Aejohn the Conqueroo

RhEGGar's rubies? These are part of the same family of symbols, wouldn't you say? Rhaegar's rubies are the dragons born from the shattered moon, the broken egg. I dunno, I guess I'm ready to drop it, but I really think the egg is the thing in that passage and the odor is the excuse the author uses to put the word in there. Hot springs smell, that's not peculiar.

I'd be willing to bet that the majority of them are and few that aren't are in Game of Thrones before the moon/ egg analogy was developed. He could have likened the smell with 'nightsoil' or farts or just a nebulous reek. I don't agree with you that he can just turn the symbolism on and off as it suits him in the moment. It waters it down too much. Can only some of the rubies mentioned be relevant? Does it make the remainders red herrings or does it make them sloppy writing?

To me, knowing what we know of Varys, it would be a lot easier for him to induce the Mountain into smashing Aegon's face beyond recognition than it would to carry out a baby switch during the sack. As Hotah points out, 'someone always talks' and a baby switch would involve conspirators. It would be far riskier to Varys as well, and we know he's a risk averse individual. Finally, what would be the point? Sure he secured the legitimate heir, but he didn't secure any proof. Since he's going to have the same challenges proving Aegon's identity as he would have proving a pisswater prince was in fact Aegon, what's the rationale for not taking the safer course and using a fake after the fact?

Sure. 'Egg' is a word that the author's been loading up for 4 and a half books and a couple of short stories by this point though, and you can describe the sulphuric smell of hot springs (the handful I've been to in northern BC all have that smell) without using it. To my eye, the description is there to shoehorn either the word rotten or the word egg into the scene. I think considering how carefully and consistently we've seen eggs used to this point it would be a little uncharacteristic for the author to use them and expect all he's written before to be ignored. If he doesn't want us thinking about eggs and moons and dragons and kings, then he might have considered a different way to describe the smell.

I don't know, the last 300 years of history have been dominated by rotten Eggs. It's probably more symbolism that the rotten Targaryen age is ending and as the ice spreads, winter is coming. Or at least I'd consider some of the LML stuff about eggs and moons and that strange dragon imagery related by Summer when Winterfell burned.

They would have to do the Bear and the Maiden Fair

of the morning. Love shines in your eyes sparkling, clear and lovely

If the Riverlands didn't have houses Bracken and Blackwood, would we remember the Riverlands at all? Just a big wet mess under house Tully, but the feud makes them interesting.

Sure, he can always have more kids. Maybe in time Theon's labour will be so productive that the he sees it as a net gain.

Or the opposite. It could be where Winter fell defeated.

If, somehow Dunk the Lunk managed to keep himself a noblewoman mistress without the story getting out and still being in circulation at the time of the main tale, he could have only pulled it off with help from Egg and his family, and some Maegor like treatment of some house staff, or at least the threat. Without getting too into what may or may not have happened to Lady R, I think it's interesting to consider that Dunk's appetites could have had a corrupting influence on his charge, or perhaps life in the capital took it's toll on the both of them together. I love the D&E stories, but I can't help but reading them as waypoints on the long road to Summerhall. A lot of compromises would have to have been made to keep the secret, it sort of leaves a lot of room for speculation.

She ran off with the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. Crown covered it up.

Why do you assume that she has no controller?

How freaking small is this world supposed to be anyway?

uh, thanks... won't be sleeping a while now.

I like this. We haven't heard much about mutinies at the wall, and I like the idea of Peakes and Blackfyres making a mass exodus in light of their enemy's ascendance (even though they're all supposedly brothers in black having sworn their vows). One of my problems with the story is the lack of history at the wall. Bloodraven would still be mentioned I think and decisions would have been made in his day that would be consequent in Jon's time and his precedents would be cited. Anyway, the lack of anything neither confirms or contradicts this idea and regardless of where the story goes, some conclusion to the Peakes' story should be forthcoming. Elements of what you have here should fit into the story, regardless of what BR is up to. I don't like that Craster is an accident in this version, though. If the others came back by accident, and all it took was an ex watcher with deviant, selfish morals then I can't see how the accident took 6000 years to occur. If there's another instigator, we're seriously overdue to meet this entity.

