Aebram

I've read all the books multiple times, and sorry, I really have no idea what you're referring to. Ben was younger than Ned. The only way Benjen could become lord of Winterfell would be if Ned died, or joined the Night's Watch himself. It seems unlikely that Benjen would resent Ned for not having done either of those things.

I enjoyed your post; it's very well thought out. But I think the situation with the Faceless Men is a bit more nuanced. There are lots of religions that believe that all other religions are false. But most of them don't encourage believers to actually take action against other faiths. The Faceless Men make no effort to convert others to their faith; and they haven't tried to burn the statues of the Seven in the sept of Braavos. And given their "very specific set of skills," they could do a lot of damage to other religions if they wanted to. So in that sense, they are tolerant. Oddly enough, it occurs to me that the Faceless Men and the religion of the many-faced god are actually two separate organizations. From what we know of their history, it seems that the religion and the guild of assassins both originated at about the same time, among the same people. But their assassinations are completely secular; they make their decisions about whom to kill without using any rituals or prophecies to ask their god"s opinion on the matter.

Very interesting topic! Religions can be ranked by many different criteria: good versus bad, true versus false, etc. Some of these are very subjective and hard to judge; but tolerance versus intolerance is pretty clear. The religion of the old gods, with its reverence for spirits of Nature, reminds me of shamanism, which is common among ancient indigenous cultures all over the world. It's probably the human race's first religion. My own belief system is something of a homegrown affair, but respect for Nature is a big part of it. In Westeros, followers of both the new and old gods seem to get along fairly well. The septons may preach against other faiths, but ordinary people seem to be tolerant of them. The followers of R'llhor seem to be the most intolerant. Melisandre says more than once that all the other gods are evil, just manifestations of the Great Other. But she's been wrong more than once in her prophecies, so perhaps she's not the most reliable source. The R'llhorists do seem to be the most skilled at magic. Moqorro, in particular, seems to have a very good track record while guiding Victarion to Slaver's Bay. So perhaps it would rank #1 if we were judging religions by effectiveness, the ability to actually summon supernatural help for their followers.

Archmaster Marwyn. He only appears on the page in one chapter (Feast 45), but he made one heck of a first impression. And during rereads, I noticed that he's mentioned three times by other characters who knew him or had read one of his books. All that makes me think that the George has something special planned for him. He probably knows more about the Higher Mysteries than anyone else in Westeros*; and he's a man of action, as well as a man of knowledge. Another reader (sorry, I don't recall who) pointed out some evidence that he may turn out to be a villain, not a hero. My gut still tells me that Marwyn is a Good Guy; but either way, I can't wait to find out what he does next. * except maybe Bloodraven.

Of course, how could I forget them? From what we've read, life there is like one long beach party.

Reading this thread has made me realize how many of the major characters were left in cliffhanger, life-or-death situations at the end of Dance, or in the Winds preview chapters. John Snow: stabbed Daenerys: confronting a Dothraki horde Theon: a prisoner, possibly about to be executed Tyrion and Jorah: in the middle of a war Brienne and Jaime: tangled up with Lady Stoneheart Aeron: chained to the prow of a warship Ser Barristan (perhaps not a "major" character, but I like the guy): about to go into battle Victarion: ditto Did I forget anyone?

I think you've made some speculative leaps here. We don't know who built the Wall. Some would say that its very existence proves that the First Men did, in fact, have some ability to use ice magic. Or perhaps they had help from the Children of the Forest. We know that the Children have a spell protecting their caves against wights. All the castles, stairways, and winch cages at the Wall are on the South side. All the gates are locked from the South side, as far as we know, with the exception of the Black Gate, which only opens for men of the Match. None of this makes much sense if the Wall was built to protect people (or other creatures) on the North side. The wildlings seem to think so. Before Osha was captured, she was planning to get as far South as she could. Also, Old Nan's story of the Long Night tells us that the Others came seeking to kill every living creature. The best example may be the one at the very beginning of the story, the prologue of Game. An Other kills Ser Waymar Royce. Then its companions (the other Others, as it were) join in the slaughter, laughing. A few minutes later, Waymar becomes a wight and kills Wil. If that's not control, it's at least some sort of magical symbiosis. Also, both types of creatures have blue eyes, even wights whose eyes were a different color before they died. And both types cause the environment around them to become intensely cold when they are active. My own theory about the Others is that Old Nan was basically correct. They thrive on cold and death, and hate warmth and life. They have sensed that a harsh winter is coming, possibly another Long Night. They have become more active recently, to the point where the wildlings are becoming desperate to get South of the Wall. How this will all unfold, I'm reluctant to predict; "prophecy will bite your prick off every time." But I do think that whatever happens will be consistent with these ideas of what the Others are and what they want. It's true that the George likes to break stereotypes, and to create characters in many shades of gray, rather than pure good or evil. But a common element in epic fantasies is some sort of final, climactic battle between Good and Evil; and for that, you need someone who is pure evil, or at least close enough that everyone will be glad to see them destroyed. I'm reminded of a science fiction book that tells of a war between humans and aliens that lasted for generations, until the two sides learned to communicate. Then they found out that it was all a big misunderstanding; both sides thought that the other had launched the first attack. It's possible that that's where ASOIAF is headed. But I don't think so. That would just be too much of a break with the classic format: a 20-year, 10,000-pages long shaggy-dog joke. Also, we haven't seen those giant ice spiders yet. That is going to be one heck of a final climactic battle!

