chrisdaw

I believe that's where it's leading, think he needs greyscale first to bring it all to a head. Immortality or a second life at least. Like Varamyr tried, he said a life inside of Ghost would be fit for a king, but Euron is intent on taking a leap out of a tower and flying, a second life inside a dragon would be more his style.

And you know this how? We are supposed to assume bathing in blood is a rumour, sure. Even so, the parallel stands even if by rumour. That she took pleasure in stoking BR's jealousy is straight from GRRM.

Euron - grey lipped corpse, mount to dread, betrayal for blood and the shadow fire breathing stone beast (or at least responsible for it).

A slight case for Shiera being the white fire handed woman. Demon. White. Her mother was the ninth and last mistress of Aegon IV. As Euron parallels the Bloodstone Emperor. She made the realm bleed once already by setting jealous brother against brother, it seemed to amuse her. She apparently bathed in blood while Euron sails on a sea of blood. And there's the name, Seastar, affiliation with the ocean. The theory that Euron is Bloodraven's failed apprentice seems plausible, perhaps Shiera torments Bloodraven still and BR lost his apprentice to his mischievous sister. Also there's a resemblance I think between the vision Aeron has of Euron with the woman's shadow and Mel's vision of Bloodraven and Bran.

The chapter runs Euron farther into parallel with the Bloodstone Emperor (and by association Nyarlathotep). The Bloodstone Emperor took a tiger-woman for wife which may be a clue for the white hand woman. Tiger for lion maybe.

Is the white hand woman actually tall or is just she has a terrible tall shadow? The more detailed run down suggests it's just her shadow.

Or the first explanation for the HOTU vision has always been wrong, and it was always about Euron's 'reign'.

To match with. I doubt they're literal dwarves being represented.

Val has some affinity with white, and do I misremember or does Jon note she's taller than him?

Balon, + 2 of Urri, Robin or Harlon (assuming he's not counting Aeron before he's hatched him). Robin was a sickly child, but it's not said if he died from sickness. Urri died of an infection. Harlon died from greyscale. So at the least, Euron considers himself responsible for Urri's infection. At most he's responsible for Urri's infection and somehow for Harlon's greyscale. Edit - And I see above the chapter confirms who the three are. Which is excellent, Euron somehow got Harlon greyscale. Which is massive.

Foreshadowing. They're going to meet, more than meet. JC's greyscale has to work its way to Euron to turn his lips grey. Probably sexually, JC -> Daemon -> Arianne -> Euron. There's grey lipped Euron dreaming of flying but will never know unless he takes the leap from a tower. On the other side is Arianne, the princess in the tower, set to burn brighter than any man with her friend Garin who she fears will jump from a tower. And to lock it all together is a stone beast taking flight from a smoking tower.

There's obviously an element of don't worry about that show shit I haven't lost my mind with the Dorne plot in him dropping this chapter now. But, I theorise that tunnel in the cave they'd have had to crawl through is seeding for a reveal later in the book. That when that reveal came we were supposed to link it back to that cave and think, "oh, I know now what's down the end of that tunnel in the Stormlands, what its for". Only, the show might be about to drop that reveal.

She's the mother of the king and the leader of the king's house, its also Varys' design. It's also there in the Mercy chapter which you're reimagining to suit yourself.

Cersei will rule after she wins her trial.

Maar is overtly effeminate, that's what perturbs Arianne. Aegon is not.

It's a bit of an assumption that Mace is leading the descending army, and even more so that it is the whole strength he had in KL marching with him. Whatever the case, that army is destined to be fodder for us to see first-hand the skill of the GC at war and the usefulness of elephants in battle.

Or Aegon having taken Storm's End has spurred Mance/IT into action. The difference being if that's the case you're likely looking at a split force, say half half, 15k marching on Aegon, possible 'friends' to the GC among them, run through them and it's onto KL. KL with 15k with which to forcibly take Marge if the trial goes bad, against the Faith and a city of half a million if the people (with arms possibly readily available if the Faith have stocked) decide to enter the fray. Cersei might not even use the Gold Cloaks, rather sit it out and let the Faith and Tyrell's have at each other. Blood in the gutter inside the city walls, Aegon and the GC arrive outside. Cloth dragon, cheering crowd. Much Bloodraven. Mushrooms = poison, by Bloodraven's hand. Why is he catching rain? Green and moss = Rhaegal. Grey = greyscale? Red-tail = Comet? Purple = Dany or Aegon. Rock, stone, festering, rot, green air = Greyscale. No, but Quentyn did try and steal away a child of one god, but he failed. Daenerys the Stormborn and Euron, the first and last storm, the King of Salt and Stone, will be the two gods. The question is what 'daughter' is Arianne going to steal that will bring the wraths of the gods of sea and storm down on Dorne.

