Wow, I never noticed that v.15

[Lost Melnibonean]

Wow, I never noticed that
Wow, I never noticed that v. 2
Wow, I never noticed that v. 3 Eyes Wide Shut Edition
Wow, I never noticed that v. 4
Wow, I never noticed that v. 5
Wow, I never noticed that v. 6
Wow, I never noticed that v. 7
Wow, I never noticed that v. 8
Wow, I never noticed that v. 9
Wow, I never noticed that v. 10
Wow, I never noticed that v. 11
Wow, I never noticed that v. 12

Wow, I never noticed that v. 13

Wow, I never noticed that v.14

Wow, I never noticed that muskfish...

 

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The brackish waters that surrounded Braavos teemed with fish and shellfish of every sort, the kindly man explained. A slow brown river entered the lagoon from the south, wandering through a wide expanse of reeds, tidal pools, and mudflats. Clams and cockles abounded hereabouts; mussels and muskfish, frogs and turtles, mud crabs and leopard crabs and climber crabs, red eels, black eels, striped eels, lampreys, and oysters; all made frequent appearances on the carved wooden table where the servants of the Many-Faced God took their meals.

Arya II, Feast 22

Are probably muskellunge.

ETA

On red eels and black eels, there's that color combination again... An eel is like a snake, and the George has compared snakes to dragons more than once. So, we have red dragons and black dragons. But black or red a dragon is still a dragon, right? 

[Suzanna Stormborn]

ohh good catch^^

[Lost Melnibonean]

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"Death is not the worst thing," the kindly man replied. "It is His gift to us, an end to want and pain. On the day that we are born the Many-Faced God sends each of us a dark angel to walk through life beside us. When our sins and our sufferings grow too great to be borne, the angel takes us by the hand to lead us to the nightlands, where the stars burn ever bright. Those who come to drink from the black cup are looking for their angels. If they are afraid, the candles soothe them. When you smell our candles burning, what does it make you think of, my child?"

Arya II, Feast 22

The only other religion we have seen that dreams of an eternity in the nightlands is the faith of the horselords.

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"Before you drink from the cold cup, you must offer up all you are to Him of Many Faces. Your body. Your soul. Yourself. If you cannot bring yourself to do that, you must leave this place."

Arya II, Feast 22

Is drinking from the “cold cup” the ritual one undergoes to become a faceless man?

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Needle was Robb and Bran and Rickon, her mother and her father, even Sansa. Needle was Winterfell's grey walls, and the laughter of its people. Needle was the summer snows, Old Nan's stories, the heart tree with its red leaves and scary face, the warm earthy smell of the glass gardens, the sound of the north wind rattling the shutters of her room. Needle was Jon Snow's smile. He used to mess my hair and call me "little sister," she remembered, and suddenly there were tears in her eyes.

Polliver had stolen the sword from her when the Mountain's men took her captive, but when she and the Hound walked into the inn at the crossroads, there it was. The gods wanted me to have it. Not the Seven, nor Him of Many Faces, but her father's gods, the old gods of the north.

 

Arya II, Feast 22

Perhaps the old gods did; check this out...

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She shoved through the doors, out into the night.

It was the first time she had been outside since entering the temple. The sky was overcast, and fog covered the ground like a frayed grey blanket. Off to her right she heard paddling from the canal. Braavos, the Secret City, she thought. The name seemed very apt. She crept down the steep steps to the covered dock, the mists swirling round her feet. It was so foggy she could not see the water, but she heard it lapping softly at stone pilings. In the distance, a light glowed through the gloom: the nightfire at the temple of the red priests, she thought.

At the water's edge she stopped, the silver fork in hand. It was real silver, solid through and through. It's not my fork. It was Salty that he gave it to. She tossed it underhand, heard the soft plop as it sank below the water.

 

Arya II, Feast 22

[Isobel Harper]

There are plenty of mentions of the Long Night and the Dawn Age, but none of how the world was created.  Doesn't pretty much every culture and religion have some sort of creation story in real life? 

[Suzanna Stormborn]

9 hours ago, Isobel Harper said:

There are plenty of mentions of the Long Night and the Dawn Age, but none of how the world was created.  Doesn't pretty much every culture and religion have some sort of creation story in real life? 

