Reasons why Lightbringer is NOT a literal sword

[J. Stargaryen]

Unless your enemy is in a place unreachable by dragon.

Yes. Thank you, Sun Tzu reborn. But since this type of argument applies to all weapons, it's a wash; e.g., must be in sword range to use a sword. In absolute terms, a dragon has greater offensive capability than a sword.

[Mithras]

I think the real use of Drogon (the other two will be wasted in the Second Dance IMO) will be its mobility which will allow Jon to coordinate scattered people. That is the kind of heroism I expect from the true hero of the story and that is exactly like what Addam Velaryon did with Seasmoke before the Second Battle of Tumbleton. He basically assembled an army out of nowhere and defeated the enemy host. Scouting for wight armies, blizzards, defending the rear and such are the real use of a dragon, not just spitting down fire.

[sj4iy]

Yes. Thank you, Sun Tzu reborn. But since this type of argument applies to all weapons, it's a wash; e.g., must be in sword range to use a sword. In absolute terms, a dragon has greater offensive capability than a sword.

I never argued it didn't. But that doesn't mean it can't be useful. If I were in their position, I would want EVERY weapon at my disposal, especially since we don't know how the dragons will be affected by the extreme winter.

[Lady Blizzardborn]

Dany III, he comes to offer her ships if she leaves Meereen. She turns him down.

Ah. Definitely need to be going faster on my re-read. I'm forgetting things right and left!

[No Song so Sweet]

Within only 150 years, many people came to believe that Baelor the Blessed jumped into a pit of vipers to save his brother from captivity and since he was so holy, the snakes did not bite him. The reality is that “pit of vipers” was a metaphor for Dorne but people liked the other tale better. Imagine what would happen to a prophecy of at least 5000 years old.

I responded that we don't know that for a fact, it may as well have been a pit, but either way this is indication of nothing. We know that most prophecies have metaphorical parts but that isn't useful to determine whether or not the sword part of the prophecy is a metaphor or not. You seemed to quote my response in your previous point and I think you didn't understand that i was responding to that.

Perhaps similar to how Rhaegar "killed" Lyanna with a dragon (Jon)?

So apart from the sword, now the dragons are also metaphorical? Maybe lightbringer is Daenerys herself...

Hatching of the dragons required some serious blood magic so there is definitely a need for blood in that case too.

Yes but the metaphore doesn't hold if the dragon(s) kill her indirectly. It would be a bad metaphore for sticking a sword in the belly and making her melt. Unless they are killed by the dragon (lightbringer) then it is a bad metaphore.

The forging of the LB is never attributed to the incarnation of AA which is called AAR. As discussed in this thread, all AAR is supposed to do is to clasp the burning sword that was drawn form fire and that sword will be the LB.

We don't know exactly what is attributed to AAR, I think we are told the story of the original AA for a reason, it will have some importance on AAR. You could be right on that though.

In addition, AAR is also supposed to wake dragons from stone.

Exactly, AAR is supposed to wake dragons out of stone AND have lightbringer. If it was the same thing then it wouldn't have both requirements, it would just have the metaphorical one. If lightbringer isn't a dragon but is metaphorical then ok, both parts are needed.

[Mithras]

Bump.

 

This pre-World Book thread is very good because after rereading the thread, I noticed how the World Book shattered some arguments proposed in this thread by various posters.

 

For example, there was an argument about TSWMTW should be taken as a savior figure and in that sense it can be equated to AA/LH.

 

The Jogos Nhai section destroyed this argument. According to the World Book, TSWMTW should be interpreted as a great warlord who will lead the Dothraki to some victory.

 

To be more specific, Jogos Nhai and the Dothraki are quite similar nomadic horse cultures. In fact, they seem to have a common ancestor culture thousands of years ago before the Dothraki passed Bone Mountains. Jhat is the equivalent of khal in the Jhogos Nhai culture. Similarly, TSWMTW, aka the khal of khals, is equal to jhattar (jhat of jhats) in the Jogos Nhai culture.

 

However, unlike the Dothraki culture, there have been many jhattars among the Jogos Nhai. They all failed to break through walls of Kayakayanaya, a city guarding the Steel Road, to pass the bone Mountains and invade the fertile lands beyond. Yet the moonsingers still sing of a glorious day when they will finally prevail and spill over the mountains.

 

This comparison to Jogos Nhai strengthens my interpretation that the “end of the world” mentioned in the prophecy, where TSWMTW will lead the Dothraki, should be the shores of the Narrow Sea. Pentos is a very likely target to be sacked by Dany’s khalassar in TWoW.

 

Another argument was to take Benerro as the ultimate authority to define AA and propose that AA cannot exist without the red priests.

 

However, the World Book proved that the Long Night was experienced by every culture and Yandel equated various cultural heroes like Hyrkoon the Hero, Yin Tar, Neferion, Eldric Shadowchaser to AA.

 

Not only this strengthens the notion that the LH and AA might be related but also this takes away the hegemony of the red religion in this historical savior figure.

[~~~~~~~~~~~~~]

 

 

I thought dragon bone is just called dragon bone.

 

Somewhere there's a reference to archers using bows made of dragon bone, but they don't call it dragon steel, and the dagger intended to kill Bran was referred to as having a dragon bone, not dragon steel, handle or hilt.

Dragon bone has iron in it though and the White Walkers hate it. (iron).  There are bows made of dragon bone.  The Dothraki have some, I believe Drogo received one as a bride gift.