Is that what Mance wants to do? Defeat the Nights Watch? I thought he wanted to get on the other side of the Wall My issue is with the idea that a guy from some spec in the north feels any sort of kinship or common cause with some other guy from some other distant spec in the north. Look at how carved up and subdivided the lands south of the wall are. Are the people in the North that different? Armageddon's coming, you grab your family and the dog and you book, you don't round up your enemies too. How did he know he had the time to make the trek all the way to the tip of the north and back again anyway? I believe that he knew how long he had because his trip was coordinated. If it wasn't, I would be interested to know how he convinced his commanders to back him on such a reckless journey that he had no means of convincing them they would return from. What would be the point of fleeing south if he's got a broken wall behind him? Others will catch him eventually. Maybe Whiteharbour, maybe Sunspear Do you think Mance lied to Ygritte, or she lied to Jon? Were the wildlings getting picked at by the Others during their march north? It's not stated, but I doubt they were, because it would be hard to convince the army to keep pushing north if they're waking up to casualties every morning. "Why are we doing this Mance?" "WE'VE GOT TO SAVE THE THENNS!" "?" Even if Mance did feel himself a citizen of the world, I don't buy that he would have found the same enlightenment mirrored in his commanders and soldiers. He'd get a "Fuck the Thenns. I got a family of my own." and he'd be marching north alone.

I'd say 'we'll see, I guess..' but there's less and less reason to believe that we will, isn't there? If there is a big bad who has set these events in motion, it would be nice to see him get a page or two before the author admits he's never finishing this tale. I like Old man Rivers because it straightens out his story. If he controlled Aerys, why wouldn't he control Egg too? Why would he submit to being sent to the Wall unless he wanted to go there in the first place? 4 ex nights watchmen figure into the northern story, Rivers, Craster, Cold Hands and Mance. Rivers (who was known for his thousand eyes and one long before he went north) is feeding a tree and seemingly able to see the past present and future, and is capable of at least sending dreams to those who can receive them. Craster is an agent of the Others, possibly breeding them (the whole giving sheep when there aren't sons available is a part I can't square with Craster's kids becoming others themselves, but they're clearly the 'gods' that he's 'right with' and they're taking those sacrifices for something) and Mance has united all of the humans north of the Wall, marched them north and started cracking tombs, unleashing Others as well, before turning his army south, getting picked at the whole way. Cold Hands seems to be something of a gofor for BR, I don't think it's a leap to think that all 4 could be to some degree in cahoots with Rivers as the spider in the web. If Mance is what he says he is, some son of a nights watch man who went back to the northern home he came from when he got the chance, why does he unite all of the northern peoples? Wouldn't he be as likely to hate the people from a neighboring tribe or land as not? What does some dude from White Tree think about a Thenn, why would he think about a Thenn at all? The way I see it, the only people who would see the people north of the Wall as a people vs many peoples would be someone from south of the Wall or someone being influenced by someone from the south. All of this to bring an army south that can only be properly opposed by a dragon riding prince that was promised at the head of a united Westerosi army. Oh, and a big Wall. He's going to have to bring down the Wall to make the threat real. I just think that wittingly or unwittingly, Craster has to be a part of this plan. If he's working against BR, then how has he kept himself secret? The watch knows what he's doing , so Rivers must too, but he hasn't sent Cold Hands or another agent to stop him. Bloodraven is allowing it, he must want it.

Really? This is all coincidence then? That's more fantastical to me than the idea that the current situation has been engineered, and there's one guy who could have had the motive, means and opportunity to pull it off.

An enemy cast into a frozen hell raising daughters he rapes to create sons he sacrifices. An ouroboros of a family not quite suicidal enough to finish itself off. Even if Bloodraven is behind the return of the Others, leaving the breeding program to an enemy would probably be preferable than condemning an ally or family member to it, if it were possible. I wonder sometimes, what's really in it for Craster? He lives a horrible life surrounded by misery that's largely of his own making. Why does he do it at all? Did he inherit the job from his father or is this a perversion of something he misunderstood? A reaction? A duty? It would be funny if he did turn out to be a Peake. It's a long way from the Maiden's Day Ball to north of the Wall.

Maybe Brandon Snow had reason to believe that his wierwood arrows would have had some disproportionate effect, but if he did, we haven't been let in on it.

To me if it's not every single usage, then he should have eliminated the ones that don't fit. I don't know if the find and replace functions on effin Wordstar help with that or if it's something he has to manage manually. I imagine a couple have snuck through, but believe that the author's intention was that the small o other would come with a reference to Others. Othor too (obviously).

Dany killed her wife?

His seed is quick. I like him as a candidate for Dany's father, but I can't bend his name into a theory. Interesting name though. Seems loaded, but 'hasty bonfire' seems a little too on the nose for our author.

Lampreys kind of disgust me, but they manage to make lamprey pie seem quite appetizing all the same.