All except Atheists, who believe in the Big Bang alone

[Seams]

On 12/6/2016 at 5:14 PM, Lost Melnibonean said:

Perhaps the old gods did; check this out...

...She crept down the steep steps to the covered dock, the mists swirling round her feet....

Arya II, Feast 22

Interesting. I did a search on the word "whirled" and found it is often (but not always) associated with Arya. Never thought to search on "swirled" as well.

[Jadakiss]

never noticed that multiple times in multiple books, grrm decided to pretty much outright say that Moon Boy was a spy for Varys, and he isnt so dumb etc

[Jadakiss]

Also never noticed how Theon uses the word "whore" 4x more then any other character.,........hence another obvious reason stannis wrote the pink letter dictated by theon and tybald

 

Yes I knew this before but didnt know the word count was that high for it

[Jons bastard brother]

This may have been pointed out in the past, but I just noticed the name Abel rearranged is Bael, as in Bael the Bard. 

[King Ragnar]

1 hour ago, Jadakiss said:

never noticed that multiple times in multiple books, grrm decided to pretty much outright say that Moon Boy was a spy for Varys, and he isnt so dumb etc

Can u give a quote about this. Busy rereading but never noticed this.

[Philokles]

7 minutes ago, Lord Ragnar said:

Can u give a quote about this. Busy rereading but never noticed this.

Dontos to Sansa in 'Sansa IV ACOK': "the Spider pays in gold for any little trifle. I think Moon Boy has been his for years."

[Walda]

On 07/12/2016 at 4:35 AM, Lost Melnibonean said:

 An eel is like a snake, and the George has compared snakes to dragons more than once.

Under the sea, the fish eat us, I know, oh, oh, oh. I noticed these when I was doing a post on foods in Essos. “and there’s eel fights in the Spotted Cellar, down by the gates of Drowned Town." or perhaps at the Moon Pool, feeding on the dead. Also, Volantis had eels, crabs, and a pike as big as Tyrion, and, "A pike of unprecedented size had been caught in the Skahazadhan". 

The fish references also remind me of the Stannis loyalists - the ones that feasted with him at Dragonstone, the Lords of the Narrow Sea, and the secret ones that eat sister's stew, on the sisters and at White Harbour. There seems to be a naval link,too - Stannis, when he was Master of Ships, and had most of the Iron Throne's fleet, his sell-sails Aurane, Sallador Saan, and that admiral from Myr. Stannis has a particular association with his father and mother's death on the angry sea, even though Steffon was as much the father of Robert and Renly as Stannis.

There is a fishy association with Eastwatch, too,  home of the Night's watch  fleet. Tyrion had the crabs packed in snow shipped from there, and he is compared to a pike at Volantis. Dany also has fishy associations, crossing the narrow sea 'half a hundred times' and remembering Viserys that time they had left Braavos “You are blood of the dragon,” he had screamed at her. “A dragon, not some smelly fish.” It reminds me that we have only been given what Dany imagines is the story of her mother's escape, and her birth on Dragonstone. That maybe Dany has Velaryon dragon-rider blood, and is only half-sibling to Viserys.

I suppose the crabs and pikes are naturally turning up in places that have freshwater rivers that flow into the sea. They naturally have turtles, too. But we don't get the same diversity of seafood along the Honeywine in Oldtown, there it is just frogs beneath the weeping dock.

ETA: Until the 20th century, nobody really had worked out how eels reproduce (European eels they swim out to the Sargasso sea to do it, and the male gonads only develop when needed, so they all appear to be female, and their fry are transparent, flat, tropical, marine, and so were classified as a completely different species.) So even after Plato's theory of spontaneous generation was debunked by Pasteur, eel reproduction was not really understood. (even in 2016, when scientists finally tracked tagged eels to their breeding grounds, there were lots of pretty basic suprises - for instance, eels do not spawn in a single annual event, as had been previously assumed.)

So, in the middle ages, it was believed that eels were spawned from drowned bodies. The pigmentation of red and black eels come from the mud they live in. The best eating were 'silver eels'. These were eels that had reached maturity and were swimming out to the sea. As their gut dissolves as their skin turns silver, the eels can't eat as they make their long journey to their breeding grounds, so they fatten up like bears before hibernation, and are at peak weight as they head down to the mouth of the river.

