Patchface Project

[fakegiraffe]

[The Birds] “Under the sea, the birds have scales for feathers," he said, clang-a-langing. "I know, I know, oh, oh, oh.”

Patchface is talking about Connington. "The birds" = The Griffin, and "scales for feathers" = the greyscale creeping up Jon's hand/arm.

For those that support the theory that "under the sea" = death, Connington's days are certainly numbered now that he has greyscale.

Speaking of greyscale, isn't Patchface's connection to Shireen a bit odd? Why hasn't she outgrown him yet? Perhaps if Patchface IS magical, that's what keeping her greyscale from growing?

[ser naes yennet]

Likewise there are multiple interpretations so far of [The Flames] “Under the sea, smoke rises in bubbles, and flames burn green and blue and black,” Patchface sang somewhere. “I know, I know, oh, oh, oh.”

• It has been suggested that the smoke and fire represent Dany's dragons, but has also been pointed out that while she has a black and a green dragon, the third is cream and gold, not blue.
  
• Alternatively, this could be referencing Moqorro, whoch certainly was under the sea and is called the "black flame", but then what about the green and blue flames?
  

wild fire burns green and can burn on water, and the wights have blue eyes and blackened hands or fingers, and turn black when burned. could be something to do with them and how to deal with them??

[ser naes yennet]

I think the Damphair has some sort of connection with the Drowned God, or at least acts as the will of him in Westeros. I feel like he and Patchface either have to meet at some point, or Melisandre will kill Patchface to prevent the meeting. But then if R'Hllor and the Drowned God don't like each other how do you explain the Moqorro-Victarion alliance? I don't know. Patchface is a creepy little dude. I have a feeling that he'll end up killing someone by the end of it all, and I base this conclusion upon no evidence whatsoever.

i agree with the idea of the 2 gods being opposed, i mean one is fire, and the other water. wouldn't think they should get along.

[ser naes yennet]

What if Patchface is some kind of a vampire, and he had a hand in sinking Steffon Baratheon's ship, because he had already eaten everyone on board and had to hide the evidence? :bawl:

GRRM already wrote that story, it's called "Fevre Dream", worth a read.

[Stoneborn80]

It has been suggested that the smoke and fire represent Dany's dragons, but has also been pointed out that while she has a black and a green dragon, the third is cream and gold, not blue.

I think blue means ice. An ice-dragon.

[ser naes yennet]

I thought "The Flames" was about the battle on Blackwater. But this thread gives me second thoughts..

Patchface is just too creepy for me.

The Flames - again the blue one is the outlyer with my thoughts about it meaning the glass candles. there are 3 black ones and a green one at the Citadel, and we also know the Quaithe has one, maybe it's blue?

[Crannogman Pride]

Maybe 'starfish soup' refers to the Boltons. Their sigil looks a bit like a starfish, and the Manderlys are going to devour them.

I also like the idea of the the seahorse being Aurane Waters. He was originally with Stannis, so his going back with a war fleet to help Manderly makes sense. Manderly and Waters together probably have a pretty epic fleet.

[direwolf_of_white_fangs]

patchface is only a fool.

nothing else...

[mranderson]

Regarding the "green, blue, black" prediction...I noticed this excerpt by coincidence while researching house sigils.

"Behind the Lannisters came their great lords and captains. Their banners flared and flapped, a pagent of color: red ox and golden mountain, purple unicorn and bantam rooster, brindled boar and badger, a silver ferret and a juggler in motley, stars and starbursts, peacock and panther, chevron and dagger, black hood and blue beetle and green arrow." - A Clash Of Kings

I'm not really sure how it could relate though, since in Blackwater Bay, the ones burning were not Lannister bannermen. Perhaps the downfall of House Lannister in general? Any thoughts?

[Lost_in_the_Seven_Kingdoms]

Re what Mel says, could Mel be a little off base? Maybe the blood on his lips is his own and the skulls represent danger to him. Mel has misread the flames at least a time or two.

[~No One~]

Patchface is talking about Connington. "The birds" = The Griffin, and "scales for feathers" = the greyscale creeping up Jon's hand/arm.

For those that support the theory that "under the sea" = death, Connington's days are certainly numbered now that he has greyscale.

I thought he was talking about the rebirth of dragons, here. He says this right at the start (prologue) of ACOK, right after Dany's dragons were born. This could be too literal of an interpretation, but the timing is striking.

