How Jaqen got Pate to kill himself.

[Seams]

21 hours ago, The Sleeper said:

Wow, you've taken it a bit further than I did. About Walgrave and Cressen. Walgrave must be a really old geezer if he mistakes a novice for Cressen, so I'm thinking that and his mementos may be a reference to a future Dunk and Egg tale.

Nice! I hope - and I bet - you are right.

The key in Walgrave's chest falls out of a knight's gauntlet (that has "lobstered" armor). There is also a reference to the dragon coin making the alchemist's fingers look gold. I wonder if the metal glove imagery is all foreshadowing about the enigmatic Jaime Lannister? Or maybe we are being told that the iron key is like a kingslaying hand.

But the dragon coin also danced across the alchemist's fingers, which made me think of the dragon marionette in Dunk & Egg. Maybe this is one of the mummer's dragons that Dany (and others) should really fear.

But the lobstered armor also made me think of Jeor Mormont crushing a crab claw in his fist during the feast at the Wall with Tyrion. What is it about shellfish? Maybe there's a pun on fish and fist? Are they opposites?

And your "old geezer" remark puts me onto a new line of thinking: Pate takes care of old Walgrave and his ravens in ways that are similar to Sam Tarly taking care of Maester Aemon. It seems unlikely that GRRM would introduce the Pate character at this late stage if he were destined to play a huge role in the plot resolution, but I would not be surprised if Samwell Tarly ends up being a major player. I could see him as, "a good-hearted, empty-headed lout who always managed to best the fat lordlings, haughty knights, and pompous septons who beset him." And it does seem as if he is going to run into old bullies and persecutors who thought he was worthless on his stay in the Reach, only now he is more buff, has slain a whitewalker and is improving at archery. Pate as a parallel character for Sam makes sense not only in their pursuit of Maester qualifications, but they are both paired with flower girls: Rosey and Gilly, who is named for a gilly flower. Alleras stands up for Pate and defends him against Leo's bullying. It would not surprise me if she (oh, I mean he) ends up having a Jon-like role, as he is the defender and friend of Sam.