Past recreated

[Ice Turtle]

Have you ever had feeling that you spotted a passage in the books where GRRM changed his mind about something in a way that was noticeable or added something which should have been already hinted in previous books but wasn't because it haven't been created then? I have few examples, some come from discussions on this forum.

 

1, Mance being at Winterfell during Robert's feast - there is not a slightest hint of it in the first book 

2, Maggy the Frog - after abandoning 5 years gap GRRM needed a reason for Cersei to lose it quickly

3, Number of Dorne's troops and all the comments about Daeron's book not being accurate

4, Many Northern warriors like mountain clans appearing out of nowhere

5, Two types of glamours - GRRM needed a shortcut for Arya to learn face changing

 

Can you think of anything else?

[The Stranger.]

Danearys going to Slavers Bay instead of Pentos. I mean, come on GRRM. In Pentos she would've found an army of sellswords, her brother's only son, and ships to take her to Westeros. Clearly GRRM wanted to delay her landing, she didn't even know what's a Slaver's Bay before that. And to make it worse, in her last POV chapter in ADwD the voices of Veserys and Jorah conveniently tell her she should head home. Dude, where were these voices the whole freaking book??? Over a million words into the series and Danearys is back to square one. Brilliant.

[The Drunkard]

Number of Florent soldiers. 2000 "at best" according to Stannis in ACOK, yet:

 

- they make up more than half of his forces on Dragonstone in ASOS, so that's 650 at the very least. Since Stannis never gained their infantry nearly 1/3 of every Florent soldier must be cavalry (and that's the most conservative outcome). 

- people seem to take their rivalry with the Tyrells seriously. Why, if they're so incredibly weak?

- when Mace and Randyll show up at KL they have many thousands less soldiers than they did at Bitterbridge+Highgarden. As most of the people killed by Randyll at Bitterbridge were Florent soldiers (of which there were at most 1350), the total killed must be <2700. So many people must have deserted, unless...

 

GRRM made them too weak initially for what he intended later on, or else had Stannis get the number wrong for no reason I can discern. 

[ShelbySmythe]

To be fair to Martin, it's hard to create a story of this size inside your mind and have all the intricate details plotted out. That being said, some of these could have been hinted at earlier on, but there has been no signs of contradiction. If Martin specifically pointed out during Robert's feast that there were no singers in the hall, then we'd have a problem. But it's the King of Westeros, so there is probably going to be heaps of singers attending the feast. To have Jon specifically point out one would be too obvious. Maggy the Frog is hard to hint at when the only person present (and alive) was Cersei, and we didn't get a POV from her until A Feast for Crows. Number three and four seem like they were added later on, but I think we can forgive Martin for that. I mean, with the Mountain Clans, there would be no Hugo Wull, right? And five seems picky from your end. There is all kinds of magic in ASOIAF. Why should glamour be limited to the Red Priests?

 

With all that in mind, the storyline of Aegon and Jon Connington seems a little sudden, but I think we can forgive Martin for that. It was probably the best twist in the book so far, and he did make it work.

[Ice Turtle]

To be fair to Martin, it's hard to create a story of this size inside your mind and have all the intricate details plotted out. That being said, some of these could have been hinted at earlier on, but there has been no signs of contradiction. If Martin specifically pointed out during Robert's feast that there were no singers in the hall, then we'd have a problem. But it's the King of Westeros, so there is probably going to be heaps of singers attending the feast. To have Jon specifically point out one would be too obvious. Maggy the Frog is hard to hint at when the only person present (and alive) was Cersei, and we didn't get a POV from her until A Feast for Crows. Number three and four seem like they were added later on, but I think we can forgive Martin for that. I mean, with the Mountain Clans, there would be no Hugo Wull, right? And five seems picky from your end. There is all kinds of magic in ASOIAF. Why should glamour be limited to the Red Priests?

 

With all that in mind, the storyline of Aegon and Jon Connington seems a little sudden, but I think we can forgive Martin for that. It was probably the best twist in the book so far, and he did make it work.

 

I don't criticize, GRRM does astonishingly good work when it comes to holding the story together,  I only find the topic fascinating.

 

Look at the Mance and Sandor for example. We were given hints that Sandor is at QI so when he reapers in the story it wont be out of blue.

 

When it comes to glamours I think that originally only FM were supposed to be able to change their appearance.

[Saer]

For centuries the Targaryens had married brother to sister, since Aegon the Conqueror had taken his sisters to bride. The line must be kept pure, Viserys had told her a thousand times; theirs was the kingsblood, the golden blood of old Valyria, the blood of the dragon. Dragons did not mate with the beasts of the field, and Targaryens did not mingle their blood with that of lesser men.

The implication is that this started with Aegon, Rhaenys and Visenya, with implication that this was because with Valyria gone there weren't any other dragon-blood people to marry. But now it's a Valyrian custom millennia old, not centuries. 

 

Also, Cersei says The Targaryens wed brother to sister for three hundred years, to keep the bloodlines pure. Which again implies it wasn't common before that.

[ShelbySmythe]

 

I don't criticize, GRRM does astonishingly good work when it comes to holding the story together,  I only find the topic fascinating.

 

Look at the Mance and Sandor for example. We were given hints that Sandor is at QI so when he reapers in the story it wont be out of blue.

 

When it comes to glamours I think that originally only FM were supposed to be able to change their appearance.

 

I've always thought that Sandor's story has been concluded, and that his appearance on the Quiet Isle was a hint that he's now living a peaceful life, with the weight on his shoulders now lifted, knowing that his brother is dead.

 

And I'm sure the glamour was probably unique to the Faceless Men when Martin first started writing the series, but over time he's concocted more ideas as the magic progresses. I once read somewhere that Martin considers his magic to be 'without rules'. I'm paraphrasing, but he's implying that magic is something that shouldn't be understood. If something magical happens, and there is no explanation, it's because it's 'magical', and shouldn't have to be explained, as 'magical' implies a certain uncertainty, if you know what I mean?