With GRRM's repeated references to eels coming out of people's stomachs (Illyrio, Lord Manderley, Willas, Tyrion), and someone ending up in the Canal every time we see the inside of the Green Eel, it seems like GRRM knows and uses eels to represent watery graves. (At least in Braavos. There is also the Inn in Eel Alley at Kings Landing, and the Lazy Eel in White Harbour, but we haven't been told of characters like S'vrone hanging out around them)

Pike, eels, and muskellunge are also carnivores, and often cannibals. Muskellunge are American natives, so there isn't much about them in medieval cook-books. Pike is a high-status fish. It breeds in the warmer, shallower waters of upstream wetlands, and heads down to cooler lakes to grow. High lords and monastries, who controlled the rivers on their lands, and built mill ponds and fish stews (storage ponds to supply fresh fish for table) had separate ponds for pike, although they would sometimes add pike to their bream, to keep the numbers down. Taking fish from these ponds, or from the river that ran through the Lords own lands, was poaching, so river fish were mostly a fish for Lords. The bigger the pike, the better, as far as the King's table was concerned. 

Eels were also eaten by the high folk, but they were more particularly a smallfolk food, especially in London, particularly cockney (East end) London. The eels in the Thames and the Severn could be caught by anyone who took the trouble to catch them, although the Lords had leased rights to eel traps to commercial fishermen. The fish traps mentioned in the Magna Carta are most probably wicker eel traps - nearly all the fisheries mentioned in the Doomsday book are specified as eel traps. The arguments of shipping interests, boatmen and traders, whose navigation of the river was bottlenecked by the traps vs. the land owners and the commercial fisher-folk that leased the traps and made valuable income from them, started before 1066 and continued to the late 19th century. But eels and (especially on the Severn) elvers were plentiful and cheap, and sold fresh, stewed, jellied, and in pies from barrows and at markets, long before the eel pie and mash shops became an institution (that, like many working class institutions, was killed off in the Thatcher era). In Braavos, and Volantis, eels seem to be a food of the people, too. Even the blind beggar girl might hope for a piece of eel pie. And, as in real life, eel was fit food for the Lord's table as well, for example when Lord Baelish dines with Lady Tanda.

Christian legends and medieval hagiographies conflate eels with snakes and worms, with their associations with Satan, pagans, and death. The early Christian motif of a saint ridding a country of vermin (symbolising, the introduction of Christianity and the driving out of earlier religions), like Patrick ridding Ireland of snakes, is sometimes  made with eels.

In an article on angling written in 1753, I came across this 'Italian proverb'  - "Give eels and no wine to our enemies". While I've found no earlier reference, and no Italian one, the thinking is in keeping with medieval medicine. Eels were considered to have a cold, wet humour, the least favourable for digestion. Wine had a warm, dry humour, hence it was used (especially spiced wines like Hippocras) as a digestive, and balanced the bilious effects of the eel.

*

Also wanted to comment on your post on Alyssa's tears in the previous thread. Firstly, given how long ago she lived, and the fate of her family, it seems possible that Alyssa was of the first men, rather than the Andals, of the Old Gods, not the new. That she is associated with the ancient stone of the Eyrie, and could harness Old God elemental power, to shelter the sellsword from across the narrow sea, and help Bronn to wreck vengeance on the invading Knights of the Vale.  

Secondly, I had mentioned in an earlier post that there was this thing about snowflakes melting on (mostly) Stark cheeks, as a metaphor for tears unshed. Well, one of those was the Sansa in the snow at the Eyrie quote you gave:  "Drifting snowflakes brushed her face as light as lover's kisses, and melted on her cheeks." 

