Frey family reunion

You could probably go even further back, to their first encounter. It appears that Ghost reached out telepathically to Jon so they wouldn’t leave him. Perhaps while the other children telepathically bonded to their pups, Ghost telepathically bonded Jon to him.

Any more terrifying than a nine year old boy with an overactive imagination?

Yes, he's more determined then ever to keep editing Wildcard books and getting HBO/movie deals for his other books and his friends' books.

I think all of the skulls, including the bear and wolf, are all previous greenseers like Brynden Rivers. My suspicion is that Jon's dream of Bran opening his third eye, was actually cave/Bran opening Ghost's third eye, as Jon was viewing everything from Ghost's POV.

It's not terribly weird. A number of pagan celtic tales were retold with christian knights taking the place of the orignal mythic heroes in the original tales. Presumably that's what is happening here. Modern retelling of old tales just substituting more recent trapping on to the tale.

Are we sure Old Nan wasn't originally born in the South? We know that she's not originally from Winterfell, so she could have come from anywhere.

The wife and I are watching Ludwig on Britbox and really enjoying it.

Damn, that was quite the rant.

Just an addendum. I find it interesting that when we first hear about White Walkers from Mormont, we're given an account of "darker shapes" in his dreams, and then an account of White Walkers on the shore from fisherfolk, the latter of which Tyrion makes a comparison to Merlings. Darker shapes in dreams seems a parallel to Stannis dark dreams which accompanied his shadow assassin. I think Jeor's darker shapes is a reference to the White Walkers who appear as ice knights. Which is subtly contrasted to the White Walkers seen by the fisherfolk, which we're given an immediate parallel to Merlings. A threat from the sea. I think we are dealing with two seperate threats (who may be working in concert). The magical constructs created by the weirwood network, which seem to be intent on driving the wildlings south of the Wall, and perhaps a seperate threat from the sea and/or from underground.

There were Wights after the six Walkers, and it was heavily implied that the slain villagers were probably made Wights before the Night's Watch arrived. Which makes the apparently passive appearance of the White Walkers on the Shore by Eastwatch a little different. The Walker killed by Sam was during the same time period as the carnage at the Fist, though, I don't think it's fair to say he shows up "later", as in a seperate instance. Craster's story is a tougher nut for sure. Especially since we only have vague references about his contact with the Cold Gods to go on.

I mean, it might be just world building window dressing, but that kind of runs counter to what GRRM has said about the differences between his writing and Tolkien’s. Tolkien’s world was much more detailed than what was necessary to tell his story. George claimed that his details are invented to help tell his main story. And of course it’s kind of hard to predict that what GRRM may have previously planned is going to come to fruition. Obviously this delay has shown us that some of GRRM’s story ideas may be proving impossible for him to execute their conclusion. But, I’m still of the belief that 1. The ice knights we’ve seen in the story, are recent magical creations, made to resemble the Others out of fairy tales as opposed to actual history, and/but 2. The historical Others may still have a place in the plot of the story. The ice knights that we’ve seen seem to appear out of thin air. Which makes sense if in fact they are created by frozen air. My gut tells me that they are the “Shadow selves” of the weirwood network. A bit of a parallel to Stannis’ shadow demon. A magical construct that represents the dark side of the person/thing that cast it. But that doesn’t mean, the Others out of history may not be laying in wait to make a comeback as well. The one reference to White Walkers that makes me suspicious is this very early one by Lord Commander Mormont: No mention of wights with these white walkers, nor was there such a danger that it caused the Night’s Watch to spring into action. Which seems much different than the highly destructive White Walkers we’ve seen so far. Speaking of Merlins, we hear a tale of the Squishers in Brianne’s travels to Crabclaw point and to the Whispers. Named after the sound made through the wind blowing through numerous caves carved into the cliffs overlooking the sea. An image which should remind us of Hardhomme, a settlement located at the foot of a great cliff pocketed with cave mouths. Probably not far from the shores at Eastwatch. Where Cotter Pyke sends his warning of dead things in the woods and dead things in the water. I’m starting to wonder if perhaps the dead things in the water, may not be the same as the dead things in the woods, and may not be the animated corpses we’ve seen before. Are the White Walkers of history also the Merlin’s of Lannisport and also the Squishers of crab claw point? Perhaps a pale, albino, amphibious race who shunned the sun, but came out of either the sea or underground or both, during the Long Night, where they built their oily black stone structures along the coasts, and perhaps now are ready to return if in fact they anticipate the coming of another apocalypse.

The problem with that is the black stone buildings in Asshai are just as much a mystery as are the base of the Hightower and the Seastone Chair. If the Asshai sorcerers don’t know who built the greasy black buildings of Asshai, I don’t think we can assume they built the ones found in Westeros.

My gut tells me that the same people (race?) that built the Seastone chair built the base of the Hightower. My guess is the ice golems we're seeing in the books, aren't the Others of history, and it was these actual Others that are responsible for the oily, Lovecraftian, objects we see along the shores and in the swamps. I think that they are extremely pale, perhaps albino, and that they don't thrive in sunlight. They are probably a mainly subteranean species that ventured forth during the Long Night, because the sun became hidden. Thus, that's when they first came in contact and conflilct with man. When the Long Night ended they returned underground. But perhaps some of their bloodines did intermingle with humans. Theyr'e probably the same race that prompted the legends of the Squishers further South in Westeros.

I'm avoiding most of these posts right now, because I only had time to watch the first episode of the second arc last night, but I just wanted to say, that I think it's really starting to pick up steam right now. I especially enjoyed the scenes with Forest Whitaker and the guy who plays Syril. And I really wish they had moved up the scene with Bix and Andor to the beginning of the Season, because it did a better and more thourough job of how the events of the first season affected them than anything we had in the first arc.

You'll have to direct me where the Seven went to war with the Targaryens over homosexuality, or specifically said that it was a sin. It might be, I just don't think it's ever been addressed. But if you can quote a source, I'd appreciate it. As for sexual identity, once again, I don't think anyone has ever been identified as belonging to a group based on sexual preference. I just don't think this is an idea that has taken root in Westeros. It's acknowledged that some people are attracted to people of the same sex, but it doesn't disqualify anyone as being a suitor. Whatever was whispered about Oberyn, it didn't stop Tywin in suggesting him as a match for Cersei. The closest we've come to an outright discussion about sexual preference is when Laenor Velaryon was suggested as a match for Rhaenyra. One of the negatives was the belief that he was interested in men and not women. This was basically met with a shrug, and a decleration that even if one wasn't a big fan of fish, if they were served fish, they would eat it.