Interesting lines on the re-read? (hindsight)

[First of My Name]

This has probably been mentioned before, but I encountered this in Eddard's first chapter:

Ned: Kings are a rare sight in the North.
Robert: More likely they were hiding under the snow. Snow, Ned!

I can picture GRRM :leer: ing when writing this.

[Tyrion Hand of the King]

This has probably been mentioned before, but I encountered this in Eddard's first chapter:

Ned: Kings are a rare sight in the North.

Robert: More likely they were hiding under the snow. Snow, Ned!

I can picture GRRM :leer: ing when writing this.

Didn't notice that, great catch.

[First of My Name]

Thanks. I also found this passage in Jon's first chapter in AGOT:

'Daeren Targaryen was only fourteen when he conquered Dorne,' Jon said. The Young Dragon was one of his heroes.

'A conquest that lasted a summer,' his uncle pointed out. 'Your boy king lost ten thousand men taking the place, and another fifty while trying to hold it. Someone should have told him that war is not a game.' He took another sip of wine. 'Also,' he said, wiping his mouth, 'Daeren Targaryen was only eighteen when he died. Or have you forgotten that part?'

How old is Jon at the time of his assassination, exactly?

[Lady-Nymeria]

Thanks. I also found this passage in Jon's first chapter in AGOT:

'Daeren Targaryen was only fourteen when he conquered Dorne,' Jon said. The Young Dragon was one of his heroes.

'A conquest that lasted a summer,' his uncle pointed out. 'Your boy king lost ten thousand men taking the place, and another fifty while trying to hold it. Someone should have told him that war is not a game.' He took another sip of wine. 'Also,' he said, wiping his mouth, 'Daeren Targaryen was only eighteen when he died. Or have you forgotten that part?'

How old is Jon at the time of his assassination, exactly?

Well, I think it relates more to Robb: he's the Young Wolf, and a King, as the Young Dragon was. And he did die at the age of 16. Jon was murdered at the same age, if he's really dead.

[First of My Name]

Well, I think it relates more to Robb: he's the Young Wolf, and a King, as the Young Dragon was. And he did die at the age of 16. Jon was murdered at the same age, if he's really dead.

Makes sense.

ETA: in ASOS, Jon has a dream about him and Robb fighting in the Winterfell yards. They proclaim to be historical figures, i.e. I am Florian the Fool. At one point, Robb yells that he is the Young Dragon. So that further supports this.

[cocoalover1956]

Way back near the beginning of A Game of Thrones, during first council meeting, I found this line foreshadowing Ned's complete inability to handle the situation in King's Landing.

[Eddard] had no patience with this game they played, this dueling with words.

[kandake]

"When he opened the door, the light from within threw his shadow clear across the yard, and for just a moment Tyrion Lannister stood tall as a king.

Hmmmmmm....

[kandake]

One of my very favorite quotes.

[LittleJon Umber]

I'm sure this has probably been brought up before, but something Jon says on the last page of Arya I in AGoT:

"The longer you hide, the sterner the penance. You'll be sewing all through winter. When the spring thaw comes, they will find your body with a needle still locked tight between your frozen fingers."

Can't help but feel worried for her.

Unless it suggests that Arya will battle through the winter and remain standing, needle in hand, come the spring...

[The Hand of Jaime]

I just finished re-reading AGOT.. I read the first 5 through once, then did 3-5 again and now I'm doing 1-2.. weird, I know. But a few things struck me when re-reading it now that I'm keen on a lot of theory/speculation on specific characters.. The most intriguing one at the moment involves the whole Bran being an agent of evil for the Great Other and the fight between the Citadel & magic (i.e. Marwyn seeking out Dany).

The darkness sprang at him, snarling. Bran saw eyes like green fire, a flash of teeth, fur as black as the pit around them...
In the drunken shifting torchlight, they saw Luwin struggling with the direwolf, beating at his muzzle with one hand while the jaws closed around the other...
In the light of the guttering torch, shadow wolves twenty feet tall fought on the wall and roof.

"Bran," the master said firmly, "I know you mean well, but Shaggydog is too wild to run loose. I'm the third man he's savaged. Give him freedom of the castle and it's only a question of time before he kills someone. The truth is hard, but the wolf has to be chained, or..." He hesitated.
...or killed, Bran thought, but what he said was, "He was not made for chains."

Also, I love the foreshadowing they give about Slynt in Sansa's chapter:

"Frog-faced 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 her father down for Ser Ilyn to behead, wishing she could hurt hum, wishing that some brave hero would throw him down and cut off his head."

[Tyrion Hand of the King]

I found a nice bit of foreshadowing when Sansa is thinking about how seeing her first death was not that big of a deal.

"It would be different if it had been Jory or Ser Rodrik or Father, she told herself."

Interesting that all 3 characters die within the first 2 books. Coincidence? I think not!

[King Pellinore]

On my second or third go through the series, I found the color of the tree stump Jaime used as a pillow interesting, considering the dream he had.