It isn't the first or only time that Sansa got an Alyssa tear of snow. When Lysa opened the Moon Door on her

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"She could feel snowflakes melting on her cheeks. Sansa flailed, found Lysa’s thick auburn braid, and clutched it tight. “My hair!” her aunt shrieked. “Let go of my hair!” She was shaking, sobbing."(ASoS, Ch.80 Sansa VII)

And that is not the first time Lysa has had an Alyssa tear moment, either:

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"All the sternness melted off her aunt’s round pink face, and for a moment Sansa thought Lysa Arryn was about to cry."(ASoS, Ch.68 Sansa VI)

Robb gets Alyssa tears of snow too:

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Bran clung to hope. “Was the bird from Mother? Is she coming home?”
“The message was from Alyn in King’s Landing. Jory Cassel is dead. And Wyl and Heward as well. Murdered by the Kingslayer.” Robb lifted his face to the snow, and the flakes melted on his cheeks. “May the gods give them rest.”(AGoT, Ch.37 Bran V)

Bran also, a couple of times, in the same chapter:

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A light snow was falling. Bran could feel the flakes on his face, melting as they touched his skin like the gentlest of rains.(Ch.37 Bran V)

and

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The joy Bran had felt at the ride was gone, melted away like the snowflakes on his face.(Ch.37 Bran V)

Jon has his Alyssa moments:

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"Jon squatted and brought his hands together, cupping the runoff between his fingers. The snowmelt was icy cold. He drank, and splashed some on his face, until his cheeks tingled."(AGoT, Ch.70 Jon IX)

when he heads south to join Robb's army.

and after killing Qhorin and bonding with the wildlings:

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Jon watched the flakes melt as they drifted over the flames.(ASoS, Ch.07 Jon I)

There is also a very stoneheart-ish bit on the way to Crasters Keep:

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A blowing rain lashed at Jon’s face as he spurred his horse across the swollen stream. Beside him, Lord Commander Mormont gave the hood of his cloak a tug, muttering curses on the weather. His raven sat on his shoulder, feathers ruffled, as soaked and grumpy as the Old Bear himself. A gust of wind sent wet leaves flapping round them like a flock of dead birds. The haunted forest, Jon thought ruefully. The drowned forest, more like it.  (ACoK, Ch.23 Jon III)

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the Wall wept icy tears sometimes, though the core inside stayed frozen hard as rock.(ASoS, Ch.56 Bran IV)

And there are a couple of ice-tear images at Crasters Keep, too. One in the ice-storm on their arrival and another as they depart.

But since then, I've found a heap of non-Stark people with snow tears:

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Paul. Small Paul. Melting ice ran down into his eyes from the heat of the torch.(ASoS, Ch.18 Samwell I)

Tormund:

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The grin melted away like snow in summer. “I am not the man I was at Ruddy Hall. Seen too much death, and worse things too. My sons …” Grief twisted Tormund’s face.(ADwD, Ch.53 Jon XI)

Alys Karstark:

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“Let him be scared of me.” The snowflakes were melting on her cheeks (ADwD, Ch.49 Jon X)

at her wedding

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Varamyr could feel the snowflakes melting on his brow.(ADwD, Prologue)

as he lies dying

Theon:

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On this stretch of the wall the wind was in his face, and melting snow ran down his cheeks like icy tears.(ADwD, Ch.46A Ghost in Winterfell)

at Bolton infested Winterfell

Ser Godry Giantkiller 

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"Snowflakes melted on his face."(ADwD, Ch.62 The Sacrifice)

as he lead the prayers for the sacrificial burning of the cannibals.

All the above are in the North, although not all are of the North.

But when Jaime goes to the Riverlands, Lady Stoneheart starts stalking the twin's dreams:

Jaime:

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The flakes fell silently, a few drifting in the window to melt upon his face. Jaime could see his own breath.(AFfC, Ch.44 Jaime VII)

This is after the vision of his mother, who sheds a tear when he tells her that he is a knight and Cersei a queen. He wakes to find his room freezing cold, a window open, and a pool of ice-cold water which he initially mistakes for blood under his feet.

Cersei:

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the old woman’s eyes. In life the crone had screamed at them in some queer foreign tongue, and cursed them as they fled her tent. But in the dream her face dissolved, melting away into ribbons of grey mist (AFfC, Ch.36 Cersei VIII)

If that isn't Lady Stoneheart foreshadowing, I don't know what is.