There's a video on YouTube with a very nice, detailed description of what Winterfell should actually look like according to the books.

I'd love to read about most of the places that others have already mentioned. And I'll add Yi Ti, and Leng ... and everywhere else! Why stop with just five books, when there are so many other intriguing places to visit?

Let's remember that this is a fantasy, not science fiction. I believe the George has said that we shouldn't go looking for scientific explanations for things like the Irregular seasons. I haven't seen the actual quote, but I've seen it mentioned here several times by other readers. Perhaps someone can provide us with a link? That being said, I do believe that there are some common threads linking the myths and legends of various cultures in the Known World, that point to a single explanation for things like the Long Night. But I don't know if the true history will be revealed in the story. It may not be relevant to the events to come.

I will disagree with this. Marsh stabbed Jon, and two or three other men also stabbed him within moments. I don't think Jon was so unpopular that several of the black brothers would spontaneously join in on a murder attempt. I don't really believe that Marsh's blade was poisoned. I just threw that out as a possible explanation for Jon losing consciousness. I think Jon was badly wounded. Remember, he had moved into Donal Noye's former quarters in the armory. It's natural that there would be some armor, blades, and other works in progress lying about.

We know that Jon was wounded badly enough that he lost consciousness: not all at once, as if from a blow, but gradually over several moments. That seems to suggest some major blood loss, although I'm no expert on such things. Perhaps Marsh's blade was poisoned, and a small nick was sufficient to knock Jon out.

"Alayne had suggested seven, like the Kingsguard, but Sweetrobin had insisted that he must have more knights than King Tommen" (Winds, "Alayne" preview chapter)

The "source" of a river is not the place where all the water enters it. Rivers generally get wider as they get closer to the sea, from rainfall, and from the outlaw of streams and smaller rivers that join it. Canals are quite narrow, just wide enough for one boat to pass another, so they don't need a huge amount of water. However, there are other considerations. The terrain across the entire length of the canal needs to be fairly flat, so that it won't be necessary to build large numbers of locks to move boats up and down. And of course, the canal needs to pass through an area, or to connect two areas, where there is enough population and commerce to justify the cost of building it. Come to think of it, I don't know if a medieval level of technology can even build locks. Were there canals with locks in real-life medieval Europe, or are those more of an industrial-age thing?

I don't know about that. They were attacked by undead zombies, and some of them still managed to escape. But back to the original question: by the Night's Watch vows, a black brother promises to hold no lands, wear no crowns, and win no glory. So they can't be a king or a lord; but there's no explicit promise not to serve in other positions. We know that the brothers do sometimes leave the Wall, such as Yoren roaming Westeros in search of recruits. It seems highly irregular that a Lord Commander would leave Castle Black for King's Landing, and stay for any length of time. It would probably make more sense for the commander to retire, and let the brothers choose a new one. But there doesn't seem to be any specific prohibition, A long absence might be considered a violation of the promise to "live and die at my post," unless he was somehow still serving the Watch by becoming Hand.

I think Quaithe is mistaken about this. The hatching of the dragons was itself a magical act. Dany couldn't have done it unless some magical force or energy was already present. Also, there are other magical phenomena, such as the increasing activity of the Others and the Starks' discovery of the direwolves, that happened much earlier in the story. However, Quaithe"s actual words are, "you are the cause of it." Not the dragons, but Daenerys herself. That seems more likely to me. I wrote about this in exquisite excruciating some detail in an earlier post:

The story gives us a strong hint ("years beyond count," I think, were the actual words) that Melisandre is much older than she appears. So Yes, it does seem possible that keeping the fire burning is what keeps that spell going; that would explain why it's so important to her. But there's no indication that she, or for that matter, any of the red priests, use glass candles. From what we've seen, they work directly with fire in various forms.

