How did Jaime and Cersei get up the tower?

[AdoraKitty]

I'm re-reading the entire series and Bran makes a big to-do of how impossible it is to get up the tower that he finds Jaime and Cersei in. He makes an extra point that there's only two ways up and neither ways  that he describes, sounds like something Cersei would take upon herself

 

"Most of all, he liked going places that no one else could go, and seeing the grey sprawl of Winterfell in a way that no one else ever saw it. It made the whole castle Bran’s secret place. His favorite haunt was the broken tower. Once it had been a watchtower, the tallest in Winterfell. A long time ago, a hundred years before even his father had been born, a lightning strike had set it afire. The top third of the structure had collapsed inward, and the tower had never been rebuilt. Sometimes his father sent ratters into the base of the tower, to clean out the nests they always found among the jumble of fallen stones and charred and rotten beams. But no one ever got up to the jagged top of the structure now except for Bran and the crows. He knew two ways to get there. You could climb straight up the side of the tower itself, but the stones were loose, the mortar that held them together long gone to ash, and Bran never liked to put his full weight on them. The best way was to start from the godswood, shinny up the tall sentinel, and cross over the armory and the guards hall, leaping roof to roof, barefoot so the guards wouldn’t hear you overhead. That brought you up to the blind side of the First Keep, the oldest part of the castle, a squat round fortress that was taller than it looked. Only rats and spiders lived there now but the old stones still made for good climbing. You could go straight up to where the gargoyles leaned out blindly over empty space, and swing from gargoyle to gargoyle, hand over hand, around to the north side. From there, if you really stretched, you could reach out and pull yourself over to the broken tower where it leaned close. The last part was the scramble up the blackened stones to the eyrie, no more than ten feet, and then the crows would come round to see if you’d brought any corn."

[The Weirwoods Eyes]

Can you provide the quote of him actually spying them? I think we need to ascertain where abouts in the tower he saw them? My own view had always been that Jaime scouted the castle for a private spot, then set up a way to access it before telling Cersei where to meet him. So I'd had in mind that he took a ladder from somewhere else in the castle and used it inside the broken tower to climb up to the parts of the tower less affected by the fire. hauling the ladder up after them maybe so that anyone wandering around would not spot it. After all Bran only tells us there are two ways he knows of. He's a kid but a grown man like Jaime may be able to use a ladder then use his additional height, arm reach and upper body strength to haul himself up from a floor that Bran could never reach ladder or no ladder as he's too small and puny. From the top of the ladder, Cersei would be easily reachable for strong Jaime again to simply haul her up onto a less unstable platform. 

[Dofs]

You should reread the scene again, Cersei and Jaime were not in the tower they were in the First Keep:

"Bran was moving from gargoyle to gargoyle with the ease of long practice when he heard the voices. He was so startled he almost lost his grip. The First Keep had been empty all his life."

[NanooksBlood]

The way I read it, was that the tower and the First Keep are one and the same, as there is no proper break describing them separately, but nearly within the same breath, so to speak.

Also, it DOES mention that the lower portions of the tower lie in ruins and shambles, seeming to indicate access above would be very difficult from there.

[LindsayLohan]

I would imagine they walked up the stairs.

[NanooksBlood]

22 minutes ago, LindsayLohan said:

I would imagine they walked up the stairs.

Even if there is very difficult access to them, or are you saying there is a different route somehow?

 

[LindsayLohan]

8 hours ago, NanooksBlood said:

Even if there is very difficult access to them, or are you saying there is a different route somehow?

 

I'm saying the tower being a ruin doesn't necessarily mean the stairs were destroyed, and Cersei wasn't going anywhere that she would have to risk her physical health.  Pretty obvious that she simply walked upstairs in an old, run-down tower with a destroyed roof and interior.

[TMIFairy]

22 minutes ago, LindsayLohan said:

I'm saying the tower being a ruin doesn't necessarily mean the stairs were destroyed, and Cersei wasn't going anywhere that she would have to risk her physical health.  Pretty obvious that she simply walked upstairs in an old, run-down tower with a destroyed roof and interior.

This.

And she did so in a skirt!

Or in a dress - I'm always confused which is which ... or maybe it had been a gown ... does not matter - you KNOW what I'm talking about!

[LindsayLohan]

1 hour ago, TMIFairy said:

This.

And she did so in a skirt!

Or in a dress - I'm always confused which is which ... or maybe it had been a gown ... does not matter - you KNOW what I'm talking about!

LOL.

You know it.  I wonder how that outfit looked on the floor.  It was Cersei at the tail end of her prime.  If Bran hadn't damn near been killed, he would have started puberty that night.

[Lucius Lovejoy]

I really don't think the mechanics of this rendezvous are important.  Jaime (against his better judgment) defenestered Bran and claimed he did it for love.  When he kills the Great Other / Night King and his last words are "the things I do for love" it will all make sense.

 

Wait, that will never happen because the books will never be finished.

[Adam Yozza]

Jaime and Cersei are in the First Keep, not the Broken Tower. I would imagine that they walked up the stairs.

[Dofs]

On 05/08/2017 at 9:42 PM, NanooksBlood said:

The way I read it, was that the tower and the First Keep are one and the same, as there is no proper break describing them separately, but nearly within the same breath, so to speak.

Also, it DOES mention that the lower portions of the tower lie in ruins and shambles, seeming to indicate access above would be very difficult from there.

Bran describes the First Keep as a squat round fortress, from which you can reach the broken tower:

"That brought you up to the blind side of the First Keep, the oldest part of the castle, a squat round fortress that was taller than it looked. Only rats and spiders lived there now but the old stones still made for good climbing. You could go straight up to where the gargoyles leaned out blindly over empty space, and swing from gargoyle to gargoyle, hand over hand, around to the north side. From there, if you really stretched, you could reach out and pull yourself over to the broken tower where it leaned close. "

So no, they are not one and the same.

[Ygrain]

Besides, the two ways that Bran speaks about are accesses for climbing the exterior, anyway. 

[NanooksBlood]

On August 6, 2017 at 10:17 PM, Dofs said:

Bran describes the First Keep as a squat round fortress, from which you can reach the broken tower:

"That brought you up to the blind side of the First Keep, the oldest part of the castle, a squat round fortress that was taller than it looked. Only rats and spiders lived there now but the old stones still made for good climbing. You could go straight up to where the gargoyles leaned out blindly over empty space, and swing from gargoyle to gargoyle, hand over hand, around to the north side. From there, if you really stretched, you could reach out and pull yourself over to the broken tower where it leaned close. "

So no, they are not one and the same.

I stand corrected. Thank you.

[desire]

This is just a theory i seen floating around but more then likely the door

[The Fattest Leech]

Ok. My comment about a backdoor was deleted from this thread for some reason. Not sure why. 

But yes, a backdoor entry system pops up in different forms through Bran's arc, and even in George's other stories where he uses the same type of psi-link mind controlly stuff. George's story Override is all about using a stronger "backdoor" access to assert ones power over another. A power to override another's power that the character did not realize they had until they were put in a near death experience. 

As I mentioned in my deleted post, Coldhands also talks about a "backdoor" to the cave he is in with Bloodraven. 

Why is that? 

So Jaime and Cersei using a "backdoor" to get the sexual control they want, while figuratively laughing at King Bob, also fits this idea. If Bran only knows the outside/front way to enter, then J & C must have used a back door. 

So we have backdoor access in Bran's arc in both the figurative and literal ways. 

I agree with the poster upthread that it is not so much about the mechanics as it is about thre story being told.