past high passes and deep chasms to the Vale of Arryn and the stony Fingers beyond. Above the Vale, the Eyrie stood high and impregnable, its towers reaching for the sky. There she would find her sister … and, perhaps, some of the answers Ned sought. Surely Lysa knew more than she had dared to put in her letter. She might have the very proof that Ned needed to bring the Lannisters to ruin, and if it came to war, they would need the Arryns and the eastern lords who owed them service.

 

How strange Catelyn should be considering these options- or going to a father on a lingering deathbed or a crazy sister ensconced in a mountain eyrie.

It's clear what Lady Stark had been charged to do by her husband and the paths she chose at this crossroads are so, so wrong that it makes rereading this chapter painful.

Yet Catelyn V is hideously compelling reading and arguably a key chapter in the saga.