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Springwatch

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  1. Anyone close to the Targ main line is a top candidate to die - Targs and secret Targs - because it's hard to end the story with magical abominations who can be super charismatic, ambitious, powerful, desirable and/or mad, however the dice rolls. And that's without dragons.... So in the firing line: Dany, Jon, Aegon, Cersei, Jaime, Myrcella, Tommen, Tyrion. Baratheon bastards probably ok - too dilute.
  2. Thanks for the link anyway; I like codes (and from the quote above, sounds like George does too!). I wanted to see how the theory developed, but we seem to start in the middle when the idea has got really overdeveloped; and suffers from the problem of all code theories for these books - danger, violence and plotting happen all the time, so anything could predict them.
  3. Mel has red eyes too - do you want to develop further on this? Triple-sacrifice is wrong; the quote doesn't say she sacrificed them and that's not what we saw happen. It's doubtful that even MIrri could be called a sacrifice because Dany's only religious idea at the time is Drogo's ascent to the afterlife, which doesn't even need a sacrifice. More likely Mirri's death was extreme punishment in revenge for her causing the deaths of Drogo and Rhaego. Which she did.
  4. If George failed at all, it's a failure to understand how difficult decryption is - his end of the process is (relatively) simple; he follows his own formula and maybe he worries it may be too obvious, too boring, so he has his three layer system of hinting, and he likes things having multiple levels of meaning (e.g. Needle, and many more), and real-world references and homages, and I'm pretty convinced there's a lot of word play too. But the reader trying to reverse-engineer George's process has a massive problem because there are just so many elements to herd into place, and the more hints and illustrations George adds, the more possibilities and combinations there are. Oh yes, and if everything he writes depends on what he wrote already, his challenge is increasing exponentially too. So at least we're all in it together.
  5. There was an idea of Tyrion being in love with Arya too (iirc), but my instinct is that transferred to Shae, who might be a kind of Arya shadow, who knows? Maybe JonArya could go the same way. Anyway, I'm fine with JonArya being discussed, even in favour because I'm expecting a kind of Aegon-and-his-sisters replay - not sexual, but the scenario alone might be enough to justify a bit of foreshadowing. Backshadowing, whatever. He could be talking shit to you too. Isn't the fandom even more demanding than a publisher? Too strong!! And it really bugs me when people suddenly conflate Martin's fantasy world (lots of incest, cousin marriages too) with the real world and real people's values. Can't argue with that. Although if GRRM wants to go down the JonArya route, there is just about an opening for it, precisely because they're not siblings, and because they've been (or may be) separated in the years when Arya transitions away from childhood, so the sibling taboo never develops in the usual way. Not expecting it to happen.
  6. This is way too clever for me, but... GRRM is always up to something. He's been way to clever for his own good, or we'd have a much better understanding of the books by now. Personally I don't think a book with so much fantasy can tell us about real human societies. Planetos people are bent out of shape; surreal things happen. Also it'd be hard to write a truth-beats-lies parable when (we expect) Jon is the 'true' heir to the Iron Throne and so if the truth prevails, we end with the triumph of hereditary monarchy. For my money, GRRM is thinking of Plato. The mortal world is a false and imperfect copy of the realm of ideas, of perfect forms (I'm not a Plato expert, mind). The physical world is 'false', the mental space is 'true' - and I think this is where the gods come in, bending mortals to their template. It's a very elitist point of view (well it is the god view), and that's why I think the false side, the mortal side, will triumph.
  7. Well the reader's got to make a choice here. Either discard this first take on Tyrion's 'arc' (but you get another, more nuanced one!) - or discard all ideas of foreshadowing (everything that looks clever and meaningful is just a stinky mass of rotten red herrings).
  8. It's a fascinating idea, but I have to say very unfair on the reader because there's not so much as a flicker of unity between Mel and Benerro's crew. She is Melisandre of Asshai, her place is at the Wall, and her AA is Stannis or possibly Jon. The Essosi are on a different track entirely. This. She saw something in the flames that really made her believe. Wish we knew what. Wish we'd see her get news of Dany, and what she thought about that. Yeah, she is sorta right! and that's exactly how prophecy seems to work; it always turns out, but not as expected. Soo... as Melisandre expected? or as Benerro is expecting? Because Benerro seems to have the 'obvious' interpretation, and the obvious usually has the most problems. On the other hand Mel-Stannis-Jon are looking very icy at the moment - they are on a mission to preserve, their home is the Wall. Odd, but honestly a more appealing vision than the fire-consumes vision Benerro has for Dany's followers - war, death and resurrection. What they have in common is that both sides are amazingly fatalistic. Stannis goes out to defeat and maybe death. Jon is surrounded by lethal daggers. Moqorro is sent out on a sinking ship. Was there the memo, today is not the day they die, etc? Maybe, but it was Jojen the greendreamer who 'knew' his day hadn't arrived - Mel the fire priestess seems to look for and find specific threats to life. I don't think she could be certain of Stannis surviving the Blackwater by this method. Or Jon surviving the skulls and daggers. Fatalism.
  9. Oh ok. I think all red priests are unbalanced (if they're doing it properly that is), which is probably tough for the religious hierarchy. I guess Mel's talent and complete lack of team spirit was a pain to the administration, and the only help they could offer was a long distance ticket out together with their best love.
  10. Assuming magic and gods cover the same phenomena, we do have air: there are aeromancers in Asshai; Dany is gifted a 'magic' ointment to reveal spirits of the air; spirits of the air are mentioned multiple times, usually in connection with legend or ghosts. Hm? Where did you get the impression that red priests are level headed? They're all ranting, human-sacrificing zealots. Except Thoros, and he knows he's more of a pink priest than a red one.
  11. Circumstantial evidence points to Arryn checking out the gold-always-gives-way-to-coal theory -
  12. Because from what we've seen, Butterbumps is seriously good: ETA He's practised this stuff already.
  13. Butterbumps could do it. Sleight-of-hand is his thing. Otherwise I agree the crystal is very soluble in wine, otherwise Cresen would have screwed up, and he's supposed to be an expert.
  14. Bravos don't wear purple, but nobles do: In the Seven Kingdoms nobles draped themselves in velvets, silks and samites of a hundred hues whilst peasants and smallfolk wore raw wool and dull brown roughspun. In Braavos it was otherwise. The bravos swaggered about like peacocks, fingering their swords, whilst the mighty dressed in charcoal grey and purple, blues that were almost black and blacks as dark as a moonless night. No sigils at all I guess, Illyrio doesn't think much of them.
  15. That is good thinking - there's got to be something going on here, even though the Swyft castle is a long way from Harrenhal. It is very near Crakehall though, which is a good enough connection in itself.
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