House of the Undying truths?

[essosi watch]

It was already mentioned a couple of times that the "black-barked
trees whose inky blue leaves made the stuff of the sorcerous drink the
Qartheen called shade of the evening", the trees that grew around the
House of the Undying, are an inversion of the weirwood trees.
Now the weirwood trees and the paste made of their seeds and sap are
able to enhance the gift of a greenseer and through the weirwood trees
a gifted person can see events from past and future. IIRC, these
visions are pretty accurate and considered true.
Now my question is:
If the weirwood visions are accurate and true,
and the black barked trees and the shade of the evening are supposed
to be an  inversion of the weirwood and the weirwood paste, isn't it
possible that the visions induced by shade of the evening are false or
lies or at least inaccurate?
The warlocks in the House of the Undying  stress repeatedly and
overemphasise the  "truths" Dany will find there but her dragon
attacks the warlocks and destroys their palace of so-called truths.
On the other hand, Bran's beast doesn't seem to have a problem with
the children of the forest or Bloodraven or with their cave.
So I have this suspicion that the visions in the House of the Undying
may not be that reliable as we think. I'm not sure what exactly are
they or how to interpret them  but I tend to think they are
dangerously misleading.
Thanks for reading and feel free to tear this to pieces, I don't mind
to be corrected or reminded of something I'm missing.

 

[cgrav]

I think there's an important distinction to be made: weirwoods offer remote sight and actual memory, not metaphorical visions or prophecies that require interpretation.

And of course "misleading" is how most prophecy appears, if only because the prophets are poor interpreters. So far in the books, every specific vision/prophecy has come true. The twist is that they come true in very unexpected ways, often as a result of trying to avoid the prophecy in the first place. Perhaps the Warlocks received a vision of their own fiery demise and thought they could avoid it by imprisoning Dany before her dragons grew large, ironically bringing their fate upon themselves. 

Some of the visions we know are true, and many are very metaphorical, but I doubt we're given anything outright false. There's one that we assume is the could-have-been Rhaego, but seeing as every other one is non-hypothetical, it could still turn out to be true in some other way. We are led to believe that Rhaego's death was required to hatch the dragons, so I wonder how the "burning city" fits with a living Rhaego. An adult Rhaego would also be well beyond the story's timeline, so it seems a little pointless to prophecy an event that couldn't possibly occur on the page. The incongruity also makes sense if it's a false/hypothetical vision, but it strikes me as odd to include something beyond the story's timeline regardless of truth.

So I would separate the prophecy from the prophet. I think that these various windows into the future/past are not capable falsehood because they are just the conveying information. Dany and others who receive visions are seeing things, but not being shown, so I don't think we can assume the Undying are capable of manipulating what Dany sees, though maybe they can select which things she has access to.

[Damon_Tor]

5 hours ago, cgrav said:

 

. There's one that we assume is the could-have-been Rhaego, but seeing as every other one is non-hypothetical, it could still turn out to be true in some other way. We are led to believe that Rhaego's death was required to hatch the dragons, so I wonder how the "burning city" fits with a living Rhaego. An adult Rhaego would also be well beyond the story's timeline, so it seems a little pointless to prophecy an event that couldn't possibly occur on the page. The incongruity also makes sense if it's a false/hypothetical vision, but it strikes me as odd to include something beyond the story's timeline regardless of truth..

while I do believe Rhaego is alive, I don't think that vision was rhaego: It's more likely fAegon in front of bittersteel's banner (i.e. the golden company).

the HotU prophecy makes (almost) perfect sense if you assume it's about Dany's three children, Rhaego and two yet to be born. It also appears that the visions are in order that the children are born (so the first vision of each grouping of three will always pertain to Rhaego, the second will always pertain to the second child, and so on. This makes the whole thing come together neatly (with the lone exception of "what the hell does Stannis have to do with Rhaego?")

[Castellan]

7 hours ago, essosi watch said:

It was already mentioned a couple of times that the "black-barked
trees whose inky blue leaves made the stuff of the sorcerous drink the
Qartheen called shade of the evening", the trees that grew around the
House of the Undying, are an inversion of the weirwood trees.
Now the weirwood trees and the paste made of their seeds and sap are
able to enhance the gift of a greenseer and through the weirwood trees
a gifted person can see events from past and future. IIRC, these
visions are pretty accurate and considered true.
Now my question is:
If the weirwood visions are accurate and true,
and the black barked trees and the shade of the evening are supposed
to be an  inversion of the weirwood and the weirwood paste, isn't it
possible that the visions induced by shade of the evening are false or
lies or at least inaccurate?
The warlocks in the House of the Undying  stress repeatedly and
overemphasise the  "truths" Dany will find there but her dragon
attacks the warlocks and destroys their palace of so-called truths.
On the other hand, Bran's beast doesn't seem to have a problem with
the children of the forest or Bloodraven or with their cave.
So I have this suspicion that the visions in the House of the Undying
may not be that reliable as we think. I'm not sure what exactly are
they or how to interpret them  but I tend to think they are
dangerously misleading.
Thanks for reading and feel free to tear this to pieces, I don't mind
to be corrected or reminded of something I'm missing.

 

Reasonable idea which its not possible to prove or disprove but I tend to think that the Undying can't deny people who enter some glimpses and hints of the truth. The same as there seems to be a deal that if the person follows the advice to always take the right-most door (I think its the right, can't be bothered checking) they will be able to leave. There are false visions to try and keep her there - the vision of Willem Darry tempting her to enter a room, the vision of Pyat Pree standing at what looks like the exit, the vision of the 'Undying' as they may have been in life but certainly aren't now and the attempt to disguise the correct door in that final room, but if she sticks to the advice she will get out.

We know some visions are true (and the same as what she could see via weirwood - the vision of Rhaegar with Aegon, the vision of Jaime and Aerys), some are more cryptic pieces of information but they also seem to be consistent with other themes or hints e.g. (the title 'child of three' they give her - which we know was something important to Rhaegar, and she hatched three dragons etc so it seems like something important is hidden in that title.