Here is a good candidate for who is in SR's ear. This Benjicot is already feeding him information, maybe he gave him the rest. The wiki calls Benjicot the Arryn fool, I don't know if that's just on the strength of Sansa's thought here or they have further information, there's no mention of a Benjicot the Arryn's fool (unless word search fails me) in the series before this sample chapter. It may be Benjicot is just a person Sansa thinks is a foolish person for having a loose tongue, but I'll assume the Wiki is right, it suits some ideas better that way. One of LF's methods in KL, in addition to paying for a murder during a tourney and befriending the young king and planting thoughts in his mind, was to use a fool as a spy and go between, a messenger. If as I'm theorising LF's methods are set to occur against him, Benjicot undermining LF would slot in nicely. Benjicot, I think, is a name associated with Brynden Tully (Benjicot Blackwood I think foreshadows the Blackfish). So perhaps Brynden is secretly in the Vale, pulling some strings, including Benjicot's. It's not much but it's something. And Brynden has a relationship with Petyr, Petyr apparently took his tears to Brynden as a youth in RR, so he likely knows about the whole Cat crush thing. And Brynden went with Lysa to the Vale, so it's likely he'd have seen how LF worked his way up under JA. So maybe when the Blackfish is working on a hunch that Petyr may have taken Sansa.

Could be Myranda feeding SR but it'd be very risky for her. If LF goes down in flames and she doesn't have a back up then her family lose the Gates. Killing Harry would't make sense from her as she obviously then can't marry him, if it's just pure jealousy then it'd be going too far bringing down her family too. Maybe she is steering Robert to try and get him between Harry and Sansa, but without murderous intentions. It may be Robert goes and organises the hit on Harry without her knowing that side of things.

Robert Arryn is generally foreshadowed by and associated to characters ending or having lyn in their name. Mainly Alyns. This tourney and the tourney of White Walls are going to share a lot in common. To kick off a general link. - Alyn Cockshaw attended the tournament at White Walls. - Alyn loved Daemon II. - Daemon took a fancy to Dunk. - Motivated by jealousy of Daemon's attention to Dunk, Alyn paid Uthor Underleaf to remove his perceived rival. - Uthor paid to have himself matched with Dunk in the tourney, the plan was to murder him in the joust, it would look like an accident. I don't need to quote all the passages but it's apparent Sweetrobin rightly or wrongly does not like Harry, and for two reasons. The first is Harry has come to marry Sansa, in a sense to steal her from him, SR loves Sansa as much as a child could love an elder teenager. The second is Harry wants him to die to take his title. Sweetrobin is the Alyn of this tourney. Harry is the Dunk. SR is going to hire someone to play the Uthor Underleaf part, someone to kill Harry in the tournament. We need an Uthor. Lyn Corbray springs to mind instantly, the chapter shows he is deadly, in need of gold and pissed at LF. Harry dying at the tourney could well prove fatal to LF, it certainly ends his immediate plan. There are however also an extremely slimy Uther Schett in the chapter and a Mad Mouse looking to stumble on a bag of dragons. Uthor had a snail for a sigil and talks of leaving a slimy trail, he was paid with dragons for his service. Uthor had expensive taste like Lyn and was all about that gold, dishonourably for sale like Corbray is, though Uthor was savvy with his spending while Lyn is loose and can't keep himself under control. It's specifically said Uthor is no true knight, which Corby certainly is not also. So someone will be our Uthor, probably Corbray. Despite Uthor hitting Dunk fair in the head Dunk survived, his head too thick. I don't think that's foreshadowing for Harry, Harry is going to get dead, TMK made it apparent Dunk survived because he's exceptional, any normal man would have died. In TMK Uthor paid off the tourney master of games to fix the lists. The scene in LF's solar may harken to that, essentially LF has left his solar unattended, there's no mention of guards, papers laying about and a window is open, while there's more people about than the Gates has beds for. Maybe someone has even come in through and shuffled through his papers. Perhaps here we are pointing to someone fixing the lists under LF's guard. When SR has Harry killed he will have fully fucked LF. And I think there's a little play going on here. The same things LF did, specially in KL, are not so much coming back to bite him, but are going to happen to him, to his detriment. LF befriended and used the young coercable king to undermine everyone. I think someone is doing the same with Robert. This I don't believe SR has arrived at on his own. Leading into the chapter SR hasn't displayed this sort of suspicious mind before. And how would he know what Harry thinks? What would give him the impression Harry thinks anything? It's a fairly wide assumption. I think he is being lead down the path, someone is getting in under LF's guard and playing his pawn. And LF of course paid an untrue knight to murder a knight of the Vale in a tourney.

