Almost Lazy

[The Fattest Leech]

1 minute ago, OtherFromAnotherMother said:

And guess what character who symbolizes both ice and fire might be dead and soon to rise?

Bloodraven? 

 

I joke! Yeah, a lot of rebirth happening. For some reason Berric’s line, “ are you my mother?” Pops into my head 

[Lady Dacey]

Should we keep expanding on other parallels between the Others and the Dragons? 

There is this: 

Quote

ASOS, Sam I

Sam rolled onto his side, eyes wide as the Other shrank and puddled, dissolving away. In twenty heartbeats its flesh was gone, swirling away in a fine white mist. Beneath were bones like milkglass, pale and shiny, and they were melting too. Finally only the dragonglass dagger remained, wreathed in steam as if it were alive and sweating. Grenn bent to scoop it up and flung it down again at once. "Mother, that's cold."

So the weapon actually turns way too cold to handle, even by heavily gloved hands (I doubt Green is risking loosing his fingers to frostbite). A few moments later he can pick up the dagger. It had to be really, really cold. Freezing. 

Quote

ADWD, Daenerys IX

Black blood was flowing from the wound where the spear had pierced him, smoking where it dripped onto the scorched sands. (...) Denerys Targaryen vaulted onto the dragon's back, seized the spear, and ripped it out. The point was half-melted, the iron red-hot, glowing. She flung it aside.

Same (but opposite) effect here. The dragon's body is so hot it melts regular steel.

[Lady Dacey]

Now that's off topic, but I was wondering, could Valyrian Steel withstand dragons? Could it be used to slay them? We know very little about dragons, and Tyrion tells us their weakest point is the eye, that's where a wannabe dragonslayer should aim. Marwyn does tell us that it wasn't the dragon slayers that did it for the dragons though... 

Or maybe it's the opposite - dragonsteel kill a White Walker. The Walker Sam killed was not armed. Had he been, would his sword melt with him? Could a White Walker sword be used to slay a dragon? 

[Sigella]

On 2017-12-27 at 5:22 PM, Springwatch said:

Agree with this.

Personally I think if the author had skipped the 'almost' and just gone with 'lazily', it would have worked just as well. It seems to be a stylistic quirk of his, to not quite say things: 'not ungently' appears several times, and there's 'not unkindly' too. I had an idea that he was avoiding using the word 'kindly' except for behaviour that's strictly in the class of the Kindly Man (lies that are 'kindly meant' might fit here) - but I can't think of a reason for avoiding 'gently'. Lazy Leo could be the archetypal lazy character, but we don't know much about him yet.

You are not wrong

 

Although there might be a point to it where someone is expected to treat someone roughly but doesn't. Or that the manor of it couldn't be described as "gently" or "ungently" because its somewhere in the middle?

[OtherFromAnotherMother]

On 12/29/2017 at 9:13 AM, Lady Dacey said:

Should we keep expanding on other parallels between the Others and the Dragons? 

There is this: 

So the weapon actually turns way too cold to handle, even by heavily gloved hands (I doubt Green is risking loosing his fingers to frostbite). A few moments later he can pick up the dagger. It had to be really, really cold. Freezing. 

Same (but opposite) effect here. The dragon's body is so hot it melts regular steel.

Nice catch. 

Of course, expand away!

[OtherFromAnotherMother]

On 12/30/2017 at 3:49 PM, Sigella said:

You are not wrong

 

Although there might be a point to it where someone is expected to treat someone roughly but doesn't. Or that the manor of it couldn't be described as "gently" or "ungently" because its somewhere in the middle?

I agree with the bold. I think this is a good example of when George usually uses this verbage.

Sansa III, CoK

Quote

"Get her up!" (Joff)

 

The Hound pulled her to her feet, not ungently.

 

"Ser Lancel," Joff said, "tell her of this outrage."

This is a moment where one may expect Joff's Kingsguard to be ungentle with Sansa, yet he is not ungentle.

"Almost lazy" and "almost lazily" feel different to me. Especially when considering the context and that these are the only two instances which the phrase is used.