[Strong Flame]

In thinking about Mel's warning against Patchface....

If we consider thing "under the sea" to mean to do with death and that in Mel's vision he is surrounded by skulls and his lips a bloody...

Could it be so simple as that his lips are bloody because he is speaking of the death to come all around him (whether that is future events on the wall, in the sea or past events (that were future then) like the RW?

Where she seems to fear he is going to do something in the future, maybe what she sees is just predicting his ability to predict?

[What a Flayed Man Holds]

Where she seems to fear he is going to do something in the future, maybe what she sees is just predicting his ability to predict?

The former--Mel should be afraid of him because of something he will do in the future, when he loses his shit at the Nightfort and starts to massacre Selyse and the rest of her court. Keeping in mind that the visions are never wrong but the priest/priestess' interpretation of them can be, I don't think Mel fully understands why she has a bad feeling about Patchface, and I don't think she considers him important enough to worry about.

And I'll say again--Melisandre doesn't consider Patchface to be a seer/soothsayer/magical predictor of future events. Even she doesn't seem to notice that his babbling seems to [sometimes] foreshadow upcoming events. She just has a bad feeling about him, and receives some bad indications about him from the flames, but doesn't know why, and doesn't spend much time thinking about it after that.

[Dead Wolf]

There are many mysterious elements in ASoIaF, but I think Patchface is one that we can figure out if we get input form the whole board. This a thread to organize and analyze Patchface’s prophecies, statements, and what we know about his role in the story.

Below I have included a summary of known information about Patchface (from the Wiki), and a (probably incomplete) list of his potential prophecies. I have given each prophecy a short name so that we can easily refer to it. Where there seems to be some consensus as to reasonable meanings of Patchface’s prophecies, I have included these explanations.

The goal here is to answer the following questions:

1. What do the remaining prophecies mean? If the events the prophecies refer to have already occurred, what are they? If not, what do you think will happen to make them true (if they are, indeed, true prophecies).
   
2. What does it mean when Patchface says, “Under the sea”? It has been suggested that this means “In the future”, “In the East”, “In the land of the Dead”, or is literally “In the ocean”. What do you think?
   
3. Melisandre and many people on this board seem to think Patchface will be evil. What do Melisandre's word's mean? What is Patchface’s role in the story? Where does his prophetic power come from? Is he a simpleton? Crazy? Or just strange?
   

Additionally, if you know of any other potentially prophetic Patchface statements or information about Patchface, please post it here so I can include it. If someone presents an interpretation for one of the below prophecies that seems to gain enough support on the boards, I will also update this tread with that interpretation.

Patchface’s Appearance

He is soft and obese. He is subject to twitches and trembles. He has a weird, sideways walk. He has a broad face that is tattooed in a pattern of green and red squares.

Patchface’s History

He was purchased as a slave in Volantis by Lord Steffon and Cassana Baratheon, the father of Robert and his brothers. They wrote a letter before their trip telling their family of a jester of amazing skill. When their ship sank just off the coast of Storm's End, only Patchface survived, washing ashore several days later. He is currently in the employ of Stannis Baratheon as a jester and companion of his daughter.

Melisandre’s Words

[Melisandre's] “That creature is dangerous. Many a time I have glimpsed him in my flames. Sometimes there are skulls about him, and his lips are red with blood.”

Patchface Prophecies/Statements

[The Feast] “Under the sea the mermen feast on starfish soup, and all the serving men are crabs”

[The Crow] “The crow, the crow,” Patchface cried when he saw Jon. “Under the sea the crows are white as snow, I know, I know, oh, oh, oh.”

• A few ways to take this:
  
  • The Night’s Watch (“crows”) will die, and their corpses (“white as snow”), fall in the water.
    
  • Members of the Night’s Watch (“crows”) will die, and are made into wights (“white as snow”), which will travel underwater [The oft mentioned “dead things in the water”].
    
  • John (“crows”) dies and wargs into Ghost (“white as snow”).
    

[Away, Away] “Away, away,” the fool sang. “Come with me beneath the sea, away, away, away.” He took the little princess by one hand and drew her from the room, skipping.

[The March] Patchface jumped up. “I will lead it!” His bells rang merrily. “We will march into the sea and out again. Under the waves we will ride seahorses, and mermaids will blow seashells to announce our coming, oh, oh, oh.”