Yes it does. Waynwood tells him there's a match for him with a bastard if he should consent to it. He thinks ewwwww bastard germs, no thanks. If Yohn has caught wind of the plan and had a chance to get in his ear he's probably been warned against her from him too. So when he meets her he's in this mindset and is a bit of a dick. Later he thinks 'well I was a bit of a dick, I should at least be civil, and she is shit hot...' and Alayne starts roping him in.   It's GRRM does Jane Austen, high end eligible bachelor falls in love with our heroine despite her having nothing but her charms to recommend her, only in Austen's version there's no paedophile sword masters to slice the shit out of Mr Darcy, or the like.

True as far as any single character goes, but I don't think he's necessary to sustain her arc. He dies and there's the whole game out in front of Sansa, and Cersei to cast down. GRRM gave Sansa the key to understanding what LF did when he had Lysa blabber in front of her, and he has created the scenario where to continue with LF Sansa has to let SR die. That to me is a none too transparent trigger (the contradiction between her thinking of SR's future while courting Harry is not subtle in this chapter), surely she has to get out from under him sooner rather than later or he should have been the POV. He could be put to flight I suppose, and Sansa works it all out in his absence and then the Maid slays the giant when they cross paths sometime in the future.

LF's primary role is that of Sansa's tutor, and that's nearly done, but there's a chance he sticks around to clash wills with the Spider.   Harry or LF are going to die at the Gates and civil war is going to erupt in the Vale, the carefully crafted hostility between the Royces and all the other little moving pieces are not for nothing. Harry and Sansa aren't going to marry and it all get left behind. Nestor and LF hold all the cards and defensive position at the Gates, Yohn has all the men and backing and when Harry or LF dies all the righteous reasoning to come collect.

Because what Sansa wants is a major stumbling block in her arc, that she has decided it offscreen between chapters simply because she is doing as LF says (as she's done the whole time since being in his care) is nonsense. She sits down and creates what she wants, WF as it was before the giant came, filled with family and people she loved and people who loved her, WF as it can never be again. Beyond that there is no real determination, there's only ideas planted by LF for which emotionally there is mostly no acknowledgment or at best an apathetic acceptance, and Sandor constantly popping up without invitation. GRRM has been drumming into us that Sansa's original mode of operation is to consider and attempt to satisfy what the other wants first and foremost, rarely does she do otherwise. That Arya doesn't do the same fries her brain.   That only contrary thought is pretty fucking important. She doesn't want SR dead, she's going along with the plan because that's what she does and she hasn't thought about it, that's why her thoughts and actions conflict. Her protection of SR is instinctive, motherly, she doesn't really realise she's doing it, or that wooing Harry is going to collide with it. Sansa doesn't want Harry, Sansa isn't happy in the Vale, Alayne wants Harry and Alayne is happy in the Vale. Sansa hasn't acknowledged it yet (bit of a trend), but Sansa wants Sandor.   The biggest issue here is Sansa fans. In their minds it's obvious what Sansa wants, Sansa wants what they want. They also see things in for and against for Sansa, so you end up with posts implying judgement where there is none. Apparently I'm being harsh on her, overly critical, not understanding she's a child, etc, when I've offered no actual judgement.

What you're alleging, having provided nothing textual to back it with, is that Sansa has thought about what she wants and derived a plan to achieve it, all off screen without any allusion. Now to achieve this plan she must have either decided she is fine with SR's death or derived her own plan to achieve it contrary to LF's in which SR doesn't die. I'm perfectly happy to wait for TWOW to prove otherwise as it's apparent I'm not going to get anything from the text here. What I allege is that she hasn't given it thought, she is simply doing what she is directed to in the manner she is directed. That she is acting the parrot that GRRM had Sandor describe her as. She doesn't really want Harry and she doesn't really want this plan, she just hasn't realised it yet, but she will and when she does it will be a partial awakening, she will begin her playing for herself, her own plans for her own power. Only partial though, because really she doesn't want to play at all. They made her into a player, she was never asked if she wanted to play, and she doesn't, it's too dangerous, ultimately her arcs when she decides not to play, her first real act of self.