[DrunkSister]

On my second or third go through the series, I found the color of the tree stump Jaime used as a pillow interesting, considering the dream he had.

Coupled with the fact that Theon has a nightmare when he sleeps in weirwood bed in Winterfell (as far as I remember)

[Lummel]

Coupled with the fact that Theon has a nightmare when he sleeps in weirwood bed in Winterfell (as far as I remember)

I don't think it is a weirwood bed. I've been over that chapter and every other chapter in Winterfell with a scene in a bedroom that I could think of and haven't been able to find any suggestion that any of the beds or even one of them is made from weirwood. Maybe this comes from an SSM, dunno.

[DrunkSister]

You are right, I mixed up the description of the bed and the colours most often mentioned in Theon's dream, serves me right for not checking before posting.

I give these as penance for being lazy:

“There will be no flaying in the north so long as I rule in Winterfell,” Theon said loudly.

That lasted long... boys had their faces flayed off and tarred.

As an aside: DUN DUN DUN!

Stone-faced, the small grey man had begged leave to sew the boys’ heads back onto their shoulders, so they might be laid in the crypts below with the other Stark dead.
“No,” Theon had told him. “Not the crypts.”
“But why, my lord? Surely they cannot harm you now. It is where they belong. All the bones of the Starks-”
“I said no.” He needed the heads for the wall, but he had burned the headless bodies that very day, in all their finery.

Why is Theon unwilling to bury non-Starks in the Stark crypts? It could be that he did not want bodies examined but Luwin noticed older boy's legs anyway. In fact it may be that this is precisely the moment in which he became suspicious. I don't know, it sounds more like a gut reaction to a taboo than careful plotting. Or maybe I am wrong. Again.

Anyway, very fortunate for Starks in the crypts. :P

The shadows behind them swallowed his father as the shadows ahead retreated to unveil other statues; no mere lords, these, but the old Kings in the North. On their brows they wore stone crowns. Torrhen Stark, the King Who Knelt. Edwyn the Spring King. Theon Stark, the Hungry Wolf.

Bran, ACoK

- funny they decided to represent him with the crown.

On the edge of the black pool, beneath the shelter of the heart tree, Maester Luwin lay on his belly in the dirt. A trail of blood twisted back through damp leaves where he had crawled.

Last we see him he is with Theon. He crawled all that way. To escape the fire he did not have to crawl quite so far, I say he went to pray. Funny that for a maester who so vocally does not believe in magic, old gods, CoTF etc.

“Bran,” he said softly when he saw him sitting tall on Hodor’s back. “And Rickon too.” He smiled. “The gods are good. I knew...”

Considering that he crawled all that way to pray, I would hazard a guess that this is not just a turn of phrase.

“Good,” the maester said. “A good boy. Your... your father’s son, Bran. Now go.”
Osha gazed up at the weirwood, at the red face carved in the pale trunk. “And leave you for the gods?”
“I beg...” The maester swallowed a... a drink of water, and... another boon. If you would...”
“Aye.” She turned to Meera. “Take the boys.”

A woman worshipping old gods just killed a man beneath the heart tree. Did his blood go to the roots?

“White Harbor... the Umbers... I do not know... war everywhere... each man against his
neighbor, and winter coming... such folly, such black mad folly...”

Interesting turn of speech for a maester considering their complicated relationship with Targs. Sign of indoctrination?

[Ibbison from Ibben]

I found a nice bit of foreshadowing when Sansa is thinking about how seeing her first death was not that big of a deal.

"It would be different if it had been Jory or Ser Rodrik or Father, she told herself."

Interesting that all 3 characters die within the first 2 books. Coincidence? I think not!

Nice catch.

[RedtheWarrior]

In Clash of Kings there's a Dany chapter that ends with ' "I am Quaithe of the Shadow. We come seeking dragons." "Seek no more," Daenerys Targaryen told them. "You have found them."' page 184 in my paperback.

The next chapter is a Jon chapter and that ends with 'Or they will find us, thought Jon.'

Just struck me as interesting, the similarites in the endings; almost like a conversation. It could relate to Jon being a Targ/one of the three heads of the dragon theory.

[Old Rusty Coin]

The show's not the book, but it really caught my attention when Arya said "sorry" as she dropped the dime on the Frey guy.

[Mr Smith]

Here's a crackpot theory I came up with, from an early Tyrion chapter in ACOK. Varys takes Tyrion through a tunnel that connects the Hand's chambers to Chataya's, so he can visit Shae. When Tyrion asks Varys about it, this is his response:

"The tunnel was dug for another King's Hand, whose honour would not allow him to enter such a house openly. Chataya has closely guarded the knowledge of its existence."

Doesn't mean much on its own, but after finishing ASOS...

Mysterious King's Hand = Tywin Lannister.

Anyone?

[A wilding]

It seems that Varys intended Tyrion to think that it was Tywin, as part of the groundwork for his plan to alienate Tyrion from his family and get him to join Dany.

But he carefully did not actually say it was Tywin, so it is still up in the air. Jon Arryn is another possibility.