[The Fishes] “Under the sea, men marry fishes.” Patchface did a little dance step, jingling his bells. “They do, they do, they do.”

[The Birds] “Under the sea, the birds have scales for feathers," he said, clang-a-langing. "I know, I know, oh, oh, oh.”

[The Flames] “Under the sea, smoke rises in bubbles, and flames burn green and blue and black,” Patchface sang somewhere. “I know, I know, oh, oh, oh.”

[The Dead] “In the dark the dead are dancing.”

• This is pretty straight-forward. In the lands beyond the wall (“the dark”) the dead are rising again as wights (“dancing”).
  

[The Shadows] "The shadows come to dance, my lord, dance my lord, dance my lord," he sang, hopping from one foot to the other and back again. "The shadows come to stay, my lord, stay my lord, stay my lord."

• This is clearly made in reference to Melisandre and her shadow powers. There are really two ways to take this:
  
  • Melisandre (“The Shadow”) is coming to help Stannis in his quest for the Iron Throne (“dance”) and will become an important advisor to him (“stay”).
    
  • Melisandre’s shadow creature (“The Shadow”), which is born and then kills Renly (“dance”) does not simply disappear after it’s task, or has some lasting effect (“stay”).
    

[blood & Chains] "Fool's blood, king's blood, blood on the maiden's thigh, but chains for the guests and chains for the bridegroom, aye aye aye."

• This has been well established as predicting the Red Wedding. Rob (“king’s blood”), and his naïve family/subjects will be killed. Catelyn will slit the throat of a jester Aegon Frey (“fool’s blood”). The bride is still deflowered (“blood on a maiden’s thigh”), but her bridegroom Edmure (“the bridegroom”) and the other survivors (“guests”) where held imprisoned (“chains)
  

The Fishes: Edmure marrying Roslin or Petyr marrying Lysa

The Flames: The wildfire Cersei used to burn down the Tower of the hand or the wildfire under KL

The Birds: Dany's dragons or other dormant dragon eggs on Dragonstone

The Dark: Could also be MMD's spell with the dancing shadows

[Raining Blood Magic]

Patchface is just a Westeros version of Nostradamus. He says stupid shit and people twist his words to make a different meaning. I bet Patchface is really fascinated with fish and that is all.

[glennm93]

[The Birds] “Under the sea, the birds have scales for feathers," he said, clang-a-langing. "I know, I know, oh, oh, oh.”

I am nearly 100% that this refers to either: young griff being revealed as Aegon Tagaryen; a griffin being revealed as a dragon (bird having scales for feathers) or Griffin contracting greyscale (again a bird having scales)

This would mean that under the sea means in the East, which would narrow down the theories surrounding the other prophecies.

[Lord Grumkin]

IMHO:

under the sea = beyond the wall (in the north)

fishes = the Others

mermen = men of the Night's Watch

Patchface jumped up. “I will lead it!” His bells rang merrily. “We will march into the sea and out again. Under the waves we will ride seahorses, and mermaids will blow seashells to announce our coming, oh, oh, oh.”

Expedition beyond the wall, men of the NW blow horn single time to announce the return of the brothers. May be a reference to the disastrous expedition led by Mormont.

Under the sea the mermen feast on starfish soup, and all the serving men are crabs.

I think it refers to the events at Craster's keep.

“The crow, the crow,” Patchface cried when he saw Jon. “Under the sea the crows are white as snow, I know, I know, oh, oh, oh.”

This is told specifically to Jon. I think it refers to him warging Ghost and going beyond the wall after his stabbing.

“Under the sea, men marry fishes.” Patchface did a little dance step, jingling his bells. “They do, they do, they do.”

Thats what happens to Craster's sons.

“Under the sea, the birds have scales for feathers," he said, clang-a-langing. "I know, I know, oh, oh, oh.”

Beyond the wall, the ravens are controlled by Brynden (Targaryen)

“Under the sea, smoke rises in bubbles, and flames burn green and blue and black,” Patchface sang somewhere. “I know, I know, oh, oh, oh.”

I believe this describes a future battle between Dany's dragons and the Others. But I'm not entirely sure. There are many things that can burn, the color of flames may be just to mislead us.