Lord Beric  "melts away like dew". Although 'melting away' is a different thing to Alysa's frozen tears, and there are many types of melting away:  like wax, butter, tallow, metal, morning dew, snow. There's  melting eyes and melting faces too, a different thing, but in this case Beric is really about Lady Stoneheart,

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He’s here, he’s there, he’s everywhere, but when you send men after him, he melts away like dew. The river lords are helping him, never doubt it. A bloody marcher lord, if you can believe it. One day you hear the man is dead, the next they’re saying how he can’t be killed.”(AFfC, Ch.33 Jaime V).

As is Merret's observation on the snow as he goes to meet his fate

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"Most of it had started melting away as soon as the sun came up. Still, Merrett took it for a bad omen."(ASoS, Epilogue)

Dany's  dreams seem to foreshadow the resolution of Stoneheart's grief, or may the day Alyssa's stone heart will break and her tears will water the Vale and bury her dead:

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"When she saw the Usurper’s rebel host across the river they were armored all in ice, but she bathed them in dragonfire and they melted away like dew and turned the Trident into a torrent."(ASoS, Ch.27 Daenerys III)

And Dany isn't the only one to foretell a deluge:

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"they say you are all made of ice, and melt when you ride below the Neck.”(AGoT, Ch.20 Eddard IV)

as Baelish smugly tells the Warden of the North. Guess he never thought that he would be the Lord of Harrenhall, or of the Vale. The more you get, the more you've got to lose.

[Jadakiss]

1 hour ago, Lord Ragnar said:

Can u give a quote about this. Busy rereading but never noticed this.

 

I an too lazy right now, will find the text later but I can paste you some of it off the wik (and its true because I vividly remember just not where)

 

When Dontos Hollard is made a fool he claims to Sansa Stark that Moon Boy is in the employment of Varys. Dontos claims to hear all sorts of things as a fool he never heard when he was a knight and claims Moon Boy is not as simple as he appears.^[   (clash)

 

The Spider pays in gold for any little trifle. I think Moon Boy had been his for years  (dontos to sansa)

Tyrion  "There is more then meets the eye with Moon Boy, dont let the act fool you'

 

"varys spies are just as out in the open as in the dark, boy fools that are not so foolish, handmaidens that are not so slow"

[GloubieBoulga]

I don't know if it was noticed : 

 

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As she slept amidst the rolling grasslands, Catelyn dreamt that Bran was whole again, that Arya and Sansa held hands, that Rickon was still a babe at her breast. Robb, crownless, played with a wooden sword, and when all were safe asleep, she found Ned in her bed, smiling.

Sweet it was, sweet and gone too soon. Dawn came cruel, a dagger of light. She woke aching and alone and weary; weary of riding, weary of hurting, weary of duty. I want to weep, she thought. I want to be comforted. I'm so tired of being strong. I want to be foolish and frightened for once. Just for a small while, that's all . . . a day . . . an hour . . . (Catelyn II, ACOK)

 

 

Those are the first words of the chapter. At this moment, Catelyn is arriving to Renly's camp, and her mission will end with the kin(g)slaying of Renly by Stannis' Shadow, shadow which remind the Others. 

Plus, in ASOS Sam I, Sam kills an Other with an obsidian dagger made and offered by Jon, and just after, at the end of the chapter, dawn is arriving (when Catelyn leaves Renly's camp after his death, dawn come too, who turns grey, white and black colors - just Stark's colors - into many-colors, and mists associated with fantoms disappear). 

A dagger associated with the dawn and lightbringer. I just think to my idea of Jon killing Bran with a dagger in his heart, just to spare him the suffering death to be burnt by dragonfire. A cruel thing, have to kill his own brother, which must render very very very tired.  

 

[Walda]

Pretty sure it's been mentioned in one (or more) of the earlier versions of this thread, but still, can't go past this one, if we are looking for Stoneheart references in Renly's tent:

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The steel was polished to such a high sheen that she could see her reflection in the breastplate, gazing back at her as if from the bottom of a deep green pond. The face of a drowned woman, Catelyn thought. Can you drown in grief? (ACoK, Ch.22 Catelyn II)

ETA: Just came across this quote, from when Catelyn meets Robb and his host at Moat Calin, and Robb fears for the lives of his sisters if he should lose in battle to Lord Tywin:

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"If you lose, there is no hope for any of us. They say there is naught but stone at the heart of Casterly Rock. Remember the fate of Rhaegar’s children."(AGoT, Ch.55 Catelyn VIII)

Don't know how I missed it before.