I've seen this question discussed here before, and I don't think anyone has a theory that covers all the chapters. I've given some thought to it myself, and I've noticed, not one, but two patterns in the usage of these non-character titles. One pattern is chapters where the character is being someone other than their normal self. For example, Sansa is the character in some chapters titled "Alayne." Our little ninja-in-training, Arya, has chapters titled "Cat of the Canals," "The Blind Girl," and "The Ugly Little Girl." And Theon during his Reek phase has chapters titled "The Turncloak" and "A Ghost in Winterfell." The other pattern is chapters where the POV character is not really the one that the chapter is about; instead, he or she is serving as a "walking camera" to reveal something about another character. For instance, in "The Captain of Guards," the POV character is Areo Hotah, but it seems that the chapter is mostly focused on Doran Martell and his family. However, neither of these patterns covers all the chapters; and at any rate, it doesn't seem likely that the George would create two different patterns rather than just one. All of the non-character titles occur in Books 4 and 5, and the preview chapters of 6; there are no Arya chapters titled "Arry" or "Weasel." So apparently this is something he started after he had been writing for quite a while already. That's about all I have so far. Perhaps these thoughts will help someone else to solve this puzzle.

Where is this material please? Can you give us a link? I do believe that there's a single, coherent history that gave rise to all these different stories and legends in different countries. But on Planetos, as here on Earth, it's likely that some of these stories were altered to fit the politics or religion of the tellers. So it may not be possible to reconcile all of them; there are probably one or two outliers in there that are distorted in some major way. The show title "Bloodmoon" certainly seems like a strong hint that some sort of astronomical phenomenon was involved, especially when you combine it with the information we already have about broken moons and stones falling from the sky.

Yes, the text tells us that, in fact, the only surviving copy is at the Citadel (Dance 14). That's a key reason for my belief that Jaqen is acting as a spy, not an assassin. I'm intrigued by Aejohn's suggestion that "Jaqen H'ghar" may be the name of a real criminal, and the Faceless Man took over his identity at some point. Perhaps when the FM arrived in King's landing, he wanted a new identity. So he killed some random man in Flea Bottom, not knowing that his victim was actually a wanted criminal who would be grabbed by the first gold cloak that recognized him. I'm still somewhat mystified by the whole "the red god will have his due" subplot. There's no other mention in the books of a religion having such a belief. My best guess is that, during their journey North, Jaqen figured out that "Arry" was actually Arya Stark, and he knew her to have some magical abilities because of her Stark lineage. So he made up the story about owing her three lives in order to win her trust, and eventually give her the iron coin, in hopes of recruiting her. Or perhaps he simply thought that, being highborn, it would be valuable to befriend her and keep her alive. As I said, "the most mysterious character ..." I sometimes think that Nevets has the right idea: the George wrote Jaqen into the story as a plot device, without thinking through all the implications.

House Targaryen. It seems to me that this family is the real protagonist, the core at the center of the entire collection of stories, including the companion books. They are the subject of a big chunk of the World book, as well as having an entire book devoted to them, with another volume to follow. I don't know specifically who will survive. It could be Daenerys, or it might be some still-unrevealed Targaryen such as Jon Snow or Young Griff. It might be some long-lost Blackfyre. Perhaps Mirri Maz dur's prophecy was wrong, and Daenerys will have some children. But one way or another, I just don't think the George will kill them off at the end of the story. He's probably already got some ideas for sequels in his computer, or his head.

I don't think it's so crackpot. The question has come up before on this forum: how did a skilled assassin and master of disguise end up in a dungeon? I haven't seen any good answers yet; Jaqen is one of the most mysterious characters in the whole story. So Yes, it's plausible that he was there deliberately, not because he was captured: possibly as a way to travel North undetected, possibly with some help from Varys, possibly as part of Varys's conspiracy to sow chaos in Westeros by killing the best leaders. I don't think Ned Stark could have been his intended target, because Ned was already in King's Landing at that time. It seems more likely to me that Jaqen is acting as a spy, not an assassin. He hasn't killed anyone at the Citadel; he's continuing to wear Pate's face, presumably so he can spy on Marwyn and/or search for rare books or scrolls. Castle Black is another place that has a lot of old documents. Perhaps that was his original destination, but after Yoren's caravan was attacked, he decided that traveling North was too difficult. So he headed to the Citadel as the next-best place to find the information he was seeking.

I recall some text in the story stating that horses will not stand against elephants. The mere sight, sound, and smell of them might be sufficient to severely disrupt an assault by mounted enemies.

I keep remembering that line of dialogue from Master Aemon, "Dragons are neither male nor female ... The language misled us all for a thousand years (Feast 35)." Is High Valyrian one of those gendered languages, where the male form of a word is sometimes used generically to mean either sex? If so, the valonqar could be a woman, which opens up the range of suspects.

According to the wiki, the boar is the sigil of House Crakehall (which I remembered) and Vikary (which I didn't). Both of these houses are vassals of House Lannister; so perhaps there is some symbolism there. But the murder of Robert was apparently committed by Cersei and Lancel, not by vassals. So perhaps the boar was just a convenient editorial choice for an animal that lives in the Crownlands and is dangerous (I think that real-life boars are deadly as well). I don't think there are lions in the Kingswood, and as a clue, that might have seemed too obvious.