"The shadows come to dance, my lord, dance my lord, dance my lord," he sang, hopping from one foot to the other and back again. "The shadows come to stay, my lord, stay my lord, stay my lord."

This is directed at Stannis. As I subscribe to the Stannis will become the Night's King theory, I believe that Stannis will soon be "dancing with the shadows", i.e. collaborating with the Others.

"Fool's blood, king's blood, blood on the maiden's thigh, but chains for the guests and chains for the bridegroom, aye aye aye."

As this does not happen "under the sea", it can very well be The Red Wedding.

“Away, away,” the fool sang. “Come with me beneath the sea, away, away, away.” He took the little princess by one hand and drew her from the room, skipping.

This is clearly a suggestion to the little princess to go beyond the wall (or die as someone has mentioned here). I believe that Patchface will try to kill/endanger Shireen: [Melisandre's] “That creature is dangerous. Many a time I have glimpsed him in my flames. Sometimes there are skulls about him, and his lips are red with blood.” He may also somehow play part in Stanniss's turn to the dark side.

EDIT: I just got an idea what the flames could be: http://1.usa.gov/dMaklt

GRRM somewhere said that we will get to see what is in the lands of always winter. The smoke that rises in bubbles could be like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surtsey . I believe that Jon will go there as Ghost.

EDIT2: I remembered the vision Bran had in the coma. He saw a "curtain of light" beyond the wall.

[~No One~]

Seems like "under the sea" refers to a secret...

[nival]

IMHO:

under the sea = beyond the wall (in the north)

fishes = the Others

mermen = men of the Night's Watch

Patchface jumped up. “I will lead it!” His bells rang merrily. “We will march into the sea and out again. Under the waves we will ride seahorses, and mermaids will blow seashells to announce our coming, oh, oh, oh.”

Expedition beyond the wall, men of the NW blow horn single time to announce the return of the brothers. May be a reference to the disastrous expedition led by Mormont.

Under the sea the mermen feast on starfish soup, and all the serving men are crabs.

I think it refers to the events at Craster's keep.

“The crow, the crow,” Patchface cried when he saw Jon. “Under the sea the crows are white as snow, I know, I know, oh, oh, oh.”

This is told specifically to Jon. I think it refers to him warging Ghost and going beyond the wall after his stabbing.

“Under the sea, men marry fishes.” Patchface did a little dance step, jingling his bells. “They do, they do, they do.”

Thats what happens to Craster's sons.

“Under the sea, the birds have scales for feathers," he said, clang-a-langing. "I know, I know, oh, oh, oh.”

Beyond the wall, the ravens are controlled by Brynden (Targaryen)

“Under the sea, smoke rises in bubbles, and flames burn green and blue and black,” Patchface sang somewhere. “I know, I know, oh, oh, oh.”

I believe this describes a future battle between Dany's dragons and the Others. But I'm not entirely sure. There are many things that can burn, the color of flames may be just to mislead us.

"The shadows come to dance, my lord, dance my lord, dance my lord," he sang, hopping from one foot to the other and back again. "The shadows come to stay, my lord, stay my lord, stay my lord."

This is directed at Stannis. As I subscribe to the Stannis will become the Night's King theory, I believe that Stannis will soon be "dancing with the shadows", i.e. collaborating with the Others.

"Fool's blood, king's blood, blood on the maiden's thigh, but chains for the guests and chains for the bridegroom, aye aye aye."

As this does not happen "under the sea", it can very well be The Red Wedding.

“Away, away,” the fool sang. “Come with me beneath the sea, away, away, away.” He took the little princess by one hand and drew her from the room, skipping.

This is clearly a suggestion to the little princess to go beyond the wall (or die as someone has mentioned here). I believe that Patchface will try to kill/endanger Shireen: [Melisandre's] “That creature is dangerous. Many a time I have glimpsed him in my flames. Sometimes there are skulls about him, and his lips are red with blood.” He may also somehow play part in Stanniss's turn to the dark side.

EDIT: I just got an idea what the flames could be: http://1.usa.gov/dMaklt

GRRM somewhere said that we will get to see what is in the lands of always winter. The smoke that rises in bubbles could be like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surtsey . I believe that Jon will go there as Ghost.

I really like this. Something rarely logical :D

[Nothing]

„The snow falls up.“ I’ve always thought it refers to Jon becoming a LC. Or more generally, the Nothern bastards are growing important.