"Eyes as blue as death" — The color blue in ASoIaF

[J. Stargaryen]

I actually am not a huge fan of this train of thought. The problem I have with this is that most of the blue=death references stem from naturally blue things like frost bite, exposure to cold, strangulation and of course the wights. The blue symbolism, in this regard, can be more attributed to the use of cold/ice/water in the novels. Similarly the same can be said for red symbolism being an extension of fire/blood references and such.

It's important to remember by the way that technically both fire and ice give and take life in the series.

Right, but the two don't have to be mutually exclusive. For example, GRRM could have developed this symbolism with those facts in mind.

[jobmartell]

Great stuff here. I'm not sure how I missed this since may, still amazed by grrm's many layers of genius being found years and years later.

[Taenqyrhae]

or just read the post right above yours :P

LOL, I read the first page to see if anyone mentioned it yet and somehow failed to see the last post.

[Kikajon]

Thank you for this excellent analysis!

[Ser Ma'am]

I'm finally returning to the forum after several months — I got busy with work, I swear! — and just saw all of the new activity on this post. I'm not intending to bump the thread, but ...

I want to say thanks to everyone who had kind words or thoughts to contribute about this post. Revisiting it now after several months, I have some new thoughts and I can see some things I overlooked, but I still feel pretty strongly that GRRM is using blue as a hefty dose of symbolism. Thanks again, commentators!