[Lost Melnibonean]

Alayne will start looking more like Sansa soon, no?

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Gretchel helped her slide her arms into the belled sleeves and laced her back, then brushed and pinned her hair. Alayne had darkened it again last night before she went to bed. The wash her aunt had given her changed her own rich auburn into Alayne's burnt brown, but it was seldom long before the red began creeping back at the roots. And what must I do when the dye runs out? The wash had come from Tyrosh, across the narrow sea.

...

"Bronze Yohn knows me," she reminded him. "He was a guest at Winterfell when his son rode north to take the black." She had fallen wildly in love with Ser Waymar, she remembered dimly, but that was a lifetime ago, when she was a stupid little girl. "And that was not the only time. Lord Royce saw . . . he saw Sansa Stark again at King's Landing, during the Hand's tourney."

Petyr put a finger under her chin. "That Royce glimpsed this pretty face I do not doubt, but it was one face in a thousand. A man fighting in a tourney has more to concern him than some child in the crowd. And at Winterfell, Sansa was a little girl with auburn hair. My daughter is a maiden tall and fair, and her hair is chestnut. Men see what they expect to see, Alayne." He kissed her nose. "Have Maddy lay a fire in the solar. I shall receive our Lords Declarant there."

...

Bronze Yohn had slate-grey eyes, half-hidden beneath the bushiest eyebrows she had ever seen. They crinkled when he looked down at her. "Do I know you, girl?"

Alayne felt as though she had swallowed her tongue, but Lord Nestor rescued her. "Alayne is the Lord Protector's natural daughter," he told his cousin gruffly.

 

Alayne I, Feast 23

Yohn may not know her now, but when the dye runs out... Still, there is this...

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They followed the sounds around a lazy bend of the road and saw them; a column of armed men noisily fording a swollen stream. Catelyn reined up to let them pass. The banner in the hand of the foremost rider hung sodden and limp, but the guardsmen wore indigo cloaks and on their shoulders flew the silver eagle of Seagard. "Mallisters," Ser Rodrik whispered to her, as if she had not known. "My lady, best pull up your hood."

Catelyn made no move. Lord Jason Mallister himself rode with them, surrounded by his knights, his son Patrek by his side and their squires close behind. They were riding for King's Landing and the Hand's tourney, she knew. For the past week, the travelers had been thick as flies upon the kingsroad; knights and freeriders, singers with their harps and drums, heavy wagons laden with hops or corn or casks of honey, traders and craftsmen and whores, and all of them moving south.

She studied Lord Jason boldly. The last time she had seen him he had been jesting with her uncle at her wedding feast; the Mallisters stood bannermen to the Tullys, and his gifts had been lavish. His brown hair was salted with white now, his face chiseled gaunt by time, yet the years had not touched his pride. He rode like a man who feared nothing. Catelyn envied him that; she had come to fear so much. As the riders passed, Lord Jason nodded a curt greeting, but it was only a high lord's courtesy to strangers chance met on the road. There was no recognition in those fierce eyes, and his son did not even waste a look.

"He did not know you," Ser Rodrik said after, wondering.

"He saw a pair of mud-spattered travelers by the side of the road, wet and tired. It would never occur to him to suspect that one of them was the daughter of his liege lord. I think we shall be safe enough at the inn, Ser Rodrik."

 

Catelyn V, Game 28

So, perhaps Petyr is right, and men see what they expect to see. 

I love how this...

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“A great battle is a terrible thing,” the old knight said “but in the midst of blood and carnage, there is sometimes also beauty, beauty that could break your heart. I will never forget the way the sun looked when it set upon the Redgrass Field . . . ten thousand men had died, and the air was thick with moans and lamentations, but above us the sky turned gold and red and orange, so beautiful it made me weep to know that my sons would never see it.” He sighed. “It was a closer thing than they would have you believe, these days. If not for Bloodraven . . .”

“I’d always heard that it was Baelor Breakspear who won the battle,” said Dunk. “Him and Prince Maekar.”

“The hammer and the anvil?” The old man’s mustache gave a twitch. “The singers leave out much and more. Daemon was the Warrior himself that day. No man could stand before him. He broke Lord Arryn’s van to pieces and slew the Knight of Ninestars and Wild Wyl Waynwood before coming up against Ser Gwayne Corbray of the Kingsguard. For near an hour they danced together on their horses,

wheeling and circling and slashing as men died all around them. It’s said that whenever Blackfyre and Lady Forlorn clashed, you could hear the sound for a league around. It was half a song and half a scream, they say. But when at last the Lady faltered, Blackfyre clove through Ser Gwayne’s helm and left him blind and bleeding. Daemon dismounted to see that his fallen foe was not trampled, and commanded Redtusk to carry him back to the maesters in the rear. And there was his mortal error, for the Raven’s Teeth had gained the top of Weeping Ridge, and Bloodraven saw his half brother’s royal standard three hundred yards away, and Daemon and his sons beneath it. He slew Aegon first, the elder of the twins, for he knew that Daemon would never leave the boy whilst warmth lingered in his body, though white shafts fell like rain. Nor did he, though seven arrows pierced him, driven as much by sorcery as by Bloodraven’s bow. Young Aemon took up Blackfyre when the blade slipped from his dying father’s fingers, so Bloodraven slew him, too, the younger of the twins. Thus perished the black dragon and his sons.

“There was much and more afterward, I know. I saw a bit of it myself . . . the rebels running, Bittersteel turning the rout and leading his mad charge . . . his battle with Bloodraven, second only to the one Daemon fought with Gwayne Corbray . . . Prince Baelor’s hammer blow against the rebel rear, the Dornishmen all screaming as they filled the air with spears . . . but at the end of the day, it made no matter. The war was done when Daemon died.

“So close a thing . . . if Daemon had ridden over Gwayne Corbray and left him to his fate, he might have broken Maekar’s left before Bloodraven could take the ridge. The day would have belonged to the black dragons then, with the Hand slain and the road to King’s Landing open before them. Daemon might have been sitting on the Iron Throne by the time Prince Baelor could come up with his stormlords and his Dornishmen.

“The singers can go on about their hammer and their anvil, ser, but it was the kinslayer who turned the tide with a white arrow and a black spell. He rules us now as well, make no mistake. King Aerys is his creature. It would not surprise to learn that Bloodraven had ensorceled His Grace, to bend him to his will. Small wonder we are cursed.” Ser Eustace shook his head and lapsed into a brooding silence. Dunk wondered how much Egg had overheard, but there was no way to ask him. How many eyes does Lord Bloodraven have? he thought.

 

The Sworn Sword

Sets up this...

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"Why won't they leave us be?" wailed Alayne. "We never did them any harm. What do they want of us?"

"Just Lord Robert. Him, and the Vale." Petyr smiled. "There will be eight of them. Lord Nestor is showing them up, and they have Lyn Corbray with them. Ser Lyn is not the sort of man to stay away when blood is in the offing."

His words did little to soothe her fears. Lyn Corbray had slain almost as many men in duels as he had in battle. He had won his spurs during Robert's Rebellion, she knew, fighting first against Lord Jon Arryn at the gates of Gulltown, and later beneath his banners on the Trident, where he had cut down Prince Lewyn of Dorne, a white knight of the Kingsguard. Petyr said that Prince Lewyn had been sorely wounded by the time the tide of battle swept him to his final dance with Lady Forlorn, but added, "That's not a point you'll want to raise with Corbray, though. Those who do are soon given the chance to ask Martell himself the truth of it, down in the halls of hell." If even half of what she had heard from Lord Robert's guards was true, Lyn Corbray was more dangerous than all six of the Lords Declarant put together. "Why is he coming?" she asked. "I thought the Corbrays were for you."

"Lord Lyonel Corbray is well disposed toward my rule," said Petyr, "but his brother goes his own way. On the Trident, when their father fell wounded, it was Lyn who snatched up Lady Forlorn and slew the man who'd cut him down. Whilst Lyonel was carrying the old man back to the maesters in the rear, Lyn led his charge against the Dornishmen threatening Robert's left, broke their lines to pieces, and slew Lewyn Martell. So when old Lord Corbray died, he bestowed the Lady upon his younger son. Lyonel got his lands, his title, his castle, and all his coin, yet still feels he was cheated of his birthright, whilst Ser Lyn . . . well, he loves Lyonel as much as he loves me. He wanted Lysa's hand for himself."

...

Bronze Yohn said, "We shall have Lord Robert."

For a moment it seemed as though they had come to an impasse, until Lyn Corbray turned from the fire. "All this talk makes me ill. Littlefinger will talk you out of your smallclothes if you listen long enough. The only way to settle his sort is with steel." He drew his longsword.

Petyr spread his hands. "I wear no sword, ser."

"Easily remedied." Candlelight rippled along the smoke-grey steel of Corbray's blade, so dark that it put Sansa in mind of Ice, her father's greatsword. "Your apple-eater holds a blade. Tell him to give it to you, or draw that dagger."

She saw Lothor Brune reach for his own sword, but before the blades could meet Bronze Yohn rose in wrath. "Put up your steel, ser! Are you a Corbray or a Frey? We are guests here."

Lady Waynwood pursed her lips, and said, "This is unseemly."

"Sheathe your sword, Corbray," Young Lord Hunter echoed. "You shame us all with this."

"Come, Lyn," chided Redfort in a softer tone. "This will serve for nought. Put Lady Forlorn to bed."

"My lady has a thirst," Ser Lyn insisted. "Whenever she comes out to dance, she likes a drop of red."

"Your lady must go thirsty." Bronze Yohn put himself squarely in Corbray's path.

"The Lords Declarant." Lyn Corbray snorted. "You should have named yourselves the Six Old Women." He slid the dark sword back into its scabbard and left them, shouldering Brune aside as if he were not there. Alayne listened to his footsteps recede.

 

Alayne I, Feast 23

Will we see another duel between Lady Forlorn and Blackfyre? 

[Lost Melnibonean]

A good indictation of how much and why Cersei loves her children...

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“That’s my good boy.” The rule was hers; Cersei did not mean to give it up until Tommen came of age. I waited, so can he. I waited half my life. She had played the dutiful daughter, the blushing bride, the pliant wife. She had suffered Robert’s drunken groping, Jaime’s jealousy, Renly’s mockery, Varys with his titters, Stannis endlessly grinding his teeth. She had contended with Jon Arryn, Ned Stark, and her vile, treacherous, murderous dwarf brother, all the while promising herself that one day it would be her turn.

Cersei V, Feast 24

[The Fattest Leech]

1 minute ago, Lost Melnibonean said:

A good indictation of how much and why Cersei loves her children...

Cersei V, Feast 24

Dude. Don't you monologue to yourself this same thing when thinking if your children??? I know I do 

[Lost Melnibonean]

11 minutes ago, The Fattest Leech said:

Dude. Don't you monologue to yourself this same thing when thinking if your children??? I know I do 

My second is exact opposite of Tommen. A little Rickon. 

[Lost Melnibonean]

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"You said she wouldn't be hurt."

"She fought." Unlike his brothers, Osney Kettleblack was clean-shaven, so the scratches showed plainly on his bare cheeks. "Got claws like a shadowcat, this one."

Tyrion XII, Clash 54

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"She likes his face. She touched his scars two days ago, he told me. ‘What woman gave you these?' she asked. Osney never said it was a woman, but she knew. Might be someone told her. She's always touching him when they talk, he says. Straightening the clasp on his cloak, brushing back his hair, and like that. One time at the archery butts she had him show her how to hold a longbow, so he had to put his arms around her. Osney tells her bawdy jests, and she laughs and comes back with ones that are even bawdier. No, she wants him, that's plain, but . . ."

Cersei V, Feast 24

In the second passage quoted above, Cersei and Osmund are talking about Cersei’s plot to have Osney seduce Margaery, so Cersei can accuse Margarey of treason.

The bolded statements refer to Alayaya.

Wow, I never noticed that the George has Osmund tell the reader that Margaery learned about Cersei’s brutal use of Alayaya as a hostage against Tyrion during the Battle of the Blackwater.

Is that important to the plot? If so, why?